Matthew 27 and verse 50. Matthew 27 and verse 50. If everybody's
there, I'll start reading. And Jesus, when He had cried
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were
opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and
came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into
the holiest city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion
and they that were with him watching saw Jesus, saw the earthquake
and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying,
Truly, This was the Son of God. I want to get my subject there
in verse 51. The veil of the temple was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom. The veil rent, or the
red veil. Our Lord Jesus Christ, His life
was full of miracles. His birth was miraculous, supernatural,
conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin. His miraculous
in that it was attended by angels. His birth was attended by angels.
And the first miracle He performed when He entered His ministry
was in Cana, Galilee at a wedding when He turned the water into
wine. So it's no surprise to us that
in our Lord's death there should be miracles. Even in His death
there were great miracles. His death was surrounded by miracles. First it says there that the
veil was rent from the top to the bottom. And then it says,
and the earth did quake. The earth. God sent an earthquake.
The earth shook. Shook greatly. And it also says,
and the rocks rent. The rocks were busted in two.
And it says there, and many graves were opened, and many bodies
of the saints which slept arose. and came out of the grave after
His resurrection. When He raised from the dead
to show that He was, lots of folks, saints, God's blessed
people, rose from the dead and went into Jerusalem and appeared
to lots and lots of people to show that there was indeed a
resurrection from the dead. And so there was darkness. What
a miracle of darkness for three hours. He was crucified at nine o'clock
in the morning, taken down at three o'clock in the afternoon,
six hours. And our Lord Jesus Christ, in
three hours of that time there, there was a darkness on the face
of the earth that you could feel. And especially where they were,
the Son wouldn't even behold His Creator's suffering. He turned
out the light, God did. and then the veil of the temple
was ripped from the top to the bottom ripped open but our Lord's
death as a wonder above all wonders this is the greatest miracle
the eternal God clothed in flesh becoming subject to the power
of death giving himself over to the power of death He who
created life, made life, upholds life, gives life today, gives
natural life and the only one who can give spiritual life.
Here He was clothed in flesh and became subject to the power
of death. He allowed death to take Him
to take his life out of his body. That's a marvel of time and eternity
that our Lord Jesus Christ, that's what he said. He says, you know,
no man takes my life from me. He said, a man ain't gonna take
my life. He said, I've got the power, I've got the authority
to lay it down. And I've got the authority, I've
got the power to take it up again. And he says, this commandment
have I received of my Father. He said, you die. Die when you
is. And it says in one place that
he yielded up the ghost, that he gave up the ghost. And that's
what it said here. And when Jesus cried with a loud
voice, yielded up the ghost. Yielded up his spirit. Nobody
took it from him. He died right when he was supposed
to die. He rose again exactly when he
was supposed to rise again. But I want to look at this miracle
here of the veil. The veil in the temple. The temple
that was in Jerusalem. I want us to look at this miracle
of that veil being torn in two from the top to the bottom. Now,
if you want to know what this veil looked like, you can go
to Exodus and you can find it in Exodus 26, I believe it is. But anyway, it was made of fine
twined linen. Fine twine linen. It had blue
and purple and scarlet. All these beautiful colors. And
it had cherubims in it. Like the cherubims that were
behind the veil and was over the Ark of the Covenant. And their wings touched over
it. They had cherubims on this. And they don't know how big it
was when it was in the Temple there at Jerusalem. But as it
hung in Solomon's temple, when Solomon built his temple, it
was 40 cubits. That means it was 60 foot high. That veil was 60 foot high. 30 cubits wide, 45 foot wide,
and 60 foot high, and 45 foot wide. And it was in a hand's breadth
in thickness. That meant that it was about
that thick. Any worse from four to six inches. That's how thick it was. When
they made that thing, it was, I mean, it was something. Something
to behold. And it took cunning men, the
Scripture said it took cunning men to make that. And so since
it was that thick, since it was so high and so wide, that it
makes it obvious that human hands couldn't have tore it. Human
hands couldn't have reached up there and tore it. They couldn't
even have cut it. And in the instant, in the instant
that our Lord's body was rent by death, the veil which concealed
the Holy of Holies was rent from top to bottom. And let me tell you the time
this was. This was the time of the evening sacrifices. The evening
sacrifice. Christ our Passover was sacrificed
for us. And you all know this. And look
with me over in John chapter 19. And look what it says over
here about it. About the important Christ and
those men off the cross. Because this was the Passover.
This was a high and holy day. And that's why Christ you know,
was down and crucified, and He was our Passover. It was time
for the evening sacrifice. And look here in John 19, in
verse 31. The Jews therefore, because it
was the preparation to take the Lamb, that the body should not
remain upon the cross on the Sabbath, And the Sabbath started
at six o'clock in the evening and lasted until six o'clock
on Saturday evening. But here's the thing. This was
a different Sabbath. This was the Passover. For that Sabbath was a high day. David saw Pilate that their legs
might be broken, that they might be taken away. Break their legs
so they'll die. So you get them off that cross.
We got a Passover. We got a high and holy day here. We got to observe. And we don't
want people on the cross. We want them took down. It's
time for the evening sacrifice. Then came the soldiers and break
the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was
dead already, they break not his legs. So you see, they wanted
those people off the cross. And it was written that our Lord,
not one bone of Him would be broken. So they took Him off
the cross because it was time for the evening sacrifice. And
so you see, and there were priests. Now listen to me. Within that
tabernacle, in Herod's temple, in that temple, there were priests
ministering. Even while this was going on,
there were priests administering and offering sacrifices. And
then, imagine, they're in their laboring in the temple doing
the things that priests do. The high priest wasn't there.
He was out seeing that Jesus was crucified and seeing that
Jesus was taken down off the cross. But there he was laboring
in the temple, moving about in the temple, doing the things
that they do. There's the table of showbread.
There's the candle over here. There's the laborer there. There's
the brazen altar. And these fellas is in there
moving around, and all of a sudden, that veil goes, whoosh, and opens
up. They're moving around there. They're looking at something
they ain't never seen before. Can you imagine how surprised
and how shocked? And I guarantee you, they was
afraid to go behind that veil, even though it was rent from
top to bottom. They were surprised, they were
no doubt full of fear. Now let me just give a few things
about what the veil renting could have been. It could have been
an act of mourning. You know, when the Jews were
mourning, they would rip their clothes. Maybe the veil and all
the earth was such in mourning for our Lord Jesus Christ that
even the veil read as an act of mourning for our Lord Jesus'
death. Maybe the veil read in too because
they were shocked at man's sin, the murder of the Lord of glory
Himself. And that temple showed sympathy
with the true temple of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. And that
outward symbol of that veil behind the holy veil was rent from top
to bottom. But this is what I think, and
I think this is what it meant. I think this miracle also meant
that from that hour, I think it meant this. This is a miracle
now. that from that hour, the whole system, the whole system
of Jews' religion was rid asunder. Everything, the ordinance, all
the tithes, all the shadows, all the ceremonies, the priesthood,
all the sacrifices, everything is coming to an end. It's over
and done with. The ordinance of that early earthly
priesthood, as they labored in there, was rent with that veil. Never was another, don't need
another priest. Don't need a priest. And I tell
you, everything that that veil represented was done away with. So what did
the renting of this veil, this veil being rent from top to bottom,
what did it mean? What did it mean? We'll admit
this, that all the legal ordinances that separated us from God was
abolished. Was abolished. Every law, every
ceremony, every ritual was abolished that day. And that veil being
read from top to bottom showed, because before that veil was
read, that veil showed our inaccessibility to God. We couldn't get to God.
That veil kept everybody out but the high priest once a year.
No man, no man could go into that most holy place but the
high priest and him once a year, but not without blood. Look in
Hebrews 9. You see, this showed us, before
that veil was written, it showed us our inaccessibility to God.
We couldn't go, we couldn't come into the presence of God. Look
in Hebrews 9 in verse 3. Oh, that veil showed our inaccessibility
to God, but everything that was against us was took out of the
way that day when that veil was read from top to bottom. Here's
what was said in verse 3 of Hebrews 9. And after the second veil,
the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer,
that's where they put in the And they put in that, typified
the prayers of our Lord, and the Ark of the Covenant is behind
the veil, overlaid round about with gold. Wherein was the golden
pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded in the tables
of the covenant. And over it the cherubims of
glory, shadowing the mercy seat, which we cannot now speak particularly.
Now when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always
into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But now listen,
but into the second, behind that veil, the high priest along once
every year, not without blood. which he offered for himself
and for the errors of the people, the Holy Ghost showing this to
us, showing that the way into the holiest of all was yet not
made manifest while that tabernacle was standing." There's no way
that you can go into the presence of God. And only the high priest,
even the holy place was for the priest alone. You couldn't even
go into the tabernacle into the holy place. And that awful distance
is seen all through the law, all through God's Word. The people
was kept, and kept at a distance. You remember when God told Moses
to come up on the mountain. He said, God said, I'm going
to come down in a thick cloud. And said, you set bounds around
the mountain. Set some bounds around the mountain.
And you warned the people. Don't come up onto the mountain.
Don't touch the boundaries. He that touches this shall be
put to death. And so God came down and as God
began to speak, when they heard his voice, you know what people,
they went to backing up. They started moving afar off.
Because God said, I'm coming down in thick clouds. You can't
see me. You can't even come into my presence. Don't even come
to the border. But I'm telling you, all this,
when that veil was ripped from top to bottom, all this is ending
now. The precept of stay back is abolished. You know what it says now? Come
unto me. Come to me. All that hath been
learned and been taught of the Father, what does He do? He comes
to me. All that the Father gives me,
what is He going to do? He's going to come to me. Oh,
there ain't no more holding back anymore. The saints can now draw
near. And look in Hebrews again, Hebrews
10. Oh, we can draw near now. We
have access to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews
10, We have access to God. The saints can now draw near.
We can enter into the holiest of holies where only the priest
was allowed to go once a year. And he had to have blood for
himself and then for the people. He had to offer a sacrifice for
himself and for his sins, but Christ didn't have to do that.
Christ had no sins, so he didn't have to offer a sacrifice. And
when our Lord Jesus Christ, that veil was ripped from top to bottom,
Now it showed us a way into the holiest of holies. That's where
we can go now. Look what he said here in Hebrews
chapter 10 verse 19. Having therefore brethren boldness
or liberty to enter into the holiest. Oh, the holiest. Nobody left that government to
high priest. And all that we can come, we
got liberty to enter into the holiness by the blood of Jesus. Listen, this one says, by a new
and living way. And you know what that new and
living way means? That means a lamb freshly slain. continually
and constantly before God, access to God by a new and a living
way which He hath newly made for us through the veil. And
what veil was it? That is, through His flesh. So
now we can come into the very homest of all, come into God's
presence that nobody else could do under the law. And now we
can. And that's what that veil means.
All, everything, every law that was against us that God said,
don't come near. Now we can draw near through
our Lord Jesus Christ through His blood. And I'll tell you
something else that this red veil meant. It meant the removal
of the sin that separated us from God. The sin that separated
us. You know, sin is a great, great
gulf between God and man. Oh, what a great gulf it is. And I don't know how much you
feel about your sin. I don't know what you know about
your sin. But sometimes it just gets overwhelming. Sometimes
it becomes such a burden to you. Sometimes it becomes a burden
to your mind. It becomes a burden to your heart.
It becomes a burden to your soul. Sin is an awful, awful thing. And if a man say he has no sin,
he deceives himself in the truth, not in it. And sin is a great
gulf that was fixed between God and man. It's like Abraham told
the rich man in hell in Lazarus. He said, there's a great gulf
fixed between us. He can't come there and you can't
come here. And there's a great gulf fixed
between God and man. And that great gulf is sin. And
this veil typified the separation from God and Him from us. Amos 3.3 asks this question,
said, How can two walk together except they be agreed? Now, you
can't walk with God or talk with God or fellowship with God until
you come in agreement with God. And I'll tell you what, if we're
going to walk with Christ and walk with God, we come in agreement.
And I come in agreement with God. And I agree with Him what
He says about sin. I agree with Him what He says
about righteousness. I agree with Him what He says
about salvation. I agree with Him what He says
about His Word. I agree with Him what He says
about His Son. I agree with everything God says
as far as I know what I know what He says. And that veil typified our separation
from God and God from us. And that high priest went behind
the veil once a year with blood. And it says over there in Exodus,
it says that he had a pomegranate and a bale, a pomegranate and
a bale on the bottom of his garment. And the people would listen and
they would be moving so that they would hear that he's living.
That's what it said in Exodus 28. He had that bale, those around
him. And the people wanted to see if God would accept him and
accept his offering. Well, I tell you what, Our Lord
Jesus Christ did not have no bells or promogandas on His garments. Our Lord Jesus Christ had a garment
of perfection, a garment of righteousness, a garment of holiness, a garment
of everything that God is. Our Lord Jesus Christ was. And
He Himself entered into the holy place once And what He did, He put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Watch! And now the Scriptures tell us
that sins, all our sins are gone. Huh? He didn't go in there with the
blood of others. But it said, and I read it to
you this morning, He went in there with His own blood. And you reckon God accepted it? God said, and that's what He
said, He said, Christ is a sweet smelling savor. Huh? Oh, He's a sweet smelling savor.
And that great gulf that was between us and God, we can now
draw near to God. Why? Because sin is gone. It's
gone! Where is it at? Well, you know
how many times God talks about sin and where it's at? He said
He brought it out as a thick cloud, cast it as far as the
east is from the west, throw it over behind His back, cast
it into the depths of the sea, and He said He put it away once
and for all. And you know what else He said?
I'll not remember it against you. We remember it, but he don't.
And why don't he remember it? I tell you why he don't remember
it, because there ain't any to remember. There's none for him
to remember. If it's gone, what can he remember
that's gone? He's the one that put it away.
He's the one that said, I'll never remember it against you.
And he says, well, these sins are remitted. Well, they're paid
for. He said, you don't ever need
another offering for sin. And once you understand that
Christ put away all your sin, past, present, and future. When
you understand that, get that in the gospel. Get that in your
heart, mind, and soul. Oh, my soul, that God ain't never,
ever, ever, ever, going to bring your sin up. Never! If sin ever
comes to your mind, it's either you doing it, or the devil doing
it. Or somebody else reminding you of something you were sorry
at. Ain't that right? And I'll tell you what, and the
veil is ripped, and shows us that that great gulf between
sin and God has been taken away. You see, sin is not only what
we've done, It's also what we are that separates us from God. Not only what we've done, it's
also what we are. And that separation was from
God. You know, Paul said it this way, What I
love, I don't do. What I hate, I do. That I wouldn't do, I do. That that I would do, I don't. So you see, it's what we are,
not just what we do. And so how can we know our Lord
when everything about us is evil and tainted with sin? Look at
Exodus 28. Let's look in Exodus 28 a moment
here for a little bit. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
it says that He, Exodus 28 verse 36, that He, by His death on the cross, took
away everything that was against us, every ordinance that was
against us, and took it out of the way, stripping him of his
power and making an open show of his triumph over it. How can we know the Lord when
everything about us is evil? We ain't ever shed a tear that
didn't have sin in it. That's a fact. That's just the
way we are. If we cry, we feel good about crying. You know, if we feel real guilty
about something we've done, we feel good because we felt guilty
about it. If God speaks to us and we feel good about that. You know, we always have something
with sin. It so permeates us. And look what He said. How in
the world are we going to do this? Well, look what He said.
And thou shalt make a plate. Exodus 28, 36. And thou shalt
make a plate of pure gold, Engrave upon it or engrave upon it the
engravings of a signet holiness to the Lord. Oh my plate of pure
gold And thou shall put upon blue
lace That it may be upon the mitre you put blue lace on the
front of that mitre and you put that blue lace back there and
then you take this Solid piece strip of gold. It's got holiness
to the Lord on it and put it on put it upon his mitre upon
the forefront of the mitre it shall be Now, I'm going to tell
you something about this miter. You see these priests wearing
these miters in the Catholic Church? I'm going to tell you
what Tim James called them, fish hats. They looked like fish. But that's not the way they looked. That's not the way they looked.
They had a bonnet that sat down over their head. It was made
out of cloth, linen. And God said, now, maybe you
had a miter made. set up in front and then he says
you put blue lace on his bonnet and then you put the wholeness
of the Lord and you fix that put that on that put that on
there with blue lace behind and look what it says and it'll
be up on the forefront of the mitre it should be and it should
be up on Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of
the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all
their gifts." In other words, there's nothing you can do that
don't need to be washed in the blood of Christ. And look what he says, "...and
it shall be always upon his forehead that that may be accepted before
the Lord." My Lord Jesus Christ! You know what? He don't need
no miter over his head. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. And that's why the covenant says
this, I'll be their God and they shall be my people. And that
was established through our Lord Jesus. God said, I'm going to
be their God and they're going to be my people. And that was
established through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now God sends the
Spirit into our hearts and we cry, have a Father. And let me
give you something else why that veil was rented to. Not only
to take away all the legal things that was between us and God.
And that great gulf of sin between us and God was open, showing
us a new and a living way into the presence of God. The veil
hung between the nature of God and the nature of man is rent
by our Lord Jesus Christ. That veil that hung between the
nature of God, God's holy, God's holy and all the things it ever
says about God and always the main thing that they want you
to understand is that He is holy. I'm the high and the lofty one,
the holy one that inhabits eternity. The angels and the cherubim said,
holy, holy, holy. In glory they cry, holy, holy,
holy. And that's what they want you
to know more than anything, that God is holy. And the thing that
He stresses about us is that our nature is fallen. Our nature
is sinful. And that nature between God and
man, and that veil was rent in two, was rent by our Lord Jesus
Christ. He completely filled that great
gulf. Well, how did He do it? By assuming
our nature. By assuming our nature. And He
assumed our nature in order to assume our dance. Our nature. He was God. He had God's nature. He is holy. He is righteous. Infinitely holy. When He was an infant in His
mother's womb, He was holy. When He came forth from her womb,
He was holy. All the days He was holy on the
cross. But oh, He assumed our nature,
our human nature. Not fallen nature, our human
nature. Because He was without sin. And He done that in order to
assume our debts. And only God can satisfy God. But God cannot die. Man cannot
satisfy God. But the Lord Jesus Christ, as
God and man, could do both. As a man, he could die. And as God, he could satisfy
God. And he did. And he did. And our
Lord was both. Both. And oh my! Who rent this veil? Who was it
that rent this veil? It was four to six inches thick.
I don't know how high it was in Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. I'd have to look it up. But I
know in Solomon's Temple it was 60 foot high. Who rent that veil? Four to six inches thick. Who
could rent that veil? God did. God's the one that rent
that veil. Why did He rent that veil? To
show us that the only way we can approach Him was through
His blessed Son dying and shedding His blood for us. And that way
is now opened through our Lord Jesus Christ and His cross and
His blood shed on that cross and His life laid down for us
on that cross. God showed that the darkness
and the mystery of ceremonies and laws and rituals are done
away. Done away. He opened a new way,
a living way. Before it had to be death. They
could only come after death was inflicted and blood was shed.
And only the high priest. Now, all of us can come. All of us can come at one time
or all of us can come individually. And he took away all that darkness,
and all that mystery, and all those laws, and all those rituals,
and all those ceremonies, and all those candles, and all that
showbread, and all those things that was in the tavern. Now,
he got away with it. They're gone. And that mercy
seat that was behind that veil we read about just a little while
ago, the one way to approach the mercy seat was by either
slipping over to the side and walking around behind that veil. And if that thing was 45 foot
wide, if you started over here, you had to go 22 and a half foot
this way or 22 and a half foot that way. Or the other way to
go in there was to lift up that veil. And you know, it took a
pretty good fellow to lift up that veil. But one way or another,
they had to go behind that veil. That's the only way that he could
go approach the mercy seat and put that blood on it. Now the
veil, now the veil is rent by the death of Christ and this
is the way, the only way to approach God. He didn't say the veil was
rolled up and it may be rolled back down. And I don't care what
pre-millennia say, God ain't going to raise up that tabernacle
again, ain't going to put that mercy seat, ain't going to do
none of that ever again. And that veil will not be hung
back up in some future state at all. That veil opened for
us a way into the very presence of God Himself. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, bless His name, He did that, so we have access
to God. And let me close with this, say
this, in our temptations and in our doubts, the worst that the devil can
do is hang up a rent veil and you steal. And the rent was racked
down the middle. All is open for us now in Christ.
And I read this, that you know that they probably saw that,
they saw that ark and that, but the ark, this is one of the mysteries,
those fellas was play acting, because the ark wasn't even behind
that veil anymore. That ark had been gone. All been
gone. And those fellas was just play
acting to keep those Jews in line, to keep them believing
the law, keep them looking to the law. But thank God the law
is gone. Everything that was against us
is gone. He took it out of the way. What
did He do with it? He nailed it to His cross. And that veil
is opened up. Now, we can look behind there
and not be afraid. We can go behind there and say,
Lord, it's me. And you know what? You know who
our mercy seat is? Not a mercy seat made out of
gold. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our mercy seat. There ain't
no altar now. No brazen altar. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our altar. There ain't no high priest gonna
go behind the veil anymore. You know why? Because our great
high priest has entered once into heaven for us. And you know
what he did? He entered there for us as our
forerunner. In other words, say there's some folks coming after
me. Oh, we can get in now. Ain't no veil between us and
God. Christ made us the way. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for opening
up for us this new, this living way, this way behind the veil,
this way into the holiest of holies. We bless you that you are a mercy
seat, that you are a great high priest, that you are our altar. You are the sacrifice that was
upon the altar. And you're the one who accepted
the sacrifice. You're the one who took your
blood into heaven itself, into the presence of God. And there
you got us redemption, eternal redemption. Redemption for all
time and all eternity. Sins are paid for. Gone. Never
to be remembered against us again. Oh Lord, thank You for this Gospel.
Thank You for these blessed truths. And may they always have an effect
upon our hearts and upon our minds. May they touch us. May they speak to us. May they
make us always rejoice And our Lord Jesus, make us always look
to Him and come to Him and trust Him and His righteousness alone. Help us, O Lord, to bring glory
to Your name. And bless these dear children
of God as they go to their homes. And bless them tomorrow as they
have a day off. And may their rest be sweet and
may their hope be full and free. May their hearts be lifted up
with joy and great peace in our Lord Jesus Christ, who asked
it in His name. Amen. Amen. Well, God willing,
I'll see you Wednesday night. Good night and God bless you.