Our lesson this morning is going
to be on the veil that separated the holy place and the holy of
holies. If you look in Exodus 26, verse
31, here's the instructions that the Lord gave to Moses about
this veil. He says, And thou shalt make
a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twine linen,
of cunning work. With cherubim shall it be made.
And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of chitinwood, overlaid
with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold
upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the veil
under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the veil
the ark of the testimony. And the veil shall divide unto
you between the holy place and the most holy." Now, this veil
is another picture of Christ that we have in the tabernacle.
As we've seen before the colors that were put in this veil. There
was the blue, the color of the sky, telling us someone is coming
from the heavens. And then there's the scarlet
color, the color of the blood. This one who's coming is coming
to shed his blood. And this red is also a picture
of man. You know, man's the only one.
God doesn't have blood. A man is the one that has flesh
and blood. And red is the color of the earth,
the red clay that God formed Adam out of. This one who's coming
from heaven is a man. A man is coming from heaven to
shed his blood. But then there's the color of
purple. This man who's coming from heaven is coming as king. Purple is the color of loyalty.
This one who's coming is king. And as we've seen before, the
purple is a mixture of the blue and the red. This one who's coming
is the God-man, the one who's coming from heaven. The King
of kings is coming as the God-man to shed his blood. And these
colors, and what we have here is just a representation of the
colors that were sowed in this thing. We couldn't imitate this
veil. If we go through and see what
the glory of this veil, we couldn't imitate what this veil looked
like. So we just put the colors in there to represent the colors
that it did have in it. But this blue and purple and
scarlet were woven into a fine twine linen. And just as we've
seen before, linen comes from flax, which is grown from the
ground, and it's white. And that's a picture of the sinless
humanity of Christ. It's white, it's his sinlessness,
but it's grown from the ground. It's a picture of his humanity,
his sinless humanity, the perfection, both inward and outward perfection
of Christ. And these colors are so woven,
so beautifully, intricately woven into this fine twine linen, that
all the ancient writers feel like that you could hardly see
the white for the colors that were just so woven into this
thing. It was a spectacular piece of tapestry. And the Lord tells
Moses here, it's going to be a cunning work, just a special
God-given talent to make this veil that hung there. All the
ancients say, and maybe they know what they're talking about,
that there has never been another tapestry in the history of this
planet made like this veil. It was so cunning. It was all
one piece, woven piece of work. The thickness of a man's hand
is how thick this veil was, so woven. And that's a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
was born from the womb of a virgin. That's something only God can
do. That's a cunning work. He is such a cunning work. That
is so clearly the work of God. The scripture says, speaking
of the Messiah, a body has thou prepared me. See the man that
entered into that womb to create that baby. This is a work of
God. That the body that God created, made, prepared for his son. Christ
is such a cunning work. The angel who told Mary she was
going to bear this child, he didn't know what to call that
child in Mary's womb. All he could think of to say
is that holy thing that shall be born of thee should be called
the Son of God. He said the holy thing, he said,
is a cunning work made by the wisdom of God. And this veil
didn't have just indiscriminate color woven into it. They wove
in the pictures of cherubims were woven into this veil. As
the priest went through his activity there, he had those cherubims
above him looking down on him, and he had the cherubim from
the veil looking out at him. And just as we looked at before,
these cherubims are not cute little chubby children that have
wings coming out their backs. Remember, we read there in Ezekiel,
the description of a cherubim, a mighty creature. He had the
likeness of a man with the face of a man. The face of an ox,
the face of a lion, and the face of an eagle. He sparkled like
polished brass. He had four sets of wings with
hands coming out from each set of wings. And those cherubims
represent judicial power and judicial authority. When God
put Adam out of the garden, he put a cherubim with a flaming
sword at the east end of that garden to keep Adam from coming
back in. That's the judicial authority that are given to those
cherubims. Well, that cherubim in this veil
is a picture of Christ. He has all power. All power is
given to him of the Father in heaven and earth, telling us
this one who's coming is a sovereign Savior. He's not coming to beg
anyone to accept him. He's coming as the sovereign
Savior. And the incredible thing that
we see, the fact that we see, God's people see in this one,
the one who's coming incarnate, with all these glorious attributes
is coming to suffer and to die. He's coming to redeem a people
who are sinners like me. I couldn't be more opposite of
what this veil represents. But this one who's coming incarnate
with all these glorious attributes is coming to pay a sin debt for
people like me. Now grace is always so much more
amazing than the cunning work. I mean, it was a cunning work.
It was a skill God gave a man. But God's grace is so much more
amazing, so much more cunning than the skill it took to make
this veil. But that's what it represents.
And this veil, and we'll see this as we go through the study
this morning, is a picture of the life. There are three hanging
tapestries in the veil. We looked at it. There's the
hanging of the gate. That's the way. There's the hanging at the
entrance of the door of the tabernacle. That's the truth. And this one
is the life. And they all three put together
picture Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. But before
we see this veil as given as Christ the life, this thing hung
for years. as a divider. This veil was,
God told him, you put this up, it's going to divide between
you, for you, between the holy place and the holy of holies.
It was given as a divider, blocking man's entrance into God. God's
going to, His Shekinah glory dwelt above the mercy seat, between
the wings of the mercy seat. And this veil blocked man's entrance
into that place where God's presence was. If you try to go around
this veil, If you try to go under this veil to get into the presence
of God, God's going to kill you. That's an inflexible fact. If you try to go under this veil
or around it, God's going to kill you. Unless you're the high
priest who comes on the day of atonement. That one day a year
could he come, and not without blood. He had to be bringing
the blood of the sacrifice. And this veil hung for centuries
as a divider, as a separator between God and men. Yet this
veil did give us a hint of God's eternal purpose. All those centuries
that it hung there, it hung there as a divider, but yet it was
a hint of God's eternal purpose. It was a veil, a tapestry separating
God and men. It wasn't a cement wall. It wasn't
a stone wall. It was a veil. And in this veil, there's the
gospel. have Christ and Him crucified,
Christ incarnate and Christ coming to suffer and to die. If Christ
simply came incarnate, lived a perfect life as He did and
never died, Christ would stand eternally as the veil blocking
our entrance to God. If God's Son became a man and
then was translated back to the Father, All he would be to us
is an example of what man is not. That's all he'd be. You
must be as perfect as Jesus Christ or you cannot enter into the
presence of the Father. And you fall just one millimeter
short and you'd be damned eternally. If Christ came incarnate and
was translated back to the Father, all he'd be is this veil, blocking
sinful man eternally from coming into the presence of God. Because
we cannot produce the perfection of Christ. And for thousands
of years, that's what this veil represented as it hung there.
It was a constant reminder that the way to God was not yet manifest. Look over in Leviticus chapter
16. The command of this veil was, come not. That's the command
of this veil. Come not. It's blocking your
entrance to God. In Leviticus 16 verse 2. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times
into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which
is upon the ark, that he die not. Now tell him to come not
or he's going to die. For I will appear in the cloud
upon the mercy seat. And that's the command of this
veil. Come not. But still yet, even
though that was the command, come not, God did give hints.
He gave pictures. of his eternal purpose in redemption. One day a year, on the day of
atonement, Aaron could come. He'd bring the blood of the sacrifice,
and he'd crawl under that veil, and he'd sprinkle the blood on
the mercy seat. That one day a year, God gave
a picture of his purpose of redemption. And remember this as we get,
we're going to go over and look at Hebrews in a few minutes,
but remember this. It was the blood that let the priest come
under the veil. It wasn't how beautiful the veil
was. It wasn't the cunning work of
the veil that let him come into the presence of God. It was the
blood of the sacrifice. It wasn't how good the priest
was, how righteous the priest appeared that let him come under
the veil. It was the blood of the sacrifice. It wasn't the glorious dress
of the high priest that let him come under the veil. It was the
blood. He must bring the blood. He could
come in the blood of the sacrifice. And thousands and thousands of
years later, when Christ died, the purpose of God around this
veil was finally revealed. When God's Son incarnate gave
up the ghost. When he said it's finished and
he gave up the ghost and died, this veil was rent in two from
top to bottom. Look over Matthew 27. Our pastor
just preached on this a week or two ago. Matthew 27. Matthew 27, verse 50. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
of the temple was rent in twain from 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 holy city,
and appeared unto many." And remember I told you this veil
represents the life. How does scripture tie together
the resurrection and the veil? When the veil was rent, the dead
came out of the grave. This is the light, Christ's delight. This veil was torn in two as
it hung on those golden hooks. It hung between heaven and earth
and it was torn in two. But Christ God's Son died as
he was hanging between heaven and earth. And it was God that
tore this thing from the top to the bottom. I couldn't tear
this thing. I mean, it's as thin as it is. I couldn't tear it.
And this thing is, you know, a hand's breadth thick. God tore
this thing in two. This was an act of God, just
like the death of God's son was an act of God. No man took the
life of Christ from him. They couldn't take it from him.
He had to lay it down on himself. And his death was an act of God.
Just like tearing this thing in two was an act of God. It
was so thick, the old Jews say two pair of oxen tied to this
thing, driven in opposite directions, could not have torn it. You think
the force of that four-oxen pulley couldn't have torn this thing
apart. And it was very thick. It's that thick. And this thing
hung loosely on these hooks. It wasn't strung across tight.
It was hung loosely on purpose because they had this thought.
Suppose an enemy attacks us. Somebody comes in here on a horse
with a sword, tries to chop this thing in two. Well, it's hung
loosely and so thick it's going to have enough give to it. It
couldn't be cut with a man's sword. It had to be torn in two
by the hand of God. And God tore this thing apart,
never to be joined again. Those Jews may have tried to
sew it up, but I promise you it was torn in two again. This
thing was God tore it apart and His purpose was it never be put
together. His purpose was that God and
His elect never be separated again. Paul asked the question,
shall anything separate us from the love of Christ? Shall anything?
And Paul gave that long list of all these things. And he concluded,
nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Why not? Because God tore the
veil in two. He never intended for that way
to be blocked between him and his elect again. God's tore it
in two. And there are many ramifications
of this veil being torn in two that are so important to us.
First, the veil had separated men from God because of sin. Isaiah said, in Isaiah 59, verse
2, he says, your iniquities have separated between you and your
God. Your sins have hid His face from
you. Your sins have blocked your entrance
into His presence. But when Christ died, Men are
no longer separated from the presence of God. Now the way's
wide open. Well, why? Because Christ was
separated from God for us. Christ bore the sin of his elect
and put those sins away. The sins are gone. Now there's
no more reason for God to be angry. The barrier has been taken
away. And not only has the barrier
been taken away, now the barrier is a gateway an open gateway
into the presence of God. This thing hung for 2,000 years,
blocking man's entrance to God. When it was torn in two, it became
a gateway. Anybody can walk right in to
the presence of God, to the mercy seat. Next, when the veil was
rent in two, it showed us so clearly the legal dispensation
is over. It's gone. No longer are we going
to worship God in the form and ceremony of the law. The legal
dispensation is over. Now the gospel dispensation has
been brought in. Now we're going to worship God
in Christ. All those legal sacrifices are
finished, but no more veil for the priest to crawl under bringing
the blood of an animal. That's been put away because
Christ has been offered the one sacrifice that puts the sins
of God's people away forever. He puts away the sin of all truth,
the true Israel of God. So the legal dispensation is
over. But scripture is clear next that the veil was torn in
two right in the middle from top to bottom. And you've got
full view of the mercy seat and the ark as it sat there. It sat
in the middle of the holy of holies and the veil was torn
in two in the middle. So you've got a full view of
the mercy seat and the ark. Can you imagine how terrified
those priests were? They were going about their business.
Probably trimming the lamps and getting ready to offer the incense
in the holy place. And suddenly, that veil was rent
in two. And that priest saw the mercy
seat. He saw the ark. Can you imagine
the terror that that man felt? I'm confident he ran out of that
place as fast as he could run. And at some point over his lifetime,
he had to wonder, I saw that mercy seat. Why didn't I die? Why am I still living? Because
Christ had died. That's the exact reason. Because
Christ had died. Christ died. When he died, he
opened the way for sinners to come to God in him. Now you can
come to the mercy seat. Now you see the glory of God
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the veil gone. Look over
2 Corinthians chapter 3. This veil is taken away in our
Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 3 verse 12,
seeing then we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.
We're not talking in shadows and types and pictures anymore.
We use great plainness of speech. not as Moses, which put a veil
over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to, to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds
were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil,
untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil
is done away in Christ." But even unto this day, when Moses
is read, the veil is upon their heart. That veil is blocking
their sight, it's blocking their view of God when they read the
scriptures. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, when it shall turn to Christ, that veil is going
to be taken away. This veil is taken away and done
away with in Christ. And good news for a sinner, this
veil was torn in two from top to bottom, all the way from top
to bottom, showing us that the way to God is wide open for the
worst of sinners, for sinners of any size or shape to come
directly to the presence of God, to find mercy and forgiveness
for their sins. This thing wasn't torn in a corner
that just a small sinner could fit through. It didn't have this
little hole cut in it that just a small sinner, you know, could
fit through. It wasn't torn horizontally. So, you know, you could just
have an easier time crawling under. It was torn from top to
bottom, all the way from top to the bottom, showing that the
worst of sinners can come freely to find mercy and forgiveness
of their sins in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you come to Christ,
you're not crawling through a loophole in the law. You know, sometimes
a criminal might be able to get off in a loophole. They forgot
to give him his Miranda rights. Well, it doesn't matter that
he's guilty, they can't arrest him. You're not coming through
a loophole. You're not coming around the back door that somebody
accidentally left unlocked. You're coming through the front
door. The veil's been torn in two. You're coming through the
front door accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the legal
dispensation has been put away. The gospel dispensation has been
brought in. The law commanded, come not at
all times. What does the gospel dispensation
say? Come. The Spirit and the bride say
come. Let's look at a few scriptures.
Matthew chapter 11. I want to leave no doubt in anyone's
mind. You come to Christ. It's the
commandment of the gospel. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28.
I love how Plain and simple scripture says
this. Come unto me. This is our Lord
speaking. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. Come unto me. Just come. Look at Mark chapter 10. Verse 13, and they brought young
children to him that he should touch them. And look at this,
his disciples rebuked those that brought them. Suppose someone comes in here
dirty, not cleaned up. They don't have all the right
doctrine. like you and me, and we think, oh, they don't belong
here. We'd be guilty of the same thing,
rebuking those coming to Christ. Don't rebuke someone coming to
Christ. He might touch them. But look at verse 14. When Jesus
saw it, he was much displeased. And he said unto them, Suffer
the real children to come unto me, and forbid them not. For
of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall
not enter therein." They rebuked him for bringing the little children,
but what did our Lord do in verse 16? He took them up in his arms
and put his hands on them and blessed them. That's a blessed
child. Come unto me. He took them up
in his arms and blessed them. He'll do the same for you. Look
over at John chapter 7. Verse 32, In the last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. If any man thirsty, come to Christ. You come to Christ. God's opened
the way. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's opened the way wide. There is nothing preventing you
from coming to Christ except your self-righteousness. You
come to Him. The way's wide open. And listen,
look over at Hebrews chapter 10. This is where I wanted to
get to. You come to Christ boldly. You come, you come in faith,
and you come boldly. Hebrews 10 verse 19. Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now the command
of the law was come not. What's the command of the gospel?
Come. How many times do we have to
read it in scripture? The command of the gospel is come. And come
boldly. Come without fear. That high
priest once every year on the Day of Atonement could, by God's
command, come into the Holy Place with the Holy of Holies, with
the blood of the sacrifice. You imagine the terror that that
man moved with. He moved quickly and he moved
with fear. They had bells on the bottom
of his garment so the people could hear he's still moving,
he's still alive. Legend has it that they went
further than that, that they tied a rope around his ankle.
so they could drag him out if he died. That's how fearful they
were that he'd die in the presence of God. He moved with fear. But now what's the command? Come
boldly. Come without fear. Come to Christ. And you come boldly into the
holiest, into the presence of God Himself. And about everything
has changed from the legal dispensation to the gospel dispensation. But
one thing hasn't changed. You come with the blood. The
high priest came with the blood of the animal. You come with
the blood of Christ. That's what he says here. You
come into the holiest house by the blood of Jesus. Not by how
much we know, not by how good we are, it's by the blood of
Christ. The very weakest believer can
come to Christ with as much boldness and confidence as the apostle
Paul himself. Peter, James, and John cannot
come to Christ with more boldness than you. Why? Because you're
coming not based on you, but on the blood of Jesus. That's
how we come, by the blood of Jesus, through the person and
work of Christ. Look at verse 20. We come by a new and living
way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say, his flesh. The scripture leaves no doubt
this veil is a picture of Christ. He calls that veil here his flesh. That is to say his flesh. Christ
incarnate is the veil. And we're coming, he says, in
a new and living way. And that new and living way actually
means the freshly slaughtered way. Freshly slaughtered. Now
that does not mean Christ is repeatedly sacrificed. He's repeatedly
slain and sheds his blood over and over again. Christ is the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Over 6,000 years
ago, in eternity past, in the mind and purpose of God, Christ's
blood was shed. He's the Lamb slain. Yet in all
that time, His blood's never grown stale. In human history,
in the time of human history, the blood of Christ was shed
at Calvary over 2,000 years ago. In 2,000 years, that blood has not grown stale.
Millions have come to Christ, untold millions have come to
Christ based on the blood that he shed at Calvary that haven't
worn that blood out. It hasn't lost one ounce of its
power to save. Brethren, we are not preaching
leftovers. Now I like leftovers. Jan is
a good cook and she cooks a lot so we have leftovers and I love
leftovers. But you know, by the third or
fourth day, yeah, it might get a little stale. It might have
lost its flavor. Maybe I've lost my taste for
it. You know, I'll eat it for lunch, eat it for a snack. Maybe
I've lost my taste for it because I've had it so many days in a
row. That's not the blood of Christ. Dear dying lamb, thy
precious blood shall never lose its power. To all the ransomed
church of God, be saved to sin no more. And having a high priest over
the house of God, what's our conclusion? Let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for he is faithful that promised. You come to Christ and then you
keep coming to him. You keep believing him. You keep
coming to him. The way to come is still open. Now quickly, let me give you
this and kind of tie this up. This veil, we read about the
instructions of it, hung on these four pillars that were made there,
four pillars. And they were made of the incorruptible
wood covered with gold. We've seen it over and over and
over again. That incorruptible wood, the sinless humanity of
Christ, the gold, the deity of Christ, put together as the God-man. All these attributes of God that
are displayed in this veil could only be held up by the Godman. We could never hold that up.
Only Christ had the power and the strength and the ability
to hold it up. But now unlike these pillars at the entrance,
remember these pillars had bases of brass that held them up, showing
us the strength of Christ, the ability of Christ to walk through
the furnace of God's hatred and wrath and justice against our
sins. These pillars have feet of silver, not of brass, but
of silver. And you remember that that silver
came from the atonement money that was paid by the children
of Israel when Moses counted the people. It's the redemption
of Christ. That's the foundation of everything
we believe, everything our Lord did during his earthly ministry
as our representative was done with this purpose to redeem his
people. That's why he came. And these
pillars did not have the fancy glorious capitals at the top
of them. They just a plain pillar at the top of them. Showing us
that's a picture of Christ that he would be cut off in the prime
of his life in the prime of his earthly human life, he would
be cut off. As he hung their calvary, he
would be cut off from God for the sins of his people. And the
veil was suspended by golden hooks made of pure gold. No wood
was put in it. It was pure gold. Showing us
that Christ, the Son of Man, during his earthly ministry,
in his earthly life, was held up and supported by divine power. He had the Spirit without measure.
And here's why I wanted to get to these, we'll sum all this
up with this. When the veil was torn in two,
the rest of the tabernacle didn't fall down, did it? The ceiling
didn't fall down, the walls didn't crumble. When the veil was torn
in two, those pillars stood holding up the ceiling. They were doing
what they always did, holding up the ceiling. The pillars and
the torn veil have the same message come to Christ. The way is wide
open. If when the veil was torn in
two, the pillars had crumbled, the mercy seat would still be
hidden, wouldn't it? But they held up the ceiling, so the mercy
seat's in plain view. It has the same message as the
torn veil. Wherever John comes from this
morning, wherever his text is, it's the same message as this
one. The gospel has one message, Christ and Him crucified. And
that's what this veil is. Christ incarnate, but then it's
torn in two. Him crucified. All right. I hope
that will bless you.