Turn to Matthew chapter 27. Let me read to you three verses,
starting in verse 50. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up Well, we could stop there, couldn't
we? We could ride out from that ceiling, pause and think about
this. And behold, the veil of the temple
was rent entwined from the top to the bottom, and the earth
did quake. Not just that little spot. It
wasn't just an earthquake in Palestine. The whole creation
shook. I believe it did. I believe the
whole earth shook. And the rocks split in two. 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." Let us pray. Our Father, help us to understand what we
have read. Help us to worship You, Father,
in spirit and in truth. Our greatest desire here this
evening, and we pray that it's so, is to worship You, is to
give unto You the glory that's due unto Your name. Bless Your
Word through the encouragement of Your people. Edify them, Father,
out of Your Word. Enable me to preach from this
portion of Scripture the message that is in it. And I pray that
we, thy church that is here tonight, will hear thy voice. That we
will hear from our Father, instruct us, teach us. In Christ's name
we pray, and amen. I titled this message, The Veil
of the temple was rent. It was split, torn, right down
the middle. And that was a very thick veil.
What did you say, Frank, is a hand's breadth? And that's thick material. And
it was rent, split, right down the middle. When our Lord came into this
world, when the Word was made flesh. That was miraculous, wasn't
it? A virgin giving birth to this God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as he grew up and he entered
his earthly ministry at 30 years of age, he began to perform miracles. Such had never been seen in this
world before. No one, no one had ever done
what this man did. He turned water into wine, real
wine. He fed 5,000, that was men, not
counting the women and children, and did that more than once.
He healed the lame, the deaf, The dumb. He cast out demons. I like it when I read that one
portion where that demonic came to him and the Lord cast them
demons out of that man and he was sitting in his right mind
at the Lord's feet. That's the only time we are in
our right mind, when we sit at His feet. He performed many miracles. Many
miracles. But the greatest of all miracles
has to be, I mean one of the, among the greatest of them, I
don't know if we can pick things out, but among the greatest of
all his miracles has to be when he died. I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life, and he died. That has to be one of the
greatest miracles, is when he yielded up the ghost and died.
This is God. This is the God-man. Now, I can't
separate these things. People say, well, this part died,
this part died. Listen, his person, God and man,
was like the robe he wore, seamless. I can't divide it. Hanging on
that cross is a perfect man, son of man. He called himself
son of man. And hanging on that cross is a son of God. Hanging
on that cross is God Almighty. Hanging on that cross is a perfect
man. I can't make those separations.
As I said, his character, his person is like the Robey War. Seamless. Godman. Godman. That's what he was, the
God-man. And his greatest miracle had
to be, at least one of them, when he yielded up the ghost.
He died. It says in verse 50, Jesus, when
he had cried again with a loud voice, and we know that over
John he cried, it is finished, he yielded up the ghost. Now
it says in verse 51, and behold, pay attention to this. That's
what the writer is saying. That's what the Holy Spirit is
saying. Give attention, give great attention
to this. The veil of the temple was rent
in twain, that is in two, from the top to the bottom, split
all the way. And the earth did quake, and
the rocks rent. Now, let's look at a little bit
of history here. Turn to Exodus 26. Now, Frank
has already went through this veil, so I'm not going to go
through it. But I want to show you something
in Exodus 26. This veil separated everything
from the Holy of Holies. This veil right here, this very
thick veil. In verse 31, And thou shalt make
a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen
of cunning work with cherubims shall it be made. And thou shalt
hang it upon, not a curtain rod, not a curtain rod, four pillars. This is a very, very heavy veil. You are hanging upon four pillars
of shenum wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of
gold upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up
the veil under the thatches that thou mayest bring in thither
within the veil the ark of the testimony. And the veil shall,
listen, the veil shall divide. It will keep out. It divides. unto you between,
and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and
the most holy place." It will divide. Only one person was ever
allowed to go into that place, and he was only allowed one time
a year, and that's the high priest. No one else was allowed. was
allowed, because that place represented God's presence. That was the
presence of God it represented. And no one, except for the high
priest, was allowed to go into that place at all. Only the high priest. And he
did it once a year, and that was with blood. And he had to
crawl under the veil, go in and put the blood on the mercy seat.
Now turn over to Hebrews chapter 9. Let me start reading in verses.
Well, I'll read the first twelve verses. Let's put this together.
Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine
service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the
golden censer. and the Ark of the Covenant,
overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that
had manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant.
These were in the Holy of Holies. And over it the cherubims of
glory shadowing the mercy seat, of 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. He did this always, every day. But into the second went the
high priest alone once every year, not without blood. I don't care, Aaron, you better
not go in there without blood. You see, Aaron had to offer a
sacrifice for his own sins as well as the sins of the people
because he, you know, he just one of those one just chosen
from among men. So but not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. the
Holy Ghost by this signifying that the way into the holiest
of all, into God's presence, was not yet made manifest. It had not yet been revealed.
Why, as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a
figure, that's all it was. It was a figure for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect. as pertaining
to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and
divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time
of Reformation. But Christ, being come in high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands," that's to say, not of this building,
not of these Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place." Now, he didn't come off the cross and go back to that
temple. He went to the true holy place, not the represented one. He went into the presence of
God. Having. Aaron couldn't say this. The
only high priest who could say this, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Having obtained it. Now what does the rending of
this veil mean to us? He says, behold, give great attention
to this. Give great attention. It has
a powerful meaning. As long, listen, as long as it
stood, it meant that the way into the
Holy of Holies was not yet manifest, as long as it was there, as long
as those services went on. The Holy Spirit was saying the
way has not yet been revealed into the holiest of holies, into
God's presence, not yet been revealed. That's what it said
there, I read to you in Hebrews 9a. Here's what it meant. Here's what it still means. It
means that the legal dispensation is over. All the ceremonies I
read you were those priests back here in chapter nine of Hebrews,
verse six, that when these things were thus ordained the priest. I guess you could call them sub
priest. But they went in, they went always
into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. They did
this every day, did it every day. That's over. That's over. All the ceremonies,
can you imagine this? There was 2,000 years from Moses
to Christ. For 2,000 years, this was roughly,
around 2,000 years, this was established. And they did this.
You know, day after day after day after day. Except when they
were in captivity, things like that. But they did this day after
day. But now all these ceremonies
are finished. All the tithes and the shadows
are finished. Listen. Hours before he died, if someone would have walked
in there at Holy of Holies, they would have died. When the veil of the temple was
split, anyone could walk back in there now. They could open
up the ark and look in where the tablets, the broken law,
the tablets were broken. They could look at all that.
They could look at all of it and live. But just hours before
that, they would have died. But when that veil of the temple
was ripped, it signified this is over. And it took them a long, well,
God had to destroy that temple to get them out of there. I have
no doubt they repaired it. They probably went back and tried
to repair that curtain. I have no doubt about it. They tried
to keep their ceremonies going. And it was over. It's finished. It's finished. There's no more
offering for sin. No more animals need to die.
The one great sacrifice for sin has been offered. We don't need
to kill another one. So it says over in Hebrews chapter
10 here, it says in verses 10, let's see, verse 10, by the which
will, in Hebrews 10, 10, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this
man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. No more offering for sin. The one great sacrifice has been
offered by the one great high priest. That legal dispensation
is over. And the earthly priesthood, as
they knew it, and all of its ordinances, was over, ended. They were fulfilled in Christ.
Christ is our High Priest and He has entered into the Holy
of Holies, into God's presence for us. And this priesthood, this earthly
priesthood that Aaron and his sons, that's over. That's over. In fact, He has
now made us kings and priests unto God. He's made us. That means every believer, you
men and you women, are made kings and priests. I desire the prayer
of you women just as much as I do any man. God's made you
a priest also. But this priesthood is over.
He made us kings and priests before God. And the least saint
has as much right to come into God's presence, into the Holy
of Holies, as the high priest did back then.
He was the only one who had the right to do it. He had the right
and he had to have the blood. I tell you what, we had the right
and we had the blood. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we had the cleansing. You know, back then, if the priest,
before he could do this, before he could do this, he had to wash
himself with pure water and he had to be sprinkled with blood.
And then he went under the curtain, took the blood and put it on
the mercy seat. We've been sprinkled by the blood
of Christ and we've been washed with the water of the word and
regeneration. He's made us kings and priests
under God. We have every right to come into God's presence. Now, the Holy of Holies is now open
for any believing sinner to come. In Christ, we can meet with God. I wish I could get through to
myself. I wish I could get a hold of
this. I wish you could get a hold of this. That we can come into
the presence of the One who is light and whose presence
nothing can stand before. And yet we can come into His
presence. It used to be the only one who could come into His presence
was the priest. Now the people can. Oh, how much greater a high
priest do we have in Christ? And they had Aaron and all those
others that followed him. Listen to this, turn over to
Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. In verse 19. Having therefore, that's because
of all that's been said in the previous verses. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness, boldness, liberty. That's just not being
brave. That's liberty. That's liberty. Freedom. Freedom to come in. Freedom. Boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way. We'll
say a little bit about this in a minute. But He hath consecrated
for us. He hath dedicated for us. He
hath made for us through the veil. That veil is His flesh. It was rent. It was striped. His back was laid wide open. That's to say His flesh. And
having a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near
with a true heart, true sincerity, be sincere, in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. The way into the presence of
God is now open to all who believe." It's open, wide open. Wide open. And listen, come at any time. Aaron and the high priest after
that, they were allowed to come into the Holy of Holies one time
a year, a certain given time. And that's the only time that
he could come in there. Now, listen, it's at any time. While I'm standing here preaching,
You can come into the Holy of Holies and pray and ask the Lord
to help you. Say, Lord, speak to me. Anytime. You don't have to wait until
once a year. At any time, your heart feels like it. You can
go into the presence of God. You know, kids can't even do
it at home. Can't even do it in your own home. But we can
do it at any time. Even when you don't feel like
it, that's the time you ought to come. You don't feel worthy,
you feel wretched, that's the time you ought to come. That's
the time. The law said, stand back, and
I'm going to read you something over in Exodus 19. I want you
to go over there with me and read. Exodus chapter 19. I'll give
you the verse when I get there. Look in verse 9. All right, now, I'm going to
read several verses. I'm going to read 9 through 17.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick
cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe
thee forever. And Moses told the words of the
people unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go unto the people. and sanctify them today and tomorrow,
and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third
day. For the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of
all the people upon Mount Sinai." And the third day, our Lord went
up. He went up to glory, seated at
God's right hand. But anyway, let's go on. Verse
12, And thou shalt set bounds See, this is not liberty. The
law never liberates, ever. Now shall set bounds unto the
people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go
not up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever touches
the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not a hand
touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through. whether
it be beast or man. It shall not live. It shall not
live. When the trumpet soundeth long,
they shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the
mount unto the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their
clothes. And he said unto the people,
Be ready against the third day, come not at your wives. And it
came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were
thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the
voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people
that were in the camp trembled, scared to death. And Moses brought
forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and listen,
they stood at neither part of the mount. They stood afar off.
They stood afar off. Set bounds, Moses. He said, you
set bounds and you don't let them go past that. Because if
they come over here and they just go like this to the mountain,
if they do that, dead. Even if a beast, if a little
mouse ran up and touched it, it's dead. Now turn over to Matthew chapter
11. Matthew chapter 11. This is God
speaking. This is the God-man speaking.
In verse 28, come unto me. Come unto me. All ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Come to me. He said, Moses, you set bounds.
You tell the people, don't you even come close to this place.
And they said, it's standing far off. But now here, God is
in Christ. Here is God manifest in the flesh. This is God. This is the same
God speaking to Moses saying, tell the people, don't come close
to this fountain. This is the same God speaking.
And he says, come to me and I'll give you rest. I'll give you
rest. The renting of the veil also
signified, and boy this was a blessing to me as I looked at this, it
signified the removal of sin. What is it that separates us
from God? Sin. That's what it is. Sin. I have a sinful nature. And God is holy. And the two
don't mix. They don't mix. What really separates
us from God is what we are. Sin. Sin keeps us from communion
with God. That veil kept the people, the
children of Israel, out of that holy place. Only that high priest
with blood was allowed in there one time a year. But when Christ
died, When he cried, He's finished. He removed that which separated
us from God. He removed sin. And now, come on in. Come on, sinner. Come on in. He has removed our sins as far
as the east is from the west. And the only way God cannot remember
our sins is that they don't exist. The scapegoat took them out into
the wilderness and they can't be found. They're gone. They're
gone. When he split that veil, this
signified that that which kept us from God had been removed. Sin. Now come on, come to me. He says, come to me. Hebrews
9.26, for then, well, let me read it over here. Let me find
it over here. I want to read the verse before
that. Hebrews 9.26. Verse 24. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands. He didn't go back there when
he died, when he suffered and died on the cross. He didn't
rise from the grave and go back to that temple. He didn't do
that. Which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself.
Now to appear in the presence of God for us. This man, this
high priest, has appeared and is there now in the presence
of God for us. We have someone there representing
us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with blood of others, for then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin. It's gone. I know my sins. I know your sins.
You know your sins. We know each other's sins. I
mean, every time we just slap each other, we just get on each
other's nerves. We get on each other's nerves
sometimes, don't we? But I tell you what, in Christ we have no
sin. It's gone. It's gone. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away that which separated us
from God by the sacrifice of himself." And it was a sacrifice. We saw
that this morning. My God, my God, why dost thou
forsake me? It was a sacrifice. And we now have the freedom.
To come into God's presence for that which kept us away is gone. It's gone. Don't even look for
it. He's not looking for it. It's
gone. Look over in Colossians chapter
1. 21 And you that were sometime alienated
in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. That's how you
are in His sight. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, look in verse
19. This is how we are to come now.
This is how we are to handle this. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness, liberty to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We have the privilege of coming
into God's presence and speaking to Him as a son would speak to his father. You know, we try to, sometimes
we get too complicated in our praying, don't we? We get too
complicated with our praying. We try to end up making prayers
into sermons. How does your child speak to
you? How does your children come to you and speak to you? That's how we speak to our Father,
in simplicity, in simplicity. That was never allowed before.
Can you imagine that? They were never allowed to come
into that place and speak to him. They always had to go through
this high priest. Now, we always speak in Christ's
name, but we are allowed to... He said, when you pray, say,
Our Father. We pray to Our Father personally,
intimately. We pray to Our Father. And when we do this, When we are able to truly come
into His presence and spend time there, spend some time there
in meditation, we read the Word, we meditate, we come before Him
in prayer, and when we are able to do that, that's when you really
become a blessing to others. Leviticus chapter 9. Look at verse 23. You really want to
be a blessing to others, to the church of God. And Moses and
Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and then
they came out and they blessed the people. That's when God will
make you a blessing. It's when you have first spent
time in the Holy of Holies with Him. And the glory of the Lord
appeared unto all the people. Those who spend time with God
in the Holy of Holies will be a blessing to others. It'll just happen. It'll just
happen. God will make you a blessing.
It used to be in Leviticus 16.2, come not at all times. That's
what it says. Come not at all times. Now it is come any time. Any time. Back to Hebrews chapter 10. I'll
wind this up. Hebrews chapter 10, come at any
time. Verse 20, and here's why we can
do it. He said we are to come boldly,
to come brethren, he said with boldness to enter into the holiness
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath
consecrated. He's open. The way is open. It's open for us. And it's a
living way. It's through Him. It's through
Him. But now listen. Come with full
assurance. See down in verse 22? You come. You come with boldness. You cast
your cares upon Him. But you come with a true heart.
You come with sincerity and in full assurance of faith, believing
God. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. You believe he'll give you what
you're after? You believe you need mercy? You believe you can
get it from him? I do, in Christ. I believe that
in Christ, through Christ, in his name, through his blood,
through his righteousness, I can have the mercy, the forgiveness,
the grace of God. I can have it. And notice here,
and I'll close, It was rent from top to bottom. It was not rent halfway down. Not halfway. It was rent from
top to bottom. And you know what that means?
That means the vilest of men, the most wicked sinner ever walked
on this earth can come in. It doesn't just fit one size.
It's wide open. The Lord said, whosoever will,
let him come. He didn't say that before. The
law doesn't say that. Don't come at all times is what
it says. And only the high priest is going to come in here, not
you. But now you can come. You can come. And I tell you what, when this
happened, it says the earth did quake and the rocks were rent.
My, what power! What power! Oh, what power there is in Christ
to save, to split rocks? If He can split rocks and shake
an earth, He can handle this old rascal. He can handle me. I'm no challenge to God. And
many saints, when this happened, the graves were opened. Can you
imagine that? It's after His resurrection,
but the graves opened up. And many bodies of the saints
which slept arose. And they came out of the graves
after his resurrection and went into the holy city. That's where
we're going. We're going to go into that holy
city, that new Jerusalem that's from above. And he appeared unto
many. They were not ghosts. They were
not spirits. They were real people. They were real people who believed
God. And they were seen by the church. What a Savior. What a salvation
we had in the Lord Jesus Christ.