This lesson this morning will
be taken from just three verses of Scripture, Luke chapter 23,
verses 44 through 46. Luke chapter 23, verses 44 through
46. And my subject, and I pray it's
God's message from these verses to us this morning, is the final
word on the matter. We've been studying His crucifixion.
So this has a bearing on what's taken place on the cross. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter 23, verse 44. And it was about the sixth hour,
and there was a darkness over all the earth, until the ninth
hour. And the sun was darkened, and
the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus
had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. There's three things that I want
us to look at this morning. Three things concerning the cross
of Christ and the redemption that He accomplished on it. I
want us to think about the three hours of darkness from 12 o'clock
to 3 o'clock. Three hours of total darkness. And then secondly, the rent veil.
What does that mean? What's that got to do with what's
going on on the cross? Thirdly, and finally, the last
word on the matter. So let's look first at the darkness.
This wasn't just a solar eclipse. We're going to have a solar eclipse,
they tell me tomorrow. And they say that we're right
in the center of it, so we ought to be able to see it. We've got
a bird's eye view, except for the clouds. But this was not
just a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse, if we're in
the center of it, you'll see it really good. You'll experience
the darkness really good. But if you're in Maine, or California,
you're not. This darkness wasn't just in
a certain spot, it wasn't just over the cross, it was over all
the earth. That's what I just read. So this wasn't just a solar
eclipse, this was a darkness all over the earth. And scientists
asked us to consider this as a man talking who knew nothing
about eclipses. He was just there around the
cross, he was an apostle, he was there, the darkness came,
and so he said there was a darkness over all the earth. He didn't
know anything about eclipses. He was a fisherman. But there's
a problem with that, and the problem is that God the Holy
Ghost was moving this man and inspiring this man to write these
words. This wasn't about his experience
only. This was the Holy Ghost moving
him to write these things. If the writings of this book
are solely just the thoughts of men, then we cannot call this
book the Word of God. We'd have to call it the opinions
of men. Wouldn't we? But it's the Word
of God. And the reason it's called the
Word of God is because these holy men of old spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. There's no way Moses could have
wrote about the creation of the world. He wasn't there when the
world was created. He couldn't tell you on what
day God did what. He was inspired of the Spirit
to do that. John couldn't have went into
heaven and saw things that must be hereafter. He couldn't have
saw that apart from the Spirit of God. This book is inspired
by the Spirit of God. And these men spake as they were
moved. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That's
why we call it the Word of God. The fact of the matter is that
for three hours there was a darkness over the whole earth. And the
next obvious question is why? Why? Why would God blot out the
sun during this crucifixion? Why would He do that? Well, before we think about that,
maybe we ought to think about what's taking place. The very purpose of God in creation,
that's what's taking place. The whole reason He created the
world. The culmination of it is right
here. Right here. It's going on. God's going to
manifest His glory and the salvation of chosen sinners through the
person and work of His dear Son. And the Scripture said, once
in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. We need to consider what's going
on. This is the God-man, the one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, the representative man. He's not
here for himself. He's here for somebody else.
He's a representative man. He's a substitute for chosen
sinners, and he's dying on a cross bearing our sins. He's engaged
in the satisfaction of divine justice. He's engaged in a provision
of a perfect righteousness. The crowning work of His obedience,
which is our righteousness, was His death on the cross. He'd
been made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. He's dying, the Scripture said,
the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. And there's at least four things
that God will reveal to us concerning these three hours of darkness.
The first thing is that the darkness is a mark that He is the crucified
Redeemer. Did you ever think about that
when you read that? In Amos chapter 8 and verse 9,
listen to this. And it shall come to pass in
that day, saith the Lord God. that I will cause the sun to
go down at noon. That's the sixth act. I'll cause the sun to go down
at noon and I'll darken the earth in a clear day. Does that sound
like what's going on? That's a long time before Christ
came. He said, I'll turn your feast
into mourning on that day, and all your songs into lamentation,
and I'll bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon
every head, and I'll make it as the mourning of an only son,
and the end thereof as a bitter day. This darkness was an evidence
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the promised Messiah,
the Son of God. And then secondly, this darkness
symbolized the ignorance of man concerning the death of Christ. I dare say there's not a church
anywhere near here that doesn't speak of the death of Christ.
They all do. Every church I've ever been in
talks about his death, but they don't understand it. They don't
know why he died. They don't know who died. There's no understanding. There's
a darkness concerning the death of Christ. Think about who all
was involved around this cross. They didn't know who that was. He didn't fit their patterns
or anything. He didn't fit their idea of the
Christ. They were totally ignorant of
what was going on on that cross. He, the man, walks, the scripture
said, in the vanity of his mind, having the understanding darkened. He walks in darkness. He can
only think and reason with things that he knows, and he don't know
God. He said, with having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God. That's the true
knowledge of God. through the ignorance that's
in them because of the blindness of their heart. And God doing
a glorious work on the cross, a work reconciling a fallen world
of sinners to himself, and even those involved in it couldn't
see it or perceive it. And then thirdly, this darkness
was a revelation of the darkness of antichrist religion. They
professed to believe in the coming Redeemer. But they weren't convinced
that Jesus of Nazareth was Him. And here's God accomplishing
the salvation of His elect, and here's His elect in a natural
sense, walking around the cross, casting up obscenities into His
teeth, treating Him as an imposter, mocking Him, spitting in His
face, slapping Him, The darkness that day was but
a prelude to the eternal darkness that awaited them. Men are not
saved in darkness. Oh, God saved me down there.
Not in that darkness, He didn't. Oh, no. Men are not saved in darkness,
but out of it. He called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light. Delivered us from the power of
darkness. Translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. And then fourthly, this darkness
was a picture of a forsaken soul. It's hard to believe now. He cried on that cross, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This darkness was a symbol
of a forsaken soul. And darkness was upon all the
face of the earth from the sixth hour to the ninth. Matthew tells
us about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Brother Mahan said one time
the reason, this was one of the reasons he gave, For our Lord
crying out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That we
might not have to. Let that go. Sink in. After that, the sun began to
shine. When this question is asked and
answered, The darkness always disappears, don't it? And I'll
add this concerning the darkness, Satan's called the ruler of the
darkness of this world. He and those fallen angels, they're
the rulers of the darkness of this world. And the light is
our Lord's victory over him. And then the second thing these
scriptures talk about is a rent veil. What's a rent? That's a tear. It's a tear. It's a rip in something. Well,
what does this rent veil have to do with Christ dying on the
cross? Let me just give you three things.
Now, there's multiple things. If you'll take this subject and
look at these individual things and study them and read them,
you can find multiple things. But for the sake of time, let
me just give you three things. First of all, it suggests the
exposure of the pretentious place of religious reconciliation. J.C. Philpott said there were
five things that were not present after the Babylonian captivity
in the temple. Five things that disappeared
forever. They'll never find them. God
took them. Five tokens of God's presence
and favor. The Ark of the Covenant, it was
gone. It was gone. It wasn't in there. The Mercy
Seat wasn't over the Ark. It was gone. The Holy Fire from
Heaven on that altar wasn't there. The Shekinah or cloud of God
wasn't present. And the Urim and the Thummim.
Now if this be so, And the common priests are all outside the tabernacle. Maybe some in the first part
of it. And the high priest comes in.
And he's either about to go under that veil or he's already gone
under it with the blood of a beast. The blood of a lamb or a goat
or whatever he has. And he's going under that veil. And let's say he did. Let's say
he's on the inside. And these priests are all looking
on because they all have an interest in the blood. They're watching,
waiting for him to come out, declare the blessings of God.
And God rips that veil from top to bottom. And it falls open. And guess what's inside? Nothing. Nothing. An empty room. An empty chamber. No ark. No
mercy seat. Just a phony of a priest and
he's standing there with animal blood. Can you imagine the shock of
those priests and people as they looked inside that tabernacle?
I don't know how much you could see from the outer courtyard,
but the people gathered out there. And they were looking in. And
they had to see the look on the faces of those priests when they
looked in there, and there was nothing there. It was emptiness.
And I'll never forget the shock of learning that the most holy
things of religion, the religion that I was raised in, hoped in,
was just an empty imagination of a man. That's all it was.
It was nothing there. Nothing there. The Jesus of Holy
Scripture would have been rejected exactly the way the Jews rejected
him if he were there today. He's rejected as he's preached
and set forth. in the Word of God, and there
is in the preaching of men another gospel, another Jesus by another
Spirit. The day the cross was the culmination
of the feast days, the day of the Passover, and the ninth hour
was the time of the evening sacrifice. And the priest stood by as the
high priest was about to go beyond the veil and suddenly it was
ramped from top to bottom. And they looked in and they saw
nothing but darkness, just an empty room. The open veil, ramped by the
hand of God, exposes the pretentious place of false religion's reconciliation. Some have a mourner's bench.
The church I was raised in had a mourner's bench and you'd come
up there And they tell you the phrase they used was praying
through. I never understood what that
meant. I guess you just prayed until you was through. I don't
know. But they told me, this bench has no efficacy at all.
It's just a place where man meets God. Can I tell you something? If you find the place where man
meets God, that place got more efficacy than you know what to
do with. Huh? There's only one place where
a man can meet God in favor, meet God in repentance, and even
hope to have His blessing, and that's in Christ. Huh? Is He effectual? You bet He is. You bet He is. The open veil, rent by the hand
of God, exposes that pretentious place of false religion's reconciliation. And then secondly, and much more
enlightening, the rent veil symbolized the way open for believing sinners
into the presence and favor of God. The one thing that kept
even the common priest out of that place was the veil. You
didn't go beyond that veil. You xy-tried it. He tried to
smote him with leprosy and he died outside the camp. Isaiah
worshipped him. He wrote everything that Uzziah
ever did. He wrote it down in a book. He
was his biographer. He loved that man. He trusted
that man. If any man was a man of God,
it was Uzziah. That's how Isaiah felt about
it. When King Uzziah died, listen
to what he says. When King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord. I saw the Lord. Oh, the rent veil symbolized
the way open for believing sinners. In Revelation chapter 4 verse
1, John said, Behold, a door was opened in heaven. It was opened in heaven, and
a voice saying, Come up hither, and I'll show you things that
must be. Well, that's the door. That's
what that rent veil is all about. An open door. In Hebrew 9-7 it
said, into the second went the high priest alone, that is beyond
that veil, once every year, not without blood, which he offered
for himself and for the heirs of the people. The Holy Ghost
thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.
Verse 11, but Christ being come a high priest of good things
to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. And I love these verses, Hebrews
10, 19, and 20. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest. Where's that at? Beyond that
veil. That holy of holy symbolized
glory. It symbolized heaven itself.
Coming into the presence of God. And now he said, brethren, we
have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh. So the rent veil declares
the way opened into the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And thirdly, the rent veil was done by the hand of God. Had it ripped from the bottom
to the top, there was earthquakes that day. And they might have
said, well, the earthquake shook and it ripped. but not from the
top to the bottom. This thing was ripped from top
to the bottom. Not only was it ripped from the top to the bottom,
but it was ripped exactly in half. A straight rip right down
the middle. It was ripped from the top to
the bottom that we might know that it was ripped from above
and not from beneath. That's what he's telling us.
It was done by the hand of God, and then fourthly, the rent veil
opened the way to the throne of grace. Listen to this, Hebrews
4, 14. Seeing them, we have a great
high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God. Let us hold fast our profession,
for we have not a high priest, which cannot be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted,
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. His throne, his rule, his power
and authority is that grace might be dispensed. Let's come boldly unto the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Our high priest has ascended
up into glory where he ever liveth to make intercession for us.
So now we've talked about the darkness. It's the mark of the
Redeemer. It shows the ignorance of a fallen
man. Tells us something about the
rulers of the darkness and Satan's hand in it. Talks about false
religion. Darkness of antichrist religion.
And then we talked about the veil. The rent veil exposing
the emptiness of false religion. Revealing the open door to the
throne of grace. And then lastly I see in these
verses the final word. on the matter. That's what I've
titled the sermon. A half a lifetime I've been ministering
to men and women, and the answers of most are always the same. I think, I'd like to know how many times
I've heard that. I'd like to know how many times I've said
that before I knew the Lord. It seems to me, Here's another. Our church believes. Can I tell you something? Find
me anywhere in this book where it says God's going to judge
men by what the church says or what the church believes. You
ain't going to find it. Faith has to do with you. It
don't have to do with your church. It has to do with you. Our family believes. Will you
believe? If this is still your standpoint,
if this is still your argument, even if you're arguing with yourself,
let me say to you what Paul said to the church at Rome, let God
be true and every man, this man, that man, all men, let God be
true and every man alive. It doesn't matter what you say,
it matters what he says. Jesus of Nazareth is the most
controversial man that ever walked the earth. From that day to this,
men and women are still speculating who he was, why he came, where
he's at, what he's doing. Controversial. And they're going
to keep on debating and separating and arguing until they wake up
in judgment. Hanging on that cross is a man
that God has confirmed to be His Son. This is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. God has clearly set Him forth
on the cross as a propitiation for our sins. He's clearly set
Him forth as the substitute for chosen sinners. The Good Shepherd,
He said, giveth His life for the sheep. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. You're going to call his name
Jesus. That's what the angel told him.
That's a New Testament name for the Old Testament Joshua or Hosea. Same name. For he shall save his people. Whose people? His people. How'd
they get to be his people? God gave them to him. He's going
to save His people from their sin. Dying on that cross is a
man who's a substitute for chosen sin. Giving power over all flesh
that He should give eternal life to as many as God has given to
Him. And His death on the cross was
a vicarious death. His death accomplished a particular
redemption. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. And when Jesus of Nazareth died
on the cross, he did not commit his work into the hands of men. Did he? He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. Into your hands. Do with it what
you will. And having said thus, he gave
up the goat. Everything he did, he submitted
to his Father, who has the last word on the matter. Who has? God has. God has. It's not up to me to decide what
he accomplished on the cross. God tells me what he accomplished. So what is God's last word on
the matter? The darkness ended. Huh? That hour of the evening
sacrifice, when he cried with a loud voice and commended his
spirit unto God his Father, the darkness lifted. The veil was rent. There was
no more veil. No more veil. Saints arose from
the grave. Did you know that? Before his
resurrection, when he died on that cross, And the sun began
to shine. The dead, dead believers, rose
from the grave, walked into Jerusalem, and revealed themselves to those
who had an interest in God. Not only that, but here's a centurion
standing here, and all those who were under him, and they're
all standing here, and I don't know what they'd been doing while
all this was going on. But here's what he said. When
he heard what he said, and that light began to shine, here's
what that centurion said. He said, truly, this was the
Son of God. That's God's last word on the
matter. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ. He's not in the tomb in Jerusalem. He's on the throne
in glory. He's not dead and corrupted like
David and every other man. Uh-uh, he's risen. Not a bone
of him was broken. He was laid in a in a never-before-used
tomb. He was wrapped in white linen,
and when God raised him from the dead, he didn't run out of
that tomb. He didn't float out of that tomb
like Lazarus. He sat up, took the linen off,
folded it, and laid it on stone, and walked out. What's God's
final word on the matter? It's finished. That was God hanging
on that cross. He said, it's finished. It's
finished. Now your soul hangs in the balance. Whose word are you going to take? Whose word are you going to rest
your soul on? I'm going to rest mine on God's.
He has the last word. The hymn writer said, oh, the
love that drew salvation Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there multiplied the mercy.