Chapter 15. We'll be looking at verses 33
through 39. My subject is a good confession. So let's read through these verses.
Mark chapter 15, beginning with verse 33. And when the sixth hour was come,
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which
is being interpreted, my God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken
me? And some of them that stood by,
when they heard it, said, behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran
and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave
him to drink, saying, let alone. Let's see whether Elias will
come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was
rent in twain from top to bottom. And when the centurion, which
stood over against him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the
ghost, he said, truly, this man was the Son of God. My question is, what did this
centurion see? This was a Roman soldier, battle-hardened,
a man who was used to death. He, you know, being in the army,
I know they categorize people. They'll put you over here and
they'll, you tend to the food, and over here, you're gonna be
in charge of shipping and so on. And this soldier here seemed,
to be assigned to this place called Golgotha. And he no doubt,
he had some men with him, and they went out there to oversee
this crucifixion. And he was standing there, and
this is a man who had saw many people die that were crucified. He saw many. He was a battle-hardened
soldier. He'd been there for a long time.
And he had some rank about him. He was in charge of those men
who were there. And they don't put you in charge
of men until you get a little age about you and a little experience
about you. So this man, he was no doubt
a battle-hardened soldier. And he stood there. And what
did he see that he hadn't saw 100 times before? What did he
see to cause him to say, surely that man was the Son of God. What did he see? And I'll say
this at the outset, it could be if we see and hear what he
saw and what he heard, we may have that same confession. We
might say surely, surely that man on that cross is the Son
of God. So what did this man see and
hear? Well, he saw, first of all, a three-hour period of darkness. He'd been standing out there.
It's midday, and the sun just quit shining. It's dark. Now, scientists and
philosophers like to go back and say, well, that was an eclipse. Well, even if it was, God arranged
it, but I don't see here an eclipse because in an eclipse, it don't
go totally dark. Darkness was, it was dark. There was no light. It wasn't
just a shade. It wasn't just something like
that. The sun was shining when they
took him out there. And all of a sudden, darkness.
God just turned the lights out. He just put them out. And there
they sit in darkness. And it lasted for three hours.
Verse 33 tells us from the sixth hour to the ninth hour there
was darkness over the whole land. It wasn't just one little place. It was over that whole land. And not that we need any more
than the Word of God, but even the historians and astrologers
of that day agree with this period of time. So what was this darkness all
about? Well, I believe, first of all,
it's to show us God's utter intolerance for sin. God cannot tolerate sin. We like to think of, people do,
I've heard them talk this way, especially at funerals and stuff,
but I hear them talk this way all the time. They kinda, if
you try to draw a picture in your mind of what they're describing
when they're talking to you. It's like this old gray-haired
grandpa. That's the father. He's the old
gray-haired grandpa, and he looks down here at his children, and
they're doing this and doing that, and this guy's doing that
and doing this, and he knows all about that. He remembers
those days, you know, and he just kinda overlooks it. That's
not God. That's not God. God, he cannot
tolerate sin, period. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. And he's showing us here in this
darkness God's intolerance for sin. And it stands without question
as a clear picture and declaration of the darkness and ignorance
of those who are now under the judgment of God. Darkness is
the state of the unregenerate sinner. Darkness. My soul, think about it. Think
about what I'm saying. Darkness. No light. Christ said, if the light that
be in thee be darkness, then how great is that darkness? Those
things that you thought you knew. There was a time when I thought
I knew something about God. My dad was a preacher. I thought
I knew something about God. I read the Bible. I went to church. I heard the man talk. I thought
I knew something about God, and then I found out one day all
those things I thought I knew was nothing but ignorance, nothing
but darkness, nothing but idolatry. And that's what Christ told his
disciples. If that light that be in thee
be darkness, that knowledge that's in you, if that be rubbish, that's
what he's telling, then how great is that darkness? There's no
light. If they speak not according to
this word, it's because there is no light in them. Zero. So this, when he turned
the lights out at Calvary, he's telling us the state of man. Christ wasn't dying for his sins,
he's dying for ours. If you want to know how God feels
about sin, you look at Christ on the cross. You think he's
going to be tolerant in that day, and say, well, you know,
you did a few good things. This guy did no wrong at all.
And he's dying on the cross. Why? Because God laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He was cut off out of the land
of the living for our transgressions, not for his, for ours. Darkness is the state of the
natural man. And this darkness spoke of the
awful darkness that engulfed our Savior's being. God hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And this darkness speaks of that
awful darkness that engulfed our Savior's being as he hung
there as our substitute. And I know this is so Because
at the ninth hour, he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Forsaken by God on the cross. And people were talking about
these things. They were talking about this darkness, talking
about these messianic prophecies. And then secondly, he heard about
the rent veil. Now the veil in the temple was
about 60 feet long. You think about that. Twice as
wide as this church. 60 feet long and thick. I mean, it was like that. It
was thick. And when they lifted that veil,
it was only one time a year. And when they went in, the high
priest lifted that veil from the bottom. He lifted it up and
went underneath and went inside the Holy of Holies. So this rent
veil was not just from being worn, where the high priest,
because he only went in there one time a year, they didn't,
like the tabernacle where they had fold it up and carry it and
reinstall it and all that. That wasn't done anymore once
they got to Temple. It was hung and it stayed hung.
It was inside. It was protected from elements. There was no reason for this
veil, no natural reason for this veil to rip and hang. And it's
not because it was worn from the high priest raising it up,
because he's careful, the Holy Ghost is careful and deliberate
in how he describes this. It was rent from top to bottom,
not from bottom to top. God ripped it wide open. This man's hearing these people
and they're running out there. The veil in the temple, These
common priests running out there and telling them, this veil in
the temple, it ripped from top to bottom. It tore in half. It's
separated. You can stand in the holy place
and look back into the holy of holies. The covering is gone. God ripped it in half from top
to bottom. One writer said this, after the
Babylonian captivity, the things within the Holy of Holies were
gone. They'd never heard of again.
Now whether that's so or not, you can read and determine that
for yourself. But he said they were gone. They
were gone, never to be found again. That Ark of the Covenant,
the Mercy Seat, those things were gone. But the high priest
kept right on taking the blood on the day of atonement, going
beyond the veil. He kept making atonement for
the people. And in pretense, he'd come out
and say, well, I put that on there. And he'd raise his hands,
fulfill the ceremony, and bless the people. But when that veil
ripped top to bottom, it exposed nothing but emptiness back in
there. There's never going to be another need for a mercy seat.
It's gone. It's gone. No need for the Ark
of the Covenant. It's gone. It's fulfilled in
that man hanging there on the cross. And it exposed the hypocrisy
of a high priest who pretended to go in there and pour that
blood out on a mercy seat that wasn't even in there. You can imagine what a shock
it must have been to the common priest to appear inside this
empty holy of holies. And God ripped this veil apart
to expose the empty-handed priest who still tried to function in
hypocrisy. At the rending of this veil,
this is the major reason for it, it declared the complete
fulfillment of the typical priesthood and the abolishment of the whole
of the messianic or the mosaic economy. All that old priesthood
is gone. Richard, why do you cry out so
much at the Catholics? Why do you pick on the Catholics
so much? Well, I don't think I really pick on the Catholics
any more than I do any of the other frauds. But I pick on them
because they're such a carryover in their religion. They're such
a carryover of these Old Testament things that's been abolished.
They still have a priesthood. Their whole organization is based
on a priesthood. That's what they call them, priests.
There is no priest. Christ is the priest. He abolished
those things when he died on the cross. And the rent bail represented
the humanity of our Savior and representative. when the veil
was written twain, it meant that the true paschal lamb had been
offered and accepted once for all. And then thirdly, the centurion
felt and saw an earthquake. He was standing there, and all
of a sudden, the ground began to just tremble under his feet.
You saw pictures of earthquakes out there in San Francisco not
too many years back, right in the middle of a ball game, as
I remember. And this shaking was an emblem
of God delivering us through the sacrifice of His Son from
Judaism. Turn with me over to Hebrews
chapter 12 and let me see if I can show you that in the scriptures.
I brought a message when we were still in the old building down
there years ago, right after I got here, it seemed to me like.
And the name of the message was shaken but not stirred. You've
heard old James Bond say many times he wanted a drink that
was shaken and not stirred. And I used that title, but I
applied it to what I just said. And he says in Hebrews 12 verse
25, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape
not who refused him that spoke on earth, Much more shall not
we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven,
whose voice then shook the earth." God was speaking, and it was
concerning the death of his son. It was concerning the abolishment
of Judaism, this law religion, this ceremonial religion. He
was speaking from heaven. He was abolishing those things,
and he shook the earth. whose voice then shook the earth,
but now hath he promised, saying, once more, I shake not the earth
only, but also heaven." There's going to come another shaking.
This is just a prelude to that shaking at the end of time. And
this word, yet once more, signifies the removing of those things
that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things
which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. God spoke at
the death of his son, and he spoke through the shaking of
the earth, just as he spoke when he gave that law. And that mountain
began to quake, and Things just burst into fire. This was God
speaking. And then fourthly, this centurion,
he saw the rocks rent. I'm going to tell you something. I went out to San Diego several
years back. And where the church is, there's
hills out there, not a whole lot bigger than what's over there
around your house, Walter. They're maybe a little taller,
but when you look at them, they look kind of sandy, but they
got these huge, round boulders. If you've seen rocks that was
washed in a creek, they're kind of smooth and round. These hills
are covered with them, and they're huge. And we all stood out and
got our pictures. You know, the scenery's so different
than it is here. But my point to you is this.
If you were standing there, And it's dark. And you're standing
there beside a big rock about the size of a house. And that
thing just bursts open and falls to the ground and the earth is
shaking. Huh? Would that wake you up? You better believe it'd wake
you up. And it did this man. He saw those rocks rent. And
this is another symbol of God's power and wrath against sin.
In the book of Nahum, he said the mountains quake at him. Listen to this. And the hills
melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world
and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him. That's what that centurion saw. And also it might be typical
of hard-hearted men whose hearts are as hard as stone, yet broken
by the preaching of the crucified Christ. And then fifthly, what
did this centurion see? The centurion witnessed the salvation
of the sinner, yet nailed to a cross. In Luke 23, verses 39
through 43, the salvation of a condemned sinner is manifested
while our Savior's still hung on the cross. For a while, both
thieves railed on Christ. And all the rest of them that
were gathered around, they were in perfect unity with that crowd. And all of a sudden, the one
quit railing on him and started bragging on him. Huh? The one said, if thou be the
Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, does not thou fear God? Well, he didn't fear God
five minutes ago. What happened? What changed his
mind? He saw the same things that Centurion
saw. And the Centurion's watching
all this. He's listening to all this. Don't you fear God, seeing thou
art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly. Now he's
on God's side. For we receive the due reward
of our deeds, but this man has done nothing amiss. And then
he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily
I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. Now keep in mind what all is
going on here. Darkness has covered the land.
Completely covered the land. The veil of the temple's been
rent in twain. An earthquake has taken place
and the rocks are being shattered and now on the cross, Jesus promises
life to a guilty sinner. Not somewhere down the road today.
Immediately, right now. And he's still nailed to a cross.
He's beaten beyond recognition. He's swollen up until you couldn't
even recognize who he is. And he's telling this man today,
shalt thou be with me in paradise. Every sinner called out of darkness
and given the light of life is a miracle. And it's an amazing
thing to see and one the Apostle Paul never got tired of thinking
about. He thanked God for him over and
over and over, every one of them, because he knew what kind of
a miracle that is. He saw the wonder of it and the
glory of it and the power behind it and the grace and the mercy
of God to make it happen. And this was a man condemned
and guilty and still breathing out his enmity against God just
minutes before he died. Still breathing out, still railing
on Christ. And all of a sudden, God saved
him. And I'm gonna tell you something.
God only records one man being saved in the last minutes of
his life. He saved one lest we despair,
but he only saved one lest we presume. You don't want to wait until
the last minute of your life. That one man waited until the
last minute of his life and he died in sin. This man all of a sudden begins
to justify Christ and condemn himself. He begins to defend
Christ and expose himself. What a work is this work called
faith. And all the while, this centurion,
he's looking on. He's listening. He's watching. But more than all this, That man that he brought there
to crucify. And he knew as certainly as did
Pilate that this man did no sin. Pilate said, I find no fault
in this just man. Neither did this centurion. He
knew what was going on. It was perfectly obvious to him what was going on. Pilate attempted to free him,
but the crowd wouldn't let him. He appealed to Christ to say
something in his own defense, but he opened not his mouth.
And he no doubt had, like I said, was a battle-hardened man. But
this wasn't like anything he'd ever seen. This wasn't just a man's death. on the cross, and God wasn't
about to let it be that. He no doubt had crucified people
in the past, and some even despised, but nothing like this. And there
were untold hundreds there, and all of them crying for his blood,
and this man was letting them rail on him. offering no resistance. Then
the darkness and the earthquake and the bale rent and the rock
shattered. Now this poor sinner granted access into the kingdom
of God. And he began, what did this centurion
see? He began to see a divine hand
on that cross. A divine hand in the things that's
going on. This wasn't just a man dying
on a cross, this was a man God nailed to the cross. He began
to see that. He began to perceive that. And
he's looking around at the power of God being displayed and these
people are totally blinded to it. You want to talk about blind?
Here's God's wrath just being poured out. These people just
dancing around still railing on him as though nothing had
ever happened. but not the centurion. Isn't that funny how God will
open people's eyes? There'll be 10 people there,
he'll open one man's eyes. And the rest of them will say,
what's wrong with you? Well, the Bible don't say that. You
wasn't taught that. Yeah, but that is what the Bible
says. That is what's going on. Isn't
there something? rooted, grounded in this whole
idolatrous lies and deceit. And all of a sudden, God opens
their eyes. And they start to see. Nothing
like they'd ever seen before. And that's just Centurion. He
wasn't seeking God. He was out there to oversee a
crucifixion. Probably wishing he'd get old
so he could go home and eat. Wasn't anything to him. until
God opened his eyes, then it was a big thing to him. Now you can read, and I encourage
you to do this, I've got one more message on the crucifixion,
unless God gives me another one, that I'm gonna bring next week.
And I encourage you to read all four accounts of the crucifixion
of Christ, because they fill in details that's not written
here in Mark. But this man saw all of those
things. Matthew writes it out thing by
thing what he saw. It wasn't just that he saw him
give up the ghost, but he did see that. He began to see more than a man
dying on that cross. He began to see the divinity
of it, a divine hand in it, something going on that was far above those
involved in his death. And then came that blood-curdling
cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What did he
see? I think that old centurion saw
whatever a believer sees, he sees that Christ on the cross
is a substitute for sinners. This is God's son, just like
he proclaimed, just like he'd been preaching, just like he
told them, just like those people were talking about. Lots of his
disciples were there around that cross. They weren't railing on
him, they were talking about these things. Why would this man on this cross
say something like that? He knew why he was there and
why he must die. Brother Mahan said one time he
didn't ask this question for information. He did know why
he was there. He did know why he was forsaken
of the Father. He understood this. It's for
us that he asked that question. That's a question we need to
be asking. Why did he say that? Why did he say that? And also,
Brother Mahan said this, he asked that question so we won't have
to. Ain't you glad he did? So what am I to take away from
this? Well, because God forsook him, he'll never forsake me. If that's my substitute and that's
my representative and God forsook him for my sins, and then he
raised him from the dead, justifying me, he'll never forsake me. He'll
never forsake me. That would be like saying the
death of his son wasn't worth anything, didn't accomplish anything. You see what I'm saying? Therefore he said, I'll never
leave thee. Now listen, I'll never forsake
thee. His apostles forsook him, but he never forsook them. He
never did. This centurion began to see what
was going on there. Substitution, the just, dying
for the unjust that he might bring them to God. And this man
was not dying as a martyr or as a seditioner. He was dying
as a substitute. He wasn't a sinner, he was a
savior. He wasn't a rebel, he was a redeemer. And it was God's doing. Yes,
he knew that they all had a hand in it. They were all, but they
were doing what God's hand and God's counsel determined before
to be done. It's amazing when God opens a
man's eyes how the scriptures all of a sudden become just clear
as a bell. Isn't that something? You just
sit there and say, well, that can't mean that. That can't possibly
mean that. These aren't things for you to
know. God opens your eyes and now it's just plain, just plain
as it can be. That's what happened to the centurion.
He had no interest in God. He had no prior knowledge of
God or anything else. He was privy to everything that
was going on, no doubt, in that courtyard when they were in there
lashing him and mocking him and making fun of him and everything
else. But I tell you, when God opened
his eyes, it was a different story. It was a different story. He suffered for us. And that's
what that centurion saw. And he said, surely, surely,
This is the Son of God. He is who he claimed to be. Oh, may the Lord be pleased to
let us see that and be convinced of it and live like we believe
it. Thank you.