Now if you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Exodus chapter 26. The study tonight will be
concerning the veil of the tabernacle. Exodus 26 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 four
pillars of shidom wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall
be of pure gold upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt
hang up the veil under the tatches 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." My
purpose in these studies is to show you these wonderful pictures
of our Redeemer and His work. And these pictures not only help
us to understand His work of redemption, But they help us
to communicate it to others, to teach it to others. I want
to start this evening with the veil itself. The veil itself. We are told here that it was
made of fine twined linen. That is the highest quality. Pure, pure white, pure linen. pure in its color and high in
its value. And this Lenin speaks of the
excellencies of Christ's nature, speaks of His unsurpassed moral
character. If you look at Christ and compare
Him to other men, now those men in His day mocked Him because
they weren't like Him. It's very obvious they weren't
like Him. And with a true knowledge of faith, we see why they were
not like him. We're sinners. We're born sinners. This man had no sin. He did no
sin. He thought no sin. Sin never
entered his mind. Sin wasn't in his motives. He
had no secret sins to deceive him. Satan could find nothing
in him, nothing in him when he examined him. He was a sinless
man. He said, which of you convinces
me of sin? I mean, we're talking about a
bunch of religious men looking at the Son of God, and he said,
which of you convinces me of sin? That wasn't even an issue
to them, but it is an issue. Here is a sinless man. And he
said, if you can't convince me of sin, why don't you hear what
I have to say? Looks to me like if you could
find a holy man, One without fault. One without blemish. You'd hear Him. You'd give Him
a hearing. It speaks of the excellencies of Christ's nature. And this
pure white linen testifies of His holiness and righteousness.
And it speaks also of its designer. God gave to Moses the pattern
in the mount. And as Don brought out, that
pattern was Christ. That was an incarnate appearance
of Christ to Moses. So God was directly involved
in the incarnation of His Son. In Hebrews 10, verse 5, and I've
read through this many a time without stopping to even contemplate
this point. But He says, when He cometh into
the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. A body hast thou prepared
me, prepared of God. And as that veil was prepared
of God, its designer, even so this body of Christ was prepared
of God. And this body of the Lord Jesus
Christ was prepared of God, but yet made of a woman. And so was
the veil. So was the veil. We are told
in Exodus 35, verse 25, And all the women that were wise-hearted
did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun,
both of the blue, and the purple, and of the scarlet, and of the
fine linen. This veil was made of a woman. Even so, Christ was made of a
woman. His body was prepared of God. And so when the angel announced
His being to Mary, she said, that holy thing which is in you
shall be called the Son of God. And then there was colors in
this veil. Colors to be embroidered in fine
and cunning work into that linen. Blue and purple and scarlet. Blue speaks of heaven. We talked
about this before. It speaks of heaven. Our Lord
said, I came down from heaven. I came down from heaven, not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And purple
speaks of royalty, speaks of His throne. We're talking about
a power and authority of God. We're talking about God Himself.
And our Redeemer is that blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords. And then Scarlet speaks of His
cross and of His blood. We are redeemed by His blood
out of every nation, kindred, people, and tribe under heaven. And then this veil, he said,
was to be made with cherubims. You remember I told you on another
occasion that the cherubims guarded the way after Adam was booted
out of the garden. God set cherubims there with
flaming swords which turned every way to guard the way to the tree
of life. And so our Lord guards the access
to God and forbids none to enter without the blood. So this is
the veil. And then the second thing I want
you to see tonight is what this veil means. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 10. Now try to picture in your mind
the tabernacle proper. And I say that speaking of the
building itself. There was a courtyard and all
that was in that courtyard was considered to be part of the
tabernacle. But there was a tabernacle proper
which was the building itself. enclosed by the golden boards
in the curtain ceiling. And it was about 45 feet long,
15 feet wide. Let's see, what would that be?
That would be about from that wall to maybe the edge of this
pew or maybe just a little bit wider, and 45 feet long, probably
the length of this auditorium. And when it was put together,
It was designed so that a 15 by 15 by foot section of that
long building was divided with this great veil. God designed
this linen veil and it hung down and it separated that from the
front part of the tabernacle. The front part was about 30 feet
by 15 feet and then the Holy of Holies was all the way in
the back. It was about 15 by 15. And in this Holy of Holies was
placed the Ark of the Testimony covered by the Mercy Seat. And
this was where God dwelt. He said, I'll meet with you between
the cherubims over the Mercy Seat. This is where God dwelt.
This is where God communed with. Well, what does all that mean? What does all that mean? What
was this veil all about? Well, Paul tells us in Hebrews
10, verse 5, that God made him a body and prepared it and designed
it to do the will of God, to reconcile and redeem his people
from their sins and to remove their sins and erase them from
all memory. Hebrews 10, verse 19, this being
done. having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest of all 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 this veil is talking
about the humanity of Christ. This is talking about his flesh,
his body, his appearance on this earth, this veil. And also he
said, having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed
with pure water. And we'll get into that as this
priest goes through the courtyard and passes the labor and he goes
through washings and so on. The veil speaks of the humanity
of Christ, the incarnate God. And He was seen on the one side
by the holy priesthood and seen on the other side by Jehovah
only, on the inside of that veil. And this veil had a twofold
purpose. First, it stood as a warning
to any and all not to go beyond it. Kenya's eye learned that the
hard way. He just hinted toward the veil. He just touched it and was about
to go under it. And God smote him with leprosy
and he died outside the camp. But in Leviticus 16.2, and let
me give you a little bit of preparation on this verse here, Aaron's two
sons, who were ministers in the tabernacle. Abram was the high
priest. His two sons were just common
priests. And his two sons brought strange
fire to the altar of God. And when he did, God killed both
of them. They were warned. He told them. I read it to you
once before. You were strictly abide by his
commandments concerning this building or die. You couldn't
touch the ark. Uzzah, your member, reached up
to steady the ark, keep it from falling off a wagon. God killed
him. And God killed Aaron's two sons for bringing strange fire
in. And then he turns around and
has Moses warn his brother Aaron, whose two children had just died,
for him to be careful. And watch what he tells him here
in Leviticus 16.2. He says for him to warn Aaron,
his brother, to come not at all times into the holy place within
the veil before the mercy seat, that he die not." You didn't
on a whim go in and pull the veil up and go in where the mercy
seat was. That's what free will says. That's
exactly what free will says. When you make up your mind, when
you make your decision for Jesus, then you just pull up the veil
and you go into the presence of God. Here he tells the high
priest not to come in there at all times. There is just one
time when he can go in and he can't go in without blood. You
don't come in here. You come in here, you die. That's
what God said. This is where I live. You don't
just pull up the veil at your own will. And that's what men and women
are trying to do. This veil is Christ. Christ guards
the way. And so long as that veil stood,
it stood as a warning. You don't come past this veil
without blood. Without blood. There is no access
to God except through the veil. You think about this. Only one
nation in the world was even allowed to encamp around this
thing. And out of them, only one family
was chosen to minister in this thing. And out of that one family,
only one man was allowed to go beyond that veil. And he couldn't
go in without blood. And you look around today, and
they're just saying, come on, come on, come on. Come on. All you have to do is come down
to the front. All you have to do is just pick up the veil and
go in. Better not. Better not. This veil stood as a warning. Stood as a warning to any and
all who would go beyond it. Jesus Christ, I love this point
here Pink brought out. Jesus Christ displayed a moral
character and a godly life that pleased God. This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. He said, I do always those things
that please my Father. But his perfections ought not,
shouldn't those perfections, shouldn't those things, should
we not look at his holy character and those things emphasize our
own sinfulness? Shouldn't that throw up a red
flag and say, you know, if Christ had to die, if Christ had to
be examined by God, if Christ had to bear the sins of his people,
where does that leave me? Where does that leave my so-called
righteousness? These perfections ought to emphasize
our imperfections. And to stand before the veil
and admire its cunning work and look upon its glorious colors
did not make you fit to go beyond it. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. Brethren, here's another point. We talked a little bit about
man's free will and his notions and his inspirations to just
pick up the veil and go beyond without any understanding whatsoever
of who God was and what it was that he was about to do. Here's
another point. They say we're to look at those
moral perfections of Christ and those moral excellences of Christ
And as our example, we're to produce a righteousness of our
own by looking at that example. But there was hundreds who came
in there and gazed at that veil and wondered at the beauty of
that veil, but that didn't qualify them to go beyond it. Now watch this. For what the
law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. What
couldn't them all do? The law couldn't justify you
because you're a sinner. It couldn't provide for your
righteousness because you're a sinner. The law couldn't even
teach you what righteousness really is. because of the weakness of your
flesh. We don't even understand. Our Lord told those Pharisees
who studied that law, who bragged that they were doers of the law
and so on, bragged about their righteousness and so on, had
hope in their righteousness. He told them, he said, you say
that to commit adultery with a woman is what this law is all
about. He said, now let me tell you
what that law really says. You look on a woman and lust
after her, you've already committed adultery in your heart. You say
you take a gun out here, a knife, and you kill somebody, that's
murder. He said, I tell you, to be angry at your brother without
a cause, to be guilty of murder. What the law could not do, it
couldn't do these things because we had no understanding of it.
Well, you talk to people about perfection, and one man told
me one day, and I must have looked funny, I must have had my mouth
open or something when he said this, but it shocked me when
he said, he said, even Christ wasn't perfect. Now, that's how
much knowledge men have about the law. They have no knowledge
of it whatsoever. What the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. His holy life was a revelation
of the law He gave to Moses. His love was the only love ever
manifested that fulfilled the first commandment. He loved His
Father. with all his heart, soul, mind,
and strength. He loved his neighbor as himself. He loved like no other man loved. And when he finished his work
as a man, it says he exalted the law and made it honorable. His life stood as a testimony
and it stood as a warning to all to all men who would go beyond
that veil, warning them, unless you're as righteous as I, you
can't go beyond that veil. You can't go beyond that veil. But the veil also testified that
there was a way to God. The whole business of the veil
would have been without reason if there was not a way purposed
of God to go beyond it. If there was no way, if there
was not a promise of a way in the hanging of this veil, it
wouldn't have been a curtain, it would have been a permanent
barrier. It would have been boxed off by the golden boards. And
there would have been no access at all. But he didn't do that. He hung a veil of linen. In Hebrews chapter 9, Paul goes
through the duties of the priest in the tabernacle, telling us
that they went in, accomplishing the service of God. But in Hebrews
9, 7, he said, but unto the second went the high priest, into that
second part, into that holy of holies, went the high priest
alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself
and for the heirs of the people. Now watch this. The Holy Ghost,
this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. There is a way coming. That's
what God announced with this veil. This priest who could only
enter in once and not without blood, the Holy Ghost signified
by this that there is a way coming. But that way is not yet. It's
not yet. There was a way to God, but that
way was not through a linen curtain or by the blood of bulls and
goats, but by the Lamb of God who was yet to come. And He Himself
would be the way. And when Christ did appear and
die on the cross, the veil of the temple... Have you ever read
that? The veil of the temple was rent
from top to bottom when He gave up the ghost on the cross. And
then the third thing I want us to look at is what this veil
did. The veil had two functions. It
unveiled and it unveiled. It unveiled and it unveiled.
God shut Himself up within the veil. All that could be seen
or known of God must come through the veil. Every kind of a transaction
that you would have for the sinner between the sinner and God, had
gone past through that veil. Mercy came through the veil.
Justification came through the veil. Atonement came through
the veil. God is unveiled in Christ. God came into the flesh. This
was God. Jesus Christ is God. Now, as
long as I went to church, I can remember them telling me these
facts. But there wasn't one of them
in there who really believed it. Because there was no awe
to Him about it. There was no rejoicing in this
thing about it. But this is God. Jesus Christ
is God. He unveils God in a human body. In a human body. He is unveiled
in Christ. He came into the flesh. The Word
was made flesh. And the words of Christ are the
words of God. The works of Christ are the works
of the Father. The actions and the character
of Christ is one with God. And to see Him is to see God. And to know Him is to know the
Father. Paul said, In Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And when I read of the compassionate
Christ receiving sinners to Himself, You ever just sit and try to
vision when you're reading the four Gospels and you're reading
about these miracles that Christ did and these poor sinners came
to Him? I mean, they were pitiful. They
were pitiful. Some of them, like the leper, were barred from worship. Not just barred from worship,
they were barred from the camp and fellowship with the people.
They had to live outside the camp. And here comes this poor
pitiful leper who could barely walk and probably couldn't speak
very clear at all, and his skin is rotting off his face, and
he's covered with a filthy rag, and he falls down before the
feet of our Lord. And he said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. How would God react to such a
thing? Huh? Well, let me tell you what
God said. I will. I will. Huh? Think of that woman with
the issue of blood who'd spent every last nickel she had on
a bunch of physicians that didn't do her any good, and finally
she came to Christ. And she said, if I could just
touch the hem of His garment. But what I'm getting at is this.
When you think on the compassionate Christ, this is God. This is
God. And I tell you, to the seeking
sinner, that's good news. That's good news. When I think
about all those that he received, and I know what their filthiness
is, I know what their slavery is. It's pictures of me. It's
pictures of my spiritual condition. I'm encouraged. I can come to
him. I can come to him. He's compassionate. These people
didn't come on a whim. They came because they heard
how compassionate He was. They heard how He was touched
with their infirmities. They heard about these things.
And they were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt if they could
get to Him, He'd help them. He'd help them. God is unveiled
in Christ. He shuts Himself up in Christ. And I tell you, if we ever desire
to worship, seek, or enter into communion with God, we must do
it in Jesus Christ. He's unveiled in Christ. And
then secondly, He's unveiled in Christ. He's everything I need to know
about God in Jesus Christ. If I study Christ, I'll learn
who God is. I'll learn who God is. He's the
brightness of the Father's glory and He's the express image of
His person. And then thirdly, there was but one veil. There's
just one. Just one veil. You come that
way or you don't come at all. And then think about this. This
veil was hung up. When you passed through the front
door, first thing you seen was the veil. And the candlestick
was over on the left, I think, and the table of showbread was
on the right or vice versa. I can't remember now. But when
you came in that front door, you saw that golden altar, that
altar of perfume, altar of worship, and you seen that great veil hanging there. And there was
just one veil. And that golden candlestick which
represents the light of the Holy Spirit cast its light upon the
veil. The gospel shines in our hearts
to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You ate
that bread in the presence of that veil. And you sprinkled
that blood on that altar of worship, that perfume, and poured out
that perfume before God before that veil. And that light shined
upon that veil. Christ our bread is seen in connection
with the veil. And then fourthly, let's look
at the supports for this veil. He says in verse 32, Exodus 26,
Thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittom wood overlaid
with gold upon four sockets of silk. And again, this shows the
two natures of Christ. So many times this is pictured
throughout the tabernacle to show us the necessity of it in
all that was accomplished, in all that it pictured. And then
Pink mentions here that unlike the five pillars that make up
the door of the tabernacle, when you approach the tabernacle there
was four poles, golden poles made out of chitin wood. There's
five of them across here. And then a curtain that hung
down over the entrance. But when you came in there was
only four back in the back. Now these five on the front had
capitals on top of them. That's that finished part of
a column. You see a column go up and then up on top you see
a fancy part. That's called a capital. And
so these five that you see when you approach the tabernacle,
they all got capitals on them. But the ones that support the
veil didn't. They didn't. And he said what this represents
as the veil is that the Lord Jesus Christ would be cut off.
Cut off in the midst of his days. Just cut off. Cut off is that
veil. That abrupt termination points
to the death of Christ who was cut off in the midst of his days.
And then these four pillars serve to display the veil which otherwise
would have hung in folds like a curtain. You look at these
curtains here, you can't see all the curtains. What if those
had patterns and cunning work in them? You wouldn't see them
because it's full of pleats. But they put these poles up,
and this thing was stretched across those poles so that you
saw what was on it. And those big golden poles, they
helped to support it in that way. And these four poles are
likened unto the four Gospels. The four Gospels, which stand
as a support and help us to see Christ our value. The whole purpose
of those four Gospels, these four witnesses, were selected
by Christ and singled out to record His life, His birth, His
life, and His death. And that's what each one of them
do. And then in summing up what we've talked about tonight, I'd
point you to that typical veil that has been rent from top to
bottom, and then to its antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's
passed into the heavens. If you read through the book
of Hebrews, you can read it in chapter 4, you can read it in
chapter 6, and you can read it in chapter 9. But I'll just pull
from each one of these and give you what it says. He secured
for us a sure hope, having entered into that within the veil. Hebrews chapter 4. who entered
in not with the blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us." Hebrews 9 verse 20. The veil was a work of art. Cunning work. Embroidered work. Beautiful to look upon. Pleasing
to see. And this beauty might be admired
by the worshippers. You might stand before it and
sing hymns. Might sing hymns about it. Might
give all sorts of endearing names to it. You might even make a
copy of it or produce something similar to it to look at and
take it home. But there was only one way to
pass to the other side of it. Only one way to pass to the other
side of it and find communion and blessing from God, and that
was by the sprinkling of the blood before it and carrying
the blood of the substitute beyond it. That's what this veil was
all about. This blood spoke of substitution
and it acknowledged that he who entered did so as a sinner. That is why that high priest,
he entered in one way as a sinner, carrying the sin offering, carrying
the atonement blood, the blood of the sin offering, taking it
into the Holy of Holies. And this, our Lord, it tells
us in Hebrews chapter 10, accomplished for us once for all on the cross. There are six things that happened
in the renting of the veil. I'll just give them to you very
quickly. First of all, this veil was rent while hanging between
heaven and earth, even as Christ our Savior died suspended on
the cross between heaven and earth. Secondly, it was rent
in two from the top. He didn't rent it from the bottom
to the top, but from the top down. And what that shows is
that it was done by the same hand that slayed the Redeemer.
That's what he's talking about. This rending of the veil, this
renting of the veil, was accomplished by the same hand who took the
life of the Son of God on that cross. And then thirdly, it was
rent from top to bottom. Not even an inch of that veil
was untorn, showing Christ's work on the cross to be complete. and satisfactory to God. And
then, fourthly, it was rent in the midst, Luke chapter 23, verse
45, revealing fully the mercy seat on the inside. That's where
the mercy seat was, right in the midst of the veil on the
opposite side of the golden altar. And then, fifthly, the veil was
rent the minute Christ died, Matthew 27, 50. And what he shows us by that
is that the barrier between us and God is gone forever. And then sixthly, as soon as
that veil was rent, it ceased to be a barrier and become a
gateway. Now you think about that. He
rent this thing that once stood as a barrier, once held the hand
up, now holds the hand like this and says, come here. And then
one more thing I'll add, and I'll quit. The minute that veil
was rent, temple worship become obsolete. There's no need for
a veil anymore. No need for a tabernacle anymore. No need for an ark anymore. No need for a priesthood anymore. Christ fulfilled it all, and
that was the last thing that he did. When he cried, it is
finished. It says that the veil was rent
in the temple top to bottom.