In the last verse of Genesis
chapter 3, as God drove Adam and Eve out
of the garden, he set cherubim with flaming swords to guard
or to keep the way of the tree of life, to protect and to guard
the tree of life. And that tree of life, I have
no question at all, is Jesus Christ our Lord, our Redeemer,
our Savior. The first display then, that
the Lord God gave to Adam and Eve as He expelled them from
the garden, of his great holiness, justice, and truth was a barrier,
a barrier of cherubim with flaming swords of justice to guard the
way of the tree of life. Nearly 2,000 years later, God
brought Israel out of Egypt, gave his law at Sinai, and he
told Moses to make a tabernacle. And in the tabernacle, there
were to be two holy places. An outer holy place, and then
the Holy of Holies, where the high priest alone could go once
a year with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, and there make
atonement for the people, sprinkling the blood of the Passover sacrifice
upon the mercy seat. That sacrifice is Christ our
Passover. The mercy seat is Christ our
mercy seat. On the top of the mercy seat
is the, or the mercy seat is on top of the Ark of the Covenant
and it covers the broken law of God, speaking of Christ's
blood atonement. But between the holy place and
the most holy place, God set a barrier. A barrier that was
at least 18 inches thick made of great tapestry called the
veil. The veil separating the holy
place from the holy of holies. Separating the outer court of
the sanctuary from the inner court where dwelt God upon the
mercy seat. Where the blood was accepted
and the Shekinah glory shone forth. Do you remember what was
embroidered on that veil separating the two? Cherubim. The very same thing set forth
in Genesis chapter 3 verse 24. Cherubim to guard the holy place. to guard the mercy seat, to guard
the holiness, righteousness, justice, truth, and glory of
God. A barrier separating sinners
from God, and yet a barrier protecting the only way by which sinners
can come to God. When Solomon built his temple,
the same thing was represented. And there's a veil separating
the holy of holies, cherubim, embroidered upon the veil. And
then the Lord Jesus Christ came. And if you want to look at your
leisure, we'll look at it in a moment, Hebrews chapter 10
and verse 20 tells us that that veil was Christ. The veil that separated men from
God and the veil which gives access of men unto God is Jesus
Christ alone. He is the dividing point. He is either to you a wall of
separation or He is to you an open door of access. one of the
two. Turn with me, if you will, to
Luke chapter 23, and I want to talk to you about the rent available. Hebrews chapter 23, verse 44. And it was about the sixth hour,
and there was 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. The Spirit of God here tells
us that which Amos, in Amos chapter 8 verse 9, specifically prophesied. He tells us there was darkness
over the earth from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon.
darkness covering the whole of the earth. This was not a solar
eclipse, this was not an eclipse of the sun in one part of the
world at a time, but rather darkness that covered the whole earth
at one time. a special divinely accomplished
eclipse, and a miraculous eclipse, testifying that the prophecy
that God had given in the book of Amos had now been fulfilled. Let me read it to you. It shall
come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause
the sun to go down at noon, the sixth hour, and I will darken
the earth in the clear day. Thick darkness. over all the
earth. There was a man in Egypt living
at the time by the name of Dionysius when this eclipse occurred, when
God sent darkness over the earth. He said either the divine being
suffers or suffers with him that suffers or the frame of the world
is dissolving. This complete eclipse of the
sun around the entire world for three hours is given by God to
identify the accomplishment of redemption by the sacrifice of
his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of his own word. There are several things that
are obviously implied in the darkness. What a hideous crime
man has perpetrated. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ died
according to the permanent counsel and foreknowledge of God. He
died by the hand of divine justice. He died according to God's purpose
by the will of God for the redemption of his people. And yet the guilt
of his death is upon the hands of wicked men who with their
wicked wills crucified the Lord of Glory. Let no one ever dare excuse ungodly
behavior and justify it, claiming that divine sovereignty and God's
purpose and God's will is accomplished even in that. Let every believer
take comfort in it. But you who rebel against God,
don't you ever dare imagine that you're going to hide behind a
pretentious honor of God's sovereignty to cover ungodliness. It won't
do. God will unmask you in that day.
Second, we see here the hard, unbreakable unbending steel coldness
of the depraved heart that cannot be altered and cannot be changed
by any means except the hand of God's free grace. Here are
many women who crucified the Lord of Glory They've trumped
up charges against him. They've had him arrested. They've
mocked, given him through a mock trial. They've berated him. They've beat him. They've spit
in his face. They've nailed him to the tree. Now watch what they
observed. They saw him fulfill the very
words of Holy Scripture in the words he spoke as he hung on
the tree. As he hung on the tree, God covered
the earth from 12 o'clock noon until 3 o'clock in the afternoon
in exact fulfillment of a prophecy at least the priests and the
scribes and the elders must have known Amos had given in Amos
chapter 8. And then the earthquake, the
earthquake Now, when the earthquakes, you can expect a lot of folks
to die. When the rocks are ripped apart. But that ain't what happened
in this earthquake. Dead folks got up and walked out of the
grave. Is that what Matthew tells us? Dead folks got up and walked
out of the grave. And they pursued their course
of rebellion with steel-hearted hatred for God. Because the most
miraculous things never change the heart of man. Nothing will
change the sinner's heart except the revelation of Christ in his
heart. Nothing will change it. Nothing. You can argue and plead. You
can reason, and you can tell stories, and you can weep, and
you can pray, you can do everything. You can preach, you can preach,
you can preach, you can instruct, and instruct, and instruct. No
man will ever repent of his own ungodliness and turn to Christ
in faith, except God give him repentance in faith by giving
him his son. It won't happen. A third thing
here. This darkness is a clear display
of the utter emptiness and darkness of Christless religion. There is no darkness so great
as the darkness of religion without Christ. These Jews were going about their
religious ceremonies so meticulously observing their religious ceremonies
that after crucifying the Son of God and throwing a hellish
party while they watched him die. After going through all
of this. Now do you remember why they
were in Jerusalem at this time? You remember why they were all
gathered there? They were gathered there to keep the most holy of
all Jewish ceremonies, the Feast of the Passover. That's why they
were there. They were here at this time,
during this week, for this most holy observance. And they are
sacrificing the Passover by their own hands, that is God sacrificing
him by their hands, as it hangs on the tree. And when they get
done, they were so straight-laced. I mean, these were good religious
folks. These folks, they weren't just
badgists, they were fundamental badgists. They weren't just conservative,
they were conservative, conservative badgists. These folks were top-notch
religious folks. And they said, let's get him
off the tree so we don't defile our Sabbath day. Oh how empty, how dark is that
heart that is double darkened by religion without grace. Religion without Christ. Some of you may still wonder,
I don't think anyone here does. But many who hear this tape,
this message on video, will wonder. They ask, why don't you do more
to try to get folks to make a profession, to join the church, to get baptized.
I care more for your soul than that. I don't give a flip. I'm honest
with you. I don't give a flip. about converting
somebody from being a prostitute to being a Sunday school teacher.
I don't give a flip about getting somebody to quit being a drunk
and start going to church. I don't give a flip about those
things. I don't give a flip about them. Let moralists do that.
I'm happy when it happens, but let moralists take care of those
things. Brother Don, isn't that a good thing? No sir, it's a
horrible thing if I get you to get involved in religion and
you don't know Christ. That's a horrible thing. That's
a horrible thing. Nothing more damning. And the
darkness that passed upon and engulfed the earth is, I think,
without question, more than anything else, a display of the darkness
that passed upon and engulfed our Savior's holy soul when he
was made sin for us. And Matthew gives more detail
than Luke. He tells us that at about the
ninth hour, about three o'clock in the afternoon, At the end
of the three hours of darkness, just as these three hours came
to their end, at three o'clock in the afternoon as the sun had
begun to set upon the slopes of the mountain Jerusalem, at
the time of the slaying of the evening sacrifice, that imminent
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew says, Jesus cried with
a loud voice. like one in horrid pain, in terrible
agony. He had endured silently all that
men could heap upon him. He endured silently all the scourging
and the beating and the mockery, everything. But now, He cries
with a shriek, cry of agony that pierces the darkness and must
surely pierce the hardest of hearts. Eli, Eli, lamas abacthai,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? when He has made sin for us. God who cannot and will not look
upon sin forsook His Son. In preparing this message I read
numerous comments by people including some of my own in an attempt
to explain what this forsaking was and was not. But when I hear these words from the heart of God's darling
son, my surety, piercing through the earth into the throne of
God himself. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? I think you'd be better set back
in utter awe. Whatever, whatever can be understood
by that word forsaken forsaken I've never been forsaken I sometimes thought I was forsaken
by lots of people I have never been forsaken. Never. So I've done it! Forsaken. That nothing can turn the one
who's forsaken me back to me again. That nothing felt and
experienced in me could reach the heart of the hardest heart
that had forsaken me. I have never been forsaken. He
was forsaken because he was made sin for us. Forsaken exactly as the damned
in hell shall forever be separated from and forsaken of God without
hope. Forsaken a day until justice
was completely satisfied. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? after the Lord Jesus had cried
again with a loud voice. He cried, Father, into thy hand
I commend my spirit. And then he cried out triumphantly,
victoriously, as one who had alone with his own hand accomplished
redemption. As one who had alone by his own
person fulfilled his mission. his course, who had accomplished
his mission, who had done his work, whose life was now complete,
and he puts a huge, bold exclamation mark at the end of it all and
says, FINISHED! And exactly when he did, that
veil in the temple split wide open from top to bottom. Split
wide open. Now remember, this veil, I was looking at the tabernacle
model that Brother Larry made for me several years ago. And
you know, looking at that, everything's scaled down a lot. And that little
veil don't look like much. This veil in the temple, was somewhere in the neighborhood
of 60 feet high. From top to bottom, 60 feet. And it wasn't thick as a phone
book. It was thicker than a concrete wall. It was 18 inches thick. And it wasn't just a piece of
cloth that had been sewn together on a piece of cloth on a piece
of cloth. It was a piece of embroidery work. Sixty feet high. Eighteen inches thick. And when
the Son of God cried, finished, God split it from top to bottom. What on earth does all that mean? Try to get a picture of what
was happening in Jerusalem. They were there for the great
feast of the Passover, and now the day of atonement has come.
And there were thousands gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. A
good many were still on the place called Mount Calvary. Now, when
we see in the scriptures terms like Mount Calvary, don't Don't
get the idea you're talking about something like Mount Everest. You folks who are familiar with
Andrew Griffith. They talk about Mount Pilate.
Well, that's called Mount Pilate because there's a place right
around there called Pilate Mountain. And if you're driving up from
the flatland and you look over there, man, that looks like a
mountain. Well, it ain't very big. It's just a few rocks and
a little hill that you can climb in just a little while. It's
not a mountain at all. It's just a rising. That's all. That's
the picture here in Jerusalem. Mount Calvary is just a rising.
And just a little ways from there is Mount Moriah. And now by this
time most of the Jews have made their way over to Mount Moriah
where the temple of God was established and where the ceremonies are
going on and the people are all watching as the priests go about
their functions on this holy, holy, holy day. And the high
priest is in his gorgeous priestly apparel. He's missing something. He's missing the Urim and the
Thummim. the light and the testimony. And he's missing something else. Whether he conveyed it to other
folks or not, he knew that inside that holy place was nothing but
emptiness and darkness. Do you know after the destruction
of Solomon's temple, no mention is ever made of the mercy seat
again, the Ark of the Covenant. They just maintained the pretense
all those years. He knew back there behind that
veil was just emptiness and darkness, no mercy seat, no place of atonement,
no ark of testimony, no shekinah glory. It was just emptiness
and darkness. But he's going about his business,
and there's priests assisting him. They're lighting their lights,
and they're arranging table bread on their showbread table, and
they're getting ready for the great momentous time of sacrifice. And suddenly, suddenly. Now,
these folks are familiar with what happened to Avery and Sons.
They're familiar with what happened to folks who dared intrude on
a priest's office to go in that holy place. and they're in there
in the outer court taking care of all their business and all
of a sudden that veil splits open. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what happened
to those fellas? They must have been horrified. They must have
been horrified. They must have thought to themselves,
woe is me. I'm undone! I'm a man of unclean
lips! God's fixing to kill me! And
they're looking there in utter horror. They realize, well, shoot,
that's nothing. It's empty. All that we have practiced and
taught the people to practice all our lives The whole of our
religion, the whole of all the hope we have communicated to
men and women through the days of our lives is nothing but emptiness
and vanity. There's no mercy seat. There's
no atonement. There's no redemption. There's
no sacrifice. Boys, this whole thing's a pack
of lies. That's what it had become by
the time we get here. That's what Judaism had become. Well, what is the meaning of
this rent veil? Let me call your attention to
several things. First, the veil was rent, not
consumed by fire. had it been consumed by fire,
we might miss the meaning, and the priest standing there might
have missed what the Lord was testifying. Our Lord, by his
death, did not destroy the way of access to God, but rather
he opened it. And now we go in through the
veil, that is to say through his body, through his sacrifice,
through his blood, into the holy of holies, paid, the way is paid
with gold and sprinkled with his blood. And there we enter
in because he has opened the way. Second, the veil was rent
while the temple was still standing. I love it. The Lord God was testifying,
all of this, in all its function, in all its meaning, in all its
symbolic, typical significance, is now fulfilled and accomplished. The temple would be destroyed
in just a few years, but before the temple was destroyed, God
ripped the veil in two. Before the temple was destroyed,
God manifestly opened the way. The temple survived the earthquake
so that no natural convulsion had anything to do with this.
And third, the veil was rent in twain. It didn't just crumble
with age. It didn't wear out with usage. It wasn't torn to shreds. Rip
was from top to bottom, ripped open, but ripped so clean you
might have thought it was cut with scissors. Perhaps the exact
division into two parts has some reference to the separation of
Christ's soul from his body in death. Certainly, that's a very
real possibility, probably a very real likelihood, because the
veil was representative of the body of Christ by which alone
redemption and righteousness is accomplished. Perhaps it symbolized
the throwing open of the great door that John saw. When John was in the Spirit,
you remember what he said? He said, After this I looked, and
behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which
I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said,
Come up, Israel. God Almighty, by the sacrifice
of His Son, in the accomplishment of righteousness, in the accomplishment
of redemption, throws open the door. and says to needy sinners, come
on in, come on in, come on in. Fourth, the veil was ripped from
the top to the bottom. Not from side to side, but from
top to bottom. It had been ripped from the bottom
to the top. Somebody might have thought, well, it was just wore
out. But it was ripped from the top to the bottom. As if the
Lord God had taken it in his hands and ripped it open. Because that's just exactly what
he did. Just exactly what he did. Ripped it open because it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. And
now, from the roof to the floor of the temple, there remains
not one fragment of a barrier of separation. From heaven to
earth, from the throne of God, down here to fallen men upon
the earth, there exists not one remnant or particle of a barrier
separating our souls from our God. He who openeth and no man
shutteth with his own hands and by his own boundless mercy, love
and grace has thrown open the gates of mercy to the throne
of grace and bids us come. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. The red veil declares that Christ
is the end of the law. He finished it and fulfilled
it. He completed it and satisfied it. And now we have free, open
access to the throne of God. It is as if the temple itself
now rips its garments in mourning because of the sacrifice of our
Redeemer, who is the Lord of the temple. The veil was ripped
to show that the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, who 2,000 years earlier
took up his residence in the holy place. He said, I'll meet
you on the mercy seat. There, I'll commune with you. God took up his residence on
the mercy seat. But now he's ripped the veil
into because he has ascended to glory and taken up his residence
in humanity on the true mercy seat, the throne of grace and
he is himself the mercy seat. The veil was ripped to tell us
that Christ's flesh, that which was symbolized back in Eden,
and that which God maintained throughout the days of the Old
Testament. God said you can't come to me
except by in true holiness and that means
you can't come to me except you come in someone who is righteous
and truly holy and that's what's represented in that veil and
now Jesus Christ the Son of God has gone into the holy place
and took his seat on the right hand of the majesty over when
he, with his own blood, entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us, having perfected for
ever them that are sanctified, he sat down. What a glorious
word. But, Merle Hart, that's only
a slight, little bit of the message of that word. We sat down with
Him. His being seated is utterly meaningless
if He sat down by Himself. It is utterly meaningless. Oh
no. He sat down and we sat down with
Him. Remember what I told you about
the cherubim? Who were embroidered on the veil. God ripped the veil in two. Do you know what was ripped with
that veil? His body was ripped. His body
was ripped. But that's not all. The cherubim
were ripped as well. The cherubim, for all indication,
representing the church of God's elect, His people and the ripping
of the veil which symbolized, typified His flesh and the ripping
of cherubim with the veil declares the doctrine of Holy Scripture
universally presented I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live
ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God and now
we come to the mercy seat. Imagine that. Imagine that. Do you know Abram himself
wouldn't dare go in there except once a year not even here Moses
could never go in he could never go in there never he could never
go in there David could never go in that place never Isaiah King Uzziah died, he only saw
it in the vision God put in his mind. And he cried, Oh Lord,
it's me! I dare not go here. I dare not. Lindsey Campbell, having entered
into this holy place, we don't just go in, that's where we live. Live with Him. in the holy place
with the smile of God's approval all the time. Brother Donatello,
can I come into that holy place? If you can, you dead sure can. If you can, you dead sure can. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And you can
come boldly, with confidence, in the full
assurance of faith. Read the 10th chapter of Hebrews.
and you can't come any other way. You can't go. Because if you attempt to come
with anything less than the free confidence of the full assurance
of faith, you are declaring that your conscience is yet not sprinkled
from dead Jesus Christ alone and His precious
blood for acceptance with God. But you're leaning on something
else. But if God the Holy Spirit has
shown you the precious blood of Christ on the mercy seat If
God the Holy Spirit shows you the accomplished redemption of
Jesus Christ, declaring that justice is satisfied, that God
Himself can demand no more, that God Himself has provided in the
sacrifice of His Son. As soon as you see that, is sprinkled, made clean from
dead works in your bodies, washed with pure water. And with reverence, with reverence
that cannot be understood by any who have not experienced
it. Reverence that breaks the heart and floods the soul with
joy. You come into the holy place, and you sit down as one who's
finished the work, and you rest forever. That's called faith. May God give it to you. Amen.