Evening, everybody. Go ahead
and turn to Matthew 27. Matthew 27. There were many mysterious and
miraculous things that happened at the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You guys have heard this so many times, but I'm going
to tell you again. The most amazing, the most miraculous thing that
happened there is that the God-man actually died. God had said that for years,
and when he'd say it, I think it just glossed over. It's just
been the last couple of years he's said it that's magnificent.
The death of the God-man, the eternal, the uncreated dying.
I don't understand that. but that is the most miraculous
thing that happened at the cross. But, after his death, there's
other miracles that are aboard his death, and I want you to
look at some. Look at verse 50, Matthew 27. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
of the temple was rent and twain, from the top to the bottom. And
the earth did quake. And 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 on the men. Several amazing things
had happened. An earthquake. An earthquake.
The earth shouting out and crying in disgust of the murder of her
creator. What that means is actually mountains
being torn in half. I've never seen that before, but I'm sure
it was amazing. This thing of men who were dead,
perhaps for a very long time. The flesh came back to their
bones, and these people who had been dead, the graves were open,
and they actually got up and appeared unto many people in
the city. That's amazing. That would have been amazing
to see. But of all those amazing things, there is only one that
is mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and that's the veil
being rented from the top to the bottom. That should tell
us it is of particular significance, and there's a lot we can learn
from it. So tonight, I just wanna answer two questions. I'm gonna
talk to you about the veil, all right? Number one, who does this
veil represent? Who does it represent? Number two, what is the significance
about it being rented from the top to the bottom? The veil was a large curtain,
a tapestry, that hung in the temple separating the holy place
from the holy of holies. That's exactly what it was. Now,
I'm not a theology major, and I don't know much about this
temple in Jerusalem. What I do know is that its specifications
would have been similar to that of the tabernacle. Those specifications
were given to Moses in the Exodus. This tabernacle was a portable
temple that the Children of Israel would carry everywhere they went.
Every time they set up camp, they would build the tabernacle.
Every portion of this tabernacle was to picture the Lord Jesus
Christ in some respect. So we'll start with the compound
itself. It was fenced. It had a fence that went all
the way around it, and it had one gate, one gate, the eastern
gate. There is one way to God, and
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as you walk through that
gate, you came to the brazen altar. The brazen altar was the
place of sacrifice. Christ, our sacrifice, our atonement
for sin. After that, he gave us the brazen
labor. It was a washbasin. And this
is Christ, our sanctification. Sanctified by the washing of
water and the word, we're made holy. Interesting thing about
this, I just read it today. This washbasin was made of mirrored
bronze, mirrored bronze. So when the priest came up there
to wash his hands and his feet, when he looked down at the bowl,
he saw himself. When will I see myself for myself? When will I see myself as a sinner?
It's when I've been given a new man. When there is a holy man
inside of me, that holy man sees the sin of the old man. And he
cries out for mercy. He owns the sin of that old man.
After that, you came to the actual building. That building was separated
into two rooms. The holy place, which is the
first room. This is where the priest would go and attend to
the priestly duties. And the second room was the Holy of Holies.
In that first room, the first thing you came to was the golden
candlestick. That is the Lord Jesus Christ, our light. He is
the answer to this one question. How can God be just and justify
somebody like me? The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
the light. He is the answer to that question. Next thing you
came to was the table of showbread. Table of showbread. The Lord
Jesus Christ, our sustenance. He's what keeps us alive. But
I thought about it in this sense, too. He is my daily bread. He is what gets me through the
day. And the more this life goes on, harder things get. And there's
a bunch of people here that are way older than I am, and I know
it gets even harder. But when you're looking for that reason
to get out of bed in the morning, the Lord's in control. That's the
reason. And he's my bread. He gets me
through the day. Next thing I came to was the altar of incense.
Incense is where the priest would offer the incense offering. And
this speaks of the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The smoke that went up was the prayers, his prayers for his
people. Christ our mediator, I can't
get to the Father. I can't come into his presence on my own.
My hope is that I'm in Christ, and when he goes to his Father,
I'm in him, and I'm accepted in him. The next room is the
Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies, you have
the Ark of the Covenant. Inside that, you have the pot of manna
the children of Israel ate in the wilderness. You have Aaron's
rod that budded. You have the broken tables of the law. On
top of that, you have the mercy seat with the cherubims that
faced each other. And above that is where the Lord
said, that's where I'm going to dwell. That's where I'm going
to command my people from. That's where my presence will
be. Separating those two rooms was the veil. That veil hung
suspended between the heaven and the earth, this big thick
tapestry, and it separated these two rooms. Now in the Holy of
Holies, This is good to point out. There was no one allowed
back there, except one time throughout the year. On the day of atonement,
the high priest, he would slip underneath that veil, and the
scriptures are quick to point out, not without blood. He had
to make a sacrifice for himself and for the people before he
could go back there. He would have been killed if he went back there
without blood. He had to make an atonement for himself, speaking
of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he did anything
wrong while he was back there, he would have died. This was
serious business, serious business. Now, turn to Exodus 26. My first question was this, who
does this veil represent? In chapter 26 here, we're given
a description of the veil. I'd like you to recognize And
this veil hung suspended between the heaven and the earth, just
as the Lord Jesus Christ hung suspended between the heaven
and the earth on the cross. And when we read this description,
it is speaking of the veil. It's also speaking of the attributes
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Exodus 26, look at 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. Now, that's a very brief description,
but it says a whole lot. Now, what I want you to consider
is, imagine that you're a priest standing in the holy place, and
you're looking at this veil. You're standing in front of it
here. Consider that you're looking at the Lord Jesus Christ hanging
on the cross. It's one and the same. Look at
the top. The first color you see is blue, blue. That is the
color of the heavens. the color of the deity. It is
the color of God. And this is the first thing every
believer sees when he sees Jesus Christ hanging on that cross.
I see my God. Colossians 2.9 says, For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are
complete in him. That was God hanging on that
cross. And this is another statement I've heard Todd make of recent
that I don't know if it had much power on me before, but it certainly
had of recent. Jesus Christ is God. I used to kind of gloss over
that and be like, why does he say that? Doesn't everybody know that? It becomes
more powerful the more you hear it. Who is he? What are his attributes? Let's
just talk about him for a moment. Number one, he's omnipotent.
He is all powerful. He has all power. He is omniscient. He is all wise. He has never
learned anything. He's never been taught anything. He is completely
and utterly uncreated. He is omnipresent. He hung on
that cross, and yet he was everywhere, ruling and reigning all at once.
He is immutable. He is incapable of change. Malachi
3.6 says, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. He is eternal, completely and
utterly uncreated. He always has been, and he always
will be. Those are all the attributes
of the Lord Jesus Christ as God. However, I want to speak to three
of them particularly, three particularly. Number one, I want to speak about
this. The God who is love. Not the God who loves. The God
who is love. His very being is that of love.
He is love. John 15, 13 says this, greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. I am honored that any one of
the Lord's people would call me friend. And some of you have
been with me a long time, and you know me. What I find amazing is that he
would call me a friend. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Love always
acts. It always acts. Love is never
idle. And when the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he
willingly went there because he loved his people. He had you
on his heart. He had me on his heart. That's
why I went there, to save his people. Yes, he was honoring
his father's command. He was doing it willingly, because
he loved his people. Now, who are his people? Good
word to describe them is elect. They were chosen by God before
the foundations of the world were ever built. Loved by him,
they were given to Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth and accomplished their salvation. Elect, that's a good
word for them. I came up with a couple other words to describe
them. I'm going to read you this from Luke chapter 6. This picks up in verse 32. For
if you love them which love you, what thank have you? For sinners
also love those that love them. And if you do good to them which
do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even
the same. And if you lend to them of whom
you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend
to sinners to receive as much again But love ye your enemies,
and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward
shall be great. And you shall be the children
of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the
evil." That's our description. And that's
who the Lord loved, people like me who are unthankful and evil. The next attribute I want to
talk about, he's the god of absolute holiness and justice. It is often
said that the father is so incredibly just and so incredibly holy that
when he found sin on his only begotten son that he would not
spare him. His justice would not allow it.
He forsook him, he turned his back on him, and he killed him.
That's what he did to his only begotten son when sin was found
on him. John 1030 says, I and my Father
are one. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
had to say about himself. If you've seen me, you've seen the
Father. When he found sin on himself,
he would not spare himself. Now, if there's anyone I am willing
to make an exception for, it's me. If there's anyone I'm willing
to sweep something under the carpet for, it's me. But in a
very real sense, when he found sin on himself, this was God
doing business with God, he would not spare himself. What are the
chances he's going to spare a sinful man? Finally, the God of mercy. From
the cross, he shouted, Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. This is amazing because the people
he were praying for was the same people who were shouting, crucify
him. Crucify him. What mercy, what mercy that he
would pray for some of his murderers. Now he didn't pray for all of
them. He doesn't pray for all men. God doesn't love all men. Christ didn't die for all men,
but for everyone he prayed for. Every sinner in need of mercy.
Father heard. First color was blue. You're
looking at the veil. Keep that in mind. Second color
is purple. This is the color of royalty.
This is the color of the king. And this is the second thing
every believer sees when he sees Jesus Christ hanging on that
cross. I see my king. I see my sovereign. Now, what
does it mean that he's sovereign? Very simply, foot, you've heard
this a dozen times. He holds you and me and everyone
else in this world in the palm of his hand, and he has the power
to save or the power to damn, and he can do whatever he wants
with us. Absolute whatever he wants with us. It's up to his
choice, and it is right, just, and fair simply because of who
he is. He is the sovereign. Now, what is the natural man's
response to the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ? Look here.
Turn to John 19. John 19, and look at verse 19. And Pilate wrote a title and
put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of
Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of
the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was not of
the city, and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Now, that term, king of the Jews,
that isn't symbolic of him being the king of his people in a loving
and a saving way. Everybody he loves, he saves.
But he is king over everybody. He is the sovereign over every
man. You'll notice this was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek,
and Latin, so that the religious folks of the day, they could
read it. That's your king. That's who you are accountable
to. Here he is right here. It's written in Greek, the common
language, the language of the apathetic, the people who just
don't care. Look up there. He is your sovereign. You are accountable to him. It's
written in Latin, the language of the Romans, the language of
the government, the language of those who believe that they
rule, that they are in charge. Look at the sign. That is your
king. You are accountable to him. Now,
how do we respond to that? Look at verse 21. Then said the
chief priest of the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews,
but that he said, I am the king of the Jews. He said, take that
down. Take that down. I don't want to see that. I don't
want to see this king thing. Put on there, he said, I am king
of the Jews, but I will not have this man to reign over me. Rejection
and hatred. Man loves the God he can control,
and he hates the God that's in control. That's the true case. But where does the rejection
get them? Look at verse 22. Pilate answered, what I have
written, I have written. A natural man can kick against
this all he wants, but the sign remains the same. He's in charge
of that, too. He's in control of that, too.
He's still the sovereign. How does that sit with me? That
I am in his hands to be done with however he sees fit. How
does that sit with you? Folks, as honest as I can possibly
be here, I'm absolutely fine with it. I wouldn't want it any
other way. Because if my salvation is in
my hands, I know there's absolutely no chance. And in light of the
gospel message that he is merciful to sinners, it's the best place
I could possibly be. in his hands to be done with
as he sees fit. Best place I could possibly be.
Next color you're gonna come to is scarlet. Scarlet, and that's
the color of blood. And this is the next thing every
believer sees when he sees Jesus Christ on that cross, we see
his blood. And in that, we see all our redemption. Turn to Matthew
27 and look at verse 22. The people who were surrounding
the Lord at the cross spoke of his blood, and I want you to
hear what they had to say. Matthew 27, look at verse 22.
Pilate saith unto them, what shall I do then with Jesus, which
is called Christ? They all say unto him, let him
be crucified. And the governor said, why, what evil hath he
done? But they cried out the more saying, let him be crucified.
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather
a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the
multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person,
see ye to it. Then answered all the people, everybody there,
in one accord, this is what they said, his blood be on us and
our children. What do they mean? We know he's
innocent. We don't care. Put him to death. If you have to, charge to our
account. We want him gone. That's what they meant. This
statement, his blood be on us and our children, this is owned
by the believer in two respects. Number one, this is my statement
of guilt. My statement of guilt. And this is all my hope. My statement
of guilt. There is one nature owned by
every man that has ever lived, beginning with the first man,
all the way down to you and me. And that is a sinful, wretched,
evil nature. Adam was placed in the garden.
He was made upright and innocent. One upright and innocent man
with one command, don't eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. Adam sinned against God and he died spiritually. He lost
his upright and innocent nature and he took on a sinful and evil
nature that does nothing but sin. And that sinful, evil nature
has been passed down to all his children, right down to you and
me. And we pass that down to our
children. The full sinful potential. The
full potential of that sinful, evil nature is seen at the cross. And you've heard this many times
before, but I'm going to tell you again. At the cross, the
one time man was left alone, the restraints were removed to
do what he wanted to do with God. What did we do? We murdered him. That is the
full potential of our nature, our fallen, evil nature. His
blood is on you, and it's on me. Somebody says, if I was there,
I would have done the same thing. No, no, no. We were there. We're
all partakers of that same fallen, evil nature. That is my confession
of guilt. That's who and what I am by nature, the murderer
of God's Son. But this is also my hope, my
hope. And I gave you this example this
morning, but I'll give it to you again. The night of the Passover,
His blood be on us and our children. The night of the Passover, the
Lord said, I'm going to come through Egypt. I'm going to kill all the firstborn
from all the houses of Egypt. Here's what you do. You put the
blood over the door, on the side post, and you get in that house.
And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. He was looking
for one thing, blood. I love this. I love it when Todd
uses this as an example. You would have seen two different
types of people inside there. You're going to see somebody
there who's in the corner. They're shaking. They're scared.
Is he going to pass over? Terrified. Someone with weak
faith. Then there's somebody who's just
sitting there very calmly. Loins girded, staff in hand. Lord said,
when I see the blood, blood's on the door. Believe God. Nothing
to worry about. Who is more secure? Neither one. When I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. He was looking for blood, not
the strength of faith. His blood. That was it. Another
thing was this. So these people are inside the
house. They can't see the blood. Blood was on the outside of the
door. They're on the inside. I can't see. that my sins have
been washed away. I can't see that by experience.
My experience is I'm a sinner. That's all I know. I can't know
that by sight. I know by faith, but not by sight.
I can't see that I have the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I have no experience of that, none whatsoever. I know
it all by faith. That's it, that's the evidence
of it. But he didn't say when you see the blood. Don't look
inside yourself. Not when you see the blood, when
I see the blood. I'll pass over you. He was looking for one thing,
blood. That was it. In my prayer, his
blood would be on me and my children. All right. Go back to verse 31
of Exodus 26. I want to read the description
again so we get back on point. And thou shalt make a veil of
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen." Fine
twined linen. Fine linen, clean, and white. This speaks of the perfect righteousness,
the holiness, and the purity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
never sinned. Never sinned. He came to this world, and he
lived a perfect life, and he established a perfect righteousness
for his people. But you notice it says it's fine
twined linen. And this thing of being twined,
it speaks of how tightly the fibers are stitched together.
It makes it very, very strong. It was impenetrable. And this
is almost a silly example, but I'll give it to you. So I wear
a bulletproof vest to work. It's made out of Kevlar, and
you know what they do with those Kevlar fibers? They twine them together. The
reason it can stop bullets is because it is so tightly weaved
together that it creates a very hard fabric and it can stop bullets.
Here's what I thought. If I had the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ, The law can't shoot any holes in me. He looks
him up and down and says, he's perfect. He's perfect. He has
the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now that takes the pressure
off me. I feel everything just fall away. That righteousness
is perfect. Absolutely perfect. You can't
shoot any holes in it. There's no chink in the armor. It's absolutely
perfect. And that's my righteousness.
That's your righteousness if you're in Christ. says it's of a cunning work,
a cunning work. And no doubt this speaks of in
part of the purposeful and the wise work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I couldn't get away from
this. I'm going to talk to you about tonight. This word cunning
in the Old Testament, the root word here is directly translated
imputed four times. Same root word. imputed four
times. And the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a work of imputation. Now, I don't know much about
imputation. I'm going to talk about it very briefly. I'll give
you what I know about it. It's a great mystery. It is a
power that only the Lord has. He can take my sins off of me,
and he can put them in the Lord Jesus Christ, so much so that
he actually became guilty of them. He was made my sin. What's the extent of that? How
real is that? It is so real who the Father, who is absolutely
just and absolutely holy, forsook him and sentenced him to death. But just as real, his righteousness
is my righteousness. The example we have in the scriptures
of this is the scapegoat. On the Day of Atonement, the
high priest put his hands on the head of that scapegoat. He
would confess the iniquities and the sins and the transgressions
of the people overtop that scapegoat. And then a fit man would carry
that goat out to a land uninhabited and it was gone. Gone. Folks, I don't know how imputation
works. I don't. I don't have to. I know it worked. That's all
I need to know. My sin is gone as far as the
east is from the west, and I have the very righteousness of Jesus
Christ. That's a cunning work. All right. Now, the last point is, with
cherubims shall it be made. This is the last thing that it
spoke of in the veil. So when you were looking at the
veil, if you were a priest and you were in the holy place, if
you looked at the veil, it had these cherubims. on it, these
cherubims. Now, what is the first time we
read of cherubims? In Genesis 3 verse 24 says, so
he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of
Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way
to keep the way of the tree of life. This is where the type
of the veil changed. This is the type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But think about it for a second. If you're a
priest and you're in the holy place and you're staring at the
veil, you would have had a cherubim staring right back at you. Adam
sins against God. Adam is cast out of the garden.
And the Lord puts a cherubim at the gate with a flaming sword
to keep his way. And as Adam looks at that cherubim, what
does he know? My sin has separated me from
God. I'm not allowed back in. I can't
go in there. I have separated myself from
the Lord. And that's what this veil, the
second part of this veil is, it's separation. It's separated the
holy place from the holy of holies. You can't go back in there. You
can't come into the presence of God. You send away your rights. Now, what was the significance
of the veil being rent? I'll be quick on this. Number one,
the Old Testament economy of worship was gone. No more priests,
no more sacrifices, no more feasts. Why? Because all those things
were simply a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And once the genuine
oracle had come, there was no reason for the types in the shadows.
It was all done with. Second reason, the rent veil
revealed that the Jews' religion was a sham. And what do I mean
by that? What was the religion of the
Jews? The religion of the Jews was salvation by works. Here's what
they believed. The whole country had fallen
into this. They believed, I have favor with
God because I offered a sacrifice, because I kept a feast, because
I honored the Sabbath day, because I abstained from that which was
unclean. It always began with I, because
I did these things. They weren't just types and shadows
of the Lord Jesus Christ anymore. They were their work. Now, imagine
for a moment you're a priest, and you're standing in the holy
place upon the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that same day. And
so the veil comes ripping down from the top to the bottom, and
the earthquakes and everything else. Everyone is running for
cover, absolutely, no doubt about it. Finally, somebody sees that
rip in the veil. And he walks up, he looks through
that rip, and what does he see? Nothing. Todd pointed this out
the last time that he preached on this. That ark, that covenant,
was likely gone centuries ago. He saw absolutely nothing. They
had been going through the motions the entire time. Their whole
religion was a sham. And one day, folks, the veil
of this world is going to be removed, and everything is going
to be seen for what it really is. And everybody who is trying
to seek God on the grounds of their own works can be found
out it was an empty room. You didn't have the favor of
God. You didn't have His presence. Now, speaking of false religion
for a moment, I want to say this. False religion will tell you
in some way, shape, or form this veil is still intact, that the
separation between the Lord and His people is still there. And here's what they'll say.
That it is in some way your responsibility to rent this veil. They'll say,
okay, listen, here's what you have to do. a choice for God. You have to allow the Lord Jesus
Christ to be your savior. And that will put the first tear
in the veil down at the bottom. And that tear will continue up
as long as the Lord Jesus Christ does his part. But it's got to
begin with your work down at the bottom. Or it'll sound something
like this. Here's what you need. You need the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's going to put the first tear in the bottom
of the veil. But you're going to have to have some good works
in there to keep this veil, this tear in the veil, moving up.
It's got to be his blood and your works. Or something like
this. Listen, you have to have the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's going to put the first little rip in the veil, and it's going
to continue going all the way up, but you have to preserve
yourself. You have to preserve yourself. If you don't do that,
the veil won't rent in two. It's got to be a combination
of the two. It leads to an empty room, an
empty room. But that is not the case. The
case is that veil was rent from the top all the way down to the
bottom. It was ripped open, and there
is no more separation between the Lord and His people. And
that tear began at the top with a love of God for His people
and divine election. It continued on down with the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Him dying for His people and accomplishing
their salvation. It continued on down with the calling of those
people The call of irresistible, invincible grace. The call from
death unto life. It continues all the way down
with the preservation of those people, and that veil is rent
in two, and it is no more. It's gone. Absolutely gone. There's
no more separation between the believer and his God. Now, what now? Where does that leave
us? What does that mean? It means,
for the believer, any man or woman right now who's looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, for him to accomplish every aspect
of your salvation, relying on him 100%. That means there is
no more separation between you and your God. Hebrews 10, 19
says this. Having therefore, brethren, 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. What am I to do? Come boldly.
There are three ways that word boldness was translated. I want
to look at that word because sometimes words are translated
out. It doesn't mean what we think they make, what that we
think they mean. It means three things here. Number
one, it means a fearless confidence. Come with a fearless confidence.
Why? Because the reason for fear has been removed. Lord Jesus
Christ has washed away the sins of his people. They are gone
and you can come with a fearless confidence. Two, a cheerful courage. A cheerful courage. How can I
come with a cheerful courage? Why should I come with a cheerful
courage? Because the one you're coming to is your father. And
you're his beloved son. And the best example I can give
you is the prodigal son. He said this, Father, I've sinned against
heaven and in thy sight, and I'm no more worthy to be called
thy son. He said, be quiet. Be quiet. Bring the best robe
and put it on. You're covered. Take a ring,
put it on his finger. I remember my covenant. It never
has a beginning. It'll never have an end. You're
under grace. Put shoes on his feet. You got a new walk, new
work. Come boldly. And finally means
this, with full assurance. If Christ is all you have, and
he is all you need, you can come with full assurance. There's
absolutely nothing to be assured of. I'm going to leave you all
there.