Matthew 27, 50. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. Now watch this. Behold, the veil of the temple
was rent in 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. came out of the
graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and
appeared unto many. Now the death of Christ, our
Lord, was surrounded by miracles. The greatest miracle of all and
one that we must not lose sight of is his death itself. There is no greater miracle or
greater wonder than Christ should die. that Christ who is life
should expire. That's the greatest miracle and
the greatest marvel. And we can sit in amazement and
wonder and look at him on that cross and say, why should my
Savior die for me? Why should he give his life for
me? That Christ who is life should die for sinners like you and
me. Love sent my Savior. to die in
my stead, why should he love me so? Meekly to Calvary's cross
he was led, why should he love me so?" So of all the miracles
that I might name surrounding the death of Christ, the greatest
miracle of all is the death of Christ. But we also know that
when he died, darkness covered the land from noon until 3 p.m.
And then there was an earthquake. And the rocks rent, the Scripture
says. And then down here in verse 52
it says the graves were open. There were some people who were
already dead who came out of the tomb when Christ died. Then the miracle of the conversion
of the thief. All of these miracles surrounded
the death of our Lord. But this miracle about which
I'm speaking tonight from this text, verse 51, is one that is
most significant. Look at verse 51. When Christ
died with a loud voice, behold, behold, take notice of this,
the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the
bottom. The veil in the temple. Now,
what about this veil? Well, I want to read two scriptures,
one from the New Testament and one from the Old. Turn to Exodus,
chapter 26. Now, when we think of a veil,
we think of some flimsy little material like those sheer drapes
on the windows there, but this was a very great and substantial
veil. It was a heavy, thick veil. In Exodus 26, verse 31, now listen
to the description of it. And thou shalt make a veil, Exodus
26, 31, a veil of blue and purple and scarlet, and fine twine linen
of cunning worth, with cherubim shall it be made. And thou shalt
hang it upon four pillars, it was so big and so heavy that
it was hung on four huge pillows that separated the holy place
from the holy of holies. this huge, heavy veil. It shall hang upon four pillars
of chitim wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of
gold upon four sockets of silver, and thou shalt hang up the veil
under the tacks that they may bring in thither within the veil
the art of the testimony, and the veil shall divide between
you shall divide you between the holy place and the most holy,
and thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony
in the most holy place." That was the veil. Here was the tabernacle,
there was the holy place, and then this huge, heavy veil hanging
on four huge pillars hung with silver and gold that separated
the people, the priests, from the holy of holies wherein was
the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat. Now turn to Hebrews
9. We have another description here
in the New Testament. In Hebrews 9, verse 2 through
12, and it's important now that we understand something about
this veil. It said when our Lord died, that
that veil down there in the temple was torn in two as soon as Christ
expired, as soon as He died. That veil from the top to the
bottom was split in two. It wasn't rolled up and laid
aside. It wasn't folded up and pushed
to one side to be erected later. It was not just shaken loose
from the pillars. There wasn't a little place torn
in the corner. It was totally, by the hand of
God, ripped from the top to the bottom. Now in Hebrews 9, verse
2, there was a tabernacle. made, the first way in was the
candlestick, just talking about the holy place, not the holy
of holies now, the outer holy place, and the table and the
showbread, and it's called the sanctuary. After the second veil,
that's this huge veil we're talking about, the tabernacle which is
called the holiest of all. In it was the golden censer,
the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein
was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded,
and the tables of the covenant, that is, the Ten Commandments.
And over that ark was the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy
seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when
these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the
first compartment, or the sanctuary, accomplishing the services of
God. But into the second place, into the Holy of Holies, with
the high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the errors of the people." Now
then, the Holy Ghost, this signifying, this is what the Holy Ghost is
showing us by that veil and by that holy place, that the way
into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. while that
first tabernacle was standing, which was a figure for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscious." Now then, what does the renting of the
veil mean? What does the renting of the veil mean? Well, it means
several things. When our Lord died, the veil
in the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. Now
we know that as long as that veil stood there and as long
as you had the two compartments, the holy place and the holy of
holies, where God dwelt, and the Holy Ghost was signifying
that the way into the holiest or the way into the presence
of God for the people was not yet revealed and not yet made
manifest while that tabernacle stood and while that veil stayed
there. When Christ died, the veil was
destroyed. It was rent in two. Now there's
several meanings. First of all, the renting of
the veil means that this whole tabernacle system, all of these
types and shadows and ceremonies and rituals and sacrifices, all
of them were finished. They were completely done away
with. The legal dispensation is over. The Mosaic covenant
is over. These sacrifices, these tithes,
these shadows, these ceremonies have served their purpose and
are of no more value whatsoever. That's the first meaning. The
second meaning, the ordinances of the earthly priesthood are
finished. I received a letter this week
from a Catholic priest. I wish I'd saved it now, but
when I get a letter like that and I enjoy these this type of
letter. When I get a letter like that,
it just brings out the human nature in me, and I wad it up
and throw it in the waste can. I wish I'd have saved it, but
he started out this way. He said, Dear Brother Mayen,
I've been listening to your TV programs, and I must admit that
some of your sermons are good. However, there are some issues
that I'd like to take up with you. First of which is this,
you deny the doctrine of purgatory. Now he says, while purgatory
I know is not mentioned in the Bible, the idea is there anyway,
because he says nobody dies without sin. Well, now he's wrong because,
brother, I'm going to die without sin because Christ died for my
sin. And he said if we die having
any sin, even a little bit on us, we can't go to heaven. We've
got to first go through purgatory and be purged and come out clean
on the other side. Calvary is our purgatory. That's
where we went with Christ and we were washed white. We were
purged completely. We were made holy and unblameable. When He went through the valley
of death at Calvary, we went through with Him and we came
out the other side pure as Christ. Now that's so. He said the second
issue is you deny that the sacraments have any part in the saving of
the soul. He says Christ's blood and body
is in that wine and in that wafer. And he said also, baptism makes
us holy. Now brethren, when that veil
was went into, men like him were put out of business. The earthly
priesthood was totally abolished. Totally abolished. Now there
was a time when God ordained certain men a certain man as
the high priest and certain men as sub-priests. And he ordained
these men to represent the people, to God and God to the people. And these men were, in a sense,
mediators. They were, in a sense, intercessors. The people came to them and confessed
their sins. The people came to them and requested
prayer. The people came to them and asked
these priests to go to God for them, and plead for them, and
cry for them, and pray for them, and offer sacrifices for them,
and make atonement for them. But no more. No more. We have a high priest. That's
Christ. And do you know that every saved
person, every redeemed believer, is himself a priest. Now that's
right. You ladies sitting out there
don't talk in church and don't teach and use of authority, but
you've got authority before God. You are a priest. And you boys
and girls who have been born again and who have believed on
Christ and have received Him as your Lord and Savior, you're
just as much a priest as I am. And you've got just as much power
with God as I'll ever have. And you've got just as much right
to come into God's presence as the Pope in Rome. More. A whole
lot more. The ordinances of the earthly
priesthood are finished. And these men are impostors. Every one of them. That's the
reason I get a little excited when I get letters like that. It's because they come from impostors
and hypocrites. And it just makes my Irish Boy,
the third thing that happened when that veil was rent, the
whole tabernacle system was destroyed and the ordinance of the earthly
priesthood are finished, and here's something else. That special
enclosure called the holy place in the tabernacle where God dwelt,
that's what the Scripture says, God met man in that little place. He sure did. But when that veil
was torn apart, that place was broken up. Now then, Christ is
our tabernacle. Christ is where man meets God,
in Christ. Not in a church down yonder with
a little sanctuary and holy place in which only the priest can
go and offer his little sacrifices. God dwells in Christ. And we
meet God in Christ. We don't go to a building to
find God. We go to Christ to find God.
God doesn't dwell only in buildings. I think there are buildings that
are dedicated to the gospel. I think there are buildings like
this building here that's dedicated to the preaching of the gospel.
I think there are buildings like this building that's dedicated
to the to the assembly where people assemble together to worship
God and to fellowship together and to read His Word and seek
His will and pray to Him, and they're special places to us.
But they're not special because that's where God dwells, because
God dwells everywhere. And now turn to Hebrews 10. Here
is the chief meaning of the renting of the veil. And if you've never
heard this before, or if you have heard it before, hear it
carefully. In Hebrews 10, verse 19, listen
to it. It says, "...having therefore
brethren boldness to enter into the holiest." It doesn't say,
"...having therefore high priest, sub-priest, special people, says,
having therefore brethren, every one of us, boldness, to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Christ. In other words, the
renting of the veil means that the way into the presence of
God, the way into the holiest of all, the way to the very throne
of God is now open to every believer. Every believer. The spirit of
the old law said, keep away. Let me show you that. Turn to
Exodus 19. The old law, the spirit of the
old law was, stand thy ground. Stand thy ground. Stay away in
fear and trembling. In Exodus 19, verse 17, listen
to this. Exodus 19, 17. And Moses brought
forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood
at the nether part of the mountain. Mount Sinai was altogether on
a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke
thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain
quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet
sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and
God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount
Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses up
to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up, and the Lord
said unto Moses, Go down, and charge the people, lest they
break through unto the Lord, to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which
come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break
forth upon them. And Moses said unto the Lord,
The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for thou chargest
us, saying, Set bounds about that mountain, and sanctify it.
And the Lord said, Moses, away, get thee down. Thou shalt come
up, thou and Aaron, but let not the priests, let not the people,
break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth
upon them." Look at Exodus 20 verse 21, "...and the people
stood afar off, afar off. And Moses drew near unto the
thick darkness where God was." They weren't, they couldn't come.
But you know now the invitation is, come unto me. All you that labor in a heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. Draw nigh to God, He'll draw
nigh to you. The invitation now is, approach
God, brethren, with boldness, into the holiest of all. Come
on, God invites you. You might say, why is this? Why
is this we've just read in Exodus? Stand back, warn the people. Don't let them gaze upon this
holy place. If a man came into the holiest
of all, they'd drug him out by his heels dead. We're still sinners. God's still
God. God hasn't changed, and we haven't
either. The reason lies in this. Now,
this is so important. I found this somewhere. I don't
remember where, but listen to it. The removal of the veil in
the temple. signifies the removal of separating
sin. Sin is the divider between God
and men. It's not the veil. That veil
of blue and purple and fine twine linen can't separate men from
God. God is everywhere. God is very
near to all men. He's not far from any man. That
veil heavy though it may be, very significant though it may
be, that veil in itself cannot separate a man from God. It's
not physically that we've been separated from God, it's spiritually. The wall between God and men
is sin. That's what it is. David said
it's your sins that have separated you from God. And when Christ
died, he removed the sin, and therefore he removed the veil,
which represented the distance between God and me. That's all
that veil was. That veil was a symbol. That
veil was a representation. That veil stood there saying,
man, you and God are apart. But it's not the veil that brought
me apart from God. It's my sins. And when Christ
died and paid for my sins and put my sins away, God put the
veil away. You see that? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world, and also took away the veil. We are
now in Christ. This is unbelievable, but it's
true. We are now in Christ, holy. and unblameable. And when sin
is removed, the barrier is removed. Now here's a second point to
that. Another important point. It's not only, and this is something
that I'm afraid, I'm afraid this is one of the hang-ups of modern
day preaching and church, so-called church attenders and so forth.
It's not just what we've done that separates us from God. It's
what we are. I think we spend, we don't spend
enough time repenting for what we do, but we spend proportionately
more time repenting for what we've done than what we are.
And the most significant thing is this, it's not so much our
deeds that have condemned us as our nature. What hangs up that veil? What
separates men from God? Difference in nature. Two cannot
walk together except they are agreed. Now then, our new birth
by the Spirit of God and our sanctification by the death of
Christ gives us a new nature, a nature that is akin to the
nature of God. a divine nature. And when we
receive that new nature, that separating veil is removed. Now, we're still puny men, and
God is still a sovereign God. But when our Savior became a
man, this author said, and when he took our nature, God and man
met in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And God and man met in
one person forever. He is now the man Christ Jesus.
and he forever bridged that awful gap between us and God. Behold,
now are we sons of God. So two things separated me and
God, what I have done and what I am. Not just that blue and
scarlet veil, that's a representative That's something God put up there
to remind me that something was between me and Him. And when
Christ died, Christ took all my guilt and paid all my sin
debt and gave me a new nature and God moved the veil and said,
now we're one. That they may be one, Father,
Christ prayed, as we are. Now the second question, quickly.
What has this torn veil given to us? Now, will you listen to
me? I don't want to weary you. I
read something funny the other day. A preacher was preaching,
and he said, I have ten points to my message tonight. I guess
you might say that my points are very much like Ezekiel's
bones, very many and very dry. But I have many points tonight,
and here's the second one, but I do want you to catch this.
Don't leave me right here. This is important. What has this
torn veil given to us? Turn back to Hebrews, just a
moment, Hebrews 10. First of all, it's given us,
watch this now, boldness to enter in to the holiest. Now brethren, there are degrees
in boldness. It takes a certain amount of
boldness to take upon ourselves to talk about God. It takes a
certain amount of boldness—I know a lot of people don't see
this, I believe you do—for us to talk about the awesome presence
of God. It takes a certain amount of
boldness for us to even talk about the mysteries of the gospel.
We're not equipped. We're not equipped. Paul said,
who is sufficient for these things? Job said, Lord, once have I spoken,
yet twice I'm not going to speak again. And those seraphims, they
put their hands over their mouths. It takes a certain amount of
boldness to look into the Holiest, to gaze upon the dwelling place
of God. Isaiah said the seraphims with
two hands covered their feet With two, they covered their
faces, covered their eyes. It says, which things the angels
desire to look into. But Bradman, look at this verse
here. It says, we have boldness not
just to talk about or to look in, but to enter into the holiest. Now, if that doesn't If that
doesn't thrill you and make goose pimples break out on the back
of your neck and fill you with awe and fill you with great expectation,
I don't know what can. These people over here talked
about, they didn't even want to talk about God. They didn't
even want to look into the Holiest. They wouldn't even risk a glance
into it. And God tells me and you, us,
us babes in swaddling clothes, us nothings. He said, come on
in, come on in, into the holiest. I haven't become so callous with
spiritual things as to take lightly this thing of prayer. It scares
me, it frightens me, this thing of This thing of calling the
name of God, of going into the presence of God, of approaching
a holy God. But I know, I know he says here,
he says, Brethren, with boldness, enter in! Enter in. Enter in. And here's something
else. When we enter in, we are privileged
to perform the functions of that great high priest that entered
in. What did he do? That old high
priest back yonder, Aaron, he left the world outside. He left
the people, even believers, outside. And he by himself went into God's
presence, not without blood, not without blood. And how sweet
and precious was the time when shutting out the world, both
the Christian world and the evil world, he went in there and all
alone, talk to God. And I can do the same thing.
Think about it. You say, boy, if I had lived
back in the days of Moses, what I would have given to be that
high priest, to lift that veil and slip under that veil and
go in there in the awesome, holy presence of the God of glory
and put that blood on the mercy seat and feel his presence and
commune with God. Well, that's what he says for
you and me to do right here. Come on in. Come on in. Offer up. Offer up. Well, what
sacrifices can I offer? Offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Offer up a sacrifice of praise. Offer up a sacrifice of worship. Just on your face with words
you can't utter, praise God. Thank Him just for the privilege
of being there. You know, I often hear people
say as they pray, and I think sometimes it's meant well. I
think sometimes it's just repetitious phrases. Lord, we thank you for
the privilege of being here. I'll tell you, if we really knew
what that privilege was, we'd stop right there in camp a while,
as old Brother Mews used to say. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege
of being here. Being where? In God's presence. What a privilege! My soul, what
a privilege! Come boldly to the throne of
grace, that you may find mercy and grace to help in time of
need. But that rent veil doesn't mean
anything if you don't come in. You can stand outside and look
in, and you can hear people talk about it, but if that's going
to accomplish anything for you personally, you've got to, whatever
it takes, by the grace of God, with sufficient boldness, Dare
to come in. Dare to come in. And you can
come in there in your bedroom, in your living room, in your
study, wherever you might be, where you can, like the high
priest of old, leave the world outside, the Christian and the
evil world. And in that sweet and precious
moment, it doesn't have to be a long time, but just shutting
out the world go in there and commune with God. He says, come
on in. Now watch this. Leviticus 9. Turn to Leviticus
9. I want you to watch this. This
is so important right here. I want you to see this. If you'll come in, whoever you
are, if you'll come in, and we don't avail ourselves of this
privilege like we ought to, if you'll come in to the presence
of God, you know what will Look at Leviticus 9.23, Leviticus 9.23, And Moses and
Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and they
came out and blessed the people. You know what will happen? This
is what you'll do if you'll spend some time in God's presence.
You'll come out and you'll be a blessing to somebody. You'll
be a blessing to somebody. You'll speak some words that'll
be words from God. You go in there and get them.
God'll give them to you. And you'll come out, and God'll
let you speak them. You'll be one through whom God
will perfume the world, through whom God will light the world,
through whom God Almighty will perform His works of providence. I'm going to give you a story
here, and it's probably embarrassed Charlie Payne and Eddie Robinette,
but I'm going to give it to you anyway. Walter Groover was just
about ready to quit the mission field about five years ago, just
about ready to hang it up. He had been in Mexico these seven
or eight years. And they had literally done without.
They had lived on nothing. He'd been to a Bible conference
in Birmingham. I met him down there, but I was
on my way to Florida. This was 1969. I was on my way
to Florida in August. And he was on his way up to West
Virginia to visit a church. And I told him I hoped that our
paths would cross. I'd love to get acquainted with
him, come through Ashland if he could. But he went to West
Virginia. And he went to that church up
there, and he got a little offering. It wasn't enough to pay his expenses.
No more support. He and Betty were on their way
to Houston. He said, honey, let's go home. He said, I'm tired.
His truck had 140,000 miles on it. It was held together with
baling wire. He didn't have a dime to his
name. They were doing without. They didn't have any screens
on the windows. They were down to nothing. He said, let's go
home. I'm about ready to throw in the
towel. And they were riding along out here on the highway, and
they saw a sign that said Catletsburg. He said, you know, I got a letter
from a fellow from Catletsburg named Eddie Robinette with a
little check in it. He said, let's see if we can find Eddie
Robinette. So they just turned off the road. Now it's the providence
of God that led Eddie to send that check. The providence of
God. Eddie had been in there, and
God talked to him, and God laid it on his heart. He hadn't met
Walter Goodman, didn't know him, but he saw his name, missionary.
Well, I think I'll send him a check. And he sent it to him. And Eddie
Robinette, they finally found him, and Eddie introduced him
to Charlie. And they met in the homes, and these boys took up
a little offering for him, visited with him, fed him and Betty,
and slept with him overnight. And so a day or two had passed,
and Walter was getting ready to leave for Houston. And he
told Betty, he said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. He
said, I'm going to drive by Brother Mahan's house one more time. If he's
not home, we're leaving. So he drove by the house, and
I wasn't back. But he said, let's drive by the church. One more
time. He drove by this church, and
I wasn't here. He said, let's leave. This is
it. Just at that moment, somebody
says his luck would have it. The providence of God, old Charlie
Plain, rolled in the parking lot. He wasn't supposed to be
down there. He was supposed to be up there working in West Virginia.
But like that woman stayed home in church. The Lord let her stay
home in church. But he drove in the parking lot.
He said, Walter, where are you going? He said, I'm going to
Texas. I'm through." Charlie said, you can't do that. You
just can't do it. You've got to stay right here
until our pastor gets home. So he got him by the hair of
the head and took him home with him. And I came home and we had
a meeting and you all met him. And Walter said, he came here
with nothing. And he left with a brand new
truck and a thousand dollars in his pocket. and $125 a month
support. And he said, I went back to the
mission field, put screens on my windows, bought my wife a
washing machine, and we began to live again. Now somewhere,
these men, Robinette and Payne, had been into the place where
God takes His people and uses them, and sends them out and
makes them a blessing to somebody. One day, let me tell you another
story. I watched the province of God work like this One day
I was down in the Yucatan visiting with Walter and David and Milton,
and Milton had told me how his wife was going to have that baby,
and they needed to have her in the States. So you generously
gave, and we brought her here to America, and she had the child,
and it died. It was just a blessing that she
was here when the baby was born. A little while later, Milton
ran into a pastor from North Carolina who was supporting him.
He was in the hospital. Milton went to a Bible conference,
ran into this preacher, and the preacher saw him and said, What
are you doing in the States? Milton said, We came up here. My wife
had a baby. He said, Since when did we pay you missionaries to
come to the States to have your babies? Milton said, Well, what
you give me wouldn't give me a litter of puppies, let alone
a baby. I'm glad he said that. I wish he had said some other
things, too, but he didn't. Well, I went down there right
after that, and Walter told me about his boy that had the hole
in his eardrum. And he said that he's going to
lose his hearing if we don't do something. And I said, well,
why don't you have him operate on it? He said, I can't afford
that. I said, well, what will it cost? He said, $1,000. And
I said, well, after we finish this baby offering and all, and
everything's cleared up, I'll bring it before the church and
see what we can do. So I came back and didn't say a thing to
any of you all about it, because we're right in the middle of
a special offering, and I think you can special offer people
to death. But anyway, I didn't say a thing, and one Sunday morning,
after two or three or four weeks had passed, I told Doris Poole
I left home. I said, now, this morning I'm
going to tell the church about Walter's little boy's ear, and
ask some of them if they want to help him to get his ear operated
on. So I came to church, and I parked
my car out here, And I walked in the door of the church, and
I turned into the recording room. And Brother Stevens was standing
there, and he said, Can I talk to you? And I said, Yes. He said,
You know, I'm worried about Walter. I said, Why are you worried about
Walter? He said, You know, I've had Walt on my mind all week.
I can't get Walt off my mind. Every time I pray, Walter would
come in my mind. Every time I read my Bible, Walter
would be right there in front of me. Henry, you reckon you
need some money? I said, what you got in mind?
He said, I'm going to send him about $500. I said, I believe
that man needs some money. I said, you can be the first
one to give a check on an offering this morning. We're going to
take up an offering for Walter's boys. He said, isn't that something?
That's God. You see what I'm saying? I could
give you so many more like that. Several of you have done the
same thing. You go into the presence of God. And when you come out, you can
be a blessing to somebody. Don't go around looking for something
to do. God will reveal it to you. I really believe that. God
will make your car come to a certain place or make you go to a home
where somebody needs just a word of cheer or comfort. God will
lay things on your heart. But He can't lay things on your
heart unless you're with Him. You see what I'm saying? In the
presence of God. We are to enter in. Boldly. Now,
one other thing here, watch it. Leviticus 16. Turn over there
a minute. Leviticus 16. Here in the 16th
chapter of Leviticus, verse 2. Now listen carefully to this.
And the Lord said, Moses, speak to Aaron, your brother, that
he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil
before the mercy seat, which is upon the art that he die not,
you tell Abram, don't make it a habit of coming in there once
a year. But brethren, what a blessing.
You and I can just stop preaching right now and close this book
and go into the presence of God. I don't have to wait until April
or May or June. Anytime. It says over there,
having, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest at all
times, at any time, when my eye of faith is dim, when the trial
of life is heavy, when I'm going through special difficulty and
pain and heaviness of heart and temptations and these things,
that's the time to come. When I feel least like coming,
that's the time to come. When I feel the least worthy,
that's the time to come. over at Pollard Baptist Church.
I never will forget. People didn't want to have the
Lord's table. And I'd ask them why. And they said, we're just
not worthy. Brethren, that's when you need
to come. When you get to where you feel
like you're worthy, you let me know, and that's when we won't
have it. And that's when we won't pray. And that's when we won't
call on God, when we feel religious and when we feel good and when
we feel holy and when we feel worthy. Don't waste your time. Because it says here, the only
way you can come is by the blood. And I've got to bring this out,
Hebrews 10. One other thing I've got to bring
out because it's important. It says here, verse 20, into
the holiest, by a new and living way. Now, brethren, There's no
way into the holiest but by the blood. And the Old Testament
priest brought the blood. When the veil was there, he brought
the blood, and when the veil is gone, we still got to come
through the blood. And it says here, by a new way. Now, I had to look this up. I'm not smart. I'll just give
you what I found. The original Greek suggests this
idea. By a new way means by a way of
the newly slain. Christ died long ago. but his
death is as meaningful today as if it occurred today. It's
always new. It's always new. It's always
fresh. It's not only the new way, but
it's the living way, and this is in opposition to the dead
carcasses of slain beasts. He's alive, and he's alive forevermore. And it is a new way which he
consecrated for us. Spurgeon gave this illustration.
When a new highway is opened, it's dedicated by the prince
or by the queen or by the king or some distinguished person.
The way to God has been consecrated and dedicated by the Lord Jesus
Christ. This new and living way has been
consecrated forever by Christ. It is the King's highway. It's the King's highway. Now
then, look at verse 22. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance, don't be afraid, come in full assurance
of faith, because two things, Charlie, the high priest had
to do before he entered the holy place, two things. Number one,
he had to be sprinkled with blood. Number two, he had to be washed
with pure water, right? All right, watch this verse. You come on with full assurance
into the holiest, into the presence of God, because you have your
heart sprinkled with what? The blood of Christ, and purged
from an evil conscience, and your body is washed with pure
water, with the water of regeneration, symbolized by baptism. Augustus Toplady captured it
in this verse. of sin, the double cure, cleanse
me from its guilt and its power." So like that old high priest
of old, when he washed his body with pure water and sprinkled
it with the blood of the sacrifice, then he wasn't afraid to go into
the holy place. And brethren, from Calvary's
cross came forth the blood and the water. wherewith my heart
is sprinkled from an evil conscience, and my body is washed pure, clean,
and white in the pure water of the Word and the washing of regeneration. And I, of all people, can come
into God's presence for the present." Our Father, let us learn something
tonight to encourage our hearts, to give us assurance and confidence
and peace. and to fill our hearts with praise
and thanksgiving for this wonderful, wonderful privilege of coming
into Thy presence. O Lord, teach us to come often,
help us to come often, to live continually in an attitude