The Miracle of the Rent Veil

Introduction and Prayer for Understanding

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 4th, 1990, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Let us turn together in the word of God to two portions this morning. First of all, in the 15th chapter of Mark's Gospel, and I shall read in your hearing verses 33 through 38. And then we shall turn over to the 27th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Mark 15, beginning with verse 33.

0:42 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. Which is being interpreted, My God, my God, why didst you forsake me? Some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calls Elijah.

1:20 And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let be, let us see whether Elijah comes to take him down. And Jesus uttered, And the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom. Now over to Matthew chapter 27, Matthew chapter 27, verses 51 through 53. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom. And the earth, did quake, and the rocks were rent, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer, asking God by the Holy Spirit to give us, understanding in his truth.

2:42 Our Father, we thank you that already in this hour of worship, we have been enabled by the Holy Spirit to touch and to handle things unseen. Your word has come with refreshing and encouraging power to our hearts. As we were led in prayer, our hearts joined with the heart and with the lips of your servant, and we sought you for blessing. Blessing upon ourselves and your people in many places.

3:16 As we have attempted to frame our gratitude in songs and hymns of praise, we thank you that we have known something of the engagement of our hearts in our song. But, O Lord, as we now come to the threshold of our meditation in the scriptures, we are conscious of our additional need of additional supplies, the Spirit, that the word may come to us, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. And your servant is conscious that if he is to be able to stay, my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that, O Lord, you must sovereignly and graciously grant that peculiar unction, upon preacher as well as listener. And we come pleading for that measure of the Spirit's aid that we need, that our time together in the word may not be futile and empty and barren, but it may be productive of life and salvation, increased love to Christ, increased understanding of the way of life and salvation, increased hatred for sin,

4:41 renewal of faith, renewal of repentance, renewal of love. O Lord, come, we pray, and by the Spirit, working with the word, produce these holy fruits in us, we plead, for the honor of him who died. We beg these mercies of you, our Father, for without them, our time together in the word is vain. Hear us and answer us, we plead, in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Divine Speech of Miracle at Christ's Death

5:16 The midnight darkness from high noon until three o'clock in the afternoon has been removed. The sun now shines again upon the gruesome scenes taking place upon Golgotha, that skull-like mound of rocky real estate outside the city walls of Jerusalem. All eyes and ears, have been fixed upon the central figure of three men who are undergoing the unspeakable cruelty of execution by Roman crucifixion. That central figure had pierced the air with a loud indignation. Shortly after, he spoke in subdued tones the words, thirst. And no sooner were his parched lips, mouth, and throat refreshed, from sucking the sour, diluted vinegar wine from the sponge placed to his lips, but that that central figure once again cried a shout of triumph, it is finished.

6:36 Then, with a confident serenity, he dismisses his spirit in death with the words, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

6:52 At that point, the head drops, falls to the right or to the left in the limpness and the unresponsiveness of death. Jesus of Nazareth is now.

7:13 His lips are silent. His body without life and motion. And were we to learn instruments by which we discern the reality of death, we would have found the case of the one on the central cross, that there was no pulse or heartbeat, no respiration or breathing, no brain, he is.

7:46 No sooner are the faculties required for speech removed from Jesus in death, but that God the Father comes forth to speak, to speak in a language at one and the same time, both mysterious and forceful, and eloquent. It is the language of miracle. It is the language of God's forced intrusion upon the world of men and things, and supernatural disruptions which can be seen and felt, and in so doing, as well as to those who were present on that occasion, matters of profound significance concerning the death of his own dear son, Mark as well as Matthew and Luke all record the first of these miracles, namely, the rending of the veil in the temple at Jerusalem. Matthew alone records the subsequent miracles or the other attendant miracles of the earthquake and the rent rocks,

9:10 the open tomb and the resurrection of the saints who, after the resurrection, and the resurrection of Christ appear in Jerusalem. And this morning we're going to focus our attention upon the first of those miracles, the one recorded for us in Mark's Gospel as well as in Matthew, and consider together God's message in the miracle of the split veil. For I've asserted that no sooner are the lips of Jesus silent, but that God comes forth, to speak. And though he speaks in the language of miracle, speaks in the language of deed, he does speak. And it will be my effort with the scriptures, interpreting the scriptures, to seek to discern God's message in this miracle of the split veil. And as we attempt to hear that message, we shall consider first of all the form, of the message, in what form did the message come. Secondly, the heart of that message, what precisely is God saying to us in that form in which he speaks.

The Form of the Message: The Rent Veil Explained

10:35 And then thirdly, the application of that message to our own hearts. First of all then, the form of the message. The words of Mark 15 and verse 38, are very simple and straight forward. And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom.

11:03 Actually the same thing is Luke 23 to 45. Luke's was rent in the midst, or more accurately, it was rent in the middle. So while Matthew and Mark are almost exactly parallel, Matthew adding the word, and the words, in two differently in the statement. But apart from that, very minor differences, we learn from this additional insight given by the inspiration of the Spirit through Luke, that that veil that was rent in two, was rent in two from top to the bottom, precisely in the middle. Now what actually happened? What was this veil? Where was it?

12:02 What was its function? In answering these questions, we are seeking to grasp the form of the message of the rent veil. Here are the facts in brief. In the temple, there was a thick veil which separated the ordinary area of the priest's functions, called the holy place, from the holy of holies, or the most holy place, to understand, to understand from both the biblical materials, and the additional confirmation from some of the ancient writings, that that veil was about the thickness of a man's hand. When we think of a veil, we think of something thin,

12:55 but not this veil. This veil was thickly woven, extremely heavy. Some rabbinical traditions say it may have taken as many as, 300 people to put it into its proper place. And it was that thick veil that separated the place of the priest's daily and monthly ministrations from that unique and distinct annual visit, the other side of the veil, into the most holy place, the day of atonement.

13:35 And on that occasion, a priest, the high priest in particular, who had properly prepared himself, a very elaborate ritual of personal cleansing and sacrifice for his own sins, would take blood, and would lift the corner of that heavy veil, and slip into that awesome place of the immediate presence of God, there to offer that blood on behalf of the people of God. But no one had more occasion, than the end of the day, the anointment, and no one other, and not even the priest, unless he had duly prepared himself according to divine. If he dared come unprepared, he would be struck dead. And for that very reason, there were bells attached to the border of his garment, that those without might know, by the tinkling of those bells, that he was active within the veil, and had not been, struck dead by the judgment of God upon a presumptuous priest,

14:57 who dared to come into God's immediate presence in an unwarranted way. Therefore, as long as that thick veil was there in the temple, there by divine direction, it was a symbol that free and unfettered access to God, was not yet possible. As long as it was the symbol that access to God was not yet possible. And this is not a deduction that I have spun out of my own head.

15:42 It is the explicit teaching of the word of God in Hebrews chapter 9 verses 6 through 8. Hebrews chapter 9 verses 6 through 8. Speaking of these very accoutrements of the sanctuary of God, the writer to Hebrews says, Now these have been thus prepared, these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, but into the second, the high priest alone, the year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the end, the errors of the people, the whole, signifying that the way, this is not my vision upon the significance of the veil, the interpretation of those realities.

17:06 So as long veil before the of God's presence, God speaking in every thread, strangely wove ornately into my presence, is not yet open. This is the secondいる. The first leader, the same law, how about that. He said, you are not supposed to be the master of good of things, but you are not supposed to be wiser, and you are supposed to be in order to benefit others, and here we get into the three aggregated two, and in the seven, and the eight, and the nine, and the nine, and the ten, and the twenty, and each, and the hundred, and the hundred, and the thousand, and the thousand, and ye have experienced the power of God, which is his word, that Luke can even describe it as though it occurred before bringing these things into close

18:32 conjunction there would be priests rituals of preparing for the evening sacrifice in the temple at Jerusalem and on a special day such as a Passover there would be additional rituals mandated by the word of God and one can imagine what it must have been like on that day while all excitement had occurred with reference to the trial and now the execution of Jesus and the priests are still carrying on their rituals in the temple that in the midst of making preparations for the evening sacrifice suddenly with no warning whatsoever there is the sound had a sheet in his hand and at an unsignaled to the priest they all sheets at the same time you , when that temple, when that curtain in the temple was split from the top to the bottom in a very

19:48 instant or brief period of time and because scripture tells us that it was split from top to bottom in the clear inference is that it was made bare inner sanctuary of the most holy place now let your imagination work and see and feel and seek to draw near to something of the tremendous impression that must have been made upon the ministering priest and upon those who could from a further distance look in and see the very place where men were told that if they dared to enter they would be struck dead well that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and that's the way it is and

The Heart of the Message: God's Open Access Through Christ's Finished Work

21:18 made sin for his people. As he drinks the cup of God's sin, he cries, my God, why have you abandoned me? When he's conscious that the cup has been drained, finished, he says with a sense of restored communion, into thy hands, Father, into thy hands, my spirit. Now as I seek to take that imagery of the cup and the cry of abandonment, and Jesus committing his spirit, now departing his body into the hands of his Father, here I believe is the heart of the message. The Father's loving hands hold the cup in his capacity as the judge of the world, and when he loves to those whom he is dying, the Father takes the cup and holds it. To the lips of his Son, and the Son is drinking the cup of the Father's wrath for the sins put to

22:42 his account, for imputing sin. While the judge of the universe, he turns away his face, while he holds the cup to the lips of his dearly beloved Son. The Son drinks and drinks beneath the darkened heavens, until sensing that the cup is just about done. The cup is now drained, and reaching the point where the agony, fain would break his own soul, there is the cry of dereliction, my God, have you forsaken me?

23:21 And shortly thereafter, the cup being fully drained, throws it away, and the Son shouts in triumph, it is finished. Now the Father's empty hands are open, so when Jesus says, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit, the Father's hands take the departing spirit of Jesus, and land it safely in paradise, and no sooner do his hands receive his spirit, than those same hands reach out into the temple at Jerusalem, and one lays hold of the left side of that massive curtain, one lays, lays bare the holy place. And what is he doing?

24:24 God, because my Son has drained his shouting, is a valid shout into my presence, his mouth, and I will speak that message in a way that none, and so he tears that curtain from top to bottom, and gaze upon him, all, no longer, and all the Levitical system, but in the language of Hebrews 10, verses 19 and 20,

25:16 this is what God says, and notice how the death of Christ, the body of Christ, and the veil in the temple are brought into such close conjunction, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil. We have to enter into the holy dedicated for us, when he bore us in his body up to the tree, when his soul was rent, when he was submerged beneath the billows of the Father's wrath, his soul accomplished the redemption of his people, that the Father's answer to the cry of the Son, it is finished, is spoken in the rent of his soul.

Crucial Instruction: The Dismantling of the Levitical System

26:35 This veil in the temple, there at Jerusalem, well, having looked at the form of the message, secondly, the heart of the message, now then, thirdly, the application of the message of the split or the rent veil, and what I want to do is, first of all, to give a word of crucial instruction, then a word of urgent invitation, and then a word of sober admonition. First of all, a word of crucial instruction. When God sets the veil in the dismantling and the ultimate abrogation of the whole Levitical system. You see, if you're out to dismantle a car, make it of no use, and see that it ends up in the junkyard, you could start with the trim, and with the side mirrors, and with other things, but if you want to start at the heart of it and render it out, then you've got to start at the heart of it. Utterly useless and dismantle it from its most crucial part outward, just throw some sand into the engine.

27:56 Well, that's what God was doing. You see, everything in the Levitical system found, as it were, its apex of expression in the high priest going in once a year, on behalf of the people there to offer up that God might pass over their sins. symbolically for another year. At the very heart of all the priesthood and auctions mandated by God was this concept that God in His infinite holiness and in His inflexible justice, the God who is a consuming fire dwells in the Holy of Holies.

28:40 No man dares who is not warranted to go in. Even the warranted high priest must go in with blood, blood shed from an appropriate victim, blood caught in an appropriate way, blood presented in a prescribed manner.

29:02 And when God's... And lay in sanctuary what God...

29:16 As we read this morning, but a shadow of the substance of the way of access to God.

29:26 Jesus upon God... Their substance,

29:33 sacrifice, Jesus as both priest and offering ought unto God. And when God's...

29:48 has been slain and when God's justice has been satisfied, when His wrath against sin has been placated and the cry... Yes, it is finished.

30:03 All the types and shadows of the ceremonial law and God begins at that point formally and visibly by His own activity to dismantle all Mosaic and Levitical rituals. And God culminates that work when bringing judgment upon the very nation of Israel in 70 A.D. The prophecy of our Lord is fulfilled.

30:33 Not one stone shall be left upon another. And it is said that every single stone was dismantled, hoping to find perhaps gold in the spaces between the stones. And God was saying as we read, this morning, that system was nigh unto vanishing away when the epistle to the Hebrews was written. And now it has indeed vanished.

31:00 And therefore any kind of religion that claims to be the Christian religion that would raise up a priesthood and that would have an altar and that would speak of a sacrifice of others is a reverse. And shadows, and a denigris of the perfection of the work of Jesus Christ.

Urgent Invitation: Bold Access for Sinners and Saints

31:31 It's a word of crucial instruction. God began the dismantling of that system. But then this word from the split and the rent veil is not only a word of crucial instruction but a word of urgent invitation. Both to the sinner and to the child of God.

31:53 I say to everyone, every unconverted man or woman, every boy or girl, every friend or visitor or frequent attender of this place, what do you need to be right with God? The answer of this passage is nothing but Christ and his veiled in virtue. The virtue of my son's flesh. He has been rent in substitutionary death. The way into my presence is open. Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and needy, sick and sore.

32:54 Jesus ready stands to save you. Full of pity, joined with power. You see, God rents the veil because of what he has done at the cross with his son. The hands that held the veil and he rent the veil because the cup was empty.

33:24 On behalf of the vilest of sinners, so that Jesus Christ's words I add, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. May now I just say, but any come to the Father by me. Your sins in their number and magnitude, there are any obstacle to God saving you.

33:52 It's your refusal to come my way into the presence of God. That's what will damn you. What will damn you is not that your sins are so great that they cannot be forgiven, that they are so many that they exceed the virtue of the death of Christ. What will damn you is your refusal to accept the gracious invitation of God spoken so eloquently in the splitting of the veil.

34:25 He says, the way into my presence is open. Hear the cry of my son, my God, why have you forsaken me?

34:34 He was forsaken that sinners who believe in him might not be forsaken in outer darkness. He cried, it is finished. Magnify his cry by saying, oh God, I believe it is finished. And a complete redemption bids me draw near that I might obtain pardon.

34:58 And dear child of God, this forms the very basis of our boldness coming back to Hebrews 10, 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus. How can we have boldness? Because God split the veil and said, it's open to you. Liberty and joy I heard this morning.

35:27 And as I knelt in my study, I tried to visually conceptualize Cod's hands tear open the veil, and God standing with outstretched hands saying, come. Come with boldness. Something even the high priest did not dare do. Always wondering, do I have the ritual just right?

35:57 Did I overlook something? Did I forget something? Those outside waited with bated breath. Would his person and would his sacrifice be accepted?

36:08 And they sighed a sigh of relief when they saw the curtain pushed back at the corner and the high priest come out again. Dear ones, we need not come with hesitation and bated breath. We may come with boldness because the veil has been bent. Christ has done all that is necessary and now lives to secure the present application of the virtue of his death, so that we are told having a great high priest over the house of God with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

36:52 Child of God, are your approaches to God more like that of a trembling old covenant priest rather than the holy boldness of a new covenant priest? For God has made his entire new covenant community a royal priesthood. Preferently, but flippantly, yes, God is a consuming fire was scented upon his son, whose hands having received his departing, split the veil. Now he bids us come with boldness. Ah, but you say I have sinned. Yes, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Child of God, does your manner of coming to God make little of the rent veil?

Sober Admonition: Do Not Stitch Up What God Has Torn

38:01 Or does Jesus Christ, and he delights to be approached with boldness? So I urgently invite you who are yet in your sins to get right with God by going to this God in the light of the virtue of the death of Christ and child of God, your virtue, whenever. And therefore, we can come with boldness. Then thirdly, I add to this word of crucial instruction, this word of urgent invitation, a word of sober admonition. You remember that Jesus said in conjunction, with the marriage institution, adding or commenting on the words of Genesis two, you find this in Matthew 19. After quoting Genesis two, concerning the original purpose of God in marriage, Jesus said, what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Now may I say the reverse is true.

39:21 What God hath put asunder, let not man join together. That would stitch you together again. And if you miss everything else this morning, may God's witness what come under the veil, the way to his presence. Let not man join together.

39:56 On the basis of the work of Christ, the veil is split from the top in some people's mind to within two feet of the bottom. Now you gotta take the rabbi's knife and mosaic rituals and ceremonies to split the remaining two feet. That was the wicked sin of the Judaizers. That brought the curse of God upon their heads.

40:20 What would the Judaizers say? That there was no virtue in the death of Christ? No! Were they saying the veil was not split at all?

40:27 The thing is, the veil is split to within two feet of the bottom. If you Gentiles would get into God's presence without stumbling, go visit the rabbi and let his knife do its work, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then submit yourself to mosaic ceremonies, and then the veil in its last two feet will depart, and you will have free access. And you know what Paul said about that kind of theological stitchery? If anyone come preach unto you any other gospel than that which we preach, let him be accursed of God!

41:05 The needlework that would stitch up the remaining two feet is damnable heresy. Others would say, well, the veil is split from top to bottom. But a few threads are holding it together. And it takes some salty tears and some days of mourning, and it takes a bucket full of sighs to dissolve those remaining threads.

41:35 And if I can bring to God my tears, my sighs, my mourning, they will dissolve the remaining threads, and the way of access will be open, and I can go to God. My friends, the veil is already split. There are no threads waiting to be dissolved by your tears, your sighs, your moans, and your groans. That's to add to the truth of Jesus Christ.

42:02 Go to Him and see for a heartless eyes and a sighless spirit. Oh, go implant in my heart a sense of gratitude for your mercy, love for your Son, and hatred for my sins, that I will need to mourn over them, to weep over them, but tell God that, having passed through into His presence, not waiting for some so-called remaining threads to be dissolved by your tears. Still others would say, well, the veil is rent halfway down, and oh, I cannot get it. I see the opening. Need to split it the rest of the way is the activity of the priest. And I need the virtue of the water, and the way for, and the religious rituals in the right place from the right men at the right time.

43:11 My friends, that's the horrible heresy of Rome. No, when Christ said it is finished, He didn't then whisper, but really not so. It will be finished only when the priest brings the virtue of my death to the altar by his incantations in the mystery of transubstantiation, and my people, having had the water, take the wafer, take the. Jesus said.

43:35 He said it. It is finished, it is finished, it is finished, perfected forever those that are sanctified. And all Romish talk of offering, and sacrifice, and priest is a sewing up of the veil in the temple. Yet there are others who dare to assert that God Himself is going to come back and superintend the making of another veil, and the hanging of that veil in another temple.

44:13 The God who held, He was made sin for His people. The God who received His spirit and split the veil. That God is going to see the veil remade, and order the re-institution of the sacrifices. My friends, at best one can only call it gross ignorance, and at worst, it's blasphemy.

44:47 That veil having been rent by God, and everything that's surrounded it, dismantled in the judgment of God in 70 A.D. will never be reconstructed with God's favor. He has dismantled it forever, forever, forever.

45:10 And I admonish you to beware of any teaching that speaks of a re-constitution of the Mosaic and Levitical system. It has been done in Christ, and the veil having been rent, and God will never, never, never smile, let alone be the author of its re-construction. So you see, there is a message that God's speaking from the rent veil, is there not? It is a message spoken in miracle, but a message so clear when we bring the word of God to bear upon that activity.

Conclusion: The Outcry of the Rent Veil

45:51 And one wonders, and this is my final point, to just sow as a seed in your own mind and heart, that when we read in the book of Acts a statement that for many years puzzled me, Acts chapter 6 and verse 7, and the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. I wonder, I wonder. Could it be? That some of them were there, and the veil was split? Well whether they were there or not, you see, they became obedient to the faith in the same way you and I do. It's when the word of God was proclaimed, and the virtue of Christ in his perfect life and in his substitutionary death was set before him, that those who were most marked for their hardness of heart, who were at the vanguard of all of the faithfulness in theize life and faith of angels and things like unto Christ, saw their blindness and acknowledged that in the very Jesus of Nazareth,

47:18 for whose blood they cried, was indeed God's different body to bear away the sin of the world. Well, may God grant that as we contemplate this morning the reality of the rent veil, that we shall hear its outcry. Well, may God grant that as we contemplate this morning the reality of the rent veil, that we shall hear its outcry. its message, that we shall in our hearts not only hear its message, but respond to its implications for us.

47:48 Whether as those who have never come for the first time, it's the simplicity that is the stumbling block. I know it. If I were to ask you to do something, you'd find it relatively easy to heed the call of the gospel. But when you're called upon to throw the whole weight of your guilty, hell-deserving soul upon Christ, upon the doing and the dying of another, that's the great scandal of the gospel, because you instinctively know that if you do that, then all the glory and praise for your salvation will go to another, and you will have an obligation and a debt of love and gratitude that far exceeds everything. Any commercial debt you could ever incur were you to be saved by your own doings and somehow earn some favor with God. My friends, God split the veil from top to bottom. He says on the basis of what my son has done, I am accessible to any and every sinner who will come by way of the cross of my son.

48:59 Oh, by way of the cross, go to this God, and find that the message of the rent veil is true. Child of God, who too often and too long and in too many circumstances continues to revert to thinking that ultimately the ground of your coming with boldness lies in yourself, hear the word of God.

49:26 A great high priest, let us come with boldness to the throne of grace. Christ. Christ's work is ultimately the only resting place for the saint as well as the sinner. And then beware of any stitchery of any kind that would bring together what God has put asunder.