[0:00] Well, with God's help, if you can turn back to the passage in Matthew, we're going to be referring to the two passages in Exodus and Matthew, but you can open your Bibles at Matthew. Matthew 27. Matthew 27.
[0:11] And just reading again, we'll take as our text the words in verse 51. So Matthew 27, verse 51. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
[0:28] Now, if I was going to begin and ask the question, where is it? Do you see the clearest picture, the clearest illustration of the work of Christ?
[0:42] In the whole of the Bible, if you had to point to one place where you see the clearest picture of the work of Christ, how would you answer that? And there's, I suppose, lots of different ways in which people might answer that.
[0:54] For some, I suppose, the obvious place to go to would be the gospel, the narrative of the gospel, the narrative of the death of Christ and the life of Christ as well. And that would be a valid argument for sure.
[1:06] Other people might point to maybe the likes of some of the amazing Christological passages we have in, say, Paul's letters or maybe some of the other epistles. And maybe you might point there and see there some of the clearest pictures of the work of the Lord.
[1:21] And again, you can make valid arguments for that too. But in some ways, the clearest picture, and I'm highlighting picture in terms of the visual, the clearest visual picture we have in Scripture of the work of Christ, I would argue, is actually to be found in the Old Testament itself and specifically thinking about the many details we have, the details surrounding the actual construction of the tabernacle or the temple and the operation of the temple and tabernacle as well.
[1:56] Because we do have so much detail on those things. It's a strange thing when you're reading through the Bible, when you're going through certain books. It is, in some sense anyway, it is strange that we have so much detail, an unbelievable amount of detail, about how this building, this structure was to be constructed in the tabernacle or in the temple as well.
[2:20] So much detail, an unbelievable amount of detail, not just in how it was to be constructed, but also how it was to be used as well, how it was to function. And if you were in charge of putting the Bible together, praise God, that's not the case, that he leaves it to us to decide how to put the Bible together.
[2:37] But if we were left to the job of putting Scripture together, we would probably think to ourselves, well, given the Bible is a book that covers a vast period of time, so a huge amount of time, and it covers a vast number of themes as well, so many different themes, you would think to yourself, well, it's probably unnecessary really to give so much of it over to basically a blueprint of a building, a blueprint of some kind of a structure.
[3:07] And it is strange to us, you know, why that level of detail? You know, if you think of word count in terms of the Bible, we don't need to think of the Bible in terms of its word count, but if you think of, you know, a set word limit, you know, if you're ever doing an essay and you have to stick to a set word limit, it can be difficult to stick to that limit.
[3:24] Well, if you're thinking of these things in terms of word count, why are there so much words given over just to describing a building? Why is so much, relatively speaking, so much of the content of Scripture there to describe a construction and the operation of this temple or tabernacle structure?
[3:42] And, of course, there's a reason for that. God, of course, knows exactly what he is doing, and that is because the details of these things are there to teach us. Every little detail is there to teach us something of the redemptive work of the Lord, something of the wonder of the work of Christ.
[4:01] And that isn't over-spiritualizing it. You know, sometimes we can be maybe accused of over-spiritualizing certain details and saying, well, that's taken a bit too much out of it. But that's not at all the case here at all.
[4:14] This is not us speculating. And we know that's not the case because, thankfully, we have the New Testament writers on our side. And the New Testament writers, very often you see them, especially in the book of Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews, you see them there describing the way in which all the different parts of the tabernacle, so all the different items that you find in the tabernacle and the temple, how these things teach us about different parts of the work of Christ.
[4:41] So, for example, you could stop at the showbread. You could look at the showbread and use the showbread to learn something about the work of Christ. Similarly, you could look at the lampstand, the branched lampstand.
[4:55] You could use that, again, to learn something about the work of Christ. You can think of the altar of incense. You can think of the bronze altar itself. I think Mordo actually did look at a lot of these items with you in the past.
[5:08] But you can look at all these things. Even the layout, so that the way in which it's laid out, you can look at that as well and actually learn something about Christ. Even the decoration of the place.
[5:19] That's one that we often forget, the decoration. When you looked around and looked at the decoration of what was actually visible. Even those things, even the decorations that you see around these things, teach us about something of the work of Christ as well.
[5:32] But tonight, what I want us to really gather our thoughts around is one particular item. And you would have guessed what it is from the text that I put out a few moments ago.
[5:43] So that is the curtain, as we have it here in this translation, or as it's put elsewhere, the veil. The veil. So this veil that you have between the holy place and the most holy place.
[5:56] The most holy place, of course, is described in the passage we read earlier where the Ark of the Covenant is placed. And that's the place where the priest would have access. Remember, once a year he would enter in.
[6:08] Specifically, he would enter in with the blood of sacrifice. So the veil, the curtain, hugely significant. A lot that we can learn from the veil, the curtain itself.
[6:20] And then, of course, it appears in the New Testament, as we just read there. The veil, the curtain, is torn. It's torn, famously, from top to bottom. And that's significant as well.
[6:30] But the very fact that it's torn as the Lord breathes his last, as he gives up his life there on the cross, again, hugely significant. He had a lot of lessons there for us as the Lord's people.
[6:46] And what I want to do this evening is I want us to look at the two things, really. I want us, first of all, I want us to look at the significance of the veil in the Old Testament.
[6:57] And just lift out a couple of lessons, really, from looking at the veil in the Old Testament, what the veil speaks to us about. It links, to some degree, to what we were looking at last night as well.
[7:08] So that's the first thing we'll do, look at the significance of the veil in the Old Testament. But also then I want to jump forward and look at the significance of the torn veil or the torn curtain in the New Testament, that verse that I just referred to there in Matthew 27.
[7:24] So that's roughly speaking where we're going to go tonight. So these two things. So we'll start off with looking at the veil in the Old Testament. And for this, we're going to be looking back in Exodus just for a few moments.
[7:39] Exodus chapter 26. So in Exodus chapter 26. We'll just spend a little bit of time here. So Exodus chapter 26.
[7:50] And just read again in verse 33 there. So Exodus 26, verse 33, we read there that the veil shall separate for you the holy place from the most holy.
[8:07] And as we look at that veil, and especially in relation to the Old Testament, as I mentioned, it teaches us a few things. I'm just going to identify two things. So two things here that I think the veil teaches us and speaks to us about.
[8:23] And the first one links to what we were looking at last night. So the first one is that the veil speaks to us of a barrier. A barrier, or as we thought of it last night, we thought about it in terms of separation.
[8:35] So separation or a barrier. So that's the first thing that comes out very clearly when you look at the veil. So the way in which the tabernacle or the temple as well, the way in which they were actually structured.
[8:47] You remember you have the outer court, first of all. And you can almost think of it like concentric circles. You know, the outer court first. Then you've got the holy place within that. And then, of course, within the holy place, you have the most holy place.
[9:01] That's the place that I referred to earlier on, what the Ark of the Covenant is. And it was that inner circle, if you like, that most holy place, that was the area that was associated with the very special presence of the Lord.
[9:17] And here you have this veil there. And the veil is clearly there in a visual way to be a barrier. It is quite clearly a boundary between the holy place and the most holy place.
[9:30] So it very much communicates. In that visual way, it communicates separation. You can see from looking at the veil and thinking of the veil that there's this clear barrier in place.
[9:42] And when we were looking at this theme of separation last night, we were thinking about the Garden of Eden. Because that's where this all begins. That's where the barrier, the separation, actually takes place in the events of the fall of man.
[9:57] And the interesting thing there is that in the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Eden is actually presented to us, really, as being like a temple.
[10:09] It is really to be seen as the first temple. In some ways, when you read Genesis, that is abundantly clear to think of the Garden of Eden like a temple.
[10:20] But the more you read on in the Old Testament, that does come through very strongly. That we're meant to see the Garden of Eden as a temple. And you can see that by the links.
[10:31] The links. So the Garden is like a temple. And actually, the opposite side of that is that the temple, or the tabernacle, is meant to be seen as a garden. A garden temple as well.
[10:41] They're both, really, garden temples. And the way you can tell is through the links between them. So, for example, even geographically.
[10:52] So the Garden of Eden, of course, is on a hill. It's placed on a hill. And then if you think about the temple in Jerusalem, there you have it, the temple on that hill. And how is the temple decorated?
[11:03] Like, if you were to walk in, if you're allowed to walk into the holy place and all these parts, what would you see? Well, you would be struck by the garden decoration. So much garden decoration in the temple.
[11:15] You know, palm trees and pomegranates and flowers and all sorts. It's strikingly like a garden. And that was meant to hit you, that the temple was very much like this garden place, like Eden itself.
[11:30] Similarly, in the Garden of Eden, you've got the tree, the tree of life. And in the temple, in the holy place, you've got this tree-like thing as well. You've got this branched lamp stand there.
[11:41] So there's all these parallels, these links that you have. And then you've got Adam as well. And it's interesting, Adam, when we read about Adam and the role of Adam in the Garden of Eden, we read that Adam is to tend the garden, to keep it.
[11:58] And the Hebrew, the actual Hebrew language, it's the same Hebrew language that's used to describe the role of the priests. So when you think of the priests in the temple, it's the same language that's used. So the idea really is that Adam is like the priest in the temple of Eden.
[12:13] So it's very much, there's lots of other links as well. I'll just try to highlight a few of them there. But it very much seems to be the case that Eden is presented to us as being like a temple, the first temple.
[12:25] So that's the place where Adam dwelt with God. That's what the temple's all about, really, how man dwells in the presence of the Lord himself. But, as we touched on last evening, we saw, of course, that Adam and Eve, they sinned.
[12:43] And that resulted in them obviously no longer having access to the tree of life. They could no longer actually be in the presence of a holy, righteous God.
[12:53] And as a result of that, they're thrown out of the garden. And then a barrier is set in place. So even the Garden of Eden, you have this barrier, this kind of, I suppose, you could say this sort of veil that's there.
[13:05] And what's the barrier in the Garden of Eden? It's cherubim. Cherubim is there, the cherubim with a flaming sword as well. So again, with a picture of the cherubim, the Garden of Eden, again, you have this idea of separation, this barrier.
[13:20] So before there was no sin, there was no separation, no barrier. And then after that, after sin comes in, there's a barrier in place. The cherubim is there, the flaming sword is there as well.
[13:32] And interestingly, on that note, see in Exodus 26 and verse 31, we read about the design of the veil. And we read there, The imagery is quite striking.
[13:58] So the veil, the actual veil of the tabernacle, the temple, it actually had pictures of cherubim on it. And again, that's very much a reminder of the Eden temple, you know, where in Eden you have the cherubim there on guard, guarding really access into the holy presence of God.
[14:17] And now in the tabernacle, you've got this veil as the barrier. And this picture is quite literally of the cherubim on this, guarding access into the holy presence of the Lord.
[14:28] So the veil, it very much was a visible way of saying that man in his sinfulness, man in his unrighteousness, has no right of access into the presence of the Lord.
[14:42] So a barrier, that comes through very clearly. And actually, when you think of that idea of a barrier, that's not only true when it comes to temple. It's not only true when it comes to tabernacle.
[14:55] You actually see it in other parts of Scripture as well. And again, in a very visual way. So for example, Mount Sinai would be another example of this. And Mount Sinai, if you look into Mount Sinai, actually, Mount Sinai is also really described to us as being like a temple.
[15:11] Where you have the top of the mountain where God dwells, being like the most holy place. So there you have the most holy place. And the people are on the outer courts, as it were, on the bottom of the mountain.
[15:22] And only Moses is allowed to the top. And before Moses comes to the top, what happens? Sacrifice. A massive sacrifice. Basins of blood involved. And then Moses goes to the top.
[15:33] So that whole scene is very much like a temple kind of language, temple kind of structure to it as well. But importantly, when the people looked up there, they couldn't see God.
[15:44] Even though God is dwelling there on the top of the mountain, they couldn't see. Because the Lord is veiled in this smoke and this cloud at the top of the mountain. So there's a veil there.
[15:55] So even there, Mount Sinai, that kind of temple scene, there's this kind of barrier there. There's a veil that's present. And you have a similar thing as well when you think of the Mount of Transfiguration too.
[16:07] So on the Mount of Transfiguration, you have the presence, the Shekinah glory of the Lord there in cloud form. We link the presence of the Lord, the glory of the Lord to the cloud.
[16:22] We make that connection there. But in many ways, the cloud is really there to veil the glory of God. It's like to prevent the people from seeing something of the wonder and the glory of the Lord.
[16:33] So you see this idea of the veil, this barrier in lots of places. And here, this veil speaks of this separation between sinful man and God.
[16:46] And again, we were touching on this element of it last night as well. Because when the Lord begins, when the Lord actually begins to work in your life, and when you start to become aware of your sin, remember before you're numb, as we're discussing, but then when the Lord begins to work, you become aware of your sin.
[17:05] And what happens is you become aware as well of this barrier, this gulf that exists between yourself and the Lord. And even as we gather in church, you know, there's something of that in us as well, where we're aware of our own lack of holiness, and the sense that we come into the presence of the Lord, and it's almost like we want a barrier.
[17:27] It's like we want there to be a barrier in place. Thankfully, there's a solution for this, and we will be coming on to the solution in a few moments. But that's the first thing. So the first thing, when we're looking at the veil in the Old Testament, thinking of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple, speaks of a barrier, separation.
[17:44] But there's something else as well. The second thing that it teaches us about, or the second thing that it gives us, is hope. Hope as well.
[17:54] So maybe that's not so obvious. The separation may be more obvious, but what about this one? Hope. And the reason I say that the veil gives us hope is because when you actually stop and think about it, the veil is actually designed to be an entrance.
[18:09] It's not just designed to be a barrier. I mean, it is a barrier, clearly. First and foremost, that's what it is. It's a barrier. But it clearly is designed to be passed through. The fact that there was a veil between the two, a veil between the holy place and the most holy, it suggests that, yes, there is a barrier, but also, importantly, there is a possibility of entrance.
[18:32] There's a possibility of actually going through. And sure enough, when you look at the Old Testament, that's exactly what happens. The high priest is allowed through. It's not that nobody's ever allowed through. The high priest is once a year, granted, and only with the blood of sacrifice.
[18:48] But there was a way in. And that must have given hope to Israel. It's not just a closed box that nobody ever gets into. There is some way of access. There's a way through the veil.
[18:59] There is the possibility. The possibility of access. And the same is true, actually, when you think of, again, when you think of the Garden of Eden and you think of the cherubim with the flaming sword blocking, as it were, the entrance to Eden.
[19:13] The entrance is still there. In the picture, I mean. The entrance is still there. It's not that the entrance itself has actually been removed or taken away. The entrance is there, but the cherubim blocks the access.
[19:25] The cherubim is there to guard the way. And even that picture, that picture, it highlights the fact that a way back is possible. I guess there's a barrier, cherubim, flaming sword, but a way back is possible.
[19:39] If that flaming sword, if the flaming sword of the justice of the Lord, if that can be satisfied, then there is. There is a way of access, again, into the presence of the Lord himself.
[19:52] And in many ways, that is the whole tension of the rest of Scripture. You know, after Genesis 3, the whole tension of the rest of Scripture is, is there going to be a way back in?
[20:03] You know, they've lost the way. They've lost the access into the presence. Now the question is, will there be a way back into the garden of God's presence? Will there be a way past that flaming sword?
[20:13] Will there be a way past that cherubim? Will there be a way to get through the veil? Will that veil be torn down? That's the question that's really lifted and that's being answered all the way through the pages of Scripture.
[20:30] And of course, all of that is pointing to Christ. All of that is pointing forward to the work of our Lord. So that's what I want us to move to now. So we've looked at the veil in the Old Testament, the tabernacle, the temple, speaking of a barrier, speaking of separation, but also hope, hope that there's a way of access possible, that there is a possibility of a way in.
[20:54] Now I'm going to move to the New Testament and that passage we touched on there in Matthew. I want us to think here about, of course, one of the amazing, miraculous events that takes place during the time of the death of Christ.
[21:11] There's lots of amazing, miraculous things that happen at the time of the death of Christ. Lots of wonderful details. But one of these details is the fact there of the curtain or the veil actually tearing.
[21:26] So we read there again in verse 50, And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
[21:40] And the significance of that, I think, is pretty obvious to us. It's about as clear as it could be, I think. The veil of separation, that barrier that was there, that barrier between God and man, that barrier there is removed.
[21:56] So now, as a result of this, sinners now have access. Sinners now have access into the presence of a holy God. And why? Why is that possible? It's possible, of course, because of the death of Christ, because of his sacrificial death.
[22:12] And again, if you think back to Eden and the picture that I built up there in Eden, and you think of the flaming sword of God's justice, remember, the only way in was if the flaming sword of the justice of God is satisfied.
[22:28] And in order for the flaming sword of the justice of God to be satisfied, that sword very simply had to see blood. That was the only way. And at the cross, that's exactly what's happening.
[22:40] At the cross, the sword of the Father is coming down, and the sword of the Father is coming down on his own Son. As it comes down on his own Son, the sword of justice, as that sword of justice, as it were, pierces through the very soul of Christ and his sufferings, as that's taking place, it's as though that same sword is cutting down the veil.
[23:02] It's as though that same sword is cutting down that curtain. So that when the sword is piercing through his own Son, the sword of the Father, the sword of his justice, that veil, that veil itself is being torn down as well.
[23:19] And the fact that it's from top to bottom very much highlights that. You know, that is not just a wee detail. There's huge significance there as well. It's clearly from God.
[23:30] It's like it's God himself, from the Lord himself, from heaven to earth. The veil, the curtain is torn, and that's a sign that the once for all sacrifice that Christ makes, it's accepted.
[23:43] So that's hugely significant. Don't forget that. But when the veil is torn, it's like the Lord saying, this, the sacrifice that my Son has offered, this sacrifice has been accepted.
[23:54] You see, it's the sword. It's the sword of the Father himself piercing through, piercing through Christ. That's what opens up the way for our salvation.
[24:06] It's quite a thought to think of it like that, but that's what opens up the way for our salvation. And to enter into that salvation, we must be united to Christ. We must be in Christ. And when we put our faith in him, that's exactly what's happening.
[24:18] When we put our faith in the Lord, we are being united to him. And it's that union that ultimately secures our entrance into the heavenly presence of the Lord, the heavenly Holy of Holies, that place where Christ has entered.
[24:36] And he's entered not just as our priest, but he's also entered as the offering. That's the strange thing. He's the priest and the offering. That's very unusual.
[24:46] He's the two things. He's the offering and he's the priest. And as a result of that, as he comes with the offering of his own blood, that's what results in that veil being torn.
[24:59] And it's interesting as well, when you think back to entering into God's presence in the Old Testament, there was two things required. I've already stressed the importance of blood.
[25:12] You know, the high priest would come with blood, so we know that's required. That's definitely for sure. Blood is required. But there is actually something else required as well. And that's why we sang earlier on from Psalm 15.
[25:27] You see this sort of thing in Psalm 24 as well. And in these two Psalms, Psalm 15 and Psalm 24, there's a question being asked, really, who can ascend the hill of God?
[25:39] Who can enter into the holy presence? Who can enter into the holy presence of the Lord himself? And then you have this answer. You have this answer.
[25:50] And the answer is, we read, we sang some of them in Psalm 15, all these qualifications. A whole list of qualifications. There's other qualifications in Psalm 24 as well. So for example, in Psalm 15, who may dwell in your holy hill?
[26:04] He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. And you can go on as well. So the qualification or one of the qualifications for entering in to the presence of God is very clearly righteousness.
[26:18] And that means that left to ourselves, no sinner could ever enter into the presence of the Lord. That's very clear from Scripture. But the wonder of the gospel, the good news that we have in the gospel is that Christ can and Christ does.
[26:35] And he passes through the veil of the holy of holies, the heavenly holy of holies, not just because he comes with a blood sacrifice. That's part of it, important part of it as well.
[26:46] But not just because he comes with a blood sacrifice, but also because he comes as one who is himself righteous. So the sacrifice of Christ is the sacrifice of one who himself is righteous, the sacrifice of a righteous servant.
[27:04] So it's not just the death of Jesus that results in the veil being torn. It's not just the death of Jesus that results in that curtain being torn and the way of access being opened up.
[27:18] It's also his life. The life is important as well, his righteous life. Because the Old Testament very clearly teaches that in order to get access into the presence of the Lord, blood is required, yes, but so too, so too is a righteous life.
[27:34] And that's exactly what we have in Christ. That's the wonder of our Savior. Not just that he's died and shed his blood as an atoning sacrifice, but also his righteous life.
[27:45] The two things, the righteous life and the sacrificial death as well. He is the only one who could do that. That's the God-man. He is the only one who could do that, enter into the heavenly holy of holies and present that perfect atoning sacrifice to appease the justice of God.
[28:04] And with the veil being torn, that's God saying, accept it. I accept this sacrifice. But the tearing of the veil, it doesn't just signify that the way is open for sinners to be saved.
[28:20] There's another thing here as well. It also signifies the destruction of the old temple and really the beginning of a new era, a beginning of the era of the new temple.
[28:35] Now, what is the new temple? If the old temple's been destroyed, what is the new temple? Where is the new temple? Who? Maybe that's a better question. Who is the new temple?
[28:45] And of course, the new temple is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Things are completely changing from this point on. Forgiveness of sin is no longer to be found now by you going to a building in Jerusalem.
[28:57] It's no longer to be found by going to a temple structure in Jerusalem. Forgiveness is now found by going to Christ, going to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We worship God now, not through a physical temple structure.
[29:12] We worship the Lord now in Christ. We gather together in Christ. It is in Christ that we're coming, offering our worship. And the veil being torn here, the veil being torn, that's a symbol.
[29:25] It's more than a symbol. It's literal, isn't it? The temple is being destroyed, the curtain. The rest of the temple, it would be a few more years until it was destroyed. But this is the beginning of it.
[29:36] The veil is being torn, the curtain is being torn. And the reason for that is that the very thing that the temple is pointing towards, you know, all these things, all these pictures, the very thing that it was pointing towards has already arrived.
[29:51] Because all these things are pointing forward to Christ. And now Christ has come by this point. Christ is here. So there's no longer any need. There's no longer any need for that structure.
[30:02] The Lord himself has come. He is the new temple. And if your faith here this evening is in the Lord Jesus Christ, then amazingly, you're actually part of that temple.
[30:16] You know, that's quite a thought. Yes, it's true that Jesus is the temple, but in another sense, we are part of that temple as well. You know, Jesus is the cornerstone or the capstone.
[30:28] And we are all, we are all in this spiritual temple like stones. You see that in Ephesians, you know, stones, all of us. And we're all engrafted into the spiritual building, the spiritual temple building with the Lord Jesus Christ, as I was saying there, as the very cornerstone.
[30:45] And that spiritual temple has no veil. There's no veil at all, no curtain. It's a temple in which we have access. We have access into the holy presence of our Lord through Christ.
[30:57] Not because of us, but through Christ, through his death, through his righteousness. And that's a temple that's growing all the time. It's a temple that's growing all the time. Every time someone is saved, every time someone's taken from darkness to light, it's like a stone being engrafted into this spiritual building.
[31:14] It's just growing organically all the time. And even as the Lord's people themselves, as we grow in our faith, as we're being sanctified, again, that building's growing. It's growing all the time.
[31:26] There's this organic picture of this spiritual temple that's growing. The spiritual temple that ultimately is Christ, but also is the church. You know, we are very much part of the picture.
[31:37] And that's a temple that will continue to grow right throughout history until ultimately the day when we will enter into the new heaven. The new heaven, the new earth that awaits the Lord's people.
[31:52] And that will be in itself a heavenly temple that awaits us. I know we refer to the fact that there is no temple there, and that's true, there's no temple there. But the reason for that is the whole place itself is a temple.
[32:03] What awaits us in glory, the whole thing is a temple. It's a place where we meet with the Lord himself. And we will meet there with unveiled face.
[32:16] No veils required at that point. No sin to mar or worship. We're so aware of that here, the way in which our sin marges are worshiped, which our sin marges are understanding. But there, when we enter into glory itself, we will enter into a place where we'll have none of these things, none of these barriers, none of these veils, and we'll be before our Lord worshiping for all eternity.
[32:38] And importantly, never will a veil be erected again either. It's not just that there's not going to be one when we enter glory. There never will be one. There never will be another barrier.
[32:50] There never will be another Genesis 3 type event. Never again will a cherubim with a flaming sword stop us, stop us from access to the presence of the Lord.
[33:04] Why? Because that one time sacrifice of Christ has torn that veil forevermore. So we don't have to go into glory wondering, might that veil go back up sometime in the future?
[33:16] Might the cherubim appear again? Might we be cast out again? No, we will not because of the one time sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So the way has been opened.
[33:29] The way has been opened. And what we have to ask ourselves tonight is, well, what side of that entrance are you on? What side of that entrance are you on?
[33:41] Are you still on the outside? The way has been opened, but are you still on the outside? And if that is the case, if it is the case that you're still on that outside, you fall on your knees and you seek the Lord.
[33:52] You come and you put your trust and your faith in the Lord. You respond. Respond to the invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has already opened up that way for you.
[34:03] And if you have already come through, if you have, which I know many of us in here have, if you've already come through that veil, then don't hide that fact. Don't hide that fact.
[34:15] Instead, come out boldly on the side of Christ and in obedience and thankfulness to the Lord for all that the Lord has done. When we think of all that He's done there and opening this way up, think of all that He's done for us.
[34:27] It is our job to step out in faith and say, the Lord has saved me. The Lord has healed me as we're thinking about in our service yesterday evening as well.
[34:39] The Lord has done all this for me. So what will I do for Him? I will profess my faith. I will be obedient to what He calls on me to do and I will come and I will sit at the table of the Lord, God willing, as we gather there tomorrow.
[34:54] And may that be the case for every one of us here this evening. So may the Lord bless these few thoughts to us as we prepare our hearts and souls, God willing, to come and sit at His table.
[35:09] So we'll bow our heads now in a word of prayer. Father, Heavenly Father, we give thanks for the wonder of salvation and the wonder of Your Word.
[35:26] We give thanks for the way in which it all connects together. Even though it is in some ways multiple books brought together, in another way we can see that it is one book, one wonderful redemptive story and we see the connections all the way from Genesis right the way through the prophets and the Gospels and through the New Testament even into Revelation itself.
[35:51] A wonderful unity, a wonderful tapestry of the plan of God being outworked. And we see that great tension in Genesis chapter 3 where the barrier is put in place, separation is there and we see that question being wonderfully answered in the temple, in the tabernacle and most importantly of all there at the cross as we see our Lord giving His life, the one who lived a life of perfect righteousness and the one who died that atoning death in order that our sins might be washed away.
[36:28] And our prayer is that every one of us would respond to that, that we would be enabled to respond by Your Spirit and that we would be enabled to show forth our faith and to show forth our love for the Lord by coming and sitting at Your table tomorrow.
[36:43] So prepare us for that, we ask. Cleanse us now from sin for Jesus' sake. Amen. We're going to bring our time of worship to a close by singing in the Scottish Psalter and in Psalm 24.
[36:59] So I made reference a few moments ago to Psalm 24 in the Scottish Psalter. So again, we're not singing from here but just reading from verse 3 there, Who is the man that shall ascend into the hill of God?
[37:19] So again, you have that question, who can come in? And the answer, the one whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure and unto vanity, who have not lifted up his soul nor sworn deceitfully.
[37:31] And again, it speaks of the righteousness, the righteousness that Christ lived out, a righteousness that He imputes to us, of course. And now He calls on us. Although we can't live perfectly according to these qualifications, He does now call on us to seek to live according to these things.
[37:45] And then towards the end of the Psalm, you have this wonderful chant of victory in verse 7 to 10. And that's what we're going to sing in verse 7 to 10. Ye gates lift up, your heads on high.
[37:57] Ye doors that last foray. Be lifted up, that so the King of glory enter me. But who of glory is the King? The mighty Lord is this, even that same Lord that great in might and strong in battle is.
[38:10] Ye gates lift up, your heads. Ye doors, doors that do last foray. Be lifted up, that so the King of glory enter me. But who is He that is the King of glory? Who is this?
[38:21] The Lord of hosts, and none but He, the King of glory. So we'll sing Psalm 24, verse 7 to the end to the Lord's praise. verse 7 to 10.
[38:33] Ye gates lift up, your heads on high. Ye doors that last foray.
[38:48] He lifted up, and so the King of glory enter me.
[39:00] But who of glory is the King? The mighty Lord is this, in the same Lord that great in might and strong in battle is.
[39:27] Ye gates lift up, your heads ye doors, doors that do last foray.
[39:58] He lifted up, and so the King of glory enter me.
[40:11] But who is He that is the King, the King of glory?
[40:21] The King of glory who is this, the Lord of hosts, and none but He, the King of glory is, the Lord of hosts, and none but He, the King of glory is.
[40:54] Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen, Amen Amen Amen And now may the grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit continue with you all now and forevermore.
[41:46] Amen.