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Dr. Irwin "Rocky" Freeman
That song I have returned. I can't help but think when we were in Israel to go to the Wailing Wall and To stand which the people waited for years and years and years and years and it was only possible after the six-day war, but I Don't know that a Gentile and I don't say this critically can understand what it really means to stand at that great wall.
Which is the only Visible remaining part of the great temple in which Jesus Christ himself worshipped. We just sort of think about it as the Western Wall and the Wailing Wall and all that but it is the only Visible remaining part to the same temple that the Lord Jesus Christ worshipped in and It's meaningful to go and stand and just look at it and just thank the Lord.
Walk right by there, maybe even put his hands up there somewhere. Who knows. And yet it's such a magnificent thing and I like that song. I just appreciate it and I thank the Lord for you being here if you have your Bibles.
We're just going to very casually go through some scripture, but I believe that it'd be worth your while to have a notebook. Pencil and paper pen and pad because we're going to give you an awful lot of information this week.
You are not going to be able to remember it. I can't remember it and I wrote it. And I have my notes in front of me and I'll be right around them somewhere. I'm going to give you some statistics from time to time.
I'm going to give you some things that appear only once in the Bible and Then I'm confident that we're going to be able to share some insights with you this week. That perhaps maybe hasn't crossed your mind at one time or other and I think maybe we'll cover some of them even this evening.
But you know the Lord gave us a great secret and Joe your pastor has learned that secret, and I'm trying to learn it. Jesus spent most of his time Teaching just a few men. Everything he knew on the earthly plane he revealed unto them the truths of his father and Basically he spent his time with three men didn't he Peter James and John?
Just basically three men and he tried to convey to those three men and yet if you think of who those three men were they were strategic. Simon Peter was to be the Apostle to the what Apostle to the Jews.
John Wrote the Gospel of John that explains the deity of Christ for a second third John and the incomparable book of the Revelation the one book in the Bible that is the glorious display of the splendor of Christ and James became the first pastor of the great church in Jerusalem and it was under his leadership that was decided that Paul would be the Apostle to the Gentiles and So three men who are crucial and strategic in the movement of Christianity.
And yet all of these men were schooled in what you and I are talking about this week. And that is the tabernacle in Hebrews the ninth chapter you will see a very familiar passage of Scripture Throughout this week.
We will come back to this passage time and time again in Hebrews the ninth chapter beginning with verse 11, let's just read about four or five verses, but Christ Being come and high priest of good things to come.
By a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say Not of this building not built in this manner neither by the blood of goats and calves. But by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place.
Having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer Sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit?
Offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament. That means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament.
They who are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance. Let's go on for where a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is our force after men are dead.
Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the First Testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and Scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people.
Saying this is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined on to you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry everything in the tabernacle and almost all things Are by the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission or is no forgiveness of sin.
Now it says in this passage here. You see it up there in the 11th verse it says the greater and more perfect tabernacle a Shadow of things to come is what it indicates to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God called Moses and the children of Israel out of Egypt in order that he might reveal himself to Egypt and through Israel to the world.
And Amidst the thunder and the lightning and the flashing of the light and the clap of the thunder and the darkness that would be. Because the cloud was upon Mount Sinai God gave the Ten Commandments as we mentioned and discussed together and agreed upon last night and on that same mountain in the same Wilderness at the same time God gave the wilderness tabernacle.
Now when God gave the Ten Commandments He showed to Moses and you and me how dreadfully lost a man can really be because he cannot it is Impossible for him to keep the holy commandments of God. They are perfect and they are holy and they cannot be kept.
But when God gave the wilderness tabernacle and later on his son He also showed how wonderfully saved a man can be out of the dreadfulness of being that lost. Now from Mount Sinai where the people want to agree with me or not I believe that Moses saw the entire plan of redemption and I believe he knew it.
I Believe that Moses saw that entire plan of redemption and was told to put in a concrete objective form something that people could see and that it was tangible the spiritual things that he knew in his heart that God revealed to him and the wilderness tabernacle is the result of that confrontation that he had with God and Moses was exhorted time and time again to be very careful and to be very Delicately how he placed that tabernacle and what he did and he was to follow according to the plan and the words are which was showed thee in the mount and Time and again God warned him to make sure you do it.
Just like I showed you in the mount and there is a reason for that. Of course and in this ninth chapter of the book of Hebrews not just one time but we are told several times that the tabernacle in the wilderness was a type a Shadow a picture a foreglean so to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world and he is called a greater and more perfect? Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say none of this building now.
Let me just quickly go over the structure of this building. We're not going to go into the details of it. I'll give those to you later in the week when they won't be so laborious to you. I don't want to be tedious to go into the dimensions.
But it is important that we understand the layout of it and I want you to use your imagination with me some this week the Tabernacle basically just for our conversation tonight was an oblong building.
It was an oblong structure and it was divided in basically two parts with a veil or a great curtain. Separating the two parts so that the innermost room with perfect measurements. Perfect measurements the height the width and the breadth were equal and it was made of the perfect metal Gold that was the innermost Building our room so to speak and it was called of course the what the Holy of Holies.
Now it was lighted with what a candelabra. No, it had no light in it whatsoever. The room was completely burnished in gold and it was enclosed by that veil and it had no light whatsoever. It would have been totally dark with one exception the glory of God lighted that place.
What a beautiful thing it must have been that luminous scintillating flame that indicated the glorious presence of God the Shekinah as the Hebrew people would call it. The personal presence of Majesty was whirling in there and the display of the light that must have been off of that wall.
And it was the perfect dimensions a perfect measurements and also the perfect metal gold. And it was called the Holy of Holies. Now the outer room of the tabernacle was called the holy place. The holy place it wasn't the Holy of Holies.
But it also had golden walls and a beautiful curtain which formed the entrance. Now the Holy of Holies Had one piece of furniture in it. Did it not just one piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies and this was called the golden ark of the Covenant an app Oblong box again and basically it was covered with gold.
The lid of the ark was one piece of Solid gold and it was called the mercy seat now to golden cherubim to golden angelic beings lay prostrate Upon the golden lid with their faces toward one another. Now the actual the real the literal the actual Presence of the glory of God was just over the mercy seat and between the two faces of the cherubim.
The actual presence of God was there all night God himself because God is spirit. But the glory of God the same kind of glory that God showed Moses when he said hide in the cleft of the rocks and You'll see the afterglow as I move by it is that which was in there.
Now think with me of a cross. Let your mind see a cross from where you are up here to the platform. See that cross up this way. Perhaps now listen to me if you think of a huge cross lying flat on the ground from where?
You are this way. The head of the cross would be right where the golden ark of the Covenant was in the Holy of Holies and The cross beam of the cross would be in the holy place. Now of course the curtain would be here.
The veil Would be hiding the head of the cross. But the next there the cross beam would be here and the three pieces of furniture in that part would form that cross beam. And there was the golden candlestick would be on your left and the wonderful Altar of incense would be in the center and the table of and the King James says show bread.
That is from the German theologian Martin Luther called shaw bride, but in the Hebrew it actually means the bread of faces. The bread of faces would be to the far side on the other side and there would you would have your cross beam.
Now the brazen Laver of cleansing would be in front of the building where the priest washed themselves before going in to the tabernacle. And then of course you have the brazen altar of Sacrifice. Beyond the brazen laver was this wonderful altar of sacrifice.
Which would be at the foot of the cross now in Exodus and Leviticus those two books? 1500 years before Christ died on the cross God Directed that five pieces of furniture five being the number of grace.
Of course in Scripture God directed that five pieces of furniture would be placed in the form of an exact cross. In a building that would be very precious to him and would be that which would allow man to come back to God.
Now God Almighty only uses two chapters in the Bible to describe the entire creation of the universe. He uses basically two chapters to describe the entire creation of all of his universe. He uses almost 45 Chapters in the Bible to describe the building of the tabernacle and the services directly connected with it.
I will give those to you about 35 of these chapters are in Exodus and Leviticus beginning with Exodus chapter 25. The tabernacle takes up nearly all the rest of the book. You begin at Leviticus 1 and the tabernacle goes almost all the way through the entire book to chapter 25 in the book of Leviticus.
Now the tabernacle needless to say was very dear to the heart of God because it represented His only beloved son and what his beloved son would do for us. The cross is so everlastingly Important that God directed the furniture inside and outside the tabernacle to be placed in the form of that wonderful cross.
Now we mentioned the light. Let's just see for a moment in our thinking. How could God tell in objective form about the Lord Jesus Christ long before? He came as that greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands.
Alright, the golden candlestick was in there was it not you have a picture of it in your mind. Why was it made of the perfect metal gold? Why couldn't it have been made of something else? Why was gold the perfect metal used?
Why did it employ the perfect number seven? Why are there seven holders to it? Why could it be six? Why wasn't it four? Why didn't they use four and use big candles or something of that nature? Why did they just use one big holder and conserve space?
Why was it perfect metal gold? Why was it the perfect number seven, of course? The reason is obvious to us. It was a perfect picture of Jesus who says I am the light of the world and he was perfect. What about this table of showbread?
Why else something so humble as bread and so magnificent a building. The reason of course again is obvious to us. The table of showbread was again a type a picture of Jesus Christ who later on would say I am the bread of life.
What about the golden altar of incense? Jesus stands at the right hand of God the Father and he ever lives to want to make intercession for us and As the incense was burned and the smoke moved toward the nostrils of God so to speak.
It was a sweet savor unto him and friends. They are indicative of the prayers that go to God and it is a picture of the great Intercessory work because it smoothed the things between man and God and it's a picture of Christ pleading for us Before the Holy of Holies of God because that's where the incense was and the wonderful Golden Ark of the Covenant.
There are many reasons as why that Ten Commandments is in there. Let me give you one. The Ark of the Covenant contained three things. Basically it contained the Ten Commandments. It claimed contained the pot of manna and also the rod that Aaron had that budded.
We'll talk about them as the week progresses. But suffice it to say at this point that the Ten Commandments which was in the very presence of God in the Holy of Holies. Represents Jesus Christ who alone kept the law and of course when God looked down and saw the law He saw we were condemned.
But when he looked down and saw the blood on the mercy seat, he couldn't see the law. Therefore we are forgiven but not because we kept the law. We are forgiven because Christ kept the law. He is the only one that can keep the law.
No one else could we have the brazen laver? Contained the water and stood outside the little building. We'll go over these again as the week goes along. But it was a type of Jesus who cleanses us from sin and who himself is the water of life.
The brazen altar sacrifice Jesus who gave himself for us. You begin to sense one word when you think about the tabernacle. If you're really discerning you begin to sense the word holy holy holy. God had pleasure with the tabernacle and it was very precious to God.
No human being Was allowed to even enter ever through the veil in the holy of holies. No human being could go in there. Why not? Because God is holy and all men are sinners. There can be no possible affinity between a holy being and a sinful being.
They must forever and always be Separated. So the veil was placed there to keep mankind from God. It was extremely and always necessary. We do not realize fully the holiness of God. We don't realize how holy he really and truly is.
We miss it. The light and the presence of God are more Wonderful than the light of a physical Sun that you see and yet it displays its light around the universe. All the time the Sun of the solar system is 93 million miles away.
The scientists tell us That the light that comes to us from the Sun is so powerful. I didn't say the heat. I just said the light. The light from the Sun is so powerful that if a man could just get within 30 million miles of the Sun.
Not the heat but the light of the Sun would blow him to the four corners of the universe because of its power. That is in the light of the Sun. In Leviticus 10 you read about two young boys. Don't you Nadab and Abihu.
Do they sound familiar to you. Look at Leviticus the 10th chapter with me. I want you to see them a lot of people say Rocky why you always call young people down from talking in church services. I'm trying to prevent Leviticus 10 and if you think it won't happen my friends it does happen.
And Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron are there that is a high priest. Took either of them is sensor and put fire there in verse 1 chapter 10 Leviticus and Put incense there on and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not.
God didn't tell him to do it. They did what they won't do apart from God's leadership. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. These two sons of a high priest one day They just entered into the holy place apart from God's directions, and they were instantly burned to cinders.
It is my personal conviction and only a personal conviction. I believe if they had gone into the Holy of Holies Where the presence of God was I believe the entire solar system would have been blown apart.
I believe with more violence than a thousand tons of atomic energy. If it had been released I believe there would have been an explosion that would have rocked this universe if those two simple boys ever gone into the Holy of Holies where the holiness of God was that's how holy God is.
God hates sin and God hates anything and anybody that is connected with sin. The problem facing eternity was then how can a sinner? Approach a holy God and that was the question to solve that problem.
God Almighty Exhausted the resources of infinity he searched throughout his creation. So to speak he exhausted all Infinity and eventually sent the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross to make it possible.
For sinful men to come into the presence of a holy God. But they didn't come without blood and nobody comes without blood. The great plan of atonement redemption Was pictured in the services connected with the wilderness tabernacle.
I said no human being could go into the presence of God. Well of course. You know as I do all an exception wasn't there. There was an exception and only one and only one. With regard to a sinner coming into the presence of God there was one being on this earth on all the earth.
There was one person who could come into the Holy of Holies. And he could only come on one day of the year Yom Kippur the day of atonements. He could go in under only one everlasting condition and that condition was the blood that he took in with him.
Once a once a year on the great day the high priest. But with not without blood which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people. Then he entered into the Holy of Holies. Can you imagine with me?
What an awesome and Tremendous experience that must have been for that man. To know that he was the only one on the earth who could walk behind that veil knowing when he stepped behind it. He would be in the very presence of a creator of the universe.
My friends, that's awesome even think about it is to me I can't fathom what that would be like to do something of that caliber. What do you think he thought about? You suppose he looked at his good works that he performed that week.
You suppose that he looked at his education. Or perhaps he looked at the good deeds that he planned to do out in the future. No, we know better than that. He had only one hope he had one virtue and that was the blood that God had directed him to bring into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle on the mercy seat before entering that spiritually not really.
But spiritually he had to do just like any other sinner did he had to kneel within his heart and say just as I am without One plea but that thy blood was shed for me. Oh lamb of God I come I come and if he'd ever gone in there without blood my friends.
He had lost his life. We'll talk about him as the week goes along. We're talking about death now. How about the Lamb of God? All right, a lamb had to be killed. That's where he got the blood from wasn't if he went in the blood.
He had to get the blood from somewhere. So he got it from a lamb. Everything connected with it was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you look at the sacrificed animals themselves, and I know this is old hat to you so to speak but especially the lamb there were 11 gestures and Specifications regarding the lamb that was offered for the sins of the people and I want to quickly give them to you.
There were 11 of them that were required for that lamb to be offered to God. First of all, it had to be a lamb obviously. Secondly had to be a male lamb. Third it had to be the firstborn of the flock couldn't be anything else had to be the firstborn of the flock.
It had to be without spot or a blemish. No spot no blemish. No bone of it could be broken. It had to be tested to make sure that it had perfection that it wasn't sick. It had to die while it was young.
It couldn't be an old it had died while it was very young. It had to die for sin vicariously because an animal is sinless an animal can't see him. So it's death wasn't for itself. It's death was for someone else.
Its blood had to be shed in order for sin to be taken away and it had to be killed at a specific time. At the beginning of the going down of the Sun or the Bible says between the evenings. That was the middle of the afternoon at three o 'clock.
When that lamb had to be killed at three o 'clock in the afternoon and the death of the lamb made it possible. For the sinner to enter into the presence of God. Now all the tabernacle services and later the temple services that Jesus himself participated in continued nearly for 1 ,000 years before Jesus came to fulfill them all.
When John the Baptist who was the last of the great prophets came the Sacrificial services were not in the tabernacle any longer. They were in the temple which was built after the pattern of the tabernacle.
And of course it was modeled after the ancient one that we're talking about here in the wilderness in 30 AD when Christ was on The earth John the Baptist spotted him. He made that first public announcement of the earthly ministry of God's Son.
And he said behold the Lamb of God. Which takes away the sin of the world and so we know the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled those leaven gestures. Let me give them to you how he fulfilled them.
He was a lamb and called so by Isaiah 753 years before Jesus was ever born. He said he was led as a lamb to the slaughter in Isaiah 53. He was also a male lamb, wasn't he? Yes. He was also the firstborn of the flock.
The Bible says when Mary brought forth her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. He was the firstborn also. He was without spot and without blemish and certainly that cannot be said of anyone else who's ever lived on this earth.
There was nothing wrong with his life. He said in John which one of you convinces me of sin. Which one of you can point out one sin in my life. And if you can't then why don't you believe what I'm telling you in John the 8th chapter.
Said I come you don't believe what I'm telling you and they couldn't point out any sin. No bone of Jesus body was broken on several occasions his enemies took up stones to kill him and you'll notice the Bible never records even one stone touching him and Also, you know.
Well as I as as you've read the story much the legs of the two thieves that died both of them their legs were broken. But when they came to Jesus they saw he was already dead and they didn't break his legs although the custom and the law required it somehow or other God intervened did he not and Conveniently his legs were not broken.
Some people say the Lord Jesus was tested and all points just like we are he was tested at all points. And yet he was without sin couldn't find anything wrong with him. He wasn't sickly. He was perfect.
The Lord Jesus died while he was a young man. He was cut off out of the land of the living. Isaiah 53 tells us at about 33 and a half years of age. He lost his life. He died for sin in our place. He hadn't done any as the little lamb hadn't done any and died in someone else's place.
So did the Lord Jesus Christ and then the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses small sin. The blood is necessary. What time did he die? We know for a fact that he died at three o 'clock in the afternoon of the preparation date of the Passover.
That was the time that he gave his life and his death made atonements for sinners and made a way for you and I to approach God and Also something else happened when he died. The veil of the temple is gone.
Gone, why was the veil of the temple written to we all know it? But let me just reemphasize it for our thinking God's presence was hidden from the people. But when Jesus died and the veil was written to God's presence was available to any person that would approach by the blood.
Any person could come to God from that point on with the blood no longer needed a priest. No longer needed Aaron no longer needed a high priest because they had a high priest the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul and nothing else.
Not your good works. Not baptism not church membership. Nothing. It is the blood and the blood alone. You can accomplish every good work the world will ever give you to accomplish. You can do everything the Bible tells you to do and do it perfectly and do it.
Well, and my friends if you don't have the blood of Christ applied to your life my faith, it'll be to no avail. It'll be to no avail. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul for 1 ,500 years before the Lord Jesus came I suppose and know for a fact there were thousands of lambs Sacrificed looking forward to the Lamb of God.
The tabernacle was taken up and put down and put up and taken down many many times. It was moved so many many times that and the high priest entered into the presence of God hundreds of times through history and all of it prefigured the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God has emphasized the tremendous importance of the blood from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible and it is the one thing that has been attacked in Bible doctrine more than any other subject it is the least talked about the least preached about and the least sung about the Least written about subject that I know of in Bible doctrine people just don't like to talk about the blood and yet God has given it tremendous importance because it is the one thing what other power Can you contact?
That would make you fit to stand in the presence of Almighty God where the Seraphim and the cherubim and the angels and the excuse me and the archangels can stand. What else could you touch that would make you worthy of standing there or make you able to stand there where those angelic beings stand?
What can you do to make yourself worthy? We cannot even make ourselves a being who could live in this world. One depends on power outside themselves. How can you get up out of a coffin in which a mortician will place you and you get up out of it.
No, how can you get through the six feet of dirt that some grave diggers gonna throw on top of that box? How are you gonna get through it? No. You have no more power to get yourself out of a casket and live in the eternal world with God.
Then you had to get yourself in this world in the first place. It is beyond you you cannot do it. Well, what happened. God said one word let there be light. That's simple. Well, I know that God said let there be light and there was light.
God said let there be animals and there were animals. God said let there be plants and there were plants. But God exhausted the very resources of infinity in order to save your soul. In order to get you into heaven and to get your sins forgiven and to change you from a sinner to a saint.
God Exhausted his resources in order to accomplish that fact everything else. He just spoke and it was so. But God sent his son in order to do it. What would you say is the central verse in the five books of Moses Genesis through Deuteronomy?
You know when the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus dropped that precious blood I believe then the very resources of infinity were tapped. Would you look at Leviticus 17 if I tell you the verse, you know exactly what it is.
This is the central verse in the five books of Moses in the book of the book of Leviticus chapter 17. When I tell you verse 11, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Because I know you know it. For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.
For it is the blood that make of an atonement for the soul. I've gone into hospital. Not too long ago, and I saw a bunch of little white beds scores of little babies who were blind because their parents Had gotten some sin in their life.
And I stood and looked at him and I just thought there it is sin seeing. I've had the privilege of walking into a morgue. It is a privilege. And I looked at a man's body that had a purple hole in the temple where a bullet had gone through.
I Saw another body a young girl whose throat was slashed from ear to ear. I Saw another one that had ice-picked wounds in its chest and I said there it is again seeing. But here's a question. How does sin how do you think sin?
Looks to the God who made the lily of the valley. How do you think sin looks to the God who made the rainbow in the rosebush? Who sits on the great white throne before whose face the earth and the heavens flee away?
Before whom are the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures who cease not day and night to say holy Holy holy Lord God Almighty night and day throughout eternity. They say holy holy holy Lord God Almighty.
How does sin really look to God? We pass it off so trivially. We pass it off so flippantly. Well, might I say to you something you already know that all unrighteousness is sin. We categorize it. Remember all sin is sin.
All unrighteousness is sin. Now sin is usually pictured dramatically and when you mention it people think of the Drunkard the alcoholic the drug addict the murderer and all of that, but there are thousands of forms that sin assumes.
If a thing is not right, it's wrong. If the thing is not good It's bad whatsoever is not of God is sin whether it takes a form of murder hate pride lying stealing Ambition covetousness it is still sin.
And what brought Us to the predicament we're in seeing. What did sin cause. Darkness over all the earth darkness on the earth. Darkness was over until when the ninth hour the ninth hour picture it with me on the cross.
You remember the scene? God had ordained that the Passover lamb had to be slain. Now listen careful. This is one of the most important truths you can ever learn and I know many of you are familiar with it.
But let me go over a little bit and see if I can point out a couple of thoughts on the 14th day of the first Month, which is the month of nice and which is March April in your calendar. God specified on the 14th day of the month the lamb was slain and prepared on that day.
Not only was the day of the month ordained, but the time of the day you shall kill it in the evening Exodus 12 verse 6 look at it with me while we're down there. You should be right at Leviticus. So if you'll just turn to Exodus 12 verse 6 with me Exodus 12 6 and you shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening so the lamb could be roasted and eaten that night look at verse 8 and They shall eat the flesh in that night roast with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.
They shall eat it. The night was the Passover day because the Hebrew day begins at sunset doesn't it? So it was nighttime as far as the Sun is concerned. But it was actually a day as far as the Jews were concerned because their day starts at sunset and goes to the next sunset and so we know the exact day of the month the exact month and the Exact time of the day of the month for the slaying of the lamb was ordered 1 ,500 years before Christ fulfilled it perfectly and died on the very same day of the month that God told Moses to get that little Lamb and kill it in Egypt the same day of the month.
The same way the same fashion as God had designed it before the foundations of the world and at the same time. The 14th day of the month the first month and killed in the evening and the Hebrew doesn't read in the evening.
It reads between the evenings and you know that well between the evenings. It was mid-afternoon. It was 3 o 'clock in the afternoon. Sometimes the time was set for the going down of the Sun is a phrase they would use now that didn't mean the setting of The Sun but it meant when the Sun starts to go down on its way to the horizon.
It didn't mean the setting of it when it starts to go down on its way to the horizon and the mount our Lord died on. The veil of the temple was rent as we said entwined from top to bottom and when that veil was rent then the Holy of Holies Became completely open and man could come in.
And also at the moment of the Lord's death the terrible darkness Which covered the face of the earth from the sixth hour to the ninth hour? It wasn't just around the cross darkness was on the entire earth.
All of us covered but my friends whenever he died on the cross the darkness was lifted and light came in. Darkness cannot exist where there is light. It just cannot and so light came because of Christ's death on the preparation day of the Passover.
Every Jewish father now follow me because I'm building a little a little background. We're going introduction now. Every Jewish father killed and prepared a Passover lamb at Passover. Every father had to do it in front of his own home.
Most people have the idea that the high priest went down there in a temple and he killed one and that's suffice for everybody. He killed one. But every Jewish father was required by law to kill one himself in front of his house.
About three and a half million people. Were in the city of Jerusalem at this particular time and so they would have had to done. So now the high priest between the evenings at three o 'clock standing by the brazen altar of sacrifice in front of the temple He would give a signal for all Israel to kill their lambs.
And even though Kay off us who was the high priest at around 33 AD would have given all I believe it would have given his Life perhaps to stand and watch Jesus take his last breath. He could not because he would have to be in front of the temple in order to give the signal for the killing of the Passover.
Now what a day it must have been for Kay office and all the demons of heaven and hell all the demons that would run about whoever they were all the demons that were floating through space all the demons of hell itself and those that were on the Earth must have been rejoicing.
Kay office had let a mob had he not to the palace of Pilate to demand the death sentence. Pilate was afraid to try the case and so he sent them to Herod. Herod dared not try the case. So he sent them back to Pilate and all the time the crowds were increasing picture it in your mind.
All the time the crowds were increasing and the supreme hour came whenever that weak Pontius Pilate at last gave in and signed the death warrant for Jesus Christ and With that Roman order in his hand They began to march Jesus to the cross.
Kay off a screaming and cursing and blaspheming and holding that order. Perhaps for all of them to see as they wound their way up the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha The place of the cross screaming and blaspheming and shouting his accusations at Christ and then they reached Golgotha.
It is 9 o 'clock in the morning 9 a .m. Picturing it takes only a few terrible minutes to nail the Lord Jesus to that cross a few more terrible minutes to lift that cross. And with a sickening thud as it would fall down into the hole in the ground and then that evil Caiaphas resumes his fiendish own sloths hail king of the Jews.
He would cry and shake that Lord order thing that he had in his hand that decree of death. Hail king of the Jews come down on that cross and we'll believe you you said you destroy the temple and build us in three Days, well you come down on the cross then and we'll believe you.
And he had been carrying on since dawn. He'd been cursing Christ mocking him accusing him railing him and deriding it since dawn, but my friends don't worry. He wasn't tired. Caiaphas was not in the least weary, but at 12 o 'clock noon.
He begins to lose his crowd. Now, why does the crowd begin to leave at noon? Is it because of the black darkness that began to settle upon the earth and everyone was afraid from the 6th to the 9th hour?
Well, that's one reason that the darkness did settle. But remember that it is the preparation day for the killing of the Passover lamb and every Jewish father Had to be in front of his house by the 9th hour.
He had to be there ready. Therefore many of the men began to leave by one o 'clock in the afternoon. Most of them had gone by two o 'clock in the afternoon. There we are around the cross and nearly all have left and only the soldiers and the women remain near the cross.
And then it becomes quiet. The screaming crowd had gone. Caiaphas is silent. The bodies on the cross have been exhausted into silence and you can hear the drop drop. Drop of the blood as it falls and as it hits the rocky terrain.
Just listen. With ear faith you can hear it. You can hear it. Now Caiaphas has got to go. He can't stay any longer. Is he not the high priest? Yes, is he not the one of all the people of Israel who is to give that signal for the killing of the Passover lamb?
Yet he has to go. He has an honor. So he lifts up his bloody wicked skirts and he hobbles over the rough ground of Golgotha down the hill and through the darkness across the dark valley up the hill into the holy city through the temple gate and he hurries to the brazen altar of sacrifice.
The fire is burning on the altar. The Levite is there with a Passover lamb and the casual questions are asked by the high priest. Is it a lamb? Yes. Is it the firstborn of the flock? Yes. Is it without blemish?
Yes, has a bone ever been broken? No, is it a young lamb? Yes. Now it's nearing the hour of three o 'clock in the afternoon. So the Levite answers this question and then he hands the high priest that very razor-sharp Gleaming sacrificial knife and he takes it into his hand.
It is five minutes until three o 'clock and the high priest holds the knife Over the throat of that spotless little lamb as it is tied down on the cross. While out there on the cross the Lamb of God has already cried.
I thirst. He's already said my God my God. Why has thou forsaken me? He has screamed and cried out but there's one more cry that has to come from that cross and Just as the high priest draws the knife over the throat of that bleeding screaming little lamb.
That cry comes from the cross and the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes the earthquakes and the rocks are bent and that Jesus Cried out with a loud voice. It is finished and the veil of that temple was rent from the top to the bottom and light.
Came back into the world. Would you pray father? It's finished. It's done. Help us to understand it with your heads bowed in your eyes closed dear people. Do you understand? That a way was made for you to come back to God.
Something was done. Something that happened at the heart of the universe and made it possible for God to transform a sinner into a saint. Something has been done for you. Something happened which affected the heart of the universe from its center to its circumference and it was all done for you.
It was all done for me father. Thank you. It overwhelms our hearts as Christian people to know how perfectly the wonderful service of the tabernacle the temple itself pictured the Lord Jesus Christ and He cried it is finished and the precious little lamb Gave its life and the wonderful lamb of God gave his life.
Lord we can't do anything, but just praise you and thank you our vocab our vocabularies limited. Our hearts cannot express themselves to thee. Oh Holy Father. Accept our feeble praise and gratitude. We thank you that you have transformed us from sinners into saints.
Thank you that you've washed us in the blood of the Lamb. Thank you. Thank you Lord for your love and your grace. Now Lord normally in a meeting like this. We don't have what we call an invitation. But perchance in the holiness of these moments.
There would be someone. Some man some woman some young person member of visitor. I would not know the need of their heart. But they do and you do. And father for a moment. We're just going to let the organist continue to play.
Oh lamb of God I come. I come just as I am without one plea and Lord because of the shed blood. I'm gonna ask someone to come. It is possible that someone might be here who is not a Christian, and they'd want to be saved tonight.
Maybe there's a Christian here who wants to recommit themselves to Christ. Maybe there's a member of the church or to visit or it would not matter. Who just maybe is just kind of Lord. Gotten busy doing other things, and it's not Lord that they don't love you.
It's not that they don't want your best it's just that we get busy sometimes Lord, and we forget you, but we don't mean to and Lord we give them an opportunity to openly without reservation. Just openly recommit themselves to you as the Lord and Savior of their soul and life.
Father I pray that you might draw someone to the blessed Savior. I'm gonna ask it might just where he sits Lord if he would stand and face you and lead us as we Stand together.