In 'The Torn Veil,' David Green explores the profound significance of the veil in the temple being torn at the moment of Jesus's death. Reflecting on Mark 15:33-39, the sermon delves into the historical and spiritual implications of this event. The veil, as described in Exodus and 2 Chronicles, separated the holy place from the most holy place, representing a barrier between humanity and God. Its tearing signifies the removal of this barrier, granting believers direct access to God through Jesus, the ultimate high priest. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus’s sacrifice fulfills the old covenant's requirements, abolishing the need for continual sacrifices and opening a new, living way to God. Through Jesus, believers have confidence, not in human merit, but in Christ's once-for-all atonement. This event marks a shift from old covenant practices to a new covenant of grace, where believers can boldly approach the throne of God. Green concludes with a call to glory only in the cross of Jesus, as it is the foundation of Christian faith and identity.

Mark 15 and today we're going to read the same text that we read last week. There's a reason for that. It's hard to exhaust this text. Mark chapter 15, verses 33 through 39. When the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

At the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood by when they heard it said, Behold, he calleth Elijah. One ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink saying, let alone, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. Verse 38 will be our text.

The veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom and when the centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost he said truly this man was the son of God. The year was 1997. I was about 16 I was about 16 years old. And I just felt the call to preach. And I was a member at Kings Edition Baptist Church in South Shore, Kentucky.

I didn't have a regular pulpit ministry there. But I did what I what I what would become my normal ministry for quite a long time after that, and that is I filled in for sick and vacationing pastors all over the area. One of my first sermons that I ever preached was from this text. And so it brought back a lot of familiar memories when I got to this point. It's a hard sermon to forget about because of the fact that I preached in so many different places that I was able to preach that sermon multiple times.

It was a different audience everywhere I went every week. So I had me and my two or three sermons, and I'd go from church to church and preach. Old preacher gave me a piece of advice early on. He said, David, he said, wherever you go, whatever you do, you can never go wrong preaching Christ. And I took that.

I took that literally. That's what I preached. I really enjoyed preaching about the Remp Veil. And indeed, that's what I want to preach about today is the Torn Veil. As I preached from this text last week, I said, I can't squeeze that in to what I preached last week, so this will be another sermon.

I haven't preached on this since probably the early 2000s, but it is an important event. It's one that we must not read over This is recorded here for a reason Mark does not record all of the events that took place during the three years of Jesus ministry, but let me tell you, he made sure to put that in here and for good reason. The veil of the temple was rent twain from the top to the bottom. Why Did this occur? What is its significance?

What's its importance to you and I as believers in Christ? Let me tell you, those are questions that go through our minds as we read this but those who were there at the time they knew exactly what a big deal this was and Mark's original audience and they knew what a big deal this was too. For you and I to understand it, we've got to go back to the Old Testament. And I'm not going to take you through and exhaust everything there is to know about the veil, but let's go back to the Old Testament and just to kind of get an overview of some things. Let's go all the way back to the tabernacle first.

In Exodus chapter 26. Exodus chapter 26 and verses 31 through 37. 31 through 37. As Moses was given directions about worship and about the tabernacle. Part of those directions included a veil.

In verse 31 it says, and thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen of cunning work. With cherubims shall it be made. Thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of sheet of wood, overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold upon the four sockets of silver now shall hang up the veil under the tatches thou mayest bring in thither within the veil of the ark of the testimony and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. The veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

Now shall put the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Testimony in the most holy place. Now shall set the table without the veil and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south. Now she'll put the table on the north side. Now she'll make a hanging for the door of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet, fine-tawned twine linen wrought with needlework. Now she'll make for the hanging five pillars of sheetam wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold, and I shall cast five sockets of brass for them." This is God's order designed for the tabernacle.

The temple came later, of course, but as the children of Israel were going through the desert there, This is the first reference of the veil The veil divided from the holy place from the most holy place the Holy of Holies And not only This is important, not only forbade any to enter, but forbade them to even look therein. Over in 2 Chronicles chapter 3. 2 Chronicles 3, beginning of verse 8. As Solomon begins to build the temple, he made the most holy house. The length thereof was according to the breadth of the house, 20 cubits.

The breadth thereof, 20 cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to 600 talents. The weight of the nails was 50 shekels of gold, and he overlaid the upper chambers with gold. And then in the most holy house, he made two cherubims of image work, overlaid them with gold and the wings of the cherubims were 20 cubits long. One wing of the one cherub was five cubits reaching to the wall of the house and the other wing was five cubits also joining to the wing of the other cherub.

The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits. They stood on their feet and their faces were inward. He made of the veil of blue, purple and crimson, fine linen, wrought cherubims thereon. He made before the house two pillars of 30 and five cubits high. The chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits and he made chains as in the oracle.

Put them on the heads of the pillars, made 100 pomegranates, put them on the chains and he reared up the pillars before the temple one on the right hand and the other on the left and called the name of that on the right hand Jacob and the name of that on the left Boaz. This is the account that we have here of the veil of the temple. It was built in Jerusalem. Some people believe that it was on the spot where Abraham was to offer up Isaac in Genesis 22. We won't turn there, but the veil was there in this temple, Again, separating between the most holy place.

This represented that the worshippers were still at a distance. The common man could not enter into that most holy place to approach whereunto the God would meet. B.H. Carroll said, we are told by some writers that this veil of the temple was 70 feet long. Just to get an idea here.

30 feet wide and 4 inches thick, closely woven, hard woven. This is significant according to B.H. Carroll and other commentators that it was so woven that two yoke of oxen on either side pulling in opposite directions could not tear it. And yet, as this separation was there, The veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom. Matthew records it this way in Matthew 27 in verse 51.

Matthew 27 in verse 51, it says, And behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. Luke 23 and verse 45 says, and the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. So this this veil, this veil of the temple was torn in half. Was torn in half. Taken.

Top to bottom. Torn in half. Ripped in half. As easy as I tore this piece of paper. Matthew Henry writing about this, this same veil that the people said, well, two yoke of oxen could not tear it.

Oxen, very strong animals. Matthew Henry said, just as our Lord Jesus expired, the veil of the temple was rent by an invisible power. That veil which parted between the holy place and the most holy, it signified the consecrating and laying open of a new and living way to God. The veil kept people off from drawing near to the most holy place, but the rending of it signified that Christ, by his death, opened a new way to God for us in him. He died to bring us to God and in order there to to rend the veil of guilt and wrath which interposed between us and him, Nothing can obstruct or discourage our access to heaven.

You see, in the Old Covenant manner of worship. God Yahweh could be approached, but only through a great high priest and with sacrifice. CH Burgess said this, the old law of ordinances was put away and like a worn out vesture it was rent and thrown aside. When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished because it was all fulfilled in him. There's no need anymore for the sacrifices to continue.

Oh yes, we could, and this isn't Spurgeon anymore, this is me. I'll get back to Spurgeon's quote in a minute. You and I, we could say, oh, the temple is gone because of what the Jews did in 8070. But understand something a greater happened before 8070 Jesus Christ died on the cross that temple was rendered done before the Romans ever showed up to destroy it. There's some hyper dispensationalists out there who've made their life work to try to get the Jews to rebuild the temple.

They're, listen, I understand, I understand completely why they're doing it because they read in the prophecy and they take those things literally that the Jews are someday gonna rebuild the temple but they're off their rocker insofar as That that should not be their goal right now. Their goal should be to point them to Christ They don't The Jews don't need the temple. They need Jesus. There's a reason why that veil that was so important to Moses and to Solomon when they built the tabernacle and the temple and so important to those old covenant worshipers, why it was there. But then all of a sudden it was just ripped like an old sheet of paper the day that Christ died.

Spurgeon again the old law of ordinances was put away and like a worn out vesture, rent and laid aside. When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished because all fulfilled in him And therefore the place of that presentation was marked with an evident token of decay. That rent also revealed all the hidden things of the old dispensation. The mercy seat could now be seen. The glory of God gleamed forth above it.

The annual ceremony of atonement was thus abolished. The atoning blood which was once every year sprinkled within the veil was now offered once for all by the great high priest. Therefore the place of the symbolical rite was broken up. No blood of bullocks or of lambs is needed now, for Jesus has entered within the veil with his own blood. Hence, access to God is now permitted and is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus.

There is no small space laid open through which we may peer at the mercy seat, but the rent reaches from the top to the bottom. We may come with boldness to the throne of heavenly grace. And there are thousands upon thousands of Spurgeon sermons, that just comes out of his morning and evening. You want a blessing, read Spurgeon's sermons, but get his morning and evening and just look at that every day. That'll bless your soul.

Let's look at verse 10. Verses 19 and 20. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, That is to say, His flesh. You see, under the old covenant, if you walked into the temple and you went into the holiest through the veil, you would be dead. You would be dead.

But we have boldness. Not that we go in a way that is irreverent. That word boldness means confidence. You and I are confident, knowing beloved, that we have been covered by the blood of Jesus. Knowing that our great high priest is not some man who had to first offer a sacrifice for himself and then had to make a sacrifice for us to go in.

No, no, no. We have Jesus who died once and for all for us. And that, that confidence, that liberty we have to enter into the holiest. You and I, we couldn't do that by our own merits, but we can do it through Jesus and his death. We have access to God in a way that nobody did before.

In a new and living way. The old covenant way of worship was a gruesome religion, a deadly religion, a bloody religion. There was a lot of death. Ours is still a bloody religion, but praise God, it was only once. Jesus shed his blood once for all.

The veil had to be rent before any but the high priest could come into the presence of God. In John chapter 10, John chapter 10, as I read in the Old Testament about the veil, whether it's the veil of the tabernacle or the veil of the temple, I think to myself, that must have been very beautiful. But beloved, it isn't as beautiful as our veil. That veil was a picture of what was to come. In John chapter 10 verses 7 through 9, Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Jesus Christ is the door. He's The only way that we can get to the Father is through Jesus Christ. You see, No doubt there were some Judaizers that day when they saw the veil of the temple rent in two.

They said, oh no, how will we ever have proper worship and access to God? And Understand we had access to God through Jesus Christ In act or Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews chapter 4 verses 15 and 16. Well, let's start with verse 14. Seeing then we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have none in high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.

Therefore, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus Christ is our high priest. In the Old Testament, the high priests were the ones who went into the holiest of all. They had to do that every year. It was a repetitive thing.

And they had to do it after the proper sacrifices and so on and so forth. We do not have a high priest like they did back then. We have Jesus as our high priest. Verse 16 there, he says, let us therefore come boldly, let us therefore come confidently, that we may obtain mercy, find grace to help in time of need. We have a Savior who died on the cross, died in our place so that we could have life through Him.

We can have access to the throne room of heaven so that we can have access to God. As I mentioned last week, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. When Jesus was dying on that cross, he was dying for He was dying for our sins, and in that temple, the Holy Spirit, God, took that veil and ripped that thing open. What Jesus did on the cross was good, was pleasing. He satisfied our sin dead.

We have access to him through the veil Through his flesh And so his flesh. And so, I kind of bring this to a close. One of my favorite verses in in the book of Galatians, over in Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. That day, when that veil was torn, there was no doubt a lot of pride in all of that.

Later when The temple was all torn up by the Romans. There's a lot of pride in that. Even to this day, the Jews are pretty upset because there's a Muslim place there on the temple rock. People get prideful about all sorts of things. Even we sometimes get prideful over the wrong things.

As Baptists we do, and as Gentiles. But in Galatians chapter 6, in verse 14, Paul says, But God forbid, may it never be that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. The only thing that we have to glory in is in Jesus. Praise God for what he did. Thank the Lord for what we have in Christ.

You know, the whole world may fall apart, our religious systems, whatever it may be, the Jewish system is all falling apart, whatever. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified into me and I, into the world. Our identity is in Christ, and thank God for that, because everything else is temporary. He's the one who opened it all up for us so that we can be saved and have access to the Father. May God add a blessing to the preaching of this work.