That's Torn it!

The apostle Paul was travelling around on a missionary journey; he was preaching the Gospel, just as we are doing here. He came to Athens, the capital of Greece; and also the capital of the world, as far as philosophy and thinking was concerned. And there, he got into a religious discussion with various philosophers of the day. But unlike everywhere else he went, he didn’t make much headway. A few believed, but no church was established there. He moved on. From the sophistication of Athens, he came to the port city of Corinth. Most port cities are rough towns. He came with a determination; he said: [1 Corinthians 2:1–2 And when I came to you, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, (like he had in Athens) proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.] His determination was only to speak about Jesus and His death on the cross. If it was good enough for Paul, the apostle, it is good enough for me. So, tonight I want to speak about Jesus Christ and His crucifixion. Let us read about it in: [read] [Matthew 27:33–37 And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Matthew 27:45–51 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (He was forsaken of God because, He the sinless one, had become sin. He was the lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. He bore our sin in His body on the cross. And a holy God cannot tolerate sin) And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. (He died – no one took His life from Him, He gave it up of His own volition) And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; [P] and the earth shook and the rocks were split.] The temple was divided into two rooms. There was a curtain into the first room, where priests entered every day. This room was separated [P] by another curtain from another room, called: The Holy of Holies. The curtain existed to separate, to cut off access to the Holy of Holies. All it contained was the ark of the covenant – the symbol of the presence of YHWH, the One and only God – the Creator and Sustainer, the Controller, Sovereign of all. The high priest was the only one who went in there, and only once a year, to cover the sins of the people. In Jesus’ day, the ark was no longer there – it was an empty room. But that room, holy above all, represented where God Himself was! No one dared go through that curtain, except the high priest, once a year with the blood of a goat. The temple itself was saying God is there, you dare not go near. If you see Him you will die! We are cut off separated from God! It is our sin that separates us from God. [P] [Isaiah 59:1–2 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. (the problem isn’t with God!) But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.] Why is there a separation, a barrier between us and God? Because He is sinless and pure, HOLY! And we are dirty and defiled, every one of us has done wrong – and, if we are honest, we will admit it. The absolutely pure and righteous God cannot coexist with sin – His holiness and purity would consume it, consume us! The Israelite well knew that you cannot see God and live! God said in: [Exodus 33:20 “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”] Now this temple curtain was torn. That’s torn it! We say it meaning things have gone seriously wrong. There has been a calamity that cannot be undone. Irreparable damage. But this tear was “from top to bottom” – it was not from below but from above. It was not something that man did but God! Hallelujah! There was a barrier, a separation, between God and man; the barrier was our wrong, the evil that we, not only do, but is in our very nature. God and man cannot coexist. But now the barrier was torn! [P] What tore it? Jesus death on the cross! [Romans 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, (that is us trying to keep God’s standard ourselves by being good enough. We cannot do it! But) God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,] Jesus’ death was an offering for sin. He became sin, that is why God forsook Him [2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.] We were evil, deserved the death penalty according to God’s righteous judgement. But instead of us carrying out the sentence, Jesus bore it: [1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.] Our sin removed by Jesus, now having His righteousness; there is no barrier between us and God. We can approach God Himself in perfect righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus; and are no longer consumed by His holiness. Jesus can be in His presence, so too can we because we have His righteousness. The barrier that our sin made has been torn. But what do we do when something is torn? We either throw it out and replace it; or sow it up to repair it. [P] We replace the barrier! What did the Jews do when the temple curtain was torn? We are not told. No one knows. But it was a disaster. Their precious temple and one of the holiest items in it was torn, broken. They could not allow that curtain to remain torn, to have the holy of holies open. They had to replace it, mend it. Seal off the holy of holies lest they be destroyed. That curtain separated. Separated man from God. Man had to be separated from God lest he be consumed by his holiness and purity. The first thing that the Jews would have done would be to re-erect the barrier. To put the curtain back, to sew it up! God made the way open into His presence and all they wanted to do was close it off again! And we do that! Jesus tore down the barrier; He made it possible to come to God, to not be destroyed by His holiness but instead enjoy His fellowship! The curtain is torn – we can come to God! The way is open! But we do not want to go in! We want to keep God at a distance. He opens the way, and we close it off! We do not want to be near to God! Why?! I ask you that question? Why do you not want to come to God? Why do you keep the barrier up? Only you know the answer. Sin causes the barrier – it may be that you like your sin, you don’t want to give it up, to repent and turn to Jesus. You like your life as it is – the only thing is that road leads to death. You prefer living for yourself having your own life, than being with God. It may be because of your mates, your wife, those close to you; if you came to God that might separate you from them. I don’t know the reason; all I know that is that people choose to be away from God, to be separated from Him; when He has done everything possible to remove that separation; to reconcile people to Himself. Can I plead with you? Do not re-erect the barrier! It is a Divine work from heaven to earth! Would you undo what God has gone to such great lengths to accomplish?! It is a Divine work, a covenant, a binding agreement enabling freedom of access to God. [P] Sin has been removed! It was bought with the death of Jesus, but it is not a dead way but a living way because Jesus is alive! He rose from the dead and lives in those who depend upon Him and His death and resurrection. Alive! Real! Within you! [read] [Hebrews 10:16–23 “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind, I will write them,” (no longer keeping a set of rules, but God’s will within us. We want to do His will because Jesus lives in us! It is a living way!) He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. (the sacrificial system of the temple is no longer needed; because the sacrifice of Jesus has been made once, for all, for all time). Therefore, brethren, (there is consequence because of Jesus death and the covenant He made) since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, (that is the way into the presence of God, through the curtain, through Jesus’ death, His blood) by a new and living way (a living way because He is alive!) which He inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, His flesh, (Jesus open the way through the curtain, through His body hung on a cross) and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith (that is the logical conclusion – since He has opened the way, let us come near to God), having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (we can come to God with a clean conscience, nothing condemning us. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;] there is the conclusion from what Jesus has done, the consequence for us: it is a command: LET US DRAW NEAR! Once we were far away from God, we couldn’t come to Him. [Ephesians 2:12–14 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (through His death on the cross) For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,] The wall of separation is down! Hallelujah! Now there is free access to God Himself! Why would you not draw near? Jesus has torn the curtain it two. We can come to God through the cross of Jesus, His death and resurrection. It is the only way: [John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.] “Oh come to the Father through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He has done!” The way to the Father is through the cross of Jesus, the only way. You can see why Paul was determined to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There is no other message worth speaking about. What can compare coming to God Himself?! Being with the Almighty Eternal God! And you can do that tonight! The curtain has been torn it two from top to bottom! Praise God! Won’t you draw near through the curtain, through the blood of Jesus, through His death on the cross and His resurrection. Come through Him who lives today!

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