We will please find in your Bibles this morning Matthew's Gospel chapter 27. Matthew's Gospel chapter 27. And I want to commence to read at verse 45. I don't think it is a coincidence that we remember the Lord's Supper at this service. I believe that the Lord has directed my attention to the cross in my study, and I trust that the Lord will bless His word to all of our hearts this day. So it's Matthew 27. Verse 45. When you find the place, then we will take time to read God's Word. Let us now hear God's Word. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sechth banai. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there when they heard that said, this man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent entwined from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. May God be pleased to bless his word to all of our hearts. We'll take a moment to pray. Yes, be still. Blessed eternal spirit, fall upon us now as we gather around thy word. Solemn portion from my truth has been read to our hearts. O God, we pray for light to be given to us, hope in our understandings, hope in our ears to hear, our eyes to see, and our hearts to feel. We long for Thee, O loving God. We thirst after Thee. We long to be like Mary of old, to sit for a little time at the feet of Jesus, listening to Thy Word. So, blessed Spirit, fall upon us now. Gather up every wandering thought. And with those of old who came to the disciples, we would say, we would see Jesus. We would see Him. Hear these, our prayers, and abide with us for Christ's sake. Amen. I have a very simple subject that I want to deal with this morning in the service. Very simple. What a day. What a day. What a day it was when the Lord Jesus Christ, God's well-beloved son, died on an old rugged cross outside the walled city of Jerusalem. It has been described by some as the greatest day in the history of the world. There's no doubt about that in my mind. What it was for on that day, the great work of redemption planned by God the Father in eternity and accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was accomplished by him on that day. On that day, the Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood to save his people from their sins. What a day, a memorable day, an unforgettable day. What a death he suffered to redeem his people from their sins. And if you're redeemed this morning, you ought to right now in your pew, lift your heart to God and thank him for Calvary. What a memorable day. And then these verses that we have read together from Matthew 27, Matthew provides us with some details about some of the events that took place on that memorable day on Calvary's hill. And I want to draw your attention to a few of these events just now. The first thing that I want to talk about for a little time is a word about the vinegar. Now, I suppose you had no idea when coming to church this morning that the preacher was going to talk to you about vinegar. Some of you may still maybe have the smell of vinegar in your breath from a fish supper last night. I don't particularly like vinegar. When our kids were growing up, Diane, she used to soak her fish and chips in vinegar. It was swirling about in the plate there. And I always had to tell her, get away from me. Sit at the other end of the table. I can't even bear the smell of this stuff. Things have never changed. But that's not the vinegar I'm talking about here. Let's be clear about that. We're told here in verse 48, they took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and gave him to drink. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was actually offered wine or vinegar twice while hanging on the cross. The first time is there in verse 34, and it says, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall. and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. They gave him vinegar, mingle with gall. And then the Bible gall often refers to a bitter tasting substance made from such a plant as wormwood or myrrh. And Mark's gospel chapter 15 verse 23 puts it this way. They gave him wine, mingle with myrrh. but he received it not. Now, you may be wondering why. He was thirsty. You may be wondering why he refused this particular drink. Just bear with me, and the light will be given to us all. Now, myrrh was used for a variety of purposes. It was used as a perfume in Song of Solomon chapter one, verse 13. It was used as an anesthetic. It was used to prepare bodies for burial. It was used as an ingredient in the anointing oil for the prophets and the priests and the kings. It was used to scent garments or beds. You can imagine the heat, the intense heat of the East. And so it would be refreshing to get the smell of the myrrh in your bedroom, even on your clothes. It was also added to oil for massages and body lotions and so on. Ladies sometimes put cream on their face to make themselves beautiful and to have nice, fresh, clean skin. Maybe the men do that the same as well. The bitterness in the wine was due to the myrrh. Now having tasted this particular concoction or mixture, he refused to drink it. You may be asking why. Well, according to tradition, it was customary for the respected woman who lived in and around Jerusalem to provide a narcotic drink to those about to be crucified in order to help ease their excruciating pain. It really was a stupefying drink given to criminals to deaden the sense of pain, like an anesthetic. You go into the dentist to have a filling or have a tooth removed. I don't like going to the dentist either. But sometimes the dentist squeezes something just out of a bottle into around the tooth. It sort of deadens the area around the tooth so you don't feel the injection needle going in. So it was usually a kind of anesthetic. And Jesus was offered this particular mixture, but when he realized what it was, he refused it, choosing rather to suffer the full consciousness of the sufferings appointed to him by the Father as the substitute of his people, as the scapegoat, as the sin bearer, as the one who was suffering under the penalty of the broken law, to redeem his people from their sin and to set them gloriously free. So the first drink was offered to ease the pain, but he wanted to be in control of his faculties because he was the perfect substitute doing all that God required of him, and he wanted to do that with a clear mind. So the mirror symbolizes the bitterness, suffering, the affliction. that he was suffering at this particular moment of time. It's interesting that Myrrh is associated with his birth. Remember when the wise men, we're not going to say three wise men, but we're going to say there were three gifts brought by wise men to Bethlehem, to the house, not the stable, to the house. And one of the gifts they brought, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So it's interesting that myrrh is associated with his birth. And now, we're reading here about myrrh being associated with his death. The baby Jesus would grow up to suffer greatly as a man. and would pay the ultimate price when he gave his life on the cross for sinners. So even linking these two things together would clearly show that he was born to die. He was born to die to save his people from their sins. When he was born, they laid him in a manger. When he died, they nailed him to an old rugged cross. The first man, the first Adam, In Genesis chapter 3, we find him hiding behind a tree. And Jesus is described in 1 Corinthians as the last Adam, and the last Adam he hung on a tree. The first Adam had sinned. The last Adam came to deal with sin, to put away sin, to suffer for sin, to satisfy for sin. Oh, he didn't hide from anything. He didn't want to go in drugged by this concoction. He wanted to face it face on. He wanted his mind to be clear. He wanted to be conscious of everything that was required by the broken law. He's a wonderful Savior. Wonderful Savior! Hallelujah! So that's the thought behind the first drink. Then the second drink is offered in Matthew chapter 47, verse 48. And Mark also describes it in chapter 15, verse 35 of his gospel. As death approached, according to John, John 19, 28, Jesus cried, I thirst. The one who made the oceans. The one who made the rivers and the lakes and the waterways. He's crying now on the cross. The one who's altogether lovely and he cries, I thirst. Isn't that truly amazing? The creator of God thirsting. Showing how much he loved his people. Showing how gladly he volunteered his services. When he became our scapegoat, took our place. And so he cries, I thirst. And in John's gospel, 1929, there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon Hyssop and put it to his mouth. And the Bible tells us in verse 30 of John 19, he received it. So why did he refuse one and then why did he receive the other? Now, there's a difference in this concoction. There's a difference here. This really was a sour wine vinegar mentioned in the Old Testament as a refreshing drink. For example, over there in Ruth chapter two. Remember, Ruth is a type of the sinner saved by grace. going out into the field of Boaz, who's a wonderful type of Christ, a mighty man of wealth. So she's labored in the field, she's been saved by grace, and now she's going to the field to work in the field of Boaz. And she's told that when she is thirsty, that she is to dip her morsel in the vinegar. That's the vinegar, that's the vinegar we're talking about here, to relieve her thirst. The soldiers used this because it relieved the thirst actually better than water. The water supply wasn't very good in those times. We're living in changed times now. The water supply was not good. And the wine was inexpensive as well. It was a cheap sour wine the soldiers would bring with them to do this thirsty work, crucifying the Son of God. So as death approached, they offered him a sip of this wine to moisten his parched lips. Do you see the scene? Do you hear the Lord Jesus Christ? He's longing for a drop of water. He thirsted that all those who believe in him will never thirst again. There's a man, and according to Luke 16, he died and he went to hell. What did he long for? Saint Lazarus. Oh, just to come and take some water and place it upon the tip of my tongue, for I am tremendous. And that's why Jesus thirsted on the cross. It's one of the things inflicted in hell, and he's doing all things to redeem his people, to save his people from hell. And now he's thirsting. that you, child of God, will never, ever thirst again. He's dying now. He's longing. He's in need for some water. Psalm 69, verse 21 says, They gave me gold for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Think about the parched lips of God's dear son. just his lips are now being anointed as it were. So the first wine was designed to dull his pain, to keep him from having to endure the cross with full consciousness. He refused and the second wine was given to keep him conscious for as long as possible and thus having the effect of prolonging his pain. This is the wine he drank. Jesus was not taking any short cuts on the way to accomplish our redemption. What a savior. John tells us in chapter 19, verse 29, they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon Hyssop and put it to his mouth. What have we heard or read about Hyssop before in the Bible? When the Israelites marked their doorposts on the night of their redemption, they anointed their doorposts and side posts with the blood of a lamb in order for the death angel to pass over. That's what the Passover means. What did they use? Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood. Strike it upon the side posts and the lentils up above. And so here we have God's lamb. God's son, thirsty, and they are taking the hyssop, they're dipping it in the wine, and they're offering it to the Lord Jesus Christ on that occasion. It likely signifies, this is my thought anyway, that God was marking his people as pure, not targets of his judgment that night in Egypt, That judgment did fall upon the Egyptians. Remember when David sinned with Bathsheba, he comes after about a year, Psalm 51, it's his prayer of confession. And he's praying, cleanse me with hyssop. Here's the Son of God, suffering, bleeding, and dying for sinners to cleanse us people from their sin, to fit us for the kingdom of God, that we might enjoy his glory and his bliss forever. Hallelujah. What a Savior. He's a wonderful Savior. Do you know him today? Have you trusted him for salvation? Do you know forgiveness through his blood? Have you received his mercy? Is it well with your soul? Have you been redeemed by that precious blood that they shed on the cross? There's a word about the vinegar. We've got to move on. There's a word about the voice. If you look there in verse 50, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, he's not defeated here, it's with a loud voice. And that loud voice is mentioned again in verse 46. In about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice. The word loud is mega, or megas. You've heard of a mega store. It's a big store. Some of you, I know, have been to the States. You've been to a Walmart store. It's a mega store. It's a big store. You can buy anything there, from a knitting needle to wheels for your car, tires for your car. Buy anything there, make a store. With a loud voice, he cries. It can be translated great or mighty or large. For example, the Bible speaks about a great fish, the great buildings of the temple, the large upper room, a big room where the Lord celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Here, his loud voice is associated with a tree. And Mark 15, 34 and 37 talks about the tree. I think it's Peter talks about the wood of the cross. It's a tree, you see. And we read also in John 11, 43, that with a loud voice, he called Lazarus forth from the grave. So the loud voice, this loud voice is associated with the tree. The loud voice in John chapter 11 is associated with the tomb. So I brought these two things together, and this is my findings. This is my conclusion. He triumphed over the tomb by his work on the tree. Isn't that a wonderful thought? There's the tomb and the tree. And he has triumphed over the tomb for all of God's believing people. He's taken this thing out of death. He's robbed the grave of its power. And child of God, when the last trumpet sound it, every grave will be burst asunder and every child of God redeemed by precious blood will exit the tomb and join Christ. and be with him for eternity, because he's torn the bars away from death. Now, nobody likes to die. We're human beings. We want to be here as long as we possibly can. It's not always possible. But there's one thing for us. We should not fear death, because we are linked to one who's destroyed the power of death. We live in him. We abide in him. and we will forever be with him in glory. Now, the first time his voice was heard in scripture after his birth was Luke chapter two, verse 49. Mary and Joseph had lost Jesus. They have to retrace their steps and were told that they came to the temple and they heard his voice. Heard his voice in the temple. Luke chapter 2 verse 46. The final time his voice was heard was before his death. That voice was heard on the tree. So his voice was heard for the first time in the temple, for the final time it's heard on the tree. Now Luke is very specific where it was in the temple. He tells us that they found him in the midst of the doctors. Not the doctors we find in our clinics and hospitals today. The reference here is to the teachers. The teachers of the law. The scribes and the Pharisees. And John is very specific. In John chapter 19, when he spoke for the last time, he was in the midst of the thieves on the tree. Do you see that? He's in the temple. He's on the tree, and on both occasions, he's in the midst of the teachers and in the midst of the thieves. And both of these locations are associated with sacrifice. The temple is a place where the sacrifices were made. And here in the Gospels, he's on the tree as our sacrifice, as our substitute dying for us. It's interesting also that the first time he spoke in Luke chapter 2, he said, I must be about my father's business. And then as he comes to die, final time, on the tree, listen again to what he says. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. The first time he spoke about the father, And then the next time he spoke to the Father. From start to finish, his goal, his aim was to glorify the Father, to draw all attention to him. And that's the purpose of the Spirit of God and the gospel, to point us to Christ. And the ministry of Christ points us to the Father. All glory be to God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Notice what happened when he speaks for the last time. The graves are opened, Matthew 27, verse 52. Many bodies of the saints which slept arose. Go back again to John chapter 11, when he spoke with that loud voice. He was addressing Lazarus. What did he say? Lazarus, come forth. He said, our friend Lazarus sleepeth. He wasn't just comfortable in bed. That reference is to the fact that he was dead. And Jesus speaks with that loud voice, and the dead come forth. And a day will come when he will speak again. When he comes in his glory, he'll speak the word, and the dead will come forth, some to everlasting joy and bliss. others to everlasting condemnation and wrath, lost to all eternity, lost in the darkness forever and ever, no glimmer of hope, no way out, no way out at all. Oh, trust in Him today and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what happened to John on the Isle of Patmos in John chapter 1. He heard a loud voice. It was the voice of a saviour. So we've thought about the vinegar. We've thought about the voice. And then finally we've got to think for a moment about the veil. In verse 51, We read these words, and behold, and that's, as Dr. Douglass used to say, the behold is like the finger of God in the margin of the Bible drawing your attention to something. Look at this, see this, behold this. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. The temple was the center of worship for the Jewish people, the very center of their religious life. It was where the sacrifices were offered, it was where worship was given to Almighty God according to the law of Moses. And in the tabernacle of old, and in the temple in Jerusalem, there was a veil that separated the holiest of all, the dwelling place of God, from the holy place where the priests minister, and from the rest of the people. The lesson is very succinct, it's very clear, that our sins have separated us from God. That's the whole idea of the veil. You can't approach God without the veil being rent. So we're separated from God by our sin. Someone here today, and that's where you're found this very day, separated from God. You've heard the message time and time and time again, but still you harden your heart. One of these days, the call will come for the last time. One of these days, the Spirit of God will withdraw. One of these days, Almighty God will just say, go on. I will not bother you again. I will withdraw my gracious spirit, all my appeals, just you go on. And there's no way, there's no way back. Doom awaits. Separation, eternal separation awaits. The pangs of a lost sinner's hell, tormented in the flames of God's wrath and judgment upon sin. down to all of God's eternity. So it was, that is, the Holy of Holies was God's dwelling place with his people on earth. Only the high priest, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, was able to enter in through that veil. The sacrifice was offered in outer court. He brought the blood with him. He brought his censer with the incense in it. And on that day, as the people stood without waiting to see what would happen, the priest ventured nigh into the Holy of Holies, not without the blood, not without the prayers of incense. And he comes, and the glory of God is there. He can't see anyone. The place is filled with glory and incense, an awesome scene to behold. And there he sprinkles the blood on him before the mercy seat. And then, once that is completed, he's made atonement for the sins of the people. He comes out again, and everybody knows when they hear the tinkling of the bells attached to his garment that he's been in the presence of God, that the sacrifice on their behalf has been accepted, that the priest remained alive, indicating, yes, that his work was successful, and the people rejoiced. There's only one who can bring us into the presence of God, that's Christ, our great high priest, the one who shed his own blood. The high priest took the blood of an animal that could never put away sin, but Christ offered his own blood and brought his own blood into the presence of the Father after he accomplished the work of redemption. The blood's in the mercy seat today. and heaven, because Christ is our mercy seat. The blood's in heaven, I believe, with all my heart. All these precious things are in heaven, in the presence of God. And God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Are you blood-marked today? Is it well with your soul? So only the high priest could enter in. Now Solomon's temple was 30 cubits high. It all depends what you believe about the size of a cubit. It could be 18 inches, it could be 20 inches. I prefer the 18 inches. So Herod beautified the temple and he increased it by 10 cubits according to Josephus, the first century Jewish historian. I'm not sure the exact measurement of a cubit. But I think it's safe to say that the veil would have been 60 feet high. And tradition has it that the veil was four inches thick. Now, scripture doesn't confirm that, but apparently the veil was four inches thick. The priests would have been in the temple at that particular time when Christ completed the work, the ninth hour, time of evening sacrifice. So they were in there, this huge 60 foot high veil, four inches thick, and they're ministering, doing the work of God, things that they'd done for years. And suddenly, the veil of the temple is up in twain. Now it wasn't from the bottom up. No one got in there with some sharp tool and started to cut the way up 60 feet into the air. Oh, this was a divine work. It began at the top, extended all the way down to the bottom. The veil was rent. The way was opened now into the presence of God through his atoning blood, through his sacrifice on Calvary's cross. You think of that. Those priests would have been filled with awe. I'm sure they wondered what on earth was going on. They saw it for themselves, this supernatural work of God, indicating that the way is now opened in to the presence of his father. The way is open for all people, Gentiles and Jews. Doesn't matter what color the skin may be. When he died, the veil was torn. The nation of Israel rejected Christ. It didn't fizzle them, as we would say, the cross work. They continued on until AD 70, and the Lord sent the Romans, led by Titus. They came from the north. They entered into Jerusalem. They approached that sacred place, that holy place that was precious to the Jewish people. And they leveled it to the ground, and the temple was no more. And they silted the area, and they killed thousands and thousands of the inhabitants of the city and the nation itself. Jesus said that would happen. And so the people who rejected his work, the work he accomplished through dying an atoning death, had their temple removed, faced the judgment of God, and were cut off in the darkness. So there's a new and living way opened up into the presence of God through the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross. These things were shadows teaching vital lessons and vital truth. Sometimes we sing, no more veil, no more veil. The way's opened up. What's hindering you? You need to trust them today. You need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ this very day, this afternoon. Because a day will come when you will not be able to escape. Just the way the Romans came, all this had been announced by Christ. He said that the temple would be destroyed, and sure enough, it was destroyed. Initially, he talked about his temple, the temple of his body would be raised in three days. But the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed. It came suddenly. Judgment fell. There's a day of judgment coming. You need to be in Christ. You need to trust him for salvation. Here's a word about the vinegar. There's a word about the voice. There's a word about the veil. The way's opened. Will you come today? Will you taste and see that God is good? This could be the last call. Could be the last time. You hear his call. Be in time, be in time, while the voice of Jesus calls you. Be in time. May God bless this word, we'll just have a word of prayer. Father, bless thy truth to all our hearts this day, and as thy people remain to spend some time around the table, May our thoughts of him be precious. May our hearts be stirred and warmed as we focus upon Christ, the one who died, was buried, was raised, and now appears in the presence of God for us, for Jesus' sake. Amen. We're going to sing our communion hymn. It's the hymn number 600.