In this sermon, the speaker talks about the importance of using a plumb line or level to ensure that a building's walls and corners are straight. He shares a story about sending someone to buy a level with glass bubbles to break, indicating the need for straight walls. The speaker then discusses a conversation with people who believe in both Jesus Christ and the need to keep the law. He challenges their belief, stating that putting trust in the law for salvation will ultimately lead to destruction. The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, not through adherence to the law.

Shall we turn again to the book of Exodus, reading in chapter 26. This evening we're going to turn our attention to the veil. Exodus chapter 26 and reading from verse 30. And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount. And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen of cunning work. With cherubim shall it be made. Not cherubims, cherub is singular and cherubim is plural. With cherubim shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the veil under the tatches or the clasp that couple the two sets of curtains together. Thou shalt hang up the veil under the tatches that thou mayest bring in thither within the veil the ark of the testimony. And the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place. Now let us read a little in the epistle to the Hebrews that will help us in our talk this evening. Hebrews chapter 9. I want a few remarks to help us as we are reading. Hebrews chapter 9. Reading from verse 1. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. Or rather a world sanctuary, a sanctuary that was down here in the world. For there was a tabernacle made the first. Now this means the first place. Remember that the sanctuary is divided into two places. And now the writer is saying there was a tabernacle made the first, or the first part, the first place, the holy place, wherein was the lampstand and the table and the showbread which is called the sanctuary, or the holy place. And after the second veil, that may be looking upon the door as being the first veil, after the second veil the tabernacle which is called the holiest of all, the second place which was called the holiest of all, which had the golden center and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. And over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. I'm very sorry that he couldn't speak particularly because it would have been a great help to me, I would know more about it. Verse 6. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, now that's into the first place of course, the holy place, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second, that is into the holiest of all, went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. Now notice particularly this verse, verse 8. The holy ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. The holy ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, whilst that first part and all that concerns it is still standing, there is no way into the holiest of all. Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation, or the time of the new order, or the time of the setting of things right. Now let us turn to chapter 10, reading from verse 12. But this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Look at verse 19. 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, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Well that is our reading for this evening, and our subject is this veil that divided between the holy place and the holiest of all. Now we have made our way slowly, progressively, until we have taken in what we have found down in the court, and also what we have found in the first place, the holy place. And this I'm sure has been a great blessing to us, because it has shown us how wonderful the grace of God has been towards us. How that he has come right out to where we were. There was nothing to commend us. He came out just because he wanted to come out. He came out in great love and rich mercy, came right out to where we were in that place of sin, came out in the person of his beloved son, and came out not to condemn, not to judge, but came out to make provision for us, to make it possible for us to make our way into his presence, to have access into his presence, to be able to have that fellowship and communion. God not willing that we should remain outside. And so then we found that when God was bringing in this priesthood it was all typical and intended to be a help to us. And so we saw that in coming out he reaches that fervent place of the sin offering, and then he begins to move back in. And as he moved back in he went into that first place, the holy place, and he dealt with that altar of incense, and then he came out to the labor. Now we have gone forward steadily, seeing that God has come out to have made provision. We by faith have availed ourselves of what he has provided, and we have done that by faith, as we saw the priests pressing their hands upon the heads of those three offerings, sin offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration, identified with them in that way. So we have been to the cross, and by faith have identified ourselves with Christ as sin offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration, and so brought into all the value of that finished work of Christ, and established before God as priest, and now have access into his presence. We can now serve him. We saw that the work was finished and complete as far as the priesthood was concerned, that they never went back again for a repetition of any of these offerings, never went back to be bathed a second time, to be clothed a second time with the priestly garments. That was all once and for all. And so we too, when we come into all the value of that finished work of Christ on the cross, a sin offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration, it is once and for all. By that one work of the cross he has perfected us forever. And so we find that we can now move forward, and as we move forward we came to the altar, and we examined that, and we saw the meaning of it, and then we moved on a little further, and we came to the laver, and that reminded us, that whilst down here we can see a work that was complete and perfect, we realized that the priests were not perfect in themselves, they could become defiled, and so God had provided the laver for them. At that laver they washed hands and feet. So we have a laver, if we who have been brought into this fellowship, into this finished work of Christ, and have access into the presence of God, we need to remember that we can become defiled too, and we must make use of our laver. So if we confess our sins, he'll be faithful and just to forgive, to cleanse from all unrighteousness, and so restore us to that fellowship and communion with himself. So way down there, that question of condemnation has been settled once and for all, but the question of communion is another matter, and that is something which we must take heed to from day to day. Our salvation complete and perfect from the moment when by faith we identified ourselves with Christ on the cross, but our communion, now from day to day, that must be preserved. And if we stumble aforth, then we remember the laver. We confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive, to cleanse, and so restore us to the fellowship. So now we're able to move in. We've come into all the value of this which has taken us to the cross, and it enables us to go on to all the value of what we find in the sanctuary. And the moment we entered the sanctuary, we saw the difference, that all this takes us to the cross, but all that is inside that is taking us to the glory. This is Christ and him crucified, and inside is Christ and him glorified. And so we must come into all the value of Christ crucified before we can come into the value of Christ glorified. The one leads to the other. The one is a means to the other, and I've said again and again, let's beware of making the something in itself. It is a means to something else. And I think we have seen these past few nights, we've had a glimpse at any rate, of what God intended to secure in us. Not wanting just that we should be saved, that our sins should be forgiven, and that we should come to know the Lord Jesus Christ in this way, to know him objectively, but that we should go on to know him in a deeper and a mightier way, to go on to know him in the power of his resurrection. And so you remember the apostle Paul, when he is writing that epistle to the Philippians, you find him striving, as he is writing, striving to reveal something which was holding him at the very centre of his being. And what was it? It was that he might know Christ. And if we had heard Paul use those words, had Paul said to us, oh that I might know him, oh that I might know Christ, we would have said, Paul what are you talking about? If anyone knows Christ, you do. What do you mean by saying, oh that you might know him? And Paul would say, yes, I know him. I know him objectively. I know him as being on that cross. I know him as being on that cross for me, as being on that cross as me. I know him as being up yonder in the glory, he is there at the right hand of God in all the value of that finished work of the cross, and he is there for me and as me. I know that. I know him objectively. But oh that I may know him, that I may know him subjectively. That I may know him up there as being in me, down here. When he wrote his epistle to the Galatians, he said, my little children, for whom I travail in birth until Christ is formed in you, Christ in you. This was the thing that held him at the very centre of his being, to go on to know the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of his resurrection. Oh that I may know him, the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death, to know him and the power of his resurrection. We might be inclined to say, Paul, you haven't got that quite straight. Why don't you talk first of all about the suffering and then talk about the death and talk about the resurrection? Suffering, death, resurrection. Why do you say, oh that I know him and the power of his resurrection, and then you go on to talk about suffering and death? Yes, he says, because you see the only possible way that I can come to know him and the power of his resurrection is as I come to know him in his suffering and in his death. So he wants to go on to know Christ in that deeper and mightier way. He's going to the cross, he's knowing Christ objectively as his saviour, knowing him in all the value of that finished work of the cross. That's one thing. That wasn't something in itself. That was a means for something else. It enabled him to go on to know Christ in that deeper and mightier way. And so I've tried to help you to see. You must first of all come into all this, all the value of that work of the cross, before you can go on. Before you can go on to know Christ in this deeper and this mightier way. And so, entering in the sanctuary, we immediately find that we are dealing with Christ up there. He's the altar of incense, he's the high priest, he's the incense, he's everything there, ever living to make intercession. We saw that he was the table, he's the showbreadth, he's up there maintaining us in that place of fellowship and communion. He's the lampstand. And there are the lamps placed upon the lampstand in such a way as to light up its lovely workmanship. And so we realise now that these priests had access to that holy place, and they were having to do with things up there. They were having to do with those things which were typical. For us, the reality is Christ up there in the presence of God, as our altar of incense, as our table, as our showbreadth, as our lampstand. And remember how the Spirit takes over the things of Christ. As the lamps were lighting up the lovely workmanship in the lampstand, so the Spirit of God takes over things of Christ and reveals them to us, having in view this, that we shall be conformed to the image of his Son. Progressively, from day to day, we are to become more and more like God's beloved Son. And that is something which he purposed from way back in eternity. Not purposing that we should sin, and that he would bring in the cross. Oh no, God could never do that. But he knew what would take place. He knew that man would sin. And a way back in eternity, he planned out to meet it. And therefore, when he is meeting that in the cross, the cross is not something in itself. That cross is making possible what he was out to secure from the very beginning. And so now we can see, once we are brought into all the value of that finished work of Christ, now we are going on to know him in this more wonderful way. That Christ up there, he sanctified himself that we might be sanctified. He is our sanctification. It is to what he is up there that we are to be brought, progressively. And the only possible way is when the Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them to us. It is only by revelation that these things come to us, and are made over to us. And I can stand here, and I can talk to you, and I can reveal, I can talk to you about these things from night to night, but I can't reveal them to you. I can't make them over to you. I can only tell you about them. Only the Spirit of God can reveal these, make them over to you, in a very real way. So then we have taken in what we find in the sanctuary. But now we have realised there was a veil, and the veil was put there, and it divided between the first place and the second. And the priests were not able to go through the veil into the second place. And in that second place was the ark, the mercancy, with the cherubim of one piece with it, denoting the very throne of God. But they did not have access to the very throne of God. They could take in the altar of incense, and the table and showbread, and the lampstand with the seven lamps, but they could not go beyond the veil. Once every year the high priest went through the veil, not without blood, offered for himself and offered for the others of the people. But he never opened the way for anybody else to go in. And there was no real way in. But God arranged that he should go in once every year. But there was no way through. And so I read, we read those words in the epistle to the Hebrews. The Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as yet all this is going on down here. No way in. So there is a veil, and the veil says no way in. Now that veil was made of fine twine linen, it was embroidered with blue and purple and scarlet, and also it had cherubim embroidered upon it. And there's no doubt that that veil is bringing before us the Lord Jesus Christ. That fine twine linen will speak of his righteousness, and then that blue will speak of his heavenly character, and the scarlet which is worm scarlet will speak of his suffering, and the purple will speak of that glory which is yet to be his, and the cherubim, they will bring before us, as we have already seen in some measure, their God's executive. They are there as the guardians of the very throne of God. They are there to preserve the majesty of the throne of God. All judgment is committed into the hands of the Son, into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that veil brings before us the Lord Jesus Christ. But why did God have the veil made in this way, as being typical to us of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then have it supported there upon those four pillars, making it impossible for anyone to enter into the holiest of all? Why was the veil there? Now I want you to follow me very carefully, because this may be something new to you. I want you to think for a moment about these people Israel. We've been centering our thoughts in the priesthood, not in the people outside. Now I'm thinking about these people outside. Now remember that when God brought them out of the land of Egypt, redeemed by blood, and then they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, entered upon their wilderness journey. Now God has got his people, a redeemed people, and he says to these people through Moses, if you will obey my voice, if you will keep my covenant, then you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests. You see, God was looking down upon a mass of people, upon the nations, and he was thinking how shall I meet this deep and dire need? How can I reach the nations? And he decided to do it in this way. He called out one man, that was Abraham. And it looks as if he was an idolater, living among idolaters. What God saw in him, I don't know. But God saw Abram, and he said, Abram, come out. And he came out. And so now God looks at this man Abram, and he makes a promise to him, you see. And we find now that Abram is Isaac, and then Isaac, Esau, and Jacob. And then Jacob comes into the picture with his twelve sons, and now we have the twelve tribes. And these twelve tribes, redeemed out of Egypt, there in the wilderness, God now says to them, if you will obey my voice, if you will keep my commandment, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests. Because through you, as a kingdom of priests, I'm going to reach out to all these nations, and I'm going to make my glory known. It will be through you that these nations will be able to draw near to me. You shall be my priesthood. Now we get that settled. This is what God said. And this is what he wanted. He wanted his nation of Israel to be a kingdom of priests. And through them, to reach out to the nations to make known his glory. Now these people, Israel, when they heard these words, they said, yes, we will obey your voice. We will keep your covenant. They were rather foolish in doing it, but they did, and so God took them up on it. God knew very well they never could. He knew that. But he's going to let them try. And in letting them try, he's going to accomplish something else. And so he says to them, all right. Now you say you will obey my voice, you will keep my covenant. I say if you do, then you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests. Meanwhile, whilst you are trying to prove yourselves, whilst you are trying to show me that you will obey my voice, and you will keep my covenant, whilst that is going on, I must have a sanctuary in your midst in which I can dwell. And in that sanctuary, I'm going to have offerings and sacrifices that will enable me to go on with you. Whilst you are seeking to prove to me that you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, whilst this is going on, I want this sanctuary. And that sanctuary will enable me to go on with you. There will be the shedding of blood, there will be offering and sacrifice, and all that will enable me to go on with you whilst you are proving what you say. So then, these people are on probation. They are to produce a righteousness that God can accept. And therefore, justified in the sight of God, they will be unto him a kingdom of priests. Now this was the position of these people Israel. Now God made perfectly clear this. The thought that has been in the mind of God from a way back in eternity, is this. That if ever man was justified in his sight, it would only be upon a principle of faith. Right away back from eternity, when God planned that cross, that suffering and death of his beloved son, from a way back in eternity, the thought in God's mind was, if ever man is justified before me, it will be on a principle of faith. Never upon a principle of works. Because if it were upon a principle of works, then man would have whereof to boast. God said he will never boast before me. So it is on a principle of faith. And then God as much as said, and I want to show you this, so you'll understand it, you'll see it. So he said, now look, I'm calling this man out. His name is Abram. I'm calling him out, and I want you to look at this man. And we look at this man Abram, and we find that God had called him out, and he came out, he didn't know where he was going, he went to look for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He came out, and we look at this man, and this man believed God. And when you notice this, this man is a man of faith. He's a pattern man of faith. Abram believed God, and his belief was reckoned to him for righteousness. Therefore he was justified in the sight of God. Now this is the thought in the mind of God, you see? And he never departs from it. Abram believed God, his belief reckoned to him for righteousness, and therefore he's justified on the principle of faith. God says, have a good look at that man, because that is my thought. Now then, what do you say? I would like you to be a kingdom of priests, but you can only be a kingdom of priests if you obey my voice, and if you keep my covenant. Then, if you keep that covenant, you will produce a righteousness. Now God says, it's for you to prove yourself. Now they said, we can. We will. All right. Now whilst you're doing this, you're on probation, and you're going to try and produce that righteousness by means of the law. Whilst that's going on, I'm going to have this tabernacle, I'm going to have all these offerings and sacrifices continuing to enable me to go on with you. And Moses, make a veil, and hang that veil upon those four pillars. There is no way into my presence for these people until they have kept, until they have obeyed my voice and kept my covenant. Until they have produced a righteousness that I can accept. Not until then will they ever be able to go through that veil. So the Holy Ghost signified, no way in whilst all this is going on. And this is going on because they are on probation. And so there's no way in. If these people eventually produce that state of being right, that righteousness that God can accept, then the veil will be taken down. And they shall enter and stand in the very presence of God. Now God knew very well that they would never produce that righteousness. He knew it. But he said, well then why did he let them try? Well you see, this was going to accomplish something else. God has made clear his thought, justification on a principle of faith. He saw that these people had a different thought in their mind. In the mind of these people was this thought, justification on a principle of work. You see the two thoughts? God's thought, justification on a principle of faith. Man's thought, justification on a principle of work. So God says, all right. It's no good me reasoning or arguing with these people. It's far better for them to experimentally prove that they cannot produce that righteousness. So I'll put them on probation. I'll say, all right. Now you produce that righteousness. Come on. You said you will. Now you get busy and you produce the righteousness that I can accept. Meanwhile, I unveil. You cannot enter into my presence. Once every year the high priest shall come in with the blood of the sin offering and sprinkle it there upon that very throne, upon the mercy seat, to enable me to continue with you. Maybe hundreds of years. But I'm prepared to let you prove to yourselves that you cannot produce the righteousness that I can accept by means of the law. When God spoke to Abram, he said, Abram, I'm going to bless you and I'm going to make you a blessing. And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Now who was the seed of Abraham? They say, well, the seed of Abram was Isaac. But God wasn't talking about Isaac. Oh, well, the seed of Abram was, well, it was Israel. He wasn't talking about Israel. Well, when he said the seed of Abram, who did he mean? And the apostle says, the seed of Abram is Christ. All right. Now we see. Abram, I'm going to bless you. You have been justified on the principle of faith. I'm going to bless you and in thy seed, Christ, shall all nations of the earth be blessed. How? Upon that same principle of faith. In your seed, Christ, all nations of the earth may be blessed. It will be on the same principle of faith. Do you get that? Now this is God's thought and he's making it perfectly clear. And then he allows 430 years to pass with just that thought before he said, I'm going to bring in the law. These people say they can, they will keep my covenant, obey my voice. So I'm going to give them the law. Now the law was not God's thought. It was man's thought. It was their thought. Not God's thought. You say, now just a moment. Isn't this the law of God? Yes, it's the law of God. Is there anything wrong with it? No. It's the law of God and it's holy and it's just and it's good. But it is not God's thought. It cannot be. Because the law is not of faith. The law is of works. Therefore the law is not God's thought. God's thought is justification on the principle of faith. The law is not of faith. The law is of works. So therefore what God saw in the minds of these people was they thoroughly believed that by their own works they could produce a righteousness, a state of being righteous that God could accept. And they would be justified on the principle of works. Now God made perfectly clear that justification on the principle of faith. And then he took them up and he said, all right, you tried. It was out of the question. They never could do it. Now God waited. And he waited to see if these people would acknowledge this. That they would begin to realize more and more how impossible it was to keep that law. How impossible to produce that state of being right that God could accept. And then they would be able to enter into his very presence. They went on for hundreds of years. And you know what they finally did? Rather than admit that they couldn't produce it, they built up self-righteousness. And you know the Lord Jesus never spared them for that. That self-righteousness, he never spared them for it. But that's what they did. So now you can see how they failed, how miserably they failed. Yet we say, well why was it that God, knowing that they would fail, why did he put them on probation in this way? Because you see, the law could be a schoolmaster, that experimentally they could be brought to be justified by faith. That as they sought by means of the law, by means of their own work, to produce that righteousness which they thought they could produce, and God could accept, they would realize that they could not do it. And then they would say, well not by law, not by work, but by what? Well by faith, that's it. So the law would be a schoolmaster that would bring them to Christ that they might be justified by faith. And they never did. You see, the law was never given that man might be justified by it. It was never given that man might get to heaven by it. It was never given that man might obtain eternal life by it. Why was it given then? It was given that we might have the knowledge of sin. The law was a ministry of condemnation, and it was a ministry of death. It wasn't a ministry of life. And when God gave that law, his intention was that that law would open their eyes and open their understandings, and they would realize that the very law that they were trusting in to bring them life would bring them death. That there was no hope for them. Coming across on the ship, I saw some people who were very fond of getting into a corner with Bibles and reading. And I went along and I said, you seem to be very fond of reading a Bible. They said, yes we are. I said, why is it that you like to read it so much? They said, well it tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ. I said, yes. Does it tell you anything else? Yes, it tells us how we are to keep the law. So I said, well what does it mean when it tells you about the Lord Jesus Christ? What is this? Well of course he is the Saviour. What's this law? They said, well of course we have to believe in him and we have to keep the law. Well I said, I can understand when you say believing in him that means salvation, but when you say you have to keep the law, I don't quite follow this. There's something wrong with it. Oh no, they said. No, this is what we find in the Bible. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we must keep the law. Well I said, I'm sorry but I couldn't accept that. So they said, well we've got to pray for you. So I said, oh well I'm very pleased about that. They said, yes we're going to pray for you because you see, if you don't keep the law, you'll go straight to hell. So you're in a very serious position and we're going to pray for you. So I said, oh, so you reckon then that if I don't keep the law I'm going straight to hell. And yes. And I said, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you this. That if you put yourself under the law, in order that you may be saved and get to heaven, there's one thing that that law will do for you. One thing which is absolutely certain. And they looked at me and said, and what's that? I said, it will send you straight to hell. The very thing that you're putting your trust in will slay you. Paul himself said, the very law that I saw was unto life, I found it to be unto death. The very thing that I trusted would save me, destroy me. And I said to these people, you if any measure, you trust in the law for salvation, for eternal life, that law will send you straight to hell. How dare you say a thing. I said, I said it on the authority of the word of God. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy in the face of two or three witnesses. Can you tell me you don't? Tell me that you keep that law? You may be able to say, I never committed adultery. And you're talking about your body. When the Lord Jesus Christ was talking about the law, he said, he that looketh upon a woman and lusteth after the woman hath already committed adultery. It's not just your actions, it's your very thought and your motives. What hope is before you then? The law will only condemn. It's a ministry of condemnation, it's a ministry of death. And it was brought in that we might have the knowledge of sin. And when we get that knowledge of sin, what do we do? The law serves its purpose. It brings us to Christ that we may be justified on the principle of faith. By the law cometh the knowledge of sin. How then could the law save? The law is not of faith. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. Now that's what the scripture says. It's not what I say, it's what the scripture says. By the deeds of the law. No matter what you do with the law, by the deeds of the law, no flesh can ever be justified in the sight of God. It's only on the principle of faith. By the law cometh the knowledge of sin. When we went out to central Africa, we had a baby six months old. I had an idea we might live in a tent, you know, and here in the abiding city, you know, traveling around, preaching the gospel in all the villages. And then I realized, you know what we had last night, lightning and thunder, well we get worse than that out there in central Africa. And in a tent, you don't want to stay there very long when you get storms like that. So I thought, you know, with a wife and a baby, I've got to build a house. Well I know, I wasn't builder, never built a building in my life, never put one brick on top of another. I thought, well I've got to do something. And I was thinking, thinking, thinking that I want to build just a simple place, you know, a couple of rooms in it, that's quite enough for me. And I was thinking, I thought, well here we are about 20 days journey from any store or place where they sell building materials, anything like that. And of course no roads or anything like that, no transport, just the bush. And everything would have to be carried. You can't think about building out there with materials that you have to buy. So I thought, well no. Now it would be good idea to make bricks, and I thought, well I can't, I don't even know how to burn bricks. But we make these bricks, and we make big ones, you know, they weigh about 30 pounds each, these bricks. We made them so they dried in the sun. And I thought, when I get making these bricks, I'll try them until I get bricks that will dry without cracking in four or five pieces. And then I thought, well yes. Now the big thing is this, when you start putting these walls up, of course, you've got to keep them going up straight. And I thought to myself, well I don't think I could do it. I reckon that by the time I got my walls high enough to get a roof on, the walls would be falling down, because I couldn't keep it straight. Now, well they do use something, the builder's got something he uses, a plumb line of something, or a level or something. And I thought, well yeah I know. So I thought, now I'd better send a man down, I'll give him some money and a letter, and tell him to go right away down, 20 days journey, and go into one of the big stores down there in the town, and hand a letter over, and then they'll give him this piece of wood, this level with bits of glass in it, you know, and tell him to wrap it up well, you see, because I don't want him to break these little bubbles. And he'd bring it back. So by the time he gets back, I'll have the bricks all ready, and the foundation in, and we'll be able to start building, you see. And I'll make sure my walls and my corners are going up, you know, straight. And we went on with the bricks, and eventually I thought to myself, well it's time this fellow was showing up. And one day I was looking down the pathway, and I saw a fellow coming up with a great big bale on his head, and I thought, well that's not, that's not him, because this level's just a straight piece of wood, and that, that's not a level that fellow's carrying, it looks more like a bedstead and a mattress and things, you see. So I watched a little while, and thought, well it looks like that fellow. And when he got a bit nearer, I thought, yes, it is that fellow. I send him down for a brick there, a level, and he's coming back with a, with a bedstead and a mattress, and I don't know what he's got in there. So I thought, well, that's it, that's how it happens. So I said, all right, now what you've got there? So he greeted me, I said, what have you brought me? He greeted me again, I said, well what have you brought me? He said again, I said, oh all right, well I greet you. Now tell me what you've got there. He said, well I'll show you. So he took it off. He said, I've got what you told me to get. I said, what, that? That looks more like a bedstead and a mattress or something. No, he says, what you said before, he told me to wrap it up. All right, so we'll unwrap it. So he started unwrapping it, and he had a pile of sacks there, and a pile of straw there, and he was still going at it, unwrapping it, and finally he came to this piece of wood, and he said, there it is. So I looked at it, and I said, well I'm going to give you a big present. So I said, you've done very well, you've brought it right. So I got a level. Now I can build the corners up, you see. So I started with my building, and I never knew a house had so many corners, you know. Not much of a house, but plenty of corners in it. And so I had to build a corner here, and a corner there. And there were a few Christians there, and they were trying to build to a line, you know, once I got corners up. Oh dear. So they were calling me over to the, well we had under a tree, we were treating sick people, keep on calling me over there to see somebody and find out what was wrong. And then they came and they said, man brought in, he's been badly mauled with a crocodile. So I said, right, coming. So I got this fellow here, he had been working with me, so I said to him, look, you, you go on working, put in that corner up, you see, and when you finish that, go to that one. No, he says, no, you can do that. I said, no, I want you to do it, because I may be away for hours, and these fellows are sitting here like, come on, you get, you know how to do it. But I don't want you, I said, ah, look, if you don't want to do it, go back to the village. All right, he said, all right, you see what happens. So I said, you go on, you build. So I went away and I came back in about an hour's time, and he was, he was, he was going on. And he got one of these 30 pound bricks from way up the sides he could reach there, you see, and he couldn't get it straight. He put the level up there and it wasn't straight. And so as I came over the brow, he got the level, and he was, that's your work, this brick, you see, and I thought, oh my, that's the end of the level, that's the end of it. Oh, it all broke to pieces, you see. Bang, bang, and I ran down, took it out again and said, what do you think you're doing with it? I said, that's pretty straight, can't get it. I said, listen, that, that's to show you whether the wall is straight or not. You don't use this to make it straight. I said, listen, when you put that alongside the wall and you see that it isn't straight, so you put that down carefully, and then find something, a piece of wood, no, a piece of a brick or something, use your own head, I don't care. No, you can use anything to knock that into place, but not this. This, this only shows you whether it's straight or not. Then you put that down and you've used other means to make it straight. You go there, oh, oh yes, all right, now don't forget. See, by the level comes the knowledge that your wall is not straight, but you don't use the level to straighten it. By the law comes the knowledge of sin, but you can't use the law to straighten your life. It will show you it isn't straight, but when it has shown you, it leaves you there, you see, done its work. But in showing you your need, it's showing you something else. There's somebody who can meet that need, you see, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He came under that penalty of a broken law. Now then, when God, after all these years, looked down upon these people, and he said, just as I knew would happen. But that law is not a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. They are building up self-righteousness. But the time has come for me to take action. And so God took his son, and he had him put to that cross, and there on the cross, Christ came under the curse of a broken law. Now you know what happened? Whilst he was there on that cross, he was made to be sin, he was bearing sin. He came under that curse of this broken law, and when he did so, all the wrath of God came upon him. And you know it says, there was darkness, and the rocks did rent, many that were in the graves came out. And it says, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst, from the top to the bottom, not from the bottom to the top. It was rent in the midst, from the top to the bottom. This was a divine act. This happened when the Lord Jesus Christ was on that cross, coming under the curse of that broken law, producing a righteousness. God in Christ produced a righteousness. That is to say, Christ came under the penalty of that broken law. He suffered at the hands of the Holy God on account of a broken law, and God didn't show him any mercy. He that, despite Moses' law, died without mercy. He comes into that position on behalf of others, of a broken law. No mercy shown to him, not a trace of mercy shown to Christ there on the cross. And so he suffers and endures all the wrath of God on account of that broken law, and he comes out of it. And he came out of it in a state of being white. He has paid the penalty in full, and he comes out with a righteousness which can be imputed to these people, which can be imputed to you. A righteousness that can be reckoned to us. Not a righteousness of the law, oh no, but the righteousness of God which we find in Christ. Now remember, the personal righteousness of God is not imputed to you and me. The personal righteousness of Christ is not imputed to you and me. Now this is very often said that it is. It is not. God could not impute his own personal righteousness to you and me. Neither could Christ. But God did produce a righteousness, and therefore it is the righteousness of God. Not his personal righteousness, but it's the righteousness of God. He produced it there on the cross through Christ and him crucified. And that righteousness which he produced there can be put to your account. You can be clothed in that righteousness, and you can be justified in the sight of God because you have a righteousness. Not yours, not by means of the law, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it was, the moment God produced that righteousness, the veil is rent. A new and living way of being opened up into the very presence of God, by the blood of Jesus. With these people there was no way in, because there was no righteousness that God could accept. They were on probation, and they went on and on, but they never produced it. And so the veil was never taken down. Eventually God comes in, and he produces the righteousness through Christ, that could be imputed to them. All they had to do was acknowledge that they could not, that it was beyond them, and then say, well we look to you. And God would say, yes, now you've come to an end of yourself, and you admit you cannot, I can do something, and I've produced a righteousness that can be yours. It can be reckoned to you, it's through faith, through faith in Christ. And so, in this way, they could be justified in the sight of God. Now let us remember, that there on the cross of Christ, there on the cross Christ was shown no mercy. Because, you see, there are many people today, there are probably thousands of people today, who are thinking like this. They are thinking to themselves, well, I don't want to go to church, I don't want to be, you know, holy, I don't want anything of that. But I reckon, if I ever stand before God, they say I've got to stand before him, but if I stand before God, God will know that I did my best. He'll know I tried, and he'll understand, he's a God of love, and he's a God of mercy, and when I stand before him, and he says, well, you know, you didn't do this, and I say, well, no, I didn't, you know, I tried, and I know God's a God of love, and therefore he says to me, well, you did try, and all right, I forgive you, enter into the kingdom. Now, God will never do that, because he cannot do it. God cannot show mercy at the expense of justice. Therefore, if we are in the sight of God, sinners, a holy God has got to deal with us. And so, when Christ was on that cross, there was no mercy. He had to pay the penalty in full. If you fail to avail yourself of that righteousness that God has provided for you there, you will stand before God, and when you stand before God, you cannot plead anything. If he did not show Christ any mercy when he was there as one representing those who had broken the law, if he received no mercy, would you receive any when you stand before God as one who has broken that law, and as one who has sinned against God? No. There's no mercy. There cannot be. There's mercy now. God has made it possible now for that righteousness to be yours through faith in Christ. But if you ever stand before God to plead your righteousness, to plead that you did your best, that you tried, oh no, no mercy. So, I trust the Lord will help us, each one, to enter into the meaning of this. Remember the veil, why it was there, you see. And then we can go on now. Tomorrow evening, as the Lord enables it, and we shall have to look at the high priest before we enter into the sanctuary. Shall we pray? Oh Father, we give our thanks to thee for thy help. As we look into thy word, and as these things come before us, we marvel greatly at the way the hast worked, calling out Abram, and then showing us thy fault. And then after 430 years, bringing in the law. And thou hast opened our eyes to see that never by means of the law could they be justified in thy sight. But in thy great love and rich mercy, in the person of thy beloved Son, in that work of the cross, thou didst produce that righteousness that could be imputed to them. And in this way, through faith, they could be justified before thee, and find there was now a new and living way opened up into thy very presence, through the blood of Jesus, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, through that suffering, agony, bloodshedding, and death of thy beloved Son, a new and living way. Help us, each one, that we may be found with that boldness that will enable us to enter into thy very presence through that rent veil. We ask this and give our thanks in the name of thy beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.