The hours of darkness

Gospel of Matthew chapter 27 and we'll read verse 45. Matthew chapter 27 and we're reading verse 45. Now there was 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 sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? I'm going to take you for a moment to Leviticus chapter 16 to the 16th chapter of the book of Leviticus.

The subject of the chapter is the Day of Atonement. The chapter is occupied with the responsibility of the priest on the Day of Atonement. I will make a reference likely to chapter 23, the responsibility of the people on the Day of Atonement, but in chapter 16 we'll read from verse 22.

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited and he shall let go the goat into the wilderness. Just back up to verse 20. Verse 20, when he has made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.

Now he has already killed a goat, we're going to refer to that. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat. Must have been a solemn moment.

And confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins. Notice, putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And now verse 22 again.

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities, and I want to notice this next expression, into a land not inhabited and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. And then down to verse 26. And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat, that's the goat that was led into the wilderness with the sins confessed upon it, shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water and afterwards shall come into the camp.

Now that's all that we're going to read. Recently I have written an article on the hours of darkness at Calvary. I don't think I'm going to repeat what was in that article, but there will be some repetition here.

I want to touch upon the hours of darkness and I want to touch upon the coming of the Lord in a context related to the hours of darkness. When you come to the hours of darkness at Calvary, the event was a supernatural event and perhaps that's not the right word to use to describe that. If you look in a dictionary you'll find that the word supernatural is described as that which is seemingly beyond the power of the laws of nature, that is miraculous, but the hours of darkness are even beyond that.

That really doesn't describe the hours of darkness at Calvary. The hours of darkness are recorded by Matthew. Matthew records the supernatural events more than the other writers of the Gospels.

And so when you come to the hours of darkness, the synoptic Gospels, that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke, will all record these solemn hours of darkness at Calvary. John doesn't record them. When you come to the synoptic Gospels, they will all record the rending of the veil of the temple.

John does not record that. Then in the Gospel of Matthew only, you have the first earthquake, you have the rocks being read, you have the graves open, and then you have a second earthquake. That's recorded by Matthew but not by any of the other Gospel writers.

When you come to the words of the Lord Jesus that I have read in Matthew chapter 27 here, they are recorded, though a little differently, by Mark in Mark's Gospel. There are other details that are recorded only by other writers. For example, Luke alone records the cry of the Savior from the cross, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

And John alone records the cry of the Savior at the conclusion of the work of the cross that has meant so much to so many down through the years, Father, it is finished. Or the word Father is not there, but it is finished. I want to think about the hours of darkness that Matthew has recorded just very briefly, and then I'm going to take you to what we have read in the book of Leviticus chapter 16.

So from the sixth until the ninth hour, Matthew would tell us that was darkness over all the land. That was unusual time for darkness to settle upon the scene. From noon hour until three in the afternoon, there was darkness.

I was in West Virginia at the time of the eclipse, and we tried to take a picture but wasn't able to because of the clouds, but it really wasn't dark, not like we have here. This was a darkness when the sun, could I put it this way, was turned off. The sun didn't shine.

We sing the words of the hymn, well might the sun refuse to shine and shut his glories in. When the incarnate maker died for a man, his creature sinned. This was a total darkness.

This was a darkness that left the whole scene of Calvary clothed and hidden in that darkness. There is something about, if I can use the word again, supernatural events that cause men to fear. Maybe not so much in our day, but certainly in days past when the earthquakes and other events put fear into the hearts of men.

Perhaps that happens today, but when the hours of darkness came at Calvary, the souls of men were filled with fear. We read that the centurion and those that were with him feared greatly when that scene was enclosed in the darkness at Calvary. Likely other than the statement that we read in Matthew and then again in the Gospel of Mark, the hours of darkness are not really, that is the event or what took place in the hours of darkness, are not really referred to too much in the New Testament.

It is likely that the Apostle Paul comes very close to that time when he records in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 in the 21st verse, He hath made him to be sinned for us we need no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And perhaps again in Romans chapter 8 when Paul tells us that God spared not his son. Peter may come close to referring to those hours.

Peter would remind us in the first epistle in the fifth chapter of that epistle, verse 1, that he was an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ. But there were some of the sufferings of the Savior, for Peter was referring to what men did to the Lord Jesus Christ. There were some aspects of even those that Peter never saw.

And for he left when he was warming himself at the fire and the Lord looked at Peter, the cock crew, the three times and Peter left. But Peter refers to what he did see when he was reviled. He reviled not again.

When he suffered he threatened not. Those were the things that men did to the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter saw some of those.

But there were other things that Peter never saw. In the hours of darkness a human eye of man could not pierce that darkness. And when the Savior was hanging on that cross and the scene was enclosed in darkness, the eyes of men never saw, never pierced that darkness.

Peter refers to that though he never saw it. Peter tells us in 1st Peter chapter 3 and the 18th verse of that chapter that he suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. I would take it that that's the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ in those hours of darkness at Calvary.

It is interesting that in the Old Testament there is more that is said about those hours than in the New Testament. And so we come to Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Isaiah chapter 53 and other single statements like Lamentations chapter 1 and verse 12 and Zechariah in chapter I think it's 13 about verse 7 of that chapter. They all make a solemn reference to the hours of darkness at Calvary.

Those were the hours when the wrath of God was the portion of the Lord Jesus upon the cross. I don't make reference to the too many authors when I'm speaking. I'm going to make a reference here.

There is an author and it's not not someone that you wouldn't know because I you don't know him personally but you would know his name because I'm certain that some here have his books on the shelf. C. Campbell Morgan wrote a book called The Crisis of the Christ and when he came to the hours of darkness C. Campbell Morgan penned these words that those hours are too high and too profound for any finality of statement. There are hours that we would stand upon holy ground.

We would be like Moses at the burning bush and remove the shoes from our feet for this is sacred ground. The hours of darkness at Calvary and the sin bearer upon that cross bearing the awful judgment of sin. We're going to refer to that just briefly in a moment when we come to the goats that we have read about in Leviticus chapter 16.

It is interesting in passing that the Apostle Paul goes back to the book of Leviticus in a remarkable way at least on three occasions maybe more often. He takes us back to chapter 23 where I never read but in chapter 23 we have seven feasts of the Lord and when Paul comes to the Passover in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and he makes this statement Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us he's going back to Leviticus chapter 23 for there is one verse in that chapter that tells us about the feast of the Passover. Paul is bringing that from Leviticus chapter 23 and bringing that into 1st Corinthians chapter 5 but he's going to go back again and so he goes back to the feast of unleavened bread and he takes the feast of unleavened bread and he brings that into 1st Corinthians chapter 5 when he makes the statement let us keep the feast not with the leavened bread of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

He's not speaking about the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is not mentioned in 1st Corinthians until we come to the 10th and 11th chapter. Don't read about the Lord's Supper until 1st Corinthians chapter 10.

The feast is not the Lord's Supper and while we sing that often sweet feast of love divine the Lord's Supper in your Bible is never referred to as a feast. The feast in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 is the feast of unleavened bread and it is used by Paul to illustrate the life of a believer and so in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 there is a believer who has been living an unholy life and will be excommunicated from the assembly and now Paul is saying let us keep the feast a holy life in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 but I have said that because we're going to go back to Leviticus chapter 23 again and Paul is going to take another one of those feasts, the feast of first fruits. That's when a little sheaf of barley was cut from the harvest fields and was brought and I'm suggesting into the temple where it was laid up in the temple over over the Passover over the feast of unleavened bread those were holy days they couldn't cut the feast of barley on those days and so that feast of barley or that sheaf of barley was laid up in the temple for three days while the Lord Jesus was in the garden tomb and then the fruit the priest was to take that sheaf of barley and I'm not going into all the details of this but he was to wave it before the veil of the temple and so Paul goes back to that feast in Leviticus chapter 23 and he says Christ the first fruits that's the sheaf of barley but then notice what he says afterward they that are Christ at his coming there was still the harvest field left and in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and Leviticus chapter 23 the harvest field they that are Christ that is coming that's the rapture that's the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ Paul takes up from Leviticus chapter 23 Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ at his coming I'm going to come back to the coming of the Lord in just a moment I want you to go with me then to Leviticus chapter 16 a moment has come in one of Israel's most solemn days that is the day of atonement and Aaron is required to carry out certain functions on that particular day and he will be very careful for he is to carry them out exactly as God has instructed him he is to remove from himself the garments of glory and beauty those are tremendous garments to consider relative to the person of Christ and then he is to put upon himself linen garments on this one day on the day of atonement then he will make his way to the gate of the tabernacle that's the entrance to the court of the tabernacle and when he is there there will be two goats that will be brought to him one of those goats will be a goat that is going to be slain blood will be caught in a basin and now Aaron is going to take a journey he's going to come from the gate of the tabernacle he's going to come past the labor past the burnt altar first and then you'll come past the labor perhaps he will stop he will be required to stop at the labor to cleanse his feet then he's going to make his way to the entrance of the tabernacle which is really the tent like structure that's the tabernacle and he'll enter into the holy place now I know that there might be a difference of thought here relative to the golden censer and the golden altar I'm just going to take it this way for today he's going to take a golden censer he's going to make his way to the altar that is before the veil he'll take some calls from off that golden censer and he'll fill his hands with incense and he has a basin of blood and in some way that we're not told he's going to enter beyond the veil into the holy of holies as he enters into the holy of holies he's going to understand that he's in the very presence of God from above the mercy seat that is over the ark and between the cherubims that were made out of the two ends of the mercy seat is the dwelling place of God that's where God chose to dwell amongst his people and Aaron is moving in the very presence of God you can be certain of this that Aaron's heart we filled with reverence and there will be a sense of fear Aaron has been told twice that if he didn't carry out his functions exactly he would die Aaron's going to be very careful I wonder sometimes whether we have lost a little of the sense of the reverence and of the fear of God and of the presence of the Lord Jesus that Aaron would sense at that moment when he's in the holy of holies let me just diverse for a moment I arrived at an assembly back home on a Lord's Day morning early and the brother who was standing at the door and brief conversation said we have three widows in this assembly notice what he told me about those three widows so they are here every Lord's Day morning a half an hour or more before the meeting commences brother we've lost that it will affect our worship if we're occupied with conversation and so many other details and rush in at the last moment to take our seat at the breaking of bread now notice what he told me about those three elderly sisters since I have watched them they have sat here quietly and their lips are moving that is they're not speaking out loud but they're quietly speaking to God and then he said sometimes I watch them they have their hymn books open and when the first team is given out at the breaking of bread they never turn the pages of those hymn you can understand why there would be a sense of the presence of God at the breaking of bread that Lord's Day morning I think we have lost that Aaron would sense that now he's in the presence of God he's going to do two things now after putting the incense in the golden sensor and again I know there's a difference of thought there and but the place is going to be filled with the incense that he has put in the sensor and he's going to move very carefully now to the mercy seat and the mercy seat has a beautiful picture for us had suffering Saints no mercy seat the Lord is the mercy seat for us and as he approaches that mercy seat he's going to take the blood and he will sprinkle it and we're not told how many times he will sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat there are two times in Leviticus chapter 23 the seven feasts where there's bloodshed the first one is a Passover and the Passover lamb and what you will notice that on only one occasion and there are eight Passover's recorded in the Bible where there are details given to us about the observance of the Passover but only once was the blood applied that was in the land of Egypt to the door post and above the door precious blood of Christ was only shed once he has appeared once in the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and those other seven Passover's recorded in the Bible the blood is not applied it was applied once and so Aaron was going to sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat that was intended for the eyes of God God had said when I see the blood God dwelt above the mercy seat and the blood upon the mercy seat was for the eyes of God then Aaron will step back and you'll sprinkle the blood now before the mercy seat and this time and very carefully he will sprinkle it seven times before the mercy seat though my brethren may have a different thought but I have taken it this way the blood upon the mercy seat was for the eyes of God but the blood before the mercy seat would remind us of the ground of redemption upon redemption ground when Aaron has completed that he will exit from the holy of holies now he has made an entrance or will make an entrance three times into the holy place on that day of atonement but now on this occasion he will exit from the holy of holies he will exit from the holy place he will make his way past the the laver and then you will come past the brazen altar again to the gate of the tabernacle and there's a goat waiting and that's the goat that I just want to dwell for a few moments on before I sit down that goat is a scapegoat and Aaron is going to perform a solemn responsibility he's going to put his hands upon the head of that scapegoat and we have read that over the scapegoat he's going to confess the sins of the children of Israel I don't know how long that would take him maybe that took him a long time because there were many sins Aaron would have to confess his own sins you can almost hear Aaron over the head of that goat say we made I made a golden calf and then he would have to confess I lied about the calf I said I put the gold in the fire on the calf walked out and that was a lie you would have to confess the grumbling and the complaining of the children of Israel they speak against God they speak against Moses that they loathe the light bread and on and on whatever the sins of Israel where he would confess them over the sins ahead of that goat and that would remind me of a man upon the cross of Calvary and all my sins were laid upon him Jesus bore them on the tree that is pictured by Aaron and the the placing of the sins of the children of Israel upon the head of that goat then there's going to be a man up here he's a man that you would take very careful note of in Leviticus chapter 16 he is called a fit man we don't know the tribe don't know the family we don't know his name he's only identified as a fit man and the fit man you'll notice it's going to take that goat and there are two beautiful types of the Lord Jesus Christ here the fit man himself and the goat and he's going to lead that goat away past the encampment of the children of Israel and he's going to lead it away and further and further away at a faraway place then we have read the statement to an uninhabited land that strikes me as one tremendous statement that the goat over whose head Aaron has confessed the sins of the children of Israel is now going to be led far away to an uninhabited land that is a land where none would care for the goat no one would feed it no one would show the goat kindness it would be left in that uninhabited land could I suggest that the uninhabited land where the goat was bearing the sins of the children of Israel it's just a it's just a tremendous picture for us of a man who bore our sins to a place uninhabited in the darkness of the place called Calvary where he was alone his own forsook him they all forsook him and fled though John did return John stood beside Mary at the cross Joseph of Arimathea must have been very near the cross when the Savior died he was alone and that cry that pierces the heaven and can I refer to see Campbell Morgan again the ground is just simply too high too profound for any finality of statement we enter into an area that is vast and far beyond our full comprehension but we tread carefully for upon holy ground when in those solemn hours of darkness that uninhabited land the Lord Jesus cried my God my God why has thou forsaken me bearing sin my sin like the sins of Israel were confessed over the head of that goat and the goat led to that uninhabited land there was a day when I discovered for the first time that my sins were answered for at the place called Calvary and we can say with all of our being as the words were penned payment my God will not twice the man first at my bleeding surly's hand and then again at mine just three statements about that uninhabited land the darkness of the cross that uninhabited place is a measure of our guilt the depths of his being forsaken such greatness was our guilt that it required the forsaking of the Lord Jesus at the place called Calvary our nearness to God at the cost of his distance and then the measure of God's holiness the darkness of the place called Calvary but that's not the end because that fit man returned I indicated a few moments ago there are two types of the Lord Jesus here the goat bearing the sin into the uninhabited land but there was a moment when the fit man returned and the waving of that sheaf of barley before the veil of the temple is just a little picture in the Old Testament of the resurrection of Christ blessed morning whose first dawning rays beheld the Son of God arise triumphant from the grave and leave us dark abode the fit man returning would remind us that the work is finished the goat in the wilderness has answered for the year for Israel's sins and the Lord Jesus has risen triumphantly out from amongst the grave of the dead from the end of the supple core indicating that the work is finished it is completed he the fit man has returned the picture of the resurrection of Christ but then I have made the reference he is coming again that field of barley is a little picture of those who are left the harvest yet to be gathered in there's going to come a moment when we're going to meet him what a moment he and I together entering those bright courts above he and I together sharing eternally all the Father's love there are some beautiful pictures in the Old Testament and that goat reminds us of the darkness of the cross