Brother Todd Neibert and I chatted
a little while this afternoon and he told me something that
Chris Cunningham said last week in Crossville that needs repeating
often. Chris said, any message I preach,
from any text, on any subject. If I couldn't rightly title the
message, Christ Crucified, it ought not be preached. This book
is all about our Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The accomplishment
of redemption and salvation by the doing and dying of the Son
of God. Everything in the book is written
to teach us about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now let's
go back to Leviticus chapter 23. And I want to speak to you
tonight, as God will enable me, about the Feast of the Lord.
In the Old Testament, throughout the legal Mosaic dispensation,
God required his people to keep seven feasts every year. Seven feasts he calls holy convocations. These were solemn assemblies
for worship, and they were to be observed in specific order,
on specific days, and in specific ways. Like all things in the
law and worship of the triune Jehovah, these seven feasts were
typical of the Lord Jesus Christ and his full accomplishment of
redemption by the sacrifice of himself. This 23rd chapter of
Leviticus is tremendously instructive, tremendously important. It's
full of gospel doctrine. Now, obviously, I cannot expand
these 44 verses in one message, and I won't try. So tonight I
want us to just hit the highlights as we go over these 44 verses
and these seven feasts. These seven feasts were seasons
of joyful solemnity appointed by God to point to Christ and
the salvation he would accomplish. You can't avoid noticing, however,
that these feasts, one seems to lead to the other. Each seemed
to suggest its successor. Beginning with the feast of the
Passover, our Lord Jesus Christ dying in our room instead, the
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, and moving on at
last to the Feast of Tabernacles, symbolizing the rest of God's
people in Jesus Christ for all eternity. So these seven feasts
in type and picture portray for us the whole of God's work in
time. the whole of God's work in saving
his people, until at last we come to the restitution of all
things in Jesus Christ our Lord. They seem to be representative
of God's great work of redemption, grace, and salvation, ultimately
culminating in our resurrection glory in eternity. I'll show
you the seven feasts distinctly set before us here. But as we
open the chapter, as David read those first three verses, there's
something strange. Before Moses is giving instruction
by the Spirit of God to Israel about the observance of these
feasts, he talks about keeping the Sabbath day. Those first
three verses, to my way of thinking, appear immediately to be out
of place. Why does God give instruction
here with regard to the Sabbath day when he's talking about these
seven feasts that he would have the children of Israel to observe,
week, seven different weeks, he would have them to observe
them throughout the year. It's obvious the Sabbath occupied
a prominent, independent place in Old Testament worship. In
fact, each of these feasts is associated with Sabbath observance. And before Moses gives instruction
about keeping the feast, he gives a specific instruction about
keeping God's Sabbath. It is as though in these first
three verses, the Lord is saying, the feasts I give are typical
of my salvation, by which I give you rest, everlasting rest in
my darling son. Israel's first great feast, the
Feast of Passover, was their annual feast keeping the observance
and memory of their deliverance out of Egypt. Their last annual
feast was the Feast of Tabernacles. Strip away all the typical dress,
and you have portrayed here a picture of full salvation in Jesus Christ
our Lord, which is what the Sabbath was all about. The Sabbath was
never to be kept. I mean, it was to be kept rather
every week, never to be neglected by the people of God. It was
a constant reminder of Israel, of that rest which Adam lost
in the garden. Adam walked with God in the cool
of the day. Shelby and I were sitting outside
last Wednesday evening after we got done with yard work and
it was cool late in the evening and she said this must be what
the scriptures refer to when it speaks of the Lord walking
with Adam in the cool of the day. Adam walked with God in
sweet rest. What a picture. What a picture.
But it lost that rest and everything was turned upside down, everything
disturbed, everything brought into turmoil by the sin and fall
of our father Adam. And it is that rest which Christ
came to restore and has fully restored and more, giving us
the blessed rest of faith in his finished work as our Redeemer. No work whatever was to be done
in the Sabbath day because it pictures our Lord Jesus Christ
and his salvation. No work can be contributed by
us to that. No work of any kind was to be
done in the Sabbath day. We are simply to rest in Christ. Is it so with your soul? Do you
now rest in Him, ceasing from all toil and labor, ceasing from
trying to find acceptance with God by something you do? That's
called the sweet rest of faith. The Sabbath day was entirely
and only given to point us to that. Our Lord Jesus speaks to
men, both to the believing and to the unbelieving. And he says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. He gives the sweet rest of faith
to all who come to him. And as you go through this world,
you meet with trouble. trials and heartaches and things
that confuse things that cause Great consternation of mind and
the Lord Jesus says to you then Take my yoke upon you and learn
in me slip under my yoke bow to my will for I am meek and
lowly in heart and as you bow to him you shall find rest unto
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light." We find rest in Christ. It's portrayed for us in the
Sabbath day. And yet, the apostle says, there
remaineth a rest unto the people of God soon. Oh, what a Sabbath
day awaits us. when trouble and trial and consternation
and confusion are forever ended and we rest completely in God
our Savior. All right, let's look at these
seven feasts then, beginning at verse four. The first holy
convocation God required Israel to keep every year was the Feast
of Passover. In verse five, he says, in the
14th day of the first month and even is the Lord's Passover. Israel's first feast was a constant
reminder every year to the children of Israel of God's great work
of grace in bringing them out of Egyptian bondage by the power
of his stretched out arm through the merit of the shed blood of
the Lamb portraying Christ, our Passover, who was sacrificed
for us. The Passover was given in Israel
only to point to him who in time would lay down his life for us
by whose blood salvation was earned and merited and purchased
for a people whom he would deliver by the outstretched arm of his
omnipotent grace at the appointed time of love. The feast is called
the Lord's Passover because the work was altogether his. Three things are prominent in
the Passover. A lamb, a blood, and deliverance. It was truly the Lord's Passover.
He ordained it. He provided the lamb. He accepted
the lamb. He seen the blood of the Lamb
passed over the people on the night of judgment. He brought
them out by his stretched out arm and across the Red Sea. He
was praised for it. Moses and Miriam sang of his
deliverance, giving God alone the praise in Exodus 15, because
salvation is of the Lord. You and I do not observe the
Passover. I stress that almost every time
I mention the observance of the Lord's Supper because in this
day of religious stupidity and idolatry, men and women are forever
trying to incorporate Old Testament ceremonies in with the worship
of God. They speak of the observance
of the Lord's Table, eating bread and wine as us keeping the Passover. Nothing could be further from
the truth. In our observance of the Lord's Supper, as we eat
the bread and drink the wine of the Lord's table, as Israel
there gives a portrayal of redemption, you and I remember redemption
and remember a Redeemer. It is the remembrance of redemption
finished by His blood atonement. And the remembrance of redemption
yet to come in resurrection glory. He says, as oft as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you show forth the Lord's death till
he come. He gave us this blessed ordinance,
we observe every Sunday evening, to cause us constantly to remember
him. and to inspire in us a constant
expectation of him. As Israel ate the bread and drank
the wine, or as they rather, on the night of Passover, ate
the roasted lamb with their shoes on their feet, their coats on
their back, and their staff in their hand, you and I ought to
always eat the bread and drink the wine in anticipation Christ
glorious second advent when he shall deliver us at last into
the glorious liberty of the sons of God Verses 6 through 8 you
see the next feast God required the feast of unleavened bread
On the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread
unto the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened
bread. Now this was really just a continuation
of the Passover feast. On the Passover night, the children
of Israel ate their lamb sacrificed, and they ate the lamb in anticipation
of leaving Egypt. The Passover sacrifice represented
the cause, the means, the accomplishment of redemption. The Feast of Unleavened
Bread represented the effects of redemption. The sacrifice,
the Paschal Lamb, that is Christ in his shed blood, is the effectual
means and cause of pardon, the sweet fellowship of faith. The
sweet fellowship of walking with God, trusting his son, represented
in the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the effect, the sure and certain
effect of the result of Christ's finished work. The Feast of Unleavened
Bread portrays faith, feeding upon Christ, as our Lord describes
it in John chapter 6, eating his flesh and drinking his blood. by faith, take his obedience
unto death, his righteousness and his sacrifice. And we take
it to ourselves, eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And just
as bread and wine, eaten and drunk, becomes a permanent part
of you. So believing on the Son of God,
trusting his righteousness and his blood is permanently ours,
Christ himself permanently ours. We must have a whole unleavened
Savior for salvation. Christ is our whole Savior. Anything of ours mingled with
his pure and perfect sacrifice would pollute it. So faith, true
faith, God-given faith, saving faith feeds upon Christ alone. Satan would ever turn us to something
about us, something done by us, something felt, something experienced.
Our flesh would ever look to ourselves. God, Spirit of God,
oh Spirit of God, keep our hearts focused constantly upon Christ
the Lord. Don't miss the connection between
the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Passover. Unleavened
bread began the next day after the Passover was ended. And so
it is that faith, the gift of life and faith in Christ, follows
the accomplishment of redemption. The scriptures do not here and
there speak of limited atonement. This is not something hidden
away in some secret portion of scripture. The scriptures, everywhere,
as they speak of the redemptive work of Christ, represent it
as an effectual work for God's elect. And all of those for whom
the sacrifice was made are made themselves to feast upon the
Lord Jesus by faith at the appointed time of love. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And this is the reason he redeemed
us. This is the reason he bought us. that the blessing of Abraham
might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we,
God's elect, might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. As one great family of redeemed
people, the children of Israel, ate the bread and drank the wine
in holy convocation on the day they came to feast before the
Lord, as one people, bought by blood and saved by grace. The
third feast, verses 9 through 14, the third holy convocation
God required Israel to observe was the Feast of Firstfruits.
Look at verse 10. Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, when ye be come into the land which I give
unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall
bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest.
And you shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted
for you. On the morrow, after the Sabbath,
the priests shall wave it. And you shall offer that day
when you wave the sheaf and lamb, a he-lamb, without blemish of
the first year, for a burnt offering unto the Lord. Now the scriptures
tell us plainly, in 1 Corinthians 15, 23, that this feast speaks
of Christ's glorious resurrection. It speaks of our resurrection
in Him spiritually, and our resurrection in Him at last in the day of
resurrection. I find this interesting. According
to the Jews' own calendar, our Savior's resurrection actually
took place on the very day the firstfruits were to be offered.
On the very day. So meticulous is the prophecy
of Old Testament. So meticulous, so precise, Brother
Todd and I were talking about this this afternoon. Nothing
in history, no man's life, nothing about a man's life is more readily
demonstrated as factual than this fact that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ spoken of in this book called the Old Testament.
The scriptures speak of him coming and Daniel's 70 weeks limited
to a certain specific seven-year period when he must go. measured
out exactly, measured out exactly. Now the scriptures give us nothing
like that with regard to a second advent. Nothing like that. In
regard to a second advent, there are no signs to be fulfilled,
no prophets to be fulfilled. Christ is to be looked for by
us immediately all the time. But with regard to his first
coming, The Scriptures gave precise, dated prophecies. Not only that,
but in the types and pictures of the Old Testament, our Lord
Jesus was sacrificed on the day the Passover offering was to
be sacrificed. He was risen again on the very
day the first fruits were to be offered unto God with the
wave sheath and the lamb offered before God. Our Lord Jesus, our
great substitute and Savior, on that third day, raised up
from the dead, carried before the triune Jehovah, the way of
offering, and the lamb of sacrifice for God's acceptance. And Christ
being the firstfruits, we are in him, that which is promised
after the firstfruits. The firstfruits represent the
full harvest. If the firstfruit be holy, the
lump is holy. We're told that we who are born
of God are the firstfruits of his creatures. God's people in
Revelation 14 are described as firstfruits unto God and to the
Lamb. We are accepted in Christ by
the merit of his blood. Not only that, but we bring our
sacrifices. prayers, our praise, our faith,
our efforts at devotion, our efforts at consecration, our
efforts at serving God, our gifts to whatever cause He directs
our hearts to, our songs of praise to Him. We offer them to God. And God, in wondrous grace, accepts
us and all that we are and all that we do in his worship and
service, even as he accepts Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, slain
in our stead. In verses 15 through 22, we see
the fourth feast. It's called the Feast of Pentecost. It's commonly called the Feast
of Pentecost because it was held on the 50th day. This is the
harvest or in-gathering feast. The great harvest feast speaks
of the in-gathering of God's elect in Jesus Christ the Lord
by the power of his grace. Look at verse 16. Even unto the
morrow, after the seventh Sabbath, shall ye number fifty days, and
ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring
it out of your habitations to waive loaves of two-tenth deals. They shall be of fine flour. They shall be bacon with leaven. They are the firstfruits unto
the Lord. Verse 22, and when you reap the
harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the
corners of thy field. When thou reapest, neither shalt
thou gather any greening of thy harvest. Thou shalt lead them
unto the poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your God. Now our Savior gives us a picture
of the fulfillment of this in Acts chapter 2 on the day of
Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost was
fully come, God poured out his spirit upon all flesh, just as
he had prophesied in the Old Testament, particularly in the
second chapter of Joel, so that men and women of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue are gathered together by the hand
of God. And people from many nations
came that day and heard the gospel preached in their own tongue
by men who had never learned their tongue, speaking by the
Spirit of God. And God saved in one day 3,000
souls, Jews and Gentiles at once brought into Jesus Christ. Just
as the harvest follows the firstfruits, so certainly the salvation of
God's elect follows the resurrection of Christ. Our Lord Jesus tells
us plainly, of the sheep I have, them also I must bring, and there
shall be one fold and one shepherd. He commands to the north, to
the south, to the east, and to the west, bring my sons and my
daughters from afar. And by this means, he saves all
his people. Now commenting on verse 22, Robert
Hawker, I think I know rightly observed, as the gleanings of
the harvest were to be left in the corners of the field for
the poor and the stranger. So in every corner of the earth,
There are gleanings of grace for poor, miserable sinners. The Lord God sends out his word
into all the four corners of the earth, and by the sending
out of his word, he gleans his elect from among them, and he
leaves his word for needy sinners to glean. in requiring that Israel
never gather all the harvest, the Lord is teaching us about
his grace. As Boaz left handfuls of purpose
for Ruth, so God always provides for his own. Physically, yes,
materially, yes, but particularly spiritually. He provides for
his own such things as are needed to bring his own to himself even
as Boaz by handfuls of honey turned Ruth to him. And he would
have us as his servants to take care to provide for his own as
well, casting his bread upon many waters. going forth with
precious seed, sowing the word wherever he gives opportunity,
that he may by this means gather in his own. He would have us
ever to be mindful of the needs of others specifically, the needs
of men's souls. And he would have you and me
constantly serve their everlasting souls. Look at verses 23 through
25. Here is the Feast of Trumpets.
This represents the glorious triumph of Christ proclaimed
in the Gospel. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month,
in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial,
a blowing of trumpets, and holy convocation. You shall do no
servile work therein, but you shall offer an offering made
by fire unto the Lord. You will hear the sound of a
trumpet, the sound of many trumpets, the blowing of trumpets. And
as you hear the sound of those trumpets, you shall do no servile
work, but rather offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. I have no doubt at all that this
refers to the preaching of the gospel. It refers to that joyful
sound mentioned in Psalm 89 verse 15, the sound of the gospel of
God's free grace proclaimed in the message of Jesus Christ crucified. Every saved sinner has heard
the sound and enters into the joy of the sound of grace proclaimed
in the gospel. We hear the sweet sounds of mercy
and grace, justice and judgment, righteousness and peace blended
together in blessed harmony and rejoice. Oh, what a joy. to observe through Christ, by
his obedience unto death, by the merits of what he did as
our substitute, by the merits of his person, God Almighty,
in the strict judgment and justice of his holy law, as strict as
if he sent the whole world to hell, and in the great boundless
mercy, grace, and love of our God, as boundless as if no one
ever suffered his wrath, God Almighty in Christ Jesus justly
and graciously accepts you. and forgives you, and blesses
you, and smiles upon you. Oh, what good news the gospel
sounds. It's spoken of in the scriptures,
we'll see it a few weeks, Lord willing, as the Jubilee trumpet. And strange thing about that
Jubilee trumpet, anyone who ever heard the trumpet
blow, Anyone who ever heard the Trumpet blow had never heard
it before And yet as immediately as they
hear it they understand it it means liberty It means debts
are canceled. It means property is restored.
It means the restoration of you by God's decree and by God's
command and when the gospel is preached as God Almighty gives
a hearing ear The first time a sinner hears
it The first time a sinner his I'm not talking about hearing
it with these ears I'm talking about Jimmy Ray the first time
God called you to hear it. You recognize the sound That's
the message. That's what God has proclaimed
to me liberty in Jesus Christ the Lord In verses 26 to 32,
the Lord God graciously required his worshipers to celebrate the
holy convocation of the Feast of Atonement once a year, as
long as they walked in their journey here. Look at verse 27.
Also on the 10th day of this seventh month there shall be
a day of atonement it should be an holy convocation unto you
and ye shall afflict your souls and Offer an offering made by
fire unto the Lord and ye shall do no work in the same day For
it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before the
Lord your God the word atonement that is used in verse 27 is Really
should be in the plural atonements and a better translation of the
word would be expiations this feast of atonements is a feast
of expiations and It has reference to our perfect, complete restoration
to God and the restitution of all things to God in Jesus Christ,
when our Savior shall have gathered all things together in one for
the glory of God. In the dispensation of the fullness
of times, he will gather all his people together. But that's
not all. In that last day called the restitution of all things,
our Savior, who reigns on his throne in glory, shall bring
everything at last to bow to our God. All the riches and all
the kings and all the rulers of all the earth shall be brought
before our God, and God shall be all in all. He will make known
to the damned He will make known to angels and to men, to demons
in hell and to lost men in hell, to the righteous in heaven and
to the angels of heaven. He will make all to see that
indeed all things redound to the glory of our God. The Lord
hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. He made Judas for the day Judas
betrayed him, and for the day of judgment. He made Pharaoh
for the day that Pharaoh sought to destroy Egypt, or Israel,
and God destroyed Pharaoh. He made the wicked for the day
of the evil he appointed to be done for the good of his people
and the glory of his name. And for the day of evil when
in judgment he cast them into hell. so that everything that
he is, has been, and shall hereafter be, shall be at last by Christ
Jesus brought together, and he will show wondering world, you
see, the wondrous work of God. All things worked according to
his purpose, for his glory, for the good of them that love God,
who are the called according to his purpose. The feast of
trumpets was a prelude to and a proclamation of the glorious
liberty of the sons of God in the resurrection day. Now look
at the last feast, verses 33 to 44. The seventh holy convocation
is the Feast of Tabernacles. We're told in regard to the Feast
of Tabernacles that this feast was to be observed by the children
of Israel, verse 34, the 15th day of the seventh month shall
be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. Again
referring to Hawker. He said, this feast of tabernacles,
which was one of the highest points of enjoyment in Israel,
very mercifully follows five days after the day of atonement. And there is a gospel mercy typified
in it. The conviction of sin by the
Holy Spirit is sweetly followed by the conviction of righteousness
by Christ. And when the Lord God by his
Spirit convinces you of righteousness accomplished by Christ, the soul
is made glad in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. This Feast of Tabernacles was
a time when God reminded Israel that they dwelt in booths in
the wilderness. They were pilgrims here. That's certainly what he declares
to be its representative. It is described as being representative
of the fact that you and I are pilgrims here. We tabernacle
on this earth. We live in this tabernacle of
clay. But it spoke of more than that.
It spoke of the time when the Lord Jesus Christ tabernacled
among us, took on himself our nature, that by his obedience
unto death as our substitute, men might be made to tabernacle
with God forever. And God tabernacled with men
forever in heavenly glory. I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, John said, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away. and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be their
God. Now, let me wrap this up by calling
your attention to one more thing. The eighth day, the eighth day,
in this great feast of tabernacles was considered to be the great
day of the feast. You remember in John 7, 37, our
Lord Jesus was observing the feast of tabernacles according
to the law, just as is given right here in Leviticus 23. And
the folks had come up to the Feast of Tabernacles. Brother
Scott Richardson stood here in this pulpit many, many years
ago and he said they went up to the Bible conference at Jerusalem.
They went up empty. And there was nothing there for
them. And they came away as empty as they went up. But on the last
day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Come, come to Christ and drink. And out of you shall flow rivers
of living water, constantly bubbling up in you until life everlasting. And that is the message of the
Feast of the Lord. Amen. All right, let's turn to
number 130 in your Songs of Grace book.