is enabled this morning I would
wish to direct your very prayerful attention to the chapter that
was read in your hearing namely Leviticus chapter 23 and I wish to consider the seven
feasts which are found here within the chapter but by way of text
we may consider it to be verses 1 and 2 Leviticus chapter 23 verses 1
and 2, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the
children of Israel and say unto them concerning the feasts of
the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even
these are my feasts." When the chapter was announced
this morning, what was your consideration? Was it one of confusion? Was it one of encouragement? Or was it one
desirous to see, as you read through the chapter, the blessed
gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ himself? because this is precisely
what we find here. We have to remember again the
great principles of exegesis that there is always an expository
and an experiential application to the gospel. These two are
not mutually exclusive but they come together. And such is the
case here in this 23rd chapter of Leviticus. Notice here we
have seven feasts. Seven is the number of completion. A lot of people today, they make
a fuss, a great deal of fuss, about the number 666. And they haven't really a clue
what they're talking about. The number 6 is the number representative
of man. It's the number of failure. It's
the number of frustration. It's the number of defeat. We
happen to live at number 41, but if we lived at number 666
it wouldn't worry me that. Why? Because it's a representative
number. And we have seven feasts before us now. And the number
seven is mentioned many times. It's that number of completion.
Now, by way of context here, we must not have these feasts
confused with those Jewish feasts which were to be observed once
a year. These feasts here represent the
whole history of the Old Testament Church. and you will notice that
there is a very natural flow one to the other. You see, these were God's feasts. And again, they were never intended
to be an end in themselves. They were spiritual. They were
spiritual. It's what they represented. And
thus, it would be foolish to consider ever going back to
them. Because they all speak of glorious aspects of the Gospel. Every one of them. Now firstly, we read of the Feast of the Passover. Verse 4, these are the Feasts
of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their
seasons. In the 14th day of the first
month, at even is the Lord's Passover. Notice these are the
Lord's institutions. They are what He
has commanded. Before each one was a Sabbath
and after each one was a Sabbath. And thus we have again a sweet
foretaste in a shadowy way of the Gospel and of the Lord's
Day of which we now find ourselves. The Lord's Day is the first day
of the week. and thus Christ is the Head of
the Church and all blessings flow in, through and by Him. So you have this Feast of the
Passover. Now, we are of course reminded
that the Lord took each of the firstborn of Israel. And the whole point of this feast
here is to see what? This is a dividing point. We read in the New Testament
that there was a division because of Him. When I see the blood I will pass
over you. the clue in that sense is in
the name there is a passing over there is a declaration here of
the Lord's redemption and thus is it not the case that experientially
we each have to know a passing over a passing over to be declared
righteous to know and to feel to experience
for ourselves the Lord's pardoning mercy and thus there is that
gospel declaration when I see the blood I will pass over you." A feast, a glorious feast, and
as we observed last Lord's Day that these feasts are enjoyed,
all the feasts were enjoyed at times of liberty. That was when
they felt the real benefit of them. And thus, the Feast of the Passover
is not something that is abstract. It's something that is applied. Blood. Without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission of sin. And indeed, is that not the case? One of the reasons there was
great consternation within the Methodist Church, even within
the 18th century, was the preaching of what men considered to be
slaughterhouse religion. The mentioning of the blood was
an offence to many. I always remember being told
at Leeds Chapel, one of the visiting ministers, and it cut right through
me. He said, if your religion is a bloodless religion, it's
a lifeless religion. We'll come to that, if the Lord
will, a little later on. So we have the Feast of the Passover.
But quite naturally, coming on from that, what else do we see? We see the Feast of unleavened
bread which is a very natural continuation on the 15th day
of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the
Lord. Seven days ye must eat unleavened
bread. This is a picture of faith in
Christ. As the Passover was the cause,
the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the effect. The Lord's glorious
redemption is the cause of all. What are
we saved by? What are we saved by? You see,
this is the issue, isn't it? Many people think, quite wrongly,
that they're saved by their experiences. Many people in our denomination
particularly think that. They think they're saved by their
experiences. Now don't get me wrong, as the Feast of Unleavened
Bread spells out, that we will have an experience. but we are not saved by our experiences
we are saved by the blood of Christ but these things again they are
not abstract they are made known and thus we can see here a blessed
tasting of these things there is a tasting
of these things You shall offer an offering made
by fire unto the Lord. Made by fire. Made by fire. And thus we can see that this
feast of unleavened bread, what does it signify? Isn't it that
sweet communion with the Lord? Remember the leaven represented
sin and thus there is a delighting Not in
holiness of self, because we have no holiness in self. But in the holiness that is in
the Lord. Holiness that is in the Lord. You see, the work of grace done
in the heart is a perfect work, is it not? This is why the Lord
must take it and apply it Himself. because anything that we put
our hand to has death written upon it. But to feast upon Christ who
is sinless. Now we know that in the Feast
of Unleavened Bread that the children of Israel were commanded
to eat the lamb roasted with fire with shoes on their feet
with courts on their back and with a staff in their hand. And they were expecting deliverance. They were looking for deliverance. And thus, is not this the work
of faith? It is the work of faith. A hope and an expectancy of feasting
upon the promises of the Gospel. And at the end of it, like all
others, there is rest. There is rest. The end of all
these feasts we have that Sabbath. And that word Sabbath simply
means rest. And again coming into the fulfillment
of it, as we read these things, do we not see the clearer picture?
Do we not see the fulfillment? That the first day of the week
that we have to do is simply that rest. It's simply that rest. And that is what we look for. That is
what we see. and thus there is a feasting
upon Christ. In verses 9 and 10 we see the
Feast of the Firstfruits. The Lord speaking to Moses saying,
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 in the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest
unto the priest. And ye shall wave the sheaf before
the Lord to be accepted. For you, on the morrow, after
the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it, the feast of firstfruits. Now here, we see a glorious gospel
picture. A glorious gospel picture. We think of, and my mind immediately
went actually when reading through this chapter to the first epistle
of Paul to the Corinthians verse 50 For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man, notice
this, in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, after would
they that are Christ's at his coming. The Lord Jesus Christ's
death and resurrection makes him the first fruits. The first fruits. And thus we
see here a picture of the Messiah going before them. Jesus Christ
the forerunner of all things. And we read in
John 1, don't we? That without Him was not anything
made that was made. the co-equal and the co-eternal,
Son of God. Now, we would also note here,
those of you who have an interest in growing things at the harvest
time, farming anything of that nature, there is, perhaps it's
considered an old term today, that there is that which is considered
to be the first fruits the first signs of life my understanding is that the
first fruits often indicate what will follow and it is a promise
of that which will follow experientially applied we might
say this the first fruits need to be found to be genuine they
need to be found to be good they need to be found with that which
is well rooted well watered and well fed and
then we see growing before us or springing up before us I should
say the first fruits, that first promise we have to come back
don't we continually to the truth when the Lord said ye must be
born again and thus our beginning must be right there's no spiritual
life, we find it in our articles of faith there's no spiritual life before
the new birth no spiritual life you see there is that imparting of the Holy Ghost is
there not within the soul the doctrine of the indwelling
spirit and thus we can see here spiritual life. But even more
than that, in the doctrine of the first fruits here, we have
these sheaves which are offered. Sheaves. And there is this offering
unto the Lord with the sheaves, these first fruits, and they're
accepted. Notice this, "...and he shall
wave the sheave before the Lord to be accepted for you." There's an offering up. The Lord's offering and the sheave. Christ and His people goes together. And both are accepted. Notice the sheaves, what are
they? They appear to be worthless. And you and I are worms of the
earth. You know, we don't hear much
about men being worms today. But you know, I love our glorious
Gatsby's Inbook. It describes men as being worms.
The modern ones have removed it, of course. They don't want
that kind of talk. But that's what we are. We're worms. What
did Job say? A perfect, right, a perfect man,
a man of astute evil. He said, I'm a worm. Described
himself as nothing. And thus, there is that offering
of the firstfruits. And there's that, is there not
that, experientially that need for acceptance with the Lord. There's a need for acceptance.
That's what this speaks to us experientially, doesn't it? Bringing
our souls into that state whereby we feel there must be an acceptance. But there's a realization it's
not acceptance on our terms. It's certainly not acceptance
on our merits. But there is an acceptance with
Christ. despite what we are, but because
of who He is. And that's the great difference. Christ, the God-Man, being offered. There's an offering and there's
an acceptance. But it's only because of what he has done. Nothing
else. Nothing else. Now fourthly, in
verses 16 and 17, we read of the Feast of Weeks. Even unto
the morrow, and after the seventh Sabbath, shall ye number fifty
days. And ye shall offer a new meat
offering unto the Lord. You shall bring out of your habitations
two wave loaves of two-tenth deals and they shall be of fine
flour. They shall be bacon with leaven.
They are the first fruits unto the Lord. This feast of weeks... Now this feast of weeks ran for
seven weeks and one day. But Quite literally, it may be
translated as in gathering. And in gathering. And in gathering. This is speaking of a period of time. Now, we won't go into the 70
weeks that are found in Daniel. But that also, of course, when
weeks are spoken of within the Scripture, also has an indication,
or a prophecy, if we like, of the Gospel coming to the Gentiles. Of course, in AD 70, the Temple
came down, the whole Jewish economy was destroyed, and we're never
going back to it. We are never going back to it.
We have had the real thing here, in the fulfillment of these things
in the Gospel Age. There are many, many, many, we've
considered them here many times before, there are many prophecies
concerning the Gentile people. I will call a people who were
not a people. My name shall be great among
the Gentiles. But even here, we have a foreshadowing
of the Gospel coming in to those people who are not a people,
and in gathering. Now, some name this feast, the
Feast of Pentecost. And of course we see, again,
a fulfillment of these things in the Acts of the Apostles in
chapter 2, where we see the mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost
and the fulfillment of these things in terms of his gospel
church. That is not a parenthesis, that is the fulfillment of it.
That always was the purpose. But we have to observe this,
This has absolutely nothing to do with what men call Pentecost
today. Nothing to do with that at all.
Indeed, the apostolic ministry of speaking in an unknown tongue
was an authentication of the apostles and their ministry in
bringing the gospel to people of an unknown tongue. It was a once and for all ministry. It was an apostolic ministry. Very different to what men profess
today. Indeed, some of you may know
that in about 1997, I would have been about 14, I was invited to a well-known, I didn't have
a clue what it was really at the time, but a well-known charismatic
festival by the name of Soul Survivor. It's to close next
year and I shan't be sorry about it. And there were the most strange
aberrations that took place. Now I couldn't put a theology
to it at the time, but I can say now I'm not saying there
weren't some genuine people caught up in it. There probably were.
But most of it was show and not God honouring. You see
here we have an in-gathering. And an in-gathering unto who?
This is the principle. An in-gathering unto who? Well
it must be unto Christ. Unto Christ. Is that not our
desire this morning? To have God honouring worship. God honouring worship. We can't
substitute God honouring worship for anything else. For anything else. This in-gathering
this Feast of Weeks. Yes, we have a fulfillment of
it upon Pentecost, but more particularly, is the Lord, not even today,
calling in His people, gathering in His people, bringing in His
people by His grace. Now fifthly, We have this Feast
of Trumpets. We read verses 23 and 24. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh
month, in the first day of the month, ye shall have a Sabbath.
Solemn rest. Margin says. A memorial of a
blowing of trumpets and holy convocation. Now, This feast,
I am absolutely certain, is that which is spoken of in Psalm 89
and verse 15, which reads, Blessed is the people
that know the joyful sound. They shall walk all oft in the
light of thy countenance. The Feast of Trumpets. What was
this about? Well, the trumpet, of course,
speaks of victory. It speaks of victory. But really,
the trumpet also speaks of a declaration, of a public manifestation. And
that is the preaching of the Gospel. It's the preaching of the gospel.
The preaching of the gospel makes the Lord's people glad. There's something wrong with
us if we don't find some earnest expectation,
even within us, when coming to the Lord's house that the Lord
might speak with us. There's something wrong. There's
something wrong. But here we can see what does
the Prophet Isaiah say, how beautiful are the feet of they that preach
the Gospel. There is a declaration here.
Why? Because this is the Lord's ordained
means of saving sinners. It's His ordained means. Listen to this carefully. I know
there are those that disagree. But this is the truth. The Gospel
is the only means by which God saves sinners. The preaching
of the Gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Our attitude to the preaching
says everything about us, really. And also the type of preaching
that we want to hear. You see, this was a two-edged sword, wasn't
it? This Feast of Trumpets. There's
a solemn assembly, but there's a glorious declaration, and a
victorious declaration. You see, the Gospel is not that
two-edged sword. Now, we meet some people They're
always on cloud nine. They never have a doubt or a
fear. They never have any problems. They feel that the Lord is always
blessing them and so on and so forth. That's not consistent. Not just
with the experiences of the Lord's people. It's not consistent with
the Word of God. But then we also meet these people and they never ever display any
liberty in the Gospel at all. You know, I trust we don't want
to be found in either of those camps. Here we see, this is a
solemn business, but do we not have a glorious Gospel to declare? There's nothing we should anticipate
more than the preaching of the Gospel
in the Lord's house. And thus, moving on, we also
find this Feast of Atonement. In verse 27, And on the tenth
day of the seventh month there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation
unto you and you shall afflict your souls and offer an offering
made by fire unto the Lord." Now this Feast of Atonement is
really in the plural and it may also be declared as the Feast
of Expiations. more literally expiations an
expunging of sin and it really the root behind
it or the meaning behind this is speaking of the multitude
of sin is it not again we take this
objectively and subjectively Is it not one of the great wonders
that the Lord is so patient and so long-suffering with sin and
with sinners? Even Christians, if you were to wrong me or I
was to wrong you, you might forgive me once, you might forgive me
twice, But to go on and to go on, even with these great offences
before Him. And you, also consider the whole era of
the Gospel Church. Generation after generation. Does it not speak of the greatness,
of the glory, of the atonement? of Christ and thus more particularly in an experimental fashion is
not what tries us so much the multitude of our sins the frequency
of our sins and thus we read here in the day of atonement,
a holy convocation. But notice here, people speak of forgiveness of
sin and of salvation as a once in a lifetime experience. Now
there is that experience of the new birth, but again, what do
we see? Ye shall afflict your souls and
offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Convincing and
conviction of sin is continual, is it not? It doesn't go away. It doesn't go away. We become, even in one sense,
even more aware of our shortcomings and of our need and thus we have
that blessed convocation. the Book of the Hebrews, for
if we sin then we have an Advocate with the Father. Here is that
continual confession of sin in the Feast of the Atonement. The seventhly and finally we
have the Feast of Tabernacles. Verse 33, And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying,
The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles
for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day there shall
be a holy convocation, and shall do no servile work therein. The
Feast of Tabernacles. Now this was a demonstration
of the personal nature of true religion and a foretaste of heavenly
glory. Notice here, in this Feast of
Tabernacles, that the people were to gather in booths. Verse 42, "...ye shall dwell
in booths seven days." And all that are Israelites born shall
dwell in booths. The personal nature of true religion. If you've seen one of these booths,
they are indeed very small. There is a sheltering. It's very
small. Almost like a tent. And there is in there, within
that feast is shutting up as it were to the nearest and dearest
that we have and thus is that not how we have
to walk before the Lord with those of whom the very few
that we can walk with. I'm just finding myself, maybe
it's me, I don't know if you find it the same, walking in
an ever decreasing circle in the general sense. But you know, it's consistent
with the Feast of Tabernacles. You see, we are shut up to the
truth, experientially. There is a contemplation, a constraining
to consider the things of the Lord and the things of his house. And thus it was the case in the
Feast of Tabernacles. But yes, there is also that consideration
that this indeed is a foretaste of the eternal state to be shut up in this way. Now, there's great debate as
to the identification of one another in heavenly glory. But here you can see that great
principle that all eyes are upon Christ
Himself. That your generations may know
that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths and when I
brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your
God. All eyes you see are upon Christ
here. It starts with the Sabbath and
it ends with the Sabbath. And thus our religion has to
commence with the Lord and end with the Lord. And the Lord spake
unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say
unto them concerning the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim
to be holy convocations even these are my feasts. They all speak of Christ. Amen.