Well, I've heard that song lots
of times, but I always appreciate hearing it again. Words are so
good, such a blessing. Let's go to the book of Exodus
this morning, Exodus, and I'll ask you to go to chapter 23,
Exodus chapter 23. If God the Spirit would enable
me, I'd like to address this subject of three annual feasts,
three annual feasts as they're set forth here in just a very
few verses in Exodus chapter 23. Actually, that passage that
Ron read to us from Deuteronomy chapter 16 is an amplification
of these few verses that I'm going to read to you. Therefore,
I'll be making reference every once in a while to those verses,
some of those verses that he read out of the book of Deuteronomy. A look here in Exodus chapter
23 and verse 14. Exodus chapter 23 verse 14. Where we read Moses giving, remember
he is up on the mount receiving all the laws that God gave. laws,
moral laws, civil laws, laws that have to do with our relationship
with God, our duties to God, our duties to each other. And now he begins to set before
them, I guess we would call religious laws, or at least ceremonial
laws. And he begins to do that here
in chapter 23. And verse 14, he says, three times, thou shalt
keep a feast to me in the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of
unleavened bread. And then Moses, he tells us in
parentheses, thou shalt eat unleavened bread for seven days as I commanded
thee in the time appointed in the month of Abib. For in it
thou camest out of Egypt, and none shall appear before me empty."
That's a very unusual statement, and we'll get to that in just
a little bit. And then verse 16, and the feast
of harvest. first fruits of thy labors, which
thou hast sown in the field. And then here's the third one,
the feast of ingathering, which is at the end of the year, when
thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. And then he
tells us again, three times in the year, all thy males shall
appear before the Lord God. Thou shalt not offer the blood
of my sacrifice with leavened bread, neither shall the fat
of my sacrifice remain until the morning. The first of the
firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of
the Lord thy God. And then another interesting
statement, Thou shalt not seethe or boil, that's what the word
seethe means, to boil a kid or a goat in his mother's milk. Well, let's ask God to bless
our moments together here. Lord, we bow before you again,
very conscious of our need of the presence of the Spirit of
grace, that one who is the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of our Lord
Jesus. Lord, we're so fully dependent
upon your presence this morning. We need the Spirit to be our
teacher, to open to us the things that
we have read, both the things that were read to us from the
book of Deuteronomy and also here in the book of Exodus. Lord,
this is your word. We want to be ever so careful
to open this up in a matter consistent with the rest of Scripture, and
we will handle the things, Lord, that you show us this morning
with honesty and with sincerity, and Lord, with seriousness. These
things were recorded for our good. And though these three feasts
were instituted hundreds and hundreds of years ago, yet they
have a message for all of us this morning. So we look to you
to break the bread of life unto us. Lord, once again, show us
your Son. Reveal Him to us. May we behold the glory of God
as it does indeed shine in the face of our Lord Jesus. Give understanding, give instruction,
enable us to worship this day, Father, we ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, let me talk to you
about these three annual feasts. Actually, if you go to the book
of Leviticus, and don't do that now, but you'll see there are
many other feasts that God also gave to the children of Israel.
And each of those feasts were filled with spiritual instruction
for us even this day. And on another occasion, we'll
address the other feasts. But these particular feasts,
they were as it were, set aside from the others in the purpose
of God to specifically teach his people about worship and
about the only way to be accepted and received by God. These were the three feasts that
all the males had to attend. The Jews say typically those
20 years of age and above. But here they must come three
times in the year. You notice the first one is said
to be the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now that which is not
mentioned, of course, is that the Feast of Unleavened Bread
was also, it was associated with the Passover. In fact, if you
go to, you can go to Matthew chapter 26, Mark chapter 15,
you'll find that in those passages, Passover is indeed referred to
as the first day of unleavened bread. And so therefore, when
we read in this portion of scripture the feast of unleavened bread,
we must also recognize the fact that with this is included the
Passover. In fact, you couldn't, really
you couldn't separate them. Passover began the feast, and
it was a feast of the Passover, and then that just kind of bled
into the feast of unleavened bread. That was, by the way,
held about this time of year. Actually, toward the end of March,
the first of April is typically when Passover began and then,
as I say, went into the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And then
the second feast is said to be the Feast of the Harvest. And that's the first of the barley
harvest. But we also know that by another
name, and that is the Feast of Pentecost. Fifty days after the
Passover is when this feast was held. And this was the beginning
of the harvest of barley. And then the last one that every
male had to attend, and of course even our Lord Jesus, as you read
of his public ministry, he attended four Passovers, and he was very
careful because he was made of a woman, made under the law of
God. He was very careful to attend
all of these mandatory feasts, because after all, he came to
fulfill the law of God for us. and everything that God demanded
of the Jews, and everything God demands of you and me, which
doesn't involve, of course, observance of the feasts. But that which
God does demand of you and me is absolute perfection and obedience. And our Lord Jesus, he came into
this world to answer all of the demands of God for all of his
people of all ages. Now being made under the law
of God, he must therefore obey all of these feast rules. And of course, after the age
of 20, he would have been very careful and Joseph, his foster
father, as it were, would go together and typically all the
family would go to these three main feasts. Now the other feasts,
the attendance wasn't mandatory, but these three, they were. So
the first one, the Feast of of unleavened bread, which also
included the Passover, and the second one, which is the Feast
of the Harvest, or Pentecost, seven weeks plus one day after
the Passover. And we know, of course, that
as far as the Pentecost is concerned, we read about that in Acts, the
second chapter, and that's the giving of the Holy Spirit. And
then here we have the other mandatory, where attendance was mandatory
by the men. Here is the Feast of Ingathering. And we also know that by another
name. This is the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles. And
that's at the end of the year. Think of it this way, Passover
and unleavened bread, that's the first season of the year,
that is spring. And then we get to the feast
of a harvest, and that is summer. And then we get to the feast
of end gathering, that's at the end of the year, end of the harvest,
when all the olives and the grapes and the corn and the wheat whatever
other crops that they had planted, when those were indeed harvested,
that was the last one and that was in late fall. So here we
have the three seasons which covered the three feasts which
covered the three seasons of the year. Now, we have a tremendous
advantage over the people who lived in the Old Testament, and
also those who lived in the age of our Lord Jesus when He was
on this earth. In fact, we have a tremendous
advantage over those who lived in the first and second centuries. Because you see, we have all
of the Word of God. so that we can go to the New
Testament and in the light of the New Testament we learn about
these feasts. But they didn't have that advantage. They didn't have the understanding
as we do of, say, the Passover lamb. But we do because we read
in the book of 1 Corinthians that Christ, our Passover, was
sacrificed for us. And so we understand that. The
other evening when Brandon spoke, he quoted or read some things
that Brother Mahan had to say about the Lamb. We understand,
we can put those together as Brother Henry did and others
have as well, and as he read, we put all that information together
about the Lamb set forth in the Old Testament and in the New
Testament, and then there comes to our minds and to our hearts,
by the leadership and revealing of the Spirit of God, we see
Christ is the Lamb. Now indeed, Isaiah saw he was
the lamb. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
is what Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 53. But we have so much
more information than Isaiah had. These men and women, these
saints of God in the Old Testament and through the first and the
second centuries anyhow, They didn't have the life that we
have. And understand this, with additional
light comes additional responsibility. They couldn't turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 10 and read, Oh Christ the Lamb, Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. They didn't have that. But we
do. All of you in here this morning
and all of you who are watching by way of the internet, you understand,
you at least understand up here the significance of the Lamb. The Lamb. When Abraham and Isaac in Genesis
chapter 22 were walking toward the mountain, God had said to
Abraham, offer your firstborn son, your real firstborn son,
Isaac, because he was a promised son to Sarah. This son that you
love, offer him as a burnt offering unto me. And they go to the location
that God showed Abraham, and he was ready to execute Isaac. And on the way, Isaac, he's carrying
the wood, Abraham, his father, has the fire and the knife, And
as they walked along, Isaac said, Father, where is the lamb? You told the servants, the two
servants, you wait here. You stay behind. I and the lad
will go yonder and worship. Well, Father, you can't worship
God without a lamb. Where is the lamb? And Abraham
said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb. And we understand
that God Himself is the Lamb, that is the Son of God. And He
was sacrificed for us. And all of you this morning,
if you didn't know what this was all about before, you know
now. God has given you additional
light. He has given you additional knowledge. And that unleavened bread, Leaven
was that which made bread enlarge itself. You know what yeast does. Well, the Lord told the Israelites
there on the Passover day, the night of the eating of the Passover
feast, make sure you get all the leaven out of the house.
Leaven's a picture of sin. Leaven's a picture of arrogance. Leaven is a picture of man's
self-righteousness. He said, don't eat. Don't eat
leaven in your bread. No leavening agent. Because we
naturally, we're self-righteous people and that's what the leaven
pictured. Don't have it in your house.
Take it out and burn it. Because this is a feast of unleavened
bread picturing our Lord Jesus who had no sin. who did no sin. He is the perfect bread come
down from heaven. And we feast on Him. We eat of
Him by faith. That's the Passover and the feast
of unleavened bread. And then we get to the feast
of Pentecost. Well, obviously, the saints in
the Old Testament Though they understood that this is the first
feast of a harvest. This is to celebrate the feast
of the harvest of the barley crop. They understood that and
they recognized all blessings come from God. All gifts are
given to us of the Lord. And so they did indeed celebrate
this feast. The feast of a harvest which
was the first of the fruits of their labors. But we understand,
in light of the New Testament, there's more involved in this
than those people could know. Because it was at the Feast of
Pentecost, or the Feast of Harvest, that the Spirit of God was given. Sometimes this is called the
Feast of Weeks, okay? The Feast of Weeks. That is seven
weeks plus one day. Fifty days. And this is when
they came together to rejoice in the harvest. The beginning
of the harvest. This is not the end of the harvest,
but it is the harvest of the barley which ripened first. And
they thanked God for the increase. They rejoiced in the Lord for
all that He had done for them in this, the first harvest of
the year. We understand this is when the
Spirit of God was given. Based upon the successful work
of our Lord Jesus, God's Passover Lamb, who was sacrificed for
us, who died for God's people, who died that God might be just
and justify the ungodly, and then who rose again the third
day, that would be another feast, by the way, the feast of the
sheafs. Picturing the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus, that was another feast, but it's not given to
us here. And then 50 days after that, then the Spirit of God
was given. You see, our Lord had said to
His disciples, the Spirit of God is not going to come because
the Son of God is not yet glorified. And later, our Lord would say
to His disciples, to His eleven disciples, Judas having gone
out to betray Him, to finish the deal. But He says to the
eleven men who loved Him, if I don't go away, if I don't go
away to die, If I don't go away to be crucified, if I don't go
away to be sacrificed, if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come to you. Because He comes to us on the
basis of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's pictured in the sacrifice
of the Lamb. And of course, that was the beginning
of the harvest of souls. And we know from the book of
Acts, chapter 2, 3,000 souls were harvested. It's the beginning
of a great harvest. They're gathered into the kingdom
of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, who revealed the successful
Christ to these precious souls. They were made aware of His death,
His burial, His resurrection, and that God had made Him to
be both Lord and Christ. And convicted in their souls, they cried out, men and brethren,
what shall we do? What shall we do? What shall
we do? Oh, that the Spirit of God would
come and work among us, and work in each of us individually, and
show us what should we do, what must we do? Like the Philippian
jailer, what must I do to be saved? Well, the sacrifice has
died, he's been buried, he's been raised again, and the Spirit
of God comes and reveals the Son of God to us. And as He reveals
the Son of God to us and in us, Galatians chapter 1 verse 15
says that, Paul rejoiced that Christ was revealed in him. Then
we believe Him as a result of the work of the Spirit of God.
And then here's the third of the feasts, and that is the feast
of ingathering. Now this is in the autumn. This
is somewhere toward the end of what we would call September.
This is the final in-gathering of all the crops. Now, they couldn't
understand this as we do. But we know that this great feast
of in-gathering is all the way out there at the end of time. when the Lord has gathered all
of His saints together, all of the elect, all of the redeemed,
all of the reconciled, have been made by the Spirit of God to
believe and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, And the Lord brings
the last one into the fold, and then time shall be no more, and
there's a great end-gathering of all those the Father gave
to Christ Jesus in covenant grace before the world began. And then
we'll have a feast. And it will be a feast that lasts
forever. These feasts, you see, these
three feasts that the males had to attend through the year, their
feasts of remembrance, their feasts of thanksgiving. And you
and I, as we look back on the fact that the Lord has been sacrificed
for us, He has laid down His life for us, the Spirit of God
has given us an appetite for the bread of life. And read again
John chapter 6. where our Lord over and over
again said things like this. This is the bread that came down
from heaven. I am the bread of life, He said. And we eat of Him. Have you eaten
of Him? Have you believed Him? Do you
feast on the Lord Jesus, the bread of life? And then this feast of the harvest. Do you not understand? Surely
you do. But the reason you believe, the
reason Christ, that Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for us,
the reason that you believe Him is because the Holy Spirit has
done a work of grace in your heart. And then know this, There is
coming a day when God is going to wrap up this whole shoot and
match. It will be when all of God's
people are gathered into the kingdom. This is a feast of ingathering. This is when all the fruits are
gathered in. All the fruits of His labor. He labored for us. He kept God's
law for us. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we're healed. And in that last
day, when that which we call time ends, and we all enter into
eternity, having glorified bodies and souls, we shall feast with
our Lord Jesus forever and ever, and rejoice in Him who finished
the work of redemption, who brought us into the fold of salvation,
and who Himself changed our corruption into incorruption, and our mortality
into immortality. Now of these three feasts, only
one, only one was ever celebrated in the wilderness. And that was,
of course, the Passover. For those of you who are keeping
notes, Numbers chapter nine and verse five says this. And they
kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month that even
in the wilderness of Sinai, According to all that the Lord commanded
Moses, so did the children of Israel. It will then be a number
of years that must go by before Israel will enter into the land
of promise, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and the desert.
But they will enter in. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.
that which God has declared must come to pass. God made promise
to Abraham. And notwithstanding the unbelief
of the Jewish people, they could not make void the purpose and
the covenant of God. Indeed, many of the Jews did
not enter into the land of promise because of unbelief. We read
that in the book of Hebrews chapter 3 and then in chapter 4. but
there was indeed a remnant of the nation that did. They crossed
over the river and then in the tabernacle as they, after Jericho
was conquered, Then they began to observe these feasts to the
Lord when they were settled into the various territories that
they were allotted, the various properties and lands that God
had appointed for them, and they had an opportunity to sow their
crops. Then they began to observe these
feasts. But you see, God is here in Exodus
chapter 23, and enlarged in Deuteronomy chapter 16, He is getting them
ready. He's making preparation for them
for entering into the land of promise. And He gave them these
feasts, specifically these three feasts, which were designed for
the purpose of worshiping God and remembering the goodness
of the Lord and bringing them out of Egyptian captivity. And
by giving to Israel these three feasts, even before they get
in the land of promise, they're only going to celebrate the Passover
once. Of course, they celebrated it
one time a year before this, back in Egypt. And to a degree,
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but hey, they couldn't sit around
seven days, not then. because they were to eat the
feast with their shoes on, their clothes on, and ready to go. There wasn't time to spend seven
days observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So only really the Passover
and a little bit of the Feast of Unleavened Bread were celebrated
there in Egypt, and then they left. A year later, they will
celebrate the Passover, but there isn't time, and they haven't
planted the crops, so there can't be the second feast. There can't
be the time of harvest. There's no barley harvest. They
hadn't planted barley. They're out in the wilderness.
That can't happen to the inner end of the land of promise, as
well as the feast of ingathering. But before they go in, God is
going to teach them the right way to worship Him. You see,
they're going into a land, a heathen land, governed by ungodly men. These are ungodly nations. These
are idolatrous nations. That seething of the goat in
the mother's milk, you know why God said that? Because that's
what the heathen did. That was their way of rendering
honor to all of their idols. And then having boiled a goat
in the milk of its mother, then they diced it up, cut it up very
fine, then they'd go out and put it around their fruit trees
and put it on their gardens and said, may the idols, may the
gods of the Canaanites bless our efforts. That's why God said,
don't do that. That's what the idolatrous people
did. God had reasons for showing these
people various things, though oftentimes He didn't tell them
what the reason was. You know, God tells us things. He lays down things in His Word
that we're told to believe. Well, I don't understand. You're
not told to understand. I can't comprehend this. Who
can comprehend God? Who can ever fathom the depths
of the knowledge and the ways and the purpose of God Almighty?
You're not told to understand God. That's an absolute impossibility. But you are told to believe Him. So I just can't wrap my mind
around these things. Well, that's because we have
such little minds. We're just finite creatures.
The more I study the Word of God, and I advise you to study
more of the Scriptures, But the more I study the Word of God
and the more I study the person of God Himself, the more I realize
how very, very, very little I know about God. But I'm not told to comprehend
God or understand God. I'm told to believe Him, that
God is. and that God is a rewarder of
them who diligently seek him. These three feasts, they served
to unite the kingdom of Israel three times during the year. We're told you can read some
of the Jewish history. The Lord provided for them when
the males had to go to later, they'd have to go to Jerusalem,
of course, And the Lord would protect them on their journey?
What about leaving their jobs? And what about the dangers of
the enemies ransacking their homes while they're gone? God
would take care of all that. And when they packed up three
times a year, in the spring, in the summer, and in the fall,
when the whole family packed up and said, we're going to Jerusalem.
What are we going for, Dad? We're going to worship God. When
they did, they fully believed God would take care of us. God
will watch over us. We're honoring Him. I told a
young man the other night, I said, don't ever forget this. God honors
those who honor Him. Would you be honored by God?
Honor Him. I don't know how He'll honor
you. Certainly He will honor you with everlasting life. He's
already given that to you. But He will honor you as we honor
Him. These three feasts They were
very important. By all the males coming together,
and generally all of the family traveled together, the people
were reminded that they were blessed of God all because of
a covenant. A covenant God made with Abraham. And as they would gather together
at these three feasts, all the males of Israel, and generally
their families. They did so knowing we're a nation. We're the people of God because
of a covenant. And I'm telling you, we're the
people of God. Those of us who believe the gospel
of Christ, we're the people of God all because of a covenant
that God made with our representative, the Lord Jesus. In that covenant
we were blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. And they would be reminded as
they came together during these three feasts, we are all redeemed
by the same blood. God redeemed our people out of
Egyptian bondage. The blood of the Passover lamb.
And they were all consecrated to the same God. They all acknowledged
being heirs to the promises of the same Lord. And they met together
on the ground of or on the basis of true brotherhood. And you know, when we come together
as children of God to meet, we come together remembering the
covenant of grace, remembering we're bought with the same blood
of Christ, God's Passover Lamb? And we meet together knowing
this, there's a brotherhood here. There's a family here. We're
the family of God. We were adopted according to
His predestination into the family of the Lord Himself. Therefore,
we're heirs of God in joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Though these people came from
different tribes, some from this tribe, some from that tribe,
people out of all twelve tribes of Israel, and though some of
them would come from different locations, maybe distant locations,
they were all brethren. And all of us this morning, here
we are gathered together. Some of you have driven a few
miles to get here. We acknowledge our brotherhood. We acknowledge we're the family
of God. God has done something for us.
And He did it through our elder brother, the Lord Jesus, who
has not ashamed himself to call us brethren. While He was bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh, excuse me, He still is
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He's the man Christ
Jesus. Now what about the Passover?
I'll just give this to you hurriedly. It was in the month of Abib. It was God designated, according
to Exodus chapter 12, God designated it as being this is the beginning
of the months of the year for you. Everything began with this. And I'll tell you, though Though
our salvation began in eternity past in the covenant of God,
in His election of grace, in His predestination of His people
to be sons and heirs of God and conformed to the image of Jesus
Christ, our salvation was actually wrought out when God's Passover
lamb died for our sins. That's the beginning of life.
Abib. Really an interesting word. The
word abib means when the ear is beginning to form. Now, it
was the ear of barley. But for our sake, let's say the
ear of corn, because the illustration will be the
same. Here's an ear of corn. You plant the seed, and there
on the stalk you see beginning to form an ear of corn. Everything that that ear of corn
will ever be is in there now. It's just farming. Oh, it hadn't
come to harvest yet, but it's all there. All there. And I say it all began at the
cross of Calvary. Like a new ear of corn, in Christ
Jesus, we see everything God demands and everything that we
need. We see, as it were, the purpose
or the promise of God of a harvest, a bib. All the kernels are green. Oh,
they're not ripe yet. But everything is there to bring
about a full harvest. Our Lord spoke of this in John
chapter 12. He said, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it falls
into the ground and dies, gonna bring forth a tremendous crop.
And that's our Lord Jesus, you see. He's the Lord's Passover
and that unleavened bread. We eat of him who was without
sin. We know of the Passover lamb
that it pictured Christ crucified. The blood, you remember Exodus
chapter 12, I'm sure you do. The blood has been applied. According
to God's word, over the top of the doorposts outside and on
the side posts, God said, when I see the blood, I will pass
over you. We all know that. We love singing
that song. And the Lord said, after you
do that, then you roast that lamb. And the way they would roast
it, they'd have it over a pit of fire, a round pit of fire. and then have it rigged up so
they'd have a spit going from the end of the lamb to the front
of the lamb, a rod, as it were. Y'all know what a spit is. If
you've done any barbecuing and you're turning it, that goes
through it lengthwise. That's the spit. A rod, a long
stick. And the Jews would put the stick
in lengthwise. And then they had a second stick,
a second spit. And it went through the front
legs all the way through. Here's the one beam going this
way, as it were. And then here's the cross beam. Isn't that amazing? It's as though
that lamb were crucified. And it was a beautiful illustration.
A beautiful time. You Sunday school teachers, when
we get back to our Sunday school classes, and I hope that won't
be too much longer, that's a good illustration. You can illustrate
that to your children. And it speaks of the sacrificial
death, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. And it all happened in the month
of Abed. And one last thing before I just
make, and I've only got time to make a very few comments on
the second and third feast. Of course, I've made some already.
But let me draw your attention to verse 15 here in chapter 23. Thou shalt keep the feast of
unleavened bread. Thou shalt eat unleavened bread
seven days as I commanded thee in the time appointed of the
month of Abib. For in it thou camest from Egypt,
and none shall appear before me empty." Now we love to sing
this song by our brother Augustus Toplady, Rock of Ages. And one
of the verses goes, Nothing in my hands I bring, right? Empty. Come empty-handed. But God says
to the Jews, specifically to the males, Don't come empty handed. Don't appear before me empty
handed. Well what are we to bring? Well
obviously from Deuteronomy chapter 16 there were free will offerings
that the people brought. What do we bring to God? God
says don't come before me empty. What do we bring? Remember this, God will accept
what God provides. What is that which God has provided?
His Son, the Lamb. Don't come before God empty-handed.
I'm going to show you tonight God dwells in darkness, which
no man can approach. You've got to have a mediator.
Our Lord Jesus is that mediator. Bring him to God. Lord, I have
nothing. I have nothing to offer of my
own. Lord, I bring to you, as it were,
your son. Do you think you'll be turned
away from God Almighty if you bring to him his son? He provided his son. He spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Bring Christ. All that other stuff, now don't
bring your righteousness, don't bring your gifts, don't bring
your prayers, don't bring your faith, don't bring your repentance.
Bring Christ Jesus! On the basis of the Word of God,
I tell you, you will be accepted. And then there of course is Pentecost.
Feast of Harvest, 50 days after Passover. Here we worship God in remembering
how the Spirit of Grace, He has taught us of Christ Jesus. Oh, what joy filled our hearts
when the Spirit of God dealt with us in in the Feast of Harvest. He afflicted our souls. We were burdened over our guilt
like those people in Acts chapter 2. We killed the Son of God. What should we do? We're in trouble. What should we do? Peter said,
Repent. You better have a change of mind.
Jesus of Nazareth you hated. God's made him Lord and Christ. And they said, oh no, we made
a terrible blunder here. We've killed God's Christ. And the Lord drew, such as he
would, to the Lord Jesus. When we were harvested, like that barley harvest, We
were absolutely full in Christ Jesus. Everything God required. That's what we are. Everything
God demands. The full ear. Say, well, you
don't look like you're the full ear. You don't look like you're
perfect. Well, I know. But it's not how you see me.
It's how God sees me. And God sees me as having been
made wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption in Christ Jesus. God sees me complete. Everything
God demands, I am in the Son of God. And then the feast of
ingathering reminded the people that during
the days of their wilderness journey, their forefathers lacked
for nothing. It was called the Feast of Tabernacles,
and of course they lived in tents. And that reminded them of how
God provided for them throughout their wilderness journey. You
are the people of God. Time goes fast, doesn't it? But
we look back, we look back upon our years upon this earth, and
we say, God has so blessed us He's blessed me. And He is going to gather us
together one day. And we will be with the Lord
forever. The Feast of In-Gathering. And
you know what these three feasts together tell us? Salvation of
the Lord. That's the message of the Bible.
Salvation of the Lord. from the Passover, the unleavened
bread, the Feast of Harvest, Pentecost, the giving of the
Holy Spirit, to outshiner in eternity where we're heading
when the people of God will be glorified body and soul. And we shall be found to the
praise of the glory of God in the presence of our Lord, received
forever. May the Lord bless us with the
knowledge of himself. Let's pray. Thank you, Father,
for giving to us your word and giving to us the light of the
Spirit of God to give us a little understanding. Lord, if we could
go away from here today having just comprehended a little bit
of who this Savior is, the Passover Lamb. He's the unleavened bread. He didn't have any sin. He didn't
have any arrogance. He's all we need. He's the one who was crucified,
sacrificed for us. And in Him, in His death, we
see everything. the fullness of redemption in
Him as evidenced by the fact that He was raised again for
our justification and in the Feast of Harvest. Thank you,
Holy Spirit, for teaching us of Christ, bringing us to His
feet, showing us He's both Lord and Christ forever. Thank you
for quickening us. Thank you for feeding us with
the bread of affliction. so that we would mourn our guilt
and then find peace and joy and comfort in the living Christ. And we look forward to the day
of great in-gathering. And until then, we keep our tents
pitched in this world. But here we have no continuing
city. Lord, help us not to hold too
tightly to the things that we think we own, for in reality
we own nothing. Everything belongs to the great
giver of all things. Lord, may we keep focused upon
the giver and not the gifts. We look forward to that day when
we shall enter into everlasting glory, to be with our Savior
and then in souls In our souls and in our bodies, we shall be
perfect. Presented by the Lord Jesus himself
to you, behold, Father, I and the brethren thou hast given
me. So bless your word to our spiritual
benefit and to your glory, Father. For Jesus' sake I ask these things,
amen.