Thank you, Brother James. Open
your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus chapter 23. Let me speak to you this evening
on the feasts of the Lord. The feasts of the Lord in this
great chapter. 44 verses, and I'm not going
to go verse by verse, of course, but I want to give you an overview
of this 23rd chapter of Leviticus. Here God gives to Moses specific
instructions regarding seven annual festivals or feasts. speaks, he says in verse one,
the Lord spake unto Moses, and notice the word Lord is in all
capital letters, Jehovah, our God, God, our Savior. He spake unto Moses, and he says,
now you speak to the children of Israel, and this is what you
say to them concerning Notice, he says, the feasts of the Lord,
which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these
are my feasts. That word convocations means
a solemn, sacred gathering together of people. God said whenever
you observe these seven feasts, There will always be, in connection
with a holy convocation, a time when you come aside from everything
else to focus on worshiping Me. You'll notice that these feasts
are not said to be the feasts of Israel. They're not the feasts
of the nation. They're the feasts of the Lord. That's what he says there in
verse 2. Speaking of the children of Israel, said unto them concerning
the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy
convocations, these are..." Listen to what God says. My feasts. My feasts. Verse 4, He again
says, these are the feasts of the Lord. Verse 5, He talked
about the Passover, it's the Lord's. Passover. Here's what I think needs to
be stressed to begin with. These feasts were to be observed
by the people, but they were for God. They were for God. These were times of solemn meetings,
times of worship, times to honor God, but all of them were for
the Lord. They were appointed and ordained
by God. They were to be kept to the honor
of His name. They were for God. I know that
religion, the religion of men, always has man in the center.
You listen to men, religious men, as they speak on television
or radio or whatever. You listen to them, they talk
about if you want this, if you need this, and you come together
and God will do this for you, God will heal your bank book
and your checkbook and He'll heal your marriage and give you
whatever you need. Everything seems to have man
right in the middle, but not true religion. Not the worship,
not the worship of God. It's about God. It's like our
services here we meet. We have Bible class, morning
worship, evening worship, Wednesday worship. We benefit from those
services. I hope we do. I hope we grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope
that we're benefited from the Word of God as we get more knowledge,
knowledge of our great God, Savior, more knowledge about ourselves,
more knowledge, a greater and deeper appreciation for Christ
Jesus. And we're blessed and we're helped
in our journey across the sea of life. God uses the things
that are said, the things that I say, or whoever happens to
be up here is preaching. God uses those to bless us, strengthen
us, and lift up our spirits, and we are benefited from being
here, but the real reason why we come to
each of these four services during the week is for God's glory. And we come to honor God. That's
why we're here. And I've had people say to me,
well, that message didn't do much for me. Well, I'd just like
to ask you this, was God honored? Was God exalted? Was the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, was it lifted up? Did you hear about
the blood of the Lord Jesus? Did you hear about the sacrifice?
Did you hear about the righteousness the blessed Redeemer. But if
you did, God was honored. God was honored. And as the Lord,
the Lord lays out for Moses, and in other passages of scripture,
you'll find these seven feasts more itemized, we could say. For instance, one of these is
the Day of Atonement. You can go back to Leviticus
chapter 16, and you'll find a whole chapter there But God, in his
marvelous purpose and providence, he has Moses confine all of these
seven feasts, seven being the number of perfection, seven being
the number of fullness, the number of completion. God gives all
of them to Moses at once. And He says, now I want you to
go out and you give these to the children of Israel and make
absolutely certain that they understand this. They're My feasts. They're for Me. It's not Israel's
Passover. It's God's Passover. It's not
the Feast of Tabernacles for Israel. It's a feast of tabernacles
for God. Whatever these are, and we're
going to go through all seven of them this evening, each is
for God. You see, our reason for doing
everything in here, and our reason for doing everything out there,
is to be for God's glory. The scripture says that of Him
and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory
forever. Amen. Over in 1 Corinthians 10,
verse 31, whether therefore you eat or you drink, whatever you
do, whatever you do, working, mowing the grass, washing the
dishes, laboring at your job, whatever you do, Do all for the
glory of God. To glorify God is to be the aim
of every service. That's true. Every time we gather
together, it's to glorify God. But also to glorify God must
be our aim in our daily lives. In our walk. This is what we
want to do. We want to honor and glorify
God. Oh, that God would give us grace
to go about our daily chores, our daily duties, With this always
our goal and always our aim, may God be glorified in every
word I speak, every thought that goes through my mind, everything
that my hands find to do, everywhere my feet take me, may everything
in my life be honoring and glorifying to God. That's the goal. You
say, well, nobody can live up to that goal. I know that, but
don't make excuses. That's our responsibility. That's
our duty to God. We owe it to God to do everything
we do for His glory, for His honor. God would have Moses and
all of the nation of Israel to know that all of these seven
feasts which He appointed were not for their benefit, though
they would benefit them. But first and foremost, They
were forgotten. Notice that before giving the
instructions about the seven feasts, and Joe read to us about
the first three. But before God gives instructions
regarding the feasts, he tells Moses about the Sabbath. He says in verse three, six days
shall work be done. The seventh day is the Sabbath
of rest. It is a holy convocation. Ye shall do no work therein. It is the Sabbath of the Lord
in all your dwellings. Now all of these assemblies were
important. And all of the assemblies of
Israel, by the way, were begun by the sounding of the blast
of a trumpet. And each of these feasts was
associated with the Sabbath, the day of rest. And therefore,
it was always a reminder that the precious rest which Adam
lost in the garden fall has been restored by Christ Jesus. There is a rest for weary souls. But it's not in a day. And it's
not in a work. It's not in a deed to be performed. The rest for your soul is to
be found in somebody. The Lord Jesus Christ who is
our Sabbath. You see, Israel's Sabbath was,
quite literally, here's the literal definition of the word Sabbath,
a rest day of rest. A rest day of rest, a day of
absolute, thorough repose from all cares and all labor. Note the words in verse three
again, you shall do no work therein, it's the Sabbath, of the Lord
in all your dwellings. The Sabbath pictures the rest
of the soul, which is only to be found in Christ Jesus, the
Lord. The law of the Sabbath of the
Lord was very simply this, ye shall do no work therein. And
so the salvation of God, the salvation of our souls, the forgiveness
of all of our sinfulness, Acceptance with God, righteousness before
our great Lord. Here's the rule. If this is what
you want, if you want salvation, you want righteousness, you want
forgiveness of sins, here's the rule and the rule must never
be broken. Thou shalt do no work. Salvation
is not to be by your works or by your labors. Not the labors
of my hands can fulfill the law's demands, Brother Toplady said
many, many years ago. It's not our labors, it's His
labors. It's not our works, it's His
work. His work of redemption. His work
of reconciliation upon the cross of Calvary. The Bible says very,
very clearly in Titus chapter 3, not by works of righteousness
which we have done. Our works of righteousness which
we've done amount to works of filthy rags. That's all they
are. So not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He has saved us. It's not merit, it's mercy. That's salvation. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, not of works, not of works, lest
any man should boast. This is the law of the Sabbath,
and this is the law of salvation, if I may put it this way. Don't
do any work. Rest in Christ Jesus, who did
the work. and who rested from his labor. He has entered, Hebrews chapter
four, he has entered into his rest. Now, if you and I would
have rest for our poor souls, we must find that rest only in
Christ Jesus. Therefore he says, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. and I'll give you
rest. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke
upon me, upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly
at heart, and ye shall find rest, rest under your souls." Maybe
I'm speaking to somebody who's been laboring and working and
trying and agonizing to do something to bring peace to your poor soul,
that all is right with God. I say rest in the one who has
entered into his rest. Christ Jesus has finished the
work of redemption and he has sat down as our great redeemer. And all that God would enable
us to just fully repose ourselves, recline our poor souls on Him,
find in Him sweet rest. If you try anything else, I guarantee
your conscience will never be satisfied. You see, God gave
to everybody conscience. Now I know, due to the fall,
A conscience is affected by sinfulness like every other part of us,
our affections and our will and so forth and so on. But God nevertheless
has given us a conscience. A conscience is only, it's only
satisfied with one thing. Unless your conscience has been
seared with a hot iron. A conscience is only satisfied
with one thing. Absolute perfection. Something
that no fault can be found with. I tell you, your conscience is
going to trouble you. It's going to bother you. It's
going to keep you up. It's going to nag you. It's going
to wear you till you rest in one who is absolutely perfect. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when you're looking
to Christ alone, the conscience is quiet. But, if you start looking
within, that conscience wakes up again. The conscience says,
you haven't done enough. And then you get to thinking,
have I prayed enough? I wonder if I've repented enough.
Oh God, I don't believe enough. And all of a sudden your conscience
is stirred up and your conscience says within you, guilty, guilty,
guilty! And you don't have any peace!
You don't have any rest! And then you look to Christ Jesus
again and you see He did it all. He finished the work. And the
conscience says, okay, I'm quiet again. So if you don't want your
conscience awakened against you, Just keep on looking to Christ
Jesus and Him crucified. The conscience is satisfied with
Him. Salvation is not by works. Law
of the Sabbath. Now, as you look at these seven
feasts, as we're going to do briefly here this evening, you
can't help but notice that there is a spiritually logical what shall I say, flow to it. It just flows from the first
to the last. God presents these to Israel
in an orderly fashion in a gospel order. That's the reason I believe
even though you can go to other passages of Scripture and learn
more of these individual feasts, I believe this is why God gave
them to us collectively in Leviticus chapter 23 because it's to teach
us the Gospel. You see, all of the Word of God
is a progressive revelation of the Gospel. starting right in
Genesis chapter 1. And God, He lays down, here's
a brick, and here's a brick, and here's a brick. He keeps
on laying down a foundation. He doesn't give it all at once. So all of the Old Testament is
a progressive revelation of the grace of God in Christ Jesus
in type, and figure, and picture. And it builds, and you know that. The Old Testament builds. It
builds till we can see in the light of the New Testament the
glory and the fullness of the Gospel. And that's the way it
is in these seven feasts. It's a Gospel narrative. as the Lord gives to Moses this
progressive revelation of His purpose of grace, established
in the seven annual feasts that all of the children of Israel
were to observe, each one building upon another, each one revealing
some specific aspect of God's operations of grace and mercy
for the everlasting salvation of His people. For instance,
the feasts of the Lord begin with the Passover, the Passover
feast. They end with the eighth day,
the last day of the Feast of the Tabernacles. It begins where the very purpose
of God begins, with the Lamb, whom the scripture says, who
was slain from before the foundation of the world. because we know
about the Passover, it's all about the Lamb. You can't think
about the Passover without the Lamb, the Lamb who died, the
Lamb who was butchered, the Lamb that shed His blood. And in God's
eternal purpose of redemption, everything began before He made
the world with that Lamb, His own Son. who in the purpose of
God, the mind of God, was butchered, slaughtered, he was slain before
the foundation of the world. And then, the last thing here
is the last day, the eighth day of the Feast of the Tabernacles,
which was the final end gathering of the harvest of the figs and
the grapes of Israel, and then they were done for the year.
That's it. That's it. That's the end of the harvest
of grace. when all of the elect of God
are gathered into the fold of salvation. All of God's spiritual
crops are gathered into the garner, gathered into the barn, gathered
into this great, so great salvation. And our God is all in all. That's
the progression of these feasts. The Passover is the first one
that's mentioned. The Passover was a perpetual
memorial of the deliverance of Israel from oppression and from
death. Salvation by the blood of the
Lamb. That's what it announces. Slavery
of the Israelites in Egypt. It pictures our slavery to sin,
to Satan, and to the world. And the redemption of Israel
foreshadowed a far greater redemption. All the lambs that died, all
the blood that was sprinkled on the doorposts, and over the
doors, they all pointed to a meeker and purer and greater and more
important victim who died the innocent, who died for the guilty,
whose body was wounded and bruised and battered, who shed his blood
for many for the remission of sins. You see, Israel's release
from bondage, from Egyptian bondage, was not without blood. It was not without the lamb who
had to die. Even so, Christ Jesus, our Passover,
was sacrificed for us. And John the Baptist, who was
indeed the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ, identified
him as being the Lamb, when he said, Behold, the Lamb of God
taketh away the sin of the world. Verse 5 is called the Lord's
Passover. It was instituted by the Lord.
It wasn't Israel's idea. I'm just thinking about this,
had Israel had a say-so in the method of their deliverance,
well, I would think, and if I put myself in their position, I'd
say, well, Lord, just come down here and obliterate the Egyptians
and set us free. Nothing to it. Release the captives
by killing all the captors. But the Lord's gonna teach substitution
in this. He's going to teach the gospel
in this. He's gonna teach the only way
the guilty can go free is for a suitable, innocent victim to
die in the stead of the firstborn. As you think about the Passover,
what do you think about? What comes to mind considering
Israel Passover? Well, I think about a perfect
lamb without spot, without blemish, a male of the first year and
the very strength of his youth. I think about death. A lamb so lovely to behold has
to die a brutal death. It wasn't what we would call
a humane way of killing an animal. It's brutal. This is not for
the faint of heart. God got death at every house
in Egypt. He got the death of a lamb who
died by a knife, died by its throat slit, blood shed, caught
in a basin. bloody, gory, gory, not for the
delicate of heart. You see, man wants a delicate
religion. Man wants a religion that's pretty,
that's nice, tender, doesn't offend anybody. God says, I'll
butcher my son. The wrath of God must fall on
Him because that's the wrath that would have fallen on us.
And those lambs who died on that night, on that day before the
Passover night, all those lambs that died, they died a death
by the hand of the owner. Stuck a knife in them, shed their
blood. Wrath is being poured out upon
the Lamb, as it were, because that's what it took to save us
from our sins. Death. I'll tell you what I think
of, personal, when I think of the Passover Lamb. You read in
Exodus chapter 12, it starts off by saying, a Lamb, then it
graduates to the Lamb, and then it graduates to Your lamb. Your lamb. And you know, that's
the way it is in the things of God. We read about Christ Jesus
and we say, well, he's a lamb. And then you get interested in
the gospel and you say, he's the lamb of God. And then God
reveals the glory of Christ Jesus to you. And then you say, he's
my lamb. He's my lamb. who died in my
stead and in my room and in my place, personal. I think about the blood, the
blood that had to be shed, the blood that had to be applied,
applied. I think about feasting on the
lamb. I think about judgment. God said,
I'm coming through Egypt. He said, I will execute judgment. I think about freedom, liberty.
When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. You see, this feast
is called the Lord's Passover for good reason. It's His work. It's His work. And this salvation,
it's His work. He required the Lamb, He provided
the Lamb, He accepted the Lamb, He passed over the people, He
brought Israel out of Egypt, He took them across the Red Sea,
He was praised for it in Exodus chapter 15, and He was perpetually
remembered for this great work all the way up until God's Passover
Lamb died. And ever since then, we remember
his death until he comes, not by observing a Passover feast,
but by observing the Lord's Supper, which pictures the death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That starts the Passover. The second one is the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, and that's verses six through eight. This
is actually a continuation of the Passover. It began on the
second day of the Passover. In Matthew and Mark, the two
festivals are actually referred to or reckoned as being one,
the Passover being regarded as the first day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. It was intended, this Feast of
Unleavened Bread, it was intended to keep the mind of the Israelite
upon the same subject of redemption that they had begun to meditate
upon on Passover night. You see, God's Passover was the
cause for the liberty of Israel. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
was the effects of their deliverance from the grasp of Egypt. To a
believer, to those of us who are the children of God, the
Passover speaks to us of the way of the forgiveness of sins. And then the second one, the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, it speaks to us of the fellowship
we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ because we
feed on Him. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
was eating the unleavened bread. We feast on Christ Jesus. Did
He not say, I'm the bread come down from heaven? He said, I
am the bread of life. He that eateth of me, he's gonna
live forever. Here's faith. In the first one,
we have Christ's death. Here's our Lord Jesus dying in
the room, stead, place of His people. And here in the second
one, the feast of unleavened bread, here's faith. We live
and feed and are nourished as we feed upon Christ Jesus. We
live on Him. We live by Him. He is our unleavened bread. He
has no sin. He never had any sin of His own.
All of the sins of all of His people were laid upon Him, made
to meet on Him and charged to Him. But He's the unleavened
bread. He didn't have any sin. He didn't
have any hypocrisy. And He's the one we feed upon.
He's the one we feed upon every time we meet together for the
nourishment of our poor souls. We believe Him. We rest in Him. Notice also on this day, it says that, look in verse seven,
in the first day you shall have an holy convocation, you shall
do no servile work therein. What's servile work? That means
like you can't do your job, you can't go to where you work, you
can't work your garden, things like that. Now you could, the
ladies could bake and things of that nature, but you couldn't
do any servile work. It's a time of rest. A time of
rest. You couldn't do anything to make
a living. And you know what? This was the last seven days.
Seven days. You know what seven days is?
It's a full week. And it pictures a full life.
You know how long we're to feed on Christ Jesus? Throughout life. Throughout our life. You see,
faith, somehow and other people have got the idea, well, when
did you make your profession of faith? Well, I know there
was an origin when God gave us faith, but faith isn't a one-time
thing. No. It's a position of the heart. It's an attitude of the heart.
It's a great principle. principle within, where we believe
Christ Jesus. And you know how long we believe
Him? We believe Him all the way through this life. Whenever God
gives us spiritual life, we believe Him the rest of our days. We
live our lives looking unto Jesus, feasting on the unleavened bread
every single day. And if you ever cease to feast
on Christ Jesus, it's because you didn't feast on Him to begin
with. Faith is not an isolated act. It is a living principle within
whereby every day we look to Him, we live on Him, we feed
on Him. The third one is the Feast of
Firstfruits, verses 9-14. It's barley, barley harvest that's
in view here. For it alone was ripe right after
Passover time. As you read through that, and
Joe read it to us, God says, you'll reap the harvest, you'll
bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest. Bring some grain bound together. And that's the very first one,
the very first of the barley harvest was for God, was for
God. When Israel got into the land
of Canaan, they got into the land of Canaan about the time
of the harvest of the barley. And God said, bring a sheep to
me. It's the feast of firstfruits. The feast of firstfruits. Which
speaks to us of this. Jesus our Lord is the firstfruits
of them that slept. Speaks to us of resurrection.
That's what it does. How is it that we come to believe
Christ Jesus? Because we've been spiritually
resurrected. Well, are these bodies going
to live? We're going to die. Are these
bodies going to live again? Oh yes, because Christ is the
first fruits of them that sleep. He's the first one. You see,
whenever they harvested the barley and they bound that first initial
grain together, They brought it to the Lord. They said, Lord,
this is for you. And that was a foretaste of a
greater harvest that was yet to come. But the first was for
God. Christ is the firstfruits of
the resurrection. First Corinthians chapter 15
says that. And then we will be raised in
our order. In our order. That's the feast
of firstfruits. Fourthly is the Feast of Weeks,
verses 15 through 22, or the Feast of Pentecost. Seven weeks
and a day after the Feast of Passover. It was the Feast of Weeks, also
called the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, because Pentecost
means 50. 50, seven weeks plus one day. This is different from the Feast
of Firstfruits. Because on this day, the first
fruits were to be offered to the Lord, but it's not a sheaf
of barley, but two loaves of wheat bread, which were eaten
by the priests. This is the beginning of wheat
harvest. The other was the beginning of
barley harvest. This is the beginning of wheat
harvest. Our Lord Jesus has been sacrificed
for us. We read in John 12, except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it died, bring it forth
much fruit. Our Lord Jesus Christ died. He told his disciples just before
he ascended, you remember after his resurrection, he stayed here
40 days before his ascension. Then he told his disciples now,
I want you to go out preaching the gospel, but you don't do
anything until the promise of the Father is given." That's
how he phrased it. That was the giving of the Holy
Spirit. He said, you stay for ten days. Forty days, plus ten
more. Fifty days. Then when they were
meeting on the day of Pentecost, something happened. The day of
Pentecost was the beginning of a great harvest. A great 3,000
were harvested into the garner of God's church. Here is the
beginning of the gospel era, the gospel age. When our Lord
uses the preaching, the proclamation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
to bring souls into the fold. Peter preached and, boy, people
got convicted. They said, men and brethren,
what shall we do? He said, repent and be baptized, every one of
you, on account of remission of sins. Three thousand souls
were harvested in one day. And you know what? God is still
harvesting sinners today. He's still harvesting sinners.
You know what? To harvest something, you cut
it down. And I guarantee if He's going
to harvest you, He's first of all going to cut you down. He's
going to cut you down to size. He's going to show you what you
are. And then He'll lift you up in Christ Jesus. He kills
and He makes alive. He strips and then He robes us
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can't go
through this all, but I've got to make mention of this. Look
in verse 22. I've got to make mention of this.
The Lord says, 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 gleaning of thy
harvest. Thou shalt lead them unto the
poor and to the stranger. Who says this? I am the Lord
your God. And you go over to the book of
Ruth. And Boaz says to his reapers, leave some handfuls of purpose
for Ruth. And I tell you, God has handfuls
of purpose for poor sinners like you and me. And he feeds our
poor souls. Then fifthly is the Feast of
Trumpets, verses 23 through 25. open to Israel such a scene of
rejoicing as the seventh month. For nor the one nor the month
had the expiation day, that is, the day of atonement and the
feast of tabernacles. It's a very simple statement
about this. The Lord spake unto Moses saying,
verse 23, speaking to the children of Israel saying, in the seventh
month and the first day of the month shall you have a Sabbath,
a memorial, a blowing of trumpets and a holy convocation. Don't
do any servile work therein, but you shall offer an offering
made by fire unto the Lord. This is the sounding of the gospel
trumpet. In fact, that verse that I read
over there in Psalm 89 to begin the message, blessed is the people
that know the joyful sound, literally could read, blessed is the people
that have heard the gospel trumpet. We've heard the gospel trumpet.
We've been to the feast of trumpets. You see the feast of trumpets
was like a great big, behold, behold the goodness of God. Behold
the grace of God. Behold the mercy of God. And
you can almost hear the trumpets blowing, the joyful sound. You know that song we sing, we
have heard the joyful sound. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Wait. I wish I could change that. We have heard the joyful sound,
Jesus saved, Jesus saved by His substitutionary death upon the
cross. Isn't that right? He saved us
by His death. The scripture says, thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Well, here's the question, did
He do it? Yes, He did. Because when he
died, the Father raised him, exalted him, and said, Sit here
on my right hand, till I make all your enemies your footstool.
And every time we get up to preach, we're sounding the gospel trumpet. The gospel trumpet. Good news
for sinners! Good news for sinners! The work
is done! Ta-da! Ta-da! The work is done! We sound the trumpet. The good
news of justice satisfied, redemption accomplished, sin forgiven, righteousness
brought in, God glorified, salvation sure, salvation by free grace,
a never-ending salvation. The Feast of Trumpets, it says
to me, behold what God has done for ungodly sinners through the
person and work of Jesus Christ. The gospel trumpet proclaims
liberty to the captive and forgiveness to the sinful. Has the gospel
ever come to you like a trumpet? Like a trumpet. It wakes you
up. It gets your attention. It arrests
your mind and your heart, and you don't get over it. You can
get over man's religion, but when the gospel comes to you
by the power of the Spirit of God, you don't ever get over
that. That's the gospel trumpet. Then the Feast of Atonements,
verses 26 through 32. You've studied that before. There
were several atonements on this day. So actually the word atonement
in verse 27, if we could read it in the Hebrew, it's in the
plural. A day of atonements, and as you study in Leviticus
chapter 16, there were several atonements. There were several
offerings of animals on that day. This feast sets forth our
full and complete restoration to God through the bloody sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's such a solemn day. Such
a solemn day for Israel. When the work of Aaron was done,
Aaron being the high priest for all Israel, he did all the work. And even so, our Lord Jesus Christ
has done all the work. It was a yearly feast. It had
to be repeated over and over again every year. But the Son
of God died once. He offered one offering for sins
forever. And by that offering for sin,
he perfected his people. Lastly, the Feast of Tabernacles,
verses 33 through 43, through 44 rather. The final feast of the year was
held to remind the people of the time when they dwelt in tents,
in tabernacles, in the wilderness, and the Lord provided so abundantly
for them. But more than that, it does portray
that time when the Son of God would tabernacle in a body in
order to save his people from our sins. But there was something
else about this feast. On the last day of the feast,
the eighth day of the feast, it was considered the great day
of the feast. On that day, all the grapes and
all the figs were harvested. They were gathered in, the harvest
was over, it was a joyful time. The labor was ended, all the
crops were gathered in, and everybody was celebrating with great joy. God had blessed them with good
crops, figs and grapes and all the rest of the crops had all
been harvested. It was a great time of celebration. It meant the end of the harvest. And I'll tell you, God, one of
these days, is going to harvest the very last of His crops. And then the end will come. Maybe
that will be tonight. And we say, even so come, Lord
Jesus. Maybe the last of His crops will
be gathered into the gardener of His great salvation. And that
will be the end. And you know what? We'll be ushered
in an everlasting day of celebration and rejoicing and blessing the
name of our God. The Scripture says in John 7,
37 and 38, In the last day, that great day of the feast of the
tabernacles, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
And I say that tonight. If any man thirst, let him come
to the Lord Jesus and drink. And he that believeth on the
Son of God, as the scripture hath said, out of his innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water. Here's the gospel set
forth in these seven feasts. The Passover, Christ died for
us. Unleavened bread we feast upon
him by faith. The first fruits because he arose
from the dead. We're going to live spiritually.
All of his elect will live spiritually. And our bodies will live forever. Pentecost. Pentecost. The beginning of the wheat harvest
as the result of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit is drawing, effectually drawing sinners to the Savior. Oh, in the Feast of Trumpets,
let the gospel trumpet be blown. Jesus saved. Jesus saved. Atonements. Christ made expiation
for our sins. And as a result, our sins are
put away forever. God says, I won't remember them
against you ever again. In the Feast of Tabernacles,
soon the last of the Lord's crop will be gathered in. Isn't it
wonderful to be a part of His crop? To be a part of that which
has been harvested, brought low, and brought in, brought to the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's just a beautiful picture
of the grace of God. poor old sinners like you and
me through the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's sing a closing