Thank you, Matt. I feel like
I'm ready to go home now. His name is wonderful. Exodus 23. Verse 14. I've entitled this message, Keeping
the Feasts. Beginning in verse 14, three
times, thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of
unleavened bread. Thou shalt eat unleavened bread
seven days as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of thee,
in the time appointed of the month Abib, or March. For in
it thou camest out from Egypt, and none shall appear before
me empty. And the Feast of Harvest, that's what's known as the Feast
of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks. And the Feast of Harvest,
the first fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field.
And the Feast of In-Gathering, which is in the end of the year
when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. Three
times in the year all thy mails 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 into the morning. The first of the firstfruits
of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy
God. Thou shalt not see the kid in
his mother's milk. Three times a year, the Israelite
was to stop. Three times a year, the Israelite
was to stop whatever it was he was doing and go to Jerusalem
to keep three different feasts. And the word keep the feast carries
it with it the idea of joy and gladness and dancing and singing
and rejoicing. Now I use this word reverently
but it was a party. It was a party. It was a seven
day long party. Three times a year, they were
to leave whatever it was they were doing and they were to keep
this feast unto the Lord. The feast of the unleavened bread
or the Passover, which was kept in the month of March It lasted
for at least a week, eight days actually. The feast of Pentecost
that took place 50 days after the Passover. And then there
was the feast of Tabernacles that took place after the harvest
in the month of September. And the Lord even promises how
he will cause their enemies to not desire their land while they
go up to observe this feast. Turn to Exodus chapter 34. You can imagine how vulnerable
the land would be when all the men left to go to this celebration. But the Lord promises the protection
of the land while they go up. Look in Exodus 34, beginning
in verse 23. Thrice in the year shall all
your men, children appear before the Lord, the God of Israel.
And I, for I will cast out the nations before thee and enlarge
thy borders. Neither shall any man desire
thy land when thou should go up to appear before the Lord,
thy God thrice in the year. Now he makes this promise. Nobody's
even going to want to take your land during that time. You know,
the Lord has control over everybody's minds. Isn't that wonderful to
think that? He's got control over everybody's
minds. Nothing happens but what he wills
to take place. That's a wonderful thought. And
I want to remind you of this. You can't be hurt in obedience. You can't be hurt in obedience.
He promised that land would be taken care of in their obedience
to do what he said to do. You're never going to be the
loser in obedience to the Lord God. He makes that promise. Notice these feasts were unto
the Lord. Turn back to our text in verse
14, three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. And do you know that there is
a spiritual keeping of these feasts that we have as believers?
In 1 Corinthians 5, verse 8, we read, let us keep the feast. And he's not talking about literally
keeping that feast, but he's talking about spiritually keeping
that feast. Let us keep the feast unto the
Lord. And I want to keep this feast
tonight, don't you? Whatever means to keep these feasts, I
want to enter into it. I want to rejoice before the
Lord in keeping these feasts, just like the children of Israel
were to do. Now, first, there was the feast
of unleavened bread. Look in verse 15 of our text
in Exodus 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 Bib, for in it thou camest out from Egypt and none
shall appear before me empty. Now this is talking about the
Passover. And during the Passover, before
you ate the Passover meal, the children of Israel were to purge
their homes of leaven. They were to get rid of all the
leaven, and they were to eat unleavened bread for seven days. Now, let me remind you about
the Passover. This was in response to the tenth plague in Egypt.
God said, I'm going to pass through the land, I'm going to destroy
all the firstborn. But He said to the children of
Israel, He said, you take a lamb without blemish and without spot,
the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, And you take that lamb and
you kill it. And you take the blood and you
put it over the doorpost and the lentils of the home. And
I'm gonna pass through the land in judgment. And he says, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now, is that the gospel?
That's the gospel as clearly as it can be stated. God said,
when I see, he didn't say when you see the blood. He said, when
I see the blood, he didn't say when I see your faith or your
works or your sincerity or any, no, one thing God was looking
for, the blood. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And I have often thought about
what it must've been like to be in one of those houses. You
would be in one of those houses. One guy was scared to death.
What if he gets me? What if he gets me? I mean, I've been so
bad. I've been so wicked. You think
I'll be saved? I bet somebody was just scared to death. And
there was somebody else. I imagine Moses. He was confident. He knew he was secure. But he wasn't any more secure
than the fellow that didn't have as much confidence, was he? Because
all God was looking for was the blood. He said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. Now, that's the gospel. And in
this glorious gospel type, the Passover lamb, You were to purge
your house of leaven and you were to eat no leaven. Now unleavened
bread was obviously bread without leaven. What's leaven stand for? Well, leaven is yeast. It's a
fungus that causes fermentation, and it's what makes bread rise
and puff up. As a matter of fact, it's taken
from the word rising. That's what it means. Leaven
means rising. And leaven has a metaphorical
meaning in the scriptures. It means to taint. Now, there's
nothing sinful in leaven in and of itself. You know that. Bacteria, I don't know what it
is, whatever it is, but it's not sinful in and of itself,
but it has a meaning. Its metaphorical meaning is it
means to taint, to corrupt, to infect. It is any influence working
silently and strongly that causes change in things, in opinions,
in attitudes. You can't see it. It's imperceptible. But remember that little leaven,
just a little leaven. What's it do? It leavens its
way through the whole lump. Now leaven in the scriptures
represents the false doctrine of salvation by works. You remember
where Paul said, don't you know that a little leaven, leaven's
the whole lump. If you're justified by the law, Christ has become
none effect to you. You put just a little bit of works in salvation
in any respect, in any degree, and you make the whole thing
salvation by works. It's the leaven of false doctrine,
salvation by works. Leaven represents hypocrisy. Remember when our Lord said,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, acting, play
acting, pretending to be what you're not. Leaven represents
toleration. You remember there in 1 Corinthians
chapter 5 where Paul said to the Corinthians, your glory is
not good. This fellow that you're tolerating in your midst, you're
saying, it's no big deal, we'll be okay. Your glory is not good. Know you not that a little leaven,
leaven's the whole lump. You tolerate that which is contrary
to God and it's going to end up infecting everything is what
he's saying. Leaven is a great evil and leaven
was to be purged out. Turn with me for a moment to
1 Corinthians chapter 5. I've already quoted this scripture
once, but I want to read the whole thing. Verse 7. Purge out therefore the old leavened,
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened, for even
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep
the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth." Now, you want to know what it is to eat this unleavened
bread? It's to eat the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth. Now, these two things are so
vitally important. Sincerity. What does sincerity
mean? Purity. That's what the word
actually means here. Purity. Unmixed. Simple. Sincere. Let us eat the unleavened
bread of sincerity. Now, what is this thing of sincerity? It means pure. It means not mixed
and so on. no corrupting influences, no
additives. Here's sincerity. I look to the
Word of God alone. I'm not looking for anything
else. I look to what God's Word says and I bow to that. And anything beyond that is insincere. Someone's not truly, sincerely
seeking the Lord that has any other rule. I look to the Word
of God alone, the Scriptures alone. I look to Christ alone.
I don't look to Christ and anything. I look to Christ only. He only is all in my salvation. And anybody that does not look
to Christ only is insincere. They got another motive. Something
else is going on. I rely upon the grace of God
alone. Everybody says, well, I don't
rely on grace. Oh, that's great, but you rely on the grace of
God alone. Alone. Nothing else. Saved by naked,
sheer grace. Now, if that's not where I'm
at, I'm insincere. Faith only. Not faith and anything. Faith in Christ only. Anything
short of that is insincere. The glory of God alone. Any other
motive is an evil motive. It's the leaven of the Pharisees. It's hypocrisy. Anything else
is insincere. Now, you see, the unleavened
bread of sincerity. I hope I'm sincere. We'll find
out one of these days, won't we? We'll find out one of these
days. And the unleavened bread of truth.
Here's the unleavened bread, truth. I love that scripture
in John chapter 17, verse 17, where the Lord says, sanctify
them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And then he said in Hebrews chapter
10, verse 10, we are sanctified once for all through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. Now, I think that's interesting.
We're sanctified by the truth. We're sanctified by the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. We're sanctified by the death
of Christ. Sounds to me like the truth and the cross of Christ
are the same thing. We're sanctified by the truth. That's the truth.
The cross is the truth. It tells the truth concerning
the true character of God. If you want to know who God is,
you won't know apart from the cross. It tells every attribute
of God is displayed in the cross. If you want to know the truth
about yourself, don't look in here. You won't find out the
truth. You'll fool yourself. If you want to find out the truth
about yourself, look to the cross. That's how bad you are. If God
takes His hand off you, you'd murder His Son. That's the truth
regarding yourself. You know the truth about salvation?
The cross. He is salvation. Oh, let's keep
the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now go back to our text for just
a moment. I love this part. Exodus chapter 23. He says in verse 15, in keeping
this first feast, look what it says next. And none shall appear
before me empty. None who keep this feast will
appear before me empty. Now the word empty means ineffectual. Undeserving. without a cause. You see, the Passover, the Feast
of Unleavened Bread makes me worthy. You know, it's hard to
say because I feel unworthy, but you know what? I'm not unworthy.
In Christ, I'm worthy of all God's love, all God's grace,
all God's favor. Is Christ worthy? Now, you can
say amen to that, can't you? Christ is worthy. If Christ is
worthy, I'm worthy. Everybody in him is worthy. The
scripture says he's made unto us wisdom. When God looks at this fellow
right here, he looks at a wise man. That's every believer because
Christ is my wisdom before God. God has fellowship with a wise
man. See, God won't have fellowship with fools. He has fellowship
with wise men. Everybody who trusts the Lord
Jesus Christ as everything in their salvation, they're all
wise. He's made unto me righteousness. He is my righteousness before
God. I'm righteous before God. He's made unto me sanctification.
He is my holiness. He's made unto me redemption.
He's my complete deliverance. And none who trust on Christ
will come before God empty. I come, as a matter of fact,
full. Colossians chapter 2 verses 9
and 10 says in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in
a body and you are complete. You are full. Nothing can be
added to you. You believe that? Now if you
do, you rejoice, don't you? This is a feast that I can keep
with joy. I enjoy every bite of this feast. It's something we joy and dance
in our hearts to know that we're complete in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the first feast we keep, the feast of unleavened bread
or the Passover. And then in our text, in verse
16 of Exodus chapter 23. And the feast of harvest. the firstfruits of thy labors
which thou hast sown in the field. Look down in verse 19. The first
of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house
of the Lord thy God. Now, this is the feast of Pentecost,
which took place seven weeks, 50 days after the feast of unleavened
bread. Now, when the first fruits of
the crop came up and they planted a crop and when the first fruits
came up, you know what they did? They didn't use it themselves.
They brought it unto the Lord in the celebration of this feast. You were to give it to the Lord
and by that you were saying that you trusted him to take care
of the rest of the crop. Now, remember the rest of the
crop had not yet come in, but the first thing that comes up,
you give to the Lord and you say, I'm trusting him to take
care of the rest. Now, faith in Christ is trusting
him for what you don't yet see. Now they took the first fruit
of that crop. They didn't see anything else. This was the first
thing that came up. It was good to eat. They took
that and they gave it to the Lord and they trusted him to
take care of the rest of the crop. Now listen to me. I trust
the Lord for what I can't see. I can't see that I'm perfectly
just before God. Can't see it. But if I believe it, I'm trusting
the Lord to take care of that for me. I can't look within my
heart and say, well, you're a holy man. I can't do that. I can't look within. If I look
within my heart, all I see is sin. That's what I see when I
look within my heart. I can't look with the inside
and say, oh boy, you're really holy. You're really growing.
No, it doesn't work that way. But I trust I am. I believe what
I cannot see. I can't see my acceptance on
judgment day, but I know I already have it. Faith in Christ is trusting
him for what you do not see. And you were to give to the Lord
the firstfruits. Now, this is very important.
You were to give to the Lord the firstfruits. The best was
for him. Some people in their giving never
give the first fruits. They give the leftovers. They
wait and see how things have worked out that week or that
month. I wait till all my bills are
paid and all my entertainment is taken care of and all the
things I want to get and what's left I'm going to give out of
that. Now that is not giving. It's not giving at all. We give
to him the first fruits. What I give comes first. That's the first issue of my
monthly check is what I give to the Lord. It always must be
that way, or it's not giving. Not after I see what I have left,
I give the best for him. You know, I give more than a
tithe because I want to give more than what the law requires
of me. I think that's a safe way. You give however the Lord has
prospered you, is how you give. And that comes first. And if I come up short somewhere
else, so be it. So be it. But you know what?
That's never happened. You see, you can't out give the
Lord. Somebody says he's generous to
a fault. There's no such thing. You can't out give the Lord. I'm to give the first fruits.
And this issue of giving, it has something to do with faith,
doesn't it? I give trusting him to take care
of all my needs. You know, I really do. I trust
him to take care of every bite that comes in my mouth, whatever
I need. I'm trusting him to take care
of it. He's my father. He takes care of me. It's a love
issue. You know, if you love somebody,
what do you do? You give. Love does what? Love gives. That's the definition of love.
Love is as love gives. God so loved the world that He
what? He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting
life. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter
16 for just a moment. Verse 9, this is talking about this particular
feast. Seven weeks shalt thou number
unto thee. This is after the feast of the
Passover. Begin to number the seven weeks from such a time
as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn, and thou
shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a
tribute, with a act of generosity, of a freewill offering of thine
hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as
the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." You know, there's some
joy in giving, isn't there? There's true joy. And it's your
freewill offering. It's what you want to do. It's
not a burden. It's serving the Lord a sacrifice. It's not a sacrifice. It's the
greatest privilege of grace. We give the first fruits, and
we demonstrate by that our dependence on Him. You know, I'm trusting
Him. I really am. I'm His child, and He's going
to take care of me. Right now, at any rate, I'm not worried
about anything. I'm carefree. Now, ask me when I go out the
door. It might change, but for right now, at any rate, I'm carefree. The Lord's taking care of me,
and that's the issue of this giving the first fruits. Listen
to this scripture from 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9. The scripture
says it's giving that proves the sincerity of your love. It proves the sincerity of your
love. I've said this before. Some people,
if you judged their love by what they say, they love a whole lot.
But if you judge their love by what they give, they love very
little. Now, giving proves the sincerity
of our love. And you know what else took place
in this feast? You weren't to do any servile
work. That means work of any kind.
You know, this is not a work, is it? This is a grace. This
is a grace. And what a joy and privilege
it is to enter in to this feast. Now, back to our text in Exodus
chapter 23, verse 16. And the feast of harvest, the
first fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field,
and here's the third feast, and the feast of ingathering, which
is in the end of the year when thou hast gathered in thy labors
out of the field. After the Feast of Tabernacles,
we have what's called the Feast of In-Gathering, and this is
after all the crop had already come up, and all the food was
gathered up, and it had already been harvested. This was after
the harvest, and after all the fruits of the field had been
gathered in, Pentecost was trusting Christ for what we didn't see
yet. Remember, we were giving the
first fruits, trusting him to take care of the rest, but the
feast of the end gathering is giving thanks for what he has
already done. The harvest has already been
brought in and we celebrate what is finished. Now, this is this,
what joy there is in keeping this feast. I'm celebrating,
I'm rejoicing in what's already been brought in. What's already
been finished? What's already been finished? Tell me what's not been finished.
I'm complete in the Lord Jesus Christ and I do not need anything
else. I'm completely justified. I'm
sanctified and I'm not going to get any more holy in heaven
than I am right now. The holiness I have right now
is the same holiness I'll have in heaven. Now, that's hard to
get hold of and it's hard to believe and that just shows us
what a strength the flesh has in us. What's going to happen
is this flesh is going to be gone. Now, these bodies will be changed.
Scripture says we shall all be changed. I'm going to be given
a glorified body, but the holiness I possess right now Same holiness
I'll have in heaven. I'm not going to get any more
holy. I'm not going to get any more loved by God. I'm not going
to get any more accepted. I'm not going to get any more
perfect in God's sight. I've already got it all. And I rejoice
in that feast. I'm complete in Christ. You know,
it's so sweet to be nothing and have Him as everything. I love
being a poor sinner and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my
all in all. And I'm so comfortable with that.
I'm not comfortable with anything else. The only thing I'm comfortable
with is me being nothing and Him being all in my salvation. Can't you rejoice in that? That's a good feast, isn't it? Also in this feast, I think it's
interesting, turn to Leviticus chapter 23. Verse 39, Also in the fifteenth day of
the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the
land, this is the feast of the ingathering, you shall keep a
feast unto the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath,
and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And you shall take
you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, that you're
going to make booths, branches of palm trees, of thick trees,
and the willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before
the Lord your God seven days. You're rejoicing in what He's
already done, and you shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven
days in the year. It shall be a statute forever
in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the
seventh month, and you shall dwell in booths seven days. all the Israelites shall dwell
in booths." You're going to make these booths. You're going to
make these temporary dwelling places. You're going to leave
your home and you're going to make these small booths and you're
going to dwell in those things. And it's sometimes called the
Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, what does
this signify? Well, the Lord says, you shall
dwell in booths seven days all there in Israel. So dwell in
booths that your generations may know that I, made the children
of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the
land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God." You're going to dwell
in these booths remembering that I brought you out of Egypt. I
did this. And you know, these booths, these
tents we're dwelling in, they're just temporary. It's a reminder
to us. And this is a glory, you know,
it's wonderful. It's wonderful being with you all right now.
I love this. It really is wonderful. But you
know, it's going to be a whole lot more wonderful in glory. And this is temporary. And we
hold this world loosely. We're just here for a little
while longer. And this isn't life anyway, is it? We're just
dwelling in these booths. but we're one day going to be
in the very presence of Christ in our worship service at that
time. Can you imagine being part of
that great choir? He said, behold, I come quickly
and we say, even so come Lord Jesus. Let me sum this up. These feasts were a party, a
time of celebration, a time of dancing and rejoicing. It was
a wonderful time. The feast of unleavened bread,
the Passover, that's my salvation and I rejoice. The feast of Pentecost,
giving the first fruits, the first of the first fruits. We
trust Christ for what we do not see. And the feast of tabernacles,
or in gathering, we rejoice in what He has already done. Faith doesn't so much believe
what God will do. Faith believes in what He has
already done. Faith believes the Word of God.
Do you believe that what Christ did completed you? I do. And I rejoice. Let's pray together.