before you should be. Turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy
16. And look in verse 16. We'll have
to hurry. We'll have to hurry through this.
So you're going to have to stay with me. I don't want to keep you
too late. I've got a lot to give you tonight.
So I hope you're ready to hurry through this. Here in verse 16,
we're told about these three feasts that the children of Israel
were. every year to attend the males, and not only the males,
but the sons, the daughters, the servants, the strangers.
They were all to attend these feasts, but especially the men.
And let's look at it here in verse 16. Three times in a year
shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place
which He shall choose, in the feast of unleavened bread, in
the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles. And they
shall not appear before the Lord empty." There were always sacrifices
that they were to bring at different times. Now, there are five feasts
within these three feasts. He mentions three feasts here,
but there are really five feasts. We will look at them all, hopefully,
here in just a minute. The first one is found here in
verse 1. It is the Feast of the Passover. That was the 14th. I gave you a little card that
my wife had picked up for me, because you won't remember these
things if I just tell you. But you can take these home and
look at these particular feasts that we're going to study about
today. What chapter did you say it was? Deuteronomy 16. Is that
what I said? Yeah. Deuteronomy 16 and verse
16. I tell you wrong. No. You said 16, but I'm not sure
what verse you started with. Okay, verse 16. Sit down, Layla,
and we'll start, okay? The first piece was the fast
over, and you'll see it there on your slip. That was the fourteenth
day of the month Abed. That's what we're told here in
verse 1. Observe the month Abed. That was also the month of Nassim,
which was the first month the children of Israel came out of
Israel. And then the second one, The second feast was from the
15th to the 21st of Abed. That was to run seven days. And
then the third feast is not mentioned here. It's the first fruits of
the barley feast. When that barley came in, they
took first fruits from that. That was another feast. These
three feasts took place from the 14th to 21st of Abed. That's
the three feasts we're going to study on tonight in just a
few minutes. The fourth feast is the Feast of Weeks that he
mentions there in verse 16. That was the first fruits of
the wheat harvest. Fifty days after the barley harvest
was the Feast of the Wheat Harvest. And then the third one he mentions
is the Feast of Tabernacles. That's the fifth one, the Booth.
that was in September or October, when all the yearly crops were
brought in, they had this feast of tabernacles. The yearly sacrifice,
all the olives and the nuts and everything that came in in the
fall, September and October, they were gathered, they had
the feast of tabernacles. Now sometimes these things are
hard to remember. all these feasts that they had
to remember and attend. Sometimes you and I have trouble
counting the days, how they counted the days, and it's difficult
to do. But I'm telling you the Jews knew them. They knew them
very well. And they counted each of these
days. They knew how they were to count.
And all devout Jews, no matter where they lived out in the world,
they strove to quit their working, to quit their play, and to come
to these feasts every year. In the New Testament, we got
proof that these feasts, these three feasts, these five feasts,
were still being attended, even when our Lord was here. Listen
to Luke 2, verse 41. Now, His parents went up to Jerusalem
every year at the feast of the Passover. Every year they went
up to attend this feast. John 2.13, and the Jews' feast
of Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He went up Himself to the Passover.
And Jesus sent Peter and John saying, Go, prepare for
us the Passover that we may eat. That's Luke 22a. So He Himself,
His parents and His disciples all went up to the Passover.
The Feast of Weeks, which was the Feast of Pentecost. This
is Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and
there was dwelling at Jerusalem devout men out of every nation
under heaven. Why have they come to Jerusalem?
The Feast of Weeks. The Feast of Pentecost. To celebrate
the feast. And in John chapter 7 verse 2
and verse 14, the Feast of Tabernacles. Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles
was at hand, and the Lord's brethren said unto him, Depart hence and
go up to Judea, that your disciples may see the works that you do.
And the Lord says, You go up to the feast, I go not up now,
for my time is not fully come. But when his brethren were gone
up, then went he up also to the feast, and in the midst of the
temple he taught them. So all three of these feasts,
all five of these feasts, three that ran together and the second
two, they were still practicing these things in the New Testament.
And I think that shows us how serious especially these five
feasts were. So not only were these feasts
observed in the New Testament, but did you notice in every passage
I read to you, it told where they went up to. His parents
went up to Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus left Galilee and
went up to the Feast of the Tabernacles. The Lord Jesus said, Tarry at
Jerusalem. Why? That's where the Holy Spirit
was coming with Him. It all took place at Jerusalem.
And you'll notice in Deuteronomy chapter 16, when you read it
sometime, six times the Lord mentions, In this place. In this place. It was so critical
that they met in this place. Look what He says in verse 2.
Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy
God of the flock and the herd in the place which the Lord shall
choose to place his name there. And look down in verse 5. Thou mayest not sacrifice the
Passover within any of your gates which the Lord thy God giveth
thee, but at the place which the Lord your God shall choose. So there is only one place. You
couldn't go just any place to attend the Passover. One place
the Passover took place, and that was at Jerusalem. That was
at Jerusalem. Now, what does this mean to us
today? This place that the children
of Israel came to, to worship the Lord, there at Jerusalem,
at the Temple. Well, in the New Testament times,
this means two things. First of all, We gather today
around the Lord Jesus Christ. We come here in His name and
we gather around Him. He is our gathering place. They
gather at Jerusalem at the temple. You and I gather in His name.
As many as are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst
of them. And we're here in His name, aren't
we? He said, I am the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life, No man
can come to the Father. No man can approach Him to the
Father to worship Him, to be saved by Him, to be accepted
of Him, to commune with Him, except He come by me. So Jesus Christ is that place,
isn't He? He's the name. And secondly,
I think it has something to do with Jerusalem. What is Jerusalem
now? Back then it was a place. Back
then it was built out of a stone wall and the temple was built
out of stone. A beautiful place. Jerusalem. The city of the living God. What's
Jerusalem today? It's the church, isn't it? Jerusalem
is the church. Jerusalem, which is above, is
free, which is the mother of us all. And listen to Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 22. You are not come unto the mount
that might be touched, that burned with with blackness and darkness
and fire, but you are coming to Mount Zion, the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn." That's what we are here this afternoon, isn't
it? We've gathered here in the name of the Lord Jesus. We're
gathered here as the church to worship Him, to worship the Lord
Jesus Christ. David was speaking of natural
Jerusalem, that city, when he said, Jerusalem is built as a
city that is compacted together. Where do the tribes go up? The
tribes of the Lord go up into the testimony of Israel to give
thanks unto the name of the Lord. They went up to a literal place.
But the Apostle Paul, speaking of the church, says this. You,
you Gentiles, you that are in Christ, you are no more strangers
and pilgrims, you are fellow citizens with the saints and
of the household of God, and you are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief cornerstone, now listen, in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. If you had saw the temple, You
would have thought, man, how magnificent that is. Look how
all those blocks are cut out and fit in there perfectly. But
I'm telling you, that's nothing compared to the church. These
living stones that the Lord has taken and put in the church,
this building, and all of them fit perfectly. They're compacted
together in truth and in love. So we don't have to go, we don't
have to get on a plane and go over to Israel. I'd love to do
that, I'll be honest with you. Some people make fun of me when
I tell them, I'd love to go over there and see that place. They
say, why in the world would you want to go over there? There's no
holier-than-thee place there. I'd love to see where my Lord walked.
I'd love to see Jacob's well where he sat on and converted
that woman, wouldn't you? But it would do me no good much
to go over there. This is Jerusalem. This is the
place. This is where we're gathered
now. The church that the Lord Jesus himself is building. I can't imagine any Jew not wanting
to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast of the Lord. Can you? Can
you imagine some Jew saying, well, I just don't feel like
it this year. I'm staying home. Crops may be coming in. Can you
imagine that? Can you imagine anybody that
wants to habitually and willingly not come to worship with the
Lord's people? Can you imagine that? I can't
imagine that. I just can't imagine. So let's
consider these feasts right quick that they celebrate. The first
one is the Passover. You find it here in Deuteronomy
1, verses 1 and 2. Observe the month of Abed, and
keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God. For in the month of
Abed the Lord thy God brought thee out of Egypt by night. Now
shall thou therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy
God of the flock and of the herd in the place which the Lord shall
choose to put his name. This was the Passover. You and
I have studied this so often, and we never grow weary of studying
about this Passover. When it was instituted down in
Egypt the night that the Lord destroyed all the firstborn that
didn't have the blood over the doorpost, it was called the Paschal
Lamb. We often refer to it as the Paschal,
because it means the passing over, the leaving over, or the
passing by the doors of those who had the blood upon them.
The destroying angel passed by the houses that was marked by
blood. And every time he saw the blood,
he passed over the house. And 1 Corinthians 5-7 says this
plainly, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. We know
well who that Paschal Lamb represented. It represented the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Christ our Passover. is sacrifice
for us. And everybody that's washed in
His blood, everybody whose conscience has been purged by that blood,
God passes over them. When I see the blood, I'll pass
it over. Isn't that a wonderful thought?
When I see the blood. That's what He's looking for.
His precious blood. And listen to this. I got this
from somebody. I don't know who this was. But he said this, he
said, the Paschal Lamb was killed before Israel was delivered from
bondage. And it was, wasn't it? And he
said, so Christ, by His death, accomplished redemption before
the New Testament church was ever delivered. Isn't that wonderful? He died and then the church and
all of its members was beginning to be delivered. The Paschal
Lamb was killed before the table of the Law was given to Moses
and before the Ceremonial Law was instituted. Thus deliverance
comes to man, not by the works of the Law, but by the true Passover,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that a wonderful thought?
That before the Law was ever given, redemption was accomplished. That's to teach us that you and
I are not saved by the works of the Law, but by the marriage,
by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as the
paschal lamb was roasted with fire, so Christ suffered. He
suffered the dreadful fire of God's wrath. We see that every
word in the New Testament. And just as the paschal lamb
was killed the fourteenth day of the month Abbot in the evening,
so Christ suffered and died the very same day and the very same
time. Now, isn't that amazing? Even
back in Exodus chapter 12, when it was first instituted, it was
the 14th day of the month. In the evening, the congregation
was to kill Him. And when did the Son of God die
for us? At the very Passover day. And in the evening, before
the sun went down, He died. I know of nothing that more encourages
us to believe in the inspiration of the Scripture than the fulfillment
of all of these prophecies and types in the Old Testament. No
group of men could have brought all of this to pass. God did
it, didn't He? He did it. And thus this darkness
was over all the land of Egypt that night. So darkness swept
over all the land when the Lord Jesus suffered and died. None of these things were by
accident or coincidence. They were to fulfill the scripture.
So that was the Passover. They were to celebrate the Passover.
And here in verses 3 and 4, for seven days, they were to keep
the feast of unleavened bread. Look in verse 3 and 4. Now this
is the 15th day of Abbot. The 14th was the Passover. They
kill the Passover and eat the Passover. Now from the 15th to
the 21st of Abbot, that had the seven days of unleavened bread
that were to eat. Look in verse 3. Thou shalt eat
no leavened bread with it, seven days shalt thou eat unleavened
bread therewith, even the bread of affliction. For thou comest
out of the land of Egypt in haste, that thou must remember the day
when thou comest forth out of the land of Egypt, all the days
of your life. And there shall be no leavened
bread seen with thee in all thy coasts seven days, neither shall
there anything of the flesh That is the Passover, the 15th, which
thou sacrifices the first day at evening, remain all night
until the morning. Now, what does this bread represent
to you and to me? He said there in verse 3, it
represents the bitter bondage, the bitter bondage and the price
it took to deliver them. That's what this bread affliction,
he calls them in Exodus 12 with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Unleavened bread, we eat it here
at the Lord's table. But if you ever want to eat something
that's just tasteless, try eating some unleavened bread. It's clotted,
just plain flour made out of water. They ate that for seven
days. Seven straight days there was
no leaven in their houses. the bread of affliction. It represented
coming out of Egypt, the bitter bondage, and the price that was
paid for it. It also represents something
else, leaven does. And I want you to turn, hold
Deuteronomy 16 and turn quickly to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5. Let me say this
while you're turning there. Leaven, in general, represents
sin. Sin of all kinds. You remember
when the Lord Jesus told His disciples to beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees? And they thought it was because
they had taken no bread. And finally He told them, I'm
not talking about bread in 1 Corinthians 5. He said, I'm not talking about
bread, but I'm talking about the doctrine of the Pharisees. Leaven represents false doctrine. What happens when false doctrine
gets into a church? It spreads, doesn't it? The Pharisees
that believed in salvation by grace plus works, for the most
part, we believe that Christ saves you and justifies you when
you believe in Him plus when you're circumcised and keep the
law of Moses and live like the Jews, a rigid lifestyle. And
they went down to the Galatian church and got the Galatian church
in a mess. And Paul wrote to them and said,
you've received their doctrine. And it spread all through the
church. A little leaven, he says, has
leavened the whole lump. They begin to believe this doctrine
of salvation by grace plus works. And Wayne, it's another gospel.
Another type of gospel, you said, son. And you remember another
occasion when Paul was writing to the Corinthian church. Sadducees
come down there. What did the Sadducees believe?
No resurrection. They began to teach the Corinthian
church that there's no resurrection. And Paul wrote to them and he
said, How say some among you there's no resurrection of the
dead? Thou fool! You fools! Boy, that's strong,
isn't it? You foolish people. If there's
been no resurrection of the dead, then Christ didn't raise. But
that's what happens when false doctrine comes in. It comes in
just a little, and then it's like that leaven that just begins
to spread all through the church. False doctrine is leaven. Another
place the Lord Jesus says, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is leaven. What was
it about them that was hypocritical? Everything they done. Everything
they did, the Lord Jesus said, all your works you do for what? To be seen. They went out and
prayed to be seen. They tithed to be seen. They
came to the temple to worship just to be seen. Hypocrites.
Hypocrites. Leaven. Leaven. And boy, that
can get in you. Have you ever seen hypocrisy
in you? And if you ain't careful and you don't check it and you
don't pray against it, just give it a little hold. You'll be an
outright hypocrite and you don't even recognize it. Leaven, leaven,
a little leaven. Leaveneth the whole lump. But it also represents sin in
general, immorality, malice and wickedness. Look here at what
Paul says. There in verse 1, it is reported
commonly that there is fornication among you. And such fornication,
and is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should
have his father's wife." Isn't that awful? Probably his stepmother,
the way he phrases it, had taken his father's wife. Awful fornication. And Paul goes down to verse 6.
These men weren't even weeping about this. They weren't heavy-hearted.
They were all puffed up because they had these gifts. And they
were all puffed up. And Paul said in verse 6, Your
glory is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? He said if you allow this open
sin in your midst, it's going to spread like leaven and flour
until it corrupts the whole church. Verse 7, Purge out therefore
the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened,
For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And look what he says over in
verse 13. Verse 13. But them that are without
God judges, therefore put away from among you that wicked person. If there is open sin in the congregation,
it needs to be dealt with. It needs to be disciplined. It
needs to be put out. Because it will spread. Other
people will think, well, if they can get by with it, so can I.
And it just spreads. Leaven. Leaven. We're not to
eat a Passover with leaven. But look here what else he says
in verse 8. 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. This word, sincerity and truth,
The commentator says this means holding up to the light. Holding
up to the light. Transparency. It means our hearts
and our lives are held up to the light. We're transparent
before God, as opposed to darkness and being hid or concealed. Unleavened bread is a life of
sincerity and a life of truth. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And notice
what the Apostle says here in verse 8. Look at verse 8 again.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, not with
old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness. We cannot keep the feast if there
is malice and wickedness in our hearts and in our lives. He said
in verse 7, look at this, "...perv'd out therefore the old leaven,
that you may be a new lot, as you are unleavened." You're unleavened. That means you're incorruptible.
How did you get to be incorruptible? Christ has made you new creatures.
He's perv'd your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God. You're clean. You have a new
heart and a new spirit. Now Paul is simply saying, live
your life, live out your Christian life as the Lord has made you
a Christian. He's not made you a hypocrite.
He's not made you immoral. He's made you honest. He's begotten
you with the truth. Therefore, live that out in your
life. That's what he's saying. Purge out. The old leaven. I think here is where this comes
in about not eating the feast with unleavened bread but with
bitter herbs. I think this is the bread of
affliction. Listen to this. Here is the bread
of affliction. Let not sin rule in your mortal
bodies that you should obey it in the last hour. And listen
to this one. They that are Christ have crucified
the flesh with its affections and its lust. Boy, there's bitter
herbs in it. Crucifying the flesh with its
affection and lust. If any man come after me, let
him deny himself and take up the cross and follow me." The
Hebrew writer said, Let us lay aside every waste and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Peter says it like this, Let
us lay aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies, envies, evil
speakings, And as newborn babes, let us desire the sensual milk
of the Word, that we may grow thereby, if we have tasted that
the Lord is gracious." Now, what's all this teaching us? What's
all this Scripture teaching us of denying ourselves, taking
up our cross, laying aside the weights and sins that easily
beset us? All of this is teaching us that if you and I commune
with the Lord Jesus Christ, If we eat of His redeeming body
and redeeming blood and commune with Him, one element of that
is this, self-denial. Laying aside the weights and
sins. Sincerity as opposed to hypocrisy. Truth as opposed to living a
lie. That's what these bitter herbs
were, that they were to eat Christ with. And I don't know how, I
don't know how that we could eat of Christ. and commune with
Him unless there is that element in our life of self-denial and
taking up our cross and following Him daily. If we walk in the
light as He is in the light, that's what that sincerity means,
holding it up, holding our heart, our conscience up in the sight
of God. If we walk in that light as He
is in the light, then we have fellowship, one with another.
and the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all
sin. So that's the way the Passover
was eaten. You didn't just eat the meat. When you eat the meat,
the lamb, there was this bread of affliction that didn't taste
good at all. The bitter herbs that were to
eat with it. And I'm telling you to take up your cross and
follow Christ. That's not always joyful, is it? That's not always
sweet and it's not always easy. But it's necessary if you and
I are to live upon the Lord Jesus Christ and commune with Him.
Now back over to our text right quickly. I've got to hurry. Sandwiched between the Passover
and right in the middle of this Feast of Unleavened Bread is
the Feast of the Firstfruits. Now, he doesn't mention this
here, It was on the 16th of Abbot. You'll see that in your little
paper there that I gave you. Come with me. You've got it on
your little pamphlet, right? Leviticus 23. Let's turn on Leviticus. You'll find this in different
places. In Numbers, you'll find it. In Exodus, you'll find it.
In Leviticus, chapter 23. I want you to turn over and look
at this. In verses 9 and verse 11. This feast was on the third day
after Passover. Look here in verses 9-11, Leviticus
23. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
When ye come into the land which I give you, and ye shall reap
the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits
of your harvest unto the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before
the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow, after the Sabbath,
The priest shall waive it. Now, here's the way this happened.
Here's the way Dr. Gill, and he knew so much about
Jewish history. Here's the way he said this happened. This took place the third day
after the Passover, this feast day. And it was the first fruits
of the barley. And the way this happened, that
was the Passover, they ate the Passover. Then Saturday was the
Sabbath. Yet they went out to their fields
and they bundled up a little sheaf, a little bundle of wheat,
barley, and they tied it and went back into their houses.
Kept the Sabbath day. On Sunday, the first day of the
week, the third day after Passover, they came out into the field,
took their knives, they cut the little sheaf of wheat, And they
prepared it, took it up to the priest, he took it up in his
hand, and he waved it before the Lord, and offered it before
the Lord, and the Lord accepted the firstfruits, and he blessed
the entire crop. Now this took place on Sunday
morning, the third day after the Passover. The Passover was
killed, they had a day off, And then, suddenly, they waved this
first fruit. Now, I read where they said the
Jews seldom keep this feast anymore. Well, you know one reason I suspect
they don't keep this feast? This goes under the name the
Feast of First Fruits of the Barley. What do you and I know
this day as? Christianity celebrates this
day in the spring, Easter. What happened on Easter morning?
The Lord raised from the dead. He was offered on the afternoon
of the Passover. He stayed in there for three
Jewish days and three Jewish nights. On Sunday morning, He
came forth. He is the first fruit. And listen
to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. Now is Christ risen
from the dead and become the first fruit of them that slept."
You know what the firstfruits are. That means you go out when
all your tomatoes are coming in and you've got the first big
tomato you pick off, then you say, man, this is just the firstfruits
of what's coming. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
raised from the dead that Sunday morning, He's just the firstfruits
of a multitude that's going to be ready. For since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead, And Adam all died,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in
his own order Christ the firstfruits, and afterwards they that are
Christ at his coming." This is a wonderful, wonderful picture,
symbol, shadow of our resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
in chapter 23 of Leviticus and look in verse 15 and 16 and we
see the fourth feast right quickly. This is the Feast of Weeks. This
is one of the most exciting feasts. Look in verse 33 of Leviticus
chapter 23. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth
day of the... Is that where I'm supposed to
be? No, I'm at the wrong place. I'm
sorry, verse 15. I gave you the wrong question,
verse 15. Leviticus 23, verse 15. And ye shall count unto you
from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought
the sheep of wave-offerings, seven sabbaths shall ye complete. Even unto the morrow after the
seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days, and ye shall offer
a new meat offering unto the Lord. Now this was called the
Feast of Wheat Harvest. This was Pentecost. This was
Pentecost. It happened 50 days after Passover. Well, when we go to the New Testament,
what happened 50 days after the Lord Jesus Christ died? Remember
Pentecost? The day of Pentecost fully come? That's why the Lord Jesus said,
don't you dare leave Jerusalem. You tarry, you wait here till
Pentecost. And when Pentecost, that Lord's
day morning, arrived, there came from heaven the sound of the
Russian mighty wind. What was that? That's the Holy
Spirit wasn't it? That was the Holy Ghost that
filled each one of them. Filled their hearts and probably
their bodies for all we know. They began to speak with tongues.
And the priest and 3,000 souls were saved. Pentecost. So we
have the Lord's death on the Passover. We have His resurrection
on the firstfruits of the harvest for the barley. Fifty days later,
when they begin to take in the grain for the wheat harvest,
that was Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit came. And
you know what He's called? He's called the firstfruits.
They brought the firstfruits of the wheat harvest in. And
when we're given the Holy Spirit, you know He's just the firstfruits.
He's just the firstfruits. He's also called the damn payment
or earnest. We have got a very small measure,
brothers and sisters, of the Holy Spirit. There's coming a
day when the harvest will come. He will come abundantly and fill
us. Not in this lifetime. I wish
He would. But there's coming a day when the resurrection shall
come. And the saint will be filled
soul and body by the Holy Spirit. No earnest, no first fruits,
but like the whole crop will be reaped. Lastly is the Feast
of Tabernacles. That's why I want you to turn
over to verse 33. The Feast of Tabernacles. These
were the three feasts, but in these three feasts they had five
feasts. This was the last feast of the
year. It was the Feast of Harvest.
Look in Leviticus 23. Look in verse 33 through verse 36. The Lord is speaking to Moses,
saying, speaking to the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth
day of the seventh month, I think this was September or October,
is that what your paper says? Part of our September or October,
shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord.
On the first day shall be an holy convocation, holy meeting. You shall do no simple work therein. You're going to rest. And you
shall offer an offering made by thorn to the Lord. It is a
solemn assembly. You shall do no several work
therein. Verse 39, also in the fifteenth
day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit
of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days, and
on the seventh shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth shall be a
Sabbath. So this was the time of rest.
And this feast came. when all the harvest was gathered
in. Now we've got these three feasts
that were required to come to all three of these feasts. We've
got the Son of God who came, He died, He rose again, the Holy
Spirit came, and now we've got the harvest. And what does this
represent to us but the end of the world? And our Lord Jesus
Himself spoke so much about this. He was explaining to His His
disciples, the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, and listen
to what He said. He answered and said unto them,
He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. The field
is the world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom, but the tares of the children of the wicked
one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is
the end of the world. There's going to be a harvest,
isn't there? And it is at the end of the world. And the reapers
are the angels. As therefore the towers are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of the world.
The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather
out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do
iniquity, and they shall be cast into the lake of fire. There
shall be well in the nation a tea. Then shall the righteous shine
forth, in the kingdom of their Father. And when they were talking
to Him about the tares and the wheat, do you want us to pluck
them up? Remember what He said? Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of the harvest,
He will send His reapers, His angels, and they shall gather
together first the tares, and burn them in bundles, but the
wheat will He gather unto His barn. So there is coming a harvest
to this world. There shall come a time when
all our sowing, all our plowing, all our reaping shall cease.
And the saints shall enter into rest, and the wicked shall be
cast away into the lake of fire. That will be the fulfillment
of this Feast of Tabernacles. And he said here that In the
last portion of verse 40, you shall rejoice before the Lord
your God seven days. And what was that seven? Perfection. Perfection. When the Lord comes
again and gathers us into His heaven, there is going to be
a perfect rest and there is going to be a perfect rejoicing. Rejoicing
without any pain. Rejoicing without any burdens.
Rejoicing without any tears. pinned in death, sorrow, it will
be a holy, happy, eternal rejoicing. Isn't these wonderful what they
teach us? When we just study them out,
what they teach us.