and welcome to steadfast baptist church great to see everybody here tonight find our hymnals we
will get started with song number 263 as our first song this evening song number 263 everybody let's
open up service now we love you and we thank you so much for this awesome church wants to gather
here tonight sing unto you lord we just ask now that you fill us with all thing out unto you
and it's in jesus name we pray let's go to song number 210 of jesus you're coming to steadfast
baptist church if you didn't get a bulletin yet and you like one just lift your hand nice and high
on the front we have our bible memory passage romans 10 verse 8 on the inside is our service
and soul hunting times also soul hunting for regional areas if you'd like to participate
in different parts of the city we have our stat sheet make sure you're updating our chat groups
on that on the right is the list of expecting ladies several ladies to be in prayer for if you
have not received your 2025 donation statement and you're expecting that please just let us know
right away you can email us and we'll try to get that to you or if there's needs to be a correction
we'd love to do that trying to keep up to date with some college soul winning so if you go to
our website slash college you can check that out down below is the missions trip so i believe that
all of our missionaries were able to get out there yesterday they said they already had 166 salvations
for just yesterday alone and so um but he said that today was going to be way bigger numbers
because they were actually able to go into a lot of schools and preach into a lot of schools and so
uh looking forward to hearing about the results they're usually about a 12 hour time zone off
from us so usually uh they're kind of like the exact opposite so they're kind of getting started
with their thursday as we kind of end our evening so hopefully they'll be able to continue doing a
great work out there just be in prayer for them that everything goes smoothly and everybody stays
healthy and that they're able to continue the work out there the Philippines is a definitely a great
opportunity to go soul winning on the back is our prayer list uh we'll go ahead and and walk through
some of these real quick uh continue to pray for the Carlson's for their both their parents health
and also if you'd pray for brother Jared's work if you'd pray for the Scott's parents and then for
their health please pray for brother Tony's health we're also praying for the Foley's for their dad's
kidney disease please continue to pray for the Weathers we're praying for brother Goodwin
his sister-in-law husband had passed away and so we're praying for her and her family please pray
for the Rose please play pray for brother Burns's brother Joe also if you pray for the Warner family
for their work also we pray for brother Jameson's father's health brother Sue Hill asked for prayer
for his mother's health we're also praying for brother Billy's mother for her spinal issues
please pray for the Spurgeons for work if you pray for the urbanic family whose grandmother was
diagnosed with another dementia and continue to pray for Miss Natalie as well if you pray for her
please pray for the Robertsons and if you pray for Miss Ginger's niece who is in ICU for pneumonia
if you'd also pray for brother Evans he's been asking for prayer for just his sickness and for
work also if you pray for the Canaries for their brother Elliot and they also pray for
the Adairs for their grandmother had passed away and so just please be in prayer for all of them
and we'll say a quick word of prayer as a church family thank you heavenly father so much for our
church thank you for all these ladies are expecting in our church I pray that you please give them
health please help them during their pregnancies please give them a timely delivery we just thank
you for all those who have recently given birth you please continue to bless them and their
children I pray that you'd bless our all of our evangelists and all of our missionaries over in
the Philippines they would keep them safe they would give them great opportunities to preach the
gospel they could be a bright and shining light over there in that part of the world they could
help them to get home safely and they would be healthy I pray that you would be with our church
family and friends that are struggling with these serious issues these chronic illnesses I pray if
possibly just give them health please give them favor I pray that you'd please just help our church
family that needs whether that's work or a job or a vehicle or a blessing that you please just help
them financially please just be a blessing unto them I pray that you would also just be with those
who have lost loved ones or are going through difficult time I pray that you would please give
them peace please give them comfort I pray that you would continue to open doors for all our friends
and family that need to hear the gospel that you give us that boldness to preach unto them and I
pray that you would just continue to bless our church that all things we do would be in honor
and glory of your son in jesus name we pray amen so that's pretty much all I have as far as
announcements go ahead and sing our psalm of the week psalm 15 psalm 15 that's the offering plates
are being passed around go ahead and open your bibles the book of deuteronomy book of deuteronomy
we'll be reading in deuteronomy chapter number 16 book of deuteronomy chapter number 16 and we will
read the whole chapter as is our custom deuteronomy 16 where the bible reads observe the month of abib
and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God for in the month of abib the Lord thy God brought
thee forth out of Egypt by night 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 thou shall eat no leavened bread with it seven days shall thou eat unleavened bread therewith
even the bread of affliction for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste that
thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of
thy life and there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days neither
shall there anything of the flesh which thou sacrifices the first day at even remain all night
until the morning thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover with any of the gates which the Lord thy
God giveth thee but at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in there
thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even at the going down of the sun at the season thou camest
forth out of Egypt and thou shalt rose and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose
and thou shalt turn in the morning and go unto thy tents six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread
and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God thou shalt do no work therein
seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee begin to number the seven weeks from the such a time as
thou begins to put the sickle to the corn and thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God
with the tribute of a free will offering of thine hand which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God
according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God
thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maidservant and the Levite
that is within thy gates and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are among you
and the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there and thou shalt remember
that thou was the bond servant in Egypt and thou shalt observe and do these statutes thou shalt
observe the feast of tabernacles seven days after that thou has gathered thy corn and thy wine
and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy man servant thy
maid servant thy levite the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy
gates seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord
shall choose because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy increase and in all the works of
thine hands therefore thou shalt surely rejoice three times in a year shall all the males appear
before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose and the feast of unleavened bread and the
feast of weeks and the feast of tabernacle and they shall not appear before the Lord empty every
man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he give it
hath given thee judges and officers shall thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God
giveth thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgment that shalt not
rest judgment thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the
eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous that which is altogether just shall
thou follow that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee
thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near any of the unto the altar of the Lord thy
God which thou shalt make thee neither shalt thou set thee up any image which the Lord thy God
hateth let us pray heavenly father thank you for this chapter of the bible thank you for said best
peppers church and all the soul winning that is done here pray that you'd bless pastor Shelley
fill him with your holy spirit to preach your word unto us and help us to receive it and
make applicable changes in our lives to become better christians praise and all in jesus name
amen amen deuteronomy chapter 16 really focuses on the feast of the lord and i want to kind of
just try and go through the chapter and then kind of revisit these different feasts but it says in
verse one observe the month of abib and keep the Passover and the lord thy god for in the month
of abib the lord thy god brought thee forth out of egypt by night the bible teaches that this is
their first month we start with january which is kind of in the middle of our winter cycle
their seasons are a little bit different in the sense that their first month starts with spring
and in a sense so they basically have spring summer fall winter and honestly a lot of times
when you think about the hebrew calendars it makes a little bit more sense some of ours are a little
bit more just arbitrary as far as just kind of how they calculate things but their calendar starts
kind of in spring that's their first month that's the month of abib that's being described here
and that's when they have their Passover that's what they would call the Passover we don't really
observe the Passover because it's turned into us as Easter where we celebrate the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ but it's the same timeline in essence now it says in verse 2 thou shalt
therefore sacrifice the Passover and the Lord thy God of the flock and the herd in the place
which the Lord shall choose to place his name there thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it
seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith even the bread of affliction for
thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste that thou mayest remember the day when
thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life and there shall be no leavened
bread seen with thee in all thy coasts seven days neither shall there anything of the flesh
which thou sacrificest the first day at even remain all night until the morning thou mayest
not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee but
of the places the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in there thou shalt sacrifice the
Passover at even at the going down of the sun at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
So the Bible is describing the Passover also referred to as the feast of unleavened bread.
So it's kind of like interchangeable terms and sometimes it's also when it uses these terms
they're very easily confused and so it's kind of interesting to really pay attention to what's
being said. Sometimes the Passover is referring to the entire event and the entire event is an eight
day is an eight day event. However there's the seven days which are designated to being the feast of
unleavened bread. The day prior to is called the day of preparation so it's kind of like an eight
day ceremony. Seven specific days of are the quote feast of unleavened bread. The word feast
can also refer to the specific meal that is had on the 15th day. So on the 14th day of the month
abib is when you would slaughter the lamb and then you would eat it on the 15th day. But because of
a Jewish calendar understanding their days actually end when the sun goes down. So at 6 p.m. they're
going to transition from one day to the next. So the 14th day they would slaughter this animal
at around like three four p.m. They would cook it prepare it and then they'd have dinner that night
but it was technically a second day according to their calendar. So the feast of this particular
event was going to be had on the 15th day that night. This is also sometimes referred to as the
Passover. So you could say that's the Passover meal. So again these terms can be used in lots
of different ways and that's why in the New Testament sometimes when it's using these terms
people get confused very easily when it comes to what we're talking about. But again this is an
eight-day event. Seven days are unleavened bread. The 14th day which is the first day of this
particular week is where you slaughter that lamb. On that evening is where you would have the meal
where you'd actually eat the lamb and it's telling us you're not allowed to allow any of that flesh
to remain. Notice this remain all night until the morning. So that meal that they had in the evening
they were to eat all of it. They could not allow any of it to not be consumed that specific evening.
So no leftovers. All right there's just like a no leftover policy for this particular meal.
And of course this is what they had to do in Egypt specifically, was they would slaughter the lamb,
they would take the blood, they put it on the door posts, and this is so the death angel would pass
over them and their firstborns were not slain. So everybody in Egypt, they did not have the blood
on the door. All of their firstborn children and not only their children, even all their cattle,
all the animals, everything in the whole household was slain in that night by some death angel.
And those that had the blood on the door post, they were passed over. Now again, you know,
this is all symbolism of the gospel and salvation by faith if you think about it,
because in a sense, all they had to do was believe this, right? All they had to do is just believe
that if I put blood on the door, we're going to be saved. It's not that the good people
got passed over and the bad people didn't. It's just anybody that had the blood on the door
got passed over and the people that didn't have the blood on the door didn't get this salvation.
In the same way that if you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. And if you don't
have your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not saved. There's no such thing as good people
going to heaven and bad people going to hell because frankly speaking, we're all bad. Everybody's
a sinner. We're all bad. So it's those who put the blood on the doorpost in a spiritual sense,
those who apply the blood of Jesus Christ to their heart are the ones that get saved. And it's not
based on their works. It's not based on their good efforts. It's not based on being baptized.
It's not based on any of these things. And of course, the picture of the children of Israel
leaving Egypt is a lot of the pictures of the Christian life. First, you have to get saved.
Then they walk through the Red Sea, which is the picture of baptism. No one had to get baptized to
get saved. They were already saved. Since they were already saved, then they had to get baptized
to go through and start walking in the Christian life. If you never walk through the Red Sea,
you were never even going to start in the Christian life. You're just still in the world.
And Christians who get saved, who don't get baptized, they're pretty much just in the world,
not serving God whatsoever. They haven't even started on their walk to serving God.
But those who walk through the Red Sea picture those who get baptized and now they're in the
wilderness, which is basically the picture of from now until you go to heaven, which is that
promised land picture. And so there's lots of different symbolism here that's being applied.
They have to constantly observe this particular ceremony leading up to when the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to be the literal lamb that's sacrificed at the exact same timing and all the different
symbolisms here where the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be slaughtered at that same time and
evening. And then of course he is going to be consumed by his flesh is going to be consumed
in the sense where he's going to die literally. And of course the lamb was supposed to be roast
with fire. So the way you would kill the you'd kill the lamb by slaughtering it but then you
had to roast it with fire specifically and then you had to consume it and that's a picture of how
the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross went to hell in our place. And then of course he is though
risen again and there's there's more in this chapter and more that we're going to talk about
that pictures all this. I want to go in a little bit deeper dive when we get to that but notice
again they had to eat the bread of affliction. Why this is a solemn event right when we're thinking
about it you know what Jesus Christ did for us is kind of a sad thing to think about him taking
our punishment, him taking our burden. Of course those first few days of this particular event would
have been very sad for the Lord Jesus Christ to have died and to have been one of those early
disciples and have lost the Lord Jesus Christ and seen him die. It would have been a time of affliction
over the time of sadness, a time of bitterness. They're supposed to eat this lamb with bitter
herbs and of course even ourselves when we get saved just recognizing our sin, recognizing what
Jesus Christ had to do for us will typically bring you know negative emotions to our minds
and our hearts because we just recognize wow that's really sad to think about how Jesus had to be
beaten and had to be scourged and how he was put on the cross and how he had to endure all this
pain and suffering for us and so there's an element of suffering that's why it's the bread
of affliction that's being brought up here and of course the bread often can you know even
represent the Lord Jesus Christ's body that's often a picture of what we think of in communion
and now the Lord Jesus Christ's body was broken for us and how his body was beaten and that was
scourged and that was nailed to the cross and so this picture of the bread of affliction you know
the leaven is typically a picture of you know sin sometimes in the Bible can also be a picture of
the gospel but also just kind of is pleasant and if you think about it you know a leavened bread
is going to just be more pleasant more enjoyable you're going to want to eat it
whereas an unleavened bread is dry and and just not necessarily near as nearly as pleasant you
don't enjoy it as much and God's God's think about what he's saying he's saying there are some breads
that are better than others right i mean he's saying the unleavened bread from a carnal sense
he's just saying from a practical sense an unleavened bread is a bread of affliction in
the sense that it's just not as good it's not as tasty it's not as enjoyable and is that that's
just what we observe in our reality that if you have an unleavened bread and i get it you've been
in church you're in church for an hour you get so hungry that even that salty cracker kind of tastes
good a little bit but at the end of the day we all understand that people aren't grabbing unleavened
bread off the shelf as their first choice you know you want you want a different kind of bread you
want a leavened bread a roll you want you know people are lining up to go to texas roadhouse
in fact it just boggles my mind how many cars are in their parking lot every single time i drive by
it doesn't matter if it's a tuesday it doesn't matter if it's a thursday just for some reason
texas roadhouse just is just like filled to the brim with people and it's not for their menu
because i'll just be honest with you it's they don't really have that many great items on the
menu i'll tell you it's one reason it is that stinking bread that they give out because their
rolls are just awesome and that honey butter that they give out i mean it's just fabulous it's just
awesome and so of course you know that's why this restaurant is just packed and just filled all the
time they're not serving the bread of affliction here they're serving a bread of pleasantness a
bread that tastes really good so again this unleavened bread they're having for this particular
ceremony is on purpose to illustrate the spiritual truths of what jesus christ would do for us
that the cross was not a pleasant picture it's not something enjoyable rather it's a picture of
affliction of pain of suffering of negative things and of course that's what that is illustrating
because the feasts are not just random they are all symbolic all the feasts of god are symbolic
of salvation and they're symbolic of the gospel and spiritual things and so this
Passover is a great picture of salvation itself and and pictures of the gospel we also have
mentioned that it was going to be in the place that God would pick I think this is also another
important illustration is that when we're talking about the gospel itself we're talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ this was never going to happen in just any random place it had to happen at a
specific place that God had chosen God had chosen Jerusalem at some point in the future for this to
be a place for them to worship God and to serve God and that of course was going to be a special
place where the Lord Jesus Christ was going to come and where he was going to die and so
you know we have to understand that God will oftentimes pick a specific place where he wants
things to happen where he wants things to occur some people get this idea like oh I don't need
to go to church because I can quote have church wherever I want no God has specific places where
churches are and so you have to go to that specific place to serve God and to worship God
just like hey you can't just have this feast wherever you want you have to go where I chose
for this specific feast to be at that's the place that you have to go and that's the place where
you're going to worship me notice also it says even in verse six is the going down of the sun
now even is kind of a a word that I don't think we can necessarily pin down I've studied this
word a lot but I don't know that you can exactly pin it down to mean the exact same thing every
single time but generally speaking it's some time between the sun going down from like a literal
sense to like what we would often refer to in our modern vernacular is like twilight so you could
think of it sometimes it seems like it's implying like that five to six hour window when the sun's
setting sometimes it kind of implies maybe just the afternoon just when you think just the sun
just from its descent from the high point in the sky down but it's just basically some point in this
window of the sun setting twilight the evening the late afternoon even that's just kind of what even
generally means typically when you read about in the bible they'll say when the sun's going down
that's just kind of what we say so the most closely associated term is when we think is
like the sun setting or twilight or these different kind of concepts but the bible's pretty clear that
when jesus christ died he died in the third hour and it stands to reason is most likely the sun
was probably setting around five or six p.m that night so it wasn't necessarily exactly twilight
maybe a little bit prior or two proceeding which of course makes sense too because they have to
slaughter the the lamb at even well they need at least a little bit of time to still slaughter it
cut it roast it with fire and stuff so it just seems like it's just kind of like the late
afternoon the evening at the point when the sun's making its journey down not necessarily just the
last few moments because they had to have this thing done before the sun completely set because
when the sun completely set they entered into a Sabbath and so that's why it's important to get
everything done in haste you'll see this in the new testament repeated often how people are just
hurrying and rushing to get things done because they need to get things done before this particular
Sabbath this high day is going to come upon them so they have to get all this done before
the night approaches and that's why everything's done in haste in this particular fashion is kind
of picturing what's going to happen with the Lord Jesus Christ let's keep reading here let's read
in verse number seven and thou shalt roast and eat it and the place which the Lord thy God shall
choose and thou shalt turn in the morning and go under thy tents six days thou shalt eat unleavened
bread and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God thou shalt do no
work therein seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee 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
under the Lord thy God with the tribute of a free will offering of thy hand which thou shalt give
unto the Lord thy God according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee and thou shalt rejoice before
the Lord thy God thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maidservant and the
Levite that is within thy gates and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are among
you in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there. So it's kind of
rolling into the second ceremony and there's there's overlap between these two particular
ceremonies. I think in this uh in this chapter it's going to bring up another aspect but we have
essentially the Feast of Unleavened Bread and then we have the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of
Unleavened Bread is this again eight-day event seven days specifically. In some point in this
particular cycle though in this particular event you have a first fruit offering. Now the first
fruit offering is supposed to take place after a Sabbath but it's not going to be at the end of
this particular event it actually happens kind of after the very beginning of it. So somewhere in
kind of the beginning session of this particular event it's either the 16th or the 17th day of the
month abib and the reason why it can adjust is because on the calendar you could potentially
have two Sabbaths lining up. So in in most senses you would have just one Sabbath day and so then
on the 16th day of the month abib they have their first fruit offering. When they have their first
fruit offering it kind of kicks off some kind of a timer where they then have this this Feast of
Weeks where they're basically waiting and they're having like these cycles of seven Sabbaths and
then at the end of the seven Sabbaths if you have seven times seven that's what 49 days you would
have the 50th day. The 50th day is known as Pentecost. The word Pente there that prefix is
for 50 and so then they would have this particular feast of weeks and they have this special event
which is known as the day of Pentecost. You'll see this obviously referred to in Acts chapter number
two and so this is the second special event and it's called the feast of weeks because it's
basically known as seven weeks. You're basically waiting these seven week cycles to get under this
particular event which is called the feast of weeks. This is started when they put the sickle
to the corn. I think in verse number nine look at what it says seven weeks shalt thou number under
thee begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the
corn. So again we're gonna we're gonna come back to this Leviticus chapter 23 actually really spells
out these things in greater detail. You have to think about Deuteronomy is kind of just like a
retelling of the law. So in some cases it's more of a summary than it is all the details. Leviticus
is where we get a lot more of the details that are specific. But what verse 9 is referring to
is mentioned in great detail in Leviticus chapter 23 where it's talking about you would take a first
fruit offering. That's why it's saying that you the first put the sickle to. When you when you
make that particular day when that happens that's where it's setting off this timer where you're
basically counting these seven week cycles. Seven weeks which is seven days that's 49 days then you
get to the 50th day which is the day of Pentecost and this is what's known as the quote feast of
weeks. Okay so that's what's being referred to here in this particular passage. When you do this
this one's actually a joyful thing because you notice in the first one it was kind of like the
bread of affliction and it's kind of you're doing things in haste. This one in verse number 11 it's
like you're going to rejoice and like not you everyone everyone gets to participate. Everybody's
excited your manservant and maidservant and levites and strangers and fatherless and widow
and everybody's just going to have a great time. This is like an exciting event it's fun you're
enjoying it greatly. It says in verse number 12 and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman
in Egypt and thou shalt observe and do these statutes thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacle
seven days after that thou has gathered in thy corn and thy wine and thou shalt rejoice in thy
feast thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy man servant and thy maid servant and the levite
the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates seven days shalt
thou keep a solemn feast in the lord thy god in the place which the lord shall choose because the
lord thy god shall bless thee in all thine increase and all thy works of thine hands
therefore thou shalt surely rejoice three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the lord
thy god in the place which he shall choose in the feast of eleven bread and in the feast of weeks
and in the feast of tabernacles and they shall not appear before the lord empty every man shall give
as he is able according to the blessing of the lord thy god which he hath given thee so again this
is just a summary he's saying there's basically three major events that every single man in the
nation of israel has to show up to what are these three events the Passover which is also known as
the feast of eleven bread then you have the feast of weeks then you have the feast of tabernacles
now the feast of tabernacles again we're going to look at literally just 23 here it gives us a
better detail because this is just such a summary that it's hard to even figure out what it's saying
but that's in the seventh month so this is like a fall event this is a fall feast that's going to
happen so you basically have the first month in the spring you have the Passover on the 14th day
then 50 it's you fast forward a couple days because you have to wait until you get that
first fruit offering either the 16th or the 17th then you go fast forward 50 days to the day of
Pentecost and you have the feast of weeks then you're going to have a later in the seventh month on
the 15th day you're going to have a third event which is known as the feast of tabernacles okay
so these are the three events that you have as basically the main feast of the Lord if you look
at Leviticus chapter 23 it technically is bringing up like a fourth one that you have to observe but
it's just the Sabbath in general so just basically saying like hey you have these main events that
you have to observe as a child of Israel in the nation of Israel you're observing a Sabbath every
single week that's on the Saturday then you have the fast the Passover the feast of of bread then
you have this other feast of weeks then you have the feast of tabernacles and so you have these
three different events and again he's saying you can't come to this last one empty notice in verse
16 that they shall not appear before the Lord empty every man shall give as he is able to the
blessing of the Lord which he hath given thee and again this journey could be pretty far for some
people for some people they might live pretty close for some it might be pretty far but he's
just saying like every single man every single guy has to be there has to come to this particular
event and again i'm sure that the most of them are bringing their wives and their children with
them and stuff but we all understand sometimes women are pregnant or can't travel or have to
stay home they don't they maybe can't always make it work practically speaking but for the men god
expects for all the men to make it every single time you're there for the big event you're there
for the big feast you're there to basically participate in these events and represent for
your family and bring your offerings in the lord and basically you know be right with god again
you know i don't think that you have to understand this is not like necessarily a picture perfect of
church it's not saying like go to church three times a year and and frankly speaking these events
aren't even like church because they're like the whole week you know these are like a whole this
is like the conference okay so you have to go to three conferences a year this would be the more
this would be more applicable to like a modern day explanation he's saying like you have three major
conferences a year and you have to go to all three of them would be more applicable because again
they're supposed to be going to you know their version of church on a weekly basis on a more
regular basis but when it comes to these major events these major festivals he wants everyone
there and everyone to participate they're also not allowed to come empty now it kind of has at the
end of this chapter just kind of like a separate idea an anecdote here and we're just kind of we're
going to visit this and then i want to go back and kind of revisit these feasts but it says in verse
number 18 judges and officers shout they'll make thee and all thy gates with the lord thy god give
it thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgment thou shall not rest
judgment thou shall not respect persons neither take a gift for gift doth blind the eyes of the
wise and pervert the words of the righteous so here you know he's talking about just how to
run their society how to run their nation they need different judges they need different officers
they need people to basically police their nation and again you know if you think about it even in
our modern vernacular don't we call individuals like a police officer and even in the new testament
the bible brings up you know the the officers of the court unless the judge deliver thee to the
officer and he casts thee into prison you know some people say like police aren't even biblical
and i'm thinking like i don't know if you understand necessarily what the bible's saying
here because the bible clearly outlines you need judges and officers now the judge is going to sit
there and judge the officer is going to like execute the judgment of the judge so you know
if you think about it that's typically a role that police officers actually participate in and
should be participating in now does it say here they should be giving speeding tickets to all the
camel jockeys no i don't know that it says that that's for you to you know decide what's going on
but again they have a system of judges they have a system of officers and honestly if you understand
america most of it's really based off the principles laid out in the bible now the problem is we still
have man and man corrupts things and man you know does things wrong and we don't have good judges
and good officers but look if we lived in a society where all the people in our government fear god
we're fundamental baptists and stuff we would really have no problem with our government the
problem is the people it's not really the system it's not even necessarily how it's set up
in many cases the way we're set up is a really good system it's just it's just the people involved
they're just really bad okay so you know you kind of have to you don't get mad at cops for enforcing
bad laws because at the end of the day they're in a bad position what are they supposed to do
you know we should get mad at the bad laws you know that's where we really should transfer our
anger and being upset now of course if a police officer is not following the law if a police
officer is power hungry and not abiding by what he should do then yeah we can get mad at him and
call him out and say hey this is wrong but in general we should have respect and the judges
we should have respect unto police officers at least from a positional perspective now
unfortunately in america many of our judges are corrupt they're evil they're wicked why
because they're being paid because they're being bribed because they respect persons
because rich people don't get the same justice as poor people they're often getting a there's a
two-tier system and the guy that's rich can usually pay for a different level of justice
than the guy that's poor and again the bible saying that that's wicked it's saying that we
need judges and officers that are going to judge with just judgment that they're going to not
respect persons they're not going to essentially take gifts they're not going to pervert the words
of the righteous they're not going to sit here and just automatically rule against you because
you said something mean about the lgbtq community or whatever but of course we don't live in that
particular society right now and again it's not that judges are bad it's not that officers are bad
what's bad is our laws what's bad is our culture what's bad is that we've turned away from the
things of god as a nation as a group of people that's what's bad but we need just judges in our
society we need just officers we need just men to be in these type of positions where they want
justice what is justice what is deserved eye for an eye tooth for tooth that is justice now here's
the thing without justice you can't have mercy and again we need mercy in society as well we
don't want only justice but you know what without justice we can't even have mercy and unfortunately
when there is no justice you're giving mercy to people that should never receive it and
it just becomes toleration and it becomes just you know everything's flipped upside down and we
live in a weird perverted society with does not have just judgment and that causes major problems
in society you know we should evaluate our judges and our officers based on how just they are on if
they're taking bribes if they're taking money if they're respecting persons but it seems like
there's no accountability in these particular areas how in the world can you read these verses
and then justify political lobbying how can you justify that our politicians that our congress
can get paid money by major corporations to influence their law decisions that makes no
sense whatsoever how can our judges how can our you know politics our politicians be allowed to
do insider trading and then think that we're going to have a just legal system and again
insider trading is where they know things that are going to happen to companies laws that are
going to be passed before the public knows and then they can place their money in the stock market
based on that information knowing it's going to go up or down and then make tons and tons of money
because of what's called insider trading because if you know what information is going to be leaked
beforehand you can know with absolute certainty what's going to happen to those stock prices
and because of what you know is going to happen to those stock prices not only can you place money
on certain companies you can buy what's called option contracts and these option contracts are
just like magnifying whatever you're doing in fact it's it's crazy and i know a little bit about
this just because i you know was studied finance a lot i've gone to college and done these things i
did some stock market trading as well but look if you know like google is going to go up or down
its stock price by a large margin today or tomorrow you can make what insane amounts of
money you could essentially just take a thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars and buy option
contracts and make 20 or 50 million dollars overnight just by knowing this information
that's why our politicians go with a net worth of nothing to into congress and then they leave
a 50 millionaire 100 millionaire a 200 millionaire how is that even possible how can you how can you
have a 20 million dollar net worth if you're only making a hundred thousand dollars a year
150 thousand dollars a year now look i'm for paying these people a good wage i think that our
politicians should be paid a great wage in fact they're probably paid too low of a wage but you
know why they don't care that they're being paid such a low wage because they get so much money
from lobbying and insider trading so what we should really do is we should penalize insider
trading and lobbying heavily raise their wages high high enough to have a healthy comfortable
living they don't have to worry about money but they're not going to be a multi-millionaire
by being a politician and we should have severe term limits it should be very limited they should
not be in that position for a very long time this when we should have a limited federal government
hey i know i'm preaching a lot of you know opinions here but at the same time this is
the principle that's being laid on the bible that you need just judges and just officers
that are not going to pervert the words of the righteous that they're not going to be taking
bribes they're not going to be taking money and you want to know why is america screwed up well
that's a major reason why we're screwed up you have a lot of people speculating about how much
influence george soros and black rock and other dark groups have on our judges system people that
are appointing people are putting in positions of authority uh we have governors who appoint
judges we have our presidents who just appoint judges and bring in whoever it's funny that our
supreme court never seems to have a fundamental baptist on never seems to have even evangelicals
it's like catholics or jews or both i don't even know it's just like what do you why is that what
america is represented as catholics and jews that is not what america was founded on that is not
what our our founders believed in at all nor is even representative of what our current demographic
is in america of the day we are more evangelical than catholic and of course jews are a severe
minority when it comes to our population density so why in the world are they being filled this way
because we have corrupt politicians corruption through money and bad means and again people
get mad at our government bad our system and they want they're like let's have communism
communism's way worse okay and and honestly if you understand like political systems political
systems are just basically how much you want to magnify the influence of a particular individual
i had somebody try to tell me they said oh you know the problem with um you know you know america
is that we're not like a king you know we don't have like a king like we need a king or something
like this you know like a dictator you know and they're kind of like because they're influenced
by nazism they kind of like think about hitler as being some great person or something like this
sorry it's real in our society but they think like oh man if we could just go back to having
like one guy in charge because when you have so many it's really corrupt and i'm like oh okay have
you ever heard of like north korea they have one guy in charge how good do you think that's happening
look all having a single leader does is it just magnifies their personality if they're a really
good person then yeah it's going to be awesome and if they're a really bad person it's going
to be the worst place ever to live okay now let's think about america if you have the greatest
person ever as our president their impact is not going to be that much they can only do so much so
it's just going to be a little bit of impact but on the flip side if they're hillary clinton if
they're joe biden they also have kind of a minimal impact as far as how much they can possibly do
because if you actually put joe biden in power like north korea has kim jong lorenbauer it would
have been way more of a nightmare than when he was just the president so don't think like oh we
we need to just have a different political system you know i want different people before we change
the political system and look the only person that i really trust as being king is the lord jesus
christ that's when it's a great time to have a single leader but you know having a single leader
doesn't necessarily cure all your problems or or make things so much better you know we'll have a
single leader pretty soon he's called the antichrist it's not going to go so well and you know at the
end of the day what do we need as a society is we need righteousness we need we need god we need as
a culture to turn back to the things of god we need people to actually care about the king james
bible you want america to get better we need to get rid of all the modern versions step one
number two we need to see an increase in salvation by faith number three we need an increase of godly
biblical churches we need people to actually care about church again and getting back into church
and going out and preaching the gospel before any of those things change we'll never have success
as a nation we won't have success as a country won't have success as a government we won't have
god's blessing the same way we won't have a true revival in this nation and again we should stop
worrying so much about our political system it's downstream of having a biblical culture and getting
people saved and turning them back to righteousness so again it's important to understand that we need
just judges and just officers and we need to have the right mentality we need to desire these things
and desire righteousness let me tell you something when people don't care about church we're never
going to change anything people don't care about the bible they don't care about getting saved they
don't care about actually living a godly life well none of the other stuff's ever gonna work why i mean
look our founders our nation was built on people that were zealous of good works they wanted church
they wanted a bible they wanted righteousness they wanted good laws that's why they had it
and it took a long time to corrupt it and water it down but now we're at people don't want it
anymore and we need a hunger we need people that hunger and thirst after righteousness again
and true holiness instead of just you know a new iphone or something like that i mean i mean people
don't even care about church or the things of god anymore i heard someone tell me that they
there was a family that left the new ifb church and left the good church and they said we don't
even we don't even believe god punishes christians anymore what is this joy smyer god's not that you
know i'm thinking like what how does bad things even happen like if god's not punishing ever
anybody i mean no christians ever get punished for any i mean what what do you think all the
sickness and financial issues i mean there's no punishment what are you talking about of course
that's a convenient doctrine for the person that doesn't want to go to church wow why would you go
to church i mean what are you what are you even going to do from now until then you can play
video games you're just going to hook up to meta just live in the metaverse now i mean like just
eat candy canes and hoho's and just do whatever you want oh god won't ever punish me anymore
i mean what's the whole passage about jesus says whom i love i rebuke and chase him
be zealous therefore and repent what was that about was he talking to unsaved people
in that particular passage and then he only punishes unsaved people or is he just punished
no one is he just santa claus now like and look people will say this kind of stuff because they
want any excuse to be lazy and of course what does this laziness procure you know what it
procures bad judges because because they're lazy and they don't work hard and they're not righteous
they don't care about things anymore they become so apathetic that they just let anybody walk over
them they let the government do whatever they want they just bring in all kinds of corrupt
politicians and because god's not going to bless them and let me tell you something god is going
to curse christians when they walk away from church when they walk away from the bible when they walk
away from soul winning when they think that god won't punish them you know what god will bring
a evil government upon you and will punish you you don't want to serve god well you know what god
will bring in some california governor newsome to come and just ruin your country tax you to
death just take your money and take your goods i don't want to pay god 10 percent okay well then
have 40 percent taxes have 50 percent taxes okay well then have inflation out your nose i mean the
nose is the one bringing in the inflation let me tell you well let me tell you something look you
don't want to bless god he won't bless you and there will be a curse upon a nation that doesn't
want to serve god oh i don't think god punishes anymore that is a fool fool's idea that is a
matthew five idea where the whoever's telling you this is a liar and is teaching you to break
god's commandments and he's going to be leased in the kingdom of heaven if he's even saved and
look there are saved people that teach lies i mean the bible tells us there are saved people that
teach lies and if you want to believe lies there will be more than enough for you to hang on to
you know what our nation will not be successful if we hang on to lies we need just judgment and we
should not rest judgment we should not take it you know even though you may not be a judge even
though we may not be able to change your culture you should just take application from this and
recognize hey i need to be careful that i myself don't get influenced by money or respect of
persons where i start judging poorly too where i start having a bad a bad idea where i start
thinking you know i want to make my decisions based on how much favorability i'm going to get
from this person or if i'm going to be popular based on this decision or how this is going to
affect me financially you know this is the sad part that most people in this world only care
about how things affect them and not what's just right our decision making should just be whatever
is the right thing to do we should do that we just need to do what's right and not care about how it
affects me financially not care about you know how much of popularity contest i'm going to win
and look over time people are going to not like you when you actually do the right thing i mean
moses wasn't even popular amongst his own people because you know he was a good judge because he
was judging just judgment you know when you do what's right you won't win popularity competitions
that's why you know politicians are scummy people is because they never want to do what's right
they'll just tell you anything you want to hear they'll flatter you all day long you know we don't
want to be like that we want to be people that just say what is right and we're not going to
pervert the words of the righteous we're not going to have our eyes blinded we're not going to be
caring about gifts and money we're going to do what is the right thing look at verse 21
thou shalt not plant the grove of any trees near unto the altar of the lord thy god
which thou shalt make thee neither shalt thou set up the any image with the lord thy god hadeth
again these are just general principles so if we think about it he wants us to observe these feasts
he doesn't want the nation to be corrupted by having bad judgment and in any day he also doesn't
want the nation to be corrupted by setting up groves and images if you kind of think about it
maybe the big picture or the the tying factor if you tie all these things together it's just like
god just wants the service of the lord to be successful and when you aren't observing these
feasts and putting them as a priority it's not going to be successful when you have bad judges
it's not going to be successful and when you're setting up false religion it's not going to be
successful so we have to put god first in our life do what's right and have nothing to do with
false religion of course groves is just a clumping of trees for some reason this is associated with
false religion you know i would i would stand to reason one of the guesses is the fact that the
grove is is kind of a shield where you can do things in darkness and of course false religion
always likes to do things in the dark hidden secret there's a reason why if you pass by a
freemason building there's either no windows or they're all boarded up virtually every single
freemason building temple whatever you've passed by a masonic lodge pay attention you'll notice
something the windows are boarded up or they've been removed or they have no windows why is that
why is it they want it to be so dark why do they want it that no one can look in because false
religion wants to hide what they're really doing why is it that our politicians like to go to
bohemian grove to go and do their little thing because they don't want people to see what
they're doing out in an open because then people condemn it recognizing a satanic evil
wicked the grotesque things that they're doing and so god doesn't want a grove near the things
of god what god is a god of light god wants everything to be open god wants everything
to be manifest god wants everything to be clearly seen he doesn't want all these secret
things around his temple he's not the mormons you don't have to go into the secret temple
to get married you don't have to go in the secret grove to find out the real information
and the real doctrine you know we're not hiding our sermons you know there's churches out
there today that when they hide their sermons online why because they don't want anybody
looking in and seeing what they're really teaching what they're really doing why is
it that the mormon church doesn't want to be upfront about what they believe why is
it that the mormon church is telling their congress don't go online and research what
we actually believe and what we actually teach why is it that the masonic lodge whenever
you're in freemasonry they don't want to tell you what the 33 degree masons believe you
have to build up to get to that particular stage before they tell you everything why
is it that Scientology you have to pay all this money to get into the deeper lessons
and the deeper information why because that which is satanic cost you an arm and a leg
and you have to sell your soul to get into the deep recesses of Satan it's it's closed
in just darkness because it's nonsense it's evil it's not good whereas the things of God
are open and free and manifest and light and so he doesn't want these growths it's a picture
of darkness it's a picture of concealing it's a picture of things that being hidden you
know we should as a church be open and upfront and of course that causes problems right I
mean obviously some of my sermons cause the internet to lose their mind or freaks to lose
their mind and then we get protested sometimes and people are like oh why do you put those
sermons online and why do you you know promote them and why do you make them because we're
not gonna have a grove here we don't have a grove for well this doctrine is in the grove
let's all go into the grove and we'll read Judges 19 and quiet you know we don't want
everybody to hear what Judges 19 has to say we don't want everybody to hear what Genesis
19 has to say we don't want everybody to hear what Leviticus 20 has to say we don't want
everyone to hear what Romans 1 has to say we want those to be in the grove no or in
the Bible college maybe just call it Bible college grove right we're not going to teach
you what that that part of the Bible means you have to go to Bible college to learn that
part of the Bible you know I would challenge any Bible college student against the young
people in our church on their knowledge on what they know about the Bible on their memorization
on their soul winning skills you know we shouldn't conceal anything and I believe hey even grandma
can learn the deep things of God and the doctrines we don't need to send grandma to Bible college
we don't need to send the young people to God why are we here on a Wednesday night let's
learn some Bible together let's dig into Deuteronomy let's go through this this deep stuff and
all the deep things you know why the pastor doesn't want to go through the deep things
because he doesn't know them because he doesn't understand them so he needs to hire some woman
to teach the Bible calls to teach you the deep things of God for her to go read some
commentary somewhere and regurgitate a lukewarm microwave version of what the Bible kind of
said but at the end of the day you know what that's not what church is supposed to look
like church is supposed to be the man of God getting up preaching the whole council the
whole word of God to the whole congregation that's what we believe in that's what we see
we don't want these groves we don't want things done in secret we don't want hey you're
teaching something here and then the kids are learning something else from the university
minister or from the high school minister over here and we don't know what he's teaching
we don't even know what he's saying it's over here in the grove and look you go to a lot
of churches you know they have the basement that's where all the kids go right they have
some the kids room or the kids basement or the kids area and there's always problems
constantly happening in these areas there's constant issues happening in the youth department
and the youth groups and all the youth activity you know why can't our youth activities be
open in the light and obvious and public we don't we don't need them to be in the dark
basement area and this other building that's you know away from everybody you know the
church that I grew up in they had a different youth minister virtually every year why because
there's always issues and problems and weird stuff that's happening you know teenagers
are impressionable why do we want to take some other random young yahoo and go leave
them with him to teach who knows what.
Why can't they learn what the adult things are and learn what the Bible is actually teaching
in an adult setting and learn to be mature anyways?
Why do they need to go and continue their immaturity at the youth group?
You know, I'll go to the youth group and it's like we just play ping pong and we play video
games and we play, you know, Super Mario Brothers and, and, and Super Smash Brothers and just
all kinds of stuff.
I mean, why?
And go rock, like a rock concert.
Many churches today, their youth group, it's just a rock concert and video games and hanging
out and it's not even church.
And there's like, why would I expect them to do four years of that and then want to
come in here and just sing the hymns and sit down and listen to King James Bible expository
style preaching.
They don't have an appetite for that.
You know what they have an appetite for?
Gateway now.
You know what they have an appetite for?
Some kind of non-denominational fun center.
And so why is it that so many churches are losing their youth to that?
Well, that's because their youth programs designed to look like that.
You know, I don't want to have a Grove where we're sending all of our kids to go and have
a different style church, different style teaching, different type of music, different
type of environment.
You know, I want us to have the same environment.
I want them to, from a baby to being an adult that's married with children, have the exact
same environment, same doctrine, same teaching, same music, same everything.
So they can be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding the work of the Lord.
We don't have a different program.
Now look, I'm not against youth groups and youth fun activities and targeting different
groups to do stuff.
But you know what?
I want church to be church for everyone.
And we should, hey, the young man needs the same instruction as the old man, and we need
to be giving them that at the same time, learning the deep things of the Bible.
I don't need some Bible college.
I don't need some grove to teach you something.
And of course, the image is really obvious in the Bible.
Graven images are wicked and evil.
Odyssey associated with false religion again.
So people that are associated with groves and images,
always false religion.
And you'll see that theme repeated in the Bible.
Now, I just want to take a few minutes
to go through some of these feasts again.
And I want to kind of go to Leviticus chapter 23,
if you would go to Leviticus chapter 23,
and let's talk about them a little bit more.
Now, the first one that's mentioned in Leviticus 23
is just the Sabbath itself.
It says in verse one, "And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, 'Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them concerning the feast of the Lord,
which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations,
even these are my feasts.
Six days shall work be done,
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest
and holy convocation.
Ye shall do no work therein.
It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."
So the number one feast or event or holiday
or what you would observe is just the Sabbath itself.
What does the Sabbath picture?
What do all the feasts picture?
They all picture salvation in some sense.
So of course, six days you work,
the seventh you don't, it's a Sabbath.
And it pictures what, our salvation itself
is no works of our own, has nothing to do,
it's all God's doing.
And so of course, he rested the seventh day
and that's a picture of how we are to rest in Jesus Christ.
Now in the Old Testament,
they had to observe this actual day.
In the New Testament, we don't have to observe the Sabbath
because we observed the Sabbath in a spiritual sense.
We observe it by what?
Putting our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and then we enter into his rest
and we've ceased from our own works
and that's what gave us our salvation
is when we repented from dead works
and we don't trust in our works anymore
and we put our faith in Jesus Christ
and we enter into his rest, that's what gave us salvation.
And of course, that gives God all the glory
because God then gets all the glory for our salvation.
So that's the first one.
The second one that's gonna be mentioned again
is gonna be the Passover.
Verse five, in the 14th day of the first month at even
is the Lord's Passover.
And on the 15th day of the same month
is the feast of unleavened bread on the Lord.
Seven days, you must eat unleavened bread.
Now, I've gone over this lots of times in the past,
but you can go to our website, sbckgv.com,
go to our charts, there's a charts tab,
and you can print this off if you want.
But I made an entire chart of the timing of the Passover,
and you can check it out, but it helps to just kind of
understand all the things that are being mentioned.
And I kind of mentioned this earlier, but again,
the feast of unleavened bread can be referred
to the entire eight days, the 14th through the 21st,
but also it can refer to the specific seven days
of the unleavened bread, because they weren't supposed to,
from the 15th day to the 21st,
eat any leavened bread whatsoever.
Now the 14th day is called the day of preparation.
That is where they're preparing for the feast itself,
the meal that they're gonna consume on that 15th day.
So what are they preparing?
They're getting the leaven out of their house
so that they won't have that,
and they're slaughtering the lamb and preparing it,
roasting with fire so they can consume it.
This is what we would know as the last supper,
if you think about it,
when it came to the children of, or the disciples,
and Jesus Christ on that Wednesday
were having that last supper.
But again, their day starts at 6 p.m.
So when they were having it,
that was the beginning of the preparation day.
That was the 14th day of the month, Amen.
So that day had started for them
when they were enjoying that last supper.
When it came to that 3, 4 p.m. timeline,
that's when Jesus Christ actually gave up the ghost.
So when Jesus dies on the cross simultaneously,
thousands and thousands of children of Israel
are literally slicing the throat of a lamb,
their Passover lamb.
Think about the irony of how many Jews didn't get saved
while they're cutting the throat of a lamb
while Jesus Christ is dying on the cross for their sins.
And then of course, that is a picture of how,
the roasting of the fires,
picture of Jesus literally went to hell for us.
They're roasting this lamb with fire.
Then they're supposed to eat the meal.
They're supposed to eat all of it.
It's a picture of us supposed to put all of our faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ and his body
and sacrifice as the payment for our sins,
for our salvation.
And that's gonna give us that Passover.
Again, they don't apply blood on the door anymore.
That was only in the first time when they left Exodus.
But again, that blood being spilled
was a picture of Jesus Christ blood being spilled
at the cross and how we put our faith in that.
That's what gives us that salvation.
So again, we have all these different pictures.
Now the 15th day is supposed to be a day
where you don't do any work.
Notice what it says in verse six again.
On the 15th day, right, that's the feast.
Seven, it says in the first day,
you shall have an holy convocation.
You should do no servile work there.
So whatever day is the day after,
the 14th day is a Sabbath rest, is a day of rest.
Well, depending on how the calendar strikes
these particular days, it can have an interesting effect
because if he died on a Thursday, which is what I believe,
then Friday would have been a Sabbath.
Well, then Saturday would also happen to be a Sabbath day.
So you'd have a double Sabbath.
It doesn't always work that way.
Now again, looking through the lens of history,
you can actually study the stars and astronomy
and you can kind of roll back the clock.
And there's only a few dates
where you kind of have this Thursday style,
you know, day where you'd have the 14th day of the month,
Abib happening on a Thursday.
One of them is April 6th, 30 AD.
And that's actually what I believe
is when Jesus Christ died is April 6th, 30 AD
in the third hour.
So sometime between three and 4 p.m.
And it fits like a glove.
Now you have the star of Bethlehem from astronomy
being pointed out as being about five or six BC
is when that would have appeared.
So that means again, Jesus Christ would have been about 35,
turning 36 when he died in April 6th, 30 AD.
Okay, that's my belief.
And again, I have a lot of charts to kind of illustrate
some of that if you wanna understand this.
But what's really interesting about how this works
is we had mentioned in Deuteronomy 16
that they weren't supposed to start counting
the feast of weeks until they put the sickle to the corn,
if you kind of remember that.
Well, it mentions here in verse number 10,
it says, "Speaking of the children of Israel
"and saying to them,
"when you be coming to the land which I give you
"and shall reap the harvest thereof,
"then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits
"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 wave it."
So he's saying, as soon as you go through this feast
and then you pass the Sabbath,
then you do this first fruit offering.
Well, of course, if he died on Thursday, you have to wait.
Friday, you can't do it because it's a Sabbath day.
It's a special holy convocation day.
Then Saturday, you can't do it
because it's the actual Sabbath.
So then when do you have to do this?
On Sunday.
So this is when you would have cut that first fruit,
the first fruit of your harvest,
and you would have picked it up
and the priest has to do a wave offering
of the fact that this has been cut.
And this is what pictures
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now he is the first fruits among the brethren.
The Bible says that he's the first born
in the book of Colossians.
I believe Colossians chapter one says he's the first born.
He gets the preeminence.
So again, this feast is all about salvation
and about Jesus Christ and about the resurrection.
Now, when he rises, that kicks off the timer for what?
The feast of weeks.
So then you have seven times seven,
you have to get to the day of Pentecost.
Now, what's happening carnally speaking?
Well, carnally speaking,
they're having their harvest season,
but they're gonna have a big harvest
in the day of Pentecost.
Well, what happens in the book of Acts
and chapter number two,
is all these people are coming to Jerusalem.
Why?
Because all the males had to come
to three different events, right?
They were there for the Passover.
Then they have to come back again for what?
The feast of weeks, 50 days later.
So you have all these Jews traveling
all over the world to come.
And then God pours out the Holy Spirit on the disciples.
They're able to speak with other tongues
and they preach the gospel
and they get 3000 people saved in that one day.
And it kind of signifies like God knew,
hey, there's gonna be this special event
that's gonna happen.
And so it's picturing a harvest
that is going to happen in that 50 day cycle.
Now then there's one other feast,
which is what?
The feast of Tabernacles.
Now this is a fall feast that's happening later
in the seventh month on the 15th day.
Well, what is this particular feast picturing?
Well, let's read a little bit more.
Look at verse 34.
It says, "Speak unto the children of Israel,
saying the 15th day of the seventh month
shall be the feast of Tabernacles
for seven days unto the Lord.
On the first day shall be in holy convocation
you shall do no servile work therein.
Seven days you shall offer an offering
made by fire unto the Lord.
On the eighth day shall be in holy convocation unto you
and you shall offer an offering
made by fire unto the Lord.
It is a solemn assembly
and you shall do no servile work therein.
These are the feasts of the Lord's
which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations
to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord,
a burnt offering and a meat offering,
a sacrifice and drink offerings,
everything upon his day.
Beside the Sabbaths of the Lord
and beside your gifts and beside all your vows
and beside all your free will offerings
which ye give unto the Lord.
And in the 15th day of the seventh month,
when you have gathered in the fruit of the land,
you shall keep a feast in 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, branches of palm trees,
and the bows of thick trees and the willows of the brook,
and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.
So I want you to go to another place,
go to Revelation chapter seven,
and we're gonna finish pretty soon.
But think about all these feasts
are pictures of salvation, okay?
So we have just the Sabbath itself,
picturing how God sees from his works
and how we enter into his rest,
picturing how salvation is not by works, it's by rest.
Then you have the Passover,
which pictures Jesus Christ,
death, burial and resurrection on the cross.
Of course, you have that first fruit offering,
which kind of rolls into his resurrection
and then pictures this great 50 days from now,
the day of Pentecost,
when you have this great harvest
where a bunch of people are saved.
But then you have one more harvest,
and this is the bigger harvest.
Even cartily speaking,
the fall is basically known as the biggest harvest.
And of course, there's one more big harvest
that's going to happen.
It's the rapture where we're gonna be literally saved, okay?
And every saved person is gonna be there, all the males.
Everyone's gonna be at this particular event.
Now the feast of tabernacles,
what they had to do is they had to take palm branches
and they had to wave them and signify, you know,
some kind of rejoicing before the Lord.
Now what's interesting is in Revelation chapter number seven,
you have the rapture.
Now again, I know pre-tribbers don't really like this,
but this is just how it is.
Look what it says in verse number nine,
"And this I beheld in low great multitude,
which no man can number of all nations,
and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues,
stood before the throne, and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes," and notice this,
"and palms in their hands."
So what did the last feast signify?
It's signifying when Jesus Christ comes
and there's that great last harvest
of all the saved and all the souls,
and then we're gonna stand before God in heaven
with palms in our hands.
That's what the Feast of Tabernacles was representing.
It's what it was picturing.
So again, they're all related to salvation events
that are going to happen in, of course,
now this one's in the future.
They were in the future at the time,
but of course now some of them have already been achieved
in the sense that the Passover's already happened.
Now we celebrate Easter.
Of course, we have the Feast of Weeks,
which is Pentecost, that already happened.
But now we have this great harvest
at the end of the world,
where the Christians are gonna go out
and we're gonna get tons of people saved,
and then we're gonna have that great tribulation,
and then Christ is gonna rapture everyone that's left,
and those that had already died are gonna come with Jesus,
and we're gonna have this great multitude of people,
tons of nations, tons of groups,
and we're all gonna have palms in our hands,
and we're going to worship the Lord Jesus Christ
and God the Father in heaven at this particular event.
And this is what the Feast of Tabernacles represents.
Now Tabernacles, think about this.
Why Tabernacles though?
You know, this is why I think this is,
this is my personal speculation into this,
but a Tabernacle is a temporary dwelling place.
So in one sense,
I think you could look at it in two different ways.
Number one is that those of us that get saved
and raptured and go to heaven,
we recognize that this is not our home,
we're just a passing through.
And that our real home is in heaven
in the new Jerusalem with the Lord Jesus Christ.
A second application could be just that
maybe in the end times, that particular event,
we might be kind of on the run
and we might be dwelling in some quote Tabernacles,
you know, for that particular event
because it's kind of a rough style event, okay?
I don't know, I think both could possibly apply,
but you know, it's interesting,
that is what that's foreshadowing,
that's what that's picturing,
and they're all talking about salvation itself.
What could be an application or things
that we could take from these particular sermons
or from these particular feasts
or from these particular events?
Well, number one, you know,
I think that it's important to recognize that,
hey, we need to make God a priority
and have some actual sacrifice
where we're going and, you know,
participating in big events.
You know, we don't have these necessarily
these feasts that they did,
but there's still conferences and events
and big mission trip opportunities
where we can get people saved.
What was the whole point of the Feast of Weeks?
It was for that big missionary trip, in a sense,
where all these Jews are gonna come together
and they're gonna get tons of people saved
in that one particular event.
This tells me that sometimes, you know,
getting people saved can be a strategic timing
and a strategic event.
You know what made me think of it
is when we go to the Bahamas
and sometimes we're waiting until 3 p.m.
for school to let out
and there's gonna be this flood of kids,
it's like a feast of weeks.
And you just get this great opportunity,
this great harvest.
Or making me think of, hey, our trip to the Philippines
that a bunch of people are on right now,
this is gonna be a great harvest
that you don't necessarily have that all the time.
You know, why has God, I mean, think about this,
God has just had these super awesome Christians,
super great disciples, and he's making them
just basically twiddle their thumbs
for almost 50 days in Jerusalem, but why?
Because everybody's gonna come to them
on that day at Pentecost, and so no need to rush out.
Let's just be strategic here.
Let's identify this great feast,
this great grouping of a whole bunch of people,
and then get them safe.
And you know what, to me, that means
that we should be strategic in our soul winning efforts,
and where we can identify large gatherings,
large groups of people.
You know, last year, there were some people in our church
that had said, "Hey, there's gonna be this gathering
of Marshallese people for like a softball game or whatever."
And it's like, "Hey, let's go target that
and try to get a bunch of people safe."
And it worked.
Just like these Jews are gathering for the Feast of Weeks,
hey, let's go get 'em.
And so sometimes we should be really strategic
and thinking about these big events.
You know, hey, there's gonna be a Barbados trip
in September.
That can be a great opportunity to go
and just put a lot of effort and energy
in getting a bunch of people safe
and having a big harvest at one time.
So I think one of the lessons we could learn from here
is that not only should we have just regular soul winning
and daily soul winning,
but we should also participate in the big events
and try to put a lot of effort, energy
when there's great groups, great gatherings,
great, you know, a culmination of people
where God could open a huge door
and we get just like tons of people saved in one event,
that we should do that.
We should work hard towards that
and we should try to implement those kinds of strategies.
That's what God did.
God did that then.
I think God is still doing that today.
And so we should be sensitive to the Lord's will,
looking for these opportunities
where we can have great groups, great gatherings,
big missions trips, big conferences, big pushes.
And you know what, let's get invested in those.
You know, some people get,
I don't think anybody's critical of it,
but it's like maybe someone could get critical
of conferences or events or missionary trips or whatever.
But you know what, nuts to you.
You know what, the children of Israel had three feasts
they had to go to every single year
and get really hyped up about
and put a lot of effort and energy into.
And you know, I think that the application for us is that,
hey, we should try to invest in some big events
every once in a while, as an individual,
as a person who say, hey, you know what,
I might not be able to do everything.
I might not be able to go to every event
in the New Testament,
but I should at least pick a few things to do every year.
You know, maybe this conference or this missions trip
or this cycle, I wanna do something.
And again, I think our church is like a super,
like superhero church almost.
I mean, this is like, we have just so many events
and so many different, you know, people going out,
different missions trip.
I don't think almost anybody can do
like all of them necessarily.
But you know what, why don't you pick at least a few
to just get really plugged in, really excited about,
really invest in.
I think that would be the application
that we should take for ourselves
and really show the Lord,
hey, I'm serious about the things of God
and I wanna see a big harvest.
You know, maybe God will give us a big harvest
at our conferences and our missions trips
and we need to put the effort and energy into it.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this chapter.
Thank you so much for all these great pictures of salvation.
Thank you for what your son did for us
so that we could have free salvation.
I pray that we would, you know,
take some earnest zeal and care
towards the things of God in the New Testament,
that we would look for the big events
and the big opportunities to get a lot of people saved.
I pray that you would bless our missions trip
as it's going on in the Philippines right now.
I pray that you'd give them a great harvest,
that you would open them just a huge door,
get lots and lots of people saved.
And I pray that the rest of the events this year,
that people in this room will get excited,
that they would put a lot of effort and energy
into these big events and getting lots of people saved.
And I pray that you would just help us
to see great harvest for your honor, for your glory.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- In closing, let's go to song number 200.
Song number two, zero, zero.
He's a wonderful savior to me.
Song number 200.
Follow me on the chorus.
Timing changes just a little bit.
Song number 200.
Let's all sing that out together.
♪ He's the one to me ♪
♪ He's my savior ♪
♪ He's the one ♪
Singing everybody, you're all dismissed.