United Church of God
Sermon Transcript — September 27, 2007
Exodus 5:1-3
Vs. 1 — "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'"
So God called Israel into His presence. It was a commanded assembly. It wasn't out of the goodness of their hearts that they decided that they would assemble, even though in doing so God was going to set them free.
Vs. 2 — "Pharaoh said (well), 'Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go?'" He said, "I don't know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go."
Vs. 3 — "They said, 'The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God (we just heard, in part, about the sacrifice that we are here to make), lest He fall on us with pestilence or with the sword."
God commanded us to assemble before Him. We're in His presence; effectively, we have come before God's throne and we don't come here lightly just because it's a great and wonderful blessing and something to do.
Leviticus 23 gives reference to the Feast I think in a very strong and dramatic way.
Leviticus 23:1-2
Vs. 1 — "The Lord spoke to Moses, and said,"
Vs. 2 — "'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations' — holy means God is in the midst, we can't make anything holy, only God does, convocation is an assembly that has been convoked or called, so this is a called assembly, we were called to assemble here today and we did and God says — 'they're My feasts.'" They're mine and you're going to come to Me.
I think that's incredible when we think about that. The word holiday comes from the words holy days. It's a change of the text of the word — and what is a holiday? Well, when I go to Nigeria they have the British, the Queen's English, and so holiday means vacation. In Europe, if you go on holiday, you go on vacation. You see, that's what the holidays are. They're vacation times where you get off from your work and, if you can, you go out and have a party or celebrate — Fourth of July, even Thanksgiving — it is a party, it is a social, it might be family time, but it is a vacation.
The holy days are not vacations. Now, we might enjoy the rest and the relaxation when we're with friends and family. I pastored in Lubbock and Roswell and the Texans that are here from those congregations who have remained faithful to God, many have assembled here and we're going to have a great time refreshing our memories, but this is not a vacation.
We're not here because God says go ahead, take a break. We're here because He said I want you to come and assemble before me and to offer sacrifice and to have a Feast and to call on My name. It's important that we recognize the seriousness of what we've been called to do.
When we come into God's presence we need to keep in mind just how powerful and majestic God is. We need to not just casually walk up before His throne and go — Hey! Hey, what's up? Whatcha' doin' today God? Whatcha' got on the schedule? We don't just wander up before God's throne casually and say — Hey, whatcha' doin' today?
Leviticus, chapter 8 — Do you know what it took to go before God in the Old Testament? Do you know what it took to consecrate the priesthood and then consecrate the Levites so that they could serve and honor sacrifices before God? It's a pretty incredible story.
Leviticus 8:1-9
There's just too much here for me to read so the best I'll do is make a few references to it, but this is where Aaron and his sons are being presented by Moses — made and sanctified, consecrated — to go before God and offer sacrifices. (The sacrifices are being offered, in the beginning, in Leviticus 9.) So the entire chapter says what it took to get right and to be presented before God. You put on your best suit, you combed your hair, you shaved off all the excess hair on your body and you washed up and then you went before God. Now, there's a symbolism there that we should understand.
Vs. 1 — "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:"
Vs. 2 — "'Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as the sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;'"
Vs. 3 — "'and gather all the congregation together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.'"
Vs. 4 — "So Moses did as the Lord commanded him." I hope so, I hope we do, as well. I hope we do what God says, not what we think would be wonderful and right, what He says. Sometimes those two concepts get mixed up. "And the assembly gathered together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting."
Vs. 5 — "And Moses said to the congregation, 'This is what the Lord commanded to be done.'"
Vs. 6 — "Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons and he washed them with water." He washed them with water. Moses had responsibility to present them in a right and proper way.
Vs. 7 — "And he put the tunic on him, girded him with a sash, clothed him with the robe, and put an ephod on him; and he girded him with the intricately woven band of the ephod, and with it tied the ephod on him."
Vs. 8 — "Then he put on a breastplate, the Urim and the Thummim."
Vs. 9 — "And...the turban...and on the turban was a golden plate..." and it goes on and on and on.
You read this whole chapter — then they had to offer a sacrifice and they had to kill the bull, then they had to offer it in a specific way; and you sprinkled here and you did this and you did it because that's what God said.
This is an incredible context to show that we need to be careful about the way we appear before God. God has called us to appear before Him at the Feast.
Numbers, chapter 8, is a little more condensed and I think it's easier for me to, maybe, illustrate in verse number 5.
Numbers 8:5-11
It is now the dedication of the Levites and, again, this was more condensed. I think it's easier for me to read.
Vs. 5 — It says, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:"
Vs. 6 — "'Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them ceremonially.'"
Vs. 7 — "'Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purification on them, and let them shave all their body, and let them wash their clothes, and therefore make themselves clean.'"
They actually had to go through a ceremony that would, in their mind, imprint on them that they were to be clean before God, when they go into His presence.
Vs. 8 — "'Then let them take a young bull with the grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil...take another bull as a sin offering.'"
Vs. 9 — "'And... bring the Levites before the tabernacle of meeting, and you will gather together the whole assembly of the children of Israel.'"
Vs. 10 — "So you shall bring the Levites before the Lord, and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites;'"
So now, the children of Israel are going to present the Levites as a sacrifice to God, to represent them in those sacrifices.
Vs. 11 — "'Aaron will offer the Levites before the Lord, as though a wave offering from the children of Israel, that they may perform the work of the Lord.'"
You just didn't go up and perform a sacrifice any old way you pleased. You didn't assemble at the Feasts any old place you chose. You didn't organize and prepare and worship before God the way you thought might be good, if that's not what God called for. "As the Lord commanded" is how we worship.
There are some who, even in their zeal at times, have violated the way God's commands were to be fulfilled.
Uzzah died. Remember the name Uzzah? They were moving the Ark — the Ark's got these long poles on it, the Ark stays hidden behind the veil in the Tabernacle, later the Temple, when they would take it out for transport, they would cover it with the tapestry, that hung down and sheltered during the normal times, and they were never supposed to touch the Ark — and the Ark is traveling on a cart with oxen and the oxen stumble and Uzzah doesn't want that Ark to get damaged and he reaches out with his hand to stabilize it and God killed him.
You know, we were talking the other night in my office and my son, Derek, was there and Derek says, well, why's that? He's just trying to do what he thinks is right. Well, that's the problem. God's a big God. He's majestic. He's powerful. He created us. He's able to call us and protect us. He is able to direct and guide our lives. He doesn't need our hand on the Ark; if He says it's Mine, I'll take care of it, thank you. Uzzah died — a physical death — I don't expect it to be anything beyond that, but still, there was a penalty there in place.
Again, the Temple. You just didn't walk in, offer up a sacrifice and worship God the way you pleased. Look at Leviticus 10. We have a great time at the Feast. We have some wonderful friendships that have a chance to be — where we're reunited — but this is serious business. This isn't just a big party. This is an Assembly God has called and we came in response to that calling.
Leviticus 10:1-3
Vs. 1 — "Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took his censer and put fire in it."
To do what? To give an offering, a sacrifice, and to appear before God, to assemble in His presence, the way they wanted to do it themselves. They put incense in it, "they offered profane fire before the Lord" not according to God's command, "which He had not commanded them."
Vs. 2 — "So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord."
Vs. 3 — "Moses said to Aaron, 'This is what the Lord spoke, saying: "By those who come near Me" — we're coming near to God right here today — "I must be regarded as holy: and before all the people I must be glorified."'"
We just don't do it any old way we please.
Deuteronomy 12
God says He actually places His name — He places His name — which means that that is where His presence is going to be. Sure, God's presence fills the universe, but He also wants us to conceptualize the fact that we're coming before Him. He places Himself on His throne. He portrays that to us. We're before His throne today. We're coming into...He is in our midst.
Deuteronomy 12:2-5, 17-18
Vs. 2 — "You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree."
You didn't take the idols and put them in your museum so you could check on them every so often and see what it used to be like hundreds of years ago.
Vs. 3 — "You shall destroy their altars, break their pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place."
Vs. 4 — "You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things."
Boy, that's pretty straight.
Vs. 5 — "You shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His habitation; and there you shall go."
You see, we're in a place where God is present as a Habitation, that's what He portrays and it becomes a Sanctuary. Sanctuary is a term that I will address, as well, but it's part of what we are and what God is doing.
If we go over to verse 17, it says:
Vs. 17 — "You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, or the firstlings of your herd or flock, or any of your offerings which you shall vow, your freewill offerings, your heave offering of your hand."
You can't eat it anywhere you please. We can't stay home unless we're infirmed or in some way simply haven't been able to fulfill — because of circumstances in our lives—but not lethargy — if we're not able to assemble before God.
We have a phone hook-up today going out to Guy Muhler, a deep and dear friend of ours who is in the hospice at the V.A. hospital. We took him personally there the week before we came and some of our members here were able to hook him up with a direct phone line coming in. He can't come to the Feast. He's a faithful servant of God, but to those who can come it says:
Vs. 18 — "You must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son, your daughter, man servant, maid servant, the Levites; you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands."
So, yes, we get to rejoice, have some great times, wonderful fellowship, but we must also realize that we are here to drink of that spiritual meat, that living bread. We're here to take in God's instruction and apply it to our lives.
You know, I just have never understood, sometimes, the habits of a few of God's people when they go to the Feast, some of the activities that are portrayed. You go to the Feast, people come back and talk about what a great paintball activity they went to, or they have to run right out, they're going to go play paintball. You know, I just quite never have been able to understand that. I do understand war. I've been to war. I don't understand why paintball would be part of worshipping before God and assembling before His throne.
We have a facility in Spokane that's called Virtual Assault — that's the paintball arena — Virtual Assault. Let's go play war.
Now, this is one item — it's just an illustration — but, we could apply it to anything because there's things in our lives that are not indicative of what God is going to do in the Millennium. It's what we watch on the t.v. It's what we listen to on the radio. It's what we speak about. What we think about, dream about, and plan for — should be indicative of what God is going to do — we're before His throne. We're here to worship before Him.
Deuteronomy 16 says that this is a sacred Festival. Sacred. We're doing something that is sacred.
Deuteronomy 16:13-15
Vs. 13 — "You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress."
Vs. 14 — "...Rejoice in your Feast, you and your son and your daughter...maid servant"...everybody in your household... "the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow..."
If there's somebody at the Feast and you know it, if they're alone — I met one man already, this is his first Feast ever — if there are children here that are fatherless, if there are widows here that don't have the means, seek them out, look around and find who they are and help them and assist them and include them.
You know, my wife was here last Feast without me. My children were fatherless. Not really, but every other Feast they make their way at this point, next year they don't — Fred Kellers was here last year speaking to some of you; I was in Nigeria. Next year I'll be in Nigeria and he'll be somewhere again, but we'll trade back and forth; but those that have need, look for them. We need to. It's what God has called us to do.
Vs. 15 — "Seven days you will keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will surely rejoice."
Because you intend to go to the Feast, you plan and prepare to go to the Feast, God actually will bless us to give us the means to do so. You set your hand to do it and God will cause you to have increase or He will miraculously put His hand with your hand. God hasn't called us to destruction. He doesn't call us to assemble and then not give us the means to do so.
Maybe it takes a little faith. Maybe it takes a lot of faith. Faith is a gift of God. He can certainly give us the faith, if we're willing to obey Him and put Him first but, again, this is sacred: the time is sacred, the activities, our focus is sacred.
Isaiah 2, going back to this concept of playing war as we worship before God at the Feast, Isaiah 2 and verse number 2.
Isaiah 2:2-4
Vs. 2 — "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it."
Vs. 3 — "Many people shall come and say, 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
Vs. 4 — "He will judge between the nations, rebuke many people; they will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
The Millennium portrays a time when we will not learn to sin. We will not learn to waste away and fritter away our time and our thoughts. We'll learn to be productive and fruitful and to share and to have relationships that are positive and strong, but we will not learn war anymore.
How many people — don't raise your hand, but think about it — how many people in this room have taken a rifle and drawn a bead on a human being to kill them? Well, I would hope...I would hope that number is very, very few, but the fact is this is Satan's world and there are times when the men of this society go to war. I've done that. I'm not proud to say I've done that. I'm just saying I've done that. I was in the service.
There was a time, one time, we were in Vietnam, we were in the rear because we'd been in for a couple of days and we were going to the ammo dump to get supplies, munitions, to go back out to the field and we jumped in a jeep and we headed to the ammo dump and we go around the corner and across the street there's a line of kids, teenagers, and they're armed, they're armed with the same machine guns we've got, automatic rifles. Now, I don't know where they got them or what they were doing, but it was a high stakes game of chicken and they didn't move as our jeep came forward to their line and I just took my rifle and I dropped it right down and I put the bead on the one right in the middle and I pulled the safety off. If that young boy would have flinched, he'd be dead.
Now, this is the world's way. You know, that's why I'm sensitive to some of these activities because I did that and I went there and God called me out of it. He said leave that behind. Don't do that anymore. Come and assemble before Me. Imagine. Imagine having to walk away from some of those things. Imagine having to even go there. Imagine that you went there voluntarily; in fact, even asked to go there. Afraid you might miss out if you didn't.
God has called us out of bowing down to the god of this world, out of assembling before him, and He's called us to assemble before the true God, the God of the universe at the Holy Days, at the Feasts, as we do today.
The Church in the Greek is ekklesia and it means "called out ones." I've heard some argument. Well, it doesn't mean exactly that. It does essentially mean that. Called out. Called out of what? Called out of the world. Called into what? Called into God's presence and so we become an assembly. A Called Assembly just as we're having here today.
Hebrews 12:23 says we're "the general assembly and the church of the firstborn." We are called to come into God's presence and we need to do that respectfully and carefully, rejoicing, but bringing our sacrifice. Ultimately, the sacrifice we offer is ourselves.
I remember what God called me out of. My children, hopefully, won't ever have to be called out of this world. Michelle and I have tried to raise them where we could present God to them as they went. That's the way it should be.
That's what Timothy had. Timothy was probably a second, maybe third, generation. His grandmother was a servant of God in that way.
I remember the very first Church service that I attended in the Church of God. I remember sitting down. I snuck into services because I thought you had to counsel — and you did — and the first time I asked to go and I was told that I would have to counsel I said you can just take this Church and it's yours and I just walked away in my mind. I said, well, I don't need that and there's certainly — again, I'm coming back from war and coming back from where I had been, out of the sex culture, out of the drug culture, this world's ways — and I said, well, phooey, there's no way in the world I could ever pass that test.
So I went to visit one time, where the Church was attending, and I saw people going into this big hall and I waited until there was a great big group walking in and I just kind of walked up behind them and went past the guards on the door. There was a guard on both sides of the door and I just went and sat in the very back row. It felt like a teen Bible study. You know, there's nobody on the front row. Well, I went all the way to sit in the very back row and I sat there and I can remember the sermonette to this day, but what came to my mind is this is where I want to be. These are God's people and God has allowed me to come into their midst and I am going to be here from now on. This is where I'll be. In my mind, I told myself that I would never, not be with God's people again.
God called us to assemble and here we are. He called us into the Church. The Church is my spiritual home. A corporation is not my spiritual home. The Church is my spiritual home. It's the House of God. It is the Church of God. It's where I go to lay down and rest. It's where I am nourished and sustained. The Church is my sanctuary. It's all of our sanctuary. We should be sanctuary for each other.
We moved to Spokane, now, ten years ago, which means I'm only half way to transfer, but I went to Spokane and on the way I went to see an old friend. I hadn't seen him for over 20 years. We were close friends. We were in school together. We were in high school. In woodshop we shared the same bench. We sat on opposite sides of the bench. We went into the military together. We were both in Vietnam at the same time. When we came out of the service, I bought a '67 Camaro and we jumped in it and we headed out for Canada and when he got out we traveled across Canada, camping at night and just kind of renewing the friendship. We went to college together. We shared the same apartment when we went to college. I went to work in New Mexico and he came down to New Mexico and went to work. We shared the same trailer. Lived on a ranch. We were very, very close. I was the best man at his wedding and when I started attending the Church of God our friendship ended. I did not end the friendship. He said, I don't know where you're going, but it's got nothing to do with me.
Christ has called us out of the values that would have kept my friendship intact and, so, I assemble with you, as we have assembled here today.
I went to see him ten years ago on my way to Spokane, by myself, looked up where his home was, found the name, it was just a chance, maybe I'll find this guy. Looked it up, found the address, went to the house, knocked on the door, his wife came to the door and recognized me, shocked, over 20 years, no communication, and invited me in. He was asleep on the couch. He looked up and she says, honey, look who is here. He looked at me and he said, boy, sure is strange seeing you. Kind of sat up on the couch and he just sat there. I stood in the doorway. She showed me the children. Told me what the names were. I asked a few questions. He never even got up off the couch. Didn't shake my hand. He didn't even say it's good to see you. He said it's strange to see you. I stood there 20 minutes. I got embarrassed, finally, and I said, well, I didn't mean to tie you up or, you know, interrupt, I was just passing through, just hoped to say hi. You know, it's nice to see you, good to see your children. He didn't even say goodbye. He was the best friend I had in my life, as a child and a young man. I mean, we backed each other when there were troubles and we traveled together and lived together and planned to go through life with at least some association. He never even bothered to say goodbye.
I know where my refuge is. It's not back in the world. It is here among God's people. It's doing God's work. Without a question. It's a refuge.
Sanctuary is an interesting term, again. Sanctuary means protection. If somebody comes into a country and they are illegal and they go seek sanctuary so that they won't be arrested, where do they generally go? A church. They go stay in a church and the reason it's given a certain amount of credibility that they are there and they don't get arrested right away, generally, is because that is supposed to be the house of God and you don't just walk into the House of God and have a great big fight. And so, if it's what they think is the House of God, they are kind of careful about how they handle that, what they do. So, the Church is called a Sanctuary because it's supposed to be God's House. The room where you sit in the Church is the Sanctuary because that's the center; it's supposed to be where God's presence is and God says I want you to go and build Me a Sanctuary because that's where I will dwell. God's dwelling here. This is a Sanctuary too.
Exodus 25:5-8
It's talking about the offerings for the sanctuary. It's talking about what God wanted Israel...God gave all that to Israel and He gave them the gold and the silver and He gave them all the skins and the yarn and the fine linen and verse 5, excuse me, well, either 5 or 6.
Vs. 5 — "Ram skins dyed red, badger skins, acacia wood;"
Vs. 6 — "Oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and the sweet incense;"
Vs. 7 — "Onyx stones..."
It goes through and describes riches and blessings that He had given them and in verse 8 it says:
Vs. 8 — "And let them make Me a sanctuary" — a sanctuary — "that I may dwell among them."
So, God says that He calls us to assemble and that He will make it a sanctuary. He'll protect us and guide us. So we are to come before God in a very careful manner. We should come before God in humility.
Proverbs says "do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king." We are in the presence of God. Jesus Christ is a great and mighty King. King of kings and we are in His presence. We're in the presence of the Father, before their throne.
In our hymnal, which is about to expire, this song that was in the last hymnal that expired — but the song, I don't know, I haven't seen the new hymnal — I just hope it's there. God is our Refuge. I just assume it's there. It comes from Psalm 46 in the old purple hymnal. You remember that? They had three songs in the purple hymnal on Psalm 46. It's pretty high focus.
Psalm 46:1-5
Vs. 1 — "God is our refuge and our strength, in straits a present aid."
Vs. 2 — "Therefore although the earth remove, we will not be afraid. Though hills amidst the seas be cast;"
Vs. 3 — "though waters roaring make, and troubled be; yea, though the hills by swelling seas do shake."
I sometimes like to read the hymns as much as I like to read the Scripture because it's put into more of a modern verse and flow. You can read these hymns, in some cases, and use them in your prayers. The same as you would the Scripture itself.
Vs. 4 — "A river is, whose streams make glad the city of our God; the holy place, wherein the Lord Most High hath His abode."
Vs. 5 — "God in the midst of her doth dwell, and nothing shall her move; the Lord to her an helper will, and that right early, prove." That He is our refuge. He is our protection. He is our strength.
It's important to remember that God is where we have come to assemble. When He called Israel He said you come out and assemble before Me. Come into My midst.
Nehemiah 8 is a story of some incredibly great rejoicing and how the people responded to being taught by God. Now, where is that book? It's always fascinating to me, in the Minor Prophets — you know if I go to a Minor Prophet, I have to go, let's see, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah — and I'm trying to do that quietly while I'm — when I get to Ezra and Nehemiah I always have to run it through — Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, then I have to back up from Psalms. Yeah. There's some really bright ministers out there. Yeah. And there's some who just make do.
Nehemiah 8:1-6
And the seventh month came — it starts out on the Feast of Trumpets in the context here — the children of Israel were in their cities.
Vs. 1 — "All the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel."
Vs. 2 — "Ezra the priest brought the Law before the congregation of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month."
Wasn't Trumpets great this year? I mean, we began to look forward to the Feast, new moon to full moon. We begin to count the days. Some of us read the Scriptures, "The Song of Ascents," to prepare day by day as that process played out.
Vs. 3 — It says, "He read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law."
They were called to assemble before God and that's what they did.
Vs. 4 — It says, "Ezra stood on a platform," high above where the people could hear and see. They didn't have all the benefits of sound systems that we have here today, but verse 5.
Vs. 5 — "Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people, and when he opened it, the people all stood up."
They just stood up and they were so impressed that he was going to teach them God's Word and in a show of respect they took it as if now they were in the presence of God. Not because of Ezra, but because they were assembled before God's Word about to be read.
Vs. 6 — "Ezra blessed the people, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground."
They took it really serious.
Now, Israel didn't always take things very seriously. Sometimes Israel wasted an awful lot of their energy and time and they turned and followed other gods. Sometimes the people in the Church of God have wasted a lot of their time and followed other gods. It is so easy to just say it's going to be alright. It's so easy to say, well, you know, everybody's going to basically make it. Most — just, just, a few little hard hearts are not going to be there. I don't believe it. I don't believe it for a minute.
If you were to take the Parable of the Ten Virgin, you got ten virgins, right? All virgins. All had oil, but some ran short. What was the loss ratio of the ten virgins? Half. Lost to what? Lost to salvation. That's a type, possibly, of the end-time Church.
Now, God's perfect and He never makes a mistake and He lost what? A third of the angels. Well, you could say, well, that's not God's fault. You're right. It's not His fault. He never made a mistake. In a perfect spiritual environment with a perfect God a third of the angels turned around and said I'm sorry this is just not for me.
Go to history. Look at the flow of history. I'm not trying to be discouraging. We're here rejoicing before God at the Feast. I'm just trying to say this is important. This is serious business. It's not a game that we're playing. We were called to assemble before God's throne.
Go to the New Testament Church. Did the majority of the people remain faithful or just a few? Or just a few? Well, we know the answer to that and you go to Revelation and read about this little remnant Church area there, the seven Churches where the messages were sent and the fact is the majority of the body of the Church turned around and dissipated and melted into the religion of the day.
Now, I can't say that every one of them was converted or each one of them was lost. I don't know that. I just know this. You take a big body of people that appear to be worshipping God — anybody here in Big Sandy back in the '60's or '70's? — and you walk out through the campfires and the pits and the tents? How many rows of tents could you walk through and not get invited, until you were invited to sit down for a meal? I don't think you could make three.
I have many times stopped when the Feast was there and been invited on the first or second row to stop and "join us," feast with us, eat with us. Here! Let's all fellowship together. So, to me, I've got to say, well, I'm not God. I can't look at anybody's heart, but that was real. The rejoicing was real.
Now, we had all these people worshipping God and where are they today? How serious were they? I don't know, but it didn't seem to hold out. It didn't hold up under pressure.
You can take the Millennium. You can say, okay, now we have a perfect environment on the earth as compared to in heaven.
"The Word of the knowledge of the Lord will be as the waters cover the sea." And so, all around the world we have this knowledge of God that is poured out. Jesus Christ ruling on the earth, perfectly ruling on the earth, and then you let Satan loose for a moment and what do you have? You have a rebellion in the numbers as the sand of the sea. Did five or ten rebel? Six or eight or twelve people rebel? Not at all.
So, you look at reality on the ground. How come this hall isn't holding 10,000 people? Tucson used to hold 10,000 people, did it not? I mean, when we walked in, that's where I first attended the Feast the first time, and I walked in from the top and I looked down at the sea of people and I just knew everybody down there was righteous and that when they looked up at me they saw this smoke coming up over the—I just felt like, you know, they'd all stopped and looked, well, there's a new one.
I was only there for the weekend because I had not prepared. I hadn't saved my second tithe. I was just beginning to attend Church. I came for the weekend and I knew God wanted me there because on the way home I was speeding to get back and a policeman stopped me and he only gave me warning. I said that clinches it! That's God's hand. But, boy, those were wonderful times.
I tell you what. This is a wonderful time. We're here. We assembled before God. Let's use it well. Let's not let any of it go to waste. Let's not fritter away the time. Let's rejoice before God and offer sacrifices as He describes.
Verse 8 — going back to the book of Nehemiah, if you've forgotten where I went on that long digression.
Nehemiah 8:8-18
Vs. 8 — "So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and he gave the sense, and he helped them to understand the reading."
Vs. 9 — "And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and all the Levites who taught the people and said to the people, 'This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep,' because the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law."
Vs. 10 — "And he said to them, 'Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; this day is holy to the Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'"
Vs. 11 — "So the Levites quieted the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.'"
Vs. 12 — "All the people went their way to eat and drink, and send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them."
They didn't rejoice greatly because they had money in their pocket. They didn't rejoice greatly because they were going to go play paintball. They rejoiced greatly because they understood God's Word. Now, that is the core; that is the heart and core of why we are here.
Do you notice the Aspens are up on the hills and not down in the valleys so much and where it's hot and dry there are no Aspens at all? I guess the best I can understand is those Aspens are up there where the water comes early and stays late. They drink water and they're prolific.
We have a Church member here right in the hall that I went over to their property and we dug out Aspens, moved them to our house, planted them in our yard and I planted three or four Aspens — you know, we put them in there and we watered them and then all of a sudden I've got ten Aspens, then I've got 15 Aspens, then all of a sudden my yard has Aspens and then the neighbor's yard has Aspens. You take an Aspen and you give it water and it produces fruit. Now I'm having to cut down my Aspens because the neighbor didn't want them and I didn't know that they would just fill the whole place. You can plant one Aspen and get out of the way and you'll have a grove and they're all just one related to the other.
Well, that's — imagine living one among God's people, planted in His midst, and we take it and bear fruit like that and we begin to be abundant and "blessed and happy is the man" — it is the song every child in the Church of God could sing. It used to be number one, remember, in the book, and we would sing that, sometimes, in the car as we were traveling to the Feast or going on a trip with our family and the kids knew it because it was so easy to sing, but it says you'll be "like a tree that grows, planted by the river's side," right by the water. Can you drink in the water and blossom and grow, bloom and be very fruitful?
So, what we have here is God pouring out Living Water on us, the Bread of Life on us, and we can rejoice just as these people in Nehemiah did because we can understand the words that are being declared to us.
Verse 13 goes down to the Feast of Tabernacles.
Vs. 13 — "Now on the second day the heads of the fathers' houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law."
That was the main point. That's why we're here.
Vs. 14 — "And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast in the seventh month,"
Vs. 15 — "And that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, 'Go out to the mountain, bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palms, branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written'" -- because it is to pitch your temporary dwellings — for a temporary dwelling. They made it out of a little nicer sticks than what the Israelites used, but it's a temporary dwelling.
Vs. 16 — "The people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim."
I mean, they just covered the place because they were there to stay.
Vs. 17 — "And the whole congregation of those who returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness."
Vs. 18 — "Also day by day, from the first day until the last, he read from the Book of the Law of God," which means they had to assemble every single day. We keep the Feast different in the fall than in the spring. They assembled here and he read from the book every day. "They kept the feast seven days; on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner."
Brethren, we have come to appear before God at this Feast because God called us into His presence. All of the Festival observance is sacred and we need to take great care in how we assemble and in how we appear before God.