And on This Mountain

[McNeely] Well, it's already been mentioned, and I'll go ahead and mention my part in it, that there's a buzz. We're getting ready for the feast. That's what's on our mind. You can tell it, as we walked into the room here today with so many of us talking and making plans, where are you going? What are your plans for the feast?

I wonder if you have ever thought and made any type of list as to your favorite scriptures that talk about the Holy Days or the Feast of Tabernacles, especially since that's right in front of us. Think about what might be one of your favorites. I'm going to read what is probably my favorite one, and I know by saying it's my favorite one, that somebody might say, well, this one's more important or whatever. I'll tell you why.

If you will, go ahead and turn over to Isaiah 25. This is one that, from my earliest years, hearing it read at the Feast of Tabernacles, just painted a vivid picture in my mind of what that time really means. And so much of what I experienced then and still continue to experience.

Isaiah chapter 25, we'll just read verses 6 through 8: “And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.” (Isaiah 25:6)

Debbie and I are going to Kelowna in British Columbia this year for the feast, and it's in the middle of the Okanagan wine country up there. And we look forward to experiencing that part of the feast, but nevertheless, that's there.

And then he goes on in verse 7: “And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people…” (Isaiah 25:7)

The NLT, I believe, says that the shroud put over all people. And really, I think that probably may invoke more of what the meaning is — that shroud of death, a way that leads to death, and the blindness and the suffering that is over all nations, and that veil that has spread over all the nations that God's going to destroy. He'll lift that by this time.

“He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 25:8)

That goes on. But to me, that's one of perhaps my, I'll say, all right, top three. That gives me a little bit of an out — top three verses for the Feast of Tabernacles. And you may have yours that are different, that call to mind and evoke the time, the memories, and the occasion that is truly a big event, a big moment.

Mr. Rangel was talking about that from the point of view of the marriage supper in his sermonette. And I've taught Revelation for several years, and I learned something today. I didn't focus on the fact that there's another feast in there, as he brought out to us. So Dr. Dunkle will have to bring that out in class this year when he goes through the book of Revelation with the students. But that is a big moment in God's purpose and in God's plan.

We're living in another big moment that is leading up to the events of that ending of the age, again, that the sermonette spoke to. I've been watching, as I know many of you have as well — judging from the emails in my inbox — many things that are taking place in the world, and particularly in America right now, that I summarize by saying something's happening.

There is a spiritual stirring in the world right now. In America, in the United Kingdom, other parts of the Western world. Sometimes it's described as a reaction against particular ideological views that have taken hold in recent years. I don't know if you noticed, but two weeks ago tens of thousands, probably more than 100,000 of the British, poured into the streets of London to protest various public policies of their government. And again, it was a reaction. It was a reaction. But it shows that there is a stirring there.

I've been reading a great deal of news from the United Kingdom in recent months. There's a spiritual awakening — you wouldn't think — but there is in that land. And the historian Tom Holland, some of you may know him, along with other elites of the British people, have embraced Christianity in recent times as an antidote or solution to the chaos of the modern world.

I was reading an article this week about a man named Peter Thiel. Some of you know who Peter Thiel is. He's a billionaire investor in Silicon Valley. He's a Christian, a devout Christian, and he is actually holding a number of special private lectures on the Book of Revelation right now. You almost have to be specially invited to it from what I've read about it.

I Googled to find out what he's talking about, and you can't find anything. Well, I didn't Google — I ChatGPT'd. That's what we do now in that way. And couldn't find anything. It's that private. But he has been talking about the threats that are upon the world right now that he feels are driven by artificial intelligence. And he's a member of the elite Silicon Valley tech world. But his concern is that humanity might respond by creating a global totalitarian regime akin to the Antichrist.

And that's why he's lecturing on the Book of Revelation, of all things. I listened to a couple of his lectures this past week. Last Sunday, I watched the memorial service that was held for Charlie Kirk. It was a remarkable event. I've watched a lot of public funerals through the years, from the public funeral of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. This one was remarkable. So many calls for repentance, for revival, for a renewal. Where it will go is an interesting thing to watch.

There are other religious movements in America, especially, that are calling for some type of a Christian nationalism among leaders. And their goal is to make America into a Christian nation, modeled after their version of Christianity. And some religious observers actually predict that we will see in this century, sometime, a militant Christianity arise as a backlash against militant Islam.

I don't want to be any part of a militant Christianity movement. I don't think you do as well. But whatever is happening—and there are things that are worthy of watching and understanding in these areas—whatever form of revival, awakening, renewal, if it does not follow the biblical form of renewal and revival or repentance, to be more accurate, it will go off track. They always have. Unintended consequences could be triggered, and could possibly trigger the end-time prophecies that we know are there.

I'd like you to turn over to Ezekiel chapter 20 for a moment, and let's look at a section we don't always focus on, but it's an important one to focus on. Ezekiel chapter 20—I will not read all of it about it, but in Ezekiel 20, the prophet shows why Israel went into captivity, lost their identity as to who they were, were scattered. And the reason that is laid out here is because they broke God's holy Sabbath, violated it, and committed idolatry.

Begin in verse 5, the prophet is told… And then in verse 12, God says, “Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” (Ezekiel 20:12)

How much is just in that one verse right there?

“Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, which, if a man does, he shall live by them… and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths.” (Ezekiel 20:13)

Because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths—plural: the weekly Sabbath, the festivals, the Holy Days of God were profaned—for their heart went after their idols.

And so it resulted in their captivity: idolatry and Sabbath-breaking. We have long known and understood what is being said here and what is meant by this message in Ezekiel for the people. And I would say that if there is no revival or renewal in America, whatever takes place that does not take this into account—God's Sabbath, God's festivals, holy time—then it will not come to the end that some might anticipate.

There will be something lacking.

Down in verse 40, God always holds out the hope of restoration. And He says, “For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel,” an echo of Isaiah 25 where we just read, “there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me; I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the firstfruits of your sacrifices, together with all your holy things.” (Ezekiel 20:40)

That points into the millennium. That points into the time when there will be a true restoration of Israel according to God's plan.

But the passages here show that Israel went into captivity because of idolatry and Sabbath-breaking, and they lost their identity. And today they do not know God because of idolatry, nor do they know who they are—because they've lost that sign of God's Sabbath.

So, whatever is stirring, whatever is happening—and again I say something is happening—but whatever is happening in this land or in the Western world today, if it does not create a turning away and acknowledging these cardinal points of God's law that we read here in Ezekiel 20, then it will not succeed in their end. In fact, it will go to something else.

So, we should watch, and we should understand what is happening with all the spiritual discernment that God has given through His holy Sabbath—the weekly Sabbath, which we are here today observing—and the annual festivals, the Holy Days.

Again, we're in the midst of, and we're anticipating Atonement, and then Tabernacles, and then the Eighth Day. And that's why we have that buzz today. That's why there is that excitement, that unmistakable moment that comes at this time of year, as we anticipate God's festivals.

I'd like for a moment for us all to look at what we do have in these festivals and in this holy time. God’s calling us His firstfruits. We are a part of His Church. And as we have come to understand, through God’s grace and His revelation, what the meaning of the Sabbath is and how it relates us to the Father and to Christ—the Lord of the Sabbath—and how the Holy Days help us to understand God’s purpose and plan, we have a remarkable revelation.

We come on these days to hear the story of God’s Kingdom. We come to hear about the great time to come, like the marriage supper.

Like that time when the church will have made herself ready. Like that time when the shroud will be lifted off of the nations and the deception. Of all of Mr. Teague's wonderful paintings that he has made for the church that hang up here above us on the second floor of the church, my favorite, and I've said this many times, is the Day of Atonement—my favorite painting. As the way it was depicted of the darkness being lifted off of the people. If you've not seen that, I hope you would avail yourself of that opportunity to look at that. As he portrayed that shroud being lifted off of the nations and off of the peoples as a result of the meaning of the Day of Atonement when Satan is bound.

And his deceptive spirit no longer is broadcast and moves and shakes the nations in the way that it does. There's rich meaning here. And each one of these Holy Days are nuggets of gold, pearls of wisdom and insight and understanding to help us understand God's great purpose.

And so when we look at that, we understand that it is going to be brought to this earth by Christ at His coming.

No human effort to create revival or the utopian conditions of the Kingdom of God on this earth has ever succeeded. And there have been scores of them down through the ages. A few years ago, we took our Beyond Today crew down to a place called New Harmony, Indiana, to tape a program on the site of New Harmony, which in itself was a utopian community built back in the 1820s by a group of people who looked for the second coming of Christ imminently in their time. And they removed themselves and created this self-sustaining community down there. The remnants of it are still there. The movement faded. Christ didn't return.

No effort has done that—has been able to create utopia. Vast government programs of socialism, of communism, of fascism, or whatever it might be, none of them have—all failed. And none in the future will succeed unless the Word of God and the fullness of that Word down to the Holy Days, down to the holy time that these days are meant to be observed—and by the observance, teach us these deep matters of revelation that creates within us the changed hearts that are going to be the nucleus around which God is going to prepare and educate the world in that time.

And we learn and rehearse that. We come to hear the meaning of the festivals and to fit ourselves into that great story that is beyond time and space, this finite place called earth. We rehearse the great events that the Holy Days picture.

We find our meaning. We find our significance in the midst of this chaotic world. We find meaning through God’s festivals, through God’s laws, but especially this matter of holy time.

Never underestimate the power of the Sabbath to give meaning to our life.

When I first began to attend what was then the Radio Church of God and hear the sermons about the Holy Days, I knew that what was laid out—and in those days it seemed like every sermon just laid out the plan of God at the Feast of Tabernacles—I knew it was true. I knew it was right. It made sense to my 12-year-old mind. I never doubted it. Never doubted it. Don't doubt it to this day. It has added dimension, texture, meaning, color, life. That's why that verse in Isaiah 25 is such a highlight for me.

When we observe the festivals, we come to understand the plan of God. And it answers so many questions about life. When we understand the festivals, we understand where we are in the prophetic timeline of God’s plan. We don't have to try to get down to the minutia of dates and all the other matters there. God knows all of that. He's got that totally in control. But it does give us markers along the way to help us understand in the broad sweep of human history where we are in God's prophetic timeline.

And as we continue to keep the festivals, we are also focused upon the work of God that we are called to do in His time. Perhaps the most significant aspect of that is what God is doing in each of us as His firstfruits to bring us to that aspect of salvation and understanding.

I'd like for you to turn over to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians the first chapter. In the keeping of the Holy Days, we come to understand the fullness of Christ in the Father's purpose. And nothing seems to capture that like it does here in Ephesians the first chapter. Those of you that are astute watcher-listeners of my messages know that I like to turn to Ephesians 1 quite often. That may be my favorite chapter in all the Bible.

But let's begin reading in verse 3. Ephesians 1 and verse 3:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ… In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will… according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ…” (Ephesians 1:3, 7–10)

And so Paul takes a lot of ink here to talk about what the Father is doing.

The Father's purpose, the Father's insight through Christ, through Christ. To gather together in one all things in Christ which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him, in Christ.

Again, I will say again, I've read that passage and pondered over that. It kind of blows my mind—cosmic. It's one of those cosmic, grand statements that Paul is led to make that puts us—I think he was grappling with it himself. That's my own personal view of it as God inspired him to write it. Paul was a—you know, the Apostle Paul was a man on fire, and he didn't know how to be anything other than on fire. That's the way he lived his life. As you read the epistles, he was on fire.

And in this particular passage, God leads him to write something that just kind of puts us up through—what is he saying? To gather together in one all things in Christ. And thinking about that verse in connection with the Sabbaths that Ezekiel talks about, maybe we can get a little more insight as we observe the festivals.

As we keep the Sabbath and we understand the fullness of the meaning in such a unique way that puts the package together. Look, a lot of people keep the Sabbath. Whole denominations—you know, the Seventh-day Adventists and others—keep the Sabbath, and they have a great deal of knowledge. But when you keep the Sabbaths and you keep the Holy Days together, it wraps it into a far more complete package of understanding.

And that is the unique gift that God has given to us. I really do believe. And when you wind it all down to even the Eighth Day and the meaning of the Great White Throne Judgment, I have yet to run across any other philosophy, idea, or religion that has that insight of what God is going to do for all of mankind who have never heard the name of Christ and have never been called by the Father to salvation through Christ. God has a plan to offer that to them—that they may take part in that. That is awesome. That is not understood in that fullness.

And the sad part of it is that people who once understood it rejected it for something far inferior.

And so when we look at the Holy Days, perhaps we can then attach, as we understand Christ in each of those festivals, how it is that the Father is going to bring everything together in all things in heaven and in earth in Christ. Because it is through the Sabbath and the holy festivals that the Father puts the focus on His Son, Jesus Christ. I do think that’s what is being said here in Ephesians 1.

And we focus on that. We need to continue to mine the depth of that understanding in our theology, in our explanation of God, and certainly in our practice, walk, and faith in life as we go to keep the festivals and go to keep the Feast.

You know, all of us are excited about where we're going. France, Italy, Hawaii, Cincinnati. I'm sure you're excited about being able to keep the Feast right here in Cincinnati. I have many, many times—every one has been as good as any other Feast from a spiritual perspective.

Look, you can only see so much in Eastgate as compared to the French Riviera or Kauai. I understand that. The sights are different in some of these other places. But when you break it all down, the Feast of Tabernacles, I've always thought, as I read Deuteronomy, it is about God, it is about people and fellowship, and it's about food. It really is. You read that in Deuteronomy—turn your money into whatever your soul desires. And we just read Isaiah 25: a feast of good wine and fat things. And it—God, people, and food. That's what God designed.

Now, you want good sermons, and you want solid messages as well. But in reality—look, you know, I've kept the Feast in so many different locations and manners, from the grit and dirt of East Texas in a place called the Piney Woods—you’ve got to have been around for a period of time to know what that phrase means—and to a condo on a beach someplace, or to an exotic locale in Tuscany, or the French Riviera, and all of those. Throw in a few African locations and you've got the whole ball of wax there in terms of the types and experiences that you can have.

I've always told students, if you really want to get back to the Feast the way they kept it—closer to the way they kept it in Israel—they were not in a condo on Kauai back then. Go to Africa, where many of our brethren have the sites all set up, and you're going to get a little bit closer to what it was like in Shiloh or Jerusalem or some other location in the Old Testament where they kept it in a temporary dwelling, and brought in the food still on the hoof and in 50-pound bags of grain, and all cooked up and made up and killed and cooked and everything else. That's the way they do it today. And then you will begin to get that understanding. But you have to have a bit of fortitude to be able to do that.

No matter where we keep it, no matter how we keep it, and even if we're shut in because of infirmity, age, or other circumstances and we have to stream it in—it’s still about God. It's still about people. And yes, food. And we do all of our best to focus on that, and we have to.

And so wherever you are planning to go and whatever plans you may have, make sure that indeed you do go up and plan to keep the Feast and focus upon what the Father is doing through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You know, we seem to climb to a summit of anticipation and excitement as we approach each of the Holy Days. It’s always good to get to Trumpets after the many weeks from Pentecost, and Trumpets kicks it all off, and then we really get to thinking about the Feast. But there's a building—almost like you're summiting—anticipation and excitement and observation as we come to the Holy Days and prepare to come into the presence of God and Christ and those heavenly scenes that we can read about, and think about where we need to be as well.

The Holy Days give us in the Church time and space for renewal on an individual level. And I hope that all of you will make that time and make that commitment of renewal in your own mind and life, according to where you are in your relationship with God and your walk along this journey to the Kingdom of God.

It is a time of renewal. It is a time to reflect and to think, to rededicate. What’s been your story this past year? What have you been through?

What have you learned? What trials? What successes? What triumphs? What have you accomplished?

Those are the questions to consider. What have you learned about God, about Christ, about yourself? All of us have been through a myriad of experiences and sensations, conversations in the past year. Beat it—beat it fine—in your prayers. Think it through as you prepare, you pack your bags, and you make your last-minute preparations, and certainly when you come before God, when the service is convened.

We're going up to the mountain, in a sense, as we come up before God. We're all familiar with the Psalms of Ascent—the psalms between Psalm 120 and Psalm 135—which are known to be psalms that the pilgrims would read as they were ascending to Jerusalem during the three great feasts of the year: Passover and Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the fall Feast of Tabernacles. They’re worthy of a study as well, but when you look at each one of them, they point to God.

In a literal sense, as even a pilgrim was going up to Jerusalem, we’re going up to wherever we go in a figurative sense. But as we would read those psalms—or any other passage—let them lift your mind up to God, because that’s what those psalms do. They put our mind upon God.

Our pilgrimage on this earth, as disciples, is a journey, and we have our ups and downs. We have our times of change. We go through our seasons of life—we all know that. In your season, your experience, what it is that you’ve gone through is God working with you to bring you to that perfection, where He is refining you to be used in His Kingdom. We are being trained through this life to be kings and priests and to reign and rule with Christ on His throne.

Those scriptures are true, and they must be true to the point that they bring us to effective change, effective commitment, effective renewal—because they are truth.

They are not just to be read and glossed over, because that is why we go up to the Feast. That’s why we keep the weekly Sabbath: to learn about God, to have some part of our life ground away that needs to be ground away in the process of repentance, and replaced with the character of God within us. And all along the way, like these Psalms of Ascent, we’re lifting ourselves—our face and our mind and our whole approach—up to God, looking and focusing upon Him. That’s the real lesson for us to draw from that.

We’re not going up to Jerusalem, but we do go up spiritually to keep the Holy Days and to keep the Feast. We go up before God, and we should—and we should.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15. This is a well-known passage or chapter of the resurrection. I want to just read a few verses, beginning at verse 20.

1 Corinthians 15 and 20 begins. In just a few verses here, between verse 20 and 28, Paul summarizes God’s plan that is being worked out through Christ. And we can fit the Holy Days into these verses. And all of this within this great chapter.

Let’s begin at 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20:

“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread: Christ is risen from the dead and become the firstfruits.

“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21–22)

That sets it right there. Through Christ’s death, burial, three days and three nights in the grave, and then His resurrection—our sins are forgiven through His shed blood. We are saved by His life—that He came out of the grave, resurrected—ensures our life, eternal life. All of that wrapped up here in those verses.

And then in verse 23:

“But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.” (1 Corinthians 15:23)

God has a plan. As I said earlier, He’s not calling everyone at once. He begins small, like that grain of mustard seed. And there will be a time when all who have never heard the name of Christ in the truest sense will have that opportunity for repentance and acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ—each in his own order.

Going on: “Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.” Firstfruits—a unique group of people in the plan of God, a definite group of people by God’s plan. And by His grace, we happen to be a part of that.

Not by our wisdom, not by our might, not by our power, but by His grace are we a part of that firstfruit plan of God’s salvation—a smaller harvest in time. And that defines not only our life, but it defines our entire approach to the gospel and to the work of the church given to us, as the girl sang in the song of the commission. That outlines all of that.

Each in His own order: “Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23), which points to the Feast of Trumpets, the first resurrection—which Mr. Antion, in his message on Trumpets, very eloquently put—and all that comes after that with Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.

In verse 24: “Then comes the end.” Then comes the end. So there’s everyone in their own order—Christ the firstfruits, afterward those that are Christ’s at His coming. And then we know what happens after the thousand years: the graves are opened, and the dead, small and great, rise.

And so those end-time events—those events beyond the end—bring us to what is described here in verse 24, then, as another end: “Then comes the end, when He delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.” And so after all of that work that Christ does, reigning on the earth for a thousand years, building that world that we read about in Isaiah 25, then He will give it up to the Father.

You know, all the other questions that might arise as to what will happen during that period—I just, you know, put it all aside and realize we’ll find out where we’re going to go, what we’re going to do, what we will have access to. We’ll know that at that time. I don’t have to worry about that now. For me, it’s just hard enough of a struggle to get to that point. All right—then that’s enough. God knows, and we’ll find out, and it’ll be pretty good. It’ll be all right.

And so all of these events that are talked about here in this end will take place. The Kingdom delivered to the Father. He will put an end to all rule and authority and power—whether it’s political, secular, or religious, or whatever form it comes in. And Revelation shows us that it’s going to be some superpower—a combination of secular politics and religion—that will come to pass at that time. It’ll all be over.

“For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25–26). And we read about that in Revelation 21, but of course, we just read about that back in Isaiah 25 as well. The judgment of the wicked will have occurred. And the earth will melt, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat, as Peter describes it. And all that will be left will be the spirit realm of the family of God. A new heavens and a new earth will take place.

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘He has put all things under His feet.’ But when He says ‘all things are put under Him,’ it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him… that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:26–28)

Eight verses that summarize the whole plan of God. What a wonderful revelation. What a wonderful knowledge that we have. God the Father has put the focus upon His Son, Jesus Christ.

And in the fullness of that truth, brethren, we walk, and we will keep the Feast of Tabernacles after we keep the Day of Atonement, and we will focus upon the message of that Eighth Day festival. And it will fortify us, and it will strengthen us as we prepare for that.

I thought to give you three points to keep the Feast of Tabernacles on. That was my conclusion. But then I decided I won’t give you three points. I’ll just give you one:

Let us prepare to go up to the mountain of the Lord, and let us fellowship there with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.