Bible Study: May 28, 2025

Okay, so tonight I thought, you know, we will, we will in a way begin a new book tonight, like I mentioned last week. I'll tell you what book that will be here in a little bit, but I think it may be even obvious as we go through some things. As I was thinking about, as I was thinking about the week we're in and that we're, you know, we have the Sabbath coming up and we have Pentecost coming up, that it would be good to tie the beginning, to tie an introduction into the next book into Pentecost, because this is a notable holy time and a holy day observance that God has given us, a festival. You know, sometimes I think maybe we can overlook Pentecost a little bit and think, well, it's a one-day festival, but you know, when you think of what the, all the meaning, all the meaning in the day of Pentecost and how it's tied to the Passover, tied to the days of Unleavened Bread, and everything that surrounds it, it is a monumental, it's a monumental holy day that pictures one of the steps in God's plan, and you can't possibly, on the day of Pentecost, no matter how many sermons you listen to, cover everything about Pentecost and what it represents in that time. So I thought tonight we would go through some things that maybe we don't ordinarily hear in sermons on Pentecost as part of the preparation of leading up to more observance of it so that we are in maybe, maybe a more complete mindset going into it, an appreciation of what God has called us to and what God is doing for us, and how important his Holy Spirit is, and the understanding of our lives and how we live them in the scope of things. And then we'll talk about the book that we'll go into that we'll really play into and follow this as far as instructing us in all those ways of life that we do if we're going to be part of God's kingdom, which he really wants us to do. So I thought we would, you know, at Pentecost, I'll just recount a few of the things here that Pentecost represents or that we should be thinking about as we come to that time. I will probably miss some of them, so any of you are more than welcome to chime in and say, yep, I got this back this aspect as well. We know the Pentecost is the day that the first time that God gave his Holy Spirit to the group of people, the church that Jesus Christ began on that day. We know of pictures, firstfruits. You know, we have the harvests that are implicit in this holy day. There is the early harvest in the spring. There is the fall harvest of the greater portion of mankind that we observe those holy days later on in the year. We know what means count 50 and what 50 means in the Bible.

I think I mentioned firstfruits. You know, we have the two loaves that are mentioned in Leviticus 23 as part of this holy day, and the symbolism that is wrapped around that, the harvests, the wheat, the barley, and everything. How Pentecost absolutely requires Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread before it can ever be fulfilled and we can ever be part of it.

So with that in mind, and I'm sure there's some other many, many, many other things that we could talk about, let's go to Leviticus 23 and just look at what is there in that chapter. We're going to begin back at the Wave Sheaf offering that we didn't observe, but that occurred in Old Testament times back during the days of Unleavened Bread that we would have noted back during the days of Unleavened Bread.

Let me see seven weeks ago as we come up to this coming Pentecost. In chapter 23, verse 11, it talks about the Wave Sheaf offering. I hope that at least during the days of Unleavened Bread was when we came to that Wave Sheaf offering day, that Sunday that falls within the days of Unleavened Bread, that someone made notice of that, of the ritual back in the Old Testament times, of waving the first of the first fruits before God, and that they were to be accepted before Him, before the harvest could begin.

A notable thing that follows, of course, the Passover, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that is the first and most important thing because nothing else can happen in God's plan without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the way He lived His life. A notable thing for us that we should remember and thank Him for every single day of our lives. When verse 11 it says, He shall wave, speaking of the high priest, He shall wave the sheaf before the eternal to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.

And you shall offer on that day a male lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And in verse 14 it says, you shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God. It is a statute or shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. So we have that notable time in ancient Israel before they could begin the spring harvest, the first of the first fruits, the barley, the barley that's there at the beginning of time, they had to go through this process of waving it before God and having God accept it.

Now we know the New Testament application of that, and that Jesus Christ is, He was the wave sheaf offering. He fulfilled that. He was the first of the first fruits. But for those who might be a little bit newer with us on the Bible studies, let's recount it a little bit and let's go back and talk a little about these early spring harvests in Old Testament time because they have significance. And God mentions barley in wheat several times in the Bible, way back in the beginning even, but let's begin in Exodus 9 and just see where He talks about these early harvests, these spring harvests.

The barley comes first and then the wheat is the later harvest in the spring. In Exodus 9 and in verse 32, you know, here we're in the midst of God ringing Israel out of Egypt and He's in the midst of inflicting the plagues on Egypt. And in verse 32, well, let's begin in verse 31. You can see that, you know, as God says that there's going to be, well, there's this plague that has come upon Egypt and Pharaoh is saying, ask God to relieve it.

In verse 30, you know, Moses says, okay, Pharaoh, I know the score here. You're asking God to remove it, but you're not going to let us go and honor God and sacrifice to Him in the way that we have asked you to. And in verse 31 it says, now the flax and the barley were struck. They were struck. So we're in that time of year that we all know during this time, coming up on what God would introduce, reintroduce of the Israelites as the days of unleavened bread.

The flax and the barley were struck for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud. It was the first. It was the first of those spring harvests that were there as part of the early harvest. In verse 32, but the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops. They would be later on in the spring. So we have the pattern set for us. The barley comes first. The wheat is later. We have the first of the first fruits, the wave sheaf offering of Leviticus 23, and then we have the later harvest of the wheat that comes in the spring as well.

If we go on to Deuteronomy 8, we see again God talking about the importance of wheat and barley, those spring harvests, those grains that are sometimes referred to as the staff of life. Because from wheat, we have bread. Bread is mentioned over and over in the Bible as over and over in the Bible as the staff of life, we eat of the bread of life. In Deuteronomy 8 and verse 8, as he's talking about the promised land, verse 7 says, the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey.

You can see through the Bible where God mentions these fruits and these foods that he gives us. When God mentions something that's good in the Bible, good for us to pay attention to it and realize it is a very healthfully food. Of course, in America, our wheat is not what we used to be, so that's an issue for us.

But we know that the bread of life is a staple of our lives. So we have this first and early harvest of the wave sheaf offering. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 15. And we'll see the New Testament significance of it because of all the holy days that God mentions of Leviticus 23.

We do find what the meaning of those in God's plan for life is in the New Testament. As you and I, many of us know all these things, but many on here may not have heard it for a while. In 1 Corinthians 15, we have what is the resurrection chapter. And we all have the hope of the resurrection. Because Jesus Christ died for our sins, we have the opportunity for our sins to be forgiven. But we have the hope of the resurrection because God the Father did resurrect Jesus Christ to immortal life after three days and three nights in the grave.

And we know that Jesus Christ prompted them. And so he is a forerunner. He is our example. And God promised the same thing for us if we live our lives in the fullness of Jesus Christ and spend our time really, truly becoming like him. 1 Corinthians 15. Get in the first right here. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 20.

Talks about Christ. Christ says, now Christ is risen from the dead and he's become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Well, he's actually the first of the first fruits of there. He's the one who went through life. He died. He was in the grave three days and three nights. God resurrected him to eternal life. He's the first. He's the first to come back to life in the way that God has promised all of us.

He was the first one to do it to show it is certain it is going to happen. And if we follow Christ, if we let him lead our lives through his Holy Spirit, that it was made possible through his death, that we could have the same thing happen to us. He's the first. For since by man, that's Adam, small m, came death, by man, capital M, also came the resurrection of the dead, that's Jesus Christ.

For as in Adam, all die, even so Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order. Christ was the first afterward those who are Christs at his coming. So those who God calls, those who've responded to call, who go through genuine repentance, give their lives to God, are baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, live by that Holy Spirit, let God transform them into the type of being, the being that he wants them to be, that yield themselves totally and committed to God.

They are the next. Christ was the first of the first fruits, but then afterward those, as we get to the Feast of Trumpets, Christ at his coming, the resurrection that occurs at that time. In John 20, then, you know, we tie it together, Jesus Christ, as we come to John chapter 20, he has been crucified, he has laid in the tomb for three days and three nights, he has not ascended to heaven, he laid there sleeping like all of us. When we die, we will just be waiting for the return of Jesus Christ so that we would be resurrected as well.

But in John 20 verse 17, as he is resurrected, God includes the pieces in the Bible that we know that tell us and tie these things to that wave sheep offering. It was on the day after the Sabbath that occurred during the days of Unleavened Bread. We know the history there, and if anyone has any questions on that, you know, we can talk later in the week about that to show the timeline of that week of Christ's crucifixion and the Passover.

But in verse 17, Christ is resurrected, Mary is coming to him, and Jesus says to her, Don't cling to me, don't cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God.

He's been resurrected to life. That happened three days and three nights after he was put into the tomb. So late on the Sabbath afternoon, he was resurrected, but he has not yet gone to the father because he was fulfilling the wave sheep offering that occurred that morning on that, we'll call it Sunday morning, that first day of the week, that Sunday that occurs during the days of Unleavened Bread.

And at that time, the very time, the high priest would be waiting the offering of the first fruits Jesus Christ, who is the first fruits of those risen from the dead, was ascending to God to be accepted of him. And we know that he was accepted by God because today he sits at his right hand. So we have all this going on at the Passover, at the days of Unleavened Bread, within the days of Unleavened Bread, and all these things that we should be commemorating, remembering, that should stimulate us, that should motivate us, that draws closer to God when we see everything that he's done and how it all fits together and the Bible fits together.

And then we have this, and we go through the days of Unleavened Bread, but if we go back to Luke, because 23, we see that there's more tied to those events than just, I shouldn't say just, because there are, you know, life, earth-changing events that occur during that time, but there's more that's tied to it. It isn't all finished because the spring harvest included an early harvest of the barley, and then it included a later harvest of the weep.

Both spring crops, both considered first fruits, one comes first, another one comes afterwards. And if we go to Leviticus 23 then, back there, you know, we talked about that first wave-sheaf offering of the first fruits that were coming there. And as we go down to verse 15, that tells us, you know, from that day of that wave-sheaf offering, which, you know, I'm sure was talked about or you read about on how we count from that wave-sheaf offering until this coming Sunday, as the Bible says to observe the day of Pentecost, you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the wave offering, seventh Sabbath shall be completed.

So this Sabbath, we'll keep in a few days, that's the seventh Sabbath since the wave-sheaf offering day, and then the day after that is Pentecost. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then you shall offer a new great offering to the Lord. So back on the wave-sheaf offering day, there was a offering to God.

Now, here's a new one 50 days later at the later spring harvest that's going to be offered to Him. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be a fine flower. You are blurry? Am I blurry? Oh, I am blurry. Why am I blurry? Thank you so much for letting me know that. I have no idea why I'm looking blurry, but maybe I should just get myself off the screen.

Maybe that's a blessing for you that I'm blurry. So, yeah, that is weird. Make sure my camera is working right here. Yeah, you might just want to clean your camera a little bit.

I will study, and I don't know how to turn it off. I will get John so he can hear you.

Well, I don't have a Kleenex. Just bear with me a minute. I'm going to put some share screens up here in a minute anyway. So, let me see. We were in here. We were talking about the two loaves, and we're going to come back to the two loaves here in a minute, but notice that they're baked with leaven. That's an unusual thing for God to say that they would be baked with leaven.

But they would be baked with leaven because we learned about all the sacrifices that they are always of unleavened bread, and Jesus is the one to keep the Passover. It's unleavened.

And so, we'll come back to the little bit, but let me go on to verse 18 here, because in Old Testament times, it was not just the Kleenex here. So, let me see if I can clean this up a little bit here and see if there's a problem. Nope, there's something else that's a problem here. So, you know, well, bear with me. Bear with me. Maybe I'll turn myself off and you'll just hear my voice. That might be better anyway. So, we'll come back to them. Let's look on to verse 18, because in the Old Testament times, they came before God with these two new loaves, but then they had all these other offerings that they were going... they had to give at the same time as well. It says, you shall offer seven lambs in verse 18. In verse 18, they shall be as a burnt offering to the eternal with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. So, when these two loaves are being offered to God on this new grain offering on this 50th day from the day of the wave sheep offering, there's all these other sacrifices, and literally every other type of sacrifice is happening at that time. And just as a refresher, I kind of want to bring up...

hear the... you know, what these offerings... what these offerings represent. Just as a reminder, we talked about these a little bit when we were in the book of Ezekiel, and we were talking about the tabernacle and the offerings that would occur at that time. But just as a refresher, the burnt offering. And as I go through these, we'll talk about the Old Testament application, which we're looking at here. But what the New Testament application is, again, because those offerings then represent to those of us who have God's Holy Spirit today. Today, we're not taking lambs to a temple. We're not taking bullocks and heifers and whatever, but we are offering to God. So the burnt offering in Old Testament time, it was a complete burning of the animal. No one was eating anything of it. It was a total burnt offering to God. Priests weren't partaking of it. Certainly the person who brought the offering wasn't partaking of it. It was entirely consumed by fire. It symbolized complete surrender and dedication to God. And you notice here that in verse 18, it talks about these sacrifices were a sweet aroma to God because he saw the attitude of the people. They would bring this and they would understand as they brought up an animal for a burnt offering what it indicated, and they were willing to give that entire thing to God. When we look at the New Testament application of that, we know that Jesus Christ was willing to completely give himself to God. He held nothing back from God the Father. He gave up being God to be born as flesh. He gave it all so that you and I might have the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and to have eternal life. He gave it all. No one can contest that. No one can question that. He literally gave it all, and he gave his physical life as well. Our commitment. Well, we come before God and we say we will follow you, God the Father. We will follow you, Jesus Christ. We do give our lives to you. We repent of our sins. We are baptized. We receive the Holy Spirit. Paul says it very well in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2, and he says, give yourselves as a living sacrifice to God. Give it all to God. Don't hold anything back. And as we go through our lives, we learn that more and more. Give it all to him. He calls us to complete surrender, and as we surrender and yield more and more to God, we find the joy. We find the peace. We find the purpose. We find the meaning.

We find everything that God had intended for mankind to be that we're never going to find in the world. We're never going to find when we're trying to satisfy self, but when we satisfy God and when we yield ourselves to him, we find that. And it's energizing. It's motivating.

It produces a zeal for God's way of life that we want. And in many cases, just knowing that heals our thinking and helps us when we go back to God and look to him when we're feeling down or not sure about things, to go back to his word, we find that peace in there. But it's the total commitment to him, as Paul says in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. But as Christ himself says in Mark 12 verse 30, when he says, this is the first great great commandment, love the Lord your God with all. You know, and underline that word, all, all your heart, all your mind, all your soul. Not surface, not 90%. It's something that happens throughout the course of our lives.

Happens throughout the course of our lives as we more and more yield to God and follow him, that we give it all to him. And we literally don't hold anything back from God. We are a living sacrifice. So the burnt offering that was offered along with these two loaves, a baked loave that we'll come back with, symbolize that. Then you have the grain offering, which was really a thanks offering. Of course, grain often leads to bread, and we know this New Testament symbolization, some symbolism of bread. It's, you know, I looked up on online and it talks about the dedication of one's labor and the produce of the land to God. You know, if we work the land as they did in Old Testament times, we would have a deeper appreciation from God, of God, because we would realize just how dependent we are on the soil of the earth, on the rain that comes from him, on the sunshine, the warmth, and everything, because he makes it all possible. It's not because of anything we do other than the physical efforts, but all the blessings come from him.

And of course, we know in the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the bread of life. He's the barley, if we can put it that way. He's the first of the first fruits. That was weighed before God and accepted, and he sits at God's right hand today. And so, the green offering and the drink offering that accompanied it as well was our thanks to God. You know, Paul says in Philippians 4, 6, I have noted there, don't always mark your prayers with thanksgiving. He says, be anxious for nothing but with everything come before God with supplication with thanksgiving. And everything give thanks, Paul says, in 1 Thessalonians as well. So, when we come before God, and as we look at Pentecost, there's this thankfulness that we should have, this gratitude that should be part of our lives every day, but part of our attitude as we approach Pentecost. Same thing for the drink offering. The drink offering in Old Testament times was usually a pouring out of wine that came from someone's field after they had processed it all and everything like that. Of course, we know the symbolism there that compares to his blood that was poured out for us. Paul, I'll give you some scriptures there. You don't have to turn to those, but even Paul, as he talked about his life, that he was poured out as a drink offering. In Philippians 2, Philippians 2 verse 17, he says, yes, and I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith. I am glad and rejoice with you all. So he got the symbolism, and we too are drink offerings to God as we pour out our lives to God and in service to him. It says the same thing in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 6.

I'll get to some questions here in a minute. 2 Timothy 4 and 6, and I hear people that are coming online, and I don't know how to get to them. Let me see if I can figure that out while I'm doing that. Okay, here we go. 2 Timothy 4 verse 6, Paul says, I am already, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. At the time of my departure is at hand, I fought the good fight, I've finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to have allowed his appearing. So, you know, you have all this that Paul, he got. He got the symbolism of the sacrifices of old and how we do the same things and as we offer to God through our service, through our agape to one another, to our prayers for one another, to our care for one another, watching out for one another, we are giving those offerings to God that are a pleasing aroma to him. I'm going to come back to the peace offering in a little bit here, but let's go back to the two loaves because we do want to talk about that for a moment because that symbolism is quite notable for us. It's our part of the first being, the first fruits, the first fruits that come after Jesus Christ. Let me see. I'm going to pause here for a moment because I've thrown a lot at you. I know, okay, why don't I pause and let you ask a question or make the comment you want to make. I just wanted to say, and hi Rick, I just wanted to say that the same day that God handed down the Ten Commandments was Pentecost. You're right. I knew I'd forget one, and you're absolutely right. That's what the tradition says. They received the law in the Pentecost. Yes, and that amazed me when I first learned that. Yeah, yeah, all these things. We should list them and just have to read them off as Pentecost begins so that everyone is reminding of everything that happened at that time in the Bible. So yeah, very good, very good. Hey, Mr. Murray. That's a very good point about the law was began to be given. The Ten Commandments in particular began to be given, and it's also interesting that a trumpet sounded long and hard on that particular day of Pentecost. Yes, it is. Mr. Hillabrenner.

You need to turn your mic on, Bill. Okay, let's go on. We'll come back to Mr. Hillabrenner in a little bit. Let's go on and Leviticus 20. I probably have too much to cover here in this one, but it's very interesting and hopefully just kind of stimulate our thoughts as we prepare for where we'll go next, but more importantly for Pentecost here. So back in Leviticus 23, we read about these two loaves.

These two wave loaves that are offered before God on Pentecost, right? The 50 days is the wave sheep offering indelibly tied back to, right at the Passover, back to the days of unleavened bread, back to the hour-taking of the bread and the wine, of symbolizing our humility to before God and service to each other as we wash each other's feet, and our commitment to eat the bread of life for the rest of our lives so that we grow in that way and become more and more like Christ as we eat and just of all those things. We have these two loaves, and they are baked with unleavened or baked with leaven, God says. And I think you've probably heard that those represent us, right? This is the wheat offering now. This is the wheat that comes at the end of the spring harvest.

The second part of the first fruits, and that is what wheat is typically, you know, the bread. And so you have these loaves that are baked, right? They have been in the fire. They're not just plucked from the grain and stalks of wheat way before God. They are processed. They are developed. They are baked into loaves that are ready to be consumed, if you will, just like when God calls us. And, you know, we might see ourselves as a stalk of wheat when God first calls us. We respond to the light that He shines in our minds and His Holy Spirit that opens up what we, what we, what He helps us to see as we understand His plan. And then we're processed through times. He takes us through a life of joy. He takes us through a life of trials and tribulation. And we become fully baked and ready for the time when Jesus Christ would return and we would be born into His kingdom as spirit beings. Jesus Christ lived that same life. He was born as an infant. He went through life. He's experienced the joys of life. He experienced the trials of life. He experienced the disappointments of life. And He experienced the sufferings of life as in, as in ways that you and I have not, have not experienced. And we can't even comprehend the pain that He went through. And in Hebrews 5, it tells us that He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. And He became perfected by the things that He suffered. So in the same way that He was progressed through life and who He who was already perfect, became perfect, and could be our Savior and to give His life for many. So we go through life and when we are, I hate to use the term, but fully baked, right? Fully gone through the oven of life. That God has perfected us and we become more and more like Him and we've willingly yielded ourselves to Him in whatever He puts us through, understanding that He has our best interest in heart and what He wants is to accept that loaf. That loaf when it's presented before Him. Yes, it has been done right. And so we have these two loaves, these two loaves that are that are way before God at that time.

And those loaves have some interest. I want to, um, I want to think here about, I want to talk about the wheat. I want to talk about the wheat a little bit because wheat has significance in the Bible, significance in the Bible that we should be aware of. If we say the first of the first fruits in the spring harvest was the barley, that was the one that was waved. The second one was wheat that's been processed into loaves. It's fully ready to be presented before God. It's gone through the process that it needs to go. So if we look at wheat, there is significance in it that we should look at. So let me pull up another screen here and talk about wheat.

Let's talk about wheat a little bit. You know, you know, I, again, if you want to turn with me, you can, even back in the Old Testament, it'll talk about Pentecost as being the first fruits of wheat, the wheat harvest. In Exodus 34 verse 22, God says, and you shall observe the Feast of Weeks of the first fruits of wheat harvest and then the Feast of In-Gathering at years end. So here, you know, on Pentecost, we had the wave sheaf offering. We have the Days of Unleavened Bread. We had the first of the first fruits. That's been fulfilled, but now Pentecost is this wheat, this wheat offering, if you will, or the first fruits of wheat harvest that is there. You know, we just finished the Ezekiel, but just to remind us, in Ezekiel, as we went through chapters 40 through 48, we read about the sacrifices and then we read about the Prince and what his responsibility was going to be, and in these offerings that were going to be offered to God daily. Not exactly the same as in Old Testament times, but that God delineated in these chapters in Ezekiel in chapter 45 and verse 13, speaking of that time, what the Prince would be responsible for and what the people would be responsible for bringing to him so that he was ready for these offerings. On verse 13, it says, this is the offering which you shall offer, one sixth of an epi from a homer of wheat and one sixth of an epi from an homer of barley. So we have the barley and wheat again and the symbolization of these are the first fruits, the barley and the wheat. You have the first of the first fruits and then you have the wheat harvest. If we go to the New Testament, wheat has a significance there as well. And just as I'm talking, I didn't write a verse down, but I'm going to see if we have time to talk about it. Let's go to Matthew 3.

And we'll see the symbolism of wheat here, I think, because in these verses we'll look at, there's two groups of people, if you will. There's a contrast between the wheat and the other group that's there. Let's begin in verse 11 of Matthew 3. There it says, this is John the Baptist, you know, quoting him as he's baptizing people by the river there. It says, I indeed, this is John the Baptist, John the Baptist, indeed baptizes you with water under repentance, but he, referring to Christ, he who is coming after me is mightier, that I, who sandals, I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fan, verse 12, is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

So as you have wheat, I mean, that's a valuable commodity, right? Wheat is a valuable commodity.

And so when harvest time comes, the wheat is gathered up, and it's taken into the barn where it's stored in a safe place, where it's given its due. We can think about wheat as being the people of God, the ones who are really who he has called, who have repented, who are being led by his Holy Spirit, who are living their lives in the way that he would have us live them. So he gathers the wheat into the barn, protects them, but the chaff, the chaff, he says, he will burn up with unquenchable fire. And so, you know, we have this contrast here between people, right? And, you know, just so that we're aware of chaff and where, you know, what it can symbolize in the Bible.

I pulled off of the internet, you know, what that is, from one of the, well, I guess it was a conglomeration of concordances, including our own literature. In biblical agriculture, chaff refers to the husks or outer coverings of wheat grains, separated during the fleshing and threshing and winnowing process. After the wheat is harvested, it is threshed, that is beaten to separate grains from stalks, and winnowed, kind of thossed in the air. Chaff is worthless for food and often burned or discarded. So it's kind of like, it's the stuff when you take all the good stuff out of the wheat. Everything that's there, the chaff is what's left over, it is worthless. It's not good for food or anything else, so in the process, it's just burned up. So wheat in the Bible would represent the righteous, the people who are approved by God as we look at the context there of what it is, the people who are giving their hearts and minds to God, not just obeying His commandments, that is an important part of His living by the law that God has given us, but doing it from the heart, and not just because we want to check off a box and say we did those things. It is a matter, it's the heart that God is looking at. Are our hearts with Him? Have we given all our heart, mind, and soul as we bring ourselves as a burnt offering, a living sacrifice to God? So wheat represents the righteous. They are gathered into the barn, and we see, you know, back in Psalm, we see this very good description of wheat and chaff as God has recorded for us, a song we often sing at Sabbath services. But in Psalm 1, 1-3, we see the wheat. These are the people that God will gather into His barn. These are the ones at the end of the age, or at the end of the harvest. When the harvest happens, the wheat is gathered. First one of Psalm 1, blessed. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the paths of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. His delight is in the law of the eternal, and in His law He meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither. He remains strong. He remains alive. He doesn't, He doesn't fade. He stays strong and adores to the end, and whatever He does shall prosper. That's the wheat. You know, that's the wheat that God is looking for you and me to be.

But the chaff is what He's going to throw away. That's what gets thrown away and burned in the fire because it's useless, right? Verse 4 talks about the wheat. The chaff, I'm sorry. The ungodly, those who are not living by God's way, or maybe who are just being, you know, checking off a box, and on the outside, you know, the outside covering looks good like the Pharisees, but the inside is full of nothing, right? As God is looking at us, so what's in the inside of us? Not just what we do on the outside. The ungodly are not so. They are like the chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners at the congregation of the righteous. So we have the Bible interpreting for us what this wheat and chaff is, and then the people that it represents. Of course, you and I have been called to be wheat, but we have a responsibility to live as wheat and to grow and become the valuable commodity that it is in God's eyes. It can only happen as we use God's Holy Spirit as they attach to Him and allow Him to grow us and progress us through life to become that readily harvestable product at the end of the age.

So we have these contrasts here in Matthew 3 that Christ is talking about.

Not a pleasant thing, but also a pleasant thing to remind us. We can be the wheat, but we have to make that choice through life. We have to yield to God and not give in to all the things that we read in the Bible that don't become part of the world, come out of the world, don't give in to our own ways. Do follow things God's way. Let Him correct us. Count it joy when we go through trials because God is working with us and putting us through the training period that we're in.

So Matthew 3, 12, you know, again, that's the week that you and I strive to be.

We have another one in Matthew 13. Matthew 13. Let's see what's out here. Matthew 13. Yeah, this one's, you know, verse 25. Verse 25 of Matthew 13. It's a parable that Christ gives. Again, He uses wheat as the symbol here. Matthew 13, verse 25. Well, begin at verse 24, it looks like. Another parable, it says in Matthew 13, 24. Another parable He put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. When God calls us, He gives us good seed. It's what are we doing with it, you know? He sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, and when we think, you know, see that word, slept, you know, we might be reminded of the 10 virgins, all of whom kind of slept and kind of through life let their guard down a little bit. Some of them so thoroughly slept that they weren't ready for the time when Christ returned. But while men slept, His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. So came in, but people weren't paying attention. And we have these things that drop into this field of good seed, good wheat, that are not part of the good seed anymore. Now there's this mixture of tares in with the wheat. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. They kind of looked like that. But as time progressed, you could see there's a difference. There's the wheat that's holy. Not whole, yeah, well wheat, if we talk about people. People that are holy living the way God's life. But then there's these tares that are in the field too that aren't quite the same. And the difference begins to be noted. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? How then does it not? How then does it have tares? And he said to them, an enemy has done this. The servant said to him, do you want us to go and gather them up? And he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

So again, we have the wheat, gather the wheat together and put them in my barn. They're the ones, that's what I'm seeking. That's what the people I call, and that are called by my name, I want them to become the wheat that I will gather into my into my barn at the time of harvest. But then there's these tares that are part of the field as well. And down in, later on in the chapter, Christ explains that so we don't really have to, we don't have to interpret the Bible by our own speculation. He kind of tells us what all this is. In verse 36 then, it says, Jesus sent the multitude away and his disciples, you know, that wasn't the whole crowd that was there, but his disciples who were following him, you and I are his disciples today, came to him saying, explain to us the parable the tares of the field. And Christ answered and said, he who sows the good seed is the son of man. No one can come to Christ except God the Father who calls them. But Jesus Christ is preaching the truth. He is there among them. He is teaching them the way, the truth, the life, and he sowing the good seed. The field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. So we have this field that has wheat and tares that are in it. And at the end of the age, it's Christ who separates them. Now, we think about some of the words that he said in Matthew 25 after the Olivet prophecy of Matthew 24, where he talks about the ten virgins, he talks about the sheep and goats and those who show the agape through life.

That are truly being led by his spirit versus those who don't. And you can read Matthew 25 yourself and read all those. I know you're familiar with it. But we have this picture that God is showing. And then in verse 41, he says, the Son of Man will send out his angels.

They will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness. And again, you know, we've talked about lawlessness a couple times. It's not just doing away with all the law. It's not paying attention to the law, not letting the law guide you. So earlier, Kay mentioned that one of the things that tradition says is that God gave the law to Israel on the Day of Pentecost.

They were gathered inside before that. It's the law we live by today, not legalistically, but we do it because we love God. And we know it's his way of life. It's the way Jesus Christ lived. And as we choose to follow him, we follow his way of life, not our way of life.

And just, you know, doing things our way, his way halfway and our way the other halfway is yielding to him and becoming like him and letting the heart that he develops in us lead us. So those who practice lawlessness, you know, in Matthew 7, I think it is, you know, Christ says, there are going to be those who will say to him in that day, Lord, Lord, you know, Lord, Lord, you know, didn't we do these things in your name?

Didn't we keep the Sabbath? Didn't we keep the Holy Days? Didn't we do these things for you? And he says, get behind me or get away from me, you who practice lawlessness. The law wasn't in their hearts. They didn't let God write it in their minds and in their hearts. And so he talks about this, and he talks about they will be cast into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and mashing of teeth down in verse 40. Let me look at my notes here. Oh, see where I am, Matthew?

Yeah, oh yeah, I'm right there. Okay, the righteous will, oh, verse 42, he will cast them into the furnace of fire. Now, when we read the Matthew 3, 12, it's interesting because, you know, he mentions about the unquenchable, the unquenchable fire for the chaff. I know that means it's unquenchable, the fire's not going out. But here he's casting them into the furnace of fire. And, you know, we go through fire, sometimes in our lives, to perfect us, to refine us, as the Bible says, you know, to the latency in church.

God will say things like, I buy of you gold, I counsel you, buy of me gold refined in the fire. And so these tares, you know, are cast into the furnace of fire, and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. I've been to the church, been, I've, you know, came into the church when I, when I was 10, and I didn't come to the church, my parents did. But, man, I remember, I remember the ministers always talking about wailing and gnashing of teeth, and I remember thinking, wow, what it would be like, and I still tremble when I think of that, when the time just Jesus Christ returns, or when that time comes, and He's separating the wheat from the chaff, or the wheat from the tares, or the Philadelphia attitudes from the latency and attitudes, and you realize you spent your life, and you are on the short end of the stick, if I can put it that way, and you're going to find yourself into the fire and the tribulation, the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth, that I would be going through if I was in that, that it would be like, I live my life for God, I know these things are there, and we just need to completely yield to Him.

But we have, again, the wheat. The Pentecost is for the wheat. That's you and me. Everyone on this line, everyone who listens to this, that's what God wants for us. He called us to be wheat, not the other, and we have that responsibility to follow Him implicitly through that.

I'll get to a couple questions here, but let me go to John 12 as well, because it points to Christ's life, our lives, the resurrection, the harvest, the first of the first fruits that we talked about earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, but in John 12 and verse 24, Christ says another thing that I probably disciples at the time He said that, and maybe some of us look at these verses and scratch our heads and think, what is Christ saying right here in this verse? So in verse 23, we look at Him talking, and He's talking about His coming sacrifice. In John 12, 23, it says, Jesus answered to the disciples, and He said, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. It needs to be put into the ground. A grain of wheat in our hands, if it's not put into the ground, it's not going to mount anything. It has to be put into the ground, and then it will produce what it has been, what that seed was designed to produce. Remember the good seed that is sown, and the death that comes to it. Unless that seed is put in the ground and dies, then it can bloom and grow up into something useful. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15, because God explains that in this resurrection chapter as well. In 1 Corinthians 15, in verse 36, again we were 1 Corinthians 15 earlier, it's the resurrection chapter where we talked about Christ being the first of the first fruits, the first resurrected from the dead, and then those who are dead in Christ, they will be resurrected at His return. That's the first fruits that we read about in Revelation 14. But in verse 36 here in this chapter, Paul is writing under inspiration from God, he writes, Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.

Well, this is a direct reference back to what Jesus Christ just we read in Luke 12, 24. Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. And then he goes on and he goes through the rest of this, all flesh is not of the same flesh. You know, when we are called, and when we repent, and when we make the choice to commit our lives to God wholeheartedly giving our lives to Him, we're baptized. And that baptism symbolizes death, right? We all know that. Symbolizes death. The old man is put to death, and out of that baptism, when God sees us as a new creation, we are there.

Put to life, put to death the old, and when that seed that God has planted is buried in baptism, he could become a creation in Christ. Same thing when we die physically. And when we complete our lives, and we become the weak that God wants us to, that He will harvest when Jesus Christ returns, and we are resurrected with the immortal bodies as the first fruits that we read about in 1 Corinthians 15, then we are of value, then we are of value, and then we are a blessing to everyone. We are useful in God's hands. So that's what Jesus Christ, when He was like, you know, He's there. He was living as His life, but He was going to have to die. He was living His life, but He was going to have to die. And then, when He's resurrected in His new immortal body, look at the salvation He was going to bring to all of mankind, literally all of mankind, if they choose, when they have the opportunity, whether it's in the first, whether it's in this life, or in the second resurrection, what that means to Him. And so you and I, as we are our wheat, we need to die to self. You know, Christ says, not Christ, Paul says in Galatians 2 verse 20, I think it is, I am crucified with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. I have put to death. I'm burying the old, I'm burying the old body so that the new body can live. So it can become the wheat and come out of the ground as something pleasing to God. And so we have all these, you know, these, as we look at wheat in the Bible, there's more we could talk about than as you study wheat, you're going to find more versus, you know, Christ says, you know, the fields are white with harvest. And He's talking about the wheat harvest there and some other things as well.

There's just all this symbolism, and it's all built in to the day of Pentecost. You and I are the wheat that God wants us to be. We have yet, we have yet, and we're living our lives now as we're growing in those stalks of wheat waiting, waiting for the harvest of the time, but we have to be continually growing, continually feeding on God's Word, continually allowing Him to mold us and grow us into the healthy plants that He is creating in us if we just let Him and as we let His Spirit lead us and guide us in the way that He wants us to be. So let me look at our time here. So we have, while we're in 1 Corinthians 15, let me go back here to verse, forward here to verse 50, because we've been talking about harvest, the wheat harvest. And we know that the wheat harvest, you know, the harvest, the Feast of Trumpets is, you know, at the seventh trumpet says that the resurrection of the first fruits will occur at that time.

But this feast, but we're at a time where, you know, God is looking at us now. Are we becoming the wheat? Will we be ready for that harvest when that comes whenever in that period of the Feast of Trumpets, you know, when that seventh trumpet sounds? Verse 50 of 1 Corinthians 15. I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That's the bodies we have now, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed no longer in these bodies, but we will be in those immortal bodies just like Jesus Christ was resurrected into an immortal incorruptible body. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Christ the first first fruits, then those who die, or who are Christ at his return, resurrected into those bodies, the wheat, the wheat that God is growing in, and then that are harvested at that time at the last trumpet.

For us, in verse 58, as Paul concludes this chapter, it was quite an encouraging chapter in thinking about it in the terms of Pentecost and the entire scope of God's plans. For us, the time is now. For those of us on, now is the time. God has called us now. For the rest of the world, it comes in the second resurrection after Jesus Christ returns to earth, but we are being prepared now. This is, as Peter says in 1 Peter 4.17, this is our day of salvation.

This is our time to yield to God and to come out of the world and commit to his truth and live by it. Verse 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So let me pause there. I see hands. I'm going to go ahead and pause there for a moment, and we can talk about anything you want to, but I kind of... then I'll come back after we have some questions, and we'll talk about where we'll go next week in reference to all that. Before I do that, let me do reference the two lows. Nope, you know what? There is one verse I want to go back to before that I see I overlooked as I'm thinking about it. Let's go to Ephesians. Ephesians 4, I believe it is. No, Ephesians 2, I think. Speaking of the two lows, right? Because there's two lows that are weighed before God. Two lows that are weighed before God, and we didn't talk about that.

Some people say it's Old Testament, New Testament. Others say it's Jews and Gentiles. They're two groups of people. Others, you can see two groups of people, right? We have wheat and chaff that we talked about. We have wheat and tares that we talked about. You know, we can talk about the types of people. We have, you know, at the end time, we have two attitudes among the churches of God that Jesus crossed through the Phil...

talks to the Philadelphians of the Laodiceans. We have two groups of people, two groups that are there. But here in Ephesians 2, speaking of these groups, we see that in Christ there is... there comes unity. Unity in Him. Unity in Him through His body, through the bread that we eat, right? The 1 Corinthians 10, 16 talks about unity. That's part of the communion we have or fellowship we have with God is with Him.

And that's the unity that comes here in Ephesians 2 and verse 13. Paul, as he's writing to Gentiles, he says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace. Ah, that's what I didn't go back to. The peace offering. The peace offering that was part of those offerings of Leviticus 23.

That's where the peace comes from. It's a free will offering. It's the unity. It's coming before God in the fellowship with Him. And that peace offering, if you remember from our discussions in Ezekiel, the person bringing the offering, the priest and God all had a part. All had a part in that peace offering.

And on that day of Pentecost, that 50 days from the wave sheep offering, they had to bring a peace offering to symbolizing the fellowship that they had with each other and with God. Just like Paul, not Paul, like John, talks about in 1 John 1 where he says, our fellowship is with each other. Our fellowship is with God. And so we have this fellowship. Let's read through this and then I'll get to everyone. For He Himself is our peace.

He's the peace offering as well, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity. That is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. The way of just adherence to law, but now adherence of giving our hearts and minds to God and letting Him write His law in our minds and hearts. But also talking about the two groups of people, Jews and Gentiles, who have completely disparate ways of life.

But as God calls them in, as they are bound by the truth, as they are bound by His Spirit, they become one. It takes work. In Ephesians 4, Paul says, you know, strive, strive for that unity. It takes work.

"...to create himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting together the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off, and to those who were near.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." And then you can read the rest of the chapter there. We talked about now we're being built as the temple of God. All of us, all of us together. The enmity gone, the foundation, His Spirit, commitment to truth, following Christ, and doing the things that He wants. And as we, you know, go to Pentecost and think about it the rest of this week, we keep those things in our mind and mentally prepare ourselves for that time.

The magnitude, the magnitude of what God has called us to, the magnitude of what God has opened our minds to, is unbelievable. Only can come by God's Holy Spirit, and what God says in these chapters here can only come by that as well. So let me stop talking and let you talk for a while.