God's Holy Day Basics 101

Well, thank you again, Mr. Rebar. Happy Sabbath to all of you in the hall, and also those of you who are joining us on Zoom today. I wish each and every one of you a wonderful and fulfilling and happy Sabbath day. In just a few weeks, we will begin the 2020 fall Holy Day season, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets, right here, two weeks from today, on Sabbath the 19th of September. These fall festivals begin after a three-month-long gap since we observed Pentecost way back in June. I wonder if you've ever considered that the focus of the fall Holy Days are totally different than the spring Holy Days and Pentecost are. That's what I'd like to talk about today. I'd like to provide an overview of what God outlines about His festivals. There are seven annual festivals. Two are in the spring. One is in the summer, and four are in the fall. All of them were originally tied to harvest celebrations. That's a very powerful metaphor because together they all represent a plan to harvest human souls for salvation and for human beings to eventually become part of the sonship of God. Let's go to Psalm 33 and verse 8. Psalm 33 and verse 8. I think a scripture we read maybe six weeks ago or so, but I'm going to use it in a little different context here. I'm going to use it in the context of the Holy Days. Psalm 33 and verse 8. If you'll turn there with me. The great psalmist was inspired to write, Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done. When God says He's going to do something, it is absolutely, positively sure. It is 100% promise that He's going to do exactly what He says He's going to do. He's spoken, it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. Nations plan certain things, and we pass laws, and we think we're all so smart and so powerful as a people. But history records that every civilization that ever existed on earth eventually fell and collapsed.

Whether it's many of the ancient Chinese empires, the Indian empires in the Americas, the Roman Empire, ancient Egypt, it doesn't matter. They're all feudal, and eventually they all come to nothing. In verse 10, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the people of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Brethren, God has had a master plan for the human race and for our individual lives since the beginning of time. And all the plans that people make, all the plans that nations make, are feudal, and they come to absolute nothing. But God, He doesn't play dice, and the plans of His heart are outlined in His festivals. What I'd like to do today is very simple. I would like to give a review of the Holy Days as God presents them, to see what they are, to see how the first group that we call the Spring Holy Days in Pentecost has a totally different focus than the four Holy Days that happen or occur in the fall. Similar to the Ten Commandments, if you've ever thought about the Ten Commandments, of the Ten Commandments, the first four have a focus on loving and having respect towards God. Then they change focus, because the last six focus on loving and having respect for our neighbor, our fellow creation of God. Just like we were created by God, they were created by God. We have obligations to God, as outlined in the first four of those commandments, and within the same umbrella of the Ten Commandments, a different focus on the final six, which mention our obligations to our neighbor. Let's go to Leviticus 23, verses 1-4, and we'll just begin here. As we go through each of the Holy Days, I'm going to refer to a verse in Leviticus, but we won't spend the time to keep going back to Leviticus. The majority of you have been through Leviticus 23 for many, many years, and understand it. So even though I will read the Scriptures, I won't expect you to turn back there. But we will look at it together right now for a few minutes. Leviticus 23, beginning in verse 1. It is always important for us to be reminded of who established these Holy Days and who they belonged to. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feast of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feast. God created them. God established them. God owns them. No one has the right to abolish them, because the owner is God. He established them. These are my feasts. And he begins with a weekly Sabbath. In six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation, or a holy gathering, a family reunion, if you will, of God's people. And we do that each and every Sabbath. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord. Again, they don't belong to some church, or a church council, or a pope. They belong to God. They honor God. They reveal the plans in his heart that he has for all humanity through those particular days. These are the feasts of the Lord's holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. So God announces to Moses a reminder of the weekly Sabbath festival, and then he begins to proclaim the seven annual holy days.

But you know something? He mentioned something even before the seven annual holy days. He mentioned something that in the Old Covenant was not a holy convocation. It's something people did individually in their families. He's going to mention something in which there was no prohibition not to work on that day. So why in the world would he insert what he's about to say in verse 5 between his declaration for the Sabbath observance and literally beginning to outline those seven annual holy days? Let's take a look at verse 5 and describe why. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. Again, this isn't a holy day. In the Old Covenant, people didn't gather together as a holy congregation on the Passover together. They did it in their own families, separate from each other. There's no prohibition against working on this day. So what's this all about? Well, brethren, what it's all about is this is where it all starts. Human beings need a savior and a redeemer. Without salvation, everything else in Leviticus 23 is meaningless. Without a savior, there's no reason to be concerned about sin in your life because you're condemned and damned for eternity. There's no reason to think that you would ever receive something holy as a gift like the Spirit of God if you were living forever in a damned condition and situation. There would never be a need for Jesus Christ to return to this earth and for a kingdom of righteousness to be established if every human being upon death dies for eternity and dies forever.

So this is significant. It's the shed blood of Jesus Christ, originally pictured by this Passover Lamb, that makes salvation and reconciliation even possible. Before any of the annual festivals are introduced, the Passover is instituted because this is what makes them possible.

This is what gives them meaning. As I've said before, the Holy Days are all Christ-centered. Every one of them reflects what Jesus Christ has done or is doing today or will yet do in the future.

Let's now go to 1 Corinthians 5 and take a look at verses 6-8.

It's a scripture we often read during the spring Holy Days.

There's one statement in here that I want to point out because Paul is agreeing that the Holy Days are Christ-centered. He's agreeing that nothing happens until we have a Savior, until we have a Redeemer, until someone was provided so that our sins could be passed over.

1 Corinthians 5, verses 6-8, Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leavened leavened is the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. These are all metaphors that we understand from the days of unleavened bread. Since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I want you to notice how Paul puts this. He says, indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Therefore, because of that, because you have a Savior, because you have someone who died in your place, let us keep the feast that represents taking sin out of our lives.

This is exactly what Paul is saying here. So again, the annual festivals begin with the most important event in human history that makes those days possible, meaningful, significant. Otherwise, what we're about to talk about, the rest of the sermon, would have no meaning.

And what we just read here is the exact reason that Paul told the Corinthians just a few chapters earlier, chapter 2 and verse 2. Paul said to the Corinthians, for I am determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's where it begins. That is the significant event.

And that event is what makes the seven annual holy days possible, or even have any meaning. Every human being who has ever lived or ever will live must at one time or another acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior. Every human being who has ever lived or will live must accept his shed blood for the remission of their sins upon their own repentance.

Once this is possible, and this provision has been provided by Jesus Christ, the festivals in Leviticus can now be presented and have meaning and purpose and validity. So we'll begin with the days of Unleavened Bread, the first annual holy days, the first day and the seventh day. I'm going to read from Leviticus 23 and verse 6. Again, if you choose not to turn back to Leviticus, as I mentioned at the beginning of each of these seven festivals, that's fine. Leviticus 23 and verse 6, it reads this, And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

And then it says there in verse 8 that the seventh day is also a holy day. The period of time between these first two annual holy days is seven days long. Seven happens to be the number of perfection. The days of Unleavened Bread emphasize two very important points. Here's point number one.

First important point is the progression of getting sin out of our lives, beginning with our calling. It's a lifetime job, a lifetime of growth and good works to give glory to God. Not growth and good works so we can glory in ourselves or think that somehow we're earning God's favor or God's righteousness, but growth and good works to literally give glory to that awesome God who called us out of this world and gave us so many incredible opportunities. And removing leavened pictures our desire to develop the mind of Christ and to remove sin from our lives. That's the first important point. The second important point is understanding the righteousness that comes from Christ. By Him living in us. Let's go to Romans chapter 3 and verse 21. I want to emphasize, as I have so many times in the past, that the reason we are called children of God now, the reason the Father doesn't look upon us as sinners or in a disgusting or foul way, the reason that we are not cut off from God, though we're still carnal and though we still sin and fall short of the glory of God, is because Christ who dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, He is our righteousness. He fills the gap that we presently have in our lives. Romans chapter 3 and verse 21. But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed. So He's talking about a righteousness that you don't achieve simply by being obedient to the Ten Commandments. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. Now, obviously, the phrase believe here means a commitment and dedication to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean what the word has degenerated to in our 21st century, like someone said, I believe I'll have a beer.

Well, that's very nice, but there's no real lifetime commitment to that act. There's no real thought. There's no real change that results in what we call believe today, or make believe, as many people live their lives. When it says believe here, it means someone who is making a dedicated effort as a servant and as a disciple to follow Jesus Christ as their Savior. For there is no difference. Verse 23, Are we justified in the eyes of the Father? Absolutely. Why are we justified? Because we're superior, because we do some things right, because we keep God's law perfectly? Nope. We are justified by His grace, because of the redemption of Jesus Christ. He paid the price for all of the sins of humanity. Let's take a look at verse 26.

We'll be talking about that literally on the Day of Atonement this year. We'll go through that in a little more detail. Set forth as an Atonement sacrifice by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because of His forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. So, brethren, Jesus Christ died for us, and He became our righteousness because He is perfect. And because we accept Him as Savior, we believe that He is our Lord and our God to the degree that we're willing to dedicate our lives as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Our lifelong commission is to reject sin and become more like God in every way. And during the days of Unleavened Bread, there was a command to eat Unleavened Bread for seven days, and we do that as a symbolic action that we desire, the righteousness from the bread of life Himself to literally come inside of us. That we want to be righteous as He is righteous. That we accept His righteousness in our lives that fills the gap until we get to the point where we can be there when we are totally spirit, when we are totally immortal. So again, we eat Unleavened Bread for seven days, representing our desire to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ within us. As Jesus stated Himself in John chapter 6 and verse 47, most assuredly, I say unto you, He who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life.

And that's that powerful meaning of those first two annual holy days, represented by those days of Unleavened Bread. No matter when a human being lives in human history, whether they lived thousands of years ago, whether they're living now, whether they live within the kingdom of God, or after the millennium has ended, everyone must experience free choice. And the growth of character that comes from resisting sin and evil. Every person will need to experience temptation and the ability to say no. The ability to choose good over evil. The ability to choose right over wrong. Every person will need to experience that, to develop the genuine commitment and faithfulness and integrity that God can use for an eternity. So those were the first two of the holy days. Again, the first day of Unleavened Bread, second day of Unleavened Bread. Let's take a look now at Pentecost, which is the third annual holy day. Normally occurs in the summertime. We don't have to overcome sin alone. Symbolized by the third holy day that we call Pentecost, Jesus Christ offers us the most awesome power in the universe to assist us in removing sin and developing godly fruit as part of our character. I'll just read you a couple of scriptures referring to this in the book of Leviticus. Leviticus 23.15. And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, that's the Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread in context, from the day that you brought the sheaf and the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. And then it says in verse 21 of Leviticus 23, and you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

So this summer festival celebrates the receiving of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant as occurred in Acts chapter 2. Jesus promised that he would not leave his church an orphan. He said the Father would provide a helper and a comforter to all of the believers of Jesus Christ. Christ promised on the eve of his death in John chapter 14 in verse 23, he said, quote, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. That is that gift of God's Holy Spirit. And that Spirit that we have, we share with God the Father and Jesus Christ, because through that remarkable gift given to us by the Lord, given to us by the laying on of hands, we literally have been given a bit of the spiritual mind of God to reside inside of us. Let's go to Romans chapter 8 and verse 13. If you'll turn there with me. This is, again, this is the third annual Holy Day we call Pentecost. Very short verse I want to read here, but a very powerful one. Romans chapter 8 and verse 13. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Physical beings who live according to the flesh, who live according to carnal thoughts, and have no desire to know about God, don't care about God, eventually, they grow old and they die. If it weren't for a Savior, they would be dead for eternity. But God isn't simply pro-life. We have that term today. People talk about, well, I'm pro-life. God is pro-eternal life. He wants to give everyone an opportunity for salvation.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put the death of the deeds of the body, that is, we continue to work on ourselves and grow and eliminate that sin and begin to challenge our self-talk and begin to replace the negativity in our heads with something positive and constructive. The end result is eternal life.

Verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

So the first three holy days that we just reviewed included the days of unleavened bread and Pentecost, and they occurred in the first and third months of the Hebrew calendar. What they have in common, that's a totally different focus from the fall holy days, is this time it's personal.

It's something that each and every individual human being must experience. Everyone who has lived, lives today, or will live in the future, something they must do. It's the process of conversion. And it's personal for each and every person. Wherever they live, or whenever they are called, everyone must personally experience repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. And how is that all made possible? By Jesus Christ being the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover. Secondly, everyone must go through a period of physical life struggling against sin and our own carnal human nature to develop righteous character and obedience. And thirdly, everyone must receive the Holy Spirit. This is the seed of God's mind that enters our own human minds upon conversion and helps us to slowly, but surely, if we're using it and developing the fruit that is provided by that Spirit, helps us to develop character and obedience. It's what makes us the children of God. It's why we are called now the children of God. So those were the first three holy days. Totally different focus. They're not prophetic. They're personal. They're individual. Every human being who ever lives will have to experience the process of conversion.

And then there are no other holy days until the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. So there's a three-month gap between Pentecost and the Feast of Trumpets. What does that period represent? Well, it's a prophetic message from God that there would be a long time span between Jesus leaving the earth in 31 A.D. when he would ascend up into heaven and returning again to establish the kingdom of God pictured by the Feast of Trumpets. The spacings of the holy days indicate that a long, long time, like maybe 2,000 years plus, 2,000 years would occur. And during that time, God would call generations of firstfruits to be developed by God, and they would participate. They'll be there in the holy days that we are just about to describe.

They will have been prepared to participate as saints and part of the army of Jesus Christ to literally be part of the holy days that we are just about to talk about. And they would participate in celebrating these holy days that portray the soon-coming King. Again, there's a big difference between the meaning of the spring holy days and these fall holy days that we're about to talk about. So again, just to recap, the spring holy days represent personal and individual salvation. The fall holy days represent the future, prophetic events, leading to the salvation of all humanity. So let's now go and begin discussing briefly these fall holy days and their significance. These are prophetic events. We have the privilege to be involved in them. Only a small few of human beings who ever lived since God created Adam and Eve will have the privilege, the remarkable privilege, to be there and to participate in their own way. In these prophetic events, we're about to discuss.

So next is the Feast of Trumpets. We'll read from Leviticus 23, verse 24. This is the fourth annual holy day. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial, a blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Now, anciently, the blowing of trumpets sounded various messages to the nation of Israel after they came out of slavery. Trumpets were used to call everyone together for war. Sometimes trumpets were used to make an announcement or to say it's time to travel, it's time to pack everything up and move forward.

In the New Testament theology, it's universally recognized that Jesus Christ will return to earth as the sound of a powerful trumpet heavenly blast introduces his arrival to this planet. Jesus Christ returns to make war against the armies of the antichrist and to establish the kingdom of God. Now, let's turn here about this, or read about this in his very own words. In Matthew 24, verse 30, Jesus said, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, and from one end of heaven to another.

So Jesus Christ returns, and what we call the first resurrection occurs. And everyone who has ever died in Christ is resurrected from their grave, no matter where they died in this world, whether they died at sea or whether they died in any continent on earth, and then followed by those who were alive at that time in Christ, are all gathered together to join Jesus Christ in the air.

Because we are going to join him and be with him as he returns to earth to establish that great kingdom.

At the return of Christ, power and great glory will be given to us by Christ himself, and we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets knowing it looks forward to that actual return of the Messiah to this earth.

Jesus is coming to this earth to bring peace and justice and God's law and an everlasting kingdom, but he is not coming to this earth alone.

He is not planning on bringing those wonderful qualities all by himself.

For 2,000 years, pictured by that gap between the Day of Pentecost, three months long, and the Feast of Trumpets, he has been preparing in advance educators, counselors, leaders, priests, and an elect group that has hundreds of different talents to contribute to the needs of the people.

He is going to bring the needs of that kingdom to the great cause of justice and peace on earth. Again, that's the fourth annual Holy Day, the Feast of Trumpets. The fifth is the Day of Atonement. And again, I will read a few verses from Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus 23 verse 26, This wonderful, prophetic day, this time, looks forward to an event in which the influence of Satan and his demons are removed from this world. They will be replaced by the loving rulership of Jesus Christ and his saints. That includes you. Yes, fasting reminds us of the fact that we are still weak and mortal beings who need God for each and every breath, who need God each and every day. But another major reason that we afflict our souls is to remind us that God's other creation, our brothers and sisters in this world, still need a healing spirit and need the arrival of God's kingdom. By fasting, we humbly beseech God to help us in our own weaknesses, but we also mourn for a world that is still deceived by the devil, in which people pay a horrible, terrible price for sin, for living lives enmeshed in sin. And we afflict ourselves and we mourn for that as well, looking for a better time, a better day. Revelation chapter 20 verse 1, if you'll turn there with me, Revelation chapter 20 and verse 1, Revelation chapter 20 here, mentions the fulfillment that is pictured by the day of atonement and the removal of Satan from the influence of this world. Verse 1, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil in Satan and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into a bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him. He can no longer influence people, either subliminally through emanating a spirit into people's minds, or even in a, what we would call, physical presence. He's no longer there to torment people, to fester sin, to initiate problems on the earth. He's been shut up. A seal has been set on him. He's in a spiritual prison, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. So he'll be imprisoned for the millennium. So the kingdom and its citizens are not plagued by his negative influences, like the earth today is plagued with each and every day of our lives. The sixth annual holy day is the Feast of Tabernacles. And again, I will read from Leviticus chapter 23, verse 33. The first day is a holy day. This is the sixth annual holy day. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you must offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

And then we'll get to the eighth day shortly. On the eighth day you will have a holy convocation. And you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work on it.

We know that anciently the Israelites left their homes and they built tabernacles during the Feast for temporary dwellings for them to live in. These temporary dwellings reminded them that God had something far more important planned for them in the future. And that's a good lesson, especially those of us who live in the Western world and maybe have comfortable homes. And we like our homes and we like our dwellings. We like to be there. The Feast reminds us that everything we have is temporary. That we shouldn't be satisfied by second best, by just physical gains and achievements, by material possessions. That's second best. What we should long for is the permanence of the Kingdom of God in a spiritual home. Earthly homes eventually decay and they fall into disrepair. The eternal home of the Kingdom of God is what this Feast represents. Revelation, chapter 21 and verse 3. One verse. Let's read that together. Revelation, chapter 21 and verse 3. A time that God has longed for. Since the time when Adam and Eve rejected God and hid themselves from the presence of God in the garden and basically said, God, we don't want you in our world. Please go away.

Since that time, he's longed to come back and have his presence on this earth. Revelation 21, verse 3. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. No longer confined to the third heavens. No longer far away. But now his literal presence is here with men on the earth. And he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God.

This is talking about the entire earth, not just the elect, not simply the Church of God, but a time in the future in which he will be the God of all the earth. This holy day, along with the weekly Sabbath, represents the thousand-year rule of Christ on earth, beginning with Jerusalem and then going out to all of the nations slowly but surely.

Qualities like healing and justice and abundant blessings will be given to the world and everyone will be blessed by them. A new godly culture with love will replace the carnal cultures of greed and selfishness that we see so much in our news each and every day.

A beautiful new world will replace the world that we live in today, a world that includes hunger and disease. My, is that an understatement? Disease, war, abuse, family dysfunctions, suicide, social ills. All of those negative human qualities will be replaced by love and human beings have in respect for each other. These beautiful qualities do not just occur because someone waves a magic wand. It's going to take a lot of hard work and patience and grace by God's saints, God's children, to help bring this about in a new world.

As John was inspired to write in Revelation chapter 20 verse 6, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.

And now that leads us to the seventh annual holy day that we today call the eighth day known in the past as the last straight day. I'm going to read it first from Leviticus 23. Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days. On the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest and on the eighth day, a Sabbath rest. So this is a holy day in and of itself on this eighth day. The major emphasis on this holy day is not just you and me. No, we will already be the sons and daughters of God's family at this time.

The emphasis is on the multiple billions who lived and died. The overwhelming majority, having never known God, never having even heard the name of Jesus Christ in their entire lifetimes, never having even seen a Bible, let alone the New Testament, lived their entire lives 60, 70, 80 years, died with no knowledge of God. They, too, will receive an opportunity for salvation. After the thousand years of the millennium have ended, an enormous resurrection will occur, and all those throughout human history who were never called, never knew God, never had that opportunity, but will be raised from the dead to live again.

Our final scripture today, Revelation chapter 20 and verse 12. If you'll turn there with me, Revelation chapter 20 and verse 12. John wrote, and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which was the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works. As they say in the infomercials late at night, but wait, there's more. I mean, if you're just judged according to your works, it's all over.

It's curtains! Because our works basically say that we are damned for all eternity. By the things that were written in the books, the sea gave up the dead who were in it in death, and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

In this resurrection, everyone is judged guilty and worthy of death. But God, in his great mercy and compassion, gives everyone their first chance to accept Christ Jesus as their Savior. They will then have physical lives for a time to develop righteous character, as the prophet Ezekiel was inspired to write during this time as he saw the people of Israel. Here's what he wrote. This is from Ezekiel 37, verse 11.

So beginning with Israel, every sinner, every one who ever died, but did not know God, did not have an opportunity to be a sinner, did not have an opportunity to be a sinner. Did not have an opportunity to know God, will come out of their graves, and will receive God's Spirit, and have an opportunity to be converted and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, like you and I accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Verse 14, And I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord. Well, brethren, in conclusion, let's look forward to these fall holy days this year. Remember that God not only loves His firstfruits, He loves everyone who has ever lived throughout His life. God hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and He desires to redeem everyone who is judged guilty by sin. Because, like us, those individuals who come up in this resurrection spoken of on the last great day or the eighth day, they need a Savior too. Just like you and I needed a Savior and accepted Jesus Christ as ours, this world needs its loving Creator. The fall holy days remind us that God has not forgotten the world and that He has a plan. The first part of that plan is individual. First holy days represent conversion and the steps and process of repentance and accepting the shed blood of Christ as our Savior, dedicating our life to Him, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then the fall holy days all represent very powerful prophetic events in which we will be able to participate in as the children of God. So knowing that, let's look forward to the fall holy days this year. I wish all of you a wonderful Sabbath, a fulfilling Sabbath, and hopefully we will see you next week.