The Gospel in the Holy Days

Sometimes when I do Beyond Today, I introduce this subject when I cover this subject with, I have some really good news and I have some really bad news. Because when we talk about the gospel, the good news, we have to tell about the bad news first, right? Why you need the good news. Now most people live their lives knowing there's something wrong. I'm amazed when I meet people who just live every day almost in the moment and never seem to understand that why nothing's working. I mean, they never question why life is such a mess. But most people know they're going through life in a quiet desperation, as it had been said, trying to figure out what is it we are to do. Why isn't things work out? Why do people die? Why do people suffer? And we're coming up with the Holy Days. And what I'm going to cover today is something very simple. But sometimes, as I say, we always have to go back to the simplicity. The simplicity of the good news as revealed in the Holy Days. The Holy Days are all about the gospel. There's so many things that we get caught up in, so many things that distract us, even sometimes in the Scripture, that if we're not careful, we get pulled away from the core basic things. And every year you hear me say this, you heard me say it last year or last week. When the sermon I gave was on how we are baptized, how we are buried with Christ. And now Paul mentions that over and over again. Well, we're baptized, we're buried with Christ, and the profound meaning of that, and that your old person is dead. And I used the analogy that I was a little nervous about. The problem is the zombie keeps coming back. But I got all kinds of emails from people saying, that was the perfect way to say that.

The monster keeps coming back. And we think, what's wrong with us? Well, Paul describes that. He understands that. That we're buried. We died with Christ. The old person's dead. And we keep fighting that old person. And many times we keep giving in to the old person, and we're not supposed to. And I went through the one scripture how we are crucified with Him. That's a profound statement. We died with Him so that we could become someone new. And that's what the good news is, that we have to die. But there's this plan of salvation in which we can become the children of God. And as I said then, and I say it today, every time we come back to the Passover, we're at ground zero. We step back from everything, and we look at the very most solid core of what this is all about.

Because without the Passover, it really is pretty meaningless. This whole concept of Christianity we have. Without that core understanding, and how then the Holy Days. And this is what we have that's so unique. God's given us a gift. Now because we're special, not because we're better, we just received a gift. At grace, that gift to us was the Holy Days show you the gospel, the good news, what God is doing. That's why today, once again, this is just an overview. This is a very simple overview.

But I want to go through each of the Holy Days and show how they are lessons about the gospel, about what everything else attaches to. And I don't care what other doctrines we have, the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath, the clean unclean means, the fact that you don't have an immortal soul. Everything is attached to this.

This is where you start. And it's revealed in the Holy Days. I did a BT program on the Holy Days, and there were three people there that were, I think I mentioned this to you, that were actually not, most of the audience was UCG people, not all of them are, but these three were actually from a people that organized a piece of tabernacle for us. And they were there, and afterwards they came up to someone and said, we never understood why you do this.

You know, we run convention centers, and we, you know, you all come in and you do these conventions for eight days, and we never understood why. Now we understand this is actually biblical. It's actually Christian. They were actually very excited about it. And all it was was a program on what we're covering today in a little less detail, showing what God's plan really is. So we're going to go through each Holy Day, and we're going to look at how each one has a past application, a present application in your life right now, and a future application.

That's why the Holy Days, you say, you know, they're just all about the past. No, they're not. They have a past meaning. They have a present meaning. And they do have a future meaning. In fact, each Holy Day has prophetic meaning. Now we're not going to have time to go through all that in detail once again. But I just want us to look at this and remember what we're starting right now. Before services, someone told me that she was really studying the fruits of the Spirit. I said, you know, and before the before the Passover, I said, it's a great time to do that.

You know, this was planting season, just like now is becoming planting season. You're going to have the fruit you plant. And now, as we prepare for the Passover, it's spiritual replanting season for all of us. We're not just looking at ourselves to see how evil we are. We're looking at ourselves to see how much are we becoming like Jesus Christ. We're going to be reminded at the Passover the price paid for our forgiveness and the price paid so that we can change. The price paid so we can become the children of God. So the first one we're going to look at, of course, is the Passover.

So let's look at this first slide. We have a little technical difficulty, so I have to tell them when the chain slides. The ancient Israelites were saved by the blood of the Passover lamb. Now, we rehearsed that this time of year.

You all know the story. We tell our children about how the ancient Israel came out of Egypt, and there was the 10 plagues, and there was the Passover lamb, and how the blood went on the doorpost, and how God saved them. God saved them. The present is the understanding that the greater spiritual concept of the Passover is that God's justice demands a penalty for sin.

It is in God's nature not to accept evil. And since all of us have become partly good and partly evil, we're going to talk about that in the Bible study, too, because we've been going through basic doctrines. We're going to be talking about the Kingdom of God in the Bible study today. Well, if we have time, I may just… if we have questions about what we cover today, we'll just cover that if we have questions. God's love supplied the perfect Passover lamb and Jesus Christ as the substitute for us.

You see, the bad news always leads us to, I'm doomed. You know, discovering the law doesn't save you, because all that discovering the law does is say, oh my, I'm doomed. I am… I've broken those laws so many times, not just literally. In my mind, I've broken every one of those laws over and over again until, like Paul says, sin is actually part of me. I'm doomed. So the law is there. We need the law. The law is God's gift for us. It shows us bad conduct and it shows us good conduct. But in the end, when we first discover the law, what do we find? Oh my, there's something wrong with me. I must be saved. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 5. Remember basic scriptures today? 1 Corinthians 5.

A lot of concepts.

Verse 7. Well, let's go… No, let's do verse 7, because we're going to go back to this in a minute. Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Well, we keep the Passover. We do indeed commemorate what happened in ancient Egypt. But you know, the Jews keep the Passover in commemoration of what happened in ancient Egypt. For us, it is much more profound. We're just not keeping the Passover day. We're not keeping the Passover ceremony. We are actually commemorating the death of the actual Passover. The lamb slain may be called the Passover, but it wasn't the real Passover. You know, I talk about types and anti-types. That's a type of something much greater. The anti-type of the type, the much greater thing that represents, is Jesus Christ. He is the Passover. And that's when it comes to the present time why we still keep the Passover. Because right now in your life, you're commemorating the covenant God made with you, the forgiveness God gave to you, the opportunity that God gave to you to be His child, to change, to grow, and the penalty that Christ paid. You are celebrating the Passover, and that's why it has a modern, present application. What did Jesus say on the night that He kept the Passover, and we'll cover this on that night, when He kept the Passover with His disciples? He said, take this, this is my body, this is my blood, because I'm instituting a new covenant. You and I are here keeping this Passover, or will be later this week, because we have become participants in the new covenant. It's not just something old. That's why the argument that the Holy Days are nothing but old covenant shows a total not understanding the meaning of the Holy Days, because every Holy Day pictures the work God is doing through Jesus Christ. And I've had Protestant ministers ask me about the Holy Days, and when I cover all this in about three or four minutes, and they've said, that makes sense. It's all there. The plan's all there. But of course, they don't see any need to keep them, because that's part of the old covenant. Jesus said, do this on a Passover, as the Passover, do this. But by the way, I'm doing away with the Passover. It doesn't add up. So we have a present thing we do. We know that there are numerous times, once again, in the New Testament, and you can go there. We're just covering this information just in a brief way today, where He's called the Lamb of God. He's called the Passover, right? Apologies He's called the Passover. So we observe this Passover today, because presently, you are being brought back to understanding what God's sacrifice was for you, and that you have this opportunity to be in a relationship with Him. This is why it is so dangerous to give up this covenant once you become a participant in it, because you're actually taking the sacrifice of the Passover and saying, it's not that important. That's what's so scary about it. That's why this brings us back. We can drift a lot during the year, but this always brings us back. No matter what we've been off, what tangent we've been off on, what habits, bad habits we've been doing, what sins we've been flirting with, whatever we've been going over the last year, we're brought back to, whoa, whoa, whoa, come back to this point. God made a covenant with you through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Through the blood of Jesus Christ. I actually had a Protestant pastor within the last couple months say something to me, do you know about blood covenants? I said, yeah. He said, the new covenants of blood covenant, he says, I never knew that. He was, he says, I never knew that. And I'm thinking, then how did you understand the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Of course, I didn't say that. We just had a little discussion over blood covenants.

It was amazing to watch a man who doesn't know much of the Bible come to an understanding something so simple to us. So we have this present, but you know, interesting enough, there's a future to this. There's a future application of this Passover. Let's go to Isaiah 42.

I have dozens of scriptures written down. I'm not going to go to all of them because I just want to... This is a big concept. This is bringing everything into focus in ways that many of you know, most of you know all this, but let's get it refocused.

42 verse 7, one of the most famous messianic prophecies in the book of Isaiah. And there are a lot of them in Isaiah. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights. I put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. So this is important because this messianic prophecy isn't just about Israel. It's to everyone, everyone. He will not cry out and raise his voice or cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised wreaths will not...he will not break and smoking flax. He will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged to his established justice in the earth. And the coastlands shall wait for his law. Except that phrase is actually from the Septuagint. It means all nations. It goes all to every place on the earth. Wherever the oceans go, wherever they land, that's where the truth is going to go. This is a huge concept. This is more than just bringing...yes? 42. Yeah. What's your say?

I started at verse 1. I'm sorry. Did I say verse 7? We're going to verse 7. Just hold on, Tim. We'll get there.

Thank you. Yeah. You can be...usually when I start reading, if I'm not there, that's because I started before it. Okay? I'm going someplace. So good. Thanks for bringing that up because everybody else is looking like...and of course, I'm just going on. So...and the coastland shall wait for His law. That's not exactly the way the Hebrew is, but it's a beautiful way of putting it. It's going to go everywhere. His law is going to go everywhere. Thus say God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it. I, the Lord, have called you...talking once again about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in righteousness and will hold your hand and will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I will make you a covenant to the people. This is to all people. Notice this isn't just to the physical descendants of Abraham. He is Himself the covenant. The Passover lamb was slain as part of the covenant between God and Israel. And there were lambs slain all the time. Abraham had to slay a lamb as part of the covenant between him and God.

This lamb was slain for everybody, and this is Jesus Christ. Understand this future part of this. The world right now does not know that they can enter into a covenant with God through this blood sacrifice. They don't know that. But you know He returns. It says, the coastlands wait for Him. Jesus Christ is coming back, and when He does, He establishes this covenant with everyone. That's the great…one of the great messages of the Passover. One of the great messages of the Passover is, He is the covenant. Take this. This is bread. This wine that symbolizes what? My body, my sacrifice, I have become a covenant between you and God. That's amazing. But the prophecy, the future intent, is this goes out to all humanity. That's the future. So the Passover isn't over. It's not just looking to the past or even to the present. It's looking to the future. Look at the next slide. The Days of Unleavened Bread. That's coming up. In the past…I don't know if anybody drank out of this water. No, they didn't. Excuse me. The Israelites, ancient Israelites, kept the Days of Unleavened Bread, seven days, as a reminder that God saved them from slavery in Egypt. We know that.

Presently, leavening is a symbol of our slavery to sin. And sin must be removed from our lives to replace it with righteousness. Let's go to Romans 6.

Romans 6.

I've already read this once in preparation for as we move towards the Holy Days this season. Romans 6.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How many or how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ, were baptized into His death? We covered this last week. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so also we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this that the old man was crucified with Him. So we covered this in great detail last week. We know that we can go and show where leavening is a symbol of sin. Well, that's good. Let's just do this. 1 Corinthians, because we read part of this, I'm going to read it again, restate what we know because it comes from the Scripture. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleaven. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast. And obviously, He's saying this to a Gentile church, and He literally means let's keep the feast. I've seen people try to allegoryize this away. It wouldn't make any sense to do so. He expected them to know about Christ as the Passover, and He expected these Gentiles to know what the days of unleavened bread roll about and to keep it. Not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So Paul says, we're not just removing leavening. We do that, right? You're going to go remove leavening this week. Some of you are already active in it. My wife has already cleaned my office. Usually, I clean my office, but she realized since I never eat there, that's the easiest place to clean. So she goes and cleans it.

So we know that we are going to do physical de-leavening, but it's the spiritual de-leavening that Paul is concerned with here. If we do the physical de-leavening without the spiritual de-leavening, we're missing the point. The physical de-leavening is supposed to teach us something, right? The physical de-leavening is supposed to teach us about spiritual de-leavening. So there is a present reason. We're just not doing it because ancient Israel did it. That was a type. It shows us something. We do it because we're looking forward to this spiritual de-leavening process. Now, notice how positive Paul is about this de-leavening process. We can only be positive about, oh my, I'm still being de-leavened. I still have sinned. I still have things I have to work on. There are still struggles I have. There are times when I still lack faith. And we look at ourselves and we see those things, and then we go into the Passover saying, well, why even keep the Passover? I've failed. No, the point is you are in the process of being de-leavened. We're still in that process. It's not done yet. Unless I really would like to meet you. Is anyone here totally spiritually de-leavened? Please raise your hand because I would like to know what that's like. So we're still in that process. So there is a present application. Now, what's interesting when we look at this, we see that there's also a future application.

Another Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 2. This one's read a lot during the Feast of Tabernacles. I want to read it now because it shows us this process of being de-leavened involves teaching. We have to be taught. How can we de-leaven if we're not taught?

Now, we've been going through and just looking at, oh yeah, what do we have around here? This leavened. And I was real happy the other day because I found three French crepes we have filled with chocolate. Oh yeah, they had leavening in them. So we ate them the other night. Then I felt guilty like, wait a minute, this represents sin. But it doesn't yet. He represents it later. But this de-leavening process, and I put up here, it's about discipleship. In other words, we have to be taught how to be de-leavened. That's why it's Christ in us, right? It's Christ in us. We must be taught how to be de-leavened. You and I didn't figure out the understanding and the depths of understanding of sin that we know that had to be shown to us, that had to be taught to us. We're still learning it. We're still learning the depths of what it means to be Christ-like. We're still learning what it means to have, the fruits of the Spirit. Sometimes we're really good at the simple things. I call the simple things like keeping the Sabbath.

But what about getting over anger and hatred? What about those issues?

And we have these other issues we're supposed to deal with, too. Now, the de-leavening process brings us face to face with those things. And look at Isaiah 2. So this is when Christ is on the earth. He comes and re-establishes God's kingdom. Once again, I'm going to be talking about the kingdom of God.

And, you know, stick around because there's plenty of food down there for everybody. But I'm going to be talking about, is the millennium and the kingdom of God the same thing? Unfortunately, sometimes we think they're like synonyms and they're not.

They're not. So how do we…you know, they're connected, but what's the difference between the two? This is when Christ is on earth, has re-established God's kingdom on this earth, and it shall come to pass in the latter days. This is Isaiah 2, verse 2. We okay, Tim? Good. And the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Let's go to where Christ is reigning and where He's teaching. To the house of the God of Jacob. And He will what? He shall teach us His paths, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. We, as a group, and we've been talking a lot about this over the last, what, year and a half, we have to become disciples of Jesus Christ. That's why we have to share that with others. Preaching the gospel however way we can. Television, as you've heard me say before, if I have to, I'll walk up and down the street with a sandwich board on, talking to whoever wants to. You have opportunities to share that all the time.

We're disciples. Now we don't cram it down people's throats. We don't try to convert them. Only God can do that. But we share it. Why? Because discipleship is part of what's going on. The days of leavened bread remind us, as we take things out, we must put things in. And we're not taking in, by the way, leavened bread, which is ourselves. What are we taking in all week long? Christ. We're learning to be disciples. So that's why I say unleavened bread is really about discipleship. It's about learning what it means to be a child of God. We have the instructions. We have the laws. But it takes somebody to show us. We have His example to show us. We have His followers all through the Scripture to show us. And that's why you'll never find any of them, whether it's in the New Testament or Old Testament, the followers of God. God makes sure we see their faults. Isn't that interesting?

I'm going to show you that they're just imperfect like you, but they kept being changed. And that leads us to the next Holy Day. Because if I am forgiven and I enter into this covenant, which we now going to, you know, we celebrate every or commemorate every time we keep the Passover, and now I'm learning how to be unleavened by having unleavened, you know, taking leavening out, putting unleavened bread in. So now I'm being taught what happens next. Because you eventually find out you can't do it. And that we come up on the next Holy Day. We have to have God's Spirit. This is all core message of the gospel. You can't do this yourself.

You can't do it yourself. I can't, you can't, nobody can. It's God that does it. It's our simple submission to God. That's where obedience comes from. That's where our faith comes from. The more proud we are of our own obedience, the more proud we are of our knowledge, the more proud we are of our faith, we've missed the point. It is God in us that's developing this, and we're submitting to it. Yes, we have our part to play, don't we? God requires our participation, but it is God who does it. And that's where Pentecost comes along.

Pentecost in the Old Testament is a celebration of the spring harvest. And that's why we have the first fruits. Today we understand, because of the book of Acts, that God's Spirit was poured out on what we call the church. Now God's Spirit was given to people in the Old Testament, but only in small numbers. And that's why the book of James says that we are the first fruits. Jesus Christ is the very first fruit because there are different harvest seasons, and there's spring harvest season. But in this late spring harvest season, there are another set of first fruits. The greatest harvest comes in the fall time. Now we know that we've heard that over and over and over again, right? I suppose if we were in a part of the world where that's reversed, I think in Australia it's reversed, isn't it? As far as the growing seasons, is it reversed? Yeah, because it's not springtime in Australia right now, right? No. So it's reversed. But our climate is somewhat similar, as sort of seasons as the Middle East, so we understand what's happening here. So you get about Pentecost time, we have very small things coming up, things that you plant early that start coming up. There was much more because of the type of harvest they had. So the church now becomes the first of the first fruits. And then there's also a future application of Pentecost. So you and I, yes, we keep Pentecost and commemoration of what happened in the Old Testament. As a type, we are more centered on what's happening right now in our lives, receiving God's Spirit so that the Passover applies to us, the idea that we have to remove something and have something put in us applies to us. And then the understanding, this takes the power and mind and love of God in us because we can't do it ourselves. And we have received that as part of the covenant that we made. We were buried. We were crucified. We came out a new person. Hands were laid on us, and we received God's Spirit. We're having two baptisms this weekend, by the way.

I won't tell you who because they probably don't want me to yet. We'll announce it next week. But now you all go around thinking about it and asking, is it you? Is it you?

Acts 2.

Nothing new, right? Today's nothing new.

But we have to see how all these Holy Days fit together. Acts 2, verse 14.

We know the story.

The Holy Spirit has poured out on these people. They begin speaking in tongues. It's a miracle. There's an actual sound. People see tons of fire coming down. Here's this great miracle that happens on Pentecost as God now begins to take this beyond just the harvest festival as part of a way of worshiping Him in the time of ancient Israel to the next step in the plan, which Pentecost is very much part of, just like all the Holy Days are. It is how He is now preparing a people to be harvested, a people to be harvested, which means to be changed.

So Peter stands up in verse 14.

Up with the eleven, the rest of the apostles, raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let it be known to you and heed my words. For these are not drunk as you suppose. These people are speaking in tongues and excited. They've known some changes have taken place. They know God's Spirit has been poured out upon them as had been prophesied. But it's only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. He goes back to one of the minor prophets and says what's happening right now. It's a fulfillment of a prophecy. But I want you to really read this prophecy and say, huh, this is much bigger than what happened then.

And it shall come to pass in the last day, says God, that will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men servants and all my maid servants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. And the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And I shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He says this prophecy has begun. Now much of what we just read hasn't happened yet, has it? If you go back and read Joel, it's obvious it's about the second coming of Jesus Christ.

But there wasn't going to be a second coming until there was a first coming. And there isn't going to be a great harvest in the future until there's the beginning of a harvest now. And Peter, I don't know how much he understood, but this is quite remarkable.

It started right now. This is started right now. Now he didn't know yet when Jesus was going to return. He still may have thought it was in his lifetime, but he understood what was happening. The pouring out of God's Spirit was a remarkable thing. But the ultimate fulfillment of that is in the future. It's not an all mankind yet. It's what we look forward to. And for whatever reason in the mind of the great God, he chose you and me to give it to now.

Surely it wasn't because we were better than anybody else, or so much more brilliant than anybody else, or had so many more talents than anybody else. He just did that. That's why I keep stressing, as the world gets worse and worse, we rely more and more on God. If you rely on yourself, you'll fail. But we rely on God. He's going to take care of you. He didn't start this work to fail. It's like, you know, I looked at that church in Nashville. They're not worth it. I'm just going to let them all go and get somebody else. He already picked you. He's not going to give up on you. He's already given you His Spirit. He's not going to give up on you.

We have to give up on Him. We have to turn against Him. There isn't universal salvation. It's not one saved, always saved. But God doesn't give up on anybody that easily, because it's His work. We keep thinking it's ours, and it's not. It's His. So Pentecost has a future prophetic meaning also.

First of all, the first resurrection, right?

That's a harvest, but it's not the great harvest. The great harvest comes later. What we have at the first resurrection is the fulfillment of this period of time, this summer harvest season that was planted back then and keeps getting planted, and is harvested at the return of Jesus Christ. And we're in a time of Pentecost, in this time of planting, and you and I are planting, or God is planting in us right now. That's what it is. So it has a future. It's not just the past, and this is why we should keep it. Let's go to the next. I find Peter's use of Joel there is just fascinating to me. I mean, he had to be inspired. I would have never gone there. I mean, how would I have come up with that? He came up with going there because he understood it started right now. It's the beginning of it. Feast of tabernacles. Well, before that, let's do the feast trumpets, and David told me to come. I get 10 more minutes. Ancient Israel kept the Feast of Tabernacle, or trumpets, as a day to consider God's judgment. It's very interesting in the Jewish community that 10 days between trumpets and atonement was 10 days of repentance. 10 days of repentance because God's judgment was coming.

Now, we keep the Feast of Trumpets really understanding. It reminds us of God as the ruler of history and prophecy. God's in charge of everything. There is a day of judgment. Actually, there's more than one day of judgment, which we know because of the Holy Days. There are days of judgment. So, He is the ruler of history. He is the ruler of prophecy. And so when we keep the Feast of Trumpets, we're looking forward to that future. Sometimes we need to stop, too, and look at ourselves. It should be a time of repentance and reflection as we look towards atonement. So, there should be a time in there that we think about. We reflect on God's mercy, God's judgment, His purpose in our lives, what He's doing, how we're responding to that. It should draw us to God. But we keep it with a future viewpoint. And, of course, what do we cover either during the Feast of Trumpets or at least leading up the Feast of Trumpets? No, every Feast of Trumpets, there's some message about what the seven trumpets. We're always looking to the seven trumpets. We're always looking at the fulfillment of this. So, the Feast of Trumpets, we can't ignore the present, but it's one of those holy days we really look towards the future. But we also have to look at the past. We have to go back and look at the Old Testament and its meaning there, but reminding us God is the sovereign ruler of the universe. What's happening on earth right now is only because He allows it. It's only because He allows it.

And it's sometime He says it's enough. He's done that with individuals. He does it with nations. He does it with civilizations. And He's going to do it with the whole world. It's enough. Only this time when Christ comes, it's because we're about to destroy ourselves. Humanity is about to destroy itself, and He stops them. So we know this holy day in its simplicity. And we understand it. The book of Revelation gives us an understanding of, by the way, of the Feast of Trumpets that nobody had before that. Nobody understands the seven trumpets as outlined. At least there's nothing in the New Testament that makes us believe that. We know that Paul talks about the last trumpet. He never talks about the seventh. We don't know. He talks about the last trumpet. But in the book of Revelation, we have a greater understanding of this time of trumpets. Now this brings us to the Day of Atonement. The next slide is the Day of Atonement, which is all about reconciliation. It is about God taking human beings and bringing them into this intimate relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. You notice every one of the holy days is about the work of Jesus Christ. Every single one. So when people tell you, oh, you don't believe in Jesus, you keep those Old Testament holy days, you can say, oh no, I keep the Old Testament holy days because I believe in Jesus Christ. I love using that argument. I do it because of that, because every one of these days was designed by God for this past, present, and future application that we can understand. The ceremonies on this day were the most elaborate of any of the holy days. Since I've been here, I've given five sermons about atonement, and none of them have been the same. I think after this year I get to go back and start through them all again, because everyone has been about a different aspect of the day of atonement, what's taught in that day. It is a remarkable time when the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, and either Israel was accepted or rejected by what went on when he went into the Holy of Holies. That's why, towards the time there of the last temple, there are some records they may have actually done this. They actually tied a rope onto the high priest's ankle when he went in, because if God killed him, no one was going to go in and get him. So at least you could pull him out. The problem is, if God killed the high priest, Israel is being rejected. It's a frightening thing. They waited this time. Are we still reconciled to God?

That's the past, this reconciliation of God to the people of the Old Covenant, the people of Israel.

And God is still working with the descendants of Abraham today to bring them to what He's going to do with them in the millennium. That's very interesting, what He's going to do with them in the millennium. But the main concentration of God today is on the present, which has to do with the Church. Because we understand it is Jesus Christ, who is the high priest, it's Jesus Christ who went into the Holy of Holies, it's Jesus Christ who was accepted by God. Hebrews 9. I'm trying to decide which one of these scriptures here to read. Hebrews 9 verse 6. Talking about the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament. Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priest always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. But in the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself. This is Hebrews 9, and we're in verse 7. Now we're in verse 7. Which he offered for himself, and for the people sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating that this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time. See? Those were types. They were symbols of something that's happening even greater now, which are symbols for something that's going to happen even greater in the future. But there's this reality we're in that it's going to talk about here. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot be make Him who performed service perfect in regard to the conscience. Concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, fleshy ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. That is not of this creation. Jesus Christ is the high priest, and that's not just the high priest of what's happening in your life right now. You are able to go before the Almighty God every time you pray. I don't care where you are. If you're just walking and you start praying to God, you get to go before the throne of God. And you know why? Because Jesus Christ is the high priest that says, accept this child, and the Father takes you. That's why.

That blood is constantly applied to you so that you have this relationship with God. He's the high priest, and He says, of things to come. There's things He's going to do as high priests that hasn't even happened yet because it involves the world. Are all those who will respond? I mean, some don't. There is a lake of fire. But all those who will respond.

That's why it's so important to understand the Zozel goat. I mean, all the things we go through as we go through the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement is amazing. And it comes interesting in the course of the Holy Days. It comes after the Feast of Trumpets. Jesus Christ comes to earth as King of Kings. But He also comes as the high priest. There's things He's going to do there at that time from Jerusalem as He brings all people to Him. First of all, His master. Well, no, first of all, His Passover, Lamb. Right? He has to be the Passover to those people so they can have a relationship with God. Secondly, He has to be their master so they can be disciples. Then He has to give God's Holy Spirit so they can have a relationship with God. He'll be on earth. You know, it's interesting. When we get the Feast of Trumpets then, oh yeah, that's when it's already happened. We're doing that right now. When we get to the Feast of Trumpets, that will be the present time. Christ is on earth. And He's going to be the high priest also bringing people to God. See how this all fits together. And then we come to the Feast of Tabernacles. So the next slide is the Feast of Tabernacles. Ancient Israel observed the Feast of Tabernacles as a reminder that they had been sojourners in Egypt and that they had been saved by God, brought out of slavery. All these things have corresponding images. Right? The Passover, Days of Love and Bread is about coming out of slavery. We talk about the slavery of sin all during those days. They kept the Feast of Tabernacles. Why? We read that every year, too. As a reminder, I saved you from Egypt. You and I keep the Feast of Tabernacles as a reminder that we've been saved from the slavery of sin, that we've been brought out of this world, and we are sojourners on this earth. At the Feast of Tabernacles almost every year, you're going to have someone get up and read from Hebrews where it says, you are sojourners on the earth. You're tabernacling here at the time, waiting for a time when Christ will be here.

And so we're on the journey. We've been brought out of Egypt. We're crossing the desert. We've already been brought out. We've already been forgiven. We've already had Christ come along and show us what to do. We've already received God's Spirit for those who were baptized.

Those that aren't, you're still on the journey. Your time is going to come where you're going to say, yes, I need to be part of this covenant. It's going to happen. Oh, you can run from it. Sooner or later, God's going to catch up to you. No, He doesn't catch up.

As fast as you run, He's just standing there beside you.

We're sojourners. The future, of course, Jesus is returning to establish God's kingdom on the earth as King of Kings. We always read Zechariah 14 on the days of the Feast of Trumpets and during the days of the Feast of Tabernacles. We read them all the time. Why? Christ comes. We look at Revelation 20. Christ comes. He sets up His kingdom on the earth. He rules for a thousand years.

And we keep those days, looking forward to that, knowing what it means for us today, because our present condition is sojourners on the earth as we move towards the Promised Land. And then we have the last, the eighth day.

God's ultimate judgment at all humanity. Now, I'm not even going to go through this because it would take a whole sermon just to cover the high points. But ancient Israel observed this day as part of the Fall Festival season. There isn't even in extra-biblical Judaism a lot of explanation about it. They knew it was a holy day. They knew it was important. What we know is there are different spiritual harvests at different times in history. We understand that because of these harvests, these seasons. This day pictures the future Great White Throne judgment mentioned in Revelation 20.

This day is after the seven days that represent the millennial period. And this is when that time comes when all humanity will be basically two groups. One put in the light of fire, and one changed into the children of God. And then Revelation 21 tells us, God brings heaven to earth. That humanity lives together with Him, with Christ, with each other. Satan is gone. Any human being that's rejected God is gone. And then God starts what He's really intent on doing.

This is all just buildup to that. Everything God is doing now is for that.

So you think God does great things now? I can imagine once we get through this preliminary stage, because that's all it is. It's the preliminary stage.

I went through this so quickly with all these basics.

Like I said, nothing new. Because now I just want to wrap up real quickly the gospel.

Because this is what the Holy Days teaches. Human beings were created in the image of God, but we become corrupted images. And we need restoration to our original purpose, which we can't do ourselves. God sacrificed His Son as the perfect substitute for humanity's sins. There's the Passover. Jesus Christ modeled human behavior for us to imitate His disciples. We take out something, we put something in, days of love and bread. Christ is performing the roles of Savior and intercessor, making it possible for God's Spirit to be poured out into the minds of human beings so that God can recreate us into what we were supposed to be. Pentecost. God is creating a family, and Christ calls us as brothers and sisters, the high priest who intercedes for us before God.

He comes back to remove Satan, the author of human evil. He sets up God's kingdom on earth to rule for a thousand years. And then He is the one who judges all humanity as far as the eternal judgment goes. There's trumpets, there's atonement, feast of tabernacles. That's a great day. And it's really positive. It's really positive.

It's the only hope humanity has, and you and I get to be part of this.

You and I get to be part of this. In one way, what we're doing when we keep the Holy Days is sort of a gigantic play. We're acting out what's actually happening, and then we're watching the reality of it happen in our lives as we subject ourselves to God.

Remove that leavening, but remember why. Eat the bread and the wine and wash each other's feet and rejoice in why. Keep the days of unleavened bread knowing why. Because if we're just doing it to prove our righteousness, we're missing the point.

We're missing the point. We're doing it because God's interacting with us as little children. So he has us do it in little children ways. It's interesting. In the Jewish world, on the morning of the 14th of Abib, they hide in Orthodox homes. They hide little pieces of leavening all over the house and have the children go find them.

That's sort of what God saw with us.

Find your leavening, throw it out. Now understand why. Understand why. Because there's something greater happening inside of you. Pentecost. I mean, you just look at all these holy days and they all fit together. You and I have been given the understanding of the gospel. Seek that gospel. Seek God's righteousness in you over these spring holy days. Seek Christ in you. Seek the covenant that He made with you. And remember, we didn't make it with Him. We just said yes.

It wasn't like we got to add anything to the covenant. Oh, I don't like that point. I went this ad. No, no, no. We make the covenant. Or God makes the covenant. We say yes.

You become a participant in this. God will work with you every day. God will take you where He wants you to go every day. Even in the failures, even in the struggles, even in the times when you don't understand, even in the times of doubt, even in the times of worry, even in the times we fall flat on our faces, He will get us there. He will get us to the Kingdom of God. And that's why every year we're supposed to keep the holy days.