The Meaning of the Feast

I may have mentioned last Sabbath that what I'd like to do is cover the meaning of the Holy Days. Last Sabbath we talked about the meaning of the Day of Trumpets. We talked about what goes through Christ's mind as He's returning at His Second Coming. I will be going through the meaning of the day in terms of the Day of Atonement, so I'm not going to cover that on a weekly Sabbath. I'll be covering that on the day itself.

So the only two Holy Days we've got left to cover is the Feast and the Last Great Day. So today I want to cover with you the Feast of Tabernacles, the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles. Tabernacles is rich with spiritual meaning. Now, you're Christians, you're New Covenant Christians, and you keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And yet there are Christians, quote-unquote, all around the world who've never even heard of these days. Wouldn't know what they're about, wouldn't know how to observe them, wouldn't know what time of the year they would fall.

And yet these days are so full with spiritual meaning for each and every one of us. And as we heard in the opening prayer, these Holy Days are like beautiful gems. And we want to take a look at the beauty of the multifaceted gems that God has given us. And today we're going to focus on the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, as we get to the Feast, the time we are at the Feast of Tabernacles will have gone through many of the Holy Days. We'll have gone through Passover, and technically Passover is not a Holy Day, Passover is a festival. And there's a difference. The Passover represents Christ redeeming sacrifice for us. Passover represents a time when God gives us new life because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

We will have gone through the Days of Unleavened Bread, which show how we are to live that new life in Christ. We are to live it in an unleavened fashion. We will have gone through Pentecost, which shows how God has given us power to live this new life in Christ. We will have gone through trumpets, which shows that new life will be given in the kingdom as the government of God has established on this earth.

We will have gone through the Day of Atonement, which pictures a time when Satan won't be able to withhold the truth of God from people. He won't be able to blind people, to deceive people, because he'll be taken out of the way. In the millennium, we will have people being introduced to this new way of life, to new life through Christ.

They will be very much accepting of that. My point today, if you want to put something across the top of your paper, is that the Feast of Tabernacles pictures a time of refreshing and restoration. The Feast of Tabernacles pictures a time of refreshing and restoration. I'd like to begin our journey as we go through the material I want to cover today over in the book of John. It's not going to be an Isaiah that we're going to start or someplace in Revelation, but let's go to John 4. Here we're going to take a look at some words of Jesus Christ.

John 4, verses 35-38. In my Bible, these are all red-lettered, the words of Christ. Want to read them, then explain the meaning here. John 4, verse 35. Do you not say there are still four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they're already white for harvest. What your mind wants to and what your eye wants to fall upon is the word harvest that is used two times in that verse. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

For in this, this saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap, that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors. Now, this passage is rich in meaning. You know, you can see here the idea of a harvest, which we'll get into in much more detail in a moment.

You see here the idea of sowing and reaping. And throughout the pages, other locations in the Scriptures, you see where God is the one who sows. He sows the truth. He sows the Word. He opens people's hearts and minds. You know, John 6, verse 44. You see in places like 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 5, 15, where God reaps the harvest through the resurrections. So you've got that meaning that is here, but also, explicitly, what you see here is the work of Christians.

Some have sown. You've got people in the Old Testament, you know, the various prophets that we enjoy reading, especially the Book of Isaiah. I was talking to one of our members today over in Ann Arbor.

They say that every year before the feast, one of the ways they prepare is they read through the whole Book of Isaiah. And that's an excellent thing to do. Go through the whole Book of Isaiah. Read it kind of like a novel. You're not trying to pick about every little verse and get it, you know, every little nuance. It would take you a long time to do that. But if you're reading through and you see all those wonderful prophecies, it really puts you in a feast mood.

But here you have a situation where you've got, you know, Isaiah and the prophets, the major prophets, minor prophets, various people who wrote David and Moses. They were sowing the Word of God, you know. And now we are also a part of that. And there's a reaping that takes place. You know, people coming into the church. And we work with those people and help those people to see.

And notice here, some are sowers, some are reapers. Not everyone is doing the same thing. There are different opportunities for service in the church. So we see that level of understanding here. But the thing I want to really focus in on and use this as a launching pad is in verse 35, it talks about harvest twice.

In the Bible, God uses the biblical festivals to show His plan of salvation. There are three harvest seasons spoken of in the Scriptures. Each one is packed with meaning. Each one has significance to itself. And we need to appreciate that. You've got the early spring harvest, which represents Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread.

You've got the late spring harvest, which would be representative of Pentecost. Then you've got the late summer and the early autumn harvest, which is representative of the Feast of Tabernacles, last great day, portion of God's plan. Now, Satan has deceived the whole world. They don't know anything about this. You do. Just by simply talking about... if people came to you and said, what's God's plan of salvation? You don't have to pull out a dozen books.

You don't have to go and pull out all sorts of Bible helps. You don't have to power up your computer. In your mind, you know about the Holy Days. And you can go through very succinctly the meaning of each Holy Day, festival and Holy Days, and show the meaning of each one and the plan of God through each one. Again, they all revolve around these harvest seasons. Now, let's take a look over at 2 Corinthians 6 for a moment.

Because, brethren, God has blessed you and I with information the world at large does not have. And He's not blessed you and I because we're so smart, or we're so good-looking, or we're so rich. Maybe you think you're one of those three. I don't know. But God is called the weak of the world. I know that there are those in this room where that definition fits, especially the one who's talking behind the lectern to you. That certainly fits. But people believe this is the only day of salvation. And they would use a text here in 2 Corinthians 6 to prove that.

2 Corinthians 6, verse 1. We then, as workers together with Him, also plead with you, not only with you, but also with you, not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.

Now behold is the accepted time. Now behold is the day of salvation. And so what you see here, people say, well, there you go. You know, Mr. Armstrong, the World Wide Church of God, these various splinter groups, United Church of God, Living Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, you know, all the various Church of God groups, they're all wrong.

They all preach a second chance at salvation. Of course, that's not accurate. Now again, we've got two layers of understanding here. Let's look at both layers. First of all, the Apostle Paul is talking, verse 1, we then as co-workers together with him.

So, chapter 6 here is talking to believers. And for believers, this is the day of salvation. You are believers. I am a believer. And today is my day of salvation. Today is your day of salvation. So, in Paul's writing this, to them, speaking to them, that's accurate just the way it is there. But where people make the mistake is they think, okay, well, it's true for all those people outside. That this is their day of salvation. And that would be an improper understanding. If you take a look at, and I'm going to read here the New Revised Standard Version, the same verse, New Revised Standard Version, 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 2, from the New Revised, says this.

For he says, At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you. Notice the difference. It is not the, it is a. And for the people out there, yes, that part is true for them. So we have to understand the fullness of the meaning here. Now Paul is quoting Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 8. Isaiah 49 verse 8. Again, let me read this to you in the New Revised Standard Version. Thus says the Lord, In a time of favor I have answered you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.

So we understand there are two levels of meaning here. Paul, writing to the church, said, Look, this is your day of salvation. You blow it. How many times over the years have I been your pastor? I have made mention to you. I know this is Randy Delosandro's day of salvation. And if I blow it, I am in the lake of fire.

But it is also true that God has a plan of salvation where there are a number of harvests. This is where this whole idea and concept of the harvest is so very important. That's why God has this in the Scriptures to help us understand that there is a time for the rest of the world to receive an opportunity for salvation.

So let's take a look at these three harvests now. We want to start with the small early spring harvest. The small early spring harvest. Again, we're looking at the Passover Days of Unleavened Bread. This was the barley harvest season. That's an important fact. This is the barley harvest season. It was the smallest harvest, yet in a very significant way, it was perhaps the greatest harvest.

It's not the greatest in terms of numbers, but it's great in terms of something else we'll forget to in just a moment. So here we have Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread being discussed here in this early spring harvest.

The first spring harvest is a lighter one. As the barley was ripening, barley is a relatively lighter-weighted grain than wheat. So we appreciate that. But why is this day, perhaps, and I say it is, in a very significant sense, the greatest harvest? Let's take a look at Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23. Starting here in verse 10. Leviticus 23 and verse 10.

Now what we're looking at here is the wave sheaf. The wave sheaf represents Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on our behalf. Middle verse 11 says, On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it, verse 12, and you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. Without blemish this lamb shall be. Jesus Christ was without blemish. He was without sin. And verse 12, As a burned offering to the Lord, a burned offering is a total...there are five major Old Testament sacrifices. The burned offering represented something that was a totally consumed sacrifice. Jesus Christ was totally consumed with doing the work. Jesus Christ was totally consumed with being our sacrifice or being our Savior. And so here we are seeing why, in a very significant sense, this harvest, even though it's small numerically, when we're looking at numbers of people who come to salvation, it is a great harvest because it shows the work of Jesus Christ. Without that work, we would not have salvation. Without that work, we would not have salvation. Now, there's something technical here we can get into, but I'm not going to get into here on this Sabbath. But starting here, we have with the wave sheaf offering, this is the beginning point for counting the 50 days until we get to Pentecost. Okay? So it shows how these days there are bound together.

The wave sheaf representing Jesus Christ, he is called the first of the first fruits. He is the pioneer. But he's not just the only first fruits. So we've got the small early spring harvest represented by the days of 11 bread. Now let's move to the second harvest.

Let's go to Exodus 23.

Exodus 23.

Verse 14.

Exodus 23.

Where it says, three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year. Three times. Three harvest seasons. We've looked at the first one. Verse 15. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. You shall eat unleavened bread seven days as I've commanded you. At the time of putting the month of Abib, you shall come out of Egypt. None of you shall appear before me empty. So here we have a discussion about three feasts, three harvest seasons. The first one is Passover Unleavened Bread. That is the early spring harvest. Now we come to harvest number two, beginning at verse 16.

You have the Feast of Harvest. The Feast of Harvest. The first roots of your labors, which you have sown in the field. We'll pause there. So now you've got this Feast of Harvest. That's referring to the late spring harvest. This is referring to Pentecost.

This is the end of the grain harvest in the spring. The end of the cycle there that begins the harvest seasons. In the spring. This was the end of the barley and the wheat harvest. The farmers still looked ahead at the larger harvest that was coming in the late summer, early fall. So this Feast represents the harvesting of the first roots of God's plan for humanity. So what we're looking at here is we're looking at the fact that, again, numerically small, but very significant, we're looking at us.

We're looking at the first fruits. You are a first fruit. God is working with certain people right now. He's not working with everybody. He's not working with all the people in the world. Because if that were true, then Satan's winning.

How many people lived and died and never even knew of Jesus Christ?

You think about when Jesus Christ was actually living. Acts 4 and verse 12, I believe, it is, going by memory.

There's no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. We can only be saved by knowing Jesus Christ. Some people say, well, He was a good Muslim, or He was a good this or a good that. Forgive it. Unless you know and understand and truly understand the work of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what it meant to have Him as our Savior, unless you understand that, you can't have salvation.

And how many people before the time of Christ, during the time when Christ was walking the earth, there were people in Asia, there were people in this country, American Indians, they had no idea that Christ was walking the earth or what He represented.

Now, are those people all going to hell? Because they couldn't accept Christ as their Savior. Of course not.

So you and I have an opportunity as first fruits.

It's a very significant harvest. It's a small harvest. Just like God worked with one nation, He didn't work with all nations, He worked with one nation, Israel. Israel was to be an example to all the other nations. It wasn't that God loved Israel above the other nations, but God's got to start someplace. It's not that God loves us in this room more than the people out there. That's not true either. But again, God's got to start someplace.

There are times when Mary and I get working real hot and heavy there at home. We're doing all sorts of chores. Maybe it's a Sunday, and the evening comes, and we look at the house, and it's a wreck.

There's stuff all over the kitchen. There's stuff all over everywhere. For some people, that's fine. Some people can live like that.

But see, I've got issues, as you've known.

My issue is, I'm the neatness freak.

Whatever hair I've got left, I can't live like this!

Poor Mary wants to go to bed. No. We've got to leave you out of the start someplace. I'll start by picking up this, and I'm going to put it over here, and that belongs over there.

Plus, her heart and cheek, at ten years, she still puts up with me.

But you've got to start somewhere. And spiritually speaking, God has started with us.

We're imperfect. We're the weak of the world, as it says there in 1 Corinthians.

And God says, so much the better. God says, what great thing would it be if God started out with a bunch of supermen and superwomen?

God starts out with the weak of the world.

And it goes from there.

So here we see our part in this late spring harvest, which represents us as part of the first fruits.

Okay. Now, we're still here in Exodus 23. Let's take a look at verse 16 again.

We've seen in verse 14 that there's three harvest seasons, three feasts in the year. Verse 15, we see unleavened bread, which is the early spring. We saw at the beginning of verse 16, we've got the end of the spring harvest. Now, let's read about the middle part of verse 16 here.

And the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you've gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

The feast of ingathering, that's the late summer, early fall harvest.

This is the Feast of Tabernacles, last great day.

That's what we've got here.

It's a time of temporary dwellings. It's a time of booths. It's called the Feast of Tabernacles. It's called the Feast of In-Gathering.

Because we're looking at a large harvest here.

And when we're talking large, we're talking numerically.

I don't know how many Christians have ever lived in the world. Going back to Old Testament believers, New Testament believers, I don't know how many numbers that would be.

But when you think that for 1,000 years, we'll have people living and thriving in the millennium. Babies being born all over the place. People coming into the church. There's going to be significant numbers over the course of 1,000 years. Significant numbers. A very large harvest. And then, when you think about the last great day, billions and billions of people will be resurrected.

Wow! That really means it's a large harvest. An extraordinary large harvest. A feast of in-gathering.

So that's kind of a thumbnail view of these three harvest seasons.

God uses those to picture the sowing, the reaping, the gathering of His people over the course of time.

Now, let's take a look. Go back to chapter 23 of Leviticus.

Leviticus 23, starting here in verse 33.

Again, as Brian said in the opening prayer, these days are jewels before God. They're jewels for us.

Unfortunately, over the years, we've had people come into the church, leave the church, not knowing what they had.

Not knowing what they had.

And it's so sad to see that. But we thankfully know what we've got here.

Verse 33, Leviticus 23, 33, 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 Jews.

To the Messianic people.

No.

The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be a feast of tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.

To the Lord.

These are God's days. They're not Judah's days.

They're God's days. They're the days that Christians and believers keep.

Verse 35, On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.

Holy means God has separated that day.

Do we find God talking about separating December 25th?

Or separating the day of Ishtar?

And why would God separate the day Ishtar where Ishtar is the name of a pagan god?

Why would God do that?

God doesn't say those things are holy. God doesn't say, Let's separate those.

God says, This day. This one. Right here.

This is a holy convocation. It is a holy commanded assembly. You are summoned by God to be here.

You know, if a judge summons you to jury duty, you make it a point to go and talk with the judge.

Some of our people enjoy jury duty. Some of our people don't feel they should take part in jury duty.

But when a judge, either way, when a judge talks, you listen. Right? God is the ultimate judge. He says, This is a special time. It's not your time.

It's a special time and I'm commanding you to do something.

He says, You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

We'll pause there.

So here we've got the command to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

That's Old Testament. And there's nobody, no theologian who would deny that the people of God kept the Feast in the Old Testament.

There's also no theologian alive who knows anything about their theology that would doubt that Jesus Christ kept the Feast of Tabernacles.

And back when we had the great split with our former association, the Worldwide Church of God, I remember so distinctly, members coming to me and some of my peers in the ministry coming and saying, Randy, you need to get with the picture.

We're New Covenant Christians. We just don't need that Sabbath and we don't need those Holy Days.

And when you have so many people barking at you or talking like, how do I explain this?

Because to me, the Bible is not like some rocket science where there's always a new revelation in terms of some new truth or new doctrine.

You've got the basics right here. The basics right there.

I remember having to go through the various arguments that were being thrown at us and saying, okay, now this is why I want to keep the Sabbath.

This is why I want to keep the Holy Days. Then they just brought the same old stuff back.

I said, wait a minute. I already, in my mind, went through that, saw where that was false reasoning, and I'm going to keep the Holy Days.

Then it just kind of dawned on me, you know, duh.

If I want to be a Christian, the easiest way for me to be a Christian is to do what Christ did.

It's really simple. God's way is simple.

What did Jesus do? Let's not just wear a little rubber arm bracelet.

What did Jesus do? What did He do? He's our example in all things. What did He do? John 7.

John 7.

John 7, verse 1.

So we understand something here about what's taking place behind the scenes.

It wasn't time for Christ to be crucified, because we're in the fall of the year. We're at the Feast of Tabernacles time. So it's not His time yet.

So Christ is being as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove.

He's using wisdom in dealing with the situation. We learn things from watching this.

Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

We're seeing John's quoting this, and he's putting it this way, because this is going out to so many people who are Gentile in nature.

But it's God's Feast of Tabernacles. Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

His brothers therefore said to him, depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see the works which you are doing.

We drop down to verse 8 to get the context here.

You go up to this Feast, this is Christ speaking.

You go up to this Feast.

What is Christ teaching here?

This is going to be important as we look at something in just a few more minutes.

Christ is teaching to keep the Feast. You go up to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, for my time has not yet fully come.

When he had said these things to them, he remained in Galilee.

But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the Feast, not openly, but as it were, in secret.

So here we see that Jesus Christ, and of course he's not being cowardly here.

He's being wise. He's not wanting to make an undue ruckus.

He's not calling a lot of attention to things.

He wants to have a nice, peaceful Feast.

But he is keeping the Feast.

Under threat of death, he is keeping the Feast.

And if we're going to be Christians, we need to do what Christ did.

Let's take a look at that concept. 1 Corinthians 11.

We read this all the time, this particular chapter, because it deals with the Passover, the beginning of the plan of God, the first festival.

But notice what it says here in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 1.

1 Corinthians 11 and verse 1.

Paul said, Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ.

We are to imitate Christ.

And everything he did, that's why we should be gobbling up the Gospel messages.

What do I study, Mr. D.? Well, how about just studying the life of Jesus Christ?

He's our champion. He's our example.

He's the measuring stick. It's not your pastor.

It's not the nice fellow there at church or the nice lady at church.

Jesus Christ is the measuring stick.

How did he live his life? How did he think?

How did he respond to various things?

We imitate Christ.

1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2.

Verse 21.

1 Peter 2.

21 For to this you recall, because Christ also suffered for us, leading us an example that we should follow his steps.

Now, we use this verse all the time, and I think properly so, to talk about following Christ's example in all things.

But explicitly, what this section of Scripture is dealing with is when you are under duress, when it could be easy to walk away and not follow the example of Christ.

When people are already putting their hearts to you, it would be so easy to say, well, okay, I give, I'm not going to go that way, I'm not going to think that way.

You know, the Apostle Paul, when he was Saul, before his conversion, you look through the book of Acts.

And Saul of Tarsus, who had that ability to be all things to all people, and he had that ability before he was ever converted.

But when he was a carnal man who was gunning for the saints, he would be all things to all people. He would walk into a group like this and get your name and get your address and act like the nicest, most righteous brother.

And he'd take names, and then they would come and arrest you.

And they'd come and throw you in jail.

And as you pick through the book of Acts, you see, where Paul had people tortured, he had people that would blaspheme.

What would it take for somebody to hurt you so that you actually scream out in pain and take God's name in vain? Blaspheme God.

This is what Saul of Tarsus did.

That's why when Saul would say, when the Apostle Paul, in his conversion, said, I am the chief among sinners, he wasn't saying that to make some sort of spiritual point.

He knew what he had done to his brothers and sisters in the faith.

When he went on various visits to various churches, he would look at a man and say, well, I had his wife tortured.

Look at a young teenager. I had his mother hurt.

This guy, this family over here, that's their dad because their dad is now in jail, and I put him there.

So here we see that it's difficult to be a Christian under duress.

This is what this is talking about.

For to this you were called, Christ left us an example.

We should follow in his steps under duress.

And under duress he kept the law of God.

He kept the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, let's go over to Matthew 28.

We saw there in John 7, where Christ told the people, keep the Feast.

So now we're here at the very end of the book of Matthew.

Jesus Christ has been crucified, put in the tomb, come out of the tomb.

He's been resurrected. And you know what? We are now into the New Covenant era.

The New Covenant era of the church.

People say, well, in the New Covenant things are all changed.

Everything's changed around.

Matthew 28, verse 19.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.

So you go out and you preach and you proclaim and you help and you serve.

And you bring these people with my help.

These people will come into the faith. They'll come into the church.

You're going to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teach them to observe. Now notice. Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.

He commanded them to keep the feast.

He never commanded Christmas or Easter or Valentine's Day or Halloween or all the various things that people do today.

Christ taught them to observe the things which He commanded.

He commanded the Feast of Tabernacles. I go through this, brethren, because it's good from time to time to get our bearings.

Sometimes an employer doesn't want to give you the time off because of the feast.

Sometimes you could be in school. Your school has just started.

The professors don't want to give you time off to go to the feast.

I remember when we were living in West Virginia, we had just moved into the state.

The feast was really early this one year. We moved into town really late.

We just got the word, while these emergency moves, I had three weeks to move my family from Tennessee into West Virginia.

So we move into town, get our kids into school.

I think it was only a matter of 10 days later.

I've got to go see, especially Danielle's teachers.

Remember her teacher? She was in middle school, actually in elementary school at that point. So your elementary school teacher said, I'm going to be taking my daughter out of class for this period of time.

The teacher looked at me like, you're deadbeat.

Who do you think you are?

She looked at me and then she said it!

She said, who do you think you are?

She said, you know what kind of damage you're doing to your daughter.

The school has just started. You're taking her out.

She'll never catch up. Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

And I said, Miss so-and-so? I'm taking her out.

I guess you can insult me all you want to, but what does she need to do?

What are her homework assignments?

And of course, every year was the same thing.

They load you up with all these homework assignments.

We're at the Feast of Tabernacles. There's so many things that can be fun.

But Danielle, you're doing these, do this and do this and do this. And so what happens? We come back home to West Virginia.

And not only is Danielle not behind, she's ahead of the class.

And that happened year after year.

So it's good for us to understand why we do what we do.

So Christ kept the Sabbath. Christ kept the Holy Days.

He taught that we should be doing that, and we are doing that.

But let's take a look into the future. Let's go to the book of Zechariah.

That's the book just before Malachi.

Zechariah 14, verse 16. Actually, this is the page just before the book of Malachi.

Because here we're going to see where the Feast of Tabernacles is kept in the world tomorrow.

After the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we see the Feast of Tabernacles being kept.

Zechariah 14, verse 16.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came up against Jerusalem shall go out from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, there are people who say, well, this is just spiritually speaking.

We're just spiritually speaking here. Oh, really?

Verse 17. And it shall be, whatever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

So there's no analogous rain. There's no rain coming down there.

Come on. It's talking about literal rain. It's talking about literal worship.

And we're not just talking when people say, well, you know, this is what the Jews had to do.

Look at the verse. It says, those who are left of all the nations which came up against Jerusalem.

We're talking about a lot of Gentile people here.

All these Gentile people are going to go up to keep the Feast. It's not just some Jewish thing.

It's a human thing. And it's going to be done in the world tomorrow.

Now, follow me for a moment. And as I tried to talk with some of my friends in the ministry years ago, when they were leaving the church, I said, look, Old Testament people kept the Feast. Jesus Christ kept the Feast.

We can see where the apostles kept the Feast. You go through the Book of Acts and so forth.

We see it taking place in the world tomorrow. So why don't we do it now? Why don't we do it now?

Well, you know, we're New Covenant Christians. I know. I've got that point.

I agree that we're New Covenant Christians, but we still keep the Feast.

Revelation 20.

Revelation 20.

I've got to define things here a little bit.

Revelation 20, verse 4.

When I saw thrones, and they that sat on them, and judgment was committed to them, then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, for their witness to Jesus, for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast, nor his image, and not received his mark on their foreheads, nor on their hands, and know us now, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

A thousand years. We call that the Millennium. That's Latin for a thousand.

The Feast of Tamarindacals takes place. You know, God gives mankind 6,000 years as an experiment. That seventh day is, by analogy, that's also a thousand years. That's the Millennium.

It's a thousand years Sabbath, so to speak.

And in that Millennium, what can people look forward to? Acts 3. This is where I get the title for the sermon today. Acts 3, verse 19-21.

And this is what, you know, as we think about what's happening in the world scene today, we think about the ISIS people and all they're doing, where they are literally taking Christians. You know, it was interesting, there was on the news the other night, they were showing that in 2000, 2012, they gave the number of Christians, you know, what we would call Christians of the world, how many of them had been martyred, how many of them had been killed, for their faith's sake? They gave the number last year. The number last year was almost double. It's open season on people who believe in Jesus Christ around the world. And here you've got ISIS, the Islamic State they call themselves. Some people call it the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. ISIS, other times they'll call it the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Levant is that part of the world, the eastern Mediterranean area. But either way, those people are taking Christians now and they're crucifying them. They're taking little children, they're doing all sorts of brutality to them if they don't convert to being a Muslim. They're doing unspeakable things, I wouldn't even say here because we're recording, to women. Unspeakable, torturous things to them. Letting them live. Boy, are they hurting those poor ladies. That's the kind of world we live in today. Thankfully, we've got something better to look forward to in the world tomorrow. Acts 3, verse 19. Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. This will happen in the millennium. People will still be learning about Jesus Christ. People who are born in the millennium. As the millennium goes on for a thousand years, people will be being born, learning about things, having their sins forgiven. So that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Do you need a time of refreshing? I need a time of refreshing. How does your brain work? You find yourself, you get down, you want to pray, you want to pray earnestly to God, that Satan wants to block your prayers. He wants to have you think about all sorts of things. Things you know you don't want to be thinking about. He doesn't want you praying to God. Satan's fingerprints are all over our hearts and our minds. We need refreshing. Verse 20, that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you once before, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restoration of all things. To restore things to the way God wanted them to be, like for Adam and Eve, before Adam and Eve sinned. God wants a time of refreshing and restoration. He wants people to live and to enjoy life, even physically, to enjoy life to the full. But you know the ironic thing about it, brethren, what causes refreshing? What causes this restoration? What's going to cause the peace that people seek? Let's take a look at Isaiah 2.

Isaiah 2. And there's such irony here.

Isaiah 2, starting in verse 2. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days, so end time prophecy, that the mountain of the Lord's house, and then prophecy of mountains, representative of a government, so God's government shall be established on the top of the mountains. God's government will be established on the top of the other worldly governments. And shall be exalted above the hills, the smaller nations, and all nations shall flow to it. Why flow? Because they had already gone through the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord. The earth is a wreck. People can, you know, 90% of humankind, if we understand the book of Amos, chapter 5, 9 out of 10 people who are alive when the Great Tribulation Day of the Lord starts, 9 out of 10 people in this world will not make it through the next 3 1⁄2 years. 90% kill rate.

When God offers something much different, people are going to flow to it. Verse 3. Many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. Now notice why. He will teach us His ways. We shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth... What? That horrible, all-law!

And the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Brethren, today, especially religionists, they want to do away with God's law. And yet it is that law that brings peace and happiness and success. It is that law that brings all the things that human beings really want. But you have preacher after preacher stand up and talk about how we don't need those commandments. At least, especially the fourth one. We don't need that fourth one.

Romans chapter 3 and verse 17.

Romans chapter 3 and verse 17.

Where it says, And the way of peace they have not known. The way of peace they have not known. Why don't they know the way of peace? Well, let's connect that thought directly to Psalm 119.

Why don't people know the way of peace? We go to Psalm 119 verse 165.

Psalm 119 and 165.

Great peace have those who love your law.

So the reason why people don't have peace, they don't love God's law. They want to do away with God's law, which is in effect saying, We're going to do away with peace. We're going to do away with things that really are in our best interest.

Great peace have those who love your law.

Of course, brethren, one of the reasons why there's going to be such great restoration, such great refreshing after the return of Jesus Christ in the millennium, is what we see here in Hebrews chapter 8.

God's way works. Mankind, man does all sorts of funny things.

I was watching a news program the other day. I just couldn't believe... Mary's actually watched... I think I was working on maybe this sermon or whatever, but I was in my study. I was working away. Mary says, Hey, Randy, you've got to come see this. It was on the Fox News Channel, and they were spotlighting a local fire department in the Detroit area. It was in the city of Detroit, and it was one of the little substations there. And they said, Now, what happens when a call goes into that substation about a fire in the city of Detroit?

Now, remember, brethren, I'm a Detroiter born and bred. I've spent most of my life here in this town. I'm a Detroiter. So I can say things about Detroit. But here they're showing that, well, how does it work when there's a fire... alarm going into the station? Well, first of all, I don't use phones. I watch the whole piece. Mary got it all back at the beginning. I watch the whole piece. No phone calls going in. I'm thinking, are we in a Stone Age here in Detroit? Don't we know there's such a thing called phones? But what happened is they had a fax machine.

They had this fax machine on a table about so big, it's like this here. And they put a can, a pop can, out the end. And the other edge is kind of hanging off a little bit, off the edge of the table. They put two or three pennies in that pop can. And then when the call came in, the call came in as a fax. And as the fax is going, it hits the pop can, knocks the pop can over, because there's pennies in the can, it makes a little bit of a racket, and we've got a fire someplace.

But give me a break. I think I need to move to Ohio. I was telling people, we've got some Ohio brethren there in Ann Arbor. I said, maybe I need to move to Columbus. They laughed at that. They said, no, you're in Ann Arbor, right? We don't take riffraff like you down there. So, you know, the issues that Ann Arbor and Columbus have against each other.

But I couldn't believe that. Now, that's how the world works. Now, here's how God works. Hebrews 8, verse 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind, write them on their hearts. I will be their God, they shall be my people. It's not going to be just ten commandments chiseled by the finger of God and stone. It's going to be the ten commandments by God chiseled onto the fleshly tables of our heart. Verse 11, none of them will teach his neighbor and none of his brothers say, no, the Lord. For all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawsuits I will remember no more. Of course, that's talking about when they are repentant people. God's not just going to forgive people for the sake of forgiving. They've got to repent just like you and I do. But notice there, the difference in the world of marriage. People have God's laws on their hearts and in their minds.

Just two more scriptures and we'll call it a day. I've said my time is running out here. Isaiah 35. We went through the book of Isaiah verse by verse here a number of years ago. It took us several years to do it. Once a month. But just so much here. In the millennium, when Satan has already been bound, pictured on the day of atonement, we see things being reversed now. Things going the proper direction. Isaiah 35. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

You know, brethren, I don't know. I guess maybe the older I get, the more of a softy I become. I find it really easy anymore to cry. I didn't used to cry very much.

I don't go out and just weep for the sake of weeping. But I'm watching TV and I see some commercial about some poor little child. They've got the one out now where the little girl is born and her legs are just like a skew. And that's the way she was born. In all the operations, they said she'd never walk, never be able to use her hands. And she was a beautiful little girl.

Now she can run and she's able to use her hands a little bit more. But she's had all these various operations just to get her legs where they're in place like they should be. You see things like that in your heart. You just cry. You don't want to see things like that.

But in the world tomorrow, we're not going to have to... The eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Why? Because people are following the laws of God. And when people do that, God can intervene and be there. The lame shall leap like a deer, the tongue of the dumb shall sing. Now there's a spiritual analogy here as well. Verse 5, the eyes of the spiritually blind shall be opened, the ears of the spiritually deaf shall be unstopped.

The lame, the people who are not walking properly will understand how to walk spiritually before God. The tongue of the dumb will sing. You know, you're driving down the road anymore, you stop at a stop light, stop sign, and some teenager's got that car radio going on with the music that the young people listen to today. And I'm looking forward to a time when we've got a whole lot of different music. Of course, at times I can't be carnal. And they're playing whatever they're playing. I feel like pulling out my Neil Diamond stuff. Or maybe I kind of like a little jazz. Maybe I'll get my Ramsey Lewis up, put Ramsey Lewis and turn that way up on him.

See how I like that. I restrain myself when I do it. Let's take a look at Deuteronomy 14. One last scripture here. Don't want to take you too much overtime. Deuteronomy 14. You know, one of the things that I enjoy about the feast, and it's... You don't have to feel guilty about enjoying this, because God tells us to do this. It's a blessing for us to do this. Deuteronomy 14, verse 26. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

So we're looking at here at God's tithing system. We've got a tithe, an individual tithe. You've got one tithe that we pay to the church, so that we can do the work. We've got a second tithe that helps us go to the feast. And you save 10% of your yearly income, and you go to the feast. You've got travel time. You've got the eight days, the seven days of the feast, the last great day, those eight days.

Probably a day either side of that to come and go. Ten days. You've got 10% of your annual income. For those people who are still working, know if you're on fixed income, it's not the same. I appreciate that. But for those who are still working, and they've got, in some cases, husbands' money, a wife's money, wow! You go to the feast. God wants us, not just to throw money away. I don't think any of us go to the feast and light the fireplace in our condo with $100 bills.

Nobody does that. But God wants us to go there and experience the plenty. Because the feast represents a time of plenty. And because we've obeyed God, we've done what God has asked us to do, God is going to bless us with having the income to have things much better than we normally would back at home. Much better than we would at home. And that's something that God wants us to do. Just like during the days of unleavened bread, we don't eat anything that's leavened. We eat unleavened bread. It teaches us a lesson.

We go to the Feast of Tabernacles, we have more money, and we use that money judiciously, but if we want something, and it's something that's proper to have, we go out and we get it.

Remember, we could do that to an extreme. Remember the first year I kept the feast. I think I had a steak every night. I've had feasts since then where I've not had maybe one steak in a whole feast. But back in those days, an 18-year-old kid, of course, when I first came into the church, I went to Ambassador College and I didn't have any money. And so the church actually gave me $105. This is 1970. That sounds like nothing. But they paid my way to Squaw Valley, California, on the school bus. They paid my way back. They paid for my accommodations. I had $100 basically for food.

And back in those days, folks, you can get a steak dinner with all the trimmings for $6. That's including tip. So there I am in Northern California. You've got all these beautiful mountains. We pass through Lake Tahoe and away getting up there. Gorgeous area there in Northern California. There's a koias. Here's an 18-year-old kid away from home. I've got $100 in my pocket. And I'm going to enjoy this feast. I can go for a feast like this. You know? And God wanted us to appreciate that. I said that was the final scripture. There's one other scripture. Please bear with me. We'll go over it in just a few minutes. Revelation 20. Revelation 20. Forgot I had this on my notes. Just turn to page. I don't want to skip this one. Revelation 20.

Starting here in verse 7. Now, when a thousand years have expired... So we're seeing something here interesting. We're actually seeing the millennium has come and gone. We're in a very special time. It's after the millennium, but it's before what we call the Great White Throne Judgment Period. It's before the time we call the last great day or the eighth day of the feast. So you've got a short period of time here, not very long, between those great periods. A thousand years have expired. Satan be released from his prison. And we'll go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth. So we're not talking about some localized little thing. We're talking about nations in the four corners of the earth, all over the world. Now, remember, the world has just gone through one thousand years of the reign of Jesus Christ, the reign of the saints. The world is one big garden of Eden. You want a place to go like sandals that you see in the TV advertisements? You've got that. You want someplace like the Swiss Alps? You've got that. The world is a beautiful place. Everyone's healthy. Things are going great. But you let Satan out for a little bit. And you get a rebellion against God and his ways, where perhaps maybe a million people or more say, we don't want it. He goes out to deceive the nations. Verse 8, we show them four corners of the earth. God and may God, we give them together to battle, to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. So here we see where people have, again, hatred in their hearts and minds. And this is different than we talked about a few Sabbaths ago. We talked about in the book of Ezekiel, where there was rebellion, just a couple of generations inside the millennium. This is at the end of the millennium. At the end of the millennium. After the millennium is already over. And you've got people now, all this... And these people had been to Sabbath services. They had been to Feast of Tabernacles. These people had been taught by Jesus Christ himself. By you as a spirit being. For one thousand years, Satan has left loose and they reject it all. Verse 9, And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The point I want to make is this, brethren. You and I can go to the feast. We can have a wonderful time at the feast. We can do a lot of physical things at the feast. But you and I better make sure that when we're going to the feast, we're not like these people. You and I have got to make sure that when we go, that we are really with the program. Really with the program. God's program. That we're not just warming a chair. We're not going through the motions. We're not there because a family member is there. You know, our mom is there, our grandmom's there, our husband or our wife or our kids. No, we are there because we love God. We love Jesus Christ, and we would give everything for this way of life. We're not passive. We're aggressive. We are proactive Christians. So, brethren, this coming feast, as you go to the feast, you and I have a great feast. We come back, we tell all the stories of things that we've done, and there's nothing wrong with that. But let's make sure you and I are there for the right reasons, and the right reason is a spiritual reason. Let's go. Let's have a feast of refreshing and restoration spiritually.