Should Christians Observe the Feasts of God?

Well, happy Sabbath, everybody! Good to see you all. I see like we go through different trials, don't we, because of different circumstances. I see like my sister-in-laws are going through their serious health issues, and some of God's people are as well going through that. By the way, none of my family are in the church, so it is remarkable, though, with Darlene's improvement.

She's gotten a better rebounder than just got all kinds of energy now, so we're really, very thankful for that, and thank you very much again for your prayers on their behalf.

And I know it'll make a difference. God intervenes with those things. No, we live in a world today that seems like it's getting smarter and smarter, and yet, forgive me for being so down to earth, and yet it's getting dumber and dumber. You know, I was mentioning to Mr. Willis prior to services how that, you know, we've got people now with more education than any time in the history of the United States who lack common sense. But if we go back, if we go back, what, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, it seems like people were not as educated, but they had common sense, and we had better decisions that were made, in fact, by many of the leaders of the country, that we, of course, are seeing decisions now made by, by, you know, the United States that are just unbelievable decisions.

They're mind-boggling, in fact, what's happening. It really characterizes what it says in Isaiah 1. You know, it talks about how the whole head is sick from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, and that describes modern Israel today. You know, interestingly, it's like people, again, somehow, when it comes to the Bible, they are, are not engaged, their minds are not engaged for some reason. It's amazing how people can carry around the same Bible that you and I do, but read many different things, isn't it?

I mean, Heinz 57 varieties of ideas come out of this book. People see things that you and I would, would be very, very surprised how they came to it. You know, many Christians don't think it really matters which days are kept to honor God, and again, they have the same book that you and I do. I mean, they read the same stories, and they have the Old Testament like we do, and I assume, because I, I mean, we oftentimes go to the, those that have, that make up these things, and they put them on websites where we do a Bible reading program.

You know, it was really the Protestants that came up with that, many of the Protestants who came up with it. So, like we are encouraged to read through the Bible every year, you know, they also encourage their people to read through the Bible, but seemingly to no avail. Again, they read the same book, and they come to believe, they come to believe, it doesn't really matter which day you keep to honor God. Well, I thought, brethren, since we're coming up to the feast days again, and we knew that, again, hit some of these things every year, but to ask the question and answer during the course of this sermon is, should Christians observe the Feast of God?

Should Christians observe the Feast of God? Should we be observing this day that we're observing today, the Sabbath? And should we keep the Feast of Trophus and the Day of Atonmas are coming in the fall and the Feast of Tabernacles? There are those old holy days of the Old Testament only for the Jews. And you hear this time and time again, oh yeah, that was just for the Jews. And if people are educated, they'll say, only for Israel. Something that Christians are free, you know, we're free today to do what we want to do, you know, that, yeah, those are for those old holy days where that was for Israel, that was for the Jews.

But we are Christians, we've been freed from that, and we're free to keep whatever days we want. So again, brother, what is the truth? We cannot take for granted what we know and let it slip. We cannot allow these things to happen. You know, so why do we keep the Sabbath? Why do we keep the holy days? And why are we going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the Fall? You know, why are we, you know, saving money as we do, you know, a festival tie that order to go and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles as God's people? You know, man has tried over time to alter time.

In fact, from antiquity, man has tried to alter time. Let's go back to Daniel chapter 7 over here. In Daniel chapter 7, it reveals a prophecy that pictures four succeeding world empires, and Daniel was talking about these empires that were going to emerge. In the book of Daniel, of course, the first, of course, was the Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar, of course, was that golden head of the image that is pictured in the book of Daniel.

The second empire that was to emerge was the Middle Persian Empire, you know, that came on the scene. And then following that, we remember this young man, this very industrious, very aggressive young man, Alexander the Great, who cuts a swath of land, basically, throughout the known world. He creates the Greco-Macedonian Empire, and he dies at the age of 33 years of age.

He was trying to, of course, go in the Indian, conquer Indian up in those areas, and he brought his armies back over a horrible desert, by the way. And some say that when he got back to Babylon, that he, he and his men, of course, celebrated by, you know, drinking, and they usually, you know, the Greeks had these drunken debauchery-type sessions, and that he also had some sort of, you know, disease, and he died. He died when he was 33 years of age, and he had conquered the world, basically. And four of his generals divided up what was the world ruling in Piavin, you know, the story and the account. He had the Seleucids, he had the Ptolemy down in the Egyptian area, and other Lysimachus and some of the other generals that deluded up the Greco-Macedonian Empire. And then Daniel describes a fourth empire, and that was the Roman Empire that had successive resurrections, first the period, you know, as the Roman Empire under Romulus and Remus, and that story you've heard how the Romulus and Remus were repeatedly raised by a wolf. But, you know, it's interesting. When we were over in Italy, there was a statue, you know, of two little boys, you know, suckling a wolf in one of the places that we were able to go. But it shows, again, back the history of the beginning of the Roman Empire. After the Roman Empire began, remember that it was a time afterwards that it became the Holy Roman Empire during the time of Justinian. But let's go over here in Daniel chapter seven because Daniel was recounting these four beasts, as they were called. You know, one was like a lion, and the other was like a bear, and then one was like a leopard. And then Roman was you know, a combination of all of those, a very fierce beast. But in Daniel chapter seven, on down here in verse seven, let's notice here, and after this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast. This fourth beast I was telling you about, the Roman Empire that was going to emerge, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trinkling the residue with its feet. And it was different from all the beasts that were before it. It had ten horns. And I considered the horns, and there was another horn, a little horn. Now, what was this little horn that came up here? Again, we're talking about the Roman Empire here. The little horn that it says, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words. Now, this little horn we have viewed, and traditionally so in the church, as the papacy.

When the Roman Empire was at a particular point, the vandals, remember the periouli and the australic gods, came into the Roman Empire and conquered it. Now, these vandals that came down into the area. And it was through the, basically, the papacy of then the Roman Catholic Church that these three were plucked up. And at that time, the Roman Empire was led by Justinian. And Justinian recognized the authority of the papacy. And the pope at the time, I believe it was Pope Leo, crowned him Emperor. Emperor of Rome. So that was the birth, that was the beginning, in 554 A.D., the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. Now, I'm telling you this story to sort of lead up to this for a purpose and for a reason.

This, you know, little horn which created what became the imperial restoration. It was what became the Holy Roman Empire, which would be the first of seven successive resurrections. And interestingly, you know, the Roman Catholic Church, the papacy, is the only church that crowns kings. And you can search again, and we'll find it's the only church that has done that. And we are waiting, by the way, and that, as far as the Holy Roman Empire for the last resurrection. There have already been six. We're waiting for the last resurrection of that Holy Roman Empire. We know it's going to rise up out of Europe when it comes on the scene. And the Bible, in Revelation 17, came pictures again. The harness, the papacy, as we have viewed it, again, riding the beast. This beast, this fourth beast he's talking about, and Daniel was talking about. But the rest of us go on here. So anyway, it plucks up these three, and it begins to dominate. Again, that's around 554 AD. And that we see, again, the emergence of the Imperial Restoration. But going on down here, let's notice in verse 24, what begins to happen?

In verse 24, if I can, I'm in chapter 8, but okay, verse 24, the ten horns are ten kings who shall rise from this kingdom, and another shall rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak Paulpus' words against the most high. We know this is what, in fact, the beast and the false prophet both will do, you know, in the Hindu age. Notice it says here that shall persecute the saints of the most high. So this is individual, and these individuals that are involved in this beast and the heart that rides the beast are going to persecute the saints of God, God's saints. And so intend to change times and law. Then it says, of course, after the fact, it talks about how the the saints, in fact, are going to dominate here. And it says, then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time, a time, at times and a half of time. So this will be, of course, during the time of the tribulation of the future. But at the end of that, we know that the saints of God are going to take the kingdom and are going to rule under Jesus Christ. But these are events, again, that are going to lead up to that. But the main point, brethren, here is to show that this little horn takes to change times. And to confuse, we know that one of the ploys of Satan the devil is deception. He is a master at deception. Though we all of course know Revelation 12 verse 9, that tells us that Satan the devil has deceived the whole world. And that's a hard one to really accept, isn't it, that Satan has deceived everybody? And a part of repentance is coming to see that, how people have been deceived. And, you know, this little horn that comes up thinks to change times and law. And also, she is drunk on the blood of the saints. I mean, there were people that were martyred, as we know. We go back to the history of, in fact, the Roman Empire itself. It was a history of a martyrdom. Some 50 million were martyred, you know, in Europe. And it experienced this kind of thing. And this particular little horn has done so in every way to change times. I want you to think about all the ways that times have changed. And I don't mean by that. I'm not talking about necessarily the morality of our age, but that has changed a great deal, too. I'm talking about times have changed. You know, it used to be, and we see even within the Bible, when does the day begin?

In the Bible. When the sun goes down, right? Well, the little horn set the beginning of the day at 12 Bishites. Quite a big change, isn't it? According to the Bible, when is the beginning of the week? And what is the end of the week? Well, we don't... The first day of the week is the first, and the last day of the week is called what? The Sabbath, right?

But what we have found, a man has done, is he begins the week on when? On Monday. He begins the week on Monday, and it ends on Sunday. So he's changed time.

And most people, if you ask them what is the first day of the week, they would say Monday.

And also, the little horn has changed another thing.

In the Bible, when does a month begin?

It begins with a new moon, doesn't it? Okay. How does that determine, you know, in the world? Well, what we find when this happens is the little horn introduced a solar calendar, a different calendar. And in the Bible, it's a lunar calendar based on the moon. And so the solar calendar began to be in use, and most everybody, again, looks to that.

Also, when in the Bible, when in the modern hemisphere does the year begin in man's way of reckoning? December, right? According to God's way of reckoning, in the modern hemisphere, when does a year begin? This spring, right? Interesting that the little horn changed the beginning of the year to the time when everything is dying. Whereas the biblical approach is that the beginning of the year is when everything's coming to life. And so we see, again, a difference, an approach of the way of the world, and they're changing times, and every way again, they possibly can. Though God gave us, of course, the Sabbath as a true rest, and man has, the little horn has caused people to worship on the first day of the week, and not the seventh day when God has set aside. Another thing that man has done, according to the Bible, what is the name of the first day of the week? It's not a trick question. It's the first day of the week, right? We don't have names for the first day of the week. God says it's the first day of the week, second day of the week, third day of the week. Pretty simple, isn't it? Okay, but man has changed the names of the days that have been named after pagan gods. Sun is, of course, the sun god. Monday, the moon. Tuesday, I can't remember what that one is, but I think Thursday is four.

Wednesday is voden, I think, and each one of them, of course, goes back to a pagan god. And even the ments are named after pagan gods. So, this is what's happened in the world, and people, of course, sort of yawn and don't think much about it. But who was instrumental in this was the little horn, beginning with the Holy Roman Empire, when it began to ride the beast. The rest of it, again, we need to be reminded of those things, though we don't take them for granted. The world has been totally deceived when it comes to time.

No wonder, no wonder, brother, they've lost track of God's timetable. No wonder they've lost track of what God's plan is for humanity, salvation for all human life. But God, brethren, has given us His timetable by giving us His annual Sabbath, His holy days, that we never forget again His timetable, what God is doing. You know, it's interesting, brethren, you know, that you and I here, we're not, again, the mighty of the world. We're not the intelligentsia of the world. You know, those that are really high in mind, they're not going to beat a path to our church service to find somebody to ask a question. But, brethren, God has revealed it to the weak things of the world, the base things of the world. And why has He done that? Well, you know, we know, you know, Mr. Andretti referred to this Scripture as well, ultimately to confound the mighty. That God is going to show the world, He's going to demonstrate to the world, you know, that He is in charge, that He is God. There is no other like God. Then the world will come to know eventually. When we come on the scene, and, you know, we were people that were not the high and mighty, somebody's going to say, well, I don't know, I lived during that time. I never heard, you know, of Joe Schmoe. And how did He get in charge? How is He rooming? How is He in this position of strength? Well, God's going to bring us up and give us, again, incredible opportunities for the future. Now, the intelligent people of the world today, they will argue against God's holy days, and they will say, they'll usually use a couple of ploys. Number one, the annual Sabbath, or a part of the Old Wall of Moses. We don't have to keep that, that Old Wall of Moses. Well, number two, well, you know, they offered sacrifices on those annual Sabbaths, and God's done away with those sacrifices. So, the holy days, you know, we don't have to keep those because they're tied to sacrifices. Number three, they will turn to Colossians 2.16, and they will say that that does away with the holy days. A lot of times, again, some will base their entire proof of that on that Colossians 2.16. We're going to go to that in a little bit, but let's wait a bit. Man argues, again, against God's holy days. Now, the question is, are there arguments scriptural? Are there in the Bible? Well, it might surprise you to know that the holy days are not a part of the Law of Moses, but it wouldn't surprise you. I hope it doesn't surprise you. The reason I say that is because the holy days were kept long before the ritualistic ordinances contained in the Law of Moses were even given. We know that, in fact, before Moses, there was Abraham. And remember that God said of Abraham that he kept the Law's commandments and statutes. What is it? Genesis 26 verse 5, somewhere in there, that it talks about. He observed God's laws, commandments, and statutes. That's long before Moses was even a gloom in his son, Isaac's eye.

So Moses didn't come on the scene until much, much later when Israel was in captivity, remember. A little under 400 years after that, Moses comes on the scene. But before Moses was Abraham, and he kept the laws of God. Remember, sin existed in the Garden of Eden. And so God's laws existed a long, long time before that. But rather than the Sabbath, or more the Holy Days, or part of the Mosaic Law, what people call the Law of Moses. Now, let me show you this. You know, brethren, that sacrifices were done every day of the year in ancient Israel. Let's go here to Numbers chapter 28. Numbers chapter 28. Numbers 28, over here.

Numbers 28 verse 3.

It says, And you shall say to them, This is the offering, made by fire, which you shall offer to the Lord two more lands in their first year without blemish, day by day, as a regular birth offering, day by day. Every day there were sacrifices that were done. You know, in the tabernacle, and later in the temple that were ongoing. But listen to us here. Even though there were these things that were instructed of Israel, let's go over here to Jeremiah 7. The prophet Jeremiah tells us something very important over here. You know, God gave Israel, ancient Israel, His laws and commandments and statutes. But let's notice over here in chapter 7 in verse 22.

In verse 22 of Jeremiah 7, notice it says, For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. Now get that, brethren. God said, I did not tell them about burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them out of Egypt.

In fact, those things were not added to about a year later.

So they were in Egypt, and God never commanded them about sacrifices. For this is what I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice. And I revere God, and you shall be my people, and walk in all the ways I command you that it may be well with you. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts. Isn't this what man always does? He wants to do his own thing. No matter what God tells him to do, man wants to do his own thing.

And live this, and live backward and not forward.

So here we see this. God sent prophets to warn them what was going to happen if they continued along the pathway. It's like today, you know, we as a church are trying to warn people that the direction man is going in is wrong. He's got to turn around and go back the other way.

But how many people really listen? You know, we preach the Gospel today to millions of people. But how many people listen? I think it's going to be less and less. You know, perhaps, you know, in the short space of time ahead of us, until something really big happens, then people might begin to sit up and take notice. It's like 9-11. I think that caused a lot of people to begin to have a second thought about the directions they were taking in their lives.

And maybe that will happen in the future. But if they take that before people begin to respond. But the key here, again, it might be good for you to mark this in your Bible here very clearly, that when God brought Israel out of Egypt, He did not command them the offerings and the sacrifices. Again, they were given later. Now, let's notice, by the way, Colossians 2.16 over here. Colossians 2.16 and 17. We'll just touch on those two verses.

These verses are used, by the way, for people to say, you don't have to keep those old Old Testament holy days. But here, in Colossians 2, verse 16, here Paul is writing, by the way, to a predominantly Gentile church, probably there in Colossae, with Jews, some Jews that were there as well. But they were Gentiles. And, you know, imagine the kind of difference there is in a community where you're the only one that is keeping God's loss. Now, we're like that sort of, aren't we? All of us are different communities. You know, in Brentwood, I don't know very many people that keep the Sabbath. You know, I'm sure that there are a number of even seven dead, and this probably, that live there. But I frankly only know a couple of people that keep the holy days. Well, other than my, our family. But other than that, I don't know. I don't know who's there that does it. So we're sort of like these people were. But the other part of it, brethren, how long have you been keeping the Sabbath and the holy days? Probably a long time, haven't you? And you've got to become almost resolute, so resolute that nothing shakes you. But if you were new to something, it's amazing when people come out to try to convince you otherwise. When I was first learning about the Sabbath, I can remember this like it was yesterday, but I had a friend of mine. His name was Sonny Barnes. His dad was a, he was a deacon, I believe, in the Church of Christ. We heard that I was accepting this Sabbath concept. And so he somehow talked his son into inviting me down to maybe chat with me to try to steer me right. Unfortunately, he wasn't successful. Unfortunately, he was not successful. But I'm saying that's the kind of pressure that people begin to put on you. That was not the only thing that happened to me, by the way. People wanting to pull me away from what I was doing. You know, and eventually, when they figured I was hard-headed, I was going to do it anyway, they left me alone. Well, these Gentiles were in a community where their friends, where their relatives were saying, what are you doing? What are you doing? You know, you can't eat this meat that we just have put on the table here. Maybe it had the blood still in it, you know. You know, they used to say, in fact, the Gentiles, you know, when they killed an animal, they were cruel to the animal. And oftentimes, of course, they did not bleed the animal properly. When they would drink wine, they would drink wine was not, you know, it's like the Bible says, don't drink it if it's moving in the cup.

You want to be careful with that. I hope that you wouldn't drink any wine that moveth in the cup, as it says in the King James. Of course, if the food moveth, you better not eat that either. But, anyway, let's notice what Paul says to them. It says, so let no one judge you in food or in drink. So he's telling the Gentiles, don't let anybody judge you when it comes to food or drink. Now, was there any difference between the way the Jews ate and the way the Gentiles of that day ate? You bet! Even there's no differences in our world that we live in today. I know, by the end, even modern Israel has become Gentile. I've asked for it. Remember, I went over to one man's house who was being, I guess, he felt he wanted to visit. So we're getting in this very heavy conversation. And here's where life is in the kitchen, and she's banging pots and stuff like that around. Well, I'm in a heavy-duty conversation with a guy. He said, well, if we want you to stay, to eat. And I had not planned on doing that. Not a good idea, by the way. Somebody's brand spanking moves to stay for dinner. If I didn't know that before, I learned it this in this way. But so I'm sitting at the table, and, you know, the wife puts a plate in front of me, shrimp. And I was trying to be careful, and I tried to explain to him, you know, I just have to say, I cannot eat shrimp. And so anyway, typically, if somebody's being called by the way, they're not offended by you talking about that. But he got highly offended by it. And I'm not sure he ever got over it. But I talked to him about it, but he did not want to talk about it. He wanted to argue about it. And I explained, well, we don't engage in that kind of thing in the Church. But anyway, here are these Gentiles. I'd better begin to get back to the sermon. But anyway, he said, let no man judge you in food or drink, nor regarding a festival, or a numeral, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Now, you read that, by the way, it's in the New King James. In the Old King James, it reads like this. Let me read it to you. I have it written down here somewhere. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the moon, or of the Sabbath days, and it says, which are a shadow, so it says the same thing, which are a shadow of things to come, but the last part of this, but the body is of Christ. So, there's a difference between the New King James and the Old King James. And, interestingly, if you look in the original text, the words in italics, even here, I believe in... No, they actually in mine do not put the word is here in italics, what it calls the substance is of Christ, but in the Old King James, the word is in italics, which means it was not in the original text. The word substance, by the way, though, in the margin, if you have a marginal reference, is body, the word body. So, he says, don't let anyone judge you. You know, these things which are a shadow of things to come, but the body of Christ, the body of Christ gives you instruction on these matters. Let the church teach you on these matters. Don't let your community teach you about it. Don't let your neighbors and your friends be your instructors on these things. Look to the church to teach you and to guide you on these things. That's what this verse is saying. It is upholding the keeping of the Holy Days. It's not putting the Holy Days down.

No, so we see here that God, you know, even with the the Gentiles was teaching and instructing about the Holy Days. And far from being a disproof of keeping the Holy Days, this is a proof of keeping God's Holy Days and His Sabbaths. And, you know, by the way, here in verse 16, a new moon, you know, it's in the scene there. It doesn't say new moons. You know, what is the only new moon that we observe in the church?

A feast of trumpets, right? That's the only one we observe. And, of course, the festivals are the annual festivals that we've talked about here so far. Now, let's look at some of the other arguments that people make against the Holy Days. Again, they say that those own Holy Days were part of the Mosaic law. Well, I just read you Jeremiah 7.22. The God said He did not command them concerning offerings and sacrifices when He brought them out of Egypt. Okay, let's go over here to Exodus and notice over here. Exodus 12. Exodus 12. In verse 12, what is the first festival that God instructed Israel about? It was the Passover. Let's notice on here in verse 12 of chapter 12, it says, I will pass to the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the first born of the land, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the eternal. And it says, now the blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. And that's, again, from how we get, again, the Passover, because death bypassed the children of Israel as it bypasses God's people today. And I'm talking about the eternal death that bypasses us. For them, it was a physical death. And the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. On this day shall be your memorial. You shall keep it as a feast to the eternal. Throughout your generations, you shall keep it as a feast by everlasting ordinance. And that, of course, was the Passover. And in verse 15, it expands it also to the days of our leavened bread here. Seven days you shall eat our leavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day into the seventh day. That person shall be cut off from Israel. And so God gave instructions about the Passover of the days of our leavened bread before the Emory left Egypt. This is long before God had instructed them about, you know, the sacrifices and the Mosaic law and all that. It was before, in fact, God made a covenant with them. But He gave these, you know, instructions about the Holy Days.

You know, that should, again, help us to understand, you know, that the claim that the Holy Days were part of the Law of Moses, part of that old covenant, as they often talk about, when they claim that, it, of course, is not true. Where is the covenant even mentioned in the Book of Exodus? Okay, we're in chapter 12, right? It's not until chapter 24 that the covenant is even mentioned. So it's much later that the covenant was made, and so the Holy Days were instructed before the old covenant was even made with Israel, before the Law of Moses was given to the people. In fact, when these were given, they were yet in Egypt, they began observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Of course, we, all we have to, for the Sabbath day, we don't have to to go anywhere but Genesis 2, verses 1 through 2. The Sabbath day, which we observe every single week, was instructed by God. He sent an example by resting on the Sabbath day, and so the Sabbath existed from time and memorial. From the beginning, in fact, of all things, God gave the Sabbath to man. He gave no other day. And when He gave the Sabbath, by the way, the Law of Moses was non-existent. Someone cannot possibly argue that Abraham kept the Law of Moses. But, of course, I'm sure that many people think, I would think, a lot of people think that Abraham, you know, he didn't keep any Law. But that, again, is foolishness. That's foolishness. Because Abraham was a righteous man, and God, because he was righteous, because he obeyed the Law's commandments and statues, God could fulfill all the things that God had given to them. Now, when Israel comes on the scene, let's go over here in Exodus 31. Can you imagine, you know, the descendants of Abraham, as we know, they sojourned for 400 years, basically. And especially in Egypt, they probably lost a lot of knowledge, a lot of information that kind of falls by the wayside, although I'm sure they did not lose it all. But here in Exodus 31, down in verse 13, it says, This is not just the weekly Sabbath, brethren, but my Sabbaths. You go back, if you're up to it, you'll find that God calls His holy days Sabbaths as well. You shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. I set you apart. And you shall keep the Sabbath therefore for His holy view. Everyone who prefers it shall be put to death. For whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among His people. You know, this happened in the physical sense back then, by the way. How much more is that incumbent upon us to observe and keep the Sabbath? He talks about how this is a perpetual covenant. All of us know what a perpetual something perpetual is, don't we? If you could build a perpetual motion machine, you'd become a very wealthy man, would you? A woman, if you could do that. Well, it's to be kept all the time. We'll be kept on end to eternity for a while, all we understand is God's people. The Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, and God's vessels actually are a sign that God is making a covenant with us. And, you know, unless we have that sign, it's impossible to say that God has made a covenant with us. So it's a part of the covenant relationship we have with God. And by the sign, by the way, we come to know God, and God knows His people. You know, it's like He knows who are His. It's like when God said, put the blood on the doorpost in the little, you know, of the house. And the death angel passed over. When God looks down, He sees us keeping His Sabbath, keeping His Sabbath in the Holy Days, brethren. He knows that we are His people.

And, you know, we come to know God as well. Now, who was it that was giving all this instruction, by the way, to Israel? Who was giving all this instruction? Who was it that created the Sabbath? Who was it that created Adam and Eve?

What was the one who became Jesus Christ? The one that dealt with ancient Israel, by the way, we are told, in fact, in 1 Corinthians 10, 4, the one who said them, you know, and, of course, they drank of, as it says, the spiritual rock that followed Him. And that rock, Paul says, was Christ.

And so it was Jesus Christ who was, of course, the Yahweh of the time that meant eternal. He was eternal. And that He's the one that instructed Israel about these things. And in Hebrews 13 and 8, it says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. It's man who changes, by the way. In Christ's desire, God's desire, the Father's desire, brethren, today is that we be observing the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and His desire for us to do that has not changed. Because through the Sabbath and the Holy Days, we come to know God. And brethren, there is no other way. There is no other way.

If we do not observe the Sabbath, we cannot come to know God. This is plain as that. If we do not observe the Holy Days, we can't come to know God, what He's telling us, and what He's doing. And brethren, we don't know what He's doing. We don't know God. We really don't know God. When God instructed the Holy Days—I won't go through this, but in Leviticus, point three over here, you can look at it yourself—but in Leviticus, point three over there, it talks about when God instructed about the Sabbath, and when He instructed about the Holy Days, He said, These are my feasts. He didn't say they were Jewish feasts. He didn't say they were Israel's feasts. He said, These are my feasts. And He told them that they should observe the Passover, other than bread, Pentecost, feast of weeks, feast of firstfruits, trumpets of Ptolemy. He says, Forever! And again, the world has the same Bible you and I have, and yet they don't seem to read the same things, I guess. So they were instructed to be observed forever because the fact that they are of eternal significance for humankind. And, you know, the Holy Days, brethren, keep us into a close, personal relationship with God, giving us understanding about who He is and what He's trying to do here for mankind. You know, we don't see God's tremendous compassion without the Sabbath and the Holy Days. We don't see what God has done for mankind to sort of bring Him to the point where He could be saved. Imagine all the things that have happened that God has had to bring about in order to make it possible for a man to have salvation. But the Holy Days keep us in touch with God and what He's doing.

And anybody, again, who says that they know God, in the New Testament, John said in 1 John 2, verse 4, he put it just bluntly, he who says he knows God and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. In other words, you can't come to know God. There are going to be many people, by the way. Jesus said that there are people who come and say, have we prophesied in Your name? Have we done many wonderful works in Your name? What will God, what will Christ say to them? What will God say? I'm sorry, I never knew you.

And, better than if God doesn't know us, then we don't know Him.

And again, through the Holy Days, we get this relationship with God.

The Holy Days, as we know, picture different epochs of God's work and His plan of salvation. Passover, of course, ultimately looked to the time when Christ would give His blood for the sins of all humanity. That man would have the opportunity to have a sense wiped away. The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures put in the center of our life and bringing God in, bringing Jesus Christ in. In Pentecost, pictures a time when God would call the church. First, He called those who were known as the Church of the Wilderness. And here, in this next dispensation, you and I are in, He's called the Church of God.

The Israel of God is called also in the New Testament.

And so, through that means, He's calling us into the church. And He does that, by the way, and it's pictured, you know, by the Feast of Pentecost, which is also the Feast of First Fruits, meaning that we're the first to be called right now. And later, again, the world is going to be called.

And so, these things are what we see, again, in the Bible. And, you know, Holy Days gives us the ethics of God's plan. Trumpets, of course, picturing the return of Christ, and setting up of the government of God, and Atonement, picturing the Bionun of Satan and the inauguration of the saints into offices in the world tomorrow. And Tabernacles pictures the memorial reign of the Kingdom of God on earth.

And so, it is a beautiful picture. And we know the eighth day, or as we called it, the last great day, pictures the time, you know, when all of humanity is going to be awakened to the truth. And they're going to be literally awakened to the truth, because they're going to be brought, you know, back from the dead, and they're going to stand up out of graves, and they're going to be part of God's way of life. And we'll be teaching them much of what we've learned, and hopefully we'll even be sharper then, we'll have a little bit better minds to be able to draw on the experiences that we've had. But in the whole story of the regeneration of this creation is in the Holy Days. That God has given great hope to mankind, and we get a chance to reenact it every single year. And God wants His brother never to forget what He's doing, what He's trying to accomplish. No, don't get caught up in the day-to-day, mundane things of your life and forget these things. This is why you've been called.

Now think about this, brethren. Any nation, proclaiming the Sabbath, has lost contact with and knowledge of the true God. Any nation. Any nation, no matter who it is. And I'll say this also in a person as well who ceases to keep the Sabbath, begins to lose the knowledge that they even had if they were one time keeping it and they turned away from it. And there's a tendency to turn to idolatry of different forms. And today, a lot of times, idols are material things in the world that we live in today. But when we lose the Sabbath or the Holy Days, we begin to lose knowledge right away. And what have the so-called churches of the world lost? I mean, we have these huge churches, brethren, that are out there. Several and twenty, thirty thousand people gather and gather in football stadiums. And many of them don't even know what sin is, have no concept of what sin is. If you ask them a question, well, what is sin? You know, most would thought, well, it's a mistake. They saw what? Whatever the current morals are. So the world of Christianity, brethren, they know what sin is. And so they cannot teach how to put sin out of their lives. They don't even know what it is. No so-called Christians, brethren, don't understand what man is, why he was created, and why he was put on the earth, what his purpose of life is, as we used to have the booklet, the old booklet, Why Were You Born?

No, they don't understand that God is not in a battle against the devil to save the world at this time. You know, you have people that have this idea, here's God over here, just battling against Satan. And it looks like to me, by the way, you look in the world today, is God losing?

Doesn't look that way to you? I mean, it looks like God's getting an upper hand, and this battle, if there's a big battle that's going on, but they misunderstand. That's not what is happening now. They think, in fact, that this is the only day of salvation, and they preach it vehemently.

And, you know, a lot of them teach, of course, that if you don't repent now, boy, you're going to burn in your henna. You know, you're going to be frying and sizzling and popping. And they don't even do the... be the honor of letting you goodness die. I mean, you're going to be in agony forever, for eternity. And I'm sure that probably has gotten many a man up the sawdust trail to get repent, give his heart for war, at least on that Sunday. And by Monday, he's gone sour. She's gone sour. No, they don't understand about Pentecost. They do not understand about trumpets. They don't understand what Pentecost is about. They think it may be... yeah, they may have given the Holy Spirit, then, but other than that, they don't really know much about what it means.

They also reject this piece of tabernacles and don't know about the Morin or reign of Christ.

I mean, what church do you know of, brother, in any Sunday-keeping church? I didn't go to very many Sunday-keeping churches, but I never heard the subject of Millennium. In any sermon I ever heard... in fact, I didn't hear much about the future.

Even though the Bible is very clear about the return of Christ and his reign on the earth in a thousand years. Also, they reject many other things as a result of not having the Holy Days. They don't know... the people are called now to train to be kings and priests in the world tomorrow, and they don't believe the true gospel. What the true gospel is? How can you come to know what... you know, the true gospel is if you don't know the nature of man, why he was put on earth? You can't! You cannot know the true gospel unless you know what man is about, and what God intends for human beings. That God is building a family, and he's going to bring multiple millions into his family. And of course, you have also the... the American soul lives that are forced off on people. That you die, but you never... you really never die. Some believe in reincarnation, and one of the fellows that... I think one of the princes of Britain said he hoped that when he died, he'd be reincarnated as a killer disease and kill off everybody off the planet. A new lady might have already come in that form, and it was called his mouth.

False concepts of hell, false concepts of heaven.

The world teaches you how to go to heaven when you die. The world that really, really, heaven that couldn't go to heaven was Satan. And God cast him out, remember, and the dean was with him. So, having lost the Sabbath of the Holy Days, they don't... really, many of them don't know what to believe in the Bible. So, they teach then that, well, that old war must be done away.

You don't know what it means anyway, so let's just abolish it. And so, that's what they did. And they teach pagan doctrines, you know, instead of the truth. And pagan holidays instead of the truth. You know, there's no evidence whatsoever that Christ or the apostles ever observed any of the holidays observed by Christianity today. No evidence whatsoever. You could search the Bible, you know, from Matthew to Revelation, and you'll find no evidence that any of the apostles nor Christ ever kept any of the holidays of man of so-called Christianity today.

In fact, if you go in the book of John, John goes out of his way to describe what Jesus did.

We know he kept the Holy Days. I won't go through it. You can read through John if you want to. And Christ, in keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days, in fact, 40 days after his crucifixion, he told his disciples to go out and teach all nations. By the way, not just the Jews, but all nations. Whatsoever he said, I've commanded you. Your example, his examples, and so forth, is what they taught to peoples around the world, as we know as the Gospel, began to go around the world.

And after, in fact, the Church began in 31 A.D., what was the first Holy Day that they observed?

In Acts 2, the Church gathers in one accord on the Feast of Pentecost. Again, one of the annual Holy Days of God. It says they were in one accord in one place, on Pentecost. You'd think they'd gotten together and said, are we supposed to be here? I mean, after all, the New Testament Church had begun. Well, I'll see you next Sunday. They didn't say that, did they? But in fact, when we go later, Paul is actually meeting in synagogues on the Sabbath day, and teaching, and instructing. And when we look at Paul's example, he kept Pentecost, he kept, you know, the Feast of God, and he worked very hard to do that. And Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. So Paul is imitating Christ, and so we ought to again imitate Christ and Paul. And by the way, he was keeping the Holy Days, you know, 20 years after the beginning of the Church.

You know, the Church began in 31 A.D. in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1, we see, the first is about 52 A.D., by the way. Over 21 years later, he was teaching them imitate me as I imitate Christ. And all through the Book of Acts, you know, notes how that they were observing through the Holy Days, by the way. In 1 Corinthians 5, verses 6 through 8, remember, Paul was writing during the Days of Unleavened Bread, a correctness situation there, correcting the Church because they were observing the Passover properly. And then he said, therefore, let us keep the Feast, the Days of Unleavened Bread, you know, is what he was talking about here.

So Paul was teaching the Gentiles to keep the Holy Days over two decades after the beginning of the Church.

Then why would that be, brethren, if it was done away? Why would you bother the Gentiles about these things if it was done away? Well, the fact is it wasn't done away.

The arguments that people make, though, you know, are very empty, very empty. Now, let's go to the sermon here in Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14.

This is the beginning of the Millennium, in fact. Brethren, in chapter 14, he was talking about a time of the climax of all things.

And after much has happened, actually, when a king begins to rule over the earth, and that king, of course, will be Jesus Christ. And notice, verse 16, it shall come to pass, that everyone who is left of all the nations, which came of this Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and in their keep, the Feast of Tabernacles. We're going to be observing the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall, and we'll be right in line with the time when the world is going to do the same thing.

And so, if people understand how this is going to be enforced, the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles, it shall be that which will serve the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the king, their eternal hosts, on their mission and reign. If the family of Egypt will not come up, and in a way, they shall have no reign, and they shall receive the plague with which the eternal strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. So, the Egyptians eventually are going to be converted. They'll be the first, by the way, in probably a long ride of people that will come under God's authority, and they will keep God's feasts, one of which will be the Feast of Tabernacles. And I suspect what this means is that they will observe—most people would observe it in Egypt—but that there will be emissaries that will come up from Egypt, representative of the Egyptians' desire to obey God. Because otherwise, you think about how many people can cram into Jerusalem. I mean, it would be impossible to put everybody there. So, it's going to be a representation of what the people themselves are going to be doing. This is going to be happening all over the world, by the way, not just in Egypt, but Egypt may be the first. So, brethren, we have these things already as God's people. We have the great truths that God has given to us in advance. We know about the Sabbaths. We know about the Holy Days. And we can benefit, brethren, now, because we come to know God again. I hate to think, brethren, the lack of knowledge we would have if we didn't know it from the Holy Days. They just open up so much understanding. We come to know how merciful, how great God is, and how His sin is given so much through the Passover to us. And, of course, what God is going to do in the future about how Christ is going to return and how, finally, that Satan is going to be locked out along with his demons. And that there's hope, also, brethren, when we look at the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, you know, when all mankind is going to be given a chance to know the precious truths that God has given to us in advance. So, brethren, let's not take these things for granted. We can benefit from the blessings which come by living life based on God's laws. To whom much is given, that should require, Jesus said. So don't let these things slip, brethren. These keys unlock our understanding of our God, the keys of the Sabbath and the Holy Days, but help us to understand His plan for all of humankind.

Though, this Herbert Armstrong used to quote this verse quite often. In Psalm 111 verse 10, you don't have to turn there. It's just a quick, a very short verse. But it says, a good understanding have all they that do His commandments. When we keep God's commandments, we have an understanding that no other can have. Let's go over to finally to Revelation 22. Revelation 22 over here.

But if somehow we could close our eyes and imagine what's going to be like as we are in the Kingdom of God, the world as we know it will be behind us someday.

And we will be able to do what it says here. Let's go to again Revelation 22 verse 14.

It says, Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. Brother, that's hopefully you and me.

And the reason we're going to be able to have a right to that tree of life will be because we've kept God's commandments. We've done it now. When the whole world is not doing it, God's people are doing it. But on down here, notice again a warning to all of us. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. So let's be moved, brethren, by God's Holy Spirit to keep his laws, commandments, and statutes. Let's be moved by God's Spirit to keep God's Sabbaths and Holy Days carefully honoring God. And, brethren, let that illumination and the light of the truth never be lost.

God has entrusted you with a knowledge which should never fade. And you should never take for granted, because God has given it to us. And he wants us to have the rich blessings and promises that come through obedience, that we might have right to that tree of life.