The Unique Role of God's Elect in His Holy Day Plan, Part 1

Well, Happy Sabbath once again. In just a few weeks, the 2016 fall Holy Day season is going to begin with the Feast of Trumpets on the 3rd of October. The fall festivals begin after more than a long three-month gap since we observed Pentecost in June. And it seems like such a long time, doesn't it?

Did you know that the sequence of the Holy Days pictures a unique plan that God is working out with his elect? Now, God's plan ultimately is for everybody. But you know there are a select group of elect people in which the Holy Days are actually in the proper sequence of their existence.

That's not true for everybody. But it's true for a certain group of people that God would call throughout history, where you begin with the first Holy Day all the way to the seventh Holy Day, and it represents the exact sequence that will occur in that individual's existence. It's rather remarkable.

Let's begin to think about this theme and begin to study this by turning to John 6 and verse 35. If you'll turn there with me, John 6 and verse 35. John 6 and verse 35. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. And of course we know that that's the theme of the date of unleavened bread. Jesus Christ is the bread of righteousness. And we eat unleavened bread every day that represents the righteousness of Christ being inside of us. So he said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But, he says, I want to explain this a little further to you. I said to you that you have seen me and do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. He uses an interesting phrase there. He says, all that the Father gives to me. What's he implying here? He's saying there are some who are not called right now. There are some who aren't going to get it. Hint, hint. My Jewish audience, you know, at the time he's saying this, hint, hint, you people, is what he was saying to the Jewish audience there. I want you to notice the phrase, all that my Father gives me, implying that there are some in that audience listening to Christ whom the Father was not giving the understanding to understand or appreciate who and what Jesus Christ was. But let's continue. For this is the will of the Father who sent me, that all he has given me, notice that phrase again, all that he's given me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. Verse 40, and this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. So is Jesus saying in context, the Father is making a connection with some people. He has given them to me. They're being called. They get it. There's a connection. He's saying, and for those people who see me, acknowledge me as the Christ and believe in me will have everlasting life, and I'm going to raise them up from the dead. I'm going to give them life once again after they've ceased this physical existence. Verse 41, the Jews then complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. I didn't believe that he had previously lived. Here's what they say, and they said, isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? He didn't live before. What do you mean he came down from heaven? I know his father. I know his mother. I remember when he was born. So what do you mean that he came down from heaven? Being skeptical. How is it that he says, I have come down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said to them, do not murmur among yourselves. No man can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. He's saying, you just can't wake up one morning and say, I think I want to know about God and find God. It doesn't work that way.

He says there has to be a calling, a special connection, a drawing from the father who says at this point in history, in this time, I call you. Remember the Second World War? Uncle Sam said, I want you. That's what God says to us spiritually.

He says, I want you. Don't ask me why. There's not necessarily a logic to it because we're not the smartest people in the world, right? We're not the best looking people in the world. We're not the richest people in the world. We are considered by many to be the foolish of the world.

But God says, the father draws us and the father calls us. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me.

You have to have heard the father's call. You have to be taught from the father in order to desire and recognize and accept the Christ. Not that everyone has seen the father except he was from God. He's referring to himself. He has seen the father. Most assuredly I say unto you that he who believes in me has everlasting life.

So in contrast to the belief of many shades of Christianity that says that you only get one chance at salvation. I remember having a debate with my stepfather's aunt who was a very religious Methodist woman, very sincere. And I said, well, what about all of these children born in China, some village in China? And the missionary never gets there. I mean, there are many areas of the world that have never been Christian missionaries.

And that child lives his whole full life and dies, unsaved. She says, well, by faith I just believe that sometime in everyone's life they had the chance to learn about Jesus. I said, well, that would certainly take a tremendous amount of faith because there are many areas of this world in which Christianity or a single missionary has never been to and does not exist.

And so far a thousand generations have lived and died in those areas of the world. Are those people all lost? Well, what Jesus is saying here is that the Father, at this time, at any moment throughout history, is only calling those, drawing a certain number of people to Him at that time. Who will get it? Who will say, I understand what God is doing here. God is working with me. God is calling me to a new way of life. God is drawing me to understand who and what Jesus Christ is. Jesus is proclaiming to a very skeptical Jewish audience that salvation begins with a calling. And unless and until the Father chooses to call and draw an individual towards Him, that individual is as confused and bewildered about God as this audience was right here, confused about who and what Jesus Christ was. One may be very sincere. I've known people who are very sincere about their religious beliefs, very sincere about what they read in the book. But unless that connection is made, unless the Father draws one to understand who and what Jesus Christ was, the reality is we can search for God all that we want. But unless the Father draws us, we are spiritually blind and deaf and dumb. Yes, we can read the words. Yes, we can go through the motions. Yes, we can be very sincere. But as Jesus just said here, the Father gives certain people the opportunity to know Him. And we're going to read more about this. Let's take a look in Romans 11 and verse 7 and see what Paul says about it. Paul certainly agreed exactly with what Jesus Christ said. Romans 11 and verse 7. In context, Paul is talking about in the discussion, Israel, particularly the Jews of his day. Romans 11 and verse 7. He says, What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks. The Jews didn't find fulfillment. They didn't find a Savior. They didn't find the opportunity for eternal life. They have not obtained what they seek. But the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Blinded? Well, what happened to the idea that everyone gets one chance to hear, or a chance to hear about Jesus, and you either accept it and presto bingo, you're going to go to heaven, or you reject it and presto bingo, it's to the boiler for you. That's not what Paul is saying. He is saying the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor. Now, he's talking about religious Jewish people. People who read the Old Testament every Sabbath day. People who kept the Sabbath. People who kept the Holy Days. People, the right words came out of their mouths. And what does Paul say about them? They have a spirit of stupor. Because without Christ, it means nothing. Continuing, he says, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear to this very day. Paul is saying there are some who have obtained it, and he calls them the elect. He says everyone else is blinded. Maybe sincere. But they're blinded. They don't get it. They don't make that connection. Why? Because the time isn't right for them to be called by the Father. You were here today because in one degree or another, I believe that the Father is calling you. And you've responded again to one degree. Or some of you have responded simply by saying, you know what? I should go and attend services with my family. That's the least of response. That's a great start.

And that goes all the way to those of you who have been baptized for a hundred years. Now, a few of us may feel that we've been baptized that long, right? So depending on the degree, you're here today. This is the Sabbath day. You're sitting in this room to a certain degree. You have responded to what you know God is doing and what God is calling.

You're here today because the Father is calling you and to a certain degree you responded. And because of that truth, I want to explain to you your calling in sequential order in every one of God's Holy Days. And what I'm about to explain here in these Holy Days, that's a sequential order of how God worked with you and your existence through eternity. I want you to understand that this does not apply to 99% of people who will ever have been born.

Because their calling won't come until after the Kingdom of God arrives. It'll be inverted. It'll be a different process than what we're going to look at today. So let's go to Leviticus 23. Let's begin. I want you to hold your place in Leviticus 23 because we're going to go back and forth there. If you've got a little card, you can slide in there or a little ribbon in your Bible.

Put it there because we're going to be going back and forth from Leviticus 23. So we're going to start here in Leviticus 23 beginning in verse 1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feast of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feast. Again, like I like to say, they're not the United Church of God's feast.

They're not your feast. They're not Greg Thomas's feast. They're God's feast. Six days shall all work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation or convention. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.

And a few weeks ago, I have a granddaughter. Who knows I love roses? So she did. Remember I mentioned a few weeks ago how childlike we have to enter the kingdom of God. We've got to have an attitude of a little child. Jesus mentioned that. Well, she knows her grandpa likes roses. So she cuts out roses, and she puts roses on a picture board, and she tapes the picture board in my bedroom.

Now, why did she do that? She did that because she knows her grandpa likes roses, and she wanted to please her grandfather. So drawing from that, if God says, these are my feasts, why would you want to do something else? If God says, these are my feasts, and you have the attitude of a child, and you want to please God, why wouldn't you do what's going to please your dad? If you know observing his festivals will please him, they're his, he's the one who gives them identity, why would you not observe them?

And let me go one step further. Then, if you want to please your dad, my granddaughter did not cut out pictures of stinkweed and prickle bushes and glue it on that paper and hang it on my wall. So why would we take a so-called holiday that originates in paganism and put a little lipstick on it and change the name of it and call it Jesus something or massive Christ or whatever it may be and say, here, dad, we're going to do this to honor you. I'm doing this to give you honor and glory. Do you think that would please him?

Well, let me ask you this question. If you gave your wife a used negligee with your previous girlfriend's name embroidered on it, do you think she'd be pleased? Do you think she'd be honored? Do you think she would be happy? Well, neither is God. When you take a day that was originally instituted to worship a pagan God with pagan symbols and rituals and you continue to do that and just throw the name God or Jesus or something on it and that makes it okay.

Do you think that would please God? Well, of course not. So God says, these are my feasts. And the very first one he mentions is the Seventh-Day Sabbath. God announces the Moses a reminder of a weekly feast before he mentions the Seven Annual Holy Days.

Of course, we know that the weekly Sabbath is far more than a reminder of God's creation. But it also looks forward. It doesn't just look backward. I've read many astute theologians say, well, we don't observe the Sabbath because it's obsolete. It looks towards creation. Well, indeed, it does remind us and give us gratitude towards God's wonderful creation. But it doesn't just look backwards. It looks forward. It looks forward to the kingdom of God. It looks forward to the time when the earth will be restored to the perfection and harmony and peace that existed when God was done creating the earth and said, it is very good.

And all of that was lost due to the sin of Adam and Eve. And the Sabbath looks forward to a time when that will be restored for humanity. And it's known as the kingdom of God. So now let's review the Seven Annual Holy Days. Two are in the spring, one in the summer, and four in the fall. And they obviously were all originally harvest celebrations. And let's see how they relate, since I'm talking to the elect today, let's see how they relate to your personal calling and God's plan for his elect, called by the Father throughout history.

We begin by looking at the Passover, Exodus 23. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. The Hebrew calendar began a new year in the month of Abib. And it corresponds with our springtime here in the Northern Hemisphere. The spring Holy Day season begins with the Passover. The Lamb here pictured the role of Jesus Christ as our Savior. Before we got to where we are today, we came to a point where we said, you know, there is a God, I need to know more about him. There's something inside me that wants to respond to what I'm hearing. And then we learned about the need for repentance.

And then we learned about the need to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And those were the things that brought us here to the point that we are today. The Lamb pictured the role of Jesus Christ as Savior. And in order for you and I to have a Savior, we first understood the need to repent, to repent of our sins, our transgressions of God's holy and righteous law. And that understanding led us to want to be baptized. And baptism is a public act of faith, and it demonstrates publicly our proclamation that we desire our old carnal self to die to be buried in that water, and for something new and wonderful to come out of that watery grave, a new creature in Christ.

Repentance and conversion are not possible without reconciliation with God. Jesus Christ died for your sins and the sins of the whole world. He died in our place and made it possible for everyone in their own time to be reconciled to God. That's His desire. And the annual Passover is a reminder of what Christ did individually for each and every sinner. Every human being who has ever lived or ever will live must acknowledge Jesus Christ and His shed blood as their Savior for the remission of their sins.

That's absolutely necessary. Every human being who ever lived, again, will need to accept the remission of their sins by the shed blood of Christ upon their repentance. It's exciting that you and I have been called now and have this opportunity pictured right here.

What we see here in the beginning of our very own calling, step one of when God began to call us, is we saw something empty in our hearts. There was a hole in our hearts.

There was something calling us to want to learn more about God. And we started studying. We asked for booklets. Or maybe we saw a TV program and we talked to a friend. Something we just had that burning hunger to learn more about God. And that eventually led to an understanding that I'm a sinner. I need to repent of my sins and transgressions. I need to repent. And eventually I need to be baptized. And that led to other things, again, represented by these days. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are a leaven, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

The Father has called you. To a certain degree, one degree or another, you responded. And that response leads to repentance. And that repentance leads to Jesus Christ being our Passover. Now let's go to Leviticus chapter 23. Here in verse 6, drop down to verse 6. On the fifteenth day of the same month as the feast of unleavened bread, to the Lord for seven days you must eat unleavened bread. And again, for seven days we take leaven out of our homes. We don't do that because it makes us righteous.

We don't do that because we think we're superior. We do that because our dad told us to do that. It represents something very powerful. And that is our need, our lifelong need, after we come to repentance, to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. And that means examining our lives and getting sin out of our lives. Verse 8 says the seventh day is also a holy day. This period of time between these two annual holy days is seven days long.

Seven is the number of perfection. The days of unleavened bread picture the progression of getting sin out of our lives. Beginning with our calling and growing throughout the rest of our physical lifetime with a lifetime of growth and change. That's what the days of unleavened bread represent. Sometimes I'm stunned. I read Theologias, well, there's no longer a need to do this. Pop-y-cock. You know, I have read and interacted and exchanged emails and done things with probably a hundred different types of motivational speakers. And you know what they all say universally? Universally what they all say. If you want to grow, you have to take time out to do self-reflection and self-examination.

That's what they tell you. And that's no different than what the Creator says. It's so important for us to take the time to get off of the merry-go-round and look at our lives and examine our lives. It is so important that he baked it into the days of unleavened bread. Remind us of the need to do that. Ephesians 4, verse 11. If you'll turn there with me. Ephesians 4, verse 11.

It says, And he himself, speaking of Christ, gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And it says, One reason that we appreciate the days of unleavened bread. This is a growth pattern here. It says that God has called some to teach us, to remind us of the need for unity, to remind us and help us to grow in greater knowledge, and to work towards being, I'll use his word here, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. He doesn't say the goal of this is to become just a little bit like God. He doesn't say that. It says, That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men into the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So here we are, early September, the year 2016, anticipating God's holy days. I have a question for you, and it said here that effective working by which every part does its share. What share are you contributing to the growth of the body in your life?

Let's take a look here at verse 17. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk, as the rest of the Gentiles do, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over the lewdness to work in all uncleanliness and greediness, but you have not so learned Christ. In other words, he's saying, but you're not this way. This is what you learn from Christ. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. So what's Paul saying? Well, here he's saying that many of the Gentiles, that they're blind. They don't get it. And why don't they get it? Because the Father hasn't called them. The Father hasn't drawn them. Because of that, they live in futility, and their understanding of who and what God is, is darkened. They are spiritually blind. But because God has a specific purpose for us and his plan of salvation for humanity, he is working with you and I daily. Because we're being prepared for something wonderful. As Paul said in Ephesians 2 and verse 10, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. So our lifelong commission, we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we repent of our sins, we are baptized, and we begin to live a life with a commission to reject sin and to become more like God every day. We just read where Jesus said he is the bread of life. We read that a little bit earlier in John chapter 6. But you know what? God is so good and so gracious and so merciful that he doesn't expect us to do that alone. He knows we are incapable of doing that alone. So he decided to offer you something special to help you in your journey, to help you to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord, to help you progressively get sin out of your life. And that's answered by the very next Holy Day. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 15. Leviticus 23, 15.

And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, these Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed, again, seven is the number of perfection, count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. Dropping down to verse 21. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all of your dwellings throughout your generations. And of course, we keep the Day of Pentecost with the New Covenant theology and understanding. And that's revealed in the second chapter of the book of Acts. It shows us that this feast celebrates the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that he would provide a helper and a comforter to the believers, and he did. The New Testament church was established on this very day, the Day of Pentecost, in 31 A.D. And we've witnessed in our own beloved congregation the last five years that God is still calling children. It's been going on for two thousand years, and will continue to go on. Because God is calling. God is drawing people to him. And he did then. He's doing it now. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 12. Paul wrote to the Corinthian congregation, Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. To give you a little context, if you went back to Exodus 34, you would see that when he went to Mount Sinai, he came back because the righteousness of God, his face was glowing.

It was hard to look at, so he put a veil over it for a while until that glow died down. I want you to notice what Paul says here, though. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains, un-lifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. Only when you understand that the Father has drawn you to Him, that you have been called, and you know that the center of theology, the center of the New Covenant, is who and what Jesus Christ was. Will you get it?

You know, within the Internet today, there are a lot of bloggers who have come out of our previous association, who still live in the Old Covenant. They don't get it. And their theology is distorted, and their judgmentalism is harsh, because they're living in the wrong covenant. They forgot about the Christ part. They're so obsessed with other things, they forgot about what Paul is saying here. He's saying that veil is taken away in Christ, only when you understand who and what Jesus Christ is in His purpose. Verse 15, But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil is on their heart. You can talk about the Sabbath all day long. You can keep the holy days. All the words might come out of your mouth, the words might come out of your pen. But I'm telling you that if you have a veil on your heart, you don't get it. You may think you're smart, you may think you're superior, but you don't get it. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And he adds on to this in verse 17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and of course we know, as Jesus said, that the Spirit is something that dwells in the Father and the Son. And He said that He would give that Spirit to His believers. He said that in the book of John, that they would come and make their home in us. He says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.

When we get it and we understand the power behind forgiveness, we're no longer slaves to sin. When we understand the power behind the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we don't live in the past. We don't experience shame. We don't experience guilt. We don't relive negative events over and over again because they are forgiven. And from God's perspective, not just forgiven, forgotten. And that means we can have liberty. Verse 18, But we all, with unveiled face, So saying, unlike the Jews in Moses' time, With an unveiled face, beholding in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Remember, God's Holy Spirit comes from the presence of the Father and the Son. God's Holy Spirit is not God. It's not a distinct personage. It is a power. It is a presence that emanates from the Father and the Son. I'm going to read verse 18 from the New Century Version. Our faces, then, are not covered. We all show the Lord's glory, and we are being changed to be like Him. This change in us brings greater glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

So God's Spirit within us, the one that we share with Jesus Christ and the Father, their gift, is transforming us progressively. It began when He called us. We were at a stage we might call raw carnality, total selfishness. We knew nothing about God. All we knew is we had an interest to read and learn more about Him. Many of us at that time were in pretty dysfunctional lifestyles and some bad attitudes, I might add. And then we grew to the point where, hey, this began to make sense. And, yeah, I'm a sinner. I need forgiveness for my transgressions of God's law. We came to the point of baptism and repentance, and we received the Holy Spirit. And then it continues to progress as we go out throughout our physical lives and hopefully continue to grow, to become more spiritually mature and to literally develop the mind of Jesus Christ. And why is God doing this? Why did He call you out of, compared to the person who lives to the left of you in your neighborhood, and the person who lives next door to you to the right of you in your neighborhood? Why did God call you out of blindness, out of darkness? Why are you unveiled at this time rather than God deciding to just call you at a later time in history? Why? Because you have a very special role to play that is preserved in history and is preserved in prophecy. At Pentecost, the Hebrew calendar, there are no other holy days until the seventh month after Pentecost. As I mentioned earlier, there's a three-month gap between Pentecost and the Feast of Trumpets. So why? Why that long period of time? What does that gap represent? Well, it's a prophetic message that there would be a long time between God giving His Holy Spirit to His disciples on the day of Pentecost and when Jesus Christ would return pictured by the Feast of Trumpets. You know, it has been a long time. It's been 2,000 years. No one anticipated that. His disciples thought He was going to come in their lifetime. But for 2,000 years, God has been calling generations of firstfruits. Every generation, the Father has drawn people to Him.

Every generation has gone through their cycle and been a handful who have become God's elect. And there's a reason for that, is because God wants them to participate with Him to do something very grand. Let's take a look at a few scriptures as we conclude the sermon today and see what that grand event is. Revelation 1 and verse 1, we'll look at four quick scriptures from the book of Revelation as we conclude our sermon today. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1 says, He signified it by His angel to a servant John who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that He saw. Blessed is He who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy who keep those things that are written in it for the time is near. John to the seven churches who are in Asia, grace unto you and peace from Him, and who is and who was and who was to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ. The faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glorified and dominion forever and ever. Amen. What's He saying? He's saying that the elect have a very special role. Jesus Christ is building a team. He doesn't expect to do everything alone. The Father and God is just so different than we are. You know, we as beings tend to be selfish. It's me and mine. I want to control what I have. I want to keep what I have. But God's trying to give everything away. God wants to give glory to His children. God wants to give power and authority. He wants to give it away and share it with everyone who responsibly can handle it. And when He comes back to this earth, He needs saints. He needs individuals, His children, His spiritual children, who overcame, who changed, who grew, who can go to that person struggling with a problem and can say, you know, I too struggled with discouragement just like you do. I too struggled with those feelings or those attitudes. I too struggled with that sin. And here's how I overcame it. Here's how I worked on it. Here's how I changed my life. There's hope for you. And Jesus Christ, for 2,000 years in each generation, has been preparing a group of people who as a team can continue to share and give of themselves from the very day that they come back to this earth with Jesus Christ in the Mount of Olives as an army and began the work of rebuilding a new world. Let's take a look at Revelation 5. Just a few chapters later, now when he had taken the scroll, period in time, the book of Revelation where they're wondering if someone is worthy enough to open the scroll. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on earth.

That's his elect. That's the job that God has for those whom the Father has drawn for centuries, for millennia, out of each and every generation.

Revelation, let's go to chapter 19 and see how the bride is described here. The bride of Jesus Christ, chapter 19, verse 7, Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God.

I want you to notice how the bride is described, arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright.

Now let's go just a few verses later, verse 14, And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.

Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And today we're going to stop here, because the next holy day is the Feast of Trumpets. And I want to leave you with this thought.

Only we will have this sequential order have outlined from beginning to end in our very own existence. That's rather unique. That's something very special.

So let's look forward to the fall holy days this year. Let's get excited about our part in coming prophecy, because it is unique. Please remember that God loves not only his firstfruits, his elect, which are you and I. He loves everyone who has ever lived. He hates sin, but he loves the sinner, and he desires to redeem everyone who is judged guilty of sin, each in their own time.

The world needs a loving creator. The fall holy days remind us that God has not forgotten this world, and he has not forgotten his plan. As the elect of God, let us celebrate this feast, knowing that God has called us for a special, unique place in his plan. Let us rejoice and be glad.