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In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover. (Leviticus 23:5) |
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There are seven feasts of the Lord. Passover is the first. Each of the seven portrays an aspect of our salvation. The Christian salvation has a definite beginning, a specific process, and a goal toward which we are to be pressing. Do you know about this program? |
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There was only one actual Passover, that which took place when the Jews left Egypt. All the other Passover celebrations are remembrances of the original exodus. |
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We all know the story, how Pharaoh would not permit the Israelite slaves to leave Egypt. After the Lord sent severe plagues on Egypt the final destruction took place. God struck the oldest child of each Egyptian family. The Israelite families were protected by the blood of a lamb sprinkled at the entrance to their homes. |
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After this catastrophe Pharaoh relented and Israel set out toward the land of promise. |
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We of today do not like to think about the Lord killing people, about His sacrificing a nation so a royal priesthood He had chosen could go out into the desert in order to receive the greatest moral code ever entrusted to mankind. This is because we have been influenced by humanistic thinking to the place we are ready to tell God what He can and cannot do. Society may have changed its attitudes but the Lord does not change! |
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To those who would protest that God would be cruel and wicked if He caused the death of thousands of Egyptian children let us point out the fact that God gave His Son as an atonement for our sins. Can you imagine the terrible agony experienced by God and Christ as the sins of the world were borne by the crucified One? |
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Let no person say God does not love him. Look to Christ hanging on the cross and you will understand how much God loves you (and all people). You will understand also that religion is necessary but it does not always reflect the enormous breadth and depth of the rebellion of mankind against God and God's measureless love toward His fallen creatures. |
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Let us have faith in the righteousness and love of God and some day we will understand more than we do now. |
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Satan is unwilling to let his captives take their journey toward the land of promise. The time will come when the Lord will strike the god of this world until he no longer is able to keep mankind in the chains of sin. |
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But first God had to provide a lamb. |
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The Lamb is Christ Jesus. His blood will protect us when God judges the world. When the destroyer sees the blood of Christ He will pass over us. |
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How about you? Have you by faith sprinkled the blood of Christ over your life and the lives of your family members? |
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Only the blood of Christ will be able to protect you and your loved ones during the days of destruction that are ahead of us. |
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And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. (Leviticus 23:6) |
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There are seven feasts of the Lord. Passover is the first. Each of the seven portrays an aspect of our salvation. We must come to God through the blood of God's Passover Lamb, Christ Jesus. Next is the feast of Unleavened Bread. |
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The spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Unleavened Bread is repentance and water baptism. |
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When we come to the Lord we must be as a little child. We must renounce the malice and wickedness of the spirit of this age. We must turn away from our trust in the world, its security and its pleasures. We must sweep the leaven of the world out of our house, so to speak. |
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There must be genuine, thorough repentance. Is it possible that today we are asking people to "make a decision for Christ" (an expression not found in the Scripture) without informing them of the need for repenting, for turning away from the ways of the world? |
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Then we should be baptized in water. This is the Lord's commandment. If you have never been baptized in water, go to your Pastor and ask to be baptized. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. |
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Water baptism has a profound meaning. When you are baptized in water you are saying, "I assign all that I am to the cross with Jesus. When He cried, ‘It is finished,' He included me. I am finished. My life in the world is over. I am crucified with Christ." |
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How different Christendom would be if the believers would count that they have died with the Lord on the cross! |
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We share in His death and in His resurrection. A new godly creation is coming forth (or should be coming forth) in our personality. |
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Before you can fry a chicken you have to pluck the feathers. When you begin to pluck feathers from a chicken it helps if the chicken is dead. If not, you are going to have a commotion on your hands. |
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When a preacher begins to talk about the need to overcome sin, about denying ourselves and following the Lord, he may have a commotion on his hands. Can you guess why? The chickens aren't dead yet. |
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The mainspring of the Christian life is death and resurrection. God has no intention of saving our first personality—not even the good of it. Our most worthy traits still have the leaven of Adam in them and will fail if tested severely enough. The honest will steal under enough pressure. The pure will commit moral sin. The adamic integrity will dissolve if pushed to the limit. But the Life of God never fails. |
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If we are willing to die in Christ each day we will live in Christ each day. |
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If any man is in Christ there is a new creation. All the old things have passed away. Everything is new and of God. |
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Out of the death of the cross comes the eternal life of the resurrection. There is no other source of permanent righteousness. |
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How about you? Would you like real, lasting change to enter your life? Repent and be baptized into the death and life of Jesus Christ. |
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Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: (Leviticus 23:10) |
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There are seven feasts of the Lord. Passover is the first. Unleavened Bread is the second. Firstfruits is the third. Each of the seven portrays an aspect of our salvation. The Christian salvation has a definite beginning, a specific process, and a goal toward which we are to be pressing. |
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The Levitical feast of Firstfruits was distinguished by the waving of a sheaf of barley before the Lord. Because the sheaf, the firstfruits of the harvest, became holy by being waved, the entire harvest was considered holy. |
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The principle of the firstfruits is used widely in the New Testament. For example, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Firstfruits of the Church, of those who are raised from the dead. |
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When we receive the salvation that comes through Jesus and are baptized in water we are to count that our first, adamic personality has been crucified with Jesus. |
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This is not the end, however. We are to count also that a new life has been born in us and that our new life has been raised with Jesus to the right hand of God in Heaven. |
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Our new, born-again nature is a firstfruits of our personality. It is a new creation. It is of God. It actually is the Kingdom of God. |
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Meanwhile, the remainder of our personality, our adamic soul, spirit, and body are still very much on the earth. |
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Because the firstfruits of our personality has been raised with Christ to the right hand of God, and is therefore holy, our entire personality is holy. This means that since God has accepted our new nature as holy He regards our entire personality as holy. |
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Just as the entire barley harvest was holy because the sheaf had been waved by the priest before the Lord, so it is true that our entire personality is holy. In fact, the holiness extends to the other members of our family. It is a lamb for a house. |
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But the idea is that the balance of the harvest will be reaped! The remainder of the barley did not rot in the field. It was reaped! |
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As soon as we have been born again the program of reaping begins. Little by little the old personality dies and is replaced by the new. In the meantime God regards us as holy even though our body, soul, and spirit are filled with filthiness and rebellion. |
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As long as we continue in the process of reaping, walking in the light of God's will, the blood of Jesus covers us and we are without condemnation. If we walk away from the daily process of dying to self and entering eternal life in Jesus, we begin to come under condemnation. |
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Salvation begins when we receive the Lord Jesus. Salvation continues as we offer our body to God as a living sacrifice and follow the Holy Spirit. Salvation will have attained its goal when the Lord returns and we receive the Fullness of the Lord in a new body like that of the Lord. |
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The Christian churches of today need to understand that salvation is not a ticket to Heaven. It is a process that we are to work out each day with fear and trembling. What we have now is a firstfruits. |
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God always is faithful to keep us. If it is our desire to win the fullness of salvation, we can. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus and He will enable us to overcome every obstacle and enter His Presence in total victory. |
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Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. (Leviticus 23:16) |
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There are seven feasts of the Lord. Passover is the first. Unleavened Bread is the second. Firstfruits is the third. Pentecost is the fourth. Each of the seven portrays an aspect of our salvation. |
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Pentecost! Pentecost! Pentecost! Dynamite from Heaven! |
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The feast of Pentecost marked the end of the wheat harvest. Two leavened loaves of flour were waved before the Lord. The twoloaves testify of the double portion of the Spirit of God that will be poured on the Church just before the Lord returns. |
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It is interesting that there was leaven in the Pentecostal loaves. Some scholars represent the leaven as sin that still remains in those who have been baptized in the Spirit. Others see the leaven as the new leaven of the Kingdom of God that soon will infiltrate the whole personality of the believer who presses forward in Christ each day. |
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We think both are true. We speak in tongues but there still is sin in us. Yet the Kingdom of God is working in us and changing us into a new humanity. |
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At the turn of the present century a great wind blew on the evangelical churches. Pentecost was renewed. At the middle of the century the renewal began to pass to the historic churches, both Catholic and Protestant. |
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Speaking in tongues, once the possession of the illiterate on the wrong side of the tracks, the "holy rollers," now resounds in the embellished tabernacles of the upper middle class. |
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Today tongues, prophecy, the laying on of hands, are all practiced among the respectable. Other gifts of the Spirit abound and still are on the increase. The knowledge of the Body of the Christ has been restored. Jesus is drawing near His people. Those who are praying are hearing from the Lord. Pentecost is here to stay—in fact, the Divine power is building to an unprecedented climax! |
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Another great wind is blowing today, and as before it is in the possession of a small remnant of believers. Soon it will engulf all the Christian churches. More about this when we discuss the last three feasts. |
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Pentecost is feast number four of seven. You can go back if you wish to the good ol' camp meeting days and sing the happy choruses of the newly saved. |
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But there is a voice in the land crying out, "This is the way. Walk ye in it." The call is to the Holy of Holies, to places in the Lord that only a few of history have walked, to the knowledge of the Consuming Fire of Israel. |
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The choice is yours. The pressures do not permit stagnation. It is on to the fullness of God or back to wait until a warlike remnant, being clothed with Christ, forces the adversary's shoulders to the mat. |
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It is time to take the Kingdom. Are you up for it? |
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Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:23) |
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There are seven feasts of the Lord. Passover is the first. Unleavened Bread is the second. Firstfruits is the third. Pentecost is the fourth. The Blowing of Trumpets is the fifth. Each of the seven portrays an aspect of our salvation. |
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The fact that there were seven feasts is very important to our understanding. It tells us that when we are at Pentecost we are only halfway through the program of salvation. |
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The Blowing of Trumpets is especially meaningful to us who are "at Pentecost" for two principal reasons. First, Trumpets is the next celebration after our present experience, which is Pentecost. We ought to know what comes after Pentecost, what we should be looking for. |
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Second, the Blowing of Trumpets is Rosh Hashanah of the Jews, that is, New Year's day. We are entering a new year of God's dealings. |
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The Jews have two overlapping years, a ceremonial year that begins with Passover and a civil year that begins with Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is termed "the year of kings and contracts." |
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When we come to the Blowing of Trumpets we begin to understand that the Kingdom of God is coming to the earth. As in the twenty-fourth Psalm, the psalm that portrays the characteristics of the spiritual fulfillment of "Trumpets," the emphasis is on the earth. |
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Every revival brings with it an increase in wisdom and revelation. This is true now. Although we have been unaware of it, the Bible never speaks of eternal residence in Heaven as being the goal of salvation. Rather, the Bible clearly teaches that the Kingdom of God is to be installed on the earth. |
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Our land of promise is the earth, beginning with our own personality. The Lord Jesus has not come to bring us to a different place, for that would solve nothing. After all, sin began in Heaven around the Throne of God. |
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The Lord Jesus has come so we can possess our own soul, then our own body, and finally our environment. Then we can live anywhere and be in Paradise. |
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Do you want to see a preview of the Battle of Armageddon? Examine your own personality. The worldwide Armageddon can be fought successfully only by those who first have gained victory through the Lord Jesus over their present circumstances. Does this make sense to you? |
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As we move into "Trumpets" we can expect an increase in militancy, beginning with our music. The musicians are beginning to sing of war, of the army of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord is informing us that the coming Day of the Lord will be characterized by "a great and mighty people." |
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After the Jews were at Mount Sinai (a type of Pentecost), Israel was formed into an army in preparation for the invasion of the land of promise. So it is today. |
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The Blowing of Trumpets announces the most solemn day of the Jewish year, the Day of Atonement. The ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are the "Days of Awe," the time when God judges the world. In addition to the emphasis on war we will notice an attack on the sin in the world, beginning with the sin in the churches. |
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All this is preparation for the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. As soon as His Church has been cleansed, the Lord will enter His people as never before. As soon as God cleanses the world through His Church, God will enter the world, as we read in the last two chapters of the Bible. |
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The conflict of the ages is upon us. Pray for courage if you are fearful. God's army in Heaven is preparing to invade the earth. |
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Put on your armor, submit to the Lord's discipline, and prepare to fight. |
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Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. (Leviticus 23:27) |
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There are seven feasts of the Lord. Passover is the first. Unleavened Bread is the second. Firstfruits is the third. Pentecost is the fourth. The Blowing of Trumpets is the fifth. The Day of Atonement is the sixth. Each of the seven portrays an aspect of our salvation. |
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The Day of Atonement is Yom Kippur of the Jews. |
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Almost fifty years ago when in Bible school the Lord spoke to us about the Day of Atonement. The Lord said the Day of Atonement represented judgment on the Church. |
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At that time we had never heard a sermon on the feasts of the Lord. Having been saved only a short time we were in no manner prepared for such a word nor did we understand it. |
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Now, half a century later, the feasts of the Lord, including the Day of Atonement, appear many times in our teaching and writing. |
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When we first are saved the Lord requires that we come out from the gross sins of the world and follow Him. He protects us under the blood of the cross. He does not at that time deal with the labyrinth of spiritual darkness in our personality. |
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When the Lord brought the Jews out of Egypt He did not mention the numerous sins of the people. He told them to come out under the protection of the blood of the lamb. |
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When the Jews came to Sinai God made them aware of their sins and provided the Day of Atonement. When we receive the Holy Spirit, God begins to make us aware of our sins. He already has provided the spiritual Day of Atonement for us. |
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The Day of Atonement has two main parts. The first is the forgiveness of sins by means of the blood of the slain goat. The second is the removal of sin by means of the removal of the living goat. |
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The Christian Church understands very well the forgiveness of sins by means of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian Church only now is beginning to understand the removal of sin as the living Lord Jesus comes to us and receives us to Himself. |
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The Scriptures speak of the salvation reserved for the last days. "To those who look for Him," the Bible says, "Jesus will appear without sin unto salvation." |
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The deliverance from sin, the work of the second goat so to speak, has begun. God is beginning to remove the graveclothes of sin from His Church. |
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If you are a saved person and have God's Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you will notice things are taking place in your life that are bringing forth the sin and rebellion in you. How do I know that? Because this is what is happening with all who are following Jesus. |
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Don't panic. Name your sin clearly and specifically to the Lord, resolving by His grace never to practice it again. God is faithful and righteous to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. |
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Try it and see! It's a new day. The Jubilee of deliverance is here. The Lord Jesus has come to cleanse the royal priesthood. The Lord will receive you to Himself and as He does He will remove your chains. Whomever the Son sets free is free indeed! |
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Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. (Leviticus 23:34) |
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There are seven feasts of the Lord. Passover is the first. Unleavened Bread is the second. Firstfruits is the third. Pentecost is the fourth. The Blowing of Trumpets is the fifth. The Day of Atonement is the sixth. The feast of Tabernacles is the seventh and last. Each of the seven portrays an aspect of our salvation. The Christian salvation has a definite beginning, a specific process, and a goal toward which we are to be pressing. Do you know about this program? |
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The spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles is the climax, the omega of our salvation. |
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There are three great works of grace: salvation, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and then the fullness of God. If we would be full gospel people, we must press on past Pentecost. |
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We are saved through the blood of the cross. Then we are baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. The oil comes on the blood, as in the consecrating of the priests of Israel. |
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The blood gives us the authority. The Spirit gives us the ability. To do what? To be filled with all the fullness of God. |
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How can we tell when we are entering the spiritual fulfillment of Tabernacles? We can use the twelfth chapter of Isaiah as a checklist. |
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Isaiah, Twelve was chanted during the feast of Tabernacles. The Jews, with their remarkable sense of the Spirit of God, knew somehow that the feast of Tabernacles was expressed by Isaiah. |
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In the day of the feast of Tabernacles we go through a period of stressful dealings as the Lord rebukes the sin and self-will in us. But now He is comforting us and we are praising Him. |
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God has become our salvation. We are filled with trust in Him. It is not that He only is saving us, He Himself has become our salvation, our strength, our song. It is as though we have been holding His hand and now He is holding our hand. |
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During the celebration of Tabernacles the Lord Jesus prophesied that rivers of living water would flow from those who believe in Him. The River of Life always flows from the Throne of God. This means God is installing His throne in us. We are becoming a life-giving spirit. |
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The sea of mankind is dead. God is planting trees of life on the banks of the River of Life. From them the water of eternal life will flow on and out and heal the dead sea of mankind. |
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The greatest joy any human can know is to draw out water and give drink to the thirsty. |
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Pentecost is the rain from Heaven falling on all flesh. Tabernacles is the establishing of a well in the saint so he or she can bring eternal life to whoever will receive. |
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The truest sign we are entering Tabernacles is our desire to exalt the Lord. Thank God, the day of exalted man is drawing to a close. The Lord alone will be exalted in that Day! We now desire to praise the Lord instead of one another. We want to call on His name instead of trying to satisfy our lusts and covetousness by manipulating the metaphysical realm by faith. |
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God is going to do excellent things. I am tired of hearing about how well meaning people are going to do this or that "for the Lord." I want to see God at work. |
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I want the Lord to be exalted. I want the whole world to see Jesus. |
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It gives me rest to know I don't have to carry this thing on my back. God is not broke, tired, or sick. His riches in glory are not about to run out. |
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The Holy One in our midst is mighty. Let us do what we can and then stand back and cheer as He bows the heavens and comes down. |
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This is "Tabernacles." I'm ready for it. How about you? |
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The Spirit and the Bride are saying, "Come! Come to the waters of life and drink freely." |
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