Alright, keep going and I'll blow with you. Alright, thank you. Now, the shofar, that was two shofars, can you imagine hundreds of shofars all through the land of Israel? Blowing the shofar The reason for this presentation this morning. This is the final feast of the year that God gave to Israel and This evening at 6 p.m. Or the next seven days starting 6 p.m. Tonight. We're into Sukkot which is the feast of the in gathering and I'll go through the presentation with you here in Sukkot It takes place in the seventh month of the year And this is the fall season Brother Mitch was already talking about how nice it is. It is a nice change and we're coming to the end of the year for ourselves. You think about the fall weather, you think about November coming up just next month and then after November, December and the year ends. What happens in November? Oh, we have Thanksgiving. What happens in December? Oh, we're celebrating Christmas. These are the end of the year celebrations. A lot of things go on. And this period of time is really a highlight, and it also represents the final harvest. The final harvest of fruits and vegetables of different sorts. Usually we're associating gourds and squashes and that sort of thing. As opposed to the grasses of barley and wheat which occur in the winter. So this is Sukkot. And the reason for this so far is the month of Tishri begins with the blowing of the trumpets. That's Yom Terorah. That's the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. And I say Jewish calendar, I should say biblical calendar. It's been secularized so that Rosh Hashanah, which most people hear about and advertise, considered the first, the new year. But actually, this is the end of the year in God's calendar, and for good reason. The first of the year starts in the springtime when everything springs to life rather than starts to die. So the Lord had springtime selected and I'm going to describe those feasts to you here and how that cycles through because it is the gospel of Jesus Christ preached in the feasts that God gave to Israel. The significance of the feast reminds us that there is a final harvest of souls coming, and this is the end of the year. So, as I mentioned, Yom Terorah, the first day of Tishri, there's the blowing of the shofar. So, you would hear in Israel... And there's three different types of blasts that are used. They will blast that today a hundred times. in different cycles, and that's because they're not sure how it's supposed to be blown, and they want to make sure that they get it right. And so that's why that's done a hundred times now. The Bible is not a video or audio recording, so it's hard to know how it was actually done. Revelation chapter 14, let's look at this. Verses 13 through 20. It describes the final harvest of the year. Actually, the final harvest on earth. It says, and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." Now, in Revelation chapter 14, God is about to harvest the earth. Think about humanity as a garden. I think about squash or watermelons. You got the vines growing, and that's how the Bible refers to humanity, the vine of humanity on earth. It's been growing and producing fruit. What we're seeing here in this scene, Revelation 14, is the sickles are coming out and the vine of humanity is about to be harvested. Now, what this phrase here means in Revelation 14 about the works, works follow believers. because we obey and we work for the Lord because we're saved, not in order to be saved. Our works don't precede us. Our works follow after us. If you want to be blessed in this final harvest, then you have to rest in the salvation of grace provided by the work of Jesus Christ. You want the salvation of his works to be the basis for your foundation and salvation. You don't want your works. That won't work. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 say, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So works before you're saved are your own works. And in God's eyes, of course, those works are insufficient and inadequate. Works after you're saved are the works that you're doing because Christ's work in you. And now the works that you have afterwards is in Christ. And those are found acceptable in the eyes of God. Not for your salvation, but as the fruit the consequences of being saved. Now, verse 14, Revelation 14, verse 14 continues and says this, And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time has come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe. He's talking about the vine of humanity that has been spreading around the world. And he goes on and says, and he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, and he also having a sharp sickle. Another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire, and cried with a loud voice to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city. That means outside the city. And blood came out of the winepress, even under the horse bridles, by the space of 1,600 furlongs. The harvest here presented in Revelation chapter 14 is oftentimes referred to as the final harvest on earth, earth as we know it. And it is the final harvest leading up to the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, in which we're gonna hear those words, the kingdom of our Lord has come. But there is one more final harvest even after that, after Armageddon. That's the harvest at the end of the millennial reign with the Battle of Gog. God is preparing us for a final harvest. And there's a message in the final harvest. The events leading up to this final harvest of judgment and in gathering The ingathering, that's a word to keep in mind because we're, well, as of tonight, we start the feast of ingathering. I know oftentimes it's referred to as the feast of tabernacles because Israel was traveling through the wilderness, God was taking care of them, they were in tabernacles. And that's how it's remembered today. But this feast that God refers to is the feast of ingathering. And that's what gets us focused on not wandering, but rather there's a final harvest coming in and are you going to be gathered in with the fruit of souls unto God. And so what we have here is a message in the Feast of Ingathering that has started since the foundation of the world with humanity. Man has fallen, and ever since, God has been attempting to get man back into shape and producing fruit that he can gather for himself. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and everything in them. He created man. And he told man, be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. Man has been fruitful and he has been the vine that has spread from the Garden of Eden all over the globe. But he's not subdued the world very well. In fact, the world has subdued humanity. And Satan has also subdued him. And why is that? Well, it's because man rejected God. and he chose sin, and it's been downhill ever since. Literally, creation has been experiencing the law of entropy that was mentioned earlier this morning. The second law of thermodynamics kicked in once sin was introduced to creation and creation has been deteriorating ever since, spiraling down into an abyss of treachery, chaos, suffering, and death. Ever since the fall of man, and the way I like to think about it in the scriptures is, you've got the beginning in Genesis, and it tells us all about what God had intended for man in the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect place. Everything was provided for him. Nothing was lacking. A man chose to sin, fell, was kicked out of paradise. And so we might have a couple of the first three chapters there in Genesis. The rest of this book is what God has been doing for mankind, trying to get them back into paradise, which brings us to Revelation. And that is the book that we're talking about right now with the final harvest. God bringing man and humanity back into the garden of paradise. Those in Christ will be gathered into the heavenly fellowship. And Christ will be their God forever. So to actually be gathered in, what do you have to do? You have to turn to Christ, believe his message, believe in his work. What about chances? Whenever you're talking about a final in-gathering, a final day, you know, people always like to ask, oh, I just need one more chance. Every time you take a breath is a chance. I believe. I believe. I believe. There are multitudes of many, many times, uncountable times that everyone has an opportunity to repent and say, I believe. And so when the final day comes, it's just a time in which God says, it's over. It's time. And it has to end at some time, doesn't it? Sin, suffering, death, and hell are just the ways of humanity. It's what we've chosen to do. And humanity has been complaining about their problems ever since. And blaming God for it, by the way. Let's look at the annual feasts here. Now, I've got a calendar up here, and you'll notice that we begin with Nissan, and that's in the springtime. That's about March, April. It varies because they're on a lunar month. But you got Nisan, that's when everything begins, the first month of the year in God's calendar. Then you come 50 days after the feast or the first fruit harvest here. You've got the 50 days later. And what is that 50 days later called? Ah, Pentecost. That's the Feast of Weeks. And then you come down to the seventh month of the year in God's calendar, and that's Tishri, and that's what we're in right now. And as soon as the moon begins to appear, that's the first day of Tishri, and that happened 15 days ago. And we have the Feast of Ingathering. So, really what's happening here, there are three feasts that God has divided the year into. You've got the feast of unleavened bread, you've got the feast of weeks, and then you have the feast of in-gathering. Now, the gospel message is actually presented in this. Because when you look at and study what is the Passover all about, it's all about Christ and the sacrificed lamb. We're going to look in detail on that a little more here. But the first feast represents the work of Christ that initiates all the other feasts. In fact, The reason why we know when Pentecost takes place is because it's counted down from the first Sunday after the Passover takes place. And the Passover changes every year. It's like celebrating Easter. You never know what day it's going to be. You have to look it up on the calendar. It's not a date. So this is the way it was in Israel as well. And regardless of what day the Passover took place, the first Sunday was the first fruit Sunday, when the first fruits of the harvest were offered. And then the countdown began for seven weeks of seven days each. And then on the 50th day, you had celebrated Pentecost. The second feast of the year the summer feast is in the middle of the year and that represents the ongoing efforts of The harvest that it continues on that's what our church is all about and and the Lord's Church is all over the world are Engaged in harvesting souls. That's what Pentecost is all about what happened on the day of Pentecost. I Oh, the Spirit of God came down, anointed them, empowered them, and what happened? They started witnessing. They were evangelizing the world, and that's what the summer harvest is all about, reminding us to continue that work. Then the final harvest at the end of the year represents the final harvest of souls on earth. In other words, there is a deadline coming, and the line has been drawn in the sand. It's important to say at this point that God has set up patterns and illustrations throughout scripture that present the gospel. And it may be that the Lord comes back during this time. He could come back tonight at 6 p.m. Wouldn't that be something? But I think it's more accurate to say that God is more interested in saving souls than following a calendar. And that's how I think about the end times and the last days and when all this is going to happen. It could happen tomorrow instead of tonight, or next Sunday, or whenever. Because God's interested in seeing that every soul that could possibly be saved is saved. Let's look at how the three feasts break down here. Seven holy days, all right. In God's calendar, there are seven holy days to memorialize the gospel of salvation. We have the three feasts, but those three feasts, the first three feasts have three holy days, and then you have Pentecost, and then the second feast that we have, or the third feast that we have, has three holy days associated with it. In God's calendar, seven holy days memorialize God's message of salvation. Now, this is rather interesting to think about. If God already had the message presented back in the Mosaic law and giving Israel that message, that's rather interesting because that means that message has been around a long time. In fact, we discover in Luke chapter 1, verse 68 and 70, it says, Bless me, the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And as he spake by the mouth of his prophet, or his holy prophets, which had been since the world began. In other words, Adam and Eve knew about the gospel, Abraham knew about the gospel, Moses knew about the gospel. The gospel's been around a long time. And so this is not progressive revelation. There is this theory that there is progressive revelation and then in the time when Christ came, it was revealed that this is how you get saved. That's not the case. The gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached and it's been recorded in the calendar events. All right, the seven holy days. They memorialize the gospel of salvation. Here's what we have. We have seven holy days, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the first fruit offering. Those were in the first, in the springtime, the spring feast. Then you have the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, that's in the summer, 50 days after the first fruit offering. You count 50 days from that, 7 weeks of 7 days. And then in the fall, which starts with the month Tishri, which is what we're in right now, and that's why we're talking about this, Yom Teruah is the Day of Trumpets, and that's an announcement, hey, the end has come, we're coming to the line in the sand, it's about to end, are you ready? You need to repent. That's the last day of repentance right there, the day of atonement. That's Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Now's the day to get right with God. You don't want to go beyond that. Five days later, you have Sukkot. And we're in Sukkot right now starting 6 p.m. and that's the feast of ingathering. So the seventh month is the completion of the harvests that are going on. And I think that's significant too because you see, we can say, well, it doesn't finish out the calendar year here. No, it doesn't have to finish out the calendar year because the harvest is over. The harvest is complete and there's nothing else growing. And when the human vine on earth comes to its fruition, fully ripe, then it's time to harvest it. That's what that's all about. And that's why that message is in the seventh month. It's a time of completion. So the day of the trumpets, Yom Kippur, final warning, wake up, repent, day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the final day to repent, and the feast of ingathering, final harvest of the year. Let's look at Exodus chapter 23, verse 16. Exodus 23, 16 refers to the final harvest of the year, and in the context of all the other feasts. And it says this, and the feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. This is referring to the feast of ingathering here. It's the end of the year and the end of the year reminds us that there's an end to our lives. The message here overall is be ready for your end. So the question to ask is, is it going to be a happy ending or is it going to be a sad ending? Revelation chapter 11 verse 15. Now Revelation 11-15 declares a happy ending here. It says, And the seventh angel sounded And there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever. So the question then to ask ourselves, are we ready for the King to come back and reign forever and ever? Let's talk about, just to wrap things up here, I've been asking our group on campus, a question. And that question is, are we in the last days? What do you think? Are we in the last days? All right. I see. Are we in the last days? Yes. OK. I don't see anyone shaking their head no. All right. So here's the question I want to pose to you. When did the last days begin? When it first started, you see, now that's a safe answer, isn't it, Brother Stan? It's a safe answer. When did the last days start? Now, we start looking around at signs and we start looking for reasons why we think that the last days began. This is a rather interesting phenomenon in humanity. We look around and we see things. Did they think the last days were upon them in 1940s when Hitler was running around? Yep. Did we think that the last days were in 1948? Yeah. Well, whoever heard of a nation coming back, being gathered out of the world, and there, they've been renationalized into their homeland. And it's all about Israel. That makes it even more significant, doesn't it? Did the last days begin in 1948? Or was it 1967? Or was it 2000? Or was it 1988? Was it 1944? Was it 1920? Was it 1900? I mean, if we're in the last days, when did the last days begin? It would be nice to know when the last days began. If you knew when it began, then you know for sure, right? We're in the last days. Well, actually the Bible tells us when the last days began. Turn over to Acts chapter 2 and verse 14. If you recall, in Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost. Oh, we had this feast going on, right? So the day of Pentecost is going on. And there's a great harvest going on, which reminds us that's what we need to be doing today. Great harvest. But there was an outpouring of the Spirit of God on the church. And this was the kickoff of evangelism for the church, so to speak, empowered by the Spirit of God. Christ had already been doing it. They were speaking in tongues and the people from all over the lands, all the men come in for the celebration because it was required to be in Pentecost to celebrate the feast. They're watching this phenomenon, trying to make sense out of it. You can imagine, they're scratching their head, they're talking to each other. Man, how do you make sense out of this? What's happening? Oh, well, verse 13, we'll start in verse 13. Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. Well, verse 14, Peter corrects him and says, but Peter standing up with the 11 lifted up his voice and said unto them, you men of Judea and all that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. What was spoken by Peter? when he's referring to the prophet Joel. What you're seeing today is the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. Is that what he's saying? But this is that which was spoken. What you're seeing here is not drunk man. What you're seeing is Joel's prophecy. That's what you're seeing. Verse 17. Here's what Joel says, And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And all my servants and all my handmaidens I will pour out in those days my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. Peter's saying that this is what you're seeing. You're seeing the Spirit of God move and you are hearing the wonderful words of God. And this is being proclaimed in all tongues, all languages, all dialects. Verse 19, Joel's prophecy goes on, and I will show you wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vaporous smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great notable day of the Lord come. Oh, that's interesting. This is a part of Joel's prophecy. Go back to verse 17. And it shall come to pass in the what? We are in the last days. And when did the last days begin? Day of Pentecost. That is what they were witnessing. They were witnessing the beginning of the last days. That's how we know we're in the last days. So now we know. Yeah, we are in the last days. We've been in the last days for 2,000 years. I don't know about you, but I like that. The verse tells us, okay, we have an answer to that question. When did it begin? 2,000 years ago. We are still in the last days. We're waiting for the sun to be darkened and the moon to turn to blood, blood color. Yep. And you know what that means? It says Paul, when you read through Paul's writings, when he refers to the last days or the times or the rapture, the resurrection, you know what he says? Be ready guys. Why? Because we're in the last days. And this is how it ought to always be. It was that way 2,000 years ago, it is that way today. That the imminent return of Christ can happen at any time. And we need to be ready and not found asleep, but alive and awake and engaged in winning souls and getting souls ready for the in-gathering. Amen. We're glad you joined us for our services here at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. If this program has helped you and you would like to have more information about trusting Christ as your Lord and Savior, or if you would like to have resources to help you in your spiritual walk and growth, please email us at the address on your screen. We look forward to having you join us again online, but you are always welcome to personally attend any of our services at the Mission Boulevard Baptist Church here in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hi, this is Dr. Patrick Briney. I hope and pray this important lesson has improved your life. For more life changing lessons, and to get your free book that I've written for you, visit my website at patrickbriney.com. And please share this valuable lesson with at least three of your friends to enrich their lives in our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll upload my next lesson for you soon. God Bless.