Welcome to Deuteronomy study number 16 in chapter 16 we're covering verses 1 through 22 the whole chapter Lord willing and the church don't rise as we send out a hillbilly holla Out to a brother who visited locally recently brother Kurt Kurt Looper. Here's your hillbilly holla and as we get into our Bible study in Deuteronomy with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you, Lord. We see the darkness, but we know there's light. There's light in your word, and there's the light of the promise of your return. And the light of your word, as we see here in Deuteronomy, gives us explanation, understanding of what has happened in the past and what prophecies, types and shadows tell us of what was to happen from the standpoint of Moses speaking in Deuteronomy, but even beyond that, what's happening now and what's about to happen in the future. We're so thankful for all the information you've given us to help us along our way as we, as believers in Jesus Christ, live for you. We want to serve you, we want to glorify you, and we ask for your help. It's by your might and by your power alone that we do anything that is worthy of your glory and your praise. In Jesus' name, amen. So in the previous chapter, I ran out of time before I could get into just a bit of a type or shadow found, as we mentioned. Many times we see throughout the Pentateuch, the Old Testament, a lot of times people don't think about the Pentateuch having prophecy in it, even though it's filled with prophecy. But also the types and shadows are prophetic. And we saw the servant who willingly allowed himself to have an awl run through his ear, which we assume is like a big nail going through the earlobe, in order to permanently remain as a servant. And in many cases, that was so he could be with his bride. His master had another servant, a female, who he gave to him, and he wanted to stay there and stay with his wife and possibly children as well. That's a fitting type of Jesus, who the Bible portrays as dying for his bride, who is the church. It's not individual Christians, but the Christian church collectively makes up the bride of Christ. And I don't believe the landmark nonsense about that. Just for the record, most of our people probably don't even know what that means, and I'm thankful that you haven't had to deal with that kind of bad teaching. But we believe the body of Christ, the church, is made up of all who were saved. From the beginning to the end of this dispensation, we are the body and bride of Christ. Both are actually true. And so J. Vernon McGee explains this, so I'll just quote him. It's kind of a lengthy quote, but follow me here. Quote, this is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He references Philippians 2, 7 and 8. Continuing the quote, Jesus could have gone out free. He owed no debt of sin, he was no sinner, he had no penalty to pay, but he loved us and he gave himself for us. Just as the servant had his ear thrust through by an awl, so the psalmist says, mine ears hast thou opened. Psalm 40 verse 6. The book of Hebrews takes the same passage from Psalm 40 and says, but a body thou hast prepared me. Hebrews 10, 5. The Lord Jesus took on himself a human body so that he could be crucified, pierced through his hands and his feet for you and for me. The quote ends by saying it is one of those remarkable pictures which we find of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. As we said in the Pentateuch specifically, the book of Deuteronomy, it's type and shadow. So with that segue from the previous chapter, we get into chapter 16, verse 1 says, observe the month of Abib. and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. So Abib is also known as Nisan. Esther 3.7 says in the first month that is the month Nisan. It's interchangeable. As Moses repeats this here in the second law, which is what Deuteronomy means, second law, we remember that he first gave this right before the Exodus took place. He's giving it now at the end of his life, but originally back in Exodus 12. You can go back and listen to our study on that. Then verse 2 says thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy God of the flock and the herd in the place which the Lord Shall choose to place his name there. So these instructions are being tailored for application by those entering into the promised land after Moses dies. And it's for the application of where the tabernacle and temple were to be situated in the city of Jerusalem. Verse 3, thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it, Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction. For thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, that thou mayest remember the day. when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life." You didn't have time to leaven something and let it rise and take your time the way you do with, I love that kind of bread. But this was to picture the haste that they were to leave out of Egypt. That's the Old Testament Mosaic Law picture. And it's found in the Passover, obviously, of course. But we, In like manner, we remember Christ crucified on the cross without sin. So our communion with the bread and the wine is the same purpose as the Passover was. It was to picture something. And again, before Christ, did you would think of the Passover alone. Since Christ, we see Jesus. Verse four says, and there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days, neither shall there anything of the flesh which thou sacrificed the first day at even remain all night until the morning. So again, as New Testament believers in Jesus Christ, we see beyond what happened before the institution of the Passover and before the coming of Christ. The unleavened bread and unblemished lamb of Passover speak of the sinless nature of Jesus. And Paul makes that connection in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, where he says, purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Christ fulfills this feast of Passover, and now we keep it by faith in Christ, not by actually having a feast. And we keep it, according to Paul, by following him in sincerity and truth. As Paul says in the next verse, 1 Corinthians 5.8, therefore let us keep the feast. And people will stop there and say, that's why we should continue keeping the feast in a literal way. It's a comma after that. He says, therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. He's obviously telling us we keep the pastor not in a literal sense of you know, killing a lamb still. And a lot of people pretend to keep the Passover, but they don't kill a lamb. And they'll have a Seder and they'll rightly point to Jesus and everything even. And that's fine to do as an illustration, but as a keeping of a feast, that's not proper. You know, if you have a Seder and someone identifies everything involved and they don't bring in all the traditional non-biblical stuff like they do with the extra seat for Elijah and the egg and stuff like that. That isn't biblical. That's all part of why they crucified Christ. They had their traditions of men instead of following the Bible. But we are to keep it in the true sense now of seeing Jesus as the Passover Lamb, following him in sincerity and truth. We said much more about this in the previous studies in Exodus and elsewhere. And we take for granted that those of you listening right now have or will be reading through your Bible. And as you read through your Bible, you're following our studies. And if you'll just do that, it only takes a little bit of your time every day to read your Bible and follow these studies. You'll find more than 4,000 studies at the time of this recording available. Every day, there's at least one or two things going up for you to listen to. If you read through your Bible and you're doing that, you're getting a full download, a daily download of Bible truth. You'll know exactly what we're talking about. You'll learn these things. We can't repeat every bit of it every time we come to it. but you'll get it in that manner. So we continue verses five and six. Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover with any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Verse six, but at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in. There, thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. So in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount, every Nisan 14 is Passover. Obviously, you just kind of take a step back here. You can see one major thing that we should learn over and over and over is that all paths do not lead to God. If you don't follow God's word, God doesn't acknowledge you. He doesn't acknowledge your sacrifices. He doesn't acknowledge your gifts, your tithes, your offerings, your works. None of that matters unless you are following God himself on his terms, following his word, submitting to his will. This is an example of that. If any Jew didn't follow that exactly, God didn't have anything to do with them. We'll come back to that in a minute, but look at verse seven. And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt turn in the morning and go unto thy tents. Very simple, straightforward practice. That's how our local churches are supposed to be. You know, you go into some of these churches and they spend all this money on chandeliers and all the pomp and everything. There's nothing wrong with making the church a nice, comfortable, attractive place to be in, but we haven't spent into the thousands even, but some of these churches have spent tens of thousands and some hundreds of thousands and yes, even some millions of dollars. to make these palaces. And it's all going to burn. We want to use our money for the ministry. If you save up money and you buy a building, it's not cheap, but I believe that's a legitimate thing to do if you're able to do it. But you should even then see to it that it's something very basic, just like we're seeing here. That was all there was to it. You just do this, do that, do that. all by faith, all in obedience to God's word, and God is pleased. Formalism is fake and folly. A lot of people are really impressed with that stuff. God isn't. 1 Corinthians 14, 40 says, let all things be done decently and in order. That doesn't mean it's supposed to be anything more than, you know, it's a casual thing, it's a non-formal thing, it's decent, it's in order, but it's not this, I guess they call it a high church model and that sort of thing. So we'll leave it at that. The temple was a different story with the priesthood and you had gold and all that kind of thing because that was a picture of Jesus Christ. The tabernacle and temple pictures Jesus. So that's different. The people and what the people did as part of the tabernacle and temple service was very simple and very basic. And the local church is not the temple. The building is not the temple. And so there's no, it's not a tit for tat thing. It's not an equal comparison when people make that false comparison, but you know, there's no wild music, no, you know, huge. Extravagant displays. There's no emotional fits. There's no preachers screaming spitting and yelling Just to get everybody whipped up into a frenzy and that kind of thing. It's just biblical Simplicity look at verse 8 then six days thou shalt eat another leaven bread and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not do, I'm sorry, thou shalt do no work therein. Almost added a double narrative to the text. But this was not the weekly Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath happened every seventh day, which we call Saturday. This was a high day Sabbath. Now, this is important because later on, while he says Good Friday is nonsense, Easter Sunday is nonsense. Jesus died on a Wednesday, not Friday. He rose from the dead on a Sunday morning. The next year, the anniversary of that Nissan 18th resurrection didn't happen on the first day of the week or Sunday. It's just like your birthday. I was born on a Thursday, but my birthday doesn't land on a Thursday every year. So the idea, a lot of people really go to church on Easter Sunday, which is a false name for the holiday. It's not the Feast of Ishtar. It's Resurrection Sunday is what they should call it. But even then it would be a false label most of the time because the actual Nisan 18 date of the resurrection of Jesus only falls on a Sunday every few years. Now think that through. Some of you have gotten it over the years, but some of you really have trouble with that. But Jesus died on the fourth day of the week, which was a Wednesday. The next day was the fifth day of the week, we call Thursday, and that was this high day Sabbath. Then, it's in John 19 31, the Jews therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day. Not the weekly Sabbath, look hard at your Bible there, verse 31, for that Sabbath day was a high day. besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So then on the sixth day of the week, which was Friday, not the day Jesus was crucified. He had already been dead for two days. The women brought this bot, went out. They had to go travel into town. They had to go here and there and they had to get all this stuff together. Then they had to take it home, the spices and things made for burial preparation. They took it home. They had to go through this process. It couldn't be done in an hour or two. It was an all-day process. And then the next day was this Saturday, the seventh day of the week. That was this weekly Sabbath, so they had to stay home. That's why it took them until Sunday morning to then show up at the tomb and find that it was empty. And you can get, I want to say this, we have, Studies on this and we have charts on our website and everything We encourage you to look into that but verse 9 then says seven weeks shout thou number unto thee Begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou begin us to put the sickle to the corn so we move on from the picture of Jesus as the Passover lamb and and what then becomes crucifixion week or passion week, as some people call it, to these feasts, the next feast, which is It says, as I said in verse nine, seven weeks, that's 49 days, seven weeks of seven, seven times seven, 49. And we're not gonna go into great detail. The particulars of this are covered in our study of Leviticus 23. You should make note of that somewhere, that if you ever wanna talk about the feast and talk intelligently, it's in Leviticus 23. Verse 10. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. So that seven weeks of seven was 49 days. The next day was 50th. That's Pentecost. That's what the word means. Pentecost is the Greek word for 50. And tongue speaking denominations have caused many Christians to forget the biblical truth that we're reading here. The Pentecost is a feast. It has nothing to do necessarily with, or anything really, to do with speaking in tongues. Then we see the description of the holiday in verses 11 and 12. And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen. to place his name there again, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Verse 12, and thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. So Pentecost was fulfilled by Christ when he poured out his spirit on all believers. And it's the time of harvest is next. But this is sort of like the, the, the time when the seed is sown and that sort of thing. And he's baptized every single born-again Christian with the Spirit since that time. So Pentecost, after Jesus ascended, that brought about this huge shift from Mosaic law to this dispensation of the gospel of the grace of God when the Holy Spirit now indwells believers. But then it's interesting then in light of the fact that there's about a three month period between this feast and the next feast of weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles and that foreshadows the diaspora of the Jews being scattered around the world and which coincides with the church age that we're in right now. Verses 13 and 14, thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine. And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maidservant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates. As we said, we don't get into the deep details of this because we're not in the Mosaic dispensation, but we do want to mention that the fulfillment of these feasts in Christ and notice that these are celebrations of joy and rejoicing. These aren't times of mourning and that sort of thing. It says in verse 15, seven days, shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose, because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase and all the works of thine hands. Therefore, thou shalt surely rejoice. It's a solemn feast. It's not a mournful fast. That's how it's portrayed by some folks. These feasts are comparable to our New Year's Day and Memorial Day and Easter, which is falsely labeled. Resurrection, holidays, what it should be. Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, all those. These are comparable to that. We have good times. We have Fun with family. We shouldn't get drunk ever. Sadly, some people get drunk on these holidays and get out of hand, but we can't help what other people do. We as Christians, though, we observe these times. We spend time with family and we enjoy ourselves. And that's the way these feasts were. Verse 16 says, three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles. Those are the big three when all the males had to come. And of course, they'd bring their families, I believe, and everything too, but the males are required. It continues, and verse 16 closes, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty. And we've talked already a lot about how Christians should be givers and love to give. Verse 17, every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee. And that's that, it's that simple. And we encourage you to find our messages on these feasts. And we have a series on the feasts. And then of course our studies in Leviticus 23, Exodus 12 and elsewhere. We cover these things along with all those charts and things available at our website, bbfohio.com. As we now close this chapter with a reminder of God's requirement for fair judges and justice. Verse 18, judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. That's not social justice. This is legal justice. And we've talked about that, but you need to get that difference. Social justice is a travesty. legal justice, and spiritual justice. You don't want to cry for justice. If you cried for justice and got what you deserve, you'd be in hell. So we've talked about that many times before so verse 19 says thou shalt not rest judgment thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift that blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous so there was to be no special treatment or unfair treatment no bribes or payoffs Lady Justice, if you look that up and see a picture, she's pictured as holding a scale that is even, it's a fair balance, and she's also blindfolded for a reason. Because that's how everyone's to be treated, equal, everyone's the same, equal justice under the law. Verse 20, that which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Dying nations have unjust legal systems. And America, sadly, is demonstrating that. So then we close, verses 21 and 22. Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Verse 22, neither shalt thou set thee up any image which the Lord thy God hated. Again, it's just saying the same thing we said earlier. You must approach God on his terms. come to Him His way, and Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him in this dispensation.