It is the month of Tishri, which is the seventh month of the biblical calendar year. And that means that we are observing, or according to the scriptures, the Lord had given Israel a calendar of seasons, seven holidays to observe throughout the year. And this is the last season to observe the feast. and there are three main feasts. I'll go into some detail. I'll be focused on the Day of Atonement, which is coming up pretty soon. Last Monday, we were observing Yom Teruah, which is the blasting of the trumpets, and that's what we just had here, the shofars. The blasting of the trumpets during the seventh month is, hey, wake up! This is your last chance to get into the harvest. because on the 15th day of the month of Tishri, the seventh month, the month of completion, the end of all things is the final and last gathering of the year. So this is the fall harvest, which parallels with the final call of God for repentance. And so if we're in, if the Lord were to come back right now, hey, this is your last day. But on the other hand, it could be your last day. We were talking about Brother Emil, and yesterday was his last day. And it could be any one of us could have our last day, and that's important to be prepared, regardless of whether our last day is because the Lord returns or you happen to get hit by a car or have a heart attack, whatever it might be. We are all going to have a last day, and it could be sooner than later. I guess the first thing we ought to ask, because there's a lot going on, there's Rosh Hashanah going on right now. What is Rosh Hashanah? Wait, that's the new year celebrated in Israel. But wait, what is the month of Tishri? It's number seven, it's not number one. What month is it anyway? Is this the beginning of the year or is this more like the ending of the year? Well, it depends on whether you're going back to Israel's traditions in the captivity of Babylonia or you're looking in the scriptures in Leviticus. God gave Israel His calendar to be observed, and this is the seventh month according to God, not the first month according to man. And so it's good to have that sort of clarified. This is called Yom Kippur. Now this is a little difficult to see up on the board, but you can see basically three groupings around the calendar year. There's 12 months in the lunar calendar that God gave to Israel to observe. The first, up there at the top, Nisan, also called Abib, a month that goes by two different names. In the month of Abib there, or Nisan, you have three holy days that are observed, and the feast of unleavened bread. Now having said that, the feast of unleavened bread, notice that there is the first harvest, the word first harvest there. That's the first harvest of the year. That's why it's the beginning. It's the springtime. That's a beautiful time to think about we're starting off the year right, right? With new life. And that's the first harvest there, spring harvest. Then we go 50 days later into the summer and we've got Pentecost, which is the second harvest of the year. And the harvest continues. That's summer crops. But then there's a third harvest, and that's in the fall, and that's where we are right now. Three more holy days are mentioned in the calendar, and that's where we're at and where we're observing right now, starting out with Yom Teruah, or the blasting of the trumpets, on the first day of the seventh month of the year. And then on the 10th day of this month will be observed the Day of Atonement. And that is the day, all right, if you're not right with God, this is the day to repent and get right with God because this is the end. And then we kick off on the 15th day. the feast of ingathering. Sometimes it's referred to as the feast of tabernacles, and that's how it's observed by the Jews. They set up a little tabernacle display somewhere on their house if they're observing that, and it reminds them of the wilderness journey. Personally, I prefer the phrase feast of ingathering, and the reason for that is We're coming to the point of the final in-gathering. I always think of Revelation chapter 14 there where the angel says, thrust in your sickle into the earth and harvest the fruit of the vine. He's talking about the human vine on earth. When I think about humanity spreading across the earth, I think of squash. Because if you've ever grown a garden and planted squash, once it starts growing, boy, it just keeps growing and growing. You got vines and squash all over the place. And that's why humanity spreads around the world. It just keeps multiplying and spreading like a vine. And those vines are our genealogies. And we're connected family by family. And we keep spreading around the world and filling it up. And that is what God's going to harvest. And some of those souls are going to be ingathered, part of the first fruits ingathering brought to Christ, and others will be cast into the fire to be burned. So the main thing here out of this calendar that I find very interesting is that, number one, you've got seven holidays, which is, that number seven is very significant because it's the number of completion. And that's why you have the final harvest in the seventh month. Hey, this is it, this is the end of all harvest. It's time to bring it to an end. And we all have that moment of coming to an end in our lives, and so it reminds us. Now, the trumpets blown on day one is, hey, wake up. It's the end. If you haven't gotten right with God now, this is the time to do it. Time is no more, as Revelation chapter 10 would say. The seventh angel is about to blow the trumpet, and it's over. And so you have this grouping of three feasts, or three holy days at the beginning, and then one in the middle in the summer, and then in the end at the fall. Now this actually portrays the gospel message. Because think about how everything begins and why we even have life, right? What makes it possible to have a hope in Christ or the blessed hope, as is referred to, or what we pray for, the peace of Jerusalem? When will that happen? Only when Christ reigns, as long as we live in this world ruled by Satan, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4, the God of this world is designing the world and the culture in such a way to blind the hearts and minds of them lest they should see the light of the glorious gospel. And yet, when you think about what's going on in the world, it's like getting slapped in the face every day. You turn on the news, you're getting slapped in the face. Boy, this is not a pleasant place to live. It's not a good place. We live in Satan's kingdom. We're waiting and praying for God's kingdom to be established. That's what we look forward to. And that's where there will be no more sin. There will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, no more misery or suffering of any kind. That's what we're looking forward to. Now think about the way God has designed this calendar for Israel. And not just for Israel, but they are the house of witness for everybody, right? And it's recorded in scripture. So everybody can read about it. and learn about the gospel message. Now every year the gospel message was being preached and repeated over and over and over and over again. That the new year begins with a sacrifice of a lamb, the lamb of God of course. is what it's referring to, but there is no hope, there is no life without the sacrifice of a lamb for sin. Why? Because God is a holy God. There's no sin in heaven. You have to have your sins abolished, purged, paid for. And then that kicks off the Feast of Unleavened Bread because that reminds us In the unleavened bread, there's no leaven, there's no yeast, there's no sin in the Lamb of God. There's no sin in the sacrifice necessary to purge and pay for our sins. Now, that kicks off and starts out with a Sabbath day. Why? because there's peace and rest in Christ. And guess what? On the seventh day of that week, peace and rest. Why? Because Christ brings peace. That's his message. I'm bringing peace to your soul. I'm gonna bring peace into creation. And so we have a remembrance there in the Feast of Unleavened Bread that the perfect, holy, sinless sacrifice of God brings peace. Ah, but there's another message in here because whenever the Passover took place, the very first Sunday after that, and remember Passover is whenever the first moon appears in the month Abib, that means that that could happen on a Monday, or a Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday, or Saturday, or even a Sunday. The way the Lord set this up is, I don't care when that happens, the first Sunday after the Passover, you will observe the resurrection, or what was called the first fruit harvest. That's when you're going to present the first fruits to God. Why? Because Christ is the first fruit, that's why. And He is the reason that makes it possible for us to be gathered up as a first fruit. What's a first fruit? Well, those are the first fruits of the season. And that's why you can have more than one season of first fruits. You see, you got the springtime first fruits, but then you got the summertime first fruits because those are the first crops of the season. And then you got the first fruit harvest of the fall. But the point is, it reminds us that when Christ saves our souls, we are the first fruits of that harvest. Why? Because we're in the first resurrection. Not the second. We are in the first fruits. You want to be in the first fruit harvest, right? You don't want to be in the second. because that spells disaster. But isn't that interesting how the gospel is preached here and then when we come to the summertime, the first season in the spring is all about Christ and the sacrifice and provision of God. In the summertime, you have Pentecost. You know what day Pentecost is celebrated on? Always on a Sunday. Oh, that's like Resurrection Sunday or First Fruit Sunday. Isn't that interesting? And how did God design that? Well, it's all about the timing of the Passover. It doesn't matter what day the Passover takes place. The fact is that the Passover dictates everything else and how it all follows. Why? Because as Christ goes, so goes everything else. He dictates what follows. And so then after Resurrection Sunday there, or First Fruit Sunday, Seven weeks of seven days, that's your 49 days, plus one, the 50th day, always puts us on Sunday. So first fruit Sunday. Seven weeks plus one day puts us on another Sunday. And that's why you have the day of Pentecost. 50. It's the 50th day, Pentecost. And so you have the Feast of Pentecost. And the Feast of Pentecost, what happened? What do you think about when you think of Pentecost? What do you think of? The church. and the outpouring of God's Spirit, and the mobilization of all the disciples that went throughout Jerusalem, the 3,000 souls that were saved, and as many as were saved were baptized and brought into the church because that's God's will to do God's work His way. You want to be engaged in His church doing His work. It's a fantastic picture of a continuance of what Christ began in the first harvest. with his life. That was the whole purpose of him being sacrificed to win souls into his kingdom. So the day of Pentecost is a reminder of the great commission to go, teach, baptize, and teach to continue the work that Christ initiated and get the gospel out, sow the seed, and water it so that there can be a what? Harvest. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, we sow, we water, and God gives the harvest. Well, see, there's that harvest theme again. That's what it's all about. And then we come around to the fall. And on the seventh month, which again, that number seven is all about completion, we have the completion of the seasons of harvest. And so we're wrapping that up. And that brings us to this month and why we're observing and talking about it right now, because this is the season of the final harvest. And when there's a final harvest, if you haven't been harvested by Christ yet, you're in big trouble. Now last week I mentioned something about the tabernacle, the arrangement. It would sit up here on the stage. That's the east side, that's the west side. And when you enter into the tabernacle, you're coming into a sequence of events and a sequence of furniture that leads you to the Holy of Holies, the place of God. And as you're coming in, as I mentioned, you come in through the curtains surrounding the courtyard, the first thing you see as you're walking in is the brazen labor of sacrifice. That is the brass altar there, and that's where the fires were burning 24-7. They would start burning a bullock in the morning, a bullock in the evening, and then everyone else's sacrifices were thrown onto the fire because it reminds us without sacrifice there is no remission of sins. You've got to have your sins paid for. And then before you get into the into the holy place, into the tabernacle, you have to pass by one more object, and that is the brazen labor or the brass labor of water, where there has to be the washing and rinsing and the cleansing that goes on, the purges of our sins. Having your sins paid for by the sacrifice of Christ is not sufficient to be qualified to enter into heaven. Why? So your sins have been paid for, but you're still a sinner. Something else has to happen. What is that? You have to be purified. You have to be made perfect. You have to be born again. Why? Because right now, the way you were born, you received a sin nature and you continue to sin. So you might have your sins paid for, as Romans chapter 3 points out, your sins that are past. But what's going to prevent you from bringing sin into heaven? If you haven't been changed within by nature, by what you are as a sinner, you're not gonna enter into heaven because there's no sin in heaven. The only way you have any hope of entering into heaven is not only having your sins paid for, but to have your sins completely obliterated and prevented. And so that's the new birth. We're imputed with the righteousness of God as described in Romans chapter four. And now we're ready to enter into the holy place. with the provision of the bread of life, with the Holy Spirit, with prayer in the temple of God. And then as we pass through this life, that describes our Christian life right now, our walk with Christ. And as we walk through, and pass through that curtain, that final curtain into the presence of God, there we see the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant, the promise of God. And there we are standing in the holy presence of God. Now just one other thing about that, the way the valleys were set up in the temple, not the tabernacle, but the temple there in Jerusalem, on the other side you had the Valley of Gehenna. That ring a bell? You don't want to be in the Valley of Gehenna. That was another name for hell. If you keep on going past because you're not qualified to go into the tabernacle and enter into the holy place, you bypass that and you're going to end up in the Valley of Gehenna. Now there's something else interesting because the Valley of Kindred was on the east side. And so as you walk up to the temple, you're coming out of the Valley of Kindred. You know what the Valley of Kindred was like? Well, they had all these big conduits on the east side of the tabernacle. Remember I described last time, every day, morning to night, there is the shedding of blood. There's so much blood, this ground is saturated, it can't soak up any more blood. It's just running like water. Well, as much as blood can, you know what blood's like. So they had particular practices of washing it down these pipes that were going eastward. Isn't that interesting? Eastward and emptying into the Valley of Kidron, which you had to come through in order to get to the Temple of God. And when you're coming in near the presence of God, you're seeing all that smoke, and then you start hearing all the noise, the crying, the moaning, the death, the smell of death, everything. And when you're passing through the Valley of Kidron, all that blood is coming out there. You have to go through all that mess. Not that you walk through it, because the pipes were redirecting. But you're surrounded by death. Why? Because the lost are dead, spiritually dead. It's all about death. You are being delivered from death into the courts of God. Your sins are paid for. You're washed and born again. You enter into the Christian walk and then finally the presence of God. It's a tremendous gospel presentation. Not only was it there, it's in the calendar God set up too. And it repeats itself every year with the sacrifice of the lamb and then reminding us, you need to be engaged in the great commission and bringing souls to the lamb. And then, hey, remind people that there is a final harvest from which there is no point to return. It's a point of no return. you'll never be able to say, oh, I missed it, which is rather an interesting thought because no one, according to Revelation chapter six and Revelation chapter nine, where you see the actual judgments taking place and people's responses. They're not going to repent. They don't want to repent. They're shaking their fist at God instead. So anyway, all of this to say that the gospel message is being preached here in the calendar of God and then repeated every year. every year getting to hear the same message. So at the end of the year, Exodus chapter 23 verse 16 talks about, And the feast of the harvest, the firstfruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, it's not the beginning, it's the end of the year according to God, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. As Exodus 23, 16, it gives us the proper perspective of how to think about this time of year. So we're in the seventh month. We have three holy days during this month. We start out on the day one with the sighting of the sun, the rise of the sun, which will always happen in the, When does the moon appear? In the morning or the evening? Oh yeah, in the evening. So that's why you always mark the Jewish day as the beginning at 6 p.m. rather than 6 a.m. They start out at 6 p.m., that's the beginning of their day, and then it ends at 6 p.m. the next day. So last Sunday in the evening, there was a sighting of the first moon, the new moon for the month of Tishri, and that kicked off. the first day and then the 10th day we'll see the Day of Atonement just coming up in a couple days and then the Feast of Ingathering will begin and that begins with a Sabbath and ends with an 8th day Sabbath. Don't Sabbaths usually occur on the 7th? Let's see, the seventh day of the week is a Sabbath, and you have the first day of the seventh month is a Sabbath, and then you have the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a Sabbath. This is the only eighth day Sabbath. Yeah, that ought to catch our attention, huh? Because Sabbath's always the seventh, because that's the end, and that's the rest. Didn't God rest on the... Seventh day, not on the eighth day, because it brought it all to an end. So what is this that we are supposed to think about, that there's a Sabbath on the eighth day? Oh, well, if we think in terms of the gospel and the whole point of the calendar, we realize that everything has been done and completed, the final harvest is over, and guess what? We enter into His rest forever, the beginning. The eighth day is the beginning. The beginning of a rest forever, eternal rest. Isn't that fantastic to think about? So coming up in a couple of days, we'll look at Yom Kippur. Let's look at Leviticus chapter 23, 26 through 30. It says, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, also on the tenth day of this seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation unto you, that is a celebration. And ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And you shall do no work in that same day, for it's the day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God, for whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted. Hmm. What does afflicted mean? Now, we have to talk about that because, see, if you're any soul that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. He's going to be killed. I got to be afflicted or I'm going to die. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, we need to talk about that, because the soul that does work, the same soul I will destroy from among his people. You gotta be afflicted and you gotta, you have to rest. It's forced unlabor, not forced labor, unlabor. It's forced rest. Because if you do any labor and if you're not afflicted, now affliction means humility, I'm humbled. Now that comes about when you're afflicted and you're suffering shame or contempt, whatever it might be, the hostilities that we've talked about in the world, you are humbled. But this is a humility before God, a surrender to God is what that means. And any soul that is not surrendered and humble before God will be cut off. Any soul that tries to do work on the Sabbath day shall be cut off. Makes you wonder, why is that? Now the Day of Atonement is considered and referred to as the Sabbath of Sabbaths. It's because it's considered the most holy day. in Israel. It is that last chance, the last harvest of souls, representing the last days. Now Leviticus chapter 23, specifically in verses 28 and 30, it says, it indicates four important things that we read, and I've already pointed out two of them. But the first thing it points out, it is a day of holy convocation, it's a ceremony, it's holy. which represents the holiness of God. It's all about a picture of coming to a holy God and to approach and have presence and fellowship with a holy God, you must be what? Holy. There's no sin in heaven. And so we have a sacred day. I think about Revelation 21, 27, because it says, there shall no wise enter into it anything that defileth or maketh a liar or abomination. There's no sin in heaven. Now, the second point that Leviticus 23 makes mention of is there's affliction, and I already talked about that. It says, whatsoever soul it shall be that's not afflicted, in that same day he shall be cut off from among his people. You have to come to God humble. If you come before God proud, there is no fellowship. You are cut off. That is the representation of being killed for not being humble. Now, I don't know who was reading minds at the time. You're not humble, you're not afflicted enough. I wouldn't want that job, would you? Let's see who was afflicted around here. But that wasn't the point. The point was, if you don't come before God, humble and surrender to him, there's no fellowship, you will die in your sins. The third point he makes about the Day of Atonement is that it shall be an atonement for you before the Lord your God. We cannot come before God unless there is a sacrifice and a payment for our sins. And atoning for sins with the offering of a sacrifice is required in order to come into fellowship with Christ. and with God. Jesus is the sacrificed Lamb of God that makes it possible to have fellowship with Him. And then the fourth criteria of the Day of Atonement was, it's a Sabbath day, you shall do no work. And why? Because, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works. that a standing man should boast. Let's talk about that a minute. You see, that boasting goes back to not being afflicted. You see, it's the proud attitude, the attitude that is not afflicted, that is not humble, that comes to God and says, Here, I can be good enough to impress you, God. I know I'm undeserving and unworthy, but I'm good enough to at least deserve your grace. Well, first of all, that's a misunderstanding of the word grace. Grace means you don't deserve it. But see, the proud don't see that. The proud say, I can be good enough Even if it's not perfect, but it is good enough. Who said it's good enough? The proud. Not God. God says, your works are not good enough. Never are. You see, the proud remove honor and credit from God. Oh, I would never want to do that. You are if you're saying, here God, I'm going to be good enough in order for you to reward me with salvation. I know it's not perfect, but you understand you're a forgiving God, you're merciful. I'm going to do my best to show that I am worthy. And if I'm not worthy enough, well, I am. I am worthy enough, and that's why you're going to save me. Oh, listen to that. That's obligation. You see, when you're proud and think you can do something good enough, what you're telling God is, you owe me. I deserve this. I did my best. And you owe me. Talk about vanity, arrogance, haughtiness, pride. That's why this requirement on the Day of Atonement was to be afflicted, to be come before God humble. Lord, there's nothing I can do. I am at your mercy. 100% because I'm not only imperfect, I'm thoroughly imperfect and there's absolutely nothing I can do to impress you. And there is no way that I can put you into debt to me. I am in debt to you. And only by your 100% mercy and grace do I have any hope. of being saved. Romans 3, 24 through 28, a beautiful passage that shows us the necessity of God doing all the work. It says, being justified freely, free to us, no cost, no effort on our part, by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be. See, that God set him forth to be, not us. to be a propitiation that is a place of mercy for us through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. What happened to the future? Oh, remember the brazen labor of water? When you're washed and rinsed and purified and imputed with righteousness to God, there are no future sins to worry about. Oh yeah, we walk in carnality of the flesh, but Romans chapter seven, Paul explained, I've always got evil and sin with me at all times in my life. But hey, this old body isn't going to heaven. Why? It's sinful and there's no sin in heaven. Well, what part of me goes to heaven? Ah, the inward man. Because Romans 7, 22 says, after the inward man, I serve the law of God. But in my flesh dwells no good thing. In the flesh, it's always sinning. In the new born again, man, hey, there's no, that's why it says sins that are past. If there were future sins, we got a big problem. Through the forbearance of God, that is His mercy, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting of the proud, right? Where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. I don't know about you, but I've talked to a lot of confused people who say, it's faith plus works. Well, it says right here, according to God's word, we're justified by faith without the deeds of the law. You don't blend them together. Galatians 2.16 emphasizes this, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. And then one more verse, Romans 8.3, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, but we can't do it. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, by what means? Through the mercy and grace of God, and not by the merits, the efforts, or the sincere desires of humanity. Uh-uh, it doesn't work that way. Humbly before God, Lord, there's nothing I can do. I'll never be good enough. What wilt thou do for me? Showing 100% of mercy and grace, undeserved, and then coming before him, without any works, because without humility and with works, you are certain to experience damnation. But with God's mercy, you are guaranteed a life forever in fellowship with God. Amen.