The sermon this afternoon is a continuation of our time last that we were together, entitled Different Kinds of Sabbaths. We'll pick up reading in Exodus chapter 31 and verse 12, and in a moment we'll skip ahead to Leviticus chapter 23. So hear now the inspired words of our God. Exodus 31, beginning with verse 12. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely my sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Every one who profanes it shall surely be put to death. For whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be surely put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. And when he had made an end of speaking with them on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God. We are encouraged in the reading of God's holy word by Isaiah chapter 55. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth in bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." Our prayer today is that God would bless the reading, the hearing, and the application of His perfect and holy word. Amen. Well, the last time together we read Exodus 31 verses 12 through 18, and we expounded on some of the details of the Sabbaths that were presented here, and we left off looking at the Day of Atonement. We wanted to launch into looking at the different kinds of Sabbath days that are presented in the Word of God. God instructs his people here in Exodus 31 to keep his Sabbaths. We notice that there's a plural there, and that's the source of a lot of confusion when it comes to the weekly Sabbath that we're defending in our series. We want to understand how in the Word of God that there are different kinds of Sabbaths, because we're desiring to have a better understanding of the weekly Sabbath and how it fits into the larger picture of multiple Sabbath days presented in the Word of God. This is especially important in the defense of the Lord's Day in the New Testament era, because we often hear appeals to two particular passages in the New Testament that refer to these multiple Sabbaths of the Old Testament. Our view is that these appeals are incorrect, that they lump together the perpetual weekly Sabbath with the temporary Sabbaths that have passed away. And we don't believe that the weekly Sabbath was a temporary command. And we want to see that there's a difference in the Word of God between different kinds of Sabbath. So let's look first at these New Testament passages before we launch into Leviticus 23. If you turn with me to Colossians chapter 2, These are the New Testament passages in question that deal with different kinds of Sabbaths. And you've probably heard this passage before as an appeal as to why we should no longer keep the Sabbath day or the fourth commandment. Colossians chapter 2, beginning with verse 13. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." And here's the passage in question in verse 16. "'So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but substances of Christ. So here we have a passage that seems to say that we are not to judge people in food, or in drink, or in regarding a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. And it's quite commonly referred to as a defense against the keeping of the Sabbath day. We're taking this passage, actually, as it is clearly presented to us already, and what we've learned so far about the different kinds of Sabbaths, and what we'll see today particularly, that these ceremonial things have passed away and are no longer binding upon God's people, even though there were people at the time who kept these ceremonial laws and wanted to require them upon the New Testament Christians. But notice specifically that the plural of the sabbath is used in verse 16. Now as we pointed out last time, the weekly sabbath stands apart from the temporary sabbaths. Nowhere in the New Testament do we have a command to stop obeying the fourth commandment sabbath. But we have many clear directions to stop following the ceremonial laws. So it seems pretty clear to us in reading Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16, that despite the confusion surrounding this particular passage, that the apostle is referring to temporary Sabbaths that pass away not to the permanent fourth commandment. Matthew Henry expounds a bit on this passage also, and in the next one that we'll look at, I think he specifically addresses the Sabbath day, the weekly, But he gives us a caution here. He says, here is a caution to take heed of Judaizing teachers, or those who would impose upon Christians the yoke of the ceremonial law. You see, that's really the heart of the conflict over Colossians 2.16. And this is our position, is that this is speaking of ceremonial laws that are binding upon, that are not binding upon Christians, that people want to be binding upon Christians. We're not talking about the Sabbath day. We've gone to pretty great lengths to show that the weekly Sabbath is not a ceremonial law. It's a creation ordinance and part of the four commandments, so it's not the same thing. And Matthew Henry is going to mention here the second passage we're going to look at, which is Romans 14. It appears by Romans 14 that there were those who worked for keeping up these distinctions. But here the apostle shows that since Christ has come and has cancelled the ceremonial law, once again that does not include the fourth commandment. We ought not to keep it up. And this is rather because these things were a shadow of things to come, as in verse 17. Intimating that they had no intrinsic worth in them and that they are now done away. Observe the advantages that we now have under the gospel above what they had under the law. They had the shadows and we have the substance. And that really is, again, the central nature of the argument that we're presenting is that the Fourth Commandment is not part of the ceremonial law that has passed away. We have already established that the weekly Sabbath is not part of the ceremony law. It does not pass away and is not included in the things that pass away in Colossians 2.16. So let's turn to the second passage that is often referred to in Romans chapter 14, beginning with verse 1. This is also a pretty popular passage that folks go to to try to dismiss the fourth commandment. Romans 14 beginning with verse 1. Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. And here's the passage in Romans 14 that is appealed to often. One person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord. And he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. He who eats, eats the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother, or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another any more, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way." This passage is Appeal to, often as referring to the weekly Sabbath in verse 5. It says, one person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord. And he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. Of course, we would say then, that he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. How can a day that is commanded by God and binding upon all people be binding only if you're convinced of it? So certainly this does not refer to the law of God that is binding now upon Christians, which we generally refer to as the moral law. The passage is not speaking about days commanded by God. but rather days that have passed away or things that are now indifferent. It's not referring to the four commandment. Now, again, I really like Matthew Henry's summary of this, and he addresses it directly. He says concerning days in verse five, those who thought themselves still under some kind of obligation to the ceremonial law. Again, that's the distinction. They esteemed one day above another. They kept up a respect to the times of the Passover, the Pentecost, the New Moons, and the Feast of Tabernacles, which we're going to look at in Leviticus 23 today. Thought those days better than other days, and solemnized them according with particular observances, binding themselves to some religious rest and exercises on those days. Those who knew that all these things were abolished and done away with by Christ's coming esteemed everyday life. We must understand it with an exception of the Lord's Day, which all Christians unanimously observed. So I love the fact that Matthew Henry makes that distinction, that we're not talking about a binding law upon all men in all places and all times. We're talking about a ceremonial law that is passed away. And he really does put his finger on the confusion over the different Sabbaths here, because he says some people just wanted to keep the Passover and the Pentecost, new moons and feasts of tabernacles. So those, in fact, are referred to in the Old Testament as Sabbath days, and we're going to get to those here this afternoon. Matthew Henry concludes this thought, but he says, But they made no account, took no notice of those antiquated festivals of the Jews. Here the apostle speaks of the distinction of meat and days as a thing indifferent. But it went no further than the opinion and practice of some particular persons. who had been trained up all their days to observe such observances, and therefore were the more excusable if they with difficulty parted with them. And we see that in the New Testament on several occasions, where a lot of the Jewish Christian converts wanted to keep keeping particular festival days, even though those festival days no longer had the meaning that they once did, now that Christ had died and risen again. Now a couple of very quick passages as we're trying to make our way chronologically, but I'm going to refer ahead a bit because the couple of passages in 1 and 2 Chronicles refer to the new moons and to the Sabbaths as well. I thought it would be good to keep this in context. So 1 Chronicles 23 verse 30. to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at evening, and at every presentation of a burnt offering to the Lord on the sabbaths and on the new moons, and on the set feasts by number according to the ordinance governing them regularly before the Lord, and that they should attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting, the needs of the holy place, and the needs of the sons of Aaron, their brethren, in the work of the house of the Lord. So we see this pattern in the Old Testament of New Moon and Sabbath, and it occurs again in 2 Chronicles 2.4. Behold, I am building a temple for the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn before him sweet incense, for the continual showbread, for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and on the New Moons, and on the set feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel. And then once again in 2 Chronicles 8, verses 12-14. Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the vestibule, according to the daily rite, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three appointed yearly feasts, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles. And according to the order of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, the Levites for their duties to praise and serve before the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate. And so David, the man of God, had commanded. So you see that this is all recurring then throughout the history. From the time of Leviticus onward, there were Sabbaths, plural, there were new moons, and there were festivals and feasts that were kept in addition to a Sabbath that had already been given that creation. So there's a distinction that is made between each of these. So we want to turn then, if you would, to Leviticus chapter 23. We'll finish our time out there today. We know specifically in Leviticus 23, there are several days and time periods in the Bible which are referred to as a Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath is confused with these temporary Sabbaths. Notice that Leviticus 23 begins. And the Lord, beginning with verse one, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts." So it's interesting, there's a list coming. It basically says that these are the holy convocations, and these are the feasts. And what we're going to notice first of all, is that the weekly Sabbath is included in this list. Now we're going to list off the weekly Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. So in all of these particular feasts, the Sabbath day is specific and different from all the other feasts. Now what differences have we already noted so far? At this point, the Sabbath has existed for over several thousand years. The others are brand new. And the others will pass away, but the weekly Sabbath won't. Now what's interesting to note here is that they're all going to be referred to as holy convocations. They're all put on the same level as the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, but they will all pass away because they're ceremonial. Whereas our day that we enjoy and celebrate and keep in our day, the weekly Sabbath has not passed away. Look at verse three. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. And there's this pretty quick summary there. The children of Israel should have already known what the Sabbath day entailed. We already have a number of verses up to this point that describe it. This day then is listed with the other days. But as we've seen, there's a lot more of a back story with the weekly Sabbath than with all of these other feasts. Right? We've already seen now what we're on our seventh sermon. on what we've seen so far chronologically in the Word of God, and all of a sudden then these other feasts are popping up. They're beginning and they have an end, whereas our Sabbath day does not. I do think it's interesting that the perpetual weekly Sabbath is listed first before all of the others. Following this restatement of the weekly Sabbath, there are seven annual feasts, annual Sabbaths listed in chronological order in the text. So in the very listing of the feasts, the Sabbath stands out in several ways as being different from the others from the very beginning. It's the only one that is weekly. It's the only one that's not ceremonial. It's the only one that was already established and observed in Israel. It's the only one that continues today, though we change the day of the week in the New Testament. Personally, I think that it's listed in the way that it is in the text to distinguish it from the other days. It's distinguished from the other days by putting it next to them so that you can see the difference in the day itself. But we want to also remember that when we come to Leviticus chapter 23, The reader is supposed to know everything that we've covered so far in seven sermons. We've basically just been covering the Sabbath day up until Leviticus chapter 23. So if you're a child of Israel at this point in time, you would have known everything that we've presented so far. So Leviticus 23 would stand out to you as showing a distinction between the weekly Sabbath and the others. So for most folks, when they read Colossians chapter 2 in verse 16, or when they read Romans 14 verse 5, they do not have a well-rounded understanding of the Sabbath day as it's presented in the Old Testament. You see that? Whenever we come to folks today who say they don't want to keep the 4th commandment, they don't know what we're presenting today, which is a biblical, chronological study of the Sabbath as it's presented in the Word of God. Most people are not familiar with that, and so when they see Sabbath, they automatically think Fourth Commandment being done away with when there's no history of that in the Word of God. So let's try to go through these feasts and the special days in Leviticus 23. We're going to kind of do a flyover of it, not spending a lot of time in each one. I want you to see the distinction between those days and the weekly Sabbath. Let's go to verse 4. This is the Passover feast of unleavened bread. Verse 4, these are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations. See, there's that same type of language that's used of the weekly Sabbath that's used of the temporary Passover, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. So how do they know when it's the 14th day of the month? By the moon. Right? So these days are figured by the moon. And on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. And this is interesting if you'll note then that the first day of this feast and the last day are both holy Sabbaths, but they don't fall on the weekly Sabbath. It might be on a Tuesday, or a Thursday, or a Friday. They don't fall on the particular day that we would understand as the weekly Sabbath. So in this first feast of the Passover, the last day, that seventh day, is not the weekly Sabbath, because depending upon when the seventh day feast starts, the day could be on any day during the week. It begins, particularly this feast, in March or April, on the night of the full moon. And the entire feast then is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread because they couldn't have any leaven in their house throughout this entire week. The Passover starts then as a holy convocation. We're dating this somewhere around 2,500 years after the creation. So how long then have we been celebrating the weekly Sabbath at this point? 2,500 years, right? Because it came at creation. This starts after the captivity and the exodus, and then it ends after about 1,450 years, because that's when Christ comes and Christ dies and is resurrected. So this whole feast is annual for about 1,400 years. It's not a perpetual thing like the fourth commandment. So then let's distinguish the weekly Sabbath from the Passover. Now we know that this special feast has passed away. We know that because of the New Testament. It tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 6-8. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." So the New Testament tells us very clearly that we don't keep this Sabbath anymore. Right? So then when we read Colossians chapter 2, And when we read Romans chapter 14, we know that already there's one Sabbath that is passed away that we don't have to keep. So let's go to the second Sabbath in verse 9 of Leviticus chapter 23. This is the Feast of Firstfruits. Verse 9, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, Then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. And notice when this feast occurs. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb of the first year without blemishes of burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma. And its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hen. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in your dwellings. Okay, so this is the third feast that we're seeing, and this feast is called the Feast of First Fruits. It's an annual, holy day, and it occurs during the week of the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, where an offering is made on the day after the feast. It is then a ceremonial feast, looking forward to Christ, beginning some 2,500, 2,600 years after the creation, It's going to be a little longer because during the 40 years in the wilderness, they didn't grow crops. Right? How do they eat whenever they're in the wilderness? The Lord feeds them with manna. So they don't have crops until they get to the promised land. So this commandment is giving to them something that they will do when they get into the promised land. But it ends with Christ. I think this is a very interesting one. I'm going to try to spend one sermon on this sometime in the future. But like Matthew Henry's observation here, that it's very observable that our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the very day that the first fruits were offered to show that he was the substance of the shadow. Right. That's the day after the Sabbath. What a beautiful picture then of Jesus rising from the dead on that eighth day. in 1 Corinthians 15 20 says, But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. You see, our Lord fulfills the feast of the first fruits. We don't have to keep that feast anymore. So compared to the weekly Sabbath, then this day passes away while the weekly Sabbath does not. The fact that it falls on the first day of the week is of great significance for the later moving of our Sabbath day to the first day of the week instead of the last. Okay, so that's three. The first one is permanent. The others are passed away according to the New Testament. So the fourth one is the Feast of Weeks in verse 15. You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. So how many weeks later is this feast if you've got seven Sabbaths? Seven weeks, right? Seven weeks later. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath and you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fire flower. They shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits of the Lord. And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs on the first year without blemish, one young bull and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, the two male lambs of the first year as the sacrifice of a peace offering. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a way of offering before the Lord and the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. Now verse 21 gives us the same kind of language for this fourth feast. And you shall proclaim on the same day, that is, a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generation. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God." Okay, so we're going through Leviticus 23, and this is the fourth feast in this chapter. This feast, or holy day, a holy convocation, it is put on the level of the weekly Sabbath, but it comes annually. seven weeks after the first, the Feast of Pentecost. So, they're tied together, and they're tied to the moons. Right? You see that? You don't know when it starts unless you're looking at the moon. So that's why when we see the verses like Colossians, it's really not surprising to us that the moon was important for when these days came and went. Now, just as a general observation, does the moon matter to us when it comes to the weekly Sabbath? has no connection anymore, right? It's a general weekly pattern that comes and goes every seven days. Now this particular feast, this Feast of Weeks, falls in May or June for the Jewish people, and it is one of the three pilgrimage feasts required of the Jews. Matthew Henry says on Acts chapter 2 that this Feast of Pentecost happened on the first day of the week, which was an additional honor put on that day and confirmation of it to be the Christian Sabbath. Did you notice that again? It says, it said that the particular feast was going to be 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Now, if you get lost in the math there, there are 49 days till the seventh Sabbath that you have one more day added to it so that it falls on the first day of the week. Matthew Henry continues, he says, the day in which the Lord hath made to be a standing memorial in this church of these two great blessings. The resurrection of Christ and the pouring out of the Spirit. Both on that day of the week. This serves not only to justify us in observing that day under the style and title of the Lord's Day, but to direct us in the sanctifying of it and to give God praise, particularly for those two great blessings every Lord's Day in the year. I love that, it's a good observation by Matthew Henry there. So for the fourth feast, which we are saying is the Feast of Weeks here in Leviticus 23, compared to the weekly Sabbath, this day passes away, while the weekly Sabbath does not. Let's go to the fifth, which is the Feast of Trumpets in verse 23. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest. a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. I think this chapter is so helpful really to see that these same terminologies are used of days that have passed away and of permanent days. I think it's so helpful. You shall do no customary work on it and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. So the fifth feast then, here's the feast of trumpets. This is a one-day feast which falls in our September or October, corresponding to the Jewish New Year. And again, determined by the moon or the month. It falls about 163 days after the Passover, the first feast we looked at. So it's not on a weekly Sabbath. It could fall at any point during the week. But it is described as a Sabbath rest and a holy convocation. This is one of the multiple temporary Sabbaths that are often confused with a permanent weekly Sabbath. A lot of modern Jews also have a, this is their New Year's Day kind of thing. Lastly, well there are two more, Day of Atonement. We covered this one last time, so I'm going to go through this one pretty quickly. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying also, the tenth of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement, the tenth day. It shall be a holy convocation for you, in that language. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, and you shall do no work on that same day. For it is the Day of Atonement to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does not work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings. It shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls. On the ninth day of the month, that evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. So the Day of Atonement, and again, we covered this last time, I'm trying to go quickly, but it was a high and it was a holy day in the Old Testament for Israel. It was to atone for the sins of Israel, and we talked about some of the pattern of that and how it was celebrated. It didn't necessarily fall on the weekly Sabbath, but it was treated, again, like a Sabbath itself. And so you see that similar language between the two different days. And it also fell somewhere in our calendar between September and October. And the seventh day Sabbath was a weekly Sabbath. But the Day of Atonement, again, is an annual Sabbath that is passed away. I did point out last time that this particular day is to be kept holy by even stranger. Which I thought was an interesting connection with the seventh day Sabbath. We referred to Hebrews 9 where we saw that Jesus Christ is equated with that particular sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. And so this has passed away. Once again, not like the weekly Sabbath. Lastly, let's cover the Feast of Tabernacles in these last few verses and we'll close. Look at verse 33 of Leviticus 23. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, again the same type of language. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day, You shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work in it. These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering, and a grain offering, and a sacrifice, and drink offerings, everything on its day, besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord. And also, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days, and on the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest And on the eighth day, a Sabbath rest. So again, this isn't referring then to our Lord's Day in that sense. This is just the day after that particular Holy Sabbath. So if the Holy Sabbath falls on a Tuesday, then the day after that would be a Wednesday. So it's not particularly connected then to our keeping of the eighth day. Verse 40, and you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. And you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days of the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days, all who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths. When I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. The last feast, then, is the Feast of Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Booths. And it lasts seven days, with a holy day at the beginning and at the end. Okay, so we went through Leviticus 23, and we're not going to have a test where you have to remember all the specific sacrifices in these days, and that's probably a little bit tedious going through it, but what is the end result that you have after going through Leviticus 23? There's a lot of Sabbath days in the Old Testament. And I think it's very important to see that of this list in Leviticus 23, the one that stands out from among all the other ones is the first one mentioned in the list. It was the one that was already in place. It's the one that does not pass away. It's the only one of all seven of these feasts that is not a ceremonial Sabbath. And I think that's so important when we try to interpret the meaning of Colossians passage and also the Romans passage as well, the objections against keeping the fourth commandment. And so as we conclude then, really the beautiful conclusion that we come to is that when surveying Leviticus 23 is that it's all about Christ. Right? We can kind of get lost in the things, the details and all that, but aren't they all referencing some sort of special thing that Jesus does? Every one of these feasts, if we had the time to go through them individually, they would all point to Christ, and they've all been done away with except for the first one, which was the Sabbath day. They all find their conclusion, the last six in Christ, because they point to His sacrificial death. So from that perspective then, couldn't we say, in a certain sense, that all of these feasts are perpetually going on in Christ? And we don't keep them anymore, but when we read the Old Testament, there's a significance to the fact that Christ has fulfilled those things. But He is now our Atonement. He is now our Passover. Remember the New Testament passage says Christ is our Passover. So today those feasts have meaning. Don't get lost into somehow thinking that Leviticus 23 has no more meaning to us today. It's packed with references to Christ. But the weekly Sabbath has more than a ceremonial purpose. What have we learned so far about the Sabbath day? It's the day of rest for our body and for our soul that we need every week. These Old Testament sabbaths that pass away wasn't a whole lot of rest if you get one day a year. But there's an additional layer of purpose put into the seventh day sabbath as it comes around every week. These annual feasts that are also referred to as being holy and as being sabbaths were not meant for the regular rest that God intended from the time of creation onward for man. There is so much more put into the weekly Sabbath. It does not pass away like the ceremonial Sabbath. So we're very, very thankful to our God today that he gives us this permanent weekly Sabbath rest for his glory and for the good of our souls. Amen. I hope you find blessing as you read through Leviticus 23 and see how to answer the objections in the New Testament. Let us stand and pray. Our Father in Heaven, grant to us wisdom, we pray, to know Your Word so that we might see the differences between these many Sabbaths, that we might obey Your commands and honor your words. Bless now our study, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.