Colossians 2:16-17

Colossians chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. and God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. For many years, we had rotary phones in our home. Now, the rotary phones we had were built to last. They seemed like they lasted for decades. We must have had them for over 30 years, the same phones, maybe 40. I don’t even remember. Even when practically everybody else had push-button phones and went to. even cell phones, we were still using the rotary phones in our home because they were old and they were reliable and I thought, why buy new phones? When I can still use these. Now, they were completely out of date, but they worked fine. And we didn’t have a lot of money to spend on new phones at the time. Just how out of date those phones were became quite evident to us when one of Matt’s friends asked to use the phone to call home. and Raina said, well, here’s the phone. And he came over and he looked at that phone and he stared at that phone. Completely dumbfounded. He had never seen a rotary phone in his life. How do you use this thing? That’s what he asked us. Time had made our phone completely obsolete, so obsolete that some people didn’t even know how to operate it. Paul has been addressing the regulations here of the Cerellations here of the ceremonial law, in particular the dietary laws and the holy days or the feast days, those laws. In verse 16, we looked at that last week. And we said that no one has a right to impose these regulations upon you or to make them necessary for salvation. You’re not required to obey the dietary regulations or observe the holy days, the Mosaic law, and you shouldn’t allow anybody to condemn. you for noncompliance in this regard. Why? Well, the ceremonial law regulations were a shadow of the things to come when Christ appears. Like the rotary phone, they have been superseded by something better. They’re obsolete at this point. With the coming of Christ and the new covenant, the ceremonial law has waxed old. and in a sense has vanished away. I want to talk about shadow and substance from this passage of scripture this morning. Let me begin by saying this. You need to look beyond the shadow to the substance. Now, if the sun is behind you, you’ll notice you’re outside and the sun’s behind you. Your body cast a shadow before it in front of you. If a person is walking behind a house or a tree or something of this nature, you may see their shadow first come out from behind that object, and then eventually you’ll see the body. The shadow precedes it in appearance. It provides a representation, if you would, of some sort, of what’s coming. A shadow has no life on its own, and it has no real function apart from the body. that it represents. In the shadow, you get a glimpse of a person’s form and shape, but all of its, of his features are not apparent. Now, certainly you could tell the difference between the shadow of a man and a dog and a rabbit. You could tell that difference, but many of the details would be obscure. The writer of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 10-1, the law had a shadow of good things to come. These Old Testament ceremonial laws with regard to diets and days are shadows. They were meant to portray something concerning Christ who was going to appear later. Once Christ came, the shadow should no longer be our focus and our concern. To carefully observe these ceremonial laws and miss Christ, who was being. being portrayed by these shadows is not going to benefit you. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The shadow of a person fades in significance when that person himself appears. And that’s what we have before us here. So you need to look beyond the shadow to the substance. Now, you should consider the dietary laws with an eye to their spiritual substance. Leviticus 11 provides a very detailed and careful explanation of what foods are clean and what foods are unclean. And I’m not going to go into all the details on the various meats here and the foods that you can eat. But if you get to the end of chapter 16 or chapter 11, excuse me, of Leviticus, and verse 44, there’s a statement that’s made. at the end of that chapter. It says this, for I am the Lord your God, you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy. Such a thought certainly takes us beyond meat and drink. God doesn’t eat, and he doesn’t drink. And therefore being like him must just our diet. Do you remember what Jesus taught the multitudes in Matthew 1811? Hear and understand that which goeth into the mouth, defal it, not that which goeth into a mouth, defauleth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth. This defaleth the man. And his explanation later to his disciples was this. Do not ye understand that whatsoever whatsoever entereth in at the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. So actually, what’s defouling is having an evil heart. Not merely, you know, well, if I eat this, I’m going to be defiled, or I drink that. I’m going to be defile. Now, it’s interesting when we get to the New Testament, if you would look at 1 Peter chapter 1 with me, Peter quotes this passage that has to do with diet. in Leviticus 11, that closing statement that I mentioned to you earlier. And I want you to notice how he addresses this issue. Chapter 1 of 1st Peter in verses 14 through 16. He says here, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance, but as he which have called you as holy, so be you whole. an all manner of conversation. That’s an old English word for behavior. Because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. Now notice how he says that this passage relates to behavior. The behavior of the person. Godly behavior is what God requires of us. Not meet selections per se. God often portrays spiritual truth. in picture form in the Old Testament. The Bible tells us he treated the Old Testament saints, if you would, as children. And so he put things in a picture book form for them. These dietary laws were a picture book for the people of God. To teach Israel to put a difference between that which is morally clean and that which is unclean. God did this. by the dietary laws. The character of forbidden animals was meant to represent moral imperfections. I mentioned this to you for you to ponder here. The character of the forbidden animals that you weren’t supposed to eat were to represent some type of moral imperfection that God would not have you have in your life. Now let’s take the issue of swine. Let’s take the issue of pigs for a moment. Absidence from swine flesh, pork, signified that God’s people should be separated from the unclean behavior of the world around them. This is why people in Scripture are sometimes classified as swine or pigs. For example, in Proverbs 1122. As a jewel of gold in a swine snout, so is a fair woman, which is without discretion. She could be beautiful in appearance, but if she is sexually impure, she’s uncleaned morally, it makes her swine-like. And so pigs are dirty animals in a sense. And so there’s a sense in which God is using these dietary laws to teach them. Don’t be like that. Here’s another passage from Matthew 7.6. Neither cast you your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet. Some people would take the most precious things about Christ in the gospel and treat them as something that is of no value whatsoever. Just trample them under foot. When actually it’s a pearl or something precious that they’re trampling under foot. In other words, speaks of spiritual ignorance, doesn’t it? Here’s another passage, 2.22. But it happened under them, according to the true proverb, the sow that was washed returns to her wallowing in the mire. People by their external religion may clean themselves up a bit, but their nature hasn’t changed. And because their nature hasn’t changed, they actually really love to be in the mud, be in the filth. And there are people, you see, who have that characteristic. They love to be in the mud. And so this is the idea here, I think. Keep away from unclean behavior characterized by a pig or swine so don’t eat these foods. Forbidding you to partake of swine flesh is forbidding you to behave morally in a manner like the swine. I think that’s the idea here. Now, I could speak about dogs. I could speak about, you know, these wild dogs and their vicious behavior and how people copy their behavior. Jesus talked about people that turn and rend you when you give them the gospel. And they’re dogs, he says. In the book of Revelation, such people are excluded from the holy city without our dogs. People who have dog-like character are without the city. They are unclean. And so the idea here is similar. Look at the uncle, the vulture, the owl, the hawk, and so. There are birds of prey that feed on other animals. That’s not the kind of behavior that people of God are to have. They have there to be harmless as dogs, right? Clean birds love the sunshine. They sing joyfully in the light. Unclean moles burrow under the earth, and they love the darkness. All burrowing animals are unclean. Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, the Bible says. Hopefully, this is enough to get to wet your taste here in this situation, to get you thinking about these dietary laws of the ceremonial law, that they were meant to teach something about Christ in his kingdom and about holy behavior. But with a spiritual advancement in the New Testament from the childhood of the Old Testament, Testament to adulthood. We no longer need these picture book situations. Just follow Christ’s example. And he is the substance of which these things were just pictures. So you should consider the dietary laws with an eye with regard to their spiritual substance. Thirdly, you should consider the holy day regulations with an eye toward their spiritual substance. substance. I’m going to just put the new moons and the ceremonial Sabbaths in with these feasts and connect them together because they are closely associated anyhow. Now, let’s look at the feast for a moment. If you would, turn with me to Leviticus Chapter 23. Obviously, we could spend quite a bit of time looking at these feasts and their significance spiritually. And what they have to say about Christ and his kingdom. But this morning I just want to highlight these issues so that we get an idea of what this is all about. The first feast that we see here is the Passover feast in verses 4 and 5. He said, these are the Feast of the Lord, even holy convocations or gatherings, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the 14th day of the first month at even, is the Lord’s Passover. Now you remember that the Passover was a commemoration of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. You read it in the book of Exodus when it was initiated. It was a reminder of how God passed over the blood-covered homes of the Israelites and ended up striking down the firstborn of those in Egypt. The sacrifice of an unblemished Passover lamb was the center focus of the feast. The blood was used and painted, you remember on the doors, the meat was roasted and eaten by the family. The substance of this feast is clearly stated in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 5-7, for even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. So we immediately begin to realize that this particular feast speaks about Christ. Christ. It is a shadow of what Christ was going to do. John the Baptist declared of Christ, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He presented Christ as a lamb from God. This is the cry which first reaches your ear and your heart as a sinner to behold the Lamb of God. So here is the first feast that is necessary for a fallen person. that has to do with Christ and the atonement that he provides. when you get to the book of Revelation, and you get that view of heaven in chapter 5, and even in other passages in Revelation, what do we hear by Christ? How is he portrayed? As a lamb, as it had been slain, we’re told. He is loved. He’s adored. He rules and he reigns from on high. Oh heaven, gazing upon him with thankfulness and delight is how he is portrayed. He sung about as the one who has redeemed us by his blood. He frees us from spiritual bondage by his sacrificial death in the cross. God’s wrath passes over the sinner in Christ. In Christ. in Christ because he is protected by the Savior’s blood. So if Christ is your Passover, and this is what this feast is portraying to us, but he is the Lamb of God, the true Lamb of God, then there’s no need then to observe the Passover any longer because we have Christ. Besides, Christ’s institution of the Lord’s Supper at the Passover meal indicates the feast has been superseded by now a New Testament feast, which makes the Old Testament feast obsolete. Yes, you can certainly be spiritually benefited by studying the Passover feast if you keep your eye on Christ as you study it. And so when we think about Christ and we think about this Passover, we can benefit from it. But we’re not under obligation to observe it. It’s been fulfilled in Christ. He is our Passover land. The second feast we read about here is the feast of unleavened bread. Look at verses 6 to 8 here. And on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread under the Lord. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. In the first day, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no servileven work therein. Now the feast of unleavened bread is actually a continuation of the Passover. Sometimes it’s called the feast of the Passover. Because you have the Passover in the night before and then immediately you start into the feast of unleavened bread. You recall that prior to the Passover, the Jews would go through their whole house and they would remove anything that had leaven in it. all leaven had to be removed so that as soon as the Passover was over, they were going to go into the feast of the unleavened bread, so they had to be prepared for that occasion. So, the day following the Passover begins this feast. The Passover provides the cause of deliverance, and the feast of unleavened bread provides the effect of the deliverance. The substance of this feats relates to fellowship with God and holiness that follows the pardon that we have in the Passover. Now look with me at 1st Corinthians chapter 5, if you would, hold your place, but look at 1st Corinthians chapter 5, if you would. In verses 6 to 8. Your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leaven, leaven of the whole lump. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, the sacrifice for us. 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. You’ll notice here, we’re keeping a feast, but it’s the spiritual aspect of the feast that we’re keeping. We’re not removing unleavened bread. We’re removing malice here and wickedness from our lives. which is portrayed by the leaven here. Hence this feast speaks of separation from evil. Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, Titus 2.14. So you keep this New Testament believer, as a New Testament believer, you keep this feast, by mortifying. sin in your life. Purge out the old leaven. This particular case in verse graphings 5, the man who is living in sin and incest, needs to be removed from the church. But Christ provides for your sanctification and the removal of your old, sinful ways, and habits. And so that’s what is being portrayed here. So when we keep the feast, we do so not by observing. the ceremonial law feast, not by removing the leaven of sin in our lives. The third feast that he mentions here is found in verses 9 to 14, and this is the feast of the first fruits. Let’s look at that back in Leviticus 23. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, when you come into the land, which I gave you, I give unto you, then ye shall reap the harvest thereof, and you shall bring a sheath of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest. He shall wave the sheath before the Lord to be accepted for you. On the morrow after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. You shall offer that day when ye shall wave the sheath as he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the meat offering thereof shall be two tents deals of fine flour, mingled with oil, an offering made by fire under the Lord for a sweet savor, and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine and the fourth part of a hen. And you shall eat neither bread nor parched corn nor green ears until the same day that ye have brought in offering under your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Now when Israel harvested their fields, and this particular one was the barley harvest that was spoken off here, they were commanded to bring a sheath of the first fruits to the Lord. And it was to be waved before the Lord. This was done, it’s interesting, the day, after the Jewish Sabbath. It was done on a Sunday, according to verse 11. That’s a significant detail to remember. The Israelites were forbidden to eat bread or parched grain until they had first given this first fruit to the Lord. God always gets first place. He is always first in our efforts here. Now this feast portrays the resurrection of Christ. And what day of the week did he resurrect on? The first day of the week. Look at 1 Corinthians with me. Hold your place, but look at 1st Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 20. In the New Testament. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept? The sheath evidently here portrays for us Christ. The first fruit. and being waived, evidently refers to Christ being raised and presented before God. Until Christ was presented and accepted, none of us could expect a harvest. In other words, we can’t be resurrected if Christ was not first resurrected. So this first sheath is the pledge of our resurrection. They guarantee that all those in Christ shall be made alive. Look at verses 22 and 23 of 1 1 Corinthians 15. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ you all be made alive. Every man in his own order, Christ of first fruits afterward, they that are Christ at his coming. And so we find in this feast something about Christ in his resurrection and how it affects us. And so here again, once we have Christ in his resurrection, we no longer need, this feast because we have the reality of the feast. The fourth feast is the feast of weeks, sometimes known as the Feast of Pentecost. Look at verses 15 to 22. And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, back in chapter Lyticus 23, you shall count under you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that you brought the sheath of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths to be complete, even under the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, you shall number 50 days, and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. You shall bring out of your habitations two wavelos of two tents deals. They shall be a fine flour. They shall be baked or bacon with leaven. They are the first fruits under the Lord. And ye shall all. offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock and two rams, and they shall be for a burn offering under the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire of sweet savor under the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall win. them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Lord with the two lamps. And they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And ye shall proclaim on the self-same day that it may be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall do no servile work therein. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And when ye reap the harvest of your fields, thou shalt not make clean riddens of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest. Thou shalt leave them for the poor to this stranger. I am the Lord. Thy God. Fifty days after the feast of the first fruits is the day of Pentecost here, or the feast of Pentecost, the feast of weeks. Now the first fruits, of the wheat harvest are portrayed here in this particular section. They are presented to the Lord. But they’re not presented as a sheath. They are presented as two loaves of bread. And it’s very interesting here in verse 17 that there was leaven in these loaves, whereas there was no leaven to be with the other feast that we saw, the feast of unleavened bread. But here, they’re, they’re, there’s leaven. In other words, these bread loaves were rows, just like they had yeast in them, like regular common bread that we would use. Now, these two wheat loaves, therefore, don’t represent Christ, otherwise they would have been unleavened bread. They would have been, because Christ was sinless. Rather, they represent something that comes out of the wheat seed. What is produced by the wheat seed. And we see here a picture of what comes out of Christ’s death. We see something about this, I think, in the book of John, chapter 12. You turn with me in the New Testament. And verses 23 and 24. John chapter 12, beginning with verse 23. Jesus answered unto them, or Jesus answered them, saying, the hours come that the son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it shall bring forth much fruit. And verse 32 indicates to us, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. The two loaves of wheat flour, I believe here, portray Christ’s church, that sprang from Christ, who died as a corn of wheat. There are two loaves of wheat. loos which seem to indicate to us Jews and Gentiles. Remember Jesus said that there’s an other flock that I have, but there’s going to be one fold and one shepherd eventually. And so I think it speaks of both of these groups being connected together. There’s leaven here because we’re still corrupt. We still have sin in this life. But it’s made of fine wheat because the Holy Spirit is within us. And remember, the Holy Spirit is given on the day of Pentecost, connected with this feast. The risen Christ has ascended, and proof of that is he gives gifts unto men, and one of the gifts that he gives is the Holy Spirit on the day of of Pentecost. He shed forth. So the Feast of weeks speaks about what comes out of Christ at. And here he has a church. He has a people that come out of his. death. We have the Feast of Trumpets next. Let me, the fifth feast. Look back at Leviticus 23 verses 23 to 25. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, speak under the children of Israel, saying in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no serve our work therein, but ye shall offer an offering made by far unto the Lord. In Scripture, the trumpet sound often refers to the voice of God. For example, in the book of Exodus, when you read God coming down on Mount Sinai. The voice of God was as a trumpet. In the book of Revelation, the voice of God is as a trumpet sound. It’s a memorial here in Moses’ day of God having spoken to them from Mount Sinai. They heard. heard God’s voice. They were frightened by it. Remember, they said, you speak to us, Moses. They didn’t want to hear God’s voice. It was frightening to hear God’s voice. It’s the thought that this feast represents some type of awakening of the Israelites to repentance in prospect of the Day of Atonement that’s coming in ten more days. It was to arouse arouse all Israel, to joyful, expectations. Summon them, if you would, and get their attention. Does not all this lead you to the true significance of this feast? It’s sort of a grand type of the preaching of the gospel. The trumpet sounds. The gospel of Christ goes forth. The gospel is God’s voice, as the writer of Hebrews indicates to us. In Hebrews chapter 12, look with me, if you would, I don’t wish to weary you this morning, but just to grasp the implications of this from the New Testament. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 18. He says, for ye have not come unto Mount Sinai that might be touched, that burnt with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words. And the voice of words, which voice they heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. That they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion, under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable company of angels to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, to God, the judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator in the new covenant, the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh of better things than that of Abel. See that you refuse not him that speaketh. Or if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from heaven. And then notice in, I’ll let it go at this point, but in chapter 3 and 4 of the book of Hebrews, it talks about the gospel was preached unto them just as it is preached unto us. And so we have the idea of the gospel here coming forth and calling men to repent. So the trumpet sound is typical here than of the preaching of the gospel. And the joyful sound people are to called to serve God and to worship him. It’s a spiritual feast then that we undergo. The conversion of the nations to faith in Christ in the book of Isaiah is said to be the blowing of a great trumpet. So we have this kind of idea associated with the feast of the trumpets. The sixth feast is the day of atonement. Let me direct your attention to back to Leviticus 23, verses 26 to 32. The Lord spake unto Moses saying also in the 10th day of this seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation unto you and you 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 is a day of atonement, to make atonement atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I 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 rest. And you shall afflict your souls in the ninth day of the month at even. From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath. the day of atonement, the word atonement K-PAR here means a covering over or a propitiation. It was the greatest event of the year for the children of Israel. The high priest was commanded to take from the children of Israel two goats. One goat would be taken and presented before the Lord. And the other goat would also be presented before the but they would have two different purposes. One of the scapegoats was one of the goats was called a scapegoat. That goat, when they confessed the iniquities of the children of Israel over the head of that goat, it would be taken out into the wilderness and let loose. the other goat would be sacrificed and the blood of that goat would be taken by the high priest into the Holy of holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat, which was the covering of the ark, and which was contained the law of God. So when God looked upon the law, he saw it through the blood, so to speak. So one spoke about the taking away of the sin, and the other, the turning away of God’s wrath. So both of those ideas are presented here. A propitiation of sin. Now, obviously, the Day of Atonement here portrays to us the work of Christ on the cross, his sacrificial work. The sins of the people of God are carried off, are put apart as the east is from the west, as the scripture says. And Christ is the propitiation for our sins. He turns away the wrath of God and covers the broken law force. I don’t have time to pursue this further, but Hebrews chapter 9, if you read it, verses 1 to 16. You know, Christ’s blood is not the blood of bulls and goats, but it’s the blood, it actually takes away sin. when he talks about the tabernacle there and he talks about what they used to do and he talks about the high priest having to go in and so forth. Christ is our high priest. He goes into heaven and he takes with him in his sense the sacrificial blood. He turns away to wrath of God. He’s accepted, isn’t it, the Holy of Holies in heaven when he provides the atonement for us. Lastly, we have the Feast of Tabernacles. Versus 33 to 43 here, we have the final feast that’s mentioned in Leviticus 23. And the Lord speak unto Moses, speak unto the children of Israel, saying the 15th day of the 7th month, shall be the feast of the tabernacles for seven days under the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy convocation, you shall do no serve our work therein. Seven days shall you offer an offering made by fire under the Lord. On the 8th day, shall be a holy convocation unto you, and you shall offer an offering made by fire under the Lord. It is a solemn assembly, and you shall do no servile work therein. These are the Feast of the Lord, which you shall proclaim, to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire under the Lord, a burn offering, a meat offering, a sacrifice, drink offering, besides everything, excuse me, and drink offerings, everything upon his day. Beside the Sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, beside all your vows, beside all your free offerings, you shall give unto the Lord. Also, in the 15th day of the 7th month, when you are gathered together, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, on the 8th day shall be a Sabbath. And you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days, and you shall keep it a feast unto Lord seven days in the year. And it shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. And you shall dwell in booze seven days. All that are Israel, Israelites born shall dwell in booze, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in boughs when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. And Moses declared under the children of Israel the feast of the Lord. Now this feast felt the time of vintage when the last crops were gathered in. Its purpose was to keep in mind Israel’s wandering, you recall, in the wilderness, after their departure from bondage in Egypt. And while they’re dwelling in the wilderness, God is dwelling with them in the pillar club. As they journeyed about, God was present. And so during this feast, the people of God used tree branches to make some type of tent or booths in which they would dwell. They would camp out, if you would, at this point. I have brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle, 2 Samuel 7.6. God tabernacled among his people while they were in the wilderness. Now, God has called his people out of the world, out of bondage, and he separated it unto himself. And there’s a sense in which we are in the desert. so to speak spiritually. And yet he tabernacles among us. We worship him as strangers and pilgrims as we pass through this land. Now all of this, you discover the coming of Christ into the world. The true feast of the tabernacle takes place. In John 1, we read, and the word, speaking of Jesus Christ, was made flesh and dwelt in the King James, that word is, he tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Christ is tabernacle among us. That is the fulfillment of this feast. We are redeemed. We are separated. We are worshipping people. And the key element of joy. is connected with this feast, for our God is with us. Doesn’t the Bible say that he will never leave us nor forsake us as his people? In the book of Revelation, when you get into chapter 1, is not Christ walking among the seven candlesticks of the churches? Because he is with his people. He dwells among them. How does the book of Revelation end? Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with Him. them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. He tabernacles with us all throughout eternity. The worship of God under the New Testament is prophesied under the notion of the nations observing the feast of the tabernacles. If you read Zechariah chapter 14, not literally doing so. We don’t literally keep the feast of the tabernacles, but we do have Christ’s promise. Two or three are gathered together in his name, he will dwell among us. Right? Christ dwelling among us is what’s being portrayed. He dwells among us by his spirit, and we rejoice to be his people. That’s the key element of this feast. So you should consider these Holy Day regulations, but look at them with a spiritual eye. Begin to see, and I can just barely touch the surface of these things this morning, but I wouldn’t to give you a sort of a taste of how we can see Christ in all these. These are shadows of what Christ was going to bring. An Old Testament storybook with pictures in it, so to speak. Now all these holy days had sacrifices associated with them. Christ is the final sacrifice. He has put an end to all the rest of these sacrifices, and therefore we know not observe these days. any longer because we can’t really observe them and be sacrificing any longer. Christ fulfills all that for us. So let me close this morning by saying this. That old rotary phone became obsolete, so much so that people didn’t even know how to use it anymore, as we found out with Matt’s friend, Marky. The dietary laws, the holy days of the ceremonial law, have become obsolete. elite with the coming of Christ and the setting up of his kingdom. As a Christian, you have the substance. You don’t need the shadows. It’s okay to look at the shadows as long as we see the substance in them. But no one has a right to impose them upon you. Let us close with a word of prayer.