Welcome: Opening of the Feast

Greetings, brethren! Welcome to the Feast of Tabernacles! This year the Feast is a little bit early, compared to the Roman calendar, but as far as God's way is concerned, it's right on time!

One of the things that's so important is keeping the Feasts of God, because they show the Plan of God! They reveal the step-by-step Plan of God.

• How many people really understand the plan and purpose of God?
• How many people really understand the framework of how He's going to carry it out IF they don't keep the Holy Days?

or we can look at it another way

• How many people have lost the knowledge of God's Plan because they have quit keeping the Holy Days?
• How many people do not even have a clue concerning God's Plan?
  • because they don't understand the Holy Days
  • they never thought they should keep the Holy Days
  • many of them don't keep the Sabbath

You keep Sunday and the holidays of this world, and you're totally blinded! You have no understanding concerning what God is going to do!

But God has a plan and a purpose that He is working out here on this earth. He's given us that understanding, and He's given us that wisdom through Jesus Christ, and very few people understand that today.

Jesus said to remember that when He comes to the earth, when He comes back:

• Will He find faith in the earth?
• Will there be people who believe Him, who obey Him, who keep His commandments and love Him? Yes, they will!

These are the ones who know the Lord. We are told we are going to know the Lord. He gives us understanding and reveals it to whomsoever He desires!

But God has a way of doing it, and that is through the things concerning the Holy Days. This Feast of Tabernacles shows what God is going to do at the end-time:

• to finish His Plan
• to set up His Kingdom on the earth
• how He's going to undo all evil
• how He's going to bring many, many multiple millions and billions into His Family

This is a tremendous thing for us to understand, brethren. I know that we go over this a lot, but I want you to understand how important that this is:

• the calling that God has given you
• the understanding that God has given you

Ephesians 1:3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly things with Christ."

• Some of the heavenly things of God are the Sabbath and Holy Days, are they not?
• Did not God make and create those for us?
• And there's a reason and purpose for it?

Just like everything else concerning God's way, we have understanding and knowledge as we do them!

Psalm says, 'A good understanding are they that keep His commandments.' So we're doing that on this Feast of Tabernacles!

Verse 4: "According as He has personally chosen us for Himself before the foundation of the world in order that we might be Holy and blameless before Him in love."

Of course, the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of great love. A time of showing of how God is going to bring His love to this whole world. It's great love for us that:

• we fellowship with each other
• we fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ
• we have the love of God and serve Him through this

Verse 5: "Having predestinated us for sonship to Himself through Jesus Christ…"

We are the firstfruits, as we saw with Pentecost. We are the firstborn. We are going to reign as kings and priests, as we go through and see what the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles is, all during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.

What a tremendous thing that it is, brethren, that God has taken us into, as it were, into His confidence, by His love to show these things for us. It's a wonderful and tremendous thing.

"…according to the good pleasure of His own will…" (v 5).

We are going to understand the mystery of His will, and the knowledge and things that God has given you through His Holy Days and through His Holy Scriptures, to bring you that understanding as a marvelous miracle indeed.

The world is blinded, and Satan has blinded them, and all who go about their own work and business. We know that Satan has deceived the whole world, and yet, God has reached down to call you, to call me, to call all the brethren that He has called, to reveal His great and His awesome plan to us that we might have a part in it!

Verse 6: "To the praise of the glory of His grace…" That's what we are brethren!

Can you imagine that? I want you to think about that! Don't focus in on your weaknesses or the problems, or the difficulties that maybe you've been confronted with, even to get here for the Feast of Tabernacles.

We need to understand that God is glorified in human weakness when He gives us His Spirit, and we are strong in Him!

Verse 6: "To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us objects of His grace in the Beloved Son"

We are accepted of God the Father through Jesus Christ.

Verse 7: "In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He has made to abound toward us in all wisdom and intelligence, having made known to us the mystery of His own will" (vs 7-9)—the secret of His will!

I've thought many times, if you could just run kind of a poll or a survey, or go into a shopping mall and have a clipboard and come up to people and say:

Sir, or Ma'am, we're running a survey. Do you believe in God? What do you think His plan is? Do you understand what God is doing?

What would the answer be?

Yes, I believe in God. But no I don't keep His commandments, and no I don't know what He's doing.

That also helps answer the question, because if you do His commandments, and in particularly concerning the Holy Days, then you understand His plan. You have an outline, you have a framework for it, because through that God is making known the secret of His will!

"…according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself" (v 9). That's a tremendous thing!

Isa. 14—let's see something here concerning that also. God has purposed these things from before the foundation of the earth. It says that our names are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, and the Book of Life was there before the foundation of the earth.

In other words, God has His Plan and everything all ready to go. Of course, it became no great mystery to God that Adam and Eve sinned. He had everything all ready to go.

Let's understand: that God is going to finish it and complete it. I know we are living in the days when many things are happening in prophecy, and many things are taking place. We're living in a time when those things are going on, but let's understand that God the Father is in charge, Christ is carrying out the work. Not only in us, but in the world to bring everything around according to the Plan of God. Let's understand how sure this is:

Isaiah 14:24: "The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, 'Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass; and as I have purposed, so it shall stand.'"

We've seen in the prophecies that God has prophesied that there is coming a New World Order. It's going to be an awesome thing indeed, and all the things that are taking place in the world today are building toward that step by step by step-by-step.

It's going to ultimately result in the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the saints, and we come back to this earth. As we saw on the Feast of Trumpets, one of the first things that God is going to do is cast the beast and the false prophet into the Lake of Fire.

Verse 25: "That I will break Assyria in My land, and upon My mountains, and trample him under foot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon all the earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations" (vs 25-26).

Everything that's going on in the world is going on according to God's will and God's purpose and it's going to be carried out.

Verse 27: "For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who shall reverse it?"

• IF someone doesn't believe it
• IF someone thinks that what the Word of God has to say is not relevant to them

• Are they going to annul the (King James says disannul, but it means annul/reverse) are they going to annul what God has said?
• Are they going to change what God has said? No way!
• Is any man, is any preacher, is any organization going to come along and alter and change what God has purposed? Not at all!

"…And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (v 27). No one will!

God has the purpose, God has the plan! He had this plan right in the very beginning and that's why when we come to the book of Revelation, Jesus says, 'I am the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. I am Alpha and Omega.'

We're going to see that that has an awful lot to do with the Feast of Tabernacles as God fulfills and completes His Plan.

Gen. 1—since we talked about the beginning—let's see something here very important. I just got a paper here where a man said that 'in the New Testament we don't need to keep the Holy Days.' He sent me a calendar, and he doesn't have anything right on his calendar.

So, I dropped him a little letter and I said, 'Thank you for your calendar, however I think if you would read these two books…' I sent him A Harmony of the Gospels and The Christian Passover, and I said, 'I think you will see that if we use the Calculated Hebrew Calendar properly that we will have the right dates. Here's something for you to consider in what you're doing.'

Now this was a person who was supposedly a Sabbath-keeper. Just like the Seventh Day Adventists—they keep the Sabbath—if you ask them what the purpose of God is, they don't know. They may have some fuzzy ideas: God forgives our sins, we're going to be with Him. They have everything mixed up concerning the Kingdom of God, and so forth, and the reason is, is because they do not understand that just as God created the Sabbath Day—the seventh day—God also built into the very universe the seasons and the keeping of the Holy Days.

Genesis 1:14. "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for appointed seasons, and for days and years"

We're going to see a little bit later what you already know, that God says, 'These are the Feasts of the LORD, which you shall keep in their seasons.' So, right from the very beginning of creation God set things for the Holy Days!

"…for appointed seasons, and for days and years…" Isn't it interesting that we have all of these things and they all relate to keeping of the Holy Days!

During this Feast of Tabernacles we're going to talk about Abraham and the Feast of Tabernacles, because there is meaning for that that we find in the Feast of Tabernacles. As a matter of fact, as we have learned through the years, over and over again, that there are many, many different meanings that God has really put into the Feast of Tabernacles. That it is:

• the greatest Feast
• the fullest Feast
• the one that has the most meaning

Not only for us but for:

• the world
• the Church
• Abraham
• Isaac
• Jacob
• the children of Israel

It's really a tremendous thing that God has given to us brethren. Here's the very first beginning step of preparing for the Kingdom of God.

Genesis 12:1: "And the LORD said to Abram, 'Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house into a land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.' Then Abram departed…" (Gen. 12:1-4). He went in faith!

I want you to notice how very broad this statement is of God. This is actually a statement of what would then become the beginning of the covenant, as we find here in Gen. 15. We're not going to cover too many things here, but just an overview and we'll come back to this a little later when we talk about Abraham and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Verse 4: we have the promise of physical seed, that the ones: "'…but he that shall come forth out of your own loins shall be your heir.' And He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward the heavens and number the stars—if you are able to count them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your seed be'" (vs 4-5).

That's the promise of spiritual seed, that is, those of his children who will be resurrected in the first resurrection and be given eternal life. As Christ said, 'Shine as the stars of heaven.'

Brethren, we need to understand that this Feast of Tabernacles pictures when that will be for us! We have to do like Abraham did,

Verse 6: "And he believed in the LORD. And He accounted it to him for righteousness."

We know by the chronological setting that this was on the 14th day of the 1st month. And we have a complete section on that in the Passover book, if you need to go through and prove a little bit more concerning that. But remember, this ties in with the New Testament because the Apostle Paul wrote, 'If you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.'

Now let's understand that God's promise expanded out beyond that of the land of Canaan!. Paul shows very clearly that he understood this when he wrote Rom. 4. Let's see where it tells us that Abraham knew that he was going to inherit the world. That's quite a thing!

Romans 4:13: "For the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world…"

Let's just really grasp that. Let's understand this, because today we see all the leaders of the world trying to work out the problems that are there, and even the greatest and the best of them are stymied with the things that are happening in the world today.

We've seen the tremendous struggle between the Palestinian and Jews, and no one can bring them to the peace table. Not even all the bloodshed that has been going on has moved them to the peace table.

That's why it says in Rom. 3 that 'their feet are swift to shed blood.' That's what we've seen over and over again. So, this promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith!

That's what we are doing! The righteousness of faith through Jesus Christ to love God the Father and Jesus Christ and keep Their commandments. Keeping the commandments of God and the Holy Days are so profound and important. That is the goal: the inheritance of the world!

Rom. 8—we're going to see how this inheritance is going to be, and how Paul again, reiterates that this is for us!

Romans 8:16: "The Spirit itself bears witness conjointly with our own spirit, testifying that we are the children of God. Now, if we are children, we are also heirs—truly, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer together with Him, so that we may also be glorified together with Him" (vs 16-17).

Now let's understand that when we are keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, we are portraying a time when we will be living in that inheritance as spirit beings, and reigning as kings and as priests!

We do keep the commandments of God, and we do keep the Laws of God, as Jesus said, but we do it in faith! It's the righteousness of faith! We don't come to God and say, 'God, I have done this therefore You owe me something.' NO! We come to God and say,

God, You said we are to do this, we'll do it! You said we're to keep this commandment, we'll do it! We'll do it in faith and do it willingly. Whatever You decide is best for us, we trust You in faith for that.

That is the righteousness of faith, and that's the righteousness of faith that Abraham had. In this then, we need to realize how profound and important this is.

Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill."

If you want to know how Jesus fulfilled the Law, in A Harmony of the Gospels we have a whole commentary on that concerning the Sermon on the Mount. We also have a booklet: How Did Jesus Fulfill the Law and the Prophets? That will give you great detail how Christ did it. He didn't fulfill it so that we have no obligation to do it. He gave us a higher standard, He gave us a spiritual standard! That's what's important.

Verse 18: "For truly I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall pass away, one jot or one tittle… [that has to do with the Hebrew markings in the Old Testament] …shall in no way pass from the Law until everything has been fulfilled."

In order to fulfill the Law of Righteousness by faith, we also have to be obedient in keeping the commandments of God.

Verse 19: "Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall practice and teach them, this one shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven."

There you have right from the words of Christ. Now let's understand something: what are the least commandments according to the world? Sabbath and Holy Days!

We know that all the Holy Days are called Sabbaths. We know that God puts His presence in those days, because of our experience in keeping those days, and our experience in fellowshipping with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Here is a profound thing that Jesus told the children of Israel, which by the way is also a separate covenant. When you understand that the Church is spiritual Israel, we are the true Israel of God, then how much more do these things apply to us! Jesus said that 'not one jot and one tittle shall in anywise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled,' and 'heaven and earth can pass away,' but it isn't going to go away. So, here we have heaven and earth… Of course, tonight you can go out and you can look up and you can see the full moon. That's a guarantee that you are keeping it on the right day, the 15th day of the 7th month.

Exodus 31:13. "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, 'Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths…'

Now let's just put a little input here that we need to understand: the Sabbaths were created by God! We saw in Gen. 1 that He made the seasons, and He gave us the days. They do not belong to the Jews. To this day, if you bring up to a practicing Jew that you keep the Holy Days, they get angry because they say, 'That's for us. That's not for you.' Not true, because Abraham kept them. There's a fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles with Abraham, which we'll see a little later during the Feast.

These are "…My Sabbaths…" and He doesn't give us a choice. He says, "…you shall keep…" Whenever God commands us to keep something, we should do so in faith, and there are blessings that come. In doing so we understand the purpose of God. We understand:

• what God is doing
• approximately the time schedule when He is doing it
• approximately how it's going to be done as God reveals the things to us as we keep them

There's another aspect that's very important with the keeping of the Sabbaths of God. That is right here, this is plural. This means all the Sabbaths. This is not just the weekly Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath starts everything out. The annual Sabbaths carry everything through and give us the understanding. The annual Sabbaths of the Holy Days, that is what people count as the very least. God says IF we keep them, we'll be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven!

Now here's another aspect of the Sabbaths: "…for it is a sign … [the it is the keeping of the Sabbaths] …between Me and you throughout your generations to know that I am the LORD Who sanctifies you" (v 13).

In the keeping of these, not only do we know what God's purpose is, we know God! We know Him:

• through prayer
• through study
• through living
• through His Holy Spirit
• through the keeping of His commandments
• through the keeping of His Sabbaths

Then He talks about the Sabbath Day and the importance of that.

Verse 17[transcriber's correction]: "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."

He says in v 16: "Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant."

Now then, for those who argue about Old Covenant/New Covenant, this is done away/that's done away, in the New Covenant we don't do this. How do you handle this? This is a perpetual covenant! That's very important for us to realize and understand.

God did something very wonderful in Lev. 23. He did something that you have to seek after. You have to dig for it! That is, IF you're willing to keep the least of the commandments of God! We've gone over this before, but part of the things that we understand of God's Word is to come back and be grounded in the foundational things, and then let God lead us to more understanding from that!

Here in Lev. 23 all the Holy Days of God are put in this one chapter. As we saw, God created every one of these Holy Days, in their seasons. If we understand that Abraham kept the charge of God, His commandments, His statutes, and His Laws, we know that Abraham kept these days in God's way when he was alive on this earth. Otherwise

• he could not be called righteous.
• he could not be called the father of the faithful

Just because you don't find them defined back in the book of Genesis in a way that it's defined here, does not mean that it was not so. The Bible gives us the essential knowledge. If God repeated everything over, and over, and over again we would have a book that would be so big, and so thick, and so unwieldy and cumbersome that we would get exhausted from trying to go through it.

So, God has given it this way for us, that we by faith believe God! He starts out in Lev. 23 with the Sabbath, the seventh day. These are Holy convocations, or appointed times. These are the Feasts of the LORD. They belong to Him!

Leviticus 23:4: "These are the appointed Feasts of the LORD, Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons."

We know that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, we can now prove by going back with astronomical proof, that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar is what God has used ever since the days of Hezekiah. So don't let anyone come along with some other calendar, some other scheme, some other way, to try and derail you.

These are the times and seasons that God has given. He has given us the calendar to understand it. Since God commands us to keep them, doesn't it make sense that He would give us a calendar whereby it would be easy to do? That's what the calculated Hebrew calendar is! We know that even the Jews, though they use the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, have moved the Passover from the 14th to the 15th and they keep an extra day of Unleavened Day to the 22nd. But that doesn't change the Calculated Hebrew Calendar.

Now we've gone through all the Holy Days, haven't we?

• the Passover
• the Feast of Unleavened Bread
• counting toward Pentecost
• Pentecost
• Trumpets
• Atonement

Here we are for the Feast of Tabernacles!

Leviticus 23:33: "And 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"'" (vs 33-34).

So, we meet for eight days because God says on the 8th day, as we will see, there's a special Feast. The meaning of that is so fantastic and great that it's just absolutely mind-boggling what God is going to fulfill and do on that day.

Verse 35: "On the first day shall be a Holy convocation. You shall do no servile work therein. Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day shall be a Holy convocation to you. And you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD…." (vs 35-36).

Well, because Christ fulfilled the sacrifices and burnt offerings, we do not do those things today. But we do take up an offering on each one of the Holy Days.

He says of the 8th day: "…It is a solemn assembly. And you shall do no servile work therein. These are the Feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be Holy convocations…" (vs 36-37).

Now, this is a summary! First of all it's a Holy convocation; when they convoke to do it then under the covenant with Israel they had the burnt offerings, the meal offerings, and all of that thing on everyone of its day.

Verse 38: "besides the Sabbaths of the LORD… [here again, these are called the Sabbaths] … and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the LORD. Also, in the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a Feast to the LORD seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath…" (vs 38-39)—the Last Great Day!

The Feast of Tabernacles for the children of Israel picture that when they came out of Egypt, they lived in the temporary dwellings. Now today we understand that everything that there is on this earth, and according to God's Plan, it is all temporary! We know, as the Last Great Day pictures, that there is going to be a new heaven and a new earth, and God's plan go on forever into all eternity! So, what they did then, they took boughs, they made booths, and so forth.

Verse 43: "So 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."

Now, we'll see the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles for us in this day. We'll see what it means in doing it and what we are to learn by it, and how we are to understand that God is the only One Who gives eternal life, and that our lives right now are very temporary. But we look forward to eternal life and the glorious salvation through Jesus Christ!

Let's understand that with the Feast of Tabernacles, it is a great time for fellowship. Fellowshipping with God the Father and Jesus Christ, because They put Their presence and Spirit in every meeting that we have.

On the first Holy Day, which begins tonight, and on the Last Great Day, God puts His special presence in those days so that we can really learn and understand the will of God!

But in the meantime we should fellowship with each other, spend time together with each other, and make this a really wonderful Feast of knowing and loving the brethren, and getting to know people that you've never met before. Go out and especially take those who you've never taken out, to a meal or dinner, and spend time with them, and fellowship with them, and get to know them. This is a perfect time during the Feast of Tabernacles to do so.

Now let's just finish up this by looking and seeing the ultimate conclusion of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the meaning for us. Of course, we'll come back here again. Let's see the ultimate of what this is going to do. Let's see what we are to understand with the Feast, but also what a great and joyous event that this is going to be.

Revelation 21:1: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…"

That's what we are looking to, because this first heaven and this first earth are temporary, just like we are temporary.

"…for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea" (v 1).

So, there's going to be a whole new earth. There won't be any oceans there because as spirit beings we won't need to have the temperature modulated. So that's going to be quite a thing!

Verse 2: "And I, John, saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from heaven say, 'Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men…'" (vs 2-3).

This is men/women made perfect, men/women now the spirit children of God.

"…and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people; and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall not be anymore death… [there will be eternal life] …or sorrow, or crying; neither shall there be any more pain, because the former things have passed away" (vs 3-4).

This is the whole meaning and the depth of the Feast of Tabernacles!

Verse 5: "And He Who sits on the Throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' Then He said to me, 'Write… [the Apostle John wrote this; tremendous] …for these words are true and faithful…. [they are going to come to pass] …And He said unto me, It is done…. [the finality and completion of the Plan of God is done] …I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the one who thirsts, I will give freely of the fountain of the Water of Life. The one who overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son" (vs 5-7).

Brethren, let's have a wonderful Feast of Tabernacles, keeping this in mind and focusing on all the things that God has for us.

For tomorrow (day 1), by popular request, (we've had many requests for it) four years ago I did a video where I showed the Tabernacle of God. So, tomorrow you're going to see that video that I did in 1998 for the first Holy Day. If I did it today, I would have to repeat it just exactly as I did then, so, since you're use to even watching some reruns on television, we're going to go ahead and rerun the first Holy Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, 1998, which shows all about the Ark of the Covenant, and the tabernacle and the instructions for it.

I hope that you will enjoy it a lot, because there's a lot in there, and many brethren have asked that we see this again periodically. So, it's been four years now.

Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version

Scriptural References:

• Ephesians 1:3-9
• Isaiah 14:24-27
• Genesis 1:14
• Genesis 12:1-4
• Genesis 15:4-6
• Romans 4:13
• Romans 8:15-17
• Matthew 5:17-19
• Exodus 31:13, 17, 16
• Leviticus 23:4, 33-39, 43
• Revelation 21:1-7

Scripture referenced, not quoted: Romans 3

Also referenced: by Fred R. Coulter
{truthofGod.org}

Books:

• A Harmony of the Gospels
• The Christian Passover

Booklet: How Did Jesus Fulfill the Law and the Prophets?

FRC:
(original transcriber unknown)
Reformatted: bo—6/2023