I invite you to turn in the Bible tonight to the second book of the Bible, Exodus, chapter 23, 23, as we consider together, verses 10 through 19. You'll notice a bit of a transition tonight as we look at a Sabbath and three festivals that the Lord commanded Israel, and so we're going to consider tonight verses 10 through 19. This is the word of the Lord. and the alien may be refreshed. Pay attention to all that I have said to you and make no mention of the names of other gods nor let it be heard on your lips. Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread as I commanded you. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib. For in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall keep the feast of harvest of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leaven or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of His Word. well the basic point uh tonight as we consider this particular section in exodus is really a fairly simple point that the lord was making and helping them through if you were to summarize his great desire in giving this set of laws and instructions for israel it had the great purpose that israel was to always remember how they were saved and what the lord had done for them and to never forget it and he wanted them and he made that happen he gave opportunities for that to happen through certain remembrances that in the fullness of time jesus christ would come and fulfill and and accomplish he wanted the faith passed on from generation to generation he knew that there were many there who would never who would die and those who would not remember or see the exodus this was his way of preserving the faith in israel this was his way of keeping the next generation in israel they could practice and i love to emphasize this because often the lord gets attacked in the old testament as just throwing down a bunch of rules with no joy he wanted celebrations and feasting to go on in israel joyful feasting that's really important to say as we look at this he wanted them to feast and enjoy and reflect upon and be thankful for all that he had done for them and all that he had accomplished how they could be thankful these were opportunities to express thanksgiving to teach their children to help them through the great story that he was telling them of the whole bible which you'll see tonight is right here so after all of these civil laws the lord put things in place to teach them his his grace and his gospel he wanted them to honor the sabbath and certain feasts that they would never forget that they would never forget that's the perspective tonight you remember this was a great problem you remember that the lord said when you have eaten and are full then you shall bless the lord your god for the good land which he has given you beware that you do not forget the lord your god well what a problem happened in israel when that that that surely did take place they forgot so by the time of josiah's reforms none of these feasts were being practiced none of the celebrations that god intended for their good were being practiced josiah had to read the book of the covenant again and restore these feasts for israel there was always that danger of forgetting there was always that danger of not remembering everything that the Lord had done for them and all of the abundance that they would receive from his hand all of the blessings that they would enjoy all their nice homes and all their their homes full and their paneled walls and all the everything that they had built for themselves the Lord knew that it would be a great danger for their attitudes and their hearts to forget him and particularly in the areas that we're considering tonight with the sabbath rule principle here and the feasts that he had put in place he didn't want their work to enslave them that was a really important point he didn't want their work to enslave them to be so consumed with their work that they forgot him and forgot what this life is all about and why they're here and what they represent and while we constantly learn about our need for christ in this i think sometimes these civil laws are preached and it's common to say well when we come to the civil laws well sinners really can't do these things and jesus fulfilled it all for us which is absolutely true but we kind of get the impression that god was leveling upon israel civil laws that they didn't have to take very seriously um that that as if these were meant to do harm to them and we miss something if we constantly do that in these civil laws to what it's revealing about god himself think about what these civil laws as we kind of sum all this up so far in the study of exodus what they've said about god what they've shown us about god i have seen the maker of heaven earth i have seen him deeply care about his people being protected from negligence and terrible injury that results from negligence of neighbors sounds like a very caring god to me doesn't it i have seen him deeply care about that wanting to protect people's property from negligence and abuse i have seen him care about the poor and the widows all through this the poor over and over and over the strangers the slaves the pregnant women those little babies in the womb there were even laws concerning them i have seen him concerned about these sort of people and the the people who are the down and outs in society i was really moved when i came to that point where he was concerned about a poor man shouldn't be extorted because if you have to do a trade and you take his coat you better give it back before night because he might go to bed cold the laws are demonstrating something about god aren't they the laws are telling us something about his goodness and of course they're also saying that when we reject his will and his way we bring and heap the misery on our own head but this is not a tyrant the gods of the nations were tyrants and figments of their imagination and they would come up with the worst sort of tyrants in their imaginations they would throw themselves into the fire at these other false gods they would throw their children into the fire every ruler of men men you'll notice of man if you look throughout history has the propensity to rule with force and with cruelty not Israel's God even when he gave laws to to to to show and demonstrate the problem of sin his goal was do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance his goal was repentance his goal was to lead them to the savior well with that said tonight we have uh the lord providing sabbath laws and pilgrim feasts with the specific goal of teaching people the gospel and teaching people mercy it's really a beautiful thing i hope this is helping you with the old testament some that what is the first thing he does here is that he implements in verse 10 a sabbath year let's let's look at the first thing that he does here in this particular section with the sabbath for six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow that the poor of your people may eat what they leave the beasts of the field may eat you shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard what an amazing section to study that essentially the lord was putting a regulation on greed he was putting a halt on greed in society but he wanted to give the land a kind of time to replenish itself with the goal that the poor would be cared for the poor could come in in the seventh year the sabbath year and they could eat you'll notice that there in the seventh year that the poor may eat they could come in and they could eat freely in the vineyards they could eat freely in the land they were open territory in the seventh year i mean you know how tightly farmers hold on to their lands you know the problem think think about what the lord is doing here he was concerned about the poor And the Lord saw this even good as healthy for the beasts of the field. You'll see the principle that even, which Christ would pick up on in the Gospels, that the Lord feeds the birds of the air. He provides for all the beasts and the cattle. Provides for them. His creation, it's His creation, it's His work of His hand. He cares for it. And I think that's important to say, while I'm not an environmentalist in any kind of way that we see the craziness and madness of what's happening in our own society that we neglect. And I just saw again, California is going to dump I don't know how much more water in the ocean to save the Delta smelt. I mean, it's just astonishing that we're going to dump. And you can read about it. They just made the decision again. That is not what I'm saying, but you do see the desire here for the Lord to not see His creation abused with greed, but to be used as a blessing to man in the nation of Israel. Greed not only attacks the creation, it undermines the giver of every good and perfect gift. And this was a crucial one of the reasons that the Lord would then institute and implement a Sabbath year to teach them something about this principle. What do I mean by that? Well, in this first section, And you'll notice that it becomes an opportunity to teach them that Sabbath, there's a goal that Sabbath has for the poor and the needy to be helped. I think it's a very important point tonight as we look at this. The lands in this Sabbath year would be untrimmed, unguarded, unpruned, and there would be no tilling of the soil, and the excess of food would spread out across the land. Just to make a note, I found it fascinating. And you see God's wisdom here because of greed. Did you know in the USA, 30 to 40% of the food supply is wasted? In the nation with all this food, we have way more poor here than ever should be, equaling more than 20 pounds of food per person per month. That's a known and going stat. Notice what the Lord had done. He had filled the land this way. He would keep things going this way. You remember what would later happen in Israel. That one of the great problems in Israel that would later happen is greed had so overtaken them that it were not honored that the poor were utterly pushed out of the land. You remember this terrible indictment in Isaiah when he says, The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes, For you've eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor? Woe to those who join house to house and add field to field till there's no place where they may dwell alone in the land. Translate, the rich bought up everything and the poor were pushed out and it was unchecked, unrestrained. This was God's way and he used Sabbath to demonstrate the check on it. To put the check on it. The principle. But the problem had been that later they would become so consumed with materialism and making money that they trampled the very observance which was intended to put a restraint and refocus people on why they exist, why they work, and what the goal is. The goal is not work, the goal is rest. Let's think about what was being taught initially here. In the Sabbath principle, the Sabbath was a check to consumerism. Think about today. I still remember, and I realize that we should look at the church when we look at this, but I still remember too, and think about how this has affected society. There still were blue laws at one time when people didn't work on Sunday, right? I think that's what they were called. And in Linden, I remember going there, everything was closed, and by the time I left, everything was open. And you think about this and what greed does to a society. You see the Lord's wisdom here. This was spiritual, of course. Notice what He says. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest. Now listen. That your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and your stranger, and you'll notice this here in the second part, the alien, may be refreshed. That doesn't sound like a burden to me, does it? It just doesn't sound like a burden. I want people refreshed. Work enslaved. I want them refreshed. I want a reminder. It was a reminder that the Lord cared for them and that He didn't want people enslaved to that kind of life. The goal in life was to come to rest. There was to be a rest they would enter into. There is a rest that is held out for the people of God. Becoming enslaved to work is a denial of the very gospel that leads us to rest. I want you to step away from it. I want to give you time to reflect upon me and my work. A time to glorify me. A time to be fed with the bread from heaven. I want you always to rest and remember, and this was the purpose of it, sabbath he'll say this later that i redeemed you from from egypt that i brought you out of there from egypt that i've loved you that i've delivered you that i've plundered all of your enemies and i want it to be an opportunity for you to help the poor to encourage them to provide for them notice that he says and in all that i've said to you be circumspect to make no mention of the name of other gods nor let it be heard from your mouth i want you to delight in me says the lord i want you to remember who this is about you have the incessant danger of idolatry in your lives and i'm putting this in place see how wonderful the sabbath was when we look at it this way there's so much more to say there's so much more and ways to apply and to show this but even in the weekly observance of the Sabbath, when the Lord put that in place, there was always to be a remembrance, and this was the Lord's concern, that there would be refreshment in the community, that there would be renewal in the community, that there would be help given in the community, that the Gospel would be preached to the poor, as Jesus was always concerned about doing. And of course, we also think about poor in spirit. That is the first thing that he puts in place to train them and to teach them about the rest and mercy and gospel that they had come to know and to understand. Rooted, of course, ultimately in the fourth commandment. But then notice here that he rehearses three feasts that he wanted them to continually to observe in Israel that celebrated his mercy. Three times a year, verse 14, you'll notice it says there three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me shall keep the feast of unleavened bread as i commanded you you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of abib for in it you came out of egypt none shall appear before me empty-handed shall keep the feast of harvest of the first fruits of your labor and what you sow in the field to keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor three times in a year shall your males appear before the lord notice here three feasts he wanted highlighted and celebrated in israel for their benefit and their good the first was the feast of unleavened bread remember that one that the passover and the feast of unleavened bread went together back in exodus that when they celebrated the passover that that lamb was given and that the blood was put on the doorpost that night the Lord passed over. That night when they left Egypt, they also, you'll remember, then they would eat the unleavened bread, but the leaven that night had to all be removed from their homes. And anyone who ate leavened bread would be cut off. What did all of that mean? Remember what Exodus 12 said. So you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for on this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance you would eat the passover and remember he had them standing up the belt would be around their waist sandals would be on their feet their staff would be in hand they would celebrate the feast of unleavened bread ready to go the passover pointing to the need for the of the blood of the perfect lamb who would substitute the bitter herbs reminding them of the former bondage the feast of unleavened bread for seven days following to celebrate that God brought them out and they were to come out once and forever not to go back they were done with it they were not to go back to Egypt and he expected that the old life was done remember we looked at all of that this was a liberation feast this was a feast celebrating their freedom i want you to celebrate that i want you to stop all your busyness and i want you to celebrate this feast to always remember your separation from egypt you know what the new testament says in fulfillment of this therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are truly 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 you're brand new you're out from the old way of life you've been brought into a new life. I mean, this is Romans 6. I want you celebrating this. I want you thinking about this. I want you remembering this in your homes. I want you remembering this as a community. That's the first feast. Second feast, the feast of harvest, also known as the feast of first fruits or the feast of weeks. What was this? This was observed in the third month. So just a few months after this unleavened bread, then a few months later came this feast of harvest. It was observed on the 50th day after the offering of the barley sheaf at the feast of unleavened bread. So they were here where they were specifically told that they were to celebrate the feast of harvest with the first fruits of the crops that they would sow in their field. Great feast went on. They would count down seven weeks. And that's why they called it also the Feast of Weeks. And then they would take the first sheaf. And in an act of worship, they would wave that sheaf before the Lord in an act of worship, in an act of praise, to announce before Israel that the whole harvest came from the Lord. He's providing for them. He's supplying their every need in the wilderness. and on the 50th day they would bring all their offerings together to the lord and every year he wanted this feast celebrated so so let's put the story together a little bit i want you resting i want you i want you to celebrate this feast of unleavened bread you've been brought out no more are you of the world no more are you to be going back to egypt you're brand new you don't celebrate with leavened bread but the unleavened the leaven unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and then i want you to think a lot about how i provided for you in the wilderness i want you to celebrate that that i never stopped feeding uh you that i never stopped caring for you that i supplied all of your needs in the wilderness i want you to think about that now what did that look forward to the feast of harvest well the new testament applies it knowing this feast of first fruits as it was also called you know what the new testament reference is to the feast of harvest it's this but now christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep they would wave the first fruit before god and declare the whole harvest came from him what was the first fruit ultimately jesus his resurrection and because of that the fruit of his resurrection the whole harvest there will be from god and that's why we tie this feast directly to what this would be the test answer that i would test the boys and girls with tonight you can tell your parents if you got it but we tie this with pentecost pentecost why do we celebrate pentecost meaning 50th well it's right here the spirit comes on pentecost and because of the first fruits of christ's resurrection god pledged himself to bring in a massive harvest and that harvest has gone out to the ends of the earth this is what jesus said the the uh the fields are white for the harvest he's building his kingdom and so you saw right away after that first fruits they're waving the sheath and 3 000 people come in in the first sermon that peter preaches and look where the gospel's gone today a great harvest the lord is reaping celebrate my harvest celebrate what i'm doing saving to the ends of the earth. Providing, saving. The last feast is the feast of ingathering, also known as the feast of booths or tabernacles. At the end of this year, this was to be observed. And when they had gathered in the fruit of their labors from the field, they would celebrate this feast for seven days. They would live in tents or booths. Boys and girls, it was a great camping trip for seven days. You even got mom out there to camp. Can you believe that? big camp out everyone lived in their tents out in the streets and you know this happened in Israel Jesus came in John 7 and they were doing the tents of the feast of booths and everyone was out in a booth in Israel you know what it celebrated it celebrated their wilderness wandering in tents and tabernacles that they were pilgrims for seven days teaching them to remember that they were pilgrims when they were brought out heading to the promised land, dwelling in tents. That's always been God's people. You're not home. We tend to root down. The Lord always wanted this celebrated. There was a pilgrim feast reenacting, if you will, the exodus where they would live visually in tents and become pilgrims all over again to remind them of who they are. Notice this. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. This is Leviticus. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in a year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. You're pilgrims. You're pilgrims. You're going somewhere. It was a reminder that he cared for them in the wilderness, that the Lord was with them, and who even came down and tabernacled with them. You're about ready to study a tabernacle that the Lord came down and His glory filled. Well, you know the fulfillment of this. It's John 1, isn't it? When the Lord said, John recorded in John 1, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We've seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came, the only begotten Son of God who came from the Father full of grace and truth. Israel, I want you to remember that I delivered you from Egypt, that I sanctified you, that I pulled you out of there for good. There's no going back. You're my people. I want you to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I want you to celebrate that I always provided for you, that there's a great harvest of people that are going to be in the new heavens and the new earth as you make it into the land, that this harvest is for me, that it's a harvest that I bring in, and I want you to dwell in booths for seven days all throughout your history to remember your pilgrims and you're going there in other words don't forget who you are and i love this end of this section tonight don't offer blood of my sacrifice with unleavened bread nor shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until morning the first of your first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the lord your god you should not boil a young goat in its mother's milk the lord was reacting against certain practices and certain things that he didn't want them to do to remind them that they're a separate people boiling a young goat leavened bread he was warning them do what is separate from the pagan practices of the canaanites be a separate people to me these feasts set you apart to me listen to deuteronomy 16 you shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days when you've gathered from your threshing floor and your wine presses you shall rejoice in your feast you and your son and your daughter your male servant and your female servant and the levite the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gate seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the lord your god in the place which the lord chooses because the lord your god will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands so that you shall surely rejoice. I want you joyful. I do not want you coming to my feast as a miserable people. Do you know what I've done for you? What a God we have. Now isn't that just what to say at this point? What a God we have. Do you think they ever got tired of celebrating and feasting? This is a joyful celebration. Listen to one author. I thought this was interesting. The seven days of the festival involved an astonishing number of sacrifices. Each day, young bulls and two rams and 14 one-year-old male lambs were offered. With these were offered tribute offering, drink offering. Finally, a male goat was offered as a sin offering. This happened daily, but you add it all up as the number of bulls varied. The total number of animal sacrifices on these eight days was 192. How many feasts has the Lord given you today? One. It's right here. It's the celebration of the Lord's Supper. And He gives it to you to do everything that these all talked about and were shadows of the things to come. In fulfillment, this is a declaration that Jesus, in the new covenant of His blood, fulfilled all righteousness, brought you out of Egypt, paid for your sins, sanctified you, provides for you in the wilderness. It all comes together in the table. Provides for you in the wilderness and it's a pilgrim feast until you eat it anew with Him in the kingdom. I have to say, that's why it bothers me when I hear that it's tiresome. One feast. One feast. It celebrates the whole story, doesn't it? That Jesus came out. Jesus is your Passover. Jesus rose victorious. Jesus tabernacled among us. Jesus promised to bring us home. Don't forget who you are. The Lord's saying, look what I've done for you in Christ. All of your work, in all of your work, in all of your busyness of life, as you're about ready to go out. And this kind of ties to this morning, doesn't it, at this point. Our running around and we're so busy, if you ever get to the point, and I said at the dinner table this afternoon, one thing I should have said this morning, and I do this all the time. And I said, if you're ever feeling overwhelmed, if you're getting at that point of overwhelmed, think about the importance of what the Lord called you to today. to prayer. He doesn't want that for you. He wants you to go through this life and He wants you to trust Him. And He wants you to lean on Him and rest upon Him. And He's given you His Son to always be strengthened in these promises. This is His gospel. This is His intention as it was back then as it is for us, for pilgrims on the way. I hope that as we consider this tonight, you're able to say that the lord our god he is so good and worthy of all of our praise let's thank him together tonight gracious heavenly father we have much to say in thanksgiving tonight thinking about how you provided for israel and gave them feasts and sabbath and cared for the poor and showed your rich provisions to them and wanted them always to remember your gospel it's everywhere in exodus and lord we need that same kind of perspective that what you give to us are not burdensome but are meant for your sheep as pilgrims to be strengthened on the way to be helped to be protected to be watched over may we then take seriously the call to sabbath may we take seriously the call to rest may we take seriously the call to help the poor to love our neighbor may we take seriously the Lord's Supper and remembering what it proclaims the Lord's death until he comes. Thank you for giving us righteousness in life and thank you for a day of instruction in your house on this Sabbath. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.