In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of seeing the face of Christ in the eternal day. They emphasize that when we see his face, it signifies serving him and a continual unfolding of his character. The sermon also mentions the structure and order in heaven, with worship and service being a part of it. The speaker references Deuteronomy 16:13, which mentions observing the feast of tabernacles after gathering in corn and wine, indicating that there will be a time for harvest before the eternal day. Additionally, the sermon touches on the future salvation of Israel and the removal of their sin, as prophesied in Isaiah. The speaker concludes by discussing the three appearances of Jesus, past (Calvary), present (in heaven), and future (his second coming).

These are the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, everything upon his day. Beside the Sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the Lord, also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And ye shall take ye on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for every new generation. Ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days. All that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. Now we still haven't finished the day of atonement, and I don't want to go back to read right through Leviticus 16 for the sake of time, but I do want to turn you to the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. And although we haven't read through Leviticus 16, if you do that in your own time and then turn and read these verses, I'm sure you'll see, as we're going to see this morning, that the writer to the Hebrews is taking up the imagery of the day of atonement as he goes down the verses at the end of this chapter. Verse 23, for the sake of connection, 22. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the pattern of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the truth, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the world or the ages, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Now, when you look at these verses, you'll find that the word appear appears three times. We have the three appearings of the Lord Jesus. The first in chronological order is the fact that he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, verse 26. That is passed. That is Calvary. And then in verse 24, at the end of the verse, he has entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. That's present. That's where he is now. And then the last verse, verse 28, at the end of it, unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. That is future. That is yet to occur. And that is the manifestation of Christ. So he has appeared once here before. He has now appeared in heaven itself. And now he's going to appear a second time without sin unto salvation. And these three appearings are pictures are taken from the picture of the day of atonement and form the little structure at the end of Hebrews nine, as we're going to see it prophetically in relation to Israel, as well as a picture of the atoning work of Christ. Now let's turn back then and finish off our study in the day of atonement. Now, because I've split the study, I'm not going to go down the notes and the way it's presented in the notes. And so you won't be able to follow what I'm saying by looking at the notes. What I'm going to do is lift one or two things out and put it in a different structure and present it this morning, just for the sake of time. There are certain points I really want to get to in relation to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and the prophetic aspect of this. Now the day of atonement in the day of atonement, I should say we can see different aspects of the sacrificial work of Christ. Now we can see different aspects in relation to our salvation. And we're going to see that the work of Christ, which has resulted in our salvation. And then secondly, we're going to see that there is a prophetic significance to the chronology of that day. The things were done in a certain order for a certain reason in relation to Israel in a coming day. And we're going to see that as well, for we have seen that the feasts form a picture of the chronology of the prophetic calendar of God, from the very breaking of the rest of God in creation, right through into the restitution of that rest, and the entering into it by us with God, entering into his rest. We have seen Passover, the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. We have seen unleavened bread so closely linked with that. We've gone on to see first fruits representing the resurrection of Christ, Pentecost, the descent of the spirit and the constitution of the church. And then so we have gone on, trumpets, the recall of the nation to the land. Now trumpets on the day of atonement are very, very close. And I suppose you could say that the recall of the nation to the land is almost simultaneous in the prophetic calendar with this day of atonement, the manifestation of Christ. We're going to see that the day of atonement is picturing the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the time of tribulation, when he will appear again. Now he's going to come for us in rapture long before that. We know that we will not go through the rapture, the tribulation, sorry. Second Thessalonians and chapter two argues that out. We will not be present upon earth. When the wrath of God descends, we will not have to endure God's wrath. For the word wrath very often in the Bible speaks about God's anger poured out upon earth. The emphasis very often is not upon eternal judgment, but rather the wrath of God displayed on earth. Now we are saved from wrath. Now it doesn't mean we are saved through wrath, but saved away from it, saved out of it. That's the idea. We will not be present upon earth when the tribulation falls and praise God for that, that we have been preserved from that prospect. We're going to be raptured home, but the Lord Jesus Christ is not going to be manifested in his glory at that time. He will come to the sky and we will be caught up to him. But then subsequent to that, after the tribulation period, he is going to descend right back down to earth and every eye shall see him. Every eye shall see him. He's going to be manifested in his glory. Now I judge that this day of atonement speaks of that and speaks of it in particular with reference to Israel. And then we're going to go on and see the feast of tabernacles is that's the concluding feast. And there they have the establishment of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ upon earth and then into the eternal day. We're going to see that the eighth day speaks of that day of rest, that eternal day when we will enjoy God's rest. And so the whole cycle comes round again and we see that God's purposes cannot be thwarted. Now I want to come back then to the day of atonement and first of all see aspects of the sacrificial work of Christ. Now there is much in the day of atonement that I'm not going to cover. Please don't think that what I'm saying is anywhere near exhaustive in the subject. It's not. The chapter in Leviticus 16 is very full and we're only just lifting one or two things out as time allows this morning. Now there were certain things that had to be done in that day. There was a certain order. The fragrance had to be taken in. Lovely picture of Christ. The incense beaten small. Then there was the sin and burnt offering. That was in relation to Aaron and his sons. And then there were the two goats. One was sacrificed and bloodshed. The other was taken out by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness and abandoned. And of course there is also the change of garments that Aaron had to go through during that day. Now there's much in these subjects that we could develop but I want to really focus in on the two goats this morning and see an aspect of the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. Now there is also an exhaustive application of atonement in this chapter. We see that it is not only the people for whom atonement is made but the Holy Sanctuary, the tabernacle, the altar, priests and the people. We find that in Leviticus 16 in verse 33. It says and he shall make an atonement for the Holy Sanctuary and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation and for the altar and he shall make an atonement for the priests and for all the people of the congregation. Now there's truth in that as well that you might want to go away and think about. There is an exhaustive application of the work of atonement in that chapter. But I want to come to these two goats. Now one goat was taken and slain. It was killed. It suffered death and its blood was then taken and applied, sprinkled. Now when we come to Leviticus 16 in verse 9, you might want to look at this verse. It says this about that goat. Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering. You see in the previous verse Aaron cast lots upon the two goats. One lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. Now if you look at verse 15, something else is said about that goat. It says then shall he kill the goat. So it's taken first of all in verse 9. It's brought and then in verse 15 it's killed and then it says interestingly that is for the people. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people. So there's two descriptions of this goat. First of all it's for the Lord, the Lord's lot. Secondly for the people. For the Lord, for the people. Now when we think about the work of Christ at Calvary, this goat I judge speaks about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for blood was shed. Now there is an aspect to the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus which is solely for the Lord. Now I know that we receive blessing from the death of Christ, obviously we do. But when the Lord Jesus died at Calvary there was also an aspect of his sufferings and death which was for the Lord, which was for God. That is also reflected in the burnt offering. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is pictured in the burnt offering. It was the sacrifice of an animal and as we heard from Jack the other night the whole of the animal went on the altar apart from the skin. That is they didn't feed off that. There wasn't a portion for those people to eat. It all went on the altar and it speaks of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the aspect of it which was for God and for God first put upon the altar. That offering comes first in order and so the Lord Jesus Christ in John 13 verse 31 and 32 reflects that and he says now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. Now when you read these verses there is no mention of the subsequent blessing that flows to us. The emphasis in John 13 and the verse I have quoted is upon the fact that through the death of Christ God is glorified. Now we must remember that. Sometimes we forget that that was one of the purposes of Christ suffering and dying at Calvary. God was glorified and God was glorified in the putting away of the sin of the world. God was glorified when Christ dealt with sin once and for all. He brought glory to God. Now of course he did that in his life but he also did it in his death. He brought glory to God. Now the life of Lord Jesus Christ is pictured in the meal offering and both the burnt offering and the meal offering and the peace offering are described as sweet savour offerings. That means that fire was applied to the offering for the purpose of producing incense or fragrance rather. That was why the fire was applied and the fire of the altar was applied to the offering and there arose to God from the offering a sweet savour. Now the life of Christ produced that sweet savour for God. He appreciated the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why he broke open the heavens and declared his delight in his son. 30 years he lived before God and pleased God. He glorified God in his life. The burnt offering speaks as well of sweet savour. There was a savour that ascended from the death of Christ. Yes even when we come to the sin offering. Now you say to me but sin offering is not a sweet savour offering. If you know your offerings you'll know that there are five major offerings. They are divided three and two. They are divided by this expression amongst others sweet savour offering. That is the first three have that expression and the latter two don't. The sin offering and trespass offering. So burnt meal and peace sweet savour offerings and very with great ingenuity we describe the latter two as non-sweet savour offerings. The sin and the trespass offering. Now there's two words for burn when you come to these offerings. Two words for burn. Now that also separates the offerings. One word for burn that applies to the first three is burning to produce. Burning to produce the sweet savour. Now the sin offering and the trespass offering the word for burn is different. It's burn to consume. Now burn to produce is sweet savour. Burn to consume is sin and trespass. The offering is to be consumed. Now there's another way to divide them as well. The first three were burned upon the altar. The latter two were burned outside the camp. Sin offering. Now that's why in Hebrews 9 it speaks about in Christ taken outside the camp. Outside the camp. It's a picture of the sin offering. And so the word burn separates them as well. And yet when the consuming fire of the judgment of God descended upon his son as we see it pictured in the sin offering made sin for us. And there at Calvary the fire of God descended in his judgment. You would hardly have think that there could be any pleasure for God in that. But if you look closely at the sin offering you find this. That the fact of the sin offering was and burned upon the altar and that produced a sweet savour. How could God find pleasure in the sin offering? How could they explain it? Let me quote scripture. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. And even in his death as he was being made sin and as the judgment of God fell upon him to deal with sin there still was that which brought pleasure to God. His absolute obedience and submission to the will of God. And so we see that there is an aspect of Calvary which is for God and primarily for God. He glorified God. Now of course Calvary also brought tremendous blessings to us. Let us never forget it. And so it's not only described as the Lord's lot but it's also the sin offering for the people. Now evidently not only did he bring glory to God at Calvary but he also established the righteous basis for God to forgive us our sin. Now we've spoken about this in Romans chapter 3. A righteous basis established and God's righteousness declared in relation to all these sins that were covered in previous times. God's righteousness declared at Calvary. He was righteous to do that and sins that were covered dealt with. Cross. And now as well his righteousness is declared. And so God now can be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. And so blessings flow to us because of Calvary. But let us never forget that he glorified God in his death. It ever was the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ primarily to bring glory to his father. And so it should be in our lives. So it should be in our lives. I know we serve him and I know all the rest of that kind of thing and we do serve him and we do bring the gospel to other people for their benefit and we do try and help each other as a Christian fellowship. But let us never forget this high aspect of our lives that we might glorify God as the Lord Jesus did in his life. And so we see aspects of the sufferings of Christ in the goat that perished. But then what about the goat that lived? Two goats. One slain. One and the description is the goat that was alive. Now I know evidently that goat must have perished. Taken away out into the wilderness and it must have died. A horrible death. The death of the first goat would be very quick. The death of the second would be terrible. Abandoned in the wilderness. Left to die. But the goat is described as that which was alive. There is no death recorded of the goat. Now we are taking this out and seeing it as an illustration, a picture of Calvary. And so what is said of the goat is significant. You know it's the same when you come to Melchizedek. He's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and because there is nothing recorded of his father and mother, that is a picture of the eternal aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he did have a father and mother. He did have a father and mother. It's only that scripture omits to put it in that he might be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there's a similar thing here. The goat is alive and taken and abandoned and there's no death recorded. Now when we come to Leviticus 16 and 20 to 22, we find that described. Verse 21, Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited and he shall let go of the goat in the wilderness. Now there's much to be said about this. When you come to the burnt offering, the offerer stood with his sacrifice and he put his hand upon his head and he leaned upon it. Now what was happening there? The virtue and value of the sacrifice was being transferred to him. It was going that way. Now when Aaron put both his hands upon the goat, the opposite was happening. The sins and iniquities of the nation as represented in Aaron, who was a representative of the nation, were being transferred onto the goat on the opposite side. Then the goat is taken and when the goat is taken, symbolically the sins and transgressions were taken away with it. They had been symbolically transferred to it and now they're going to be removed. Where are they going to be removed from? They're going to be removed into a land far, far away in the wilderness. Now you see the imagery that we're going to come to in relation to the work of Christ. Not only in his death, but abandoned and forsaken in the wilderness that he might bear our sins and iniquities away, that he might bear them away, remove them. And where do we see this fulfilled? We see this fulfilled at Calvary as well. We sang alone, alone. That goat was taken alone and that goat was abandoned, forsaken. The Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary was also abandoned and forsaken and he was left alone, left alone. When that darkness descended upon the scene, there was none to help, none. And the cry left his lips, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Abandoned by men, yes. Abandoned by those who were closest to him on earth, yes. But when darkness fell, abandoned by God, forsaken. Why was he forsaken? Because the Bible says he was made sin for us who knew no sin, made sin. And God turned away from him and the judgment had to be endured by him. If you think about what would happen to that goat, then you see an illustration, a picture of what happened in these three hours of darkness. You see a picture of the sufferings of Christ. You see a picture of the terrible agony that he must have endured as he hung upon that tree, alone, forsaken. And so friends in the meeting, let us never forget that the price of the bearing away of our sins was paid at Calvary in these three hours of darkness. Yes, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ brought glory to God. Yes, there is this aspect of the death of Christ, but let us never ever forget the forsaking of Christ by God at Calvary. We see it illustrated in the goat that was abandoned. Now we could spend more time on that. Think about it yourself, develop it yourself. It's a lovely thought and perhaps even some of the younger ones in light of a Lord's Day morning can delve into little scriptures like this and see pictures of the sufferings of Christ that will assist you in your worship, not only in a Lord's Day morning, but your appreciation day by day of what he endured for us. Now there's something else I do want to point out, that the work of the high priest during that day was a solitary work, solitary work. There was none of the sons of Aaron that could assist in this. When we come to again to Leviticus 16, we find this in verse 17, there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place. He had to go alone. There was none who could help. And again, what a lovely picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was none other who could effect this work that he effected and accomplished at Calvary in his death, in his sacrifice, when he endured all that the cross work involved in relation to his physical sufferings and his sufferings at the hand of God. He alone could accomplish this work. What a lovely application in the gospel. None other, no other person could assist in this. He had to do it alone. Now I do want to come now and think briefly about the prophetic aspect of the day of atonement. And I am just going to have to run down this for the sake of time and give you suggestions that you might want to take away and develop for yourself. Fragrance was taken in first. I believe there is divine truth in the order that things happened in this day. Fragrance was taken in first. No blood, fragrance. Incense beaten small. And I believe that is a picture of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the life of the Lord Jesus Christ was a fragrant thing. So fragrance goes in first, precedes the death of Christ. Then there is the sin and burnt offering. That was for Aaron and his sons. And I have said that now looking back, I see that as a picture of us. And then the two goats. First of all, the goat that perished. Now we have said that speaks of the death of Christ. The shedding of the blood speaks of Calvary. And now he has entered into that holy place with that blood on the day of atonement. And what does Hebrews 9 and 24 say? For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, which are figures of the truth, but into heaven itself he has entered in. And a righteous basis of salvation has been laid, not only for us at Calvary, but also for the nation of Israel. For let us never forget that when the scripture says all Israel shall be saved, I was speaking to one or two about this yesterday, when we go to Romans 9, the truth of that is given in a clearer way, that it is the remnant of Israel. Not all Israel are Israel. When you look at Romans chapter 9 and go down the truth there, just being born an Israelite doesn't necessarily mean that the fact that you're a descendant of Abraham and can trace your lineage back doesn't guarantee the salvation of an Israelite. You go into that and there is the idea of God's election involved. And it's such a large subject, we better not get involved in it. But suffice to say this, the principles which affect our salvation also bring about the salvation of Israel as a nation. It requires the death of Christ. And so the righteous basis for the salvation of the nation of Israel in a future day has been established at Calvary, the shedding of the blood, the death of the goat. But notice the timing in relation to the scapegoat. When is that dealt with? That is not dealt with until Aaron comes back out of the holy place. And so the first goat is slain and the blood taken in. That I believe is a picture of what has already been accomplished at Calvary. And now Christ has entered into a holy place, he's not made with hands into heaven itself. But there's going to come a day when he's going to come back out, just as Aaron came back out in that day of atonement. And if you follow Hebrews 9 down, I judge you find this, that we have a picture of the manifestation of Christ in a coming day, the second appearing. And it is only upon the second appearing of Christ that the sin of Israel will be dealt with. Now the second goat is not slain, the blood is not applied. You see, when the nation is saved in a coming day, there will be no further sacrifice necessary for the salvation of the nation. Christ will not require to be given in sacrifice again. He's done that once and for all. The first goat was slain, the blood taken in, the righteous basis established, but now he comes back out of the holy place and there is an application of that work to the nation of Israel in a coming day. And I judge that speech of the live goat, the scapegoat, for what will happen to the nation of Israel in a coming day. Well, we have scripture that teaches this, all Israel shall be saved as it is written, they shall come out of Zion a deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Isaiah 4 and 4 speaks about him washing away the filth of the daughters of Zion and so on. But through the book of Isaiah and you'll find this, that the sin of the nation will be removed, will be dealt with again in that coming day. We thought of it already, repentance and faith will mark the nation and they will have their sin dealt with. You see the chronology of it, I think it's so important. And there the manifestation of Christ is foreshadowed when he will appear again without sin unto salvation. Now time has moved on, I would like to have spent more time at that and gone into it in more detail. I only really learned the truth of this when I was studying for this Bible study and when I got into the idea of these two goats and I saw that little truth there as I began the study. Now we do want to come then to speak about the Feast of Tabernacles to conclude our studies. God's purposes cannot be thwarted. Sin coming into the world will not disturb God's ultimate purposes for mankind. The Feast of Tabernacles is a picture of this. The circle is completed, the seventh month, the perfect cycle, the seventh month sees the circle completed. Now the Feast of Tabernacles in itself was a feast which was long neglected in Israel. Nehemiah 8 and 17, all the congregation of them that were come again out of captivity made booths and sat under the booths for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so and there was very great gladness. It had long been neglected. What was this feast? Well we read about the booths and literally they came and dwelt in booths, literally. That feast, I judge, will again be kept in Israel in a coming day. During the millennial reign of Christ, Zechariah 14 and verse 16, I think it is, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came up against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. It is interesting when you go into the book of Ezekiel, as I'm sure you do often, and as you read through that book, you will read of many of these feasts, but you never read of Pentecost, never, in the book of Ezekiel. Why is that? Passover has a relevance for Israel, unleavened bread has a relevance for Israel, first fruits, a relevance for Israel, trumpets, what we've read of today, atonement, tabernacles, the Pentecost has no relevance for Israel. How accurate is scripture? Pentecost, as we saw, I judge, is a picture of the institution of the church, and so scripture is so accurate that during the recounting of the feast in Ezekiel, Pentecost is absent. I don't believe it will be kept in that coming day. Now the timing of the Feast of Tabernacles is instructive. Leviticus 23 and verse 34, the fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. Then verse 36, seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord on the eighth day, the eighth day shall be in holy convocation unto you, and ye shall offer an offering, and so on. It is a solemn assembly. Verse 39, also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. Seven days duration, commencing with a Sabbath. Now we have seen that the Sabbath, or I hope we've seen that the Sabbath, is a picture of God's rest, God's rest. The nation of Israel will enjoy God's rest upon earth during his millennial reign. I think it's foreshadowed here in the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles, of course, spoke to an Israelite of the pilgrimage of these people through the wilderness. It's interesting it lasts for seven days. When we spoke about unleavened bread, we spoke about the pilgrimage of believers presently. That's us. Seven days, the full cycle of life and the need to have holy living whilst upon earth. Seven day cycle. The whole of life, and it speaks about our pilgrimage. But this seven days speaks of the enjoyment of saints in a day to come of the glory of God upon earth. But there's an eighth day. There's an eighth day. Now that's also a Sabbath. The millennial kingdom is always seen in days. The eternal day is always seen as a day, one day. That's why we call it the eternal day as opposed to days. Now the reason for that, I judge, is this. That when the eternal day dawns, time as we know it will have no relevance. There'll be no night there. It will be an eternal day. There'll be no night. The time system that we have, that God has instituted with the cycle of nature, et cetera, that will not apply as such. No night, just day. And so the eternal day is foreshadowed in the eighth day, and we will enter into God's rest in the eternal day. When you go into the book of Revelation, you have that described, don't we? Things that will be absent from that day. There will be no night, but there'll also be no sorrow or pain or death or anything like that. The former things have passed away, and we will enter and share in God's rest. Now rest does not mean inactivity. We think it does. You know, we think that when you have a rest, it means that you're horizontal and you're contemplating your eyelids. But you know, in scripture, rest is not seen as slothfulness or inactivity. Folks say a change is as good as a rest. That is more really the idea. It's not inactivity, but it says about that day that his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face. It is more the idea of that settled repose, that condition of peace, that continual, if you like, unbroken, perfect dwelling with God. Rest. There will be structure to heaven, that eternal day. There will be service in it. There will be order. There will be worship. There will be a continual unfolding of the character of Christ. That is why it says that the servants shall serve him, and they'll see his face. I've said it before, maybe here, that when you try to get to know someone, you don't really know them until you see their face, because the face displays the emotion, and the face displays the character of a person. You know, you can speak to someone down the end of a phone, but you don't know what they're thinking because you can't see their face. And so when we shall see his face, what does that speak of? Serving him, and there will be an eternal unfolding of the character and person of Christ, as we look into his face. And so we think of that, that is the eternal day. Now it's interesting that that only dawns after the ingathering of the harvest. Two aspects to the harvest. First of all, the corn, and then the wine. Deuteronomy 16 and 13 says this, Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days after thou hast gathered in thy corn and wine. Leviticus 23 and 39 says, In the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land. Exodus 23 and 16, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. Two aspects to the ingathering. What will precede God's rest? First of all, the corn. The harvesting of the corn. John 12 and 24, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. That is a picture, or that is teaching regarding the person of Christ. He is the corn of wheat which has fallen into the ground and died. And as a result of the death of Christ, there's going to be a rich harvest. And we form part of that harvest. And before God's rest will dawn, we will be ingathered. There will be an ingathering of the harvest, not only of the church, but also of all his saints. An ingathering of the corn. For it is not, of course, only us who benefit from the death of Christ, but as we've seen, as we call them Old Testament saints and ultimately tribulation saints, all will trace their salvation back to the death of Christ. But also the wine is to be brought in. What does that speak of? Revelation 14 and 19, And the angel thrust in his sickle unto the earth and gathered the wine of the earth and cast it into the winepress of the wrath of God. Speaks of judgment. And so there will be an ingathering of the harvest, that which is flowed from the death of Christ in the salvation of souls. And also in God's judgment upon the earth. With this I'll finish. You can look in the booths and see significance in the different branches and all the rest of it, different aspects of the wilderness journey. But sometimes I think we're a little hard on Peter when he's up that mount, the Mount of Transfiguration. You say, Peter, why, why, oh why, up in that Transfiguration do you say, let us make three tabernacles. Can I suggest this, that Peter knew his Bible. He was mistaken, but not overly so. He shouldn't have said, let us make three tabernacles. The Lord corrected him in that, of course. But what was in his mind? What was in his mind was just this, that if you look back before the Transfiguration, then the teaching of the Lord was this, that some of his disciples would see the kingdom. And what they saw on the mount was a little picture of the coming kingdom. And Peter appreciated that, but he thought the kingdom had arrived. And so he says, it's the time of tabernacles. It's the feast of tabernacles. And he says, look, let's get three tabernacles. Let's get three booths here. It's the time of tabernacles. The kingdom has arrived. We're into the millennium. He knew the scriptures, but he was mistaken. He was mistaken. And let's not be too hard upon him. He had some perception. He knew his feasts. He knew about tabernacles. It would have been appropriate if the kingdom had come, but all he was enjoying was a little glimpse of coming millennial glory, not the full glory itself. And so that brings us right to an end of these studies of the feasts of Jehovah, not exhaustive by any means. I trust it's been suggestive and gives us at least an outline that we can fill in. And I trust that the Lord will bless what has been said over the week. Shall we pray? Our Father, we bow in thy presence in the name of the Lord Jesus. And we do bless thee for thy word. Thank thee, O God, for its truth and its depth. And as we've considered it a little this week, we do thank thee for help. And we thank thee, our Father, for the interest of thy people and for their good attention and appreciation of thy word. We do thank thee for this. We pray, O God, that there might have been something in the ministry which will have instructed us in thy truth and which will have effect upon us in our affection for the Saviour and in our service for him. Help us, we pray, as we would seek now to live for him in the light of ministry received. We thank thee again for food provided. We never cease, our Father, to come back to thee to give thee thanks because we acknowledge again in thy presence thy faithfulness. Thou hast opened thy hand again and provided for our material needs and we would come back to thee afresh to give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Now we'll sing a hymn, please, and then have one or two little announcements.