Sermons - Cornerstone Christian Fellowship

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Forty

Sep 25, 2022 by: John Herbert | Series: Passover to Tabernacles

Audio Study Notes PDF

Refresh
A Recap from the Sermon

Mt 24:31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

We will continue to look at events at and beyond the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets.

The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button.

Sunday September 25th 2022
Passover to Tabernacles
Part 40

1). Mt 24:30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

We had seen in our study last week, the future fulfillment of the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost, all of which will take place while Israel is still scattered among the Gentile nations.
a). We had seen how resurrected OT saints in bodies of flesh and bone and blood will remain at the physical location of their resurrection awaiting their re-gathering along with those Jews who survive the tribulation.
	b). And their re-gathering we will remember, will fulfill the Feast of Trumpets, and is described for us in v31 from Matthew Chapter 24.

Power Point – Slides 1-7

c). All Christians are at present awaiting the sound of a trumpet to call them into the heavens to Christ’s Judgment Seat - 1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Re 4:1 ¶ After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."

And it will be ‘with a great sound of a trumpet’ that His elect, the whole house of Israel will be re-gathered into His presence, not in the heavens as with us, but to a location on the earth, also to a time of Judgment.

2). Now, the re-gathering of Israel, those remaining and those resurrected, out of the Gentile nations is for the purpose of the nation entering into the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to receive their inheritance within the Theocracy of the Millennial Kingdom, but the return to the Land and the exercise of rulership does not happen immediately upon Israel’s re-gathering.
	a). From the types seen in both Exodus and Joshua we can know this; Israel in Exodus was removed from Egypt before the first Covenant was made with them at Sinai, and in Joshua, Israel in possession of the covenant, entered the land followed by the destruction of Jericho, typifying the complete overthrow of Gentile world power.
	b). From these types then, we would have to see the New Covenant made with Israel prior to the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement and prior to Israel’s return to the Land, prior to the destruction of Gentile world power. And it is this scenario that we see presented to us in –
Eze 20:33 ¶ "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you. 34 "I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. 35 "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face. 36 "Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you," says the Lord GOD. 37 "I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38 "I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

Here in Ezekiel Chapter 20, we find detail concerning what will happen when Israel is gathered, ‘out of the countries where you are scattered’.
	c). We can see that they are brought into ‘the wilderness of the peoples’ where the Lord will plead His case with them ‘face to face’ just as He had done with their fathers ‘in the wilderness of the land of Egypt’ – 
Ex 19:1 ¶ In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. 2 For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. 3 And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. 5 'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

‘The wilderness of the peoples’ is not specifically identified but given the foundational type and the reference in Ezekiel to God’s dealings with Israel at Sinai, it would not be surprising if Mount Sinai is the location to which a re-gathered Israel will be brought, but we cannot say this for certain.
	d). We can also see from Ezekiel 20:37 that the Scripture says, "I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant’. Passing under the rod is an expression of judgment and in v38 we see that the Lord will ‘purge the rebels from among you’ so that ‘they shall not enter the land of Israel’.
	e). And we also see at the end of v37 that it is at this same location, in ‘the wilderness of the peoples’, that God said, ‘I will bring you into the bond of the covenant’. We can conclude that it will be at ‘the wilderness of the peoples’, following judgment that God will set in place the new covenant with Israel.
	f). And we will remember from last week, that God’s dealings with re-gathered Israel will include both the survivors of the Tribulation and the resurrected OT saints and with this in mind it is easy for us to identify examples of the rebels who will be purged from the nation, some of whom will be those who had rebelled in the wilderness in the days of Moses - Heb 3:16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?

And include those who had blasphemed the Holy Spirit in the days of the Lord’s first advent - Mt 12:32 "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
	
g). And the separation that we see taking place at ‘the wilderness of the peoples’ is with the same end in view as the separation that takes place among Christian’s at Christ’s Judgment Seat. Both have to do with attaining a position in Christ’s Kingdom or not. For Christians this will be heavenly and for Israel earthly - I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel.

3). Now, we have noted from our previous studies that a New Covenant is necessary to bring about a change in the Priesthood for Israel, which will make it possible for Christ, who is from the tribe of Judah, to be Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, just as we see recorded in – 
Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. 13 For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
 
And, as we know, Israel must have a Priest to minister on their behalf to allow for the sixth Feast, the Day of Atonement, to be fulfilled. It was once a year, on the Day of Atonement, that the Levitical high priest would go to the mercy seat with the blood of the sacrifice to atone for the sins of the saved nation, as we see in - Le 16:15 ¶ "Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. 16 "So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

In the antitype of that seen here, which will bring this Feast to fulfillment, it will be Christ Himself who will minister with His own blood, and the sin that will be dealt with is the sin of unbelief, disobedience and harlotry that was confessed and put out of the house of Israel in fulfillment of the Feast of Unleavened Bread before Israel was re-gathered from the nations – 
Heb 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

In the type, the Day of Atonement had to be repeated every year to continually deal with the sins of the saved, but in the antitype, this will be a onetime event that never has to be repeated. The blood of animals, although finding their efficacy in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, could never eradicate sin for all time, but the blood of Christ, which is the blood of God, can. And because of this, the New Covenant that makes this possible is exponentially greater than the Old - Heb 7:18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God…………….22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

Then into this overall picture of Atonement, we need to add that seen through the two types we have previously encountered in Chapters 19 and 35 in the Book of Numbers. And placing these two types within the context of the Day of Atonement will provide us with the complete picture of that which God will accomplish for the Jewish people in that day.
	a). We will remember that Numbers Chapter 19 has to do with purification from contact with a dead body - Nu 19:13 'Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him.

This then pictures for us the condition of Israel because of the nation’s contact with the dead body of their Messiah. They remain unclean even today and will remain as such until they are purified, and their purification, in fulfillment of the type, will be accomplished in two parts as we have previously seen. They will ‘purify’ themselves in the sense that they will confess their sin of centuries of harlotry, in the fulfillment of Unleavened Bread, sin which will then have to be dealt with.  And they will be purified as this confessed sin is dealt with through the application of Christ’s blood on the Mercy Seat in fulfillment of the events of the Day of Atonement. 
b). We will remember that God alone is able to deal with sin and that dealing with sin always requires blood - Heb 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

And then into this we now must place that which we have learned from the type in Numbers Chapter 35 - Nu 35:32 'And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest.

We will remember that this whole section of Scripture deals with that which would be the experience for the one who has unintentionally killed another so that the unintentional killer’s own blood would not be required of him. A ransom/atonement being accepted instead, so that the unintentional killer could then return to the land of his possession, his inheritance, completely free of guilt following the death of the high priest.
	c). And this has been set in place for national Israel at the end of the tribulation, following the death of the great harlot, to accommodate their unintentional killing of the Lamb of God.
	d). And as that pictured through the death of the high priest, the change of Priesthood upon Christ’s return to the earth, will then have taken place the ransom/atonement can then be made for Israel.
	e). The price for Israel’s ransom has already been paid through the shedding of Christ’s blood on the nation’s behalf at Calvary. Let’s hear again the words of the Lord on the night of the last supper and hear them from a Jewish perspective – Mt 26:28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The blood that inaugurates the new covenant is the same blood that was shed for many to provide remission for the nation’s sin. It is this blood that will cleanse Israel from her contact with the dead body of her Messiah, and this same blood that pays the price of the ransom for Israel, the unintentional killer. It is this blood that will eradicate the sin to be put out of the house at the fulfillment of Unleavened Bread. It is this blood on the mercy seat that will bring to fulfillment the Day of Atonement.
	f). Hopefully we can see that the sin Israel puts out of her house in fulfillment of unleavened Bread, the uncleanness through contact with the dead body of her Messiah requiring a ransom for the unintentional death are all just different aspects of the same thing. 
	g). When the antitype of that seen in Numbers Chapter 35 has been completed Israel will then return to the land of her possession, the promised inheritance, the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob fully forgiven, fully cleansed and fully restored. And the Land itself, because of Israel’s pollution of it, will also need to be healed - Nu 35:33 'So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

Again, it is Christ’s blood to be applied at the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement that will cleanse the land polluted by Israel.
	h). And finally, after over four-thousand-years, Israel will be in the Land in belief, faithfulness and obedience and poised for the first time ever to fulfill the calling to be God’s witnesses and bring God’s spiritual blessings upon the nations of the earth.

4). Before these blessings can be imparted though there is the final part of the type seen in Exodus and Joshua that must be brought to completion. That pictured through the power of Egypt destroyed in the Red Sea and the destruction of the city of Jericho, the complete overthrow of Gentile world power for all time.
	a). And it will be once Israel is back in the land and once more in Jerusalem that the Antichrist, in fulfillment of that pictured through the Assyrian Pharaoh, will gather a vast army in one more futile attempt to destroy Israel and her Messiah.
	b). So, as we consider this event, which we have come to call ‘the battle of Armageddon’, one more time, let’s remember that which God had promised Cain in Genesis Chapter 4 - Ge 4:15 And the LORD said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

Cain we will remember is a type of Israel, the brother who killed his Brother and the promise is that whoever kills Cain, whoever would set their hand against the Jewish people, ‘vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold’.
	c). We can now add to the type of Cain some of the detail we have seen from Numbers Chapter 35 – Nu 35:15 'These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there. 16 'But if he strikes him with an iron implement, so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.

We can see from v15 that the provision God sets in place is not just for the Jew, but also for the ‘stranger’ and ‘for the sojourner among them’, for anyone then, who kills another within the land of Israel unintentionally. And equally so, if the stranger or the sojourner should be a murderer then that person ‘shall surely be put to death’.
	d). Let’s remember where we find the Antichrist during the first half of the Tribulation and what he and his worldwide confederacy do at the mid-point of the Tribulation and beyond. Clearly, he and they would have to be considered strangers and sojourners in the land - Lu 21:24 "And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And it is from this point in time that Antichrist begins his attempted genocide of the Jewish people. An attempted genocide that is intentional and premeditated - Ps 83:4 They have said, "Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more."
 
This action and that which continues over the three and one-half years of the great tribulation make all those involved murderers, and according to the Scripture ‘the murderer shall surely be put to death’.
	e). Now we have also seen this in Numbers Chapter 35 – 
Nu 35:33 'So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

The shedding of the blood of the Jews slain by the Antichrist and those with him will pollute the land of Israel and the land will consequently be defiled. And just as there is no atonement for the murderer, so there is no atonement for the land except that of the blood of him who shed the Jewish blood in the first place. There must be then, as God had set in place back in Genesis 9:6, blood for blood.
	f). And that blood must be shed in the land to cleanse the land and it will be for this reason that Antichrist and his army drawn from the tatters of his worldwide kingdom must come into the land of Israel before Christ destroys them.
	g). With this destruction in mind perhaps we will remember this description of the battle of Armageddon from – Re 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe."19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.
[Approx. 200 miles]

It is then the shed blood of the murderer which will atone for the blood he has shed on the land, which will bring the cleansing of the land.
	h). So then, from one perspective the land of Israel will be cleansed by the blood of Christ as atonement for the blood shed at the hands of His brother and from another perspective the land of Israel will be cleansed through the shedding of the blood of all those associated with Antichrist who will, with premeditation, murder countless Jews.
	i). The result of both these future cleansings brings about not only the restoration of the Jewish people on the one hand, but also the healing of their land on the other - Jer 33:6 'Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. 7 'And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first. 8 'I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me. 9 'Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.' 10 ¶ "Thus says the LORD: 'Again there shall be heard in this place-of which you say, "It is desolate, without man and without beast" -in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, 11 'the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: "Praise the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is  good, For His mercy endures forever" -and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,' says the LORD.

It will be at this time, which is not too far into our future, when Gentile world power will be completely overthrown, fulfilling the death of the firstborn with respect to the Gentile nations that we saw in the type in Exodus Chapter 12. Allowing Israel to take her rightful place at the head of the nations, fulfilling that which God had said back in Exodus Chapter 4, ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn’. The Theocracy will be established, the glory of God will fill the Millennial Temple and the seventh, and final feast of Israel, that of Tabernacles, will begin its fulfillment - Le 23:39 'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40 'And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. 41 'You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 'You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 '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.'"

Mt 17:1 ¶ Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Power Point – Slides 7-8

After six-thousand years of restorative work among fallen Man, God will bring forth three firstborn sons, the only begotten Son, Israel, and the Son’s coheirs who will rule together during the one-thousand-years of the Millennial Kingdom. And in fulfillment of that seen at the conclusion of Genesis Chapter 2, the Son will have a wife who has been taken from His body. And in fulfillment of the first sign recorded in John’s Gospel, the remarriage of Israel to the Father will take place.
	j). All will be exactly as God determined it would be, as set out in the foundation – Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’

And all of this leaves us with just one question, ‘Where will you be on that Day?’

God’s Word will continue next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Forty

Refresh A Recap from the Sermon

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Forty

Sep 25, 2022

Speaker: John Herbert

Series: Passover to Tabernacles

Category: Sunday Morning

Refresh
A Recap from the Sermon