The sermon 'Festival for Remembrance and Joy' by Scott Brown discusses the significance of three major feasts in Israel: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. It emphasizes the principle of remembrance and rejoicing as key elements in these celebrations. The sermon highlights God's intervention in establishing practices to keep faith alive and the importance of gathering in a central place for communal worship. It explores the transition from personal to public celebrations, particularly with the Passover, and draws parallels between Old Testament feasts and New Testament events, such as the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The sermon underscores the importance of reenactments as visual expressions of spiritual truths and encourages believers to embrace rejoicing as an act of obedience. It concludes by emphasizing the Gospel message inherent in these feasts and the continuous relevance of these principles in the life of the church today.

Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God From the flock and the herd in the place Where the Lord chooses to put his name You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it. That is, the bread of affliction, for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. That you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt, all the days of your life. And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, but the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it. You shall count seven weeks for yourself.

Begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that you shall be careful to observe these statutes. You shall observe the feast of Tabernacle seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress.

And you shall rejoice in your feast 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 gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast, 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 surely rejoice. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses, at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles. And they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you.

Let's pray. Oh Heavenly Father, please bless the preaching of your word. Give us ears to hear and I pray that your word will be expounded with power. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, with the words of verse one, observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, we find an introduction to a section that explains the three major feasts of Israel, the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feasts of Weeks.

And through all of them, we're shown a good shepherd who does good things for his sheep. He leads us to the best pastures. He leads us to the clearest waters and he shows us how to keep the main thing the main thing. I think that's really the theme running through this whole thing. In one way, we're going to have a 3, 400 year journey here.

We go back to 1400 BC when this was written. And we'll see the principles here applied throughout history, really up until this very day. So get ready for a 3, 400 year ride. Now I have a number of words on the outline that you'll see that I would just like to use to introduce the time to sort of frame the discussion. And the first word is the word principle.

The principle here is that God intervenes to establish practices to keep faith alive. And he wrestles us away from our natural despondency, takes us into rejoicing. He lures us away from our seclusion and he gathers us with his people and he commands that there be regular and rhythmic reminders of the gospel as a normal part of our calendar. So this is kind of intervention by command. So the principle is that God intervenes to establish practices that would take us out of ourselves and into something far more wonderful than ourselves.

Then there's the principle here. There's a key word, and that is remember. The idea of remembrance runs throughout all the three feasts that we'll be discussing here. And so there's an emphasis on history. And the idea is that if we don't remember, if we don't gather, we'll forget and we'll become what we never hoped to be or wanted to be.

And then there's the intent. The intent here is to bring an exposition of the fourth commandment. These feasts really illustrate the principle of the Sabbath, God's desire for delight and blessing of His people, which everything in the Sabbath breathes. And then the next word is the word emphasis. There's an emphasis on the place.

The place is mentioned in verses 2, 6, 11, 15, and 16. There's a central sanctuary. There's a place where God's people gather. You wonder, why are we doing this? Why are we gathering in one place?

We're doing that because it's a principle that was established and has always been established among the people of God. The people of God would gather together. And there's community. There's relationship. And all different kinds of people, with all of their various problems and gifts and issues and backgrounds, gather together in one place.

That's the idea, place. And then there's an action, And that is reenactment, the reenactment of special things. And here there's a reenactment of three things, a reenactment of the Passover, where Christ sacrifices himself for our sins. There's a reenactment of the Feast of Weeks, which is a reenactment of God sending, giving us the Ten Commandments and then the Holy Spirit later on. And then the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a reenactment of the wilderness wanderings and is there to remind us that there's only one final resting place, heaven.

The wilderness wanderings are a picture of heaven. So you have these reenactments that are instituted for us. And those are the actions. Now, today we'll do some reenactments as well. We're gonna reenact the death and the resurrection of Christ in the communion table.

Later on, after that, we're gonna reenact the salvation through baptism, being buried and raised up again in new life, as we're going to have a baptism this afternoon after our service. So God's ways always include reenactments, visual expressions of something spiritual. And then the next word is spirit, how to celebrate, with rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice.

That's the principle that's here in this text. And So the common thread here is that you were slaves, and now you're free, and now you have a land of harvest. Rejoice! You've been set free from your sins. There's no reason for anyone to hang their head here today because of the great work that God has done.

And so God does this. He brings his people together so that they would rejoice. That's the spirit of it. And then the common denominator, what's that? It's the gospel.

Each feast has one common denominator, and that is the release from bondage. And so with all of these feasts, there are two things that are happening, and two things that we should do with each one of the feasts. We look back to see what happened, and then we look forward to see how it was fulfilled. And so these sort of stand in a middle point where we stand and we look back, and then we also look forward. So these are some of the main principles.

But then there's the feel of the whole thing. Before we begin to work through the text, I think we have to understand the overwhelming feel of this. I know some of you are trying to learn how to rejoice more than you ever have, because you found yourself dropping into despondency for this or that kind of thing. And in the teaching on the Sabbath and a number of things that we've encountered here in the book of Deuteronomy, we're finding that God really does desire rejoicing. And so fathers are saying, how come I'm so somber?

How come I bring darkness into my family? And how do I make my world a world of rejoicing? And how do I make my church a place of rejoicing? Well, Those are good questions to ask. And that's really the feel of this whole text in verses 1 through 17.

The feasts are all about rejoicing. Now, Gary Orr did us a marvelous blessing on prayer night on Wednesday where he read two of the songs of Ascents, which relate directly to this text. In the days of David, these songs of Ascents were written and they were the songs that the families sang while they were going to these feasts. Gary read Psalm 127 and 128. Today though we're going to see what what is the overall message of these of these songs.

The songs of ascent cover Psalm 120, please open your Bibles of Psalm 120, to 136. Those are the songs of the sense. Now, I want to bring these Psalms to us because I think they really show us the heart and soul. They give you what kind of water is in this cup. And it shows you what the spirit of this whole thing is regarding the feast.

And I pray that it will help us also to think through how we celebrate together. In our church, we have lots of celebrations. And this is one of them today. But let's turn to Psalm 120 and I'm just going to bounce us through here. In Psalm 120, verse 1, we find the acknowledgement of the reality of life.

In my distress I cried out to the Lord and he heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. Here the song acknowledges the problems of life, the assaults against our souls, the tendency to fall into depression, the tendency to find ourselves in a place that is absent of rejoicing. It starts there. Isn't that interesting?

That these songs of assents, which are all about rejoicing, the feasts are all about rejoicing, begin with honesty. They begin with an honest acknowledgement of the pressures of life and the difficulties that are all upon us. Things happen, right? And they happen to all of us. But this beautiful acknowledgement of the way things really are and the challenges that there are for us.

And then in 121 is the remedy. I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From hence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. And then in 122, in verses 1 through 4, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. And then He just goes on and speaks of the beauty of standing in the place of His name. And then in the next Psalm 123, He speaks of the dependents. Unto you I lift up my eyes. Oh, you who dwell in the heavens.

Imagine families singing these songs on their way to the feast. The little boys are kicking rocks on the roads there on the way to the feast. Some are walking slower than others. And hopefully, the father and mother are walking together. We know that they weren't listening to their iPod separately in that day.

But they were walking together to the feasts, generally, with the whole family coming to celebrate. And then we find in 1.24, verse 2, if the Lord had not been on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us. Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul. Then the swollen waters would have gone over our soul. Now here's just an expression of praise that God is your defender.

Imagine a whole family acknowledging that God is a defender of the family. And then in 1.25 verses 1 and 2, the confidence that he brings when he says, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion which cannot be moved and abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forever that's the heart of this whole thing God is a protector God is mighty God protects God protects his children and then in 126 The laughter that he brings in verses two and three. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with singing, and they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for us. And the Lord has made us glad.

And then in 1.27, the happiness that he brings. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the Watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early and stay up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. For he gives his beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage of the Lord." And then it just goes on and speaks of the happiness that's there. And then in 1.28, the blessed family life that God secures, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you." How many times have we read that in Deuteronomy? And then now in 1.29, the faithfulness of the Lord. In verse two, many a time they have afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me." Think of how many times God has rescued you, how old are you?

I want to know the cumulative age of all of us here. Guess what? It's hundreds of years of God's faithfulness, racked up. This is very principal here in 129, 2. And then in 130, verse 3, if you, Lord, should mark our iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand?

But there's forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits and in His word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord." And here's just praise for His mercy. Do you get the idea of what all these feasts were about?

They were about thanking God for everything that rests, that resides under the category of His name. And then 131, he speaks, or the song speaks of the goodness of humility in verse 2 in 131. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within me. Are you like that this morning?

You've come together for one of the great celebrations of the people of God. Are you like a weaned child, quieted, in your soul, you know, at peace, ready to hear the voice of the Lord, happy to be able to sing the songs and pray the prayers and hear the words of God. Well that's the picture that's here. Someone calm and weaned and quiet in their soul. Do you ever think that the gatherings of the people of God on the Sabbath should be that way?

Well they should. And that's the whole spirit of this. And then if you go to the next chapter, verse 132, the shouts of joy that are part of all this in verses 7 through 9. Let us go into his tabernacle. Let us worship at his footstool.

Arise, O Lord, to your resting place. You and the ark of your strength, let your priests be clothed with righteousness and let your saints shout for joy. And then in the next chapter, 133, the blessings of fellowship. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. And then in 1.34, the blessings of meeting in the night, in verse 1 in 1.34.

Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. It just gives this picture of gathering together with God's people in the night and praising him during that. What a wonderful thing. I just have so many memories in my life of being in the house of the Lord as a boy on Sunday nights and singing and singing and singing and singing almost forever sometimes. And then hearing the preaching of the Word and more prayers and then the disbanding of the fellowship and and the happy conversations in my church in California where I grew up.

In Psalm 135 1 through 3 the praises in the house of the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise him, O you servants of the Lord. I already read that one.

No, I didn't. Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises to his name, for it is pleasant. And then in 136, the last song of Ascent.

It's a long song of Thanksgiving. And it just goes on with a repetitive metrical style. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods, for his mercy endures forever.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods, for his mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endures forever. To him who alone does great wonders, for his mercy endures forever." And then that phrase, for his mercy endures forever, is repeated over and over again. That is the heartbeat of all the feasts.

You can roll them all up, all of their meaning, really in Psalm 136, but the songs of ascent really give the feel. So before we got into the text, I want to try to help us to see what this was all about. This was all about a family gathering together and then rejoicing before the Lord in a time of feast with an enormous amount of time set aside for it. So that's the feel of the whole thing. Okay, so we enter in now to our discussion of the feast of the Passover in verses one through eight.

And here we find a command to observe the Passover, which is a remembrance of God's passing over your sins, and rejoicing over the Lamb of God that was slain for all of your sins. And so the command here is to look back to Egypt, look back to your bondage brother, you know look back to the plagues that were on your life before you came to the Lord. Look back on the lack of rest. Look back on the task masters. That's what the death, this is looking back on the life under the government of the devil We should always be doing that we should always be saying oh lord.

Thank you Thank you for rescuing me from these terrible things that were upon me I had a bad taskmaster You know if there if there any here today who are still under that bad taskmaster, you can be released from that taskmaster. If God is helping you to see, oh, this is a bad taskmaster, I don't want him anymore. I don't want my ways anymore. I want God's ways. Then perhaps you're being saved here even this morning because you're realizing that he is the devil and he is a bad taskmaster.

He puts you in bondage. He abuses you. He belittles you and he finally kills you and gets you thrown in the lake of fire. And he does it by degrees with one little thing that he calls pleasure in this life. But here, this Passover is a remembrance of the bondage that was in Egypt, and then also looking forward to the glory of salvation.

And notice that this is an observable month, the month of Abib, it says here, the end of March and the beginning of April. And it's all tied, of course, to the Sabbath. But What's happening here in this text is something very interesting. There are actually a number of very historically groundbreaking things taking place in the history of redemption. And this is one of them right here.

God is making right here in this verse a new central starting place of the year. Isn't that interesting? There's something remarkable happening regarding the calendar. We've already learned about the Sabbath day, the Sabbath as part of our calendar, something being established. And now we learn that there's something else happening to the calendar.

God is changing the calendar here of his people. And I really believe he's saying Christ is the beginning. Christ is the beginning of the year. The sacrifice, the lamb, the redemption, the release from bondage begins at the beginning of the year. You know, we have these routines we go through when we hit New Year's.

We're starting a new year. What is that new year going to encompass? Well, here we find that this new year begins with a remembrance of bondage and the sacrificial lamb that released from bondage. And so here's the setting up of an annual schedule and God is saying here's what your year's gonna look like. It's gonna start like this.

Gentlemen, start your calendars. I'm giving you the one-year plan. Here's how you're supposed to be living during this year. This speaks of the great principle that we've encountered many times in scripture, and that is time belongs to God. Your time is not your own.

You're only stewards of the time that God has given you. That's why the Apostle Paul said to the church in Ephesus, redeem the time for the days of evil. He meant buy it back. This is another indication of God's government over time. He wants to govern your time.

He wants to rule your life. He knows that you can't rule it well on your own. So he gives you great principles to help you understand how to live. And so we find this happening in the days of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles chapter 30. We have an account of a solemn Passover which Hezekiah kept in the first year of his reign.

Now this is almost 2, 000 years, not quite 2, 000 years fast forward from this time. And in the days of Hezekiah, in the very first year of his reign, He called for this very solemn assembly to celebrate the Passover. And the text says it was seven days of great gladness that the priests and the Levites praised the Lord day by day. The singing was accompanied by, are you ready for this, loud instruments, not quiet instruments, loud instruments. Crank up the sound system, boys.

The text says it was loud instruments. Hezekiah gave encouragement to the people. They made confession of their sins. And the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast for seven days. It was so good, they did it again.

And they did it for another seven days. They were so happy to be together that they made it actually a 14-day feast. And what was remembered? It was this month of Abib that we see in verse 1, to keep the Passover to the Lord your God. And it was a reminder of who it was who engineered their release from bondage.

The text says, the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. It's an acknowledgment of the source of all redemption, God. Only God can redeem us from the trouble that we're in. And then there's a delineation, verses one and two, of the sacrifice of the Passover. And they would eat special foods.

It was the Passover Seder, the same kind of thing that we celebrated earlier in the year when we actually had a Seder to remind us of these things. And the foods that are eaten in the Seder, they give an illustration of God's provision, of a sacrificial lamb, of the bitterness of bondage, and also the sweetness of freedom. Remember when we ate the meal, that there was this progression from bitterness to sweetness as we went on through the time. And then, and everything in the Seder has one goal. And it's communicated in Exodus chapter 13.

And you shall show your son in that day, saying, this is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. And then in verse 2, we read of the sacrificial lamb, where the text says, therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd in the place where the Lord chooses to put his name. And then in verses three through four, there's the teaching regarding the unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. To eat it in haste, you know, leaven puffs up. And so this is associated with sin that puffs up.

And the feast of the unleavened bread, you know, casts a vision of coming out in haste. No time, no time for dough to rise. But it's also called the bread of affliction and it's the bread of affliction As the Lord Jesus said, this is my body which was broken to you. Christ's affliction is prophesied here and through his affliction we are relieved of affliction. So the feast of the unloved bread is prophetic, Christ's burial, he is holy, he's without corruption And so that's all pictured here.

Paul says to the Corinthians that Christ is our Passover. In 1 Corinthians 5, He says, 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. Here we find out that the Apostle Paul is actually encouraging the believers in Corinth to keep the feast. They're still keeping the feast.

Isn't that interesting? And they were keeping the principle of the feast. And he wants them to pay attention to the malice and the wickedness that sin brings into the church. We know that the Corinthian church had trouble with those areas and he says no, let it be the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." So these images that were established, you know, in 1400 BC continue on. We see them in the days of Hezekiah.

We saw them back in the days of David in the songs of the sense. And now here we see them in actually the principle in the New Testament Church. So the Passover lamb is slain. That's the gospel. He is slain for our sins.

This Passover is everything about the gospel. Every single line that we read in Deuteronomy preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, that sins are only atoned by a perfect, spotless lamb. And what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's the principle that's here.

And then the regulations that follow and also these regulations really contain what are some very groundbreaking and historically significant moments. In verses five through eight we learn that it's not going to happen in the home anymore. The Passover was always celebrated in the home. I was speaking to Jorge's pastor 10 years ago in Colombia and I'll never forget it. He said to me, he said to me, the Passover was a sacrifice for the sins of the family.

Well that's true, but here that changes. It doesn't happen in the home anymore. It's moved out of the home and into a public place where people gather together. And this is a very historically momentous occasion here in verse 5. You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gains which the Lord your God gives you.

That's a change. Do you see this? God is changing the way that he wants it to be done. Passover was always celebrated in the home with the father and the children asking the father, what about this? What about that?

Now it's actually shifting to a public place. And so this marks a change from Exodus 12, 47. And this change was actually foretold in Exodus 40, verse 17. And we learn that it happens at twilight, in verse 6, at the end of it. And then it lasts six days.

And you eat the unleavened bread for six days. And then on the seventh day, there's a sacred assembly. And you shall do no work in it, as it says in verse 8. And so that's the way that he has it worked out here. And it all takes us to what we read in Isaiah 58.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisements for our peace was laid on him. By his stripes we were healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before its shearers is silent." So this is the picture.

We find it here in Deuteronomy 16 and we find it in the great prophecies of the Messiah and we find it in the New Testament church. You see the continuity here. You see how the principles run. The days may change, But the heart of it never changes. It's rejoicing in the gospel, rejoicing in a God who knows how to deal with sinners.

How is God going to deal with you? What can God do with the sinner? And this is what he does with sinners. He makes atonement for their sins because that's their only hope. And then we come to the second feast here, the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost.

And Pentecost is a remembrance of the giving of the law and the word made flesh and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That's the image, that's the shadow that's here in Deuteronomy, chapter 16, verses 9 through 12. And it begins with a feast called the Feast of Weeks. And the term feast in Hebrew is the term moed. And it means appointed times, an appointed season, a sacred season or appointed place.

And so he's bringing us into this concept of a certain kind of season, and It's the same idea that we read about in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, and a time to break down, and a time to build up. So this is an announcement of a season, a time.

And the whole idea of feast includes the idea of a season, sort of a set-aside block of time for something. And so here we find the feast of weeks here. Now, there's no specific day that's identified here. But it's at the general time at the end of harvest, probably around June. And the Pentecost is the Greek word that means 50th.

And it begins a time of counting 50 days. So it's not set by a calendar, but by a harvest and then a counting of 50 days. And so this was celebrated for the time of harvest. And it's also called the Feast of Harvest, or the Day of first fruits in Numbers 28. And so Pentecost here is the 50 days that are marked by the beginning of harvest.

And so what we find here is that it says, you shall count. Do you see that in verse 9? You shall count. That's critical in understanding when this happens, that people were to count seven weeks from the time their harvest began in March or April. And so what we find is this idea of 50 days.

Now here's how this becomes a shadow of something greater to come. Here's how this is a shadow of the gospel. The Ten Commandments were given 50 days after crossing the Red Sea. The Holy Spirit was given 50 days after the resurrection. It's a shadow.

This counting of 50 days, this Pentecost, is a shadow of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we read about in Acts chapter 2. The law of God was written in stone. With the outpouring of the Spirit, the law of God was written in the heart. On the day of the giving of the Ten Commandments, 3, 000 were slain. On the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Acts chapter 2, 3, 000 were saved on that very day.

The letter of the law was given on Sinai and the spirit of the law was given in our hearts at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So this feast has enormous significance for us because it reminds us of the giving of the law and then finally the word being made flesh and then finally is pouring his spirit out so that our hearts would be like no other people's hearts had ever been before and it says here that we're to bring a free will offering not only do you count you bring something in verse 10 and you bring what you bring out of the fruit of what God has blessed you with and then it says you shall celebrate you see that in verse 10 you celebrate so you count you bring and then you celebrate These are all pictures of godly principles that we continue to carry out today. You shall celebrate And then you shall rejoice in verse 11. The people were to rejoice before the Lord their God. Now, we don't normally, let's just talk about rejoicing for a second.

Let's talk psychology here for a minute. Let's talk about emotions just for a second, okay? Because this is all about celebrating. We all have to deal with our emotions. Some of us, we feel like we were born with bad emotions.

Some of us feel like they were created by our wicked parents or our bad friends or our terrible sister or brother. Our emotions, you know, are dependent upon, have become dependent upon all these things. But we don't normally think of our emotions in the way that the Bible tells us to think about them. We don't normally think about our emotions as being a matter of obedience. Here the rejoicing is a matter of obedience.

There's actually a command to rejoice. We think that it's that this is really relegated to exclusively an internal and outpouring response of our heart. However, even though we often, this is how rejoicing works in us, there's another side to it. Rejoicing isn't exclusively just something that outpours automatically in your heart. It's something that's also a matter of obedience.

It's a way that you point your life. It's something that you begin to do even though you might not feel like it. But there's a way that we work our way out of bad emotions through obedience to what God has said. We so often say, well, I just don't have it in me. And so We just stay there in the slew of despond, in the depths of darkness, and darkness just keeps on piling up, and we never can get out because we haven't used one of the means that God has given us to get out, and that is obedience.

Obedience means you begin to move in that direction. You do things that cause rejoicing. You say things to yourself, to your family. You say things to God. You begin to move out of the darkness by an act of obedience.

And so it's not appropriate for God's people to be despondent very long, okay? God's people are going to get despondent from time to time. One of the sayings in our home as our children were growing up is, if your feelings stay hurt, it's your own fault. Your feelings are going to get hurt. But if they stay hurt, it's your own fault.

You've been disobedient, you've mismanaged the emotions and the thoughts of your heart, and you stay down there too long. How long are you going to stay? And sometimes it takes forever to help a child come out. And of course, they can't come out without their own will being exercised. But here we find that rejoicing is a sign of obedience.

And to stay in a prolonged state of lack of rejoicing is a sin. It is breaking one of the commandments of God. Do you understand that? Or is anyone caught? Is anyone trapped by that sin?

Your heart is not rejoicing. You're in the bottom of the ocean. What will you do? And I would just suggest that there is a way out. And please, if there are any who need to make a way out, please come and talk to me.

Come talk to anyone, really, to help you on your way out. Because there are commands and principles and practices that God has given in His kindness to help us make our way out. And I love what Spurgeon said about this matter. He said, when we bless God for mercies, we prolong them. How's that?

When we bless God for mercies, we prolong them. That's, I think Spurgeon is tying into this idea of how important obedience is. And then he says, and when we bless him for miseries, we usually end them. Praise is the honey of life, which a devout heart sucks from every bloom of providence and grace. We may as well be dead without praise.

It is the crown of life. So the heart of all these feasts is for the lifting of the soul into rejoicing. God is so good that this would be his heart for his people. Why are we here today? Well, one reason in God's mind that we're here is to leave our sorrows, to be lifted out of the darkness, and to find a new way to hear the word, to read it, to sing it, to pray it, to reenact it, all to help us come out of our bondage, or maybe perhaps even emotional bondage, which is very connected to this idea of rejoicing.

Yes, God does have something to say about your emotions. It might be something different than your counselor told you about your emotions and how to deal with them, But here we find at least something that we can really rest on. And so, you shall count, you shall bring an offering, you shall celebrate, you shall rejoice. And then he says in verse 12, you shall remember, You shall remember. And God never wanted His people to forget.

God doesn't want you to forget. What are you going to do to help your family not forget? What are you going to do? God has given you many things to help your family not forget, because you will forget. And he gives us holy days.

He gives us times to gather together so that we will not forget. Why is it so bad to neglect the fellowship of the saints? It's because you forget. You forget so easily. And these holy days are so important.

You know, in the history of the Church, there have been holy days established in order to be in keeping with these things that we're reading here. The Church of Scotland had holy fairs, and they would be characterized by a day or days of lots of preaching and gathering together and eating. During the Great Awakening, we saw great gatherings of people happening just like this and they became holidays. Now, but what happens to societies and what has happened to us, we have taken the holy days and we've made them holidays. We've stripped them of their meaning.

We've stripped them from their remembrance of the greatness of God. And we've turned them into things that remind us of other things. I mean, if you're in Canada, it's Canada Day. If you're in France, it's Bastille Day. Here it's Memorial Day.

But we strip them of the knowledge of God. There's Columbus Day and Oktoberfest and Thanksgiving and St. Patrick's Day. And of course, perhaps the favorite of many of the young people in this church, April Fool's Day. It's a great day, because you get to do things you never get to do on other days.

And even this weekend, what's tomorrow? It's Labor Day. It's a holiday, but it's not a holy day. God, though, gives his people holy days. Why?

Because he loves them. Does a holiday lift you out of the slew of despondent? I don't, no not really. Not necessarily, probably not. But a Holy Day does.

And so in all of this, we see the goodness of God. And now, holidays are just very personal. You spend your time on whatever. I was going to clean out one of the sheds tomorrow. It's a holiday.

It ain't no holy day, I can tell you that. And now our government has decided to try to create long weekends by placing them on the right day, either Friday or Monday. But they're not really celebrations of anything but the self. And that's where the government will get you, take you. It'll take you just to celebrate your own whatever.

It's so they become very personal and independent. So here we find in this theme, you shall remember, an emphasis on memory, an emphasis on history, and here remembering the day that you came out of Egypt, we are a people who study history. We are commanded to study history to know it. We should recite it constantly. History is one of the most important disciplines that believers can be engaged in.

Theology and history, those are the two great things that are absolutely indispensable in a Christian family. And there are many reasons to study history. There are actually divine commands to study history. Deuteronomy 32-7, remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations.

Ask your father, and he will show you, the elders, and they will tell you. And so there are many reasons to study history. Philip Melanchthon said that if you don't study history, something really bad happens to you. He says if you don't study history, then you will have a perpetual childhood, and you will have a permanent obscurity. He said, human life without knowledge of history is nothing other than a perpetual childhood.

Nay, a permanent obscurity and darkness. So history is important. You shall remember. Brothers and sisters, let's be a church of people who study history. Let's not neglect the past.

There's actually, you know, Dan Horn is taking some people on a history tour. Those kinds of things are important. History is important, okay? We need to consider the days of the past, what God has done and what he has accomplished for us, so that we can connect it with the great principles that God has given to us in his word. And then we read at the end of 11 and verse 12, go to the place for the Lord chooses.

You go to a public place. So when we get to the end of this whole section on this feast, there's a pattern of the people of God. And we don't live individualistically, but in community. We come together. Christianity does not include an insulated, isolated life.

But it's a life in community with people different than you gathering together for one purpose. And that is to celebrate the glory of the gospel. Why? So that you would rejoice in God. And then we come to the last feast, the third one, the Feast of Tabernacles in verses 13 through 17.

And here in the Feast of Tabernacles, which was observed for seven days, which was observed in a tent or a booth in a portable dwelling place. Some of you love to go camping. Well, that's kind of like what this was. And it was to replicate life in the wilderness. It was to sort of reenact living on the move.

And the idea is God provided for you in the wilderness, and He will provide for you for all eternity in heaven. That's the idea. And notice that there was a participation of the whole family in verse 14. You shall rejoice you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates. It was something that was celebrated with lots of people around.

It was a collective gathering. And it was seven days. And interesting, again, we find the same theme of rejoicing and celebrating. But a fascinating word is used in verse 15. He says, seven days you shall keep it and so you shall surely rejoice.

Here he uses a word that means to brighten up. You'll brighten up. Brighten up, man. That's the idea. You know, are you dark and dreary?

Brighten up! Okay? That's what it was all about. That's what it meant to rejoice. And you know, these eternal habitations are fulfilled in heaven.

They only get it seven days. But they really remind of what the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 14, when he said, let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many dwelling places." And Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you.

That's what the Feast of Tabernacles was about. They didn't know it. They didn't know it at the time because it was a shadow. It was a ceremonial law that taught the people about something that would be fulfilled in the future. We don't have to live in tabernacles, I mean in portable tabernacles anymore because that has been taken away.

The sacrificial system and the laws of feast have all passed away, but the principles don't pass away. There's always a moral obligation, there's always a moral principle that we can learn from all of the shadows. The shadows are important because They say, look at that. They show us sort of the structure of it, the beginning of it. They give us the main idea, the heart of it.

But then they point forward to something so clear, like John chapter 14, where Jesus says, in my Father's house are many dwelling places. And then we find that this is all summarized in verses 16 through 17, where he says, three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, number one, at the Feast of Weeks, number two, and at the Feast of Tabernacles, number three. And they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord your God of which he has given you." So here we find this principle established and continues on that God's people gather together in one central place. They do it to leave aside their despondency.

They remember the deeds of God. They rejoice in the Lord. And one thing we need to acknowledge here is that this was actually a very dangerous thing to do. Can you imagine everyone leaving their houses and going to a central place and leaving your house unprotected. Can you imagine an entire city doing that?

Imagine the looting. Imagine the difficulties that families might encounter when they left their houses totally unprotected. But God commanded that the men leave their houses and leave their houses totally unprotected. Why? Because God is good.

God will protect them. God has said that he is sovereign over all these things. I did read in one of the commentators who said that there was never a record of any external attack from an outside enemy during any one of these feasts in the whole history of Israel. I don't know if that's true or not. But here's what we do know.

If there's a command of God, God will take care of whatever shortfalls we might project. Any of our own fears, wipe them away. Just do it. Just obey. You may think it'll make you unprotected.

You may think that something bad will happen because you obey, because you're smarter than God and you can project the consequences, but no. God says, obey me. Leave. Leave your home. Leave it unprotected and I will take care of you." And so all of these feasts, not only do they have the rejoicing of the heart and the setting aside of despondency, they also have the whole thrust of the sovereignty of God.

That God is sovereign over everything. He's sovereign over every leaf that falls, every hair on the head. He keeps your tears in the bottle. He establishes your footsteps before you take them. He knows what you think before you think it.

And he controls the synapse of every brain on the planet. That's your God. Celebrate, brother, because God is so good, and you can trust in him. So how do we apply all of these things? Well, I think we already have applied many of these things to our emotions, to our fears, to our practices, to our schedules, to our calendars, to all these kinds of things.

But let me just sort of wrap up with a few things. Number one, don't forsake the assembly together. I don't think we have that problem actually in our church, but this is one of the principles that's here. Don't forsake the gatherings of God's people. They're there for your blessing, they're there for your remembrance, And if you forsake them, you miss the remembrance and you miss the uplifting of the soul and something is lacking.

Think of the things that you've learned all your life in the meetings of the church and the teachings that are there. Think of how your life is different because you studied this book as the people have gathered, as you've gathered together with the people of God. Don't forsake the meeting of the saints because there's so many blessings to it. And then secondly, let's just make this very clear, that the whole Bible points to one person. The whole Bible points to one event, the cross of Jesus Christ.

This text is about one thing. It's about the cross. It's about substitutionary atonement. It's about God dealing with sinners with his kindness. It's about drawing all men to himself and forgiving wretched sinners like me of their sins and even continuing to forgive them in their weaknesses and in their foolishness that even after many many years God would still apply his blood to an old sinner who cannot stop sinning Because if he's broken one point of the law, he's broken them all.

And so we find the whole of Scripture pointing to this one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all of his mercy toward his people. This text is about Jesus. Do you love Jesus? Are you so thankful for Jesus and his substitutionary atonement on the cross? The Good Shepherd, the light of the world.

This is the Gospel all over this text. Every single word in Deuteronomy 16 is a foretelling of the Gospel. And then, and then finally, enjoy the Reenactments. Enjoy the reenactments. We're going to do them today.

We're going to do one in just a minute. We're going to celebrate the Lord's table. We're going to reenact the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is our only hope. And then after that we're going to do another reenactment of baptism, as we were buried with him in baptism and cleansed of all of our sins and raised up to new life and that's what these feasts are all about and the rejoicing that surrounds them. Would you pray with me?

Oh, Lord, we thank you for this amazing text that you've given to us to help us to understand your will, about our schedules, about our emotions, about our relationships, about our weeks, and also especially about this great redemption that you've accomplished for sinners. Oh Lord, we thank you in Jesus' name. Naming it.