Would you turn your Bibles, please, to Zechariah chapter 14? And we've been in this for a long time now, and you might wonder, and we're hopefully going to finish the series this morning, and you might wonder why we might be talking about Zechariah chapter 14 on Christmas Day or a day close to Christmas. I mean, couldn't you think of something else, you know, something? Couldn't you just drop your series for a little while and think of something else that that is more appropriate for the Christmas time? Well, if you'll bear with me, if you'll just be patient with me, I think you'll see a connection between our Lord's advent and this text that we have this morning. So we're in Zechariah chapter 14. And this is probably one of the hardest chapters, I think, in the whole Bible to interpret. And I want to start reading today from verse eight, even though we'll major on the last five verses from verses 16 to 21. But I want to get a little feel again for the whole thrust of the book. This, I believe, is the time of future. It says in verse eight, In that day shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea, and both summer and winter it shall occur. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, and that they shall be the Lord is one and his name is one. And all the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Raman, south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin's gate, the place of the first gate and the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananiel to the king's wine presses. The people shall dwell in it. There shall no longer be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet. Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together, gold and silver and peril and great abundance. This is the duty that the people of God will take. Verse 15. Such also shall be the plague on the horse and on the mule and on the camel and the donkey. And on all the cattle that will be in the camps, so shall this plague be. And then we come to especially our text this morning, verse 16, it shall be and it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem. These nations shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, it shall be that It shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts on them, there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall receive no rain. They shall receive the plague, which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. That is no rain. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of the nations that do not come up to keep the peace of Tabernacles. They shall have no reign. In verse 20, and in that day, holiness to the Lord shall be engraved on the bells of the horses, the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bulls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. And in that day, there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Lord God, would you help us to understand now your holy words as they've been revealed to the prophet. And may we profit in our souls from these truths in your son's name. Amen. We know that this text, I believe, speaks of a future time. I say that because I don't believe any of these events in this chapter have yet literally been fulfilled, either literally or symbolically. The strongest picture that this is a picture of the future as it paints a picture of the glorious final end and state of God's people in spiritual Jerusalem, that is the dwelling place of God. And when we speak of Jerusalem in this text, I want to I want to think of that spiritual Jerusalem, Mount Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, the place that we all look to to go in the future. I'm not speaking of that city that's over there in the Middle East and current geography. And when I speak of Israel, I really speaking of the people of God. All the assembly of believers who were mostly of the nation of Israel on that day, but when really they're speaking of this people of God, I think in many ages. Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God, Mount Zion. It's a place first where God dwells, as we see in verse 16. It says it shall come to pass in that day, everyone who is left of all the nations which come against Jerusalem, those defeated nations, those ones who have been conquered by the people of God at this time of great victory shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the lord of hosts, and to keep the feasts of tabernacles because the lord of hosts is there. It's a place where he dwells. It's also a place where the living waters will flow. As we read in verse eight in that day, it shall be that living water shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the Eastern Sea and half of them toward the Western Sea, that would be toward the. Eastern Sea would be the sea and the Dead Sea and the Western would be the Mediterranean, but the idea of living waters flowing out from Jerusalem It'll be a place of safety, it says in verse 11, that the people shall dwell in it and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. It's a place that's lifted up above all other places in the earth, and we see this in verse 10. All the land, it says, shall be turned into a plain. Because when the Lord is present and when Jesus comes, it says, let every valley be made, every mountain be made low and every valley raised up. It's like when he comes, it's all on him. All attention is focused on him and everything else is much lower. The New Jerusalem or heavenly Jerusalem is a place where God will be exalted on the earth as king, as it says in verse nine, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth. It's a place of complete and perfect holiness. As we read in verses 20 and 21. It says in that day, holiness to the Lord shall be engraved on all the bells of the horses. The horses in those days had bridles and sometimes they were rather fancy engraved. If you've ever seen horses at a horse show, you know, they'll have a very fancy bridle with all kinds of decorations on the bridle of the horse. Imagine the bells, even the bells that are on those bridles in the horses will be holiness to the Lord. All the pots in the houses, everyone's house, even the common cooking pots shall be written holiness to the Lord. Everything will be holy. This is a picture of heaven where everything from the very pots we cook into the very bells that decorate the bridles of our horses will be holiness. This is what the final state of God's people is going to be, according to Zechariah. And Zechariah, at the same time, speaks of a time when the enemies of God will have been subdued even by plagues. We read about those plagues in verses 12. Their eyes, it says in the Old King James, shall be shall consume away. And their tongues shall consume away in their mouths. There's these great plagues that are going to be present among the enemies of God when they fight against his people. It's a time when the enemies of God will be defeated and made subject to him. We see this in verse 16. It shall be. It shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations who came against Jerusalem shall go from year to year to worship the king because those nations have been defeated. And the only way that they're going to be able to survive is become Jews themselves and to worship the king at the Feast of Tabernacles every year. It's a time when the conquered nations and these conquered nations will be worshiping and defeated. They're defeated and they're made subject to him. And I ask you, if you read these things, the things that we've just said. About a place of living waters, a place of safety, a place that's high and exalted in a place where the Lord is exalted as king, a place where there's complete holiness. And the place where the conquered peoples come to worship him in Kingsworth. Are there not some strong parallels between what we see here in the book at the end of Zechariah and what we read at the end of the book of Revelation? And if you if you turn to Revelation chapter 20. And 21, these these two, I think maybe more of 21. Yes, Revelation 20, please, Revelation 21. I think you're going to see some strong parallels between what's written in these final chapters of Revelation and what is written in the final chapter of Zechariah. I said that heaven is a place where God dwells, and it says in chapter 21 and verse 22. It says, and this is a vision that the apostle John is seeing. It's a vision of heaven itself. And he says, But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb of God are its temple. It was a place of the dwelling place of God. It's a place where living waters shall flow. If you take a look at chapter 22, it says in verse one, And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and from the Lamb. And in the middle of the street on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each yielding a fruit for each month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So nations are still involved in even this prophecy in heaven. It's a place of safety. It says in Revelation 21 and 25, it says this is New Jerusalem. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day and there shall be no night there. And so the place of protection in a wall city was often the city gates. And you close those gates at night for protection against enemies and intruders. No enemies. Gates are open all the time in heaven and it's always day. There is no night there. New Jerusalem is a place that's lifted up above all other places, and it says in chapter 21 and verse 10, it says that the spirit carried John away. to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It was so high, it was lifted up that it was coming down to earth. But it was high and lifted up just as the city in Zechariah was high and lifted up, as we saw in verse 11 of that chapter 14. And it's a place where God will be exalted on the earth as king. We saw that in Zechariah chapter 14 and 9 and now here in Revelation 21 and verse 24, it says, And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in the light and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it. And it's a place of perfect and complete holiness. We knew that from the bells and the horses and the pots in Jerusalem in Zechariah 14. And we also noticed in Zechariah 14, the last verse, that there was no Canaanite dwelling in the land. It says in Revelation, verse 21 and verse 27, And it says there shall by no means enter into the New Jerusalem anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie. But only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And I might add to that that exclusive principle, something that said in chapter twenty one in verse eight, where it says, but the cowardly unbelievers, the abominable murderers, sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters and all that are liars have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And so it's a place of perfect and complete holiness. where there is no wickedness at all in the city. Zechariah, Chapter 14, is spoken of a time when the enemies of God, as they fought against the people of God, would experience plagues. And my goodness, do we ever run into plagues in the book of Revelation and plagues that bear resemblance somewhat to the strange plagues that we saw in Zechariah, Chapter 14. We see the earth being struggling, the vegetation of the earth being struck, the seas and the rivers being struck by the hand of God. In the book of Revelation, we we read of men being stung by locusts that have a very painful, painful sting. We see men killed by fiery horses, men plagued by foul sores and men scorched with even great heat. Similar to the plagues that are described there in Zechariah, that is. Men being very, very severely wounded in parts of their bodies, but by their Zechariah, it's their tongues. In their eyes. But this is very similar to the great plagues that the people of God are experiencing their warfare in Revelation. And the great battle against God's people and against God himself. Revelation also speaks of a time when the enemies of God will be defeated and made subject to him. It says in Revelation chapter 20, I'll read verse 7 through 9. It said now, when the thousand years have expired, the years of Christ reign, Satan will come and be released from his presence and will go out to deceive the nations which are on the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints at the beloved city and fire came down from God, from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And the next thing that the prophet sees is the great white throne, which is the place of great victory. that the people of God have come. Heaven is a place of great victory. And it's a place where all the conquered nations will come and worship the King. As it says in chapter 21 and verse 24 of Revelation, And the nations of all those who are saved shall walk in His light, and the kings of the earth, those conquered saints, conquered by the gospel, Those kings shall bring their glory and honor into it. The book of Revelation, of course, is a much clearer picture than we see in Revelation and Zechariah, chapter 14, but it is right. But Zechariah is but a shadow compared to the great light in the book of Revelation. And yet I think the similarities between these two passages That is, the later chapters of Revelation, Zechariah 14, bear notice that this speaks of the glorious end of God's people, both in Zechariah's time and the New Testament times. And we must remember that the book of Revelation was the revelation of Jesus Christ. It was Christ's words and it was, I think, the revelation of actually his purpose and how in his very being, how it will work out in the end. So the end of Zechariah, chapter 14, and we can get back there now, the end of that glorious chapter. Is the end of God's people, the glorious, victorious end. And to do that, to celebrate that glorious and victorious end, he picked the most holy ceremony. that the Jewish people knew at that time, and that is the Feast of Tabernacles. What is a tabernacle? Well, it's a tent. The first temple that God ever dwelt in on this earth was a tent. It was built in the wilderness. It had curtains, it had poles, and on the top of it, were badger skins. The outward appearance didn't look very attractive, but inside there was nothing but pure gold and pure treasures. I won't go into those details, but I want you to know that the first tangible evidence that man ever made to honor God's presence on this earth was the tabernacle that Israel built in the wilderness. Up until that time, the only symbol of the presence of God on the face of the earth was a rock. It was an altar. And the Lord says, you can build an altar to me on a rock. You can pile up some stones, but don't you cut any of those stones? Don't you try to make any shapes? It's just a stone. That's all they could do. And they made their offerings upon those stones and they poured wine on those stones. But that was the only symbol that they had on earth that there was the presence of God. But it was entirely different thing with the with the temple that was built or the tabernacle that was built in the wilderness. There was a much more beautiful and much more evident sign of the presence of God. And when you think about it. Because that tabernacle being a tent, a very portable structure, went from camp to camp, from place to place, it was always with them. You know, there may be a pile of rocks in some city, someplace, and you don't know where that's in. You can only visit that pile of rocks when when you go to that city. But here this tent was moving. It kept with them all the time. It wasn't just God's tent that Israel remembered, they were to remember their own tents as well, because the way the camp was set up, God's tent was at the very center of the camp. And then around his tent were the curtains of the tabernacle courtyard. And around those curtains were camped the Levites and the priests and their tents. And then around their tents, as you moved outward in the camp, were all the tribes of Israel and their tents. And so it was a tent city, every camp they stayed at. And they were to remember this time they were to remember this at what they call the annual feast of tabernacles. This is command way back in Leviticus, chapter twenty three. I'm just going to read from those verses. This is what it says. Leviticus 23, starting in verse 33, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying the 15th day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. And on the first day, there shall be a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work in it. And for seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And on the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly and you shall do no work on it. And it describes a little later what they should do when they're at this feast. It says in verse 41, you shall keep the feast. to the Lord for seven days in the year, and it shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths or tents for seven days. And all who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths or tents when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. And so annually, the children of Israel were pretty faithful to keep up that feast of tabernacles. And they remembered this very special time in the history of Israel. By coming to Jerusalem every year and cutting down branches from trees and making tents to live in during the time of that feast in Jerusalem, they did this every year. You know, every year we have the Fourth of July. We celebrate the birth of our nation and we have firecrackers and we have parades and we have picnics and we try to. I don't know if anybody actually remembers that the Declaration of Independence was signed some 200 years ago, but but this is the same. It's the same idea here. It was an annual remembrance of the birth of their nation. And so Zacharias uses the Feast of Tabernacles in his chapter is a picture of the blessed state of Israel that they shall some someday be in. And you might ask, well, why was this Feast of Tabernacles so important? Why was it chosen as the feast above all the other feasts? You know, there were great feasts. That was the Passover feast. And there was Pentecost, the Feast of Firstfruits. There's a great day of atonement. You know, why was why was the Feast of Tabernacles so shown? To the Christian mindset, we would think of the Passover being the chief of the Jewish feast, because that's the feast that we remember every Lord's Day when we honor the Lord in communion. It's the Lord's Supper. It's where we honor Christ, who was our Passover, who was sacrificed for us. He was the perfect lamb that was sacrificed for our sins. And that's that's a very important piece to us to our to our mindset. It's the greatest feast. But in Zechariah's time, the Feast of Tabernacles had become the great feast and one of the most holy feasts of the Jewish year, it happened to be the last feast of the year. All these others came before it. So it was kind of the grand finale, finishing the year. Here's why I think that the Feast of Tabernacles was so important. Passover reminded them of the beginning of their spiritual journey from Egypt. That was only the beginning of the journey, and on that fatal night, the very first Passover, when there were slaves in Egypt and they were getting ready to go out the next night on that fatal night, the Lord said, I want each family to take a lamb and sacrifice it. And you had to kill the lamb. And I want you to take the blood of that lamb and put it on the doorposts of your house and the lintels of your doorposts. And then I want you to eat that lamb, eat all of it until the morning. He said that night that an angel of death was going to pass through the whole land of Egypt. And he was going to claim the firstborn of every family, the firstborn child, The first born of animals, there was going to be a massive death that night. But the Israelites would be spared from that death if they were under the blood of that sacrificial lamb. If they were under the blood, their homes had that blood on the doorpost. When the angel saw that blood, he would pass over them. He would not visit them for death. And that was salvation. It was deliverance. But it was also only the beginning. Remember that night they filed out of Egypt. hurriedly. They put all their belongings on their back and they fled from Egypt. They escaped. They had been slaves. But now this was an act of freedom. They'd been delivered. But this was the only beginning of their journey. Of the people that started on a journey that night, how many actually made it into the promised land? By my count, two. Caleb and Joshua. Not even Moses. Not even Aaron. It was only the people who finished the journey that actually entered into the promised land, and that was actually another generation, even the youngsters who had only been present that night. It was only they who made it. So the Passover was only the beginning of a spiritual journey. Very few of the original pilgrims ever made it to the promised land. The Feast of Tabernacles, by contrast, remembers the journey itself. and the young generation that was born in the wilderness and that generation that did enter the glorious land. I think there's a connection to the Christian life here. We are Christian pilgrims in this world. Our Passover started at the foot of the cross when we believe that Jesus had died for our sins. And at that time, we began our spiritual journey through the wilderness of this world. And if we truly believe that Jesus died for the sins, died for our sins, we will continue on that journey until our dying day or until he first comes. But sadly, some folks make a profession of faith in Christ, especially in their youth. And later in life, they depart from the path of life. They depart from the words of the Bible and they go their own way, not following the Lord, not doing as well. and not obedient to his word. If you ask any of these people, are you a Christian? Are you born again? Are you saved? Many of them will come up with an answer. Oh, yes, I trusted Christ when I was six or when I was 11 or when I was 15. And they will tell you enough about their spiritual birth just to get you off their doorstep. or stop you from bugging them about the things of God, about their religion, because they don't want to hear it anymore. They're not interested in the things of God. And that's because the church of their youth once gave them a fire insurance policy, and they says, if you believe you're going to be saved and forever, once you make this decision, once you trust, you know, if you truly honor that commitment, that's a true statement. But they took it as a fire insurance policy. And they took the words that is good for a lifetime. And so all I have to do is do this and I'm good for life. I don't have to worry about the things of the Lord anymore. And anytime you ask them, these people about the things of God. All they're going to be able to tell you is about the time they trusted Christ when they were a kid, they don't have anything to do with God anymore. They may not even show up on Christmas Day. That's their whole religion. They have a fire insurance policy. And we don't we don't preach that kind of religion around here. We preach true commitment. We preach that once you become once you truly believe in Christ, that he's your savior for a lifetime and you walk with him every day. The our decision that time in life when we trust Christ to save you, we become spiritual babies. Have you ever heard a baby not to cry when they are thirsty, when they want food, when they want to be held, when they want to be dry? There's no question that a baby is alive. They're going to let you know it. And yet some of these Christians or professors that I just talked about, they are what you would call stillborn. Yeah, they're born and then they die. There's nothing to them. But babies grow and they become children and then they become mature people and they go through the journey of life, walking with God and walking with his people. I just want to read a brief verse from First John. First John, chapter five, where the beloved apostle says this. In verse 13, 1 John 5, 13, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. And that's so important that you may continue to believe when we first trust Christ as our Savior, we continue to believe him, that he's our Savior every day of our lives and to depend on him and to feed on him and to walk with his people. And so it was with Israel. The day after the first Passover, they began their journey, a very hard journey. with a few belongings they had on their backs in the wilderness. And they remembered that God had delivered them in times of want and need. There were times of great urgency in the wilderness when they had no water. He miraculously provided streams of water for them. He fed them with manna. He protected them from their enemies and from robbers. They depended on him every day. It was a time of testing. I mean, excuse me, it was a time of trusting and it was also a time of testing to prove their true character and their true fitness for the promised land. But by far the greatest experience to remember, be remembered in a wilderness journey was the near presence of God. He was physically closer to his people at that time than any time in their entire history. While they dwelled in their tents and while they were camped around the tent of God at the tabernacle in the center of God, his presence was among them and they were never unaware of his presence. They couldn't be because there was that cloud that hung above the tabernacle or hung above his tent. There was that cloud that was there by day and at nighttime, it appeared to be as a fire. They always had a sense of the presence of God that he was always with them. And when the cloud moved or the fire moved, they moved. And so they depended on him for their very direction and all their areas of life. The Feast of Tabernacles remembers those special days of the presence of God with his people, and I believe that's why Zechariah chose this feast above all the Jewish feasts to be the ultimate test of allegiance of his people. For he says at the end of verses that we're reading this morning, verses 16 through 20, he says that you keep the feast of tabernacles or you have no rain. No rain will fall on your land. If you have no rain, you have drought. And if you have drought long enough, you're going to die. That's the conditions. Keep the feast of tabernacles or you're going to die. The old commentator John Gill says this. He said that the Feast of Tabernacles symbolized the presence of God with his people. And I think that's what brings us to this time of year when we celebrate the birth of Christ. Let me just read this to you. John, chapter one. John chapter one and verse one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was the God. And that word is speaking of Jesus Christ. And then we read in verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Glory is the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. The word became flesh and dwelt among us in the Greek word for dwelt. is tabernacled. He pitched his tent among us and he dwelt with us. That's why we that's why the Feast of Tabernacles was so important to Zechariah. John Gil says that the Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes the presence of God with his people. And in the Gospel of John, it says that Christ, our Lord, the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. The feast symbolizes the dwelling of God physically with his people, as he did in the wilderness in Old Testament times, and as he does his people in the New Testament times, his people, the church. And that's what we celebrate at Christmas time, the dwelling of God with his people. Christ is our feast of tabernacles because he came to this earth to dwell with us. As we read now in Matthew this morning, verse 23 from Isaiah's prophecy, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. And God has come to dwell with us. From the time of the major until this present time. It was important to the people of Israel that God dwelt with them. And they remembered that special time when they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. But they he dwelt with him, but they never saw him. They saw his symbols in the cloud. They saw it in the fire, but they never saw him. But when Jesus came in human flesh to dwell among us, we could see him. We could hear him. We could even touch him. And he indeed did touch us. And I want to be a very touching passage from the first Gospel of John. I just love this passage where he testifies to his people. And this is the beloved Apostle John. He says that which was from the beginning. He's speaking of Jesus, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes and which we have looked upon and with our hands have handled. Their hands actually touched him concerning the word of God. He says the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the father and was shown to us and that which we have seen and we have heard. We declare to you that you may have fellowship with us. And with God and with the father. Jesus Christ was that tangible evidence of God. that had been so sought after by the children of Israel. And now we enjoy, it says in the first Timothy 316. Great is the mystery of God. God was manifest in the flesh. And, you know, even Zechariah. Earlier in his book. Had prophesied of God dwelling with his people. Way back in Zechariah, chapter two, it says. I believe it's in the starting of verse 10, Zechariah, chapter 210, seeing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord. Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and they shall become my people. And I will dwell in your midst. And then you shall know that I, the Lord, that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. The Lord came to dwell among his people in the presence, in the person of Jesus Christ. You know, there's only one thing better than God dwelling among us, and that's God dwelling in us. It's not just that we had his presence when he walked on the earth, but we have his presence even today. And it's not just we can't see him anymore in physical flesh. We can only see him through the scriptures, but we actually have a have a sense of his presence even in our hearts. I want to read these wonderful words from John's gospel, John, chapter 14 and verse 23. And these were some of the last words that Jesus said to his disciples. before the cross on his last night on earth. And he said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him. And we will come to him and make our home with him. Think of that. Our Lord Jesus, who came to earth, not only dwell among us and be with us, it says, but if we love him. He and his father will dwell in us, not just around us, but in us. In our hearts. We can be that near to God. And I think when we think of this, the presence of God with his people, it helps explain why Zechariah in chapter 14 chose the Feast of Tabernacles as the greatest and highest experience of the people of God, because that is the greatest experience. God actually dwelling with us. And in us, John Gill says, keeping the Feast of Tabernacles symbolize that Christ came in the flesh to dwell among us. And he who practiced the feast believes that Christ came in human flesh to be our savior. In Christ, the tabernacle of God is with men. And so all of the nations who were conquered and Zechariah, chapter 14, had to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And Christ is our Feast of Tabernacles, and we depend on Him for life. Those who did not keep the Feast of Tabernacles in Zechariah's time died. And it's the same way with us. If we don't keep Christ in our hearts, if we don't depend upon Him, we will die. For only in Him is everlasting life. The Apostle John in his first chapter says, Christians test the spirit of prophets in this world. How do you know the true prophet has spoken among you? And this is the test that he gives us, he says, in verse two, first John, chapter four and verse two, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus has come in the flesh, is not of God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. We know that the Antichrist is going to die. And anyone who denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is going to be in the same predicament. I want to say one more thing about the Feast of Tabernacles. The Jews added a tradition to this feast after it had long been practiced. And this tradition was that during the first seven days of the feast, they went to the fountain of Salome in Jerusalem and they drew water from it and they would take that water and they would pour it over the offering. At the same time, they poured the wine over the burnt sacrifice. This is not commanded in Numbers 28, it's not commanded in Leviticus 23. It was purely, surely a tradition of men. And the people gave a shout, a great shout. When the water from Siloam was poured over the feast. They did that for the first seven days of the feast, but on the last holy day, the holy convocation, they did not do it. And so it was kind of like if you were there, gee, they poured the water on all these other days, but they don't pour it on this day. We kind of miss the pouring of the water. The Gospel of John in chapter seven, tells of an experience that Jesus had at the Feast of Tabernacles, where they had done that very thing. And on the eighth day, it says on the great day of the feast. Says on that last day, that great day of the feast, John 737, Jesus stood up and cried out and he says, if anyone thirsts, let him come. To me and drink and he who believes in me, as the scripture is said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, here's my point. Jesus had used a tradition of man. To promote his truth. He could have stood up and said, What's the matter with you folks? Scripture doesn't say anything about pouring waters from the fountains alone. You can't find that in the Old Testament. Why are you following the traditions of men? But what he did was he took a tradition of men, which was harmless enough, And he used it to his advantage, where he criticized the traditions of men at other times where they neglected their parents and things like that. He was quick to point it out. But this time he didn't. He used it as an advantage to proclaim that he was the fountain of living waters. That as they celebrated from that fountain in Siloam, here was the real fountain of Siloam and here's where the real living waters were. I want to say something that's very embarrassing. It's a hard time for me. It's about the tradition of Christmas. Christmas is not commanded in the scripture. It is a tradition of men, and it even has a tradition of some idolatry behind it. And I'm sorry to say that I was once a basher of this tradition. At one time, I took down the tree. I told my family we're not exchanging gifts. I did the whole boycott. And while everybody else was proclaiming Christ at Christmas, I was proclaiming that Christ never was in Christmas. The Mayfire Pilgrims didn't keep Christmas. The Puritans didn't keep Christmas. Spurgeon didn't keep it. And I was convinced that you could not be a reformed Christian and keep this holiday. And then I met a Christian pastor who was a real gentleman. And he knew as much about the origin of Christmas as I did. He was one of the finest. He was one of the finest witnesses for Jesus Christ I'd ever seen. And he was a full Calvinist, by the way, he could talk to strangers about Christ the way I can talk to strangers about baseball players. And he said, Mike, you and I know that Christmas had a bad beginning, he says, but most of the world doesn't know anything about that origin. He says there's no time in the year when men's minds are less hostile to Christ than Christmastime. There's no time of the year when we might be able to ask, do you know what that baby born in the manger means? Do you know what that baby came to do? Their ears may be more open at this time than any of the year. And you can actually use Christmas as a tool for evangelism. And that man's words definitely changed my heart. And I got off my horse and I started proclaiming the wonderful Savior that is born at this time. Yes, it does have a bad origin. And those of you who studied this issue, you know what I'm talking about. But we can do so much better rather than blasting the origin. We can do so much better if we proclaim the wonderful Savior that we have. Jesus Christ, our Feast of Tabernacles, the Lord dwelling with us and dwelling in us, what a wonderful thing we proclaim. Dear Father, how we thank you that you humbled yourself to dwell among your people, to show us the way, to lead us the way, and to be the way. You are the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to you but through Jesus Christ. How grateful we are that you sent him to this earth some 2,000 years ago, and as we've seen the wonderful fruits of his coming, we just pray that you will continue to dwell among your people, and you will continue to make us His disciples, His evangelists, His servants, and bring you honor and glory. Thank you for this wonderful time. Amen.