So Lord may graciously help me,
I would turn your prayerful attention to the chapter we read in Leviticus
chapter 25 and reading verses 9 and 10 as our text. Leviticus chapter 25 verses 9
and 10. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet
of the jubilee to sound On the tenth day of the seventh month,
in the day of atonement, shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout
all your land, and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim
liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you,
and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall
return every man unto his family. Leviticus 25 verses 9 and 10. We have before us this chapter
of Leviticus 25 which lays out clearly this ordinance that was
really part of the ceremonial law that Israel was to keep this
50th year as a year of jubilee. And obviously the thought of
jubilee is very much with us in the sense that we have the
Platinum Jubilee of our Queen, 70 years of course that is, and
of course we use the word jubilee and in many ways really it's
a way of an anniversary or a celebration. That's the word that is used
in our country at the moment when we think of the Queen's
Platinum Jubilee. But really the word here, Jubilee,
in these verses here is a different word. There is joy in it, but
it is really the blowing of the trumpet. It's the blowing of
the ram's horn trumpet. And understand when this verse
was translated into the Septuagint which is the Greek translation
of the Hebrew which probably the Lord Jesus used when he was
on this earth. It uses the same word here for
this word jubilee as liberty in the Greek. And so it became
known as this liberty that was being declared rather than perhaps
we think of our Queen at this time and we have a jubilee, it
doesn't mean really liberty to anybody, it just means to celebrate
and to thank God for the anniversary of these 70 years. So there is
a similarity but a difference. But I do want to then look at
this precious ordinance that was part
of the ceremonial law and what it meant for the Hebrews. And
how, obviously, we are no longer under the ceremonial law, we
are not under a theocracy with God in control of the whole land,
as it were, like it was in Israel's day. But, you see, all these
things in the ceremonial law were pointers to something better. Always. All the types and shadows
of the Old Testament were always pointing to something better. There was preciousness here,
but always there was something better to come. That's the whole
of the book of Hebrews is really saying that the Lord Jesus was
a better sacrifice. We've sung of that so much in
our hymns thus far, how the Lord Jesus and what he accomplished
gives that blessing to his people. But then let us look then at
what this was to the Hebrews. They're told, you see, we're
told in verse to speak unto the children of Israel and say unto
them, when ye come into the land which I give you, so this was
under Moses' time, they hadn't yet come into the promised land.
This was an instruction for them to do when they got into the
promised land. When you come into the land which
I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years shalt thou sow thy
field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather
in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall
be a Sabbath of rest unto the land. So just as we have this
seven days in a week, and we have the Sabbath day as the,
as the, in the Old Testament, it was the seventh day was kept
as that Sabbath of rest. And we believe in the New Testament
that has been become now the Lord's day, which is when the
day that he rose from the dead. on the first day of the week.
But just as you have that seven days a week and one special day
in that of dedication to God, so also in Israel the years were
like that. So you had six normal years and
then you had a seventh year where you weren't to work the fields. So we see here, that which groweth
of itself of its own accord thou shalt not reap, neither gather
the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is year of rest unto the
land. you might think there's a bit
of a contradiction in verse 6 because it says in the Sabbath of the
land shall be meat for you so you can eat it for thy servant
and for thy maid and for thy hired servant and for thy servant
stranger that sojourneth with thee so are they to reap it are
they not to reap it well what what what he's saying here is
that that they're not to sow but Naturally, if you have the
farmers, when they grow a crop the next year, that same crop
will grow a certain amount because of dropped seed from the last
harvest. So there will be quite a lot
of self-set wheat, as it were, if you've got a wheat field.
And of course, they didn't have the technologies of the combine
that we have now, which is very good at gathering all the grains,
so there probably would have been more self-set wheat then
than there would be in a field of ours today. But what it's
saying here is that you're not to reap it in a commercial sense.
So the farmer was not to hire his workers and get them to take
all the corn and bring it into his barn. It was to be left and
everybody, as it were, could go and help themselves. And I
think that's what it means in verse 6. And the Sabbath of the
land shall be meat for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and
for thy maidservant, and thy hired servant, and the stranger
that sojourneth with thee. It was to be others could benefit. You see, As you go in the word
of God, so much is that there's mercy. There's mercy for those
that are oppressed and in difficulty. They were not to be commercial
all the time. There was to be that industry,
and God encouraged that to a point, but there was to be those times
when they were to stop from their commercial labours and, as it
were, give to the poor and others so that it was going to be more
of a, what we would say, the welfare state to help others
in need. and but then in verse 8 thou
shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee seven times seven
years so that gives you 49 years and after 49 years so each seven
years you had this year that you were not to sow or reap but
in the 50th year there was to be another extra year like this
so there was going to be two years in a row that they would
not harvest in the normal way and You might think, well, what
would they eat? Well, they would need to be dependent
upon God. And you see, so much with the
word of God, we are to trust God. Prove me now herewith and
see if I'm not able to open the windows of heaven and pour out
a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it. You
see, God wanted Israel to trust him. and to put him first, that
they were not just here trying to make more and more money.
There was other things to think about and that's what of course
the Sabbath day today, we do not have this law now that we
have to stop working for a whole year every seventh year. But
we do have, in the moral law, the Ten Commandments is still
included, that commandment regarding the Sabbath day, keep the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy and to use that time. And as we do that,
you see, there's a sense of trusting God. You young people that are
studying for your exams, And you have an exam on a Monday
morning. Well, I suspect most of your colleagues in your class
would be revising on Sunday to be ready for Monday. But you
see, we're to rest on the Lord's Day. We're to stop and we're
to consider the things which are eternal. because your exams,
yes, they're important, our lives are important to a point, but
there's one thing that's more important than everything else,
is our eternal state, and God wants us regularly to consider
that, to consider our latter end, because it's coming, and
because it's so serious, and so right that we should consider
it, and so in Israel's time, it meant that they had to really
trust God, that he would provide, and it did say In verse 20, it gives an answer
to this possible problem with this. It says, if you shall say,
what shall we eat the seventh year? This is Leviticus 25 verse
20. Behold, we shall not sow nor
gather in our increase. Then I will command my blessing
upon you in the sixth year. You see, we mustn't lose sight
of the blessing of God. Oh, we can do all things. You
say, well, if you do this and this and this and this, then
everything else will go right. God's blessing makes all the
difference. You know, a little with the Lord's
blessing is so much better than great provision without his blessing. And we need to covet that, you
see, the blessing of God. And we need to then walk in his
commandments. and do his ways and then there
is a blessing. Behold I will command my blessing
upon the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
You see, there was going to be a plenty that God was able to
provide. In their normal way of carrying
on, there would be a bounty. God would provide that. So they
were to trust God. And you see, this is a testimony
to those around us. It is with the Lord's Day. The
shops that don't open on a Sunday, the businesses that don't open
on a Sunday, we keep Sunday special. We treat it as a day of worship
of our God. Others will say, surely you make
more money if you open seven days a week than six. but we're
not here to make money only we're here to serve God and God is
able to bless and there are of course many businesses of course
you think of many businesses owned by God's
people who have been very prospered but they stand by this principle
that they don't do business on the Lord's day. Well Israel had
to do that in their lives but this was much more this was a
whole year and you say well what do they do for the year? Well,
it's thought that perhaps they could teach their children, spend
their time teaching and learning of the things of God. It was
to be holy, a time given to worship. And it's a witness to those around
us that God is in control of our lives. And it's not just
doing our own thing. And of course, it's also a control of our covetousness you
might think well if you've had a good harvest you if you've
reaped three times as much you say well we're gonna we're gonna
sow again and gets three times as much again we're just gonna
get bigger and bigger but you see the whole message to us as
Christians is that we're not here forever They were to be sojourners. We
read that in verse 23 for the land is mine for your strangers
and sojourners with me. It's very important point that
we're going to come to. So we've had these seven years seven times
seven years and then there was this to be this jubilee year
that we that we've mentioned. And then, so then, in verse nine,
thou shalt, then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to
sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. So this was a
particular day in the year, and it was linked, it was the same
day in the year that was the great day of atonement. This
was the day that the high priest went first in with the blood
of the bullock to atone for his own sin, and then he went in
with that blood of the goat to atone for the sins of the congregation. And then there was that other
goat that he confessed the sins of all the nation upon, and then
that was left to go, a scapegoat, into the wilderness. This was
the day, this was the great day of atonement, the only day in
the year when the high priest was able to enter into the Holy
of Holies. And yet, that not without blood.
It was a special day. It was a day that Israel was
to afflict their souls. They were to be, they were to
confess their sins. They were to be sorry for their
sins. And this was the great day of atonement. And yet, at
that day, you see, there was to be, every 50th year, there
was to be a trumpet of jubilee. There was to be the sound of
this trumpet blown. And what did that mean? Well,
you see, to those that had lost their land, those whose land
had been sold to others because of circumstances that happened,
perhaps something like Naomi. You think that they'd moved away,
and then they'd come back, and then her land was in negative
equity. In the case of Ruth, we read
that Boaz was that kinsman redeemer that bought back that. According
to the laws of God, if it had stayed in that way, when the
year of Jubilee had come around, it would have gone back to the
ownership of Naomi. Because of this law. And this
whole thing speaks of restitution. Things being put back to what
they were as a result of this, as we see, this great trumpet
of Jubilee being sounded. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth
year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof. And it shall be a jubilee unto
you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and
ye shall return every man unto his family. So this was a proclamation of
liberty. You think of it, if you were,
we read in verse, perhaps I'll just read that in verse 25 of
Leviticus 25, if thy brother be waxen poor and be sold away
some of his possessions, he may redeem it, or he can sell himself
into slavery. That's not the slavery that we
had in the slave trade, where people were ganged up and forced
into ships. That's not the slavery we're
talking about here. This is your neighbor. They've come into poverty. They've come into difficulties.
And you take them in to be your servant, your slave, and they
work for you. and you give them their food
and so on and so it's a way of saving them in a sense, not the
sort of brutality and hatred that was done in those days in
the slave trade as such. But here you see God had concern
for those that were in weakness and those that were oppressed
and those that had got themselves into slavery, maybe through no
fault of their own, maybe because of their own fault. We don't
know. In some respects with Naomi,
I think the decision of Naomi and Elimelech to go away from
God's people in the time of famine was not a good one. And yet they
came back and yet there was restitution. There's mercy in the gospel.
And you see this is a great message. Then shall thou cause the trumpet
of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day, the day of atonement,
and to proclaim liberty throughout the land. So those people that
were in slavery, they had to do what their master said. They
didn't get really money for it. They had to just work for their
living, their food, as it were. But it came to this 50th year,
and that trumpet was blown, And that meant that they were no
longer slaves. They were no longer under their
master. They no longer needed to work
for their master because there was this declaration of liberty.
They could go then and return to their original inheritance. You see, when Joshua came into
the land, Each of the tribes, there's a lot about it in Joshua,
how each of the tribes were given their land to live in. It was
not just some random thing, it was an appointment by God. I
think there's much spiritual teaching here about how God goes
to prepare a place for his people. There is a specific place for
each of his people. I go to prepare a place for you.
And you see, but then things go in our lives and difficulties
come and it seems uncertain whether we will ever gain that place.
Ah, but then the trumpet sounds. Then the trumpet of Jubilee sounds
and that question mark about whether there is that place in
heaven for us or whether others perhaps have taken it. There
would be a return and there would be a realization. Yes, this is
my land. I've returned to my inheritance.
My inheritance, it is with God, you see. And so in that sense,
they couldn't lose their inheritance. And how in that sense, God's
people, they cannot lose their inheritance. Yes, they fall. They come short. They sin. They
make mistakes, like David did with Bathsheba and Uriah. Terrible
mistakes sometimes. But you see, there's a way back
to God. And there's a place prepared for David. In this sense, you see, as there
was that problems and the slavery, then the trumpet sounds and there
was liberty to the captives. Those that were oppressed and
those that were in difficulty, not oppressed because people
were being wicked to them, but just because they had nothing.
They were in poverty and their lands had been sold. And so in
that sense, it was rightly somebody else's. But when that trumpet
sounded, there was a return. There was a return. Every man unto his possession,
and you shall return every man unto his family. I want to think
of this. When that trumpet sounded, what
did it mean to all the different people? Well, there was the slaves,
there was those that had negative equity, there was those that
were in debt, and surely that must have been music to their
ears. that their debt is gone. Of course, it was all linked
to this day of atonement. It's linked to the work of Christ.
It was pointing towards Christ. And there was liberty. But you
think of it. Was it universal good news? Was
it universal good news, the sound of the trumpet? If you were the
well-to-do farmer that had purchased your surrounding fields from
your surrounding neighbours that had become too poor to farm it
for themselves, and you'd got lots of servants or slaves because
of people who hadn't been able to make ends meet, when that
trumpet sounded, you were to lose all that. You were to give
it back to their resort. So for some people, you see,
it was a wonderful sound. And for some, it must have meant... Now, if there were good Israelites,
had the fear of the Lord, people like Boaz, who loved others,
and who was very welcome, very willing to spend all that money
and redeem Ruth, all in the name of Elimelech, all in the name
of somebody else, if there were people like Boaz, I'm sure there
would have been something in Boaz's heart would have rejoiced
too. Because this was a blessing. It's a blessing to bless others,
you see. And there could have been some like Boaz that would
have rejoiced. But if you had a selfish person
that wanted to build their own estate up, this was bad news. This was, you had to give it
all back. All that you accumulated in those 50 years, extra to what
you originally had, you had to let go. And you see, so that
trumpet sounding. had different meanings to different
people. I just wonder whether I can liken
those farmers, as it were, that had attributed great things in
their estates. When that trumpet sounded, it
was the end of that wealth, in that sense. They had to go back
to their original. And we think of that with the things of God,
You see, if we're trying to build our own estate here below, if
we're trying to build, if this is our rest, and that trumpet
blows, that's the end. But you see, those who are looking
for a blessed hope when that trumpet blows, they go to be
with Christ, which is far better. That same trumpet has a huge
difference in what it means to different people. And you see,
this is very important. What does this trumpet mean to
you? Are you amongst those who are
full of, as it were, are happy with your own self-righteousness,
happy with the way things are going, as it were? You've accumulated
great wealth here below and this is your rest. This is what you
want. This is your comfortable portion. When that trumpet blows, then
you've got to let go. But for those that come to realise
their debt and their poverty, then that trumpet means freedom,
liberty, liberty to serve. And you see, they weren't to
do nothing in this year, I believe. They were to serve God. They
were to worship God. They were to be involved in that
worship. And how important that is for us today. As we think
of these things, where is our affections? Are our affections
on things below, or are they things above? And we see, you
see, that the whole way that Israel was structured, that it
was all to do with how far it was from the year of Jubilee.
If your field, if you bought a field and it was 40 years away
from Jubilee, then you had 40 years of crops of that field
before you had to give it back, and it was worth a lot of money.
If there was only one year left, then it was only one crop you'd
get off. In a sense, you see, when they
sold and bought, it was all really... It was really what we would call
renting. You'd rent the field for 40 years,
because you didn't really buy it, because it says here, the
land shall not, in verse 23, the land shall not be sold forever,
for the land is mine. You see, this is the sense I
want to get to here. Who owns your possessions? Are
they yours, or are you a steward? of what God has given you. It's
very, very different. You see, a steward, he says,
like Joseph was in charge of Potiphar's house. He asked Potiphar
what Potiphar wanted him to do and he honorably did it. But
it wasn't his. He didn't own the house. It wasn't
his to do what he wanted with it in that sense. He was a steward. And you see, Israel, the Israel
here, they were stewards. They were to use what God had
given them, but they were not owners in the sense it's my land
to do what I want to do with my land. No, it was God's land. It was a gift of God. God had
given them the land. They never bought the land. They
didn't sign out so many cheques to the Canaanites so they could
buy the land off them. God had given it to them. Yes,
they were involved in driving out the heathen. They were involved
in that way, but that's not buying it. that the land was given and
the land must never be sold. And this picture here then that
we are, that God was trying to teach Israel that they were to
be, they were to be stewards. They were stewards,
they were not big owners. And may that be in our lives,
that we may rethink all our assets. That we're to be stewards of
them, not owners of them. They're not mine. What shall
I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? They're
benefits, they're gifts that God has given for us to use,
for the furtherance of the gospel, for the blessing of his people,
for the help of others, for those in poor, those in need, those
in difficulty, those in trouble, that we're to use what God has
given us, the resources he's given us, not as ours, but as
his. It's not ours. And this is what
God was teaching these Israelites, that they were to be stewards,
and they were not to be so commercial that they were, as it were, driving
their own ends, just to get the greatest state under their own
name. This was something that stopped
it. And you see, what's very interesting
is that although we have all this laid out in Leviticus 25,
we don't actually read of an occasion when really this jubilee
actually happened. We're told that it should happen
But we don't actually get given account like like we did with
we're told about these laws of redemption in Leviticus and then
we have the book of Ruth which shows those laws of redemption
being worked out in the life of Ruth and Naomi. But we don't
read of any far as I'm aware any occasion where really this
jubilee there was an example given of it actually taking place.
That's not to say it didn't, but I'm just saying that. Of
course, you see, it wasn't universal good news. Those that were well
off, it was bad news for. Those who had accompanied great
estates, they had to give back all that they had given because,
really, it was not theirs. Ultimately, it was God's, and
God had said that they should give it back. And, of course,
you can imagine they wouldn't have been too pleased to do that
if they'd have had their own way. But you see, this is speaking
and pointing to something greater, something greater for us. You
see, if you look in Isaiah 61, we have here very much language
borrowed from this idea of the Jubilee. Isaiah 61 says, The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
the opening of the prison to them that abound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God. to comfort all that mourn. This, the acceptable year of
the Lord, this is what the Lord Jesus came to do. And of course,
we know that in Luke chapter 4, when he came into the synagogue
in Nazareth, this was the passage that Jesus read in the synagogue. He read Isaiah 61, and he explained
with those gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. But
interestingly, the result at the end of that sermon was not
universal jubilation. If I tell you the result of that
sermon, in Luke 4 verse 29, this was the result of the sermon.
Or verse 28, and all they in the synagogue which heard these
things were filled with wrath. and rose up and thrust him out
of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Others were amazed at the wonderful words that proceeded out of his
mouth, but there was not universal acceptance. Because, you see,
I believe the gospel has two sides. And whilst it is a wonderful
mercy to insolvent people to realise that there is a way back
to God, it's also a complete check on the pride of man to
come to God in their own righteousness. In their own greatest states
of all the things that they think, of course the Pharisees were
so impressed with themselves and they came to God and God
was not impressed with them. I've come to seek and to save
that which was lost. not that which was great in their
own eyes. And so we have here, you see,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, it was not universally good news.
Oh, it was wonderfully good news to those that were in need of
it. And I ask you this morning, what
does the trumpet of jubilee mean to you? Which side is it? It was not universally good news.
because it spelt an end of making their estate here below. It put
a nail in the coffin of making their great estate here below.
It couldn't do it because it had to keep going back if they'd
obeyed God's law. But you say, well, haven't we
spoiled the picture rather, because we've said we don't know whether
it actually took place. And I didn't know whether to
mention it to you, that we don't have a record of it being worked
out, because it was a wonderful A wonderful picture, you see,
of liberation and beauty. But the trouble is here, with
this particular ordinance, who paid the price? The people who
paid the price of this liberation was the rich farmers, as it were,
that had accumulated great wealth. They were the people that had
to give back to the other people which that had been lost. So
it required others, you see, to give of themselves. This is where I say we have here
a picture of something far, far greater. We have a picture here
of not others having to give, but of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. And you see, he was willing. Though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be
made rich. And you see, as those rich farmers
would give of their wealth to those around and give them back
their land, you see, they would have to give themselves, these
rich farmers. And they'd have to lose that riches because they'd
have to give it to the others. And I'm not sure whether they
were willing to do it. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.
But I have a different story to tell you about the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was willing. He came. He made himself of no reputation.
He took upon him the form of a servant. He stood in the place
of his people. He didn't defect. That's why
all the Old Testament types and shadows, that they come short.
Because Christ is the one. Christ is the one who was to
fulfill that. And that is so precious for God's people to
realize that yes, we don't know for sure how much this happened
in Israel. But we do know for sure that
the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek, and he hath sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
that is certain. That is certain. You see, the
things most certainly believed among us, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, even though it was not acceptable to those
in Nazareth. They didn't want it. They led
him to the brow of the hill to kill him. But his time was not
yet. His time was not yet. He had
yet to complete all his earthly work. He'd yet to speak of that
high priestly prayer. He'd yet to be ready to be offered.
And then when he was ready to be offered, he offered himself
willingly. Not like, we don't know, but
these rich farmers, not sure how willing they were to give
away all their wealth. You see, the liberation was at the expense
of the rich people, of those who had gained lands from them. They had to give it back. But
you see, the Lord Jesus, he was willing to give to his people. Yes, some of those rich farmers
no doubt were quite rich, but nothing compared to the riches
of Christ, nothing. And yet he willingly laid aside
his glory and stood in the place of insolvent rebels, which were
far off from God, and brought them back. And then that trumpet
of the jubilee sounded, you see, and then it was a wonderful,
precious thing to them. But I want to just also tie in
with 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 16. We have here
another trumpet that is to be sounded. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16. For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first and they which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another with these words. This Old Testament type
in the ceremonial law had in one sense its fulfillment in
the coming of the Savior when he came with those words of grace
and truth. He came as the Savior of sinners.
But Jesus is coming again. He's coming a second time without
sin. He's not coming to bear the sin
of his people again. He's finished that, but he's
coming a second time to call his people home. The trump shall
sound. Now will it be a good news? Will
it be a sound of pleasantness to you? Or will it be a sound
of terror? It will be one or the other.
Come to judgment. Come away. That will be a terror,
won't it? You'll leave all your goods here
below then. They'll all be gone. There's nothing here below and
that's why having a Sabbath day is so important because we need
to remember that there's a time coming where everything here
below we've got to lay aside. We won't be able to do lots of
things, all the things that we naturally do in our lives week
by week. When time is no longer, we will
stop. But what we do on the Lord's Day, when we do it right, we
won't stop. It will be the worship of God and that will then expand
into the joy of heaven. You see, for those, when they
hear that shout, that would be to be with Christ, which is far
better. To be liberated from a body of sin and death. To be
with Him. And you see, there's a liberation
from the fact that we're sinners. Paul groaned of that in Romans
7. The good that I would, I do not.
The evil that I do not, that I would not, that I do. That's
a grief to the child of God. Do you see when that trump sounds,
that last trump? It'll be finished. Liberty. Liberty to serve perfectly. Perfectly. To worship perfectly.
To love God perfectly. To show forth his praise perfectly. We never do that here below.
But there's a trump coming. When that trump blows, Time will
be no longer. And everything we do about it,
we might say, well, we've lost all these years because we couldn't
plant our corn. Well, there's a time coming when
we won't be planting any corn. We won't be doing any of those
things. We'll be past some time in eternity, and then the only
thing that matters is, is Jesus Christ thy only plea? Is he thy
great forerunner there? Has he gone before you? Has he
paid the price? where then as we think of this
precious theme of the Jubilee, then shalt thou cause the trumpet
of the Jubilee to sound. On the tenth day of the seventh
month, in the day of atonement, shalt ye make the trumpet sound
throughout all the land, and ye shall hallow the fiftieth
year. It was to be a special, a holy year, like we hallow the
Sabbath day and keep it holy. Proclaim liberty. Ah, but this
was a liberty at the expense of the rich farmers. But the
liberty in Christ is the expense of Christ, who was willing to
lay down his life for ransom for many. He loved his church
and gave himself for it. Oh, there was a willingness,
there was a bounty in Christ that these Old Testament types
fall short. And that's what they're intended
to do, so that Christ will be exhorted. That his kingdom, his
glory, his reign of peace will be truly what we look forward
to. For ye shall hallow the 50th
year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you.
Ye shall return every man unto his possession. I go to prepare
a place for you. as every man has his possession. Nobody else can take it. And ye shall return every man
unto his family, the family of God, whose father fills the throne,
and though a seed of heavenly birth to men, they're little
known. Whene'er they see the public
eye, they feel the public scorn, and men their fare is claimed,
deny, and count them basely born. But there's a people taught by
grace to know his matchless worth. And that's what we want to be,
amongst that people who know the joyful sound. And this trumpet
of jubilee means liberty. It means that when we come in
our sin and realise our far offness and we realise we need this saviour,
we need this liberation. Are we like those rich Pharisees? full of their own self-righteousness.
And that trumpet sounds and it's disaster. It's the end of all
that they gloried in, the end of everything for them. Well,
may we be amongst those who see the trumpet sounding to be precious. Unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious. Amen.