Jubilee

That's how I do it. That's how I do it. That's how I do it. It's not actually May the 17th, it's May the 24th. And tomorrow is May the 25th, and Stan will be at an advanced age. He was eight when I got here. I've been here 48 years, so you do the math. Next Sunday, we'll observe the Lord's table in the morning. Okay, we'll begin our worship service this morning with hymn number 268. One change, we'll be singing along with Deb playing on the operatory instrument. But that's yet to come.

Hymn number 268, How Firm a Foundation, You Saints of the World. How firm a foundation One more. When I die and with Thee you'll be not dismayed For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand Upheld by my grace Just a nipple to have.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow. For I will be with Thee Thy troubles to bless And sanctify to Thee Thy deepest distress When through Thy retrials Thy pathways shall lie Thy grace also fills shall be thy supply. Thy flame shall not hurt me, I only desire thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. A soul that on Jesus has pleaded for repose, I will not, I will not deserve to dispose! That soul, though all hell should be barren to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

After scripture reading and prayer, we'll sing the part in the handout, The Good News of Salvation. It's sung to the tune of Jesus' call to us and the Lord of the tomb. Now your Bible's telling me to ask chapter 13. Chapter 13, 32 verses of Scripture. Verse 38 and 39.

Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by Him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Our Father in Heaven, we come in the blessed name of perfect righteousness, in Jesus Christ our Lord, who indeed is our righteousness, for you are made to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We come in that name because you bid us do so. To speak in that name, to tell you our desires of our heart in that name. Desires of our heart to stay so we might worship you. Uplift him. Sing his praises. Hearts full of thanksgiving and praise.

We pray, Lord, this day for those who are sick and those who are away from us. For whatever reason, we ask the Lord to help them. Show them mercy and bring them home safely. We pray, Father, for ourselves this hour that our hearts might be rented, might be cast down in the dust where we belong, to lift our eyes to Him who's worthy of all praise and honor.

Help us this day by your spirit to take the things of Christ and reveal them unto us. Enable me by your grace to declare the glories of Jesus Christ. May we see him, may we catch a glimpse of his glory. If that takes place, Father, we will indeed bow down before him and say that he is Lord to the glory of the Father. Help us now to pray in Christ's name.

Would you hand it out? ♪ I am mild and so unrighteous ♪ ♪ Only brave than the sin ♪ ♪ In my heart there is truth ♪ Is there hope for such a sinner? Can there be a remedy? Far from God and so polluted Must I die eternally? Oh, the good news of salvation In the cross for gain to me Jesus came to save the sinful By His death on Calvary Blessed tidings of salvation In the Word, a God I found God forgives a man guilty What a cheering, joyful sound By His name, I save His people I believe. I told him I like that tune. Jesus called us over to him, didn't care much for the words. One of the people dropped me a hymn with those words. He sat down and 15 minutes later he read it. Some people don't get it, he does. Richie Henry.

We're gonna sing for our offertory hymn, number six, Come Thou Almighty King. Let's pray. Father, help us this hour to worship you in this manner that you will thank for the preaching of the gospel here and in other places. Now, know us the hearts of your people. You have given them the heart to understand that everything they have, they have because of mercy and grace. May that reflect in our giving. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. And number six.

Come now, O mighty King, help us thy name to sing, help us to praise! Father of glorious, for all victorious, Come and reign over us, ancient of days! Come, Thou incarnate Word! Word of Thy mighty sword! Our prayer attend! Come and Thy people bless, and give Thy word success! Spirit of holiness, harness me. O Holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour!

Thou who almighty art, Thou who in every heart, And man from us divorced, Here is your heart! To Thy Revival bring eternal praises, be His evermore! His Sovereign Majesty, may we in glory see, and in eternity, love and adore! words of Paul in this passage of scripture ends up with him declaring to the Gentiles, or rather the Jews, that they had forsaken their God and had not believed the covenant of grace.

And he took the message to the Gentiles and we have that glorious passage that says that whoever God had ordained, and that word is pro-grabbo, whomever God had written to life. Now how does one become written to life? Written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world. And those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world are those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are ordained. to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

He begins this passage to this message to the men of Israel who still wanted to abide by the law of Moses. He says these words, Be it known unto you, therefore men and brethren, that through this man, Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin, sin no longer being remembered, And that happens through the Lord Jesus Christ. And by him, by the Lord Jesus Christ, all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. That struck to the very heart what the Jews believed. This speaks of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree and what he accomplished for his people.

On Calvary, our mighty Lord satisfied justice, redeemed all his people, saved his people from their sins, forgave them all their debt, and returned to them all they lost in Adam and Moab. David was a picture of that when he returned to the Philistines and destroyed them for it says David recovered all. He recovered all. His people, poor sojourners all, have squandered all.

They've made themselves debtors, incapable of recovery, and have nothing they can claim but their unbearable weight of sin. Paul, preaching the gospel, declared that through this man, Jesus Christ, all sins were forgiven. That could not be forgiven by the law, Moses. In fact, keeping the law doesn't rid a person of sin. It simply keeps him from the law working on him. And this is good news. This is the gospel, glad tidings of great joy. Salvation has been brought and peace and rest, which is the Sabbath, has been made by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it all.

That great deed reconciled all the elect to God, according to Colossians chapter 1. They had never tasted God's wrath, even though they were born in sin and conceived in iniquity and hated God in their heart and in their mind. They had never tasted His wrath and they never would. Their debt had been fully paid without a farthing from their own hands.

Free, full, and forever is the grand declaration of the gospel. What sweet sound this is to the poor, indebted, bankrupt sinner. This is what the preacher of the gospel does all his life as he stands in the pulpit and declares the gospel. He just has a hope that out there, there's a real sinner. One whom God has made aware of his sin. For he knows he has a message for him.

And what Paul here fleeting freely declares in Acts 13, Moses wrote of in Typhon's shadow in the 25th chapter of Leviticus, if you want to turn there. Here, God commands the children of Israel to observe the last and most descriptive and full Sabbath of all the Sabbath days, and that's the Sabbath of the Jubilee. I was thinking this week of our dear departed sister, who genuinely I can't tell you how many times Winnie Scott would say to me as I was walking down the aisle, when are you going to preach on Jubilee again? She loved the teaching of that day, the Sabbath of Jubilee. That Sabbath begins with the trumpet being blown at the Day of Atonement.

This has to do with the accomplishment of the Day of Atonement, and spiritually it is about the accomplishment of the Savior's death on Calvary's tree. There is no more clear representation of the gospel as it pertains to the cross of Christ in the Old Testament than is found in Leviticus 16. We won't turn there, but you know it's about the Day of Atonement. This is about what our Lord did as our great high priest on Calvary. which Hebrews 11 says he went into the holy place, not made with hands, and not with animal blood, but with his own blood, and he obtained eternal redemption for his people. These ceremonies that attended this passage of scripture in Leviticus 16 were about a shadow of good things to come, Paul says to the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 10, but not the very thing.

But they teach us much about how our redemption was accomplished on Calvary Street. It's important to understand that this day, the Day of Atonement, is the only day that is about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only particular day. where there are numerous aspects concerning what God has done for us and what he's done for in us, none of it applies here on the Day of Atonement. Our lives are made to a singular event, a singular thing, a one-time event, an important, a great and important event, something that should fix our minds and hearts upon this thing, this singular event.

It's called the cross. We call it the cross. It's the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. We get our word crux from it. When we think of something being absolutely the essential thing that makes something matter, we say the crux of the matter, the cross of the matter, the crucifixion of Christ is that crux in all of humanity and all of eternity and in all of time. This is the single thing that should occupy a sinner's mind. Forever and ever. This is the singular thing. This word all hinges right here on the Lord Jesus Christ.

On that day of atonement. Not only was the atonement made for the people, but it also told about the effects of that work that he did. Two offerings were brought that day. A sin offering and a burn offering. And both of these picture the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have many other offerings mentioned in Leviticus. You have the meat offering, which represents the perfect righteousness of Christ. That's not mentioned. The peace offering, which represents our thanksgiving and praise for what Christ has done for us. That's not mentioned.

No, on that day, the high priest went into the holy place, the most holy place, with the blood of the Lamb, And he met with God, represented by the Shekinah glory, the shining brightness of God between the wings of the two cherubim facing each other on the Ark of the Covenant.

There he met with God, and that picture's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. On that day, Christ was not offered to men. He did not offer himself to men. That's the language of false religion. What happened that day was a transaction between God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody else was involved. Now, it was on behalf of somebody else, but nobody was involved in that transaction. Men had already done their worst, and they couldn't kill him. God had already poured out His wrath on His Son in those three hours of darkness. That didn't kill Him.

Our Lord entered there with His own blood, and that means His own death. He died for God. His sacrifice was for God. It was to honor God, to glorify God in His justice and His wrath. On the Day of Atonement, it was one man, one God, one day, once a year. Calvary is one man, one God, one day, once and forever in the acceptable year of the Lord. Secondly, there were two goats that were involved in that day of atonement. They revealed the dual aspect of the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ that he accomplished on Calvary. One goat answered the requirement of God's holiness and his justice and his law. That goat was slain. He was killed. Why? Because only death will satisfy justice. Only death.

The other answered the necessities of those for whom the sacrifice was made. Thirdly, the fact that there was only one individual that entered into the holy place teaches us that that transaction was only between this man and his God who dwelt on the mercy seat. The entire transaction declares in no certain terms that our redemption is holy, and completely and solely by Jesus Christ our God. And it was offered before God. You weren't available, you weren't involved, you had nothing to do with it. You can't pay for your sin. Only Christ can. He did that day without you being involved. This entire transaction declares no in certain terms that our redemption is holy and completely solely in this one thing.

And that's why we celebrate the way we celebrate. In the preaching of the gospel, we declare the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In baptism, we declare the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the Lord's table, which we'll take next week, we'll declare the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it comes again because that's what did it. We are thankful that he lived a perfect life. He could not do otherwise. He knew no sin. He had no sin. He did know sin. He could not do otherwise than live a perfect life. Some would say, well, could he have sinned? No. It was not his character to do so. It was not his nature to do so, to sin. He did not sin. Could not sin. But that did not save us.

What saved us was the fact that that sinless life qualified him to be the perfect sacrifice to God for sin. And that perfect sacrifice satisfied God. And it was accomplished out of our view, out of our hand, in the holiest of all, without our opinion, consent, input, will, or our faith. All of that was accomplished before we, who live now, even existed in that time.

This amazing event coincides fully with the mysterious three hours of darkness that our Lord spent on the cross, where no human eye beheld our God dealing with His Son concerning His justice for sin. The Sabbath of Jubilee followed that. On the Day of Atonement, after that, the holy high priest went into the Holy of Holies and offered his blood to God, offered the blood of the Lamb to God.

On that day afterward, they sounded a horn, a shofar. It was a ram's horn. It didn't make a pretty sound. They called it a trumpet, but we think of a cornet or a trumpet with people playing in the music. This was a loud, screaming kind of noise that was made. It just pierced the ears of everybody for miles around. If you ever heard somebody blow a ram's horn, you know what I'm talking about. That was the shofar.

The Sabbath of Jubilee. was observed in the 50th year every 50th year at the end of 49 years on the day of atonement the day of atonement after the high priest has made atonement for sins of the people a ram's horn was blown which produced a high pitched sound this began the 50th year the year of jubilee and it happened directly after the day of atonement It says in Leviticus 45.8, and thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years. That's 49 years. That's in verse 8, seven times seven years. The space of seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Thou shalt cause the trumpet of jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month in the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all the land.

This declaration, the sounding of the trumpet, was a declaration of what the Day of Atonement had accomplished. Now in the Old Testament, it accomplished God not bothering the people for sin for a year. And on the Day of Calvary, it accomplished God never looking to His people as sinners ever again. But that trumpet sounding is a picture of the Gospel.

It's called the trumpet sound in Scripture. At the end of 49 years, on the day of atonement, after the priest has made atonement for sins of his people, a ram's horn is blown, and this is the 50th year, the year of Jubilee. The word Jubilee literally means a very loud sound. A very loud sound.

Because this sound indicated the atonement had been made, that God was indeed satisfied for sins for at least a year, This is about what the people of God received because of the death of Christ. What did the people of God receive? It's set forth in this 49th year or this 50th year. It pictures the words of our Lord as he hung on the tree of agonies and blood.

He cried with a loud voice, it is finished. That was the trumpet. That was the shofar. This cry of our Lord, this grand declaration of success and redemption was the triumph of jubilee. Just as those Israelites waiting for the sound of the trumpet, the elect of God, true Israel is waiting for the word of God that the issue of sin has been settled by Christ, our high priest. The preaching of the gospel is the repetitive, resounding trumpet trumpeting of the fact that the great transaction is done.

Done. That this particular trump sounding at the end of 49 years means more. When this trump was sounded at this time, it had another meaning. It was a declaration of complete liberty and freedom. It was a declaration of full forgiveness when Christ said it was finished.

It was the beginning of a new day of rest and recovery for the poor, indebted, indigenous Israelites, the true Church of God. This was full of import and glory for the poor and needy among the people. For all of God's people, whether they be rich or whether they be poor. Of thy nature, poor and needy. And they never stop being that for the rest of their life. They never stop needing Christ. They never stop realizing how poor they really are in and of themselves.

During the previous 49 years of everyday life in commerce, buying and selling, borrowing and lending, life's business in general, many of God's people found themselves in a state of extreme poverty. During that first 49 years, there's other seven Sabbath years that we found. And that poverty took several forms according to scripture. Some of the people had become so poor that all they had were debts.

I hear of people like that today. They don't have any money, but they have tons of debts. That's what these people had. They were bankrupt. They owed a great deal of money to creditors. And the wolf was at the door. that never be able to pay themselves out of debt. They would likely go into debtor's prison as they lived in that time. These poor bankrupt folks waited for something. They, 49 years has passed, 364 days, they were waiting for one thing.

The sound of the trumpet. The sound of the trumpet. That blessed clarion call. which announced to them in that moment that that noise was made, they were free of debt. They may have owed a million dollars, but when that atonement was made and that trumpet was blown, they didn't owe anybody anything.

That's a big deal, don't you think? That's a big deal. Well, that's what happened to you when Jesus Christ died in your womb and stood on a chalice tree. When he said that he's finished, that's that trumpet. And here's the good news to you, you poor old bunch of sinners. Us poor old bunch of sinners.

We don't owe anything. Our debts been paid. We don't owe a nickel. We don't even owe anything to God except love and appreciation for what he's done. We don't owe him anything legally. Why? Because we don't have a debt to God. Our debt has been paid.

That's the sound of that trumpet. That's the sound of that trumpet. So Paul could actually stand up and say, by this man, by this man, all who believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Bring this about this Saturday. Say it for Jesus Christ.

And it was a rest. If you've ever been in debt or close to debt or living from hand to mouth or living from month to month, if you've ever been there, you know it ain't a whole lot of rest going on. Lay down in bed at night in trouble. I'm dead. I owe people. I need to pay my debts. One thing I've always hated in my life is being in debt to anybody. I've hated that. Thankfully, I'm not in debt to anybody, and that's good. But I've always dreaded it. I can remember when me and Debbie lived kind of paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes the paychecks didn't make it all the way to the end of the month. But on the day that our Lord Jesus Christ died, the death that we owe God, the eternal debt of death and dying, was paid. And God said, you don't owe me anything. What a day that was in Israel. What a day.

Some of God's people have become so poor that they've been forced to indenture themselves into slavery to the creditor. My ancestors came to the United States in about 1869, 1870. Germans, Irish, and such. They didn't come as free men. They came as indentured slaves or indentured servants. They worked farms, things like that, sharecropping, until they were able to pay off their indenture and become free citizens. Well, you didn't pay off your indenture. You were indentured.

He who committed sin is what? A servant of sin. A servant of sin, that means you served sin. You're indebted to that. You're indebted to that. Some people have become that poor. Since their debts were such that they could never be able to work off their indenture, they would remain a slave for life. That was their life. Their debt was so great. These poor, wretched slaves waited for something.

For 49 years to pass. and for the sound of that trumpet to blow. Ready for that sweet trumpet sound of the 49th year, the sound that noised about the glorious fact that the shackles and chains of indebted servitude were snapped like a twig, cast asunder by the piercing song of the glorious jubilee. When that trumpet sounded, they could just walk away.

There's your master. You owe him your life. You're indebted to him for life. Isn't that something? Trumpet sound. You say, see ya. He won't go away. That's what happened on Calvary. You owe God a debt you could not pay. You're indebted for eternity to pay that debt. You'd never get out of that debt.

And then Christ said that it's finished. That was the trumpet sound. And he walked away. And what the Lord calls, God is a free man. God is a free man. Their slave master has no rights over them anymore. No rights at all. Again, however, these former helots played no part in the liberation.

They were liberated because somebody blew a trumpet. Because an atonement had been made. Because a period of time had passed that God had ordained that on this 50th year they would be free. Free of debt. They had nothing to do with it. What did they do? Invigorated them by the glorious sound of that trumpet. They just turned around and walked away.

Some of God's people have become so poor that they've been forced to pawn their land, their family heritage. Jewish law would not allow them to sell it, and yet the law will sell it. God had made it clear that the land belonged to Him when He established the Sabbath of the land, where in the seventh year the land lay fallow and He provided for the people, letting them know for a surety that the previous six years of planting and sowing and harvesting was not the source of the sustenance, but rather He alone had given the end-cruise, proven by the fact that He fed them the entire Sabbath year without them lifting a finger. The land could not be sold, but it could be pawned, or forfeited, or put under a lease, because the owner's debts were so great that no other means of payment could be arranged. In the years of her life, this was kind of a final blow.

See, the Lord allotted those lands to tribal leaders, and there were indications. And that was their land. God had given them that land. That was their land. And it would always be their land. In their mind and heart, it would always be their land. Their home place, where they got married and raised their kids. They had all their grandkids upon their knees. This was home. This was home. And they lost it. I wonder what it was like to walk by the place where they once erected their tents. Or the cities they'd lived in. Melancholy and broken looking. I wonder who's living in my house. I wonder who's mining my fields. I wonder who's harvesting my flocks and my corn and shearing my flocks.

His land, the place where he made his home, represented a sense of continuity with the past, his heritage, his history, his name, his identity. Not much different than from today. The place that harbored him in the cold, his hearth and home, his place in the world. Think of the feeling, the ache in the heart of the death street, the dead as he walked by his old home place and other people living there. He had to watch as others worked his land and attain the bounty thereof. What a day it was, as that poor man who lost all heard something, the sound of a trumpet piercing the air.

What a day it was. That blaring report, and in an instant returned his land, his home, Think about that. If there was someone living in his home or on his land, he would just simply walk in and say, y'all gotta go. Y'all gotta leave now. Wait a minute. You gotta lay on this island. Not anymore, you don't. We've been living here for a long time. We're squattered. No, you gotta leave. You gotta leave.

With full ownership rights, jubilee return, The home place to the owner, he was no longer a debtor, he was a homeowner. What a day, glorious, but insufficient for the following year of jubilee, the same people would make the same bad investments. Who's at all that's been 49 years in poverty if they live that long properly, because people are people. everlasting sound, a permanent, unchangeable victory and liberty, a peace and rest that is eternal, a peace that passes knowledge and understanding.

On the great day of redemption, our Lord having finished the work of salvation and shouted that it was finished, the blessed jubilee, the eternal jubilee began. On that day, our Lord finished transgression. He made an end of sins. He made reconciliation for iniquity. He brought in an everlasting righteousness and sealed up the vision and the prophecy and anointed the most holy. It was on the Sabbath. The rest of God and the rest of His people. Proclamation of Jubilee.

How did our Lord teach us to pray? Forgive us our sins. as we forgive those who did him too much. One lady promised to the poor, a weird heavy lady, come unto me and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and you shall find rest for your soul. The very language of redemption is the language of jubilee. Redemption is being bought and brought out of slavery. Restoration is God, gospel language. Everything we lost in Adam, was restored by us in much more careful than Romans chapter 5.

Do you hear the trumpet? Do you hear the sound? If you do realize this, there is no restriction. Just one, actually. One inalterable prohibition. No servile work shall be involved. Don't lift a finger on this day because atonement, propitiation, and satisfaction has been made. The work is finished. The Trump declares absolutely unequivocally, you are no longer a debtor. You are the Lord's free man. Do not mar or disallow that with the work of my hands. The poet said, no more, my God, I boast no more of all the work that I've done. I quit the hope I held before, and trust the merits of thy son.

Our Lord said, in Luke chapter 4, he quoted from Isaiah chapter 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the weak, You sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison of them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, And they might be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed truth that the blood of his cross reconciled us to God is the horn of the day of atonement. That's the gospel. I look at you right now. Here's what I can say about you if you're a believer. You're free. You don't owe anything, and all things are yours. All the blessings to understand and pray, God bless you.

Jubilee

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