I invite you now to turn back
with me to Leviticus 25. This entire chapter is about
a holy Sabbath called Jubilee. Jubilee. As they entered into
Canaan, this was not something the whole world would rejoice
in. Not something the whole world would benefit in. It was for
the children of Israel. Specifically, he states that
at the beginning, I read it to you. When the children of Israel
shall come into that promised land, come into their inheritance,
that land that I gave them, it belongs to me. And you're gonna
come in and you're gonna be sojourners there and you're gonna sojourn
with me in this land. then you're going to observe
this thing called jubilee. They were given certain parcels
of land according to God's good pleasure, and this he called
their inheritance. And they were to live and farm
this land for six years. On the seventh year, they weren't,
do no killing, They're not to dress their vines. They're not
to gather anything in from their fields or vineyards that would
grow on an undressed vine. They're not to do any of that.
It was a Sabbath of years. And then after seven consecutive
Sabbath of years, on the 50th year, it was to be celebrated
as a year of jubilee. Now, Jubilee is a Sabbath. Sabbath has to do with rest. You remember me reading that
as I went through there. It's a rest for the land. It's
a rest for God. It's a rest. It has to do with
rest. It's a time of God's provision,
a time of restoration. It's a time of forgiveness. It's
a time of generosity. It's a time of mercy. And grace,
if you were sold into slavery because you owed a debt, you
had to work off your debt, even though you still owed the debt,
if it came jubilee, your debts were settled. Settled. Now one of them may have worked
49 years. One of them might have worked
two days. Didn't make any difference. When the year of jubilee come,
you was forgiven all your debts. Jubilee was a time to reflect
on God, to reflect on his love for his people and his provision.
And make no mistake, this jubilee is a picture of Christ and his
church partaking together of the inheritance of the saints
in light. That's what he's talking about.
That's what this jubilee is all about. And I've got several things
that I want you to see as I go through these verses. These things
are a picture, a type of the actual work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's a picture of him and his
church and what transpires in that church. But I want you to
see these things as I go through these verses. And I think if
the Lord's pleased to give you an understanding, it'll be a
sweet sound in your ears. The first thing I want us to
think about is the beginning of the Jubilee. After 49 consecutive
years, seven Sabbaths of years, he said on the 10th day of the
seventh month in the day of the atonement shall you make the
trumpet sound. You know what the blowing of
the trumpet is throughout the Old Testament? It's the gospel. It's the gospel being preached.
That's what that trumpet has to do with. You know, at the
last day, he said he's going to put one foot on the sea and
one on the land, and the trumpet's going to sound. The last gospel message is going
to be preached. He'll have one foot on the land
and one on the sea, and he'll say, time shall be no more. Here it was, it was September,
I believe, is what all the old writers said this month was.
And on the 10th day of the seventh month, in the day of the atonement,
he said, make that trumpet sound. Where? Where's it gonna sound? Throughout the land. Everywhere. This Holy Sabbath affects everybody. It affects everybody. He tells
us in Numbers 10.10 that in the day of your gladness, and in
your solemn days, and in the beginnings of the month, he said
you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over
the sacrifices, over your peace offerings, that they may be a
memorial before your God. I am the Lord your God. You sound this trumpet on the
day of atonement, on the day of atonement. And the beginning
of restoration for vision, mercy, and grace is sounded throughout
the land on the day of atonement. The scripture said when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son and
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And
not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we had now received the atonement. So what am I blowing
my trumpet about this morning? The atonement. There's nothing
else to preach. Paul said, God forbid that I
should preach anything except Christ crucified. If we're gonna
have a jubilee, it's gonna start with the atonement. Without the
death of Christ, without the blood of Christ, there is no
good news. There's nothing to blow a trumpet
about. There's nothing to celebrate. And there's certainly not gonna
be any rest apart from that atonement. So the beginning of restoration,
provision, mercy and grace, Sounded throughout the land on the day
of atonement. And Christ has already made our
atonement. We've received the atonement. And everything concerning joy
and celebration before God begins with the atonement. There's no
good news, no provision, no restoration apart from the atonement. And
then secondly, Jubilee was a Sabbath. What's the one thing that all
the Sabbaths have in common? Do you know? Rest. Rest. They all speak of rest. No works. Is that right? Every one of them. Go read them
for yourself throughout the scripture, every time it talks about a Sabbath.
You shall do no work in the Sabbath. No works. Are we living in the
Sabbath? Christ is our Sabbath, He's our
Jubilee. Where do works come in? They
don't. They don't. Everything that God
required, He did. He did. No works. He said in Leviticus 25.4, but
in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land. A Sabbath, now watch this, for
the Lord. for the Lord. Thou shalt neither
sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. The Sabbath is set
forth in Genesis 2 as a day in which the Lord rested. Did you
know that? This is the first Sabbath. In
Genesis 1.31 it says, And God saw everything that he had made,
and behold, it was very good. And thus the heavens and the
earth were finished, and all the host of them, and on the
seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested
on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Now think about that. He said
there's none good but God. When God says it's good, it means
it's perfect. It doesn't mean, well, it's a
little better than this. No, when God says a thing's good,
he's talking about God good, perfect. None good but God. You with me? All right, he looked
at creation. And he said it was good, and
then he rested. But now wait a minute. Didn't
he know that man was gonna fall? Didn't he know that there was
things going on in this earth that could cause the fall of
man? Satan was cast out in the earth, isn't that what it says? He was tempted by the serpent,
talking about Satan. Didn't God know that man was
gonna fall? Didn't he know Cain would murder his brother over
jealousy of an offering? Dispute over an offering? Didn't
he know in a few generations every imagination of the thoughts
of man's heart would only be evil continually? Did God not foresee Babylon? Did he not foresee his people
rejecting Christ and him being crucified on a cross? Did he
not foresee the gospel being preached, the trumpet being sounded,
and men rejecting it and mocking it and laughing at it, making
fun of it? How could the all-seeing God
of glory rest on the seventh day? Same way we do in Christ,
in Christ. In Christ we have obtained an
inheritance, now listen, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. Who first trusted in Christ?
God did. God did. He put all things into
his hands. Isn't that what Christ told him
over in the book of John? He said, the Father hath given
all things unto me. Unto me. Oh, what's he mean,
all things? All things. All things. And then it says, in whom we
also trusted after we heard the word of truth, the gospel of
our salvation. All the Sabbath days speak of
an eternal rest given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. We rest
in him. And there is no rest for God
and no rest for God's people apart from Christ. He's our rest. Matthew 11, 28. Our Lord looked
at the people, held his arms out, And he said, come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden. What's he gonna do? I'll give you rest. I'll give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest for your souls. When you gonna trust in Christ?
When you know him. When you see him as he is. when
he reveals himself in glory. Not poor little Jesus, boy, that
this whole earth talks about every Sunday, and especially
on Christmas and Easter. Poor little Jesus, boy, just
wringing his hands and crying his eyes out. He can't get people
to do what he wants them to do. He's Lord, he's a blessed and
only potentate King of kings and Lord of lords. He's not crying
his eyes out and he ain't wringing his hands. He's seated, expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. He's the Lord of glory. When will you rest? When you
see him as he is. Well, how is he? He's victorious. He's not up in glory working.
Somebody said all of our prayers and good works, we're sending
lumber up. God help you if you really believe
that. God have mercy on you. He said in my father's house
are many mansions. I'm gonna prepare a place for
you. He didn't mean he gonna build you a place. He gonna secure
you a place. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
four. We're talking about a sabbath.
Jubilee was a sabbath. It was a sabbath of sabbaths.
Every seven days there's a sabbath. Every seven years there's a sabbath. Every 49 years there's a sabbath. There's a rest at the end of
those ceremonies. There's a rest and that rest
is Christ. Rest is Christ. Now watch this,
Hebrews 4.1. This is talking about If you'll
go back and read Hebrews chapter three, he says this over and
over and over. Today, if you hear from him,
if you would hear from God today, don't harden your heart like
Israel did back in that wilderness. They wouldn't listen, they wouldn't
listen. And then he says in Hebrews 4.1, let us therefore fear lest
a promise being left of entering into his wrist, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. They heard
and observed the Sabbath days, but they received no joy, no
peace, no comfort from it, because they didn't understand what it
was all about. We which have believed, verse
three, do enter into rest. As he said, as I've sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest. He's talking about
them not entering in. Talking about those, their skeletons,
their body, their flesh just dropped in the wilderness and
that's where he left them. Although the works, he said,
was finished before the foundation of the world. Believers, Old
and New Testament believers understand that Christ is the Sabbath of
rest, Hebrews 14. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his work as God did from his. So what is it we're to quit working
for, huh? Quit working for our righteousness.
I received the righteousness of Christ. What could be better
than that? I tell you about this all the
time. I've only had really one trip where I went down in Washington,
D.C., and we went into as many of the tourist traps as you could go
into, all the museums and everything, but I was in this art gallery.
And I've never been a big art fan. I can appreciate it, but
I've just never been a big art fan. But I was there, and we
were in there, and we walked into this section, and it was
Dutch painters, and they were called the Dutch Masters. And
they had paintings way bigger than what this window is. It
would have been longer than that, and about that high. And then
they had benches about eight feet away that you could sit
on and look at those And I'm telling you, I've never seen
anything like it. The detail in those paintings,
I see why they have benches. I see why you sit there and just
look and look and look at a single painting. And then we looked
over, and this looks like some of you know what I'm talking
about, the man from Glad, you know, that big guy on the front.
This big guy standing over there on the corner, and there's one
over on this corner. My wife said, what are they doing? And
I told her, I said, that's when you reach in your purse to get
that little watercolor set, and you're going to go up and touch
up that painting. That's what that man's for. He's going to
tackle you before you get there. He's going to prevent you from
touching up. When we talk about working out
a righteousness by our works, we're talking about touching
up God's perfection. When you see it in that light,
you'll cease from your works. you'll cease from your work.
This is the one thing that God would kill you over for violating
his Sabbath day. You strap on your overalls and
get out the mule and go out there and plow that field, God'll strike
you dead under the law. Strike you dead. Why? Why? Because you're violating
that rest in Christ and that's what that picture was all about. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. The Sabbath of Jubilee was to
be a joyful celebration, a time of reflection and remembrance
of all the blessings that God had bestowed upon them. And he
began with the atonement. The atonement, what's that talking
about? Well, it says, by his own blood, he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. On the day of atonement, the
high priest, you can read about it in Hebrews 9, that high priest
He'd take that blood and he'd go into the first part of the
tabernacle called the sanctuary. And then he'd go beyond that
veil where none could go but the high priest alone. And he
could only go one time a year and not without blood. And he'd
go inside with that blood and he'd pour that blood on the mercy
seat. And then he'd come out and he'd bless the people. That
was the day of atonement. It pictured what Christ would
do. by his own blood entering in
one time into the holy place. And it was followed by a year
of divinely given rest, even creation rested. If you read
Romans chapter eight, you'll find out that creation is resting
in the same thing we do. All creation groaneth and travaileth. What are they waiting for? The
salvation of God's elect. And then thirdly, I want you
to see a godly provision during this rest. You have in our text a three-year
time period. You've got the 49th year. They
worked all year, planted their field, same as you do. They wait
till the fall, till the crops come in, and then they go harvest
the crop. Well, those crops was for that year, the 49th year.
But then they had a year, the 50th year. And you couldn't gather
anything. What were we going to eat on
the 50th year? What you harvested on the 49th
year. You're going to eat that on the 50th year. But now wait
a minute, what about the 51st year? Well, you got to wait till
fall for the crops to come in, don't you? So you're going to
go out on that 51st year and you're going to plant your crops,
but you can't eat them until they come in. And that's going
to be fall. So that's three years. Three years. You got the 49th year of harvest,
the 50th where nothing can be gathered, and the 51st till the
crops come in. And what he's showing us here
is God's provision for us. His provision up to the atonement,
and then during the atonement, and then after the atonement.
Luke 25, 19. Leviticus, I'm sorry, 2519. And
the land shall yield her fruit, and you shall eat your field,
and dwell therein in safety, and you shall say, well, what
are we gonna eat on the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow,
nor gather in the increase. Then I'll command my blessing
upon you in the sixth year. and it shall bring forth fruit
for three years. Three years. And you shall sow
the eighth year and eat yet of the old fruit until the ninth
year, until her fruits come in, you shall eat of the old store. Everything from the beginning,
including the Day of Atonement, was a blessing of the Lord, a
provision given by God to sustain us to the end of time. All the way to the end of time.
This blessed provision was sufficient for the 49th year, the 50th year,
and the 51st year. Christ is our provision, that's
what He's telling us. Christ came, Christ died. What
are we going to eat now? Huh? I'll tell you what our Lord
said, except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you've
got no life in you. What are we going to eat? We're
going to eat Christ. That's what we're going to eat.
And they said, he's crazy. He's crazy. He's talking about
cannibalism. And they all left him. And just
a handful sitting there. And he turned to his disciples.
And he said, will you go too? You free to go? They said, where
are we going to go? You have the words of eternal
life. Where are we going to go? You're our provision. Where are
we going to go? Where are we going to go? What
did you come here this morning hoping to eat? What's your appetite?
What were you looking for? Weren't you looking for something
to stir your heart to worship God? And what is that? What's
the one thing that can enable you to worship God? Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him seated at
the right hand of God. He provided enough when Christ
came and accomplished the work God gave Him to do to sustain
us from now to the end of time. We don't have to plant anything,
and we don't have to harvest anything, and we don't have to
go out and eat the leftovers. We eat what God has provided. Isn't that what he's telling
them here? This is my provision, and on
that 46 years, I'm gonna give enough to sustain you to the
end, right through to the end. You're gonna eat of the old store.
And everything from the beginning, including the day of atonement,
was a blessing and provision given by God to sustain us. This
blessed provision was sufficient. Christ is our provision, and
in Him, all the blessings of God. God said, I'll command my
blessings upon you. My blessings. Did you ever read
Ephesians chapter one? I mean, read it for real. He
said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly
places in Christ. According as he's chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, to
the praise of the glory of his grace when he had made us accepted
in the blood. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace. Wherein he hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, and having made known unto us
the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he
has purposed. He said, I'll command my blessing,
my blessing. Isn't that what we're looking
for this morning, is God's command, his blessing on his people, on
his people. And he provided enough in him. Paul said in Colossians chapter
two, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
and we're complete in him. We're complete. What's that mean? That means I don't have to sow.
That's what that means. I don't have to go out that old
vineyard that I didn't dress the vines on and get whatever
left over grapes there is. I don't have to do nothing. I
don't have to do nothing except reflect on God and his blessings.
Be thankful. Be thankful. Be merciful. Be merciful. All debts forgiven,
my soul. God's forgiven all your debts. I can't even expound on that.
I can't even imagine what that entails. There's a full provision made
in Christ, a sufficiency adequate to enable us to rest throughout
the Sabbath of Jubilee. He said, you shall eat of the
old fruit, you're going to eat of the old stone. We had back
in the 50s a small area built back into the hillside up in
Kentucky. And we called them cellar houses.
used rock or concrete block or whatever back in the day, they
just used whatever rock was around and they laid it up and they
put a roof on it. And it stayed about 58 to 60 degrees in there
all year long. And that's where they put their
canned goods, that's where they put like your potatoes and things
that would keep, sweet potatoes and everything, you put all that
in there and it would keep in that constant temperature for
long, long periods of time. And the old timers called it
a store. Lay up in store. Have you ever
heard that phrase? Lay up in store. What are they
talking about? Talking about putting it in that
place, that place of preservation. God said, I'm going to make you
a provision. I'm going to make a provision
in my son. And you're going to eat from
the old store. You want some potatoes? Go out
to the store. Go out to the store. And you
know, when the first grocery stores come along, everything
was seasonal. You couldn't buy things out of
season. But you go in there in this little one-room place. I
barely remember it. The old A&P store is one room. And you go in there, and they
had pickle barrels and cracker barrels and all this stuff all
around. You couldn't buy all of it. It didn't look anything
like a grocery store today. But you could go in there and
buy staples, flour, and sugar, and salt, and things like that.
pickles and a few canned goods and whatever you go with. They
called it a store. A store. Christ said to eat from
the old store. Eat from the old store. Don't
build a new store. Don't import things. You eat
from the old store. That old gospel. That gospel
began back in Genesis 3.15. You eat from that. Christ is the old story and everything
needed to save your soul and sustain you forever sealed in
him. In Philippians 4.19 it says,
but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. God's gonna provide. I'm gonna
bless The 49th year. The 49th year. Oh, my soul. Listen to this. He said, when
you pray, use not vain repetitions like the heathen do. They chant. They say the same thing over
and over and over. You go nearly any religion, you'll hear the
same thing. They say it over and over and over. He said, when
you pray, don't use vain repetitions like the heathens do, for they
think they should be heard for their much speaking. Matthew
six, verse eight. Be ye therefore, be not ye therefore
like unto them. Now listen to this. Your father
knoweth what things you have need of before you ask. Huh? He's already put them in the
store. I already put them in the store.
He knows what you have to eat up. Israel was not involved in the
provision God blessed them with. They didn't do anything. They
ate what God gave them, and they continued to eat it. Fields,
vines, trees, whatever God blessed, He blessed it threefold, didn't
He? Threefold. You're gonna eat of the old store,
the lamb slain. And what do believers eat in
their Sabbath arrest? They eat Christ and his gospel. Christ is our jubilee provision.
And then fourthly, I want you to see what takes place on jubilee. All debts are resolved. All forgiven. All property, all your inheritance
is returned to you. You didn't even know you was
an heir, did you? Just be like me all of a sudden and find out
I'm an heir of a billionaire. Do you think I'd rejoice? We're heirs of God, but we didn't
know it. We didn't know it. All property returned. God gave
them that land. And listen to what he says there.
I read it to you when I read the text. He said, this land
belongs to me. You just sojourn in here. Huh? My house belongs to him. Don't
bother me. It belongs to him. He's letting
me live in it. That's the truth. Our inheritance
is restored and all the servants are set free. All set free. Our Lord came to Nazareth where
he grew up, and as a custom was, he went into the synagogue and
he stood up for to read. He called for the scroll of Isaiah,
and when he'd opened the book, he found a place where it was
written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. You know what
that is? Jubilee. Jubilee. The acceptable year of the Lord.
The liberty given to the captives is the day of jubilee. Now listen
to what our Lord says. And he began to say unto them,
this day is this scripture. fulfilled in your ears." Huh? This jubilee began when I blew
the trumpet, and I'm blowing the trumpet right now, you see,
right now. And the whole multitude, they
all bear him witness, and every eye was fastened on him, and
he said, this day is a scripture fulfilled in your ears. So what
are you hungry for? What does it take to satisfy
your heart in this day of jubilee? Oh, feed me from the old store.
That's what I want. I don't hear anything new. Just
feed me from the old store. I've never eaten anything bad
from the old store. He said, ask for the old paths. Ask where is the good way, and
then walk there And as we look on this vivid picture from old
and think about our Savior, let's all celebrate this jubilee of
rest and eat with thanksgiving from the Old Stone. May the Lord
add his blessing to his gospel. Thank you.