Our Lord Jesus declares that
when he had finished redemption, the year of my redeemed is come. The Holy Spirit tells us in Hebrews
4, there remaineth therefore a rest unto the children of God. And he declares that we who believe
do enter into rest. All of those things have reference
to Leviticus chapter 25 and the year of Jubilee. Let's begin
this morning by reading just a portion of this 25th chapter
of Leviticus again. Leviticus 25 verse 8. Our subject this morning is the
year of Jubilee, the year of Christ redeemed. the blessed
rest of our God. Leviticus 25 verse 8. Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths
of years unto thee. Seven times seven years shall
be the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty
and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet
of the jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the 7th month. In the day of atonement shall
you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And you shall
hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land
unto all the inhabitants of the land or inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you. And you shall return every man
unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his
family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth
year be unto you. You shall not sow, neither reap
that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes
in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee. It shall
be holy unto you. You shall eat the increase thereof
out of the field. In the year of this jubilee,
ye shall return every man unto his possession. As you read the
Old Testament scriptures, it becomes quite obvious that everything
in the Old Testament revolved around Sabbath days. Everything
in the Old Testament was somehow connected with the Sabbath. At
the end of creation, we're told that God rested on the seventh
day, the Sabbath. He stopped working on the Sabbath. The Sabbath always refers to
a cessation of work and rest. The Sabbath always refers to
a cessation of work and rest. God rested on the seventh day
from creation. The rest simply means he quit
working and giving the law. The Lord God commanded the children
of Israel to keep the Sabbath day every Saturday holy. But did you ever notice how many
Sabbaths God gave the children of Israel to observe in the Old
Testament scriptures? He required them to keep the
seventh day Sabbath once a week. He required that they keep a
seventh week Sabbath, a 50th day Sabbath throughout the year.
Every seventh year, they were again to keep a Sabbath under
the Lord. And then we read here of a 50th
year Sabbath, a 50th year Sabbath. This 50th year Sabbath is what's
described in this 25th chapter of Leviticus that we read earlier.
This is called the year of Jubilee. A year of rest. A whole year. A whole year in which the children
of Israel were to rest. They were not to work their ground.
They were not to plant their seed. They were not to gather
in the harvest. They were not even allowed to
go out and gather in things that grew in the field without them
working. They were required to rest for
the entire year. This 25th chapter of Leviticus
describing this year of Jubilee is tremendous. It's just full
of instruction. And I can't hope to expound it
to you, but I'm going to, the Lord willing, for the next several
services, at least the next couple of weeks, preach to you from
this 25th chapter of Leviticus. So I encourage you to read it
again and cross-reference the passages and read the passages
connected with it. Today, I want to simply draw
your attention to seven things here described by God the Holy
Spirit with regard to this year of Jubilee, this Sabbath long
year the children of Israel were to keep. Obviously, this sabbatical
year, which the Lord God required the children of Israel to keep,
was a picture, a type, a prophetic portrait of the finished work
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of God's free grace
and our salvation in Him, as were all Sabbath days in the
Old Testament. We do not keep a physical Sabbath. Now, I stress this. I stress
it because people still somehow Even you who know better, we
got it fixed up here, but somehow we attach sabbatical law with
Sunday. Yesterday was the Sabbath day.
Sunday is not a Sabbath. God never changed the Sabbath
from Saturday to Sunday. The Sabbath is the seventh day.
Well, why do we meet to worship on Sunday? That's the day our
Lord arose. That's the day the disciples
met. But if it were not convenient, it'd be just as well to meet
on Wednesday. It'd be just as well to meet on Thursday, or
it'd be just as well to meet on Saturday. But this is not a Sabbath
day. Our Sabbath is Christ. Do you understand that? Our Sabbath
is Christ. I'm calling you who do not know
my Redeemer to come rest in Christ. Believe on the Son of God. Quit
working trying to make yourself acceptable with God. Rest in
the Savior. I'm calling on you who believe
the Son of God. Rest in Him. Rest in Him. Fall back in the arms of the
Redeemer and be at ease. The year of Jubilee was a season
appointed by God during which the children of Israel were required
not only to rest, but to adjust all their social affairs once
every 50 years, setting their brethren free from bondage and
setting their brethren free from all debt and restoring to their
brethren all their lost possessions. lost property, lost inheritances,
and lost families, restoring them to those who had lost them. The year of Jubilee then portrayed
the great work of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, in restoring
that which he took not away, in restoring chosen sinners to
God, and by his grace, restoring those sinners to one another.
restoring those sinners to one another so that we know something
of what David said when he wrote how sweet it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. And at last, he will restore
us to the glorious liberty of the sons of God in that everlasting
Sabbath rest, that everlasting jubilee of which this is just
the beginning to many throughout the land of Israel. The year
of Jubilee was the accepted time, the day of salvation. Turn over
to Isaiah chapter 27 for a second. Keep your mark in Leviticus 25. The year of Jubilee was announced
by the blowing of a trumpet. A trumpet was heard throughout
the land of Israel. On the 10th day of the month
in this 49th year and actually in the 50th year after the 49th
year was finished on the day of atonement that would cause
a trumpet to be blown throughout the land. That is a representation
of the gospel preacher and the preaching of the gospel. Look
here in Isaiah 27 verse 13. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the great trumpet shall be blown. And they shall
come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the
outcast of the land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord in
the mountain in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. This is what David
says with regard to that trumpet. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. Blessed are the people who know
the sound of the gospel of God's grace. They shall walk, O Lord,
in the light of thy countenance. Those who know the sound of the
jubilee trumpet, who know the sound of the gospel being taught
of God, walk at ease with God, walk at ease in the light of
God's countenance. Paul's Oh, my soul. Adore and
wonder rejoice and give thanks blessed are these ears that have
been made to hear and know the joyful sound of God's free grace
in Christ Jesus. Oh Blessed are your ears if you
hear and know the joyful sound of God's grace There were four
distinct trumpets described in the Old Testament scriptures
Trumpets that gave special sounds for special purposes. Let me
just listen for you First, we're told in Leviticus 23-24 of memorial
trumpets. These memorial trumpets were
sounded to announce the new moon and call the people together
in joyful assembly for worship. The memorial trumpets called
the people together to worship God in their solemn assemblies.
And then we're told about battle trumpets. In Judges 3, they sounded
a battle trumpet, a trumpet of war. It was sounded to gather
the people together to battle, to engage the enemy that assaulted
them, to engage the enemy that would take them captive. And
so the gospel is described in just this way. And Paul says,
if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, if the trumpet is not
clear, who shall prepare himself to battle? The preacher of the
gospel. must sound the word clearly and
distinctly so that you who hear understand the words he speaks
and prepare yourselves to meet the foe in everyday life. These
battle trumpets were sounded to prepare for battle, but a
third trumpet was given, a trumpet of alarm, warning men of impending
judgment, calling people to repentance and fasting. You read about it
in Joel chapter two, the trumpet of alarm sounded to warn men
of judgment to come. And then the Jubilee trumpet
is spoken of here in Leviticus 25. The Jubilee trumpet was different
from all the others. This trumpet sound was never
heard except once every 50 years. Now let that sink in. It was heard only once every
50 years. But when it was heard, the person
who heard the trumpet knew what it meant. That means, Lindsey, you wouldn't
possibly hear this trumpet more than once in your lifetime. Maybe an old man might have heard
it as a boy and hear it again as an old man. But the trumpet
was heard once in a lifetime. So it is that God speaks his
grace to chosen sinners at the appointed day of mercy. And when
God causes you to hear the trumpet, you will know its meaning. When
God causes you to hear the joyful sound, you will know God has
spoken to you. You won't need me to tell you.
And you won't need someone else to tell you. You won't need mama
or daddy or some slick soul winner or somebody else to persuade
you that you've heard the trumpet. If God speaks, you will know
God speaks in your soul and you will know it when he speaks.
This sound was so sweet and so distinct that no poor captive
in the land of Israel was at a moment's loss to know the meaning
of the trumpet sound. That's just exactly the way it
is when God, the Holy Spirit, causes poor sinners, poor, needy,
captive sinners to hear the gospel. When he proclaims pardon to the
guilty, pardoned by the blood of Christ, he causes the sinner
to whom he speaks to understand that atonement has been made
and accepted of God. When the sinner hears God speak,
He hears God declare in his soul atonement has been made, atonement
has been accepted. You're forgiven. At that very
moment, the jubilee commences and the soul long held captive
to sin, to Satan and to the law is set free and walks. Yes, dances in liberty before
God. What a joyful sound. What a sweet,
joyful day that is when the gospel jubilee trumpet first sounds
in the soul and declares the acceptable year of the Lord has
begun. Look at Isaiah again. Isaiah
chapter 62 this time. Isaiah 62. This is our Savior speaking,
as we'll see it a little bit in Luke 4. The Savior says the
spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, the year of my redeemed and the
day of vengeance of our God. What can that possibly mean to
give any comfort? The Lord Jesus comes in the day
of the vengeance of God. He proclaims liberty to the captive,
the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of the vengeance
of God. What does that mean? He declares
to the guilty soul, vengeance is over. He declares to the guilty
soul, in the day I redeemed you, fury exhausted itself upon me. Justice wore itself out upon
me. And there is no fury in God for
your soul to comfort all that mourn. Oh, for a thousand tongues
to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God
and King, the triumphs of His grace. He breaks the power of
canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His
blood can make the palace clean. Bless God, His blood avails for
me. All right, now let me show you
seven things here in Leviticus 25. The first thing I want you
to see is the fact that the year of jubilee began on the day of
atonement. Look at verse 9. Then shalt thou
cause the trumpet of jubilee to sound on the tenth day of
the seventh month in the day of atonement ye shall make the
trumpet sound throughout all your land. Now this is where
gospel preaching begins. The gospel has not been preached. until atonement has been declared. You will hear folks on television
during interviews trying to say whatever nonsense is they want
to say when some tragedies happen and they will refer to the gospel
says, the gospel says. The gospel of God's grace begins
with blood atonement. It begins with blood atonement. and blood atonement encompasses
all the gospel. So that these days, I challenge
you sometime. I challenge you sometime. Listen
to preachers. Just occasionally turn one on.
Don't listen to them with any regularity. Occasionally turn
one on. Watch them on television. Listen to what they say. Listen
to them talk. Some of you have preachers in the family, preachers
for neighbors. You come tell me how many times somebody speaks
to you about the blood. That word's almost like a cuss
word being spoken in pulpit these days. Everybody talks about everything
about God except blood and justice. There is no gospel preached and
no hope for sinners until atonement has been declared. Atonement
by the precious blood of Christ. There's no joyful sound apart
from sin atoning blood of Christ. The Jubilee trumpet declared
atonement blood shed. Atonement blood accepted. Atonement
finished. The Jubilee says atonement is
done. Atonement is done. Justice is
satisfied. Reconciliation is made. Sin is
pardoned. The death of the Lord Jesus,
the Son of God, That death that came upon him because he was
delivered to death by the wrath and justice of God when our sins
were made his sins and our guilt was made his guilt and he was
Punished because the guilt and sin that was made his were imputed
to him charged upon him justice found him guilty and justice
slew him and Then he was raised again the third day because our
justification was accomplished, because our sins were forever
put away. The trumpet was blown by a man. The trumpet was blown by a man.
That's the significance of gospel preaching. People have the idea
that somehow they get along without preaching, get along without
preaching. They think they can be their own preachers. There's
an old adage that says man has himself for a lawyer, has a fool
for a lawyer. Let me tell you something, the
fellow who's got himself for a preacher has got the biggest
fool on this earth for a preacher. God speaks to men by men. He speaks his word by men. You cannot know, you cannot understand,
you cannot believe the word of God except God sends some man
to show you his word and open the scriptures to you. Well,
I, I'll never submit to that. Well, you'll go to hell then.
It's just that plain faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And now that I've exposed
myself real well, I'll go ahead and stick my neck out on a limp.
It was a man who did the preaching. It was a man who blew the trumpet,
not a woman. I got a, every now and then I
get emails from women. who decide that they're going
to give the pastor some instruction. And this gal wrote me a few weeks
ago reproving me about something she was bragging and then something
said she thought I needed to be corrected on. And I wrote
her back and I said, there are many reasons why God forbids
women to preach and usurp authority over men. You're just one of
the many. It was a man who blew the trumpet.
The trumpet proclaimed the year of Jubilee. It proclaimed liberty,
redemption, and atonement. The trumpet was blown throughout
the land. But how can you do that? It's just blown for captives.
It was just blown for certain people. It was just blown for
the children of Israel. How could you? Why would you
blow it throughout the land? Why not go and pull up Bob Duff and
blow it in his ear? cause the trumpets to be blown
everywhere. And if he is one who needs to
hear the sound, he hears it. So we proclaim the gospel to
all men and all who need the gospel hear the gospel. Here's
the second thing revealed in Leviticus 25. Look at verse 10.
The year of jubilee began on the day of Toman and it began
with the proclamation of liberty. Liberty according to the very
demands of God's holy law. Again, I'm not looking for something
to say, I want you to let that soak in. Ron, the liberty the
gospel proclaims is liberty according to the demands of God's holy
law. Look at verse 10. 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 you shall return every man unto his possession,
and you shall return every man unto his family. The Lord Jesus
tells us plainly that he is the liberator, the one who proclaims
liberty. You can read it for yourself
in Luke chapter 4. I won't take the time to turn there now. He
quotes from Isaiah 63, 62 that we read earlier. And he says,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. This is, I'm the
man of whom the prophet spoke. I am the Redeemer who comes to
give liberty. I am the God-man who gives liberty
to the captive. Now be sure you don't miss this.
Look at verse 1. The liberty proclaimed in the
year of Jubilee. The liberty proclaimed in the
gospel is the blessed liberty of grace. But it is a liberty
demanded by God's holy law. The liberty we have in Christ,
the salvation that's ours in Christ, is demanded by God's
holy law. If Christ died for me, the law
demands that I go free. These folks who try to talk about
Christ dying for everybody, they tell you that Christ's death
is meaningless. If Christ died for everybody, his death doesn't
mean squat. That's exactly right. It doesn't
mean squat. If he died for everybody, his
death is useless because some folks go to hell. But justice
will not allow that any suffer for whom Christ died. God punished
our sins in his son. He will not punish our sins a
second time. It's demanded by God's law. Now,
unlike the ceremonies that we've read about in the previous chapters
of Leviticus, unlike the ceremonies we read about in the previous
chapters of this book, We read in verse one that this year of
Jubilee was given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai when he gave the
law. Look at verse one. And the Lord
spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai. This is when God gave the Ten
Commandments. This is when God gave the ordinances
of the law. The ceremonial requirements given
here were given at the time God gave his commandments. You see,
the law of God being totally satisfied by the blood of our
substitute demands the liberty of every redeemed sinner. It
demands the liberty of every soul for whom Christ died. Christ
bought us. And if he bought us, we must
and shall go free and go free forever. Justice demands it because
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Liberty. The liberty we have
in Christ, this freedom we have with God, freedom to approach
God, freedom to call God our father. Freedom to enter into
heaven's glory. Most people talk about going
to heaven as if somehow you might just get there by the skin of
your teeth and if you're really good you can go in in a blaze
of glory. No. No. No. God says all will enter into
heaven in a blaze of glory. All of them taken to heaven in
a chariot of fire like Elijah. Accepted of God because justice
demands our acceptance. Christ's blood is ours. So we're
given judicial liberty, spiritual liberty, glorious liberty, eternal
liberty. Look at verse 35. Here's the
third thing. The year of jubilee was a time
of forgiveness. And if thy father or thy brother
be waxen poor and fallen in decay with thee. That's a pretty good
description of our poverty We're not just poor, we're decaying.
Decaying as dead men. Then thou shalt relieve him,
yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live
with thee. The poor wretch had lost everything.
That one who had incurred such a tremendous load of debt that
he sold his land, and then he sold his house, and at last he
sold himself into bondage. When the jubilee trumpet sounded,
was released from bondage, released from debt, and forgiven. Completely, freely forgiven of
all his debt. His debt did not bar him from
the joy of the jubilee. His debt was not something that
stood between him and the jubilee rest. His debt did not prevent
him from hearing the trumpet. No, no, no, a thousand times
no. It was his debt that qualified
him to know, I'm the one for whom the trumpet sounds. So it
is with the gospel of God's grace. Hear me, hear me, God help you
to hear me. Your goodness will never keep
you from God. It's your goodness that disqualifies
you. It's your righteousness that
disqualifies you from grace. It's your righteousness that
makes you refuse to come to the Savior, but not your sin. Not
your sin. Your sin won't disqualify you.
Your helplessness won't disqualify you. Your indebtedness will not
disqualify you. It is your sin, your debt, your
guilt, your depravity, your corruption, your helplessness, your death
that makes it certain that the gospel of God's grace is for
you. Not the righteous, not the righteous sinners Jesus came
to call. His debt or His blood has canceled
all my debt. And now, here I am, a man who
had lost everything. who forfeited everything, who
sold himself for naught. Here I am, perfectly, freely,
forever forgiven, so that I owe God nothing, Frank Hall, but
gratitude. Oh, I can't tell you how I despise
debt. I despise it. If I borrow money
to buy a car, I'll let my britches get shiny before I buy a suit
so I can pay that car off. I can't stand debt. I can't stand debt. Hate it. Hate it. Because debt
puts you in bondage. Debt puts you in bondage. And
now almost everybody I know is in bondage before God. Because
they still owe something. They still owe something. Will
you hear me? Here's a sinner who owes God
nothing. Nothing. Christ's blood paid
all my sin. Christ's obedience fulfilled
all the demands of the law for righteousness, and he is my surety,
and I am debt-free before God. The jubilee of the gospel says
so. Here's the fourth thing. Look at verses three through
five. The year of jubilee was a year of rest. Six years thou shalt sow thy
field. And six years thou shalt prune
thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof." Six, six, six. Right down the road by the Maurice
Montgomery, there's a house. It was up for sale for years.
And it sat empty for years. I mean, sat empty for years.
And the realtor finally told the fellow who owned it, Why?
It was empty. He showed it to folks all the
time. The address was 666. Who's afraid of 666? Six is the number of men. Six is the number of frustration.
Six is the number of failure. Six is the number of defeat.
The fellas changed the house number, went to the court, had
the house number changed, and sold it in a month. Six days you work, and six days
you labor, and six days you toil. Six years you work, and six years
you labor, and six years you toil. And you never find rest
and never find satisfaction because you can never do enough for God. Never. But in the seventh year,
watch this. Verse four. In the seventh year
shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land A Sabbath for the Lord. A Sabbath for the Lord. Our Lord
said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
But here, he says the Sabbath is for the Lord. For his glory. That he may be sanctified. That
thou neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. Verse 5.
That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest, thou shalt
not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed.
If you see some grapes growing on your grapevine, you just leave
them alone. Well, I'll go. God make me do
something. I'll go pick some. God would
want those grapes to go to waste. I'll do something. I'll do something. Oh, no, no, no. You break the
Jubilee there. You break the Sabbath there.
And if you break the Sabbath, you're stoned to death. What? Don't ever put your hand to God's
work. Don't ever put your hand to God's
work. Salvation is of the Lord. What
do you do to believe God? You quit working. You rest. You rest. At the end of the day,
Doesn't much matter how tired I am. If I've driven 10, 12,
15 hours, or if I've worked over here 12, 15 hours, I go home,
before I go to bed, before I go to bed, that big blue easy chair
over there, I empty my pockets, take my belt off, kick my shoes
off, sit down and prop my feet up and just rest a while. That's
what you do when you quit working. You just rest. Shelby would say
sometimes, what do you want to do? Nothing. I'm doing it. I'm
doing it. Nothing. What do you do when
you believe Christ? Nothing. You quit doing. You
quit to rest, trusting him for everything. The gospel, the gospel
of God's free grace, the gospel of Christ is the proclamation
of rest. Listen to the Savior. We hear
him coming to me. All ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Rest. We which believe do enter
into rest, although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. We enter into rest, believing
on the Son of God. Return unto thy rest, Oh, my
soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. As I prepared this message, I
thought, the Gentile neighbors surrounding these Israelites,
I can just picture how they looked at them. They'd see them sitting on the
porch sipping tea while the crops are getting weeds around them
in the field. They'd see them sitting on the porch drinking
a little tea, maybe playing some rook or something, and their
gardens are covered over with weeds. And they'd laugh at them,
and they'd mock them, and they'd say, that's a bunch of the laziest
sluggards I've ever seen in my life. What are they doing? What are
they doing? Let me tell you what they were
doing. Just rested. Just rested. They were working. What were they doing? Instead
of working, they were worshiping, depending on God alone for every
provision. That's what it is to rest in
Christ. It is to cease from your works and trust Him alone as
your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Now, children
of God, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. Rest in Christ. Here's the fifth
thing. Moses was inspired by God the
Holy Spirit to tell us in verse 19, that the year of Jubilee
was a year of great unparalleled bounty. And the land shall yield
her fruit and ye shall eat your fill and dwell therein in safety. Oh, what a gospel God's given
us. In Christ, we are made to dwell
in complete safety in a land of infinite bounty. Here we lie down in green pastures
and fear no evil. Our treasury is the unsearchable
riches of Christ. All things are yours, the book
says, for ye are Christ. We who have been bought by the
blood of Christ and brought by the grace of God into the liberty
of the gospel have been brought into Christ's fullness. Of His fullness have we received
graceful grace. Let us therefore be careful for
nothing, but rejoice in all things and give thanks. Here's the sixth
thing. In the year of Jubilee, every
man who had lost his inheritance had it returned to him. returned
in total, free and clear, with no mortgage of any kind, no lien
of any kind against it. Look at verse 13. In the year
of this jubilee, ye shall return every man unto his possession. We lost all in Adam, in Christ
we gain all. You remember the story of Mephibosheth
and David? Mephibosheth was Jonathan's lost
son. When David ascended to the throne,
his nurse, fearing that he would be slain, took Mephibosheth up
in her arms, and she dropped the baby, and he broke both his
legs, and he was laying on both his feet, and he was in hiding
down in Lodibar. And David found out that he was
alive. And because of his covenant with
Jonathan, he sent and fetched Mephibosheth out of Lodibar and
brought him to his house. And he said, Mephibosheth, all
that was your father's, I give you." All that...Befibosheth
inherited everything he had been missing all the days of his life. He grew up a poor boy. He grew
up with nothing. He grew up fearing the king until
the king sent for him. Can you imagine how he must have
come to him? He had to be brought, and Ziba was all eager to break
it. Ziba didn't care anything about
him. Ziba wanted to get what Mephibosheth had coming to him.
And he brought him. Carried Mephibosheth into the
king's palace. Mephibosheth trembling in his
soul. And David said, you're going
to sit at the king's table all the days of your life. And you're
going to eat at the king's table as one of the king's sons. All
that Jonathan had is yours. You know what that meant, Bobby?
All the kingdom is yours. All the kingdom is yours. Jonathan
was rightful heir to the kingdom. David understood this. He's saying
he restoreth my soul. We who were by nature. Children
of wrath, even as others, by the grace of God, had been made
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Blessed Jubilee. One more thing. Look at verse
17. In the year of Jubilee, the children of Israel were required
by the law to love their brethren. Ye shall not therefore oppress
one another, but thou shalt fear thy God, for I am the Lord your
God. The law required it. But all
the law could do was make them act like they loved their brethren.
That's all the law could do. The reason he gave other laws,
he said, don't oppress them. He said, when the year of jubilee
is coming, don't start to increase the price of the land. He said,
don't put your money out to your brother for usury, because they
would have if they could have. But the law forbade it, and the
law required them to love their brethren. They couldn't do that,
but they were required to act like it, the gospel. causes sinners
to love one another. The gospel causes sinners to
walk in love one toward another. Be kind, merciful, because Christ
is kind and merciful. Walk in love one to another as
Christ loved you and gave himself for you a sweet-smelling savor
acceptable unto God. I've been freely loved. Let me love freely. I've been
freely forgiven. Let me forgive freely. Matthew
tells us our Lord does it in Matthew chapter 18 of a servant
to being forgiven his debt. Went out and took his servants
under him and took him by the neck and said, pay what you owe
right now. And he demanded it. That servant oppressed his brother. That servant dealt rigorously
with his brother. He would not be free in forgiving. He would not be free in pardoning,
but rather he took the opportunity to make himself enriched by oppressing
his brother. Look down in verse 46, the very
last line in verse 46. Here's a law for legalists. Here's
a law for legalists. Legalists are the most oppressive,
demanding, ruling, overbearing religious people in the world.
I mean, they they want to control your life. I've been pastoring
now for, let me try to get it straight. I started pastoring
when I was 20. I'm 62 years. I've been pastoring 42 years.
I've been pastoring 42 years. Do you know what I have never
had anyone ask me? No, I've never had anybody ask
me. Now I've had folks write to me and call me and come to
the office, meet me after services all over the world, ask me a
lot of questions. You know, I've never had anyone ask me with
regard to something in a matter of behavior, what should I do? I've never had anybody ask me
that question. I've never had anybody ask me that question.
What should I do? The question is always, do you
think Mother Coleman ought to be smoking them cigarettes? Do you think that Mary Lou ought
to wear her hair like that? Do you think that Don ought to
wear those kind of shoes? Do you think a believer ought
to go to the picture show? Because everybody with legalist
works religion sets himself up as a judge and ruler over his
brother. And he spends his life trying
to control yours. Here's a law for legalists. I
wish they'd obey it. Ye shall not Rule one over another. Well, how on earth is David Peterson
supposed to know what to do? If you love the Savior, do what
you want to. Don't tell anybody that. It'll
be all right. It'll be all right. If you love
the Savior, do what you want to. And if that If that seems
to you to open the floodgates to licentiousness, you need to
learn the gospel of God's grace. You need to learn something about
the year of Jubilee. You need to learn something about
the glorious liberty of God's grace in Christ. Now, let me
tell you about another Jubilee trumpet we will soon hear. And
I'll send you home listening for its sound. Turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. Verse 51 Behold I show you a mystery We
shall not all sleep But we shall all be changed in a moment in
the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall
sound and The dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible
and we shall be changed Oh, blessed, blessed hope. Then we shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away when that jubilee has begun.
Hallelujah. What a hope. Amen.