How often have you heard someone
say something like this? I wish I could undo the past. If only I could start over. I
sure do things different. Not usually from 16, 17, 18 year
old boys. That kind of statement commonly
comes from those of us who are over 50. But then with a sigh
of resignation, the person returns to reality and says, but of course
I can't. I can't change the past. And
we know, all of us, it is impossible to rewind the tape of our lives
and start at the beginning. Or is it? The Lord God established a law,
a law that required a new beginning for all Israel every 50 years. It's called the year of Jubilee,
and it's described in Leviticus 25, verses 8 through 17. Of all the solemn, typical ordinances
of the Old Testament, held up to the eye of faith, those ordinances
that foreshadowed good things to come by Christ. None was more
blessed to behold, none more delightful to contemplate, none
more exciting in hope than the year of Jubilee. The year of
Jubilee was ordained by God to be a time of restoration, rest,
and rejoicing. The Jubilee Sabbath was designed
to be the highest, most glorious, most anticipated of all the Old
Testament Sabbaths in the year of Jubilee. All the worlds of
the previous 49 years were erased. It's gone. All of it. of those previous 49 years, all
the debts of a lifetime were completely cancelled. All the
property that had been forfeited by any circumstance, under any
condition, was restored completely. The year of jubilee gave families
restoration, wayward family members were brought home and reunited
with father and mother, brother and sister. There was a complete
reversal, just a complete reversal, a complete renewal of life given
to all Israel. All who in that nation had by
any cause or circumstance come into debt, lost their heritage,
subjected to bondage, everything was made new. Can it be that we push the rewind button
and start all over? No. No. But God Almighty can. If any man be in Christ, He's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. And behold, all things are become
new. Now hold your Bibles open here
in Leviticus 25 and follow me as I read this passage to you
and I want to answer three questions. Three questions that I have found
very important in studying this passage. The first thing I want
you to know is what is the significance of the jubilee trumpet. We live
in a day when people use religious words and religious slogans for
everything under the sun. Down south they have a jubilee
festival in Alabama, folks. That's the time when the crawdads
come in and shrimp comes in and you just gorge yourself. They
have jubilees in New Orleans. Not anything akin to this. There's
folks who talk about singing, have a singing jubilee, a gospel
jubilee. Now, what's the meaning of this
jubilee trumpet? Read verse 8. Thou shalt number
seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years. And the space of the seven sabbaths
of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years. 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
you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land." I've read everything
I could find on this passage, and there's a lot of debate among
men about whether the Jubilee trumpet refers to the first advent
of Christ and the preaching of the gospel of God's grace, or
does it refer to the second advent of Christ and resurrection glory
and the eternal bliss of God's kingdom on this earth. There's
not any reason for the debate, because it refers to both. Clearly
it refers to our redemption by Christ's blood, regeneration
by his spirit, and resurrection glory. But these three things
should never be looked at as three things. They are just three
aspects of one thing. Redemption, regeneration, and
resurrection are all aspects of God's great salvation. In
other words, salvation includes everything. Oh, how this generation
needs to hear this, and how we need to be reminded of it. Salvation
includes everything required and necessary, everything performed
by God Almighty to bring His people from the depths of despair
and the very gates of hell into a glorious image of Jesus Christ
in resurrection glory. That's God's salvation. That's
a big, big word. The Jubilee Trumpet speaks of
this salvation without question. As I showed you just a few weeks
ago, the Jubilee Trumpet was typical of the preaching of the
gospel. Our Savior makes this perfectly clear in the fourth
chapter of Luke. You'll remember he was in the
synagogue, as was his custom, and they handed him the scroll.
And he opened the scroll to the prophet Isaiah, chapter 61, that
we read just a little while ago. And after God done reading about
this passage that all the Jews understood to be referring to
the Jubilee, all of them understood this is talking about, this is
somehow connected with what Moses was told by God back there on
Mount Sinai and given in Leviticus 25. All of them understood that. Our Lord read it. He sent me
to proclaim liberty to the captives." And all the rest of it. And he
rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the fellow who took
care of it, and sat down, and every eye was fixed on him. Everybody. What's he going to say now? How's
he going to handle that? This day, is this scripture fulfilled
in your eyes? You're looking at the fulfillment.
He says, you're looking at jubilee, you're looking at liberty, you're
looking at the sitting of the captive free, you're looking
at redemption. Blessed then is the people that
know the joyful sound. Blessed are those people whose
ears have been caused to hear the sound of the gospel trumpet.
They shall walk, O Lord, forever in the light of thy countenance.
And certainly the jubilee trumpet refers to the trumpet of God
that shall announce our Savior's second coming in resurrection
glory. Turn and look at it one more
time, 1 Corinthians 15. Hold your hands here in Leviticus
25, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. That which the scriptures teach
concerning the resurrection of Christ is not merely a declaration
of the historic fact, the undeniably, undeniably demonstrated historic
fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. To believe that, to
defend that, to fight for that, to die for that, is meaningless.
That's meaningless. Hell, everybody in hell believes
that. All hell believes that. The devils
believe that. That's meaningless. That's meaningless.
It's a fact. It cannot be denied. But just
the fact itself, believing that fact, is no more significant
than believing that I was born June 10th, 1950. It's just a
fact. What is important is what that
fact declares. The Lord Jesus Christ, by his
resurrection, declared our sins put away. justice satisfied. And God Almighty declares that
his justice has been vindicated, for he who was made to be sin,
now being freed from sin, is justified in the Spirit, raised
up from the dead. Do you remember, Martha said
to the Lord Jesus concerning Lazarus, said, I believe that
my brother is going to rise in the resurrection. The Lord Jesus
said, Martha, that's not important. That's not important. This is
important. I am the resurrection. That's
important. I am the resurrection. Now, we
believe in the resurrection. We believe in our Lord's glorious
second coming. We believe in the resurrection
of the body. We believe that all God's saints
shall indeed be raised from the dead, the very dust of God's
elect gathered from the four corners of the earth, these bodies
united with our souls, and forever we shall dwell with Christ when
he comes in glory, because we believe Christ. who is the resurrection
and the life. And he declares he that liveth
and believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,
and he shall never die. Look in 1 Corinthians 15, verse
51. Behold, I show you a mystery. Explain the resurrection. Go
ahead and give it your best shot. Paul says it's a mystery. A mystery. This is not a mystery that has
been explained, it's a mystery revealed, but it's still a mystery.
I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Not all
of us are going to die before Christ comes again. He may come
right now, but we shall all be changed in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Folks talk about, you
know, What's going to happen? What's the order going to be?
It's going to be so fast it ain't going to look like order. In
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, listen now, at the last
trump, the last time the ram's horn is blown, the last time
the silver trumpet sounds, the last time the trumpet of jubilee
is blown, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised. Watch this. incorruptible. These bodies are corruptible.
You watch me try to get up off the floor, you'll see this body
is corruptible. I used to jump up off the floor. These bodies
are corruptible and dying. But this body is going to be
sown in corruption. It's going to be raised in incorruption. It shall be raised incorruptible. This mortal shall put on immortality,
raised beyond the reach of death. So when this corruptible shall
be put on incorruption, and this mortal shall be put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death
is swallowed up, death is consumed in victory. Oh death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, because
he took away sin, the strength of death, and he broke the bands
of death, for he satisfied the law. Therefore, my beloved, be
ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in
the Lord." Now, this is what the Jubilee Trumpet represents.
The jubilee trumpet of the gospel that I'm preaching to you now
refers primarily to our Savior's first advent and redemption accomplished
by his blood. The Lord Jesus Christ has delivered
all his people from all the curse of God's holy law forever. And he comes now in the sounding
of the gospel trumpet, and by the power of his grace through
the merits of his shed blood, he delivers his people at the
appointed time of his love from the guilt of sin and the dominion
of sin. But the jubilee trumpet also
refers to our Lord's second advent, when the trumpet of God has sounded
for the last time. The Son of God shall descend
from heaven and make all things new, and he shall deliver us. Ron, I haven't begun to commence
to get started understanding this. He's going to deliver us
from all the evil, bitter consequences of sin. They're not even going
to be the remembrance of anything that brings bitterness. We will see at last how the God
Almighty is glorified best in the saving of people from a fallen
race who fully deserve His wrath and can do nothing to obtain
His grace. And we will look back. Beginning
that yonder when God made Adam in his image. And Adam shook
his fist in God's face and slaughtered himself and all our race. And we sinned in our father Adam. And we'll go all the way until
the trump sounds and Christ has come again. and will see nothing
but goodness in it all. He's going to deliver all God's
creation from all the effects of the fall, and deliver his
people into perfect liberty. And here's the second question.
We notice in verse 9 that this trumpet was to be sounded on
the tenth day of the seventh month of the fiftieth year, that
is on the day of atonement, it could not be sounded any other
time. It could not be sounded any other
time. So I ask the question, why? Why
did the Lord God specifically require by law that the year
of jubilee must always begin, and the trumpet of jubilee must
always sound on the day of atonement? Israel was taught by this requirement,
and we are taught by this requirement, that no blessing, no mercy, no
grace comes down from God to sinners except by the merit,
efficacy, and atonement of Christ's precious blood. I read A good bit of folks talking
about common grace. Common grace. And when they talk
about common grace, they talk about, you know, as you walk
outside and you're a rebel, you still have God's sunshine. Isn't that wonderful common grace?
That 15-year-old cat laying over there on the porch has the same
common grace. That's what they're talking about. There's nothing
common about the grace of God. Now hear me. God helped you to
hear me. Everything that men think of
as a blessing from God, apart from Christ, will only increase
the fire of hell. Everything. That's common wrath
and common judgment. Grace is special. Grace is special. Grace is God's. bounteous, free
goodness, immutable, immutable mercy to sinners fully deserving
His wrath. But it can't come to anybody
until the blood of the pastoral lamb has been spilt. and sprinkled
upon the mercy seat, and accepted in the holy place, and the wrath
of God fully consumed. And that's by Jesus Christ our
Redeemer. Someone will say, well, preacher,
if that's the case, if that's the case, Are you saying that
no one enjoyed God's grace and God's salvation until Christ
died 2,000 years ago? Of course not. Of course not. You see, this great work was
finished in the mind and purpose of God Almighty, unalterably,
immeasurably, perfectly, and fully finished before the world
began. When He looked upon our Savior
as our surety, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
and declares whom He did predestinate, then He also justified past tense. Whom He justified then he also
called, past tense, whom he called, then he also glorified, past
tense. It was done from eternity. And then it was executed in time
in the wisdom and providence and grace of God. So precise. Now, think with me
for a moment. I'm fixing to tell you something.
I could hardly sleep last night. I didn't go to bed until about
four o'clock this morning. Even then, I could hardly go to sleep
thinking about this wonder of God's providence. So precise
and so detailed is the order of God's providence that when
he calls the sun for the first time to shine, he set the sun
in the sky. And he gave the earth a moon
to rule by night. And the phases of the moon, what
is it, twenty-nine and a half days? The moon goes through a
phase. Now, Jubilee, Jubilee came at
the tenth day, or the seventh day of the tenth month, I'm sorry,
the tenth day of the seventh According to the lunar and solar
cycles, it was accomplished. Now listen, listen. Even the cycles of the solar
system were set and maintained by God. Scientists call it laws
of nature. No, scientists would never figure
this thing out. so fixed and maintained by God
Almighty, that the Jews and the Romans were so fed up with the claims
of Christ, the Messiah, the King, God our Savior, that at the time
of the Jews' Passover, As it dawned toward the Sabbath, the Lord Jesus was taken by the
wicked hands of men, with their venting of their wicked free
wills, and crucified and slain in the year of Jubilee. In the years, you mean? You mean
that's what God had in mind when he set the cycles of the sun
and the moon? Of course that's what he had
in mind. Our Lord said, now is the judgment of this world. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. And the word judgment,
as used there in John 12, means crisis. Crisis. This is the critical hour. This is the critical hour. You
go to the hospital and visit somebody, and things are bad,
and the doctor steps in and does an examination, and the doctor
says, this is a critical time. Everything hinges on what's about
to happen right now. The death of Christ at Calvary
was the hinge upon which history swings. Everything was made for
this hour. Everything worked to this hour,
and everything goes back to this hour. Now, that ought to make
Acts 2.23 just a little more wondrous. Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Ye have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. It shall be a matter of wonder
and amazement and contemplation and joy for all eternity. One last thing, verses 10-13. What was to be done in the year
Jubilee? The Lord says, You shall hallow
the fiftieth year, sanctify it, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof. Tell it to everybody.
Everybody. Some folks don't need it. Tell it anyhow. Maybe they do.
Tell it to everybody. It shall be a jubilee unto you,
and you shall return, watch this, you shall return every man to
his possession. Not just every man's possession
returned to him. You shall return every man to
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 Jubilee, you shall
return every man unto his possession. Now this is what was to be done
in the year of Jubilee. The trumpet was to be sounded
throughout all the land, proclaiming liberty in every corner of the
land. On the very outskirts of Canaan,
every direction, everybody was to hear the sound. Go ye therefore
into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. But
only God's elect are going to be saved. Folks say, if I believed
that, I would have preached to the left. I wouldn't care if
I knew who they were. But I don't know. The Lord commands us to
proclaim liberty to everybody. And everybody who needs it will
enjoy it. Everybody. The exiles. Those who have been banished. For any reason, no matter how
long, were to be set free. All of them. Returned home. Those
who were incarcerated for any reason, for any reason, for any
reason, no matter how long they had been in their bitter prison,
were emancipated. If the Son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. The debtor. It didn't matter what his debts
were. It didn't matter whether he got
in debt because he wasn't smart, or got in debt because he was
a drunk, or got in debt because he was a gambler, or got in debt
because he tried to cover up his evil actions. No matter what
the reason, every man's debts were totally cancelled. Never
to be written up again. And each family opened its bosom
to receive once more its long-lost members. The prodigal who had wasted his
substance in riotous living, and thereby banished himself
from his father's Not only could come home, but
had to come home. The law required it. And he was welcome home. The
law required that too. Every man received his inheritance
again fully. Not one of God's chosen, not
one soul redeemed by Christ's precious blood can ever, by any
circumstance, be deprived of forever possessing all his inheritance
with the Son of God. The very law of God demands it. Demands it. In whom we have also
obtained an inheritance. And we have for this inheritance
the earnest of the Spirit, the seal of the Spirit, the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of that inheritance,
until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of God's
glory. And everybody in Israel enjoyed a a year of uninterrupted, blessed
rest, feasting upon the provisions of God's bounteous grace. The
sound of the trumpet was welcome, a soul-stirring signal for the
captive to escape his prison. For the slave to cast off his
chains that had long held him in bondage. For the manslayer
who had been hiding in the city of refuse to come home. For the
ruined, poverty-stricken man to rise to the possession of
his forfeited inheritance. And no sooner had the trumpet's
welcome sound been heard The mighty tide of bounteous blessings
majestically inundated the land from heaven so that there was
no want for anyone in any place in Canaan's happy land. Jubilee
has come. Jubilee has come. But there's
one more thing. Look at verse 14. And if thou sell aught unto thy
neighbor, or buyest aught of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall
not oppress one another. Now watch this. According to
the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy
neighbor, and according to the number of years of the fruits
he shall sell unto you. According to the multitude of
years thou shalt increase the price thereof. And according
to the fewness of years, thou shalt diminish the price of it. For according to the number of
the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee." Now notice
that. Not the land. God said, we'll read it later
on in this chapter, God said, you're not selling the land,
that's mine. You're just tenants here. You sell the fruits of
the land. The fruits of the land. You shall
not therefore oppress one another. but thou shalt fear thy God,
for I am the Lord thy God." Now this is what it says. When you go to buy a piece of
property, you pay the price for the property in the measure of
the years, considering jubilee. If you buy that piece of property
back here in year one, buy the fruits of it, you pay a bigger
price than you do if you're buying it in year forty-eight and a
half. Measure it according to jubilee. And if you're selling
it, you do the same thing. Don't take any advantage of anybody
else. Don't take an unfair advantage of any circumstance. But man,
this fellow's hurting. He needs to get rid of that property.
How about that sheep? You pay him according to the
measure of jubilee. Well, what's that talking about?
What's that talking about? Well, certainly there is a clear
application to us living in honesty, defrauding no one. Defrauding no one. But more than
that, by God's law, He required Israel. to regulate everything in their
lives down to property and grapes by the measure and the value
of jubilee. Now, children of God, learn this. As we live in this world, if
we would serve our brethren and serve our God, if we would not
oppress our brethren, but rather help our brethren. We must learn
to measure everything and value everything in the light of eternity. Everything. Oh, I don't know of anything
with which I struggle more. I remember years ago, I've told
you this before, Brother Walter Groover, this has been 25 years
ago. He and Betty have been in Mexico for years. And everywhere
they've moved, they had moved just every few months because
very circumstances. And down there, Sandy found out
the first night she was there, they got hard floors. They had moved this one nice
expensive piece of crystal from one place, packed it up and wrapped
it. The only thing they had of any
value. Packed it up and wrapped it. Somebody had given it to
them. And Daddy had it sitting on a shelf. And Walter jumped
up and hit the shelf and down went the crystal. A thousand
pieces. Know what she did? She went and
got a dustpan and a little swish broom and she said, well, I don't
have to worry about that anymore. That's what I'm talking about.
Oh, God help me. to hold nothing any firmer in
these hands now and all the days I live on this earth and count
it no more precious than I will when it's gone and jubilee has
come. I began the message talking about
rewinding the tape, starting all over. Would you, oh what would you
give to walk out that door today with all the past clean, gone
forever before God? And start life all over. With no debt, no crime, no sin,
no guilt. But that ain't all. With no possibility
of any to come. I'll preach you how could I do
that. You can't. I can't. God can't. God can't. Hear the jubilee trumpet blow.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Believe on the Son of God, and
all this is yours forever. Amen.