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Good morning all! Once again, we come to look in the Word. I’d like to share a verse. This is a verse from Mary, the whole experience of being chosen as the mother of Messiah, which just overwhelmed her, and when she went before Elizabeth and her Elizabeth’s words, and how she was touched and burst into song, one of the lines in her song is Luke 1:53, “He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich empty handed,” and that was part of her song. He fills the hungry and sends away the rich empty handed. Now, an illustration of that is the church at Laodicea in the book of Revelation, because they claimed, “We have need of nothing. They thought they had arrived,” and that leaves Jesus outside the door knocking. So, if you think you have no needs, He’s going to send you away empty, but if you come hungry, He is going to fill us. So, lets come hungry.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word, and thank You for the Holy Spirit who lives in our lives and hearts, in our being, in order to turn our eyes to the Lord Jesus. Once again, we ask You this morning to turn our faith, our heart to the Lord, and then give us grace to appropriate Him as You reveal Him to us. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Let me come quickly to where we left off. We are in our close-up look at the tabernacle. We’ve been going in a walk-through, taking our time, and stopping at each piece of furniture, and just meditating on that to discover some spiritual reality that God has planted in that particular piece of furniture. We’ve almost finished our walk-through through the holy place. We went through the outer court, we went through the holy place, and we looked at all the furniture, and then I remind you, we have a fictional character, an imaginary man of my making, and his name is Ezekiel. Lillian wanted to use the prophet Ezekiel because he was a heart priest, and so Ezekiel is our imaginary guide, and he’s walking us through the tabernacle. If I have questions, I ask him, and then he answers. It’s basically a teaching device, but it’s been very helpful for me.
In our walk-through we couldn’t leave the holy place. He made us stop and contemplate the veil, the beautiful veil that was hanging between the holy place and the holy of holies. We saw last time that the veil was both a divider which kept God on one side and sinful man on the other side, but it was also a protector, a shelter. Man didn’t know that he was being protected by that beautiful veil. On one side was the sinful man, the sinful high priest, sinful priests, and all the sinful people, and on the other side, of course, there was the holy God, and the symbolic throne, the arc of the covenant. The message of that hanging veil was, “Stay out; do not approach. You cannot come into the presence of God in a sinful condition.”
Hebrews 9:8, “The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place had not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is till standing, which is the symbol for the present time.” The way into the holy place had not yet been disclosed. That was always the puzzle; how can we get in? What’s the way? We need to see the way in. It hadn’t been disclosed yet, but that’s what the question was. That veil, we knew, would not forever block the way. That veil had to be dealt with, so that we could get in. But, until the fulness of time, the veil hanging between the holy place and the holy of holies only spoke in mysterious tones. It spoke cryptically, in a shadow. It was dark and dim, and we couldn’t see the way in. It hadn’t been disclosed. Looking at the veil, it was beautiful, but the message was foggy and dim.
We know that on one day a year the high priest got in. So, we said, “Let’s study that. That must give us a clue how to get through that veil. What is the way?” Hebrews 9:7, “Into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood which he offers for himself, and the sins of the people committed in ignorance.” We have been discussing that one clue. That one day was called the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16:30, “It is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you. You will be clean from all of your sins before the Lord.” The thing keeping them out was sin, and on that day God said, “You’ll be clean from all your sins, and nothing to hinder you from getting in.” So, God symbolically on that day hinted on the way that hadn’t been disclosed, but He didn’t spell it out. It still was a vague shadow. It was like a show and tell.
Leviticus 16:29, “This shall be a permanent statute for you. In the seventh month on the tenth day of the month you shall humble your souls, and do no work, whether the native or the alien who sojourn among you.” The tenth day, the seventh month, once a year was the Day of Atonement. Symbolically on that day the high priest was clean from all his sins. Symbolically the high priest represented the people to take them in. So, it was reasonable to study that day, and say, “Aaron got through. How did he do it? Maybe we can learn the way. He got through that curtain one day a year,” and so we’ve been asking Aaron to show us the way. We reason that if we could study carefully whatever happened that day, all of the plans and all of the ritual, on that one day a sinful man got in. How did he do it? So, we say, “We’ll study that and follow his example, and we’ll not only do it one day a year, we’ll do it every day. We’ve got to get through that curtain.” But what do we find?
The Day of Atonement was on the tenth day of the seventh month, and on the next day, the eleventh day of the seventh nothing has changed. The curtain is till hanging there, and it’s still dividing the way, because the way had not yet been disclosed. If we are ever to get in, somehow, sin has to be dealt with, and that veil has to be dealt with. We thought that Aaron would show us the way, but it didn’t happen. Hebrews 10:1-4, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually, year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers having once been cleansed would no longer have consciousness of sin. But, in those sacrifices there is a reminded of sin year by year. It’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.”
We remember that Ezekiel told us that everything in the tabernacle in some way foreshadows Messiah, predicts Messiah. Colossians 2:16, “Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival, or a new moon or a sabbath day, which are a mere shadow of what is to come.” The substance belongs to Christ. All the study in the tabernacle are shadows, shadows, and not substance. The substance belongs to Christ.
“Does this veil,” we ask, “in some way, then, picture Messiah?” Of course, that emphasis on Messiah led us to Hebrews 10:19&20, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Did you catch that? Through the veil, that is His flesh; the new and living way, pictured by the veil, was His flesh. That veil, indeed, did picture Messiah, His flesh, His humanity. Just like the veil had two side, one side hanging in the presence of sinful man, and the other side facing a holy God, so Messiah has two sides; He’s divine and He’s human; one side facing humanity, and one side facing God Himself.
Indeed, we found out that was the case, that as the veil was a protector, keeping us from the throne room, so the Lord Jesus came veiled, hidden in flesh, hidden in humanity; the veil, that is His flesh. How often, and just look back in your life, has He protected you from your sin, from your folly, from your ignorance, from your darkness, from your stupidity? Before you knew the Lord, imagine if you were suddenly ushered into the presence of the Lord. You’d be done. I’d be done. What kept you from dying before you came to know Jesus? The answer was that it was the Lord. He came veiled in flesh. They didn’t know it. We were looking for Aaron to show us the way. We were looking for some plan. We were looking for some outline, some formula; “Let’s follow Him and we’ll get some direction, a list of rules. Let’s do this and that, and don’t do this and don’t do that.” We didn’t know the way that was going to be disclosed, the way that was called, “new and living,” we didn’t know it was a Person, and not a plan.
We talk about a plan of salvation. Simeon looked into the face of that baby and said, “My eyes have seen Thy salvation.” Salvation is a Person. Praise God there’s a plan, but salvation is not a plan. It’s Jesus. John 14:6, “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’” The new and living way is a Person; it is our Lord Jesus. He’s the veil. He doesn’t show us how to get through the veil. He IS the veil, and He said, “I will deal with that veil once and for all.” We didn’t realize that God had come in love, veiled in flesh, to BE the way to take us in, to become sin for us, to take the penalty of our sins. He prayed when He was dying, “Father, forgive them. They’re ignorant. They don’t know. I came hidden. I came veiled. They don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know that I’m the prince of life.” The world was in ignorance, as He in flesh set His face as a flint toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, and with joy He went to the cross. Sin had to be dealt with, or we would never be admitted into the holy presence of God. So, He bore our own sins in His body on the tree.
Matthew 27:50, “Jesus cried out again,” He’s on the cross now, “with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit, and behold, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” The surprise was that was while sinners were looking for someone to show them the way, to give them a map, a spiritual GPS, while we were looking for that, Jesus WAS the way, WAS the veil, and when He died that veil was torn from the top to the bottom.
So great was that discovery, that the way is a Person, that the early church became known as followers of the Way. Acts 9:1&2, “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priests, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that it he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” So excited were they about the discovery, the new and living way! It’s a Person! They became known as followers of the Way, the Person. Later, in His own defense when Paul was on trial before Felix, he made this confession, Acts 24:14, “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our father, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets.” Paul once persecuted followers of the Way, and then at the end he said, “I have to admit to you, Felix, I’m one of them. I’m also a follower of the new and living way, the Person of Christ.”
Now, that is sort of a finish of the review, but we return to the tabernacle and to our priest/guide, Ezekiel, and our last lesson Ezekiel said, “We need to look at the veil to see Messiah, His person, and then His ministry. Last time we saw His person. I’ll just sort of machine gun. Aaron the high priest was symbolically holy. Jesus, the reality, was not symbolically holy. He was perfect. Aaron, the high priest, laid aside garments of beauty and glory made by the hands of men, the direction of God, but the hands of men. Our Lord Jesus laid aside garments of beauty and glory, the prerogatives of His Godhead. Aaron, the high priest, entered into the symbolic holy of holies with the blood of animals. Out Lord Jesus, the High Priest, didn’t enter into a shadow. Hebrews 9:7, “Into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people…” Hebrews 9:24, “For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of the Lord.” So, Aaron was allowed to pass once a year. Our Lord Jesus did it once for all time and for all people. So, you can see how Aaron, by contrast, is a shadow of our Lord Jesus.
Now we come to this. Aaron reminded us that the veil, the ministry on the Day of Atonement, also foreshadowed the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. The results of that day are everlasting principles. They are the results, that was symbolic atonement, the results are actual atonement and are illustrated in the picture. That’s what we want to look at. The secrets of ministry and the results of actual atonement, what happened once a year in the Old Testament, now is everlastingly true for us. There are three wonderful results illustrated of the Day of Atonement. We touched on the first last time. I’ll only mention that, and then we’ll begin our new material.
The first shadow, result of that Day of Atonement, of course was access into the holy presence of the Lord. The principle is not only access, but safe access; I go into the presence of the Lord without being consumed. Aaron, the shadow, went in representing the people who had to wait outside. On the other hand, when Jesus died, when that veil was rent, He entered, and people aren’t waiting outside, He took us with Him, so we are crucified with Christ, we’re buried with Christ, we rise with Christ, we ascended with Christ, and He is seated, and we are seated with Him in heavenly places. The first result is access.
Let me read again those precious verses, Hebrews 10:19, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, a new and living way, which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh.” We have a great High Priest over the house of God. That new and living way is giving us full assurance; let us come boldly, let us come confidently, let us come with full assurance. Sin is no longer a barrier, it’s no longer in the way. Sometimes we hear people say, “I’m so glad that God forgives and forgets.” He doesn’t; that’s not in the Bible. God can’t forget. Forgetting is an infirmity. But then you say, “I read in the Bible, Hebrews 10:17, ‘Their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Isn’t that forgetting?” No, it’s willing not to remember. By an act of His choice He choose not to remember.
The same thing is true in your life. Somebody sins against you, somebody says, “Well, forgive them and forget it.” You can’t forget it either. If somebody does something against you there is no way you can forget it, but the One who lives in you can will not to remember. You can allow the One who lives in you never to bring it up, to choose, to will not to remember. That was pictured, you remember, by the scapegoat we saw last week, that He not only died for us, but He carried our sins away. John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” that’s the first goat, “that takes away the sin of the world,” that’s the second goat. He’s taken your sin into the land of oblivion. He’s taken your sin and put it behind His back. Think in terms of His omnipresence. Where is the back of an omnipresent God? Well, that’s where your sins are.
After He’s done all of this and given us access into His presence, if we still live under condemnation, and we live with a guilty conscience, and we’re still bothered by past sin, we’re asking God to do two things. We’re asking Him to deal with sin that He’s already dealt with, and we’re asking Him to remember what He willed no to remember. May God give you confidence, boldness and full assurance, because there is a new and living way, and His name is Jesus.
Now we begin. Ezekiel gave us a second way, the Day of Atonement and ministry that day, foreshadowed the ministry of Messiah, not only granting presence, access into the presence of a holy God, but He proclaimed that day to be a sabbath day. Leviticus 16:30, “…for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.” When we usually think about the sabbath day, especially in terms of the Bible, we think of about the seventh day. The Hebrews, the Jews, had Saturday. That was their sabbath day. But the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16:29, “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month…” Now, here’s an interesting thing. This isn’t the seventh day. The day of atonement is the tenth day, and yet He says, “That’s a sabbath.” Do you see what He’s doing? He’s calling attention to the principle of rest, rather than to the particular day. He’s not talking about one particular day. Exodus 31:16, “It’s a sign,” that’s the sabbath, “between Me and the sons of Israel forever,; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” Notice how God’s heart is revealed. He takes them back to the beginning when the sabbath was first initiated. He called it, “a sign.” It’s not the day of rest; it’s the principle of rest.
When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, one of the commandments was verse 8, “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy,” but that fourth commandment, keeping the sabbath day, didn’t first come into existence with Moses on Mt. Sinai. That came way before Moses. Moses said, “Remember the sabbath day,” but the sabbath day was already twenty-six hundred years in existence before Moses, when Jesus created the universe is when He instituted the sabbath. When He gave Moses the commandment about the sabbath, He deliberately pointed him back to the beginning. Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”
The sabbath is a universal principle of rest. It didn’t start with Moses. The sabbath, like marriage, was instituted before man even sinned, before man fell into sin. There’s nothing Jewish about marriage. There’s nothing Jewish about the sabbath day. It was designed for the whole human race. It wasn’t just given for the Jews. Mark 2:27, “Jesus said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” It was made for everybody, all flesh, not just circumcised flesh. God said that the Day of Atonement, call it sabbath, call it rest. Leviticus 16:31, “It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls..” again not calling attention to the day. He passed right by that and started to meditate on the principle.
So, the question comes, “Why, after the celebration, they went through the whole Day of Atonement, after the symbolic access, and now He says, ‘Name it rest, name it sabbath.’” What does that mean? We’re always talking about resting in Jesus, resting in the Lord. What is rest? What does it mean? We need a clear answer on that. We need to be so pointed on what that means. Since God is emphasizing that principle, we have to go back to when He instituted it, and we’ll find our what exactly it is, and then you’ll know if you’re resting or not, and I’ll know if I’m resting or not. So, let’s look at that.
Genesis 2:1, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts, and by the seventh day God completed His work, which He had done. He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. God blessed the seventh day, sanctified it, because in it He rested from all the work He had created.” This is God’s rest, and we’re invited to enter His rest. What does it mean? Hebrews 4:4, “He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, ‘God rested on the seventh day from all His works..” We read in Hebrews 4:9&10, “So, there remains a rest, a sabbath rest, for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” Even that is vague. What exactly does it mean?
I know this. When God rested it wasn’t the rest of Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” It can’t be. God was not exhausted because He worked for a week. He wasn’t flaccid; He wasn’t weary or tired. Whatever that rest is could not contradict Isaiah 40:28, “Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired.” Whatever rest is, it’s not that. He wasn’t fatigued. He didn’t need to get reinvigorated. That’s not what it means to rest. He didn’t even create a sweat when He created how many hundred billion galaxies.
Some suggest that God sort of created, wound up a clock, and then He sits back and He’s watching it unwind, and now the clock is running out, and that God is detached from His creation. He is not detached. John 5:17, “Jesus answered, ‘My Father is working until now, and I’m working.’” It doesn’t mean you don’t work. He’s still working. Colossians 1:17, “He’s before all things; in Him all things hold together.” If God wasn’t active, everything would fly to pieces. He’s holding it together. By the way, this isn’t in my notes, but whatever rest means in your life, it’s finished, and He’s holding it together. You need to understand that He’s holding it together.
On the sheet I gave you a list of verses, “God saw that it was good.” I’m not going to quote all those verses, but I’m going to call attention to them. He created light in Genesis 1:4 and said, “It’s good.” He created the dry land and the gathering of the waters in verse 10, and said, “It’s good.” In verse 12 He created vegetation, fruit trees, and He said, “It’s good.” In verse 18 He created the sun, the moon, the stars, the galaxies, and He said, “It’s good.” In verse 21 He created sea creatures and birds, the fowls of the air, and He said, “It’s good.” Verse 25 He created animals, and at the end of the day the crown of His creation, He created man, verse 31, “God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good.” Every day it was, “good, it’s good, it’s good, it’s good, it’s good,” and then He comes to the last and He said, “It’s very good, very good.” He’s not just giving Himself an ‘at-a-boy. He’s not just patting Himself on the back, “God job, way to go! You get A+ for that.” That’s not what God is doing. His verdict of good, “that’s good, very good,” that shows His satisfaction; that shows that He was delighted with what He had done. It was perfect.
Let me put it this way. When God finished His created work, He just clapped and said, “Good, good, good, very good.” That was His finished created work, because it was perfect, and it was complete. John 19:30, our Lord Jesus is on the cross, “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ He bowed His head and gave up the spirit.” He illustrated His satisfaction when the creation was finished, He said, “Very good,” and when Jesus rose from the dead, God the Father and God the Spirit were clapping, “This is very good.” He’s satisfied in the finished work of redemption, as He was satisfied in the finished work of creation. That’s what it means that God has rested.
Now we come that I have to rest in the Lord, and so do you, so we say, “Well, God rested, and He ceased from His works, and He was satisfied, so I guess to rest is that I have to be satisfied with God’s finished work.” That’s not going to last. If you think that’s what rest is, it’s not quite. That’s not rest, because sometimes I’m fickle; one day I’ll be satisfied and the next day I’ll wonder if it’s even truth. When I enter God’s rest, God is satisfied, and I am satisfied that He’s satisfied. That’s the rest. Do you see what I’m saying? God is satisfied, God did the work, it was a perfect work, it was a completed work, and it was His perfect will, and He clapped and said, “That is very good.” My rest is when I believe that He’s resting. I’m satisfied that He’s satisfied. That’s what my rest is. He says that my sins are gone. God says that my sins are forgiven. Sometimes I don’t feel like they are, but He’s satisfied that they are, so guess what, I’m satisfied that He’s satisfied.
Let me go through a few more of those. God said that He would never leave me or forsake me. Sometimes I feel like that He’s looking off from some distant balcony and is just an observer. He said it, and He’s there. He said that the Holy Spirit lives in my life. He’s satisfied with that, and so am I. I’m satisfied that He’s satisfied. He says that all things are working together for good. Sometimes it doesn’t look like they are, but He said they are, and He’s satisfied with that, and I’m satisfied that He’s satisfied. Whatever He brings, His work completes and make Him happy, I rest. If it makes Him happy, it’s going to make me happy. That’s what He’s saying.
He also said, “I’m going to heaven when I die.” On the level of earth, when I get there, I’m going to be surprised and say, “Ooo, it’s true.” I know it’s true, He said it, and I’m satisfied that it’s absolutely true. So, the Day of Atonement, that one day, He said, “You make sure you call that a sabbath rest; we enter not only into His presence to have fellowship with Him, but we can rest, satisfied that He’s satisfied with a finished work. I can’t stress how important it is His emphasis that God is satisfied with the finished work of Christ. Fifty-two times every year God had His redeemed children set aside one day off to remember that rest, and that day they were to enjoy the Lord, and everything that satisfied Him, and it was every seven days, seven, a number of completion, it’s finished, and He did that.
After they were reminded of that fifty two times in a year, God said that I want you to do that for six years in a row, so three hundred and twelve times, and then I want you to have a week, six days and then a sabbath, but a week of years, six years, and then a sabbatical year, and do on that year the same thing you did on that day—no pulling stumps, no plowing, no planting, no pruning, no gleaning; I’ll take care of you and provide for you. I will provide for you. As I had you count off six days and then rest, I have you count of six years and then a sabbath year, now I want you to count seven times seven. I want you to count off sabbatical years and we’re going to the end of that, so seven times seven is forty-nine, and you’ve got 312 days, and then you’ve got forty-nine sabbatical years… “Why am I reminding you of this,” Ezekiel said? It’s because one of the results of the Day of Atonement, one of the results of actual atonement, Leviticus 16:29, “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month,” He gave you the date, the seventh month and the tenth day. When was that date repeated? The answer is Leviticus 25:8-10, “You are to count out seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so you have the time of seven sabbaths of years, namely forty-nine years, then you shall sound a ram’s horn abroad.” What’s the date? “On the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the horn through all your land, you shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim it’s release through the land, it’s inhabitants, and it shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his property and return to his family.” Leviticus 25:11, “You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. It’s a jubilee. It will be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.”
They were to take one day a week off, and then they were take one year, a sabbatical year, and then the forty ninth year, the sabbatical year, and God said that I want to take that off, and then take off the next year, too. So, now you have two years in a row, and when did that begin? The Day of Atonement; when He said, “When the Day of Atonement is done you blow that trumpet and announce jubilee. Now, as Ezekiel stands in the Old Testament and speaks of the jubilee, as we come to the end a year, ready to enter a new year, I want you to set your heart on the reality, not the veil in the tabernacle, but the veil that was rent when Jesus died, the veil that invited you open armed into the presence of God for fellowship, the veil that invited you to be completely satisfied with everything that satisfies Him. I want you to meditate on that, because now we have the third illustration, and the third illustration, the outworking of atonement, actual atonement, is liberty, freedom, jubilee. This is a wonderful, wonderful truth.
The first liberty is freedom from bondage. Leviticus 25:10, “You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.” In the picture the bondage was the slave. Sometimes it was a Jewish slave because he had to make ends meet and he couldn’t have the money, and he would go and work as a slave. Sometimes it was a foreign slave, but when that trumpet sounded everybody was free, all the bars fell off. Now, that picture, slavery, bondage, the reality is all kinds of slavery and bondage, and mainly we’re looking at bondage to sin. Romans 6:16, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slave for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? Thanks be to God, though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free…” Read Isaiah 61:1&2, “Messiah is anointed by the Holy Spirit, and for what? To bring good news to the afflicted and for what? To bind up the broken hearted. And for what? To proclaim liberty to the captives, the favorable year of the Lord.” That’s the year of jubilee.
Many scholars believe Jesus actually died in the year of jubilee. It’s hard to do the math on that. I can’t make that my own, but I know spiritually He died on the year of jubilee. Leviticus 25:11, “You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow or reap..” The fiftieth year followed the forty-ninth year; that’s two years in a row that God had to meet the needs. So, the question that would come up, came up. Leviticus 25:20, “If you say, ‘What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow of gather?” How will we have our needs met? I’ll tell you, if I lived back in those days, I would have loved to have been a weatherman. I’ll tell you why I would love to be a weatherman. Its’ because I would predict the forty-eighth year the weather for the crops. Leviticus 25:21, “I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year, it will bring forth crops for three years.” I could get there as a weatherman and say, “Let me tell you about this year. It’s going to be a wonderful year for farmers,” because in the forty-eighth year God had to provide everything for the forty-eighth year, and in the forty-eighth year He had to provide everything for the forty-ninth year, because that is a sabbath year. He also had to provide everything for the fiftieth year, because they had to take that off, too, until the harvest of the fifty-first year. Four years God had to provide in the forty-eighth year the harvest for four years. So, the results of actual atonement; I have access, I have rest, I have liberty, freedom from want, freedom from bondage. He’s going to provide all my needs.
One other thing and then we’ll close. Leviticus 25:13, “On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.” You remember that they each got an inheritance, and God called it perpetual. Every fifty years that inheritance went back to the one that God originally gave it to. It was possible through mismanagement or fiscal irresponsibility or adverse circumstances that a Hebrew would have to sell off some of his property in order to make ends meet. Maybe things got tough, and he had to sell the farm out in the back or a piece of pasture over here. The value of his property was measured in terms of jubilee, because they’re getting it back in the fiftieth year. Everybody got their property back. You sell it, but in fifty years you get it back.
Leviticus 25:15, “Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.” If I sold you my property in the tenth year, you are going to pay me a good price, because you’ve got it for forty years, and so you are going to pay that up front. Of course, at the fiftieth year you’ve got to give it back. If I sold my property, let’s say in the thirtieth year, it would be cheaper for you, wouldn’t it, because you are only going to have it for a shorter time? If I sold it in the fort-eighth year or forty-ninth year, it’s going to be cheap. You’ll get it for a song and a dance, because you’ve got to give it back next year.
The teaching is this, and may God help us see it! The closer one gets to jubilee, the more things lose their value. I am not only free from bondage, I am not only free from want, jubilee sets me free from vanity. I have my value system restored, what is valuable and what is not. Those who are at Family Ministries heard this illustration, but I’m going to tell it again about Lillian’s grandfather. We had the privilege of being the caregivers for her grandfather. He lived with us for six years. He died at 106, and he was very sharp right up to age 100. To know grandpa was just an amazing thing. He was such a Godly, Godly man. He didn’t come to know Jesus until he was seventy-five years old, and at seventy-five, boy the Lord did wonderful work in his life. So, it was always a blessing to visit Grandpa. He was known for his cleanliness. He would wash down the woodwork of his house every week, and he had three stories, and he’d wash it all down. The renters had to leave so he could wash down their walls, and wash down the woodwork. He even did the outside porch. Every week he would wash down the porch and the stairs. Lillian used to joke, “We could eat off his porch, off the floor,” it was so clean. He was frugal and meticulous. His lawn was a showplace. It was funny because you’ll see in parks, “Stay off the grass,” and he had one in his lawn, because he just groomed his yard.
As he was getting older, you know, like ninety-seven or ninety-eight, he’s still very sharp, but he started worrying the family. He started worrying the family because he was doing bizarre things. He started giving away heirlooms to neighbors. He started forgetting to collect the rent from those that were in his apartment. I remember her father came to us and said, “We’re concerned about Grandpa. We think dementia is setting in, and he’s beginning to get, and we’re going to check him for Alzheimer’s. We think there is a real problem with his mind. Well, one day Lillian and I used to make it a habit to go visit Grandpa in Connecticut, and so we went, and he was just honest. He smiled and laughed and said, “My son thinks I’m losing my mind.” We talked freely about what he was doing. He said, “I want you to come with me.” He took Lillian and he took me and we went in a little shed in the backyard. He went out and he got a spade, and he took me into the middle of his lawn, his groomed lawn, and he dug down in and he moved the sod of grass, and he reached down into the soil, and he let it flow through his fingers, and he said, “It means nothing to me anymore.” Grandpa wasn’t going senile. He was approaching jubilee. The closer you get to jubilee, the more things lose their value.
Some of you who are older, you already know that. “Things that used to mean so much to me and used to treasure…” That’s why I think Lillian is going to live to 190, because she is still so attached to so many of these things. Anyway, how does jubilee illustrate the fact that Christ is the only thing of value? It’s in this way; on jubilee the Lord restored what you already had in the beginning. The year of jubilee did not give you one thing that you didn’t already have. It gave you back what you let slip away, what you lost for one reason or another.
When you got saved, Colossians 2:6, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” You received Christ, and God has nothing else to give you. That’s your inheritance. That’s my inheritance. Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not with Him freely give us all things?” We have Him and with Him everything! That’s how God is; that’s what He did. So, at jubilee, the results of jubilee are now I have access into the presence of God; I can fellowship with God. Because of jubilee I can now be satisfied in anything that satisfies Him. It doesn’t matter. Now that there’s jubilee, I can be free. We’re at the end of the year. Nothing changes. You’ve heard it all year, and you’ll hear it next year, if God graces us—it’s Him, it’s a Person, it’s the Lord Jesus in relationship to Him. That’s what He gave you in the first place.
I don’t know how many years ago it was when you first trusted the Lord. We’re getting ready for a new year. Let me ask, “Has it slipped away? For some reason do you get so wrapped up in bills and the kids and the grandkids and the great grandchildren and the nation and the corruption and you begin to take your eyes off the Lord?” I think it would be nice, we need a jubilee. We need to come back, have God give us back what we had in the first place. It’s the Lord Himself. Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh, and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Anew year is coming….
TIME
Time by seconds, tick away,
First the hour, then the day;
Weeks go by, the month appears,
Months are swiftly turned to years.
How the dreams of what could be,
Soon become the memory!
Like the tides that ebb and flow,
Generations come and go.
Of all the evils, men should fear;
Is having heart and portion here!
May the Lord bless you and give you a great Christmas and deliver you completely from commercialism in all its subtle forms. Lord willing, we’ll see you again next year.
Heavenly Father, thank You for gathering us, and thank You for Your Word, not what we think it means, but we ask You to work in our hearts everything You’ve inspired it to mean. Thank You that we can have this fellowship. Thank You for Janet and Pat opening the home for us, making this wonderful provision. Now, Lord, we commit these next days and family and celebration unto You. Keep us focused and restore unto us the joy of our salvation. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.