[0:00] Please be seated and turn in your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Leviticus. You'll find Leviticus after Genesis and Exodus, chapter 25.
[0:15] And our brother has asked me to read three separate portions from this same chapter. But I think as we read, you'll see that there is a common theme between these three passages.
[0:28] Chapter 25, Leviticus 25. And we're going to read from verse 8 to 17.
[0:40] And then we'll skip ahead a little bit. This is the flawless word of God that no man can add to, no man can correct.
[0:53] Count off seven Sabbaths of years. Seven times seven years. So that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to a period of 49 years.
[1:06] Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month on the day of atonement. Sound the trumpet throughout your land.
[1:17] Consecrate the fiftieth year. And proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you. Each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.
[1:32] The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you. Do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.
[1:44] For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you. Eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this year of jubilee, everyone is to return to his own property.
[1:58] If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. You are to buy from your countrymen on the basis of the number of years since the jubilee.
[2:11] And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price.
[2:22] And when the years are few, you are to decrease the price. Because what is he really selling you is the number of crops. Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God.
[2:35] I am the Lord your God. Then verse 23. The land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine.
[2:47] And you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countrymen has sold.
[3:07] If, however, a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means to redeem it, he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it.
[3:21] He can then go back to his own property. But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the year of the jubilee.
[3:36] It will be returned in the jubilee, and he can then go back to his property. Then verse 47. Verse 47, and we'll read through verse 54.
[3:47] If an alien or temporary resident among you becomes rich, and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you, or to a member of the alien's clan, he retains the right to redemption after he has sold himself.
[4:08] One of his relatives may redeem him. An uncle or cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
[4:19] He and his buyer are to count the time from the year he sold himself to the year of jubilee. The price for his release is to be based on the rate paid to a hired man for the number of years.
[4:30] If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption a larger share of the price paid for him. If only a few years remain until the year of jubilee, he is to compute that and pay for his redemption accordingly.
[4:46] He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year. You must see to it that his owner does not rule over him ruthlessly. Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released in the year of jubilee.
[5:07] Let's hear the preaching of God's word. Good morning.
[5:17] I bring to you greetings from the church in Sacramento, California, Emanuel Baptist Church, where I was last week.
[5:27] And I bring greetings to you from Harbor Reform Baptist Church in Holland, Michigan. It's a delight and a privilege for me to be able to be with you.
[5:38] Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Leviticus 25 again, the passage from which Jason read. And we're focusing our attention in on the year of the jubilee.
[5:52] Let me read beginning at verse 8 of Leviticus 25. You are to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, namely 49 years.
[6:12] You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the day of atonement, you shall sound a horn all through your land.
[6:26] You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release, a release through the land of all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his own family, and you shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee.
[6:53] Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have your word that's a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.
[7:07] And we confess that we've lived in a world that gropes in darkness, and now we come to your house, and we pray that we might see, that we might see who we are, and we might see what we're supposed to be doing, and we might see the one whom we should be worshiping, and that we would see where it is that we are going.
[7:35] So we ask that you would give us eyes, that we might see, even ears, that we might hear, and give me a mouth, that your word might be spoken with clarity.
[7:48] We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, think with me of a student who's attending Notre Dame in South Bend, and he loves the arts, and so he pursues a degree in artistic design, and in literary and art gallery history.
[8:24] And he gets for himself a job after his degree is finished four years at Notre Dame, and it's a job at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
[8:37] And there he is given the role of an art gallery tour guide. For him, for him, this is his dream job. He just loves what he's doing as he strolls through the galleries of these masterpieces.
[8:53] And he can hardly contain himself as he gives his tours, but then after weeks go into months, and then months go into a couple of years, his performance as a tour guide becomes just lackluster.
[9:09] He's just going through the motions, being apathetic. His initial passion and devotion has been lost. He has a heartless disinterest in what he's doing.
[9:21] His voice is monotone. And his supervisor sees this and calls him into the office there at the Louvre and sits him down and says, What's going on here?
[9:33] What's happened to you? And the young person is full of fear and he thinks he's going to get fired for sure. But instead, his supervisor says, Here's what I want you to do.
[9:45] I want you to take a day off. And I just want you to stroll the galleries and afresh, just look at the pictures. Just look at the portraits.
[9:58] Look at the arts. And he does. And he strolls. And he views. And he meditates. And he's inspired. And as a result, he's reminded of what it is that drew him to this place initially.
[10:15] And there's a restoration of his first love. And he dives into his duties the next day with a new sense of enthusiasm. Well, for us as Christians, we can have a first love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[10:31] And we can be thrilled with a sense of exhilaration at who it is that we have as a Savior. But then, isn't it true, after weeks go into months and then months go into years and sometimes years go into decades, we can lose our first love, just like Revelation chapter 2 and the church in Ephesus.
[10:52] And here we can have the church in Bremen, Indiana, be a lackluster church, be a church that's lost its sense of enthusiasm.
[11:05] And now here you've signed up for a task of holding a general assembly in September. And you've got no heart for it.
[11:15] All I want to do just this hour is to stroll the galleries of, well, maybe the book of Leviticus. And I just want you to look at the picture.
[11:28] Just look at the pictures and be reminded of this glorious Messiah who would come. Because the book of Leviticus is full of these strange pictures, these types, these shadows depicting this glorious Messiah and Savior who would come.
[11:49] If we would turn to the 16th chapter of Leviticus, we would find there that picture of the Day of Atonement. We'd find the sinful, evil nation of Israel who deserves to be thrown into the sea of God's wrath and they in the mountain of their sins being buried under the rage of God's torment in the lake of fire.
[12:14] But instead, there's a figure that comes out from the nation as they would arrive in Jerusalem for the Day of Atonement. It's the high priest. And the high priest comes as the representative of that nation who has a whole mountain range of sins that they've committed in the last year.
[12:31] Even one grain of sin would be enough. To throw the nation into outer darkness for eternity. But they have a whole mountain range of sins that they've committed in the past year.
[12:42] And the high priest comes representing all their sin. He takes the mountain range of that sin and he lays it on the back of a goat, right? A scapegoat.
[12:54] An scapegoat is a beast of burden and he takes the mountain range of their sin out into the wilderness. Out, out, out. Until it's seen no more.
[13:07] And the nation of Israel has had all their sins carried away. See, that high priest and that scapegoat depict a glorious carrier, character who's going to come.
[13:19] The Lord Jesus Christ. Or we could go to the 15th chapter of Leviticus. There's an interesting account there where it talks about leprosy and what a terrible condition it is for a man to be declared to be leprous in ancient Israel.
[13:36] He's an outcast. He can't live with his wife anymore, with his family and children. He can't even live in the city anymore. He's got to go live out in the wilderness, in caves.
[13:47] And if someone comes near him, he's got to cover his mustache and shout, Unclean! Unclean! I would stay away from me! But then there's this depiction how if that leper is somehow made clean, he can go to the priest and be declared clean.
[14:05] And then there's this leprosy cleansing ceremony where there is two birds taken. And one bird has its neck broken and its chest is cut open and the blood is poured out into a bowl.
[14:20] And then a second bird is taken. And the bird has its wingtips dipped into the blood of the bowl. And then those scarlet-tipped wings are able to spread out.
[14:32] It says that bird is able to fly like a bird on a wing over the field and go free. And what is that all but a picture of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[14:44] And if we have the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ sprinkled on us, we, instead of being slain under God's wrath, we can be set free to fly into eternity.
[14:56] That's kind of a picture, a type, a shadow of Christ and what he would do. But we could look at that portrait of the Day of Atonement or the portrait of the leprosy, healing, ceremony, and cleansing.
[15:12] But let's not look at that picture this morning. Let's look at that passage that Jason read from, which is Leviticus chapter 25. Let's look at the year of the Jubilee.
[15:23] Every 50 years would come a year of Jubilee. And on the Day of Atonement, there'd be the sounding of a ram's horn. Let's just look at that picture in the gallery of Leviticus and ponder the glorious character who will come.
[15:41] And that's ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at this year of Leviticus, excuse me, of Jubilee in Leviticus 25. And I want to expound it into three main headings.
[15:54] Three main headings. And we'll do it kind of by way of oh, a dramatic exposition. We'll look at firstly calamity. Then secondly by exposition, remedy.
[16:07] Then thirdly, liberty. So let's go first to calamity. Calamity. Imagine with me in Old Testament times a godly Israelite whose name is Abishai.
[16:23] You see him there. He's an old man. He lives in Bethlehem. He's got four sons. He's a very industrious fellow. Now Abishai's father farmed this large plantation there.
[16:37] His ancestral land. 500 acres of land that he had inherited from his father. As Abishai grew older, he gradually delegated more and more of the plantation duties to his sons.
[16:53] He had four of them. You see, eventually each of them would inherit a portion of the property. Four sons. 500 acres. They'd each get 125 acres apiece.
[17:04] Now, these three sons that he had of the four, they did walk in the steps of their father, Abishai. Because Abishai was a man who was kind of like Job. Blameless.
[17:15] Upright. Feared God. Shunned. Evil. These three sons were hardworking like their dad, Abishai. But not so much the youngest son, Samuel.
[17:28] You see, Samuel, Abishai's youngest son, was a prodigal grief to Father Abishai's heart. Abishai would go out into the fields and would look to find Samuel supposedly working the fields at his plow.
[17:44] But instead, he'd finally find him, look, there he is off. He's swimming. He's swimming in the river instead of working on the soil. Or another time, he would see him betting, betting with his buddies on rooster fights.
[18:02] And more than once, sadly, he found him there sinning in the prostitute's house in the town of Bethlehem. You see this fourth black sheep's son, Samuel, was a dirty and filthy son and a grief to Abishai's heart.
[18:20] Well, in the course of time, Abishai, the old man, died, leaving four rich farms, 125 acres each, to his four sons. All four sons were now married, they had children, and they could look at a life of skimming off blessed profit from 125 acres of Palestinian soil.
[18:45] Each of them could have a very prosperous life, but sadly, the responsibilities of wife and children and personal ownership did Samuel no good.
[18:58] Didn't make him any better because through negligence, Samuel, that fourth son's fields, were unproductive and overgrown. And for Samuel, drunkenness had set in.
[19:12] He did have a wife, but she had to glean what she could to feed her hungry children from the untended two fields. And then one night, there, look, Samuel's house and his barn were set ablaze.
[19:29] The flames were licking the sky, and we see that, you see his business and his gambling creditors had come with a vengeance to bring punishment on Samuel for not paying off his debts.
[19:46] And when the smoke of that night cleared in the morning, Samuel stood there at the door of his oldest brother, homeless, over his head in debt, and with his burned infant daughter's body, three-year-old, there held in one hand, and then his hysterically weeping wife under his other arm, and then standing in front of him were his three sons with blank stares there before their uncle's door.
[20:23] What had happened here? Well, look what it says there in 2525 of Leviticus. What had happened there is calamity.
[20:33] That's our first main heading, isn't it? Calamity had happened. Look, it says, if a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he is to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come.
[20:47] That's what we've got in this calamity. This is how the year of Jubilee situation could have arisen, like what had happened to Samuel. Or look at 39a.
[20:58] It says there, if a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, or look at even 47a.
[21:10] Now it says, if the means of a stranger or a sojourner with you become sufficient and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself, that's the very kind of calamity that had come on this Israelite Samuel as he stood before his brother's house the morning after the fire as we've drawn up this dramatic situation of calamity.
[21:35] But having seen then the idea of calamity, which is the setting of Leviticus 25, we go to secondly, remedy. Remedy. So think with me. Go back to ancient Bethlehem there, the oldest brother, who opens the door and sees Samuel and the calamity.
[21:55] The oldest brother is convinced that Samuel must be dealt with justly and responsibly. So as a result, he calls a summit meeting in the city gate there in Bethlehem.
[22:07] Kind of reminds you of the book of Ruth, doesn't it? When Boaz meets together at the city gate, yes, in Bethlehem, and this older brother says, I want all the creditors of my brother Samuel to arrive there in the city gate.
[22:24] I want all the elders to be there. Likewise, I want my other brothers to be there as well. And when everybody arrives at the city gate, the oldest brother, son of Abishai, holds court.
[22:40] And he stands in the court in the gate of the city and says, my brother Samuel, my little brother, has been lawless in his behavior. You've seen him over the years.
[22:50] He's been a drunken brawler. You know of his adulterous exploits. You know of his family negligence. And then he goes on to recite the enormous debt load that Samuel has because of all of his creditors.
[23:06] And then he reads from the law. He opens up the scroll and he reads from Leviticus 25 where it says, if a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman, goel, in the Hebrew, kinsman redeemer, that would be me, the oldest brother would say, is to come and to buy back what his relative has sold.
[23:31] And so he says, Samuel's property is worth 125 acres, it's worth only a fraction of my little brother Samuel's debt.
[23:42] And it's true, I am the goel, I am the kinsman redeemer, and I and my brothers together, if we would pool our means, we would have the sufficient means to pay off his debts to all of his creditors, and to redeem our little brother Samuel, but if we did, it would exhaust all of our reserves.
[24:02] So in the interest of the soul of our little brother Samuel, we have chosen to surrender our rights and our obligations to his estate, and maybe he, the oldest brother, and the other two brothers in Ruth's style took off their sandals and handed them over, basically says, we relinquish our responsibilities to this kinsman redeemer obligation, and our plan is that we would settle his debts this way.
[24:39] Samuel's farm, his 125 acres, will be sold to the highest bidder, and then our brother Samuel's debts will all be consolidated under the largest creditor, who is Barzillai, from way up north in the tribe of Dan, 110 miles to the north, and all those debts then will be paid to Barzillai by the sale of the property, and also Barzillai is going to receive our little brother Samuel as a sold slave, as an indentured servant on his estate.
[25:16] Now, I and my other brothers, we will pay something. They'll be skin in the game for us. His wife and his three sons, they're going to remain here in Bethlehem, and they're going to be raised with their kins, and we'll take care of all of their needs at our expense.
[25:35] But our brother Samuel, through the selling of his estate, and through his enslavement to Barzillai in the north, he is going to have to pay off, by the sweat of his own brow, his debts, by that indentured servitude, slavery, to that Gentile Barzillai in the north.
[25:57] And with that, the court closes, and all go home. And in the next morning, Samuel, having buried his daughter, and having bid a tear-filled farewell to his wife, and his three sons, and his rich 125 acre estate, he forfeited all by his folly, he now turns and heads 110 miles north toward Dan, and as he headed out with Bethlehem at his back, he was thankful that his family was mercifully well cared for, but he feared that he would never see them, his family, or his homeland again.
[26:42] And so, we've seen, by exposition, calamity, we've seen a sinful man falling in a deep debt, as depicted in Leviticus 25, we've also seen remedy, which would be sold into an indentured servant enslavement for a long period of time, because a man needs to pay back his debt, but now thirdly, come with me and consider liberty.
[27:09] Liberty. Well, the years passed slowly and painfully for Samuel, every other year would bring the visit of his wife, who'd come up from Bethlehem and spend a little time with Samuel.
[27:25] The boys never went north, because they would wince at the pain of the memories of their deadbeat dad, but when his wife would come back south to Bethlehem after the visit to Dan, she would report, after a few years, Samuel, he's a new man.
[27:42] There are clear patterns of diligence in him, and repentance. He's actually become Barzillai's most trusted household servant, kind of like Joseph was the servant in Potiphar's house, so has Samuel become the servant in Barzillai's house.
[27:58] Her report was that he doesn't take a swallow of wine anymore, he's not a drunk, and since his arrival there in the north country, he's become contrite and spiritually sensitive.
[28:09] His heart speaks in the tender of his tones about the word of God. He quotes scriptures right and left, you should see him late into the night. He opens up the scriptures and by candlelight he reads and reads for hours the word of God.
[28:23] It's like he drinks it in and he breathes it out. He's a changed man. Well, the brothers down south and they would hear that report, they desired to believe it, but they had for too long learned to distrust the younger brother.
[28:36] And again, as I said, the sons had such bad memories about their dad and their charred baby daughter, sister, that they couldn't bring themselves to visit him. Well, for Samuel, up in the north country, the days were filled with remorse there.
[28:52] You can imagine the specter of that scarred and scalded daughter in his own heart. But God mercifully had that memory fade in his mind and as he confessed his sins, sins of repentance before the Lord and how he'd squandered his rich blessings still.
[29:12] He believed, because he read the scriptures, that he'd been forgiven. He would read passages like from Exodus that would say, the Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.
[29:27] He would read about a leper, so filthy with sin, being cleansed and set free from that sin, about a scapegoat who could carry away a mountain of sin.
[29:40] And he believed that he had been forgiven. And while he was up there in that north country, he still though yearned, he even longed for and he even dreamed about the day when he would be released from his enslavement to Barzillai, the Gentile.
[30:00] He would dream about how he would be released sort of like a bird being set free from his enslavement, a bird set free from a hunter's snare.
[30:11] He dreamed about it. He dreamed about making that blessed journey from Dan in the north when he was released. And he believed and dreamed about coming southward, maybe reaching that mountain ridge that would overlook the rich ancestral land that he'd lost the rights to.
[30:31] And he dreamed about the possibility of having a wonderful twilight to his life, getting back to his property and his estate and his family.
[30:41] but he thought to himself, oh, that's all it is, a pipe dream. But time rolled on and there was a blessed contentedness that Samuel enjoyed in his work until early one evening while he was up in his loft reading the scriptures.
[31:01] He heard a sound. It was this shrill sound that he'd only heard once before in his life. About 50 years earlier, in fact, it was on the day of atonement.
[31:16] It was this no uncertain sound that came from a ram's horn and as he was there pondering the sound and the scriptures, he heard these footsteps coming up the loft to him and the door burst open.
[31:33] It was Barzillai and Barzillai said, Samuel, Samuel, that's the ram's horn. Samuel, it's the day of atonement signaling the 50th year of jubilee and at the year of jubilee the prisoners are what?
[31:48] They're set free. You, Samuel, are a free man. In fact, you, Samuel, are a wealthy man. Get out of here. Head back south to your estate and enjoy the rich inheritance that I know you've dreamed for, for years.
[32:07] And so, Samuel, Samuel, next morning headed out with a knapsack on his back and headed southward on this 110 mile journey.
[32:21] And when he finally appeared at that ridge overlooking his rich ancestral land, he apprehensively then gazed down into the valley below and he, what he saw, he wasn't sure it was real.
[32:35] So he rubbed his eyes and then he looked down and he saw it again because there ascending up the hillside toward him were, listen now, there were seven figures. There were three swift-footed young men heading up toward him and then there and there was one colorfully dressed stately woman not far behind and then there were three earnest looking older men bringing up the rear and who were those seven?
[33:03] Sons! Three of his sons. Wife! One bride and three of his older brothers coming up to receive him and to embrace him and to welcome him home.
[33:18] And at that point, Samuel just broke down and prayed, thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for Jubilee.
[33:31] Thank you, Lord, for Jubilee. Well, that's the exposition, calamity, remedy, and liberty. Isn't that a glorious picture?
[33:42] Isn't that a glorious picture of a wonderful truth? Now, having spent time just looking at the picture, let's kind of bask in the wonderful theological truths of this and consider with me, as this is really, this is typology.
[34:02] It was mentioned that I had taught all this week 20 lectures on hermeneutics and one of the big focus was typology. Oh, this is some of the best typology in all of the scriptures when you look at the type of the year of Jubilee.
[34:19] Consider with me first, by way of typology, consider what we see here. We see a shadow of Christ's redemption of sinners. Did you see it there? There's a shadow of Christ's redemption of sinners.
[34:31] Turn with me to Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. Look beginning at verse 16. That picture of the year of Jubilee and the ram's horn was a picture and a type and a shadow of somebody who would come to embody it all.
[34:51] And you know what? Luke four, he came. Look at him. He speaks there. It says in Luke 4, 16, he, Jesus, he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
[35:04] And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet, Isaiah, was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
[35:22] And he has sent me to proclaim release. Didn't we hear the word release a number of times in Leviticus chapter 24? That on the year of Jubilee and the day of atonement there will be a release, a release for the captives?
[35:38] Jesus says here, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery to the sight of the blind and to set free those who are downtrodden and to proclaim the favorable year of our Lord.
[35:53] And he closed the book and he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down and the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed upon him and he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
[36:05] because what did Jesus come to do? Jesus' ministry as he was baptized and came up out of the Jordan River and began to preach. What was his preaching?
[36:17] It was the sounding of the ram's horn and what it was, it was announcing release, release to the captives. Y'all, y'all are captives, y'all are prisoners under the wrath of God because of your sin.
[36:33] But in the coming of Christ and the declaring of the gospel, there is this message of release, of freedom. It's the year of jubilee. It's the favorable year of our Lord.
[36:48] Just consider some of the striking theological imagery that's here. Think of how our father Adam, Abishai was a father, wasn't he?
[37:01] Our father Adam, had deed and title to the earth, an estate which was paradise, the garden of Eden. But by our father Adam, he kind of acted like Samuel, filthy in his behavior.
[37:17] By Adam's reckless sin, he forfeited his inheritance. By Adam's representative sin, Adam incurred an infinite debt to justice.
[37:28] He lost deed and title to the land of fellowship with God, just as Samuel had lost for himself and for his seed that rich estate of that plantation property.
[37:41] And Adam was banished from the rich garden. Adam was put under a curse of enslavement to sin and the devil amidst thorns and thistles and sweat and ultimately he would surely die in the lake of fire.
[37:55] Now we can't shift the blame of our predicament here to Adam because every one of us have voluntarily amened our father Adam's sin, haven't we?
[38:07] We've all personally shaken our fist in the face of our heavenly father and we've sinned in damning ways. But all of us sitting here in these green benches, all of us basically are on death row, aren't we, sitting here?
[38:27] Left to ourselves, we're waiting for the door to open up and say it's time, it's time for you to go to the firing squad and be cast out into the outer darkness but instead we see someone came to us when we were prisoners.
[38:43] It says that Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. He's a kinsman redeemer. He's a go-well.
[38:55] He's come to pay our debt. And we see he came to wear our sin. We see in the upper room the Lord Jesus put on the attire of a servant, didn't he?
[39:08] And then within hours he was hanging on a cross and he was serving us on the cross, wasn't he? He was paying a debt, wasn't he? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
[39:19] What's going on there? He is taking our electric chair. He is taking us death row sinners, our punishment.
[39:30] He's strapped in our electric chair as he's nailed to that cross and the full voltage of the Father's wrath. He's absorbing it all until it is finished and all of the wrath that we deserve for the mountain range of our sins.
[39:46] He's paid it all up so that there's nothing left for us. Every debt that we ever had is paid up in full. All of our creditors have been paid and it's the year of jubilee for us.
[40:03] And look at you. Look at you in Christ Jesus. You're set free. You're like a bird on a wing. Listen to what Thomas Scott says as he comments on this whole year of jubilee.
[40:14] And he says, you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich he became poor that through his poverty we might become rich. Thomas Scott says this, he is our redeemer.
[40:27] He assumed our nature. Christ came as our kinsman redeemer that he might ransom our souls from Satan's bondage into which we, you and I, who had been sold for the debts which we had incurred and for the crimes that we had committed, nay, into which we had foolishly sold ourselves through love of sinful pleasures that together with our freedom he might also pay back our forfeited and wasted inheritance without which we must otherwise have been to all eternity in miserable poverty.
[41:01] Christ came as our kinsman redeemer. He came with his blood and sweat and tears. He squeezed out all of the payment to the justice of God so that he wiped out all of our debts.
[41:20] And in the sounding of the gospel that we are meeting here in this Lord's Day to celebrate, we see that it's the ram's horn is what it is.
[41:31] It's the ram's horn. In fact, it used to be in Harbor Church, we would have out on the front of our church, we would have, it was a French horn really. It was a Bible inside of it and a French horn, but what it was depicting was that it's the ram's horn, that that's the ministry of our church.
[41:48] Our church has basically come to sound the ram's horn to a world of death row prisoners that says you can be set free from your sin. And I hope that's basically the ministry of Grace Fellowship Church, that you're sounding the ram's horn, not necessarily Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth, but from Bremen to Mishawaka to South Bend to the Midwest to the whole nation and yes, to the uttermost parts of the earth.
[42:18] That's why you're part of an organization like the Reformed Baptist Network. Again, beloved, we can become so lackluster and so losing our first love regarding the business that we have as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ to be sounding the truths of the gospel, but all I'm saying is come on, look at the pictures, look at the pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ and be reminded in your soul what he's done for you.
[42:48] You have a never dying soul, you young man. Oh, I'd say maybe about 20 years old sitting right there. And you know what? A million years from now, you are going to be somewhere, either in heaven or in hell, either gnashing your teeth under the wrath of God for eternity of basking in the pleasure and glory of the Father.
[43:12] A million years from now you will be somewhere. You know what the difference of it all is, is what he does with the gospel. And we need to be sounding the gospel forth to those near and those far.
[43:24] That is our business. And so, just ponder there. We see a shadow of Christ's redemption of sinners in this picture of the year of jubilee. sin.
[43:35] It's a glorious thing that restores the first love to the soul. Don't you love the portrait of this glorious Savior that we have, the Lord Jesus?
[43:46] But also, consider how we see here also in this year of jubilee. There's a picture of the Christian's emancipation from sin. You see it there? There's a picture of the Christian's emancipation from sin.
[44:00] Emancipation, that's really a big word. Well, you know of Abraham Lincoln and his signing the Emancipation Proclamation, setting the prisoners free.
[44:11] That's really what Christ has done when we hear the gospel. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. For me, for me it was back in 1976. I was kind of close to your age.
[44:22] I was 17 years old when I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. I was at a fellowship of Christian athletes camp at Central Michigan University. And I was set free. That's about 46, 47 years ago that that took place.
[44:36] And it's been a long journey from there in 1976 to here in 2022. It's kind of like the trip that Samuel had when Samuel left from way up north in Dan.
[44:52] He had to make his way all the way down to Bethlehem. You see, I'm not home yet. I'm not home yet. But the day is going to come when I'm going to breathe my last and I'm going to overlook the ridge of that mountain into the inheritance of my eternity.
[45:09] I think there are glorious things that I'm going to see. But you think of Samuel. How about this? Samuel is heading southward his 110-mile journey with his knapsack on his back.
[45:20] And let's say as he's maybe, oh, 40 miles into his journey, he hears hoofbeats behind him because what happened in the north? Well, Bar's line in the north realized Samuel was my best slave.
[45:35] And there's no way that I'm going to give him up. I want him back. And maybe he got a posse of his neighbors to come and try to recapture and imprison again Samuel, take him up north to serve the old master again.
[45:53] Now, I admit that I've experienced that feeling since 1976 where I've been set free, like it says in Romans chapter 6. I'm no longer slaves to sin.
[46:05] But I've been set free by the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ in Romans 6. I've been made slave to righteousness. And now, in this journey of the Christian life, I'm serving a new king, King Jesus.
[46:20] But I admit that I have found my old taskmaster. I have found Satan, the one that I served for so many years. He comes to me and he cracks the whip over my head.
[46:34] And he comes alongside of me and he shows me the pictures of the far country. And he sprays the scent of Mrs.
[46:46] Potiphar type perfume. And he tries to seduce me to go back to serve my old master. You ever had that? Being drawn back by the tempter to serve sin again?
[47:02] What are you supposed to do in a circumstance like that? I'm never exposed to. I'm supposed to acknowledge the truth of Romans chapter 6 that says we have become a new man in Christ Jesus.
[47:13] In Christ Jesus, we have redemption from sin. We have regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God. We have an inheritance in heaven that can never perish, boil, and fade.
[47:25] We ought to reckon ourselves, what? Righteous in Christ Jesus. So that when the enemy comes to us and he scents the air and he flashes the pictures with the filthy, he draws us back with all kinds of seductions of the old way of life, we turn to him and we say, no, I am not old man anymore.
[47:46] I am new man in Christ Jesus. And when the temptation comes, you say to him, you've got the wrong man. I don't do that anymore. In return, we set our face like flint toward Jerusalem to serve the king of holiness and truth and righteousness.
[48:05] And this is really the kind of a thing that takes place when Christians are emancipated from sin. Think of how it says in 1 Peter 1, 3 through 5.
[48:17] We've been born again to a living hope to obtain an inheritance reserved for us in heaven who are protected by the power of God.
[48:31] And so the reality is that as we travel in this long Christian life from conversion to inheritance and glorification, we are kept by the power of God, have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
[48:49] And will we arrive safely at that eternal inheritance? Oh, we will because we have an invincible escort. It says in Romans 8, 38, for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor height nor depth nor principalities nor powers can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
[49:12] Once someone embraces Christ and receives salvation, you can't lose your salvation along the way, you will certainly persevere in faithfulness to the end because the whole Trinity is conspiring for us.
[49:29] The Father in heaven is causing all things to work for our good in our long Christian life. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking our name in the ears of the Father as our high priest, making sure we'll get home safely.
[49:44] And the Spirit of God has been given to us, like it says in Philippians 1, he who began a good work in us will perfect it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Besides that, we have this whole host of angels that escort us so we won't dash our foot against a stone and fail to arrive safely at our eternal inheritance on the last day.
[50:07] The fact of the matter is there is here in this emancipation of the sinner and the slave in the old covenant getting his inheritance back, it's a picture of the Christian's emancipation from sin.
[50:25] We'll arrive home safely. But just lastly consider in this picture of the Jubilee, we also see here a picture of the Christian's release into glory.
[50:37] There's a picture of the Christian's release into glory. You see, when Christ came in his initial ministry, like he was there in Nazareth reading in that synagogue, he announced Jubilee, but that was kind of partial and imperfect at the first coming.
[50:57] But the point is, Jesus, who we said in the Sunday school, he hasn't been seen in these parts because his toes went up into the clouds. He's coming back. And at that second coming, there will be not just the ram's horn sounding of the Jubilee, but there will be the full inheritance of Jubilee and our eternal inheritance in glory.
[51:20] And you just think of how that ram's horn announced, released for the captives. Just consider how there is another horn that's yet to be sounded in history.
[51:35] And it is a horn that will usher in the perfect eternal release that we dream about. You know, I talked about Samuel just dreaming about the day when he would get his inheritance.
[51:47] We as Christians, we're still kind of in a state of being ensnared by the effects of sin, but we should dream, dream about the day when we'll receive our full inheritance in Christ Jesus.
[52:04] Just turn with me to that passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians 4, where we read about the sounding of another trump or another horn.
[52:15] Look what it says there. Paul speaks about the day when Christ will return. He says this in 4.16.
[52:28] It says there, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel.
[52:40] And listen, I want you to dream about how you're going to hear that trumpet sound again.
[53:09] There's a trumpet that is yet to be sounded, a ram's horn yet to be heard in history, and that's the day when the fullest implications of Jubilee will become a reality.
[53:22] Gary Hendricks. We showed a picture of Gary up there, right? Gary Hendricks, the pastor in Mebane, North Carolina, who died about two years ago, and there was a funeral there in Mebane.
[53:39] And I went to the funeral. And this man who had pastored for 50 years, there was whole congregation was there at the funeral, and we went to the cemetery, and there was a wooden box at this Presbyterian cemetery.
[53:54] And we sang hymns, and we talked about the day when Christ would return, and how we hadn't heard the last of Gary Hendricks.
[54:04] So everybody went away, and I just kind of hung around, and the caretaker was left. One guy, a caretaker. And the box, which was over, he wheeled the box all the way down in, and he pulled away all the carpeting, and all the apparatus.
[54:22] And you could see right at the bottom, the box. And there was this pile of red dirt. And I asked if I could take a couple shovelfuls, and I took the shovelfuls and tossed it, and thump, and another shovelful, and thump, on the box.
[54:36] And I thought, I wonder if Gary can hear that. And then I went away, and I came back about two hours later, and all that red dirt had been put on and covered over, and it's as if Gary Hendricks never even was.
[54:54] And I think of Gary Hendricks as being this lion, that would just roar out the gospel and just think about, well, that's the last we're going to hear of that lion. But is that the case? No, that's not the case, because the reality is that there is a time in history, I'm not exactly sure when, but from that cemetery in North Carolina, there's going to be heard this trump, this ram's horn, this trump of God that's going to be blown by an archangel, and Christ is going to come, and Gary, see, the last chapter hasn't been written about Gary Hendricks.
[55:36] Gary Hendricks is going to come out, he's going to rise up, and he's going to, there's this rapture up, and to meet the Lord in the air, and I just wonder, what Gary is going to see as he beholds his inheritance?
[55:51] I wonder about Gary, you know, he had these three sons, he had Grant, Zane, and Laura, three children to be able to see, and then Sherry, his wife, Sherry, and then maybe, maybe three elders like, like Stu Johnston, and, like Bob Prentiss, and like, Stephen Byrd, seeing people that he never, didn't know if he'd ever see again, and the most glorious thing about, the inheritance of, of our eternal, inheritance in Christ Jesus, is not just seeing, the new heavens, and the new earth, and people that we miss, but the most glorious thing, will be seeing, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
[56:37] Be able to see, the face of the Savior. Be able to see, the hands, that were pierced for us. The side, that was pierced for us. The brow, that was scarred for us.
[56:49] And the Lord Jesus Christ, with arms extended toward us, and receiving us, and welcoming us home, and like it says, in 1 Thessalonians 4, and so, we shall be forever together, with the Lord.
[57:02] I just want you to just dream. Just dream. About the full inheritance, of the salvation, that you have, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just, just look at the pictures.
[57:15] And if you came here, with a heart, of, lackluster apathy, I just want you to, having pondered this picture, to, to leave this place, with a sense of being restored, in your enthusiasm, and your exhilaration.
[57:31] And for all your responsibilities, whether it be, near, and far, like in September, may it be that, for us here at, Grace Fellowship Church, that the love of Christ, would constrain us.
[57:43] That the love of Christ, would inspire us, and spur us on, to be, faithful churchmen, faithful husbands, faithful wives, faithful servants, of the kingdom.
[57:56] Seeking that, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ram's horn, would be sounded, from, Bremen, to, South Bend, to, the Midwest, to the ends of the earth.
[58:10] And may the Lord Jesus Christ, use this church, in a mighty way, to be able to accomplish, that task. Let's, pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the pictures, and we pray that, we would, be revived, and that you would, restore to us, our first love.
[58:39] We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.