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Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land

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Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land

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Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land

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There is a similarity between fasting, which we do on this day, and the removal of Satan. Fasting helps us become free of negative and sinful attitudes towards our fellow man. Atonement pictures a future time just after Christ's return when Satan will not be allowed to influence mankind with his lies, deceit, hatred, and evil. He will be "bound" for 1,000 years.  

Sermon Notes

The title of my sermon is "Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land".  

The Feast of Atonement shows a time when Satan will be bound as Jim mentioned in the sermonette.  He has greatly influenced mankind down through time blinding them to God's truth causing lots of problems for humanity.  So today I want to talk about Satan's influence on mankind in this age and how humanity will be liberated when he is removed, so the title Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land.

Turn to Leviticus 25 if you will, I tell you what let's turn to Leviticus 23 first as Jim did in his sermon.  Leviticus 23:26.  Leviticus 23 has all of the annual feast days, this is called a feast day but most of you are hungry.  It is known as a spiritual feast.  

Leviticus 23:26 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 27Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls (that is what we are doing, most of us are feeling a little afflicted by now I'd say) and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.

Leviticus 25 also talks about the Day of Atonement once every fifty years, called the year of Jubilee.  Most people would not have a clue what you are talking about if you mentioned this.  It was one of the instructions God gave Israel, ancient Israel, and I don't even know how much they kept it, but certainly, no body keeps this today or if they do I don't know about it.  But it is something that is good for the economy and good for people. We will start reading in verse 9.

Leviticus 25:9 You shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month.(that's today) On the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, each of you shall return to his possession and each of you shall return to his family. 

Basically what that meant was that everybody was going to be out of debt, all debts would be canceled.  Can you imagine something like that happening today?  What an impact that would have on society?  We have got things turned around quite a bit and the bankers control a lot of financial part of our society.  So all debts are canceled and anyone who was sold into slavery, and there were even Israelites that sometimes had to go into involuntary servitude or voluntary if they lost their land, they got in debt and could not make the payments, lost their land then they had to find the means of supporting their family.  So sometimes that would be as slave of someone who owned land.  But anyone who was sold into slavery was freed.  Then, like I said, the land would go back to the original owners every fiftieth year.  So that would take care of a lot of financial problems that we have today, make for a lot more happiness and give everybody a chance for hope.  You know if you messed up your life early and lost the land, at least in fifty years you would get it back.  Amazing!  That is what God planned and I think that is what God will institute in His Kingdom but we don't see that right now.  Anyway, I wanted to point that out because there is a connection between the Day of Atonement and liberty.  

Isiah 58:  Isiah 58 is a fasting chapter if you want to find out about fasting, how to fast or what fast God is pleased with.  You can fast and God not be pleased, I think that is probably a hard thing to do, but some people have fasted extended fasts and it did not have anything to do with God really.  It was trying to get their way for political purposes.  That has happened in times past, people have gone on extended fasts, I don't recommend that myself.

Isiah 58:6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 

That is what He is talking about, the things that oppress us, our attitudes, Satan's attitudes that he broadcasts. Habits that we get into that we shouldn't, attitudes that we have toward other people, animosity, resentment and so forth.  Let all those things go, that is what fasting helps us do and that is what the Day of Atonement symbolizes too.  There is going to come a time when that will be done on a big scale.

II Timothy 2:26 (Satan does have the world held captive.  It is held captive by Satan, we were once.) Let's start in verse 24 it is the beginning of the sentence, Paul's long sentence.  24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition: if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.  That is where everybody on earth is, that God has not called if they don't have God's Holy Spirit that is basically where they stand.  They are under Satan's influence, to do his will.  They may not realize that and may argue with you and I wouldn't suggest telling anyone they were necessarily, but that is what the Bible says, that is what Paul says.  That is where we were one time in our lives.  

Some time ago we went to Philadelphia PA and we wanted to see some of the sights of the city, it is a historic place.  I wanted to see the Liberty Bell so we went to Independence Hall and a lot of things connected with the early founding fathers of the American Revolution and so forth center around that area.  There is a Liberty Bell there, it has a crack in it, but it was most famously rung when the Declaration of Independence was first read publicly, so it does have some historical significance.  One of the things I noticed, there is inscribing on the bell and it says "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All The Land".  That is what we just read in Deuteronomy, in fact, that is from Deuteronomy.  Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land.  They were thinking of liberty for the thirteen colonies, liberty from Britain, but what that really pertains to is liberty from Satan.  Liberty from the things that enslave us, I guess, in this life.  

So what does fasting and atonement have to do with liberty?  Let's ask ourselves: Is the world free or enslaved?  Are we, here in this country, free or enslaved?   Most people would say, "I am a free American I can do what I want".  Are we free of crime?  Are we free of drugs and immorality, disease, poverty, war?  All of those things?  No, we are not, are we?  Those are things we see in the news daily, the whole world suffering under that.  Why is that?  It is because he is running the world.  It is under the control of Satan the devil.  Now he was not always this way, he was once named Lucifer, which means "light bringer".  He was once a brilliant angel, one of the three archangels, Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer.  All brilliant beings created as perfectly as God could create.  But he became filled with pride because of his beauty and ability and began to disobey God.  We will get into that just a little bit later.  He is the god of this age and does deceive the whole world.  It is amazing that he can, but he does.  Turn to Ephesians 6 if you will.

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (scheming or deceit of the devil) 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, (sometimes we think our enemies are other human beings and it may look that way obviously, but the real enemy is behind that individual who is causing you problems) but against principalities,(this is what we wrestle against) against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age....This is a dark age. Most people do not have a clue when it comes to understanding God's truth, they are completely blinded to it.  One day they will wake up and God will open their minds and it will not be a dark age anymore.  But right now it is because it is ruled by Satan the devil and he is not our friend.  He is our adversary.   Let's look at some examples of his influence.  Let's go back to Genesis.  He got in on the beginning.  

Genesis 3: God had finished creating Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden a very beautiful place where they did not have to work hard to eat.  He gave them lots of things to eat in the garden, plenty of things, great variety, no GMO's, no pesticides, nothing like that.  Everything was good for them and God told them there was one tree that He did not want them to eat from.  Here we see Satan disguised as a serpent and it says:

Genesis 3:1 1Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, (spoke to Eve) Has God indeed said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (did He say there was a tree that you should not eat from?) 2And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, Ye shall not eat of it, nor shall ye touch it, lest you die. 4 So the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die:  Where did you get that idea?  You must have misunderstood what God said or maybe God is just saying that to keep you from eating from that tree.  Anyway, he convinced her that it was a good thing to do. Now here she had been talking with God, she and Adam had seen God walking around in the garden together and teaching them various things and this was the first time she had seen the serpent, Satan.  But he was very convincing and she believed him rather than God.  So she took a piece of the fruit because she thought it was a beautiful tree, and it was.  The fruit looked like it was good for food.  After all, if she could eat some of it and it helped her to have understanding that would be great wouldn't it?  Make her wise, everyone wants to be wise.  You could just eat a bite of something and be wise, just take a pill.  I have not found any that is why I am struggling you know.  Anyway it did not turn out good and that is where Satan started, right there, deceived Eve and so it was downhill from there.

He also worked with Cain - Genesis 4: 2(Eve) And again, she bore this time his brother Abel. (She had Cain before Abel, Cain was the oldest).   Now Abel was a keeper of sheep,(that was a good thing to do) and Cain a tiller of the ground. (That was good too, nothing wrong with being a farmer or a shepherd either one, good trades) 3In the process of time it came to pass Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord, (they did not just decided one day to bring an offering, God told them.  It was probably at one of the annual feasts.  That is what commentaries will tell you)  4 and Abel  brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. (He had a really nice animal to offer.) And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5but he did not respect Cain and his offering.  Cain brought of the fruit of ground unto the Lord.  Maybe it was because he brought of that or maybe he did not have any animals, I don't know.  I don't think he was a vegetarian, but it was his attitude.  It doesn't say that he brought of the best like Abel did.  Abel brought of the best that he had.  Cain just brought an offering of the fruit of the ground.  Here this just happened to be here and I will take these and offer these whatever I have, should be good enough.  But it wasn't.  God expected a little bit more reverence, respect for him.  5. So Cain was very angry, (God did not respect Cain's offering) and his countenance fell. (He was really really upset about this.  Keep in mind that Cain did not have a television, he had not seen any of the things that we see on TV to make him think that his rights were being violated or God was being prejudiced against him or something like that.  It was just Satan broadcasting, Satan was saying, Hey, you brought an offering and how come God did not respect yours, why did he respect your brother's.  He is just a kid, he does not know anything, why didn't he respect you?  Think about this, you going to let him get away with that.  He became more angry, but God talked to Cain.   6The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7If you do well, will you not be accepted? (It is true for all of us isn't it?  If we do well, God is going to accept us.)  And if you do not do well, sin is lies at the door. Its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”  Cain you are going to have to have more self-control than you have, you need to work on that.  You need not to get so upset, if you had brought the right kind of offering, if you had done what I told you to do, followed my instructions I would have accepted yours.  What did Cain do?  Well, he killed his brother under the influence of Satan.  

Genesis 6: (Man began to be very lawless on the face of the earth, very violent.  In Noah's time, it was very violent.  Verse  5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  Where did they get that? No mass communication was available at that time, nobody was texting one another, or on some kind of social media or anything.  The broadcast was in the air.  Satan is the prince and power of the air, he was broadcasting that.  He got all humanity stirred up and there was a great deal of violence and a great deal of wickedness on the earth, and so God destroyed mankind except for Noah and his family.  One other place let's go to Revelation 16.  Satan has been doing that all down through time, especially trying to get at, I guess you would say or cause problems for God's people, God’s church.  He is going to still be at it when Christ returns.  

Revelation 16:13And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14For these are the spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.  Satan and his demons are going to influence the vast majority of humanity and its armies before Christ returns to come down and fight against him at Jerusalem.  

That is a very concise way of showing how Satan is involved in this world, how much he influences mankind and how much damage he has done.  Let's turn to the book of Isiah Chapter 14.  Isiah 14 shows Lucifer being thrown out of heaven.  I am sure God gets tired of having him around, from time to time accusing the brethren and lying to God.  I am sure He does not appreciate that.  

Isiah 14:12 12How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  13For thou hast said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:(above the stars of Gods, in other words, the angels)  I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north:(where God's throne is) 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. 15Yet thou shalt be brought down to the grave, to the lowest depths of the pit.  That is what his ambition was, to take over God's throne in heaven.  

Let's turn to Ezekiel which in not too far away.  Ezekiel 28 tells a little bit about why that happened.  How did that happen?  Ezekiel 28:11 Earlier in the chapter Ezekiel had been talking about the prince of Tyre who was a man, now in verse 11 he is talking about the king of Tyre who we can see is obviously not a man.  We will get into that a little bit later.  I know that some people would disagree with me on that but if we read the scripture we can see it is not a man.  Verse 11:11Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; You were the seal of perfection (I don't know of any man who was that) full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.  13You were in Eden (well there were three people in Eden. four counting God.  There were Adam and Eve and the serpent, so this must refer to the serpent who use to be Lucifer.) the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the turquoise, and gold: the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you in the day that you were created. (He had great musical ability).  14 You were the anointed cherub who covers; (right on God's throne) and I established you: you were on the holy mountain of God; (God's government) you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.  15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you.  Here is a being that was perfect as perfect as God could create him.  That should be a very big warning for us, for none of us are perfect to start with.  He was perfect when God created him, as perfect as God can make him.  He did not have perfect character at that time; that takes time to develop.  It goes on to say: 16 By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence and then you sinned, therefore, I cast you out as a profane thing out of the mountain of God and destroyed you, oh covering cherub from the midst of the fiery stone.  And here is the problem 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor: (he got to thinking too highly of himself, pride was his problem, his downfall.)  

Now let's turn to Revelation 12. Satan has been cast down from heaven and will be cast down again, Revelation 12.  Probably will be, I would say in the comparatively near future anyway.  I don't want to have any dates, but it looks like it couldn't be too long from now, not too many years perhaps.  

Revelation 12:7 War broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, (You think there is war here on earth  I am sure that God was not pleased that there was war in heaven)  8 But they did not prevail; nor was their place found any more in heaven. 9And the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ have come: for the accuser of our brethren who has accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. 11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they did love their lives to death. 12Therefore rejoice, oh heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.  13 The dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. (that is God's church)  14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, to her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (so some of them are spared from Satan) 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed up the flood  17And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, (still God's church) who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They will have to go through the tribulation apparently, some people in God's church, I hope it is not us.

Pride is a problem with the whole human race, God does not like pride because it was the cause of the first sin, Satan.  Let's turn to Proverbs 13:10

Proverbs 13:10 (Proverbs has a lot to say about pride.  Solomon was very wise; God gave him a lot of wisdom he did not always use that wisdom as like he should.) By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well-advised is wisdom. So if you have too much pride in debating with someone else or arguing with someone else, then strife is going to come out of it.  So with the well advised is wisdom.  If you have a little wisdom and not so much pride then you will get along better in life.  You will be a peacemaker then.  

Let's turn to the book of James if you would.  James 1 where we are talking about Satan having humanity in captivity.  One of the reasons for that, the main reason for that probably is because most people do not obey God's laws.  Contrary to what most people think the Ten Commandments are not a terrible burden, not the terrible ten, but they are the basis on having good relationships with not only God but with our fellow human beings.  James 1:25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but the doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.  God's law is the law of liberty and if we do that we will be blessed.  In chapter James 2:10-12 Whoever who shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point is guilty of all (you are guilty of breaking the law in other words) for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not commit a murder (he is talking about the ten commandments) if you do not commit adultery but you do murder you have become a transgressor of the law (that's right, makes sense, if you are a thief but not a murderer you are still a transgressor of the law) so speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.  Judgement without mercy is without mercy to the one who is shown no mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgment but God's law is a law of liberty and if we obey that not only will there be peace on earth but we will have peace with our fellow man, we will have good relationships with our fellow man.  

Well, Satan has deceived the whole world but you know the largest percentage of the world's population is what they called Christian, nominal Christians claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.  As a matter of fact, the head of the largest Christian religion on earth just comes to this country just recently.  He is certainly well received, according to the media, I haven't heard anyone say much negative about him at all.  Yet, this is some of the things that his church and the ones that came out of the Catholic Church believe.  They believe that man has an immortal soul, they believe that when we die we will either go to heaven or hell, they believe that Christ was born on Christmas day and believe that we exchange gifts because the three wise men gave gifts to Him.  That has several faults in it.  Believe He is the reason for the season, they are going to get those signs out before too long.  Believe that he was resurrected on Easter Sunday, believe Sunday is the Lord's day.  Some believe that Christ is going to return and take everyone back to heaven, everyone that is His, that is called the Rapture theory and others believe that the Kingdom of God is here on earth.  I think that mainly centers around the Catholic church and the pope is the vicar of Christ, he is here in place Christ to make the decisions and he can whenever he is speaking in a certain form his word has to be true, people have to do what he says.  It is like changing Saturday to Sunday, the Catholic Church admits they have done that.  He has deceived the whole world, especially Christianity which is terrible but that is who the false prophet is and that Revelation talks about.  

There is one thing that is interesting in book of Leviticus.  Let's turn back there if you will, we have not covered and I feel like I need to cover it.  It is interesting to me, and not everyone understands this, but it is really pretty simple if you read the Bible commentaries, they do not understand it either.  They think both of these goats represent Jesus Christ.  Two goats in Leviticus 16:5 a commandment to Aaron to take two goats 5“He shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two goats two kids of the goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Verse 8 an unusual thing he did not use them both to in offerings 8“Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.  So there is one that is for the Lord and one that is not for the Lord, right that is pretty easy.  The word scapegoat here is Azazel.  It is the Hebrew word some believe that means “a demon” and I agree with that.  Let's go on 9“Then Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD's lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. So it was a burnt offering.  10“But the goat on which the lot fell for the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness. So it was not going to be killed.  15 we see that Aaron kills the goat as a sin offering that is the Lord's goat.  In verse 21 we see what happens to the live goat.   21“He shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, all their transgressions concerning all their sins; putting them on the head of the goat and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. 22“The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.  That is what Jim was talking about in the sermonette in Revelation 20.  When an angel comes down and grabs ahold of Satan and puts him away for a thousand years where he is not able to influence humanity or any of the nations on earth.  That is time when there is going to be a great deal of freedom on earth, a lot more than there is right now.  

Let's go to Jude verse 13 for one last thing.  That is not Satan's final punishment.  He is a spirit being, he is not going to die but he is going to be imprisoned for a thousand years and then let loose for a while.  But finally, he is going to be cast into outer darkness.  He is the prince of darkness by the way.  Jude verse 13 - Here it is talking about being in our love-feast; but then in verse 13 it talks about spirit beings, called the raging waves of the sea foaming up their own shame wandering stars.  All of God's angels were referred to as stars even the demons. For whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.  So that is going to be Satan’s fate.  Satan the devil is very real.  He is a spirit being so he was created higher than man and more brilliant than we are, more cunning, more able to deceive us but God did not create him that way.  He created him as perfect as he could but he rebelled and he is going to have suffered punishment for that.  Right now, God is using him to spite himself, he spites Satan's best efforts, and God is using him to create strong character in his people.  Character, so that when we develop that character we will never turn against God and God can be very sure of that.  He is running us through some difficult tests in this life and Satan helps him despite the fact that he would rather not.  So Satan failed in his efforts to take God's throne, he has failed in this effort down through history to destroy God's people completely.  He will ultimately fail in destroying God's church and us as long as we remain faithful to God.  He will be eventually be cast into outer darkness away from any influence on God’s creation and then there will be liberty for all.