Atonement in the Spirit of Jubilee

Well, we are here on one of God's festivals, a high day, the Day of Atonement. And as the big question is always asked is, why are we here? And in the course of this second message, I do hope to be able to share that with you. And that question is sometimes asked probably because from some of your relatives and people that aren't here today, that are wondering why would you be, as Mr. Gartenhauer brought out, why would you be keeping this festival with the Hebrew name called Yom Kippur? Today, I would ask you a question in turn, as they ask you questions at times. Why should New Covenant Christians observe what some consider to be a fossilized religious artifact out of the sands of Sinai? And of that, I speak of the Day of Atonement upon which you and I meet this morning. With that said, allow me to share another question. What transcendent, if we do observe the Day of Atonement, and we are here, what transcendent lessons may we learn that are relevant to people of covenant, both old and new, in a linear fashion from past to present to future? How do we create the tension of a God who has a purpose and a plan that is moving through human history towards His eternity for those that love and those that keep His commandments? Again, one more question. If we have already observed the New Testament Passover, then why this re-emphasis on the sacrifice of the ultimate sacrificial offering to God on this festival, which is lodged between the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles, which as by the revelation that we understand, projects things that are yet to come. And yet, here again, we dwell on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And not only that, but what does it offer not only to us now, not only to us now, but to those in the ages to come? This, the Day of Atonement, that we have the honor, that we have the privilege of being able to observe. To come to understand these questions, I'm going to simply give you the title of my message up front. Atonement in the Spirit. Because it is of the Spirit, isn't it? It's not of the tummy. Atonement in the Spirit of Jubilee.

In the Spirit of Jubilee. That's a word that we are somewhat familiar with, bibbukki. It's a word that's even used sometimes about a jubilee, a party, or a celebration.

But the importance of the jubilee really spells out everything that God was pouring out, ultimately, regarding the Day of Atonement. Not only then, but down to our age, and down to those that are yet to be born, and those that are yet to come to the knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

It was on a particular, unique Day of Atonement that the shofar was to sound throughout all the habitat, throughout all of the land of which the children of Israel occupied.

The shofar, and sometimes you'll see the English word trumpet, and there are times when trumpets are used, they're silver, gold, brass, whatever, but what is used here, the trumpet, and or, if you go to it, the shofar, that was sounded forth. The jubilee had come. Nothing would ever be the same. Something incredible was about to happen. The shofar was to sound throughout all that land. The shofar was deeply, deeply rooted in Israel's consciousness from the days of Abraham and Isaac visit to a mountain top nearby, to remind them that the Lord will provide.

The Lord will provide. Remember when Abraham and Isaac were up on the mountain? The ram was caught in the thickets. The Lord had provided, but it was only a step to the next great sacrifice that the Day of Atonement is all about. Even when human being, when human answers were not apparent, God would provide. But this specific Atonement that we're going to be talking about now, the Atonement of Jubilee, was designed by God to be no ordinary holy day as the shofar sounded.

This specific event called the Jubilee occurred only every 50 years. Think about this for a moment, especially as maybe your tummies are kind of talking to you right now, and maybe your blood sugar is going a little low. To recognize that this was the day, this was the time on the Day of Atonement that God said, we're going to have this every 50-year party, this celebration, this liberation.

This is which going to touch every human being amongst my children, the children of Israel, that they can all partake of it. It gets me excited just thinking about it. God's purposeful desire and intent would be that ecstatic joy would be heard from a house to house as the sound of Jubilee came about. I'd like to share the definition of Jubilee out of the Hebrew.

Very simple. A time of shouting. We often use that phraseology. Well, that's something to shout about. That's something to shout about. So, what was to be shout about? It was when we, when everybody's stomach was, again, like on a fast turning and turning a little bit, to recognize that the meaning of this moment was bigger than anything that your tummy was growling about, because there was freedom that was in the land. The time was here. The Jubilee would be held every 50th year. There would be seven Sabbaths and seven Sabbaths, and then go into that year, seven and seven being God's perfect creativeness.

And then what would happen is, if you say, well, you know, sometimes the, sometimes the, the, the Old Testament doesn't mention grace a lot. This is all about grace. This is all something that stems from God. It was his purpose and it was a plan that Israel was to put in motion. Join me if you would in Leviticus 25. In Leviticus 25, and let's pick up some thoughts here about the Old, excuse me, the Jubilee of Old.

In Leviticus 25, and picking up the thought in verse eight. And in verse eight, it tells us this, and you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times, seven years. And the time of the seven Sabbaths of the year shall be to you 49 years. Now notice, and then not before, not later, not when you get around it, God is very specific. Then you shall cause the trumpet, that is the shofar of the Jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the seventh month on the day of atonement. You shall make the trumpet sound throughout all of your land.

And you shall consecrate, you will set it apart on the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all of the land to all of its inhabitants. And it shall be a Jubilee, a time of shouting, a time of joy, a time of just excitement. Something has interrupted society, it has interrupted human lives. And that is the purpose and the plan of God that was spelled out here in Israel, but is yet to spill out in the years ahead of you and me on this day.

And you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. The 50th year shall be a Jubilee to you.

In it you shall neither sowed or reap what grows of its own accord, neither gather the grapes or the years unintended. Now what I want to share with you are just very three specific things we're going to unpack. We're going to unpack Leviticus 25 there that we just read, and there are three specific things I'm going to look. Number one, number one, liberty was to be proclaimed.

Liberty. What's the reverse of liberty? Repression, slavery, bondage, darkness. What is liberty? Light, freedom. Number two, it was to be throughout all of the land.

It was not village-specific. It was not town-rendered. It would encompass everyone that was an inhabitant of Israel. Number three, it went throughout all of the land. And number three, which I just spoke to a little bit, to all of its inhabitants. All. Nobody was to be left behind.

Nobody was to be unaffected by the grace of God's purpose and his law. Just think that through. You know, sometimes when you go through a verse, just kind of break it down because you can just kind of read it all together, and this is just saying a whole lot of what God intended. It's very interesting that liberty might be declared throughout all the land. The term liberty, derived from its Hebrew root, conveys the swift flight of a bird like a swallow.

Thus conveying motion, conveying freedom. And the most important thing is release. Now, perhaps all of us at one time or another have had an opportunity to be purveyors of liberty. You know, we've kind of looked down before, and we've seen a little bird down there, cute little finch or sparrow, little one that maybe flew too soon out of the nest. Not out of the cuckoo's nest, but, you know, flew out of the nest a little bit. Maybe the bird was cuckoo, I'm not sure, but anyway. And you take it up. Have you ever just held a little bird? Have you ever just held a little bird in its hands? And you've got kind of a loving jiddle grip on it, because you're not quite sure you're going to fall if you let them go. But you start feeling this movement underneath. Okay, I think. And you just...

That's the Day of Atonement. The Atonement is about a release from our past, personally. And there's a liberty to move forward now in freedom.

Each were to return, as it says, to their own possession, grounded in family and in property. Join me if you would in Leviticus 25 verse 23. Just a few verses about Jubilee.

It says here, The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine.

You are strangers and sojourners with me. People were able to come back to the land. Perhaps they had lost the land over a period of time, a period of decades, years gone by, and they were grounded. They were given land to put roots down in again. There would not be... God did not, in his society, have designed multi-generational poverty. It wouldn't work for those people, and it would not work for the society around it.

But it says here, notice what it says here, The land shall not be sold permanently, because the land is mine. I'm the one that gave you this, the promised land to begin with.

And then it says, further on down here, that in verse 23, The land shall not be sold permanently, land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners. And in all the land of your possession, you shall grant redemption of the land. Redemption. That means an ability to buy back, an ability to possess.

Over in verse 39, and verse 39 through 41, notice what it says here. But if it is not redeemed within the space of full year, then the house and the walled city shall belong permanently to him who bought it throughout his generations, and it shall not be released in the Jubilee. Baa, baa, baa. However, the houses of villages which have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

Nevertheless, the cities of the Levites and the houses in the city of their possession to the Levites may redeem them at any time. It goes on down here further, just speaking about the aspect in verse 35. If one of your brethren becomes poor and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him like a stranger or a sojourner that he may live with you. Now, notice what it says here. A little bit further instructions. Take no usury or interest from him, but fear your God that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food for a profit. And again, as we are not only here on the day of atonement or at the Feast of Tabernacles or on the eighth day, all festivals start and go back to the beginning. And God always takes us back to the beginning, to the Exodus, to the Passover situation. That it was he, not Moses, Moses was a human tool. He was the one that granted liberty. He says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

So God, the land belongs to God.

People make mistakes. Things happen during 50 years, but God gives a release. People are brought back to the land. They're brought back the knowledge again and the reawakening that it's God's land to begin with. And sometimes we just think we own everything, rather than recognizing God owns the air, God owns our our circulation, God owns the the ground that we walk on. The ground belongs to God. The grand significance of the Jubilee experience was not to be a rollout of liberating activities. The bottom line of all of what I've just read is simply this. You might want to jot it down. Relationships. Recognizing where we were when God picked us up in the beginning, just like the slaves of Egypt. Remaining where God continues to pick us up, sometimes as he is. Oftentimes the God of return in any one person's life. And how then are we to be if God has done this for us? The Day of Atonement speaks to us through the Jubilee. If God and Christ have done what they have done for us, then what are we to be doing for others? How are we a part of that new life, that new community dedicated to God and grounded now, grounded in His soil? Notice a couple verses I want to share with you. It's going to go rather quickly. Verse 14. There's a word that keeps on popping out. If I have done this for you, then this in turn is what you do for me. And it says, and you and if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another. He's basically going back and saying, don't be like the Egyptians that I rescued you from. Don't be like the world of which I took you out of. Notice again, verse 17.

Therefore, you shall not oppress one another. Why? But you shall. Notice what it says. But you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. Verse 23. It says, the land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me. That's why you don't oppress.

You're on my wagon train. I'm the wagon master. This is the new society. This is a microcosm of what the ultimate kingdom of God is going to be like, that all of the festivals point to.

And then verse 35 through 38, we just read that because you were brought out of the land of Egypt.

You're going to find a big lesson about Israel, what I'm going to mention to you in a moment or two.

We, as human beings, remember to forget and forget to remember. And as Mr. Gardyer was bringing out about principles of Jonah, learn to obey. Just learn to obey. It solves a lot of problems.

But of course, the little God of self can get in the way. Let's understand that, humanly, it's quite natural for all of us, natural to be stingy with mercy. And yet God puts such a high premium on it. He says to pass it on, when you notice the examples of the Jubilee, he says, this is what I've done for you. Now pass it on. And all of what God's laws were about was to create a safe environment, a land of safety. You know, when you read that verse here about a land of safety. In verse 18, that's talking about a prototype. That's talking about a microcosm then of what's going to expand into ultimately the kingdom of God for all humanity.

A kingdom.

Now a family. People.

A fellowship of believers that not only would be grateful to God, but their actions to others would show. When you see what's happening in the Jubilee year, it's really the breakout plan of love God and love neighbor, the two great commandments. And it's on this day, every 50 years, that God's intention was to lay it all out, the underpinnings of His great society.

With all of this said and shared with you, it is of note that the year of Jubilee was to commence on the day of atonement. Join me if you would in Leviticus 23. I want to show you something here, tied in. Leviticus 23.

In Leviticus 23, let's pick up the thought in verse 27. I want to show you something.

Remember what I mentioned about a fossilized relic out of the sands of Sinai? Well, let's read this for a second. Speak to the children. We'll pick it up in verse 24. Speak to the children of Israel saying, in the seventh month on the first day of the month, you shall have a... Okay, we read that. Let me go down a little bit further here. Verse 26. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement, and it shall be a convocation for you. And it says, You shall afflict and or a-na the Hebrew, that is to fast, during this time, and offering an offering made by fire to the Lord. Now notice verse 28. Interesting.

And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the day of atonement, to make atonement, to make at one for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. Notice verse 30. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person, I will destroy from among his people. Now notice verse 31. I think God's trying to make a point here. It says, And you shall do no manner of work, and it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling. And it shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month of the evening, from evening to evening, and you shall celebrate it. Just a bottom line thought, as we go through God's descriptions and instructions about the Holy Days, the aspect of no work is mentioned more with this Holy Day than any other Holy Day. That is so that, even when we are physically a little challenged here in America, where our tummies are growling, even our tummies are not working as much as they normally do on this day. And it's a day when God is saying, I want you to step back, because this would be the day that the high priest would walk down that road, and everybody looking outside their tents, and he's going to the tabernacle, and they know that he, on their behalf, is going to go into that Holy of Holies, where it says that no man is to go except once a year. So that can be a little scary the first time around if you're witnessing for the first time in the camp of Israel. And will he, he's gone in, but who will he come out? But he's gone in to redeem the people before God, and to lay the sacrifice before him. Interesting. The bottom line, he says, the Day of Atonement is about as underlined with grace as much as any of the festivals, and they all are. It's not about our works. It's not about what we have done. It's not about us saving our own skin, our own hide, and taking others with us. This is only God that can do this. This is only God that can straighten and righten out our hearts through his Spirit. It is only God that can go into a whole community like Israel every 50 years, which was his design, was his design, and bring everything to where the mountains are lowered and the valleys are raised, and everything becomes level before God. You know, when you go through Isaiah, when you go through the prophets, and it talks about that, it's not talking about God making the Grand Canyon. It's talking about God molding and shaping society, shaping us. We that have been abased to be lifted up. Those that have been prideful to bring down the pride that we all stand before God equally on straight terra firma.

Now, with all of this that God gave, I'm going to share something with you. What is truly amazing is that we have no written record of a Jubilee year ever playing out in Israel. You say, what? Did you know that? We have no written record of the Jubilee ever recorded in ancient Israel. That's why I said it was God's design that was his purposeful action moving forward. We might say, well, what happened there? Here it is. It's a note that the chosen people of God seemingly never put in emotion the mechanics of redemption, redemption that the shofar was to announce.

God shall provide. You go, wow. I would go, wow. I would say, unbelievable. How could that be? But their lesson, the people of old, under the old covenant, is for us to ponder and for us to learn upon. That was past. Ultimately, they did not respect what God asked them to do. That would have been, again, that typology of the kingdom of God on earth. We talk about heaven on earth. This is the kingdom of God on earth, a place where people are revering God, they are liberated, and they're also respecting one another, not oppressing one another. That's what we look forward to as we move towards the Feast of Tabernacles. So that's past, but now let's consider the beginnings of what is present. What is of interest and what is recorded is none other than Jesus speaking of Jubilee. Join me, if you would, in Isaiah 16. Join me in Luke 4. We'll go to Luke 4. And Luke 4.

And let's pick up the thought here in verse 16.

And I want to just remember this. We have no record of Israel observing the Jubilee, but here we have the record in our Bibles of Jesus observing, and talking about, not observing, but talking about the Jubilee.

So he came, it's always interesting, that word so just opens up a whole story whenever you see it, either so or but, b-u-t, always opens up a whole story. It's a great word. So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. Allow me to share what was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the boar. He has sent to me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty, liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are, remember Leviticus, oppressed, to proclaim that acceptable year, that Jubilee year of the Lord. Now we're not going to have the time to go into it, but you might look at Isaiah 61, because he's also quoting from there quite heavily, which is the Messianic prophecy. Here we have those online and those here. We find that Jesus of Nazareth is saying, He is personified. He is the person. He is the end result, that the Jubilee, that liberty passed through onto our Father above. And he claims that. He says, I've come to create a rupture. I've come to create an interruption.

Society will never be the same. People will never be the same, because of that redemption, because of that release that I bring on behalf of my Father.

Jesus, Jubilee, personified. What is interesting is we find out here in verse 24 of all things, and you know the phrase, He was not honored that day. Once He says He's freedom, they try to kill freedom personified. And it says here that He said, assuredly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. This takes us back to one of the major lessons of atonement that I'd like to share with you today. Mr. Gardinire spoke to it in brief. I'll just add a little bit to it.

Man cannot choose. He's chosen liberators over the years, but they come and they go. Have you ever noticed that? And they die, and they're buried, and we don't hear about them other than in history books. Men have chosen their own heroes, their own champions, their own liberators. Man cannot choose his own sacrifice and savior without God's guidance. On the day of atonement, as Mr. Gardinire mentioned, that lots were cast. And the high priest had to seek God's guidance in setting apart the goat by goat representing redemption, and separate that goat, the goat of redemption, the goat of sacrifice from the Azazel goat. Only God could do that. You know, it's very interesting. It played out. It's played out before even in the Gospels. Remember when Jesus, before he became our sacrifice, that he was put before a crowd by Pontius Pilate. On one hand was Jesus of Nazareth, and on the other hand was Barabbas. On one hand was Jesus, the Son of God. On the other hand was a man named Barabbas. What's Barabbas mean? Son of the Father. Abba, Son of the Father.

Here were two people being called in the sense the Son of God. And what did humanity do on that jubilee personified? They put thumbs down. See, when you eat, when we come to understand the role of God the Father and Jesus Christ, it's not because of our good looks. That leaves me out. It's not because of our good mind. That leaves me and maybe a few others out. It is a revelation.

It is the belief in Him. And when that veil comes off, it is a revelation. It is the gift of God. It is His grace that drives us forward. We have to accept that and then follow Him. But to recognize right here, here's the lesson right here. You're here today for a purpose and a reason while everybody else is working and while everybody else is eating. And I'm not to condemn them. That's not my point, but it is to give God thanks that He has revealed Himself to us for such a time as now. That sacrifice allows you to meet new beginnings and grounds us into kingdom life.

Again, let's reflect for a moment because that's what the Day of Atonement is about. Let us remember, lest we abandon the Jubilee that's been granted us, as it was ancient Israel, because it's not what we know. Ancient Israel knew about the Jubilee, but it was not recorded. It's not even merely what we believe, but obediently do. What does the Jubilee bring to you and me for a moment? I'm just going to give you a couple really quick points.

Go to a verse, go to a point, and you have, guess what, you have all afternoon, if you don't fall asleep, to be able to be woken up by God's Word. What I'm going to share. Number one, the Jubilee that came through Jesus Christ, given to us by God the Father, is we are set free as a servant to sin and now serve a new master in freedom. We are set free from sin. Join me, if you would, in Romans 6, 21. In Romans 6, in verse 21, again, let's take a look here. Notice what it says, Paul's words.

Romans 6, 21. Yeah. What fruit did you have then in the things which you are now ashamed for the end of those things is death, but now, having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God or servants of God, and in that sense, slaves. We are not our own person. You have your fruit to holiness and to the end everlasting life. We have been set free. We could not free ourselves from the scourge of sin as much as a drowning individual cannot save themselves from the water. That arm, that reach, has got to come from somewhere else other than themselves. That arm that comes from heaven and begins to work with our hearts and begins to work with our minds and opens up that, yes, this is the plan of God. So we're set free from sin. Number two, our debt. You can be set free, but maybe that debt keeps on chasing our debt to sin, which is death is forgiven. And we are released, just like that little bird, we are released from its death grip. Join me if you would in Hebrews 2.

In Hebrews 2 and verse 14, inasmuch then as the children have foretaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil. And now notice verse 15, thinking of Jubilee, and to release those who through fear of death were all their life, all their lifetime, subject to bondage. For indeed, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Dear brethren here, and those that are listening, we are the seed of father Abraham, the father of the faithful, if we do believe that Jesus the Christ is the ultimate Jubilee personified. Number three, through Christ's sacrifice and ongoing ministry to us, we're not only free from sin, but the accompanying guilt wanting to hold on. When Christ keeps on shouting, you're free! You're free! But we keep on carrying the chains with us. They drag through our days, they drag through our hours, they drag through our lives, and sometimes they trip others up that we love because they've stumbled over our chains. Join me if you would for a second in Hebrews 9 verse 11. Notice what it says here.

Next time I come back, but I'm not going to be back for two or three weeks, and you look at it, this coupon is good for seven days, and they print the date so small that we that are blind, except for our glasses, can't read it. This is a totally different kind of redemption. It says it's an eternal redemption. It is always there, for the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience. That means remove the files from dead works to serve the living God.

That's our job, brethren, to have believing faith in that.

When we have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ before our Father, and said, Father, forgive me, God takes all those files, takes them out. It's over.

But what about us? Sometimes we keep on putting back those folders.

Don't do that. God says he's done deep cleaning here. He's gone down below the skin.

He's not dealing with your epidermis. He's down below the endidermis. He's dealing with your heart to free you up.

You've been not only born from above, but you've been adopted. When a person in the Roman Empire was adopted, all the files were thrown out. He was given a new name. He was, he was, the other person was like it was dead. He's new. He's alive. That's how we need to be as we move through this day of atonement. And we need to be recognizing that now because the reason why we need to be reminded and the reason why this comes up in part after trumpets, which portrays Jesus Christ coming down before the Feast of Tabernacles, when God by his grace says that we're going to be able to serve him as stewards of helping others, we have to know it ourselves. You can't be what you ain't. You can't teach what you aren't. You can't be what you're not trying to become. And it's all about becoming the ultimate Jubilee, Jesus Christ. Number four, we have total freedom and access to approach God directly and personally without any longer relying on any man, even a good man, a man like the high priest. Join me if you would in Hebrews 3 and verse 1. In Hebrews 3 and verse 1, let's pick up the thought here. Notice what it says. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider, behold the Apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus Christ.

And he goes on to explain just what kind of a priest he is. He's a high priest. He's always on the job. This afternoon, you can go back and read Leviticus 16 on your own and you recognize this redemption business was full-time activity, especially on the day of atonement. That high priest did not, probably all of his priest friends in Levites, they didn't stop all day long.

Had to do this, had to do that, had to do this, had to do that, do this Washington, do that Washington, do this sacrifice, do that sacrifice, do this and that. And yet, at the end, it was that high priest that was able, only one man, one, I'll look up here a second just to get the point, just one man was able to go behind that curtain, that veil with the caribs on it, that pictured in type, the Holy of Holies, right there, the caribs regarding, and he went through that veil and he went in before the Ark of the Covenant, before the mercy seat, and put on the blood. Only one man could do that, but I want to share a thought with you. It's a glorious thought, I think, because God is glory. Notice what it says here in Hebrews 4, 14. Seeing then that we have a high priest, seeing then that we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast, hold on, hold on tight, because people are going to, you are going to want to shake that loose sometimes. Others are going to want to shake that loose from you. Society's going to want to shake that loose from you. Satan, the devil, is going to want to, by his, his prince of the power of the air, is going to want to shake that from you. Hold on to that confession. Yes, he is Savior. Yes, he is high priest, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but who was in all points tempted as we are, and yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly past that curtain, past any barrier that might be there, because we come before the high priest and before his father, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And if you don't think you're needy, you think you know it all, you've done it all, you are all in all, you are God in the flesh, you are of all people. So is that. And yet you and I are able to go to that holy of holies that's up in the heavenly tabernacle, God the Father on his throne, Jesus Christ the high priest, that when we come and pray to him, he welcomes our prayers, he takes them as that attentive high priest, and he takes them before his father, and to recognize that, perhaps in that sense, Satan can be there and say, okay, so look, they did this, they did that.

And Jesus says, Father, I know what they did. I know what they did. They're saying they were telling you what they did. I know what they did. And you know what? They done did it. They did it.

But we, you and me, Father, we did something else too. Remember? Remember?

That you and I did what Abraham and Isaac did not do when it all came said and done.

And that's the moment that we walk through. That's the eternal memory of God the Father and Jesus Christ. About you and about me and what his son did. There is no man between God the Father, other than that good man, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the high priest, our advocate, that now is in that holy of holies with the Father. Let me just skip over for a moment. I'm just going to take you to the last point. It's going to be a short point. And that is, I'm sharing all of this and you see why we, in a sense, need to refocus on the sacrifice.

Not a goat, not a turtle does, not a bullock. But the greatest sacrifice of all, before we move into that which lies ahead of us. The reality is that God's work of redemptive jubilee is not yet complete.

Lest we forget, atonement and the wonderment of jubilee reminds us that God is yet on the move.

He has unfinished business. I'd like to just put it this way. He has, and this is our belief as Christians, as disciples of Christ, He has unfinished business with all, all that are made in His image. Join me if you would in Acts 3.18. In Acts 3.18.

In Acts 3.18, let's read this. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of His prophets that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore. And holy days are times to come up to, and yes, to believe, and yes, to repent. Repentance is not just an event.

It's an activity. It's an existence that we will come to again and again. Because we find ourselves where we are, even as we're trying to strive and become like Christ, that your sins may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord when the land, when the earth is truly His, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who has preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things.

And we can ask what all is. All things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

Jubilee. This day of atonement, where we're giving up just a little bit in our appetite, is about a day of refreshing. It's about a day of release. It's about being restored in restoration. And that day is truly coming. There is yet a spiritual oppressor in the land, and one of the lessons within these fall festivals is to remind us that He has to be put away, that all might experience a land of safety. In Revelation 20 and verse 1, join me if you were there for a moment. In Revelation 20 and verse 1, what a glorious moment this will be to an inglorious being. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottom of his pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. That's where we get the term millennium. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should have seen the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after this, he is going to be released for a while. But the great oppressor, the plug is going to be pulled on the prince of the power of the air. The plug is going to be pulled on the spirit that works disobedience. And what's going to be beautiful about this, brethren, is that if you would, in Isaiah 25, it'll be my last verse, Isaiah 25. And it's short and it's sweet, but it's powerful. Speaking of times in the future where it says, and he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations, he will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.

The rebuke of his people, he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Behold, the land of safety, the kingdom of God on earth.

This is what it's about, brethren. There's going to be a day when, as our song leader, Bob, mentioned, not everybody's here today. The Bible tells us that in the future, everybody's at least going to be given the opportunity to be there, and they're going to know that they've been invited, invited by the one who gave his life, gave a death, and continues to love them, not to oppress them, but to release them. Let's think of the, let's think of atonement as a release, and if you have not yet experienced that release today, go home and pray to God. And like David said in Psalm 51, return to me the joy of your salvation.

I repent. I believe.

I want to be a part of what's happening by you and by your son.

And the Lord said, whom then shall I send before me?

And I heard a voice. Upon that compact and upon that relationship, send me.

Send me to the Feast of Tabernacles here in just a few days. Send me to St. George.

Send me to Florida. Send me to my spouse. Send me to my family. Send me to my neighborhood. Send me and allow me to be a light of Jubilee after the greatest jubilee of all, Jesus the Christ.