Being at One With God and Man

Mankind once lived in paradise. You might have paradise on your mind this week, thinking about going to the Feast of Tabernacles, some place that you've dreamed about, thought about, have planned to attend, or really expecting it to be nice.

Paradise is something that humanity uses as a term for a place that really doesn't exist. It tries to conjure up, or think about, or dream about, or wish for, or long for, the place where mankind once was with God.

For there was a paradise. If we go back to Genesis in the second chapter, we find that from the very mind of God, and the very creative powers of God, was an ultimate place where God and man could dwell in an environment that God had fashioned, that reflected His way of thinking, His love, His concern.

In all levels, in all aspects, there was nothing that would hurt or destroy in all His holy mountain. Just like in the Garden of Eden, there was nothing that was at all hostile. It was all very, very good. If we look in verse 8 of chapter 2, it says, Not like the trees we have with the thorns. Not like the ones that might be okay, but these are beautiful to look at. And good for food. All of them, it would indicate.

The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden. In verse 10, in your garden, if you really did a good job, you know it had a water feature in it. You know it did.

God had a river, verse 10, going out of Eden to water the garden. And from there, it parted and became four river heads. This was really, really special. And in all of this beautiful environment, verse 15, The Lord God took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it. This was the poshest job in the poshest environment you could ever imagine. Except there was one thing missing. He had Adam name all the animals, so he got to see them personally. And there was nothing there that was human. And so down in verse 18, God said, It's not good that man should be alone. I'll make a helper comparable to him. Not like these animals, not like these birds. Verse 20, So God gave names to all the cattle. Cattle is a generic term, meaning four-legged beasts that you pretty much would eat. And he gave names to the birds of the air. So he got to see these fabulous things that God made. Birds and various animals that were just breathtaking. And every beast of the field.

In verse 22, The rib which the Lord God had taken out of man, he made into a woman. It didn't make her out of the dust of the ground. He made her out of something human and presented her to Adam. And Adam said, Now, this isn't one of those animals. This isn't one of those birds or one of those trees.

This is bone of my bones. This is human. And she shall be called, Whoa, man! Wow! It's a real showstopper.

Life was good in paradise. And in this garden paradise, it says at the end of verse 25 or the end of the chapter, they were both naked and they liked it. That was really a cool paradise.

Now, this is something God made. This is something good for humans. And God was there walking with Adam and Eve, talking with them, communing with them.

It was a beautiful, beautiful environment.

We find someone spoiled that dream. That's what chapter 3 is about.

And it drove a wedge between God and man. It did more than that. It drove a wedge between the man and the woman and between man and man.

And it created a hostility, an enmity on all levels, between God and the human realm and the humans in the human realm. And because he was forced out back in the land where he was created to till that dirt that he was created from, there was a hostility between the land and man and the animals out there, that type of animals, and the trees and things that would hurt and sting and barb and the workload.

And man has said, this environment really doesn't work for me. I need to be in paradise. And you know what? He's right. We do need to be in paradise. And what we have in this present evil age, in this world that does not reflect the nature of God, doesn't work for us.

It doesn't work well. We now have a different mindset where every man believes he is of himself, some evolutionary or at least self-exalting concept of his past. He's for himself, right? That's every man for himself.

And this causes all kinds of clashes between him and God and him and other humans. And we end up in Genesis 3, verse 23. God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was made from.

In verse 24, he drove out the man and placed carobim at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Couldn't get back in there. You and I and humans can't go there. This present evil age is about fractured relationships on every level. God and man, man and man, man and animals, man and mosquitoes, animals and man. It just doesn't work well. Eat or be eaten. It's kind of the mindset that governs this whole creation that we live in.

Man is about himself, not about God, not about others. We see just a little bit further on in chapter 4 and verse 8.

Verse 2, kids, Cain talks with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field. Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. You see the stress and strains of relationships. In verse 23, Lamech says to his wives, Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me. Ah, see, somebody wounded him, so he killed him. Even a young man for hurting me. Verse 24, if Cain should be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech should be avenged seventyfold. And so it's gone. You get down to chapter 6, we find that people are doing whatever they want to do. And verse 2, the sons of God, in other words, those who God had been working with, those who God was trying to work with and have them be righteous, they saw the daughters of men, those who were not of God and not godly, not pursuing God, that they were beautiful. And so they took wives for themselves, of all whom they chose. More enmity, more animosity than grows through the generations. And even the few that God had that were following him now did the normal thing, married off and became sort of other religious minded. And so in verse 5, chapter 6, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously. Now that was a long time ago, and here we are in 2012. And the UN assembly is having speech after speech, and some of it is very caustic of countries with this type of mindset. People wanting to kill other people, people threatening other people with annihilation. We know where that's going to go. Fractured relationships. But God has opened the eyes of some to see his plan, largely through the Holy Days. These Holy Days that we're keeping, including today, the Feast of Atonement. It's possible for us to be redeemed out of this evil age, this evil environment, this Satan-led world in which humanity has to live and strive. It's possible to actually be not only lifted out of it, but returned. Returned back to where we ought to be, where we're intended to be, where God created for us to be. Today we're going to take a look at that in a sermon entitled, Being at One with God and Man. This is the destiny that God intends for humans to have. And this is what Jesus Christ lives and what he died to bring about. It is possible to return to paradise with God, in a garden, with the Tree of Life. But there's a process involved. There's time and there's events that have to transpire. Some of those have happened. Some of those are ongoing. Some of those are yet to come. But let's take a look today at the topic of, at one, with God and also at one with each other. What do these events of separation, of the Garden of Eden, of the Tree of Life have to do with atonement? We're hungry today. We thought this was about getting rid of Satan or about a couple of goats or something. Sometimes atonement gets the least building of all the feasts because we're not eating something that makes us feel good.

And yet, I would say there is no more important feast of God than atonement. Because it's what all the feasts, including the Passover, are about. And we really can delight and get excited about the meaning of this festival that God made. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 25. We'll begin in verse 11. This is a theme, this return, this release from where we are and what we're doing, is a theme that runs throughout the Bible in various forms. But one of them is right here, a couple of chapters after the Holy Days are defined for Israel. Leviticus 25 verse 11, That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you. Now the word Jubilee, you can look up. And I want to mention something about the word Jubilee because it sounds like a big year-long celebration party, you know, streamers, you can see Jubilee. People use the term Jubilee when it has something to do with fiftieth. But the term Jubilee, if you look back in the Hebrew at the word, it really means a trumpet blast. It means an event, a specific trumpet blast. Now, when you think of Jubilee party and trumpet blast, they're kind of different, aren't they? So I wanted to point that out. You can look at the Hebrew entomology of that word. But a trumpet blast indicates something loud, something noisy, something, an announcement of something, something that is everybody knows about all at once. And this fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee, a trumpet blast to you. And in it you shall neither sow nor reap, which grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your unintended vine. This is an interesting concept here, because this, whatever this is, when this trumpet is blown and this Jubilee year, this fiftieth year begins, you don't eat of the ground. You don't go out and take food, even your grapevines you don't eat. Wow! So what do you eat? Well, let's consider this. The fiftieth year comes after the forty-ninth year. The forty-ninth year was a seven-year land rest. It was a Sabbath for the land. You didn't eat that year either. Wow! So we're two years out here from having a crop. It so happened in the sixth year of the seven-year land rest, the sixth year, God provided twice as much. He provided enough crops and a big enough harvest to last over through the seven-year land rest and a little more, one more year. Because not only would they not harvest in the seventh year, but they also wouldn't plant until the first year, what you might call the eighth year. They wouldn't have a crop until the end of that year. And if it was a wheat crop and a barley crop, they wouldn't have it until the next year. So trusting God and the fact that God, Jesus Christ, in the Old Testament, the one who had become Jesus Christ, was a provider of food. It was from Him that the people looked to and trusted for nourishment and food. And when you came to the fiftieth year, you had two years in a row where you couldn't eat anything off the land. Nothing was planted.

And in fact, the following year after that was the year you planted, and it would be the next year before your grains came up. It was the crop of the forty-eighth year that they were eating in the fiftieth year. Verse 12, for it is the jubilee, it shall be holy to you, you shall eat its produce from the field. The produce from the field was the harvest of the forty-eighth year.

We need to look to God as our bread, as the one we trust for our sustenance and the one we trust for life. In verse 13, In this year of jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. Now, it was an interesting thing about the year of jubilee, that this is an integral part of God's plan, his mindset, something that Jesus Christ came to do, as we'll see. It was a release. Land and food are vital in an agrarian society. Without land, you don't grow food. Without food, you don't eat. You and your family, you just really have a problem. As it says in the Nelson Study Bible, redeeming the land involved both food and income, which came from the proceeds of the land. If a person suffered illness or crop failure or others' misfortunes, it could force a person into debt to the point that his only alternative was to sell his land. His only means of eating, his only means of making money, and he might have to sell that off and be destitute. From there, he might have to sell himself into a type of slavery. That's a humiliating condition. Think of it. Here we've just seen, though, in verse 13, In the year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to your possession. A person may have gone a generation and a half without his land. A generation and a half working for somebody else, kind of like a slave or an indentured person. What would that be like for you guys? I tried to imagine that. Every morning, the wife would say, you got us in this, didn't you?

What would that be like? Humiliating, wouldn't it? To be able to get up every day and not be able to feed your family. To know again that something happened and I blew it. What would it be like to have children? 50 years is a long time. Children that are 30 years old, maybe? A generation and a half? Two crops of kids growing up? My daddy doesn't really have any land. He can't really feed us.

When the 50th year came up and when the trumpet blew, every one of you returned to his possession. That was a big, big deal. That was huge. In verse 23 it says, the land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine, God said.

For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in the land of your possession, you shall grant in all the land of your possession, you shall grant redemption of the land. People suddenly were freed. They had an opportunity to have a do-over, a fresh start. In the UCG Bible commentary it says, the 50th Jubilee year, all debts were canceled. All who had sold themselves into slavery were freed. And all land and the food from it and the profits from it went back to its original owners.

We read of that here in verse 28. It says, if a person was enabled during that time to restore that land to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee. And in the trumpet blast, if that indeed is what Jubilee says, and that's what some Hebrew scholars say that means, in the trumpet blast it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession. Wow! In the blast of a trumpet, things change. Suddenly, all land reverts back to its owners. The oppressed go free.

The kids, the wives, the families suddenly have land, lots of land, ability to grow crops, ability to live, ability to walk away from servitude. What a fantastic opportunity. And this all from the mind of God. God is about saving us from enslavement and separation, and from enmity, between our enslavement to Satan and others, our separation from him and each other, the enmity that our carnal satanic thought would lead us into.

And in the Jubilee year, the concept was, everybody gets restored. Restored relationships get to go back. The law of the 50th Jubilee is a symbol of what Christ is doing for enslaved humans, as Paul said in 2 Timothy, that we're taken captive by the devil. Jesus is coming again, but he came the first time to enable some, a few, a small group, a pre-harvest, to begin to be restored in advance of a great harvest that's coming. Humans cannot return to the Garden of Eden.

We don't even know where it is. It was. People have poked around up there, and you know, you look at the rivers, and Pishon and this and that, and, well, it must have been about here, but I don't know if there have been enough earthquakes or land changes. It doesn't make sense anymore. Somewhere probably up in northern Iraq is where the Garden of Eden was. We don't know. We can't go back there. And if you went there today, you'd probably just find some sand. However, God wants to restore us to a garden with Him, a garden with Him, in three or four ways, depending on how you look at it.

Let's take a look at, real quickly, some of these waves of returning people to the Garden with Him. We know that we, as the saints, those of us who have been filled with faith, have repented of our sins, have been baptized and forgiven of our sins, washed by the blood of Christ and received God's Holy Spirit.

That we are in a unique relationship with God, even in this present evil age. We often don't think about or realize what a special, unique situation we're in. But we are walking with God. In fact, He's living inside us. We are in a... that is, we can walk with God. I'm not saying we always are, but we can. We have the opportunity, if we want, to walk with God, as Adam and Eve did.

We have the opportunity to live in a Satan-free environment. Resist the devil and he'll flee far from you. Put on the whole armor of God and push back. We don't have to have him in our environment. We are fed with the bread of Jesus Christ. We have the blessings of living God's way of life. We have the fruits off the tree of life. The Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, if we want to use those fruits. So in a way, we have a limited form of a garden-type relationship with God.

But it certainly is not a garden environment, is it? This is the place where the apostles and the prophets were killed, where Jesus said that Satan's out to get us if he possibly can, and the saints are killed all day long. This is not a garden environment. Yet it is a very special opportunity for the first people to go back to the garden.

You want a paradise? Let's take a look here at the first wave. Hebrews 2, verse 14-15. Hebrews 2, verse 14.

Jesus is in a process of performing and completing this jubilee. He started it. He's in the process. It's not done. He's doing it. He gets all the credit for it.

His and the Father's is the kingdom and the power and all the glory. And it's a wonderful thing that they are doing. But he says in Hebrews 2, verse 14, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken 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 double.

He's started that process. He's come. He's done some important foundational work.

Verse 15, And release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. You and I have been released to that bondage. We have the opportunity to walk with God. We have the opportunity, but we don't have the reality. That comes next.

Revelation 2, verse 7, is an interesting statement.

This is Jesus Christ talking to His church.

You're part of that church.

Shall we listen to Him? Do we have ears to hear? Revelation 2, verse 7, He who has ears to hear, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He's not talking to Israel. He's not talking to the people in the millennium, or the people in the Second Resurrection. He's talking to His church.

To Him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. You want a paradise? You want the tree of life? You want God? There it is.

That's coming at the seventh trump. That is what is coming when Jesus Christ returns for you and me. That is what He's saying to the churches.

From the sounding of the seventh trump, the firstfruits become spirit beings. Not humans. Spirit beings.

And they move with Christ as His bride within paradise, within the spiritual realm.

Let's look in Revelation 14 and verse 4. Just looking right at the Bible here, not coming up with any personal analogies, hopefully.

Revelation 14.4. Then I looked and was talking about, in verse 1, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with 144,000. Verse 4, These are the ones who were not defiled with false religions, they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and the Lamb.

So wherever Jesus Christ goes, as the God of the New Age, we go with Him. In verse 5, The throne of God in the third heaven, the Holy of Holies, is a very, very special place.

The firstfruits, the first wave, are able to be with Jesus Christ, to interface as spirit beings, to have access to that tree of life in paradise and assist Jesus Christ as He rolls out the kingdom here on earth. Let's not limit ourselves, but let's not put words in God's mouth either. We will do whatever we will do, but we will be with Jesus Christ wherever He is.

And here we get a glimpse right here that that spirit world is going to be a wonderful, wonderful place.

The second wave, also indicated by the Jubilee, pictures an earth with redeemed people, a restored earth, an earth that's restored like the Garden of Eden. When we think about those who will live on into the thousand-year millennium, as we call it, they will live in a world where the animals will be like those that we read about in the Garden of Eden, where nothing will destroy in all my holy mountain.

The lions will dwell with some animals. The kid, I think it is, the bear and the lamb. I don't get it confused there. The snakes. Everything is going to be just fine. No more thorns, evidently, because nothing is going to hurt.

Everything is going to be beautiful. And there is going to be so much beauty and so much food.

When the reaper overtakes the sower who is trying to get seed in the ground, but the person who is plowing won't go fast enough. You are just getting buried in food. God will supply food.

God will supply beauty and happiness and joy, and there will be a fabulous Eden-like environment.

Let's read this in Isaiah 51, verses 3-5.

Isaiah 51, beginning in verse 3.

For the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden. Notice that.

The world tomorrow is going to be like the Garden of Eden. God said it right here in Isaiah 51. And her desert like the Garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in it. Thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Verse 4, Listen to me, my people. Give ear to me, O my nation. For law will proceed from me. God will be there. The law will go forth from Zion. It's going to proceed from God.

Satan will not be there. He will be bound. And I will make my justice rest as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth. My arms will judge the peoples.

Here is what we are celebrating at the Feast of Tabernacles. Humanity back in the garden with God. Back in Paradise, where they belong. Where they were intended to be nurtured and to live. A millennial rest will take place with God, assisted by the first fruits, the Bride of Christ. And this knowledge of the Lord will spread around the world. And it will be deep, like the waters covering the ocean. It's sort of an interesting metaphor there.

The third wave takes place afterward. We see in Revelation 20 and verse 5, The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. We drop down to verse 12, Then I saw the dead, who did not live again until the thousand years were finished, small and great standing before God.

They now have their opportunity. We automatically assume that the world is still going to be a beautiful place, the animals are still going to be eaten like, the environment is going to be able to sustain seventy to a hundred billion people, or whatever number that have never had God's Holy Spirit yet. And notice, the dead stand, now they're alive, stand before God. He's there with them. We see at the end of verse 10, the devil was taken and gotten rid of. He won't be there. This will be like the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and God.

Only this will be the Garden of Eden with all of humanity and God and the bride. And books are opened. Now, something's very unique. These books are open to you and me, and we take it for granted. But you don't read of any other epoch or any other period where these laws of God are understood internally.

And where, as it says here, another book was opened, the Book of Life. Find another place where the Book of Life is open to someone besides you and me now. Our names, if we're baptized, are written in the Book of Life. And here, later, in verse 20, we see that this book is open, which is the Book of Life. They have God's Holy Spirit. And the dead are judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

This is refreshing. This is beautiful. This is what we're going to go and enjoy at the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day, or what we call the Last Great Day. This is fabulous stuff. We can say, oh, that's really refreshing. So nice to know. But wait a minute. What is the relevance of the 50th Jubilee and all of this redemption to the Bride of Christ, to the First Fruits, to the Church of God? What relevance does it have to you and me?

You see, this is all done by Jesus Christ. You notice the Bride isn't mentioned in any of that. We didn't die. We didn't create. We didn't resurrect. We didn't come and live and sojourn and tabernacle. And we're not returning and blowing trumpets and causing things to happen. What's our role in all this? What's the relevance of it? What's the relevance of these feasts that you and I are going to go observe?

You know, those are somebody else's events. It's not us that lives on into the millennium as human beings and enjoys tame animals. It's not us that will be brought up in the Second Resurrection to finally have our eyes opened. So what does this have to do with us now? What does the Day of Atonement have to do with us now?

Jesus Christ came releasing people from prison, enslavement to Satan. He came releasing us from sin. He walked on this earth preaching repentance and healing people, releasing them from bondage to problems in their body. He died as our Passover and then He went to heaven. Now, there's an interesting thing. He did that and went to heaven. What does He ask of us? Well, He gave a small type of jubilee for us to busy ourselves with while He's gone. If you think about the 50 years, that's all associated with Him. But He gave us 50 days.

Remember on the day after the Sabbath, during Days of Unleavened Bread, the wave sheafwoods offered? Well, that's the day He went to heaven. And then He left us with 50 days. What are we supposed to be doing in those 50 days? At the end of those 50 days is the Feast of Harvest. Go to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 11. Leviticus 23 verse 11 talks about that particular festival, which should never be far from our mind because that's our feast. That's our marching orders. That's putting sin out of your life. That's getting ready for the harvest. Pentecost is the harvest.

It's the 50th. That's another trumpet blast. 7th Trump. And we're coming out of our graves. Leviticus 23 verse 11 says, He will wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the first day of the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb of the first year, without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. That was what he did for us. And then he went to heaven. And then we get to count, verse 15, for yourselves.

Oh, he doesn't even do the counting for us. He's gone. He's entrusted us a little 50-day, a little mini-Jubilee thing here. You count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath. From the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh day. And then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. Oh, you will be the grain. You will be the grain for that one.

And you need to produce fruit for that one. You need to spend those 50 days of your life, representing your life, producing fruit for the harvest. I set you an example. I've been harvested. Now, you produce the fruit.

Verse 17, you shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an ether. They shall be a fine flower. Better be nice and white garments. Then you shall offer. Then they shall be baked with leaven, for they are the first fruits to the Lord. We're not perfect like He was. We're baked with leaven, but we're to be the first fruits of God. We're to imitate Him.

We're to spend our life trying to be like He was, to become Christ-like, to follow Him. Remember some of the things He transferred to us when He went to heaven. He said, I am the light of the world. Then He said, now you're the light of the world. I'm going to heaven. You're the light of the world. Men should see Me when they see you. John said He gave His life for us. Therefore, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

We ought to be living sacrifices of love and service and thoughtfulness for others.

Those fifty days symbolize our years of striving to be Christ-like.

And we're harvested at His return as His bride. As it says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 23, Christ the first fruits, then afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.

What does it say about those at His coming? Revelation 14.4. We just read it. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. We imitate Him. We follow Him. We're trying to do what He did. These were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the Lamb. That's what we need to be busy doing, is imitating the one who is bringing about this jubilee for humanity, this trumpet that's going to reset everything, a trumpet that's going to bring people back to paradise, back to an environment that they were intended to be in from the beginning.

We have something to do that no other group has to. No other epoch, no other group. We have to fight Satan while imitating Christ, while producing righteousness.

Paul said, You, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, gentleness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you are called. That is our calling now. We've got to be busy. Jesus Christ hasn't finished the jubilee. He hasn't brought people to paradise yet. He hasn't opened up the millennial Eden. He needs a helper.

But he needs a helper who thinks like he does, who's trying to do what he does, who's trying to do all the things that he has put into the jubilee so that we can catch up and assist him with the same mind.

Leviticus 25, a couple pages over, in verse 9. Leviticus 25, verse 9. Let's start in verse 8.

There is a sound throughout all your land.

This is the time that God is bringing back into a special place and a special relationship, all of his creation, all the animals, all the earth, all the environment, all the people.

Here on the day of trumpet, on the day of atonement, this trumpet was blown. It's interesting, atonement, as it's been previously said, means at-one-ment. At-one-ment. God is about joining. Love, agape, puts smiles on people's faces, and it brings what we term peace, but that Greek word, irene, means joining. That's what God does. God is the God of peace, the God of joining. God does not divide. He's not the author of separation. He is the author of joining. He is our healer. He is our repairer. He is the prince of peace. That's what we need to be about as well. Atonement is a result. It's the fruit of God, God's mind, His spirit.

Humility, release, love. Let's see our responsibility in this as we look at what God has done and our responsibility to join Him as He completes this jubilee for all generations. Isaiah 58 and 6 talks about the fast on the day of atonement. It doesn't use the word atonement, but it talks about God's fast, the fast that He chose. The only fast He chose was the day of atonement. It is His festival. Isaiah 58 begins in verse 6. Is this not the fast that I have chosen? On the day of atonement, the jubilee horn is blown on the 50th year. And this is the idea behind it, the atonement, is to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and to bring to your house the poor who are cast out? You see how this just rolls together in what God is doing and what His mindset is? He is letting the captives go free. He is feeding. Now He is saying, I want you to develop this mindset. Before I raise you up, before I bring you into paradise with Me, before you assist Me, you begin to do this too. When you see the naked that you cover Him, verse 8, then your light shall break forth like the morning. God is light. We are to become light. Your healing shall, your joining back with God, shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you. These are things that we need to do. Verse 9, you will call, the Lord will answer, you shall cry, and He will say, I will hear where I am, if you take away the yoke. You've got to quit thinking like a human with this worldly mindset that Satan has injected into us. You've got to change that. You've got to take away from the yoke. You've got to quit the pointing of the finger, the speaking of the wickedness. You've got to start extending yourself and satisfying the afflicted. If you do that, then your light is going to come. That's what we have to be doing in preparation. We have to see this vision. We have to love it and want it. We are called to become like the Lamb. And the Lamb was all about the Jubilee.

Jesus Christ is the Jubilee. He said in the New Testament that He got up and read the book of Isaiah. And He said, this is me. I'm fulfilling that. I have come to open the prisons, to release the captives, to let the poor go free, to heal and defeat. That's what He's about. And now He's saying, I want you to be about that as well.

This is an overview of our Christian walk.

Those who are at the seventh trumpet will witness part of Atonement's fulfillment, another part.

Leviticus 16 talks about the two goats. A priest cast lots, and one goat represented Jesus Christ and was killed. And that made Atonement for the sins. The other goat represented Satan, the Azazel goat. You might call it the Go-Away goat. It was called the Goat of Departure. It was the Go-Away goat. You look at the Hebrew word. And that one was to be led off and gotten away from man. If we go over to Revelation 20, verse 1, the saints who are with Christ will get to witness this event. They will already be standing with Him for the seven last plagues.

In verse 1 of chapter 20, Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having a key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who was the devil in Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into a bottomless pit, shut him up, set a seal on him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were finished. That's another event of opening up this garden of Eden, paradise, recreation, humans living in a world without Satan. And we'll be there to see it, if we are faithful. It's very, very exciting, and yet, that's not the end of it, because it says, but after these things, he must be released for a little while. See, the Day of Atonement doesn't fully fulfill Jubilee and the restoration back to a garden environment without Satan, because he comes back. Verse 7, when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison, and we will see that too, if we are deemed worthy to be resurrected and part of God's family. And he'll do terrible things throughout the four corners of the earth. But, verse 10, the devil who deceived them was finally cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.

Where the beast and false prophet were cast, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever, not there. But, as it says elsewhere, in Jude, verse 13, indicates that the demons will be wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. That go-away goat will finally go away. He won't just be kept in a cage. He'll go away. And the demons with him, the blackness of darkness. That will be a wonderful thing when, finally, the second resurrection takes place, and the great white throne, once again, has no Satan in it.

As we wrap up, let's take a look at the model prayer outline. You might think, well, why are we going there? Because it summarizes the whole mindset of the Jubilee. The whole mindset of God casting back and bringing man in. Let's go look and see what he wants us to have on our mind. Matthew 6, verses 9-14. This is what we should be occupying ourselves with now in preparation to come in, midstream, in the fulfillment of this Jubilee type that ultimately will harvest even humans to the paradise with God in heaven. In the final round, where all humanity will dwell in the coming new heavens and new earth, with God living with them and being their God. Matthew 6, verses 9. In this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in paradise. That's where he said paradise is where the Father is. Our Father in heaven. Holy is your name. Ah, we've got to get that severance with God fixed. We have to be healed. We have to repent. We have to respect and honor Him and obey Him. Going on. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Yes, bring your kingdom. Bring all those phases of the completion of the Jubilee, which Jesus said He came to fulfill. Bring those for all people on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Lead us. Feed us. Jesus Christ is going to commune with everybody in paradise. You and I have that opportunity now. He lives here. He's supposed to be living here. We're supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 16, out there. Those led by the Holy Spirit, these are the sons of God. We need to be led by that. Give us our debts. Jubilee, release the debts. Forgive those who owe you something. Maybe they've sinned against you. Maybe they owe you something. Jesus was all about, you know, lend and don't expect back. Somebody take something, give it to Him. Give me your jacket also. Develop my mind. Release. As we forgive our debtors, do not let us be led into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. A world without Satan. An environment without Satan. A mind without Satan. For Yours is the kingdom. This is not by us. God is not waiting for our genius little brains to change into spirit beings so that we can solve everything. His is the kingdom. And His is the power. And all the glory goes to Him forever. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing that we look to God fulfilling this jubilee at one-ment process to where ultimately everyone will be in harmony forever in the kingdom of God and everybody that's not won't exist. In conclusion, Jesus Christ is coming, but He's not coming alone. Revelation 19 tells us that when He appears, the bride meets Him in the air. She comes riding in on white horses with Him, clothed with power and assisting Him with the rod of iron. Revelation 2 tells us. He's redeeming first fruits now that are growing. They're in there 50 days, getting ready for the 50 years. They are producing fruit. They're getting ready for a harvest. And they're called first fruits who will assist Him. These are ones who obey Him. And these are ones who love others, develop relationships with others, and who forgive others. The first fruits of the family of God, and I say that in a combined, because Jesus is the first fruits, and then He calls us the first fruits. It's interesting. The first fruits of the family of God, Jesus Christ, with the bride, will create a fresh start, and they will lead humanity through this concept of a jubilee into paradise, first on earth and ultimately a paradise with God forever.

The remnant twelve tribes will return to a land with clear titles, with abundant crops, with God walking right among them, and the first fruits assisting God walking right among them. Human trespasses will be cleared, blotted out, forgiven. And to human they will forgive them, and they will turn their swords into plowshares, because there's a lot of food, and that's the land. Plowshares have to do with land. They'll get their lands. There'll be lots of land, and there's spears and pruning hooks. There's a lot of food on the trees. They will return to a garden paradise with God. So, the question for us is, do you want to be there? And if you do, remember what Jesus said in the verse after the model prayer in Matthew 6. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Therefore, brethren, let's be busy imitating Christ, obeying God, loving man, and forgive, and you will be forgiven.