Day of Atonement: Captivity and Liberty

Well, good afternoon again. Thank you for that special music. Well, it's good to be together again, assembled by God on this beautiful holy day. It is, of course, the Day of Atonement, and it is a day full of meaning. Biblical meaning, chock-full of symbolism. I appreciated Mr. Rose's sermonette and that creative introduction. I promise I'll work on my introductions a little better as I continue to get a little older. I'm not as creative at that, and I appreciated the the hook he had with their personal story there. And I appreciated thinking about the many symbolism in the day and the meaning of the day and how difficult that is to interpret. Coming from New Hampshire, we had a large Spanish-speaking population up there. So every week we had Spanish interpretation, and so I got very accustomed to how a lot of my sentences made no sense. And then they had to also translate that. But of course, today is a day full of meaning with real impact. A real impactful continuation of maybe the most greatest turning points in human history. Building on the themes from the Day of Trumpets, the Feast of Trumpets, just nine days ago. And it's through the observance of these days that we understand the truth that God has given us. We see the plan of salvation. We see how God is desiring to build a family and share with His creation a little bit about His identity. And through these annual festivals, we review a bit of the meaning and we consider and have great hope. As we heard a little bit in that special music, great hope. We have hope in the resurrection because of Trumpets, apart an aspect of the meaning of that day. I liked that line in the song speaking mostly of the work of Christ, but in John 10 where it talks about, nobody can take me from the hand of my father, the father and I are one. Beautiful lyrics there. We understand the strength of God's plan through these days. So as we're beginning today and maybe my not so creative introduction, let's go to Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23, a beautiful section of scripture giving us one nice condensed section with God's annual and weekly festivals. Leviticus 23.

Leviticus 23. In verse 27, Leviticus 23. In verse 27, Here we see the command, at least the institution or the commands to Israel, how to keep this day, at least in some physical aspects that we understand in a different way and keep in a new covenant sense. But we recognize the commandment, to keep this day. We are here on the tenth day of the seventh month and it is a day of atonement.

Fun fact, it's actually the day of atonements. It's the plural word there. Mr. Rose mentioned the root word of kippurim, kaphar, right? It's kippurim. It's a day that many atonements would occur. They would have an atonement over this, an atonement over that, a covering on this. So Rose did a good job of bringing those elements into view. And the day of atonement no doubt had a historical connection in history to Israel. They would look forward to this day with great anticipation. Now there was a few reasons for that and they had many meanings and things that would go along with this day for them, but it was a very, very significant day.

It has connections with atonement, as I mentioned, multiple atonements. It has connection with fasting, as we know. All too well on this day we know the connection to fasting. The New Covenant Church, Luke records that this day was colloquial, at least in their time, referred to as the fast. Acts 27. And so it's connected with fasting, afflicting your souls, humility and humbling. And it's a day of solemn rest. For all of us who our children have grown out of the stage, as Mr.

Rose mentioned, of the toddlers eating the snacks, it's a day which we don't even prepare food. That was very difficult having younger children that would eat food. Here I am making a great breakfast for them. Now, I haven't had to do that in some years, thankfully. But that's a difficult aspect. It's a day of solemn rest. It has connections there with that meaning. A little bit different than the rest of the Sabbaths.

If we partner this with Colossians 2 in verse 16 and 17, if you're familiar with that verse, Paul is actually writing about judgment. He's writing about judgment concerning how we eat and how we drink on these festival days, or lack thereof, for atonement. But he's actually referring to judgment about eating and drinking, and then right in the middle we have a golden nugget of information.

A parenthetical statement where Paul says, or rather Paul writes, these days, the festivals, are a shadow. They're a shadow. Mr. Rose went to Hebrews chapter 10, which also mentions a shadow, that the sacrifices were a shadow. They didn't fully work as what they were pointing to. They were just bringing to mind an idea. That's not just what sacrifices were, but they are a shadow. They point to something bigger. The festivals are very similar in that way, and so we learn about God's plan through the Holy Days, through observing them, reminding ourselves yearly about them.

And so for today's sermon, I'd like for us to review a bit of the meaning of today. What is the day of atonement a shadow for? And so in the sermon we'll review an aspect of that day. At least one connection, that is the day of atonement, pictures, both captivity and liberty. That's one aspect we're gonna look at today. Day of atonement pictures, captivity and liberty.

So to begin the main message, let's go to Leviticus chapter 25. We're gonna look at another set of laws in the old nation of Israel. Leviticus 25 will point to the fact that the day of atonement for them, one aspect that it pictured for them, right, this is just one aspect, it pictured physical and financial liberty. Physical and financial liberty. Leviticus 25.

We're gonna read in verse 8 and 9. Leviticus 25 verses 8 and 9. And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself. Seven times seven years, and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you 49 years. That's a very verbose way of saying seven times seven equals 49. But God likes to make things clear when he wants to make them clear. Sometimes he makes some things obscure. And then he said it's the glory of kings to search out a matter. That's unrelated to this topic, but it did just pop into my head.

I'll do better of trying not to do that so much. Verse 9. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. Well, that's today. Now, if you remember my sermon on trumpets, I mentioned this reference to the use of a shofar. The blowing of an animal horn. It says, on the day of atonement, you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all the land.

So we have a special day of atonement ceremony on a special counting observance. 50 years, every 50 years, on this day, the animal horn would be blown. No doubt the priests were to be keeping this count. The priests were keeping track of this seven times seven, and then blowing that shofar. The whole nation would be looking forward to this time. It was a kind of an overlap of a few different countings of years.

The land Sabbath, the release of debt, and all sorts of things, all kind of coming together for this special 50th. Verse 10. And you shall consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

And so on this interesting day of atonement, on the 50th year, they were to set it apart, consecrate it. Kind of think about it, making it holy, right? Setting something apart. They were to set this year apart. It was to be a different type of year than the rest of the years that they would observe. And they would proclaim liberty throughout all the land, freedom, and release.

Everybody's possessions would go back to them, the major ones. And everybody would go back to their own family. Maybe they were in servitude, a bondservant. Consider their life for a moment. It's hard to do. We're in a very different economic system. Plant yourself in the shoes or the sandals of a man living sometime in BC. And we'll give a specific date. You hear the shofar go out, and it's a beautiful moment. Now you're trying to think to yourself, because is this the 50th year, or is this a different blowing of the trumpet? You see, back then, economic times, difficult situations, perhaps they came upon a family, and he had to sell all that he had. Maybe he had land passed down generation to generation, a family house. Maybe he had flocks and herds. And then a difficult situation came up that he could not escape.

And so he had to sell everything that he had. And that would be a very desperate situation, wouldn't it? Because land and houses and flocks, it's very intimately connected to wealth and the procurement or income, if you will. Because you would slaughter livestock, you would gather wool, you do all sorts of things with these animals. And yet if you're removing all this from your possession, you're in a pretty dire situation.

Often, if you were members of that house, if this had to happen, where you had to sell your land, your home, you would often sell your family. You know, maybe not in those terms, but you would become displaced people, and you would become servants to the new owners of the land.

And so even you as an individual would then become a servant, bonded, because of the sale of this house of your family's very serious situation. And so as you came closer to the 50th year, you would no doubt be excited, wouldn't you? I'd be excited. If I was a servant under something outside my control, I'd be thankful, as long as my master was nice, but I would be thankful I had that opportunity to not die, to be cared for, to work. But I would definitely want to be free.

I'd want to restart. As time looked forward, I would be looking towards that time where I could return to my family. I could return my land to my people, my tribe, and release that debt.

We continue reading in verse 11.

That 50th year shall be a Jubilee to you, in it, and you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your unintended vine. For it is a Jubilee, and it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field. So things that we maybe can't fully appreciate, we're a lot removed from these concepts. We can't fully implement every apples-to-apples aspect of these laws, but we can see what's happening here. It's also a land Sabbath. They were to let the land reset, let the land rest. They would neither sow nor reap in that normal way. This would be a special 50th year consecrated, set apart. In fact, the English word that we use for Jubilee comes all the way through these languages, all the way back to the Hebrew word, and it's very closely tied to this idea of bringing forth, almost as if there was an understanding that God would bring forth blessings of produce.

If you're keeping a land Sabbath, if you're back in this time and you're keeping the land Sabbath, well, for six years, you're working normally. The seventh year, you won't be sowing or reaping in that same way. Now, there were provisions of how you could do things, but you would rely heavily upon what God would bring forth on the sixth year. For the Jubilee year, depending on the interpretation, right, you either have two land Sabbaths in a row, or there's another interpretation there. I'll leave that on the shelf. But if you had two together, whatever the case may be, God would bring forth extreme blessings if you were trusting in Him to provide for those blessings as you faithfully kept His Word. And now you have this land Sabbath on this Jubilee.

So God would bring forth blessings of produce and perhaps a connection with the understanding that God would bring forth blessings of resets. Liberty from captivity. Verses 13 through 17 are a brilliant thing to read if you haven't ever done. It talks about the economic principles of God's ways. And you think about this on a national scale. One of the most challenging things—maybe that's an overstatement—but a very challenging thing in American societies and the world at large is when families get into cycles of poverty or abuse or all sorts of things. It's really hard to break that cycle generation after generation, isn't it? But you get into a law like this in a national sense where everything resets in 50 years. Well, how much easier is it to reset that maybe cycle of debt or poverty? Beautiful economic connections here with liberty being set free.

Maybe some of you have grown up in families that were very impoverished or poor.

But thankfully, a lot of their debts maybe didn't transfer to you.

That world it would have. Until that release. The different releases that God had put in his national systems. You see, for a person in debt or selling their land or their house, selling themselves into bond servitude, as a bond servant will say, this year would have been highly anticipated. A year of physical and financial liberty. And that's a tremendous blessing from God's law. Within history, we see this day connected with the topic and theme of physical and financial liberty. The Day of Atonement does indeed picture liberty. But we also see a connection with it with captivity, don't we? So let's look at that for a moment. The Day of Atonement pictures captivity and binding. Now let's go to one of my favorite passages. A scripture about two goats.

Leviticus chapter 16. My boys read this out loud last night in our home.

Afterwards, I've heard some remarks. A lot of goats mentioned here.

Read more of the Bible. There's a lot of animals mentioned, aren't there?

Leviticus 16. We see an interesting sacrificial ritual, deep with meaning.

Countless books have been written on the symbolism that exists within here. The church has had an understanding of this passage for a while now.

We're not going to read the whole passage. That's not the point of my sermon today, but it's just to make the connection with captivity. Let's go to Leviticus 16 in verse 6. Aaron shall offer a bull as a sin offering, which is for himself to make atonement.

I should say, we didn't read the beginning of this, but earlier on, it talks about the time when this would be occurring on this day of atonement.

Shall make an atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And so within these two goats, we see sin being dealt with in a complete way. We have a sin offering, sin sacrifice, I should say, maybe more technical correct, sin sacrifice, and then we also see a binding and a removing.

So you see the penalty of sin and the source of sin being taken care of in one symbolic ritual.

Verse 8, then Aaron shall cast lots of the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. Or, as the Hebrew would put it, the azazel. Right? The goat that would escape.

Unfortunately, in our common definition, scapegoat means it seemed like he's innocent, but it's just the goat that escapes. The one goat would be for the Lord or representative of the Lord, and one would be for the azazel or to represent azazel. Both proper nouns, a topic for another day. But in this symbolism, we see God making the choice, and it's God's decision to make. Righteous judgment needed to be made. We see the lot needing to be thrown so that the congregation, the priest, nobody had to choose what goat. The Lord God would show them which goat represented which. Verse 10. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it and to let it go as a scapegoat in the wilderness.

We see this one being the lot for azazel, or the scapegoat. It's presented alive before the Lord. This is in contrast to the verse I skipped over on accident. Verse 9 says, The lot that was landed for the Lord would be killed, be offered as a sin offering.

So we see this one, of course, picturing Jesus Christ, the sacrificial work that he has done, the atonement for our sins, bringing humanity into a right relationship. At least in atonement, picturing that in the future. Passover, of course, we see the similar symbolism.

But here in verse 10, the one that was presented alive before the Lord, it was not sacrificed.

Not by the spilling of blood, but instead left alive and removed from the congregation.

After the whole sacrifice, after the atoning of the coverings, all the different atonements that would happen on this day, the covering of this, the covering of that. Then in verse 22, the priest would place his hands upon the goat, confess the sins of the whole congregation upon it, representing the source of their sins, the ultimate connection that will that will have in the future. Of course, picturing Satan as the role or the author of sin, ultimately being led away from the congregation. We're gonna leave that here in Leviticus 16. Good thing to read if you haven't done so in a while, but we're gonna go over to Revelation 20 and see the fulfillment of this still being pictured in the future. Revelation 20 in verse 1. We see this future fulfillment of this day.

John is recording again the vision that he's seeing in the day of the Lord or past it now in the prophetic events. He says, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

We see this this angel or messenger or great strong individual coming down from heaven. This fits really well with back in Leviticus 16 where it talks about the fit man taking the goat out of the congregation. I didn't highlight it back then, but the idea of the fit man would have been prepared for ahead of time. Even traditionally, I think if you read some traditions of how they potentially would have done this back in the day, they would have set aside that man a whole year in advance. That's not commanded, per se. That's tradition. But they would have prepared ahead of time. No doubt when God is fulfilling aspects and steps in his plan, they're prepared. And he has the right time. And so he sends this angel, this messenger, this individual or being, I should say, coming down with a chain to grab a hold of the one who's referred to as the devil or the Satan. Verse 2, he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and the Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. So this angel grabs hold of this great adversary, this slanderer, this destroyer, this cause of division and destruction and places him in captivity, removes him from the congregation, removes him from any influence that he may have.

He's placed in a temporary restraint. As we know, for a thousand years, Satan will be bound and kept away from the congregation of the earth at that time. We'll be released a little bit afterwards, after a thousand years, ultimately defeated, and then taken care of again, as Revelation says, thrown into the lake of the fire. So we do know that this binding, this removing from the congregation, at least in that in this first sense, is a temporary thing, a thousand years, but he is fully removed away from the congregation, ultimately forever. Verse 3, placed in a prison, and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released a little while. So he's placed in this prison, perfectly mirroring the symbolism of Leviticus 16 and the something. I have a lot of s sounds, but none of them come right. Let me take a break. Let me get a drink of water. I don't have any drink. Thankfully, I did look up here. I didn't know it was going to be a thing today. Everybody had a nice joke about it. I did come look under here to be like, does anybody remove it? Because that would be helpful. And it wasn't here, so that was nice. So during this sacrifice, this ritual in the fleshly ordinances, we do see this goat being removed by a fit man. Then we see this vision by John given to him by messenger, by Christ, then by God the Father, binding of Satan, removing him, putting him in the bottomless pit, and putting a seal upon him, captivity in a prison, in a pit, in which he cannot get out without release. And he's bound there, and a seal is set upon him. He's restrained so that he cannot influence directly those who live into the millennium, no longer having a direct influence upon those individuals the same way that he has had for 6,000 years. Sealed and shut up, not to deceive the nations directly for a thousand years. We're looking forward to an amazing time that will be. And we see this great contrast then with liberty. On one hand, we see the great liberty, the release of debt, the release of bondage. On the other hand, we see captivity this day, in part, picturing the day when Satan and his demons are removed from the equation. Imprisoned, shut up, and removed from any ability that they have to influence directly mankind into the millennium.

But this isn't where it all stops, is it? It's not just about physical liberty. It's not just about the captivity of Satan. But indeed, this day pictures spiritual liberty, a spiritual reality from the command of the year of Jubilee.

The Day of Atonement pictures a beautiful time when you'll have full spiritual liberty of real fulfillment of that foreshadowing of the day of Jubilee, or the year of Jubilee.

In God's message, there's always been a proclamation to those who are in a prison.

Let's go to Isaiah chapter 61.

You know, I'm not even... I don't think I... Oh, maybe this will date me in a different way, I guess. But for some reason, I have a memory in my mind of an old magazine, The World, The Earth.

Can you picture this? Do you remember the article? Some of you are already shaking your head. You already know where I'm going. It's impressive. All right, with the prison bars over it, a world held captive. Now, I think we've used that in Beyond Today, have we? But I think we're older in good news and whatnot. We always... We see this message throughout the Bible of God's good news. It's to individuals who are in prison. Isaiah 61.

Isaiah 61. A Messianic prophecy, in part fulfilled and recorded in Luke 4 and verse 16, in part fulfilled. But in verse 1 of Isaiah 61, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. So to bring a good news to those who are poor, poor in spirit, those who are desolate, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. Now there's a bit of a split of timeline here with this prophecy. We see some of it being fulfilled in the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry, and some of it pointing towards that future time that we see represented by the day of trumpets. Hey, think about all that, even the day of vengeance of God, for those who... to comfort those who mourn. The people of God, we mourn. We mourn for the wickedness and the abominations all around us. We mourn for the lives that we have lived, and we have joy that God has brought us from that darkness.

But back to the beginning of this, where it says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, backing up a little bit to proclaim liberty to the captives.

When Christ was here preaching and now preaching still through his church, we see this message of redemption to those who are in prison. When Christ came in the flesh, he preached a message of redemption of Israel. That was his primary audience of the day, although, of course, there was connections. We know that. But the redemption of Israel and the joyful anticipation of the coming kingdom of God. When he was here, he proclaimed liberty, proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord. That's a very similar phrasing to what we find in Leviticus 25. God proclaiming an acceptable time. Jesus Christ was sent in the flesh. All right. He became man in the flesh at the right time, at the appropriate time. And at that time, he preached to those who were bound and in prison, those who could have their bonds removed. As first fruits, we see this symbolism very heavy in the spring holy days. We recognize, and even our last hymn that we sang, we typically sing around Passover time, we recognize this symbolism being released from prison or bondage. The connection with the spring holy days and coming out of Egypt and being released from the control of Pharaoh and the spiritual significance of that. Coming out of spiritual Egypt, being released from spiritual Pharaoh. We then see the symbolism in the days on bread, baptism into the death of Christ, and walk in a newness of life in Christ. Within the Day of Atonement, we're now on the prophetic timeline that pictures the fall harvest, the larger harvest, the time when we have greater harvest implications. And so with Day of Atonement, we can think very heavily upon that perspective. Yes, as firstfruits, we will obviously apply these things to our lives, and we should. But when we think about the fall holy days, we're constantly looking forward. How are these themes being applied to whom or who is coming? Who's in prison and needs liberty now? We think about who is in prison and needs liberty now. I can't think, I can't help but think even of that special music. Mr. Hausl Not necessarily for us. Yes, we can apply those themes in our lives today. Don't get me wrong.

But really, it's pointing to a time when those who are still in prison, those who are still in bondage, will one day have an opportunity to be let free. Second Timothy chapter 2. We're going to go to a context of servants of God. Ministers or pastors, elders, those who may at times have authority to handle maybe disobedience or trying to keep a congregation on track. So that's the context of what we're reading. I'm going back and forth. Give me a moment.

Second Timothy chapter 2 in verse 24. So jumping into that context, if you keep that in mind, that's what's being referenced here. But there's a little nugget here that Paul gives to the pastors or to those who would have that authority. Second Timothy chapter 2 in verse 24.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all able to teach patient in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance. So there is a responsibility on the ministers of God, ministers of Jesus Christ, to with gentleness correct those who are in opposition. We do this with gentleness because we perhaps pray that God will grant them repentance and they'll be sitting right next to us and they'll be with the firstfruits. But we still need to correct those who are in opposition.

Verse 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. Who are those in prison today? Those who are in prison today are those who are acting in opposition to the truth of God. Those who are in opposition to the truth are, by definition, captives according to Paul. They have been captured by the snare of the devil to do his will.

And we all were once in this same boat, weren't we? If we go back to Ephesians chapter 2, we can be so thankful that God has pulled us from darkness. That's another theme of this day, from darkness to light. Maybe next year. I can't predict the future too much, but I can plan my sermons a little bit. We used to be so thankful that God has pulled us from darkness and conveyed or translated us into lightness or into his marvelous light. I think I mixed two verses there, but Colossians 1 and 2 Peter 3 or something. But Ephesians 2, that's where we're going. Let me stay on task. Ephesians chapter 2, we were once walking according to the same imprisonment. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1. And you he made alive who were dead in trespass and sins, in which once you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now works in the sons of disobedience.

Now we were once walking this same walk, locked in a prison, dead in trespass and sins, working according to the lowercase gee, God of this age.

We maybe didn't know it at the time. Reminds me that, you know, you could be sincere.

You'd just be sincerely wrong. Sometimes, but we were all once walking that walk.

But there are those in the world and those who have not come under the sacrifice of Christ that are still in that category of being in a prison, being dead in trespasses and sins.

Those who are not of the way, those who have not yet been granted repentance, who have not yet been called out of this darkness, who have been called away from this walk, they're in a prison.

And so we look forward to that day when God will grant them to liberty. Let's go to John 8.

Because in Christ, in the workings that God has through Christ, we do indeed have freedom.

And Day of Atonement looks forward to the time when Satan is removed and you have a reset. A time when those who live into the Millennium will have that opportunity. And then, of course, forward-looking into last-grade day when when all the rest of the dead will be resurrected and have that opportunity as well.

But it starts with trumpets and atonement, setting the stage.

John chapter 8.

John 8 and verse 31.

John 8 and verse 31, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.

Let's go down to verse 34. Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

And so there's this recognition that there is a bondage for those who their natural way of living is sin.

Verse 35.

There's this recognition that you and I, we have freedom. Those who come under the sacrifice of Christ, we have freedom from the debt, the penalty that sin has brought in our life.

We still have that fight. We still have that battle. We still have that pole that Paul refers to in the flesh, which I will to do. I just find myself not doing.

So we still struggle. We still fight, but we're no longer in prison.

No longer, hopefully, prayerfully, hopefully we're not walking in disobedience or opposition to the truth of God. But when faced with wrongdoing in our life, we, in humility, ask for forgiveness and walk in that newness of life as God grants us understanding.

No longer walking according to the flesh. Different analogies that Paul brings up later in his letters, excuse me, but walking according to the Spirit.

But the world around us, what we're celebrating today in Trumpet's atonement, Tabernacle's last great day, it's we recognize that these are things coming, that the world is still held in bondage to corruption. And Satan is ultimately the one that binds them, who imprisons them and leads them to corruption or death.

Reliableation 12 refers to him as the deceiver of the whole world.

He is blind to the minds of those who are in this world. Second Corinthians, verse 4 brings that out as well. And God, at times, in his mercy and his grace, will remove those blinders. You're here. I'm here. God has removed those blinders in our life.

God has removed that veil so that we can understand his truth. And in his mercy, and in his kindness, and his long suffering, he'll do it to all those that he won't in this life, in the world tomorrow, won't he? I just look so forward to what these days picture.

Not for me. That's great that I'm here. And I don't want to speak light of that, of course. Thankful to God's calling, bringing me out of darkness. But I look forward to the time when it spreads to the world at large, starting with the few into the millennium and then the great white throne judgment of the last great day, the eighth day, the resurrection, the second resurrection. As mankind, this is outside the church, we've chosen the path that we're walking. And for nearly 6,000 years, we've made that choice plain. It started back in the garden, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the representation that that was, well, we want to do our own thing. We know that you're offering to teach us what is right and wrong, but I want to know right and wrong my own way. That was the symbolic choice. They want to determine right and wrong. And that's what we've been doing for 6,000 years. And it hasn't been showing a lot of great success. Now, as mankind, we've done great and wonderful things. Nothing is really withheld from us. God has made us with such great potential. But going our own ways has led to death and destruction. One conversation I always have with individuals when I'm talking about the millennium or the world, the kingdom later, you talk about something so great and awesome, like the potential of like splitting the atom. If you ever look into how an atom is split and the kind of the energy that exists, right? Such a great and marvelous... what do you call that?

Discovery. Thank you. Great and marvelous discovery. And what do we do as humans? How many people can I kill with that? That's the natural reaction to the mind that is on the flesh. Word of war is a fight that's coming from among you. You struggle. You want what you don't have.

And I'm just looking forward to that time when God and Christ will say, yeah, this is what I made that for. Let me show you. Let me show you this cool potential here.

The world has constantly been going their own way. The Bible is painting a picture for us.

A nice, unified story of redemption. A time when God will indeed let free all those who choose to be free. I'm going to turn and just kind of finish the sermon a little bit, connecting two plot lines of this long story of redemption. Let's go to Genesis chapter 3. You see, mankind has made this choice evident. Our first parents were cut off from the inheritance that God had planned for them. Genesis 3 and verse 22.

Genesis 3, 22. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed, cherubim, at east of the Garden of Eden, and the flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Early on, mankind makes this decision and is cut off. They're cut off from the inheritance that God was planning. But those who walk this way of life, those who are in prison, those who have been in prison, they have not lost out on their inheritance forever, have they? They will have one chance, the greatest opportunity that anybody will be given. When we're cut off from God, we understand that we can't redeem ourselves. We can't buy ourselves out of this. We can't free ourselves from this captivity. This liberty only comes from God through Christ. The redemption is in the plan of God revealed by these great holy days. So for nearly 6,000 years, the world, most of the world, maybe 99.9 percent. I didn't do the math. But a majority of the world has been cut off, has been in bondage, has been evicted from the inheritance of the Garden of Eden. And so God is working out His plan. He's making it shown to His people. He reveals it to His prophets. And He has this path forward towards inheritance for all. And we see this within that theme of Jubilee that we read about. That great coming time of a reset. A time when God will provide a more tolerable place for the vast maturity of humankind. So as we close, let's go to Ezekiel 36. I love these fall holy days so much with what they picture in the future.

We can think about because God is not just working out a plan with a small percentage of people.

That's His plan now. That's the current calling. The Church of God is small. The firstfruits are a smaller harvest. The best of the firstfruits was really small. One man. Then you have the Church, a little smaller, and then you have the world. Much larger. Ezekiel 36, speaking of a time, a future time when the restoration of Israel comes. Probably, most likely, right into the millennium, right? Those, the remnant that lives into the millennium. There will always be that remnant of Israel that lives into the millennium. The restoration begins for that people. But just look at the language here in verse 33 and think about it. You can think about it in that context, but also in the grander context of all mankind. Verse 33 of Ezekiel 36.

Thus says the Lord God, on that day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by, so that they will say, this land was desolate and has become like the Garden of Eden. And the wasted and the desolate and the ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. What a beautiful time we're looking at that pictures, a coming release, a liberty to not just the church today. We're not talking about the spring holy days. We're talking about the world at large, all within their timing. The day of atonement foreshadows a great reset, a great day of captivity and liberty. As the world, they wait for this coming day of liberty, and they don't even know it. The time when they will be offered a chance to be reconciled to the Father, all within their proper order. We have Israel, the remnant living, then the great Second Resurrection, all the rest of dead who had never had the opportunity, all within their proper order, they'll have that opportunity, that chance to be liberated. The day of atonement is a beautiful day for all mankind, a day picturing captivity of the adversary and liberty for all mankind going forward.