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It's a very great honor for Sister Anne and myself to be with you and we bring, of course, the greetings of our own Ecclesia from Wally in England and of many other brethren and sisters who are known to you and who have you in their thoughts and affections. I'd like to begin this morning with a question. What is it in nature that particularly impresses you? Is it the magnificent hues of a majestic sunset? Is it the thunderous roar of a waterfall spewing out its foam? Is it the intricate beauty and fragrance of a flower bloom? Is it the sinuous strength of a big cat's paw? Or is it the purity and the perfect symmetry of a falling snowflake? Whatever it is, brethren and sisters, it wasn't made for its own sake. Now, I don't want in any way to minimize the glory of God in creation or to belittle at all the creator's handiwork. Those things are wonderful, they are marvelous, they beg a description. But none of them was made for its own sake. It's a little bit like the law which Paul mentioned, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And he says, doth God take care for oxen, or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this was written. Now, it's a little bit like that with creation. As a matter of fact, God does take care for oxen. But the Apostle's point is that that wasn't the reason for the law. However much care God has for oxen, the point of the law was a spiritual principle which the Apostle Paul, under inspiration, draws out for us. And in the same way with the things that God has made, even though there is not a sparrow falls to the ground without your heavenly father, says the Lord, that is, without God knowing about it, creation is not about birds. Even though the lilies of the field were so glorious that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them, still, creation is not about flowers, is it? There's something more, brethren and sisters, to creation than these things. And we need to think for a few moments as to what it is. There is a spiritual dimension to the things that we're being told in Genesis chapter 1. Can I ask you to turn just for a moment to the second letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians and chapter 4, just by way of illustration of this fact, to Corinthians chapter 4, where the Apostle Paul clearly has the creation of light in mind from Genesis 1. This is what he says, words that are well enough known to us, to Corinthians 4 and verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God, who in Genesis said, let there be light, has shined in our hearts. That's what the Apostle is saying. He's picking up on Genesis in that way. God, who said, let there be light, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the light. When God said, let there be light, this is what it was about, Paul is saying. He's not saying, here's another example of God making light. He's saying, that's what the light is. When God said, let there be light, it was the light of truth that spiritually was involved. And although, of course, God literally made the light and all the other things that are there recorded for us in Genesis 1, there is a spiritual dimension to all of these things, brethren and sisters. We have to think a little wider than simply the page in Genesis chapter 1. So, here it is. God has created the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and has beamed that by his grace into the hearts of each of us. Now, come back to Genesis chapter 1, and you can see how when we begin to read Genesis 1 in that way, it gives rise, it almost invites us to make that wider application, to see the wider purpose of God here in these things. Genesis chapter 1, verse 2, The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good. And the light of truth, brethren and sisters, is good. God saw the light, the light, that it was good. There was something special about it that impressed even God. He was glad that he had made the light. And you notice what he does immediately. Verse 4, God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God said, my light is going to have nothing to do with the darkness. The earth was covered in darkness. It was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God divided, he separated his light from that darkness. And you can see, can't you, the wider purpose of God here. Light has nothing to do with darkness and never was intended to have. They're diametrically opposed to one another, aren't they? They are opposites. As the Apostle says again in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, he comes back to that same theme. There in his letter to the Corinthians, what has light to do with darkness, he says. What has the temple of God to do with idols? It's the light of knowledge again. It's the light of the truth. Paul is giving these words in Genesis that application. He's thinking in spiritual terms, in wider terms than merely the words on the page here in Genesis 1. And as we've said, it's like that with the whole of creation, brethren and sisters, we could, had we time to go all the way through Genesis chapter 1 looking at it in that kind of way. And perhaps already some of you will have done that in your Bible classes. You know how that God made the dry land to appear. And you know how that very often in the Old Testament that word land is the word used for Israel, the land of Israel. And it's as though God were making Israel to appear out of the sea of the nations. And again, there's an act of separation. He separates his people from the sea of the other nations around. There's a wider purpose in all that God is doing here. But as we said, we haven't time to look in detail at those things. Perhaps that suggests though that, although of course God created all things in Genesis chapter 1 in six days, as the chapter itself tells us, that there was in this wider purpose of God a creation that was unfolding itself down the ages too. The creation of Israel would not actually take place until some years later the dry land would appear from the sea of the nations. The great light high in the firmament when the sun of righteousness would arise with healing in his beams would be for later years still. The wider purpose of God was unfolding itself in a creation going on down through the ages, which is still not yet complete, is it? Not until the Lord comes and takes his people to himself. I suppose, brethren and sisters, that begs the question as to what was God's purpose in creation. And here in Genesis chapter 1, creation is working towards a marvellous climax. It's working towards the climax of the creation of the man. And what God does in chapter 1 and in the amplification of the affairs of chapter 1 here in Genesis 2, is to create a man, and with that man, his bride. And God puts them in a perfect environment. He places them in the Garden of Eden, a perfect environment. And they enjoy his company. There is the opportunity, at least, for fellowship with God. And there is the commandment to be fruitful, to bring forth for the glory of God. That's the climax of creation here in Genesis, brethren and sisters, isn't it? And you can see, can't you, the implication of those things. Again, thinking more widely, thinking spiritually, this is about the creation of the man, the man Christ Jesus, and his bride in the perfect environment, and the fellowship when God will dwell, will tabernacle with men, as Revelation tells us. And there will be fruit, the right kind of fruit this time. There will be fruit produced to the glory of God When the man is united with his bride, the Ecclesia of Christ, then that, brethren and sisters, is the first time when there will be real fruit for the glory of God. Christ and his Ecclesia will be productive in the age of the Kingdom, producing the right kind of fruit. I have to be very careful, brethren and sisters, of what I say at this point. I'm very anxious that I should not be misunderstood. But it does seem to me that God, in his foreknowledge, must have been aware that the fulfillment of these things in Genesis 1 was, for want of a better phrase, a two-stage process. Now, please, I'm not by any means suggesting that God made man sin. That, of course, is wrong. Absolutely and utterly wrong, isn't it? There is no way that God planned the fall. It wasn't his failure. It was man's failure, entirely man's failure. I don't want anyone, please, to think that I'm suggesting that God in any way engineered the fall or planned the fall or was in any way responsible for man's sin. That would certainly not be the case. But God was not unaware of the fall. The failure of man didn't take God by surprise, did it, brethren and sisters? He didn't suddenly have to think of a salvation plan and swing into operation with it. God in his foreknowledge knew exactly what Adam and Eve would do. And he'd already taken that on board. And there is therefore perhaps a way in which let us make man in our image was fulfilled by the creation of Adam in a physical and a mental way. Man was a physical and a mental creature. But there is perhaps also in those words let us make man in our image and after our likeness something prophetic. Again, of the making, the creation of the man and his bride. Not now a physical mental creature, but a moral and a spiritual creature. And surely the purpose of God always intended that image of himself, the moral, the spiritual, which because of Adam's sin would have to be a two-stage process. In his foreknowledge, God knew all about it, brethren and sisters. But it had to wait its time. And it seems that because of the failure of man, the climax of God's creation was deferred perhaps. Now again, we're treading on difficult ground here and I don't want to be dogmatic in what I'm suggesting this morning. I'm merely throwing out ideas for you to think about, to try and help us to change gears, as it were, to think more spiritually, to try and begin to see these things from God's point of view. That's what's so important about Scripture, isn't it? I'm sure I've said that from platforms at the Eastern Bible School many times before. We're here, brethren and sisters, to try and identify with God. That's what Scripture is all about, to help us see things from his standpoint, from his point of view, to bring our lives into line, our wills into subjection to his will. God had created the man, given him his bride, placed him in that perfect environment so that they might have the fellowship of the Elohim, so that they might, brethren and sisters, enjoy the rest to which God was looking forward on the seventh day when we read, and God rested. And the rest of our Bibles seem to indicate that man couldn't handle it, that in some way man wasn't prepared for the rest or didn't wish to enter into fellowship with God or refused to enjoy the benefits, the blessings, the privileges that God was holding out to him. And throughout Scripture you will be aware how time and time again, and I really mean that, brethren, it is time and time and time again our Bible picks up on creation language and on language of the fall. Now, I'm indebted to one of our brethren in the northeast of England who has done a great deal of extensive research into this particular facet of Bible teaching. And the instances are far, far too numerous to mention in a week of talks here at Bible School. But just one very obvious example. Turn over to Genesis chapter 8, please. Here is just one very obvious occasion where the language of creation is repeated and the language of the fall, too. Genesis 8 and verse 1. God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark, and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters are saged. Now, the word wind, of course, is that word breath or spirit. It's the ruach. And this is Genesis 1, brethren and sisters, isn't it? The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Here it is happening again, isn't it? The wind passed across the face of the waters, and the waters are saged. It's exactly Genesis 1 again, isn't it? It's creation language coming back here after the flood. Coming to chapter 9 and see again how the language of Genesis 1 and 2 is recalled for us. Verse 6 of Genesis 9. The end of the verse. For in the image of God made he man. There's again another powerful reminder of Genesis 1. Let us make man in our image. Whoso shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. Verse 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things. So God gives them dietary instructions. He says what they can eat, just as He did in Eden. Of all the trees of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And so here in verse 4 there's another restriction placed exactly as was the case in Genesis 2. Genesis 9 and verse 4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. So there are freedoms and dietary instructions and there are restrictions again. And you see, brethren and sisters, in verse 7. And you be fruitful and multiply. Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. Creation language again, isn't it? The commandment given to Adam and Eve, long before the fall, as we'll see in a moment. And then you come to the end of chapter 9 and you see again a fall. I suppose it's not surprising here, is it? Because this is the new earth after the flood. Perhaps it's not surprising. I readily acknowledge that this is the easiest, perhaps, of the examples that I'm setting before you. But by no means is it isolated, brethren and sisters. This kind of language and these kind of examples come back again and again in Scripture. Here at the end of chapter 9 is the language of the fall. Verse 20. And Noah began to be a husband when he planted a vineyard. So instead of a garden of Eden now, we have a vineyard. Very similar, isn't it? And he said in verse 21, He drank of the wine and was drunken. He partook of the fruit of his vineyard, exactly as Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit of the garden of Eden that was forbidden to them, that forbidden fruit, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So Noah, though it wasn't forbidden him, took unwisely of the fruit of his vineyard and was drunken as a result. In verse 22, he was naked, exactly as Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness in the garden when they had sinned. And just as for them, God provided a covering, though they saw the need and covered themselves, making themselves aprons from fig leaves. So here, brethren and sisters, in verse 23, Noah is covered by two of his sons who have much more respect for him than did Ham. And they walk backwards and cover their father with a garment that his nakedness should not be seen. Now those are remarkable things, aren't they? They're not there by coincidence. One of them we might have allowed, maybe even two we might have said. But not all those, brethren and sisters. Those verses that come back time and again throughout our Bibles are not there by chance, are they? They're there surely, amongst other things perhaps, to tell us that man couldn't handle the rest that God had in store for him. That his failure was a failure which, because of his nature, would be repeated time and time again. It's been repeated, brethren and sisters, in this man, I can tell you. The same fall has dogged my steps, has dogged Adam's. Every one of us is a sinner before God. And surely that's the reason, therefore, that Scripture invites us. No more than that. Scripture tells us that God is looking forward to a new creation. Come, for example, to Psalm 102. These are well-known words. But I wonder if you've noticed, brethren and sisters, how that the new creation spoken of in these verses, and I think in almost every occasion when the new creation is mentioned, are not about the birds and the flowers again. They're not about the Genesis creation. They're about a people creation. They're about a spiritual aspect, a wider purpose that God always had, always had in mind. Psalm 102 and the end of that Psalm, this 25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same. Thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee. Now, I know that the Apostle Paul, if it is Paul in Hebrews, relates those words to the new covenant, the creation in Christ Jesus. And that's what those words are about, the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us. But, brethren and sisters, do you see that it's a people that's involved? The outcome of that is that, the outcome of the new covenant is that the seed shall continue. They shall be established. The children of thy servants shall continue. Their seed shall be established before thee. This is a people creation. Isaiah chapter 65. Just another illustration of the same thing. Isaiah 65 and verse 17. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. It's a people creation, isn't it? The place that God has chosen to place His name there, the new Jerusalem that descends from God out of heaven at the end of the apocalypse, brethren and sisters, is not a city made of stone and timber, is it? Like the old Jerusalem. It's a city made up of people. It's a people city. It's a people in whom God's name is established. And it's a people in whom God desires to rest. The climax of creation was the creation of the man and his bride in a perfect environment that when God ceased from His labors to rest, He might enjoy that rest with them. And that rest, therefore, is not, again, a physical thing, is it? The rest of Genesis 2, brethren and sisters, is not so much a physical thing as, again, thinking wider about the purpose of God. It's got a spiritual dimension to it. It's the idea of God ceasing from His labors in order that He might rejoice in His people and have the joy of fellowship with those whom He had created, ultimately, in His own moral and spiritual image, not just physical and mental beings. I suppose that, in a sense, Genesis chapter 2 presents us with a problem on the literal plane, doesn't it? And God rested the seventh day, but God doesn't need rest. He doesn't get tired. Isaiah 40 tells us that very plainly. It says that, He which keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. It's Isaiah 40 and verse 23. You needn't turn to it just now, but I'll quote the words for you. Isaiah 40 and verse 23 says that, God is the one who neither slumbers nor sleeps. He keeps Israel. He looks after Israel. There is, sorry, it's verse 28. I beg your pardon. I can't read my own writing. Verse 28. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fenteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. Interesting, isn't it, that in that very verse that tells us that God is not weary, it mentions Him again as Creator. He wasn't weary when He created, when He'd finished creating. He didn't need the rest. You might be tempted to say, Ah, yes, but of course, the Elohim were involved in creation, and the angels have limitations, and perhaps they were tired. Perhaps they needed a rest. We know that angels are limited in their power, their strength, their abilities. Well, that is so, brethren and sisters, but it really won't do. Again, you needn't turn to it now. We shall have occasion to look at it later in the week, God willing. But Exodus 31 and 17 says this. The Sabbath is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord, that is Yahweh, Jehovah, made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. So it won't do to say, well, it was the angels who needed the rest. The Elohim required refreshment. Here the Sabbath is enjoined upon the nation of Israel because Yahweh, or Jehovah, rested and was refreshed at the end of His labors in six days, there upon the seventh. So there is, brethren and sisters, clearly a rest which God seeks of a spiritual dimension. And again, if you're still in Isaiah, come to chapter 66 for a moment and see there how God describes His desire for rest once again as being in a people. God is looking for a resting place in men and women. Isaiah 66, Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me? And again, where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made, and all these things have been, saith the LORD. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. There's the place of God's rest. What place will you build for me, says God? Where is the place of my rest? I've made all these things. Temples don't contain me. Heaven and earth don't restrict me, says God. But here's the place of my rest. I'll tell you. It's the contrite heart. It's the humble and the contrite spirit. It's the man who trembles at my word. There will I be pleased to dwell, says the LORD. That's marvellous, isn't it, brethren and sisters? Here is God's rest in a people who love Him, a people who know His word and tremble because of it, not because they are fearful of their God, but because they rejoice in His greatness and willingly humble themselves before Him. Can we come back, then, to Genesis chapter 2 for a moment and just look at the implications of what we've said here in Genesis 2? Now, again, I don't want to be dogmatic about this. Dogmatism here, brethren and sisters, is entirely out of place. I want you to know that and to be aware that I know that, too. But it does appear, and I'll put it no stronger than that, it does appear that God never enjoyed His rest here in Genesis 2. Ultimately, we know that that's the case. The issue, perhaps, is for how long God rested. We have read Genesis chapter 2, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and the host of them, and on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. I'd like to suggest to you, brethren and sisters, and I've made this suggestion before, and I haven't found a single individual who agreed with me, so I shan't be the least disappointed, least bit disappointed, if you all want to disagree, and I'm sure you will, but think about it. It seems to me that there is every likelihood that Adam and Eve sinned on that very first Sabbath. Now, I know we're not used to, we're not accustomed to thinking that. We generally imagine that they were some period of indeterminate length in the Garden of Eden, but that they were there for a time, and that may still be right. Please, that might still be the case. I'm not insisting on anything different, but it must, it seems to me, have been a fairly, a relatively short period for a number of reasons, and I think Scripture hints one or two reasons why that might have been the case. In the first place, you would expect it to be a short time because procreation had not taken place prior to their eviction from the Garden of Eden. Procreation was not something that came about as the result of the fall. God had commanded Adam and Eve before their sin be fruitful and multiply and replenish or fill the earth, but they had not done so. And I imagine, brethren and sisters, that if there had been a very long period, then they would have done so in circumstances where nakedness was not a shame to them. They had no guilt, they had no shame. It would have been unusual if they had not procreated over a long time. And clearly they had not because at the time of their eviction from the Garden of Eden, then it was that God said to Eve, thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And seed was conceived only after they were ejected from the presence of God. But there are reasons that suggest that it might have been a very short time because, well, for one thing, brethren and sisters, if God enjoyed a rest there on the seventh day and extending beyond that, as the conditions of the Garden of Eden continued over a period however long, if God enjoyed and went on enjoying that rest and the presence of the man and woman prior to their sin, prior to their disobedience, well, for me, I think that takes something off the edge of the rest that is to come. What then is the point of there remaineth a rest to the people of God, which God willing we'll examine later this week? If God has rested, surely it takes something away does it not from the rest that God yet intends and the fellowship to which God is clearly, desperately looking forward with those whom he has created, those who tremble at his word, those with whom he will find a perfect rest in due time. If God has rested already, then it seems to me it takes something away from the prospect of that rest which is to come. Another reason is Genesis 2, verse 2, and God blessed the seventh day, sorry, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, has there a phrase, all the work which he began to make or which he began to do. It's the same verb, to do or to make. And that sounds rather like Acts chapter 1, doesn't it? You remember how Luke commences the work of the Lord Jesus Christ working through the apostles, there in Acts chapter 1, he says that he'd made the former treatise, Theophilus it is he's writing to, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. And now he's writing Acts to continue the story. The Gospel was all that Jesus began to do. And Genesis is the record of all that God began to do in creation. That's how the Septuagint puts it. Now that may be wrong, that may be at fault. Maybe the translators into Greek misunderstood what Genesis was about. But it's interesting, it's fascinating, isn't it? All that God began to do. And if that's a valid translation, brethren and sisters, if that's a valid understanding of Genesis 2 and verse 2, then I wonder if Luke is drawing a comparison with that or if he's not more properly not drawing a comparison but displaying a fulfillment of Genesis 2. For all that God began to do in Genesis is now to be completed, fulfilled, brought to its climax in the work of Jesus Christ, in the Gospel, all that Jesus began to do to complete and to fulfill and to fill up the measure of creation as God always intended it, the man and his bride in that perfect environment and the fruit that would ensue. And I wonder too, brethren and sisters, if we have really taken on board fully the implications of our Lord's words in John chapter 5. Do you recall how that after He had healed upon the Sabbath, the Jews, as was so often the case in their hard-heartedness, rounded upon Jesus and condemned Him for what they saw as being Sabbath-breaking. And Jesus says in John 5, John 5 and verse 16, Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Now just think about the force of those words, brethren and sisters. My Father worketh hither too, so far. God had to go back to work, almost immediately it seems to me. Adam and Eve sinned and God had to go straight back to work. And He's been working ever since, says Jesus. God never enjoyed His rest. He never had a Sabbath to speak of. However long or short a period it was, My Father worketh hither too, right until now, says Jesus. All down the ages from the beginning of time, God has been working for the redemption of man, for His reconciliation with His Maker. And I work for that same aim, says the Lord. Well, brethren and sisters, whether God rested and to what extent He rested, we cannot be certain as we have said. We do know that we have a work to do ourselves if we are to enjoy that rest with Him. We ourselves need to be changed into the same image of His Son. We need to be influenced by this Word. We need to think spiritually. We need to change gear. We need to see the wider purpose of God so that we might be cooperating with Him, working upon our natures, that we may be changed into the image of His Son so that when He appears, we shall know Him and recognize Him. Israel, brethren and sisters, missed their Messiah. They were looking for the wrong things. They did not see Him when He appeared. We must not make that mistake. When the Scripture says the law was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, it's not talking about the types and the shadows, you know. They're a small part of it. But the law was a schoolmaster to bring Israel to the Christ life, to bring Israel to be Christ-like, so that when He came, they would recognize Him. They would be able to see Him and say, that's the man. Just look at Him. He's an embodiment of the whole of the Word of God. That's how I've been trying to live. I've been trying to be that man, and the flesh has been dragging me back and holding me down, and I couldn't do it. But I can see now, that's the man. That's the Word of God in a person, that's the living Word. By the same token, brethren and sisters, we need to be working at this, that we may be like Him, that when He comes, by the grace of God, we may know Him as He is. Heavenly Father, Almighty Creator, we thank Thee for Thy mercy to us. Bless us that we may cooperate with Thee in the great work which Thou art about, and by Thy grace in Christ Jesus our Lord may be found at His coming with some likeness of Him and received into Thy glory in His name. Amen.

Transcript

Making bricks is back-breaking work. The sun that dried the clay, brethren and sisters, dried the soul of Israel. Every muscle was weary. Every limb ached. There was no pay, of course. There was no strength to go on doing the work. Humanly speaking, there was no hope of the situation ever being any different. There was no future. There was only one continual round of toil and labour and sweat and the whip, if one should dare to stop. That's what Egypt was like until God, with mercy, looked upon the affliction of His people, until the appointed time came. The fullness of time for God to intervene, the acceptable year so far as He was concerned for the redemption of His people. When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. And so in Exodus chapter 4, similarly, Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. Notice that, brethren and sisters, that 23rd verse of Exodus 4, not just let my son go full stop, but let my son go that he may serve me. That's why Israel was to be released. It is the same with us. We are not our own, the apostle reminds us. We are bought with a price. We are not bought to a freedom. We are bought to freedom in Christ, which is vastly different. We are not free to please ourselves, therefore. We are the Lord's, and whatever we do, we are His servants. So Israel, in their redemption from Egypt, were not being bought out of slavery, rescued, redeemed, full stop. They were being bought with a price. Not the precious blood of the lamb without spot and without blemish, which was to come, but with a price nonetheless. The price being God's intervention in Egypt. The plagues that He would send, the ruining of the social and economic fabric of Egyptian life, which God would do for Israel's sake. Therefore, they were His people, obliged to serve Him. And because when He destroyed the firstborn of Egypt, He spared their firstborn, those firstborn were, in some peculiar and special way, His children, His people. For that reason, God commanded Israel to observe the Sabbath, because they were His. He had a claim over them. They were obliged to hearken to Him, and God enjoined upon them the keeping of a Sabbath, a rest each week. We saw yesterday from Genesis chapter 2 and verse 3, how that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. We didn't have occasion yesterday to pause and consider what those words actually meant, but what do they mean, brethren and sisters? In what way was the seventh day blessed? It was no different from the other days. Although the record makes it a little different, as we shall see later, God willing. It was a day in which the moon waned and the sun rose, and it was really no different from the other days of itself. The day wasn't blessed for its own sake. God didn't sanctify that day per se. The blessing lay in keeping it. It was Israel who would be blessed by their observance of it. The day was sanctified in as much as Israel was sanctified when they obeyed the commandment of God and kept it, making it in their lives different from the other days. Just as what's so special about Israel isn't Israel, there's nothing special about Israel themselves, brethren and sisters. Perhaps we sometimes mistakenly think so. There's nothing special about Israel themselves. They weren't more numerous, they weren't more strong, they weren't more righteous than any other nation, the record tells us. What was special about Israel was the fact that God specially chose them. That's what makes them special. It wasn't anything of themselves. It was something that God made of them by choosing them. And similarly with Abraham. There was nothing special about Abraham of himself, though he was indeed a very faithful man, and I don't want in any way to minimize his faith, which is streets and streets ahead of mine, brethren and sisters. That's for sure. But he wasn't special of himself. There was nothing intrinsically worthy about Abraham that demanded that he should be saved any more than you or me. He didn't deserve salvation. He couldn't earn eternal life any more than you or I can. What was special about Abraham was that God specially chose him and made to him the promises. And so what was special about that seventh day was the fact that God blessed and sanctified not the day itself, for it was no different from the other six of itself, but blessed and sanctified those who in obedience to his commandment would keep it. Come then please to Exodus 31, a small portion of which we've just read together, and see there how these verses testify to that very fact. Exodus chapter 31, we began reading at verse 12, and if we look for a moment there at verses 13 and the beginning of 14, the Lord speaks to Moses saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. That's where the sanctification of the Sabbath day comes in, that the Lord may sanctify you. Keep the Sabbath that you may be sanctified in the keeping thereof. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you. Notice the emphasis in these verses, brethren and sisters. Verily my Sabbaths, God's Sabbath, ye shall keep, and the Lord will sanctify you. In the middle of verse 14, it shall be holy unto you. The Lord will sanctify you. You will be holy. The Sabbath will be holy unto you. But it is my God's Sabbath, and it's a sign. Notice that, it's a sign. Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for because it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Just as the lights were set in the heavens for times and seasons and days and years, so the Sabbath, the seventh, the day of rest for God, was also a sign. It wasn't that God needs times and seasons or days and years. God is outside of time, brethren and sisters. The invention of times and seasons and days and years is fascinating, isn't it? Why should God involve himself in those things? Unless it were for man's sake. Unless it were that God knew that we have need of a limited objective. We have need continually of a new start, again and again. Just imagine that there was nothing like that. No night following day or day following night. No new week, no months, no years. That time just stretched interminably before us. Wouldn't that be awful? Imagine just facing life in that way. We need that limited objective, don't we? And God in his mercy was aware of our need for times and seasons and days and years. When we might start again, when we might be refreshed, when we might turn over a new leaf and try again. Continually, we need those things, but God has no need of those things. And God had no need of rest, as we discovered and said yesterday. He had no need of the seventh day for rest and refreshment, and yet he was refreshed. He ceased from his labors. He rested in that sense. This was his Sabbath, his ceasing from his labor. And it was a sign. A sign of what? A sign of God's purpose. A sign of the final rest. A sign of final redemption. Again, it was to teach Israel, wasn't it? That seventh day was there as a sign that there was a Sabbath to come. Way down the line, brethren and sisters, God had a Sabbath, my Sabbath, and the weekly Sabbath was a sign, a shadow, a pointer, a pattern to that which is to come, a sign of the final redemption that God had prepared for his people. That's why in the end of verse 14 and the verses that follow, because the Sabbath is a sign of God's purpose, God's eternal purpose, of that which he intends to do, it is so serious a matter if man should treat it with contempt. The middle of verse 14. Everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death. For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. This is a serious matter. Contempt for the Sabbath is contempt for the whole purpose of God. Contempt for the Sabbath is like siding with Adam and Eve. It's like siding with the sinner. It's like demonstrating that we're on the side of the sinner who disturbed God's rest. As we saw yesterday, who disturbed that first Sabbath. Anyone who shows contempt for my Sabbath, says God, is on the side of the sinner. They are demonstrating that disturbing my rest was right and fair. That soul will be cut off. That soul will die. Can you see then how the contempt for the Sabbath was a serious issue? Not because the day itself was in some way holy or significant, except in this way, that it was the sign of final redemption and contempt for the Sabbath was contempt for all that God had purposed and demonstrated before His people. Now, did you notice how in those verses there, the word any in the phrase any work is in italics? It is so in verse 14, whosoever doeth work therein, that soul shall be cut off. And similarly in verse 15, whosoever doeth work in the Sabbath, the word any isn't actually there. And it's not any work. In a way, our translators have misled us in that. The Sabbath was never, never, ever intended, brethren and sisters, to be a time of idleness. That wasn't its purpose at all. It was a day of work. The work that was forbidden to Israel wasn't any work. It was work for oneself, work for selfish ends, work for profit, remuneration, sustenance, support, work which in any shape or form was for oneself, but work for God was not excluded. It was His Sabbath. Now, I don't think that as a community we have always understood that. I sometimes hear, and I'm sure you do, brethren and sisters lamenting the fact that the Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest and Sunday is my busiest day of all. Well, it ought to be. That's fine. That's no problem. There are two faults with that, brethren and sisters. One is that Sunday is not the Sabbath. The Seventh-day observance societies frequently confuse that. Sunday is the first day of the week. The Sabbath was the seventh. So Sunday has nothing whatsoever to do with the Sabbath in the first place. But in the second place, it is right that Sunday be the busiest day of the week. And it's right that the Sabbath was the busiest day of the week for God. It shouldn't be a day of being busy for ourselves. But never did God prohibit work for Him. That's why Jesus was not a Sabbath-breaker. He fulfilled the Sabbath. He understood its purpose. That which He wrought on the Sabbath day was the work of God. And it was absolutely right. We should never say that Jesus broke the Sabbath. He never did. Come to Isaiah 58 for a moment. You may know that Isaiah 58 tells us the same truth. Just one verse. Isaiah 58 towards the end of that chapter. Verse 13. Isaiah 58, 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day. See the emphasis. Doing thy pleasure. You could do God's pleasure on God's holy day. No problem. But if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath and from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thy words, thine own words, the authorized version translators have supplied. Again, the word isn't there, but it's correct this time, isn't it? You can read it, not doing thine own pleasure, nor speaking words. It's clear, isn't it, that it's your own words. Not doing your own pleasure, or speaking words of your own making. Then, verse 14. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth. You see, it was work for oneself that was forbidden. It was one's own pleasure, one's own prosperity and benefit, which seeking was a sin. The day, therefore, was never a day of idleness in the mind of God. It was a day rather for service. And you can see here from Isaiah 58.13, how Israel were commanded to rejoice in the Lord. They were to make the Sabbath a delight. It was not to be irksome. They weren't to moan and to murmur, that, oh, we can't go out to work today, you know. Terrible, isn't it? It was to be a delight. They were to resort to the priest and the prophet for instruction. And the faithful in Israel did that. They used the Sabbath in that way. Perhaps you hadn't thought of that. What did they do on the Sabbath? Well, they went to listen to the word of God. There's just a little hint of that now and again in scriptures. One of them is in 2 Kings 4 and 23. You needn't turn it up. You will recall it. It's when the Shunammite woman's son was sick. And she says, saddle me the ass and I'll ride to the man of God. And her husband says, what for? It's not the new moon or the Sabbath. So you see, it was the habit to go and seek the man of God on the Sabbath day. And her husband couldn't understand why she wanted to go if it wasn't the Sabbath. So that's what they did on the Sabbath. That's one of the customs. They went to seek the man of God, to listen to the instruction. Just as we use our first day of the week, our Sunday, to come to the meetings. It's right that it should be busy in those right things. And it's right that we should use it to delight in the Lord and to rejoice in the Lord. Perhaps I might just take a minute, brethren and sisters, to comment on that phrase, rejoice in the Lord, because that also is a little misunderstood, sometimes sadly in our own midst, isn't it? So often, it seems to me, I hear it said by brethren and sisters who ought to know better that we're not a very joyful community, and our hymns aren't very joyful, and we need a bit more gladness and so on in our worship. Well, all right, that's fine. But the rejoicing in Scripture is nothing to do with wearing a permanent smile and going about all frothy and jolly as though life was some great big joke. Rejoicing in the Lord is what it says. It's rejoicing in the Lord. In other words, what we were talking about yesterday, it's identifying with God. It's bringing our wills, our feelings, into line with God's, so that we rejoice in whatever makes God happy. We rejoice in whatever He rejoices in. We're glad and we're joyful in whatever God brings about in His will and the fulfillment of His will. We rejoice to see His purpose unfolding and taking place and finding its place in our world. Sometimes, brethren and sisters, that purpose of God will result in trouble for us in times of great distress, in times of temptation or evil, in tremendous problems and difficulties. But we shall rejoice in the Lord whatever our circumstances, we still rejoice in the Lord, confident that this is His way and it will ultimately prove to be right because God is right. He is righteous. We shall rejoice in the Lord even in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. We might have thought there was little cause for rejoicing in all that Jesus suffered, brethren and sisters. And indeed, in one sense, there isn't, is there? No one would rejoice to be nailed upon the stake. And yet, we do rejoice. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Not that God was glad to see Jesus on the stake, but that God was prepared to do that. It's the word, the use of the word pleased in the Old English, if you please, if you will. It was God's will. God was willing to see that. And Jesus, for the joy set before Him, was able to endure the cross, count the shame as nothing, despise it as a little thing, as a nonsense, to rejoice in the purpose of God being fulfilled and going forward, stage by stage. That's how rejoicing, brethren and sisters, nothing to do with laughing and being jolly all the time, though of course there's a place for that as well. But rejoicing in the Lord is a far more deep-rooted, a deep-seated thing, rejoicing in what God has done, what God has shown us, and what, by His grace, He is doing and will do with us and for us, if we will allow Him. So the Sabbath was a cause of rejoicing, a cause of delight in God. Now, I suspect that Moses well knew that, even back in Egypt. Come back to Exodus. We looked at chapter 4, where Moses was sent to plead with Pharaoh, let my son go. Israel is my son, my firstborn. Let my son go that he may serve me. And it looks, brethren and sisters, as though the next thing that Moses did, and we can't be absolutely certain about that, but here's a fascinating possibility. It looks rather from Exodus 5 as though what Moses did was to introduce the Sabbath into the life of Israel in Egypt. Now, if that's the case, that's a fantastic thing, isn't it? Can you imagine what Pharaoh thought about that? He already thought that Moses was a troublemaker. But here he was, like a trade union leader, I suppose, standing up for the rights of Israel, championing the cause of the slaves, you know, and making them rest one day a week. Can you believe it? They're going to stop work now, one in every seventh day, that's it, down tools, chaps, no bricks today. It's amazing, isn't it? How Pharaoh must have seen Moses in that light. That's what the record seems to suggest, brethren and sisters, Exodus 5 and verse 5. Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest. The word is Sabbath. You make them Sabbath from their burdens. What right have you, Pharaoh, is saying to tell Israel to rest one day a week? If it doesn't mean that, and we can't be certain that it does, but if it doesn't mean that, if Moses hadn't introduced the Sabbath one day a week into Israel's life here in Egypt, then what does it mean? Does it mean that Moses demanded they should have a five-minute coffee break each morning? Hardly think so, brethren and sisters, do you? Pharaoh says that Moses was making them rest, Sabbath from their burdens. What does it mean? Well, I put it to you, the most likely thing that it can mean is that Moses had introduced the Sabbath into the life of Israel, who were an idolatrous people at this time, remember. They weren't serving God, and I suspect they weren't keeping Sabbath. And Moses, recognizing the importance of that, introduced it, perhaps, into the life of Israel here in Egypt. Certainly when we get to Exodus 16, we find the Sabbath in operation there. Exodus 16 is the record of the provision of manna, and you know that in that provision of manna, there was commandment given that they were to gather on the sixth day double rations, because they wouldn't find the manna on the seventh. And some wickedly went out to find it on the Sabbath, and of course it wasn't there. So in Exodus 16, the Sabbath appears to be an established routine. You find it mentioned in verses 23, 26, 29, and 30, at least four times there in Exodus 16, the Sabbath is mentioned. We shan't look at those for reasons of time. And that's why when we come to Exodus 20, if we can turn now to Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, note that Exodus 16 was prior to the Ten Commandments, the commandment to keep the Sabbath has not yet been given. That's the point about Exodus 16, that the Sabbath is in operation before the Ten Commandments were given. When we come to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, the commandment there is, verse 8, remember, remember the Sabbath day. That again makes it sound as though it's already established, doesn't it? It's not keep the Sabbath day, it's remember to keep the Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. That's extraordinary, isn't it, really? Remember, a deliberate act of remembrance here is enjoined upon Israel. It's not remember because you might forget it if you've got a bad memory, is it? It's do it, keep on going over it, remember it, operate it. It's not remembering something, is it? It's something that's a part of your life. It's remembered in that sense as a deliberate act. But why? Why? Well, we've read the reason in verses 9 to 11. Because God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. But why? What possible reason is there, brethren and sisters, to tie Israel's working week to creation? Why? What logical reason can you think of for that? There's no reason, is there, really? Why should the working week be tied to creation? Why? What's it got to do with it? Why in the Sabbath were Israel being commanded to think about creation? What's it got to do with creation? You will rest on the Sabbath, God is saying, on the seventh day because God made the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, and you will think about that. You will remember that. You will remember creation. Why? What has that to do with the working week? We've tended to accept that, I think, without questioning it. But what sense does it make when you think about it? Why link the working week to creation? Unless, brethren and sisters, God is saying here that you will not work because God stopped work for you. Is that what it's saying? Is there an implication here that you won't work because God didn't work for your sake? So the least you can do is to stop work for Him. Is that the logic? Is that what this commandment is saying? God worked for six days and then He ceased, and you will do the same thing. God ceased for you. Do you remember how we saw that yesterday, didn't we? God was looking forward to the refreshment of fellowship. He wanted the company of the man whom He'd made. And the Sabbath was about looking forward to that time when the man and his bride would be in that perfect environment bringing forth fruit for God, enjoying fellowship with His Maker. And maybe, just maybe, that's the implication here. You will work for six days and you will stop. That's the least you can do for God because God worked six days and stopped for you. He wanted your fellowship, and the minimum that you can give Him is your attention and your affection and yourself on that seventh day. You will give that day to God. And we can extend that, can't we, brethren and sisters? It was to teach them to look forward then to the final redemption. We've seen already in Exodus 31 that it was a sign of those things. So it was to teach them to look forward to that. It was to teach them not just that they were resting then for a day, but that there was something greater that God desired and that therefore they should desire. And even more than that, it was to teach them surely that their time was God's. Their time belonged to God. Their time was His. They were to share their time with God in recognition, in acknowledgement that it belonged to Him. This was His desire for their rest and their fellowship. And their time was God's time. Their times were in His hands. So ceasing to do their own work, devoting their time to Him, was a recognition of that fact. Can you see then the seriousness of not doing it? I don't think, brethren and sisters, this has sunk in with us, has it? It has, of course, with the Seventh-day Adventists, and I don't want to suggest they're right, they're not. They're very wrong in the way that they look at the Sabbath and carry it forward as something which has to be kept today. But they are right in the sense that at least they've seen the seriousness of it, brethren and sisters. I wonder if we have, we're sometimes so taken up with the fact that the Sabbath does not apply as a day to be kept today, and indeed it does not. In the New Testament, Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath, as we shall see later this week, God willing. He is the Sabbath. He's fulfilled it. And now, like all the rest of the Law of Moses that Jesus talked so much further, we are to make every day holy unto the Lord, not just one out of seven, not just one per week. Every day is holy to him. The Seventh-day Adventist is wrong in that regard. But he is right, brethren and sisters, to appreciate the seriousness of it. This is one of the Ten Commandments. Have you thought about that? Not keeping the Sabbath day ranks with murder or adultery or idolatry, turning the back on God. Not keeping the Sabbath is as important as those things. It ranks with those, doesn't it? It's one of the Ten Commandments. Just like, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not kill. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Do you see how vitally important in the life of Israel this commandment is? And how breaking it is a cardinal sin and offence before God. So, brethren and sisters, was expressed for Israel God's desire for them in bringing them out of Egypt, in wanting to give them rest. The Sabbath was the sign of God's desire, of God's intention, of God's purpose. It was the sign of their ultimate, their final redemption. And Israel didn't want to leave. Tragic, isn't it? Come back again to the earlier chapters of Exodus, Exodus 4. See how here in Exodus 4 it sounds fine. No problem. Exodus 4 and verse 31. The people believed. Aaron spake all the words that the Lord had spoken unto Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people, and the people believed. And when they had heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. Fine. God had visited them, looked upon their affliction, they accepted that. God was come to redeem them. But how quickly that changed. Chapter 5, verse 21. Children of Israel said unto Moses, And Aaron the Lord, look upon you and judge, because you have made our Saviour to be a board in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and the Lord said, Wherefore hast thou, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Now things were not running so smoothly, and the attitude was beginning to change and to harden. Chapter 6 and verse 7. I will take you to me for a people, I will be to you a guard, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your guard, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Verse 9, and Moses spake so unto the children of Israel, but they hearken not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. They weren't able to lift up the head. Their spirit was bowed down. The sun that dried the clay had dried the soul of Israel and baked it hard. Egypt had cunningly dealt with Israel, and so demoralized the nation, brethren and sisters, that they could not see their emancipation. They could not believe in freedom. They could not lift up the head and bring themselves to appreciate the sense of relief that the promise of God should have brought. Chapter 14 and verse 12. As the Egyptians pursued them towards the shores of the Red Sea, is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. They'd said that to Moses previously, apparently. Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. We told you so. We said that while we were there. We were better off in Egypt as slaves. Isn't that a tragedy, brethren and sisters? The fullness of time had come. In a measure, the acceptable year of the Lord had come, the appointed time for God, looking upon their affliction and rescuing them. But they were so entrenched in their bondage that they couldn't believe it. Cruelty was so burnt into their consciousness that they felt no relief. And the Sabbath, brethren and sisters, was a reminder of that. When they came out of Egypt, Deuteronomy chapter 5, Moses says this. He gives one further reason for keeping the Sabbath, in addition to those that we've examined already this morning. And he says, Deuteronomy 5.15, Remember that thou wast a servant, a bondservant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Do you see again how it's related then, isn't it, to this rest from Egypt? Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and God brought you out. Therefore he commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Even the Exodus, brethren and sisters, the Sabbath commemorated. The Sabbath was a sign of their final redemption, of which the Exodus was a foretaste, an earnest of that much greater redemption yet to come. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Remember, remember the Sabbath day to keep it. Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt. God had afforded them rest. There's a powerful word of exhortation in those words, brethren and sisters, isn't there for us. The truth is not a matter of theory. Our baptism is not a matter of theology or eschatology, not at all. Our Egypt, whatever our background, brethren and sisters, whether we grew up in a Christadelphian home or not, our Egypt was as real, our slavery, our bondage to sin was as wretched and as miserable as ever could be. Maybe we haven't always appreciated that, but it is the case. And God has afforded you rest. God has afforded me rest. God has loved us and called us, and he commands us, remember that. Remember that you were a bondman. Remember that you have been bought with a price. Remember what that price was. Remember the rest that God has given. And Israel didn't. And even when God took them forward to the land, they didn't. God's desire, brethren and sisters, was to bring them into the land, to give them the rest that he prepared for them in the land that he had chosen to place his name there. His earnest desire was for their fellowship, that they should be unto him a kingdom of priests and an holy nation in his land, that he might dwell with them in some measure there. And Israel was not willing. They treated with contempt the promise he had made, and they brought forth his wrath. And therefore, says the Psalm, He swear in his wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. Where do you stand, brother, sister, in relation to that which God has promised us? Our heavenly Father, forgive our foolish ways. Teach us Thy way. Help us to appreciate the enormity of Thy work, the salvation Thou hast wrought in Christ Jesus on our behalf. Thy love toward us, and no more heedless through the world to roam, but to seek that eternal home and rest which Thou dost offer in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we ask this and all things. Amen.

Transcript

There are at least two good reasons why Joshua might have been inclined to disobey the Word of God to him that we have just read. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. One reason was that it was inconvenient. Can you imagine a more difficult time to go over Jordan than now when the record explicitly tells us it was in flood? The river that normally was contained within fairly narrow banks was now, I don't know how wide, brethren and sisters. And this congregation consisted not just of fighting men, but of women and of children and of herds of cattle. Why on earth make all those people struggle through the floodwaters of Jordan, fast flowing as presumably they must have been, with all the attendant dangers and difficulties that that involved, when there was no reason why they couldn't wait a couple of months until the Jordan had shrunk back to its normal width and the passage would have been so much easier? It didn't make sense. Why now? Why not wait? Why involve the whole congregation in such a difficult and dangerous escapade unnecessarily? Second reason, equally valid, was the fact, brethren and sisters, that Joshua had had a pretty busy time lately. In fact, it's amazing how little time there is to fit in all the events of these few chapters. The book of Deuteronomy begins by telling us that Moses spake all the words of Deuteronomy beginning on the first day of the eleventh month of that fortieth year. So there was a bare two months to the end of Moses' 120th year, the fortieth out of Egypt. And yet, they mourned thirty days for Moses. There's one complete month of that time. The spies were sent out to Jericho, however long that took, and when they were let down by the rope from Rahab's house, they hid for three days before they came back. The congregation were three days sanctifying themselves and preparing themselves to cross the Jordan. They crossed it and were circumcised at Gilgal and waited until the men were healed, which must have been at least seven or eight days there. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. That's a lot of things to happen in that short period of time. And in that short period of time, brethren and sisters, particularly with the mourning for Moses and all the other things that Joshua had on his plate now, as he took over as successor to Moses, he had no time to prepare his strategies, his battle plans. He wasn't ready. And the moment he crossed the Jordan, well, it was like throwing down the gauntlet, wasn't it? It was a challenge to the nations of the land. They would immediately attack him and he wasn't prepared. He hadn't got his strategies and his battle plans worked out. Surely far better to stay on the east of Jordan, sit down and think out the strategies, work out the plans, think about it carefully and systematically, how he was going to approach Canaan, whether it was going to be north or south or all at once or whatever. And then when he was ready then to cross the Jordan, the very act of which, as we said, represented a challenge to the nations of the land. So there were at least two excellent reasons why Joshua might have been inclined to disobey God. To his eternal credit he did not. He accepted the word of God. He accepted the urgency of the commandment of God and he crossed Jordan as quickly as Israel were able to prepare for it and cross it. Sometimes, brethren and sisters, we find those things very hard to accept, don't we? My ways are not your ways, says God. The very things that sometimes seem to us to be absurd, seem to do all the wrong things, are just those which God uses and in which he can work and the glory be to his name. And so it still was when they had crossed the Jordan. Come to Joshua chapter 5. Joshua was a fighting man. He was a trained soldier. Undoubtedly he hadn't been so to begin with, but you remember that newly out of Egypt Israel were attacked by Amalek and Moses instructed Joshua to run through the host and put together a fighting force. Untrained, undisciplined men who'd never faced battle before. Joshua somehow was able to weld them together to make an army out of them and recently under God's good hand that army had seen enormous success in fighting against Og and Sihon. So Joshua naturally would want, once he crossed the Jordan, to be up and at him, so to speak. He'd not want further delays. Surprise is always the best form of attack. Joshua would want to get on with the job quickly. And now that they had crossed the natural barrier of the Jordan and nothing stood physically between them and the nations, the cities of Canaan, Joshua would want to begin seeking to dispatch them as quickly as ever it was possible to do. But there were delays. Some of which we've mentioned already. Joshua chapter 5, it came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites which were on the side of Jordan westward and all the kings of the Canaanites which were by the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was their spirit in them anymore because of the children of Israel and the time was just ripe for attack and they were all scared stiff and Joshua was all ready to pounce. At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. He didn't say, go on then, get on with it and go to battle. He made him wait. For some reason circumcision had not been practiced in the wilderness. We don't know exactly why, but the generation born in the wilderness had not been circumcised. Perhaps there was good reason. Perhaps Israel recognized that they themselves had proved unfaithful to the covenant and the sign of the covenant was of no avail without the covenant conditions themselves being kept. Perhaps that generation who were turned back into the wilderness because of their faithlessness saw no point in the token, the sign of the covenant and rightly so. Or perhaps it was just simply that without thinking about it, circumcision had fallen into disuse and had not been practiced. Whatever the reason, brethren and sisters, it had to be undertaken now. God could not work with his people unless they were in covenant relationship with him and there had to be again that cutting off of the flesh which symbolized the willingness to cut off the flesh and all that it represented, all that it stood for from one's life. And that was a vitally important lesson for Israel. Before ever they could approach the enemies in the land, they had first of all to be aware of the need to overcome enemy number one. It's ourselves first and foremost, brethren and sisters, isn't it, who foul our own path. The greatest enemy we have is not an external force, it's the enemy within. And Israel and Joshua at the head of Israel had to learn again that lesson and these delays which to a captain like Joshua must have seemed in many ways extremely frustrating were necessary. The virulence of that enemy number one was plain enough a little later, brethren and sisters, when Jericho fell. And it proved to be the case that enemy number one had not been overcome despite all the preparations in which God had made them indulge for Achan took of the spoil of Jericho. Jericho was the first fruits of the land, the first fruits of victory to be dedicated and devoted wholly to God. And Achan in his actions though no doubt in his heart he reasoned that he wasn't hurting anyone, he wasn't stealing from anyone, stole from God. And Achan and those others who dissembled with him, for it was not just Achan, we sometimes hear it said that the whole nation suffered on his account and that's not right, brethren and sisters, God does not make the congregation suffer for the wickedness of one, just as he doesn't make the children suffer for the wickedness of the fathers. Israel dissembled God said to Joshua, Israel have dissembled, they were aware of what Achan had done some of them. And it was like receiving stolen goods, they kept quiet, they said nothing about it. And you can be sure that if Achan had got away with it then others would have tried it the next time, others would have thought that God had not seen. So it was important that Achan be dealt with and those who dissembled with him. So that proved the virulence of that number one enemy. And even when they had circumcised the flesh and shown again their willingness to cut it off from their lives and reminded themselves of the covenant that God had established with them and the relationship in which they stood to God, still they weren't ready. Verse 8, it came to pass when they had done circumcising all the people that they abode in their place in the camp till they were whole, and the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I ruled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day, and the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month and even in the plains of Jericho. So there were further delays. It was yet more difficult a test of faith for Joshua. Still he couldn't get on with his program, his schedule in the land. Still he had to wait. Feast of Passover and the seven days of unleavened bread and another week ticked by. These were testing times, brethren and sisters, for Joshua, were they not? But again, seeing from God's point of view how essential this was and what a tremendous comfort and encouragement it must have been to many in the camp of Israel. All those under twenty at the Exodus would remember the first Passover. And this was only the third. They had kept Passover just once before after the Exodus at Mount Sinai. And they had not kept it again in all their wilderness journeys. This was the third Passover. And therefore in the minds of those who had been young and impressionable at the time of the Exodus, this would mean something special, wouldn't it? To be retaking, redoing the Passover after so long a time would bring back precious memories just as the anniversary of the Bible school has for some of you this year. And in the minds of those young impressionable people at the Exodus, there would be an association of ideas between Passover, crossing the Red Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptian host as God threw the horses and their riders into the sea and they were washed up upon the shore. And what an assurance that must have given as now they kept Passover and crossed the Jordan. And God was giving them a guarantee of victory over their enemies, the destruction of the nations of Canaan in just the same way that the Egyptian host had been destroyed. God was inviting them to make the comparisons, to be assured, to receive comfort and encouragement from these very things. Again, the delay was vitally important in God's book. And just as we have been reminded already this week on one occasion from behind this desk, here was another time when Israel looked back and looked forward. They were looking back to the Exodus in the keeping of this Passover, but forward to the conquest of the land, the reality of the kingdom of God, the rest that God had promised, the acceptable year of the Lord, when now they should become in reality His kingdom, His people settled in His land. So it is for us brethren and sisters at the breaking of bread, isn't it? We look back and we look forward. And we have the privilege, unlike Israel, all through the remainder of their history, who looked back to the Passover only in commemoration of an historical event in which they had not participated, we look back as being the people who personally have come from Egypt, the people who each individually were delivered by God through Jesus Christ. Our breaking of bread is so much more than the commemoration of the Passover could ever be. So at last Israel and Joshua were prepared. Verse 13 of Joshua 5, it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Are thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. What kind of an answer is that brethren and sisters? My wife gets most frustrated with me when she says to me sometime, or used to, Do you want tea or coffee? At the moment I'm not drinking either. Do you want tea or coffee? And I'd say yes. She'd say, Shall I mix them up? Do you want both? I'd say, You didn't offer me both. You offered me tea or coffee. I'm quite happy with either. And that's the kind of answer the angel gives here, isn't it? Joshua says, Are you for us or for our enemies? And the angel says, No. Now just a minute, hang on. Are you for us or for our enemies? No. I've come as captain of the Lord's host. It's a sort of, you tell me Joshua. Am I for you or for your enemies? It all depends. It all depends on you. I am captain of the Lord's host. If Israel is with the Lord, I'm for you. If Israel is not with the Lord, then I shall be against you. That surely, brethren and sisters, is the message, isn't it, of the angel here. He'd come as captain of the Lord's host, and whether he fought for Israel and with Israel or against them, as on some occasions later in their history the angel of the Lord would be obliged to do, depended on them, on whether they were ready, whether they were prepared, whether they were with God. The Lord is with thee if you are with him, said the prophet later to Asa. And on many other occasions similar phrases to those occur through our scriptures. So the angel of God was sent to accompany Joshua, if Joshua and Israel would go with him. And that's really the way round of it, isn't it? Not the angel with them, but they with the angel. To overcome the Canaanites, to obtain the rest in the land. It's interesting, isn't it, that God had quite definitely promised them rest. Come back for a moment to Exodus chapter 33. This is the occasion when Israel had sinned and Moses pleaded for the congregation, though God would have destroyed them and made of Moses a great nation. Moses pleads with God for God still to go with the congregation. And he asked that he might see the glory of God. And he's shown that glory in the goodness and the character of God. Exodus 33 and verse 14, where Moses has begun his pleadings. And God said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. That's Moses personally. I will give thee rest. That's not the whole of Israel, not the whole nation. That's Moses himself. I will give thee rest. But rest was promised to the whole nation too. Come to Deuteronomy 25. Close to the end of Moses' speech and very close to the end of his life. There in Moses 25 and verse 19. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest, this is the nation now as a whole, given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt not forget it. When the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, so rest was clearly promised. It was something that Israel were looking forward to and were to attain to by the strength and power of God. And so they did. Come back into the book of Joshua, brethren and sisters, and see how intent is the writer of this book, whoever he was, that we should know that the promises of God did not fail. Nothing of what God had promised failed Israel. Joshua 11, first of all. Here's just a little series of verses, a little run of verses, that really tell us the same story over and over again. It's interesting to see how often the writer emphasizes and underlines this point. Joshua 11 and verse 23. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war. Now that's very plain, isn't it? Joshua took the whole land exactly as God had promised Moses. It came to pass, nothing failed, and the land rested from war. Come over to chapter 14. Joshua 14 and verse 15. Here we're concerned with Caleb, and the inheritance of Caleb in particular, verse 15, and the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba, which Arba was a great man among the Anakims, and the land had rest from war. So there it is again, the writer underlining that point, so that we're not in any doubt about it. Chapter 21, the end of the chapter, verse 44. Joshua 21, 44. Here again, very explicit, and the Lord gave them rest round about according to all that he sware unto their fathers, and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Unmistakable, isn't it, brethren and sisters? And wasn't the man able to stand before them? All their enemies were delivered into the hand exactly again as God had promised, as God had sworn to the fathers. He gave them rest. And chapter 22, just a couple of verses over, chapter 22 and verse 4. And now the Lord, your God, hath given rest unto your brethren, this is to the two-and-a-half tribes now, who are to return to their possession on the east of Jordan. Now the Lord, your God, hath given rest unto your brethren as he promised them. Therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of Jordan. The Lord has given your brethren rest again exactly as he promised. Nothing failed of what God had said. How is it then, brethren and sisters, that when we come to Hebrews 4, and you needn't turn to it, you know the words well enough, the writer to the Hebrews says in chapter 4 and verse 8, for if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? This writer to the Hebrews is saying plainly that Joshua did not give them rest. If Jesus, it's Joshua of course, it's the same name, Jesus is the Greek form of the same Hebrew word, if Joshua, the Old Testament Jesus, had given them rest, so obviously he didn't, then would not God afterward have spoken of another day? There'd have been no need still to speak of another day of rest later, and God did. He did speak about rest later. He would not afterward have spoken, says this verse in Hebrews. He would not afterward have spoken of another day. By afterward he's referring back to an earlier verse in Hebrews 4 where he's quoted from Psalm 95. Psalm 95.11, again you needn't turn to it this morning, Psalm 95.11 says, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, or they shall not enter into my rest. And inasmuch, the writer to the Hebrews is saying, inasmuch as that is in the Psalm, and the Psalm is a Psalm of David, it's clear, the writer to the Hebrews is saying, that in the days of David Israel had still not attained their rest. In the days of David God was saying, they won't enter into my rest. So clearly the rest was still future. They will not enter into my rest. Clearly the rest was still ahead of David. Future from the days of David. It was spoken of afterwards, after the days of Joshua. David talked about it, and obviously Israel had not attained it even in David's days. That's the point that the writer to the Hebrews is making. If Joshua had given them rest, then would he, God, not afterward in the days of David, have spoken of another rest? It wouldn't have been necessary. He wouldn't have spoken of another day. Another day of rest. There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God, is this writer's conclusion. Inspired conclusion, be it noted. So how is it, brethren and sisters, that this writer can say that Joshua didn't give them rest in the face of the verses that we've looked at in Joshua, which clearly say that God was as good as His word, nothing failed, everything came true, and they had their rest from war? Well, can I take you to two further verses in Joshua, which also speak of this rest, and I think which perhaps contain a clue to the answer to this conundrum. Joshua 23 and verses one to five. And it came to pass, a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel, so there it is again, from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age, and Joshua called for all Israel and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age, and ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them out, drive them from out of your sight, and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you. Now there's a passage which at one and the same time says in verse one, a long time after that the Lord had given them rest, and at the same time says in verse five, the Lord your God will expel these nations, go and drive them out, and you will possess their land. So clearly Joshua saw no contradiction in the circumstances of his day, no contradiction in what he was saying, that through him God had given rest to Israel in the land, and he divided up all the land for them for their inheritance, and now they were to go and possess it. There's no contradiction there, somehow. Let's just look at one more, chapter eighteen of Joshua. Just again the first three verses of this chapter, Joshua eighteen, and the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there, and the land was subdued before them. And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance, and Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? Get out there and get on with it, Joshua is saying, and he's assembled the elders of all the tribes at Shiloh to give them this message. And again, in the mind of Joshua at least, no contradiction here, verse one tells us the land was subdued before them, but in verse three he's saying, Go and get on and possess the land you've been given. I think those two last passages, brothers and sisters, Joshua twenty-three and Joshua eighteen, give us a clue to what was going on here. It seems that the occupation of the land of Canaan had always been intended to be a two-stage process. If it was not so, then Joshua was very remiss as a leader and captain of Israel. He was very remiss because if it had not been intended to be a two-stage process, then what he'd done was simply overcome the nations of the land so quickly and in such a way that he allowed them to regroup. He must have underestimated their ability to regroup and to reoccupy the cities that had been taken from them. Surely he ought to have secured his victories as Israel went through the land. Clearly he didn't do that. And clearly Joshua was not remiss in not doing that. Joshua did his work and did it well, brothers and sisters, and is commended in Scripture for it. He was used by God to give Israel the land and they had it exactly as God had sworn to their fathers. Nothing failed. Joshua did his job well. And if that's the case, then the only conclusion we are left with is that it was never Joshua's part to settle the nation in the land fully in that sense. It was always intended, as we said, to be a two-stage process. There was Joshua's part and there was the part which belonged to the tribes, the nation as a whole, in their separate tribes. Joshua was not remiss. The nation had a part to play themselves. The tribes had a part to play. Joshua's role was to go through the land and overcome those cities, and it was Israel's job in their tribes to occupy those cities, either to prevent the Canaanites and the other six nations regrouping and retaking them, or to possess those cities in such a way as to ensure that they secured them for themselves. You see, the verses that we have looked at, it seems to me, make a distinction, at least in the Hebrew, if not always in the English, between the words inheritance and possession. We tend to read the record and regard those two things as being roughly one and the same. They're very different Hebrew words, they have very different meanings, and I suggest they have very different connotations. Inheritance has to do with something that is given. Indeed, the Hebrew word comes from a word that means, or a word that has to do with descent, the idea of descent, and inheritance is something that's passed down, isn't it? It's something that you get, whether you deserve it or not, whether you work for it or not, and the word means to divide, to distribute. It's got the idea of giving, and inheritance is something that you receive, you're given it. You may not deserve it, you may not have done anything. All you have to do to get an inheritance is to be there, to be alive, and the inheritance comes to you, doesn't it? Now, possession is different. Possession, brothers and sisters, has to be taken. And the Hebrew word, again, seems to be like that. The word means to seize, to take hold of, to fasten, or to fasten onto. That's the idea behind the word possession. Can you see the difference? The inheritance was being given them. God took Joshua and Israel into the land, and He gave them the land. He said, here is your land, this is it. But it was their responsibility to take it. Joshua wiped out all the enemies. There stood not a man before Joshua, not a man. Nothing failed. Of all that God promised, God gave them exactly what He said He'd give them, true to His word, and the land had rest. But it was a two-stage operation. And the nation should then have taken possession of it, seized it, secured the cities, occupied them, prevented the regrouping of the nations who were there, made sure that they got the rest that they were being given, took hold of it, seized it, possessed the land. And that's what they didn't do. It's a tragedy, brethren and sisters, isn't it, really? And yet, what a powerful exhortation it is again for us. God does not do for us what it is our work to do for ourselves. God has done immense things for us, brethren and sisters. He has wrought mightily through the Lord Jesus Christ, but He does not give us on a plate what it is our duty to do. God has given us the victory through Christ. That's our inheritance, as brethren and sisters, in Christ. But we need to take possession. We need to seize it, to grasp it, to hold on fast to it. All those words that form the basis of the idea of possession. It's just the same in law today, brethren and sisters. As we said, you only need to be there to have an inheritance, but possession has to be taken. If you take possession of something, you have physically to walk the land, or you have physically to enter a property in law in order to take possession of it, to occupy it. It's just the same in spiritual things. God has given us a most marvelous victory, but we need to work at it. We need to subdue the enemies, and especially enemy number one, the most virulent of them all. It's a two-stage process, brethren and sisters. It's not one battle that has been fought and won. As some of the churches around would have us imagine, it's a whole campaign. You can't give up yet, nor indeed at all, until the Master returns. One battle doesn't win the day, does it? There is a series of battles to be fought again and again. The flesh has to be overcome again and again. Still, it's dead, but it won't lie down, will it? As it rears its ugly head, we need to fight and go on fighting to do our part in working at our natures that we may take possession of the inheritance God has given us, that we may enter into His rest. That's exactly what the writer to the Hebrews says, Hebrews 4 and verse 11, he says, Let us therefore labor that we may enter into that rest. Let us pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for that which Thou hast wrought in Jesus Christ, and beseech Thee that Thou wilt speedily fulfill all that Thou hast promised. Lord, send Jesus again. Rend the heavens, and with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, let him come with all the holy angels that are attendant upon him to establish Thy righteousness in the earth. But have mercy upon us, O Lord, we pray. Save us from this untoward generation in which we live. Strengthen us, we pray Thee, for the strife and the conflict in which we must engage, and by Thy grace, grant us that we may overcome to be partakers of Thy divine nature, to enter into Thy rest, whatever our struggles and toil might be here. For we commend ourselves unto Thee in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Transcript

The order of these talks was always going to be difficult and now I know I got it wrong. On Tuesday we talked about Moses and the rest which God was offering to Israel in the weekly Sabbath under the law. And it seemed reasonable at that stage to go straight on to talk about Joshua and the rest which God promised to Israel in the land which we did yesterday. Today however we need to go back to the law to see how the Sabbath day had its counterpart in months and years as well. So that's perhaps why the order might seem a little strange and why to some extent we're backtracking a little bit today and tomorrow. The point is that the Exodus was not just a rest. God brought his people out from Egypt, redeemed them from the house of bondage, commanded that they should remember always that they had been bondmen in Egypt, not just to offer them rest from their burdens but to offer them release from the bondage itself. And that's what this Sabbath year or seventh year is really about. The seventh year was known as the year of release. So it's a rest from their burdens and release from bondage, the release being a rest in greater measure as it were. We mentioned on Tuesday that the weekly Sabbath taught that man's time was God's time. And we suggested various ways in which the Sabbath was a sign as God described it. A sign of the purpose of God, a sign of the final redemption which God had in mind, had in store for his people if they would be obedient to him. The Sabbath year went further than that. It taught not only that man's time was God's time but that man himself was God's. That man belonged to God because, as we have said earlier in this series, he was bought with a price. He was not his own. And so it was that the Sabbath year was not just about time but about life, the man, his life is God's. And we might like to think just for a moment or two as to what this would mean to the average servant in Israel. Not easy for us Bethany, is it? Few if any of us have been in such a situation ever. And those of us who have, it wasn't really a situation quite akin to that which Israel endured in the bondage of Egypt. But let's do our best. Let's try and imagine that we were a servant and try to see how the servant would really look forward to these opportunities of rest, relaxation and ultimately release. First of all, the weekly Sabbath, the one day in seven, every seven days there was a day off. That's not just a wise precaution, brethren and sisters. We saw again on Tuesday how vital that was from God's point of view. How important that it ranked with other of the Ten Commandments that we mentioned. But from the servant's point of view, the slave's point of view, once in every seven days he was to be allowed to rest. The mercy of God demanded it for him. God championed his cause. Whatever his master was like, whether his master wanted him to rest or not, God had taken the part of the slave. God was concerned about his welfare. God saw to it that he had something to look forward to in every week. God demanded not only that the Israelites should rest on the Sabbath, but that neither their ox, nor their ass, nor their manservant, nor their maidservant should be employed in their service. And then of course there was the Feast of Weeks. I'm sure this overhead won't be unfamiliar to you, brethren and sisters, but it does perhaps serve to remind us of the year of Israel's calendar. Our January is up here at the top where one o'clock would be on our daily clocks. And the Passover of course was in the first month of Israel's religious year, the fourteenth day of the first month. And from the day after the Passover they numbered seven weeks down to the Feast of Weeks or of Pentecost, fifty days after the waving of the first fruits here, the day after Passover, the fifteenth day of the first month. The fourteenth day of this third month, sorry, the sixth day of this third month was the Feast of Weeks. Only one day, but again a day of rest, a day of great rejoicing. Just come to Deuteronomy chapter sixteen for a moment, fifteen we read from, but Deuteronomy sixteen first of all, and there in verse ten. Thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks unto the Lord thy God, with a tribute of a free will offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God. According as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. So there was the next thing which the servant, the slave might look forward to, a day's rest at the Feast of Weeks, and a time of rejoicing. But then particularly in the seventh month, the Feast of Tabernacles, and here there was a week long feast again, rather like Passover, here in the seventh month, the beginning of Israel's political year here, and once again the manservant and the maidservant were commanded to be allowed to rest, and they were to enjoy this week long holiday, an annual holiday with the children of Israel. Deuteronomy 16 again, verse 12 we've just read, ignore the paragraph marker at verse 13, see again how this commandment also is linked with the memory of Israel's slavery in Egypt. Verse 12, thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine, and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maidservant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose. So there again, very plainly, something for the servant to look forward to, and here particularly with a week off the drudgery of his daily life, the slave would indeed rejoice at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. Tempting isn't it to think that if we'd been in Israel, we'd have been looking forward to our holiday and anxious to leave the slave to look after the house. Who's going to take care of everything while you're away? What's the good of having a slave if he goes on holiday at the same time as you do? In some measure, brethren and sisters, were very inconvenient things for Israel, and they were so deliberately. Israel was obliged as a nation to share their holiday with the slaves. They were not allowed to be selfish in this matter. The slaves went with them on holiday. They were allowed the same rejoicing as everyone else. But how much more now do you suppose the slave looked forward to the seventh year? How much more would that year of release mean? Here was not a temporary period of rest one day or even one week. Here was his opportunity once more to be free. On the first day of the month, the trumpet sounded, and that happened on the first day of every month. But on the first day of the seventh month, the trumpet sounded intermittently all day long. Little bit like New Year's Day in some countries, isn't it, where the students go around in their cars all day long sounding the hooters. It would be that kind of thing, wouldn't it? From time to time throughout the day, the priests blew the trumpet, and the slave knew, brethren and sisters, that it was the first day of the seventh month. This was not just the new moon and the trumpet being blown to herald the new moon. This was the seventh month. He'd lose count when he was about his daily activities. He hardly had time to lift his head. It's hard for us to imagine his circumstances, but it was one long round of chores. There was no respite, brethren and sisters. You don't have a slave and do the job yourself just as you don't have a dog and bark yourself. The slave was there to work. He'd been paid for usually, so he was made to work, and he wouldn't have time to remember which month it was or to keep count. When he heard that trumpet sound throughout the day, there were only ten days to go. Ten days, and he'd be free in the seventh year. This was the year of release, so he'd know that, and he'd know that come the day of atonement, his release would be complete. Only ten days to go. That's quite remarkable, isn't it, brethren and sisters, really, because he really must have looked forward to that, and yet, when it came to it, it wasn't a day of rejoicing at all. You would have thought, wouldn't you, that with all that anticipation, the slave would walk out of the door at the start of the tenth day of the seventh month, and he'd say, I'm free! But that was a day of mourning. It was a day of fasting. It was a day to afflict the soul. Wasn't a day of rejoicing at all. The rejoicing started on the following day, didn't it, and then there was the week-long rejoicing of the Feast of Tabernacles, as we have said. But isn't that lovely, really, that the slave looked forward to it so much, brethren and sisters, and the first day wasn't a day to celebrate his release, the fact that he was free, it was the day to remember iniquity. It just drove home, didn't it, very forcibly, that it was God who'd brought about his release. He owed everything, everything to God. The very first day of his freedom was not a day of rejoicing at all. It was a day of national mourning, of sorrow, of confession of sin, and of seeking earnestly the forgiveness of God through prayer and sacrifice. And so it was that the released slave was not in a position to rejoice that day. The next day would be different. But first he must remember where his release had come from, and in thankfulness and confession of his sin and his unworthiness to be free, along with all the rest of Israel, he joined in the day of atonement. Let's come then to Deuteronomy chapter 15, a portion of which we've read together, and have a look at some of the details of this year of release, this seventh year. Let's go in first at verse 12, which, because we've talked about the mercy of God and the remembrance of his mercy in providing the release, reminds us that Israel too had to show mercy, Deuteronomy 15 and 12, and if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. When thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty. Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress, of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him. So, the servant, brethren and sisters, was being rehabilitated, wasn't he? He wasn't just being given his freedom, it wasn't a case of opening the door and saying off you go then, oh no, no, no, you had to load him up with as many benefits as he could carry, sheep from the herd, grain from the threshing floor, grapes from the winepress. You had to set him up, not set him up in business, but set him up in life. You had to be merciful to him, because you were God's representative, you were representing the mercy that God had shown to you when you were a bondman in Egypt, and now you are being obliged in your life to do a retake of that, to remember that forcibly, and to show the servant. It had to be done liberally, he had to go out laden, you were not just sending him away, you were sending him away rich, setting him up, rehabilitating him. It was clear, brethren and sisters, wasn't it, from the very way that this was done, that you were giving back the slave his life, not just his freedom you understand, his life, you were giving him life, you were setting him up, you were inviting him to go and live and giving him a good start with the things that he was allowed to take from your house, from your home. And so verse 15 of Deuteronomy 15, you will send him away liberally, he will not go away empty, thou shalt furnish him, and so on, as we've read in verse 14 and then verse 15, thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee, therefore I command thee this thing today. Always you see it came back to Israel's circumstances in Egypt, and the mercy that God had shown to them. Just keep a finger in Deuteronomy 15 for a moment, or a bookmark, and just think over to Exodus 23, which says more or less the same thing, but there's just a phrase there for brethren and sisters, which I think is a very telling phrase, Exodus 23 and 9. You ought to remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and therefore I command thee this thing today. Verse 8 of Exodus 23 for Connexion, thou shalt take no gift for the gift blindeth the wise and perverted the words of the righteous, also thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. That's a very telling phrase, I think, isn't it? You know the heart of a stranger. You think about it, and you know what it was like. You went through it, just remember that. You know the heart of a stranger, you understand what it's like, you know how it feels, and you will have that empathy, that sympathy with your slave, and you'll know how it feels, and you'll know his heart, and you'll know what he longs for, and what is his anticipation, and his joy, and you'll enter into the spirit of that, and you will send him away fully laden and glad to do so, because you know, you've felt it yourself, you know the heart of a stranger. Back in Deuteronomy 15, then, brethren and sisters, please, and the first two verses of the chapter, which again show that same kindness that Israel were to demonstrate. Deuteronomy 15, at the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release, and this is the manner of the release. Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it. He shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother, because it is called the Lord's release. The revised version changes that slightly, and perhaps is a little better. It says, because the Lord's release hath been proclaimed, the trumpet has sounded, the release has been proclaimed by the priest, God's representative, this is God's release, he has proclaimed it, therefore you will show kindness, you will obey this proclamation. And every debt was to be released as well. Not just the slave, then, but debt, too, were to be let go. We've read verses one to six, we needn't go over those again, you know what's there. Let's just have a look at verses seven to ten. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren, with any any of thy gates in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. That means not what he asks you for, it's wanteth in the sense of lacketh. It's not what he wants, he might have wanted the world, you didn't have to give him the world, but it's that which he lacks. You had to supply his lack, you had to supply his need, and you had to be liberal and generous in so furnishing him. You had to open wide the hand, that's an expression, isn't it, that shows there was nothing to be withheld, you hadn't to clutch at things and say, that's mine, you can't have that, keep off. You had to open wide the hand, as the Pentateuch describes God, opening wide his hand to bless Israel, nothing is withheld, is it? That's how God has acted towards us, brethren and sisters, how shall he not with him, he who has opened wide his hand and given even his only begotten son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things, there's nothing withheld. God's hand is open wide, nothing is retained, God has given everything for our redemption, for our salvation, everything that was needful. And so, again, the Israelite was called upon to imitate God in that, you will open your hand wide to lend to your brother, to give to him. Verse 9, beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, the seventh year, the year of releases at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou let be sin unto thee, thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him, because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. Yes, it was wickedness, to reason, I'm not going to lend my mower this month, I might not get it back, you know, it's the year of release coming up, and you know, if I lend him the tractor mower, you know, he might hang on to it and I shall have to let it go. It would be a great tendency towards that sort of thing, brethren and sisters, wouldn't it? Whatever it was, you know, Joe comes along and he wants to borrow it, and well, hang on a minute, we've only got a few weeks to go, and well, I want it back tomorrow then, alright? Once you get to the year of release, you can't demand it. It goes against the grain, doesn't it? It goes against our human nature and the way we are, brethren and sisters, and of course it does, deliberately so, that's the whole point about it, isn't it? And surely that's the whole point about this year of release, not just were they to show kindness, not just were they to be willing to lend without any grudging, but by this very act, brethren and sisters, they were becoming involved in the freedom of the slave, weren't they? They weren't just setting the man free, as we said, opening the door and saying, okay, off you go. They weren't even just loading him up with benefits. They weren't even being not grudging and liberal and generous in this. It was more than all of those things. God was inviting Israel, if they would, to share in the freedom of the slave, to be partakers of it, to load him up with benefits and share his joy. You know the heart of a stranger, then share in his freedom, to rejoice with him in his rejoicing, and you could do that by being involved in it. Hang on, have one of these, look, I know you haven't got, let me give you one of these. Have this, do, you know, it's all right, I've got others, you have that one, you know. You could share in his joy, you could be partaker with him of it. That was the opportunity, brethren and sisters, that this seventh year afforded to those who entered into the spirit of it and were generous, not just giving because they were obliged to give, well, we've got to give you this, so we'd better let you have that, we're not having that because that's the best one. You can have that one, it's scratched and it's a bit damaged, you know. It's not that, is it, brethren and sisters, here's an opportunity really to enter into it, to be partaker with him. That, brethren and sisters, is what fellowship is. Some of us have been saying at the meal table earlier this week, sadly, we as a community have begun to fall into the error of some of the churches about us and to devalue that word fellowship quite dramatically, and that's very sad. You hear brethren and sisters say, very well meaning, from the very best of motives, well, we've had a lovely time of fellowship here at Bible School, haven't we, when all we really mean is we've had a nice time together, we've felt good about it. That's not fellowship, brethren and sisters, I'm sorry, that is not fellowship. You can have the same feeling in a stamp club or a photographic society. Fellowship is not an association of people with the same interests, and I'm sure that some of you will have heard me say that before. Fellowship is an interdependence with one another, it's an interrelation of our lives. It's not just associating with people, it's participating in their lives as Israel were being invited to do here. It's involvement, brethren and sisters, in the sorrows and the sadnesses of one another and in the rejoicing of one another too, the gladness that here Israel were invited to share with their slaves. That's fellowship, it's not feeling good, it's not rubbing shoulders with people with the same interests or the same beliefs. Fellowship is not an association with, it's a participation in, and we need to get back much more, I would suggest, to participating in the lives of one another, to becoming much more closely involved, even to the extent of intrusion. It's sad, isn't it, that we now regard it as intrusion into the lives of one another. But brethren and sisters, the life of the church of God, the ecclesia of God, is intrusive. Inevitably so, God always intended that it would be. We should not resent the intrusion of one another into our lives. Our lives are wrapped up with one another, we are interdependent, we are interrelated, we are built up as living stones into the same building, into the same body of Christ. We are members of one body, and we can't be that without some degree of intrusion into one another's lives, if intrusion is what you want to call it. We can't do it without fellowship. So that's what was involved in the life of Israel. That's exactly how this matter was for the slave and those who released slaves. Now very clearly, brethren and sisters, that didn't always happen, did it? In Israel, for a variety of reasons, that year of release was not practised. We have very little, if any, evidence of a year of release at all. We'll perhaps look at just one example tomorrow, if the Lord will. Of course, one reason was that the servant loved his master and wanted to stay, and he had that option, so the servant might elect not to be released, not to go free. But there were other less noble reasons. For example, the master might have been cruel and refused to let the servant go, and what could the slave do about it if that were the case? If the master was cruel and wouldn't release him, the slave could hardly run away, he'd have no means of support if he did. If his master wasn't prepared to release him, if there were any hint of intimidation if he wanted release, then the slave would feel obliged to stay. Perhaps sometimes, brethren and sisters, it might even have been the case that the servant was afraid of being released. Perhaps he was afraid of the unknown, afraid to go, he was comfortable where he was, and he liked it there, and though he didn't like being a slave, and didn't particularly want to elect to stay forever, he just didn't want to go either. He couldn't face what the world might have in store for him. I want us to spend our remaining few moments this morning just looking very briefly at those things. Deuteronomy 15 still, first of all, here is the first of those where the servant loved his master and the law prescribed for that. And of course, as we read these verses, we're to recognise that God is the perfect master. Deuteronomy 15 and verse 16. It shall be, if he, the servant, say unto thee, I will not go away from thee, because he loveth thee in thine house, because he is well with thee, then thou shalt take an hall, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant forever, and also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise. So there was the opportunity for the servant to elect to stay, because he loves you, and he loves your house, he's happy there, you've treated him well, and he's going to stay forever. Six years was sufficient to make that decision. It is clear, isn't it, brethren and sisters, that although our Lord Jesus Christ was not a bond slave in any way, his service was entirely willing and freely given. His devotion to his heavenly Father fulfilled this to the letter. He might have gone free, he might have called twelve legions of angels to his assistance, who would have rescued him had he so wished. But our Lord Jesus Christ loved his Master, his Father, and elected to be obedient unto death. That's really what's involved here, isn't it, in he shall serve thee forever. The servant was electing to be obedient unto death, just as our Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, as Philippians 2 tells us. But then, as we've said, brethren and sisters, there were those other less noble reasons why a servant might not be freed. Just come for a moment to Jeremiah 34, one illustration of the way in which Israel certainly in later years ignored the law, refused the provisions that God made, and treated their servants cruelly and wickedly. Jeremiah 34, verse 8, this is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord after the kings of the Kaia had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty unto them, that every man should let his manservant and every man his maidservant, being in Hebrew or in Hebrew-esque, go free, that none should serve himself of them to wit of a Jew, his brother. Now when all the princes and all the people which had entered into the covenant heard that everyone should let his manservant and everyone his maidservant go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed and let them go. And they did so with a solemn covenant, brethren and sisters, rather like the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 15, with a sacrifice divided in the middle and a solemn procession between the parts of the sacrifice. Later verses of this chapter tell us there was that solemn oath as they made the covenant to release their servants. Clearly they had not done it in a long time. And God responded to that covenant. The Babylonians departed from Jerusalem for a short time. And verse 11 here tells us, But afterward they turned and caused the servants and the handmaids whom they had let go free to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and the wrath of God was against them, brethren and sisters, for having committed two evils, one for having denied the covenant that they had so recently made, and proving unfaithful to that covenant, that vow, that solemn oath, and secondly for taking again the servants whom they had no right to take. Now this is a little different from the law because these are Hebrew servants who should never have been bond servants in any case. Hebrews might be hired as paid servants under the law, but could never be slaves. And here there is again a double wickedness in as much as Israel have made slaves out of Hebrews. They're not hired servants these. They're not paid. These are bond servants. But you see again the principle, the idea of release, and the cruelty and wickedness in which Israel indulged by not releasing them. And even on that occasion when they had released them, by re-engaging them and forcing them again to serve. And you can imagine that the slave had little option, brethren and sisters, but to go and serve again. So there's the second example of how the greed of Israel was not prepared to give up a slave. And you can well understand, can't you, how that would be. Again it would be most inconvenient, wouldn't it? You've just got a good slave and then he goes, you know, you've got to find another one now. And they're hard to come by good servants, aren't they, you know, trustworthy ones. It's a jolly side inconvenient this, isn't it? That's how the law was. And so often we suspect greed and selfishness and self-interest led Israel to be disobedient to make capital out of others. And we can so easily fall into the same trap. Well, you know, it's only the world. I mean, these were, these were foreigners that were to be the slaves. It's only the world, isn't it? It doesn't matter how we treat them, does it really? As long as we don't do that to our brethren, the world doesn't count, but brethren and sisters, it does. All that we do is a witness in all our behaviour, in every action of our lives. We are preaching, or not preaching, as the case may be. Like Israel in this matter, as we have seen so clearly there in Deuteronomy, we also are the representatives of our God. And we are never off duty, brethren and sisters, we are never off duty as the representatives of God. Why, always there is someone watching us, for whom we are a good witness or a bad one. Well, finally, I'd like you to step outside the law for a moment, because so far as I know there's no historical example of what we have in mind here, but it does seem to me that there is a powerful exhortation in the law that we've looked at and in the disobedience that Israel clearly did show towards it. So, I want to take a different example, it's not an example of a bondservant at all, but it is an example, a scriptural example, that illustrates the same lessons and the same exhortation. Now, I want you to come just for a moment to Genesis 19 and the story of Lot. Here, if ever there was, was a man in a very similar position to us, brethren and sisters, and that's why we're looking at Lot. A man in a similar position to us, in bondage, in a sense, in the world in which he lived. He was a free man, as we are free men and women, but he lived in a world that was, we And the sad thing is, brethren and sisters, that rather like Israel in Egypt, whom we saw on Tuesday who didn't want to leave it, Lot, it appears, did not want to leave Sodom. Some suggest that he was enjoying it, and I don't think that's right. I think that Lot has had a bad press, as far as that goes, and I have some sympathy with the man. You will be well acquainted, I'm sure, with the way in which in chapter 13, Lot lifts up his eyes and chooses the plain of Jordan, which is well watered and where Sodom and Gomorrah are situated, and he pictures his tent towards them. And then how in chapter 14, we learn that he was living in Sodom when that city was taken captive. And then in chapter 19, when the angels visit Sodom, Lot is sitting in the gate, not in his deck chair there in the sunshine, but as a ruler or a judge of the city, of course, a magistrate to some extent responsible for the works of that city. Now, you may be right, those of you who think that that was his fault, that there was a downward progression there, that Lot had put his feet on the slippery slope and down into Sodom he went. You may be right. I suspect, brethren and sisters, that it wasn't quite like that. Lot was a very righteous man, our New Testament tells us that. He was a man who vexed his righteous soul from day to day. He didn't like what he saw in Sodom. It distressed him and it distressed him daily, but he didn't move out. That was his mistake. Quite sure that Lot was a very righteous man, Scripture itself tells us so, we can't argue with that. And I suspect that he was in Sodom despite himself. He pitched his tent towards it. And then, well, you know, tents are very inconvenient, aren't they, and Mrs. Lot had seen this nice little house and it was only just inside the gate of Sodom, you understand, and it would just be so much more convenient than the tent, wouldn't it? So they put the tent in the loft, or the basement, with the junk, and they took up a more settled existence. And they hadn't been there more than a few weeks when Sodom was invaded and Lot was carried off and by the grace of God Abraham rescued Lot and all Sodom. And Abraham wouldn't take anything for that, you know, not from a thread to a shoe latchet, he wouldn't have anything that belonged to the king of Sodom. But they wanted to do something for him, I mean, goodness me, you know, he'd been so marvellous in fetching them back, and then they discovered that Lot was related to him. Well, we'd better honour Lot then, hadn't we? We could make Lot a free man of the city, couldn't we? We'll make him an alderman or whatever it is here in the States. So that's what they did, they made him a free man, they made him a magistrate. It wasn't that he sought it, it wasn't that he wanted it, brethren and sisters, it was that he was pressed into it, you know, you couldn't throw their kindness in their face and say no, could you? I mean, you couldn't say, no, thanks, I don't want to be an alderman, you know. When they were offering you that, it was so kind of them, wasn't it, and well, perhaps if he was there, he could have some influence in the running of the city and make it a better place, and he was pressed into it almost despite himself. Now, I don't know that that's what it was like, but none of us do, do we? But it might have been like that, might and didn't, and that's so much more like our lives, isn't it? It isn't necessarily that we deliberately set out to seek sod and brethren and sisters, but so often it comes our way despite ourselves, we're pressed into the mould, aren't we? The world pressures us, and we're not strong enough always to resist, or it's not convenient, or it doesn't seem fair and thankful to resist, does it? So often that's exactly how it happens with our young people, isn't it, in their work? They're pressed to go up the ladder, they're not particularly ambitious, they don't especially want to get on, but the company forces it on them, and you can hardly say no, can you, unless you want to be out on your ear, that's the kind of world in which we live. And I suspect, brethren and sisters, that's probably how it was with Lot. He just wasn't strong enough to get out. He was a righteous man, and he hated Sodom, and it distressed him much, but he didn't move out. And so, brethren and sisters, it seems to me that that's very much a parallel with our own lives, and perhaps Lot didn't move out because Sodom provided him with some security. And there's an element of that in all of us, which is a grave danger. If he left Sodom, where would he go? Back to the tent life? Well, it was so irksome, wasn't it? I know we managed, but, you know, I don't think I could face that again. Once you've had the settled existence, it's not easy going back to the nomadic way of life, brethren and sisters, is it? And there was a security there. He didn't want the unknown, and none of us do. We like what we're familiar with. Most of you know that I'm not an Englishman, I'm a Yorkshireman, and I come from a town called Huddersfield, and I have been heard to say that Huddersfield is the best place on earth. And it is. You should go and see. Actually, brethren and sisters, if you were to back me against the wall and interrogate I would have to admit that Huddersfield is actually a dreadful place these days. It's a concrete jungle, and it's got all the problems of any other modern town or city, social, housing, and so on. But you see, to me, it's home. I know it. I know my way around. I know the people. I know the dialect and the accents, and I'm at home there. And there's a little bit of that in all of us, isn't there? We forget, don't we? We have here no continuing city at all. We're not Yorkshire or British or American or anything else, are we? We're citizens of the kingdom of God. But we like what we're familiar with. There's a certain security in it that we don't want to give up for the unknown. And so, brethren and sisters, we find that even when the angels brought Lot out of Sodom, in the mercy of God, they took hold of his hands and the hands of his wife and his two daughters, and they brought them out of Sodom, and they say, escape to the mountain. Verse 19 of Genesis 19, Lot says, Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me, and hast saved my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest some evil overtake me and I die. That's how illogical we are, brethren and sisters, how inconsistent. It's no good pointing the finger at Lot before we point it here, is it? That's just how we are. Stupid, isn't it? Lot's saying, well, thank you ever so much for saving my life. I'm so grateful for your great mercy in saving my life. I can't do what you say, I might die. That's what he says, isn't it? You've shown great mercy in saving my life, but I can't do what you suggest and go to the mountain, I might die. So he goes to Zor instead. And he's so afraid in Zor that he has to leave Zor and go to live on the mountain. And he's taken all that mercy, brethren and sisters, God has expended all that effort to get Lot back to the mountain from where he started when he first left Abraham. Isn't that a salutary lesson? And aren't we sometimes just as foolish and just as illogical and just as inconsistent? Here, brethren and sisters, God has given us release. He's given us freedom. He's given us more than that. He's given us life. And we turn again to Sodom, the weak and beggarly elements of the world, because there's a security there that we rather like. We've got jobs and houses and cars and material possessions. The unknown holds no attractions, does it? But it's that unknown that God demands that we seek with our trust and confidence firmly in him. Our Father, forgive we beseech Thee our foolish ways, and strengthen us and bless us, we pray Thee earnestly, that we may lead lives that are a delight unto Thee, that we may so live that Thou wilt take pleasure in us, that we may be a cause of rejoicing unto Thee and unto one another, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Transcript

We spent our time together yesterday, brethren and sisters, by looking at the Sabbath year, the year of release. But that seventh year was not only a year of release for slaves, but for the land as well. That was something that we didn't mention yesterday. We left it over to today because it fits in well with what we have to say about the Jubilee. So yesterday we looked at the the impact of that Sabbath year on men and women, bond servants. If we come to the beginning of Leviticus chapter 25 now, we can see that there were obligations laid upon Israel by God concerning the land also. The land was to enjoy its Sabbaths. So Leviticus 25 and verse 1, The Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, Then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, Six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the Lord, a solemn rest. And again, just like the Sabbath in terms of human keeping of the Sabbath, so here this was unto the Lord. It wasn't just refraining from doing something, just as the Sabbath wasn't refraining from work. It was a day devoted unto the Lord. So here the land. It wasn't just a question of the land not being tilled. It was the question of the land being diverted to God in some way. It was resting, being made separate in some kind of way for God. So verse 5, That which growth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed. It is a year of rest unto the land. The Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you, food for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. So there were the rules and regulations governing the Sabbath year so far as the land was concerned, and we learn from that that the land was God's. We've seen already how that as far as Israel, men and women in Israel were concerned, their time was God's. They themselves also were God's. Now we learn that the land was God's as well. Then in verse 8 we come to this matter of the Jubilee, every seven times seven years. We've read verses 8 to 12, Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years. And these are the verses which tell us that the Sabbath year and the year of Jubilee began at the day of atonement, and I mentioned that yesterday, but gave you no evidence for that. So here's the evidence, Leviticus 25 and verse 9, Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month in the day of atonement. So that's when the year started so far as this regulation is concerned. I think it's worth again just looking at the calendar for a moment, although most of you are familiar with this, and we are inclined to think of Israel's year beginning here, and that was of course the beginning of their religious year in what would be approximately our March-April time. That was the first month, the month Abib. It was the month of the Passover, and it was at Passover that God made that the first of the months. This shall be the beginning of months unto you, God said in Exodus 12. So very plainly that was the beginning of their year, of their religious calendar. But it was the seventh month that was the beginning of what people call the political or the civil year. Here in the seventh month is still Israel's new year, what we call Rosh Hashanah. The Rosh Hashanah still takes place here, around about our September-October time as a rule. Israel's years are slightly shorter than our years. So there is the beginning of that year, but here was the beginning of the religious year, six months difference between the two. It's noticeable that the religious year begins with harvest, begins with the barley harvest, and if the barley harvest was not ready, if the barley was not ripe, then it was at that point that the law provided for an intercalary month to be slipped in there, an additional month to bring the year, which was based on the lunar calendar, back into line with the solar calendar. Our year is very much a solar year. Israel's was a lunar year, and the barley had to be ready for Passover, the day after Passover, when the first ripe sheaf of barley was waved before God. So if it wasn't going to be ready, then another month was slipped in there between the end of the year, the beginning of the new year. But the political or civil year, whatever you want to call it, which began at Rosh Hashanah, began on the first day of the seventh month, is the beginning of the agricultural year. It begins with the ploughing and the sowing of the seed, and that's when, therefore, the Sabbath year and the Jubilee begin, halfway through the other year, the normal religious year, because the Sabbath year and the Jubilee year carry with them the regulations, the commandments that say, you will not sow your seed or reap your harvest. So it's here that that year started, and they were not to sow in this period here, nor to reap in the beginning of the religious year. So here it is, the day of atonement on the tenth day of this seventh month, and it's there that the trumpet sounded and the Sabbath year began, and every 49 or 50 years, the Jubilee year began. Now it's always a matter of some perplexity as to whether it was 49 or 50 years, and I'm not certain I can resolve that problem, brethren and sisters. I suspect it was the 50th year. But as you can see from the calendar that we've just talked about, the year, whether it was the seventh or the Jubilee year, 49th or 50th, it began halfway through the religious year anyway. So did it begin at six and a half years or seven and a half years? See, the problem isn't confined to where the Jubilee came, is it? The problem is just the same when we look at this Sabbath year, and presumably since it says the seventh year, it means the seventh occasion of sowing, which was not to be carried out. So if you begin the year at the seventh month, the political or civil year, whichever you want to call it, and you take it around from there, then there would be one year, and that would only be half the religious year. Two years, three, four, five, six, and then on the seventh year, there was to be no sowing. But you're only six and a half years through the religious year. So the Sabbath year, in terms of the religious year, in terms of the feasts of the Jews, beginning with Passover and the barley harvest, the Sabbath year was overlapping sixth and seventh years. It began halfway through one year and went to halfway through the next. So six and a half years to seven and a half years. Now, the same would be true then of the Jubilee, wouldn't it? And what Leviticus 25 and verse 8 seems to be telling us is that they were to count seven times seven years, that's 49, and that's led some people to imagine that it was the 49th year. But it says, notice verse 9, So at the end of verse 8, And the word then in our Bibles, brothers and sisters, carries much more force than we normally give it. We tend to use the word then in two different ways. It can be a measure of time, you will do this, and then you will do that. And we use then to mean afterwards, following on as a measure of time. But we also use then in a very casual way in our language. We use it almost as a space filler in a sentence. It really serves very little purpose at all when we use the word then quite often. We don't really mean then afterwards or then following on. We just throw it in as a sort of space filler in the sentence. Now, the Bible doesn't do that. The Bible uses it strictly, I think, in terms of measure. So I think this is 49 years then after that, following on from that in the 50th year, Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound. But that 50th year would be 49 and a half years in terms of the religious years overlapping into the 50th. And so verse 10 now becomes more intelligible. Ye shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land until all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you. And ye shall return every man unto his possession. So that's what's different now about this year of jubilee. It's similar to the Sabbath year. It is again a year of release. But whereas we've looked at the terms of in terms of the weekly Sabbath being rest, the Sabbath year being release, the year of jubilee, brethren and sisters, is about restoration. So we have three things there now, rest, release, and restoration. And that's what the jubilee is about particularly. It's about the time when land was to be restored to the men and women of Israel. Interesting, isn't it? I wonder what people in Israel made of that. Just stop to think for a few moments about some of the implications of giving back land in that way. I imagine at different periods of their history there would be some considerable objection to that, wouldn't there? How had people come to lose their land in the first place? Well, he was just downright lazy. You know, he deserved to lose it, frankly. He never did anything. He never tilled it, you know. Well, he got into debt. It was his own stupid fault. Ran up a whole load of debts and had to sell his land in order to pay his way. But it really didn't matter, brethren and sisters, how a man or woman lost their land. How a family lost its land was immaterial. Whether it was through idleness, whether it was through debts, whether it was through folly and stupidity made no difference. The land returned to them. It had to be restored to them in the year of Jubilee. So even though some in Israel might have been inclined to say, it wasn't fair, it's not fair, I've worked hard for my land and kept it in good order. God delights in mercy. God is King. And because the land is God's, He can do as He wills with it. And because He delights in mercy, He decreed that it would be returned to the family whose inheritance it really was. The inheritance was given by God. And this was driving home again the lesson that God Himself is their inheritance, their heritage, just as they are God's heritage. Notice from verse 9 here how the year began, as we said yesterday, with the sound of the trumpet. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. So that was one of the features of the year. That's how the trumpet sounded to herald it. Not unique, not suggesting it is, but it's one of the features of this year. Another of the things contained in the regulations here is that no oppression was to be carried out. Verse 14. If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another. There was to be no oppression, no wrongdoing, no cheating of one another. And the same thing is underlined again in verse 17. Ye shall not therefore oppress, revised version, wrong one another. But thou shalt fear thy God, for I am the Lord, your God. So there was to be no oppression. God stresses that. Look at verses 15 and 16. This is something I remember mentioning at Franklin Pierce eight years ago. I don't expect you to remember it, brethren and sisters, and there isn't a written test, I promise you. But for the sake of those of you who do remember, and you're feeling that I'm being repetitious, I'll mention that it has been mentioned before. Verses 15 and 16 are about land values. Now in Britain we have two ways of disposing of land. We have what we call freehold, which is outright ownership, and we have leasehold, which means that you buy the land and you can put anything on it, but you only have a lease of that land. Maybe 99 years, might be 999 years, might be well beyond your lifetime, but you're still paying an annual ground rent for it, and ultimately that land reverts to the original owner. Now I don't know whether you have exactly the same systems in the States. But that's how it was in Israel. All land in Israel was sold leasehold. You couldn't exchange land freehold and have outright ownership of it. You sold it leasehold, and though there wasn't a ground rent provision, you didn't have to pay an annual rental for that land. You only owned it until the year of Jubilee. All leases were for 49 years, and in the 50th year the land reverted to the original owner. And consequently the value of land changed according to how long was left on the lease. If you bought just after the year of Jubilee, and there was let's say 46, 47 years to run, then you paid a lot for the land because you were going to enjoy many harvests from that land. The value of the land was very great. If the year of Jubilee was close, if it was coming up in a couple of years' time, some have suggested that 1997 or 8 is a year of Jubilee. I think it's very difficult to be dogmatic about that and to be certain about that. It's a nice thought. It may be so. I don't think we can be certain about working out these years and times better than sisters. But it's interesting, isn't it, that certainly Israel will have been in their land, in God's land, for 50 years come 1998 if the Lord hasn't returned first. But if there were only a couple of years to go, like from now to 1998, then you wouldn't pay very much for the land at all because you were only going to have two seasons' harvests from it. 96 and 97, or 97 and the start of 98, whatever. Depending on when you bought it, the value of the land was fixed. And there's a powerful excitation in that, brethren and sisters, because just as the value of the land diminished the nearer you got towards the Jubilee, so the things of this life are diminishing in value to us, aren't they? The nearer we come to the kingdom, brethren and sisters, the things of less value, of less worth, are the things of this life to us. The things that men and women set so much store by, material possessions, but other things as well, things that you can't actually buy with money, the career, the education. Sometimes we're rather like the world. We get obsessed, don't we, with those things. Well, it's important for the children to have a good education. Why? Nobody asked. Why do they? Oh, well, they need a good job. Why? Nobody asked. Why do they? So they earn a lot of money. Why? If we really believe, brethren and sisters, that the coming of the Lord is near, then why? The value of all these things is diminishing dramatically for us. The nearer we believe the kingdom to be, of less value, of less worth, are all these things by which the world puts so much store. We have already received one splendid excitation from our brother Alvin this morning to that effect, haven't we? So there is an excitation, a lesson again, that arises from this year of Jubilee. And you can see from the provisions here the importance of these excitations. Again in verses 23 and 24, Israel were reminded that the land was God's and that it was held in trust. That's why it had to revert. They only had it on trust. They were never outright owners. Verse 23, the land shall not be sold forever. Now we have to be careful how we read that. Some have read it, the land shall not be sold forever. Meaning you couldn't sell it at all. That's not the case. The verse is saying the land shall not be sold forever. That is, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity. It won't be sold in perpetuity. It will always revert. It will always return. For because the land is mine, says God, the land is mine. Ye are strangers and sojourners with me. You're only here, says God, because you're my people. That's what we were saying earlier in the week, isn't it? There's nothing special about Israel per se. They're only special because they've been specially chosen. You're strangers and sojourners with me. And so verse 24. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. So that's the way it was. That's the way it still is, brethren and sisters. That land is still God's. Israel today still do not have an inalienable right to the land. We should be very careful about that. Sometimes we're apt to get a little bit excited about Jewish things. And perhaps give the impression that we're pro-Israel in a political way. The land does not belong to Israel by any inalienable right. Any more than it belongs to the Arabs. It belongs to God. And God has promised that he will give it to Israel, to faithful Israel. Present day Israel won't have it. They won't have it. They will be dispersed. They will be evicted because they are not a godly nation by and large. There are exceptions, of course. There will be, as there has been in every generation, a faithful remnant. And God will save that faithful remnant. And scripture ably shows us that. But Israel as a nation has yet to face unprecedented distress. Brother Frank was reminding us last night of some of those exciting prophecies. Like, for example, Zechariah 14. Which show that there is yet unprecedented distress for Israel of the present day. Because they believe the land is theirs. And they don't regard it as God's. And they have therefore to be humbled, nay, humiliated. In order that they might learn that lesson. The land is mine, says God. You are strangers and sojourners with me. Both the seventh, the Sabbath year, and the fiftieth, the year of Jubilee. Would provide many opportunities for the men and women of Israel. I wonder if you've ever stopped to think what they did. What would you do with a year off? Now there's an invitation, brethren and sisters. Think what you could do with a year off work. Splendid, wouldn't it? Would we squander it on our own selfish ends? The holiday of a lifetime? A twelve month long cruise? It's not that sort of thing that Israel were able to indulge in, is it? Even though they were not sowing and nurturing and harvesting and threshing. They were nonetheless, obliged of course still, to care for their animals. So the majority of them would still be very much at home, wouldn't they? On their small holdings. Animals don't rest and don't stop needing feeding, do they? So there'd still be some work of that kind to do. Not putting the animals to work, note. But feeding them and caring for them as normal. So that activity would still go on. But over and above that there would be tremendous opportunities for receiving instruction from the Levites. For learning of the ways of God. For study of the law. That's surely why these opportunities were provided by God. Just like the weekly Sabbath that had to be devoted to him, brethren and sisters. These years were no different, were they? The seventh? And then the two together, the 49th and 50th, the Sabbath and the Jubilee, would provide tremendous opportunities for those who were godly, to utilize their time wisely in his service. And of course there would be leisure time too. There would be time to practice cottage crafts and industries. All those little hobbies that you've always wanted the time to do what you're going to do when you retire if you haven't already, brethren and sisters. There'd be opportunity, wouldn't there, to take up some of those crafts, perhaps for the benefit of one's friends and neighbors. There'd be opportunity to visit, to help one another. But to receive instruction from the law and from the Levites was paramount in God's consideration of this time. Here's a verse from Deuteronomy 31, you needn't turn to it because we need to come back to Leviticus 25 in a moment. Deuteronomy 31 verses 10 to 12, I'll read to you. Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, and that their children which have not known anything may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land where ye go over Jordan to possess it. So that was one of the provisions of the year of release, the Sabbath year, and presumably of the year of Jubilee too. Reading the law at the feast of tabernacles. And you can see how wise was the provision of once every seven years. Every child would hear that law at a time when they were impressionable, wouldn't they? Seven years is just about right, isn't it? Of course it is, it's perfectly right, isn't it? It's God's ordinance, brethren and sisters. But even from a human point of view we can see that, can't we? If your child was ten, that was a wee bit young to take it in, wasn't it? But they'd get it again at seventeen. If your child was thirteen, well, twelve, round about twelve is the age when most children, there isn't such a thing as the child, is there? They're all different. But most children begin to grasp spiritual concepts at the age of twelve. It's about the age of twelve that they begin to be able to appreciate types and patterns and to think spiritually. So somewhere in their teens every child would be hearing this law. Whenever the year of release came round, at whatever age they were, when the first year of release came into their life, it would come back again, somewhere during those impressionable years. If it had been longer than every seven years when it came round, then that wouldn't have been as good, would it? But the time, of course, was exactly right. But what a test of faith there was attached to this year of release, the seventh year and the Jubilee year. Leviticus twenty-five again and this time verse eighteen. And it shall bring forth fruit for three years, and ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year, until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old stall. So God was demanding of his people, wringing out of them, brethren and sisters, the faith that he desired from them. Every sixth year would be a bumper harvest if they were faithful, quite sufficient to carry them through the seventh fallow year and into the next year, until again they sowed and were able to harvest. But it required faith, didn't it? What if? That's our human reaction always, isn't it? Ah yes, but what if the harvest fails? What if when we sow in that eighth year it's a bad year? What if the weather turns bad? And when the seventh year turned out to be so beautiful as far as the weather was exactly right for sowing, absolutely the right conditions, what a temptation that would be, brethren and sisters, wouldn't it? Sowing in the fields, doing what you'd done over the last six years. Not only that, but of course greed would enter into it too. And especially when this law didn't apply to the stranger, the foreigner living in the land, he didn't have to have to let his field's life fallow. There was no commandment, no obligation laid upon him to rest. So he'd be able to sow and make money and Israel would be quick to cry foul, wouldn't they? It's not fair. He can do it and he can make money and why can't I? And very quickly, men and women are drawn into temptation, aren't they? In that sort of way. So it demanded trust and confidence that God was everything he said he would be, that he would provide, that there would be food free to all. And they weren't to harvest even what grew of itself. We read that concerning the Sabbath year in those first few verses of Leviticus 25. They weren't to harvest what grew of itself, not even the grapes of the undressed vine, the vine that hadn't been pruned. There would be sufficient store from the previous year to carry them through. They weren't to take from the fields. The widows, the orphans, the fatherless who had no store, they might take from the fields. They could go and glean what grew of itself. But Israel who had land were not allowed to harvest even what grew on its own. That was strictly for those who had no land and no store. So, again, you can see the opportunities that there were for abuse of that provision, and human nature being what it is, that provision was abused, and we'll see that in just a moment. There's another little feeling that we sometimes have there, but there's an insistence as well, isn't there, that enters into the reckoning here. It's the uncertainty of the Sabbath year, and especially when you got to the year of Jubilee. If we're right that that was the 50th year, and there was a Sabbath year, the 49th year, and then the year of Jubilee, wow, what a test of faith that was. Do you really think this harvest is enough? God, do you really think we've got enough there for three years? Do you think we ought just to plant a little bit? You know, one corner of the field. Well, you never know, do you? You know, you can't be certain about these things. We don't like uncertainty, brethren and sisters, do we? Uncertainty was part and parcel of the life of Israel. I don't know whether you've ever noticed that, but even way back in the wilderness that was exactly the same with them. The life was a little bit uncertain. God put in an element of uncertainty into their lives. It was there in the wilderness with the cloud. Do you remember the cloud over the tabernacle? And when Israel were to move camp, they knew because the cloud moved. It rose from above the tabernacle, it moved on ahead, and then they knew it was time to pack their belongings and their tents and follow the cloud. And when the cloud rested, they stopped and unpacked their belongings and directed their tents and stayed there. But they never knew when it would move. There's a little verse that says that as long as the cloud was on the tabernacle, they rested, whether it was two days or a week or a month or two years, it didn't matter however long it was, that's how long they had to stay. That was the directive that they received. And that would be frustrating, wouldn't it? You and I would hate that. Well, I would anyway, brethren and sisters. It's for you, can I? I would hate that. I'd be saying to my wife, I wish I knew how long we were staying here. I could plant a few vegetables or something, but you never know whether you're going to be here to harvest them, do you? It's a waste of time and money. You might move on before they're all ripe. Or I could just put a few flowers around the tent, just make it look a bit nicer. But you never knew. You could be here today and gone tomorrow, or you could be here several months, and after several months you'd be saying, I wish I'd known we were going to be here that long. I could have done that, and I could have done that, and it's too late now. It would be frustrating, wouldn't it? But you see, God deliberately left their lives like that. There was purpose in that. And our life is like that, brethren and sisters. We're not waiting for a cloud to move from the tabernacle. We're watching for the cloud to come, aren't we? We're watching for the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and we don't know when it's going to be. But we have to be ready whenever it is, not tied down with this world's goods, knowing the diminishing value of the things we have and the things that we want, and tell ourselves that we need. We have to be aware that the cloud might come at any moment, and we shan't need any of them. There is that element of uncertainty of the unknown in the lives of all of us, which is there deliberately at the behest of God, brethren and sisters, because what pleases God, what honours God more than anything else, is our trust and our confidence in Him. We shan't need these things of the world. God has said we don't need them. We don't need them now. He will take care of us. He will provide. He has promised. He is as good as His Word. And that's, again, one of the provisions of the Sabbath year, and especially of the year of Jubilee, that element of uncertainty. Well, what if? And then, brethren and sisters, because sin is so deceitful, isn't it? This heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, isn't it? We turn it round and we make it sound good. And though, quite honestly, our real concern is, what are we going to eat? And that's what the passage said, isn't it? God had prepared for that. If you say, what shall we eat? Well, I'll provide for you. I'll give you a bumper harvest, said God. But we're not satisfied with that, brethren and sisters. We turn it round, don't we? Well, Israel, I suspect, would be inclined to say, not what shall we eat, but, well, how are we going to keep the feasts? You see, you give it a religious reason, don't you? You give it a religious comment, and then that's all right. It justifies the question, doesn't it? But it's the same question, it's the same concern, dressed up, isn't it? Well, how are we going to keep the feasts? If there's no harvest, we can't bring the first ripe sheaf, can we? So we ought to plant something, shouldn't we? For God, not for ourselves, you understand. Well, of course, we'd be able to eat it as well, but, you know. You see how the human heart is, brethren and sisters? I can't convey to you how desperately wicked we are. And we don't believe it, do we? That surely is the whole point of Satan and the devil in our scripture. If God had not put Satan and the devil into our Bibles, and I know sometimes there are problems in our preaching, in getting others to understand them, but if they weren't there, we just would not see sin as so dreadful as it really is, would we? God has given us this parable of Satan and the devil to help us understand how dreadful is our own human nature, to help us see it from a third-party standpoint. If God had just said, well, it's you and your heart, we would never have accepted it, would we? We would never have believed it. And God helps us to see that, it seems to me, in the way that he has described that in scripture. So this lesson of trust, of confidence, of faith in God and in his provision is just so important. Now, as we said, the fact is that in Israel it was rarely practiced, we suspect. There was great oppression and covetousness. You remember the story of Ahab and Naboth's vineyard. Micah and Isaiah both speak about the covetousness of men who join house to house and field to field until there is no space left. And they condemn Israel for their wickedness in that regard, amassing land and becoming great wealthy landowners, exactly as we see today. In Nehemiah, there was some evidence that Nehemiah tried to practice the seventh year and maybe the year of Jubilee, Nehemiah 5.11 and 10.31 and 8.18, all show Nehemiah's attempts to bring back the legislation of the law of Moses. But Malachi shows us that it was short-lived. But there was, brethren and sisters, a Jubilee in Hezekiah's day. Now, it may not have been a real Jubilee. It might have been an enforced similarity. But just come to 2 Kings 19 from where we took our subject for this morning. 2 Kings 19 and verse 29. And this shall be a sign unto thee, says Isaiah to Hezekiah, in the midst of the Assyrian onslaught against Jerusalem. This shall be a sign unto thee. Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same, and in the third year sow ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruits thereof. So there's the same effect at least as a Sabbath year or maybe a year of Jubilee. Certainly this was a year of release. It was a seventh year in effect, if not in reality, if not chronologically. Turn to Isaiah for a moment. A whole series of little series of passages here which speak of the way in which the prophet prophesied of this time of Jubilee by the restoration, the release of the captives and the restoration of Israel's land to Israel following the Assyrian invasion. Isaiah 11 verse 12 talks about the return of the captives, of the remnant from Assyria and Egypt and Pathros and Cush. And verse 16 says there will be an highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria. We sometimes forget that there were actually more captives taken by the Assyrians in the days of Hezekiah than there were taken by the Babylonians when the kingdom of Judah came to its end. For then most of Judah were destroyed and slain. There were actually more captives dragged off to Assyria and here Isaiah prophesied their release. Now there isn't time to go through the verses as I hope, brethren and sisters, because our time is almost at an end. But I'll just list the references for you if you want to note them. Isaiah 27 and verse 13 refers to the trumpet, the trumpet blown on the day of atonement to herald the Sabbath year or the Jubilee. Isaiah 35 is well known to us, isn't it? Isaiah 40 verses 1 and 2 and 8 and 10 speak of the return again of the people, of the captives and the resulting prosperity of the land. Isaiah 49 verses 8 to 10 speak of the acceptable time, God's acceptable time. This was His year when the captives were returned and the land returned to Israel. Isaiah 55, the chapter that begins about their being bred without money and without price. Verse 13 talks about the sign that we've seen mentioned in 2 Kings 90. And 2 Chronicles 32 verses 27 to 29 talk about the great blessings that came to Hezekiah after the Assyrian invasion. Blessings that resulted from the spoil that they had from the Assyrians killed outside the gates of Jerusalem. Blessings from the presence of the nations around that were brought to Hezekiah and blessings of the Jubilee, the fact that God gave them this harvest which we saw mentioned in 2 Kings 19 as He promised and made their land prosperous. And there's a real sense of excitement, brethren and sisters, running through all these verses. Time and time again in Isaiah we have this theme of rejoicing and of excitement because of this release and restoration. Rest, release and restoration. And the fact is, brethren and sisters, that it's all going to happen again. That's the really exciting part as far as we're concerned. Repent and be converted said Peter to the men and women of his audience in Acts. Repent and be converted and the Lord shall send times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. And he said Jesus has gone into heaven until the times of restitution or revised version, restoration of all things. Or again in speaking to His disciples in Matthew 19 He says and in the regeneration you shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. A time of restoration, a time of regeneration when Jesus comes back. It's all going to happen again, brethren and sisters. Our Jubilee celebrations here this week, marvelous though they are, but the earnest, aren't they? The foretaste of something far more marvelous to come. Here is the sign that heralds the Jubilee, that heralds the kingdom, that heralds the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. More than anything else, brethren and sisters, we want not just the rest of the Sabbath, not even the release of the seventh year, but the restoration. When all things will be made new, the conditions of the Garden of Eden restored, the earth filled with righteousness to the glory of our Heavenly Father.

Transcript

Can we turn, brothers and sisters, please, to Hebrews chapter 4? We need to revisit that chapter just to have a look at precisely what is the argument of the writer to the Hebrews here. Hebrews 4 and the first verse, having spoken about the failure of the people of Israel to enter into the rest which God had promised them under Joshua, the Old Testament Jesus, the apostle now urges that we should not fail after the same example of unbelief. And he says, Hebrews 4.1, Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest. We pause there for a moment, brothers and sisters, because it's plain from that first part of verse 3 that the apostle is speaking on one level at least of a present rest, a rest to which we have already attained. We which have believed do enter into rest. That is to say, now. Similarly, verse 10, he says, For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his works, his own works, as God did from his. What he has in mind there, of course, is that we who have entered into rest, notice that again, rest is a present possession. It is something we have attained now, at least on one level on which the apostle is speaking here. And those who have attained to that rest have ceased from their works, just as God did from his at creation. After the six days, God ceased from his work. That's what Sabbath means. It has to do with a cessation. When we looked at Joshua 5 earlier in the week, the manna ceased. Literally, that is the manna sabbathed when they reached the land. But the point the apostle makes here in Hebrews 4.10 is that we have ceased from our own works. That is to say, from works for ourselves, the works of the flesh, the works of sin. He that is entered into his rest in Christ hath ceased from sin. That's the apostle's point here. There is a sense in which rest is a present possession when we cease from our own works of the flesh, from our own works of sin in Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus is our Sabbath. He is our rest. That's why at the end of Matthew chapter 11, he says, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. That's the rest that Jesus offers us, brethren and sisters, when we are prepared to lay down the burden of our sin. He's not talking about the daily load that we might be carrying. He's talking about a specific load, a specific backpack. It is sin. And Jesus is inviting us to lay down that yoke that we might take up His yoke, which is easy, His burden, which is light. So that's the argument of the apostle there in Hebrews chapter 4. Jesus has given us forgiveness and rest through forgiveness. Jesus is our Sabbath. And Jesus demonstrated that many times during the course of His ministry. We've mentioned already this week that Jesus never ever broke the Sabbath. He fulfilled it. On one occasion in Luke 13, you will recall how that hypocritically the ruler of the synagogue spoke against those who came to be healed by Jesus. He didn't dare speak against Jesus. He knew that many of His kind had suffered the tongue of Jesus, who had condemned their hypocrisy. So instead, He rounded upon the audience and blamed them for coming to be healed on the Sabbath. The Lord had just performed a miracle of healing. And He says, ought not this woman, not, could not this woman, or should not this woman, ought not this woman, whom Satan hath bound low these eighteen years, be loose from her infirmity on the Sabbath day. What Jesus was saying is that the Sabbath was the most appropriate day for that to happen. She ought to be healed on the Sabbath, not just that she could or she might be. She ought to be. The Sabbath is exactly the right day for release, for releasing her from her infirmity, for healing her and enabling her to go free. Jesus is the Sabbath. He is our Sabbath. He is everything that the Sabbath pointed to and portrayed. He is our rest. In Him, we find our freedom. We have been released by the grace of God through Him. Sadly, brethren and sisters, all too often, we load ourselves up again with the junk of life, don't we? Again, some of you will have heard me mention before, I'm sure, Psalm 38, which carries this little picture of the backpack of sin. Psalm 38 is the Psalmist's own expression concerning his burden. He says, Psalm 38 and verse 4, For mine iniquities are gone over mine head As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. The picture he's painting is of someone with a backpack which is just too heavy. It's so heavy that it's pressing them down until they're doublin' and they can no longer lift up to walk. They can no longer make progress. The backpack has become so heavy. And our sins are like that, brethren and sisters, that they're such a heavy burden that there is no way that we can bear them and walk. The Psalmist said that his was such a heavy burden that it came tumbling right over his head. It pushed him, pressed him to the ground. Mine iniquities are gone clean over mine head As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. And it's that burden that the Lord Jesus Christ has helped us to bear. Come then to Luke chapter 4, a few verses of which we've just read together through our brother Cliff, where the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to the people of His day and encouraging them to see that He offered them rest, that He invited them to cease from the works of the flesh, to cut off the flesh. And He says in Luke chapter 4, verse 18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Was that acceptable year a Sabbath year, or a year of Jubilee that was acceptable to God? Well, back in verse 19, that little expression, sent me to heal the brokenhearted, is translated in the revised version, to proclaim release. Jesus is saying, God has sent me to proclaim the release, to blow the trumpet on the Day of Atonement, to proclaim the release of the bond-servants. That's what Jesus has come to do, and in that context, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Verse 21, He began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Now is the acceptable year of the Lord. Now is the appointed time. And perhaps, brethren and sisters, we're used to interpreting that in our minds, as meaning, now is the day of opportunity for response. Now is the time when there is opportunity to respond to God's overtures of mercy. And of course, that's true. But isn't this verse again telling us, that we have a rest now, that even now, we who are in Christ, have attained to rest, of a certain kind, of a certain sense, at a certain level, in the Apostle's argument in Hebrews 4. Now is the acceptable time. This is the acceptable year of the Lord. This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Jesus has proclaimed release, and through His death, has brought that release to those who are identified with His redeeming work. The word acceptable is the word that's used of acceptable sacrifice. And it conveys that sort of idea, brethren and sisters, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ made an offering to God that was an acceptable offering, that was in every way efficacious, thoroughly well pleasing, and acceptable to God, the savor of a sweet smell, which God accepted. And our lives will be acceptable to God as a sacrifice to Him. It is our reasonable service, says the Apostle Paul in Romans 12. Our lives will be acceptable in Christ. The word itself actually comes from a root that has to do with satisfaction when a debt is paid off. And that's very appropriate, isn't it? It's the debt of our iniquities, which Jesus has redeemed us from. Jesus has given to God the satisfaction of the removal of our sin, an acceptable sacrifice, a source of delight for God. Now we mentioned right in our first class on Monday morning, it seems a long time ago now, doesn't it? The way in which Isaiah 66 betrayed the fact that God's true rest is in His people. Where is the place of my rest? Where is the house that ye will build me? And where is the place of my rest? To this man will I look. To him that is humble and of a contrite heart and that trembleth at my word, that is God's rest. That's the place where He says, in Isaiah 66, 1 and 2, He is prepared to dwell. And there is again, brethren, this is a sense in which God is dwelling with us now. There's a sense in which He isn't. There's a sense in which He will only perfectly tabernacle with men in the age to come. But there is a sense in which, even now, we enjoy fellowship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is a sense in which God is dwelling in His people now. We have fellowship with Him now. Come over to 1 John for a moment. The first letter of John and chapter 5, where John mentions this at verse 11, amongst a number of other places, incidentally. This is by no means a unique passage. 1 John 5.11 And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. More properly, He that hath the Son hath the life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Now, don't misunderstand this, brethren and sisters. He's not here talking about immortality. We don't have immortality. John is saying that we have eternal life in the sense, not of the kingdom sense, not of the sense of immortality. We have eternal life, we have the life, in the sense that we have the life of God, the life which God has given us in Christ. We have life. Not the life that we once had, which was no life at all, was it, really. Then we were dead. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Now we have life. Not as the men and women of the world are alive. That's only a shadow, isn't it? We have life, brethren and sisters. God has brought us to life. He's given us that real life, life that has an eternal quality because it is the Christ life. It is the life of God manifest in Jesus Christ, which we share with him following our baptism. Now, some people have great difficulty with these verses, and we really shouldn't have. There's nothing here to be afraid of. This is no more and no less than Jesus said himself, and John records it in his Gospel, in John chapter 5. You needn't turn to it. Let me quote you the words. John chapter 5 is where the Lord says that those who hear his voice begin to live. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. It's the same thing in the letter, brethren and sisters. It's just the same. We who are dead have come alive by hearing the voice of the Son of God, hearing in the sense of hearing and heeding, responding, hearing and doing something about it, as that word most usually means in Scripture. He's not talking about literally dead people. Here is he, because he says the hour is coming, and now is, in the days of Jesus' ministry. He talks about dead people later on. He goes on to say, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming. He doesn't say, and now is. This one hasn't come. It's yet future. The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. That's still future. There's no doubt about who those people are. They're not just dead. They're in the graves. They're dead and have breathed their last. He's talking about literally dead people now, and the hour is coming when they shall hear his voice, but that's still future. Already, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead in a different sense shall hear his voice, and they that hear shall live. By the grace of God, brethren and sisters, we have been privileged to hear that voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are, by our response in baptism, in covenant relationship with God, sharing that life of which John speaks in his letter. Not immortality, but life in some respects of an eternal quality. But when we come back to Hebrews chapter 4, it's clear, isn't it, that though the apostle is talking about that on one level, yet in a different sense, as we have said already this week, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. The rest, the rest, the Jubilee of the Kingdom has not yet been attained. So Hebrews 4 and verse 9 says very plainly, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. It's interesting that the seventh day in Genesis has no evening, morning attached to it. All the other six days we read, and the evening and the morning were the first day, the second day, and so on through to the sixth day. But that is not recorded of the seventh. The seventh is different in that respect. Perhaps that again is a reason why we might regard the seventh as the beginning of God's work, a work which is still being continued until our final redemption in Christ. But brethren and sisters, that seventh day, fittingly prefiguring the Millennium as it does, without evening and morning, that seventh day is more than just everlasting life. Sometimes we paint a picture of the kingdom for our friends which makes it sound as though the kingdom will be just living forever. And I'm sure to many people that must sound extremely boring. They can only conceive of life as it is now going on forever and ever. And who wants that? Perhaps, brethren and sisters, we ought rather to talk in terms of eternal joy or eternal happiness. For eternal life is certainly much more than just its qualitative measure. It's not just the fact that it goes on and on. Eternal life in the kingdom is again that life of the quality of God's life. And that's different, quite different, isn't it? That belongs to immortality, quite different from anything that we have now. That life is a life in which we shall be beyond the frustration of temptation and sin. Those things that drag us down now so that in our saner moments we feel like the Apostle Paul. And the good that we would do, we don't do. And the things that we don't want to do, we find ourselves persistently doing, dragged back by this flesh, this man of the flesh, this sinful nature that bedogs us. Brethren and sisters, that's what eternal life is, isn't it? To be beyond that, beyond the weariness of the flesh, beyond tiredness and aching limbs, but beyond the frustrations that our own human nature makes us only too well acquainted with. We shall have a rest from our natures following the resurrection. And although we sometimes paint a picture of the Kingdom as being like the Garden of Eden, and although in many respects it will be like that, we spoke yesterday of it as the day of restoration, the day of restitution of all things that Acts 3 mentions in Peter's speech. But there are differences, aren't there? The Millennium is not just Eden restored. For one thing, there was marriage in Eden, and there is no marriage in the Kingdom of God. They shall neither marry nor are they given in marriage, except brethren and sisters in that spiritual relationship that again we described at the outset of these talks. When bride and bridegroom shall be united to produce fruit for the honor and the glory of God, only in that one marriage spiritually will there be anything like the pattern of the Garden of Eden which Adam and Eve portrayed for us as a shadow, as a type, as an earnest of what was to come. So there are differences with the Garden of Eden. We should be aware of that and be careful in the way that we describe the Kingdom. Of course, the Kingdom in a sense was set before Israel. And we have reminded ourselves again in one of the talks about Joshua that they did not enter into rest. And that's very much the Apostles point again here in Hebrews 4. Israel didn't enjoy it. They couldn't enter into the rest because of unbelief. And although they did literally enter into the land, and although we've looked at a whole series of verses, of passages this week, that speak of the rest that God gave them, yet the Apostle here says Joshua could not give them rest. And maybe that's the reason, brethren and sisters, why when the Lord Jesus Christ began His ministry, He began it as the New Testament Joshua, and He came, it appears, from the east and crossed the Jordan to begin His ministry. That's fascinating, isn't it? It's almost as though Jesus were acting out in figure what Joshua had done, indicating that He was the new Joshua to lead Israel into the land. The evidence for that is in John chapter 1. Again, you needn't turn to it. I'll read the verses for you if you wish. It's John chapter 1 verses 28 and 29, and it says this. These things concerning John, these things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, beyond Jordan. This is written from the point of view of being in the land, and beyond Jordan is on the east side of Jordan, this side as you look at it. These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. It seems, brethren and sisters, that Jesus must have come from Galilee, either around the top of the Sea of Galilee, or crossed the Jordan near its head, and come down the eastern side, that side as you look at it, and crossed over the Jordan at His baptism, coming into the land, as though He were leading Israel into their rest spiritually, as the new Joshua, bringing them in in a sense in which they had never really come into the land, for spiritually they had always remained outside it, hadn't they? Spiritually, they had always remained outside God's land and God's rest. In their hearts, they never really entered into being the kingdom of God as He intended them to be. But the Apostle's point in Hebrews 4 is also, brethren and sisters, that the present is a training ground. There is the necessity of working, of toiling, in order to enjoy rest. Indeed, there is a sense in which we can only appreciate rest in as much as we have first worked and laboured. That's why he says, as we read from verse 11, Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. It's as though, brethren and sisters, the present is a training ground, as though the six days of our present life, our present wilderness wanderings, are a training ground for the rest. And they are a necessity in order that we should enter into that rest. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest. It's almost as though the Apostle is implying that without the labour there can be no rest. Without this wilderness pilgrimage, without this time of probation and testing, there cannot be any enjoyment of the rest which is to come. It always amuses me that these days businesses send people on training courses for retirement. Apparently you have to be trained to know how to use your retirement and how to relax. What a reflection that is, brethren and sisters, isn't it, of our world. And yet, in a sense, we, of all people, shouldn't need that, should we? But in a sense, that's what life is about. We're being trained for the kingdom, aren't we? We're being trained for the rest. Now, I'm not implying that that rest will be idleness. Yes, it will not. There was work in Eden. That's one way in which the kingdom will be like Eden. There was work there. Work was not the result of the curse, brethren and sisters. Hard work in the sweat of your face to earn your daily crust was the result of the curse. But there was work before that. God put Adam in the garden to dress it and to keep it. And we shall be very busy people in the kingdom of God. There will be much work to do. So it's not idleness, and yet there is a sense in which our experience now is training us for the work we shall do in that time of rest. It's rest in a different sense, isn't it? It's the completion of the rest from sin again, the completion of the rest from our natures that Christ has given us through His sacrifice. It's the completion of our redemption. And maybe, just maybe, and we can't be absolutely certain about it, I can't think of anything in Scripture that specifically tells us this, but maybe, brethren and sisters, the weekly Sabbath points forward to our rest that we enjoy in Christ now. For we celebrate the rest that we have already attained to in the breaking of bread. We remember, through the breaking of bread, the sacrifice of Jesus, which has taken away our iniquities, the forgiveness of our sins, gives us that rest. Maybe the weekly Sabbath was to point forward to our breaking of bread, which is not held on a Sabbath, remember, but which is a weekly institution. Maybe the Sabbath year then speaks not now of our rest from sin, but of rest from our sin natures. Maybe the Sabbath year, which you remember we said was about release, is about resurrection. If the weekly Sabbath portrays our rest in Christ, then the Sabbath year portrays our release from the bondage of our human nature, from this mortal frame, and all the frustrations of it which we've just mentioned. Maybe the Sabbath year speaks of resurrection and our release from the sinful flesh that we bear. And the Jubilee? Well, we said the Jubilee was about restoration, the restoration of land, of inheritance, that then, brethren and sisters, is, as we rightly know, the Kingdom. The Jubilee, the year of Jubilee is the millennial age, the time of blessing, the time of the restoration of God's people fully to their land, not like they're there now in iniquity, but when God shall have given them that new heart and established with him his new covenant, so that they are again the head of the nations and not the tail. The Jubilee is a time of restoration, of regeneration for the earth, when it will be spring-cleaned of all the wickedness with which now it is full and filled instead with righteousness and those things that glorify God rather than that grieve him. But if we labor for that time, brethren and sisters, there can be at the present at least no relaxation in our fight. Until the land has its Sabbath, we cannot relax, we cannot let go our guard. We see that again in the experience of Israel and Joshua. Just come back for a moment quickly to Joshua chapter 9, where you will recall a little incident that drives home the importance of this lesson. It's not one battle, is it? We don't overcome sin and then find that we have our rest. We don't fight one battle against sin and then have done forever, do we, brethren and sisters? Again, we said it the other day, it's dead but it won't lie down. It keeps coming back. It's the sustained campaign. And it looks rather from Joshua 9 and the incident of the Gibeonites as though Joshua and Israel relaxed just that little bit too soon. It was common sense, wasn't it? They asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord, the record says. But, well, you didn't need to. I mean, you could see that these fellows had come from a long way. You could see that these guys were genuine. Their wine skins were cracked and their bread was moldy. You didn't need to ask God. It was common sense that they'd come on a tremendously long journey, these guys. You didn't need to ask God about that. It was plain as a pike staff. I think, brethren and sisters, it should always ring alarm bells with us whenever anyone says it's common sense. That's just the trouble with it, isn't it? Common sense is not godly sense. And here it's quite evident, isn't it, from the result of this encounter between Israel and the Gibeonites that Israel sinned. Joshua made a mistake. They asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. Now, it's very easy to say that. It's very easy for us to say, well, they should have prayed about it. Of course they should have prayed about it. The record says so. But how often you and I fail in exactly the same way, brethren and sisters, don't we? Just the same way. The upshot of this incident is this. Where God has commanded destruction, confederacy is sin. Just note that. It's absolutely true in our own natures and our own lives. Where God has commanded, brethren and sisters, that we cut it out, we circumcise the flesh, we cut it off from our hearts and our lives, then any attempt to paper over the cracks, to keep a foot in both camps, to live with it, to serve God and mammon, you can put it how you like, but it amounts to confederacy, and it is sin. There is no getting away from it. Where God has commanded its destruction, living alongside it is wrong. That's the lesson of Joshua chapter 9, and it's a frightening one, brethren and sisters. It reminds us of the dangers again, doesn't it, of being unequally yoked. That's not just a phrase that applies in marriage. It applies in a host of other circumstances as well. Perhaps sadly sometimes we've tended to apply it only to marriage, but it applies in business with business partners. Their aims are quite different from the aims that we should have, who have laid upon us in the New Testament the obligation, brethren and sisters, of working in order to earn money, in order that we might assist our brethren, help one another. That's what our material resources are for. That's what our New Testament says, Ephesians 4 says it very plainly. We are to labour with our hands, working in order to have, to help our brethren and sisters. So our aims are quite different. Whether it's the marriage, whether it's the home, whether it's the business, whatever it is, we can so easily be unequally yoked with others, unless we are aware of the dangers there. The full cup needs a steady hand, one right of put. I like that expression, brethren and sisters. It's absolutely true, isn't it? The fuller the cup, the steadier the hand required to get it to the mouth without spilling a drop. And our cup is full, isn't it? It's overflowing with the blessings and the privileges that God has given us. And it's exactly then that we are at our most vulnerable. Isn't that so? Pride comes before a fall. It's just, brethren and sisters, when things are going so swimmingly as they were here for Joshua and Israel. That's when we're most vulnerable. That's when we're at our weakest. Gibeon caught Joshua off guard. That's the point, isn't it? Easy for us to say with hindsight and the benefit of the record what Joshua and the elders should have done, but do we do it? Do we pray about every issue in our life? There's nothing that should be left to common sense, brethren and sisters. It is godly sense that is required. And you know how when they reached the land, the dynamism went out of Israel's life, didn't it? You know how in Judges 1 there is that sad downwards retrogression. You can't call it progression, can you? Retrogression. As Israel slipped further and further into the hands of the Canaanites, whom they'd been commanded to destroy, they were happy to accept confederacy. The reason was, quite simply, brethren and sisters, that now they had reached the land, they had reached their rest, in a sense, God had given them rest from all their enemies around about them, as all those passages in Joshua say. And you had to work to grow the food, and you had to clothe the kids, and you had to do umpteen other things, brethren and sisters, which just crowded out the things of God. Nothing wrong with any of those things of themselves, just that they did not leave time for God and the ways of God. That's the warning, isn't it? That we just become so busy, so taken up with ordinary everyday life, not necessarily sinful things at all, just ordinary everyday things. That's why the Lord said, as the days of Noah were, He didn't talk about the violence of Noah's day, though we know that existed. He didn't talk about the corruption of Noah's day, though Genesis 6 highlights that. He talked about the ordinary everyday things of life, the eating, the drinking, the buying, the selling, the building, the planting, and the fact that these things crowded out the knowledge of God. The dynamism had gone, brethren and sisters, from Israel in Judges Chapter 1, and there is every danger and every possibility that having attained to the rest in Christ with which you and I are blessed, a cup that runneth over, our hands might not be steady sufficiently. We might attempt confederacy. We might allow those things to crowd out the knowledge and the service of God. So, brethren and sisters, we come to the end of these excitations, drawn from the idea of rest and release and restoration and that very acceptable year of Jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord. We have seen so many dangers and so many opportunities and blessings, too. The difficulty that I have now is how to wind up, I suppose, how to drive home these lessons. We all agree with what's been said. I don't pretend that I have said anything new or different. Perhaps, brethren and sisters, in attempting to drive these things home, because that's what's important, isn't it? What difference are these things going to make to our lives, to my life, when we've gone away from Bible school? How are we going to ensure that we put these things into practice? How are we going to ensure that we don't leave them here, that we carry them with us and we make the changes to our daily lives? Maybe I can ask you for a moment to indulge in a little bit of role reversal. Let's suppose that I was down there and you were up here. Now, I know that some of you wouldn't want to be here at any price. That's okay. Some of you would want to be here, and you could do a very much better job than I've done. That's okay, too. But just imagine, brethren and sisters, how would you do it? How would you go about driving home the lessons in a way that brethren and sisters would take them away with them, in a way that they would stick and we'd all remember them and actually act upon them and do them that we wouldn't forget, as we always forget? Can I ask you, how would you do it if you were up here? How would you drive home these lessons? What would you say in order that brethren and sisters would be so impressed by these things that they'd never, never forget them? Because that's the answer. That's what you have to do, each of us for himself and herself. You see, brethren and sisters, the sad thing is, I know, as you know, that splendid though this week has been that we've enjoyed together, there are some of us here who will not be there in the Kingdom of God. That's an awful thing to say, isn't it? But we know it's right. The Lord says that the love of many will wax cold, that faith will grow dim. In fact, he asked whether he'll find faith in the earth at his return, the faith of the parable that he spoke at the beginning of Luke 18, the faith that goes on crying to him in a time of trial and adversity. We shan't prove Jesus wrong, brethren and sisters. He will be right, the love of many will wax cold, and there are some of us who are here now who will not be there in the Kingdom of God. Will it be me? I don't know. I do know this, brethren and sisters, that it's quite wrong to be afraid of the judgment. We should never be afraid of the judgment. Perfect love casts out all fear, and more than anything else, more even than we ourselves desire it, God wants us there. He wants every one of us in his Kingdom. So what's going to stop it? What is there that can hinder us? He who has not withheld even his only Son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? He has given us all the things that are necessary, brethren and sisters. And all he wants is that you and I be there. Brother, sister, please be there. Be there.