THE JUBILEE TRUMPET
Jim Gray
Leviticus 25: 8-11 (to “unto you”); Mark 1: 1-3; 16: 19, 20; Romans 1: 1-4; 16: 25-57
What was in my heart to speak about was the blowing of trumpets and particularly one trumpet. You get the blowing of trumpets in Numbers chapter 10, and it is for various reasons. The one I want to speak about is the jubilee, the blowing of trumpets for the jubilee in Leviticus 25. You know, young friend, it must have been a great day in an Israelitish young person’s history – I am speaking literally here of the day in the life of an Israelite. One day in the life on an Israelite was the beginning of the fiftieth year. The day came about when this blowing of the trumpet was sounded. It was a great day. If their parents had got into problems or into debt, everything was eliminated on the day of jubilee. If they had to give up their homestead or their farm because they had got into debt and another had taken it over, when it came to the year of the jubilee, they all went back to their possessions, everything. What a day that was! There would be joy and happiness in every family in Israel because they had gone back to the old homestead, back to the farm. They would go back to take it over again and start a new life, and it was all on the basis of the work of atonement. In Israel’s history the day of atonement was a great day for them because their sins were atoned for, taken away, in the two goats – that is in Leviticus chapter 16. One of the goats was slain, the bearer of sins, typically speaking of Christ; the other one went into the land of forgetfulness. So God went on with them for another year; their sins were forgiven, and on the same day every fiftieth year, they could get into the land of their possessions. If they had forfeited their right to their farm, they could go back to it. Nobody could stand in the way of their inheritance.
Another thing God had in mind was the millennium. Israel is back in their land today and they are fighting for it. I am not giving an address on Israel, but just bear with me. He is not recognising the nations so they are having to fight for it, but the day will come when Christ comes and they will go into their possessions. That is the year of jubilee, the millennial year, when Christ comes, when He appears, takes up Israel’s cause again and they will recognise Him as the One whom they pierced. They will see the marks in His hands and the mark in His side. They will say that is the Nazarene we crucified. What a time for them! It says in Zechariah that the families will weep and mourn family by family (ch 12: 12-14), deeply disturbed, deeply wrought in by the Spirit of God, that they had crucified their Messiah. When He comes back, He will make way for Israel getting into their land. There will be no problem with the West Bank. Everything will be set in order and the nations will be around Israel too. They will be around Israel and they will get blessing (see Deut 32: 8). God’s mind was that the nations should be around Israel and get a blessing. Well, that is the year of jubilee in the Israelitish setting.
But I want to speak about it to you from the Christian point of view. That is why I read in Mark’s gospel. It was a wonderful day when the Son of God came on to view. I took this up because I think you get two men here who sounded the trumpet of jubilee: one was John the Baptist, a messenger sent before His face, and the other was Mark. Mark takes up the trumpet after John the Baptist has left the scene. What a day it was! What a day it was for Israel: “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. What a day for Israel! What a day for the world when Christ was born and when He reached manhood! “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. God is moving to liberate the whole race, the whole race of mankind. No matter what colour our skin is or what blood we have, God is going to liberate the whole race of mankind and He is beginning here with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, moving in power. That trumpet was not only a time of joy for the prisoners, but it was a time of fear for the enemy. Christ faces the devil out in this book here in a few verses (vv. 12,13), where it says, “And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan”. The Lord bound the strong man. How the devil must have feared that blessed Man, the Lord Jesus Christ! He bound the strong man. He was going to plunder his goods (see Mark 3: 27). He is desiring to plunder his goods tonight in this gospel preaching, liberate persons, set them free from bondage, from sin and lawlessness, set them free from that, and make them “bondmen to God”, Rom. 6: 22. That is what is in mind. The Son of God is going forth in power here and what a power He had! Just read through Mark’s gospel. He met the man who had the unclean spirit, “what have we to do with thee, Jesus, Nazarene?” (v.24). He liberated him from the power of the devil, a sample of what He was about to do. In verse 40 you find a leprous man, a man in type bound and tied under the bondage of sin. He liberates him and sets him free. In chapter 3 you find a man with a withered hand. The Lord says, “Stretch out thy hand” (v.5) and He made it as strong as the other. Liberating persons, setting them free, that was the life of the Son of God.
Then there is the great day of atonement – you find it in chapter 15 of the book. Mark brings it out in its sobriety, the giving of that cry of Christ on the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (v.34). Why had God to forsake Christ? He took upon Himself all the liabilities. If the Israelite has to come into his possession, into his inheritance, someone had to pay the liability. Christ did it. If we have to be liberated from the snare of the devil and set free for the will of God, Christ has to pay the penalty and He paid it on the cross and He paid it in the price of His precious blood. The Lord Jesus Christ was made sin. “Him who knew not sin … made sin”, 2 Cor 5: 21. Who can fathom the depth of that statement, “made sin”? The spotless, heavenly Man, sin apart, took upon Himself, vicariously, what was due to God and the liability of fallen man, and He bore the wrath of God and exhausted it. The wrath of God revealed from heaven was revealed at the cross.
And then He “bore the sin of many”, Isa 53: 12. Now, do you come into that class? He bore my sins. I can say that. I cannot say it for you, but you can say it for yourself if you trust Christ as you Saviour. He became the Saviour of sinners, the One who can set you free in liberty, from the bondage of sin. The Lord Jesus went forward in the power of the Holy Spirit as anointed by God and on that cross He died; He was buried. Do you know what the burial of Christ means, young friend? It means that the man who sinned, that is you and I, our sinful history, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, ended in the death of Christ and His grave. Persons who trust Christ as their Saviour, their sins are gone, never to reappear. God has seen to it that they were left in the death of Christ. He had to be buried. It was a necessary part of the day of atonement. Atonement means covering. They had to be covered, and the death of Christ did that, and His burial. It says, “that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”, 1 Cor 15: 3,4. But He was raised in glory.
Well, the pathway of the Lord Jesus was a pathway that was straight. He met the enemy, defeated him, both in the wilderness and in the garden of Gethsemane and at the cross finally. He is a defeated foe. The Son of God annulled death and “him who has the might of death”, Heb 2: 14.
What a day it was when John the Baptist speaks about Him! What a day it was when Mark speaks about Him, because Christ had completed His course and yet he takes you back to the “beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. Mark says, I want to look at it again, look at it again, friend, look at the pathway, that holy pathway, sin apart. There is no generation after Christ in flesh and blood condition. “Who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth”, Acts 8: 33. That is not out of His death. I am not referring to that. I am referring to His life in flesh and blood. There was no generation after that. He was alone, unique, a Man out of heaven. He did not draw anything from Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit: “the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God”, Luke 1: 35. What a distinctive Person He was, who alone could present Himself by the eternal Spirit to take up the matters on the cross. That is Christ, the Son of God.
I should just refer to the end of Mark’s gospel. He “sat at the right hand of God”. What a place He took! “Sat at the right hand of God”, a place of power, and He is still interested in the glad tidings. It says there, “The Lord therefore, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God. And they, going forth, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs following upon it”. He is still active but He is in the place of power. Satan can do no more. There is a Man up there in power who is going to have the last word. Every enemy will be dealt with. Be assured of that! He will finally take the man of sin, represented by the prince of the revived Roman Empire, and the antichrist and cast them into the lake of fire. He will do that Himself. What power He has! He is going to subdue everything to Himself (see Phil 3: 21). The Lord Jesus is doing that. He is in the place of power that no one can interfere with. Meanwhile He is subduing persons by the glad tidings. What a Person! The very city that crucified Him was the first to hear the gospel. That is God coming out in grace. They crucified His Son, crucified the Son of God, yet He says the first city that is going to hear the glad tidings of release is Jerusalem. Thousands came to Christ – three thousand one time, five thousand another time – came to Christ. It was the day of release for Israel at that time.
It is the day of release for humanity in the western world – Paul here is writing in Romans 1 to the western world – the day of jubilee for the western world, addressed to Rome, the capital of an empire that lasted four hundred years and more, and into that empire came the gospel concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Into that city came that gospel. There were some few believers in it already and Paul writes this letter and he says it is for assurance for us. He says, Christ has been here, He has had His life here, He has suffered, He has died, He has been buried, He rose again and He is in heaven and the gospel is going out now to all mankind, persons like ourselves. What a day when the citadel of your heart is brought down in favour of Christ, when you open your heart’s gates and say, I surrender, surrender to Christ, and prove liberty. Well, this epistle tells you that it is “God’s glad tidings” and Paul says he is not ashamed of it. “It is God’s power to salvation”, (v.16). This gospel letter tells you how you can be set free from sin, first by the confession of your sins. What was your life before you came to Christ? A bondman of sin, a lawless person, bound up by sin, not able to look up to God at all, and then you get relief – that is chapter 6 of Romans – and become “bondmen to God” (v.22). Your head it not looking down when you are a bondman to God. When you are a bondman of sin, you are looking to the earth; you are earthly. When you are a bondman to God, you are looking up to the One who is your resource and whose servant you are, you become a servant of God, and you look up then. You can stand up and look up to God, whereas as a bondman of sin you are grovelling, looking down to the earth. Your pleasures are all down here, no joys except earthly joys, and there may be temporary pleasures in sin, but they are passing; but when you get your relief, you have a heavenly outlook. You know, the only creature that God made to look up was man. All the other creatures look down. Man looked up; he looked up to his Creator; now, you are looking up to your Saviour God. What a moment that is!
Then you find out more than that. You find out, yes, I am Christ’s yes, I am saved, I am a bondman to God, but I need power. I cannot go through the wilderness here in my own strength; I need power. Where am I going to get that power? God says, I will give you that power. I have forgiven you your sins – that is one transaction with God, wonderful one! – then you say, I need power. In chapter 7 of Romans you find you have no power. You cannot do what you desire to do. You find in yourself that sin is still there in the flesh. I still have evil thoughts but I do not want to express them. I still have evil intentions, but I do not want to express evil intentions. I want to be here for God and what does He do? He says, I will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 8 you have power: “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (v.14). We are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus. That is fundamental. Sons need power and you get that power in the Spirit: “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. You become sons characteristically in being led by the Spirit. What a day! Have you proved these things in your history, young friend? Do you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you? Ask then for the holy Spirit! Ask God for it! It means you are dependent on Him. You realise, I cannot go through in my own strength. He may have given you the Spirit and you are not just too sure, but if you ask Him for it, He is very pleased because He says, here is a person who feels he needs strength for the wilderness way, needs strength for life and also for enjoyment. The spirit of God is not only with you in conflict but He brings you into rest. The Spirit of God is needed to enjoy your Christianity. The Spirit of God is your link with Man in the glory. It is a real and living system. The Lord Jesus in conversion has imparted light to you. You have been quickened into life. You have a link with Him then as Saviour and, as having received the Holy Spirit, you have a link with Him livingly. Sometimes we use the word ‘organic’ and it is maybe not always understood, but it means living. You have a living link with Christ. Christianity is real and living. Do you know it? Every believer should know it. Now, I ask you again, have you got that link? Do you know Christ as Saviour? Thank God if you do! Do you have the Holy Spirit? Ask God for the Holy Spirit!
Well, that is Romans and then in the end it says, “Now to him that is able to establish you” – that is what I have been speaking about. “Now to him that is able to establish you, according to my glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, as to which silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures, according to commandment of the eternal God”. Those prophetic scriptures, as I understand it, are New Testament scriptures. And what we have in our hand in the New Testament discloses to us the truth of the mystery. Do you know anything about the truth of the mystery, friend? You get established morally in the glad tidings which I have been speaking about in the Roman epistle. Here he whets our appetite. There is something else: there is the truth of the mystery. What is the truth of the mystery? The body, what a thing! Every believer is bound up together by the Spirit in what scripture calls the body of Christ, and that body has a link with Christ by the Spirit. It is a collective thought. It involves others. I am not just myself. Do you know, young friend, the truth of the body is inviolate? By that I mean, it is not subject to breakdown. In the public body in Christendom, saints have been scattered; there are many denominations and many groups; that is public; that is sects. But the truth of the body remains and everyone who knows the forgiveness of sins and has the Spirit of God indwelling them is a member of the body of Christ. That is in scripture, treasured things; so if you meet a believer, you have a link organically in Christ with them, no matter what the divisions are – and maybe we are not all agreed in the same thoughts – but basically you have a link organically in Christ by the Spirit because you belong to the body of Christ. I cannot go into the truth of the body this evening and open up other matters in other epistles, but Paul whets our appetite as to the mystery. He said, “as to which silence has been kept”. It was not disclosed in the Old Testament. It is a new thought. The mystery, of course, also includes the assembly, that vessel that is for His heart, personally for Christ’s heart. It is a feminine thought, but I do not go into that, I just pass it on briefly.
And then he says, “Now to him that is able to establish you … the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever, Amen”. It all goes back to God. You know, friend, there is a mind that is greater than the human mind. That is God, the supreme Being. He is infinite, but His mind has come into expression in a manner that is within the range of human beings. God always existed in Trinity. There were always three Persons in the Godhead. Scripture discloses that in the New Testament, but the relationships they came into as Father, Son and Holy Spirit were new and taken when Christ was born. “Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee”, Heb. 1: 5. The revelation of God in Father, Son and Holy Spirit is for human hearts and human minds, persons that know Christ as their Saviour, have the gift of the Holy Spirit, are equal to coming into an understanding of the revelation of God in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May it be your portion as a believer in the Lord Jesus, and all of us, to grow in the knowledge of these things and experience an appreciation of Him. If you do not know Christ as you Saviour, young friend, find Him tonight! May the Lord bless the word!
EDINBURGH
1 February 2004