Now, the part of the chapter that I would like to focus on this morning is beginning
in verse number 16 where the Bible reads,
Thus saith the Lord God, If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance
thereof shall be his sons.
It shall be their possession by inheritance.
But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his
to the year of liberty.
After it shall return to the prince, but his inheritance shall be his sons for them.
Moreover, the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust
them out of their possession.
But he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession, that my people be not
scattered, every man from his possession.
Now, what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of what the Bible calls here
in verse 17, the year of liberty, but this is referred to in Leviticus 25 as the year
of Jubilee.
Now go if you would to Leviticus chapter number 25.
But here in this passage in Ezekiel 46, 16 through 18, God explains the importance of
each person's inheritance, of their possession of the land that belongs to them and how important
it is to make sure that rulers don't come in and take it away from them, that the government
doesn't come in and take it away and give it to their friends and give it to their servants
and so forth, but that every man's possession and his inheritance is sacred unto him and
belongs unto him.
Now we didn't have time to look at it, but in the next chapter in Ezekiel 47, God even
talks about the strangers who sojourn among the children of Israel, how they would get
an inheritance in whatever tribe they lived among, they would inherit with that tribe.
And so every person who lived in the nation of Israel back in the Old Testament, whether
they were the son of a stranger or whether they were a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, those who were circumcised and obeying the Lord and living in the land, they had
a right to a certain inheritance or a certain piece of land within Israel.
Now in Leviticus 25, we see in great detail the subject of the year of Jubilee or the
year of liberty and I want to explain to you why this was such an important law of the
Old Testament and there are a lot of things that we could learn from it today.
Now look if you would at verse number 8 of Leviticus chapter 25, it says, Thou shalt
number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and the space of
the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month,
in the day of atonement, shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto
all the inhabitants thereof.
It shall be a Jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession.
That's what we saw in chapter 46 of Ezekiel.
Every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
A Jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you, ye shall not sow, neither reap that which
groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undress.
Now here's the thing.
I'm 33 years old.
I grew up in Baptist churches my whole life.
I have never heard a sermon in my entire life on the year of Jubilee, or any preaching that
explained this concept of the year of Jubilee, and not only that, I've read all types of
political books and political tracts and materials and philosophies of all different sides of
the political spectrum.
And I've never seen anyone make reference unto the year of Jubilee as being something
that would be a good idea, or something to be incorporated in economic or political theory.
It's just something that people just don't talk about.
And you just don't hear about it.
But actually it is such a wise statute that God put in the Bible, and it actually is something
that would be great if we had it in place today, but yet it's something that's completely
ignored.
Now what's interesting is that the passage that I just read to you about the year of
Jubilee, one little part of that is actually inscribed at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.
Has anybody ever been there to Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell with the big crack in it?
Has anybody seen it?
All right.
Richard Miller and I have seen it, all right, because he's from that part of the world.
But on the Liberty Bell there, they have an inscription that says from verse 10, if you
want to look at verse 10, it just says this, proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto
all the inhabitants thereof.
That's the part that's on the Liberty Bell.
And not only that, but the Liberty Bell was even built in honor of the 50 year anniversary
of William Penn's charter of privileges, which was Pennsylvania's original.
So basically it had been 50 years since William Penn had had that charter in Pennsylvania,
so they took a scripture about the Jubilee, the 50 year Jubilee, and they put it on the
Liberty Bell where it says, you know, proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the
inhabitants.
And that quote is a famous quote and you'll see that quote everywhere, but yet this idea
of the Jubilee has been completely forgotten.
And this morning I'm going to explain to you what it is and what it meant.
Now this is something where I don't even know how long the children of Israel even
obeyed this, because if you read the Bible, there's no mention of them ever obeying it.
Now I'm assuming that they at least obeyed it in the early days, you'd think, but there's
no mention of them ever doing it.
Now we know for a fact that around the time of King Saul and King David, they completely
stopped doing the Sabbaths of years altogether.
They completely ignored it.
In the period of Judges, they did rest the land every seven years like they were supposed
to.
But by the time we get into the times of the kings, they completely ignored it about the
space of 400 and some years, and Jeremiah explains that.
But what is the year of Jubilee?
Well let me just give it to you in a nutshell real quick.
Basically what the year of Jubilee was, every 50 years there would be like a reset button
that would be pushed, where anybody who owed any debt, their debt was forgiven.
It was gone.
You're like, wow, this sounds great.
Where has this thing been all my life?
That's what I'm saying, people.
This is a great thing.
Every 50 years, all debts go to zero.
Everything just resets and reboots.
Not only that, but every person goes back to the land of their inheritance.
Because there was a certain land that is their ancestral land or their family land, and they
might have become poor and fallen on hard times and had to sell the farm as it were.
But every 50 years, that land would revert back to them, their homeland.
Not only that, everyone who had sold themselves into slavery, sold themselves into indentured
servitude and had to work off a debt and was someone else's slave, they would all be freed
every 50 years.
This was a time of great rejoicing.
They would sound a trumpet and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants
thereof and everyone would go free, the servants would go free, all debts are forgiven and
everybody just kind of starts over as it were.
It's just a brand new start and a reset button.
It sounds great to me.
I think it's wonderful and it was an exciting time.
And also it was a year of rest because every seven years they weren't supposed to farm
the land.
The reason for that was to let the land rest because if you just keep farming the land
year after year, you deplete it of nutrients.
So they were supposed to let the land go wild once every seven years.
But then every seven sevens, 49 years would go by, then they'd have a 50th additional
year of rest that was called the Jubilee.
Now not to say that no one would do any work during that year, but they just wouldn't plant
or harvest any crops.
They would just eat that which grew wildly.
They would just go out in the field and eat what's there and they would just live off
the land as it were for that 50th year.
And it was a time for everybody to return to their inheritance, start over, get a clean
start, etc.
And you say, what's the point of having that?
And a lot of people would look at this and be offended by that.
You know, if somebody owes me money, they better pay that money, you know, you better
pay off that loan, you better pay off that mortgage and this and that.
And you know, private property and blah, blah, blah.
But you know, here's the problem with that.
If you give people just complete unfettered private property rights where basically people
can just buy up as much property as they want and pass it down onto their children, what's
going to happen is that eventually the whole land is going to become enslaved.
And this is what we know as feudalism, where one person owns a whole bunch of land called
the landlord and then everybody who lives on that land has to follow his rules and they're
all paying rent and they're all his serfs, okay.
This is a bad system that enslaves people.
God's system is actually a perfect system and let me explain to you a few reasons why
it's a perfect system.
Because first of all, it stops all of the wealth being accumulated in just a few people's
hands.
Because nobody can just sit there and just amass huge amounts of wealth for hundreds
of years, passing it down to their children and their children's children and children
and just owning everything.
Imagine if we were to just say, because there are a lot of people that call themselves libertarians,
okay.
And you know, I agree with a lot of libertarianism, but a lot of libertarians, they just want
to have just a complete, complete anarchy as far as no government, but they want to
respect property rights.
You know, it's important private property.
But the problem with that is, where if you just say, well, complete property rights and
people can do whatever they want on their property, what will happen is you have people
that are multimillionaires and multibillionaires.
And what they could do, they could just buy the whole state of Arizona, for example.
You know, they just have so much money, they just buy everything and then say, okay, well,
I own all this.
Well, you who live here are on my property now, you're going to pay rent to me.
So instead of having the government taxing you, you just have a private individual taxing
you.
You know, you're paying rent and instead of having a government giving you all their rules,
you have a landlord that has all kinds of, look, I've had the landlord from hell when
I lived in Indiana.
This guy was insane.
And this guy was worse than any government, okay.
This guy who rented out, and it was the only time I ever rented a house, it was a really
bad experience.
I mean, this guy, he wrote all this stuff, just reading the contract, you can tell the
guy's a psycho.
He says if any pet is found on the property, he will kill it immediately.
No questions asked.
He will exterminate any dog or cat that he finds and this and that.
He has in the contract, he tells you what to clean the floor with, what to clean the
toilet with, what to clean the sink with.
He says you must use these brands.
I mean, this guy was crazy.
And he was, we were constantly having a problem where he thought that he could just let himself
into the house whenever.
It's like, no, no, no, we're renting this from you, so for now it belongs to us.
This isn't your house.
You don't just walk in.
You know, we're renting it from you.
So this guy was crazy.
But look, there have been abusive landlords all throughout history.
And in futile times, all you have to do is read about it in Europe where you have these
landlords that just own these huge areas of land and everybody has to obey them and pay
them and whatever.
So this year of Jubilee would stop that from happening.
You see, if you stop, and let me just, let me read to you some of this from the chapter
so that you can understand it a little bit.
But it says in Leviticus 25 verse 12, for it is the Jubilee, it shall be holy unto
you.
You shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
In the year of this Jubilee, you shall return every man unto his possession.
And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or bias ought of thy neighbor's hand, ye
shall not oppress one another.
According to the number of years after the Jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbor.
And according unto the number of years of the fruits, he shall sell unto thee.
According to the multitude of years, thou shalt increase the price thereof.
And according to the fewness of years, thou shalt diminish the price of it.
For according to the number of the years of the fruits, doth he sell unto thee.
What does that mean?
He's saying, look, the year of Jubilee happens every 50 years.
So if you buy land two years before the Jubilee, you know you're only getting it for two years.
So you're going to pay a much lower price.
If you're buying that land 40 years before the next Jubilee, you're going to pay a high
price because you get to keep that land for the next 40 years.
But you don't get to keep it forever.
The only thing you get to keep for forever is your inheritance.
And you say, well, what's your inheritance?
It's the land that you actually live on and use.
Where you actually live, not just buying other people's land and other people's stuff.
Now go if you would, stick your finger in Leviticus 25, but flip over if you would to
Joshua chapter 17.
Joshua chapter number 17.
And I'm going to take you back in time a little bit here to when the people were inheriting
the land.
Because let's say they're in the land and the Jubilee is happening every 50 years.
But let's go back to when they actually inherit the land.
And when they actually are giving out the inheritance to people in the first place.
Look at Joshua 17 verse 14.
It says, And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me
but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people for as much as the Lord
hath blessed me hitherto?
And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country,
and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Parisites and of the giants, if Mount
Ephraim be too narrow for thee.
And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites
that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Beth
Sheehan and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel.
And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou
art a great people, and hast great power.
Thou shalt not have one lot only, but the mountains shall be thine, for it is a wood,
and thou shalt cut it down, and the outgoings of it shall be thine, for thou shalt drive
out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be struck.
And what I want to point out here is that it was the children of Israel's responsibility
to go in and prepare the land and make it ready for use.
It's a forest.
There are a bunch of trees there.
It was their job to go in and cut down the trees, drive out the enemy, and parcel off
that land to be used by them and to be lived on by them.
Now this reminds me a little bit of, in the earlier time in our country, the homesteaders,
the homestead act.
We had something like this in America where you could just go and claim land for yourself
and homestead it, but there were certain rules about homesteading land.
These were the rules.
You had to build a fence around it, and you had to use it, meaning, you know, you have
to cut down trees and plant things, you know, you have to make some good use of the land,
and you had to build a house on it, and you had to live there for at least six months
out of the year.
So you had to build a fence, use the land, tame the land, build a house, and live there
for at least six months out of the year, and if you did that for at least ten years then
that would become your land.
That land would become your inheritance and your possession.
You say, why do you have to build a fence around it?
Why do you have to live there?
Why do you have to do something with it?
You know, why do you, because there's no point in somebody just owning huge amounts of land
that they don't use where they don't live except to just abuse other people, to just
own huge gigantic amounts of land and have everybody working on it as your slave and
your serf.
You know, it's better if everybody just has their own land.
Now look, the problem is, you say, well you sound like a hippie or a communist or something,
but here's the difference though.
The hippie or the communist is going to basically want me to give free stuff to people and give
them my money and basically they don't work, they just receive everything.
You know, in welfare or whatever.
But here's the thing, God had no welfare plan.
But you know what God did allow people to do?
He allowed people to have a chance to work and survive and do something with their lives.
Because even the poorest person in the land would at least inherit a piece of land.
Now look, they had to go out and work it, they had to go out and till it, they had to
go out and make something grow, they had to cut down trees and work by the sweat of
their face six days a week, but at least they had the opportunity to work and build something
and make something of themselves and not just be a slave for the rest of their life.
And even if they goofed it up, their children don't have to grow up, you know, in bondage
and servitude because every 50 years that reset button was pushed and everybody gets
a new start, everybody gets a chance.
And then of course God also cared for the poor by making a law that said you could walk
through anybody's field and eat whatever you can pick.
But you're not allowed to bring any kind of a container.
You can't bring a backpack and fill it up with fruits and vegetables, you can't bring
a wheelbarrow, but whatever you could just take in your hand, you could eat and survive.
There's a way for the poor people to live.
They could go into the apple orchard and pick apples and eat them, as long as they don't
just harvest a bushel of apples.
And so these are the ways that God had set forth.
And listen to me, the law of the Lord is perfect, the Bible says.
So we can sit there and say, well, our American, Democratic, you know, Republican, capitalistic,
whatever system is the perfect system.
No, this is the perfect system.
This is the perfect system.
Where, yes, there's private property, yes, there's inheritance, but there's a limit on
how much wealth someone could amass in the form of land and make everybody else a slave,
because every 50 years it all goes back to where everybody owns the same amount of land.
Every 50 years everybody owns the same thing, okay.
Now, you know, they might, they're going to have different amounts of gold and silver
and fruits and vegetables, but at least they all own the same land.
So this was a way of God keeping it from where you just get an ultra-rich ruling class that
owns everything, and feudalism where all the serfs are just paying rent, they can never
get ahead, they can never have opportunities because they don't have any land or anything
and they're enslaved.
So it's really a great system, it's very interesting.
Now look at verse 23, it says, the land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine,
for ye are strangers and sojourners with me, and in all the land of your possession ye
shall grant a redemption for the land.
If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of
his kin, kin or his relatives, come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother
sold.
And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it, then let him
count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold
it, that he may return unto his possessions.
This is saying, you know, you get poor, you sell the farm, and then later you had the
opportunity to buy it back, even before the jubilee.
But when the jubilee comes you just get it back for free, because that's the end of it.
If a man sell a dwelling, look at this in verse 29, if a man sell a dwelling house in
a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold, within a full
year may he redeem it, and if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the
house that is in the walled city shall be established forever to him that bought it
throughout his generations.
It shall not go out in the jubilee, but the houses of the villages which have no wall
round about them shall be counted as the fields in the country, they may be redeemed,
and they shall go out in the jubilee.
What's he saying?
He's saying this doesn't go for like apartments and houses inside of a walled city in the
metro center.
There's no jubilee for them.
So if you buy dwellings inside the city, those are just perpetually, you could buy as many
of those as you want, okay.
But when it comes to all the fields and all the unwalled villages, which is the vast majority
of the land, that stuff goes out in the year of jubilee every 50 years.
The stuff in the cities is the exception to that rule.
And then he talks about how the cities of the Levites are a different story.
I don't want to get too complicated this morning, but you know, he talks about in verse 39,
look at verse 39, we'll look at this lastly in chapter 25, it says, and if thy brother
that dwelleth by thee be waxed and poor and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him
to serve as a bondservant but as an hired servant and as a sojourner.
He shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee and then shall he
depart from thee, both he and his children with him and shall return unto his own family
and under the possession of his father shall he return.
For they are my servants which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.
They shall not be sold as bondmen.
Thou shall not rule over him with rigor but shalt fear thy God.
So this is really a beautiful thing.
You have to imagine yourself in the position where, you know, you fall on hard times, you
sell everything, you don't have any land, you're going to be looking forward to that
year of jubilee because when that year of jubilee comes, you get a fresh, clean start.
Doesn't mean you're not going to have to work for it, but at least you have your land back,
your house back, and you can start over and do it again and do a good job.
Now let's talk about some of the spiritual applications of this.
Go to Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter number 8.
First of all I want to just very clearly say to you that this system and all of the systems
of the Old Testament law of the children of Israel, we would do well in America to enact
all of these.
I mean why not?
I mean if God's wisdom is perfect and his system is perfect, any time we look at how
the Lord governed people and his rules, they would always be better than the rules we have
in place now.
What happens now when people inherit stuff from generation to generation?
Well yes the wealth can accumulate in a few hands, but not only that the government takes
huge amounts of it and it builds up the real ruling class which is the government.
And of course our government is out of control, way out of bounds, very powerful, huge overarching
government.
But then there are others who would say, oh well let's go to the other extreme and say
you know let's just have total privatization, total private property, but without the year
of Jubilee that could lead us into another type of enslavement where it's not a government
enslavement but we would be enslaved onto bankers and you know multi-billionaires who
would control us using privatized means.
So God's system is really the only system that would actually work and actually did
work for the children of Israel where you have yes private property, yes everybody's
got an inheritance, but there's a limit on what you can inherit.
Basically what you can end up inheriting forever is what you can actually use and live in.
Just that area of land that is what you personally actually use and live in, that is your inheritance.
Anything that you buy beyond that you can own it for up to 50 years, but there's a limit
where it doesn't all just go into a few people's hands and every 50 years that reset button
is pushed and everybody goes back to owning the same amount of land.
It's a great system.
Now what's interesting though is that the Jubilee, the significant thing about it was
that a trumpet was blown.
They would sound a trumpet and proclaim liberty throughout all the land.
Well there's an incident that's coming in the future where a trumpet's going to sound
which would be what we call the rapture or the first resurrection.
Christ is going to come in the clouds and a trumpet is going to sound and that is exactly
what the trumpet of the Jubilee pictures.
It pictures the second coming of Christ when the trumpet sounds and we're caught up together
with him.
Let me show you that in the Bible.
It says in Romans 8 because remember the year of Jubilee, what was the year of Jubilee called
in Ezekiel?
The year of what?
The year of liberty.
He said in Ezekiel the year of liberty and Leviticus is called the year of Jubilee.
Look at Romans 8 21.
It says because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage, bondage is
the opposite of liberty, from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God.
Now let's see what God's talking about when he talks about the glorious liberty.
Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now and not only they but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the spirit even we
ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of
our body.
So what God's teaching here is that the glorious liberty of the children of God that we're
waiting for when we're going to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glory
of liberty of the children of God.
That is going to be at the redemption of our body and what is the redemption of our body?
That's the rapture.
That's when our body is resurrected.
That's when our body is changed.
The Bible says we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the
twinkling of an eye, the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.
Did you hear that?
The dead shall be raised incorruptible.
Remember he's going to deliver us from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty
of the children of God.
So if we put together Leviticus 25, Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15 it becomes clear that
the trumpet of Jubilee sounding was a picture of that day when the trumpet will sound and
we will be either resurrected or those of us who are alive and remain will be changed
in a moment in twinkling of an eye.
Why is that the glorious liberty of the children of God?
Let me show you a few reasons.
First of all you don't have to turn back there but in Leviticus 25 this is what characterized
the Jubilee.
It said ye shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land and
to all the inhabitants thereof it shall be a Jubilee unto you and ye shall return every
man unto his possession and ye shall return every man unto his family.
What is that showing us?
You know at the rapture when we're caught up together with the Lord we're going to our
possession our inheritance because the Bible says we have an inheritance in the heavens
incorruptible.
And the Bible says that you know Jesus said let not your heart be troubled ye believe
in God believe also in me.
In my father's house are many mansions I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to
prepare a place for you says I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am
there ye may be also.
So when that trumpet of the Jubilee sounds at the second coming of Christ when he comes
in the clouds we're going to our inheritance in the heavens.
We are going to a place that is prepared for us and at the time of Jubilee it was a
great reunion of families because everyone would go back to their ancestral homelands
and they would go back to their families and if you think about it that's when we're going
to see our loved ones again that we've lost.
The Bible says that God would not have us to be ignorant of them which are asleep that
we sorrow not even as others which have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them.
He said comfort one another with these words you know one day we're going to get to see
our loved ones again that were saved those who are Christians will be able to be reunited
with our family our brothers and sisters in Christ and hopefully our literal brothers
and sisters if they are saved we will see them also as well at this great liberty of
the children of God.
It's the Jubilee it's liberty it's going home again it's being in your possession it's receiving
your inheritance.
All these things are connected now when the Bible talks about us at the rapture or at
that first resurrection being delivered from the bondage of corruption that's where we
basically get rid of this physical flesh body and receive a new spiritual body because Paul
said in Philippians 3 21 that he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself.
Now why is it that this body that we live in the flesh that we walk in is considered
the bondage of corruption.
Why is God saying that we don't have total liberty.
We're not really completely free until that day comes when the trumpet sounds I'll tell
you why.
Because we today living in the flesh commit sin and the Bible says that he that committed
sin is the servant of sin.
Now if you would go to John chapter 8 John chapter number 8.
Now here's the thing.
What we've learned so far today is that what some people consider liberty is not really
going to bring true liberty and freedom because some people would just say hey if we just
completely got the government out of the way and just privatize everything and just give
everyone just complete private property rights you know that everything will be fine.
But you know we kind of illustrated that no you actually need to have the year of Jubilee
in place in order to really safeguard liberty or else everyone's going to be a slave to
the person who has the most money and the most property who can buy everything and control
everything.
There was also a law in the Bible that people were never to be forced to sell their land.
Now you see how that could be a safeguard.
A guy comes in and says oh I just want to buy up all of Arizona because I have billions
of dollars.
People today who have billions of dollars.
But there was a rule that said you know what people don't have to sell.
Now in America we don't have that law.
In America people are forced to sell their property all the time.
It's called eminent domain where they come in and even the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution
says that it's OK for the government to take away people's land as long as they compensate
them for it.
That's even in the Bill of Rights.
Oh thank you for that right.
But in reality the Bible teaches that no one should ever have to sell their property if
they don't want to.
To keep it from accumulating in a few hands.
No one had, remember Naboth?
He didn't want to sell the vineyard to King Ahab, the government.
And King Ahab tried to force him to sell and he would not sell and he didn't have to sell
because the law of the land according to the Lord was you don't have to sell.
So what did he do?
He murdered Naboth.
And of course God punished him and his whole family as a result.
Where did I have you turn?
Chapter 8?
So all that political aspect of this or economic aspect of this kind of just shows us that
sometimes what we think liberty is or what our philosophy tells us liberty is or what
a politician or somebody's ideals tell us what liberty is, it might not really be true
liberty once it's carried out.
You know you ever see people where they elect someone and they think oh this guy's going
to fix everything and change everything but then oh wow this isn't what we expected.
So there's a deceptive liberty isn't there?
Where people think they're getting liberty and they're not because they didn't do it
through the ways of the Lord.
They didn't follow God's program.
Well it's not just that way with the government or with private property or with economics.
It's that way in our personal lives too.
The Bible teaches that false prophets will promise people liberty and actually they are
the servants of corruption.
How is that?
Because not only is there a false liberty promised unto us by politicians, there's also
a false liberty in our personal life where the devil tells us do whatever you want to
do and that is liberty in your life.
I mean isn't that what people think?
Hey I just want to be free.
I don't want to be in bondage.
I don't want people to tell me what to do.
I want to just do whatever I want.
If it feels good do it and they say that is liberty.
And today people will tell you that you know sodomy they say hey that's a liberty issue.
You know if you're going to be for freedom and liberty you need to be pro homo.
I mean aren't there people out there who say that?
You know and even abortion you know murdering the unborn.
They say hey it's the freedom of choice and I mean it sounds like it's just this liberty
concept of choice and freedom and liberty but look the devil promises a false liberty
that's not real.
Let's see what Jesus said about it in John chapter 8 verse 30.
As he spake these words many believed on him.
And by the way anybody who ever believed on Jesus it's because they heard the word.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Verse 31 then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him if you continue in my word
then are you my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free.
They answered him we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man.
How sayest thou ye shall be made free?
Jesus answered them verily verily I say unto you whosoever committed sin is the servant
of sin and the servant abideth not in the house forever but the son abideth forever.
If the son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed.
Now it's interesting because this scripture kind of alludes to Ezekiel 46 where we started
this morning.
Remember the scripture we read when we started about how if the prince gives gifts unto his
son it's his forever if it's from the inheritance but if he gives gifts unto the servants it's
only theirs until the year of Jubilee and then it's not theirs anymore.
So this is showing us that we're not just servants of Christ we're actually his sons.
According to Galatians chapter 4 and you don't have to turn there I'll turn there for you
this isn't in my notes.
But in Galatians 4 it says in verse 1 now I say that the heir as long as he is a child
differth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all but is under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father.
Even so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world but when the
fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Watch this and because ye are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts crying Abba father wherefore thou art no more a servant are you listening thou art
no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ.
So the Bible says we have a greater status with Jesus Christ than just being his servants
we're his sons and so we're going to inherit an inheritance that lasts forever an eternal
inheritance and God says we will abide in the house forever.
If you think of Psalm 23 what I'm showing you here is that these people said hey we've
never been in bondage to any man and Jesus said you are in bondage because you're living
a sinful life and if you live a sinful life you are the servant of sin.
Now when we reach that day of the trumpet sounding we're going to be totally free at
that point because we're not going to sin anymore because we're going to be delivered
from the flesh and we're going to be changed in a moment and twinkle of an eye.
So let me tell you this according to what we've learned from scripture the more sin
you have in your life the less free you are and the less sin you have in your life the
more liberty you have in your life.
That is what the Bible teaches that's what the Bible is saying I mean the true liberty
is when you're completely free of sin which will be when the trumpet sounds and no sooner
but those who are just the servants of sin those who are just living a life that is characterized
by sin they're in total bondage today.
Those who are alcoholic those who are drug users those who commit any number of sins
whether it's addiction to pornography addiction to gambling you know they're servants to sin
they couldn't even stop those things if they tried because they're addicted they're enslaved
they are not free or liberated in any sense to the degree that you obey the Lord you will
have freedom and the less you obey him the more enslaved to sin you're going to be.
Go to Romans 6 and I'm going to show you how you're going to serve one or the other you're
either going to serve the Lord or you're going to serve sin that's what the Bible teaches.
Romans chapter number 6.
Now there are people out there who call themselves a libertarian these atheistic libertarians
and they just to them their goal is just man we if we could just allow sin to abound
then we'll have freedom you know just let the homos abound and let every kind of iniquity
and filth abound but that doesn't bring freedom because just as in my personal life the more
sin I have the less freedom I'm going to have actually in a nation it's the same way the
more sin a nation has the less freedom it's going to have and in fact if you just look
at the curve of our nation as the morality in our nation has gone like this have you
noticed that freedom has gone like this right I mean if you were to graph it it would be
right together.
Freedom goes down as morality goes down and even the founders of our nation they said
you know this system of government will only work for a moral righteous people didn't they
say I mean if you've read the history you know that's what you know this will work for
a moral righteous people this system of government that gives a lot of liberty and freedom but
when people are wicked and godless then they end up having to be herded like cattle and
being enslaved by a big government why because animals need to be herded and when people
go away from the Lord's principles they start acting like animals and then you go to a school
system where you're taught that you are an evolved animal and so then you act like an
animal you think you're an animal and then guess what's going to happen next you're treated
like an animal I mean yeah you know you use an electric shock thing to make the cattle
do what you want it to do but that now they'll use that on people you know just to get you
to comply and to get you to do whatever and just shock you electrically shock you with
a taser just to get you to obey you know that why because that's what our country is turning
into because of sin my friend and you know what you think oh man if I go Tuesday isn't
isn't there an election going on a Tuesday am I right about that somebody help me out
is it this Tuesday or next Tuesday okay yeah you know why I don't care because I'm not
going to be there I don't care I'm going to do something else and I've been to church
where they say like if you don't vote you're not right with God okay chapter and verse
on that if you don't vote you can't complain if you don't vote you're not right with God
you know if you don't vote you're supporting Obama or whatever but you know what the bottom
line is going down there and voting on Tuesday is not going to fix our country for one reason
why is that all the candidates are the same that's one that's one big reason okay and
you know I'm not I don't have time to go into that none of them are for the biblical
principles that we believe in and uphold none of them so you know why would I go down and
just vote for the flavor of the month you know or whatever we did you know when the
government has their boot on your head it doesn't matter whether it's the right boot
or the left boot you know that's stepping on your head you know so you know but but
number two you have to understand is that what's really going to bring freedom to our
nation is if we get right with God because if we get right with God if we actually obey
God if the if the pastor forget the politicians if the pastors would actually start preaching
righteousness and holiness and if the Christians would start seeking after the Lord and cleaning
up their lives and living a godly life you know what God would do he would bless us because
when God sees people that are doing right he blesses them and when he looks down upon
those that are wicked and ungodly he punishes them and how does he punish them he brings
them into bondage and all throughout the history of Israel when they sinned they were put into
bondage and when they did right they were liberated and is it all through the book of
judges live a wicked life you go into slavery live a clean and godly life God gets you out
God sends a deliverer God sends a judge you know we're looking for some savior today that's
going to come in 2016 you know and save us from the course that our country is on right
but look God's not going to send us a savior like that because we're still in that phase
of judges where we're still worshiping other gods so God's not going to send us Othniel
God's not going to send Ehud you know God did send Barak but it was the wrong Barak
okay you know God's not going to send Gideon God's not going to send Samson God's not going
to send the deliverer until we get right with him so instead of worrying so much about
oh man if we could just get and it's always you know I was at this thing the other day
and these people are coming up to me handing me all kinds of brochures and telling me you
need to vote for the Republicans or we're all doomed and we're all going to be destroyed
if you don't vote for these Republicans you know and I'm you know because the Democrats
are destroying everything and everything I got and I basically just said you know I
said well you know I quit voting many years ago because and they're like no you know you
have to vote you know you're destroying America it's your fault you know and they're like
so I said okay I said motivate me to vote I said I'll vote if you motivate me you know
give me a reason to vote you know I said tell me who to vote for give me some give me some
motive and they're like oh you need to vote for Wendy this and Rebecca this and Barbara
that I'm just like oh man you're talking the wrong person like I don't even know who those
people are but you know what that's not that's not biblical yeah all these all these women
are going to come save us no they're not the Bible says that men are supposed to be in
leadership and in authority yeah I'm just like all right I knew I was asking the wrong
person you know but you know the Bible says it's a curse when when the Bible says that
women rule over you and children rule over you Isaiah chapter 3 maybe verse 21 I think
somewhere somewhere in Isaiah chapter 3 look you know they come up to you and they just
say oh yeah this person's gonna fix everything no they're not it's the same thing it's all
you know Bush we're in Bush's fourth term right now is the way I see it you know I love
that shirt that Ramon had on a couple nights ago it said like Barack W. Bush and it was
a picture of a guy that was like it was like a picture that merged the two into one person
same thing same policies same spending same deficit say well Obama's doing it more though
yeah but Bush did it more than Clinton and then Obama did it even more it's just like
do you not see the pattern here you know what the real problem is it's a spiritual problem
there is no political solution you know when I'm voting this week I'm not voting on Tuesday
November 4th I'm gonna be voting at the soul-winning time that's the voting you say oh you're the
problem with God no you're the problem with this country when you're not out voting at
the soul-winning time because the real voting is when we go out and preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ and win people Lord that's actually gonna fix something and not only will it fix
things in the short term it'll actually fix things for people's eternity I mean good night
you're wasting so much time you're going door-to-door for Wendy so-and-so why don't you go door-to-door
for the Lord Jesus Christ and actually fix something oh man I'm gonna donate all this
money and I'm gonna give my time I'm gonna be out there at the polling no why don't you
be a church why don't you be out soul-winning why don't you clean up your life that's what
we need and it's not a political solution today it's a spiritual solution that's needed
that's what we need and you know everybody gets mad at me when I don't get all excited
about the the newest little political craze and trend you know I don't care because I
know that that's not going to fix anything and that as long as we are are not living
the Christian lives that we need to live both parties will always be bad if that's what
we do and I don't mean we because our church is a good church but I mean in general Christianity
is in a sorry state today it's a mess today we need to try to influence more people for
the kingdom of God that's what's going to fix things not if we can just explain to them
some libertarian principle not going to work folks because God's not going to bless it
and without God blessing it it won't work God has to bless anything that we succeed
at if we succeed it's because God's with us and if God's not with us we can't prosper
we can't have freedom this country will never have freedom and liberty again unless there's
a revival of God's word and a revival of righteousness you know you're what's wrong
with this country because you're not going to go vote Pastor Anderson and now you're
standing behind the pulpit and now you're discouraging people from voting and you're
going to destroy us all no you're going to destroy it's funny this guy that walked up
to me and he's all into voting and everything and he had some Ben Carson or I don't even
know who that is Dr. Ben Carson does anybody know who that is?
I trust your judgment is this is do I need to get behind this guy or what all right thanks
I knew you're going to give me the right answer so you know this guy's wearing this oh you
know Ben Carson blah blah blah and oh this is our guy and this is who's going to fix
it in 2016 like I said I don't even know who the guy is I don't know anything about him
I'm just trusting brother Mike's judgment here but you know he's you know he's oh Ben
Carson blah blah blah and he's like you know he's an old he was a very old man and he told
me he said you know he said you know keep doing what you're doing sonny boy because
you know you're you're going to fix things and here's what he told me he said you know
what he said Mrs. so and so is a great preacher you need to have her come preach in your church
and I'm thinking to myself like you're the problem it's you liberal Christians that ignore
the words of Jesus Christ when he said you know that a woman should keep silence in the
church and that I suffer not a woman to teach nor do you serve authority over the man but
to be in silent and you're going to sit there and tell me how oh man we need to fix this
country we need to get things back we need to take our country back and if you just show
up on Tuesday and vote for the Republicans and if you just show up in 2016 for Dr. Ben
Carson it's going to fix everything and here's the woman preacher to come preach at your
church no that's the problem it's when we ignored the Bible and we're bringing in the
woman preacher and when we don't stand for the old paths and when we don't stand for
God's Word look God's Word matters today and when we ignore it we fail and Jesus said whosoever
shall therefore break one of these least commandments and shall teach man so the same shall be called
the least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven it's little things my friend that you know that's
why people are always telling me oh listen to this Bible teacher rabbi so and so I'm
already done Jesus said be not ye called rabbi oh Pastor Anderson you need to listen to this
Bible teacher father so and so you lost me at father you lost me at rabbi because the
Bible says don't be called rabbi call no man father upon the earth and you say well come
on you're being nitpicky that doesn't matter but it does matter and when we sit there and
just ignore what Jesus said just ignore the fact that he said not to have a woman preacher
just ignore the fact that we're not supposed to call anybody rabbi I mean think about how
many people would just save themselves from these false teachers that they would just
learn that one thing don't listen to a guy called rabbi I mean that would just that you
know oh have you read this you know was it the harbinger by rabbi Jonathan Connors I
was like what I'm a Christian oh so am I well okay well then why are you listening to somebody
who's called rabbi what in the world and so what I'm saying today is that you know when
we throw out these rules and and what God gave us as guidelines you know we're throwing
God's liberty because sin is the transgression of the law you know and when we're just breaking
God's laws we lose liberty and when God says hey don't call people that don't do that don't
have a woman preacher don't and then we just say oh I just break that well there goes liberty
and here's the thing the Old Testament you know this year of Jubilee that was just something
that they just didn't really do I mean I don't know how long they did it maybe they did it
for a little while I hope they did it for a few hundred years there's no record in the
Bible of them ever observing the year of Jubilee I mean I'm assuming they must have
done it a few times but we know that at least probably for the last 500 years of of Judah's
existence before they went into captivity to Babylon there was no year of Jubilee happening
in Jesus Christ's day there was no year of Jubilee and you know why they went into captivity
because they didn't celebrate the year of Jubilee and you know that's what God actually
specifically listed as one of their grievances he said yeah you've worshipped other gods
you've shed innocent blood you've committed adultery but he also said you know what you
did not observe the the Sabbath for the land every seven years and he put them into captivity
for exactly 70 years because he said you skipped 70 of the years where you were not supposed
to plan anything that the not the Sabbath day the Sabbath year he said you and by the
way these seventh-day Adventists and everybody and these Hebrew roots people who tell us
to observe the Sabbath I don't see them taking a whole year off because if you're really
going to observe the Sabbath it wasn't just a Sabbath day every seven years you'd have
to not you had to let the land rest for that too when was the last time you saw the these
Hebrew roots or Torah observing or seventh-day Adventists doing the year of Jubilee or you
know what I mean when have you seen them doing that they don't do it so it's a selective
thing you know and they they won't stand for a lot of God's laws in fact but what I'm saying
is that you know that's part of their problem in the Old Testament of why they went to captivity
for so long 70 years was because they ignored the the the Sabbaths and the Jubilee they
didn't they didn't think it was important and you know we think in America today that
we could have freedom and liberty and just ignore the part about the Jubilee when we're
setting up our government and say that's a dumb idea that's weird in fact let's not
even talk about that you know I I called into a radio show one time when I was driving in
the middle of the night I was just in the middle of the night just driving and I was
really bored and I had the XM radio and it was some talk radio and they're talking about
Occupy Wall Street and all this stuff about debt forgiveness and whatever and I just wanted
to just call it and just tell them about the year of Jubilee because I was like this is
the answer this will solve everything but it is the answer but you know what though
it's it's a laughingstock unto the world but you know what the wisdom of the world's foolishness
with God and the wisdom of God is foolishness unto man that's why man is born free but he's
everywhere enslaved because of the fact that you know we don't listen to this stuff so
we need to listen to God last place we're looking at Romans 6 it says in verse number
15 what then shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace God forbid know
ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey
whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness but God be thanked that
ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
was delivered you watch this is very important being made then free from sin you became the
servants of righteousness okay jump down to verse 20 for when you were the servants of sin you were
free from righteousness verse 22 but now being made free from sin and become servants to God do
you notice how you're either a servant to God and free from sin right or you're free from
righteousness and a servant to sin so you're either free from sin and serving righteousness
or you're free from righteousness and serving sin you're gonna serve somebody in your life
my friend you either serve the Lord or you become the servant of sin which leads to death and
bondage and corruption or you can serve the Lord which leads to blessing and liberty and our you
say well I just don't get it because I just think freedom just means doing whatever I want and just
whatever I feel like doing that's really freedom well then the freest person in the world is a
homeless person right absolute total freedom is a homeless person why because that person has no
alarm clock they have no boss you know getting on them about that deadline they have no dress code
well I guess there is a basic dress code of just be dressed you know in the United States but they
don't have a dress code no name tag no hair net they really don't have anybody forcing them to
work if they want to work they can collect cans or if they want to take the day off they can just
sit around and do nothing but you know what I think that if you observe the life of a homeless
person it doesn't really exemplify the kind of Liberty that you would want to have because you
know why they're not Liberty they don't have Liberty because I would say I have more Liberty
than a homeless person you know why because I have money that I can buy things that I need or
that I want see if the homeless person wants something they might not even be able to buy
it they don't even have because they didn't work sit on the money and then you know I think I have
more freedom because I actually like I sleep exactly where I want every night in a bed in a
comfortable climate-controlled bed who likes to sleep in a bed in an air-conditioned or heat yeah
so so we're we're sleeping exactly where we want every night and in fact I wake up and and I eat
for breakfast what I want I eat for lunch what I want to eat for dinner but see when you're
homeless you don't always have that luxury because you might not have any money you might not have
any food or you're just at the mercy of whoever whatever they're feeding at the soup kitchen okay
or the typical homeless person and of course obviously not all homeless people but the typical
homeless person is is usually a drunk or a drug addict how is that freedom if you have to drink
today if you have to do to see today I get to decide whether I drink today and the answer is
no and it's been no every day of my entire life you know and I get to decide whether I do drugs
today the answer is gonna be no every day I get to decide whether I want to smoke cigarettes or
smoke crack I'm gonna do neither but see today there are people who must smoke cigarettes today
they must drink today they must take drugs today they must gamble today they must look at
pornography today that isn't freedom because if you could ask those people hey if you could push
a button and never want to drink again would you do it a lot of them would say yeah I'd push that
button if you could push a button and never want to gamble again if you could push a button and
never look at pornography again or have any desire to look at pornography again if you could push a
button and be free from sin they would but they're a servant to sin they're in bondage to sin we as
Christians can live a free life where we do what we want to do because God actually also will help
us to want the right things to want the right and to have the things that we want and to delight in
righteousness so don't be deceived by this deceptive Liberty that's out there that just
says hey no rules is Liberty sin is Liberty drinking partying that's all gonna bring freedom
and Liberty no it's that's gonna bring bondage it's gonna bring pain it's gonna bring suffering
and you know you know it just as much as all the politicians are promising you Liberty and it's
fake anyway you know you want to know what political economic Liberty is it's time to open
the book of Leviticus and dust it off and learn about it 25 chapter 25 chapter 26 chapter 27 and
you know what if you want to know what it means to have Liberty and freedom and power in your
personal life you know how you're gonna get it by serving the Lord and cleaning up your life
you're gonna feel a freedom and Liberty that you never felt in your sinful days if you'll just obey
the Lord and become his servant because you know what serving him is like freedom in this world
and being a being free in this world it makes you the servant unto the devil and and serve it
unto sin okay so you know yeah freedom yeah we should all have our own private property and
inheritance and everything but not the freedom to just go out and just live a wicked life it's
it's just gonna enslave you in the in the end and it's gonna enslave our whole nation and you're
part of the problem let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for
your word Lord and thank you for the Liberty we know the Bible says that where the Spirit of the
Lord is there is Liberty and so Lord help us to be filled with your spirit help us to be in a
spirit-filled Church help our nation to be a nation that is spiritual and not carnal so that
we can have freedom Lord and I pray that someday there would be some decent candidates that would
actually change things and fix things but Lord I know that's going to be achieved through serving
you and through spiritual means not through a carnal means and in Jesus name we pray