warm, sunny, therapeutic, comforting, life-giving. Thank you for all the fellowship that you've brought my way. You've kind of been like adrenaline to me. And I bless God for the way that you have treated me in such a kind way. And may the Lord bless you for your kindness to me. Let's take our Bibles and turn to the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 25. And I'll read here just a portion of what Josh already read beginning at verse 9 regarding the year of Jubilee every 50th year. You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement, you shall sound a horn all through your land. And you shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his own family. Now let's jump to verse 47. Now, if the means of a stranger or a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger's family, and then down to verse 54, Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out, that is, he who was enslaved and sold, he shall still go out in the year of Jubilee, both he and his sons with him. Let's pray together. Our Father, we think of how even youths grow weary and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. And we know that souls have staggered in here this morning. And we pray that there would be a trusting in the Lord and a mounting up with wings as eagles. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Around the middle of the 19th century, a man named Maurice Ritz painted a masterpiece, and it was entitled Checkmate. Some of you may have heard of this beautiful painting. It's a gripping scene with a piece-filled chessboard as its centerpiece, and on one side of the board is the devil, and on the other side of the board is a very young man. Now, the devil's expression is that of triumphant predator about to close in for the kill. And the youth's expression is that of a stunned and hopeless victim, cornered with no way of escape. You look at his face in the painting and tears are welling up. You see, he's been checkmated. There's no way out. And this depicts the moral tragedy of life where naive youths sell their souls to Satan And early on, they surrendered to Satan in utter despair. And that's a real occasion of grief. They become slaves to the devil. But legend has it that As the painting hung in a prominent place in the Louvre in Paris, a group of men were admiring this painting, its creative brilliance. And one of the group was actually an accomplished chess master who was transfixed by the configuration of the pieces on that chessboard. And when the others walked away to look at other paintings, the chess master stared. 15 minutes, half an hour, 45 minutes. Then he shouted, wait a minute. There is a move, he said. There is a move. It's not checkmate. Now, you ponder that sense of encouragement to hear that there is a move. And if you've come in here staggered, feeling you've sold your soul to Satan, I can tell you that there is a move for you this morning. And that really is the ultimate encouragement. We've been talking about this weekend, encouragement, adrenaline for the soul. And I'm just not bringing to you some kind of a self-esteem serum that makes you feel good about yourself. There are all kinds of things in the scriptures that would tell fathers how to be encouraging to their children, husbands how to be encouraging to their wives, pastors how to be encouraging to their flock. But I want to focus this hour on what's the ultimate encouragement, that encouragement that can keep us not just from a temporary depression in San Diego, but can save us from an eternal depression in hell. because that's what we're all bound for, weeping and wailing our teeth and gnashing in utter darkness. And so the gospel brings the ultimate encouragement, our focus. And we know what the gospel says. John 3.16, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. Whoever believes on him shall not perish, but will have everlasting life. And I'm here to tell you about that ultimate word of encouragement, and that's the gospel. Now, where should I go to preach the gospel in the Scriptures to you? I could start right there in John 3 or anywhere else in the gospel of John. Maybe I could go to the epistle to the Romans, but let's go to a more obscure place in the gospel because the gospel is really everywhere. How about going to the book of Leviticus? the gospel according to Leviticus. It's there. All scripture is inspired by God. As Jesus said, all the things in the Old Testament spoke of him. So in the book of Leviticus, we could go to the 14th chapter, and there's this leper-cleansing ceremony where the leper is made clean. That's the gospel. We go to the 16th chapter, the day of atonement, where there's a beast of burden As the high priest puts the sins of the nation onto the people of Israel, that scapegoat carries the sins away. But let's go to the 25th chapter. Josh read about that year of Jubilee. That's the gospel. That's the ultimate encouragement. We will look at this passage in Leviticus chapter 25, not according to the five headings that are in your notes there. I've changed things up. We're going to go with three headings by way of exposition and then three lines by way of application. Our three points of exposition will be calamity, remedy, and liberty. Those will be the three ways we will unpack this passage on the year of the Jubilee. We're going to use kind of a dramatic exposition approach to understand what was happening in ancient Israel during the time of the Jubilee. So consider with me, by way of exposition of this passage in Leviticus chapter 25, first consider with me calamity. Just imagine with me now. Go back, put on a pair of sandals. We are in the ancient times of Israel, and there's a godly Israelite named Abishai. We're near the little village of Bethlehem, and Abishai has four sons. Abishai had an industrious father who farmed all 500 acres of the land that he inherited from his father, and Abishai worked the land hard as well. And as Abishai grew older, he gradually delegated more and more of the plantation duties to his four sons. because his four sons would eventually inherit the 125 acres apiece of dad's property. Now, three of his sons walked in Abishai's hardworking footsteps. Abishai was a blameless man, upright, feared God, shunned evil. Abishai was a hardworking man. But Abishai's youngest son, Samuel, was a prodigal grief to Abishai's heart. Because Samuel, when he was to be laboring during the day at the plow, often Abishai would come and look for Samuel, and he'd find Samuel off swimming in the river, or off somewhere else betting with his buddies on rooster fights. In fact, Abishai even at times found Samuel off in town at the house of a prostitute, a grief to Abishai's heart. Well, in the course of time, as we look at this exposition here, dramatic exposition of what's happening in the ancient world, Abishai died, leaving four rich farms, 125 acres apiece, 125 to each son. And now the sons were married, and they had children, and they had the prospects of looking at a blessed prosperity that they could skim off the land of Abishai's fields. Now, sadly though, the responsibilities of wife and children and personal ownership of land didn't make Samuel any better. Through negligence, Samuel's fields became unproductive and overgrown. For that black sheep's son Samuel, drunkenness set in in his wife. Well, poor thing, she gleaned what she could to feed her hungry children. And then it happened. One night. Samuel's house and barn were set ablaze. It was arson. His business and gambling creditors had come to wreak vengeance against him. And when all the smoke of it cleared in the morning, Samuel stood at the door of his oldest brother, And now after this fire, Samuel was homeless, he was over his head in debt, and he held in his arms his burned to death, charred infant daughter. And at his right side was his hysterically weeping wife, and at his left side were his three sons who just had blank stares. And just consider with me that passage in the 25th of Leviticus where it says there in verse 25a, if a man becomes so poor that he has to sell part of his property, Or look what it says there in 39a, where it says, Or look at verse 47a, where it says, So this is the calamity that's in view in the 25th of Leviticus. So we've seen there, first by exposition, calamity. Come on to the second main heading. And that is remedy, remedy. Well, the oldest brother now is convinced that Samuel must be dealt with justly and responsibly. So Samuel's oldest brother calls a summit at the city gates of Bethlehem. And he invites to the city gates all of the brothers, all of Samuel's creditors, and all of the Bethlehem elders. And the eldest brother stands in the middle of the gate. You see him in this august gathering of Bethlehemites and beyond. And he admits to his brother's lawless behavior. I know my brother is a drunken brawler. I know you've seen him all throughout the town. He's engaged in adulterous exploits. I know he's neglected his family. And then he recites the whole debt load of his little brother Samuel. Then he reads from the law. Look at Leviticus 25. 25, he reads there, right in the city gates, the oldest brother reads this to all present. If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and to buy back what his relative has sold. And the oldest brother at this point then announces, Samuel's property is worth only a fraction of all of my little brother's debt, and though I am the kinsman-redeemer, and though I am the Goel, and his brothers here with me, we all together do have sufficient means to redeem him and pay off all of his debt. But if we did that, that would exhaust all of our reserves." So, the oldest brother says, In the interest of Samuel's soul, we, I the Goel and my brothers, we surrender all of our rights and obligations to his estate. And then in keeping with the pattern of Ruth chapter four in Bethlehem many years earlier, each of the brothers took off their sandal and they relinquished their rights and their responsibilities by giving away their sandal saying, Samuel is on his own. And then he went on to say this, I propose, I propose this, the brother said, I propose that Samuel's farm to take care of his debts, be sold to the highest bidder, and that all of his debts then be consolidated under his largest creditor, which would be one Barzillai from way up north in Dan, and then Barzillai be paid off by the combination of these things. the sale of Samuel's property, and the receiving as a sold slave of Samuel as an indentured servant who will serve for years up north, Barzillai, in the land of Dan, And we, I as the Goel and my brothers, we will take Samuel's wife and three sons, and we will care for them and raise them here in Bethlehem as their kinsmen, and we will pay the freight of that. And then the oldest brother went on to read, look what it says there in 2547. He's justifying this plan of his. Now, if the means of a stranger or a sojourner with you becomes insufficient so that a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger's family, and then he jumped ahead to verse 50, He shall then with his purchaser calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of the jubilee, and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him, then down to 53 and 54, Like a hired man, year by year he shall be with him. He shall not rule over him with severity in your sight. Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall go out still in the year of the Jubilee, both he and his sons with him. And having read this and laid out this plan, he turns to his brother Samuel and says, Samuel, by the calendar, there are 17 years, 17 years of enslavement you will have up in the north, 17 years of service you will have to give up in the north. And Samuel, by then it is my hope that your debt will be paid and that you will be made wise. So then in Bethlehem there the morning after the next Sabbath, Samuel buried his little charred daughter. And he bid a tear-filled farewell to his wife and his three sons and that rich acreage of land that he had forfeited by his folly. And he headed northward on that 110-mile journey to the land of Dan. And though Samuel, the fool, was thankful that his family was mercifully well cared for, He feared that he would never again see his homeland. That would be the end of that blessed life in that land of his inheritance. So we've seen calamity. We've seen remedy. Now, just a third point, by way of exposition, that would be liberty. Liberty. Think with me now. Up north in the land of Dan, years passed by slowly and painfully for Samuel. Every year brought a one-month visit from his wife. His boys never came out. They had no interest in their deadbeat dad. Now, when the wife came back to Bethlehem, she reported, after a few years, Samuel's a new man, she would say. You should see him up there. There are clear patterns of hardworking diligence in him. In fact, he's become Barzillai's most trusted household servant. The report was, I'm telling the truth. He hasn't drunk a swallow of wine since he first arrived. You should see him. He's contrite. He's sensitive. He speaks in the tenderest of tones. He quotes the scriptures, which he reads by night, late, up in the loft of the barn of Now, his brothers desired to believe this, as the wife would give this report, but they had for too long learned to distrust their younger brother. And the sons, they just had such bad memories about their dad. The thought of seeing him again made their emotions wince, so they never went up to see him at all. Well, for Samuel, Up there in the north of Dan, his days were filled with remorse, in mercy, the specter and memory of his burned and charred little infant daughter blurred in his mind as those years progressed on. And during that time, Samuel confessed and repented to the Lord that he'd squandered the rich blessings he had. And he believed that the Lord had been forgiven because he did read the scriptures. Because the scriptures speak of a God who is the Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. He had read passages like a filthy leper being cleansed. or a scapegoat carrying heavy sins far away until they were gone and he believed that God had did that for him yet still as he was up in the north country he yearned and he longed for and even dreamed about up in that loft as he would sleep in the hay he dreamed about the day when he would be released when he would be released from his enslavement to Barzillai, released from his servitude, released like a bird, released from the hunter's snare. He would just dream. He would dream about the day when, oh, maybe someday this enslavement would be over. and he'd be able to make that blessed journey southward, and he would travel to his land of inheritance, just reach that mountain ridge overlooking that rich land that would revert to his name, and then he would make everything right, and maybe there would be a wonderful twilight to his otherwise miserable life. But for Samuel up there, time just rolled on and God gave him a blessed contentedness in his work until early one evening, he heard a sound. It was a certain sound. It was a sound he'd only heard once before as a small boy on the Day of Atonement, 50 years earlier. It was a sound that pierced the air. He was up in the loft and it was a shrill and bold sound. Then he heard footsteps. that could be heard climbing up the stairs to his loft quarters, and it was old Barzillai. And Barzillai bursts open the door, and he says, Samuel, Samuel, that's the ram's horn. And this is the 50th year of Jubilee. Samuel, you are a freed man. Of course, he's referring to what's said there in 25. Look at verse nine of Leviticus. 25 where it says, and proclaim a release, that word is deror in the Hebrew, a release through all the land and all its inhabitants. It is a year of jubilee and each shall return to his own property and each shall return to his family. And you shall have the 50th year as a jubilee, and you shall not sow nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines." So it was jubilee. And it's true. Samuel was now a wealthy man. And Barzillai said, get home, boy. May the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you. And the next morning, Samuel began that 110 mile journey southward to claim his inheritance. And when he finally did appear, when he appeared on the ridge, He walked and climbed, and then he could overlook that ridge into his rich ancestral land. He kind of apprehensively gazed down into that valley, and when he saw what he saw, he just rubbed his eyes, because there, ascending up the hillside toward him, were seven figures. See them down there? Seven figures. Three swift-footed young men leading the way. And then one colorfully dressed stately woman not far behind. And then three earnest looking older men bringing up the rear. Sons, three of them. Wife, one of them. Brothers, three of them, bringing up the rear. And there from that ridge, Samuel just fell on his face and said, thank you God for Jubilee. Thank you, God, for jubilee. So that's our exposition of the passage here, calamity, remedy, and liberty. So having expounded, let's do some plying. I want to do three lines of application before we go home here, just three lines of application. And I suggest to you what we see here in this Old Testament passage is the gospel. We see that which is the ultimate encouragement to souls that have sold themselves to Satan and are serving under his tyrannous rule. There's a move, there's a move, there's release. We're not doomed, we're not damned necessarily because of the sound of the ram's horn. Just consider with me first, In this passage, I said three lines of application. How about if we say the first is a shadow of Christ's redemption of sinners. A shadow of Christ's redemption of sinners. Turn with me to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Christ did come. Did not Jesus say that the Old Testament spoke of Him? And Christ comes and we see that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Look at Luke 4. And begin reading with me at verse 16. Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered into the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written. Look there, it's quoting from Isaiah 61 now. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. because he appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." Now listen to this. Christ read this when he came. This is his showcase premier appearance of ministry. He says this, he has sent me to proclaim release. Didn't we hear that word somewhere before? This is from the same Hebrew word, the roar, that is found in Leviticus 25. The year of Jubilee is the year of release. Jesus says, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery to the sight of the blind and to set free those who are downtrodden and to proclaim the what? the favorable year of our Lord." It's Christ's ministry sounded the ram's horn of jubilee. Look, it says, and he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. So what Christ is saying is, my ministry is the ram's horn. And I am declaring to those hopeless sinners who fear they've sold their soul to Satan and are forever for eternity enslaved to him, because of me and my ministry there is a relief for prisoners. The gospel is the ram's horn. And his ministry there in the first century from Dan to Beersheba brought no uncertain sound. Jesus has come to set the prisoners, the captives, free. Just think with me of the rich tapestry of this beautiful gospel there in the Old Testament. Just think of how Father Adam had deed and title to the inheritance of all the earth, paradise and Eden. But by his, could we say, Samuel-like recklessness, his sin forfeited his inheritance And by his representative sin, Adam incurred an infinite debt to the justice of God. And as a result, Adam, for himself and for his offspring, lost deed and title to the land of fellowship with God. And then all of his seed, which would be you and I, we have lost deed and title as well because we are fallen sinners, sold off to Satan by our father. But who of us can accuse our father? Because each of us personally have been foolish Samuels ourselves. Because I know what I've done myself. I have amended the sin and rebellion of my father. You know what I know about you? A dirty secret. You've done the same thing. You as well have defied God with your Samuel-like foolishness. And because of that, we're all doomed to weep and wail and gnash our teeth in outer darkness. But praise be to God, the Lord Jesus came. And it says in Mark 10, 45, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. And the Lord Jesus in that upper room, remember, He took off His robes And he had only on just the garment of a servant, of a slave. And he washed our feet. He took on our enslavement. He served us. so that our debt might be paid. He served us not just on the upper room by washing our feet. He served us on the cross by being nailed to the cross, which was basically the electric chair. And he took the full voltage of the eternal wrath of God against us because all of us deserve to be fried to be burned by the wrath of God in hell for eternity. And Jesus took all that voltage of the wrath of God that all of us deserved until it was finished, until the last penny was paid of all of our debt. All of our creditors were paid off. There's an old Puritan writer named Thomas Scott. Thomas Scott critiques theologically what's going on in this passage of Jesus saying that This is fulfilled in my day, this year of Jubilee." Thomas Scott says this, you know the grace of Christ, that though He was rich He became poor, so that through His poverty we might become rich. Thomas Scott said this, Jesus is our Redeemer, and He assumed our nature. He became our kinsman-redeemer that He might ransom our souls from Satan's bondage into which me and we had sold ourselves for the debts which we had incurred and the crimes that we had committed, nay, into which we had foolishly sold ourselves through love of sinful pleasures. And that, together with our freedom, He might also buy back our forfeited and wasted inheritance, without which we must otherwise have been to all eternity miserable in poverty." So Christ as our servant paid our debt that we couldn't pay. Giving blood and sweat and tears on the cross, as John Flabel says, the Lord Jesus stood on the cross as a brass pillar until the last breath was beaten out of His nostrils. That's how He served us until it was finished. And so now I can come to you. This is not back in 1500 BC. It's not even in the first century AD. This is 2021. And I still sound to you the same rams horn. The ram's horn is that if you feel as you've staggered in here and you've sold your soul to Satan because you know what you've done, and you know God knows what you've done, and because of this you are doomed under His wrath, the gospel sounds the truth that this is the year of our Lord's favor. 2020 was a bad year, wasn't it? But it was a year of our Lord's favor. And even it spills into 2021 because a year of our Lord's favor is that season between Christ's first coming and his second coming. It's Jubilee time. And during Jubilee time, the ram's horn is sounded. And I'll just say, everybody here who has ears to hear, you hear what I'm saying here? You're a sinner. You may have come and thought, no, I'm locked in this cell and I'm doomed. I'm just saying you get up. There's a move. There's a move you can get up. Try the door. You say, no, I've tried this before. I've prayed the prayer before. I'm just saying, get up. Try the door. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Repent of your sin. There is a move for you, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, even if you've done it last week. There is a move. Christ Jesus can give you release and set you free. Don't think of trying to pay off your own debts by the filthy rags that you have, thinking somehow you can do enough good. No, your filthy rags will never purchase back a square inch of your inheritance. Come to Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the ram's horn. This is the ultimate encouragement. There's a move for you this morning. But come on, secondly, I said three lines of application. The first was, there's a shadow here of Christ's redemption of sinners. The second is, there's a picture of the Christians' emancipation from sin. A picture of the Christian's emancipation from sin. That word emancipation is a big word. Well, you know, Lincoln signed what? The Emancipation Proclamation. That means he set the slaves free. Now, maybe you're a Christian. Maybe you've been a Christian 5 years, 10 years, 15 years. Well, I've been a Christian over 40 years. Maybe as a Christian at present, you don't really feel like you yet experience the full benefits of Jubilee. feel kind of like Samuel. Let's say that Samuel, he was up in the north country of Dan, and Barzillai was in a good mood when that ram's horn sounded. And he told Samuel, you're a rich man. That land down south is all yours. You're not a slave to me anymore. You've been released. You've been set free. And he bid Samuel farewell as Samuel headed back down toward Bethlehem, a 110-mile journey, but maybe about 30 miles in, you hear hoofbeats behind him. And he looked, there was Barzillai with a whole posse of men saying, hey, I've had second thoughts, and I'm going to bring you back. You ever kind of feel those hoofbeats behind you as a Christian? You ever find Satan? Satan, who used to be your old slave master, you were a slave to unrighteousness, and then you believe you became a slave to Christ. You ever heard the hoofbeats? He comes back to you, and he steps in front of you, and he flashes the old pictures of your old life, And then he sprays the scents and the aromas of your life. And he brings back the temptations for you to go back to that old enslavement of sin you used to have. And you ever found yourself back up in that loft again, living the old life? Listen, snap out of it, snap out of it. Listen to the ram's horn. You have been set free. Maybe you've been caught up in that loft of sin this morning. You need to stand up and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can relate to the apostle Paul maybe who says in Romans chapter 7, as a Christian still, when I would do good, evil is right there with me, so that I don't do the good that I would do, but the evil that I wouldn't do, that I do. What a wretched man am I! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Have you ever been there like I've been there? The apostle says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. May this be hearing the ram's horn. Who are you Christian? You're not a prisoner anymore. You've been set free. Those shackles which were for so many years on your wrists. and on your ankles and around your neck? They've been cut! Get up! Walk away from that sin! Say to the enemy who seduces and tempts you, you've got the wrong man! I don't do that anymore! I'm no longer a slave to Satan, I'm a slave to my Lord Jesus Christ. And get back to the land of inheritance, walking in the ways of righteousness. That's what this ram's horn tells us and reminds us. Look what it says there, even in 1 Peter 3, it says, you've been born again. You're born again to a living hope, to obtain an inheritance in heaven that'll never perish, spoil, and fade. There's an inheritance for you, sister. There's an inheritance for you, brother. You are protected by the power of God. And here you are. I know it's a long trip, the 110 miles from conversion all the way back to inheriting the promised land. I know it's a long trip, but I'm telling you, you've got an invincible escort. You've got ministering angels encircling you, the angels of God. You've got the sovereign providence of God superintending over you. You've got the interceding Son of God above you. And you've got the striving Spirit of God within you so that you won't quit. And maybe that spirit is even stirring up within you as you hear this ram's horn right now. It says in Romans 8, 38, I'm convinced of this, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor height, nor depth, nor anything can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Brother, sister, listen to the ram's horn. You've been set free. You are secure. Now set your face like flint for the promised land, looking for a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. Get home! whatever it takes. That's a picture of the Christian's emancipation from sin. Just thirdly and finally, by way of application, just consider with me a preview of the Christian's release into glory. A preview of the Christian's release into glory. You see, Christ came, and in that Nazareth synagogue, He said, this is fulfilled in your hearing. Well, that jubilee was just partial and imperfect when He came the first time, but He's coming back again. And when He comes again, then there will be a total imperfect jubilee. Because the gospel ram's horn announced release for captive prisoners, Jesus sounded it in His first coming. But in the second coming, there's another trumpet to be sounded, isn't there? Doesn't Ephesians, 1 Thessalonians 4 speak of the trump of the archangel? Another trump, a ram's horn. of the archangel shall be sounded, and that will usher in that perfect and eternal release." You know that passage in the 4th of 1 Thessalonians where it says, "...for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout." with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God." That's echoing back from the year of Jubilee, that ram's horn. And it says, look, this is the second coming of Christ, when he returns, and the sky is rolled back like a scroll, and there is the Lamb, and the archangel sounds the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." That is the—oh, listen, listen, listen. Just like when Samuel was coming home and he couldn't wait to get to that mountain ridge to look down at the land of inheritance. That's what we're all waiting for. Remember how I said Samuel dreamt about it. He would dream about that day. I want to give you an assignment here. I want you in this Christian life as you travel toward the land of your inheritance, I want you sometimes when you pillow your head, maybe in this hair, the straw of your present life, just dream about what it's going to be like. when that final trump is sounded. Just dream about it. Just ponder it. Just consider it, how there's going to be this blessed reunion when fathers and sons are reunited together. when husbands and wives will be joined together, when brothers and brothers like Samuel would see his brothers again, grandfathers and grandsons. Let me tell you one thing. I have a grandson. He was born about a year and a half ago. His name is Isaac. He lived five hours. and then we buried him about a mile and a half down my street on Ransom Street. And I remember my son, my son dug the grave, and then we put the little, almost a shoebox size coffin in there, and then my son Calvin buried little Isaac, and then Diane and I. eventually bought two grave sites right next to him. I tell you, my little grandson Isaac has taught me things about eternity that nobody else has taught me. Sometimes I go and I sit next to Isaac's grave and I just think of how someday I'm going to lay down right next to him there. because I'm going to die just like he died, dust to dust and ashes to ashes. But then I think, I think of how if I lie down alongside of Isaac, the day is going to come when we're going to be both lying there. In fact, you know, in cemeteries, they always put the feet of the dead person facing toward what? The feet are toward the east. Why? Because it says in Mark 13, as lightning flashes from the east to the west, so shall it be with the coming of the Son of Man. And the point is that it's anticipating the return of Christ and we'll all be able to sit up to the east and behold Him there when the trump is being sounded and we see the Lord Jesus Christ and rising up. And I just think of just Ponder this, you being able to be over the land of promise. In fact, it speaks of how we are looking for a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. We are looking for a new heavens and a new earth. It's a new land. That's the land of our inheritance. It's all this typology coming together. The new heavens and the new earth, it's ours. And just think about from that high point of that rapture, looking down and be able to see Isaac. Could it be that little boy? who was alive only five hours, and his grandpa read to him from John 3, 1 through 16, God so loved the world. Do you think a little five-hour-old boy can understand the gospel? That same passage says, the wind blows where it will. God can save a little boy. And could it be, I'm going to see Isaac? And could it be that, like, He was a blue little boy who couldn't breathe and they had to take him off the ventilator. And he's saved. He's a child of God. He's heaven bound. And I'll see my mom. My mom died about three months ago. And I'll see my mother and others, sons and wife and brothers, all this glorious reunion. All I'm saying is, just dream about it. dream about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and dream about the best thing of all, not just seeing brothers and wife and sons or grandsons, it's seeing the face of Him through whom we just see through a glass dimly, seeing the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who hung, the one who stood as a brass pillar until the last breath was beaten out of him for us. Don't you love him? Don't you love him? We'll see him face to face. And as it says, forever we'll be with him, forever we'll be with the Lord. So my assignment is to you, just go off and dream. Just dream about these things. The gospel is the ultimate encouragement. I don't care how heavy hearted you were when you staggered in here, listen to the trumpet. Listen to the ultimate encouragement of the gospel. There's a release for you. There is a move. Believe in the Lord Jesus. I don't care if this is the first time you've believed in him or the 10,000th and first time you've believed in him. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved.