In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not relying solely on personal testimonies or experiences, but rather on the wonders of God. He highlights the need for a genuine and real testimony that goes beyond mere belief. The preacher also discusses the significance of the tent in the 25th chapter of Exodus, where God wanted to dwell among His people as a stranger. The sermon explores the concept of redemption symbolized by silver and how it ties into God's plan and method throughout the Bible. Additionally, the preacher discusses the seemingly ridiculous command for the people to sow in the 48th year and not sow in the 49th year, demonstrating God's power and provision in ways that defy human logic.

I want you to turn with me tonight into the book of Leviticus. So if you've only brought your New Testament thinking you know me, it proves you don't. And here we're going to read in this lovely book of Leviticus in chapter 25. I want to read quite a portion. So I hope you've brought your Bibles. If you happen to forget it tonight, don't forget it in the morning because I'm due to speak again in the morning. It isn't that Norma's being crowded out. My voice is usually best at the beginning of the conference. That's the way we're going. All right. Twenty-five then of the book of Leviticus. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land. A Sabbath for the Lord. Thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed. For it is a year of rest unto the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meet for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land shall all the increase thereof be meet. And 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. 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 thine undressed. For it is the jubilee. It shall be holy unto you. Ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, 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. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God, for I am the Lord your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of the old fruit until the ninth year. Until her fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old store. For the land shall not be sowed forever, for the land is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land in your possession, you shall grant a redemption for the land. Wouldn't it be lovely to go on and keep on reading it. Tonight I want to talk to you about the Sabbath and Jubilee. The Jubilee was the fiftieth year. They had to count when they got into the land, and they were in the desert at Mount Sinai when God said these things. They had to count through seven sevens of years. Forty-nine years. And then the next year they were to keep Jubilee. What a marvelous thing. Now I want to ask you whether you are keeping Jubilee. You see, the strange thing about people is this. They think, like the children of Israel thought, we're going to be led into the promised land. We shall get there. The land is ours. We call it the land of Israel. But did you notice what God said? He said, it's mine. It's not yours. It's mine. You got that? It's all God's. What a marvelous thing it is when people claim things that aren't their own. Or being in the boastful vein that is sometimes called faith, and that you have to make big claims, they still steal from God, or try to, what is God's and God's alone. What a tremendous thing it is to read the book and find out the truth about these great and wonderful things. Of course, by all men's ideas, it was completely ridiculous. If you don't sow, then you won't reap. As you don't reap, you won't have any food. And if we don't have any food, we'll die. That's exactly what they were saying in their minds. How are we going to do it? This often frightens people. How can it be? How is it going to work out? Can we trust this God that you're talking about? Is it real? And this is the thing that God was talking about. You know, beloved, this whole matter of salvation, of the seven years, the Sabbath, and the fiftieth year, it is something that is ingrained in the whole gospel message. This is the thing that you have to see. We've said these things before. And I suppose it's being said here. And that is that as soon as God created Adam, he took him straight into the Sabbath. Before he'd done a stroke of work, he never said, Adam, you're in the garden, and you've got to keep it for me, and so on and so on and so on. He created him. He'd never done a stroke of work. He'd never lifted a finger, so far as we read in the Scripture. And God said, come into Sabbath. My Sabbath. God created the Sabbath. He created it. And it was so wonderful. It must have been wonderful, very wonderful to Adam, to go straight into God's rest. Marvelous. As though God was saying to him, Adam, you know why I created you? You know why I breathed Spirit into you? Breathed the breath of life into you? Without which you'd just be a handful of dust in the shape of a man. That's all you'd be. Lots of people are like that today. I created you to come into Sabbath. Adam, I want you to learn how to keep the garden. No. I want you to learn how to do this, how to do that. No. I want you to learn me. That's the lesson. It's still the lesson. To learn me. Afterwards, I'm sure he instructed Adam in the ways in which he should do this or do that. I'm sure he did. But the first thing he said, really without saying it, is I want you to come and know your Creator. I want you to come into my rest. Rest with me, Adam. Beautiful world, isn't it? Lots to do, isn't there? Don't do anything. Not yet. Just come in and learn me. You know, we've been singing about love tonight. And you can even fall in love with love, if you know what I mean, if you are very careful. The word and the exercise of it and all kinds of things. Come and learn me, he says. How wonderful. Well, I won't say it. Yes, I will. I've got a lot of questions I'm going to ask when I get to heaven. A lot of things I'm so ignorant of. But I'm thankful that I can read this book by his grace, really to write and understand what God is saying and can enter into it somewhat to learn of him. That's what he did. And if you turn back with me, that's why I want you to bring your Bibles when you come into the 23rd chapter, just a little way from 25 into 23. God finishes up the 22nd chapter with these words. Are you reading with me? Oh, verse 32 will do. I am the Lord which hallowed you, that brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord. Now this is why he brought them out. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them concerning the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath rest and holy convocation. You shall do no work therein. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. It's amazing, isn't it? When you read on down through this chapter, you will find the Day of Atonement, you will find all kinds of things, a feast of the Lord, but he didn't put the Day of Atonement first. Do you understand this? He didn't put that first. He didn't put the feast of this or the feast of something else. The first thing he said was this Sabbath, the rest, when you do nothing and I do everything. The Sabbath was the day in which God was going to show to Adam that he was the creator. Just learning. Lie on his bosom. That's what he wants. Oh, this brouhaha, this rushing here and rushing there. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. I'm going to China or I'm going to Africa or I'm going somewhere else and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. You're not fit to go until you've learned rest because you'll only take your unrest with you. These things are not first. Jesus spent three and a half years trying to teach people who he was before he said now go into all the world and preach the gospel but wait until you're full of the Holy Ghost. It wasn't until then. Three and a half years. Three and a half years. Well that's half a week if we count a day for a year and we need to do that. For if I was to say to you seven sevenths of years seven days seven years how many Sabbaths in a year? Do you know how many weeks I had in a year? You don't. I won't ask you because the Hebrew week was an exact 28 days and I might trip you up on that. I don't want to do that. Only 28 days. They had calendars. They went by the moon not by the sun. And that's the big thing for us to understand but you think that all the way through just say 52 if you like to think according to the Western idea 52 seven times 52 OK that's a lot isn't it? And then count seven seven times 52 and when you've got to the end of it you come to the 50th year and if you put days for years which is the Bible method you must have heard of this word 50 before this number 50 Do you remember? Can you recall it? The day of Pentecost. So Jubilee in type and in prophecy that's as far as the type goes was Pentecost. They never had a Pentecostal experience. They never had it. New birth was not available under the old covenant. Kind of look at this a little more closely as we go through. Perhaps if I don't finish tonight I've got tomorrow morning by Norman's generosity. And so we shall see this great thing 50 days a day for a year how good God is he wrote it into everything he did. You know God is a God of method and of logic. It's a marvellous thing. He puts things in the Bible and you read it and well you read it and you believe it but it's all leading on to something else. It's come out of the great pattern of his love his power the things he is yet going to do. Marvellous. You don't need me to tell you that those 49 Sabbaths went past 49 days when we get to the Acts of the Apostles and then that great 50th day when life was going to come real life. And you know beloved that's just what these people proved in the old method under the old covenant. They were really going to prove God's power. I mean it was ridiculous absolutely ridiculous that they should sow on the 48th year OK reap the end of the 48th year go into the 49th don't sow anything nothing. And what they had sown in that 48th year they mustn't reap it it stood there waving thick with corn for the hand of the Lord was upon it. You know when they went into the promised land that's the thing they saw it was barley harvest when they crossed Jordan Moses saw these great waving fields white under the bleaching sun wasn't allowed to go over because he represented the Lord and the book of Joshua represents grace. But there it is let this stand in the field of rot we sowed this let's be logical let's be sensible I mean God's given us common sense man you sow it you reap it if everything's ready for reaping and you just have to stand there and all that precious grain had to turn to seed and fall into the ground and die birds would take it everything would take it man this is insensible I mean God's given us common sense hasn't he? That's probably the thing that's tripped you up for this is wisdom that he doesn't explain wisdom of love in his heart wisdom that he was going to show them his marvelous power if only they would do as he said that's all he told them we read it the land isn't yours you say you're going over to possess the land I want to tell you it's mine the land is mine he didn't lease it to them he gave them the opportunity to live in that blessed land he said my eye is always upon it from one end of the year to the other this is the way he spoke to them you can find this in the book of Deuteronomy that's what he said all I want you to be is my people be a people I want be a people unto me and when you are a people unto me you'll prove that I am your God so what he proved he was before he brought us over Jordan I'm sorry brought us over the Red Sea he did all kinds of things he redeemed us he's proved himself ah he said that's only the beginning that's only the beginning it's a wonderful beginning you know you get so taken up with your beginning you keep on giving your testimony till in the end it gives people the earache to hear it keep on about it and as though that's all that there is it is the beginning hallelujah I've got a land I've got a land now listen I'm going to read in that same glorious chapter where we read together that is in that 25th chapter of Leviticus and this is what he said verse 23 of that 25th chapter listen the land shall not be sold forever for the land is mine now listen to this and you are strangers and sojourners with me I'm only sojourning in the land I'm a stranger and I say oh but the earth is mine what are you talking about man bend your ear to listen to God people don't they come up with accepted phraseology we all fall foul of it at some time in our lives it's the way others talk so we talk like it listen you are strangers verse 23 see that it's right you are strangers and sojourners with me you know the fact is that God is a stranger on this earth did you know that his real home is heaven in the heaven of heavens even in Eden when he came down he only came down and paid a visit and went back again it's a wonderful thing to realize he used to come down and it was so great he loved the beauty that he'd been able to project from his heart into a creation the loveliness and the glory of it he didn't live here and you know when he got people to make the tabernacle he showed them he was a stranger he wanted everything according to his design he was trying to show them something if only we'd let God teach us these things he keeps on almost knocking at our hearts door or shaking us trying to wake us up make us read this book make us go on and not just keep relying on our testimonies or our experience great though it is you must not rely on an experience young man, young woman you must rely on him we haven't come to learn about the wonders of you we want to learn about the wonders of God of course you've got to have a testimony it's got to be real it's got to be far more than you believe and this is what God was trying to show them he said let them make me this is in the 25th chapter of Exodus but don't turn to it he said let them make me a tent I want this kind of tent now listen I'm really a stranger I want to live in one certain place I'll put a column of smoke above it a cloud and I'll know that I'm there but I don't really live here and I want my tent pitched on sockets of silver you know that silver stands for redemption you know Peter said this in his first epistle he said you're not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold according to your father's vain manner of life he said but everything he was doing in type the real type everything was prophecy everything was prophetic of the future it was all going to be fulfilled or most of it when the Lord Jesus came to the earth he worked it all out in his flesh oh beloved he was the consummation of a whole inheritance of prophecy and what God was saying by this that and the other and he said now look I'm a stranger here I want a particular family a particular tribe a particular family they'll be my servants I'll put this and I'll put that and I'm going to be there beyond the veil I don't really belong here the heaven of heavens cannot contain me said Solomon he knew it you know beloved when we get to this real experience I want to be on our knees I was in a meeting somewhere I think it was last Sunday morning we had a wonderful time last Sunday morning and I heard this gospel preached but I've never heard anybody else preach it never and he I said I want to be down there I wanted to be down on my knees on my face on the floor to learn God to open myself unto God and rise from my knees having received more than at the moment I knew just simply because I obeyed open my heart give him more of my being let him expand me not have to explain it to me give me the structure of the soul and all this kind of thing for just to let him pour in I know I shall rise containing more than my mind has been able to take in comes out later in preaching a prophecy but here's the thing beloved they can't come near I'll dwell there I'll dwell in the midst but you know I'm a sojourner here make me a tent a tent is the sign of the sojourner you pitch your tent you take it down and you move on hallelujah you know some of you are going to sleep intensely so I hope you're going to sleep tonight it's not the easiest thing to sleep first night but there it is and you know after this week so you your tent will come up to move on somewhere else and don't you see beloved God's going to make a new heaven and a new earth we're going to be his heavenly people I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever this is the thing he's talking about the man's mindset I can do what I like with my land but remember I've not married it I created it but it's not me now you can have your portion that can be yours but this is the way to treat my property it's alright I haven't joined the Green Party or anything like that I've not gone ecology mad that's a new religion so don't get tangled with it here is the thing for you to understand beloved there's no way of saving this earth you know that don't you you've come to die now don't think people should do stupid things with it but there's no way of saving it here is the thing that we must see beloved it is and when they started to reason and say how are we going to live mustn't sow in the seventh year mustn't sow again in the fiftieth year we should die that's right God said oh no you do what I say and I'll make my land bring forth enough for three years three years hallelujah you're not to go out and reap you're not to try any sly methods you're not to fill your larder up you're to go out like the birds every morning and find your food on the land like you did in the wilderness or like you're going to do now he's talking at Sinai when he said it you're going to go out in the morning and you're going to get your measure of manners and I'm telling you that you've got to live like that with me for the rest of your life that's what he's saying hard to leave it now when we have deep freezes and fridges and pray that God will supply the need of the starving world I don't know how we get round this when we've got I don't know I don't know how we excuse ourselves but here is the thing beloved I'm going to do it you are going to learn my bounty you're going to learn me great thing about it beloved is this we love this word redemption we love to think of being redeemed when God told Moses to tell them in the land of Egypt that they would get a lamb and eat it and sprinkle the blood on their homes we love to think it was all about redemption but you won't find the word redeemed in that chapter did you know that we do need to read our Bibles carefully nothing about redemption it's later it's Isaiah the great one who talks about God redeems thy people really it makes you think when you really read the Bible doesn't it the ideas we get into our head he never talked about it never talked about it hallelujah but did you know that there is more about redemption in this 25th and on into the 27th chapter of Leviticus in those two chapters than there is in the rest of the Bible did you know that and did you know most of all it's about the land and not about the people you read it just read it read it carefully redeems the land it's mine oh glory be to the name of the Lord wonderful really how about the New Testament the word redeemed doesn't occur much in the New Testament did you know that did you know that just keep reading your Bibles beloved you'll learn it's all there to be read what God is showing us is this I've got to get down to basics you came from the ground you came from the dust oh that God would bring us down to these wonderful simple basic things about belonging to Him you've been redeemed beloved been redeemed now I know we can say our bodies are not yet redeemed but in a sense they are they are we say the redemption of the body that has to do when the Lord is coming back and we're going to be translated in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and all those things that's absolutely right but you do realize your body has been redeemed don't you or do you this earth that by God's wonderful power was turned into flesh and into bone has been redeemed if you are the Lord it belongs to Him smile Andy go and look at your hand now look at yourself when you go to bed tonight have a look at your body and say it's God's it's your you know I often say this to young people when they come and talk to me young man each young lady it happens occasionally and they come and they say they want to get married and sometimes I'll say to the man you realize that this girl is going to be your wife that her body belongs to God not you vice versa too his body belongs to God keep it clear great thing to keep clear your mind oh to be swallowed up by the wonder of belonging to Him now you can sojourn in this land with me he says I'm a sojourner you know he was a sojourner all the other nations have got gods of their own what they called gods made out of wood stone lumps and heaps of dung did you know that the word used in the Hebrew dung idol anything to call God call filth God that's the sort of thing I'm a stranger here now come and be a stranger here with me come come to the basic things I can cause you in every department of your being to be fruitful I can multiply you I can do wonders here in this earth by the miracle of God wonderful things can spring forth if we'll let Him plant the seeds of it in us you're not to eat a grape, you're not to pack yourself up with bottles of wine or jars of jam or anything else I'm going to make it happen for you what I want is your trust I want you to believe me 100% one of the most charming things I ever learned of God and you have to keep on learning all the way through is that when God the Lord Jesus wanted to tell His disciples how to live, He said look at the birds, look at the flowers I want you to live like that the birds never ask me for anything to eat not once has a bird asked me to feed it you're better than birds aren't you? answer the question how much better are you than birds oh but this and there's that and there's the other and so He taught His disciples I might come on to this sometime during the course of these days together He taught His disciples to say just this give us this day our daily bread that's the only request He made forgive us our trespasses but this is the request I want you to live like the birds live they would go out in the morning and they would gather what was there the earth was bringing forth of itself and just across the road there would be a bird picking at the same seeds that they were going to eat nothing about curries or Mexican food or boiled beef and carrots nothing like that well how are we going to live what we've all developed is expensive tastes and how we like to fulfil them if only the Lord could get us back to this simplicity and you know He's never going to accomplish it on this earth He's never going to it's not that He hasn't got power it's because His people don't trust Him that's why it's not that He hasn't power people no longer believe the Bible Christians chiefly on the basic things of life we've got to learn to live somebody said pardon me somebody said to me sometime back I want to give you a hundred pounds a month I said no thank you why not I said no I shall look to that if you say you're going to do it I shall look to it I shall be looking to God unbelievable isn't it well now you've heard somebody say it beloved I've got to learn looking to the Lord I'm going to make everything come forth I'm going to do it can't be as sojourner as me hallelujah oh this year of jubilee it was going to be the greatest year of their lives I mean they could keep talking about you've got this in the book of Isaiah they could talk about God had redeemed them God had brought them out of Egypt until at last He said I'm going to show you something new I'm going to do a new thing stop talking to me about that He didn't put it that way don't keep talking about being redeemed from Egypt I'm going to do a new thing