Atonement of the Tenth Jubilee

The Day of Atonement marks a special time. Yes, it was the one day of the year in which the properly prepared High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and come before the Ark of God in the Tabernacle without suffering death. He was allowed to represent the Israelites before God’s thrown with a blood offering, first for himself, and then a second blood offering for the Israelites he represented. There was, however, an even greater significance marked by the Day of Atonement. Do you know what it was? Turn to Leviticus 25.

Leviticus 25 begins with God disclosing to Israel something new. I believe it was something they either never knew or something they had long forgotten about that their forefathers knew. It was God’s instructions regarding the land Sabbath.

Lev 25:1-7 AFV And the LORD spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, (2) "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath to the LORD. (3) You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in the fruit of it. (4) But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest to the land, a Sabbath for the LORD. You shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. (5) You shall not reap that which grows of its own accord for your harvest, neither gather the grapes of your undressed vine as a harvest. It is a year of rest to the land. (6) Rather, the Sabbath yield of the land shall be food for you, for you and for your servant, and for your slave woman and for your hired servant, and for your stranger who stays with you, (7) And for your livestock, and for the beast that is in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food.

We know that back in Exodus 12, God re-set time for the Israelites when he revealed to them his calendar. During more than 400 years living in Egypt, Israel had lost track of time. Many of those years had been spent in slavery to the Egyptians, working almost every day of the week. In Exodus 16 when God provided the manna from heaven each day, with twice as much on the sixth day but none on the 7th day, God showed Israel there was a distinction with the 7th day. Again, in Exodus 20 when God proclaimed to Israel the fourth commandment, God commanded them about the distinction of the 7th day. He re-educated the Israelites in keeping the seventh day Sabbath as holy time; not just for obedience to God but for their own benefit.

Now, in Leviticus 25, God was re-educating the Israelites in how to keep the Sabbatical year for the sake of the land he was giving them. Yes, it was for the sake of the land; but the renewal of the land every seventh year was also for the sake of the Israelites: to maintain its fertility for their benefit.

In verse 8 of Leviticus 25, God moves on to introduce something of greater impact to all of Israelite society that was also intimately connected with the Day of Atonement.

Lev 25:8-55 AFV And you shall number seven Sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years. And the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be forty-nine years to you. (9) Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the Day of Atonement, the trumpet shall sound throughout all your land. (10) And you shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you, and you shall return each man to his possession, and you shall return each man to his family. (11) That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. You shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes of your undressed vine in it, (12) For it is the jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You shall eat the increase of it out of the field. (13) In the year of this jubilee you shall return each man to his possession. (14) And if you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another. (15) According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy of your neighbor, according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell to you. (16) According to the number of years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the fewness of years you shall diminish the price of it, for he is selling to you the number of crops. (17) And you shall not oppress one another. But you shall fear your God, for I am the LORD your God. (18) And you shall do My statutes, and keep My judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in the land in safety. (19) And the land shall yield its fruits, and you shall eat your fill and dwell in it in safety. (20) And if you shall say, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase!" (21) Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. (22) And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat of old fruit in storage until the ninth year; until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old fruit. (23) The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is Mine, for you are strangers and pilgrims with Me. (24) And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land. (25) If your brother has become poor and has sold his possessions, and if any of his relatives come to redeem it, then he shall redeem that which his brother sold. (26) And if the man has no redeemer, and he himself is able to redeem it, and he has enough for its redemption, (27) Then let him count the years of the sale of it and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it, so that he may return to his possession. (28) But if he is not able to restore to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of jubilee. And in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession. (29) And if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold. He may redeem it within a full year. (30) And if it is not redeemed within the time of a full year, then the house in the walled city shall be made sure forever to its buyer throughout his generations. It shall not go out in the jubilee. (31) But the houses of the villages which have no walls around them shall be counted as the field of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.

Now, look at the exceptions beginning in verse 32.

(32) As to the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have a never ending redemption. (33) And if a man purchases a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold and the city of his possession shall go out in the year of jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. (34) But the field of the open land of their cities may not be sold, for it is theirs forever. (35) And if your brother has become poor and his hand has failed with you, then you shall help him; yes, even if he is a stranger or a visitor, so that he may live with you. (36) You shall take no interest from him, or an additional profit. But you shall fear your God, so that your brother may live with you. (37) You shall not give him your silver on interest, nor lend him your food for profit. (38) I am the LORD your God Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

Beginning in verse 39, God makes a distinction between Israelites and people from other nations.

(39) And if your brother who lives beside you has become poor and is sold to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant. (40) As a hired servant, as a temporary resident, he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the year of jubilee. (41) And he shall depart from you, he and his sons with him, and shall return to his own family. And he shall return to the possession of his fathers, (42) For they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. (43) You shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear your God. (44) Both your male slaves, and your female slaves whom you shall have, shall be of the nations that are all around you. You shall buy male slaves and female slaves from them. (45) And also you may buy of the sons of the tenants who are staying with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they fathered in your land. And they shall be your possession. (46) And you shall take them as an inheritance for your sons after you to hold for a possession; you may lay service on them forever. But you shall not rule over your brethren, the children of Israel, over one another, with harshness. (47) And if an alien or a tenant lifts up a hand among you, and your brother who dwells beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the alien or tenant by you, or to the offspring of the alien's family, (48) After he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; (49) Either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any that is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him. Or if he is able, he may redeem himself. (50) And he shall count with his buyer from the year that he was sold to him until the year of jubilee. And the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant it shall be with him. (51) If there are still many years, he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the silver that he was bought for, according to the years. (52) And if there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according to his years he shall give him again the price of his redemption. (53) As a yearly hired servant he shall be with him; he shall not rule over him with harshness in your sight. (54) And if he is not redeemed in this way, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him; (55) For to Me the children of Israel are servants. They are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.' "

Verse 55 sums up the entire chapter.

(55) For to Me the children of Israel are servants. They are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.' "

Yes, God is the great Master, the owner of all Israelites. He is the one who determines the rules by which we live and function. He frames the structure of our lives and we exist and live by His will. Yes, in what looks like just a long list of rules regarding land and slaves in Leviticus 25, God actually is structuring Israelite society: He structures their agriculture; He structures their real estate; He structures their finances; and He structures their debt relief. All of those are obvious. What most people don’t notice is that God also structures their time via the cycle of the fiftieth year: the jubilee year.

So, we know how important the cycle of seven is to our Creator. God further puts added emphasis of meaning on certain other numbers. Consider the number ten. Mr. E.W. Bullinger summarizes the meaning of the number ten in his book, Number In Scripture. He says that ten is “completeness of order… It implies that nothing is wanting; that the number and order are perfect; that the whole cycle is complete.” For scriptural examples, he goes on to say that “Noah completed the antediluvian age in the tenth generation from God;” and he continues by saying, “The ten commandments contain all that is necessary, and no more than is necessary…”

Regarding the significance of the number forty, Mr. Bullinger writes: “Forty has long been universally recognized as an important number, both on account of the frequency of its occurrence, and the uniformity of its association with a period of probation, trial and chastisement… and points to the action of grace, leading to and ending in revival and renewal. This is certainly the case where forty relates to a period of evident probation.”

So, tuck that away in your memory and let’s get back to the structure of time as defined by the Jubilee year in Leviticus 25. Yes, the Jubilee year (the 50th year) was defined in scripture with several physical procedures as well as prohibitions; but what about its spiritual applications and meanings?

In Luke 4:18, we can see how Jesus took the physical principles of the Jubilee year and gave them spiritual meaning.

Luk 4:16-21 AFV And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and according to His custom, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. (17) And there was given Him the book of the prophet Isaiah; and when He had unrolled the scroll, He found the place where it was written, (18) "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; for this reason, He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal those who are brokenhearted, to proclaim pardon to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth in deliverance those who have been crushed, (19) To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (20) And after rolling up the scroll and delivering it to the attendant, He sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. (21) Then He began to say to them, "Today, this scripture is being fulfilled in your ears."

Regarding these verses, Adam Clarke’s commentary says the following:

“This is found in Isa 61:1; but our Lord immediately adds to it Isa 42:7. The proclaiming of liberty to the captives, and the acceptable year (or year of acceptance) of the Lord, is a manifest allusion to the proclaiming of the year of jubilee by sound of trumpet… This was a year of general release of debts and obligations; of bond-men and women; of lands and possessions, which had been sold from the families and tribes to which they belonged. Our Savior, by applying this text to himself, a text so manifestly relating to the institution above mentioned, plainly declares the typical design of that institution.”

Let’s compare some of the physical principles of the Jubilee with the spiritual fulfillment embodied in Christ.

1. In the Jubilee (or 50th) year, there was a release of debts; that is, all debts were forgiven.
   1. Jesus’ spiritual fulfillment was forgiveness of sins. His sacrifice paid the debts of all humanity.
2. In the Jubilee (or 50th) year, there was freedom for slaves; that is, all Isrealite servants were set free.
   1. Jesus’ spiritual fulfillment was liberation from the penalty of sin: the penalty of eternal death.
3. In the Jubilee (or 50th) year, there was the return of property to its original family owners.
   1. Jesus’ spiritual fulfillment was restoration of our family relationship with our Father, no longer cut off or estranged from our Creator.

The fiftieth year represented cycles of time for physical redemption. It was a chance, to occur at least once each adult lifetime, for people to be physically redeemed; to be forgiven of physical faults, mistakes, and miscalculations and to be given a fresh start.

So it is with God in the spiritual realm. We have just seen some of the spiritual fulfillments in Christ, showing how some of the physical redemptions of the Jubilee year compare to the spiritual redemptions; but is there more? Well, I submit to you that there is much more and, indeed, there is more that directly relates to our time now; I mean right now and in the very next few years to come.

Now, I realize that we have all learned much through the experiences of prior decades of miscalculation, error, and disappointment. Specifically, we have learned not to set or depend upon precise dates for fulfillment of prophecies stated in the Bible. We have learned the hard way that Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 are true and they should echo in our memories. He said: “But concerning that day, and the hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” That’s what he said; and we should not think we know better. So, don’t misunderstand me; I am not setting dates. Nonetheless, I believe there are milestones and anniversaries of great significance that we should take to heart as “marks of time” that we shouldn’t let pass by without our notice. They should spur us to action, with renewed dedication.

Such is the case when you look at the combination of numbers in scripture. Today, we have extensively read about the significance, both physically and spiritually, of the Jubilee (or 50th) year. We already know about the significance of the number ten as a period of completeness. Now, think for a moment. What happens when you combine the two? What do you get when you have the 10th Jubilee year? More specifically, what is the significance of the 500th year and how does it apply to us today?

I want you all to put away your Bibles; because we are going to take a trip back in time. We’re going way back; not just a decade or two; not just a Jubilee or two. We’re going back ten Jubilees. I’m going to snap my fingers and we’ll be there… let me describe it to you.

It is no longer 2025. It is now the year 1525. We are in England because the United States of America won’t exist for another 250 years. Most of us are poor commoners, either farmers working a land most often not our own and trying to eke out a living from the soil for our families; or else we are servants to the few mighty estate landholders. Regardless of our status in society, most of us are religious and we are dedicated to serving God in the best way we know how.

Therein lies the problem. We have no scriptures. We must depend upon others for the knowledge of God. We either depend upon the knowledge of God that has been handed down to us by our forefathers or, more likely, we depend upon the Church to teach us the knowledge of God. In our world, the Church is the sole possessor of the Bible. Even if we have the sufficient means, we can’t go to a bookstore to buy a copy of the Bible in our own language. Why not, you might ask? It’s because an English Bible does not exist. Our main source is the Church. While there may be a very few Bibles in other languages, the main version of the Bible is in Latin. It is called the Vulgate and it was translated into Latin by Jerome many centuries ago. It is locked up and controlled by the Catholic Church which dominates society as the only Church. We are dependent upon the local Catholic Church and upon the local Catholic priest and his assistants.

Even if we diligently attend church services each week, we are still in the dark because all services and all scriptures are read in Latin, not in English. Just think: how would you make sense of the following scripture that might be read to you in your Latin church services:

Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo.

Remember, you are uneducated in anything more than the common knowledge of your native language, English. So, imagine: you don’t have to listen to just once scripture in words you don’t understand. You have to listen to many scriptures and even hours of church services in words you don’t understand. Week after week, your main source of the knowledge of God is just gibberish: words you don’t understand and meaning you have no way of comprehending. It has been this way for decades and even centuries. Your best intentions might be to lead a life dedicated to God and you might be seeking to do his will; but what are you to do when you are cut off from the direct knowledge that comes from God?

Yes, there had been an earlier handwritten English translation of the Bible, done by John Wycliffe more than one hundred years before, translated into what is now known as Middle English. The Wycliffe Bible, however, was not from the Bible’s original languages of Hebrew and Greek: it was translated from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and contained many of the same errors from Jerome. In addition, much had changed in the English language during the past one hundred years and by the early 1500’s Middle English was becoming increasingly difficult to read and comprehend. On top of that, the Catholic Church which was dominant in England prohibited possession of the Wycliffe Bible. The church’s verdict was sedition against the crown and the penalty was death.

Well, into this void of spiritual knowledge walked a man who was dedicated to disseminating greater access to the knowledge of God for all his fellow countrymen. William Tyndale was born in about 1494, only a very few years after Christopher Columbus had first discovered the New World lands of the Americas; and less than fifty years after the invention of Gutenberg press in Germany, the first printing press with moveable metal type. In short, William Tyndale was born at the very beginning of the years when much of Europe was emerging from the Dark Ages into the fresh light of the dawning of the new age of the Renaissance.

Little is known about his childhood. William came from a family of some means, though, being from a line of mostly landowners and wool merchants. His background and rearing provided him with an excellent education. By 1506, he had begun a Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford University. He received his degree in 1512 and his Master’s of Arts degree three years later by 1515. The Master’s Degree allowed him to begin studying theology; but it was a struggle. He wrote at the time: “They have ordained that no man shall look on the Scripture until he is modeled in heathen learning eight or nine years and armed with false principles, with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of the Scripture.”

Tyndale was a great linguist and he became fluent in French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish, Greek, and Hebrew, in addition to his native English. He then attended Cambridge University for three years. According to the article on William Tyndale from the C.S. Lewis Institute, we can read the following detailed account:

“In 1521 he became a tutor at Little Sodbury Manor, north of Bath {that’s about 100 miles west of London]. Probably already ordained as a priest, he was soon known as a preacher of evangelical convictions and penetrating power of expression.

To translate the Bible into the vernacular [or commonly spoken language] was still illegal in England. For more than a hundred years, the Catholic authorities had seized fragments of the Wycliffe manuscript Bibles, forcing their owners to recant, even burning them at the stake. But Tyndale was not deterred. He went to London, hoping to receive encouragement. Soon, however, he came to believe that not only was there “no room” in London for him to translate the Bible, “but also that there was no place to do it in all England.”

Tyndale left England in April 1524, never to return. He planned to publish Bible translations on the Continent for distribution in England. After traveling in Germany, probably spending some months in Wittenberg, he went to Cologne, one of the great trading ports of northeast Europe. When his work was disrupted by the magistrates of the city, Tyndale moved to Worms, where [Martin] Luther had made his famous defense before the Diet a few years earlier. There, early in 1526, he successfully completed the translation and printing of the New Testament… The pages of his New Testament were smuggled into England, where they found eager readers, despite the public burning of Bibles and books at St. Paul’s Cathedral [that is, in London].

Tyndale worked steadily, revising his New Testament translation, learning Hebrew so as to translate the Old Testament, and writing theological treatises to support the Reformation. He moved from city to city, seeking a place where he could safely work and have his translations sent across the sea and sold in England. It did not matter to Tyndale who did the work or got credit for it. He even offered to return to England and write no more if the king would allow the publication of an English translation of the Bible.

In 1531 Tyndale’s translation of the book of Jonah was published, and in 1534, the same year Martin Luther’s complete German Bible appeared, Tyndale’s New Testament was reprinted with corrections and revisions. He was now living in Antwerp, Belgium, a thriving city of trade where sympathetic English merchants protected and helped him...

Now a hunted man, Tyndale worked on the Pentateuch, having added a remarkable skill in Hebrew to his knowledge of Greek. He was delighted to find that Hebrew translated more easily into English than it did into Latin. Assisted by Miles Coverdale, Tyndale published a translation of the Pentateuch and finished the translation of Joshua through 2 Chronicles.”

Ultimately, Tyndale was betrayed by an English spy in 1535. He was arrested and imprisoned at the castle of Vilvoorde, near Brussels, Belgium. After almost a year and a half of imprisonment, he was executed by strangulation while tied at the stake and then his dead body was burned. His final words were a prayer to God. He cried out, “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.”

The C.S. Lewis Institute concludes with the following about William Tyndale:

“His prayer was soon answered. Thomas Cromwell, the king’s principal adviser, and Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, persuaded Henry VIII to approve an official English translation of the Bible. The king licensed the publication of fifteen hundred copies of a translation called Matthew’s Bible—largely a conflation of Tyndale’s work and that of Tyndale’s friends and assistants, Miles Coverdale and John Rogers (also known as Thomas Matthew). This became the first Bible in English to be legally sold in the country. Yet another translation, the Great Bible of 1539 (a slight revision of the Matthew’s Bible), was ordered by the king to be placed in every parish church in England…

Tyndale was both an able scholar (fluent in seven languages in addition to English) and “a conscious craftsman” with an “extraordinary gift for uniting the skill of making sense of an original with the music of spoken English at its best.” He succeeded in making the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament speak in remarkably clear, beautiful and vigorous English. His work made the English [people] a Bible-reading people and influenced future translations down to the present.”

OK, I’ll snap my fingers again… and we’re back to the present. So, how does our study of what happened 500 years ago relate to us today?

You may now take out your Bibles. What you hold in your hands is a precious gift from God. Yes, God is the author and he is our great provider. Beyond that, what you hold in your hands and what you can read in your own language is largely owed to the work of one man, William Tyndale. Even though there have been many revisions since, the heart and core are based on Tyndale’s skills. It has been estimated that more than 80% of the New Testament in the KJV was taken directly from Tyndale’s original work. Of the Old Testament books that he had time to translate, that is, the first five books of the Pentateuch as well as the historical books of Joshua through 2 Chronicles plus the book of Jonah, it is estimated that 70% of that was used directly in the KJV.

So, what’s the connection? What does the English treasure you hold in your hands have to do with the title of this sermon, Atonement of the Tenth Jubilee? This year’s Day of Atonement in 2025 begins the 500th anniversary year of the publication of Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament (although it had to be smuggled into England for the first several years). Yes, the Day of Atonement marks the beginning of the tenth Jubilee year since that historic publication, five hundred years ago.

Brethren, just stop and think of the gravity of that fact for a moment; and think of what it implies for us. We are living through an historic time. Don’t let it pass you by. Remember, the significance of early 1526. It wasn’t just the publication of one book. It was the dawn of a new era. Earlier we said that the Jubilee Year stands for at least three principles:

1. The fiftieth year marks the release from debts.
2. The fiftieth year marks freedom from slavery.
3. The fiftieth year marks the return of property to its original family owners

Now think of this from a spiritual perspective. All of these points were spiritually fulfilled for our ancestors and for us with the publication of the first English Bible by Tyndale. In 1526, our minds became opened through the words of God in a language we could understand. We finally had access to a more intimate knowledge about sin and our guilt of erring from the law of God; we became released from slavery to the deception of the Dark Ages and the dictates of the Catholic Church; and we received the opportunity to be reunited with our true family, headed by our great Creator Father. We were no longer cut off from God through ignorance.

Yes, indeed, we have been given a great gift for 500 years - ten Jubilees – to make the most of the gift of knowledge, insight, and wisdom of God’s teachings and God’s directions in righteousness by having the Bible in our own language. Now consider this: we saw earlier how the number ten signifies “completeness of order… that the whole cycle is complete.” So, I put forth the question, could our 500 year opportunity of open access to the knowledge of God be signifying something else? Could it be that the cycle of ten Jubilees is, indeed, marking completeness of the cycle for us? Could it be signifying the end of our opportunity? Have we had our last chance to change our lives to conform with God’s instructions?

On top of that, do you remember when we earlier read from Mr. Bullinger that the number forty is well known in scripture to denote a period of trial and probation? Well, think of the number forty not in years (like the Israelites wandered in the wilderness); but think of forty in relation to jubilees. We have just examined what happened ten jubilees ago; but expand your minds even further to think of what was happening forty jubilees ago? That’s not 500 years, but 2,000 years ago. We are soon to be in 2026; but what was happening in the year 26? Jesus was executed in the spring of 30AD and we know his ministry with his disciples ran for three and a half years. That brings us back to the fall of 26AD at the end of the anniversary year we are just beginning today. Think of that! These are, indeed, very special times just ahead of us! The proclamations of Jesus brought light to a darkened world 2000 years ago in the first century, just as the words translated by William Tyndale brought light to the darkened world of the 1500’s.

I know we said that we have learned our lessons not to set dates when it comes to interpreting prophecy. So, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not setting dates. I am just calling to your attention the milestones. This Day of Atonement, I believe, marks the beginning of a very special anniversary year. Don’t let it slip by. This year and the years just ahead of us are monumental times of opportunity for us in the church. It is an unparalleled time of opportunity to proclaim God’s truth to the world, as well as a fearful time of God’s impending judgement.

So, I cry out to you today! We need to redeem the time we have. Rededicate yourselves to the diligent study of God’s righteous way of life given to you in this wonderful gift you hold so dear. We know prophecy tells us there is a coming time of famine of the word of God. What we have now may soon disappear. So, hold on to what you have now; put forth your every effort to grow in the grace and knowledge of God; and make his words a very part of your every thought and deed.

Sermon given by Philip Edwards
1 October 2025