Good morning, everyone. I sing greetings from Sovereign
Grace Chapel down in Beaver or Crow. I like to say Crow. It
just sounds a lot better than Beaver. I'm here with my wife, Paula.
I think most of you have seen us or know us, maybe don't remember
our names, but my wife, Paula, is here with me. My pastor is
Walker Pendleton. He happens to be my brother,
and he's been here before. I'm sure you all know him. But
all three of us speak every Sunday, so I'm thankful to God that they
allow me the time to stand there and speak. There's Walker and
Joe and myself that speak there. But I don't deserve to be here. I'm thankful that Marvin wouldn't
even think to ask me. I'm thankful that you're here
and having me here. But with that, let's go ahead
and get started. If you would, be turning with me to 1 Corinthians
14, 1 Corinthians 14. And I'm only gonna read one verse
for right now. 1 Corinthians 14 in verse eight. For if the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? Know this passage
is speaking of tongues in its direct context. I will mention
a few things on this, but my message is not going to come
directly from this text, if you will. So this passage is speaking
about those who speak in tongues, and that is those who speak in
another language to another individual or group of individuals, and
specifically those who do not have an interpreter. It is certainly
okay to preach the gospel in a language that some do not understand
as long as you have an interpreter interpreting what's being said
to those listening. Paul tells them here that it
is of no benefit to anyone if you are speaking in another language
if you have no one to interpret for you. You may know what you're
talking about and saying, but no one else will have a clue
what you're saying if they do not speak the language. In speaking
in an unknown tongue and no one else around me understands it,
then I'm a barbarian to them and they would be to me too if
they did this. What does Paul say in verse 15?
What is it then? I will pray with the spirit and
I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit
and I will sing with the understanding also. We know when we speak to men,
it is to speak the gospel to them. We must worship in spirit
and in truth. How will someone know if we are
speaking the truth if they do not understand what we are saying?
Our gospel is a simple message, and this is where I want to go
with this this morning. The gospel we proclaim is simple,
or that is singular. What is the gospel? Jesus Christ,
that is who he is, and him crucified, that is what he has done. Paul
makes this statement that we read in verse eight. If a trumpet
give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle? Is there anyone in here that's
been in the military? Anyone been in the military?
Thank you for your service. If anyone knows anything about
the military, the military has either a person who plays a trumpet
or bugle at certain times. or they play a recording on a
sound system that goes through the army base so everyone can
hear it. I was in the army, and there were specific times where
we would hear these types of sounds. They have a sound or
a song that's called reveille. And this specific sound or song,
when you hear it, it means it's time to get up and go get in
formation. And that's at least the very least that it means.
But you also have others. Retreat, basically the end of
the normal work day. You have taps, which means lights
out. When these are played, they sound exactly the same thing
every time. When they are played, they tell
everyone who hears them what they should do or what's going
on. They have a specific sound. A sound or a song, that sound
or song does not change. Otherwise it would be uncertain
and you would have chaos. Some thinking the sound means
this, others thinking the sound means that. This world's religion
has many uncertain sounds. Uncertain in what they are telling
us and uncertain in the results of what they are telling us.
Because scripture says so, it tells us this. The gospel has
no uncertain sounds. It is specific and particular
in all its aspects. There's no confusion when you
hear this sound. If you hear other sounds, then
you know it's confusion and uncertain. So I want to talk about today
some uncertain sounds and a certain sound of the gospel. And that's
my title, A Certain Sound. So number one, uncertain sounds.
We hear from time to time this world's religion speaking of
an uncertain sound. Make your decision for Jesus
by your own free will. Men, as we have all heard before
in today's, this world's religion, they spout off about man's free
will. Make a decision for Jesus. What
kind of decision is man going to make? Free will is a lie. Our will is no more free than
our heart, because it is the heart that controls the will.
Exodus 35, 29, we read, the children of Israel brought a willing offering
unto the Lord. Every man and woman whose heart
made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the
Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses. So this
says these brought them willingly because their heart made them
willing. But what do we read about our
heart? Jeremiah 17, nine. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? No one, not
us. And that's not all. Our Lord
specifically tells us this and turn with me to Matthew 15, Matthew
15. Very familiar to you, I'm sure.
Matthew 15, verses 18 through 20. Matthew 15, 18 through 20. But those things which proceed out
of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man. Our heart, the heart we are born
with in Adam, produces nothing but evil. The Lord declares this
to us there in Matthew. We get a glimpse of the evil
that comes from this heart, but I thank God we don't see how
evil this heart is. So this heart is not directing
us or anyone to do something good toward God. Because what
comes from this heart, it also comes out of our mouth. Even
God's people are allowed to see this happen in themselves from
time to time. Into detail, but God must and
will give a new heart if he is pleased. It is this heart that
is directed by God to do those things that please Him in faith.
As Marvin has said before, you have to have a heart for it,
a heart for believing God. So if someone wants to trust
in their will, their supposed and imaginary will, they are
trusting in an uncertain sound. What are we told in Romans 3?
There is none righteous, not one, So we're not going to say
or do anything righteous because we are not righteous. None that
understand not one. So we're not going to say or
do anything wise because we have no understanding. All have gone
out of the way and are unprofitable. None that do us good, not one. So we're not going to say or
do anything good. We are unrighteous, so we can
do no good. So to trust in this flesh in
any way is an uncertain sound. Jesus Christ is God, and God
is holy, just, and good. He needs no acceptance. It is
mankind born of Adam that has offended this holy, just, and
good God. We need acceptance of him. What
blasphemy to think that I in some way will accept him. You
are not saved by accepting Jesus because you cannot accept him
in and of yourself. You only reject him as you were
born in Adam. Jesus Christ might accept some
who thought they accepted him in the past, but this only if
he wills. And you will know if it's not
your acceptance of him, but his acceptance of you that made the
difference. This sounding of accepting Jesus is an uncertain
sound. Are you willing to bank your
hope on your will and your decision? You will perish without his decision
to accept you. What about this sound, which
is similar? Have you ever heard the saying,
God has done all he can do and now it's up to you? This is an
uncertain sign. The creator of all things has
done all he can do. I guess God must have got himself
wore out creating all things with the word of his mouth. He
spake and it was so. It says in scripture on the seventh
day, God rested. He did not rest because he was
tired. He rested because he was done. That kind of God that has done
all he can do is a pitiful God. A God that depends on man to
do anything is a pitiful God. In fact, that God sounds like
a God likened to man. Isn't that what the God of Scripture
tells us man will do? He will devise gods, he will
imagine gods that are likened to fallen, sinful man. Romans
1, 22, and 23, we read, professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made likened to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things. So man makes images, and that
is imaginations, that are likened to corruptible man. He also makes
idols, and those idols are just like they are. Here's Psalms
115, verses three through eight. But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. They that make them are like
unto them. So is everyone that trusteth
in them. The creator we serve does whatever
pleases him. Not one of us, not one of mankind
born of Adam can say to him, what doest thou? And this is
the sense that the scripture is saying this to us, this what
doest thou? And it sounds like this. This
is how the flesh speaks to God. What in the world are you doing?
As if God is some child they control. This is uncertain and
it is a dangerous sound. I don't know about you, but I've
had my feel of trying to direct God. I did at one time. Mercy. Mercy. which is needed by fallen sinful
man and not of him that willeth. If God left something up to man,
then man would never achieve it because God says it is not
of him that willeth. It is not of him that runneth.
You will not work yourself into the kingdom of God because God
says it is not of him that runneth. So what are we going to do? Christ
also tells us in Matthew 6 too, he says this, therefore when
thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they
may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But yet this is what we do as
we are born in Adam all the time. We sound this trumpet which has
an uncertain and deadly sound. I know this is talking about
alms, but we do this in our flesh for everything. We will do nothing. What are we instructed by the
Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 and 3? For we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That is, we boast or we brag
in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. These things and anything man
comes up with that points to man doing anything is an uncertain
sound. This is not a sound you should
follow. It will certainly lead you to destruction. We need a
sound that is certain, a sound that takes man born of Adam out
of the equation altogether. That is, it takes him out of
the equation for salvation. Not only is this desired, but
there's no other way it can be. The state we are in cannot be
changed by us unless a leopard can change his spots. I know
some nowadays like to say things, say things, and then just because
they say it, they say it so, just because they say it. But
God says the leopard cannot change its spots. And I know what God
says is so. God's people gather together.
They all gather together to hear a specific sound. No matter where
you are, where you are, where you go, where God's people are
gathered, this is the sound they want to hear. And God sent men
all sound forth this same sound. It's a singular sound. that's
played back, if you will, from those who are sent of God, and
this leads me to my next point. A certain sound. Turn with me
to Leviticus 25, Leviticus 25. Leviticus 25, verses eight and
nine. Leviticus 25 verses 8. 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 length. What does this trumpet tell us?
Liberty to all in the land. Everyone is restored who hears
this trumpet. Everyone comes to the family.
No sowing, no reaping, just eat of the plenty that's there. Here
is where we get a certain sound, a sound that is sweet to the
sinner's ear. A sound where they can lay down
their arms against God, taking sides with God against themselves.
When the trumpet of the gospel is sounded forth, it will bring
the walls down, just as it did at Jericho, when Joshua led the
people of God around that fortress called Jericho. Walls that could
not be penetrated, walls that could not be climbed over to
gain access, but these walls fell with the sound of a trumpet. Second Corinthians 10.4 we read,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds. God's gospel will come to you
if he's so pleased and it will break down the walls of your
citadel into ruins and dust. You will become completely open
before God, naked with nothing to bring to him. He will break
those walls down and Jesus Christ will ascend to the throne of
your heart. He will conquer you and you will come to know this
trumpet. Now I said before that when I was in the military that
they had sometimes had someone blowing it and then, or sometimes
they would have a recording of someone playing the sound of
this trumpet. We're like this recording. We
play that sound as we declare the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
gospel of what he has done and what he has accomplished. We
do not blow this trumpet. He has blown this trumpet. We just repeat that sound of
the trumpet being blown. Knowing that there is one who
has sounded this Jubilee trumpet, that one is Jesus Christ, and
he has sounded the trump of Jubilee. When he blew this trumpet, all
these things happened. And it sounds like this from
Romans 8, and you can turn with me there to Romans 8. Romans 8. Romans 8 verses 29 through 32. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Jesus Christ was delivered up
for all his people. These people were predestinated
to these things because of what Christ did. They are called,
they are justified, they are glorified, all past tense. Someone might say, I don't feel
like I am. But none of this is about how we feel. It does have
something to do with what we know or who we know, I should
say, because these are things we know it says. How do we know
these things? Because God said them. And he
has given us what is needed to believe them. So we know these
things are so whether we feel it, it's this way or not. This is where the much assurance
comes in. In looking at him, I have much assurance because
I know it depends nothing upon me to make this come to pass. Here is what it sounded like.
See if this is a certain sound. And when I use this word certain,
when I'm talking about certain and uncertain, here's what I
mean. Uncertain as in hidden, certain as in manifest, uncertain
as in indistinct. and certain as in distinct, uncertain
as in figuratively, and certain as in evident. God is certain
with us. God is never uncertain with us.
He is clear in his word and what he tells us so that we do not
misunderstand him. God is certain when he says his
ways are high above our ways, his thoughts are high above our
thoughts. Without him, we would know nothing. But I want anyone who can hear
today, anyone who can hear what God is telling us, just what
the sound of the trumpet is. This sound is certain, and it
is sure, and it is manifest, and it is evident. Here it is. It is finished. What a sound, what a sound. John
19, 30, we read, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he
said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. You mean there's nothing left
for me to do? Yes, that's what I mean, and that's what God means. You mean that I'm free to serve
Christ? Yes, that's what I mean, and
that's what God means. Do you mean that he's done it
all and there's nothing left for me to do? Yes, that's what
I mean, and that's what God means. When we hear the sound of that
gospel trumpet, that sound of the gospel, we see what it took
to have mercy and grace shed abroad in our hearts. We begin
to see what we are because of it. Joel 2.15, we read, blow
the trumpet in Zion, sanctify fast, call a solemn assembly. This is not a game with God's
people. This is a solemn thing. This is not a thing of who is
right and who is wrong. This is a sound that brings out
praises to him who has done all things. What do we do when we
hear it is finished? We know what to do when we hear
that sound, don't we? That certain sound, that sound
which is music to our ears. What do we do when we hear that
sound? And I just wanna give a couple
of examples here. Paula and I have a habit of,
like when one of us goes to the store, sometimes she'll go to
the store, I'll go to the store, and we'll come back with bags
in our hands. And we'll get to the kitchen counter and we'll
set them down, then we'll yell at the other one and say, it's
okay, I've got it. We kind of razz each other that
way. But think about this. Just think, you have something
that, you know, it has to be done at the end of the day when
you get done from work. but you go to work and just whatever
happens at work, it just really takes all your energy and you
work late or whatever and you get home and you just don't know
how you're gonna be able to accomplish it. It has to get done, but you
just can't do it. But then you have somebody that
comes up and says, don't worry about it, I'll do it. You just
sit right there and I'll do it. What do we know to do when we
hear that trumpet sound? When someone else has done all
the work that will secure my salvation and bring me back to
God, knowing I in no way have the ability to please God, what
do we do when we hear it? It is finished. We rest. We rest. We rest. The work is done. Salvation is
accomplished. I need not lay my hand to this
work one bit, but rest in his blowing of this trump of jubilee.
That trump has set me free and restored me to communion with
God. Why would I want to do anything
other than rest in him? What do we conclude from all
this? When it comes to the gospel, we want to hear a familiar sound,
a sound that asserts and sure, and leaves no question in the
hearer's mind as to what is meant. This world has many things it
spews forth. Lies on God are an uncertain
sound. He has his own hands and feet,
and with those he has wrought salvation for his people, complete,
leaving nothing for man to do. Those sounds of having of man
having to do something for his salvation or because of his salvation
is an uncertain sound. There is nothing but destruction
and misery in those ways. I don't want you to misunderstand
me. Men do do things because of salvation, but this doing
is worked in those who are his by God working in them that which
pleases him. He gives the command and he gives
the ability. Jesus Christ is holy, just, and
good. Because of this, we must be as
holy as he is holy. Someone might ask, how do I know
what sound you're talking about? Or anyone else who is speaking,
if they're sounding forth the truth of this trumpet. Any certain
sound that exalts man in any way is an uncertain sound. The
scripture says we drink up iniquity like water. Any sound that exalts
God as the only wise and supreme self-existent one is a sound
that is recognizable to scripture and to those who hear it. As
has been said before many times, you cannot preach man too low
and you cannot preach God too high. We can only see this, we
can only hear this sound in Jesus Christ and because of Jesus Christ. We need and desire a certain
sound. Let's play that sound over and
over again. Hebrews 9.12 says, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered
into once into the holy place, having obtained eternal, eternal redemption for us. The scripture is full of what
man has done. It tells us man has sought out
his own way. The scripture is full of what
God has done. God has created all things and
he created all of them for himself. He created all things for his
glory. He will not share any of his
glory with anyone. So let us repeat the sounding
of the trump of jubilee that Christ has blown, a sound of,
it is finished. This tells us the work is done.
Now lay down your arms against him and rest in him. I like that
certain sound. What about you? Amen. Dear old
God, thank you for allowing us to be here today. Apply these
words to our hearts. Allow us to brag on you, dear
Lord. Be with us as we go about all
these things we ask in Christ's name. Amen.