I'm not a musician. I have tried on occasions, not
publicly, but I have tried to learn to play a few things. But
I do love to hear folks who can sing, play piano, play instruments.
I suppose my favorite instrument is either the saxophone or the
trumpet. I love to hear the Rich Bird
play that trumpet at the Theater of Being. maligned by folks who
might hear this. I'll tell you, I'd love to hear
Dizzy Gillespie play it, too. I'd like to hear a fella do what
he can do well. The gospel preachers are trumpeteers. The preaching of the gospel is
frequently, throughout the scriptures, compared to the blowing of a
trumpet. It's compared to a trumpet sound
of joyous announcement. And sometimes it's compared to
a trumpet sound of alarm. The apostle says, if the trumpet
give an uncertain sound, that is if a man preaches but preaches
with ambiguity. A man stands up here and uses
the Word of God and puts a cloak around it so you can't understand
it. If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself
for battle. But throughout the book, preaching,
gospel preaching, is compared to the blowing of a trumpet.
And the first time we see this is back in the book of Exodus.
Turn there, if you will. The first mention of a trumpet
is found in connection with God giving his law at Mount Sinai
And the trumpet is here spoken of as the very voice of God himself,
which the people heard. And they trembled as God called
Moses up to the mount to give his law. Look at verse 13 of
chapter 19, Exodus 19, 13. The Lord gives warnings concerning
this Mount Sinai. that which was the picture, the
emblem of his holy, severe, unbending, uncompromising law and justice. He says, there shall not an hand
touch it. It wasn't because that mountain
was special. It wasn't. It was just a pile
of dirt with some wood on it. But that mountain represented
something. It represented God's holy law. And any man who puts
his hand to it is going to die. You're going to die. You that
would be under the law, don't you hear what the law says? There
shall not in hand touch it. But he shall surely be stoned
or shot through, whether it be beast or man. It shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long,
then shall they come up to the mount. Verse 19, when the voice
of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses
spoke, and God answered him by a voice. And then God gave what's
commonly called the Ten Commandments. It should not be called such.
He gave His law, and the summary of it was given in those Ten
Commandments. But to separate this from any
other aspect of the law is to do violence to the Scriptures.
And in verse 18 of chapter 20, after they've received the commandments, all the people saw the thunderings,
and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountains
smoking. And when the people saw it, they
removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, speak
thou with us, and we will hear. But don't let God speak to us.
Let not God speak with us, lest we die. We've got to have someone
between us and this august, holy God. We've got to have a mediator,
someone who can represent us to God, someone who can represent
God to us. Verse 20, and Moses said to the
people, fear not, for God has come to prove you, and that his
fear may be before your faces, that you sin not. And the people
stood far off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness
where God was. Now, throughout the scriptures,
the Lord Jesus used blasts of trumpets to call his people,
to summons his people to himself, as he did here on Sinai. These
blasts of trumpets were used to call for solemn assemblies,
holy convocations of the people to worship God at his throne.
They were used to prepare the people for their journeys as
they moved about in the wilderness from place to place on their
way to the land of promise. The blast of the trumpet was
used to prepare for war and warn of an advancing enemy. The blast
of the trumpet was used to announce every new moon and to announce
the year of jubilee. Now, all this was highly symbolic. In fact, the Lord God gives one
of his holy feasts by which he was to be worshiped by all the
people of Israel to be a feast of trumpets. Let's look at it
in Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus 23. One of Israel's holy convocations,
one of their annual times of worship, when they would gather
at Jerusalem to worship the Lord God, was called the Feast of
Trumpets. It's given here in Leviticus
23, verses 23, 24, and 25. The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month,
in the first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial
of blowing of trumpets, and holy convocation. You shall do no
servile work therein, but you shall offer an offering made
by fire unto the Lord. Now, this is given a little more
elaborately in the book of Numbers. Turn to chapter 10 in Numbers. Numbers, the 10th chapter. Let's
read a little bit more detail. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, make thee two trumpets of silver of a whole piece, shalt
thou make them. that thou mayest use them for
the calling of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps.
And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall
assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation. And if they blow but with one
trumpet, then the princes, which are the heads of the thousands
of Israel, shall gather themselves to thee. When you blow an alarm,
then the camps that lie on the east part shall go forward. Verse
6. When you blow an alarm the second
time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take
their journey, and they shall blow an alarm for their journeys.
But when the congregation is to be gathered together, you
shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm. No alarm here. The sons of Aaron the priest
shall blow with the trumpets, and they shall be to you for
an ordinance forever throughout your generations. And if you
go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you,
then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets, and you shall
be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved
from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness,
and in your solemn days, and in the beginning of your months,
you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and
over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, that they may be to
you for a memorial before your God, for I am the Lord your God. Look in chapter 29. One more
passage in this context. And in the seventh month, on
the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation.
You shall do no servile work, for it is a day of the blowing
of the trumpets unto you. And you shall offer a burnt offering
for a sweet savor unto the Lord, one bullock, one ram, and seven
lambs of the first year without blemish. And their meat offering
shall be a flower mingled with oil, three-tenth deals for a
bullock, and two-tenth deals for a ram, and one-tenth deal
for one lamb throughout the seven lands, and one kid of the goats
for a sin offering to make atonement for you. beside the burnt offering
of the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering,
and his meat offering, and their drink offerings according to
their manner, for sweet savor, a sacrifice made by fire unto
the Lord. Now without question, there's
just no question, the Feast of Trumpets was a representation
of that spiritual joy and gladness that belongs to God's elect by
the experience of grace through faith in Christ Jesus the Lord,
when we are made to know the joyful sound of the gospel. Brother
Ron Wood read a passage in Isaiah 35 sometime in the last couple
of weeks, I think back in the office. Listen to this. The ransomed
of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and with
everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. The psalmist David,
while referring to the Feast of Trumpets, says, blessed are
the people that know the joyful sound. Blessed are those people
who understand what the sound of the trumpet is. Blessed are
those people who know the joyful sound. Now let's look at this
a little more closely. Let me show you three things
with regard to the Feast of Trumpets, particularly with regard to this
trumpet. The trumpet is God's voice, symbolically. As the trumpet sounded at Sinai
was God's voice calling the people. So the preaching of the gospel
is God's voice to us. It is by this means that God
speaks to men. At Sinai, the trumpet represented
God's voice. The people heard it and trembled.
But the Apostle John heard that same voice. He heard it in Revelation
chapter 1. And as he turned and looked and
heard the Son of God speak, He who walks in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks, who holds the lamps in His hands,
the Lord Jesus Christ speaks and He said, I heard the voice
of a great trumpet sound. It is the voice of God speaking
to men. And Hebrews, we're told, see
that you refuse not him that speaketh. This is the most awesome, awesome thing in the
world to me. I tremble at the realization
of it. It is my responsibility. It is
my responsibility as I stand in this place to do what no man
can do. It is my responsibility to speak
to you the Word of God as the very voice of God Almighty. We then as ambassadors for Christ. Pray you in Christ's name be
you reconciled to God. As though God did beseech you
by us. I prepare diligently. I study
hard. My mind's a little thick. It
takes a while for things to get lodged in here. But unless God Almighty speaks
through this worthless, icky pipe, no preaching has been done. I'm not here to merely instruct
your minds, though I want to do that. I'm not here merely
to persuade you of divine truth, though certainly I want to do
that. I'm here praying that God Almighty will blow this trumpet. And if He does, something's going
to happen. Something's going to happen.
see that you refuse not the voice of him that speaketh." God's
voice is described here as the voice of two trumpets. Clearly,
seems to me, representing both the Old Testament and the New.
And yet we read in Numbers 10 that it was one piece, two trumpets
made together as one piece. Because the voice of God in Scripture,
the revelation of God in Scripture, in the Old Testament and in the
New, is one message. This is not a book with many
messages to different people. This is a book with one message
to all people. And that one message is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. There's two trumpets. were typical
of the gospel. The blowing of the trumpets symbolized
the preaching of the gospel. And I'm not just pulling that
out of my hat. The gospel of Christ is called the great trumpet.
Turn to Isaiah 27. You're familiar, of course, with
the passage in Isaiah 58. The Lord God says, cry aloud,
spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet. Gospel preachers
are to lift up their voice like a trumpet, proclaiming the gospel
of God's free grace, both to prepare men and warn them, sounding
an alarm because of their sin and of approaching judgment,
and to bid them to come to Christ. Here in Isaiah chapter 27, verse
13, the gospel is called the great trumpet. And it shall come
to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown.
the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were
ready to perish." Oh, those who are ready to perish, when they
hear this great trumpet blown, they shall come that were ready
to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcast of the land of
Egypt. Those who are far off from God,
those who are God's sworn enemies, those who are the haters of God,
they to perish when they hear the sound of the trumpet. They
shall come, watch this, and they shall worship the Lord. They'll
fall down before Him and worship Him in the holy mount at Jerusalem. And the picture is not giving
us, or the prophecy is not giving us a word of a time when the
Assyrians and the Egyptians are going to go to Jerusalem and
there worship the Lord. No. We come, we Assyrians and
Egyptians. though we were ready to perish,
hearing the good news of redeeming grace to Mount Zion, the new
Jerusalem. And we worshiped God Almighty
at His throne established in the heavens. These trumpets were
made of silver. Made of silver. Not just any
metal, but silver. Because the gospel like silver
is fetched from the deep mines of Holy Scripture, because the
gospel like silver will bear and endure the test of Scripture,
because the gospel like silver is a precious, valuable thing,
infinitely precious, infinitely valuable, because the gospel
of God's grace is the everlasting gospel. It is called a trumpet,
a trumpet of silver. And then we're told that these
two trumpets, like the preaching of the gospel, were used for
the calling of the assembly, for the gathering of God's elect. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Isn't this astounding? God Almighty
could just as easily, with no encumbrance, speak directly
to your heart and reveal himself to you. God Almighty could send
an angel from heaven and cause you to hear the voice of an angel
and cause you then to repent and believe. But it pleased God. by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. That means this is how God saves
his people. As Moses was commanded to tell
the sons of Aaron to lift up the trumpets and blow them, and
not sounding alarm now, but call the people to a holy convocation. And the people would be gathered
from the south, and from the north, and from the east, and
from the west, and they would come all unto God at the tabernacle
of the congregation. So the Lord God sends his gospel
into the four corners of the earth. And he takes such things
as he finds in broken pieces of human flesh and uses saved
sinners to proclaim free grace to saved sinners, and by the
preaching of the gospel, gathers his people to himself. And when
God speaks, he says to the north, give up, and to the south, keep
not back. And he brings his people from
afar. These same trumpets, like the gospel of Christ, were used
to inspire and to direct the children of Israel in their journeys
to the land of promise. The Lord said to Moses, he said,
now take these trumpets. And whenever you're about to
move from one place to another, call the sons of Aaron to blow
the trumpets so that these trumpets inspire and guide the people
through the wilderness as they move toward the land of promise.
And so it is by the preaching of the gospel that God inspires
and directs his people as we go through this wilderness day
by day. These two trumpets. I read something
here that I thought was just wonderfully astounding. Turn
back to Numbers 10 for a moment. Numbers 10. These two trumpets. were God's ordained weapons of
warfare for his people in the midst of their enemies, by which
he promised to protect and deliver them. These two trumpets. Well, boy, they ain't much of
a weapon. Give me some guns or some swords
or something. Ain't much of a weapon We're
out here. We're out here dealing with folks
who have got ammunition and got got Arms and mighty and strong
and numerous or well fortified give us something with which
to do battle Two trumpets Just two trumpets and look what God
says about Numbers 10 verse 9 If you go to war in your land against
the enemy that oppresseth you, then you shall blow an alarm
with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before the Lord
your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. Well, if one of that has any
parallel in our day, It sure does. Listen to this passage
in 2 Corinthians 10. Though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. We do not war after the flesh. The cause of Christ, hear me,
children of God, hear me. Would God, this religious generation
that has no knowledge of God, would hear me? The cause of Christ
is never advanced by carnal weapons. Never. People ask you to join in those
religious protests trying to shut down the porno shops. Don't
do it. Now, don't misunderstand me.
It'd be fine with me if every porno shop in the world was burned
right now. Sooner the better. But folks
want you to join in some kind of a crusade to shut them down?
Folks want you to fight over whether or not you sell liquor
by the drink in town? Don't y'all do it. Don't get
involved with that. Folks want you to march with
the papers, shut down abortion clinics? Don't do that. The cause
of Christ is never advanced by carnal weapons. I had a preacher
friend called, asked me the other day about some Campbellite, and
challenged him to a debate. He said, how do you handle that? I said, don't do it. The cause
of Christ is never advanced by carnal weapons. And I want you
to get involved in this thing or that, so we've got to do something
to maintain the cause of Christ. The cause of Christ is not maintained
by carnal weapons. It's not maintained by us getting
together and putting our heads together and writing logical
creeds. It's not maintained by us looking back at our historicity
and finding some basis in history for doing the things that we
do. It is not advanced in any way by any carnal means. Well, how on earth do you expect
to advance in this day? Just blow trumpets. That's all. Just preach the gospel. The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. The power of God. Mighty through God. Pulling down
strongholds. Pulling down strongholds. How
do you deal with a man or a woman who has built a fortress in their
minds and a steel door before their hearts, and they say, no,
I will not believe that gospel of free grace. No, I will not
trust a substitute alone. No. How do you deal with that? Well, let's prove and argue and
reason. Just preach. Just preach. Preach the gospel. And if God Almighty causes that
word to be heard in that man's soul, every stronghold will be
torn down, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. The trumpets were
blown. But they were blown on there
by the sons of Aaron, by divinely appointed men. God Almighty gives His church pastors and
teachers, gifted and called of God, to preach the gospel. Brother Lindsey touched on this
just a little bit This morning, in the church and kingdom of
God, there's no big me and little you. It is not at all unusual for
the pastor, a man who's gifted and called of God to be pastor
of a congregation, to be, by nature, the least likely man
for the job. That's certainly the case here. God takes that which is worthless
and useless, that which is nothing, and uses it so that the excellence and the
power may obviously be of God and not of man, that no flesh
glory in his presence. But this man who stands before
you is just the voice of this assembly and the voice of God
to this assembly if God speaks by us. But our labors are the
labors of a unified body. The ministry God's given us is
not my ministry. It's ours. Our work is not my
work. It's our work. But still, the
preaching of the gospel It cannot be done except by a man ordained
of God Almighty to do it. Any other attempts is just sounding
brass and tinkling cymbal. Any other attempts is but futility. And I might as well say this,
hoping that one of you fellows will play this tape down in Harrisburg
next week. But he mentioned the other day
the idiocy of somebody, was it a four-year-old boy preaching
in the paper? Idiocy, just idiocy. Let four-year-old
boys be President of the United States quicker than to put them
in a position of preaching to men and women in the name of
God. What tomfoolery, what vicious maligning of that
child. And what a vicious attack upon
the glory of God. It's idiocy. It's worse than
foolishness. It's criminal. It's criminal
to deal with the things of God in such a way. And the preacher
who's teaching him heard me say it. I want it to be heard. Now look at Numbers 10.10. These silver trumpets of grace
were to be blown over the sacrifice The Lord says here in verse 10,
now in the day of your gladness and in your solemn days and in
the beginnings of your months, you shall blow with the trumpets
over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace
offerings that they may be to you for a memorial before your
God. These trumpets will be blown.
in the beginning of months. They would be blown over the
sacrifices. And they would be blown as a
memorial before the Lord, a memorial both of mercies past and of mercies
promised. And the word memorial is used
in just exactly that way throughout the scriptures, so that the gospel
is proclaimed. The trumpet is blown over the
sacrifice, because there's no good news to proclaim, and no
hope of mercy to deliver, except on the basis of the sacrifice
of the Son of God. But now, since Christ has been
sacrificed, the gospel is proclaimed, and we've declared to men what
God has done, and what God says He's going to do. And so it is
done as a memorial. All right, now quickly, here's
the second thing. The gospel. Like these trumpets is the voice
of God. The blowing of these trumpets
is described in the scriptures as a joyful sound. Turn over
to Psalm 89. The feast of trumpets was a symbolic
representation of God's mercy, love, and grace proclaimed in
the gospel. The blowing of the trumpets portrayed
the preaching of the gospel, the proclamation of good news,
the good news of finished redemption, the good news of redemption finished
and accomplished by a suitable sacrifice, the good news of salvation
obtained by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, with regard to any religion,
any gospel that says do. It doesn't matter what brand
it is. It doesn't matter whether it's the gospel of the Islamic
fellows, or whether it's the gospel of the Jewish fellows,
or the gospel of the papist, or the gospel of the Baptist.
It doesn't matter. Any gospel that comes and says do is no
gospel at all. It is not a declaration of good
news. It is the giving of good advice.
It is not the declaration of something accomplished, it is
the proposal of something for you to do. The gospel is a declaration
done. Good news is done. Done. Everything done as God himself
would have it done. The gospel declares that redemption
is done. that justice is satisfied, that
sin is put away, that salvation has been obtained, that Christ
has finished His work. And it was the realization of
this fact, the realization of what was represented back in
the Feast of Trumpets and in the blowing of the trumpets that
inspired David as he wrote Psalm 89. Let's begin at verse 14.
Look here. David says, justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth go before thy
face. Now, wait a minute. Now, they
can't both be. Oh, yes, they can. Oh, yes, they
can. How can God Almighty be merciful
and forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin and be true and refuse
to pardon iniquity, transgression, and sin? And he says he does
both. How can that be? How can that be? Only one way. And that is because justice and
judgment are the habitation of his throne. Mercy and truth in
the person of Jesus Christ, his son, goes before his face. Now
watch this. Blessed are the people that know
the joyful sound. God's people, God's people are
men and women who know the gospel. They know the shepherd's voice.
And a stranger they will not follow. Somebody says, when is
a man or woman saved? When they learn the joyful sound.
When they find out what the good news is. When they're made to
understand how God can be just and justify the ungodly. When
they're made to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That's when God saves sinners. They're made to know the joyful
sound. These people are blessed for they've been taught of God.
These people are blessed. They've been called of God. These
people are blessed. They were redeemed. They were
chosen. Now they're made to know the joyful sound. Watch this.
They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. We
walked all our lives in darkness. Now we walk in the light, as
he is in the light. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
his Son, cleanses us from all sin. Read on. In thy name, in
thy name, that is, in Christ the Lord, shall they rejoice
all the day. In thy name shall they trust.
In thy name shall they boast. In thy name shall they rejoice.
The word includes all of those things. In thy name shall they
rejoice as long as they walk through this world all the day. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. We don't. And in thy righteousness
shall they be exalted. Now, this is what that says. There came a time when God Almighty
came to Merle Hart and to Bob Duff. Blind, ignorant, didn't know
God, walking in darkness, and he calls you to hear the joyful
sound. He calls you to hear His voice.
Hearing the joyful sound, He calls you to walk in the light
of His countenance. Causes you to believe and rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen. How on this earth
can God Almighty exalt you to the position of the sons of God
at His throne? How can he lift sinners from
the dumb heap of fallen humanity at the very gates of hell and
set them among the sons of God in righteousness? There ain't
no other way. In righteousness. So that when
we stand before God, accepted in Christ forever. One with Christ forever is because
it's right. Did you hear me? It's right. It's right. Folks say, oh God,
don't deal with me in justice. He won't deal with you any other
way. He'll either send you to hell
in justice, or he'll take you to glory in justice. But he's
not going to compromise his character, not for you, me, or anybody else.
They shall be exalted in righteousness, verse 17, for thou art the glory
of their strength. He's our strength and our defense,
our rock and our deliverer, and in thy favor Our horns shall
be exalted. We're exalted in righteousness
because you favored us with your grace. For the Lord is our defense,
the Holy One of Israel. He's our King. That means everything's
all right. All right, and here's the third
thing. This blowing of the trumpet,
this voice of God is the joyful sound. And it is a divine call. The preaching of the gospel is
a call to weary sinners to rest. Back in Leviticus 23, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak
unto the children of Israel, verse 24, saying, in the seventh
month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath. a memorial, a blowing of trumpets,
and holy convocation, you shall do no servile work
therein. Let me speak directly to you,
both believers and you who are yet unbelievers. The gospel calls you to a holy
convocation. What a privilege. Come, Rex Bartley, to the throne
of God. and meet with the triune God,
and all his people, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and
the angels of God in divine worship." Come on. What a privilege. And the gospel calls you, who
are ready to perish and far off. who are haters of God, who live
with your fist in God's face. Oh, what a gracious God our God
is. He calls you to a holy convocation. He calls sinners to the throne
of grace. He calls you to Him. in mercy. And it sounds in a lie. Come or perish. Come or die. Come here. Come here now. Bow down before my throne and
kiss my sword or feel it. Come to me. Not only does he
call you to a holy convocation, he calls you to rest. Rest. Any preacher who gives you something
to do to get you to come to God, gives you something to do to
save you, gives you something to do to give you favor with
God, any preacher who assigns any task to you is a messenger
of Satan, not of God. The gospel trumpet calls for
rest. The gospel trumpet says, quit doing! That's your problem. Come. Unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Children of God,
come to me and rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light, and you'll find
rest for your soul. The gospel calls you to a memorial. In preaching the gospel, We point
back to the wondrous works of God
and say, look here what God has done. God Almighty assumed human
nature, walked on this earth in our room instead, brought
in everlasting righteousness, fulfilled the law, magnified
the law, made it honorable. He took on Himself our sins and
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. When He was made
to be sin for us, He died the horrid death of the cross under
the wrath of God Almighty, was buried and rose again the third
day and descended up into heaven. There He sits. And He who is
sitting on His holy throne is ruling the universe for His people.
And He is going to save them every one. And He is going to
bring them through this wilderness into the land of promise. And He's going to cause them
to possess their heritage in the fullness of His glory and
His beauty as the sons of God. The trumpet in the Old Testament
was sort of like the word, behold, in the New. Let me see if I can
play a few notes. the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. What good news! Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should
be called the sons of God.