Do You Hear the Trumpets?

You know, we're here on the Feast of Trumpets. It is a wonderful day. As we begin the fall Holy Days, I know we all have a vision in our minds of what the Kingdom will be like. We look forward to the return of Jesus Christ. We look forward to the many things that this day pictures. Of course, the binding of Satan on the Day of Atonement, the Kingdom when Jesus Christ returns to earth, and how good that will be for all of mankind. Literally, all of mankind, not just a few select nations that are blessed, but all the world will be blessed under His rule. And as we pause here on this day and reflect on it, as we've been going through our local Bible studies, if you've been joining in on those, we're prepared for this day. We've been talking about the trumpets and the trumpet call here as we go through the book of Revelation for a few weeks. So, you know, we've had our minds set on that on the very many things that this day pictures. So, I'm not going to go through all those because we've talked about them, but we know that this day pictures the return of Jesus Christ. He will return to earth. He will claim the nations and kingdoms of this world and make them His own. We know that this day pictures the resurrection of the saints. That everyone who dies in Christ, who has lived their life with God's Holy Spirit and endures to the end, they will be resurrected, and then they will reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years when He is on earth.

We know that this day pictures a time of alarm. That there are as many things as going to befall the world. A world that has so far departed from God that will continue to depart farther and farther from God between now and the time of Jesus Christ's return, and the alarm that all those trumpets sound. You know, if you've read through Revelation, you know, the six trumpets, we've talked about them on the Bible studies, and as we've gone through those, you know, coming up to the seventh trump, the climactic seventh trump that ends everything that this world stands for. Everything that this society, this end, the end of this age that man has lived in, that has really, if we look at the dispensations from the time of Jesus Christ until the time of His return, it ends it all.

But through the first six trumpets, we see the very, the very, you know, the call of God, not the call of God, but the warning of God to the world. You know, recall the first four trumpets, God harmed the earth, and as the trumpets began to sound, you had the first trumpet sound, and one third of the grass and one third of the trees were burned up.

It's a warning to the world. He didn't destroy them all, but one third were gone. He's beginning to show, I'm the God of this world. I created this world. I created you to follow me, and for some reason mankind thinks he is superior over God, can make his decisions, and that God, you know, who gives us everything we have, everything we ever will have, begins to show man, no, it's going to be done my way. You have led and brought the world to a tremendous state, a tremendously awful state. The second trumpet sounds, and a third of the waters become blood.

The third trumpet sounds, and a third of the waters become poisonous so that men die from them. The fourth trumpet sounds, and a third of the sun, and the third of the moon do not give light, and a third of the day is dark.

Mankind realizes this is God, this isn't anything that science is going to be able to predict and say, this happened because of this. It's going to be clear that it's God that's doing it. He's beginning to exact his judgment on a world that has departed from him from the time that Adam and Eve decided to reject him and do their own thing. And then, of course, we have the three rows, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh trumpets. The fifth trumpet, you'll remember we talked about the angel going down and unlocking the key to the bottomless pit, and the smoke comes out of that pit.

And men are tormented for five months as God. They don't listen to the first four where he harms the earth. They know it's God, it sells us. They don't, they ignore him. They just keep going on. But in the fifth, he begins to torment men for five months like the pain of a scorpion we talked about. But mankind doesn't repent after that. And in the sixth trumpet, we see a third of mankind killed. Through it all, we read in Revelation that mankind knows it's God, but they don't repent. They run and hide.

They hide their heads, and they realize, let us just hide in caves. Who's going to save us from God? But it's simply like it never occurs to them. We just need to yield to him. We need to surrender to him. He is mightier than us. He created us to do his will, not our will. And they keep going, and they keep going, and they keep going, and they know it's God, but they simply will not repent.

Let's turn to Revelation 16. Let's just read through some of this climactic seventh trumpet where God really exacts his vengeance on the world that we live in and the world that has been under man's and Satan's domain here really for the last 6,000 years. We see in the very last verse of Revelation 15 in verse 8, it says, the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

It's as if the door is shut when that seventh angel begins to sound, when the seven vials begin to be poured out. There's no entry at that point. The door is shut, and mankind is going to go through all of these things exactly the way the Bible defines them for us here. I hope that none of us are on the receiving end of what Revelation 16 and the seventh trump and the seven vials of the seventh trump is.

I hope we are there watching what's going on, mourning for a world that has not followed God, but not partaking of it because it's going to be a terrifying and a terrible time for the earth and its people. Chapter 16, verse 1. I'm going to read through this, not make too many comments, but I just want us to have a picture of this climax. This is the thing that will bring the end of this age to the end and Jesus Christ return. Chapter 16, verse 1. I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.

So the first one out, and he poured out his bowl on the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. Remember, the whole world, it says, will be to see. The whole world that doesn't have God's Spirit, the whole world that isn't written in the book of life, is going to cave, and they are going to accept the mark of the beast. They have no choice, is what they'll think. We have no other way to turn except the mark of the beast.

Only those who have the Spirit of God and who are written in the book of life by the choices they make will be able to resist the mark of the beast that will be that powerful. Then the second angel, verse 3, poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died. In the first couple trumps, a third of those sea creatures died.

A third of the waters returned to blood. In this bowl, God completes it. Everything is gone.

The blood of a dead man and every living creature in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the water saying, You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have judged these things. They have shed the blood of saints and prophets. Remember reading in Revelation 17 that the beast power, the woman who rode the base, she's drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, of the people who follow God. And the angel says, They've shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, for it is their just due. And I heard another from the altar saying, watch these voices as we've talked about. Look at how well orchestrated everything is as these prophecies come about and as these bowls are laid out, as God has that plan and it's so perfectly, perfectly executed from heaven. I heard another from the altar saying, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat. And they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory. They blamed him. This is God's fault. They blasphemed him. This is God's fault. And indeed, it was God's fault. They brought it upon themselves, but they don't repent. That doesn't occur to them. Let's just surrender to God. He's more powerful than us. This is his creation. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness. And they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.

What did they do? They blasphemed the God of heaven. Because of their pains and their sores, they did not repent of their deeds. They did what mankind does so well. Let's blame God, but let's not yield to him. Let's not seek his will. Let's not give in. Let's promote ourselves as we're equal to God or even better than God. The same spirit of the one who gives the power to the beast, power, and in the same time, who always has wanted to be superior to God. And that yielded to him. Verse 12, the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. So we've talked about that at the end time you have a power in the north, you have a power in the south, you have a power in the east, but you no longer have a power in the west where all the world looks today. It's gone. North, south, and east are there, and here in the time of the seventh trumpet and the bowls that are poured out north and east are going to battle it out because there's never peace in any kingdom except Jesus Christ's. They may cry peace, they may cry safety, but it doesn't happen unless Jesus Christ is the king. And I saw, verse 13, three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. These are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Here we have one of the trumpet purposes. You know, we talked about gathering last week. Here, this gathering is not for a holy purpose. This gathering that we're talking about here is they're going to gather together to fight against God, somehow foolishly but so pridefully thinking with all our power, with all our might, with all the weaponry, with all the advances science has given us, and all the geniuses have given us that we can stand against God. Boy, do they have a lot to learn.

Jesus Christ says in verse 15, Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments. Lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And they gather them together in the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. And then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, It's done.

There were noises and thunderings and lightnings. There was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. And that great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Every island fled away, the mountains were not found, and great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hail stoned about the weight of a talent. Even through all that, men didn't repent. They blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great. You see, everything that mankind went through, through all of that. You know, we read these words and they almost play like a movie to us.

And if someone was to make a movie and have all these things happen, I would think that most of the people watching it think, what's wrong with those people? Couldn't they understand and see they just needed to surrender? I mean, they let everything disappear. What's wrong with them?

Well, we know what's wrong with them, right? They don't have the Spirit of God.

This is a perfect case of Romans 8 verse 7, showing out that the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And if we didn't have the Spirit of God, we might be among these men and doing exactly what they did here in Revelation 16, blaming God, saying, who is He? What is He doing? It's all His fault. Where is He? And we can create something to offset what God did. Never would it enter our mind, yield to Him, surrender to Him, find the peace, the joy, and everything that God promises in Him. Because the carnal mind, inspired by Satan and that Spirit, just doesn't think that way. But mankind will learn when they're totally decimated. Totally decimated by the failure to yield to Him just who God is.

The lesson that I hope we've all learned, we have no choice but to yield to God. The world will learn, and they're going to learn it the very hard way, they have no choice. There is the power, there is the Creator, and you cannot stand against Him. Joy, peace, happiness, abundance, every good thing is in Him. That's why He created mankind. That's why He created the earth. And everything bad and evil and painful comes from the Spirit that has lived in man since the time Adam and Eve said, God, forget your way. We're going to do things our own way. And we see what the result of that has been. You know, God tells us He's not willing that any should perish. He wants everyone to come to repentance. And look what He does to mankind. Through six of those trumpets, it's like He's learning them. Okay, see this? A third of the waters turn to blood. A third of the waters have become poisoned. A third of the sun, moon, and stars is dark. Do you get it? Well, men get it, but they don't do anything. They don't turn to God. They don't repent. You know, those plagues are, those trumpets are, if I can use the word, mild compared to the seventh. In the seventh, He leaves absolutely nothing off the table. You want what you've earned? You're going to get the full, you're going to get the full force of it. And at the end of it, I don't know if mankind is ready, but mankind has no choice but to yield to God, Jesus Christ, who has come and conquered the earth and made it His. You know, it's not an easy thing to follow God. It's not an easy thing to yield to Him. If God hadn't called us and if God, and if we hadn't responded, if we hadn't repented of our sins, if we didn't have the Holy Spirit, we would be having, we'd be totally different people.

It's not easy to choose to leave your life behind and your own ideas behind and your own whatever it is behind and choose God. He calls us to a lack, a life of sacrifice. He calls us to a life where we change and conform and become and transform into what He wants us to be.

It's not easy. It's the only thing to do. And there is comfort and there is joy and there is a purpose in life and a meaning to life when we do that and we yield to Him. But it's not the easiest thing to do. And so it does to follow God. It does take courage. It does take determination.

It does take commitment. It does take loyalty to God and belief in Him. It does take us disciplining ourselves and saying no to what we naturally want to do and choose the things of God, even though our minds and our hearts and our habits are saying, you know, nope, we just kind of want to do the other thing. It does take courage. But we have to do it. We have to do it because God has called us to us and you and I know, as the world will learn, this is the only way.

This is the only way. Looking at it, there is no choice but to follow God and follow the Lamb wherever He goes, as we talked about a few days ago. You know, let's go back to Romans 8. I mentioned Romans 8, 7, you know, a memory verse for everyone, you know, about the carnal mind being in the tea. But at the end of the Holy Spirit chapter, Will, in Romans 8, Paul draws our attention to just how important this calling is that we have and what it is that, you know, where are there any boundaries that we put and say, God, you know, I'm going to follow You wherever You go, unless You go here. Romans 8, verse 35. Paul writes, Who, we might say, What? Who or what?

Shall separate us from the love of Christ. What would it be? Where would we draw the line?

Would we draw the line of tribulation? Shall tribulation? Shall distress?

Shall persecution separate us from the love of Christ? Would famine separate us from the love of Christ? Would nakedness? Would peril? Would the sword? Well, we say, you know what, that's more than I bargained for. I no longer choose You, God. I choose the world, and I choose the faith that the world has to offer. I draw the line of tribulation. I draw the line at famine. I draw the line at that.

Well, if there's anywhere that a line is drawn that we say, okay, I'm telling you, God, I'm not going there, then we know what the end of us is. We've just read what it's going to be and what the ultimate fate is. But these are things that God is saying, what do we do during our lifetimes, this summer growth period that we're in right now, as we have God's Holy Spirit, as we go through the trials and tests of this life. They're all different from each of us, right? But they're all designed for a purpose, and that is to give us the faith and to give us the focus and to give us the trust, the reliance, the dependence on God that we need. Because it's too late when we get to the... if we're there at the seventh trump, you know, the door is closed. If we're there and we haven't developed that faith and that trust in God, if we don't believe that He is, and that we haven't through the times of our lives come to the point when our minds, you know, if tribulation comes, if I die, I die, it's God's will, I'll be in the kingdom. If it's sword, if it's whatever it is that might come our way, what will separate us, Paul is asking. Verse 36, he says, as it's written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We're accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Do we, when we pray, thy will be done, really mean it? What if thy will for me is your head's going to be lopped off? What if thy will for you is something that is just really hard to accept? You know, we've talked about it. We've talked about it. We don't stand in the way of God's will. All things work together for good. Romans 8, 28, to those that love Him. For your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. There's one way to overcome this. There's one way to endure it. It's through Jesus Christ. For I am persuaded, Paul writes, that neither death or life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

There's a lot to think about. Back in Revelation 21, you know, in Revelation 21 we have Jesus Christ who's returned to earth.

He's established His kingdom. We read these very positive verses that absolutely will happen.

Death, pain, sorrow, tears, all the former things have passed away. And now Jesus Christ is on earth, and there's joy, there's peace, there's abundance. And Satan and the evil influences are away. It's a beautiful picture of the thing that we picture. We absolutely know what's going to happen because the Bible says it's going to happen. And we trust and we believe God and have faith in Him to do that. Then in verse 7 of Revelation 21, He says, He who overcomes. Well, there's part of our job description we have to overcome. We can't be the same people all the time. We have to be overcoming all through our lives. As God reveals these weaknesses, these attitudes, these whatever it is, it's our job to overcome not by our will, not by our power, not by our might, but by His Holy Spirit. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be as God and He will be my Son.

And then He gives this list in verse 8 of those who won't be in that kingdom. And I say it's a 21st century list, right? Because this is for people of the end time to look at. And God is saying, I want all of you there, but here's the type of people who won't be there. And it's very interesting to me that the very first two things that He writes in verse 8 are not something that we would put as these people won't be there. But the cowardly and the unbelieving won't be there.

But I think back to some of the things that Jesus Christ said when He was on earth. How many times did He say, don't be afraid? Don't be afraid. Don't be dismayed. When these things happen to you, don't do what humans do and run away and hide like the people that we read about in Revelation after the six trumps are going, hide in caves, save us from God. Don't run and hide.

Don't be afraid. Stand up and trust in Him. How many times did He say that? You know, God didn't give us the spirit of timidity. He gave us the spirit of power and love and a sound mind, of trust in Him. Not that we're foolish people and we disregard things, but we aren't afraid. What did He tell ancient Israel? He said, don't be afraid. Trust Me. Believe in Me.

Per se, you know, unbelieving. You know, you heard it in the sermonette about faith and faith and works. How many times did Jesus Christ say to His disciples, oh you of little faith?

One of the hallmark things that He said, when I return to earth, will I find faith?

Will I find faith? But the cowardly, but the unbelieving, but the abominable. And you can go back and look at the things that God says are abominations and murderers, sexually immoral, the sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So He says those things to us, and you know, we might look at the list. None of us are perfect in those regards. Probably all of us can look at at least some of those things and say, you know what? That's probably me. I've got a lot to work on yet before the return of Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ said, if you love Me, remember? He said that in John 14, twice. He said, if you love Me, keep My commandments. If you love Me, keep My commandments.

The definition of a saint is to see who keeps the commandments of God and has the faith of Jesus Christ. And in 1 John it says, perfect love. What does it do? Perfect love casts out fear.

Perfect love casts out fear. Something as we go through life and as we begin to look and see at the world around us and hear the trumpets beginning to sound, maybe faintly now, but growing and growing in noise, that we begin to think about these things and realize we can't be people who shrink back. We have to be people who is defined by wherever the Lamb goes, no matter how perilous to Me as a human I go. I have perfect faith in Him. I know He can see Me through anything, and if it's His will that peril falls Me or I go through pain or whatever, then that's His will. My focus is on the Kingdom of God, however God has determined my road is to get there. One of the lessons of trumpets is hearing those trumpets and beginning to realize when we hear those trumpets, the things that we need to do, because trumpets are warning sounds, right? We read that in Numbers 10. We read it last week. It can gather people together. It can sound the alarm. It can be a warning to people. When people had their ears in tune to trumpets, they knew something was up. I better pay attention to what's going on, because if they ignored the trumpet, disaster could occur.

They had to respond, or if they were thinking, they had to respond. You know, back in when we look at the examples of ancient Israel, we learn a lot. We talked not too long ago, last week, I guess, probably back in Exodus 19, when God gathered his people before him. Here he had brought them out of Israel, or brought them out of Egypt. And there he said, gather together before me at Mount Sinai.

They had gone through and seen God work all these miracles. They should have known God, and they should have been absolutely just completely trusting in Him. But they learned at the foot of Mount Sinai that they didn't really fear God the way that they should. He was a far more powerful God than they had imagined. They had seen Him save them, take them out of slavery. They had seen Him deliver them through the Red Sea. They had seen Him give them manna. They had seen Him give them water out of rock. And here they were, gathered together before Him at Mount Sinai. Probably a wonderful and a tremendous day for all of them. But then they began to see the power of God. And you remember what happened to them? They became quite, quite afraid when they saw the power of God. Let's go back and look at that in Exodus 20. In Exodus 20, in chapter 19, they're gathered before Him at the beginning of chapter 20, or the Ten Commandments, what God says, here's the way you should live, the same things that He tells us. This is the way you live if you want happiness, peace, all the good things in life. Follow Me. Follow Me is the message. But in verse 18 of Exodus 20, when it finishes the Ten Commandments, it says, all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet that gathered them together, and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled, and they stood afar off. Oh, this is a God that's so far greater, so far more majestic, so far more powerful than we thought. He's a kind God. He's a gentle God. He's giving everything, but now that I see His power, I tremble. I tremble, and they stood afar off. And they said, Moses, you speak with us, and we will hear. But don't let God speak with us, lest we die. They sense that. Here is a God to be reckoned. Here's a God that's so powerful He commands heaven and earth. And they began to see it, the same type of things we need to begin to see. You know, as we've talked about the throne of heaven and some of the prophets who have seen that throne. John, remember when he sees it? He falls on his face. The majesty of it, he's just incredulous at how tremendous it is. He can't speak. Daniel can't speak. Isaiah can't speak. Ezekiel can't speak. When they see the power of God, and when we see the power of God, you know, we're going to read later, even Moses, even Moses trembled. They said to Moses, we can't speak to him. We'll die. And Moses said to the people, those classic words, don't fear. Don't fear.

For God has come to test you so that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin.

Let's cast out the timidity. Let's cast out the cowardly stuff, but let's replace it with the fear of God where the fear belongs, because without the fear of God, we're not going to be in his kingdom. The fear of God. You know, we've talked about that before. It's been some years, and it's not a bad Bible study to go back up and look every time the fear of Lord is mentioned to see what the benefits are, because without the fear of God, we're not a whole lot different than those people that we read about in the first six. You know, okay, God did this. Okay, God did that. But, you know, am I really listening? Am I really paying attention? Am I really doing the things? Do I really fear? Do I really trumble at his word? There's a wrong kind of fear, but the fear of God is a very right kind of fear. And God says, you know, or Moses tells the people under God's inspiration here, he gives you the fear of him so that you do not sin. That fear is a beneficial fear. That's the fear that we should have us. Jesus Christ said, you know, don't fear men who can kill the body. Fear him who can take your soul. And so we see, you know, so we see that.

And when we hear the trumpet, you know, we might be thinking, let's trumble before God. Let's look to God. He's the Savior. Salvation is through Jesus Christ. It's not through this world.

It's not through whatever organization or whatever it is we looked at. All salvation is only to God, and what God is going to bring the world to is the realization it's only God. Every other thing you relied on in this earth is gone. And you and I, here, do you come to the point where we rely on God and let all those other things that we're relying on disappear in our life and replaced with the faith in him. As we think about trumpets, you know, you might think about another notable place in the Old Testament where trumpets are quite highlighted, and that's in the Battle of Jericho.

Right? We have the Battle of Jericho, and here we have Israel. They've crossed over the Jordan. God has promised them the land. You go in, you conquer this land. It's going to be yours to keep. He's had that vision in front of Israel from the time he brought him out of Israel, out of Egypt. This is the land I promised you. You go in, but here's this Jericho. It's the most fortified city in the world at that time. The walls are too hard, almost impregnable, they say. And God says, this is the first city you're going to conquer. You know, Israel, to their credit, they didn't panic. They didn't run away. They didn't put their heads in the sand and say, we're going back to Egypt because this is too hard of a thing. They learned their lesson, I guess, if you will, when the scouts went in and came back with a bad report on Israel, on the promised land. But there you have Jericho, and God tells them, you know, what I want you to do is I want you to march around that city once each day for six days, and on the seventh day, march around the seven times. And when the seventh or the seventh time when that trumpet sounds loudly, you shout, and the walls are going to come tumbling down. Now, as humans, we might look at that and say, huh? You may know, no military might, no, you know, no weapons, no bombs, just kind of march around. And then when we sound the trumpet and shout, and we have faith in God to back it up, those walls are just going to come tumbling down. You're going to give us this land. The thing that you've promised, it's going to just happen. You're going to give it to us. What we need is faith and to obey you and do these things and sound the trumpet. Israel did it. And what happened? Jericho is a type of the world, and at that seventh tumpet and the seventh day, the walls came tumbling down. It was final.

Jericho was over. The land was going to be given to Israel. All they had to do was march in and take it. But they had to do what God said, and the trumpets were a large part of that. If we go forward here to Joshua and just see a few of the things that God says about that eventful time and that notable thing that's marked by trumpets in Joshua 6 verse 16.

It says, and this is the wrap-up of the story, it says, the seventh time it happened when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, shout, for the eternal has given you the city. It wasn't them. It wasn't by their might. It wasn't by their power. It wasn't by their keen strategy. It was simply obeying God and having faith in Him. Joshua said to the people, shout, the Lord has given you the city, and the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. So you have Jericho. You know, Jericho, when you look at chapter 5 and 6, Jericho knew who the people of Israel were.

Chapter 6, verse 1, it kind of indicates they're a little leery. They know the story of what their God has done for Israel. So they're trembling, never a curse to them, you know, through six marches around the city. Maybe we should go out and make peace with these people. They're up to something. We don't know exactly what, but it can't be good for us because we know the story of their God and what He does for His people. Now we know that He promised His people this land. Never a curse to them, I guess, to go out and say, let's sign a treaty, let us yield to you. Occurred to Rahab, you know, she chose God over loyalty to Jericho. She saw things right, and here God says, because Rahab hid the messengers, she and her family would be saved. She took God instead of the thing that was stable in her life, Jericho.

In verse 18, you know, Jericho was a rich city, and it was going to be alluring to the Israelites when they conquered. You see the walls fall down. It's like, you know what? Look at the gold. Look at the silver. Look at all these things that these people in Jericho had. They had everything. Can't we have some of that for ourselves? We've been living in the desert for 40 years here. It'd be nice to have some of these things, but God tells them, you by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of those things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. You know, God tells us who's about to take the kingdom, or Jesus Christ is going to take the kingdom back to Himself, and we would be with Him. What does He tell us? He says to us, come out of her, my people, like Rahab did. Come out of her. Choose me. Choose the citizenship in heaven, not the United States of America or the United Kingdom or wherever it is. You know, anyone listening to this might be. Choose me. And in 2 Corinthians 6, He says, don't even touch those unclean things. Separate yourself from them. Not wrong to have money. Not wrong to have possessions. It is wrong to trust in them. It is wrong to think that they're going to shield us or somehow keep us from what God's will is. Enjoy them. Don't make them a God. He tells them, don't even touch this stuff. Because if you do, you're going to bring problems upon yourself. And of course, as we get into chapter 7 and 8, we read of a man who disregarded God and thought, well, how much harm can it be to take a few of these things and hide them in my house? And Achan and his family learned a pretty, pretty hard lesson to learn as a result of disregarding God, even in something that we might think, you know, how bad is it, but we learn, do it exactly the way that God says.

And in verse 19, he says, the silver, the gold, the vessels of bronze and iron, these are consecrated to the Lord. They will come into the treasury of the Lord. So we have this example of Jericho. God gave the people of Israel the Promised Land, much like He will give us what He says.

They had trumpets, and we have trumpets. Today we're talking about those trumpets and what they signify, because this day has so much meaning we could give a series of sermons for the next month on what each one of the meanings of those the trumpets are that we're talking about. But let's go to Revelation 14 and look at some of what God says before that final climactic seventh trumpet that this day pictures when all of the society of this world, the beast power that is yet to come, it is all decimated. It is all done, as Jesus Christ says. He returns, and then it's His Kingdom that will be on earth. In chapter 14 of Revelation, last Wednesday we went through the first few verses there talking about the 144,000, and we talked about who those people were.

You know, they have in verse 1 their Father's name written on their foreheads. Verse 3, they learned a song that only they could learn. They heard the song in heaven, and only they could learn it. Just like today we can learn what God has because we have the Spirit of God. Other people can't read the Bible and understand what you and I do, but God gives us the Spirit, and these 144,000 they can learn the song. It tells us that they're the ones, they're virgins. They've become perfect during the course of their lifetime. They just start off that way. They weren't the cream of the crop. They weren't the best and the cleverest in the world. They were the base things God says in 1 Corinthians 1. But through the course of their life, being led by God's Holy Spirit, being humble, being fearful of God, following Him, listening to what He said, and devoted to becoming what He wanted them to become, they became virgins. They got rid of all their old ideas. They lived by the Word of God, every word of God. They're the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were redeemed from the earth. Verse 5, "...and their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God." So we have a picture of where we are. Six trumpets have sounded. The seventh trumpet has sounded, but the seven bowls have not yet been poured out, as we pick the story up here in verse 6. And then we see this interlude where God talks about three things that are going to happen in the midst of these trumpets before the seventh final trumpet sounds. Verse 6 of chapter 14, "...I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. And that angel said with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgments has come, and worship Him, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and springs of water." And so we have the gospel being preached. Now, during this time we have the two witnesses in Revelation 11. They're preaching the Word of God loud and clear to a world that is listening and fascinated because of the conflict that's between them and the beast power. The beast power denigrating God, blaspheming God, the two witnesses giving the Word of God, talking about God, telling them to stay away from the beast power, encouraging the people of God who are still there on earth. And you have this message that goes out, and the people of the world hear it. It's not hidden from them. They get it. They're preaching the everlasting gospel. The world will hear it. They know they have a choice to make. Beast or God? Many choose God. We're told great multitudes come through the great tribulation and they have their robes washed through the tribulation. How many through the trumps? You know, we don't know, but the everlasting gospel is preached.

Turn back to Isaiah. Isaiah, if you keep your finger there in Revelation 14, we'll come back.

In Isaiah 58, verse 1, you know that gospel is preached in all the world today, too. Maybe not as powerfully as it will be when the two witnesses are on earth. Maybe not the coverage that they're going to get when every internet station or whatever the communication channels are at that time are, that everyone is tuned to them. Maybe it's not going out in that power today, but it'll happen when God decides when that time is going to be. But Isaiah 58, verse 1, you know, we have a trumpet that's being blared, that's blaring today. Isaiah 58, verse 1, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. Oh, we've got trumpets playing around us today.

We've got things going on around us today. You hear words today that should pique our interest, maybe make us think about something we should be doing or shouldn't be doing or what we need to become, because that word is going out like a trumpet. The question is, is it being received?

Do we kind of bury our head in the sand and think, well, okay, I'll go on with it. I'm getting used to the sound of that trumpet and don't pay attention to it, because more and more God will tell us what our sins are. He'll reveal those to us. He will tell the house of Jacob and the physical nations of Israel what their sins are, whether they listen or not. Well, we kind of know what that answer is, because like the people in Revelation 6, they'll just go on their own way. But if we're paying attention to the world around us today, we can hear little trumpets blast, right? I mean, we've gone through this coronavirus thing for what, six, seven, eight months, nine months now, or whatever.

I mean, it's there. It's unlike anything that we've ever lived through. Nothing this country has ever done. And it just kind of lingers on. It ebbs, it tides, it's become controversial. All sorts of things have emanated out of it that no one could have ever imagined. And it's still there, maybe with us for the next... who knows? Maybe the rest of the time until Jesus Christ returns.

You know, we look at a world around us and all of a sudden we see, you know, the violence that we've seen in some of the cities in America. And violence and protesting and rioting, that's different. It's got a different spirit in it. There's a spirit of rebellion. There's a spirit of revolution.

There's a spirit of anarchy. There's a spirit of we're against everything and we want things are done our way. It's a different spirit that we live in. We see hate in a way that we haven't seen hate displayed before us every single day. You know, so, hate has always been there, but it seems to have been magnified in the last several months and probably even more so in the next several months as we go through life here. You know, we see even in some of the things that we read about abortion. You know, since 1972, it's almost like abortion has become commonplace in America. It's just kind of one of those things we do. We probably even shrug our shoulders at it because we've gone for the last 48 years. It's just gotten kind of used to in America. Not that any of us do it or whatever encourage anyone to do it. We realize it's wrong. We realize it's murder, but it's just kind of all around us. But then all of a sudden we see it taken to a new level when we talk about late-term abortions. And it's like, what? That could be legal in America?

That could happen here? And we have to ask ourselves, how is that any different than the challenge sacrifice that we read in the Bible? How many times has God condemned Judah and Israel and His people that they would even sacrifice their children to K-Mosh and Molech and Baal? And it's like that's a line that when you cross it, God is done with them. It's a point of no return, and the punishment comes. And here in America, we're getting pretty close to that because I would challenge anyone to say that any kind of late-term abortion is anything other than child sacrifice. Maybe not to K-Mosh, maybe not to Molech, maybe not to Baal, but to the God of self. It's easier for me to just kill this baby because I choose I don't want to deal with it. I don't want I don't want the responsibility. So we look at where we're at in a world that the world that we're at. You know, we look at the California, Washington, Oregon wildfires, the pictures that we see on TV. If someone made a movie of that, we would probably think that can't happen. That's not going to happen through three states that we're going to see just burning going on forever and the sky turned orange. The pictures we see are unimaginable, and yet it happens, and every year it intensifies. You know, we see we see the calamity on the earth. We see where it's going. We maybe have our senses dulled to it, but we see it over and over and over again, and it just intensifies. It doesn't it doesn't dissipate at all. Let's go over to Amos. Amos 3.

Amos 3 and verse 6.

God says something very interesting here. He says, if a trumpet, if a trumpet is blown in the city, won't the people be afraid? Aren't they going to be able to pay attention? Doesn't they get their attention? If a trumpet's blown in a city, won't the people be afraid?

And if there's calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?

He says, when you look around and see these things, what do you make excuses for? You think, oh, it's just science. It's just natural. It's just these things are going on or blame something else.

If there's calamity in a city, won't the Lord have done it?

Are you listening? God says. Are you paying attention to what's going on, to the people, you and me, who He's called? Do you get it? Are we listening? Are we heeding? Are we getting the times that we're in? When Jesus Christ said, when the buds begin to show on the trees, know the time is near. Don't dilly and dally any longer. Don't bury your head in the sand and think things can go on as they always have been. It's a warning, a trumpet warning.

Once the trumpets start, there's no stopping them. They just continue until the return of Christ.

So that everlasting gospel is preached until the seventh trumpet, and then when the seventh trumpet and the bulls begin to be poured out, there is no entree to the temple at that time.

Then it's just God's wrath on people. If we go back to chapter 14 and verse 8, after the angel that says the everlasting gospel will be preached, another angel, Revelation 14 verse 8, followed, saying, Babylon is fallen is fallen, that great city, because she's made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And a third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast, and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.

He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Let's just not read over those words lightly. Contemplate what God is saying, because what he says is exactly what will happen. Verse 11, taking the mark of the beast is something that should be firmly implanted in our minds, and we should be preparing ourselves no matter what. If we find ourselves in that situation, would we do it? Because accepting the mark of the beast is the end of us. The Bible doesn't make any indication that once you take the mark of the beast, you can turn back to God. It's done. And so when that time comes, if it comes for any of us, we'd better be ready that no matter what the cost, we say, I will not accept the mark of the beast. And it tells us that only those who won't take the mark of the beast are those who are written in the book of the life from the foundation of the earth, those who have God's Holy Spirit and who, over the course of their life, have been practicing, choosing God, having the faith in Him that no matter what they choose Him over their own life, over their own livelihood, over the lives of their loved ones, whatever it might be that God says. Notice what he says in verse 11. Those who take the mark of the beast, the smoke of their torment, ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast in Him's image, and whoever receives the mark of His name. Make no doubt about it. If we're not ready, when that time comes, like the world around us, we will cave. Now is the time to be preparing our minds and preparing our hearts that no matter what we don't give into the world because we have absolute faith in God, absolute trust in God, belief in His Word that no matter what happens to us, when He returns, His kingdom will be there, and if we're dead, He'll resurrect us. If we're tortured or whatever, He will see us through. Don't take the mark of the beast. Verse 12 tells us, here's the patience of the saints. Here's how you get through that time. Here are those who keep the commandments of God diligently and carefully, not haphazardly, not, I'm good enough, I've done this, and that's all God can expect of us, who keep the commandments of God and who have the faith of Jesus. And so we're told this society, this world we live in, it's coming to an end.

Why would anyone put their stock in a society or something that is surely coming to an end? Because if we believe it's going to go on forever, then we don't believe God. We don't believe the Bible.

It tells us this is going to end. The Feast of Trumpets is about this society ends. Jesus Christ doesn't come and just take this society and make it different. He ends it. All the beast, all the power, everything on earth ends. It's His way staffed with His people who have learned through the course of their lifetimes to follow Him wherever He goes and do whatever He says, because they believe and have faith in Him. And so we see. So we see in Revelation 18 the end of that society. In Revelation 18, I'm not going to take the time to read through all of it.

I'm not going to take the time to read through all of Revelation 18. You can, but let's read through a few verses here. Beginning in verse 17. In one hour, Revelation 18.

The first four verses is where God tells us, come out of her, that you don't partake of her sins.

You don't want to partake of her punishment by taking part, taking in her sins. One hour such great riches came to nothing. Every shipmaster, all who traveled by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance. They cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What is like this great city? They cry. They've been made rich by this society. They don't want to see it end. But in heaven, verse 20, rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her. This is the society that was drunk with the blood of the saints. Jesus Christ destroys any society that meets that description that becomes like that Babylonian system. And more and more, we live in a system here that looks like that. It's not what's described in Revelation 18. It is that end-time system under the beast power. But let's look at Revelation 19. Because in Revelation 19, we have the return of Jesus Christ. When it comes to earth in verse 19, Revelation 19, it says, I saw the beast, I saw the kings of the earth, I saw their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. The beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone.

God ends that society. It's gone. The kingdoms of this world are gone, conquered by Jesus Christ who sets up his kingdom. The next verse there, we see the end of the mankind who fights against God. Don't trust in this world. Don't trust in it. It's going away.

There is only one choice, and when we're faced with things, to think, by this action am I choosing the world? The little things I trust in? Or am I choosing God?

Let's go back to Revelation 14.

Let's see the third thing that God says here.

In verse 14 it says, I looked, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. Another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out. He also had a sharp sickle. You can read down through there, and in verse 20 it concludes, what happened as God reaped the harvest of the earth, the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horses' bridles for 1,600 furlongs.

That's an awfully loud of blood. That's an awfully loud of lives lost.

If only they had yielded to God. If only somewhere along the line, they had just decided we will yield to God and not do things our own way. But they didn't, and they all died.

The same thing is true for you and me. If we don't yield to God, if we're not paying attention to the trumpets that are going on in our lives now, that may not be trumpets 1 through 6 that we've talked about, that will be loud and clear for the world. The trumpets that we see through what God tells us, through what God shows us, through what we see going on in the world around us, that show us the time of His return is imminent. Let's bring this home. Let's go back to Ezekiel 33. We've talked about trumpets. We know what this day of trumpet signifies. What does it mean to the people of God? Yes, what we've talked about, everything that we picture that time. When we look forward to that time, it's a time of trouble on the earth, but at the end, it's Jesus Christ who returns, and it's a time of absolute perfection for all of mankind. Ezekiel 33, verse 2.

Ezekiel 33. 2. Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them, When I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land, take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and doesn't take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood is on his own head.

God is saying, listen for the trumpets. Listen, pay attention, don't just take them for granted and keep on going, understanding their times of alarm and times that wake us up out of our slumber and out of our sleep. Verse 5. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but he didn't take warning, and his blood will be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.

Verse 6. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, he doesn't escape, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. The trumpet sounds.

The trumpet is blown. We'd better be paying attention and not falling asleep, not letting our minds wander and thinking everything is going to go on as it always has.

Jeremiah has some interesting things to say, too, about this. And as poignant a manner, let's look at Jeremiah 6. Remember Jeremiah? For 40 years he warned Judah that the end was coming. They never listened to him. They didn't like him. They took him for granted, wanted to hurt him, wanted him to disappear. But the iron finally did come, and they all went into captivity and lamented that they didn't listen. Jeremiah 6, verse 17, God through Jeremiah, says this, he says, also, I set watchmen over you, saying, listen, listen to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we won't listen. How did they say it? Did they actually say, we will not listen? Or by their actions, by their attitudes, by the way they lived their lives going on in the same way? You know, because God sees not just our words, but he sees our actions and our hearts, but they said we won't listen. Therefore, hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth, behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people, the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded my words. They have not heeded my law, but they rejected it.

Brethren, let's make sure that's not us. That by our actions and by our neglect, that we're not telling God, we reject your law, we're perfectly happy the way we are here, and think that we're everything is A-OK. Jeremiah 4, a couple chapters back. Chapter 4, verse 19.

O my soul, my soul, I am pained in my very heart. My heart makes a noise in me, I can't hold my peace.

Because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is plundered. Suddenly, oh, there's that prophetic word, suddenly my tents are plundered, and my curtains in a moment. How long will I see the standard? How long will I hear the sound of the trumpet? When does it end? When is it the point of no return? Verse 22. For my people are foolish, they haven't known me. They are silly, children. They have no understanding. They're wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

Let's not ever have God look at us and say, you are foolish people. You are silly people.

Look what I've given you. Look at the trumpets. Look at what I'm sounding. Look at how I'm warning. But you just keep on going and have your head buried like an ostrich, and think everything is going to go on the way it always has been. The trumpets call and God says, be awake.

Get awake. Don't be silly. Don't be foolish. Be part of eternity, not part of a system that is absolutely, certainly going to die and pass away. You know, the Bible says it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of God. I hope that not one of us here or anyone that ever listens to a message or any of the things in the Bible ever experience how terrible it is to fall in the hands of God when we've had the opportunity at life. But by what we did in our neglect, just decided to, you know, choose death. Well, let's conclude here in Hebrews. Hebrews 12.

Where we are today with some of the things that we talked about. And here we are on the day of trumpets and all the things that this day pictures. Ultimately, yes, it has alarm in it. Yes, it has warnings in it. Ultimately, it is good. Jesus Christ returns and ushers in a wonderful, magnificent time that we should all look for and be praying, thy kingdom come. And he gives us his spirit that we can endure to the end and that we can be there at that time. Hebrews 12 and verse 18. You, as a spoke, speaking, put our names here. You haven't come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and the blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it beg that the words should not be spoken to them anymore. We weren't there at Mount Sinai, but ancient Israel were. Scared them to death. Don't talk to us. Don't talk to us anymore, Moses. It's scared of they saw the power of God. So terrifying, verse 21, was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. Who does God look to? One who is humble and trembles at his words. But you, not you and me, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. We talked just a couple weeks ago about the paces that God is preparing, the crisis preparing for us that he talked about. You've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, the general assembly and church of the firstborn, no lone wolves, God's temple, God's people, God's assembly, God's church of the firstfruits, the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men, made perfect, made perfect by God's Holy Spirit, made perfect by the choices they make in life, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you don't refuse him who speaks.

We might say, see that you don't ignore the trumpets. See that you listen to him just like Jesus Christ told those in the transfiguration, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him.

Listen to him. See that you don't refuse him who speaks. For if they didn't escape, who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven. Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he is promising, yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven. As we go through the trumpets, oh God will shake this earth, and he will shake the heavens, men will know who God is. Now this, yet once more, indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Our faith needs to become an unshakable faith, absolutely committed to God, absolutely loyal to him, that no matter what comes, nothing will separate us from the love of God.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.