Our Security in the Feast of Trumpets

Well, thank you very, very much. Very wonderful special music to be able to have here on Trumpet's afternoon. Certainly a wonderful message to be able to think about that as Jesus intervenes, as a new world order begins, there will begin to be the process of peace spreading around the world. And clearly, we don't have that today, and as we had mentioned earlier in the service this morning, a lot of things are to happen before that time. And whenever we think about the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles are all here as fall festivals. They all tie together because they include Christ's return, Satan's binding, and then ultimately the rule and reign of Christ over an entire millennium. All of us live only a few decades of years, scores of years, maybe a century. There are some, a few people who live to be a hundred. And yet, what is it that a thousand years represents? Well, it's truly an incredible blessing to look forward to the improvements that are going to take place. And of course, you know, we all realize, and I think one of the symbols that we have in connection with the Feast of Trumpets is that the trumpet was used as an alarm. It was used as a calling even to war. And so in some ways, the Day of Trumpets and Christ return his intervention and stopping man from committing suicide on a worldwide scale. That's what the world is ultimately going to be facing, you know, where they don't understand the purpose of life, where they don't understand what God wants for them to do. And of course, you know, there is going to be a great deal of destruction, a great deal of judgment, because the judgment of God is going to come upon the world. But there also is deliverance. Deliverance, Mr. Hudson mentioned this some in his sermon this morning, deliverance is available. It's available to the saints. I want us to look at Revelation 11. You know, there's a lot of information that we see revealed in the book of Revelation, inspired by, written down by John, but inspired by Jesus Christ, because he's the one who says, this is my revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, first four words of the book. And so it is a revelation that is coming from Christ to those of us who are willing to read and heed and grow from the message that is contained therein. You actually see in the book of Revelation, you see somewhat of a sequence throughout the book. You find as you get past chapter four or five, I guess into chapter five, that there are seals that have to open, and then trumpets that are opened, and finally, the seven last great plagues that are open before Jesus returns, before he comes back. And again, we've already covered some of that this morning, but I want to focus more so on all of us, because all of us, knowing what's going to happen, we want to know what to do. And it also tells us what to do, of course, and so this is not secret information, except if we haven't focused on how I can be utterly secure. We read a verse or a chapter there in Psalms this morning about security. If you read the rest of that Psalm, we read part of the beginning of it. If you read the rest of it, you find out that there is great security. There is great stability in drawing close to God and in doing the things that God is expecting us to do. But here in Revelation 11, I only want to read a few verses. I'm going to be skipping around at times and only reading certain verses for a particular reason. We could read all the way through this, but what I want to point out, Revelation 11 is, in a sense, right here at the end of chapter 11, it gives a real summary.

It says, verse 15, the seventh angel blows his trumpet. There are loud voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign forever and forever. So, in a sense, that's kind of a concluding statement, although you know you still have another 11 chapters in the book of Revelation. So, there is more detail that is added, and you find in chapter 19, chapter 19 is Jesus on the white horse and coming, stopping those who would oppose Him.

But in verse 16, it says, the twenty-four elders, these are spirit beings, these are specially created spirit beings who surround the throne of God, who continually praise Him and who bow before Him and cast their crowns at His feet.

The twenty-four elders sit on their thrones before God, who are sitting on their thrones. They fall on their faces and worship God, singing. We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty, who are and who were, for you have taken your great power and you have begun to reign. The nations have raged. That will be put to stop. The nations have raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets, the saints, all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.

Again, this is a pretty good summary. If we want to know what this book of Revelation about, Revelation 11 says, it's going to lead up to this conclusion. And what I want us to be able to think about today, we don't realize the destruction that's coming. And we will go through some of that here as we read through different chapters in Revelation. And yet all of this is, in a sense, by design. It's by design because God wrote long ago, millennia ago, about what's going to happen in the day of the Lord.

The day of the Lord being the time when Jesus does directly intervene. What's going to happen at that time? Well, there's a lot of verses that we could go to. But what I want to focus on in verse 18 here is it says, the servants of God, the servants of God would be rewarded. Those who are growing in God's divine nature, those who are even willing to give up their life in service to God, because that also would be a possibility.

And yet these saints, mentions of prophets and the saints, these saints of God have the seal of God. They are devoted, praying people, and they truly fear God. That's what the rest of the sermon is about. You can write those three things down because we'll cover them later.

They have the seal of God. They are truly praying people. And they truly fear God. Now, I want us to go back into the Old Testament and why I said earlier that God long ago has predicted what's going to happen. He predicted not only in the days of the prophets who went to Israel and Judah, He told them, you're going to be destroyed because of your disobedience. You're going to go into captivity. You're going to be overthrown. You're going to suffer greatly.

You're going to be carried away. Even the temple is going to be ransacked. You're going to meet that judgment from Me. But in the book of Zephaniah, Zephaniah is a small book, one of the minor prophets, you see this description in Zephaniah, chapter 1. It says in verse 7, Be silent before the Lord your God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. Now, Zephaniah was writing to Judah. So this had to be 2,500 years ago.

This was long ago that God predicted what's going to come to pass. But if we drop down, Zephaniah, it's not Zechariah, Zephaniah, it's two books before Zechariah, sometimes you have to look through and try to find these. They are the minor prophets to be able to determine where they are. Or as I did, I wrote down the page number, and I could actually know where it is.

But it says, the day of the Lord is at hand. And in verse 14, in describing what the day of the Lord, and the coming of Jesus to the earth for the second time, what it will be like, he says in verse 14, The great day of the Lord is near, it's hastening fast, the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the warrior cries aloud there, that day will be, verse 15, that day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds, and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blasts and battle cries, against the fortified cities, against the lofty battlements.

See, here long before we even would ever get to 2,000 years ago, or 1,900 years ago, to the book of Revelation, you find God saying, this is what's going to happen. This is what He could write down through numerous prophets. It's a part of why, as I mentioned, Sabbath, as we come to defend our own beliefs and our own faith, we also want to be able to defend the Bible and absolutely know that God is the one who has given us this inspired word, and we can base our lives on it.

He says in verse 17, I will bring such distress upon people that they will walk like they are blind because they have sinned against the Lord. And so clearly, here's a description of why is God going to do this. It's kind of the same thing when you think about the universal flood. Why did God send a flood that killed everybody but eight people? Well, because they were sinning. They were corrupt. You know, the sins of men were great upon the earth. We find a similar condition today. I'll bring distress upon people because they've sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dust. Their flesh like dung, neither their silver or their gold, will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath. And the fire of His passion the whole earth will be consumed for a terrible fool and a terrible end He will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. It doesn't sound like that's just talking to Judah. That's talking to everybody. That's talking to Judah and Israel and all of the Gentile worlds, peoples of the world.

It's talking to everybody. We back up a few pages to the book of Joel. Joel was another one of the prophets of God. Again, God was giving these men messages that would be passed to the people of Judah or Israel. And then He would have them written down so that we could read them and come to understand how powerful He is. How impressive He is! Here in Joel 2, verse 1, it says, "...blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm of my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble.

The day of the Lord is near." It's coming. And if we drop down to verse 14, drop down to verse 14, it says, well, maybe we should back up a little bit here. Verse 14 is okay. Who knows whether He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him? Verse 15, "...blow the trumpet in Zion, establish, sanctify a fast, and call a solemn assembly, and gather the people. Sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even the infants." Verse 16, "...let the bridegroom leave the room, and the brighter canopy between the vestibule and the altar.

Let the people, the ministers of the Lord, say, let them say, Spare your people." Here He's talking about something that is quite a distress on the world. Quite a distress. He goes ahead in the latter part of verse 17, why should it be said among the people, where is there God? See, this was directed at Israel. But I do want to back up to verse 11.

Because in verse 11 it says, again talking of the day of the Lord, "...the Lord utters His voice at the head of His army. How vast is that army? Numberless are those who obey His command." Truly the day of the Lord is great and terrible indeed. Who can endure it? And then in verse 12, leading into what we read there in verse 14, "...yet even now says the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, and with your fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

Rind your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relents from punishing." Who knows whether he will not turn and relent? See, this description in Zephaniah is of a terrible day that is described as the day of the Lord. And here in Joel, he says, below the trumpet, give this alarm, give this warning, tell people to repent.

Tell them to turn. And of course, this is what we find when we read in the book of Revelation about the trumpet blasts that are a part of the seventh seal. In Revelation 8, and then all the way up through chapter 11, it describes the seventh seal that culminates in the return of Jesus to this earth.

And it lists seven trumpets leading up to the day of the Lord, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. I want us to read a few of these here in chapter 8 and chapter 9 of Revelation, and be able to keep them in mind. We went through some of these earlier today. But as you can see here in Revelation 8, verse 1, when the lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. And in verse 6 and 7, it says the seven angels were given these trumpets and made ready to blow them, and the first angel blew his trumpet. And so this is the first trumpet of the seven that are going to be unfolded upon the earth. They are going to cause a great deal of misery, a great deal of destruction. You see what we see written here in chapter 8 and chapter 9. You see, this is kind of a summary, and it's elaborated on in others of the chapters here in Revelation. But in verse 7, the first angel blew his trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood. And they were hurled to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. Now, obviously, this, you know, that would be hard to bear, you know, to start seeing, and whether through fire or hail, destroying the earth. In verse 8, the second angel blew the trumpet, something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea.

Now, here's volcanic activity erupting around the world, and if you've taken a look at the Ring of Fire, that circles the Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of Japan and China and Russia, and then around to the Alaska and Canada and all the way down the west coast of the United States, and even down through the west coast of South America, you know, there's volcanic activity all over the place out there. Right now, it's somewhat submerged. It's going to probably be pretty obvious. Whenever these type of things are happening, in verse 10, the third angel blows his trumpet, and a comet impacts the earth. Great star falls from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. Verse 12 says, the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, a third of the stars. So the third of their light was darkened, a third of the day was kept from shining. Likewise, the night, and I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with loud voice as I flew in heaven, woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are going to blow. See, what God predicted back in Zephaniah and in Joel, you know, he was talking about a calamity, a destruction that would come upon the earth, and we read why. It was because they sinned, because they refused to acknowledge God. And yet here in verse 13, it talks about the final trumpets, number five and six and seven, being woe number one, and woe number two, and woe number three, and you see those talked about here in chapter nine.

Chapter nine, the fifth angel blew his trumpet and saw a star that fell from heaven to earth, was given the key to the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened, and the smoke from the shaft, and then from the smoke came locusts on the earth.

And they were given authority, like the authority of scorpions on the earth, and so they were stinging locusts in this case. They were told not to damage the earth or the grass or the green growth of the trees, but they were told only to hurt, only to torment the people.

The people who do not have the seal of God in their forehead, and they were allowed to torture them for five months.

Verse six, in all of these days, people will seek death, but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

Here we read about a judgment that will be brought upon the earth, and clearly, it's dealing with individuals who are going to be brought to submission, and going to be tormented. And yet it mentions that they don't have the seal of God in their forehead. It's very important to have that.

It's very important to not only know what that is, but to be guided by, and led by, taught by, and be reminded by that seal.

It says in verse 12, the first woe is passed.

The second woe, still two woes to come. The second woe is in verse 13. The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice, and the four horns of the golden altar from God, saying to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet, released the angels, who were bound at the river Euphrates.

And so it talks about them being released. In verse 15, the angels are released. They're held ready for an hour, and day, and month, and year to kill a third of humanity.

Seven billion on earth, that's two and a half billion.

That's an awful lot of people who are going to be killed at the end of this age.

And it says in verse 18, by these three plagues, a third of humanity would be killed. Verse 20, the rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues still didn't repent of the works of their hands.

They didn't give up the worshipping demons and worshipping idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see and hear or walk. And again, they refused to repent of their murders, of their sorceries, their fornication, of their thefts.

So you see a description of six of the seven trumpets here in chapter 8 and 9.

But I want us to drop on over to chapter 11. Chapter 10 is somewhat of an inset. In chapter 11, it describes measuring, verse 1, measuring rod like a staff, was used. It says, come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there.

In verse 4, it mentions verse 3, I'll grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1260 days wearing sackcloth. So here God even shows, well, I'm going to have two witnesses. I don't know who they are. I'm certainly not one of them. I can say that.

None of us know who these two witnesses are, but it does talk about God giving, in a sense, a witness. We're trying to witness to the world and proclaiming the message of the kingdom of God. But ultimately, a real witness is going to be given because of what we read here in verse 4.

These two olive trees talking about the two witnesses and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. You can go back to Zechariah 4 and read about these. I'm not going to take the time to do that today. Because it doesn't identify who it is, but it does say God is going to make himself known.

He says, if anyone wants to hurt them in verse 5, then fire will come out of their mouth and consume their foes. Anyone who wants to harm them must be killed in that manner. So I don't guess these two witnesses would be people that anyone would want to mess with. They have authority to shut the sky so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying.

They have authority over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth. And every kind of plague is as often as they desire. And when they finish their testimony, and says that would be for three and a half years, when they finish their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them.

That's pretty incredible that that could happen. Their dead bodies would lie in the streets of the great city, prophetically called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. So two witnesses are going to be visible there in Jerusalem. They are going to be there for a period of time. They're going to be killed. Three and a half days, members of the people and tribes and languages and nations will gaze on their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb.

Inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets have been tormenting the inhabitants of the earth. And in verse 11, something amazing is going to happen. Even though these individuals who seem to have remarkable supernatural power, and are going to be put to death, and they're going to be viewed around the world as we watch what goes on, either in Jerusalem or in France, in different locations, we watch that almost instantly anymore. This couldn't have been fulfilled long ago.

Today we have some of the technological connections that would enable us to be able to see what's going on in every part of the globe. And yet there's going to be some very important things go on there in Jerusalem. But in verse 11, like I said, after the three and a half days, the breath from God will enter them.

And they stand on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified. I would say that would be an understatement. Those who saw them were terrified. You know, that's going to be terrifying to the entire earth. It's going to be terrifying to everybody when they see what God's power is able to do. And of course, if we drop down here, it's in verse 14, it says, The second woe is passed, and the third woe is now coming. The third woe is the seventh trump.

It's the seven last plagues. It's all the same, the description. The third woe, the seventh trumpet, the seven last plagues are all describing the same timeframe, I guess you would say. And of course, at the seventh angel blowing the trumpet in verse 15, wild voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Messiah. See, Christ will actually replace the kingdoms of man. His glorious reign will begin to rescue and recover and refurbish and restore the earth for the millennium.

I want us to jump ahead to chapter 16, because this also points out where the last plagues are described, the wrath of God, in verse 1. And I don't want to go through and enumerate those plagues. You can read through that if you'd like in chapter 16.

But in verse 5, I do want to read what it says that we might say is very positive, very encouraging. It says in verse 5, I heard the angel of the waters say, this is after some of these last plagues are unleashed and others are yet to be unleashed.

He says in verse 5, you are just, O holy one, who are and who were. For you have judged these things because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve. I heard the altar respond, yes, O Lord God the Almighty, your judgments, your judgments are true and just. Now, again, that's clearly a, you know, quite a terrifying description of what is going to happen, the sound of the trumpets.

Not just the last trumpet, because that obviously is when the dead will rise, as we heard earlier today. It will be at that last trump when we rise and join Christ in His rule on the earth. But this wrath of God is going to come. And see, receiving God's protection, His courage, and His blessing is going to require every one of us individually to be seeking His refuge and His covering. That's what we're going to have to do. Now, what were these faithful people of God, as you see written in the Word of God, what were these people doing? What were they doing?

Well, I mentioned to you there's three answers to that. One of them is that they have the seal of God, and they know it. Another is that they are clearly praying people, and they are close to God. And the final one is that they truly fear God. See, these holy days, they picture God's plan, they picture His working toward the salvation of all mankind. But He does that in order. He does that according to His will. He is, as we just read in verse 7, His judgments are true, and they are just. So let's take a look at this. The saints of God, the ones who have the seal of God.

I read there in Revelation 9, verse 4, that those who were tormented, the people who were sinning, would come into the category of those who do not have the seal of God. And so they're going to be marked with another seal, or another mark, that you would say, which is the mark of the beast.

And yet, I hear in chapter 7, chapter 7 is actually a very encouraging chapter. It talks about 144,000 and a great innumerable multitude. Revelation, chapter 7, starting in verse 2, I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God. And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, saying, don't damage the earth, and don't damage the sea or the trees until we have marked the servants of our God with the seal on their foreheads.

So here he's talking about how it is that we can be secured, how we can be rescued, how it is we can be protected.

Having the seal of God is what we truly want. In Revelation 14, you also read about the 144,000 who were sealed.

And it says, I looked and there was a lamb, verse 1, standing on Mount Zion. And with him were 144,000 who had his name, who had the Father's name. See, knowing the Father and knowing the Son is imperative. We cannot get away from the fact that God wants us to be a part of his divine family. He wants us to relate to him. He wants us to relate to his divine Son. It says, they had the name, his name, and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters, like the sound of wild thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. Well, that's at the throne of God. That's where those elders are. That's where the living creatures are. You're going to be singing a new song, a joyous...that's going to be the most joyous singing I would say we would ever have. No one can learn this song except the 144,000 who have been redeemed from the earth. And it is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. He's followed the Lamb wherever He goes. They've been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits. Firstfruits for God and for the Lamb, and in their mouths know why was found. They were blameless. So you see some indicators of what it is that it's going to be in the lives of those that God would seal, that He would protect, that He would care for, that He would nurture, that He would redeem from the earth, that He would say are firstfruits. Now if we go back to the book of Ephesians, you see Paul talking about being sealed. Ephesians 1, you see Paul talking on chapter 1 about the fullness, the fullness of the mystery of God, the plan that He has for the fullness of time. And I won't take time to read through all of this in Ephesians chapter 1, but he says in verse 11, In Christ we have obtained an inheritance, having been destined, according to the purpose of Him, to accomplish all things according to His counsel and will. And so that we who were the first to set our hope on Christ might live for the praise of His glory, and Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, when God revealed to you the truth of God, the truth of His great plan, the truth of His redemption through Jesus Christ, when He caused you to hear the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you had believed in Him, and you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.

This is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people to the praise of His glory.

See, Paul identifies what a seal is and what God does in giving us the Holy Spirit, and he begins a development.

He begins a growth process that we have to actively participate in, one that we have to pursue as that special treasure that we clearly want to be a part of. Over in chapter 4 here of Ephesians, you see him talking about this.

Verse 25, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. He tells us, put away lying, put away deception. See, we can search our hearts and our minds, and we can find that, well, there are flaws there.

You know, I think about that myself. I don't want to be deceptive. I don't want to be sneaky and conniving, but sometimes I am. That's something we have to see in our own nature.

What it says in John 4 is that darkness doesn't want to come into the light because it's exposed. See, what we have to realize is that, well, God knows what's in our heart. He knows what's in our mind. He knows what's behind our words. He knows what affects our actions.

And even if they're right here at church, are they right all the time? Are they right the rest of the time? Well, if we're motivated by the seal that God has given us, then we're going to be brought to repentance.

And we're going to be refined.

He says in verse 29, Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only what is useful for building up as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

See, do our words give grace? Lift up, encourage, empower.

Oh, those who hear what we say, sometimes we may just be talking stuff that doesn't make any sense. That's not really helpful, not maybe even derogatory.

But see, this is what he tells us in verse 30. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God, which you were marked with the seal for the day of redemption.

See, having the seal of God, which is being guided and directed by the Holy Spirit, guiding our heart, our words, what we say, that's a part of the protection that God gives us. The second thing I've mentioned is that the saints who are protected in the calamities that are to come are not only simply recipients of the Holy Spirit, and we can all simply thank God that we have been a recipient of His Holy Spirit. But it says in Revelation 8 that these people who will be the servants of God who would be rewarded are people who are truly close to God in prayer.

Revelation 8, in verse 3, this is after the seventh seal, is about to be opened, and yet, in kind of a, I guess, a subset here in verse 3, another angel came with a golden censer. He stood at the altar, and he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of that incense, so I would say the sweet smell of good incense, sometimes you can smell some candles. My wife likes candles. She has some candles in our house. Some of them smell good.

Some of them don't smell very good, according to me. But I would say what is being described here is incense that is coming up before the throne of God, that he is delighting to smell a sweet aroma.

See, does God know that we're in our bedroom, maybe, kneeling by our bed, and we're praying and asking for help, admitting that we're wrong and that we fall short too many times? See, if you analyze the model of prayer, part of that is, say, forgive me of my sins. If we don't even think we have sins, or if we think, oh yes, I do the right things most of the time, at least when others watch, then our prayers, whenever we are sincerely praying to God in earnest, I think they have to be like a sweet-smelling incense.

Here he says he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of the saints on the golden altar before the throne of God. And the smoke of that incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. See, we read this earlier, but we were focusing on something else. But I simply want to focus on the fact that our prayers count. Our prayers, as Jesus prayed in the morning and in the evening, sometimes we're tired, sometimes we're lazy, sometimes we forget. Sometimes other things are more important. And yet, should they be?

If we want to have a protection from God in the day of the Lord, in the day that is described in a wide description of the day of the Lord at the end of the age, at the time when calamity is on the earth and Jesus is about to return, I think that ought to motivate us to be devoted, praying people. And finally, here in Chapter 11, in Revelation 11, we read this, but I want to go back and focus on part of this. Revelation 11, verse 15, the kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord.

And it says in verse 17, joyously singing around the throne of God, We give thanks, Lord God Almighty, for you have taken your power and you have begun to reign, and the nations raged, but your wrath has come from the time for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets, and the saints, and all who fear your name. Small and great. That's a description of the people that God can reward, that He can secure with eternal life, because they've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and they are truly praying earnestly to be close to God.

Are they sinless? No. Only as they receive the mercy and forgiveness of God, then they are forgiven. Then they can be cleansed, they can be pure. But see, they've got to be people who are coming to God, who are continually being refined, who are being uplifted. Whenever you talk about fearing God, that can be very unclear. What does that mean, to fear God? Well, if we go back to the Old Testament, we have some clarity on that here in Psalm 36. Psalm 36 says in verse 1, transgression, speaks to the wicked, deep in their hearts, because there is no fear of God before their eyes.

See, how are the wicked defined or described? Those who would choose to sin and not really care. There is no fear of God before their eyes. They flatter themselves in their own eyes. They're iniquity. They say, I don't think my iniquity can be found out or hated. The words of their mouth are mischief and deceit. They have ceased to act wisely and do good. They plot mischief while on their beds.

They're set on a way that is not good. They don't want to reject evil. Here's a description of those who don't have a fear of God. If we turn over to Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1, you see a lot here in Proverbs. Again, we'll only go through one section. But here in Proverbs 1, starting in verse 20, talks about wisdom and how much wisdom from God enlightens us. And how much it empowers us and enables us.

It says, wisdom cries out in the streets and the square she raises her voice. It says in verse 22, how long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? It says in verse 23, give heed. Give heed to my reproof, and I will pour out my thoughts to you, and I will make my words known to you. Because I have called, and then you refuse, and have stretched out my hand, and no one heeds.

And because you have ignored my counsel, and would have none of my reproof, then I'm going to laugh at your calamity. I'll walk when panic strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. See, that sounds awfully close to the way we saw what the description was at the very end of the age, in the day of the Lord.

In verse 28, when they will call upon me, but I simply won't answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge, the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the truth, and they did not choose the fear of the Lord. Brethren, we need to choose to have the fear of the Lord. And clearly, in Revelation, it says the rewarding of the saints, the prophets, and saints, is going to be those who fear God.

Now, is that talking about being scared to death of God? Well, it's talking about having a certain respect, having a certain awe, having an imprint on our thinking, so that we actually respond, even if that response is, I repent. I repent, and I turn to God.

In Matthew 10, this is still about the fear of God. Matthew 10, you see this repeated in Luke, but we can go to the one in Matthew. It's a little more familiar. But in Matthew 10, Jesus is talking to His disciples. Mr. Kubik has mentioned being disciples, being the kind of disciples that God really wants all of us to be.

And here Jesus is talking. Verse 5, these 12, Jesus sent out with the following instructions. He was sending His disciples out, in this case, kind of as a test run. He was training them. He was working with them. He was telling them in verse 5, that I'm going to send you out. I want you to go nowhere among the Gentiles, enter no town in the Samaritans. Go to the rather the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That was a restriction that He put on them at that time. We have to take the message to the whole world today. But in verse 16, He says, I want you to be aware, as you go out and proclaim the Gospel, as you teach what is beyond today, which is what we teach. That's what we teach. We teach the Kingdom of God. We teach the rule of Christ on earth. Yet He said in verse 16, I'm sending you out like sheep among the midst of wolves. So I want you to be wise as serpents, and yet, harmless as does. So they were given instruction on what they were to do. They were given kind of how they were to do it. They were really learning. And yet, Jesus said, you'll run into persecution. Can we say we've really suffered a great deal of persecution yet? Well, in some ways I guess we have. In other ways, maybe not. Maybe that's not been the focus of our lives. In verse 23, He says, when they persecute you in one town, go to the next. Really, I tell you, you will not have gone for all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. We have the mission to go beyond Israel even to all the world. He says the disciple is not above his teacher. The disciple is going to need to be as his teacher, and as Jesus was rejected, whenever he was not accepted in a given town, James and John wanted to call down fire out of heaven and destroy this town. Jesus said, no, we're just going to the next one. I'm not dealing with everybody right now. I want to teach my disciples how to do my work. And so He says, as you're persecuted, don't worry about that, because if they persecuted me, then they will also persecute you. So in verse 26, He says, don't have any fear of them. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, nothing secret that will not become known. That's something that we all have to think about. What I say in the dark, tell them the light, what you hear whispered, proclaimed from the housetops. Verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body but can't kill the soul, but rather fear whom who can destroy both soul and body in hell. To hear He's talking about a fear of God. He's talking about a respect for God, a recognition of the fact that it's a high accolade, according to the Word of God, to have a proper fear of God before our eyes, and to be guided by a right respect, a right reverence, a right desire to have proper, informed, respectful, loving devotion to our Creator God.

So whenever we read about the Holy Days, whenever we read about trumpets and atonement and the feast and the last day, as we do in Deuteronomy 14, verse 22, we want to be reminded of the fact that God knows what He wants to achieve.

In Deuteronomy 14, this will be the last verse we look at. He tells us in verse 22 to set aside a tithe that we're going to eat before Him, in the place that He chooses as a dwelling for His name. Deuteronomy 14, verse 22, and you shall eat the tithe of your grain and wine and flocks.

Verse 23, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God, always. See, that's why we're here on Monday. That's why we're here celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. That's why we'll be on Wednesday keeping the Day of Atonement. That's why we will be going to the Feast of Tabernacles, not to just celebrate, although we are to celebrate and to rejoice. But we're going to be there to learn to fear God, to learn to praise and honor His name, to learn to worship Him in spirit and in truth. So, as I've said, this Feast of Trumpets, as we've celebrated today, it pictures a time described in Revelation and then in other places of the Bible, a time of destruction and judgment, but also deliverance and rewarding of the saints who have the seal of God, who are devoted to prayer, and who truly have a proper fear of God.