The Sounding of the Trumpet
Sunday, January 16, 2011 – AM
By Pastor James May
Three months after God had so miraculously delivered Israel from the slave pits in Egypt, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. God had lifted their feet out of the miry pits of clay, loosed them from the bondages of slavery under the self-proclaimed god-man, Pharaoh, and sent them a leader by the name of Moses to be their deliverer and lead them on the long journey to their Promised Land.
After passing through Rephidim, which means a place of rest, they made camp at the foot of Mt Sinai. God had brought them to the place where he would give forth his law and call his people into a life of separation and holiness.
Moses went up into the mountain and as he was there alone God spoke to him out of the mountain and this is what he said:
Exodus 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Exodus 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
Now we can draw a direct parallel from this scene between Moses, God and God’s words to Israel, and the church of today. Jesus, our Mediator, went before us as he ascended back to Heaven. He redeemed us through his own blood, and set our captive soul free from the slave pits of sin. By the power of the Holy Ghost we have been lifted out of the miry clay where we were making bricks, creating our own prison and building a kingdom for the devil. Through the mercy and grace of God we were carried forth out of that place of hopelessness and torment, into a place of sweet peace and rest. God has given us our own Rephidim and allows us to rest in him.
But it doesn’t end there. That’s only the beginning. Being rescued from sin is the first step. The next step is to begin building a relationship with the Lord and that can only be done by following Christ and hearing his Word. Like the Children of Israel who came to the base of Mt. Sinai, we have to come to rest and camp out at the foot of Jesus for a time. We must come to a place where we can hear the voice of the Lord and learn of his wonderful plan for our lives.
God didn’t deliver us to just see us free; he delivered us to do his work in the earth and to become a people that are separated to him, dedicated, consecrated and yielded to his purposes.
As I said in the beginning, this is a message about the sounding of the trumpet, and as Israel was camped at Mt. Sinai, God was preparing a trumpet that would sound to get their attention.
God’s instructions to Moses were to tell the people to sanctify themselves and prepare for a close encounter with God. God’s mercy and love was at work in all of this, for if God had not set boundaries, put limits upon the people and given the people a chance to prepare for God’s presence, many of them would have died. Sin cannot live in the presence of God. A heart that is not prepared to receive him cannot live in his presence. The very presence of God demands holiness, so God laid down the rules for his encounter with Israel.
Verses 12-15 describe God’s conditions and also the cost of disobedience to God’s limits placed upon the people. Anyone who would not obey God, or who overstepped the bounds, would surely die. The wages of sin is death. There is no mercy under the law, only conviction and judgment. Failure to comply fully with God’s limitations meant instant death.
On the third day, the Lord descended upon Mt. Sinai. His presence was marked by a thick cloud of fire and smoke, thunder, lighting and an earthquake. All the power, glory and majesty of God rested on that mountain and the very creation shook at his presence. What a mighty God we serve!
Then came that mighty blast of the trumpet. It was as though 10,000 angels were upon the mountain with trumpets to their lips, blowing as loudly as they could. The sound of the trumpet was God’s call to attention of his people. All of Israel stood in awe as the sound grew louder and louder. Not one man could ignore the trumpet of God and all Israel stood and trembled at the awesome power of God and the sound of his trumpet.
The sound of the trumpet was awesome and yet that sound caused an ominous sense of dread in the hearts of the people as though some great overwhelming power was about to destroy them forever. This sense of dread, mixed with trembling at God’s awesome power, was present because Israel was about to receive God’s law, and the law would tell them that all had sinned and deserved to die.
All through the Bible we see that God uses the sounding of the Trumpet to announce certain types of events. Sometimes it was the call to worship, sometimes it was to announce a great victory after a battle, sometimes it was a call to arms as an enemy approached. Sometimes it was a signal of the beginning of a feast, or the calling of a solemn assembly in prayer and fasting. And sometimes it was a notice of impending judgment. One thing is for certain, when God’s trumpet sounds, men have no choice but to hear; and when the trumpet sounds the awesome power of God is near and men’s hearts will tremble at his presence.
I can hear God’s trumpet blowing even now in the realm of the Spirit. No, it’s not a sound that you can hear with your natural ear; but if your spiritual ears are listening, you can hear it too. It’s a sound of alarm, a call to battle and a signal of impending judgment upon sinful man.
The trumpet sounded on 9/11 as the towers fell. The trumpet continues to blow as we face calamities on the battlefield, in the economy and the governments of the world are shaken to the foundation. The trumpet of God sounds as the whole earth prepares for its final days. Can you sense that trumpet sounding? Do you hear God’s warning? Anyone who can’t hear the trumpet has to be spiritually dead because the sound is growing louder and louder every day!
The trumpet blast at Mt. Sinai was the signal of God’s presence in giving the law and calling Israel into a life of holiness before God. The trumpet that sounds today is a call for all men to come to Christ while there is time and separate himself from the world, sanctify his heart through the blood of Jesus and live in holiness before God Almighty.
I hear the trumpet blowing and I can only stand in awe and tremble at the awesome power of God. I sense his great power, that power over life and death, that power that is limitless and awesome. I sense the heart of God as he weeps over those who won’t hear the sound of the trumpet, who won’t listen to the warning sounds and who just cast aside the command to draw nearer to the Lord and enter into a place of safety.
You may not hear that trumpet today; I hope you do; but the sound is growing and the day is coming soon when no man will be able to ignore the sound. The closer we come to the Second Coming of Jesus the louder the trumpet will sound. God wants all men to be saved and his warning trumpets are ever sounding in an effort to get as many as possible to hear the call.
God’s trumpet sound today for the church is to bring us to remember who we are and what we are all about.
God’s trumpet is a reminder that we must take heed to guard that salvation that Jesus has given to us.
It’s a call to stay close to God, to be ever faithful and separated unto the Lord.
God’s trumpet blows ever louder in the hearts of his people as a sound to overcome the voices of the world that would pull us aside from serving God.
His trumpet is a call to battle, a reminder that we are in a spiritual battle for our very lives and eternity hangs in the balance.
Heed the call! Listen for the sounding of God’s trumpet! This is not a time to grow weary in well doing! This is not a time to grow lax in your commitment to Christ! This is not a time to be lulled into a spiritual sleep! The coming of the Lord is at hand; even at the door! Jesus is coming soon and there’s no time to waste. We must be about our Father’s business, doing what God has called us to do.
As God’s trumpet sounds, Christians are going to be drawn ever closer to God, recognizing the awesome presence of the Lord is the only ark of safety in these last days. Governments will fall, nations will fall into anarchy, peace will be destroyed, hatred, murder, immorality is spinning out of control as the god of this world prepares his final hours of destruction in his war against God and man.
For those outside of God’s protection the sounding of the trumpet is going to strike terror and fear into their hearts. There is coming a time of terror upon this world that is beyond description. Those who don’t have Jesus will run in fear, but there’s nowhere to run; they will seek help, but there will be none to help; they will hide in caves, barricade their homes and live every moment in fear of some unknown terror that they sense is lurking at their door. Its nothing more than the fear that comes as a result of sin. They will run when no one is chasing, hide when there is no reason to hide. Fearfulness, lawlessness and a great sense of dread will fill the land. These things are coming and coming soon! John saw these days while he was on the Island called Patmos and recorded them for us in the Revelation. Now we are about to see them begin to come to pass right before our very eyes.
The trumpet is sounding! God’s judgments are coming and have even already begun their long march to the end. Can you hear the sound? Are you hearing the clarion call to get ready? It’s upon us; even at the door! The time has come that we must prepare to meet our God!
The church is being called to gather together at Mt. Sinai in a manner of speaking. God is calling his people to sanctify themselves, lay aside every weight that so easily keeps us from serving the Lord with all our heart, fall on our face before him and get right with God! The trumpet is sounding as a call to worship; a call to serve; a call to draw nearer than ever before!
While the whole world is trembling in fear as the trumpet sounds, only God’s people, those who belong to the true church, have their robes made white by the blood of Jesus, and have placed their total faith and trust in God will know peace. The only real peace must come from the Prince of Peace. The world will not know peace anymore. There will be no peace and safety outside of Christ.
Your friends, family and neighbors are going to cry out for peace. Prepare yourself for what’s coming. They are going to search you out, wanting to know how you can be so calm and full of joy while the whole world is falling apart. Get ready to tell them about Jesus. I believe that the day is coming soon when people you don’t even know are going to sense something in you that they need, so be ready to share your faith.
People are going to run from churches where there is no real power or presence of God. Some will run to the world for answers, but some will also seek out a church where they can hear the truth and sense the power of God. Let’s be one of those churches! Be ready to receive them, not with a spirit of condemnation because they’ve heeded the lies of a hireling preacher, but with open arms of love and compassion. Many who are heeding false doctrine today are truly looking for truth; they just happen to be in the wrong place. But God is going to bring them home because he loves them and knows their heart!
Trumpets are sounding right now. Can you hear them? Can you hear God calling; sending forth the signal to make yourself ready?
There’s another trumpet that is about to sound out so loud that it’s going to wake up the dead in Christ! The trumpet of God will sound, the earth will tremble at the power and presence of God, as Jesus comes again to take his Bride away. The dead in Christ shall rise first, then all of us will join them as we go to meet the Lord in the air.
The church is getting ready to leave this world and all its troubles behind! We are getting ready to go home to be with the Lord! Are you ready for that call? I believe that in God’s time frame the trumpet is already at the lips of the angels that will make them sound out loud and clear! We are at the very door and any moment could be our last on this earth. Jesus is coming! I tremble in awe at the power of God! I tremble before God in fear for those who just won’t make themselves ready. I tremble to think of what those left behind will have to face. I would that everyone would heed the trumpet sound and get ready, but it just won’t happen. Some people just close their ears and continue on as though there was nothing but silence.
They will not be able to ignore the final trumpets of God’s judgments as they sound off. This world will shake, tremble and be ripped apart, finally destroyed by the consuming fire of our Holy God and no man shall stand in that day. Men will only tremble in complete dread and fear as they await their turn to stand before God in the judgment.
The awesome presence of God is in this building today. You may not see the cloud, you may not hear the thunder, nor see the lightning flash at the power of God in our midst. You may not sense the earth trembling beneath your feet. But God is here just the same. I stand here in awe, in trembling, before his presence as he sounds the trumpet one more time, calling you back to him. Do you sense his presence?
Let us pray: Lord may your trumpet sound in our hearts right now! Let your voice speak to us out of the clouds of doubt, fear, frustration and unbelief, and let the fire of the Holy Ghost move upon us right now. As we listen closely for your still small voice, as we sense your awesome power and presence – separate us unto yourself, cleanse our hearts and draw us ever nearer to your heart. Thank you for your love and grace to us. Thank you for coming to us this very morning. Help us to surrender our will to yours, that we may be called “Your Chosen People”, “a Royal Priesthood” and a “Holy nation”. Lord, we tremble at your presence right now.
Do you feel his presence? Do you sense his power? The trumpet is sounding for you this morning! Have you heard the call of God? Have you answered that call? Jesus is calling you home. If you don’t know Jesus, this is your day of salvation if you will heed the call.
