THE TRUMPET SOUNDS WITHIN MY SOUL
Sermon of the Week #200532 - August 19, 2005
There is an old spiritual song that tells us, “Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus. I ain’t got long to stay here. My Lord calls me, He calls me by the thunder, the trumpet sounds within my soul. I ain’t got long to stay here.”
The sound of the trumpet has always had a certain sound of urgency. The well-known gospel song says, “He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He is sifting out the souls of men before His judgment seat, oh be swift my soul to answer Him be jubilant my feet. Our God is marching on.”
There is something within all human beings that longs for something beyond this life. Call it what you will; the trumpet sounds within my soul.
THE TRUMPET IN REVELATION ONE
The Apostle John must have heard the trumpet sound within his soul in the first chapter of Revelation when he said, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send to the seven churches.”
There were two things John was required to do when he heard the sound as of a trumpet. Number one: he was told to write what he heard in a book. That is what he did. Today we call it the book of Revelation. It was not Revelations plural, it was Revelation singular. The message he was to write was a revelation from Jesus Christ. The same thing is true for what all the Apostles wrote. Paul said, “I make known unto you the gospel which I preached unto you that it is not after man, neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me by revelation of Jesus Christ.” All one hundred chapters that Paul wrote could be called the book of revelation.
Jesus told the eleven Apostles before He went to the cross, “The Holy Spirit when He is come will bring to your remembrance all things that I said unto you.” The whole New Testament is a revelation of God, and God through His providence has seen to it that we have His revealed Word today. Remember also how the Apostle Peter also said, “Holy men spake from of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The book that was written is the Bible and the Bible alone; there is none other.
Number two: The second thing John was told to do after he wrote in a book what he saw was to send it to the churches of Asia, unto the church at Ephesus, Symyrna, Pergomos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and all the churches included all the churches of the twenty-first century. That is what he did. However, after the churches in the twenty-first century received the revelation that God through His grace and providence has given to us, an unusual thing happened. Most of the members of the churches who have received the book God gave have never read it. It is almost entirely if not altogether ignored.
They never read it because they say they never have time. They have time to look at television four hours a day, but no time to read the Word of God that was written in a book. People always find time to do what they want to do. No one will admit it, but the real reason they do not read the Word is because they don’t want to. There is nothing in the book God gave them that is of any interest to them. The trumpet of the Word of God has been muted for the many and no longer sounds within their souls.
THE TRUMPET IN REVELATION FOUR
Then there is the sound of the trumpet in Revelation four, “After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in heaven, and the first voice that I heard, a voice as of a trumpet speaking with me, One saying, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things that shall come to pass hereafter. Straightway I was in the Spirit.”
John said that the voice of the trumpet spake unto him. It was a personal message. The message of the Word of God is always a personal message from heaven. The message of the cross and the resurrection is God’s Word to you, not somebody else. God has a lot to say to you.
When John received this personal message he said that he was in the Spirit. That may be the real reason many in the church do not read the Bible. The reason they don’t want to and have no interest is because they are not in the Spirit. Those who are spiritual will not be able to refrain from spending time with the Word of God.
Perhaps I should not say they are not spiritual because they do listen to the preacher and have a second-hand knowledge of the message from heaven. Someone asked one lady what she believed. She said, “I believe what my preacher believes.” She then was asked what her preacher believes. She said, “My preacher believes what I believe.” And again she was asked what she and her preacher believe.” She said, “We both believe the same thing.” Are you satisfied with a hand-me-down religion? Is it possible that such a person could ever hear the trumpet sound within their soul?
THE TRUMPET SOUND IN THE CITY
The prophet Amos asks this question in the third chapter, “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid?” This was the sound of the trumpet that signified danger.”
New York is the place where the city in America is defined. The sound of the trumpet was heard in New York on Nine Eleven. All America heard the sound of the trumpet in the city and was afraid. The trumpet sounded within the soul of every American. We knew on that day that we were not as safe as we thought. We knew then that what happened there could happen anywhere.
Many lost their jobs, thousands were killed, people who had not thought of God before were aware of their need. I saw a sign on one place of business that said, “Lord, get us through this.” The economy suffered, several asked me how much it affected the support of this ministry. They expected me to say that we are having a hard time. It had the opposite effect. People supported this ministry as never before; there was a spurt in the giving to keep this broadcast on the air. Things were so good we took on two new radio stations. People were thinking about God as never before. In about six months the extra giving stopped and we dropped one of those new radio stations. It was back to business as usual. For one brief shining moment it looked like a time of national repentance and then it was all over.
The trumpet sound of danger ahead is heard every time, as individuals, we are faced with our mortality. The death of a loved one, the doctor says you have cancer, you need a by-pass operation, an automobile or plane wreck; we hear it many times and the trumpet sounds within our souls.
THE TRUMPET AND THE CALL OF VICTORY
Paul tells us in First Corinthians, “Behold I show you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we all shall be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is thy victory O death where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Victory over sin and death. Death has a sting to it. Paul says, “The sting of death is sin.” That is why none of us want to die. It is because death has a sting and the sting is sin. We know we have sinned; we know we have broken the law of God. When you look upon the face of the most sainted corpse you ever saw you can see the marks of sin. It was sin that killed that person. Sin killed my parents, sin will kill you, and sin will kill me. Sin will kill every member of your church. Sin killed the preacher who inspired me to preach the Word. Sin will kill your husband. Sin will kill your wife. But for the Christian there is victory. When we hear the trumpet sound at the Lord’s return, this vile body will be changed and as John says, “We shall see Him as He is and we shall be made like Him. Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The prospect of that eternal body in that eternal home makes the trumpet sound within our souls. Wherefore my beloved brethren be ye steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
LIFT UP THY VOICE AS OF A TRUMPET
What an urgent sound the trumpet has in Isaiah fifty-eight. Listen to the strident tones of the prophet Isaiah when he declares, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”
We seldom hear a sermon today that has the sound of a trumpet. The trumpet has been muted and as Paul said to the Corinthians, “If the trumpet has an uncertain voice who shall prepare himself for war.” Evidently Paul thought there was a war going on, a battle for the souls of men. Hear him as he says, “Put on the whole armor of God. Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal. The weapons of our warfare are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds and the casting down of every high thing and imagination that is exalted against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity unto the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
The church is a Battleground and not a playground. We have not been called to a frolic we have been called to a fight. We have not been called to a parade we have been called to a pilgrimage. We have not been called to a circus we have been called to a crusade. Lift up your voice as a trumpet. The trumpet today sounds a mixed message. The trumpet does not sound charge, it sound more like taps. In the military that means it is time to go to sleep.
Some preachers maintain that sin should never be mentioned from the pulpit. It has a negative effect; it makes people feel bad. Sin has been bleeped out of the pulpit message. What about that verse that says, “The soul that bleeps, it shall die.” Or this one, “The wages of bleep is death.” Then there is, “Arise and be baptized and wash away thy bleeps.” Of course we should not leave out this one, “All have bleeped and fall short of the glory of God.” And never forget how Jesus said, “Except ye believe in Me ye shall die in your bleeps.”
The pulpit needs to lift up its voice and cry aloud regarding national sins. Cry aloud regarding abortion. Cry aloud regarding sexual perversion. Cry aloud regarding people living together without marriage. These three areas fall within the teaching of Jesus when He said in Luke sixteen, “They justify themselves in the sight of men, that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Listen to the television and the radio both in the news and other programming and sophisticated actors and news programs justify all three of these areas. The Apostle John said in John twelve, “They love the glory of men more than the glory of God.” The gentle Jesus Himself, the Good Shepherd underscores the need of the trumpet sound in the pulpit today when He said, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” After He said it, He repeated it again two verses later, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” The sound of the trumpet is no longer heard in the souls of men. And when some faithful preacher does sound the trumpet loud and clear he is regarded as a rather quaint person somewhat like the nursery rhyme and people look upon such a preacher and jeer as they chant, “Little boy blue come blow your horn, the sheep’s in the meadow and the cows in the corn.” Nobody takes repentance seriously anymore. God is love and that means He will save everybody so don’t sweat it. They are stone deaf and cannot hear the sound of the trumpet within their depraved souls.
BLOW YE THE TRUMPET IN ZION
Then there is the blowing of the trumpet in Zion. In the second chapter of Joel the prophet says, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, and call a solemn assembly.” This call for repentance in the Old Testament situation finds greater fulfillment for another solemn assembly eight hundred years later on Mount Zion on the Day of Pentecost. Peter referred to Joel’s prophecy on that day in the second chapter of Acts when he explained what happened as fulfillment of the prophet Joel.
There is no place today where the gospel trumpet has a more uncertain sound than here. False prophets seem to vie with each other as to why Peter did not mean what he said when he declared to those who inquired what to do for forgiveness of their sins. In that first gospel sermon after the Lord ascended, Peter explained how Jesus died on the cross for our sins and arose from the dead, and sat down exalted at the right hand of the Father until He makes His enemies the footstool of His feet. When the thousands heard what they had done they were pricked in their hearts and cried out, “What shall we do? Peter said, Repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Thousands of world-class scholars in all versions of the New Testament have translated it this way.
One false prophet explained it this way in the footnotes of one of those popular study Bibles. He said that verse could be interpreted this way, “Repent for the remission of sins and then be baptized.” It is sufficient answer to say if Peter meant it that way he would have said it that way. That statement of Peter has been in the second chapter of Acts for two thousand years and it will be there until that day when the trumpet sounds.
THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET CALLS US HOME
Last of all it will be the sound of the trumpet that calls us home, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
And then another statement by the Lord Himself when He said regarding His return in Matthew twenty-four, “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. And they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the one end of the earth to the other.”
But the angels will have another duty to perform when the Lord comes. Not only will they gather the righteous together as they meet the Lord in the air, but Jesus told a parable about a great net that was let down into the sea and gathered of every kind which when it was filled drew up on the beach and sat down and gathered the good into vessels and the bad they cast away. So shall it be in the end of the world: The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the righteous and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
It won’t be long before the trumpet sounds for any of us. Should the Lord delay His return for yet a thousand years it won’t make any difference; we all will have a personal encounter with the Son of God at the end of our own lives, either as a lost sinner or as one of the elect.
Somewhere many years ago I read of an old legend where someone asked the Devil what he missed the most about heaven. The Devil is supposed to have replied, “I miss the sound of the trumpets in the morning. ”It is well for the Christian to remember on that great getting up morning, “When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair-When the saved on earth shall gather over on the other shore and the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.” And I think, as Christians if we listen carefully there may be times when in anticipation we can say, ”I hear the trumpet sound within my soul. “
