The Feast of Trumpets

00:02 Greet each one this morning in the name of Jesus. It's joy to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Welcome to each one and to our visitors. You are welcome as well. And may God be with us this morning. May we be with Him where He is and where He wants to take us. This morning we want to continue in our series, 00:23 which we left off last spring on the Feasts of Israel. And I did that intentionally because the spring feasts are four of them, and the last three are the fall feasts. And so it made sense to preach the spring feasts in the spring and the fall feasts in the fall. 00:45 And so here we are in the fall. We have actually come through already the time when the Jewish people celebrate those fall feasts. So we're not corresponding exactly with their year. But nevertheless, we do want to bring our attention to these fall feasts. 01:02 And so if you want to turn in your copies of the Scripture this morning to several passages of Scripture. Again, as is often the case, when you look at some of these Scriptures, there is not just one place that you can go and expose that Scripture and then get everything that there is to know about that. 01:22 You have to look at several Scriptures at times. And so we want to look at this this morning. But from Leviticus chapter 23, 23 to 25, and Numbers 10 and Numbers 29. 01:37 But I would preface our message this morning with the words of a famous rabbi who said this: "Repent one day before you die. 01:50 Repent one day before you die." And his disciples, his followers, said, "Well, one does not know what day one will die." And the point is repent today. Repent today. Because we do not know when that day before we die is. So the Bible says that today is the day of salvation. 02:11 And we should take advantage of that opportunity to repent and to return to the Lord. And He will abundantly pardon, the Bible says. And really, when you come to the fall feasts, the two feasts that are before us, the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, are about the Jewish national day of repentance. But it has more to do than just them. 02:33 It calls each and every one of us, even in the church age, to repentance. So we come to the beginning of the fall feasts. You remember the spring feast? The Feast of Passover was given to Israel and represents Israel's or Christ's sacrificial death for the world. And so it was given to them. 02:51 But out of that came forth the full glorification and manifestation of Jesus Christ for all people at all times. We don't necessarily celebrate these feasts any more than you would hug a shadow. If somebody showed up and their shadow showed up and you tried to reach out and give them a hug, well, you wouldn't get very far with hugging a shadow. 03:11 But we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Master of the feasts. 03:15 And then we look at those feasts and say, "Isn't it wonderful how from the Old Testament we see the shadow and then we see Christ coming and fulfilling those Old Testament feasts and embracing Him and moving in step with the Gospel?" And so the second feast then is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 03:37 That was also given to Israel but represents that Christ was buried without decay for the sins of the world. And so He was placed in that tomb. But He did not suffer decay like you and I suffer decay when we're placed in a grave. And so He was risen again, which then brings us to the Feast of First Fruits, 03:57 which was a Jewish feast and represents the resurrection of Christ and the victory over sin and death for all mankind. And of course, we know that that is found in fulfillment in Christ. Christ crucified. Christ buried. Christ resurrected. 04:14 And then the last fall feast or spring feast was the Feast of Weeks or what we would call the Feast of Pentecost, was given to Israel as well. But birthed both the Jewish and Gentile church for both Jew and Gentile to be in one body in Christ. 04:31 And so you have the two loaves that were waved before the altar at the Feast of Pentecost, signifying Jew and Gentile, one body, one bread, one loaf or as one being presented to the Lord. 04:48 And we want to remember that these feasts find their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They are the shadow that we look back and see how God put this all together and fulfilled it in Christ. They found their fulfillment at exactly the right time that the Jewish people were celebrating the feast. 05:09 And so when the Feast of Passover was being celebrated, at that time Christ was offered as the sacrificial lamb. 05:19 As they were celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at that time Christ was being buried and the sinless, unleavened Lamb of God without spot or wrinkle being buried for the sins of the world. 05:33 And then at that time when they were celebrating the Feast of First Fruits and the priests were waving those sheaves in front of the altar, those sheaves of barley at the barley harvest in the spring of the year, the first fruits. 05:49 And at that time, at that moment, Christ was being raised from the dead and presented to the Father on our behalf. And then during the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Pentecost, at that time, while they were gathered together to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, at that time the Holy Spirit was given. 06:08 Not a moment too soon, not a moment too late. But at that time. And when we look at the fall feasts, we also must say that at that time when it is all right and God is fully ready to bring forth the revelation of the purpose of the feast, 06:28 at that time God will bring forth His Son to receive our worship. The Feast of Trumpets is a Jewish feast to usher in the rapture of the church, the gathering and gathering of Israel, and the judgment of the wicked. 06:45 The Feast of the Day of Atonement represents the repentance of the people of Israel and will find its fulfillment in the national repentance of the Jewish people and the acceptance of their Messiah in the midst of great tribulation. And then the final feast is the Feast of Sukkot, 07:04 which is known as the Feast of Tabernacles, was given to the Jewish people. And they would build booths and dwell together in booths like they did in the wilderness, celebrating the dwelling of Christ among men ruling over the nations. And so you have those first four feasts fulfilled at the right time. 07:24 And you have the last three feasts going to be fulfilled. It's all about Christ. It's all about His ruling over the nations and His bringing His church and His people and the Jewish people back to Himself in a way that both Jew and Gentile fully embrace Him as Messiah. Now, 07:44 one thing before we look at our text also, it is important for us to... I think it's important for us to recognize that the number seven is a significant number in the prophetic Scriptures and in Scripture... not even prophetic Scriptures. It's an important number. The number seven, we oftentimes hear people say it's the number of perfection. 08:06 I think it more accurately would be referred to as the number of completion. It speaks about the completion of God's work as it does in the seven days of creation. In the seven days of creation, God labored and worked for six days. And then He rested or He ceased from laboring on the seventh day. 08:26 It was a complete creation week where all of the work of God was done from beginning to the end. And He rested and ceased from creating. And then so we have then the seventh month is important or the seventh day is that He ceased from His labor. 08:44 The seventh month then is specially holy with the three fall feasts. And so if you look at our text here in Leviticus 23, He says, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month...'" Seven there again. "...in the seventh month, 09:02 on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. And you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord." Just a short three verses there that talk to us about the Feast of Trumpets, 09:23 what all is involved in this Feast of Trumpets. But it is in the seventh month and the seventh year in God's economy. The Sabbath was... the Sabbath of years was to take place. And they were to allow the land to rest for that one year. After seven sevens was the year of Jubilee. 09:43 So 49 and the 49th year is being completed. And the 50th year was the year of Jubilee where debts were canceled and slaves were freed. And people received their land and property back again. 09:57 And then when we have in the book of Daniel, 77 of years determined upon the Jewish people during which time God's redemptive purposes would be completed and Messiah would come. And then in the book of Revelation, Revelation uses seven more than 50 times: seven seals, seven bowls, and seven... 10:19 what? Trumpets. Seven trumpets. And then we have here the seven feasts of Yahweh to the Jewish people: seven feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Weeks, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. Now, we already read this. He says, "Speak to the children of Israel. 10:38 On the seventh day and the first day of the month, you shall blow a Sabbath rest, the memorial of blowing trumpets, of blowing trumpets." This is the beginning of the civil year. It is called Rosh Hashanah. In contemporary and modern times, it's called Rosh Hashanah, which celebrates the Jewish New Year. 10:59 Now, how can it celebrate the Jewish New Year if He's saying in the seventh month of the first day or the first day of the seventh month, you should celebrate this? Well, it has to do with the difference between the Jewish New Year, the civil New Year, and the religious New Year, the old Hebrew calendar. And so it's an interesting study that gets rather confusing. 11:19 I wouldn't bore you with the details if I understood them myself. It has to do with the Gregorian calendar and the Hebrew calendar and the religious calendar and how those all things work together. But it corresponds today with what is called Rosh Hashanah. Anybody remember hearing about Rosh Hashanah back in September? 11:39 I think it was. Or was it in October? Late September this year. The beginning of the Jewish New Year is the the the the sounding of the trumpets. Some Jews believe that this is the day that God created the world or at least that it's the day that God created man. They put great significance to this uh uh feast. 11:59 Now, if you go over to our next portion of our text, which would be in Numbers chapter 10, we'll find out that God had some significant things to take place uh with trumpets, with trumpets. 12:14 He says in chapter uh uh uh 10 of Numbers, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Make two silver trumpets for yourself. You shall make them of hammered work. You shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps. When they blow both of them, 12:33 all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the Tabernacle of meeting. But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel shall gather to you. When you sound the advance, the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey. 12:48 And when you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall begin their journey. They shall sound the call for them to begin their journeys. And when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but not the sound of advance or not sound the advance. 13:07 The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. 13:10 And these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations. When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets. And you will be remembered before the Lord your God. And you will be saved from your enemies. Also in the land of day of your gladness, 13:29 in your appointed feasts and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. And they shall be a memorial for you before the Lord. 13:42 I am the Lord your God." And so we have two trumpets being made of silver, a long trumpet with a flange on the end. And this was a special announcement. You remember in the Old Testament, of course, in Bible Times, how do you get an announcement out to millions of people? 14:03 You don't have Facebook. You don't have radio. You don't have television. You don't have loudspeakers. But you can have trumpets. And the trumpets would give a certain sound. A certain sound meant one thing. Another sound meant another thing. That's what He's talking about here in this passage of Scripture. If you go and blow twice, then that means one thing. 14:24 If you blow once, that means that the leaders should come together. If you sound the advance, then that means they get ready to move. Then that means something else. And if you sound the alarm of war, that means something else. And so these were known by them. By the time of Solomon, there were 120 of these trumpets announcing each Sabbath. 14:45 But then what we can read about also in chapter 29 is a little bit different. So turn to chapter 29. "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month..." There you have it again. So we know we're talking about the Feast of Trumpets. "...you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you, it is a day of blowing the trumpets. 15:07 You shall offer a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: one young bull, one ram, seven lambs in their first year without blemish. Their grain offering shall be a fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram, and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs. 15:25 Also, one kid of the goats is a sin offering to make atonement for you besides the burnt offering with its grain offering for the new moon, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and their drink offerings according to their ordinance as a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord." And so here you have more specific instructions. 15:46 They were to do the new moon offering every new moon. But on the seventh... the first day of the seventh month, it was a special day of the blowing, not necessarily of the silver trumpets, but of the shofar. The shofar was a ram's horn. And you can look on... 16:06 do some research. And you can find there were a variety of ram's horns. Some are long. Some are short. Some are deep. Some are higher, higher pitch. But it could not be a cow's horn because that would remind them of the worship of the golden calf. 16:21 It must be a ram's horn, which, by the way, would remind them of the provision of Abraham and Isaac's ram in the thicket, who was a substitutionary offering for Isaac. And so you see Christ. You see Christ. He is the ram God will provide. 16:41 God will provide Jehovah Jireh. And so the different blasts meant different things, which we've already covered. And this was to be generally at the time of the darkest night, the new moon. They were to blow these trumpets. The new moon... each new moon was accompanied by a short blast of a trumpet. 17:01 But the Feast of Trumpets was a long, ominous blowing of that trumpet, that shofar. Over time, it came to be a shofar blowing, a long blast followed by three short blasts followed by nine staccato blasts and ending with another long blast. 17:19 And I have the guys to give us an illustration of that this morning on the screen. And so if you want to listen to this past 2021 blowing of the shofar in the land of Israel. Okay. 18:47 Thank you. I think you get the point. You hear the long... the long blast. You hear the three shorter blasts. You hear the nine staccato blasts followed by the long blasts or the three short. And they all meant something. Interestingly enough, this is one of the feasts that has no specific historical event attached to it, no specific... 19:09 Pentecost had the harvest. 19:17 Passover had the Passover and all those... the trumpets have no specific historical event attached to it. It is strictly a call, a call. And it is forward-looking. 19:29 It was to capture the attention of the nation and prepare them for the days of wrath that were to come or what has been come to be known as the days of awe. Now, what is to happen in the days of awe? Now, this is more of a modern-day commemoration of Rosh Hashanah. But in the days of awe, 19:50 there was a ten-day period between the Feast of Trumpets and the day of atonement where their sins would be atoned for by the sacrifices of atonement, the sin offerings, and so on. During that ten-day period, they were to repent. 20:06 And because divine judgment was to be rendered as to whether or not a person would live or die the next year. There were three books they believed that God kept: the book of life for the wicked, the book of life for the righteous, and the book of life for the in-between. Now, this is not biblical. 20:27 This is... although there is a book of life for the wicked and there's a book of life for the righteous. And there... but there's no in-between. And so they would believe that if your name was found during that... on the Feast of Trumpets, if your name was found in the book of life for the wicked, you would die sometime the next year. 20:46 Well, nobody wants that. So you want to make sure your name is in the book of life for the righteous. And if it was in there, you would live and have prosperity the next year. But if you were in-between somewhere... and probably they weren't exactly sure which book they were in. So if they were in-between somewhere, they would need to repent. And if you repented adequately enough, 21:06 then you would have ten days to repent and that God would see the sincerity of your repentance and grant you life for the rest... for the next year. You see? And their view of repentance is very much works-oriented. It is not... 21:22 it has evolved through the years from Abraham, which was the work of faith and believing God and his credit to Him for righteousness, to the works that if my bad works outweigh my good works, I'm in trouble. If my good works outweigh my bad works, then God will let me in. It's a very humanistic approach to faith, which is because they have no tabernacle. 21:44 They have no temple. There are no sacrifices being offered today for the sins of the people. So they had to come up with something else. Another thing that does have some roots in Scripture was that some observed what's called the casting ceremony. The casting ceremony is when a group of people would go to a body of water, maybe to the pool of Siloam or to the Mediterranean Sea. 22:04 And they would recite various scriptures about having the forgiveness of sins. 22:09 And then they would empty out their pockets and cast anything in their pockets into the water and carry breadcrumbs with them so that they could cast those breadcrumbs, signifying that they're getting rid of their sins and quoting scriptures like this: Micah 7:18-20: "Who is a God like you, 22:30 pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our enemies. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." And so they exemplified that. 22:50 "You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old." Now, I want to begin to apply this this morning beyond just the mechanics of the feast. That is to apply that there are three specific things that the feast... 23:09 or that the trumpets signified in Scripture. Number one, it signified a gathering. And so people were to gather when they heard those trumpets, when they heard the blowing of the shofar. They were to gather together to the gathering place. 23:26 They were to come together as leaders or as a people and and and get gathered in. The second thing that, uh, uh, the trumpet was to do was to sound an alarm of war, to sound an alarm of warning and war. And so when you heard the sound of the trumpets signifying that it was time to go to war, 23:48 then the men would gather their weapons, gird up their loins, and be prepared to fight. And the third, which I think is one of the most exciting, was that the sounding of the trumpet issued the coronation of a new king, the coronation of a new king. Let's talk about gathering, 24:07 the gathering of Israel for its day of atonement. There are several things about gathering in Scripture. And it comes to be gathering to experience God in a profound way. Isaiah 27:12-13 says, "And it shall come to pass in that day..." What day? "The day of the Lord." The day of the Lord. 24:29 What the Feast of Trumpets is all about is to announce the coming of the day of the Lord, the coming of that great and terrible day of the Lord. He said that the Lord will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt. "And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So it shall be in that day. 24:49 The great trumpet will be blown. They will come who are about to perish in the land of Assyria and they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem." And so there's an ingathering. There's an ingathering. Jesus talked about the ingathering in Matthew 24. 25:09 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a..." What? Trumpet... of a trumpet. "The trumpet will correspond with the coming of the Lord. 25:31 And they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Someone has said that on the day of Feast of Trumpets, when historically, that when the trumpets were blown, then Israel high-tailed it for Jerusalem for the day of atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. And so it is when the trumpet sounds, 25:51 brothers and sisters, the dead in Christ shall rise first. And those who are living shall be assembled. And those who have died shall be assembled. "Behold, I tell you a mystery," Scripture says. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. And the trumpet will sound. 26:11 And the dead will be raised incorruptible. And you shall be... and we shall be changed." Again, it's referred to in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God." I used to think that the trumpet would probably be like a brass instrument. 26:32 I have come to believe that it will be more like the shofar that you heard this morning, the blowing of the trumpet of the ram's horn. "And we shall... that are... and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remained shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we always be with the Lord." Now, 26:53 we may be reminded that there are a number of trumpets blowing, uh, in prophetic scriptures. But the trumpet that we're looking for is the trumpet that, uh, raptures the church to be with Christ and signifies the ingathering of the nation of Israel back to their homeland to be disciplined by God, 27:14 followed by the final trumpet when everyone is called forth out of the grave. And so there are various trumpets. The day of the Lord then is the second aspect of of our of our trumpets, of our prophetic trumpets. And that is the warning and warring of God upon the wicked and judgment upon Israel. 27:36 This is what we refer to as the tribulation period. This is the the war that's going to take place, the war of God against the the the rulers of this world. Now, you can look back in the Old Testament and find out there's biblical precedent for this. Uh, Jericho, when they went to war, they blew the trumpets. 27:57 They walked around the city. They walked around the city seven days. They walked around the city seven times on the seventh day. And then when the trumpet blew, the walls fell. And they went to war at the blowing of the trumpet. You remember another war that took place with trumpets was Gideon. Gideon had 300 trumpets, 28:17 300 shofars, 28:19 and had those in one hand and a pitch with a jar with a torch in the other. And when they heard the blowing of the trumpet, they all blew their trumpet, broke their jars, and attacked the Moabite enemies. 28:37 So you see that as the 28:42 trumpet of war. And then you have Nehemiah. Nehemiah has a fascinating exchange there. When they were working on the wall with one hand, they had a tool in one hand. And they had they had a sword in the other. 28:56 And Nehemiah said, "The man with the trumpet was near me, was near me." And as soon as there was a need for using that sword, they blew the trumpet and went to battle. And if you didn't hear the trumpet blow, you kept working. And there's spiritual application to that as well. 29:13 You know, when we when we don't hear the trumpet of the Lord, we keep working. We keep working. "Let us work the works of Him while it is day. The night comes when no man can work." And so, but when we hear that trumpet, we shall be assembled for war. And God's war shall be revealed. 29:36 Zechariah 9 says, "Then the Lord will be seen over them. And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet." Do you realize that God's going to blow some trumpets Himself? "The Lord God will blow the trumpet and go with whirlwinds from the south. The Lord of hosts will defend them. 29:56 They shall devour and subdue with slingstones. They shall drink and roar as if with wine. They shall be filled with blood like basins, like the corners of the altar. The Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of His people. 30:09 For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land." Revelation chapter 8 talks about the 30:21 the the wars that will take place. "I saw seven angels who stand before God. And to them were given seven trumpets." Revelation 8:6. 30:29 "So the seven trumpets who had the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound." God going forth to war against the nations and bring judgment on the nations where the wrath of God and the wrath of man and the wrath of Satan converge in that seven-year period of time called the tribulation, 30:49 three and a half years of tribulation, followed by three and a half years of the great tribulation, tribulation which Jesus said will be so severe that if it were not... if it were not that the days would be shortened, no flesh would survive, such as has not been since the beginning of time, Jesus said. 31:09 So you have the the trumpet of ingathering. You have the trumpet of war and warning. And then last of all, you have the trumpet of the coronation of the king, the trumpet of the coronation of the king. You remember Absalom. Absalom, when he attacked his father and deposed his father as king, King David, 31:28 he said, "When you hear the trumpet, you will know that Absalom reigns in Hebron." And so they blew the trumpet to signify that there is a new king in Israel. Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 1, same thing happened. You remember the account there where Adonijah, one of David's sons, wanted to be king. 31:48 And he had Joab's support, I believe it was. And but David had not chosen Adonijah. David had known that God had said Solomon was to be king. And so Adonijah wanted to beat Solomon to the punch and said, "I'm going to get Joab and some priests over here to anoint me as king. 32:06 And then we'll blow the trumpets for me." And Solomon went and Bathsheba went to David and said, "David, do you realize what's happening here? We're going to have a civil war unless you get together here and anoint Solomon as king." And so Solomon was anointed by Zadok, the priest. And and Solomon... 32:25 they blew the trumpets and beat Adonijah to the punch. And the trumpets signified that their that that Solomon was the new king. And all the people that were with him said, "God save King Solomon." Now, what does this have to do with trumpets prophetically? I want you to go to the book of Revelation. 32:43 And I want you to see something that I saw here for the first time as I was studying for this message. Chapter 11... Chapter 11 following chapter 8. Chapter 8 talks about the trumpets of judgment, the vegetation burned up in verse 7 of 8, 33:03 chapter 8, the seas being struck with the second trumpet of verse chapter 8, verses 8 and 9. The third trumpet, the waters are struck, verse 10 and 11. The fourth trumpet, the heavens are struck. And there is... the the lights in the heavens are darkened and do not shine. 33:24 And the fifth trumpet, the the bottomless pit releases scorpions on the of the earth and have power to torture and traumatize and torment mankind without killing them. The sixth trumpet sounds. 33:45 And the angels from the Euphrates River bring forth another army of 200 million. And they go and afflict mankind with plagues and fire and smoke, verse 18, and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. And there's a lot of different ideas of what all that looks like. 34:03 But what I really want you to notice is in chapter 11, because that's the sixth chapter the sixth trumpet in chapter 9. Chapter 11, kind of after a little bit of a break there, he says, "Then the seventh angel sounded," chapter 9, verse 15. "The seventh angel sounded. And there were loud voices in heaven saying, 34:24 'The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever.'" Significant. All of these trumpets coming to the last trumpet, which is the coronation, the exaltation, the announcement of the King, 34:45 the Lord Jesus Christ. Sevens being the completion, the completion of all of God's working in the ingathering, in the war with the nations, in the tribulation period are focused upon the coronation of the King. 35:05 And the 420 elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry. And Your wrath has come in the time of the dead that they should be judged. And that You should reward Your servants, 35:25 the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. Then the temple of God was opened in heaven. And the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail." Coronation of the King. 35:45 What is the Feast of Trumpets really about? It is about getting people prepared for the final battles that will usher in the return of the King. That's what it's about. That's what it's about. So how do you prepare? How do you prepare? Joel chapter 2. 36:04 Joel chapter 2 has this in mind. When he talks about the trumpets, he refers to what our response should be with the trumpets. Joel chapter 2, verse 1 and 2. "Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. 36:23 Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. For it is at hand, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor will there ever be any such after them, 36:42 even for many successive generations." Chapter 2, verse 15. I'm going to read it, verse 13. "So rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. And He relents from doing harm. 37:03 Who knows if He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children and nursing babes. 37:21 Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests who minister to the Lord weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, 'Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach.' That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'" You see, 37:40 this is the blowing of the trumpet of warning, of gathering, and of war. What should we be doing? We should be repenting. We should be repenting. Isaiah chapter 55. "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. 38:01 And let them return unto the Lord. And He will have mercy upon them and to our God. For He will abundantly pardon." So we are to return in this day of of of hearing the trumpet. Whenever that trumpet sounds, we should be repenting, getting ready for that day. Jeremiah 3 says, "Return ye backsliding children. 38:23 And I will heal your backslidings." That is true to the nation of Israel. That's true to the to the people of God, any generation, any age. If we return to the Lord from our backsliding, He will have mercy. But the days of mercy will run out. He says, "I have sent also unto you all My servants, 38:43 the prophets, rising up early and and sending them saying, 'Return ye now, every man from his evil way. And amend your doings. And do not go after other gods to serve them. And ye shall dwell in the land which I have given you to your fathers. But ye have not inclined your ear nor hearkened unto Me.'" And so this is the call that goes out in the Feast of Trumpets is to repent, 39:05 repent, turn, return unto the Lord, turn from our wicked ways, and be saved all the earth. 39:15 Ezekiel 18 talks about returning and turning. It has both a promise and a warning. 39:24 Ezekiel 18 says that if a man has been living in sin and he has rejected God and he turns from his sin and repents and turns to God and keeps his statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die. 39:43 And none of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him. For the righteousness that he has done, he shall live. And we rejoice in that. It's called forgiveness. It's called mercy. It's called grace. That while there is yet time and breath, there is an opportunity to respond to God, 40:02 to repent, to turn, and to return. But you know there's another side to that Ezekiel 18. And it goes like this. "When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. 40:21 For the injustice that he has done, he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions he had committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die. But the opposite is also true. 40:42 That if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, all of the righteousness that he has done in the past will not do him one iota worth of good. He will die in his sins. Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, declares the Lord. 41:02 Repent and turn from all your transgression, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed. And make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Get right with God. For this will happen." We've been talking about the return of the Lord all of my life. 41:22 We've been talking about it all this past hundred years. We've been talking about it for 2,000 years. Doesn't mean it's not going to happen. Doesn't mean it's going to take another 2,000 for it to happen. Doesn't mean it's going to take another 50. Doesn't mean it's not going to take another day. We don't know the day or the hour. But we do know that the trumpet will sound. 41:43 We do know that Christ will come. We do know that those who are looking for Him and have repented are the ones who will be ready to meet Him. So what kind of people should we be? Peter asks that in 2 Peter chapter 3. 42:01 "What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conduct and godliness?" He answers his question in the same... He answers his question in the same statement. "What should we be doing? How should we be living in view of the fact that the heavens will pass away with a great noise? The elements will melt with fervent heat. 42:19 The earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. And all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought you to be?" Well, we should be looking for and hasting the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. 42:42 "Therefore, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace without blame, without spot, without spot and blameless," it says. So I guess we need to ask this question this morning, each and every one of us. Are we without spot? Are we blameless? 43:02 Are we holy? Holy conduct, godliness? Are we serving the Lord? Have we veered off of the course that God has for our lives? If so, we need to repent. We need to return. We need to turn. That's what this Feast of Trumpets signifies. 43:22 And don't wait for the Feast of Trumpets. Don't wait for the sounding of the trumpet. Repent today. Remember that words of the rabbi who says, "Repent one day before you die. You don't know when you will die. You don't know when Christ will come. You don't know when Christ will come for you." We have people dying all over this country. It's almost a death epidemic right now. 43:44 Not just COVID, but people just dying that we know, that you know, just dying, dying, dying. I don't know what the Lord's trying to say, except it might be like a trumpet sounding saying, "Get ready. You don't know when your day is up." And so if you could not stand before the Lord God, if this were your day without blemish, 44:06 without being blameless and without spot, if you could not stand in holy conduct and godliness, if you could not stand in being at peace with God and being right with God, then today you need to get right with God. No one can get right with God for you. 44:23 No one can even see your heart to know whether you're right with God. But God does. God can. God will. And we need to pray daily. "Lord, search my heart, O God, and know my thoughts. 44:44 And see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting." We need to pray, "Lord, if there be a wicked way in us where we're not without spot, we're not blameless, we're not at peace with You. We are not living holy lives in godliness. Then, Lord, show it to us. 45:06 Show it to us so that we can repent." Would you bow your heads this morning? 45:13 Lord, we thank You this morning for Your great grace, Your mercy. Lord, You have had mercy on us. You have extended grace to us. And yet, Lord, we still find ourselves at times being enticed by sin and the things of the world around us. 45:33 O God, if we could really see eternity for what it is, if we could really see heaven for what it is, if we could really have that as the core of our focus, Lord, what a difference it would make. The things of this world would grow strangely dim in the light of Your glory and grace. 45:56 I pray, Father, for every soul here this morning in divine presence. I pray, Lord, that if there be one who stands in need of repentance... Yes, we came through a wonderful week of revivals, many decisions made for Christ. We praise God for that. But those are decisions that all of us need to make day by day, 46:18 week by week, month by month, and year by year. 46:21 Whenever the Holy Spirit puts His focus of attention and searchlight and spotlight on our conduct and our hearts and our minds, we need to repent and say, "O God, I return to 46:40 You by turning from sin." And if there would be someone here this morning who would say, "God has spoken to my heart this morning. And I know there's something in my life that I need to repent of. Pray for me. 46:59 Pray for me." If that would be you while your heads are bowed and eyes closed, just lift up your hand and we'll have special prayer for you this morning. That God would convict us, chase in us, challenge us, reveal our sin to us, 47:19 that we might repent, that we might return to Him. Is there anyone? God bless you. God bless you. 47:31 God bless you. 47:34 Anyone else? 47:37 God bless you in the back. 47:40 Maybe the sin of gossip, maybe the sin of sexual impurity, maybe the sin of pride, the sin of lust, sin of anger, sin of independence, living independently from God. 48:01 Maybe the sin of pursuing the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. It may be the sin of unforgiveness. It may be the sin of rebellion. 48:10 It may be the sin of resisting the call of God. Is there anyone else? 48:21 Let's pray. Father God, we pray for those this morning who responded with upraised hands. More than that, we pray for those who responded with open hearts saying, "Father, forgive me. I repent. 48:40 I hear the call this morning of turning from sin and returning to God. I repent. I want to be ready. I want to be anticipating the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. 48:58 I want to be surrendered when the King gets coronated. 49:05 And I want Him in my life to already be functioning as King, to be on the throne of my life with no rival, no equal, 49:19 no new election, being there by appointment." And so, Lord, we pray that You'll give us grace in the days ahead to repent, prepare ourselves for the great and terrible day of the Lord, for the day of vengeance of our God, 49:40 for the day of the culmination of all things, and for the day of the glorious ingathering of souls. In Jesus' name. Amen.