Dear Brethren,
I began the high Sabbath last
evening with warning blasts from my shofar (a three-foot long ram’s horn) as I
customarily do at the start of the Feast of Trumpets. The blowing of the shofar
signals a time in the very near future when God will act to clean up this world
in preparation for His coming Kingdom. This world routinely curses God and
everything He stands for. Therefore, after Satan's Tribulation, God will usher
in the Day of the Lord which will see trumpet plagues poured out on evil
mankind. God is not going to tweak things a little bit. No, He is going to
clean house.
In today’s sermon we will be looking
at many Scriptures which chronicle the events soon to come—in God’s own words.
The Feast of Trumpets pictures a most significant event in the Plan of
God—Christ’s victorious return. It is the dramatic second coming of Jesus
Christ in supreme power over all the earth.
Trumpets, a Holy Day of Convocation,
falls on the first day of the seventh month. “The Lord spoke unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, in the
first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of
trumpets, an holy convocation.” (Leviticus 23:23-24)
The Feast of Trumpets shows that
Jesus Christ will return as Lord of lords and King of Kings. Trumpets is the
next Feast of the Lord to realize its prophetic fulfillment in the Plan of God.
Even now, we are counting down to the return of Jesus Christ. The foolish world
will be caught unawares by the Day of the Lord.
Joel 2:1-3 Blow ye the trumpet in
Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the
land tremble: for the Day of the LORD comes, for it is near at hand; A day of
darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the
morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there has not
been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of
many generations. A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns:
the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate
wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
The Day of the Lord’s wrath, the
prophesied Day of the Lord, will help all people focus on the sovereignty
of God (Isaiah 2:11-17).
Zephaniah 1:14-18 The Great Day of
the Lord is near, it is near, and hastes greatly, even the voice of the Day of
the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a Day of Wrath,
a day of trouble and distress, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness
and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and
alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring
distress upon men. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver
them in the Day of the Lord's wrath.
After six thousand years of human
misery, wars and sin, righteous men cry out for the day of Christ's return in
power and great glory:
Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus
Christ.
Jesus Christ is coming soon! As
loving, compassionate, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
patient as Jesus is, He is not soft-headed when it comes to the anti-Christ
movement. There is coming a final judgment when the glory of the Lord will be
seen and felt by those who hate God. The Tribulation precedes the return of
Jesus Christ pictured by the Feast of Trumpets.
Isaiah 66:15-16 Behold, the LORD
will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger
with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword
will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the
Tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens
shall be shaken.
Joel 2:30-31 I will show wonders in
the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun
shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the
terrible Day of the Lord comes.
Revelation 8:1-2 When he had opened
the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given
seven trumpets.
The Tribulation will be the final
wake up call for many of the Church brethren who have been negligent in their
practice of true Christianity; the most tragic period ever for those who once
knew the truth of God but were remiss in living their faith to the full.
Only the faithful brethren of God’s
Church who are living Christian lives will be spared the horrors of the Great
Tribulation. Their resurrection to reign and rule with Jesus Christ will come
at the sounding of the very last trumpet. Do not be mistaken: The Trumpets
(Plural) begin to sound on a Feast of Trumpets, but the last Trumpet, the
resurrection Trumpet, (singular) will be sounded on a Feast of Pentecost. It is
wise to study out the sequence of the Holy Days and the sounding of the Trumpets
of the Lord. Not all the saints will have to die. The saints will be raised
incorruptible – in the image of God.
Matthew 24:31, 33 [Jesus] shall
send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other… when you
shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
[Revelation 6:16-17; 8:1-2]
1Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold, I
shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet [singular]: for
the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed.
Revelation 11:15 The seventh angel
sounded [his trumpet]; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ;
and He shall reign forever and ever.
