The Trumpet of the Lord
I want to read to you a verse from the song, “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder”..
“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 of earth shall gather over on the other shore..
And the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.”
When the trumpet sounds, will you be ready? When the “roll” of all the saved” is called, will you be there? Will your name be on that “roll”? I pray it will.
The scriptures tell us in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16; “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, (“with an arousing outcry” is what that means. And we can be guaranteed, that every soul who ever existed, will be aroused when that cry comes!) with the voice of an archangel, (Jesus IS an archangel!) and with the trumpet of God, (the trumpet of God, means.. the announcement of God, the declaration of God) and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
Jesus said in John 5:28 & 29; “Do not marvel at this; For an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, (everyone will hear the announcement) and will come forth; Those who did the good deeds, to a resurrection of life; Those who committed the evil deeds, to a resurrection of judgment.”
Job spoke these words in Job 14:15; “You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.”
You can be sure, that when the Lord calls, everyone will answer! Because He will call with “an arousing outcry”, and “all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice.” He’ll call with “the voice of an archangel!” He’ll call with “the trumpet of God!”
Victory in Jesus !
In the bible, the blast of a trumpet signified either one of two things. Sometimes the trumpet blast sounded the call to God’s people, to come out for battle; To come out for war! And other times, the trumpet blast sounded the victory for the Lord’s people! Victory! Which of those two things do you think the trumpet will be sounding when the Lord come again? Without a doubt, it will be announcing victory! Victory over death!
Let me read 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16 again; “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with (the declaration) of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first!” The dead in Christ shall rise in victory! And verse 17 says; “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” And so all who are in Christ, will celebrate the victory. It must be pretty important to be “in Christ”.
1 Corinthians 15, verses 23, 24, and 25 says; “Then comes the end, when He shall yield up the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Jesus gained His victory over death, when He was “raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father”, as we’re told in Romans 6, verse 4. And Jesus was given His kingdom, when He ascended back to heaven, as we’re told in Daniel 7, verses 13 & 14; The scripture says there; “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man; (that’s Jesus) And He came to the Ancient of Days, (that’s God the Father) and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
So then there was the victory of Jesus over death, and His crowning, as King of His kingdom. And our victory will be when we are raised, at the sound of the trumpet. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15, verses 51 thru 57; “Behold! I tell 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. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (that’s exactly what 1 Thessalonians told us)
“For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
And our crown will come at the very same time. Jesus said, in Revelation 2, verse 7; “..Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” In other words, we will be “crowned” with eternal life, by Jesus Himself.
When God created man, in “the image of God” and “according to His likeness”, that was God’s “crowning creation”, wasn’t it? Listen to what Psalm 8, verses 3 thru 9, say about it; “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man, that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?”
Some people might think that WE are rather insignificant, compared to the grandeur of the universe. But that’s not the case at all. As a matter of fact, it’s quite the contrary. Here’s the rest of the passage; “For You have made him a little lower than the angels, (that’s talking about mankind. You have made man a little lower than the angels) And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, Even the beasts of the field; The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea, That pass through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!”
We’re not insignificant at all are we? Of all of the physical creation, we are God’s “crowning creation”! But more importantly, is the fact that we can be crowned spiritually!
We’re told in 2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” And as a new creation in Christ, we’re destined for that crown of life.
“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” And although, “.. it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3, verse 2)
But once again, ask yourself this.. When the trumpet sounds, will I be ready? If the trumpet were to sound, even before I finish with this lesson, are you ready right now?
Listen to these words from the song called, “It Is Well With My Soul”.
“And Lord, haste the day, when the faith shall be sight.. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll.
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend.. Even so, it is well with my soul.”
Those are the words of someone who is ready, and who knows they’re ready. Are you ready for the trumpet of God? Will it truly be well with your soul? I truly pray that it will be, for all of us.
When the trumpet sounds, there will be victory in Jesus, for all who have become faithful to God, and have then remained faithful to God. But I’m sure that for some, there will be panic! Panic because they know they’re not ready. Maybe they didn’t belief it would ever happen, but then it happens! And “every eye shall see Him”, right? And “every knee will bow”, right?
Are you ready for the sound of the trumpet? For the “arousing cry”, for the “voice of an archangel”? I hope that we all can say; Lord haste the day!
What do you think you’ll be doing when Jesus comes? Maybe you’ll be at work, or at home, out hunting, or out gardening. Maybe you’ll be asleep. You probably think.. I’ll be long gone when the Lord returns. Maybe so, or maybe not.
Whatever the case may be, Job said it well, when he said; “Thou shalt call, and I will answer”. And as long as we’re faithful to God, it won’t matter when the call comes.
But how does a person “become” faithful to God? How does one even BEGIN ? It doesn’t just “happen”. You don’t just wake up one day, and you’re faithful. No, there’s a process that needs to take place. And the process naturally begins, with hearing the word of God. (Romans 10, verse 17) “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
That’s only natural isn’t it? How could one be faithful to God, without first knowing what God wants us to be faithful to? And it’s just a matter of believing what the word of god tells us, that’s all. Hebrews 11, verse 6 tells us; “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, (in other words, that He exists, and that He is who He says He is) and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
And of course Jesus said in John 8:24; “If you believe not that I am He, you will die in your sins.” If you don’t believe that Jesus IS, the one and only Savior, you’ll die in your sins. “There is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4, verse 12) Not the name of Peter, or of Mary, or of Paul, or of Mohammed, or Luther, or Wesley, or any other name. There is no other name! Period!
Romans 10, verse 10 says; “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness;” To believe unto righteousness, is to believe unto faithfulness. Righteousness IS faithfulness. It’s the keeping of God’s commands. That’s what we’re told in Deuteronomy 6:25; “And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to DO, all this commandment before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.” And it all begins with faith. And that faith doesn’t come magically, or mysteriously, it comes form the word of God.
You know, being faithful to God, which is obeying God, and keeping His commandments, isn’t something that we do for God’s benefit. We do it for OUR benefit! We do it in order to be forgiven of our sins. So we can spend an eternity with God, in heaven.
I read from Romans 10, verse 10, where it says; “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness;” But then the rest of the verse says; “and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” So we not only believe that God is, but we also confess that He is. And we not only believe that Jesus is he, but we confess that He is the Savior. It’s in Mathew 10, verse 32 that Jesus said, “If you confess Me before men, I will confess you before My Father who is in heaven..”
I think the two greatest sounds that anyone could hear, is the trumpet of the Lord, and then the voice of the Lord confessing our name before the Father.
Of course there’s two more sounds that we want to make sure are heard. First, we want God to “hear us”, repent of our sins. “God is now declaring that all people, everywhere should repent.” (Acts 17, verse 39) Even though repentance takes place in the mind and in the heart, God knows our mind and our heart. He “hears” our thoughts and our intents. There’s nothing that God doesn’t hear.
And here’s one last sound that God wants to hear. It’s the sound of us being immersed in water, buried in baptism, and being raised from that water, to walk in newness of life. The sound of the splash of the water, and the rejoicing in the heart; Not to mention the sound of the angels rejoicing in heaven. I’m sure God loves all those sounds!
When we do all those things, we receive the promise from God; The promise of eternal life, if we remain faithful unto death.
