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THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET

Leviticus 25:9,10; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53;

The scriptures that we have read all speak of trumpets; not trumpets as musical instruments in a band, but trumpets as giving out an authoritative announcement for all the people to hear. What they speak of typically is to touch our affections and set them in movement in relation to Christ. In the scripture we began with in Leviticus, the trumpet can be applied in different ways, but I want to apply it in relation to the glad tidings, because we are in the wonderful time of the jubilee. The glad tidings of release can be proclaimed throughout the whole world. How wonderful that is, and I trust that everyone here has answered to God’s call in grace in the glad tidings. But if not, you have an opportunity now, dear friend. How marvellous that God in His goodness would give you an opportunity now. If the Lord will, we will be here again tomorrow and our brother will preach the gospel, but the time for the gospel is now.

If you have not yet had to do with the Lord Jesus as Saviour, you need to be set in movement in relation to your sins. What a position you are in, a position of great peril, and you need to move out. In London a short time ago, there was a fire in a tower block, and it was in the middle of the night. People were sleeping, you might say unsuspecting, unconscious of the danger they were in, and then they awoke and realised that there was a fire. It began on the fourth floor inside the building; and those on the higher floors got out of their beds at 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning and they could not escape. They were advised to stay where they were and wait to be rescued. It led to many losing their lives. Dear friend, in relation to your sins, if you have not yet put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, you cannot afford to stay where you are. Hymn 432 says:-

‘Hark! ‘tis a message free,

Of pardon, joy and peace;

A trump of jubilee

Glad tidings of release!’.

God has a basis to come out in blessing and in forgiveness to you and to me and to every man, woman and child in this world, based on the work of redemption and atonement that the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross at Calvary. You cannot stay where you are. If you stay where you are and you die in your sins, you will be raised in your sins. But there is a trumpet of jubilee, glad tidings of release. What a trumpet! Have you answered to the call in the glad tidings? The Lord Jesus is available as Saviour. What a work was His! We were contemplating the perfection of that work and how satisfied God is with Him. God has a basis to come out in blessing, therefore we might say, we are in the fiftieth year. God “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim.2:4. That is what is normal; that is what God is looking for. So I begin with that, because if you have not moved in relation to the gospel, then all that we have had before us this weekend so far and all that we are going on to speak about will not mean anything to you. God desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

The scripture in Corinthians refers to “the last trumpet”. There will be other trumpets after this; it is not the last in the sense that there will not be any more. Revelation is full of references to trumpets; they speak of judgment. The trumpet we read of in Corinthians relates to the Lord’s coming, it speaks of the rapture when the Lord is going to come and take all those that love Him to be with Himself for ever. It is imperative that you answer to the gospel trumpet, God’s call in the glad tidings, but here is a trumpet call that every believer will hear and answer. No one who knows the Lord Jesus as Saviour and has received the gift of the Spirit will ignore this call. This is something that will be irresistible; every lover of the Lord Jesus will go. “The dead in Christ shall rise first”, 1 Thess.4:16. That is a wider scope than the saints of the assembly, because “the dead in Christ” began with Abel. What an august company is the “dead in Christ”. The saints of the assembly belong to that company. “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep”. Paul is speaking of those who have died, who have gone to be with the Lord, those who had put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and have fallen asleep. But “We shall not all fall asleep”; Paul was looking for the Lord to come. What an outlook he had.

What is our outlook? Are we looking for the Lord to come? “We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet”. The “last trumpet” here is a military reference. In the Roman army, the soldiers would set up camp for the night, then the first trumpet meant that the camp was to be packed up. The second trumpet meant that they were to fall into line, and the third trumpet was the signal to march off. That is the last trumpet, “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”. The apostle wrote to the Thessalonians that “the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain …”. Think of that, the dead in Christ shall rise first, then “we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate those who have fallen asleep” (v.15). What ordering there is in this, and it is going to be irresistible. Every believer, every lover of the Lord Jesus, will hear this call, “archangel’s voice and with trump of God”. It will be irresistible. What a movement there will be when the saints meet the Lord in the air; what a wonderful moment it will be. We are often reminded that it is not an event that is before us but it is a Person. He is a wonderful Person, our Saviour, our Lord; One who we know and love. He is going to come again and take His own to be for ever with Him.

I was speaking to a brother the other day about three-day meetings in Grangemouth years ago. I received one thing from those three-day meetings. I trust that everyone here, including young ones, is exercised that you should come away with at least one thing. What was said was that when the Lord comes at the rapture, it will not be a rescue mission. That is a wonderful thing to consider. We are so used to breakdown and looking around and seeing things as they are, but it will not be a rescue mission. It will be a glorious moment when the Lord Jesus takes the assembly for Himself. Think of His service in love throughout this whole dispensation. I am going to come on to what the Lord is doing, but there is a gospel trumpet that we need to answer, and then there is one that every believer will answer, but what about the present time?

I suppose that is a great challenge because the Lord is still speaking. We have read in Numbers. It is somewhat like the epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament; it is the assembly in the wilderness. The assembly is going through; the assembly will go through. That is a wonderful thing to consider. What we have in the first ten chapters of Numbers gives us the wilderness from God’s side. When we come to the next section in Numbers, we find out all that the flesh is, as failure comes in and all these sorts of things; we know it well. But in the first ten chapters it is the wilderness from God’s side, and in chapters 9 and 10 we have the journeyings of the people and it is all in order. God is a God of order. In chapter 9 we are told that the tabernacle was all set up and the ark was the centre of it. Christ is our Centre. It was all set up and the people were encamped around it in their tents and in their camps by their tribes. It would be like our houses and our localities, and it was all in order, it was God’s ordering, and the presence of God was known. There was a cloud that dwelt above the tabernacle; the cloud showed where God was. That is chapter 9; we are told there were to be journeyings and encampments, and more journeyings and encampments. When the cloud moved, the people had to move. That is the testimony; the assembly is moving through, and there is a testimony in these movements. The testimony has been moving through since the beginning of the Acts; it is still here and it is still in movement, these movements and journeyings.

Now where we have read in chapter 10, the movements of the people were governed by these trumpets, and governed, of course, by the movement of the cloud. The trumpets here are blown by priests, that is, by spiritual persons. You say, we do not blow trumpets. Trumpets are not the announcements we make on Lord’s day morning, because the first thing that is spoken of here is “they shall serve for the calling together of the assembly”. On Lord’s day morning, we assemble for the premier assembly occasion, to gather for the Lord’s supper. What a privilege that is, and what an opportunity it is, and it is not an occasion that we announce. Think of what the Lord says, “This do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor.11:24); it is the Lord’s own word, it carries authority, and that stands throughout the whole dispensation. If I have committed myself to do that, then it stands. I have committed myself; it is not an optional matter. Commit yourself, dear young ones. If you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, have you taken up your privilege? If the Lord tarries, in His grace and in His goodness, we will have a fresh opportunity tomorrow morning.

I recall hearing that a brother said to Mr Pellatt, ‘The Supper is a test for our affections’, but he said, ‘No, it is an opportunity for our affections’. This trumpet would give us that opportunity. Paul was given the ministry as to the Supper from the Lord in the glory. The Lord delivered it to His own when He was here, as recorded in the gospels. Reference was made to it yesterday, that the Lord when He gave it said, “This is my body which is given for you”, Luke 22:19. But when Paul received it from the Lord in the glory, He did not say “given”, He said, “This is my body, which is for you”, 1 Cor.11:24. It brings the Gentiles in, it brings us in. Paul received it from the Lord in the glory and he delivered it to the Corinthian assembly. He set it in its right setting, in the assembly. How wonderful that is, so that we have a fresh opportunity tomorrow morning, if the Lord tarry, to assemble to His name. He is absent; we break bread in the wilderness. That is what we are reading of here; they assembled to remember the Lord Jesus in the time of His absence. We will not need to remember the Lord Jesus after He comes for us at the rapture, we will be with Him for ever. The Supper is a wonderful opportunity in the Lord’s provision for the present time. May we value it. Persons are giving things up, and one of the first things they give up is the Supper. Think of how the Lord feels that. He has provided it for His own and for His assembly at the present time, in the time of His absence. May we value it more.

There are two trumpets of silver made. It would speak of the fact that God has rights over us in redemption. We should never forget that God has rights over us in redemption, and that should touch our affections. He also has authority over us, and we are to be governed by the movement. Our brother spoke this afternoon in his outline at the beginning of the second reading as to the recovery of the truth, and we have come into that recovery. We have been reading Ezra at home during the week; there is a wonderful recovery in Ezra. I think we see different recoveries, or revivals, in Chronicles, but there is nothing like Ezra’s one because it was in principle an assembly revival. It was not a gospel revival; it was an assembly revival because it was the highest of God’s thoughts that came out in it. The altar and the house of God and the service of God were immediately brought onto view, and that is wonderful. We can look over these journeyings, look over the history of the recovery. The cloud moved, the priests would see that the cloud moved and they blew their trumpets, and then these camps moved.

First of all it was the camp on the east. The east is towards the sunrise. We know that the sun rises in the east, and that camp represents persons, you might say, who are in tune with the Lord’s coming. Not the rapture, not His coming for the saints, but His coming with His saints, coming with His saints to reign; they are in the light of that. I wondered about the question, What would happen if more place was given to the Spirit? Would the answer be, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Rev.22:17? Would that be one of the results of giving more place to the Spirit? When we break bread, we have the Lord’s coming in view, showing forth His death until He comes. That is His appearing, when He will come and reign and take up His rights publicly. These camps on the east side move first because they are ready for the Lord’s coming; they are ready when the trumpet is blown.

Then there are the camps on the south and they move at the second trumpet. Think of all that has been drawn attention to in the revival. You can look back at it. There was a time early on, when Mr Darby and others addressed divine Persons, they perhaps spoke of ‘Heavenly Father’ and ‘Almighty God’, because that is what they were used to doing. That was the language that they were used to in the established churches. But there is a sense of distance in that language, is there not? Then, with priestly discernment, they recognised the scripture, “Abba, Father”. Think of how near God has come, known in such a blessed relationship, and that came out in the recovery. These are simple matters, but these brethren received light, there was priestly discernment as to things, and there was movement. The tabernacle is the same tabernacle, it moves from one encampment to the next encampment, and it is set up, the same tabernacle but set up in a new light. Things were looked at, you might say, in a different way; there was fresh light. It is not exactly that there is ministry in relation to this. I think the ministry comes in when the camp is set up; the Levites are not mentioned in this chapter. It is what is priestly, and the priests and the trumpets really are one. Then ministry would come in to help, but the saints are to move. When God moves we are not to be left behind. When the Lord moves, when the Lord speaks, we are to keep up. Zacchæus ran before the Lord (Luke 19:4); we are not to go before the Lord, but we are to see the Lord move and we are to move. The nearer we are to Him, the quicker we will be in these movements.

There is nothing said about another alarm or another trumpet blown. There are camps on the west, and there are camps on the north, they are not mentioned. I think there would have been enough evidence that things were in movement, so we are not to be left behind. God does not have in mind that anyone is left behind; these people were to move. They would have seen what was happening. Maybe they did not see the cloud, but they would have heard the trumpets and they would have moved, as all in God’s ordering. May we be helped. There are other matters that have been before us – what a matter the worship of the Spirit is. The Lord says that the Spirit would guide into all the truth (John 16:13). I think this is like what we were referring to in Numbers 10. The Spirit is guiding into all the truth; the truth is all there but the Spirit does not give it all at once; things were worked out. Things have been worked out at great cost, they have been worked out over many years in the history of the revival of which we have been given grace to form part. It is our responsibility to hear these trumpets at the present time.

There are other things spoken of here and I do not want to go into them all, but the trumpets were for journeying and for gathering together, and also for war; “if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before Jehovah your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies”. I think there is priestly discernment as to what would spoil the peace and enjoyment of God’s presence; “ye shall be remembered before Jehovah your God”. The thing has to be named for what it is, and I think that is what the trumpet being blown here means. There can be great confusion. There was a time in Absalom’s rebellion when there was more loss in the forest than there was in the battle (2 Sam.18:8); that is very sorrowful. The trumpet would help in relation to what the matter actually is. What is the matter in question? What is bringing in the disturbance? This alarm would draw attention to what it is, so that everyone is to be convicted as to what the matter really is, and the brethren are to be carried by that. I think that is the idea, that the brethren are carried by it; “and ye shall be saved from your enemies”. It is God that brings in the deliverance.

Then how wonderful it is in verse 10, “And in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in your new moons, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt-offerings and over your sacrifices of peace-offering; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God”. Think of what God is enjoying, and of what we enjoy. “Burnt-offerings” speaks of our acceptance, “and over your sacrifices of peace-offering”, that is fellowship which we have been speaking about. Fellowship is to be enjoyed, and there is responsibility that attaches to it. We have had before us the fellowship of God’s Son (1 Cor.1:9). There is a wonderful dignity and responsibility attaching to it, but it is to be enjoyed. Then the peace-offering: I remember a brother saying that the peace-offering does not establish peace, but peace-offerings are enjoyed where peace is already established. That is the enjoyment of fellowship. I suppose you see it in Luke 15; they ate of the fatted calf. There is what we are to enjoy. God has set it all on, God has called us into a fellowship, God has provided everything in that fellowship that we are ever going to need. That is a wonderful matter. What joy there is; the saints are enjoying their part and God is enjoying His part. These trumpets really call attention to the joy.

We have read in 1 Kings 1. I was doubly encouraged in relation to this. As we began the week last Lord’s day, hymn 36 was given out, ‘Hail to the Lord’s Anointed’. A brother suggested a reading in relation to Solomon, and I had these scriptures before me and felt encouraged in relation to these things; and then what our brother had before us in the address last night as to spiritual growth in times of crisis. Well, here was a crisis. It began with “David was old and advanced in age”. David is sometimes a type of Christ, but He is not a type of Christ here; he really represents the responsible element and there was weakness in it. Then there was Bathsheba; she was the mother of Solomon, and she would perhaps represent the state in a locality; and there was weakness there too in the beginning of this book. The enemy is quick to take advantage of these things.

Adonijah exalted himself; he said, “I will be king; and he provided himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him” (v.5). He exalted himself. He really speaks of what is antichristian, and that is all around us. John could write in his day “there have come many antichrists”, 1 John 2:18. That was almost two thousand years ago. What a day we are in. Beloved brethren, we need to make way for what Solomon speaks of, and how wonderful it is that in the midst of all this weakness, there is what is prophetic. Nathan takes the lead here, representing what is prophetic, “Nathan the prophet”. There are three persons spoken of and they are linked together, “Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada”, and these are elements that we need to make way for. There is a spiritual current in this chapter: there is an antichristian current but there is also a spiritual current, and that is wonderful. If we are not in the spiritual current, there is a great danger we will end up in the other one. How easy it is once you get into a river to get into the current. The spiritual current is to be enjoyed, but there were persons here who were no doubt carried away by Adonijah. That is very solemn, but the prophetic element came in.

It was said in the last reading how the prophetic element brings in God’s mind as to the current matter. The current matter here was in relation to Solomon being king, so that Nathan the priest moved and spoke to Bathsheba. Bathsheba knew that Solomon was to be king; she knew that, and the state was revived. The state in a locality can be revived. There was a great critical moment. All sorts of personalities come to light in the books of Samuel and in Kings here. Adonijah had Abiathar. Our brother read about Abiathar last night, about when he went to get the ephod, but here, Abiathar followed the wrong man. Then there was Joab, he followed the wrong man too. We know Joab was a politician; all he thought about was himself – self-promotion. I suppose he must have thought that he had a better opportunity with Adonijah. Think of the way that the flesh works, and all these elements are in each one of us. We need to make way for what Nathan speaks of and what Zadok speaks of and what Benaiah speaks of, because that is what gives place to Solomon.

“King David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet … And they came before the king. And the king said to them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon”. What a difference there was between the king’s own mule, and Adonijah with his chariots and his horsemen and fifty men to run before him. If you want to see David’s mule, I think you see in 2 Samuel 22 and 23 the way that David characteristically carried himself as he moved through. There is humility and meekness represented in the king’s mule, but too the royal dignity that was seen in David; and Solomon was to be carried through in the same way. What a blessed spirit. The king’s mule is the opposite to the kind of spirit that you find in this world, and what you find in relation to what is antichristian in self-exaltation. David said, “Cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon”. Gihon was a place of waters; it is a place that really speaks of the Spirit’s operations in a general way throughout the whole dispensation. In Hezekiah’s day, the enemy sought to occupy Gihon – you might say, take over the water supply that was so needed – but Hezekiah brought it under the ground and took it in on the west side into the city of David.

Even in a day of decline, in the last days, the Spirit is still here, He is still available and He has not changed. The Spirit is a divine Person; “bring him down to Gihon” – it speaks of an area where the Spirit operates – “and let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel; and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, Long live king Solomon!”. When we come to verse 38, we find that is what they do; “Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down”. In the Song of Songs, it speaks about those who surround the couch of Solomon (Song of Songs 3:7). These are persons who know and appreciate the greatness of Christ, they appreciate the greatness of who He is. We sang that in Hymn 328,

‘God ever blest! we bow the knee’.

These are persons who guard the rights of Christ. How necessary they are. Our affections are engaged with the true Solomon, and there are persons who can be relied on; they “went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon”. The priest took the horn of oil out of the tabernacle. He was told to anoint Solomon, he was not told where to get the oil, but he got it from the tabernacle. The tabernacle, I think in the setting here, would speak of the assembly, the assembly’s appreciation of Christ. Think of God’s appreciation of Christ; Christ is God’s anointed. The assembly is completely committed to that beloved Man, that glorious Man. The assembly is not engaged with anyone else; the assembly is fully occupied and engaged with Christ. That is a wonderful matter.

This horn of oil was taken out of the tabernacle. In the Davidic system, there are three horns spoken of, in connection with Hannah, David and Samuel. They speak of individual power and appreciation. I suppose Hannah’s speaks of priestly power in prayer, and Samuel’s would speak of the power of the prophetic word, while the psalm speaks about how David’s horn budded (Ps.132:17); it speaks of what is kingly. These in a sense are individual, but when we come to what is spoken of here, it represents what is collective. The horn of oil was brought out of the tabernacle. So that the assembly is completely committed to this Man; the assembly is completely committed to Christ. You can see that the priest “took the horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet”. What an answer. There were those who had gone away with Adonijah, but you see that the rebellion melted away. How does it melt away? Because we are occupied in our hearts and in our affections with Christ to the exclusion of everyone else and everything else. What an answer that is. They blew the trumpet; it drew attention to God’s anointed. For us, it draws attention to the One that the assembly is completely committed to.

If the assembly is committed to the Lord Jesus, that leaves a challenge in my heart: how committed am I to Him? The trumpet would draw attention to Christ; it would set us in movement, it would set our hearts in movement in relation to Christ. I think it was said during our reading last Lord’s day that David captures the heart. Our hearts surrender to Christ. David built the Millo inward, while Solomon is enough to satisfy the heart. That is what we sang,

‘Be Thou the object bright and fair

To fill and satisfy the heart’.

We will soon meet the Lord in the air. Every believer who has received the Spirit will hear that call; but the trumpet is sounding now, beloved. We are in critical times. They have always been critical times. It has been said about John’s gospel that it is the gospel of crises; but the Lord is wonderful, is He not? He is wonderful in the way He moves throughout John’s gospel, indeed in all the gospels, but in John’s gospel He proceeds with what is normal, and what is normal is to be engaged with Christ, as we have here, “Long live king Solomon!”. Solomon speaks of Christ glorified, he speaks of Christ where He is. What a One to engage our hearts, beloved brethren. Dear young ones, may He engage your hearts more and more. May it be that each one of us has heard that call in the gospel, in the glad tidings, and answered to it. May each one here be ready, and have the hope of His coming before us, but may each one of us be here now as those who have Christ occupying our hearts, filling our hearts. He is to be everything to us.

May we be helped each one of us in it, for His name’s sake.

Address at Calgary

30 June 2017

B.W. Lovie

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