Make thee two trumpets of silver; of beaten work shalt thou make them: and thou shalt use them for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps.
And when they shall blow with them, all the congregation shall gather themselves unto thee at the door of the tent of meeting.
And if they blow but one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee.
And when ye blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the east side shall take their journey.
And when ye blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys.
But when the assembly is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm.
And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; and they shall be to you for a statute for ever throughout your generations.
And when ye go to war in your land against the adversary that oppresseth you, then ye shall sound an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.
Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow the trumpets over your burnt-offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace-offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God.
But the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down:)
or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach:
because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved:
for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon Him:
for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!
Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they give not a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
For if the trumpet give an uncertain voice, who shall prepare himself for war?
I want to say a very simple word—a word which, to many of you, may sound very elementary—but based upon these two silver trumpets about which we have read in the book of Numbers.
In the first place, I want to speak to Christians; and then a word to many who may not claim to be such. First of all, then, a word to Christians about the trumpets and their meaning for us.
I think it is perfectly clear, as we bring together the New Testament passages and those words in the Old Testament, that the Lord has something to say, and He wants His people to know what He has to say. The Lord has given voice, and is giving voice, to His mind.
Well, that, of course, is the first and very simple meaning of a trumpet: it gives voice. There is a great deal about trumpets in the Bible. Indeed, the word occurs some hundred times in the Bible, and that is impressive, because it means that God has something to say, to announce, to make known by means of His Word.
God is a speaking God, Who makes His mind known to people. That is where we begin.
This has a very definite and immediate application to those of us who are the Lord’s people and who are called to be His witnesses. Let us look at the two trumpets.
First of all, we know the material of which they were made: they were made of silver. You Christian people know very well, as part of your very kindergarten Bible knowledge, that in the Word of God, in Old Testament symbolism, silver is a type or symbol of redemption.
I am not going to gather up all the proofs that this is so, but we know that it is so. Silver speaks to us of redemption. Therefore, the trumpets are the means of proclaiming redemption, making known the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
But it also says that no one can be a trumpet who is not redeemed. They are the embodiment of that very truth: redemption. Only redeemed people can speak for God. Only redeemed people can voice the mind of God.
That, of course, is very elementary, but it is not universally recognised or acknowledged. Before we can speak or proclaim the message of redemption, we have got to have redemption in the very constitution of our being. We have got to know redemption in life, in experience. We have got to be redeemed.
Let me say—and all versions do not make this clear, but mine does, and mine is the right one—“of beaten work shalt thou make them.”
Now, you know what that means, simply. The thing is hammered out. The thing is wrought into the very heart. It means that there is a very real, deep, and thoroughgoing experience in the matter of which we have to speak.
The Lord does not just commit to us something to say. The Lord works the thing into us before He allows us to speak, if we are really going to be His messengers. He takes pains to see that the pattern of the thing is hammered into our very being.
Apart from knowing what redemption means in a deep way—and that sometimes does mean there is a good deal of cutting into us by the hammer and chisel—we cannot speak with reality. It is beaten work; it is wrought work. It is something very real.
Dear friends, these things, according to God’s mind, are to characterise everyone who would be a messenger of God to others. The thing has got to be wrought into you.
May I say that, while it is not conveyed here, this matter is a continuous process. We shall only really express God, convey God, be able to speak of God and for God, and be able to give to others God’s thought and God’s mind, in so far as the thing is wrought into us.
If you have only got a little bit, and you have only let the Lord take you so far, that is just the measure of your witness, of your testimony, and of your real ability to convey what God wants conveyed. Let God do this thing in us very thoroughly.
I do feel that, simple as it is and elementary as it is, it is a very important thing to say.
Maybe there are those here tonight who have really come to the Lord, who could say that they are saved. They have given their hearts to the Lord; they have let the Lord into their hearts, however you might put it. There is that initial transaction with the Lord by which you have come to be His.
That has taken place, but you have only gone just so far. There are still things which have not come into the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption has only gone so far; it has not touched some things in your life.
You still have some associations. You still have some pleasures, some interests. You still have some idols of some kind. You are Christians, yes, but you have only gone just so far; and now you have not gone any farther, and you are not going any farther. You are just stuck.
All that great fullness that God has for you is suspended because, well, you have gone so far. You are the Lord’s, but you are not letting the Lord work the fullness of redemption into your life.
Redemption is a very comprehensive thing. Redemption does not begin and end with our just being saved from judgment and hell, being assured of heaven, having forgiveness of our sins, and becoming the Lord’s. Oh, that is a mere fragment—a large fragment, an important and valuable fragment—but after all, in the light of all the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, it is only a very little thing.
There is so much more. This redemption has got to apply to and touch everything, until we are wholly on the ground of redemption. Everything is on that ground.
Take an illustration from the life of Israel. You remember when they were redeemed by God from their bondage in Egypt. The Lord so worked, so thoroughly worked, so drastically worked, that He was not going to have, as it is put, “an hoof left behind in Egypt.”
He applied this matter of redemption to the last hoof of the last animal that they had. His idea was thoroughgoing redemption, with nothing left outside. It covered all that they were and all that they had.
It was because that generation of Israelites did not allow the principle to be wrought into them—the principle which God had established in that objective way—that they did not come into the full purpose of redemption and occupy the great land of promise.
Now, that is all illustration. It was true in history, but it illustrates the spiritual life: that this thing has got to be wrought—beaten work—wrought into us thoroughly and exhaustively, if we are going to come into all the good of redemption.
So that, while we can in a certain sense say, “I am redeemed,” we have got to be able to say, “I am continually being redeemed,” going on in redemption, applying it everywhere.
Now, the point is this: only in so far as the thing is wrought into us, as the Lord’s people, have we real testimony. You cannot go in testimony, speaking to others, beyond that which is true in your own being. So it is of beaten work; it is wrought in us.
Then, simply again, the trumpets are two—two trumpets of silver. What is the meaning of that? Why two?
Again, many of you Bible students can answer the question as well as I can. Therefore, let us note this: in the Bible, a legal position existed. The evidence of one person was never accepted.
It necessitated, required, and demanded the corroboration of a second reliable witness before anything was accepted. The law said, “In the mouth of two witnesses every word shall be established.”
For our purpose this evening, that means this: our testimony, our witness, has to be confirmed, established, and corroborated. That is, it has to be something which has adequate evidence for it.
Two is the number, always, of adequate witness or adequate testimony. It is the irreducible minimum of God. As many more as unite, but no less than two. God requires that the thing is substantiated, borne out, and stands upon this double basis.
Now, you will call to mind, Bible students, other things: the silver sockets under the boards of the tabernacle, for instance—two of them for every board. So it is. God will have everything established, confirmed, ratified, and sure; no question about it whatsoever.
If you and I are going to convey, in testimony or ministry, anything of God, it has got to be something that is absolutely sure, absolutely true—no theory, no guesswork, no “I think,” no “My idea is so-and-so,” but, “I know. I know.”
This thing is something altogether beyond question with me. You see, that is taken up by the Apostle Paul in the passage we read about the trumpet not giving an uncertain sound. If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for battle?
If the instrument is indefinite, who knows what it is all about? I am rather afraid that a good deal is like that. People really do not know what it is all about. People are not quite sure about these Christians, where they are. They are not quite sure that the Christians themselves know where they are.
There is far too much indefiniteness and uncertainty about many Christians. The point that I want to make, dear friends, is that, as the Lord’s people and as the Lord’s witnesses, we have got to be very positive and very sure.
We have got to be of that kind that no one is left in any doubt about this matter at all. It is confirmed; it is established; and they know that we know what we are talking about. How necessary that is, is it not, in the Christian life?
There should be nothing weak, uncertain, or indefinite about us. It should all be a confirmed and established matter. So it is two: it is a testimony; it is confirmed.
Now, the purpose of these trumpets: the calling of an assembly. We read that this is something that brings the Lord’s people together, that establishes the relatedness, the oneness, the fellowship, and the solidarity of the Lord’s people.
This is a unifying thing. The influence and effect of our lives must not be to scatter, disintegrate, or divide. It must be unifying in Christ. It is a great ministry to bring the Lord’s people together.
I can hear in this trumpet sounding: “Gather My people together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. Gather them together.”
Let us be careful that the influence of our life and our ministry is not the opposite. It should be our consolidation, our strengthening of relationships, our bringing together. Change the metaphor to that of healing obedience: gather the people together.
Again, the trumpets concerned the ordering of the life and movement of the Lord’s people. There is a very great need indeed for that kind of ministry—the ministry that helps people to know which way to go, what they ought to do, and gives them real direction for their lives.
It makes known to them what the purpose of God is and what the end of God is. Now, it is very interesting to notice that the two silver trumpets come next to the cloud—the Shekinah cloud—which came to rest upon the tabernacle.
These things go together. The pillar of cloud over the tabernacle was given for the guidance of the people of God. The guidance that was given was always, when the people were rightly adjusted to the Lord, onward and nearer and nearer to God’s great end.
The type of the land—the land of promise, with all its spiritual fullness, wealth, and beauty—that was God’s object. We, as Christians, know so well that the eternal purpose of God is right on to the fullness of Christ.
The trumpet purpose proclaimed, first of all, purpose—purpose, great purpose. We cannot sound that note too strongly or too clearly.
We are not just called to be Christians, to escape judgment and somehow get to heaven. We are called with a great divine purpose, formulated before this world was.
The Lord’s people need to know. They need to know; they need to have it made known to them that there is a great purpose governing their being called into the fellowship of God’s Son.
They need to be told not only of the purpose, but of God’s way of realising it. They need that, lest they wander and stray indefinitely, without assurance of where they are, what it all means, what it is all about, and what it is all unto.
Oh, for a ministry coming through you and through me which will deliver these multitudes of the Lord’s people from both their ignorance and their uncertainty.
You may not know it, but they are all over the world like that. They really do not know where they are, many of them. They do not know what it is all about. They know they have been saved; beyond that, they know little more. They know that they are going to heaven one day. That is all they have got.
But oh, the greatness, the purpose, and the object—the goal to which we have been called in Christ. The trumpets were to govern the Lord’s people in relation to the ultimate fullness that God had for them.
Other purposes, as we have seen, were for war: the sounding of the trumpets for war. I am sure that this note does not need to be made very clear. I am sure that we really are in a warfare.
You do not need to be reminded of it; you know it all too well. But sometimes we are a little surprised, are we not, that there is so much conflict? Sometimes we wonder about all this conflict, where it is all leading. Things have not gone wrong, but there is so much conflict.
Do not make any mistake about it: we are in a battle which will go on to the end, and we need to be rallied continually in this manner by the voice of the trumpet.
Before I pass to others, there is the distinctiveness and certainty of our testimony. There is a very real need for distinctiveness in our testimony.
I am not now speaking about your testimony to salvation, or to Christ as Saviour. The Lord’s people are so scattered and so uncertain. There is not the cohesion of a certain, definite knowledge of the Lord—a distinctive testimony in the midst of the Lord’s people.
I think you realise, as you take the world as a whole, and Christianity in this world, that there are so many voices, as Paul says. There are so many voices in the world, and not one of them is without signification.
It does seem that the band has got out of tune a bit. Maybe all are playing their own little tune, but there is not very much harmony about it, is there? We are not all saying the same thing and the one thing—not all of one mind, one spirit, and one heart.
There is a good deal of discord and conflict, grating on the nerves. The Lord would have a clear and distinct testimony in the midst of His people.
Again, the world needs this. The world needs that the church will speak with one voice, speak with authority, know where it is, and know what God wants. There should be no diffuseness, and certainly no contradiction.
Oh, it is necessary that this should characterise us as the Lord’s people. Let us speak without compromising, and certainly without surrendering anything that is essential. Let us always seek to find the point where we are absolutely one, with an affirmative note.
Well, so much to the Christians about the two silver trumpets. I told you it was going to be very elementary. It is almost like the first class, is it not, in Christian service? But there it is.
I want to get over to the others—some who may be here tonight, those who cannot be included, and would not include themselves, amongst the Lord’s people; those who do not really know what it means to be the Lord’s in a living way.
You see, some of those things Paul said about the sounding of the trumpet applied to such people. That great passage in Romans 10 speaks about not being able to hear unless someone sounded the trumpet—somebody told them—and certainly not being able to believe if they had not heard.
Maybe some of you here tonight are in that position where you are not yet what are called believers in that New Testament sense: that you belong to the Lord’s people. The trumpet has something to say to you.
Paul says, about this sounding forth of the gospel, “Their sound went into all the earth.” Now, that is something for the whole world, and that is something for you. There is a message for you.
It is an exceedingly solemn fact. Think profoundly about it: exceedingly solemn. The trumpet is sounding; that is, God is speaking. God is in the world making known His mind for you—for all men.
God is not silent. God has not stopped speaking. He is speaking very loudly today, and very widely. Some are wondering whether God is not speaking as He is today for the last time.
We believe that the Lord Jesus is coming back. We believe that His coming is drawing near. We believe that the end of this dispensation may be almost upon us.
We in this country are not alive and sensitive to this as they are in some places. I was saying—I think it was today; the days seem so long, I am not sure whether it was today or yesterday—what I discovered on the other side of America only a week or two ago.
There, right up and down that west side of the United States, there were large numbers of houses with notices up: “For Sale.” I went round the neighbourhood, seeing all these boards up, and I asked my friends with whom I was staying, “Why are there such large numbers of people wanting to leave their houses?”
“Oh,” he said, “you know, everybody over here is living as on the edge of a volcano. They are scared for their lives of these atomic bombs that they believe are coming at any time. They are wanting to get right away from populated areas. They think they are safer out in the desert, anywhere.”
They are just living like that, and you feel the tension. You know it is so, and everybody speaks about it. I do not know that it is unjustified to some measure. They know over there all about it.
I went out into the city of Los Angeles in a car one day, and I found my eyes beginning to get so painful that I could hardly keep them open, and my throat becoming so dry that I could not understand it. It created difficulty in speaking.
I explained this to my friend. He said, “You know, they exploded an atomic bomb yesterday—blowing up here.” Just a little taste, a little taste.
Oh no, I am not a scaremonger. I am not trying to scare you into anything. But we think we see the end is not far off, and men are fainting for fear. The Scripture says, “Men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world.”
That Scripture is verily being fulfilled, and it is said to be a sign of the last time. Well, maybe; we will leave it. But it might be.
Supposing time is getting short toward the end of this dispensation. People are getting nervous about it. Supposing it may not be a great sovereign thing of God, because it is sovereign? We cannot see any other explanation of what is happening in this great campaign, for instance.
The main speaker in this campaign there in Glasgow, here in London last year, himself says there is nothing to account for it in man. He is no great preacher; everybody who listens knows that. If you are looking for a wonderful sermon, you do not find it there. If you look for a great discourse on theology, you do not find it there.
It is the very simplest. You wonder how that can have the effect that it has. Certainly it is not beating the intellect, and really it is not beating the emotion. Everybody says, “No, this is not a great emotional thing.” God is sovereignly doing something, surely.
How widely it has spread. We have only heard this evening of everything talked about there in America, and a great number of people talking about it. They have heard the reports of what is going on.
Is God sounding the trumpet for the last time? Is He sovereignly letting it be known that redemption is in Christ Jesus for all men? I put it in the form of a question, but the question is permissible, allowable. It is a very solemn thing, is it not?
But you, dear friends, if you are not in Christ, are hearing the trumpet sound. You are hearing it announced that God has provided redemption for you in His Son, Jesus Christ.
You can never before God, time, or eternity say, “I never knew. I never heard. I never had a chance.” God has equally sovereignly, perhaps, brought you here as He has sovereignly ordained that it should be said.
That is something to think about. It is a very, very serious thing to have heard the gospel of the grace of God, to have been told of this wonderful redemption.
We put our hearts into it this evening when we say: believe it. Oh, sinner, believe it. Receive the glad news. It is true. ’Tis true. ’Tis true.
God is calling you. God is calling you. He is calling you to Himself. Just as those trumpets called the people to Moses, to gather together unto him, a greater than Moses is here: the Lord Jesus.
By the sounding forth of the message tonight, He is calling you to Himself. Jesus is tenderly, but loudly and definitely, calling today.
The word is, “Today, if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” It is a call now—a call of warning, a call of entreaty. It is a call of warning.
You have no power to say, “I will hear the trumpet tomorrow.” It may not blow tomorrow. You have not got control of the trumpet; God has.
God’s Holy Spirit is the breath by which the trumpet sounds. You cannot order the Holy Spirit to speak to you another time. He says, “Today, if ye shall hear His voice.” I guarantee nothing after today. I call today.
Yes, it is love; it is mercy; but it is solemn warning. There seem to be two tones mingling in this sound.
It is a joyful sound. It is a joyful sound. How blessed, how precious is the gospel sound. It is the gospel sound. Gospel means good news—good news.
The good news stands for this: God has, by His Son’s death, by His Son’s bearing of our sin and our judgment, provided redemption. That is good news for you, dear friend, for you. He has provided it. That is a joyful sound.
The psalmist speaks of the joyful sound, and they are blessed who hear the joyful sound. We are to hear the joyful sound, and yet, mingled with the joyful sound, there is a solemn sound.
I would speak of solemn festivities—solemn festivities—the mingling of joy and solemnity because of the tremendous issues that are involved.
You would not have me tell you that it is not a solemn and a very terrible thing to close your heart and your ears to God’s speaking. Everything is involved. Everything is involved.
I remember so well, some years—yes, many years—ago, I was visiting in a house with a friend. I came to that house that evening, and we got talking for half the evening.
He said, “Somehow or other, I got to come over here tonight. I have come right across from the other side of the city. Somehow, I felt I had to come over here tonight. I do not know why.”
We call such things a prompting. But there it is. So I said, “Oh well, probably as we talk on, we may discover why.”
I began to talk to him. It was not very long before we discovered the reason. God had some interest in that life.
“I have been brought here tonight,” he said. “I recognise that.” I said, “Do not just go away and think about it. Do not think too long. Arrive at a conclusion as quickly as you can—right away.”
I did not hear anything of him for a little while. Strange enough, I was in that same home some few weeks afterwards, and he arrived at the same time.
He looked a little sheepish when he found I was there again. At any rate, I was for business, so I said, “Well, what about that matter? You said you believed that God had brought you right across the city that night. What about it?”
“Oh,” he said, “yes, yes, I thought about it. Then I went to find someone about it and asked a minister, by the way—a minister whom I happened to know. He said, ‘Oh, do not you worry about those things. Do not you worry about those things. Do not become fanatical.’”
“Well,” I said, “oh, so it is this man or God? You said you believed that God had brought you and spoken to you and raised an issue; and then you allow man to contradict God and say it does not matter what God says.”
We got down to it again, and he came to it. He said, “I cannot get away from it. I believe, I believe that that is what God wants.”
We got right to the point, but he would not give in. He would not have that transaction. He went away again.
Some time before I saw him again, but the third time this thing happened, still he did not respond to God.
Then, some time afterwards, I happened to be right on the other side of the city. I was walking along a certain road, and I saw a man coming toward me on a cycle.
He got within recognition distance of me and saw me. He wheeled round on his cycle and went for dear life.
I heard later that that man had gone headlong into sin and lost all hope—down deep into a lost condition.
Do not run that risk. God speaks. God brings you here; the trumpet is sounding. It is a very, very big thing that is at stake: whether you respond, or whether you say, “Well, I will think about it,” or, “I must ask somebody about it and see what they say,” or make any other kind of procrastination.
No, no. The Lord says, “Today, if ye shall hear His voice.” While it is today, everything may hang upon that.
I am not trying to be emotional. I am not trying to be sensational. But I am saying that the trumpet sounds. The trumpet has sounded; you have heard it.
The Spirit of God is speaking to you, telling you tonight what God wants where you are concerned. He wants you for Himself, as one of His redeemed ones, in the enjoyment of that redemption.
It is for you to say, “Yes, I hear, and I respond. I answer the call.”
May God so influence you that you will do that. Shall we pray?