This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Revelation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 14, 1989.
This is chapter 6 in Joshua, and we will be reading the first 21 verses. Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel. No one was out and no one came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, see I have given Jericho into your hands with its sting and its valiant warriors.
You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also, Seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of Anne’s poems before you all. Then on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the trees shall blow the trumpets. And it shall be that when they make a long blast with the Anne’s poems, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great sound, and all of the city will fall down flat. and the people will go up in every man’s state of mind.
So Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of man’s horn before the ark of the Lord. Nun, he said to the people, go forward and march around the city and let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord. And it is so that when Joshua had spoken to the people, Seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets, ran firm before the Lord, went forward and blew the trumpets, and the eyes of the covenant of the Lord followed them. And the arms of men went before the priests, who blew, blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the eyes, while they continued to blow the trumpets. But Joshua commanded the people, saying, You shall not shout, nor lift your voice from hearing, nor lisp the food out of your mouth, Until the day I tell you, shout! Then you shall shout.”
So he had the arts of the Lord taken round the city, searching the plaza. Then they came into the church and sanctified in the kingdom. And a gospel arose early in the morning, and the priests took up the arts of the Lord. And the seven priests, carrying the seven trumpets, rang songs before the arts of the Lord went on continually and blew the trumpets. and armed men went before them and feared their change after the arc while they continued to blow the trumpet.
That’s the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did so for six days. Then it came about on the seventh day that they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in a manner seven times. Only on the last day they marched around the city seven times. And it came about at the seventh time, when the first flew the trumpet, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city.
The city shall be under the dam, if and all that is in it belongs to the Lord, and that they have the harlot and all who are richer in the house shall live, because he did the nothing good in these things. As for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make a cant of Israel a curse and bring trouble on us. All the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasures of the Lord.
So the people shall go, through the prophets, And it came about, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down black. So that the people went up into the city, as the men later said, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey to the edge of the sword. Then Revelation chapter 8, verses 1 and 2, and then he goes to the seventh seal, where there is silence in heaven for about a half hour. Seven trumpets were given to them to pray together.
In this day, Lord, your Word is accomplished, your Word is proclaimed, your people ascend unto here. Those who are yet outside this We are compelled, constrained by your Spirit, that we shall come up to the assembly and hear of the marvelous acts of our God. So it pleases you, Lord, to correct your own, to deprove them, and also to build them up with encouragement. Likewise, Lord, to convert and to convert those who are yet without faith. We thank you, our God, for the ministries of your word this way. We ask, Lord, that we might, by your mercy, have a world class in the spread of your word, as indeed the kingdom is established and seen to spread itself. And I pray now, God, that we then would all be willing to approach Him, knowing that it is Your Word that brings the victory.
I pray this in Christ’s name. Amen. We are looking now at Revelation 8-11, and we are looking specifically at this opening section, which places before us verses 2-5 of this eighth chapter, and specifically, most pointedly, the second verse. We are looking at the seven angels and seven trumpets. This is our second message on the seven angels and the seven trumpets. We have endeavored to establish for you something of the context.
We have given you an outline for the book of Revelation. and one that is not original with me, that has been used by many others, D. B. Warfield for one, William Henderson for another. Those two co-changed the book as I have endeavored to present it to you, at least in terms of its outline. So with the eighth chapter, we have come to a new section.
What we have endeavored to put before you is this, that each of these successive sections in the book of Revelation are actually pictures of the same period in time. Chapters 8-11, then parallel chapters 4-7. The same period of time is in view. And we might say, Chapters 1 through 3 have in mind the same period of time. In each instance, we have a new or different plan of action from a different perspective on the events that are there recorded. Well, the issue, of course, is this.
The period of time in view in each of these successive sections of the Book of Revelation is that period between Christ’s First Coming and His Second, more specifically from His Resurrection to our own. It is the period of the Church, the time of the Church. So, we have concluded from this that we have actually before John’s treatment of church history. Here is the story of the Church from that perspective, that unique perspective, granted John as he then delivers it to us.
Alright, so you know these points, we’ve established them already. And we have also underscored a point to be made then with respect to the progressions that we note within each of the sections. We have cautioned you with respect to the chronological development of each of the sections. You’re not so much to see things then progressing stage by stage, as seeing things as having something of an overlapping skeleton, so that as you move through the very next section, you are able to see again the entirety of that period viewed in various ways.
Now, I’ve given you the illustration of the succession of the churches. It’s not then that one church is giving way to another. As if one period of time is giving way to another, we are to see what is described with respect to each of those churches as corollary, as contemporary, as taking place simultaneously, overlapping dimensions of the same period of time. And that’s how we approach the seventh seal, as you recall. breaking of the seventh seal and the half-hour period in heaven in which there was silence is a view of the entirety of the period of the church age.
And in that period it is as if God were silent to the cries of his people, those who cry out to him for justice. But then he acts, and then he acts. Well, we’ve moved into the trumpets, and as we do, again, we have to be very careful about seeing these things sequentially, as if only after the silence the trumpet blasts are heard. We’ve suggested to you that, in one sense, the period in which you live is a period of silence. In another sense, the period in which you live is a period in which the trumpet blasts are being heard, are being reached.
So, it is as if, then, on the one hand, God was waiting to act, and will act. At the end, on the other hand, we are not to think of our God as inactive in our present time. In fact, he is very much active. And thus the seven prophets of the seven angels. How is God active, present? How is he at work in this period of time in which we live? All of the same. All right, well, we are therefore looking at the seven angels and the seven trumpets, and I know that some of this material will be repetition for some of you, which is your view, but I’m hoping to add new dimensions to what we’ve already sing about the angels and the prophets so as to fill it out and give you a fuller view of what is taking place here. The seven angels, first of all their nature and then their number.
As to their nature, we understand the angels in the light of a passage like Hebrews 1.14. You might recall that in that portion of Scripture, the writer to the Hebrews is speaking of that contrast that exists between the Son and the angel. The Son is exalted, but it is as if The angels are without glory. So in the fourteenth verse of that first chapter of Hebrews, you have these words concerning the angels.
Are they not all ministering spirits? Are they not all ministering spirits? The angels, then, are seen as spiritual ministers of God. Now, the word minister carries us even further, for as ministers the angels are not only bound to the service of God above in heaven, but they are bound to the service of God in the world on behalf of the Church.
But you’re able to move on to the second part of that fourteenth verse in Hebrews 1. Are they not all ministering spirits, emphasizing there ministering or minister, sent out to render ministry or service for the sake of those who inherit salvation? We have then these angelic beings bound not just to God in service to him, but bound also to the Church. Thus, when you turn to Revelation chapter 1 and the 20th verse, a passage that we have already pointed out, we have the seven stars in the right hand of the figure of Christ, the seven gold lampstands, the seven stars are the angels. of the seven churches, the seven lampstands, all the seven churches.
So the angels there are brought into relationship with the church and its ministry, and then you’ll note in chapters two and three, there is an angel in connection, brought into relationship to each of the churches in turn, right to the angel of the Church of Ephesus, etc., right through the angel of the Church of Samaria, etc., through the seven in line. In this, then, we see that the angelic beings are brought into relationship to that service rendered God in heaven and also from heaven. There is a connection, then, to a ministry in the earth. Ministers in heaven brought into relationship to ministers in the earth, a correlation between angelic beings as ministers and human beings as ministers in the world.
And that is why, you see, some have interpreted the angels in view with respect to the successive churches as being ministerial figures who are given the title of angel in that respective church. angels as spiritual ministers of God, angels as ministers bound to the Church, and through them then we are able to see a ministry that is working itself out in the earth that parallels such ministry as they render in heaven.
But we notice something further with respect to the angels. we back up to verse four of chapter one, and the salutation that is given. You might recall the Trinitarian formulation of that salutation. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness. The angels as spiritual beings emphasize spirit, spiritual beings even capitalize it and see that the angelic figures here are brought into relationship with a figure no less than the Holy Spirit. the Holy Spirit, his person and operation.
Now, if we run these things through in a line, we find the angels as spiritual ministers above. Those to whom are committed the ministry of God as it pertains specifically to the word, its discharge and operation, the Word being central, the angelic beings then carrying forth the Word. That’s the link between them and the ministers in the Church on earth. They too carry forth the Word. Specifically in view with regard to that fourth verse of the first chapter, the seven spirits are before his throne, the sevenfold understanding of the Spirit brought into relationship with the angels themselves. It is the person and the operation of the Holy Spirit that is in view, as it specifically focuses upon the ministry, the powerful operations of the Word of God.
That with respect to their nature, the seven angels. What about their number? There are plenty of mysteries in the book of Revelation, but there is no mystery here. Seven being the number of completion, fullness, completedness, if you will. And in the seven angels, then, as they appear for us in chapter 8 verse 2, we have in them a figure of the whole of the heavenly, of the whole of the divine activity through the angelic host for the sake of the Church, doing her history in the world, in the world. the wholeness and completeness of the heavenly divine activity through angelic posts for the sake of the Church during her ministry in the Word. The operations of the Word, not which comes fully from God. of his purposes.
Fourth, they have the angels, their nature, their number. Now let’s do the trumpets, and let’s reverse our considerations. Their number, then their nature. First of all, their number. Understand what is being said here. First of all, as we’ve already pointed out, realize that these trumpets are, obviously, plural. Plural, multiple. This is not the last trumpet. These are preliminary, prelude trumpets. These are trumpets that anticipate. This is not the last trump. These are preliminary, prelude trumpets, harbingers, plural, of the end. But not the end.
This again, with respect to what we have already said, then, before us now will be the entirety of the period in view once more, from Christ’s first coming to his second, from Christ’s resurrection to our own. That period of time in view, the history of the Church now, as we see that history, related to these trumpet blasts which are occurring. throughout the entirety of the period. Therefore, you see, it’s completely a mistake. It is incorrect to say that these trumpets are those that specifically pertain to the moment before the end of the period. Now, these trumpet flags have been observed, and will continue to be observed, throughout the entirety of the Church Age. God is not the The trumpet blasts sound, and the effect registers on the earth.
Okay. Once more, not only are we considering here the plurality of the trumpets, but the fact that they have a specific number seven once more, the number of completeness, completion, wholeness, and before us then in the seven trumpets is that figure of the complete enterprise of God.
With respect to the life of God’s people and circumstances in the earth, in that period of time between Christ’s resurrection and our home. That’s what makes all of this so relevant. I can’t emphasize this too much. You see, on the one hand, there are those who want to delay the things that we read of here to those few years that precede the end. There are others who wish to relegate the things we read here to the few years that transpired immediately after Christ’s crucifixion, as if all of the things in view here seemingly are exhausted by the events that took place in 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed and the Jews were dispersed. Judgment came upon the chosen people. Those views are incorrect.
See, this isn’t merely a picture of those things that will happen, and it is not a picture merely of those things that have happened. It is a picture of those things that are happening right now. Says, what’s going on? That’s why revelation is church history. In this church history, you get behind, get behind the bare facts. The mere externals of dates and figures. You see through it. Church history becomes transparent. Transparent.
The trumpets, their number, we understand that. What about their nature? Here we go. This is where we stripe out in new directions. The Old Testament background of the seven trumpets. Do you have any idea where we might turn? Why, we’ve already turned there, haven’t we?
Joshua chapter 6, the sixth chapter of Joshua, the repeated reference there to the seven trumpets. Now, that’s not the only passage in the Old Testament where the seven trumpets are mentioned. You can find them again mentioned in 1 Chronicles 15, verse 24. And you can find them mentioned again in Nehemiah 12, verse 41. You may want to look at those passages. The seven trumpets are again mentioned specifically in those texts. Now, we know what was going on in Joshua 6.
Do you know what’s going on in 1 Chronicles 15? Why, it’s the story of David’s ascent up into Jerusalem, dancing before the Ark, and the trumpets being blasted as the Ark of God comes up. Now, do you know what happens in Nehemiah chapter 12? It’s the story of the dedication of the wall, the tremendous picture of the tribes of the wall, the entourage of the leaders of Israel with the priests making their journey around the wall of the city as that wall becomes A medium through which then the people of God are inspired to praise God for His marvelous acts. And not only that, they then come to the house of God and they culminate their little trip around the city wall by a meeting there, and once more we are told about the seven trumpets being sounded.
So that’s Joshua 6, 1 Chronicles 15, Nehemiah 12, but notice the pattern. Notice the pattern in each of these instances. Who is it that is given the promise? You know who it was in Joshua 6. Is it any different in 1 Chronicles 15? Is it any different in Nehemiah 12? No, he is given the promise. All right, you picking up the pattern?
In each section, in each passage, the priests sound the trumpets. This brings before us, then, the official status of those to whom the trumpets are given, be it priests or angels, and draws before us the specific office qualifications of the figures in view. I do not hesitate to say to you that something is being laid before you here that places, it seems to me, the very nature of office before you, and the very nature of a specific office before you. As are the angels ordained, as are the priests ordained, so are the ministers of the word, the ministers of the gospel ordained. And there is that connection between heavenly administration of those to whom that word is committed and earthly administration in the Church.
The specific office and view as the word is committed to live. Ordination and office are being dumped on us presently. We are being told that they are not important anymore. It is being suggested to us that churches that emphasize office and ordination will suffer in the age in which we live. They will fall into sad decline because they have not recognized the multiple gifts of all the people of God.
Is the Spirit reserved for Moses alone? That was a question that was asked in Israel at one time. The Lord had an appropriate answer for that. But now, he says, if all who are ordained, everyone has office, everyone is qualified, We have entered into a new age of egalitarianism, and simply because someone has an ability, he is then entitled to exercise that ability for the Church in the name of God.
There is a seriousness with respect to office and ordination. That should impress itself upon us just by reading the eighth chapter of Revelation. Those with office are given the trumpets. Notice this also. In each instance, the seven trumpets herald a remarkable event of immense significance.
Specifically, enemies are overthrown and the people of God are established. There is a war on, there is a conflict in view, and the enemies are subdued and the people of God are exalted. Cities with walls, peoples with arms. In the New Testament, civical and spiritual places and heavenly dominions. Those spiritual forces holding in bondage the nations of the earth, so that they cannot and do not come to God. But in each instance, enemies overthrow the people of God, the people of His choice.
Note as well, in each of those instances in the Old Testament, Joshua, Chronicles, Nehemiah, the trumpets are an indication of the means of God’s victory. The seven trumpets are in fact not indicative of the voice of the people or the voice of the priests, but the voice of the Lord.
The trumpet blast is the voice of the Lord. It is the sound of his word which accomplishes his purpose. and thus the appropriateness of the trumpet and the trumpet blast. For as a trumpet blast is distinct from the human voice, so the voice of God is distinct from the human voice.
The voice of God comes then as a trumpet blast. Read Exodus 19, the story of the appearance of God at Sinai. We are told there not just of the thunder, but we are told as well of the voice of God coming as a trumpet blast. Note Revelation chapter 1 verse 10, again chapter 4 verse 1, where the voice of the Lord is brought into relationship to a trumpet blast.
Indeed, the trumpet and its blast is an appropriate figure, for as the trumpet is distinguished from the voice of a human, be it a priest, be it a minister of the gospel, so also is his word distinguished from any human word. It is not the voice of the people or the voice of the priests that accomplishes victory at Jericho. It is the voice of God, it is his word.
By that word he triumphs. How has David become the conqueror that he is? By his might? By his own strength? No. The trumpet blasts that come forth from the priests is indicative. And the voice of God, His Word, which has gained the victory, the people returning from Babylon, They gain advantage over the people of the land so that they can rebuild their city walls and worship in the temple once more. Is it by their words, by their devices, by the strength that they have?
No, it is by the Word of God. You want to read a psalm that talks to you about the power of the Word of God? Read Psalm 29. The power of the Word of God. by which God himself then triumphs. He, by a word, accomplishes his victory. All the energies of man, how they deceive themselves, even in the church, it will be by our devices. It will be by the things that we imagine and put in place, the operations that we conjure up. Not at all. It is by the word of God. Our triumph is by that means and no other means.
What is the weapon that we have been given? Is it not the sword of the Spirit, namely the Word of God? Is that Word not powerful, active, able to divide soul from spirit, to determine the inner intentions of men’s hearts? Is not Christ Himself in His return, whereby He brings all things to consummation, called the Word of God, the One who is figured as that One who has a sword coming out of His mouth? his purpose, by what means?
Your ingenious plans, your ingenious agenda, your program. Now, the Word, the Word of the Lord. Therefore, you see, I view now as the seven angels with the seven trumpets are placed in front of us. We have, correlating to that, the operations of the Spirit of God for our age, through what means? The meaning of the Word, through what agents? Not angels, ministers of God’s Word.
And that’s the seriousness. of the whole of the matter with which we deal, and the seriousness of the office that is before us. How dare the Church treat the office as it does? I don’t speak because I’m interested in how people treat me personally. That isn’t the issue. The issue is the Word of God and the office related to it. What has distressed me is that people sit by and they see that office of tax and they do nothing. They do nothing. And that has happened in this church. And it is a shame. You do not understand that which you have to do. The Church has lost confidence in the Word. She has lost her vision for her scope, The scope of the word’s operations, you see, as you hear the trumpet blasts, sounded forth the whole of the cremation process.
What minister is taught as he gets his training that that’s what’s going to happen when he stands up to deliver the Word? The whole of the world of creation will be convulsed as that Word goes forth and God accomplishes His purpose. How is it possible we’re all raised on Fred Rogers Sunday School?
That’s the level to which the Church has come. No one takes it any more seriously than that. Theological education, what has that become? It’s more like a week-end university. You don’t give grades in Sunday school, you don’t spunk anybody, and that’s what it’s become, also, in theological education. Nobody fails. So why should we question His call? It is a mockery! It is a mockery. In light of the worldwide creational upheaval that is brought about by the Word, how dare we restrict the influence and impact of the Word to the salvation, near to the salvation of individual souls? John never
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