Lars Lund – Trumpets and Harmony – Rochedale I, Queensland, Australia Convention – 2008

Like to read some verses from Numbers 10, “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying, ‘[2] Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. [3] And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. [4] And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee. [5]When ye blow an alarm the first time, then lie on the east parts shall go forward. [6]When ye blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey; they shall blow an alarm for their journey. [7] But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm.'” Moses was asked to make these two trumpets so he could send a message to the camps in Israel so everyone would be able to understand what was going to happen. These two trumpets could be used as an example of two true messages that gives a message that is in harmony. I am sure when they would make two trumpets, they would also see if they were in harmony. It would not be a live song if they were out of harmony.

In so many things, God has ordained that there should be two witnesses to things and that those witnesses should be in harmony. If there is a disharmony, that message is not true. We are thankful for that clear sound that we can hear from the trumpet of God that we can so clearly understand. When the trumpet is clean on the inside, it will be a clear sound. That is one thing we can be concerned about our own lives so we can have a clear message from God and that we should be clean inside.

There was a time that Paul could not find his companion, we read about that in II Corinthians 2 that he did not find his companion and he had a good opening for a mission. He could not have the mission because he could not find his companion. We read in the twelfth chapter, “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I could not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.” He had an opening for a mission but he wanted two witnesses. We are glad that God has ordained it so and Jesus had established it so that He sent His message out with two messages and that their message can be in harmony. In this situation when Paul did not find his brother and he just gave up bringing that message right then. Maybe he could come back later and have his companion with him and they could bring a convincing message.

We read different ways they could sound these trumpets so the camp of Israel could have a clear message. We read in Numbers 10, “And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” Then it also says, “But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm.” We are glad that is what has called us together here, it is the mild voice of God, that has called us to come together to hear the message God has for us that will be a help for us in coming days. There was a time when it was needed to go alone in verses 5, “When ye blow an alarm the first time, then lie on the east parts shall go forward.” 9, “And 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 the Lord your God and ye shall be saved from your enemies.” That was the need to blow the alarm. When Israel was traveling through the desert, they had a cruel enemy who had the habit of coming in from behind and attacking those who were dragging behind and not following closely to the others and they were often taken by the enemy. A really good reason to blow an alarm is it tells everyone it is time to follow on and closely, time to go on and follow the presence of God. Once the clouds were over the camp of Israel proved to them that God’s presence was with them. When that cloud lifted up, they would sound this alarm so that they could get on their journey and if there was enemies they could take care of them. They had to go on when the alarm was sounded so the presence of God with them.

We read in read in Ezekiel 33 about the watchman. He was the one who should blow the trumpet when there was a danger came into the city. We read a very serious message here for the watchman, the responsibility he has, if the watchman blows the trumpet and warns the people. Maybe there would be some who would not hear the message and that would be their own responsibility. If the watchman saw the enemy and did not blow the trumpet, it was then the watchman’s responsibility. And if there was any that lost their lives because of that is was the watchman’s responsibility. So the watchman really had great responsibility. And that is why you have some warning messages from this platform and it is our responsibility and we should be aware to listen to those messages and do what the Lord tells us to do.

When we think of getting two trumpets in tune in true harmony we know that is very important. We are so glad when we can hear the many messages and testimonies that we hear in this tent and that all these things are in harmony. Like us playing together and each one has a song to play, their experiences to tell about and there is a wonderful harmony in it. We are so thankful for that harmony in God’s family that stretches all over the world. When we have traveled long distance to all over the world and meet God’s people we find the same harmony and the same joy.

It says in Hebrews 5 that we should have senses exercised to discern both good and evil. It is very important for God’s people to be able to discern both good and evil. Part of that is to be able discern when there is harmony and disharmony. I do not know if there is a theory when there is a harmony or a disharmony. It is something people have a feel for. May be we have a feel for harmony when we hear the messages and the blend together in harmony and we have a sense for it. We are thankful we can hear that harmony from heaven that is so convincing of all of us.

There were two of our brothers that were preaching the gospel in Russia some years ago. Their teacher started coming and listened to their message and one of the brothers felt quiet embarrassed speaking to their teacher with the minimum of Russian that they had. One day, he said to his teacher, “It must be difficult for you to listen to all these strange sounds.” She said, “I do not hear strange sounds. I hear the voice of God.” That was very nice and that is what she heard. If we just hear the voice of God and His message, it does not matter if it is a little bit different.

There is a lot of harmony in the gospel that Jesus taught. I often think of two tones are in the gospel and there are some very serious things we could point out. There are some very inspiring and encouraging things we could point out. These two go together and blend in to a wonderful harmony. There are many inspiring things we can read in Matthew 5 – 7. When Jesus spoke about the kingdom of Heaven and about all the blessed – Blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers and so on – it is very inspiring. We could be one of them if we could receive that message of peace. We have an invitation that Jesus gave in Matthew 7, “Come unto Me all that are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” A wonderful message. There are so many things that encourage us to just follow God’s will and listen to the message of Jesus and do what He tells us. Then there are other things that are a warning for us, what we read for example in Matthew 7, “Not all that sayeth unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but ye that do the will of My Father which is in Heaven.’” There are many verses that tell us and warn us that if we do certain things we will be outside the kingdom of God. It is sad to see that there are many people that are in this world that will not react to the positive things in the Gospel or to the more serious warnings in the Gospel. Jesus said at one time in Matthew 11:16-17, “But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows and saying, ‘We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented.’” No sign of reaction from those people, no matter what side of the Gospel Jesus pointed out to them. We are glad we are here because we have had a reaction to the Gospel. We want to follow the teachings of the Gospel and we want to be part of that message.

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees about their thoughts about law and mercy. He said to them in Matthew 23:23, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Judgement, mercy, and faith are all part of the gospel. They all should blend together in a correct harmony. We would like to learn to have the right measure of mercy and the law. God has a law for us to follow, the law of love, the law of following the teaching of Jesus. We would like to balance these things in the right way so that we can have the blessings of God.

Sometimes, we read they just blow with one trumpet in the fourth verse, “And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee.” When one trumpet was sounded, some would know that message is for us and they would come and get that message. That is something we hear very much at a convention, a message we could hear for our guidance so that we would know what we should do to be in the will of God. We read in Acts 13, “As gathered together and it says they ministered to the Lord and fasted. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” In that meeting, there were some that heard the special message for them and they accepted it and they followed the guidance of that message. We can be gathered here with many questions in our heart about our future and what we should choose, where we should go, what direction we should take and many things we can have questions about and we are glad the spirit of God can tell us what to do that would bring us in to the limits of the will of God. We should always like to have His guidance in our life.

I thought about different things we read about in I Corinthians 12 speaks about harmony, “In the body and in the Church and the right balance in things is so important.” In the first chapter, Paul speaks about the body and the balance in the body and we must say, it is a wonderful balance in our body. There are many things going on in our body that we do not know much about. Doctors try and understand more and more, it just works because the balance is right. I Corinthians 12:22, “Nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.” I am often glad for that verse about the feeble members, they are so necessary. We feel that very much when something is wrong in our body, and we go to the doctor and we want to find out what causes this problem, and may be he will tell us something about our body we have not even heard about before. May be a little member is not working any more like it should and we need to do something about it. We are glad it is also the same in the church, there are members that are feeble but they are just as necessary as the others. Some feeble people may think my testimony will not mean much to the others, but they are just as important as the others. There is a wonderful unity in the church when everyone has a part. We always feel there is something lacking if all do not take part in the Sunday morning meeting. We are just so happy when everyone has a message and it blends in together and is in harmony with everything.

In chapter 11:21, Paul said about the way they came together to the Lord’s supper, “For in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry and another is drunken.” And he criticized them for that. I see that as some would take what they enjoyed the most and leave the other thing a side. That can be so when we listen to the message of God that there would be things we enjoy hearing and there would be other things are not so appealing to us and may not be appealing to our human nature. We could have a tendency to leave that a side and it is something that is important for the harmony.

We also read that in the church we should get rid of the old leaven. That is mentioned in chapter 5:7-8, “Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” That would make for a wonderful harmony we would enjoy together. We are so thankful we are freed from the old leaven and it is seldom we hear anything from the old leaven in the meetings, and things that do not blend together. It can be felt by everyone if things are said that do not blend together. There was a convention held in Europe one time, there was a stranger that came in and he wanted to give his testimony. He stood up and spoke with a loud voice and he had a long message and there was a little boy laying on the chair that was not listening, playing with his toys and he heard the sound of that man and he sat up and said to his parents that he was not one of our friends. He could feel the disharmony in his message. We are thankful that we can feel by the spirit, when there is not harmony in the meeting and with others. Some times it is very hard to tell a stranger that they are not in harmony with the others and you can kind of feel it. We are very grateful that God has given us the ability that we can tell when there is a harmony and when there is no harmony.

In I Corinthians 14:40, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” That is sort of the key words for our meetings in the home, and meetings like this that all things be done decently and in order. We are thankful we can experience that things are done decently and in order. We know that demands something of each one that comes to the meeting and it demands a lot of the people who own the home we meet in. That all is done decently and in order and there would be nothing that would disturb the peace and harmony in the meeting.

In chapter 13, we have heard about it all ready about all the wonderful gifts we could have but if there is no charity, it is worth nothing. It is really the love of God that is so important that will make everything work the right way. I may like to tell you about a lady in Denmark who was found several years ago and her name was Christiana. She was seeking all her life to find the faith she read about in the Bible. She went to the Lutheran church all her life, it is not very common for them to read the Bible, and they give out magazines and read them. Those that want more from the church go to a mission home and find help and more reading there. Christiana was one who always went to these places and she was reading a lot in her Bible and she was taken up with Matthew 10. She read how Jesus sent out His apostles and she wondered if she would ever meet any one that was going out like that she read about. Sometimes when she would listen to a really good preacher, she would think that man has more understanding than the others. So after the meeting, she went up to this man and asked him if there was any that would bring the Gospel the same simple way as she read about in Matthew 10. He said to her that it was only for that century and that will never happen again and never now. That is what Christiana heard but she did not believe that. She continued to read and ask and another good preacher spoke and she asked him and got the same answers. After some time, two brothers came to that town and rented a room. Christiana had a lady who came in and cleaned her house as she had a huge operation and she could not do it herself. But after some time, she was able to be a little stronger and she still kept the house cleaner. This lady had two spare rooms she rented out and these two brother workers came and asked if they could rent the room and she accepted them in. She asked them what they were doing. They said they were bringing the gospel the same way you read about in the New Testament. She went straight over to Christiana and told her about these two men who were preaching the gospel just like Jesus did. So they sat down together and read Matthew 10 and she said, “Does this sound like the way these two are going out and preaching?” She said, “I can not say but it sounds like it.” There was a lot of interest in the mission and those two ladies made their choice and continued on for many years and both have gone in to eternity now. We enjoyed the fellowship of Christiana and the message she received that she had been looking for so long.

What we say and what we do must always be in harmony. It is important to remember this in all our ways in life, what we say is corresponding with what we do. Reading in I Corinthians 12:3, “Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, we wonder how that can be understood, but there is a little story in Judges 12 that helps me understand that. I feel God can hear something when we really mean it. In Judges 12, we read of some that were put to the language test and see if what they said they meant. If I told you that I grew up in Queensland that none of you would believe me, because of the way I speak English. In this case, there was a war. The Gileadities called for help and it was refused. So the Gileadities fought the Ephraimites and won the battle. There were some that escaped and they were fugitives, and they tried to escape over the brook. But to prove they were not a Ephraimite they had to say, “Sibboleth.” If they could not pronounce it correctly, they were slain, and there was 42,000 slain. They were slain just because they could not say the word in the right way, and that told them that they were Ephraimites. I think we can say the same with saying that Jesus is the Lord. I think that there would be disharmony or an accent in the message if Jesus is not our Lord. There would be a lot of people that would try and tell God that Jesus is the Lord but not really believe and it is not true and God will soon find that out.

I Corinthians 14:4, “He that speakest in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.” We are glad when we can come together and edify the church. Verse 19, “Yet in the church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice, I might teach others also, that ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.” We are thankful for those that can come to the church and have a message from God. That is what it means to prophesy to be able to speak of God’s way, God’s will, and what God has spoken to us. We are so thankful that we can all help each other to bring such a message.

What the Bible says and what we do should also be in harmony. We would like to be searching ourselves in everything we do so that we would be in harmony with the Bible and the will of God. We read in II Kings 22 of a very young king that did what was right in the sight of God. Josiah was only eight years old when he started to reign and he reigned many years. One would understand that in the early days, there would be some older ones that would have guided him in the early days. We can read in the book of Chronicles that when he was sixteen, he started to seek the presence of God. When he was twenty-six years old, he decided to start and clean the temple, the inside of the temple had been neglected for many years, the temple was falling a part and there was a lot of uncleanness that had come into the temple. They decided to clean it out and establish the sacrifices before God again. He got good people to help him and they started to clean out the house of God. And Hilkiah found the book of the law and took it to Shaphan and he read it to the king. That was God’s book that gave them instructions on how they could serve God. There were not many copies of that book and so they took care of that book and did not neglect it. We are glad the Bible has been so well kept over the centuries and there are a lot of copies of the Bible and we can say, “It will never disappear.” There are a lot of people that can read that book and not be very concerned about doing what is mentioned in this book. Sometimes we are drawn to the attention that there are many things in this book that we have not done. It is time that we do more that is written in this book so we can have the blessings of God. This king, he received the message of God, because he was willing to reestablish the service in the temple according the book of God.

In I Corinthians 14:26, “How is it then, brethren? When ye come together, every one of you hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.” It is good when we realise we all have a responsibility to make these things happen. This message would make us understand there should be harmony in the church. It is sad when you come into a church and you fear to come and talk with the people that are there. It is good when we can go in to a church without fear and feel the harmony and enjoy the fellowship there. It is good when young workers can come to the church, and visit homes among the children of God and do it without fear and knowing they would not bring them in to something they should not have been bought into. We are glad when we can see that harmony in a church and in a home.

I had a companion once that was trying to learn to play the flute. He played it a lot and went and got some lessons with a teacher. He played a lot and was not learning very much and he was very annoying to me. I would go and play the piano and he would come and play the flute and really only make some bad noises. It was testing my spirit. But he was very constant and he played for many hours. I was going to tell him that he would never be able to play it well. But he would not give up and after many, many hours, he mastered it. We could sit at the piano and play nice tunes together. It shows us that constancy is a very good point. Just do not give up. Some times we could feel we could do better and more to help the harmony in the church, but just do not give up, as every one is needed in the church to help the fellowship. Just never give up and remember we all have a wonderful place to fill in God’s Family.