[Peter Eddington] As this Holy Day pictures,
the Feast of Trumpets depicts the great return of Jesus Christ to establish the kingdom of
God on the earth. Jesus Christ is going to return to Jerusalem,
descend upon the Mount of Olives. And He is going to build a new city from where
He will rule. And the Bible reveals a sequence of earth-shaking
events announced by angels who sound a series of seven trumpet blasts. And as we know, it culminates in the seventh
angel sounding of the last trumpet to signify that “The kingdoms of this world have become
the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” This is the time when Jesus Christ will at
last return to bring peace and offer salvation to all. Of all the prophecies in the Bible, this is
perhaps the most exciting news of all for us. As Doug Knuckles mentioned this morning, it's
our day, in many ways, because it leads to our own resurrection, the spirit immortal
life. But here's an interesting way to think about
the meaning of this Holy Day. It's always a challenge, right, to come up
with something that you'll remember, that you'll, you know, think back on as a new twist
on the Day of Trumpets. You know, there's a seven-trumpet blast, we
take up an offering, the usual spiel every year, right? Well, here's an interesting way to have some
additional hope and meaning this day. That's something you may not have thought
of before and it's something that's relatively new. It's through the concept of moral injury. Moral injury is a fairly recent term used
to describe a crisis of conscience. Psychologists are coming to realize that soldiers
have faced this for centuries because of what they've done in wartime. Moral injury is the internal suffering resulting
from doing something against your moral code, against your conscience. In essence, it's a wound to your conscience. I think we know what causes moral injury. The soldiers, right? In a combat situation, the damage done to
a person's mind may result from following or issuing certain orders or from witnessing
something that is deeply offensive to the soldier's moral sense. Killing people. Some of the symptoms include feelings of guilt,
shame, meaningless… meaninglessness, I mean, from knowing that he or she has transgressed
their most deeply held personal beliefs and moral values, and therefore, the very core
sense of who and what they are. But it's not just something that affects soldiers,
psychologists are starting to realize. The average citizen can commit moral injury,
too. As we go through the sermon today, we're going
to see how that affects us and how it's going to affect the future of this world. So, in the message this afternoon, we're going
to look at the Feast of Trumpets from the concept of moral injury. And we'll be reminded how hope beyond the
sins and moral injuries of this world will be found. We will see the ultimate solution is not just
for soldiers in battle, but for all of us, for all of humanity affected by moral injury. And I've titled the message "Fixing Moral
Injury." "Fixing Moral Injury." I divided this message up into about four
sections to help keep it organized. Let me first tell you about Sergeant 1st Class
Marshall Powell. He was serving in Iraq for the US Army. He's now retired. But he tells a story of being diagnosed with
moral injury when he returned home. Let me read you some excerpts from a piece
written about him. The piece is titled "An Iraq Veteran Comes
to Terms with Moral Injury." It was written in Guideposts in April of 2017. And I'll read you some excerpts from the story
about him. It begins “Just after midnight on August
12, 2007, we heard a bomb go off." And later in the article, "Trucks pulled up,
loaded with casualties— Iraqi civilians, badly burned, blood everywhere. Some already dead. We had only 10 beds. There were at least three times that many
casualties. It was on me to decide who would be treated." Then later on in the article, "We tended to
the most urgent cases. Nearly an hour passed before I saw her. A tiny Iraqi girl lying on a blanket in the
hallway. She couldn't have been more than six years
old. Burned, covered in blood. And she was dying, and I could do nothing. She let out deep moans. And even in agony, she had a sweetness to
her face that reminded me of my niece…” And later on in the article, "'I have to ease
her suffering,' I told myself. 'This girl's really hurting.' So I got a syringe filled with morphine, several
doses. I set up an IV and pressed dose after dose
into it, enough to…" And then he doesn't complete the sentence. "She smiled at me. I smiled back and told her it was going to
be okay. Then she took her last breath and was gone. I killed that little girl.” You know, with the morphine overdose, on purpose. “I took her broken body to the morgue. Then I went to my office and sobbed. I tried to tell myself I'd done the right
thing, but I was besieged with doubt. This innocent child who should never have
been in the midst of a war zone… I'd stolen her last moments. As if I was God. Yes, there was absolutely nothing we could
have done to save her. She was suffering horribly. I knew what I was doing with that syringe
loaded with morphine. But wasn't 'do no harm' the first principle
of medicine? Wasn't my purpose to heal?" "Three months later, I was home in Hawaii. I struggled to get back to my old routine. But my work no longer had the same meaning… I was angry all the time. I felt so alone. One night, in my sleep, I saw her. The girl. Her face looking up at me, just before she
died. I woke up screaming. Night after night, the girl haunted my dreams,
until I was afraid to go to sleep. There was no one I could talk to. Others have been there…" Sorry, "Others hadn't been there. And they wouldn't understand." And then going through treatment, Sergeant
Powell was then diagnosed with what has come to be termed "moral injury," doing something
against your conscience. Now, of course, this type of story can be
repeated many times over by soldiers who have had similar feelings of guilt from what they
were required to do in times of war. This is just one example of many. But soldiers are not the only ones affected
by moral injury. Numerous psychological studies have now revealed
that most people, most people are capable of doing terrible things to one another, especially
under the influence of Satan who is the ruler of this world. In fact, some studies have concluded that
given the right circumstance, like starvation, or national catastrophe, or your family being
threatened, the psychologists say the average person is just six days away from committing
murder. That's the average in society, six days before
you do something horrible, given the right circumstance. Have you heard of Stanley Milgram? Some of you probably have heard of Stanley
Milgram. He was an American social psychologist who
lived from 1933 to 1984. He's best known for his controversial experiment
on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale University. Now Milgram was influenced by the events of
the Jewish Holocaust, especially the trial of Adolf Eichmann. So he developed some experiments around that
thought. And an article in American Psychologist in
1990 summed up Milgram's obedience experiments like this. "In Milgram's basic paradigm, a subject walks
into a laboratory believing that she or he is about to take part in a study of memory
and learning. After being assigned the role of a teacher,
the subject is asked to teach word associations to a fellow subject.” Of course, the fellow subject is actually
part of the experiment but, you know, you don't know this. “The teaching method, however, is unconventional—
administering increasingly higher electric shocks to the learner." "Once the presumed shock level reaches a certain
point, the subject is thrown into a conflict. On the one hand, the strapped learner demands
to be set free…” it's an actor, right, "demands to be set free, he appears to suffer
pain, and going all the way may pose a risk to his health. On the other hand, the experimenter, if asked,
insists that the experiment is not as unhealthy as it appears to be, and that the teacher
must go on. And in sharp contrast to the expectations
of professionals and laymen alike," Milgram says, "some 65% of all subjects continue to
administer shocks up to the very highest levels." So that was from American Psychologist in
1990, a piece called "A Cognitive Reinterpretation of Stanley Milgram's Observations on Obedience
to Authority." So, you see, what happens, whenever the student
made an error, the teacher was told to press a lever to shock the student. For each mistake, levels of shock would be
increased after a final dose of 450 volts, which was really only imaginary, right, for
which the teachers were told could be lethal. And at the teacher's side, a researcher in
a long white lab coat looking very official stands calmly and confidently with the air
of authority commanding the teacher to administer and increase the shocks every time, you know,
an error was made. But it was all a setup. In reality, both the student and the researcher
were paid, actors. Nobody was getting shocked. But what about the teachers, the subjects
of the experiment? All of the volunteer teachers shocked the
students repeatedly. And 65% went all the way to the lethal shock
level, despite the screams and pleas from the student actor to stop. Now, this was in the 1960s when this was done. And the experiment horrified the average citizen
because it seemed to demonstrate that the average person was not so different from German
citizens in World War II who participated in atrocities under the influence of the command
of the Nazis. You're thinking, "Would I have done that if
I was in Germany?" The experiment shows that most people would. It became clear that otherwise good and responsible
people could be induced to act against their conscience and injure or potentially kill
others. And this experiment is being replicated many
times over by all kinds of scientists, including the Stanford Prison Experiment. If you want to sometime Google the Stanford
Prison Experiment, check that one out. They all demonstrate similar disturbing results. What would you do? Would you follow authority no matter what? Would you allow your mind to rationalize away
such conscience-searing events? In the church of God, we would pray that our
reaction will be different, wouldn't we? If we're with God's Spirit, we would pray
that we would make a wise decision. But what action would sear your conscience? The Bible talks about a seared conscience
and it's not a good thing. Come with me, if you would, to 1 Timothy 4,
that's when I get into this subject. 1 Timothy 4:1-2. 1 Timothy 4:1. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter
times," so it's saying it's going to get worse in the end time, "in the latter times some
will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron." So hypocrisy and conscience seared. If we go a couple of pages over to Titus 1:15,
Titus 1:15, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving
nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled." And so, citizens are capable of doing horrific
things to one another. And in the heart of the battle of war, we
see people capable of doing terrible things to other human beings and searing their own
conscience when they do it. Sometimes soldiers perform actions that they
later find hard to explain and understand after the fact. And many are then consumed with guilt and
regret. But as I said, in times of stress, even outside
of war, people can act against their moral code. We see that as one of the biggest problems
in our society. For example, a poverty-stricken mother may
feed herself and abandon her starving children, and then live to regret it, having seared
her moral beliefs, knowing she was the one responsible for her children's well-being. A drug addict may commit a crime to support
his habit, knowing that the crime was a moral affront and carry the guilt that then goes
with it. Or an office worker may fabricate documents
or outright lie for fear of losing his or her job, knowing full well that was morally
wrong and then live in the guilt. Some of these are extreme examples. But we have to ask ourselves, are we continuing
actions or activities that are searing our own conscience, defiling our mind? What might they be? Think of your day. Think of your week. Movies you watch, the music you listen to,
the games you play, the video games you play. What are you doing in those video games? Is that an affront to your conscience? Of course, I pray not, but we have to be careful
and be on guard. A very good… well, I'd say our world has
experimented really for the past 6,000 years, right, since Adam and Eve, and taken from
the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. It's been a very sad ride. It's been a painful experiment. And this world has become injured, morally
injured. A very good example of moral injury from the
Bible is that of King David with Uriah and Bathsheba. King David committed murder against Uriah
that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Another would be that of Judas Iscariot who
committed suicide after betraying Jesus. I'm sure you can think of more. How about Peter's denial of Jesus during the
crucifixion? Peter wept bitterly and needed forgiveness. And so, this has set us up to realize that
our world is morally injured, not just in wartime but just in everyday life. People do things against their conscience. And so, what is the ultimate solution to the
pain, suffering, and injury humankind has inflicted upon one another for millennia? Because this is a sick world. It's kind of… You know, cars are going by outside okay right
now, but this is a sick world. How will the healing of the mind begin? The excitement of this Holy Day, pictured
by monumental end-time events is captured in the symbolism of the trumpet. And ancient Israel celebrated it with a sacred
assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. I do want to turn to Leviticus 23 for a moment
and look at just three verses, Leviticus 23 starting in verse 23. Leviticus 23:23, where we read, "Then the
Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying, “In the seventh
month on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing
of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it; and
you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.”'" This right here is today, the first day of
the seventh month. And we even took up an offering like it says. So this is why we're here today. We're following this command. It's actually the start of the civil year
on the Hebrew calendar, start of the civil year. I don't know if you noticed, but President
Trump tweeted yesterday, "Happy New Year to state of Israel, to all of the Jews in New
York." He said "Happy New Year." This is the beginning of the civil new year
on the Hebrew calendar. And God instructed ancient Israel to use trumpets
to communicate important messages. You want to talk about an important message,
it's coming. A lot of it, if you want to make a note of,
it is in Numbers 10. I'll refer to a couple of things. For example, in Numbers 10:3, the sounding
of one silver trumpet meant a meeting of the leaders of Israel. All leaders came together if the silver trumpet
was sounded once. If it was sounded twice, then all the people
had to gather for a meeting. Trumpets also give a festival sound, a festive
sound, not just the call of meeting. Numbers 10:10 says, "Also in the day of your
gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months," like today,
"you shall blow the trumpet… and they shall be memorial for you before your God." But trumpets are not just for calling meetings,
they're not just for festive sounds, they're also used to sound a warning, an alert of
impending danger and impending warfare. Numbers 10:9 says, "When you go to war in
your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you should sound an alarm with the
trumpets." And so with their ability to transmit sound
of a great distances, trumpets were, in ancient times, excellent instruments for attracting
people's attention. And so that brings us to this Holy Day when
a trumpet will sound that will announce Jesus' return and the possibility for all of humanity
to be healed from all kinds of injuries, and sin, and moral affronts to God, moral injuries. This day truly does picture the ultimate solution,
the seventh trumpet blast, the ultimate solution to the pains of this world. And as we have said for many years in the
Church, the solution to humanity's problems is spiritual in nature. It's of the mind, not physical. We'll get back to the idea of the Feast of
Trumpets again here in a moment, so hold that thought. I want to get back to kind of a second section
that was kind of the ultimate solution section, which is the meaning of this day. The second section I've titled "The Spiritual
Perspective" and I'm talking about the spiritual perspective to moral injury because other
faiths have studied this from a spiritual perspective. What's a spiritual perspective to moral injury? Because a lot of studies have been undertaken
by psychologists with the goal of finding a cure or a way of healing moral injury, helping
soldiers and other people dealing with severe moral injury. And major developments in the spiritual perspective
on moral injury have been credited to two people. I'll mention their names, not anybody we know,
Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini. They're kind of in the forefront of this study. They emphasize moral injury as "souls in anguish,
not a psychological disorder." And they say this happens when veterans struggle
with a lost sense of humanity after transgressing deeply held moral beliefs. But you and I know, it's not just a struggle
for military veterans either. Research by Dr. Lindsay Carey at La Trobe
University in Melbourne, Australia, and Tim Hodgson at the University of Queensland in
Brisbane, Australia has also shown a spiritual side to getting over moral injury. Remember I said and the Church have always
said that the world's problems are spiritual in nature, right, not physical. And Carey and Hodgson in Australia confirmed
that the clergy, and chaplains, in particular, have a key role with regard to moral injury
and spiritual care. They're related to spiritual care and moral
injury. They wrote an article published in the Journal
of Religion and Health in August of 2017. It was titled "Moral Injury and Definitional
Clarity: Betrayal, Spirituality and the Role of Chaplains." And this is saying there's a spiritual side
to getting over this. Their article argues that betrayal and spirituality
should be “core components for understanding, defining, and addressing moral injury.” And their study supports the role of chaplains
being involved in the holistic care and rehabilitation of those affected by moral injury. So you see, even secular scientists acknowledge
that it's eventually a spiritual matter that has to be dealt with, which we know. U.S. Army chaplains, particularly in the U.S.
Army Medical Department Center and School, are addressing themselves the spiritual aspects
of moral injury when soldiers come home from war, it says U.S. Army Medical Department
and the chaplain's role in assisting in the healing process by teaching and engaging in
further research about moral injury. But it's not just the military. It's not just the U.S. Army. Our entire world needs a great moral healing. And it's a spiritual solution. It will finally come about on the day pictured
by this Holy Day, the Day of Trumpets. Look at a few verses about the solution, this
spiritual perspective. First of all, 1 Thessalonians 4. Turn there for a minute. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17. Let's address directly right here what will
happen. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "The Lord Himself will
descend from heaven…” God will come back to earth “with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first. And those who are alive and remain will be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We shall always be with the Lord." So this is, in particular, our hope. We heard about earlier today. Our resurrection to spirit life. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul
spoke of the day when the firstfruits will be resurrected to immortal life. 1 Corinthians 15:51. Paul told the Corinthians, "Behold, I tell
you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." That's often why there's so much excitement
about this day for the Church because it's our own resurrection. We shall be changed. The awakening blast of this last trumpet awakens
today, so to speak. Look at Revelation 11:15. Just one more verse here, Revelation 11:15. The apostle John associated the blowing of
a trumpet with Christ's return here in the Book of Revelation. Revelation 11:15, "Then the seventh angel
sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven saying," and here's the big quote, "The kingdoms
of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall
reign forever and ever!” So these passages, this three that we just
read just now, dramatically attest to the significance of the Feast of Trumpets we first
read about back in Leviticus 23, and attest to the solution to what's facing our world,
to the moral injury facing our world. A new society will be born. Like I said at the beginning, Jesus Christ
is going to build a new town in Jerusalem, a new city, where the saints will rule from
as leaders and teachers. And this is how moral injury will eventually
be overcome. The third section I have called "Overcoming
Moral Injury" because here now we're going to get to kind of a core way, the core reason
how moral injury will be overcome. Yes, Jesus Christ is going to return but then
what is He going to do? Here's how psychologists treat moral injury. They found that veterans need to meet together
in support groups. A chaplain or a clergy person can offer guidance. Some have turned to writing or public speaking,
trying to make sense of what happened in their lives. They say prayer and meditation provide spiritual
reassurance. So that's kind of how the psychologists and
chaplains deal with it. But the only true way to moral recovery is
actually contained in this Holy Day, the Day of Trumpets, and, in particular, the seventh
trumpet. It's the restoration of all things. The restoration, in particular, of the law
of God on this planet. It's the removal of sin and the installation
of a new way of doing things. It's a spiritual solution that has to encompass
the whole world. If you would, turn with me please in Nehemiah
8. It has something very significant that happened
in Nehemiah 8, starting in verse 1, because this really does show how moral injury and
the sins of this world will be overcome. So the fascinating passage here in Nehemiah
8, so in verse 1, for example, "All the people gathered together as one man in the open square
that was in front of the Water Gate; and they had told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book
of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel." Now, remember, the nation had forgotten all
about the Law of God. They had gone into captivity in Babylon and
were punished because they'd forgotten the law of God. And they'd be gone for about 70 years. So, verse 2, “Ezra the priest,” you know,
did what he's told, “brought out the Law before the assembly of men and women and all
who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month.” Okay. Anything significant about the first day of
the seventh month? They didn't think so. They just grabbed this book and they started
reading it, right? Verse 3, "Then he read from it in the open
square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday." So it was a, you know, double Sabbath service
or something. It was a long one. "Read from it before the men and women and
those who can understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book
of the Law." Remember, they hadn't heard this in a long
time. It had been forgotten. "So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of
wood," verse 4, "which they had made for the purpose; and beside him, at his right hand,
stood…” lots of important people. So those people here, I won't try and read
all those names. Then verse 5, "Ezra opened the book in the
sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it,
all people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered ‘Amen!' by lifting
up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshipped
the Lord with their faces to the ground." And also verse 7, lots of other important
people "helped the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place. So they read distinctly from the Book, in
the Law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading." Remember, this had been lost and forgotten
for a long time. "Then Nehemiah," verse 9, "who's the governor,
Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to other people,
'This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.' For all the people wept, when they heard the
words of the Law." So it seems like they just figured out this
was the Feast of Trumpets. This was the Holy Day. "Then he said to them, 'Go your way, eat the
fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this
day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is
your strength.'" So the law was rediscovered on the Day of
Trumpets. Look at verse 13, "On the second day the heads
of the fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered
to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand,” you know, more “words of the Law." Verse 14, "They found written in the Law,
which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel shall dwell in booths
during the feast of the seventh month." So now they figured out, "Oh, the Feast of
Tabernacles was coming up. We've forgot about that one, too." A lot had been forgotten during their captivity
period in Babylon where they were for about 70 years. A lot had been forgotten. And God's law and this understanding was re-revealed
to them on the Day of Trumpets. You know, it doesn't even take 70 years to
forget. You know, I have friends that used to believe
everything I believe, have now gone their own way just within three, four, five years. "What's going on?" "Oh, we're leaving for the Feast of Tabernacles." "Oh yeah, forgot all about that." It doesn't take long when you don't do it
to forget the Law, to forget the Commandments, to forget the Sabbath. And it happened in ancient Israel. The solution to ancient Judah's sins, anguish,
and moral injury was pointed out to them on the very Day of Trumpets. Like I said, it's a spiritual solution, not
a physical one. It's a law of God. It's a return to holiness by this world. They'd broken God's law, forgotten it, and
then endured decades of suffering and persecution at the hands of the Babylonians as punishment. And guess what? The law will be restored throughout the whole
world next time on the Day of Trumpets, the seventh trumpet, whether Christ returns actually
on the Day of Trumpets or not it's pictured by the seventh trumpet, this festival, when
the seventh trumpet sounds and Jesus Christ returns to this earth to establish the Kingdom
of God. Look at the New Testament then now. Hebrews 8:8-12. Hebrews 8:8. We read in Hebrews 8:8, "Because finding fault
with them, He says, ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord.'" This is a quote, right? "When I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made
with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land
of Egypt,” the different covenant's the one from back then, "Because they did not
continue in my covenant then, I disregarded them, says the Lord." Verse 10, "But this covenant I will make with
the house of Israel after those days,” once again, you know, in the end-time. It's a yet future event. "'This covenant I'll make after those days,
says the Lord. 'I will put My laws in their mind and write
them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'" So what is the solution when Jesus Christ
returns at the end? Put God's law in everybody's hearts. In verse 11, "None of them shall teach his
neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord' for all shall know Me, from the
least of them to the greatest of them." “I won't be forgotten any longer. Everyone will know.” "For I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." The global solution to spiritual healing,
to overcoming moral injury in this world and sin is the instilling of the law of God into
people's hearts. Not just reading it from the Temple in Jerusalem,
putting it in people's hearts. Then we'll begin to fully take shape on the
day pictured by this Feast of Trumpets. And a new society will be born. A new society will be born. Moral injury affects all of us. We've all had our conscience injured through
sin and committing acts that we know were against the law of God, from which we have
then repented. I'd like to read 1 John 1:7-9 to you. 1 John 1:7-9, because these kind of moral
affronts are things we've all done. “If we walk in the light," we read in 1
John 1:7, "we have fellowship with one another and, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses
us from all sin. But if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Truth is not in us." You know, we've all done it and moved on through
the power of God's Spirit and repented. Verse 9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." To cleanse us, to wipe our mind clean. The last section I've titled "Is the End Time
Close?" Is the end-time close? How close are we? When will the seventh trumpet blast sound? What are the signals to watch for that lead
to this day of trumpets being fulfilled and the law of God being restored, allowing moral
injury to inflict our world no more? Near the end of Christ's earthly ministry,
the apostles asked Him that very question. "Was it going to be soon?" Matthew 24:3, we read, "The disciples came
to Him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when will these things be?'" Where's the newsletter? I need the newsletter. “Tell us, when it's going to be?” And they said, "What will be the sign of Your
coming, in the end of the age?" It's in Matthew 24, right? In response, what did Jesus say? He laid out for them then a series of events
that would lead up to His return, included religious deception, wars, famine, disease,
earthquakes, and all kinds of other calamities. And we do see all those things now to one
degree or another. You understand it's going to get a lot worse. And He added that the time of His return would
be an era of hatred and lawlessness. We could say the end time will be a time of
great moral injury and sin. People are doing all kinds of unimaginable
things to one another. And then Jesus said, after all these bad things,
He says, "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness
to all the nations, and then the end will come." That's Matthew 24:14. "This gospel will be preached." And so that is, of course, one of our big
goals. It's part of our mission in the Church of
God today to preach the gospel of the kingdom, to preach the good news of God's Kingdom. That's why we commission that job so seriously. And after this, a time of great tribulation
upon humanity. Seven plagues will be poured out on the sinning
world with a trumpet blast announcing each. And, of course, that's another whole sermon
on the Day of Trumpets, the Feast of Trumpets, is Revelation 8 and 9, all the different trumpet
blasts. And finally, God will send two witnesses. They're going to tell it like it is, to proclaim
His truth, to tell people to repent, to change. So what happens to them? They get murdered. And these dramatic events all set the stage
for the seventh angel's trumpet sounding, and Jesus Christ's return to assume rule over
the governments of the earth. Moral injury will then become no more. And along with Jesus' return, as we noted
a moment ago, the Feast of Trumpets signals a resurrection of the dead, in particular
the saints. And that is the hope of early Christians and
the hope of us today, to understand God's plan, called the first resurrection. It's all in Revelation 20. Now, look at Romans 8 though. In the book of Romans, Paul depicts this resurrection
that happens at the seventh trumpet blast when Christ returns as the glorious deliverance
from bondage, from all kinds of sin and moral injury. Even the earth is crying out for something
to change. Romans 8:19, "For the earnest expectation
of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God." Now we want this resurrection to happen. "For the creation was subjected to futility,
not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God. For we know that the whole creation groans
and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for the adoption,
the redemption of our body." Is this scenario close to being fulfilled? Is the end-time close? For each of us, it is close as we live each
day one at a time. We have to live each day in holiness and readiness
for our call to eternal life. We have to live with a pure conscience, not
a seared conscience. We have to live with a pure conscience before
God, filled with the Holy Spirit. I'd like to turn to Hebrews 9 for a moment
if you would. Please turn with me to Hebrews 9. I've got a couple more passages to read here. Hebrews 9:13. "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the
ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God, how much more shall that blood cleanse your conscience from dead works
to serve the living God?" The blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior, it's
what cleanses our conscience, fixes any moral failings that we have. It's what cleanses us from our sins. It's what cleanses us from immorality and
moral injury. Incredibly, when Jesus Christ returns to the
Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, the nations of the earth actually will try and kill Him. Zechariah 14 talks about that great battle. So does Revelation 19. They try to destroy Christ when He returns. Let's just read Revelation 19:19 for a second
then. Revelation 19:19. Of course, we know that this is a time of
the great beast power at the end. And John says, "I saw the beast," Revelation
19:19, "and the kings of the earth." You know, all the world's leaders and nations. "And their armies, gathered together to make
war against Him who sat on the horse as Jesus Christ and to make war against His army." And then verse 20, thankfully, “The beast
was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence," you know,
the great false religious leader, "by which he deceived those who received the mark of
the beast and those who worshipped his image.” And these two were finally cast into the lake
of fire. Why would anyone want to fight the Messiah
when that seventh trumpet sounds? After all, doesn't this day of trumpet's picture
the liberation of humanity? Like, we read about in Romans 8, the whole
creation waiting for this event? No. The devil's influence will inspire the nations
to fight against Christ when He returns. Satan will encourage humanity to commit the
worst of moral crimes, moral injury against their conscience, and battle Jesus Christ
Himself, the unthinkable. Try and kill God? That's why we needed today and return for
next week, right, to fix that part of the plan. When mankind finally realizes that he's been
part of… of what he's been a part of, a sense of guilt and moral failing will eventually
follow and repentance will be necessary after all of this. And it will take a lot of healing and forgiveness
as humanity then starts to learn the truth. As the firstfruits fully understand this plan
God has for the world, we then must take our calling seriously. We must take the knowledge we have and the
understanding of the meaning of the Day of Trumpets and act upon it. We must have a clean conscience, a clear conscience,
remove sin, and all types of moral impurity that can injure our mind. We do not want any moral injury affecting
our mind. We do have a final passage here I wanted to
read in Hebrews 10. I wanted to go over to the page of Hebrews
10. Although we're in Hebrews 9, over in Hebrews
10:19. Hebrews 10:19. "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter
the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God,
let us draw near," verse 22, "let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with
pure water." You see, we are to live a life of holiness
and not have any activity in our life that is searing our conscience or providing any
kind of moral failing. As we conclude, let me share with you just
one more story of moral injury. This is another true story. It was written in the Washington Post on March
6th, 2015, by Thomas Gibbons-Neff. The article in the paper was titled "Haunted
by the Decisions in War.” "Haunted by the Decisions in War." So we read, "Even on the short overnight ops,
sometimes we talked about things we knew we'd carry home. On a cold night in March 2010, Jeff brought
up the kid he'd shot a month earlier when the battle for the Afghan city of Marja was
hot and there was no shortage of 15-year-olds picking up Kalashnikovs off the ground. Jeff had killed one of them with four shots
from a heavy-caliber semi-auto that made a soft thud when the bolt released. The kid had a rifle, and even kids with rifles
can kill marines, Jeff had figured." And later on, "A few weeks later we're on
the side of the road watching for Taliban, Taliban fighters, digging bombs into the ground,
and Jeff was telling me about it. He described the way the kid fell, and now
he wasn't sure he'd done the right thing." "That was five years ago. Jeff doesn't bring up that story anymore. I know he thinks about it though, because
a couple of years back, he put a Remington 700 short action in his mouth but didn't pull
the trigger. Rather remaining in the flooded poppy fields
of Afghanistan, the story of the kid Jeff shot stuck with him. It grew and matured just as Jeff had, until
one day Jeff sat on his bed with a loaded rifle across his lap, staring at a part of
his life he could no longer understand. ‘I'm not crazy,’ he told me, and I knew
he wasn't. Ten years ago, we would have just called it
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sixty years ago, it would have been combat
fatigue. And in the shell-raked trenches of the Western
Front, it would have been called shell shock. But Jeff's dead kid was none of those things. Jeff's weight was something else - a moral
injury." Like I said, this is something that's now
becoming more recognized now as a real problem, moral injury. We see that even though tragic end-time events
lay ahead, the good news is that God will intervene to save humanity and guide mankind
into his abundant way of life. Jesus Christ will return to raise us, His
followers, from death to spirit life and establish God's perfect rule over the earth at the sound
of the seventh trumpet. This is the wonderful inspiring meaning of
the Feast of Trumpets. Christ taught us to pray to the Father, “Thy
Kingdom come.” When you hear stories like this, you say,
"Yes, thy Kingdom come." And so we pray it all the time, every day. How urgently we need the answer to that prayer
and the healing of this world from sin and from moral injury.
