We're going to read from Revelations 19 from
verse 15.
Now, out of his mouth goes a sharp
sword that with it he should strike the
nations.
In chapter 11 from verse 15, the seventh
angel sounded and there were loud voices in
heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
his Christ and he shall reign forever and
ever.
And the twenty-four elders who sat before
God on their thrones fell on their faces
and worshipped God.
Saying, we give you thanks oh Lord God
almighty, the one who is and who was
and who is to come because you have
taken your great power and reigned.
And the twenty-four elders who sat before
God on their thrones fell on their faces
and
worshipped
God.
The nations were angry and your wrath has
come and the time of the dead that
they should be judged and that you should
reward your servants the prophets and the saints
and those who fear your name small and
great and should destroy those who destroy the
earth.
And the twenty-four elders who sat before
God on their thrones fell on their faces
and worshipped
God.
Then the temple of God was opened in
heaven and the ark of his covenant was
seen in his temple and there were lightnings,
noises, thunderings, an earthquake and great hail.
This text contains so much which I cannot
cover but I'm going to just highlight a
few points here and there.
There is no book as sweet as the
word of God.
Often I wake up at night or at
four in the morning and it becomes my
time for reading the Bible.
I wake up at four in the morning
and it becomes my time for reading the
Bible.
I don't make it a rule but when
it's quiet, I know all the children are
asleep, I take the word of God and
it is the nicest time for me to
read, to be quiet before him and it
is for me, the Bible is sweeter than
honey.
The people of this world who say they
cannot leave the nice attractive things of this
world, they are foolish and they don't know
what they mean, what they say.
There is nothing as lovely as the word
of God, as sweet as the word of
God, as I said sweeter than honey.
It revives the spirit, the soul, even the
body is revived and refreshed.
Those who don't know that and don't experience
the power of God's word will wake up
in hell.
That's why I said that the older generation
down there at Makogo who cannot read and
who didn't get that opportunity, who are illiterate,
we want them to learn so that they
can read the Bible.
By not being able to read the word
of God, they miss out on so much.
There is nothing so attractive, nothing so beautiful
as the word of God.
If the Lord speaks to you through his
word, to Joshua the
Lord said, take this word and let it
never depart from you day and night so
that you would overcome and be victorious in
everything.
Now here we read about the seventh angel
who sounded the trumpet.
The other six sounded out the awful things
that were going to happen and come upon
the people of the serf.
But we who are God's children are not
disturbed by that.
We are not to be troubled because we
know that our salvation draws nigh.
As I said, salvation is close.
A person might say, but how can salvation
draw close when I'm saved already?
Yes, we were saved when we repented, when
we came to Jesus and surrendered to him.
And then daily we are being saved.
We are being rescued and saved from different
things and sins and each day it is
happening.
We are
being saved because
we know that our salvation draws nigh.
Do you hear, you who are not saved,
you who still live a pagan life of
going to seers and mediums, people who work
with the spirits of the dead, that doesn't
help at all.
You cannot go to the spirit of a
deceased father or expect them to come out
of heaven to eat the meat that you
provide for them.
That is foolishness and it shows how twisted
you are.
The whole world is going to still experience
great sufferings and terrible things.
At the end of the text we read
that there will be lightning, not just lightning,
but lightnings and voices and
noises.
Thunderings and an earthquake and great hail
coming down in great size and quantity onto
the earth.
Woe to the one who meets up with
this on his head.
It will kill him, destroy his brains, spill
his brains.
I
once
read of a hailstorm that came down, some
of it was huge and smaller pieces round
about.
But we as children of God should not
be terrorized by that, for we are safe
and we experience the salvation of God.
You have
heard
these days about the earthquake in Haiti and
how it destroyed buildings and fell upon people.
Haiti is actually a beautiful land.
Europeans went there and planted sugar cane and
a lot of crops.
They
made
slaves from people in West Africa and other
countries and they used the slaves for the
fields.
As you know the Europeans often don't have
many children, but these slaves on those islands
had many children and they were very productive,
fertile.
Democracy is a law, not a law, it
is a vote.
Their liberation came and there was a democracy.
Democracy has ruled there for over 200 years.
It is the oldest liberated and now democratic
country in the world.
However, they are extremely poor.
You can't grasp and understand what poverty they
live in.
When we were there, we
just got off the plane and there were
throngs around us offering to carry our suitcases.
We thought they were so kind.
They asked us where we were going, which
car and we said we were going there.
Then when we had gone through the terminal
and we said thank you to them for
their kindness.
Cars going in this direction and that direction
and full of people and things all over
the roads.
Well, after all, they've got their freedom.
Anybody was free to do their thing.
Freedom from traffic laws.
They drove just any old car in any
direction.
We thought we were definitely going to have
an accident.
Right in front of us, two cars came
head to head.
Drivers got out, they had a punch up
and then got back into their cars.
That's the land of Haiti.
Can't describe to you what type of poverty
they live in.
You need to go and see for yourself
just how it is after 200 years of
democracy.
You need to go
and
see for yourself just how it is after
200 years of democracy.
We wore ties to go to the service
and the people there didn't and as is
with modern Christian men, they don't wear ties.
Well, the crowds noticed as we were driving
in the car with our driver that we
had ties on and they rushed us.
They came as a chanting crowd.
We tried to reverse and there they were
blocking the way.
I said, it was because we had ties
on, they knew we were from another country.
So I said to the men with us,
take off your ties.
Now this awful earthquake happened there and they
estimate at least 100,000 people have died.
I said to the men with us, take
off your ties.
Two men, two doctors had once visited here
from Haiti.
They were very dignified, gracious people.
Those were the ones who invited us to
go and preach in Haiti.
And we've heard that buildings collapsed on every
side but the building of those doctors survived,
it stood.
Buildings collapsed everywhere but their hospital survived.
God is able to protect his people and
if it's in his will, he will not
even allow a hair to fall down without
him knowing about it.
In the Old Testament it speaks about a
thousand falling at your left and ten thousand
to your right and you will be untouched.
He will stand.
God can preserve his people.
Think of Shadrach and them.
When the furnace was heated up seven times
hotter to kill them, they bravely said, well
if it's God's will that we should burn
then it's his will but if he wants
us not to die then he will protect
us.
And the men who threw them into the
fiery furnace were themselves burnt and killed.
And the king exclaimed loudly that we had
put three people, three men into the furnace,
now I see a fourth one, he seems
like the son of God.
Jesus is with his people in their sufferings.
And they walked around freely in the furnace
and then when they were called to come
out, they didn't even have the smell of
smoke on them.
You won't die unless it's God's will.
Yes, Paul,
Peter, and John.
Peter, they were executed, the Lord allowed that
to happen but with John it wasn't yet
his time when he was put into a
boiling pot but he was not killed.
God won't allow his children to die unless
it's his timing.
So don't be fearful or terrorized, you can
be completely at ease.
We were once visited by a person from
Germany, a preacher.
He said to us, O my children, you
have been put into a boiling pot, you
have been put into a fiery furnace, now
I see a fourth one, he seems like
the son of God.
And he prophesied that the communists were going
to take over Germany.
And the Germans were very fearful in hearing
that and when I heard it I thought,
well he makes this very bold statement, prophecy.
And the Germans were afraid.
You get Christians who are afraid and cowardly.
Instead of the communists taking over and getting
to that point of the river Rhine, it
was West Germany who went into East Germany,
then there was that unification.
I don't know whether that preacher was alive
when that happened, but he's passed away now.
The seventh angel sounded and there were loud
voices in heaven.
P-H-O-N-E In Greek it
says ponen for voices.
What does it mean?
P-H-O-N-E P-H-O
-N-E That's where we get telephone from.
P-H-O-N-E Yes, but you
don't see the person on the other side
and that word is used to describe that.
And with the telephone you don't see the
person on the other side but you can
hear his words.
P
-H-O
-N-E It also means the expressed thoughts
of a person, expressed in words.
You can't hear what a person is thinking,
but when they are spoken out that is
that word, when they are expressed and sounded.
P-H-O-N-E There were loud
voices in heaven, spoken by God.
God does speak through various means, through lightnings,
noises, earthquakes, etc., but we need to understand
and not misinterpret what he says.