Ladies and gentlemen, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ.
God bless you, be with you.
Just to inform you that God has blessed us this past weekend in a very, very special way, between eight and nine hundred believers were gathered to hear the Word of God, and truly, the Word does accomplish what it was sent for. Just as our Lord said in Isaiah 55: "The Word that comes from my mouth will accomplish what it was sent for." And therefore we understand, by the grace of God, the importance of the Word of God.
It is not enough to say we are the Word Bride as our Saviour was the manifested Word in flesh. That Word promised to us must be manifested in us. What is promised to the church must be manifested in the church and what is promised for the Bride must be manifested in the Bride.
With deep joy we realised that our Lord conquered death and hell and Satan, all the powers of darkness, when He died on the cross of Calvary. Not only redemption and reconciliation for us, but also all the powers of Satan were destroyed, were conquered. And we shall read this from Galatians, there is a special Word where the apostle Paul says: "If anyone preaches another gospel, he is under a curse."
But we preach the original gospel of Jesus Christ, not changing one single phrase or doctrine, leaving it as it was and remains in the original. Now, to Colossians 2:15: "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show out of them openly, triumphing over them in it." In the victory, our Lord God triumphed over all the powers of the enemy. After His resurrection he could say, "…all the power in heaven and on earth is given unto me." And therefore, He gave the great commission and gave also the Words to be with us as a confirmation - those who believe will see the demonstration of the power of God, the demonstration over all the powers of the enemy. So the gospel of Jesus Christ, the shed blood on the cross of Calvary, this is our redemption, and the Word of God given to us - we are sanctified in this Word of God and, by the Holy Spirit, we are led into all the truth.
There were two other Scriptures which were outstanding and great to us, in reference to our Lord and His going back to heaven after accomplishing the redemption and the great victory. I read from Psalms 24:7, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." It continues: "Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." He fought the battle, He went through Getsemane, He fought and He not only is victorious, but He gave unto us the victory. And here, in verse 9, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." And again the question, "Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." Going to Psalms 47, and, by the way, at the first coming of Christ, over one hundred prophecies from the Old Testament were fulfilled, one of them is in Psalms 47:5, "God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet." Wonderful! And the same Lord God, we all believe there is only one God and God was manifested in Jesus Christ, Emanuel with us. So in the Old Testament prophecy, we are told, after the victory, “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” And then, if you go to 1 Thessalonians 4, the Lord is coming back with the same shout of victory, with the triumph, He conquered death, hell and Satan, and He went up with a shout, with a triumph, and He shall return in the same way.
I read it to you, beloved brothers and sisters, it is here, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…" Glory be to God in the Highest. He went up with a shout, He went up with the sound of a trumpet, He comes back with the same shout, with the same trumpet, accompanied, as we read here, let us read verse 16 from the beginning: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first." So it is all in the precious and holy Word of God. We do not need any explanation about this. It is all plain, it is all here.
The message goes forth now to the ends of the earth, the last call, as brother Branham was said: "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, the message given to you will forerun the second coming of Christ." And now it is almost complete, the nations are reached, the last ones are being called out, God took His messenger, but the message remains with us and, by the grace of God, we are now, by the Internet, reaching all the nations on the earth and the elect are being called out.
Dear friends, why don't you read peacefully Psalms 24, Psalms 47, 1 Thessalonians 4, why don't you raise your hands praising God for the clarity of His holy and precious and everlasting Word. May the blessings of Almighty God rest upon you in Jesus' holy name. Amen.