Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's Presenter, Pastor Mike Browning. Now today I'm going to talk to you about the signs of the coming of Christ. The first group I'm going to throw through fairly quickly because I'm taking it that most of us, if not all, are familiar with these signs. What I'm wanting to do is to get to some of the things that are happening in the world today. So stay with me as we go through the earlier part, which you do know reasonably well and are familiar with, but which need to be repeated. Some of the things, folks, that we need to go through over and over are the things that we know so well, because the things you know well are the things you tend to ignore. So, as we go to this today, I'm hoping that that will be the case for you. Tomorrow through Jesus' eyes, I would like to finally pray once more, as we open the Scripture today. Father in heaven, how much we need your Holy Spirit to speak to us individually and to help us to grasp the reality of Jesus coming and the fact that he is coming sooner than we anticipate. And I pray that you'll guide us in our sharing together in Jesus' name. Now, we all understand that Jesus understood exactly and clearly all of the events leading up to His coming back again the second time. It was very clear in His mind. He went to a lot of trouble talking to His disciples to prepare them and He gave them quite a lot of information about His coming. And as they sat with Him on the Mount of Olives, on a particular day as they were looking down on the temple in Jerusalem. Now, of course, that's a very mediocre copy of the temple that was in Jerusalem in Jesus' day, which was absolutely magnificent. We do know that this particular temple is not there anymore. That was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. And the mosque of Omar, the Muslim mosque, sits right there. where that temple used to be so long ago. And it's interesting, isn't it, that there are those Christians and Jews who believe that this temple must be rebuilt before the second coming of Christ. That's interesting, isn't it? Some of you will be aware of that. And of course, they misread some of the scriptures and they're quite mistaken to think that that is the case. But nonetheless, that's what they're thinking and where they're working. Because Jesus had told His disciples about His coming and quite a lot of detail about it, they themselves wanted to know more detail. And I'm glad they asked Jesus, because if they hadn't asked, we may never know. And this is what they said: When will these things be? What will be the sign of youf coming? and of the end of the age, King James has end of the world. It's end of the age there. Very important that we get that point. When will we know it's close? That's what they wanted to know. And had I been there and had you been there, you'd have wanted to ask the same question. I'm quite sure about it. This is what Jesus said, moving quite along fairly quickly here. Nations will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in different places. The reason why Jesus mentioned those, there have always been famines and there's always been earthquakes in recent, since the flood anyway. But why Jesus mentions them as signs of His coming is that these are to be on a worldwide nature, folks. These are not localized, this is worldwide. There's to be a multiplication of these events as we approach His second coming. There's actually eight categories of signs that Jesus mentioned. And we're going to deal with those very quickly and very briefly. First of those was war. And how relevant is that today? We're all very concerned about it. Now, I'm kind of very conscious that people as they approached the First and the Second World Wars and other isolated wars felt the same as we do today. but this is happening on a worldwide nature and it's very important connected with the other signs that indicate that Jesus coming is indeed near. This is what Jesus actually said, you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. Not just wars, but rumours of wars as well. You're familiar with the war in the Middle East. It's a terrible war that's going on there. The war in Ukraine and Russia, the wars going on in Africa, and it's just such a very sad thing, folks. Lives are being lost in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands. And it's hard to imagine, isn't it, what it's like. And we're all very sad. This is Gaza, and there are so many people dying there. It's a tragedy. As a result of this, the group of scientists who put together the Doomsday Clock have changed their time till midnight once again. It was rather interesting, they had the Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight. Midnight, by the way, would be Armageddon as they understand it. 100 seconds to midnight for three years up to the year 2023. In 2023, they changed it from 100 seconds to midnight to 90 seconds to midnight. In January of this year, just a couple of months ago, they brought the clock down a bit further, 89 seconds to midnight as they see it, because they're getting very concerned about the state of the world. This is the second sign that Jesus gave. There will be famines. and we're talking about famines on a large scale here now. There've always been famines and there are some serious famines going on right at the moment. 500 million people are desperate for food today. 500 million people. That's a lot of people, folks. I tell you, 925 million people are what they call food unsatisfied. That is, they go to bed hungry. And 24,000 people are still dying every day of hunger. It's very interesting to me because of the fact that looming famine is one of the serious signs of Jesus coming that He gave. I'm concerned about the way the food supply is going in the world. It's an interesting thing, China with 1.4 billion people to feed, in 2025 they were 93% food self-sufficient. 2000 and sorry, in 2020 they were 93% food self-sufficient. Today, five years later, they are only 65% food self-sufficient. They've had floods in the Yangtze Valley where a lot of their rice is produced and other things, and they are now the world's greatest food importer. So it's not surprising as a result of that. So There are more concerns in this area than we realise. Jesus also said, There will be famines and pestilences. Now, wherever you have war and famine, pestilence and disease follows. And that's a given that that is the case. And it's a great deal of concern. We have been through the recent COVID pandemic and we understand how that can grip the attention of the entire globe. And I was amazed at how quickly the whole world got on board with dealing with the COVID pandemic that we've been through already. Jesus also mentioned earthquakes and earthquakes are a great concern. This is what he said, there will be earthquakes in various diverse places and we are seeing that Just quickly, 2010, 222,000 people died in Haiti. They've actually upgraded that to 300,000 deaths now, which is hard to imagine. That was a magnitude 7 earthquake, which is not as big as they get. This was Indonesia 2018, 3,000 dead, 4,000 injured, mag 7.5. And that's getting stronger. and remember the big one a couple of years ago in Turkey and northern Syria, February 6, 2023, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. And it caused 50,000 deaths, houses went down like packs of cards, 214,000 in Turkey alone, which was a staggering thing. Now, can you see that? Yes, you can. This is really interesting. This graph is telling us the incidences of earthquakes in the first 10 years of this century and the second 10 years. I want to draw your attention, this is their magnitude on the Richter scale and going down to 5 to 5.9, you might as well say 5 to 6. In the first 10 years of this century, there were 16,500. In the second 10 years of this century, there were 81,000. And that to me illustrates more than anything else how the incidence of earthquakes is increasing dramatically around the world. And, you know, to give you some idea of what a six magnitude earthquake is, the earthquake that hit In 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand, which did so much damage, etc. Loss of life, that was a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. That's all in a sense of comparing it with others. So folks, the incidence of earthquakes is increasing exponentially even as we speak. Jesus talked about tsunamis, distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring, You had a great shot of that big tidal wave coming in. We'll never forget that tidal wave that we saw on our television screens as it came in and of course so many people actually did die. Southeast Asian tsunami, 15,000 people. It's hard to imagine numbers like that. I want to talk about a personal concern that I have about the state of our oceans. And the ecological crisis there is a serious one. This is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now there are five great garbage patches like that in the oceans. And this is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is out on the west coast of America, North America. To give you an idea of how much rubbish in the oceans, these garbage patches are hundreds of kilometres, yes, you heard me right, hundreds of kilometers across. Now they're not as always as dense as this and you can't always see it visibly, but they are there. There are five of those, that's where they're located in the world. The currents of the world gather all of this rubbish, mostly plastic, and bring it into these great garbage patches and if you were to look underneath, it looks like confetti underneath and the fish are eating this stuff. plastic breaking down. And to me, this is a greater concern than almost any other one about the environment that we're living in. This one, they're trying to clean this one up out on the west coast of America, and they've got ships with huge nets and they are dragging them through the ocean and the stuff they're pulling up, you wouldn't read about. And that is what is happening. So that's a concern of mine. This is a rather light-hearted look at climate change, I'm very much aware that there are so many voices, conflicting voices, it's hard to know who to believe these days. And a lot of people are unsure about it. To me, the only real sure thing that I can do is go and talk to the farmers. And I do this from time to time. If I meet someone who works on the land, I say, Now you tell me, have you noticed any changes in the seasons and so on? and it's very interesting, folks, talking to them. One thing that they do tell me is that the seasons are changing and they're not as reliable as they used to be. And I think, well, that's really interesting. And the question that we should ask is, why is that happening? Well, the narrative, the popular narrative today blames carbon and nitrogen. And as a result of this, there's a great movement, as you would know, to start dealing with the production of methane gas from the livestock that we raise, the cattle, the sheep and the goats, particularly the cattle. As a result of this, the government in the Netherlands is planning the forced closure of 3,000 farms. This is compulsory closure. Now, in light of Jesus' warning about impending famines, I'm very concerned about this. Now, I'm a vegetarian, I don't need the animals, but a large portion of the world folks depends upon them for their food supply. So I'm very concerned about this. This kind of coercion has not been seen since Stalin forced the closure of the farms in Russia. and the Soviet Union back in the 1930s. And it may interest you to know that in the Ukraine alone as a result of that, back in 1932 and '33, 5,000 people starved to death. So it's little wonder that they're fighting so desperately to keep their independence. But this is a very great concern. This is the culprit, the production of methane gas, And if this had been mentioned 20 years ago, we probably would have died laughing. But it's taken very seriously by people. The Irish government is going to cull 200,000 cows over the next three years. Now, I tell you folks, this is a worry. 150 world governments have committed themselves to reducing methane gas emissions from agriculture. You'll make your own mind up about the wisdom of that. While this is going on, this is happening in China. In 2022, they approved the building of 100 new massive coal-fired power stations. And guess whose coal they're burning, by the way? It's our own. Isn't it amazing? A hundred new massive coal-fired power stations. Now give the Chinese their due. They are also leading the charge with the producing renewables, wind farms and the like, but there's these massive power stations going in. And I think there's so much contradictory information coming out. In the European Union they are doing some very interesting things there. The European Union has committed itself to using renewable energy sources in their creation of electricity, their power plants. And so as a result of this, they're using wood chips instead of coal in their power plants. And forests have been cut down right across Europe in order to power the power plants, via the power plants. Millions of tons of wood chips are being sent across the Atlantic from America to fuel the power plants. Now, if this sounds contradictory to you folks, it is. And it's a conundrum. Anyhow, moving right along. Jesus was very accurate. The nations are very anxious about these things that I'm sharing with you today. And I want to pose a question. Was there something wrong with the way God made this planet? I mean, look at what Isaiah says about it. The earth will grow old like a garment. Did God create the earth expecting it to grow old and shaky? Look what Isaiah says here. The earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard. He's describing what we are observing today, which I find very fascinating. So why is the earth deteriorating? I'll have to move very quickly here, people. why is the earth deteriorating? Because it definitely is. There's no doubt about it. And in some places it's falling apart. Why is this? Was there something wrong with the way God made the planet? Has the earth suffered a major traumatic event? Obviously it has. Folks, the worldwide flood that occurred in the days of Noah had a huge impact upon the earth and continues to do so. Now this is the Grand Canyon. Did I go one too many? I did. The Grand Canyon. Now if you've ever been to the Grand Canyon, I was there last year, you'll notice something. The Grand Canyon is basically made up of sedimentary sandstone deposits on solid rock at the bottom, but these deposits go up 2.2 kilometers high. above sea level, which really intrigues me. And this is incredible evidence of a worldwide flood. All over the world, dear friends, there are massive deposits of sedimentary rock, sedimentary rock laid down by water. I mean, if you travel from here to Sydney, what do you see on the landscape? It's almost solid sandstone. Folks laid down by a massive flood. pea flu. And it's quite interesting. The fact that these are 2.2 kilometers above sea level is explained by the, they talk about these tectonic plates. Now, I don't know what you think about that, but I'm very, I'm very cautious about this. This is only a theory. It's not a proven fact. But the idea is that the tectonic plates went over each other and forced these mountains above sea level. and the only thing that they say they don't quite understand is this. If that actually did occur, you would have fracturing, cracking, and the rocks from the top, many of them would have tumbled to the bottom as a result of this massive upheaval. Now, these sandstone deposits, folks, clearly common sense tells you they lie exactly as they were laid. Look at this one now. I took this photograph myself last year in the Grand Canyon and look at this rock strata. It's quite clear it's lying dead level just where it was laid. There's no question about it. Now this next photograph I'm going to show you is astounding. This is Mount Everest. Mount Everest is the highest point on earth. It's 8.8 kilometers above sea level and astoundingly this top section is actually made up of sedimentary rock filled with marine fossils. So these are fossils from the sea. Now, and by the way, Mount Lotzi, which is just to the south of this, it's 8.6 kilometers high, is exactly the same. Filled with marine fossils at the top, the sedimentary rock. 8.8 kilometres high. Now exactly how it got up there, folks, one day God's going to tell us, isn't He? But it's just amazing. Was there a worldwide flood? Look, the evidence is overwhelming unless you just don't want to believe it. All right, moving right along. The world has never recovered from the flood. I only want to bring that in here, folks, so that we get it clearly. The world is in a fragile state. and largely because of the fact that this flood occurred. And the sandstone deposits around the world, the fossils, the coal, the oil, massive quantities of it are clear evidence of a massive flood. Jesus was 100% accurate. That's the point I want us to get. He made no mistakes. Right, moving on to sign number six. Jesus also said in Matthew 24, verse 12, because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. And that is happening. In the Western world, dear friends, we are living in a distinctly anti-Christian environment, aren't we? It's not just ambivalent about Christianity, folks. It's largely opposed to it. And it's very concerning to me. And the love of many grow cold. You know, love has become, well, sin has become love. That's the way they describe it today. And we need to be aware of this. And Jesus said this, when these things begin to happen, look up, lift up your heads because your redemption draws nigh. He doesn't want us to get depressed about it. It's true that people's hearts are failing them for fear, but not you, dear friends, not God's people. We are to be at peace. because we know that God has it under control and these are signs of Jesus coming. So he's saying lift up your head, so he says look up, don't look down, don't get depressed. Sign number seven. This is the next one that Jesus gave and this is an interesting one. He says immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. What date was this darkening of the sun and the moon not giving its light? Can you remember what day that was? What year that was? 17. Thank you, 1780. Good work. That was 1780. There was this incredible event so that it's written up in the history books. I have this amazing book at home, it's called Our First Hundred Years. I don't know if you've seen this book. It's one of those great big leather-bound books and it was put out after the first hundred years of American history. And it actually records this event, and it also records the falling of the stars. Isn't that interesting in this book as being significant amongst the events of the first hundred years, 1776 to 1786. anyhow, moving on, what's the tribulation of those days that's being referred to here? The 1260 years, this is the Dark Ages. It ended in 1798, but we know that the persecution actually ended slightly before that. Remember how Jesus also said, Lest those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved. Well, that's why. By 1780, the tribulation had finished, but the 1260 years had not. That didn't finish until 1798. But the point is there was to be this tribulation. It is now over, dear friends. So Jesus has moving us forward in history into what we would call the time of the end. Now brethren, this is Paul. Now Paul, building on that statement of Jesus and the tribulation of those days, Paul writes this, Brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now bear in mind, he's writing this to believers 2,000 years ago. And he's trying to help them to come to terms with what they might consider to be a delay in Jesus coming. That day will not come before the falling away comes first, and that man of sin is revealed, the lawless one. Now, if you know your history, your Christian history, you know that there was a falling away during what we call the Dark Ages, 1260 years of it. And during this period of time, folks, tremendous amount of pagan beliefs found their way into the Christian church, not the least of which, of course, was Sunday worship. replacing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. So that was building on what Jesus said. And He made it clear something, there will be a falling away and the man of sin be revealed before Jesus come. Now this is history to us. We've actually seen this happening. But it goes on. We understand something about Revelation chapter 13 which makes this statement, I saw one of his heads as it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast. Now what I'm trying to draw your attention to here is the fact that we are looking forward now, in fact we are observing what's going on even today. We are looking forward and observing what is happening right here in the world in which we live and it's affecting the whole world. The whole world is affected by it. The mortal wound was to be applied, it would look as though that was the end, but it was not. Dear friends, it was not the end and I'm glad to say that we know that. The result of that is all the world marveled and followed the beast. The whole world is watching. that's very significant. Now I want to talk about the first American Pope, Leo XIV. Now, making no comments about the character or nature of this man, I don't know him. That's in God's hands, isn't it? But we are concerned about some of the things that he stands for and believes, and I'm going to talk to you about some of that now. He's adopted the name Pope Leo the 14th. Now the fact that he's adopted the name Leo is very important. This is an encyclical on the screen by his Leo predecessor, Leo the 13th, who lived in the 19th century. In 1881, Pope Leo the 13th sent out this encyclical on capital and labor He was very concerned about the way people were treated in the labor force and so on. And this was his big thing. And so in 1881, he put out this encyclical, which helps us to understand something of the ideas that will be driving this current pope. They adopt the name of a previous pope who basically symbolizes what they will be standing for themselves. So, right in the middle of this encyclical, I hope that you can actually read this one, he says this on point 41. He talks about the cessation from work and labor on Sundays and certain holy days. The worship which he so strictly owes to the eternal Godhead, we sure do. Then he talks about Sunday rest, a rest sanctioned by God's great law, of the ancient covenant, remember, keep holy the Sabbath day. It's rather interesting that he quotes the fourth commandment, to keep holy the Sabbath day, as a reason for keeping Sunday. He equates Sunday with the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Now, of course, I don't need to spend time dealing with that with you folks at the moment, but I want you to know that this is the background to this current Pope. This is what he will be standing for. Now this is really interesting. A couple of weeks ago, my wife Anne and I were driving back home here towards here from Stuarts Point. As we were going along, we came across on YouTube, my wife did, this sermon by the new Pope. And it's very interesting. and as we listened to it, folks, I thought I was listening to a Seventh-day Adventist evangelist. He was talking about the signs of the second coming of Christ. All the things that I've been mentioning so far, with perhaps the exception of the last one, he talked about. He talked about how we need to get back to prayer and putting away sin in our lives and a study of the Word. Now, I've never heard a Catholic refer to the Scriptures as the Word before. and I'm thinking, maybe he did get this from the Seventh-day Adventist evangelist. And I found this very telling indeed. Now I wanted to share some of this with you today. And so I got hold of this and I tapped on the arrow and this is what came up. They've taken it down. I don't know why so sorry folks, other than telling you about it, I can't actually give you the details. this was on the screen, the Pope's wake up urgent call to all true Christians. And that was his speech. So it was very fascinating indeed. It was a long sermon and he made it clear, where did he finally go? Well, I want to tell you where he went. After giving all of the signs and so on, the coming of Christ, then he went to the great call to unify the Christian church. And folks, that's where the big drive is at the moment, to bring unity into the Christian church. Now, I'm very much in favour of unity, and I think as a church we'd be very much in favour of unity, but not at all costs. And we can't, folks, believe in unity if it means the compromise of what we believe. Otherwise, if you stand for nothing, folks, you fall for anything. Moving on, now this is his first address as the Pontiff and I want you to see his thrust here. His major thing is love and unity. This is quoting him, these are the two dimensions of the mission entrusted to Peter by Jesus. Folks, I can't overemphasize how powerful this thrust for unity is amongst Catholics and Protestants at this moment. He went on to say this, It is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda, by means of power. Instead, it is always and only a question of loving as Jesus did. And I'm thinking, he's heading off the opposition at the pass here, folks, and trying to quiet your fears, but nonetheless. And he goes on, this is his, down the bottom, his first public appearance as the new Pope at the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica up the front there. And this is what he said. Today is the day of the prayer of supplications to our Lady of Pompeii. Our Mother Mary always wants to walk at our side. Now, I'm bringing this to your attention because I want you to know that his position on Catholic doctrine has not changed. The Catholic Church has not changed its position. and there are still some serious flaws in their theology that we're very concerned about. And this is one of them. And as you read that through, you can see that this is almost describing the work of the Holy Spirit, not the Spirit of work of Mary. It goes on to say, help us, sorry, remain close to us, help us with her intercession and her love. So I would like to pray together with you, let us pray together for this new mission. the whole Church for peace in the world. Let us ask Mary, our Mother, for this special grace. Hail Mary. So we know where they stand. Nothing has changed in that respect at all. Now this one I thought I should share with you also. This is a Roman Catholic theologian and he's talking about what is happening amongst the Catholic Church and the theologians at the moment. This is what he says. Catholicism has become more American in this country, meaning it's become more Protestant, more Evangelical, more Libertarian, more focused on individual freedom. That's interesting, isn't it? It's talking about the emergent Catholic right here that is joining up and joining forces with the Evangelical Christian right and what they call Christian Nationalism down here, the Christian Nationalism Movement. And don't underestimate folks, the power of this. What's their goal? Down the bottom. It seeks to apply narrow religious criteria to government policy. Now we should be concerned about this. This statement was written by the Catholic vote, Vice President Joshua Mercer on January 21 of this year, after the appointment of Donald Trump to the White House. Look at what he wrote up the top, and I wanted to remind you, this is what we fought for. What did he fight for? Come down here. By the grace of God, we have been given an opportunity that's been vanishingly rare in modern history to bring our Catholic political worldview to the halls of the world's greatest power. Now, this is not to alarm us. We just need to know, don't we? We need to know what's going on and what is motivating them here. Now, this is the Global Christian Forum. The Global Christian Forum is a Protestant organization. It is made up of Anglicans, Baptist Salvation Army, Lutheran, the Pentecostal organizations, and we even have a representative from our church on that. I hope that he's able to make a positive contribution here. I want to share with you some of the things that it's saying. This is looking at that same document, only close up now. I want to go to the middle the middle paragraph here, because I want you to get what is the major thrust of this organization? In the past few weeks since your election. Now, this is written by that forum to the current Pope, congratulating him on being appointed to the papacy at this time. And I want you to know, and this is a Christian organization, all different churches, Christian, Protestant churches. In the past few weeks since your election, we have listened with joy and hope to your public words. We are especially encouraged by the recurring theme in your message. What is it? The call to unity in a divided and wounded world. The need for missionary outreach in this era of uncertainty and conflict. And I want to emphasize the fact that We also believe in Christian unity, but not at all costs, folks. We believe in Christian unity on the basis of biblical truth, and we must not deviate from that. We cannot deviate from that. Moving on, the importance of the church serving as a bridge for dialogue and so on. These resonate deeply with the raison d'être of the Global Christian Forum, which is this organisation. and he goes on to talk more about unity here. Our forum was born in response to the high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that all may be one. Now folks, I'm going to put it to you that if you don't go along with this, you'll be in the doghouse, to put it mildly. This letter goes on to say down the bottom here, please be assured of our fervent prayers as you begin this sacred and historic service. May the Lord strengthen and sustain you for the path ahead. As Queen Esther was reminded in her hour of calling, so too we are reminded of you. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this. This is the Protestant Church's message to the new Pope. And like I said, I'm not making any reflection here on the Pope himself and his character, just what he stands for. and what he believes. And these are a great deal of concern to us. Now this is a great controversy, page 588. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism. They will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power. Folks, I'm sharing this with you because we are seeing this happen even as we sit here today in this church. It is happening now. And it's amazing. Great controversy again. When the leading churches of the United States uniting upon such points of doctrine as they held by them in common shall influence the state to enforce their decrees, now this hasn't happened, not yet, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties will inevitably result. Now we're not seeing that happen yet, and I want to emphasise the fact that there will be a crisis to bring this about. But we have seen how quickly a crisis can bring about world change with the COVID crisis. So folks, don't hold your breath. Great controversy again. Romanism in the old world and apostate Protestantism in the new will pursue a similar course towards those who honor all the divine precepts. Now, our focus is on America, because that's where it's going to start. Now, I want to talk about Donald Trump for a moment. Donald Trump, I've watched this and that's why I put it up on the screen. Maybe some of you saw him being interviewed and he was asked what he thought about the separation of church and which is a big hot potato in America at this moment. And this is what he said, I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. He was very ambivalent about it. He said, I don't know if it's good or bad. But I do want to point out something that is worth knowing, and that is, fortunately for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump is actually a Jew. She converted to Judaism when she married a Jewish man in America. And so they are faithfully attending. I was going to say they're probably attending a synagogue in America right now, but we're a day ahead of America. It's still Friday back there. So they won't be attending for a little while. But they attend a synagogue there and together. And I think that's in our interest, don't you? I recognise that a disaster can change things, a crisis can change things almost overnight. And at a certain point in time it will. But it's just a very helpful thing. I think it's important for us that we have this kind of backstop there at this present time. Very quickly, the American Supreme Court. Now, the American Supreme Court is a very powerful institution. It's the final interpreter. You can't see it too well here in the black. The final interpreter of the Constitution. Now, the first amendment to the Constitution of America actually guarantees the freedom of religion in America. Right? But the American Supreme Court interprets the statements in the Constitution. It guarantees freedom of religion, the First Amendment. But just to illustrate to you how important this could be, because they interpret freedom of religion, say for example, the Muslim movement in America churches, well, mosques in America, were to push for honor killing to be approved, for argument's sake. Then it would go to the Supreme Court to see if that contravened freedom of religion or if they should be allowed to do that. But they would obviously interpret freedom of religion to mean that that is subservient to protection of life. Because they acknowledged if there's a greater law than the lesser law, it becomes null and void, which is rather interesting indeed. So what I'm getting at is wanting to illustrate the power of the Supreme Court. There are nine judges on the American Supreme Court. Does anybody near her here know how many of those are Roman Catholic people? The judges on the Supreme Court? Look, I know it's six. There's six, but I had an idea that there might have been a seventh out of the nine. but I know there are definitely six that are Roman Catholics. 50 years ago, the Supreme Court judges were 100% Protestant. Today, there are no Protestants on the American Supreme Court. There are six, maybe seven Catholics. The others are Jewish people. Now, I'm putting it to you that that's also a safeguard for Seventh-day Adventists. Maybe you're sitting there and saying, well I want them to bring it on so we can all get home to the glory land. Well the part of me agrees with that, but on the other hand folks, we don't want our freedoms restricted sooner than they have to be. Just because our freedoms are restricted to worship as God has guided us to do and told us to do, doesn't mean it'll hasten the end of time. So anyhow, we've got that protection and I think it's an important important one, and I'm grateful for it. Going back to this statement, talking about the times in which we are living, all the world marveled and followed the beast. Now that is precisely where we are in prophetic time. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That tells you how important this is to get it right. He causes all, there it is again, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or in their foreheads. Folks, this is a worldwide event. I was amazed to see the nations of the world getting behind the COVID emergency. Even Hermit Kingdoms like North Korea were heavily into it, folks. They were all into it. And I'm thinking, isn't that interesting? You know, when an emergency comes, everybody gets on board. This is going to cause all. Now, folks, here's the good news. That's all the concerning news. Now the good news. The angel who unites in the proclamation of the third angel's message is to lighten the whole world, the whole earth with His glory, folks. Revelation makes that very clear. The whole earth is lightened with the glory of the angel in Revelation 18. A work of worldwide extent and unwanted power is here foretold. Dear friends, we have felt the moving of the Holy Spirit. We'll wait until His moving is in the latter rain experience. latter rain power. We need that and we need to be praying for that all the time, all of us, folks, without exception. There's going to be a tremendous amount of power and the result is going to be amazing. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord's side. So even though there'll be the opposition, folks, a large number of people respond to the call to come out of her my people and to receive the message of salvation and to be faithful to Jesus. And what a fantastic thing that is. Now this brings me to the last sign, the final indicator of the end of the age. This gospel of the kingdom, Jesus said, will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. I want you to notice something. If you ever, like me, have said, how are we ever going to get through to the whole world? I want you to notice this is a promise. Right? This gospel of the kingdom will be preached. Without doubt, folks, this is a promise. It's going to happen and then the end will come. It's already happening. Back in 2016, 100,000 people were baptized into the church in Uganda. I mean, folks, that's earth-shattering information when you think about it, isn't it? And then last year, what happened in Papua New Guinea? This is epoch-making events we're talking about here. 300,000 people. There was such a revival in the Christian of Christianity in Papua New Guinea last year. And I understand there's at least that many in the class ready as they call it, preparing for baptism now. 300,000 people. And I'm thinking to myself, look, it's no wonder your TV screen was just full of this information. But it wasn't, was it? You didn't hear a peep or a murmur on any news item. The Western world, dear friends, is decidedly anti-Christian and they don't want to know. But that is not the way it is in other parts of the world. In other parts of the world, the Holy Spirit is moving, the developing nations of the world, and this is just an illustration of what's going on. God's Spirit is working powerfully in some of these countries. And I still believe this, that the best days for the powerful moving of God's Spirit in our country here, Australia, are still ahead of us. I really believe it's still ahead. and we need to be working towards that and what a great day that will be when we see it. This is what Jesus said, I will come again. When you see all these things, lift up your heads, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am there you may be also and what a beautiful time it's going to be. Every tear wiped away, no more death, sorrow, crying, no more pain, folks. these are going to be all things of the past. That means a lot to a lot of people. And this beautiful statement from Great Controversy, I love this, human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the paradise of God, not in your wildest have you come close to what God is preparing for His children? That's you and me. We know the cross of Christ, dear Lord, He paid it all. Didn't He? Jesus paid it all and because of Him we can look forward to this and I want your heart to be filled with that as we close this sermon today. Father in heaven, we can only just say thank you that we are privileged to not only know that these signs are coming, but to see them happening around us at this time. I pray that yout'll keep us faithful, every one of us that is here in this church today, whether we are so familiar with this study that we had today or whether it's relatively new. Father, you know our hearts burn within us as we think about the times we're living in. I'd like to pray for every person in this church today whose heart is open to you this morning, that your spirit will fill them, that you'll sanctify them, that you'll empower them to tell the story of Jesus to everybody that they meet.
this message was made available by the Dora Creek Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit doracreek.church.
