When God has done something good for you, you’ve got to shout about it!
When He has healed you or blessed you financially, when He’s been good to you, you’ve got to give Him praise. You’ve got to shout hallelujah!
Those were the opening remarks of a message entitled The Four Hallelujahs, preached recently by Pastor Colin Thorne at the Pilgrim Road Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Christ Church.
The visiting minister took his main text from Revelation 19:1-7 after which he stressed “the Bible gives many reasons to praise God”.
He then took his listeners to the Book Of Genesis where he pointed out that when Adam and Eve fell, they gave their authority to the Devil who believed he was now the ruler of the earth.
Thorne also made reference to the Book Of Job. He said the enemy also wanted Job to fall, but Job overcame his numerous tests and trials.
“Jesus came to conquer the Devil through love and we must have perfect love, one for the other,” he stressed.
“If you want your church to be strong you must show love, for the Devil seeks to bring hate among the people of God.”
Thorne said that Jesus came and filled the place of the first Adam, thereby setting men free from the clutches of the enemy.
“The second Adam did not come as God or as an angel; he came as man. We must therefore understand the extent of what Jesus gave up to deliver mankind.
“The Father told Jesus you have to bear the Cross and be held up as shame for humanity; stripped of dignity. Jesus agreed to pay the price.”
Thorne said while the Devil thought Jesus’ death meant victory for him, Jesus proved that He had victory over death through His resurrection from the grave.
Thorne next likened the second coming of Jesus to that of a man preparing to marry his bride. He told his listeners that like in Jewish times of old, after a marriage between a man and a woman was established, the groom would wait 12 months at his father’s home before his father determined when he would return to his bride.
He said that likewise, “God alone knows when Jesus would return to take his bride (the Church).
“Matthew 24:36 says that of that day and that hour knoweth no man, not the angels of Heaven, only God.”
Thorne said that as in Jewish lore, the taking of the bride always took place at night and was preceded with a shout.
“Likewise, the Church of Jesus Christ (the bride) will precede the coming of Jesus with a shout of the Gospel – telling people to get ready. The shout comes with the people of God carrying the Gospel throughout the world.
“It will forewarn everyone to prepare for the groom’s (Jesus’) coming.
“On the day the trumpet sounds, those who were faithful to God will be resurrected to live forever with God.
“The groom is coming for the bride. They have been separated for too long. The saints of God will be shouting hallelujah.”
