Well, we're going to go now to our
study in Revelation chapter 8.
Revelation chapter 8, we're going to look at
verses 6 through 13 this time.
And I'd like to begin by praying.
And I'd like to pray that God will
take each one of us and use us
with the things that he pours into us
today.
Father, as we come to the book of
Revelation, we are coming to you, Lord.
And we ask you to teach us, to
fill us, to empower us and to instruct
us, Father, in such a way that the
things before us remain with us long after
this brief time that we have in this
study.
And Lord, we pray that you would open
doors for us to share these things with
others.
These are very uncertain times in which we
live on the one hand, according to the
things of the world and how people view
them.
But when we come to the book of
Revelation, we see all the certainties of God.
And we pray, Lord, you would use us
to share the great hope of heaven and
salvation in Christ with many, many people in
these days.
May we make a difference by the power
of your spirit and by the love of
Christ in us.
And we ask these things in Jesus name.
Amen.
The title of this message is The Destruction
of Earth's Ecology, The Destruction of Earth's Ecology.
I think it goes without saying that people
today are very concerned about saving the environment.
That's a given.
We have fears all around us about the
depletion of the ozone layer, which is being
depleted.
We have the destruction of the rain for
us in South America.
We have global warning that's warming, that's constantly
in the news.
And then we have a whole entourage of
people that are so passionate about saving the
endangered species.
And there are many of those, everything from
whales to spotted owls to California condors and
a host of lesser known species.
So for many, protecting the environment has become
more than a concern for health and safety.
In a sense, it has become an issue
of idolatry.
And there is this pantheistic whole way of
life that has crept in to our world
where Mother Nature is the one who is
leading it all.
And certainly Earth Day reflects that.
Well, if you wonder where it's all going,
you need only to read in the Book
of Revelation and you'll find out that saving
the whales isn't really the answer.
God is going to later on create a
new heaven and a new earth, and that
is going to be the one that lasts.
Now, in front of us, we have come
to the point in the Book of Revelation
where the seal judgments have been delivered.
And coming to the seventh seal, as we
begin chapter eight, it is opened and out
of the seventh seal telescopic fashion come the
seven trumpet judgments.
And these begin in verse six as we
read that the seven angels who had the
seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
And so the first angel sounded and hail
and fire followed, mingled with blood and were
thrown to the earth and a third of
the trees were burned up and all the
grass was burned up.
Now, if I just might interject here, you
remember where we studied there was silence in
heaven for the space of about half an
hour.
The silence really, in the very truest sense,
has to do with the staggering reality of
the judgments that followed the silence.
It's as the seals are opened and as
all of heaven sees what's coming next, it
goes silent in awe of what God is
about to do.
And you understand why as you begin to
read these things.
And so the second angel, verse eight, sounded
and something like a great mountain burning with
fire was thrown into the sea and a
third of the sea became blood and a
third of the living creatures in the sea
died and a third of the ships were
destroyed.
A third, a third, a third.
Then the third angel sounded and a great
star fell from heaven, burning like a torch,
and it fell on a third of the
rivers and on the springs of water.
The name of this star is Wormwood.
A third of the waters became Wormwood and
many men died from the water because it
was made bitter.
Then the fourth angel sounded and a third
of the sun was struck and a third
of the moon and a third of the
stars.
So that a third of them were darkened
and a third of the day did not
shine.
And likewise, the night, verse 13.
And as I looked, I heard an angel
flying through the midst of heaven, saying with
a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the
inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining
blasts of the trumpet of the three angels
who are about to sound.
That's as far as we'll go this time.
In front of us, we have the brewing
storm.
We have the boiling sea.
We have the banished star and we have
the blackened sky.
We're going to look at those one by
one to begin with.
The brewing storm begins with the seven angels,
verse six, who had seven trumpets prepared to
sound as soon as they sound those trumpets.
The storm breaks loose.
But before we get into that, I want
to draw your attention to something here.
And that is the consistency and precision of
God makes him so believable.
I want you to see that as we
come to study the book of Revelation, one
of the things we're finding out is that
it's understandable.
It is not a book of all allegory.
It's understandable.
And as you come to the book of
Revelation, you find that a lot of things
aren't new.
They're gathered into the book of Revelation from
other parts of the Bible.
And what you discover is that the consistency
and the precision of God makes him so
believable so that the book of Revelation is
designed to bless all of those who read
it.
Remember that in the beginning, there's a blessing
promised.
And that is because what is here is
true and it's believable.
And we can put our lives on the
line with the truth that is here.
But to me, as I read the seven
angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to
sound, I am reminded of the fact that
God is so consistent and God is so
precise.
Hold your place in Revelation eight, six, and
take your Bible and turn to the Old
Testament, to the book of Joshua, to chapter
six, verse three, Joshua, chapter six, verse three.
At this point, the children of Israel have
crossed over into the promised land and Joshua
was sitting, looking at this incredible fortress, the
biggest fortress on earth across the Jordan River.
And God came to him.
The Lord came to him and he gave
him the plan to conquer the city.
There was absolutely no way they could conquer
this city.
And so God gives him the plan.
Joshua is a general.
Imagine receiving this plan from God.
Here's the plan.
Joshua, six, three, you shall march around the
city with all your men of war.
You should go all around the city once
this you shall do for six days.
So what I want you to do is
get the army, go on up to the
city in silence, march around at once, and
then go back to your camp.
Do that every day for six days.
And then seven priests, verse four, shall bear
seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.
But the seventh day you shall march around
the city seven times and the priest shall
blow the trumpets.
So on the seventh day, you march around
seven times with the priest blowing the trumpets
as you go.
Then verse five, it shall come to pass
when they make a long blast, that would
be on the seventh time around.
When they make a long blast with the
ram's horn and when you hear the sound
of the trumpet.
That all the people shall shout with a
great shout and then the wall of the
city will fall down flat and the people
shall go up every man straight before him.
So here are seven priests, seven trumpets, seven
day, seventh day, seven times around on the
seventh long blast.
The stronghold of man and Satan comes down.
That's what's happening here in the book of
Revelation.
That is exactly what is happening.
Seven angels are given seven trumpets.
They sound and on the seventh trumpet out
comes the bold judgments.
They go rapid fire and when they are
done, the strongholds of man and Satan are
torn down.
God is very consistent the way he does
things.
Jericho is a picture of what we see
happening in the book of Revelation.
It's not a stretch.
It is God being consistent so that I
believe what happened to Jericho.
So did Joshua after it happened.
And what is what a thrill it is
to read that, because I can then go
to the book of Revelation.
And as soon as I read these familiar
terms, I'm going, yeah, this is God at
work.
God's about to bring victory over evil and
man and his godlessness and sin.
So then I look at the book of
Revelation and I come to these trumpet judgments
and I see God is consistent.
It's easy for me to believe it.
There's nothing farfetched about it.
I don't have to go and wrestle with
it.
Is this really going to happen?
I know it's going to.
So we see the consistency of God and
the clarity of his presentation.
God's word in Revelation then is easy to
believe.
Pass that on to someone else.
No doubt God is doing this as his
way of preserving his Revelation.
You come to the book of Revelation and
you can see Christ here.
And it's so clear, so easy to believe,
then you can believe him for salvation.
You can believe him for the promises that
are here.
You can believe him for the hope of
eternal life in a place where there will
be no more tears or pain.
And you can believe him for every stated
hope that is here of all the souls
that will be saved, of all the glory,
of all the grace, of all the mercy.
Vance Avner put it so well when he
said, No Bible subject holds more practical implications
than the matter of prophecy.
And you can begin to see why.
It's very practical as it ministers to your
faith, to your hope, to your vision, all
of these things.
So here before us, we just went back
to Joshua.
We're in Revelation.
We're in chapter eight.
And we are finding even right now that
the Bible broadens and deepens proportionate to our
study.
Would you agree to that?
The Bible broadens and deepens proportionate to our
study and then applying it to our lives.
I don't know about you, but in in
these days in which we are living as
the different things are going on in the
world, I'm looking at the news and I'm
looking at my Bible.
I'm looking at Revelation as hard times hit,
as I have a physical affliction or whatever.
I'm looking into my Bible thinking, you know
what?
It's OK because heaven's waiting for me.
And one of these days, oh, yeah, you
know, you lay down with a bad back
on the bed.
It's like, oh, brother, you know, and you
just kind of ease your way into the
pillow and you get your head just right
over there.
And oh, man, heaven's coming.
I'm going to have the greatest body in
heaven.
I'm going to be looking so good and
I'm going to feel good forever.
And you know what?
This is practical.
This is from the word of God.
And I thank God that it's so clear
and it's easy to believe and it has
application in my life.
It broadens and deepens proportionate to my study
and the application of it in my life.
And watch this one.
I really like this.
It broadens and deepens proportionate to the work
of God in your life.
Isn't that good?
God is working in your life.
He works in your life through his word.
And as he works in your life through
his word, he opens up the word of
God.
He makes it alive and he applies it
to your life right now.
It broadens and deepens and takes on more
meaning proportionate to his work in your life
right now.
And he's always working.
So I want to make sure my Bible's
always open.
So here we see the trumpet judgments coming
on now.
God is going to start burning up creation.
That's a pretty heavy thing to contemplate.
What he's doing is he has a plan
where he's going to wind things down for
the human race, judge the ungodly, save the
righteous, take them out to heaven.
Then he's going to restore the earth and
enter in with Christ coming back to a
thousand year reign of Christ on earth.
Before he does that, he's going to basically
scour and cleanse the earth.
The way that he does it, to make
it very simple, is with the judgments we
see in front of us.
Trumpets, then bowls, then he's done.
Christ comes back and it's all scoured and
cleaned off.
And he's preserved the 144,000 and believing
Jews and things like that.
He takes them safely into the thousand years.
But this is simply the way he does
it.
And it helps to see it that way.
So as God is beginning to do this,
you have to ask the question, why then
is he starting with creation?
Why with the trees and all of that?
Why does it go on up into the
moon and to the sun and to the
stars?
Well, a big part of it is because
God is now going to begin to judge
man for rejecting his light in creation.
Hold your place and turn to Romans.
Now we're going to come back and plow
through this.
Romans chapter one, verse 18.
This will take on fresh meaning to you
as we read it in the light of
Revelation.
Romans 118 says, For the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who, notice, suppress the truth
in unrighteousness.
It takes an aggressive act on your part
to suppress the truth of God, because what
may be known of God is manifest in
them.
For God has shown it to them.
Where?
Verse 20.
For since the creation of the world, his
invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by
the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without
excuse.
Because although they knew God, they did not
glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but
became futile in their thoughts.
And their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to
be wise.
They became fools.
And here it is.
They changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made like corruptible man, birds,
four-footed animals and creeping things.
In other words, man has throughout his history
rejected the light of God that's in creation.
How much can you know about God from
creation?
You can know about his eternal power and
Godhead, and that is enough to tell you
that God is real and he exists.
As you respond to that light, he will
bring the light of Christ to you.
As you respond to that, he'll bring you
all the way up to knowing Christ and
take you all the way to heaven.
But man has rejected all that.
And so now that he's rejected it all,
God comes in and he begins to take
it away.
And so the judgment begins with the earth.
Go back to Revelation eight to verse seven.
And we come to the judgment of the
first trumpet.
The first angel sounded and hail and fire
followed, mingled with blood and they were thrown
to the earth.
There's nothing casual about this thing thrown to
the earth.
And a third of the trees were burned
up and all the green grass was burned
up.
Hail and fire.
So picture this.
You have fire and ice.
Really burning up hot and really freezing and
they're thrown to the earth.
I spent some time this week researching giant
hailstones and I was absolutely shocked to see
the damage that is done by hailstones.
I mean, I've seen cars pitted, you know,
and taken shelter under bridges and storms.
But it wasn't until I began to research
it that I actually saw with my eyes
hailstones the size of baseballs.
And I saw a picture of a windshield
that was absolutely just bashed in from one
hailstone like that.
Then I read about in India in the
late 1800s, they had a storm in India
with hailstones the size of basketballs.
Basketballs.
Can you imagine that would be more like
than a bowling ball falling out of the
sky?
Freezing bowling balls and many people were killed.
So imagine all of a sudden this angel
is going to blow his trumpet.
Hailstones are going to begin to drop out
of the sky.
We've already seen without this judgment on planet
Earth hailstones size of baseballs, bowling balls.
They do destruction.
It's unbelievable.
Bashing roofs, knock over trees, kill people.
It's going to be horrible.
And fire dropping at the same time.
And then blood.
Now, whether this is red air or from
volcanic ash in the air or whether it's
blood.
There's going to be blood everywhere anyhow from
the hailstones hitting people.
It's going to be a fiery, freezing, bloody
mess.
It'll be terrifying.
And yet God is consistent.
God is precise.
And God is very clear.
This is not new.
You find it in the Bible already.
Do you know where?
In Exodus, in the plagues, when Moses was
used of God to deliver the children of
Israel from Exodus.
Turn in your Bible to Exodus 9, 23.
Exodus 9, 23, Moses stretched out his rod
toward heaven.
And the Lord sent thunder and hail and
fire darted to the ground and the Lord
rained hail on the land of Egypt.
So there was hail and fire mingled with
the hail.
So very heavy that there was none like
it in all the land of Egypt since
it became a nation.
So here is God judging men with these
very things, hail and fire.
At that time, God isolated it to the
land of Egypt.
He even protected the children of Israel from
it.
He was in full control of where it
landed, as he will be here for a
read of the results.
A third, a third, a third, a third.
It's all very precise and measured and controlled
by God.
But whereas the fire and ice in Egypt
was just in the country of Egypt, this
will be global.
So you get the idea of the magnitude
of this.
Now, back in Revelation 8, we say the
blood, the fire, the hail and the effect
of this judgment is that God gets involved
himself in global warming.
That's the effect of it on a grand
scale.
With all of this thrown to the earth,
you have the result of it is that
a third of the trees are burned up.
You ever seen a forest fire?
It's incredible to see it.
And when you have these fires in California
every year, they have these fires.
You remember seeing on the news the Laguna
Beach fire?
I was there standing on the hills right
where it started watching it.
It is something unlike.
I remember standing looking at it just over
on the other hilltop.
The wind was blowing in the opposite direction.
It just was burning.
It looked like hell, what you would imagine
hell to be like.
That was only one area in one city
and one beach.
This is going to be global where one
third of the trees on planet Earth are
burned up.
If ecologists think they're having trouble with the
rainforest now, wait until God gets involved.
And you know, the thing is that is
so scary to me is that oxygen comes
from the trees.
So, I don't know about you, but have
you ever been in a tight place where
you can't breathe very well?
Or you may have a little bit of
asthma or whatever.
Think about one third of the trees on
planet Earth burning up, filling the skies with
smoke, but also then depriving the earth from
oxygen.
It's going to be very hard to breathe.
Did you know that in the United States
right now, deforestation has already advanced to the
point that our country only produces about 60
% of the oxygen that we need to
breathe?
That means we're getting oxygen from over the
border.
So, one way or the other.
So, the bottom line is that I've had
days where I've walked around the smog in
big cities and it's just hard to breathe.
Your eyes burn.
You can't see the next stoplight hardly.
And the air isn't clean.
And now I know why.
We're not producing enough oxygen.
But I read of a time that's coming
when one third of the trees are going
to be burned up.
And there's another thing you can add to
that besides hard to breathe.
Where's all the fruit going to go?
A lot of food will be burned up
as well.
Then all the green grass.
This takes a huge toll on the world's
food supply.
And so there will be this first judgment
that will be horrible beyond anything ever seen.
Let's go to the boiling sea.
We've seen the brewing storm.
Let's go to the boiling sea.
Verses eight and nine.
Then the second angel sounded and something like
a great mountain burning with fire was thrown
into the sea.
This is the second trumpet judgment.
Something, notice, like a great mountain burning with
fire.
So it's not really a mountain, but it's
like a mountain.
Now, it's helpful just to see that something
like a great mountain, because the next thing
that we see falling out of the sky
is like a star.
So the bottom line is what you're going
to see is this.
This thing like a great mountain burning with
fire that falls into the ocean is intact
when it hits.
The next thing that falls out of the
sky basically diffuses into pieces as it hits
the Earth's atmosphere and falls over a broad
area on the land.
This hits the ocean intact.
So that we read of a great something
like a great mountain burning with fire landing
in the sea.
It's going to have one impact location so
that I don't know if any of you
ever saw the movie Deep Impact.
The whole movie strings you out as everybody
on planet Earth is monitoring this big meteor
asteroid type thing that's heading its way toward
Earth.
They string you out the whole movie.
And then you're watching it thinking, well, yeah,
but this is a movie and these things
never really hit.
They save the day in outer space.
It'll never hit.
But in this movie, it hits everybody screaming
and running and all of the things.
Well, if you've seen that movie, that's exactly
what's going to happen.
The thing about that movie is when it's
over, you go, oh, phew, at least it's
a movie.
It's not really going to happen.
Sorry, you better read Revelation.
It is going to happen.
And so what's going to happen is then
people will be watching on their TVs, monitoring
this thing for days, weeks, months.
It's coming this way.
There'll be countdowns and everything else.
And the thing is, is that it is
going to hit.
And when it hits, it plunges into the
sea.
We read that in verse eight.
And the result of it is a third
of the sea becomes blood.
The third of the sea becomes blood.
Henry Morris, in his commentary on Revelation, he
says he takes a scientific look at Revelation.
He says the mighty explosion on impact will
dwarf that of an atomic bomb and will
be terrifying beyond all imagination.
The destruction of life in the sea will
be tremendous.
The poisoned waters, like a great red tide,
will spread out to the waters of all
the other oceans so that a third part
of the sea becomes blood.
It will dwarf that of an atom bomb.
It will hit the ocean and it turns
the ocean to blood.
One third of it, then a third of
the living creatures in the sea die.
So there goes the fishing industry.
You've seen the fruit industry go with the
burning of the trees.
You've seen the marijuana industry go with the
burning of the green grass.
I had to find a place to throw
that in there somewhere.
Too bad for the potheads.
And then a third of the creatures in
the sea died.
So the people in Malibu that voted for
dolphins to have equal rights with people are
going to be really upset.
But then imagine this.
It says a third of the ships were
destroyed.
That means that just imagine this thing hitting
the ocean with a deep impact.
And as it hits the ocean, it exceeds
that of an atom bomb and its impact.
So that a third of the ships are
destroyed.
That means what you're going to have is
tsunamis, tidal waves, not just going out in
one direction, but every direction from the impact
zone.
So that one third of the ships, that's
warships, that's fishing boats, that's any kind of
ship, cruise ships.
One third of the ships on the ocean
at that time will be destroyed.
And as the tidal waves hit the ports,
ships will be wiped out in port as
well.
And cities will be wiped out as the
tidal waves hit the ocean, hit the shore.
So a third of the ships are destroyed.
Now, as we go through this and you
see a third, a third, a third, a
third.
One thing that tells us is how precise
God is.
Another thing it tells us, a third, is
that he's not done yet.
Oh, my.
And so I am so thankful that I
know Jesus Christ.
These things are real.
These things are literal.
They're not allegorical.
They read clearly.
They read precisely.
They are coming on the world.
And so we have seen the boiling sea.
Let's go to the banished star.
This is in the judgment of the third
trumpet, verse 10.
And the third angel sounded.
And a great star fell from heaven, burning
like a torch.
And it fell on a third of the
rivers and on the springs of water.
So whereas the thing like a mountain had
a localized impact in the ocean, God goes
from burning up the trees, burning up the
grass on land, out into the sea, judges
the sea, and then back now to the
fresh water supply on the land.
And a great star fell from heaven, burning
like a torch, and fell on a third
of the rivers.
To fall on a third of the rivers,
you understand then that as it hits the
earth's atmosphere, it has to disintegrate and thus
all the particles land on this broad area
that covers a third of the rivers.
Then it poisons the water so it goes
all the way down into the tables of
water underneath the surface of the land so
that the springs of water, it says here,
are polluted and poisoned as well.
The effect of this is that a third
of the fresh water supply on the earth
is destroyed.
This is so horrific.
I can't imagine, honestly.
I don't think any of us can.
I am a bottled water fanatic.
When I moved here to the great thriving
metropolis of Mokina, Illinois, we had Mokina water.
And I felt like I was in purgatory.
The smell of rotten eggs pervaded my world
and my flesh felt like leather.
When I got out of the shower, I
was angry.
Hey, if your water isn't right, life can
be rough.
Thank God as we bore down in prayer,
we got Chicago water.
I'm just kidding.
But I'm just trying to give you a
perspective on how water affects our life.
When one third of the drinking water is
destroyed and the springs of water...
Listen, you can store away food.
You can can it, you can freeze dry
it and all that stuff.
But if you don't have fresh water, you
cannot live.
And so we read that a great many
men, verse 11, many men died from the
water because it was poisoned.
The name of the star is Wormwood.
It comes burning like a torch.
The Greek word rendered torch in the English
comes from the...
The Greek word is lampas, something like that.
And it's the word they use in those
days to describe an asteroid or a meteorite.
Burning like a torch, it's coming toward the
earth and it's flaming behind.
This is an asteroid or a meteorite.
And it's coming to the earth, it hits
the earth and it poisons the water and
it's called Wormwood.
And in the original Greek, you have the
word from which we get the English word
absence.
And it's basically very strong poison.
So the water is destroyed, one third of
it.
Many men die from the banished star that
comes hitting the earth asteroid.
Finally, the blackened sky, verse 12 and 13,
the fourth trumpet judgment.
Then the fourth angel sounded and a third
of the sun was struck and a third
of the moon and a third of the
stars.
The effect of this is that they are
darkened.
So there's a decrease in light.
And if the sun is struck, whether it's
an eclipse of some kind or whatever, however,
God does it.
If you have a third of the sun
and its power to shine gone in the
daytime, then the temperature on earth is going
to be radically lowered.
That will immediately affect all the weather patterns
on the whole planet.
And you will then have storms breaking out
that are unlike anything seen before.
And where it is very, very, very cold
already, it's going to get a lot colder.
So you're going to have the problem of
freezing and everything else.
New weather patterns that will change the tides.
The tides will become erratic on the beaches.
And I'll tell you, heading toward all of
this, having an oceanfront home just doesn't sound
as good as it used to.
So everything will be affected by this.
And a third of the moon's light and
the light of the stars.
So as you look at this, I can
recall being in, I don't know how long
ago it was, maybe 15 years ago.
There was an eclipse of the sun.
I don't know if any of you remember
that.
But out in California, I remember looking out
my office window when it happened and one
of the guys in the church was down
at the ocean and he actually took a
picture of it.
So I have a picture of it on
my shelf to remind me of that eclipse
of the sun.
And when the moon went right in front
of it and it got so dark and
it was so spooky.
Can you imagine when the sun goes dark,
it's going to get so spooky down here
on Earth.
And this is all coming.
And then suddenly this angel begins to fly
through the heavens saying, Whoa, whoa, whoa, three
woes because three more trumpets are coming to
the inhabitants of the Earth.
Whoa.
The inhabitants of the Earth is a technological
term for those on planet Earth that don't
know Christ at this time.
The inhabitants of the Earth.
In Revelation, it's a technical term for those
that don't know Christ.
Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth because
of the remaining blasts of the trumpet that's
going to sound.
So, whoa, here it is.
You know, you know, it amazes me.
It's so tragic.
Here's how people that maybe grew up in
church.
The perpetual endless youth group people you meet.
I once pastored a youth group.
They're everywhere and they're backslidden.
They're ungodly.
I've met them all over the world.
He's drunk.
He's talking to me.
I once was a youth group leader.
Yeah, you and everybody else.
I've met drunk lately.
You know, thank God for good godly youth
group leaders.
But there's a lot of them running around
that grew up in church and they don't
know the Lord.
And as you look at all of this,
you realize there's people everywhere.
That are backslidden.
There's people everywhere that have a history of
growing up, hearing about Jesus Christ.
And it's so tragic to me that people
like that come to the book of Revelation
and they'll just grab a verse here, a
verse there.
Like they'll come to this one.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
To the inhabitants of the Earth and they'll
draw cartoons and they're there.
They'll just mock what is in the Bible.
Like, look at God torching man, you know.
And you come and you look at that
initially and you think, yeah, how could the
God of the Bible be so awful?
Burning everybody up.
And absent from all of that is the
holiness of an infinite God.
The grace of the same God who so
loved man, he sent his only begotten son.
That whoever would believe on him could reverse
all of this.
Be forgiven of their sin, have everlasting life.
I think God wants to use those of
us that understand the word right here today
to go out.
And if you come across a picture like
that or a mocker like that, sit them
down.
Just explain it to them.
You know what?
This is a gracious God who went the
extra mile.
And he saves people even during this.
And judgment is his strange work and salvation
is what he loves to do best of
all.
Most of all.
We need to tell anybody that will listen
the truth.
Because there's too many people spouting out lies
today.
We need to know the truth and just
share it.
You know what?
You'd be amazed at how people are so
intrigued when they hear it.
Really, I've never heard it like this.
How do you know these things?
You just flip around the Bible.
Go with me to Joshua.
You know, go with me to judges and
let's see the trumpets blasting.
You know, and you know, you just dial
it in for them.
You just show them in the Bible and
it's great.
And you don't have to be a genius
to do that.
You just need to know what's in your
Bible.
And then you read them to the Lord
and salvation in Jesus Christ.
You lead them to him.
Salvation in Christ.
Is all of Christ.
That's what I like.
I see these judgments.
I see the warnings of the angels.
And I see how scary all this is.
And I thank God that the reason I
know I'm going to miss all this is
because Christ is never going to let me
go.
I know along the way I'm going to
have a bad day, a bad month.
And Christ is never going to let me
go.
And as I tell people about my Christ,
I tell them of a Christ who when
he saves you, he will make sure you
make it.
Because that's the thing that everybody worries about.
I don't think I could convert and do
that.
You seem to be able to tow the
line.
I don't think I could ever tow the
line.
Listen, I can't tow any line.
But my Savior has towed me all these
years.
And he's going to tow me all the
way into heaven.
Because when salvation occurs in your life, it's
all of God and all of grace.
I want to close on a happy note.
I want to read from Charles Spurgeon's morning
and evening devotion this morning.
And he speaks on the scripture, salvation is
of the Lord.
I just want to wash your souls and
your hearts with comfort and the grace of
God as we come to an end here.
Salvation, he says, is the work of God.
It is he alone who quickens the soul
dead and trespasses and sins.
And it is he also who maintains the
soul in its spiritual life.
He is both alpha and omega.
Salvation is of the Lord.
If I am prayerful, God has made me
prayerful.
If I have graces, they are gifts God
has given to me.
If I hold on to a consistent life,
it is because he upholds me with his
hand.
I do nothing whatever toward my own preservation
except what God himself first does in me.
Whatever I have, all my goodness is of
the Lord alone.
Wherein I sin, that is my own.
But wherein I act rightly, that is of
God, holy and completely.
If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the
Lord's strength nerved my arm.
Do I live before men a consecrated life?
It is not I, but Christ who lives
in me.
Am I sanctified?
I did not cleanse myself.
God's Holy Spirit sanctifies me.
Am I weaned from the world?
I am weaned by God's chastisements, sanctified to
my good.
Do I grow in knowledge?
The great instructor teaches me.
All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art.
I find in God all that I want,
but I find in myself nothing but sin
and misery.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
Do I feed on the Word?
The Word would be no food for me
unless the Lord made it food for my
soul and helped me to feed upon it.
Do I live on the manna which comes
down from heaven?
What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself
incarnate, whose body and blood I eat and
drink?
Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength?
Where do I gather my might?
My help comes from heaven's hills.
Without Jesus, I can do nothing.
As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except
it abide in the vine.
No more can I, except I abide in
him.
Salvation is of the Lord.
And I am so glad for that, aren't
you?
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Thank you, Jesus, for saving us.
Thank you for your generous grace that you
have lavished on each one of us.
And Lord, we pray that now you would
take us forward by your Holy Spirit, that
you would enable us to rest in the
goodness of these things we've just contemplated.
And Father, that we would go and we
would, in the words of Paul the Apostle,
be found teaching every man and warning every
man, that they may be found in Jesus
Christ, in the salvation that is all of
God.
Use us, Lord, open doors for us to
share Christ and empower us with the love
of your Spirit.
May we be constrained by the love of
Christ, Father, to share Jesus with those who
need him.
And we will give you all the glory.
For we ask these things, expecting a wonderful
work in our lives.
For we ask these things in Jesus' name,
Amen.