In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of sharing the truth of God's word in a world filled with lies. He highlights that God's judgment begins with the earth after mankind has rejected His teachings. The preacher then focuses on the first trumpet judgment described in Revelation 8:7, where hail and fire are thrown to the earth, resulting in the burning of a third of the trees and all the green grass. The preacher emphasizes the consistency and precision of God's actions, making Him believable and trustworthy. Additionally, he encourages listeners to continually study and apply God's word in their lives, as it will deepen their understanding and meaning proportionate to God's work in their lives.

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. 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.