So as we look at the latter part
of this chapter and these four trumpets that sound and reveal things
that God is doing in the earth to people, to sinners, let's consider the whole time
the first five verses. It's important as we read what
transpires when these trumpets are sounded that we keep in mind
those first five verses. The reason the catastrophes are
happening to a third part and not the whole is because of the
intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ that we saw in those first
five verses. He prayed for somebody. And so
God's wrath doesn't fall on everybody. third part, a specific number
that only God knows. And it is intercession, we need
to remember this, this is intercession that originates from the altar.
It starts at the altar where Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom
for all those for whom he intercedes. His precious blood stains the
coals upon that altar where the sacrifice slain Blood he shed
which redeemed and sanctified all of his elect and accomplished
salvation for his people And it's those coals with that blood
on them that causes the sweet-smelling savor of Christ's intercession
to rise to God for us the Savior's intercession for us And you remember
how important that is. The difference between Judas
and Simon was the Lord said, Simon, I've prayed for you. Satan
hath desired you that he might sift you as wheat. That's what
he did to Judas. But the Lord told Simon, I've
prayed for you, that your faith fail not. And it didn't. And that's why. That's the only
reason it didn't. So the Lord Jesus interceding
for us is integral to his sacrifice. If he doesn't intercede for you,
if he doesn't pray for you, like he said in John 17, I don't pray
for this world, I pray for those you've given me. If he's not
praying for you, then his sacrifice has nothing to do with you. It
goes together, it's integral. And let me say this as clear
as I can now before we move on. Christ's intercession for those
whom he loves has love from eternity and represents, it's not well
wishes for us. It's not putting in a good word
for us. It is intercession based upon
his perfect sacrifice offered for our sins. And it has a certain
eternal result because of who he is. He said, the Father heareth
me always. That doesn't just mean he perceives
the sound of his prayers. That means whatever the Son asks,
the Father does. And he asked mercy for us, sanctification
for us, peace for us, unity. Father, I pray that they would
be one, even as we are one, one with us, acceptance with the
Father. Turn to John 17 in fact for a
minute, that's where I was just quoting from, but I want you
to notice something that before the Lord Jesus Christ asks for
all of this, for us in John 17, this is his high priestly prayer
for his elect. This is the high priest entering
that most holy place, not without blood, and putting the incense
on the coals and bringing that censer in, and the smoke of that
incense went up. This is what's happening in John
17. The sweet-smelling savor of Christ's intercession for
us. And notice that before he asks for all these things, he
said, I've manifested my name to them, you gave them me, they've
kept thy word, They've known, I've given unto them the words.
I pray for them, I pray not for the world, all mine are thine.
Keep them, keep them through thy name, those that you've given
me, that they may be one even as we are. And he prayed, you know, my favorite
part of it, which is hard to even say in this wonderful chapter. But he said, Father, I will that
those you've given me be with me where I am. But before he
prayed for all those things for us, salvation, eternal blessing,
notice what he said in verse four. Before all of that, before
he intercedes specifically for us, he says this, I've glorified
you on the earth. My whole business in this world
was to do what you sent me to do. I do always those things
that please the Father, he said. I've finished the work that you
gave me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. You see what he's saying? I've
done everything necessary that they might be forever blessed.
Now bless them. Boy, that's everything right
there. That's salvation. It doesn't get no better than
that. But notice also, he said there
in verse nine, let me say it again, I pray not for the world.
Those who reject, despise, and are the enemies of Christ, those
are the ones who the rest of Revelation chapter eight are
about. Let me remind us of one other
thing before we get into the passage itself. to try to match these revelations
here at the sounding of these trumpets, the opening of the
book, the opening of the seals, and the sounding of these seven
trumpets, to try to match these revelations here to specific
events or people or places or times is a fool's errand. It's nothing but speculation.
This is God's judgment against sinners now. And some say, oh,
this is God, he's gonna judge us. He's been judging sinners
from the start. His judgment has been, and wrath
has hung over the heads of sinners from the start, those who reject
him. It's something that has always taken place. Everybody
thinks that most of, if not all of the book of Revelation has
to do with what's gonna happen one of these days. No, it doesn't. Not this part. And it applies
to every sinner outside of Christ. Everyone. God's wrath is upon
you. No matter where you are in this
world, what your circumstances are, who you are, what you've
done. If you have Christ, you have life. If not, then all of
the judgment of God is against you. If you're in Christ, every
blessing God has is yours. Can your mind run with that for
a little while? If you're not, then everything
bad that he can do to you, he's gonna do. He will exhaust his
wrath upon you forever. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. That means when the Lord comes,
let him put you in hell forever. And that's just that the Lord
is that lovely. He's altogether lovely in so
much that if you don't love him, the only place for you is eternal
hell. That's how lovely he is. And that's just the truth now.
But this is God's judgment against all sinners all the time, everywhere. It applies to every sinner just
because God executes his wrathful judgments in his own time and
some haven't experienced them yet, doesn't mean the wrath of
God is not always upon the wicked. God judging sinners and finding
them wanting and them experiencing his wrath are two different things,
but they are integral to one another. Here's what it looks
like in spiritual language, verse seven. The first angel sounded
and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood. And they
were cast upon the earth and the third part of trees was burned
up and all green grass was burned up. Now this angel sounding is
called a trumpet. It's the sound of a trumpet.
He's sounding a trumpet. And that's the piercing, distinct,
unmistakable, powerful voice of God. The angel, the messenger
may be sounding the noise, but it's God speaking. And you have
to hear from God tonight, not me, or it will do no good. It will profit us nothing. The gospel is the saver of life
and also death to some. God sends a messenger, but the
message is his. It's his voice. that happens
in the earth This and all the other consequences of the other
trumpets sounding all of it is according to God's will And it's
his doing He speaks and it happens in the earth Now if we truly Try to apply
this judgment that's sounded in this trumpet to something
specific. Again, we're just twisting in
the wind of speculation. But we know that God's judgment
is pictured here by the hail and fire as we see elsewhere
in scripture. And I think we'll refer to that
in a minute here, but I want to look at some other things
first. Notice that it's upon all those who are outside of
Christ. The same third part that was affected in the opening of
the seals. Those who know not the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're called trees here. Notice that a third part
of trees. Now these are specific sinners.
They are specific sinners, but it's all of them. Whoever they
are. Now think about this. We see God's judgment in the
scripture upon Pharaoh. And that's in the book of Exodus.
But listen to what Romans 9.17 says about that. The scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. Now God showed
his power in Pharaoh. He made an example of Pharaoh,
of his power, the almighty power of God. to do with whom he pleases,
the authority of God to do with whom he pleases what he pleases
and of course his power to wipe out anybody with just a thought.
Now this happening to Pharaoh doesn't mean that God's wrath
on Pharaoh is greater than on a sinner who lives a nice comfortable
life all of his life and dies in his sleep. God's judgment
is not any harsher upon Pharaoh than it is that person who just
sails through life on a sea of ease and dies a good death. Except how can you call it a
good death when you've got to meet God? Without Christ. It's no different. God's wrath
is equally on both of them. He just showed it on Pharaoh. You see what that's saying? Willing
to show his wrath. I raised you up that I might
show my power in you. Let me show you that principle
in Luke 13. Turn over there with me, Luke
chapter 13, verse two. Luke 13 too, and Jesus answering
said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? I
tell you no, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Just because horrible things
happened to Pharaoh or these Galileans, You perish because
you don't have Christ, and that's why they perished, and you will
likewise perish, suddenly, violently, and eternally. That's the likewise. It may not be the same manner
exactly, as far as what happens to you while you're still alive
on this earth, but it's gonna be terrible. It's gonna be the
wrath of God on you. Verse four, or those 18 upon
whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew there. What a horrible
thing. Of all the times that that tower
could have fallen, if you were one of those people's loved ones,
you'd have been thinking, if that would have happened 10 minutes
earlier, my loved one wouldn't have been killed. And if it would
have fallen three feet the other direction, they would have been
fine. How in the world can this happen? God's judgment must have
been on them. Yeah, it was. But listen to what
he said. Or those 18 upon whom the tower
in Siloam fell and slew them all? Slew them? Think ye that
they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell
you, no, but except you repent and believe on Christ. That's
what repentance is. Repentance and faith are two
sides of the same coin. You shall all likewise. It doesn't mean a tower's gonna
fall on you, but it means you're going to hell. I mean, I hate
to just say it bluntly like that, but how else can I say that?
Is there a nice way to say you're going to hell? If I can think
of one, I'll start saying it that way. Remember Korah and his followers
and his family in Numbers chapter 16? When they challenged God's
authority, Moses and Aaron, the high priest and God's man that
God had chosen and put over Israel, it says the earth opened her
mouth and swallowed them up in Numbers 16, 32. That's a pretty
dramatic display of the wrath of God. The earth opened its
mouth and swallowed them up. God made an example of them.
But God's wrath is equally upon all who refuse to bow to God's
authority, Christ, our high priest. And then it says the grass. So
there are individuals that are judged. But think about this,
the grass. Trees are individual and identifiable. You can count trees pretty easy.
If there's a beautiful tree, you're going to notice it. But
you walk into a field of grass back here and point out a single
blade of grass. You can't even pick one, can
you, from a distance unless you get real close. And then what's
special about that? So this grass, what is that talking
about? This grass is all flesh. All of it. You see the difference
now? God's wrath and judgment, which
is pictured by the hail with fire and blood, falls upon sinners,
individual sinners who don't know Christ, who refuse to reject
and despise the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's also upon all flesh,
period. First Peter 124, for all flesh
is as grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falleth away. That's a reference to, that's
first Peter 124. It's a reference to Isaiah 40 verse six. Only
a third part of the trees is destroyed, individual sinners,
but all of the grass is destroyed in this verse. The death of our
flesh as believers is inevitable. Why is that? Because of sin.
It's because of sin. But Christ has made even that
a blessing to his sheep. Our flesh must die too. But it's gonna be a blessing.
It's gonna be a happy thing because of Christ. God has given us the
victory in Christ. The death of this flesh is gonna
just be our corruption putting on incorruption. It's just gonna
be this mortal putting on immortality. in so much that death will be
swallowed up in victory. Now let's talk about the hail
and fire for a minute. I want us to notice something
that's very, very important in this. Remember the first part
of Revelation chapter eight, the intercession of Christ comes
before judgment. There are some who will not be
touched by this hail. Notice a parallel to that in
Exodus chapter 9 turn with me if you would please to Exodus
chapter 9 Verse 13 Exodus 9 13 and the Lord said
unto Moses rise up early in the morning and Stand before Pharaoh
and say unto him thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews Let my
people go That they may serve me for I will at this time send
all my plagues upon thine heart and upon my servants and upon
my people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in
all the earth and For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may
smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shalt be
cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause
have I raised you up, for to show in thee my power, and that
my name may be declared throughout all the earth. As yet exaltest
thou thyself against my people, that thou will not let him go.
Behold, tomorrow, about this time, I will cause it to rain
a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since
the foundation thereof, even until now. Send therefore now
and gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field,
for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field
and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon
them and they shall die. He that feared the word of the
Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle
flee into the houses. And he that regarded not the
word of the Lord left his servants and cattle in the field. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven. that there may be hail
in all the land of Egypt, upon man and upon beast, and upon
every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses
stretched forth his hand, his rod toward heaven, and the Lord
sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. Hail and fire. And the Lord rained
hail upon the land of Egypt, so there was hail and fire mingled
with the hail, very grievous. such as there was none like it
in all the land of Egypt, since it became a nation, and the hail
smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the
field, both man and beast, and the hail smote every herb of
the field and break every tree of the field, only in the land
of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no
hail, none, not a piece of it, none. So you see the parallel
here. He starts out by saying, let
my people go. He shows that he has a people
that are not in play here. This plague is upon you unless
you let my people go. And then when the plague came,
sure enough, in the land where the Israelites were, no hail. You see that in our text. He
intercedes for his people from the start. And so the plague
falls upon those who despise him. We tend to think
of God's wrath as a terrible, horrible, it's horrible, you
know, and it's fearsome. It is fearsome, but it's also
salvation. It's our enemies being wiped
out. It's let my people go. That's what it is. That's what
God's wrath is. It's let my people go. God doesn't do horrible things.
It's good and right for God to pour out his wrath on those who
hate him. And to us, it's salvation. In verse eight in our text, and
the second angel sounded, and as it were, a great mountain
burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of
the sea became blood, and the third part of the creatures which
were in the sea and had life died and the third part of the
ships were destroyed. So here's a mountain cast down
into the sea and it caused destruction and death. Turn with me if you want to Jeremiah
51. Jeremiah 51 24 it's important
that we see these because these are this is mysterious language
But we're not left without revelation from the Lord here. I Like what
somebody said That the The best commentary on the Word
of God is the Word of God and that's the truth in it So here's
this mountain cast down into the sea, death and destruction.
Jeremiah 51, 24, and I will render unto Babylon. And we know that
all through the scripture, Babylon is false religion. In the book
of Revelation, it's Babylon. The false religion, the false
gospel of this world and its religion. And I will render unto
Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that
they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord. Behold,
I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which
destroyest all the earth. And I will stretch out mine hand
upon thee and roll thee down from the rocks and will make
thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee
a stone for a corner. There won't be a stone big enough
left of that mountain to make a cornerstone out of. But thou shalt be desolate forever,
saith the Lord. So here's a burning mountain
rolling down into the city and destruction and death is the
result. Same thing happening in our text. Babylon is always
false religion in the scripture and it's called here, destroying
mountain and a burnt mountain. In our text, we have a burning
mountain that causes death and destruction. So one of the ways
that God judges this world in wrath is by false religion. He gives people over to strong
delusion that they should believe a lie. And that's, I don't suppose
there's any greater judgment than that. And you see it all
around you in the world today. People believe the most ridiculous
things to be truth. On the very face of them, they're
nonsense. And yet they believe in it. They
believe in it. He judges this world by false
religion. Does God do that? Of course he
does. Amos 3.6, shall there be evil
in a city and the Lord has not done it? That doesn't say that
the Lord commits evil. It just simply says that the
evil being there in the city is the Lord's doing. Who else
would it be? When God raised up Pharaoh, there
was evil in that city. And the Lord is the one who raised
him up. This also has reference to what
we call bad things that happen. this word evil here, catastrophes,
things like that, that kill hundreds and sometimes thousands of people.
Who did that in God's universe? This is God's world. He controls
everything in it. And again, God uses false anti-Christ
religion to bring his wrath upon the reprobate. Second Thessalonians
2.10, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned." That's why he did it. He raised up Pharaoh to drop
him in the pit. And that's what this is saying
here, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth,
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Instead of taking pleasure in
the gospel, and Christ who is the gospel, they had pleasure
in defying God. And God's gonna damn them. But
the mountain is destroyed, Those upon whom that mountain falls
are destroyed. The water turning to blood is
also a judgment that we see in the plagues that God brought
upon Egypt. Because of the bondage of God's
elect. God is determined that his elect are going to go free.
Remember when he said, I'll give nations for you and people for
that name, for that sake. That's what he does. In verse
10, back in our text, the third angel sounded and there fell
a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp. And it fell
upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters.
And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And the third part
of the waters became Wormwood and many men died of the waters
because they were made bitter. In Revelation 1.20, the messengers
of God are called stars. And these ones here are called,
this one here is called a great star. And so he's in the same
position, but this one is not held in God's hand. Those stars
in Revelation 1.20 are in the hand of God, hand of Christ. But not this one. But being called
a star, we know that this is someone who looks like a preacher
of the gospel. He pretends at least to be a
gospel preacher, and he appears to be to many. Jude 112, these
are spots in your feasts of charity. When they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried
about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice
dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming
at their own shame, wandering stars. These stars are not held
in place. They have no foundation. And
this great one in our text doesn't either. God's stars don't fall. to whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever. And this being a great star,
it may well refer to Satan himself. And I have reason in chapter
nine to believe that too, and we'll see that when we get to
chapter nine next time, Lord willing. But it could very well
be Satan, but even if it does refer to Satan himself, he represents
all of his false prophets. They're all with him, just like
Christ represents us. He said, as the father sent me,
so send I you. And so Satan is the same way.
He sends his devils to preach the false gospel in the same
way. So either way, it's all false
prophets are gonna fall. And rivers and waters are several
times in the scripture used to depict peoples, multitudes of
people. But notice it says many men died
of the waters. So these are waters that people
drink in order to sustain life, but the result instead is death. So when this star, this unstable
star, this fallen star affects people, The result is
death though. They think that they're drinking
water. That's what I need. I need water not that water you
don't Not dead water Not the false gospel Remember the bitter
waters of Mara In Exodus chapter 15 the people of Israel were
thirsty they came to this river these these waters And the people
of Israel, of course, picture all through the scripture God's
elect. He chose the nation of Israel just like he chose spiritual
Israel. But even desperate for water,
they could not drink the waters of Merah. They were bitter and
they wouldn't drink of them. God's people can't drink the
bitter doctrine of man's false free will religion. As soon as
we realize it's bitter what it is, we're not going to drink
it. We can't partake of a message
that has Christ trying to save everybody and failing to do that.
That becomes more and more nonsense to me, by the grace of God. We would believe that lie if
it wasn't for his grace, right here tonight. At Merah, God told Moses, he
brought him to a tree, that's what it says, he brought Moses
to a tree. He brought him to the cross. He brought him to
Christ crucified and said, cast that tree into the waters. And
they were made sweet by the tree. God forbid that I should glory
save in the tree of our Lord Jesus Christ. The waters were
made sweet. So by a miracle of God's grace,
which in spiritual terms is Christ crucified, The children of God
have life-giving, living water, sweet water to drink, and it
even springs up within them, he said, unto eternal life. The children of God couldn't
drink the bitter waters at Merib, but these ones in our text who
died, they were perfectly willing to drink the bitter waters. It
wouldn't have killed them if they hadn't drunk it. Full of wormwood. The gospel
of man's free will works religion, though palatable to those who
know not Christ will be fatal to their very souls. And that's
what happened in our text here. All lies are bitter, but how
bitter is the lie that men call truth? How bitter is that? The very message that men think
gives them life and hope and salvation. brings only despair
and regret and damnation. The Lord said, if your light
be darkness, how great is that darkness. But how sweet is the water of
life that flows from the throne of God. Christ is the river. I love to hear Linda sing that.
Everything else is bitter. But Christ, the water of life,
he just gets sweeter to us, doesn't he? All the time, sweeter and
sweeter. And then verse 12 in our text,
and the fourth angel sounded and the third part of the sun
was smitten, and the third part of the moon and the third part
of the stars. And you know where this is going,
don't you? We've seen what the heavenly lights picture, spiritual
light. So as the third part of them
was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and
the night likewise, and I beheld and heard an angel flying through
the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe,
to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices
of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound. So all sources of light are darkened. But not all, not all the light
is put out. And this doesn't mean that the
light itself is diminished in any way when it says the third
part is smitten. It means that the darkness will
affect a third part. We know this from the other places
where the third are mentioned. It affects a third part of the
earth, of the inhabitants of the earth. And so it's the same
here. The sun, often in scripture and
here, Represents Christ the day star the son of righteousness
One of my favorite scriptures is Luke 1 said well really The
the second one I'm going to read here is one of my all-time favorite
but listen to have the beautiful language of this Luke 71 verse
76 and Thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest For
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways
and to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission
of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the
day spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to
them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide
our feet into the way of peace. Well, that's beautiful. Listen
to that, I love this. Second Peter 119, we also have
more sure word of prophecy. Where unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until. Take heed you do well that you
listen and keep on listening until the day dawn and the day
star arise in your hearts. We're waiting for the sun to
rise. in the hearts of those that we
love. And we thank God for the light
that he's given. The moon here is darkened too. Of course it is. The moon reflects
the light of the sun and gives light at night. This is God's
people, God's church, his people. And this is a reminder now that
if God doesn't give light, how can we? If a third part of the
sun is darkened, then a third part of the moon is darkened
automatically. We don't have any light where
he don't give some. What are we gonna do about it? We have
no light to give but his. And if God will not give light
to a sinner, we can't give that sinner any hope either. Shine
though we may. Preach though we may. God does
give light by the preaching of the gospel, but not to everybody.
And it's him that has to do it. There's no greater judgment than for God to leave you in
your darkness. If you don't hear from God, there's
no greater judgment than that, because that leads to every judgment
there is. Wrathful judgment. And this is also a reference
to the plagues of Egypt. Exodus 10, 21, and the Lord said
unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there
may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which
may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward the heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither
rose any from his place for three days, but all the children of
Israel had light in their dwellings. Isn't that beautiful? Well, I
hate it when the power goes out even at your house. There's still
some light there. This was thick darkness here.
They couldn't even move. They couldn't see anything for
three days, but all the children of Israel had light. We're reminded
over and over, aren't we, in wrath, even in the midst of him
pouring out his wrath, there's mercy for his elect. They're not touched. They're
not affected. And this angel that flies through heaven, pronouncing
a threefold woe upon those who inhabit the earth, is not doing
so because the last three trumpets are worse than the first four.
That's not why he chooses here. Why did he stop? Why does he
fly after the fourth trumpet saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, because
of the next three? Is it because these next three
are gonna be worse? No, that's not it. The answer to the question
is that the last three are a result of the first four. That's why
he said it after the fourth one. These last three now, all that's
been said before, these first four trumpets, result in what
happens at the sounding of the last three. And we're gonna see
that as we go. And look, let's just close with
this thought. Everything of any consequence that happens in this
earth, everything in this world happens because
of Christ and what he did, which the first four trumpets had so
much to do with the gospel being hidden, the light being turned
off, but not for everybody. That star, that great star fell
upon those and they drank poison water willingly and died. That's the false gospel, but
not everybody, not everybody can drink of that by the grace
of God. And everything of consequence
that happens, happens because of Christ and what He did. All
of the woes and all of the joys of earth revolve around Him. Nothing, literally nothing else
matters. You see why these trumpets, the
book, the seals, the trumpets, they all have to do with Christ
and what He's doing, because nothing else matters. as important as things become
to us in this natural world. Even the common joys of life
that we enjoy, that we have and make us happy in this life, they
are blessings and not curses unto us because of him. I thought about this and I couldn't
help but think about it. It's hard to even talk about
stuff like this, but a family has a baby, and everybody's happy. Everybody's looking at a beautiful
baby, and they're so cute, and there are moments captured, you
know, and you're just standing in awe of that, and you're saying,
oh, that's a beautiful baby, and everybody's got a big smile
on their face, they're happy. Without Christ, it's a train
wreck. It's a disaster. That baby will
be an idol to its parents, and it will grow up worshiping idols
of its own without Christ. It's a disaster, as beautiful
as it looks. But a child of God has a baby,
and I'm just talking about something that just happens all the time,
you know? It could be anything. Godly parents have a child, and
it is cause for great rejoicing. Children are an heritage of the
Lord. And it's an occasion for great
celebration. And we determine at the beginning,
don't we? We're going to raise them in the fear and admonition
of the Lord. We pray to God, Lord, let me be a witness of
you. Let me glorify you in everything
I do and everything I say, because my child is going to see it all
and learn from me. May they learn from me that you're
sovereign, that you are love, that you are gracious to sinners,
that you are our only hope. But you see the difference? Christ
is the difference. Everything is because of him.
We saw that. Even evil, it takes place. He's
the first cause of everything. He's not complicit in the evil,
it's our evil. But it happens because of him.
And he makes everything, he does everything, everything is because
of him, and he makes everything beautiful for us in his time. Everything. Even when bad things
happen to us. You might have a child and it
may not live. And your heart's broken, of course
it is. but God will turn it into a blessing. You mark it down. You'll rejoice in glory with
that baby one day and praise the Savior together. He makes everything beautiful
for his sheep in his time.