Manning the Ship ((Ezekiel 27:8-11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/28/2015 9:16 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Manning the Ship

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 27:8-11

            Message of the verses:  In today’s SD we will be looking at the second main point that comes from the 27^th chapter of Ezekiel, as we follow Dr. Wiersbe’s outline that speaks of the nation of Tyre’s judgment using a metaphor of a boat.  He entitled the main point “Lament over Tyre’s Destruction,” and we mentioned that this is kind of a tiny look at Babylonian’s destruction found in the 17^th chapter of Revelation.

            “8 “The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your rowers; Your wise men, O Tyre, were aboard; they were your pilots. 9 “The elders of Gebal and her wise men were with you repairing your seams; All the ships of the sea and their sailors were with you in order to deal in your merchandise. 10 “Persia and Lud and Put were in your army, your men of war. They hung shield and helmet in you; they set forth your splendor. 11 “The sons of Arvad and your army were on your walls, all around, and the Gammadim were in your towers. They hung their shields on your walls all around; they perfected your beauty.”

            Now as we look at the description of those Ezekiel names as crew members these were actually the nations that caused her to have such success, helping her to become very rich, and these also would be the nations who would lose the most when Tyer was destroyed. 

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that the metaphor briefly shifts from the ship to the actual city in verses ten and eleven.  In these two verses Ezekiel points out the nations who were protecting Tyre, nations that were actually mercenary soldiers paid to protect Tyre.  Dr. Wiersbe also points out that it took Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years to defeat this coastal city as it was defended very well, and I suppose some of it had to do with the mercenaries who helped protect it.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes with “We shouldn’t carry a metaphor too far, but it is significant that Ezekiel brought in the army and nave as necessary parts of the business enterprise of Tyre.  Certainly national defense is a important to the success of business as it is to the safety of private citizen, and sometimes ‘national interest,’ and ‘business’ become intertwined.  ‘Big business’ always appreciates a foreign policy that opens new markets and protects them.” 

2/28/2015 9:32 PM

Christ's Commands for Laodicea (Rev. 3:18-20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/28/2015 7:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Christ’s Commands for Laodicea

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 3:18-20

            Message of the verses:  “18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ’Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ’Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

            As we have looked at this church over the last few days we have seen that there were no believers in it, and so Christ could have destroyed this church, but that was not what He desired to do at this time so He gives them a threefold appeal which are played on the three features that the city of Laodicea was most noted for, and most proud of, and that was its wealth, its wool industry, and its eye save.

            He speaks of buying gold refined by fire from Him, and this in no way is speaking of buying one’s salvation.  “5 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved? 6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away (Isa. 64:5-6).”   Now we will look at Isaiah 55:1 “"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.”  Isaiah writes that you can buy without even having any money to buy with, and this speaks of the free gift of salvation.  So what are they going to offer in exchange for the righteousness of Christ?  They must offer themselves, their wretched and lost condition in exchange for the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  This does not seem like a fair exchange, and that would be true, however that is the gift of God because of His great love, mercy, and grace.  So we see when Christ tells them to buy gold that has been refined by fire He is offering them the free gift of Salvation, but they must turn from their sins, repent and accept that free gift from Him.  They said they were rich, but Christ tells them that they were poor.

            Next we see that Christ advises them to buy white garments in order to clothe themselves so that their nakedness would be covered.  They were famous for black wool, but Christ wants them to have white garments which represent the righteousness of the saints.  Now when I say saints I am speaking of all of those who are born-again believers in Jesus Christ, and all will one day be clothed in white garments showing that they are righteous before the Lord.

            Next He offered them eye save in order to anoint their eyes so that they could see.  They prided themselves on their false righteousness, one like the Pharisees boasted about, that is their good works, but they were blind and could not see that they could not work their way to heaven, but must rely on the finished work of Christ on the cross.

            John MacArthur writes “Some argue that the language of Christ’s direct appeal to the Laodiceans in verse 19 “those whom I love, I reprove and discipline,” indicates that they were believers.  Verse 18 and 20, however, seem better suited to indicate that they were unregenerate, desperately in need of the gold of true spiritual riches, the garments of true righteousness, and the eye save that brings true spiritual understanding (v. 18).

            “Christ has a unique and special love for His elect, Yet, such passages as Mark 10:21 and John 3:16 reveal that He also loves the unredeemed.  Because the Laodiceans outwardly identified with Christ’s church and His kingdom, they were in the sphere of His concern.  To reprove means to expose and convict.  It is a general term for Christ’s dealings with sinners (cf. John 3:18-20; 16:8; 1 Cor. 14:24; Titus 1:9; Jude 15).  Discipline refers to punishment (cf. Luke 23:16, 22) and is used of God’s convicting of unbelievers (2 Tim. 2:25).  Thus, the terminology of verse 19 does not demand that Christ be referring to believers.  The Lord compassionately, tenderly called those in this unregenerate church to come to saving faith, lest He convict and judge them (cf. Ezek. 18:30-32; 33:11).”

            And now a word on true repentance from C. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound.  It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form.  You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practice, and you deny yourself, and take up the cross and go after Christ.”  Christ give a message to this lost church in the same way He does to all unbelievers, and that is their need to repent of their sins and turn to Him for salvation:  “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’ (Acts 11:18).”

            If you have been a believer for some time you probably have heard that verse 20 is speaking to those who are unbelievers and since we have said that this church was full of unbelievers we can say that Christ is offering salvation to those inside this church.  I have seen pictures of Christ standing at the door knocking and what is unique is that there is no door handle on His side of the door, meaning that the person on the other side of the door is the only one who can open it to receive the salvation He is offering.  So we see Christ offering a personal invitation for salvation to this unbelieving Church the same way He offers salvation to all unbelievers.  The question is will you let Him in?

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at what has been written about repentance I know that as a believer when I sin I am to confess my sin to the Lord and then repent and turn from it. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to better understand the love that Christ has for me, and then live in His love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To put in on a candlestick” (Matthew 5:15).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid’?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/28/2015 8:11 AM

Christ's Concern for Laodicea (Rev. 3:15-17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/27/2015 1:43 PM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Christ’s Concern for Laodicea

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 3:15-17

            Message of the verses:  “15 ’I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ’So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ’Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,”           

            At this point in the other letters Christ would say something good about the church but there is nothing good to say about this church so He goes into the concerns that He has for them.  Now even though Christ did not chose to use His description from the vision in chapter one we know that Christ is the all seeing, all knowing God who rules over the churches and so the first thing that He says to them is that He knows their deeds.  Christ is speaking of their works that are done after a person is saved by grace through faith, and those works or fruits or deeds give evidence that that person is truly saved.  You are not saved by works, but as I said saved by grace through faith as Ephesians 2:8-9 tell us, but verse 10 speaks of the works that God planned for us to do before the world was made.  Many people get the wrong idea when the read James, thinking that James is teaching that a person is saved by their works, but that is not what he is saying at all, he is simply saying that if you are saved you will be doing works for the Lord, and as Christ looked through His all seeing, all knowing eyes He saw no works that this church was doing, and that means that there were no believers in this church. 

            Next He rebukes them for being lukewarm, and it would have better for them if they were either hot or cold, now hot means that they were on fire for the Lord, which would be best and cold would mean that they knew nothing about the Lord and it would be easier to have those saved than the lukewarm people in this church.  We wrote earlier about the lukewarm water that the people in this city had to drink and that lukewarm water had many impurities in it, so much so that one can look at pictures of the rocks that the water was flowing through and see that it was mostly clogged up with impurities.  Their church was full of impurities, impurities like so many churches are today, like not believing that Christ is God, and that is the first thing one has to believe about Him.  The water in the other two cities in this valley had hot springs or cold water that came from the mountain and this represented what we hear Christ say about what this church would have been better of being.  This is a lukewarm apostate church who though they needed nothing, thought they were rich, and yet were poor. 

            Christ tells them in essence that they made Him sick and so He would vomit them out of His mouth.  Let us look at what Christ will tell a church or people like this when He judges them:  “22  "Many will say to Me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ’I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS’ (Matt. 7:22-23).” 

Now I have been writing in earlier SD’s how my study of Ezekiel makes me think of things that I am studying in Revelation.  We know that the Jews were chosen by God to do many things for Him, and were given many blessings too, and yet they turned their backs on God and as we have seen in Ezekiel God’s wrath was upon them as He took them out of their land.  As we look at the New Testament we see that Christ came to die upon a cross for the sins of those would accept Him as Lord and Savior, and we also know that at least in this time period there are many Bibles to read telling about this, and yet people are in churches today that the Bible has no effect on how they live their lives for they do not believe what it says about salvation.  Just as Israel turned their backs on God so many people in apostate churches today do the same thing and God will judge them for this.  John MacArthur quotes a man named R. W. Scott who writes “Perhaps none of the seven letters is more appropriate to the twentieth-century church than this.  It describes vividly the respectable, sentimental, nominal, skin-deep religiosity which is so widespread among us today.  Our Christianity is flabby and anemic.  We appear to have taken a lukewarm bath of religion.” 

As mentioned these people thought they were rich when indeed they were poor, blind, and also naked.  They were being self deceived in what they were being taught.  I have to say that too many people today put God in a box, they make up their own God and live like their God wants them to live and this gets them in a world of trouble as the God they made up to satisfy themselves has little truth in it when compared to the God of the Bible.  Satan was doing a good job in making these people spiritually blind and he continues to do this in churches just like this one today in the 21^st century.

Spiritual meaning for my life today: I must make sure that the things that I believe about God are true and come from the Word of God so that I do not begin to sink to where these people had sunk.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand the love that Christ has for me and to live in that love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Because he was very rich” (Luke 18:22-23).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jesus advise if one lights a candle?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/27/2015 2:25 PM     

Introduction to the Lament over Tyere's destruction (Ezek. 27:1-7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/26/2015 11:13 PM

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Introduction to the Lament over Tyre’s destruction

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 27:1-7

            Message of the verses:  As we look at the introduction to this 27^th chapter of the book of Ezekiel we see something that is a bit unusual, but seen sometimes in the Old Testament, and that is “The Old Testament prophets occasionally used ‘funeral dirges’ in the satirical manner to ridicule their enemies, and you find something of that spirit in the lament over the fall of Tyre,” so says Warren Wiersbe.

            Dr. Wiersbe goes on to say “Neither the prophet nor the Jewish nation was grieved over Tyre’s destruction, but the even gave Ezekiel opportunity to express spiritual truth in this song.  Since Tyre was a maritime city, the chapter compares the city and its business to a beautiful ship that eventually sinks and brings great grief to merchants and customers alike. This image is what is called ‘an extended metaphor,’ not unlike our ‘ship of state.’  A nation or a city isn’t really a ship, but there are many points of comparison that can help us better understand the nation and the city.  The ship metaphor included all that was a part of the city of Tyre, its agents and customers, its business, and all the network it had developed in the Mediterranean world.”  One other thing that I noticed as I listened to this chapter this morning was that it has a similar sound to what is said about Babylon in the 17^th chapter of the book of Revelation, although to a smaller scale.

            Building the Ship (Ezekiel 27:1-7):  “1 Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 “And you, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre; 3 and say to Tyre, who dwells at the entrance to the sea, merchant of the peoples to many coastlands, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "O Tyre, you have said, ’I am perfect in beauty.’ 4 “Your borders are in the heart of the seas; Your builders have perfected your beauty. 5 “They have made all your planks of fir trees from Senir; They have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you. 6 “Of oaks from Bashan they have made your oars; With ivory they have inlaid your deck of boxwood from the coastlands of Cyprus. 7 “Your sail was of fine embroidered linen from Egypt So that it became your distinguishing mark; Your awning was blue and purple from the coastlands of Elishah.”

            We see here described a beautiful, but also useful ship that Ezekiel is describing here in these seven verses.  We also can see that the nations admired and were perhaps a bit jealous over this ship that we see here.  This also shows us the pride that Tyre had, and we will get into more of that when we look at the 28^th chapter of Ezekiel. 

            One of the points that we can see from what is seen in these verses as far as in today’s world is that nations who do not agree with each other will continue to trade with each other in order to get the things that they want.  Many countries probably did not like Tyre, but they did business with her in order to get the things that they needed.  The United States does not like the countries that we get oil from, but we still deal with them.

2/26/2015 11:33 PM

 

Laodicea, The Church and the City (Rev. 3:14a, 14c)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/26/2015 9:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Laodicea, The Church and the City

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 3:14a, 14c

            Message of the verse:  “The church in Laodicea”

            We look at this portion of every church that we have been studying and have found out that there is no clear evidence as to how any of the churches were started with the exception of Ephesus, and because of Acts 19:10 we believe that all of the churches began as daughter churches from the Ephesian church.  “This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”  John MacArthur does add the following possibility:  “Since Paul’s coworker Epaphras founded the church in nearby Colossae (Col. 4:17), he may well have founded the Laodicean church as well.”

            The City of Laodicea (Rev. 3:14b “Laodicea.”  There is a lot to say about this city and similar to other letters when Christ speaks to them He uses familiar things of their cities to bring about spiritual truths.  We will learn more about this when we look at what Christ has to say to this church in His condemnation to the church.

            Laodicea was one of three close cities that were in close proximity of each other, Colossae and Hierapolis were all in the Lycus valley which was about 100 miles east of the city of Ephesus, and Laodicea being the southeastern most of all of the seven churches.  Laodicea was geographically nearly impregnable, and that surely was a good thing during that time period.  However one of the problems that Laodicea had was water, for in the dry season they would run out of water and so they took it upon themselves to build a very long pipe line out of rock to get water to their city.  The problem with this was twofold, first the water was hirable tasting and it was always lukewarm, and second an enemy could stop the flow of water to the city and just wait for them to run out of water.

                The following quotes are from Bibleplaces.com:  “The city is located in the Lycus River Valley together with Hierapolis and Colossae.  This valley is a natural route of travel from east to west.

“The city was founded by the Seleucid king Antiochus II and named for his wife Laodice about 260 BC. 

            Aqueduct

The water that was piped to Laodicea was rich with calcium which over time would cause the pipes to clog.  The engineers designed the aqueduct with vents covered with stones that could be removed periodically for cleaning.

Jesus' condemnation of the city's church for lukewarmness rebukes not their lack of fervor but their lack of effectiveness.”

            In his commentary John MacArthur tells through his research how it is known that there were many Jews living in this city.  He writes:  “A local governor once forbade the Jews from sending the temple tax to Jerusalem.  When they attempted to do so in spite of the prohibition, he confiscated the gold they intended for that tax.  From the amount of the seized shipment, it has been calculated that 7,500 Jewish men lived in Laodicea; there would have been several thousand more women and children.  Even the Talmud spoke scornfully of the life of ease and laxity lived by the Laodicean Jews.”

            With the coming of the Pas Romana, which was peace under Roman rule, the city prospered because of the roads that went through it and also because of the things that they made, and were actually famous for.  However in 60 AD a great earthquake destroyed the city and after that the Romans wanted to fund the rebuilding of the city, however the proud Laodicean people told Rome they needed no help and built the city with their own funds.  I have to say that because I am a retire from Ford Motor Company that when the other two major auto companies needed money to survive Ford told our government they were just fine.  Sorry about that but it kind of similar.

            The city was famous for bad water, beautiful black, soft wool used for making women’s clothes and fine carpet.  They also had a medical school there and were also famous for eye save that brought relief to the eyes.  They were also big in the industry of finances.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I read through this list of things that Laodicea were famous in and of themselves are no problem.  However when you look at their overall spirituality we will find out that there is something very wrong with that.  Perhaps they were more involved with their business that the business of the Lord, and this can easily happen in our world today, something I must not do.  I have a friend who mentored me right after I became a believer in Jesus Christ and he told me a saying that I have never forgot, but may be hard for me to write it out.  He said to me that you must keep your emfasses on the right syliable in other words you must keep your emphases on the right syllable, or one my say that you need to watch your priorities and keep them inline.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand and live in the love He has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Six years” (2 Kings 11:1-2).

Today’s Bible question:  “Why was the ruler sorrowful when Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/26/2015 10:47 AM

           

 

           

Destruction for Tyre Forever (Ezek. 26:19-21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/25/2015 8:50 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Destruction for Tyre Forever

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ezekiel 26:19-21

            Message of the verses:  “19  For thus says the Lord GOD, "When I make you a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the great waters cover you, 20  then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, like the ancient waste places, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory in the land of the living. 21 “I will bring terrors on you and you will be no more; though you will be sought, you will never be found again," declares the Lord GOD.”

            These three verses show that the Lord plans to end the existence of Tyre, and some may look at this as a harsh judgment for them, but as with the case with all people the Lord will give them time to repent and turn to Him for salvation.  We know that God loves Israel with a special love and that He is not done with them, and was not done with them even though we have just learned that Jerusalem and the temple were burned.  However this was just a great discipline that God put on them and would bring them back into the land in a few short years, but the judgment that He gives to these other nations we have been reading about, including Tyre is forever as there is no promise for these nations to survive.  God put this judgment on Tyre because of the way that they treated Israel after they had been defeated. 

            We see in these verses that the NASB says in verse 21 “I will bring terrors on you,” and this is not interpreted right in the KJV where it reads “I will make thee a terror.”  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The prophet gives us insight into the full extent of Tyre’s destruction by describing the victims’ descent into ‘the pit’ (v. 20).  The Hebrew word bor means ‘a well, a pit, a cistern,’ but also refers to the pit of death (Pss. 28:1; 88:4, 6) and sometimes is an equivalent of sheol, the realm of departed spirits.”

            The promises are completely different for the nation of Israel as they were for Tyre as we have noted, for Israel still has a bright future, and as we look at the nation of Israel back in their land and surrounded by their enemies, and also in the headlines worldwide most days we can believe that the time is growing shorter to when the Lord Jesus will come to the clouds above the earth to call His church home to be with Him and then the tribulation period will begin and after that is over the Lord Jesus will return to planet earth and sit on the thrown of David for 1000 years.  As the apostle John concludes the last book of the Bible, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.”

2/25/2015 9:08 PM

           

Jesus Christ the Correspondent (Rev. 3:14c)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/25/2015 9:26 AM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  Jesus Christ, The Correspondent

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 3:14c

            Message of the verses:  “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:”

            The first thing I want to do is to quote from my Spiritual Diary from 3/23/2005 on what I wrote on the word “Amen,” and then I will be adding more to that quote on what this word means.  ““The word "amen" is a most remarkable word. It was transliterated directly from the Hebrew into the Greek of the New Testament, then into Latin and into English and many other languages, so that it is practically a universal word. It has been called the best known word in human speech. The word is directly related—in fact, almost identical—to the Hebrew word for "believe" (amam), or faithful. Thus, it came to mean "sure" or "truly", an expression of absolute trust and confidence.” (HMM)”

            We noted when looking at the church at Philadelphia that Christ did not use a quotation from the vision that John saw in chapter one, and the same is true with this letter to Laodicea. 

            As quoted from my older Spiritual Diary the first words that Christ uses to describe Himself is “The Amen,” and we want to look further into the meaning of this word at this time.  We must note that this is the only time in the entire Word of God that this word is used to describe Christ and it reminds the reader of what is written in Isaiah 65:16 “"Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!”  The word “truth” is the Hebrew word “amen.”  So we are looking at the God of amen or as it says the God of Truth.  Every word that God has ever spoken is truth and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in John Gospel as the Word of God.  Now through the Word of God the word amen is used to affirm truth.  Let us look at a couple from the OT “and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen." (Num. 5:22).”  Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground (Neh. 8:6).”  Now a couple from the New Testament “’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]]’ (Matt. 6:13).”  to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen (Rom. 16:27).”  John MacArthur writes “where the underlying Greek amen us rendered ‘verily’ in the KJV and ‘truly’ in the NASB.”  Now he wrote this statement after listing a number of verses in the Bible in which some of them are quoted in the sentences before this quote.  He then goes on to write “Whatever God says in true and certain; therefore, He is the God of truth.”

            So we have learned that Christ is the God of truth, but there is more to this word than that.  Let us look at 2 Corinthians 1:20 “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.”  What we can see from this statement is that “It is through the person and work of Christ that all God’s promises and covenants are fulfilled and guaranteed.  All the Old Testament promises of forgiveness, mercy, lovingkindness, grace, hope, and eternal life are bound up in Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection.  He is the “Amen” because He is the One who confirmed all of God’s promises.”  (John MacArthur’s Commentary on Revelation)

            The church at Laodicea should have no problem in understanding that what Christ is about to write to them is not going to be truthful, for He is truth “Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6).” 

            We have one more thing to look at in the description that Christ gives of Himself and that is He calls Himself the Beginning of the creation of God.”  As I was listening to the sermon from John MacArthur this morning while walking to nowhere on my treadmill he stated that when you look at how this statement is translated into the English it seems like it is saying that Christ was a created begin, but we know that this is not truth.  Now it is true that the humanity of Christ came into existence when He was formed in the womb of Mary, but Christ as always existed, and in fact He is the One who created the world, and that is what this means.  MacArthur says that the English is ambiguous and misleading.  He then goes on to write that “there is no ambiguity in the Greek text, however.  Arche (Beginning) does not mean that Christ was the first person God created, but rather that Christ Himself is the source or origin of creation (cf. Rev. 22:13).  Through His power everything was created (John 1:3; Heb. 1:2).”

            MacArthur then goes on to write that the church at Colossae, the letter that Paul wrote to them has similar things in it as they too had a problem with Christ’s deity, just as the church at Laodicea did, in fact when Paul penned his letter to the Colossian church he told them to read it to the church in Laodicea and to have their letter written to them.  That letter could well have been the letter he wrote to the Ephesian church for that letter was a “circuit” letter that was supposed to circulate to the different churches in the area.  The letter of Ephesians that Paul wrote tells it readers how the church is to operate, and from the looks of things both Colossae and Laodicea needed to read it.

            MacArthur finishes by writing “Firstborn’ (prototokos) is not limited to the first one born chronologically, but refers to the supreme or preeminent one, the one receiving the highest honor (c. Ps. 89:27).  Christ is thus (rche) of the creation, the supreme person (prototokos) in it.”

            It was because of this damning heresy of not believing that Christ is truly God was why this church was dead and also why many churches are dead in the world today.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  My testimony of how I became a believer in Jesus Christ took a different route than many, and I will not go into it at this time, but I do want to say that when I first came to Christ I had some bad thoughts of who Christ was and if not for the grace of God I could have gone down the wrong road believing like the church at Laodicea went, but my conversion was true and since I am one of God’s true children He would not allow me to believe an error like that.  For that I am truly thankful and have been truly blessed.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and better understand and live in the love He has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Solomon.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How long was Joash hidden before becoming king of Judah?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/25/2015 10:41 AM

Destruction of Tyre Lammented Over (Ezek. 26:15-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2015 10:37 PM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Destruction of Tyre Lamented

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ezekiel 26:15-18

            Message of the verses:  “15 Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre, "Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall when the wounded groan, when the slaughter occurs in your midst? 16 “Then all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment and be appalled at you. 17 "They will take up a lamentation over you and say to you, ’How you have perished, O inhabited one, From the seas, O renowned city, Which was mighty on the sea, She and her inhabitants, Who imposed her terror On all her inhabitants! 18 ’Now the coastlands will tremble On the day of your fall; Yes, the coastlands which are by the sea Will be terrified at your passing.’"”

            Again I see a similar thing that happens to Tyre that happens in the book of Revelation, but on a much smaller scale here, for in the book of Revelation we see that the system of Babylon is lamented over when it falls in one day according to Revelation chapter 18.  In chapter 17 we see the destruction of religious Babylon, and in chapter 18 the economical Babylon falls.  Tyre was an economic capital of that part of the world because they were on the sea and handled much merchandise for many countries so it was natural for the nations around to lament over their destruction.  Dr. Wiersbe compares what happened to Tyre with what is going on in our world today:  “Our world today is united in a series of electronic networks that can transfer information, money, and orders for merchandise with such speed that it’s scarcely possible to register them.  Imagine what would happen if the world’s economy if all these electronic business connections in New York City alone were dissolved.  This reminds us that in the end times, when the Antichrist has organized his great world network called ‘Babylon,’ the Lord will destroy the whole thing and leave the business people desolate and in mourning (Rev).  I guess it is nice to have come up with a similar piece of information before I even read what Dr. Wiersbe had to say.  I guess that great minds run in similar directions.  (Just kidding). 

            We will look at the final sub-point in our next SD from the 26^th chapter of Ezekiel.

2/24/2015 10:52 PM

Introduction to Laodicean Chruch (Rev. 3:14-22)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2015 11:29 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  Introduction to Laodicea

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 3:14-22

            Message of the verses:  “14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ’I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ’So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ’Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ’Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ’Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ’He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"

            Well we have finally made it to the beginning of the last church that the glorified Christ sends a letter to, and this church spiritually is at the bottom.  Laodicea is the last stop on the mail route that included everyone of the other church we studied thus far.  I just wonder what the messenger or Pastor who first read this letter thought.  If one goes by the prophetic view of the order of churches that we spoke about in previous SD’s then this would be the dominant church in the world before our Lord returns in the rapture to take us to be with Him.  Hal Lindsey states in his commentary that this church became dominant beginning in 1900.  This church could be called the lukewarm church.

            I do not find it a coincident that I have been studying the major prophets for the last few years and am now at this present time am studying the books of Revelation and also Ezekiel, for there are parallels between what happened to Israel and what is happening to the churches in the world today.  If you go back all the way to when God created the heavens and the earth and then created man on the sixth day only to have man sin and bring sin upon the earth to which its effects are still seen today, you find that God was providing a way for man to come back into fellowship with Him through the promised seed of the woman found in Genesis 3:15.  We then see that God had to judge the earth and all who live on it with a flood that covered the entire world and killed all life that needed air to breathe with the exception of those who were on the ark that Noah built.  Mankind has come from those eight people who were on that ark.  Later God had to scramble the languages because of the sinfulness of man and finally God called a man named Abram to begin a people that we know today as the Jewish people.  Some four hundred years after Abraham his descendants were found in Egypt right where God told him they would be.  God was forming a nation in order to have a people who would write down His Law and who would also be the people that Messiah, the Seed of the woman would come from.  God would use Moses to bring His people out of Egypt by doing ten great miracles that would bring Egypt to its knees in defeat.  After leaving Egypt the people of Israel sinned against the Lord and wondered around the wilderness for forty years before coming into the Promised Land lead by Joshua.  Their history was up and down spiritually, but mostly the line would go down and finally God would judge them.  The writer of 2 Kings writes the following in 2 Kings 17:7-23 “7 Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. 9 The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the LORD had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the LORD. 12 They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing." 13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets." 14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them. 16 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. 18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah. 19 Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. 20 The LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight. 21 When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and made them commit a great sin. 22  The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them 23  until the LORD removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.”

            Now as we read of the demise of Israel we also have been looking at what Judah did seen through the eyes of Ezekiel, and in the end they sinned greater than Israel and God took them into captivity in Babylon.  One may wonder why I would bother to write this very brief history of Israel and Judah.  Well as we get to the church of Laodicea we find a church that is in a similar situation and we will also see what the Lord has to say to this lukewarm church.  One point to be made here and that is that God still has plans for Israel as seen through the prophets in the OT and also in the writings of the NT, especially Romans 9-11 where Paul writes about Israel and their future, but none the less the sinfulness of the nation of Israel surely found itself into the lives of the people of the New Testament Church. 

              John MacArthur writes “Tragically, the sorrowful unbelief of Israel finds a parallel in the church.  There are many people in churches, even entire congregations, who are lost.  They may be sincere, zealous, and outwardly religious, but they reject the gospel truth.  They have all the rich New Covenant teachings about Christ’s life, death, and resurrection contained in Bibles they neither believe nor obey.  As a result, they are doomed, just as unbelieving Israel was.  Paul described them as those ‘holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power,’ and then wisely consoled believers to ‘avoid such men as these’ (2Tim. 3:5).”

            As we look at the church at Laodicea we will find out that this church represents apostate churches that are found and have been found in the world since the church age began.  We mentioned that there was a downward spiral that began in Ephesus with those believers leaving their first love and now it ends with the apostate church of Laodicea where we find Christ at the door trying to get in as seen in Rev. 3:10.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Paul wrote that as believers we are to learn from the sinfulness of those believers found in the Old Testament.  I can also learn that the key to avoiding this slide is to continue to love the Lord, remembering those first days when I became a believer and the richness that Christ brought into my life. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Abraham” (Genesis 18:23-32).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who authored the book, the Song of Solomon?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/24/2015 12:14 PM

           

             

Tyre PT-1 (Ezek. 26:1-14)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2015 8:44 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  Tyre PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ezekiel 26:1-14

            Message of the verses:  Just to keep us caught up on what we are looking at lately in our Spiritual Diaries on Ezekiel we have seen that chapter 25 has brought a new section to Ezekiel’s writing as the nation of Judah has now been captured, the city and the temple in Jerusalem destroyed and so Ezekiel turns his attention to judgment of Gentile nations, first those who were actually related to Israel and no to those who were not related to Israel.  We first looked at the Philistines in our last SD, and now we will begin a long look at Tyer.  I want to quote Dr. Wiersbe in his introductory comments on Tyre:  “Ezekiel devoted four messages to the sins and the fate of the capital of Phoenicia (vv. 1-21; 27:1-36; 28:1-10, 11-19).  During their reigns, both David and Solomon were friendly with Hiram, king of Tyre (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kings 5:1ff), and King Ahab’s wife Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, a later king of Tyre (1 Kings 16:31).  The message in this chapter contains four parts, each beginning with a statement about the Word of the Lord (Ezekiel 26:1-6, 7-14, 15-18, and 19-21).”   

            Destruction announced (Ezekiel 26:1-6):  “1 Now in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said concerning Jerusalem, ’Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has opened to me. I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste,’ 3  therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ’Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 ’They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock. 5 ’She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD, ’and she will become spoil for the nations. 6 ’Also her daughters who are on the mainland will be slain by the sword, and they will know that I am the LORD.’"”

            When I read statements that the Lord has made here and made against the Philistine as seen in yesterday’s SD, I cringe when people do not see that a part of God’s attributes is wrath, now I did not say revenge, but wrath, and justice can also be seen here too.

            We see in this section a storm approaching Tyre, for a part of it was on the coast and a part of it was on an island.  We will talk more about the island part in a latter SD, The reason that God was upset with them was because Tyre was rejoicing at Jerusalem’s destruction and then they saw their opportunity to prosper even more.  However the Lord saw it different and pronounced judgment on them.  Dr. Wiersbe points out “The name ‘Tyre’ means ‘rock,’ so the statement ‘like the top of a rock’ (vv. 4, 14) is significant.  Tyre did become a bare rock and a place where fishermen dried their nets.”

            He goes on to say “Tyre was able to survive the Assyrian conquest, but when Babylon came to power, Nebuchadnezzar besieged the coastal city for fifteen years (586-571 BC) and overcame it, but did not conquer the island city.  In 322 BC Alexander the Great besieged Tyre for seven months, built a causeway to the island and was able to conquer the city.”  If memory serves me correct we will see more about this later in the book of Ezekiel.

            Destruction Accomplished (Ezekiel 26:7-14):  “7  For thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, chariots, cavalry and a great army. 8  "He will slay your daughters on the mainland with the sword; and he will make siege walls against you, cast up a ramp against you and raise up a large shield against you. 9 “The blow of his battering rams he will direct against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. 10  "Because of the multitude of his horses, the dust raised by them will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of cavalry and wagons and chariots when he enters your gates as men enter a city that is breached. 11 “With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will slay your people with the sword; and your strong pillars will come down to the ground. 12 “Also they will make a spoil of your riches and a prey of your merchandise, break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses, and throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water. 13 “So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps will be heard no more. 14 “I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place for the spreading of nets. You will be built no more, for I the LORD have spoken," declares the Lord GOD.”

            We have already stated that the Babylonians would do God’s bidding in destroying the city of Tyre and these verses describe how he did this, and we can be sure that it happened exactly the way that the Lord described.

            I know that the Bible ends with the book of Revelation, and anyone who adds to it will receive the plagues that are described in that book, but I can’t help but wonder as I read all about the nations that the Lord judged how it would be scripted if we were to read about judgments on the different nations that have been destroyed since the Bible was completed.  Ezekiel will speak of how some of them will be destroyed in the future, in our future in chapters 37-38.

            2/23/2015 9:17 PM   

Christ's Counsel for Philadelphia (Rev. 3:12-13)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2015 2:39 PM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  Christ’s Counsel for Philadelphia

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 3:12-13

            Message of the verses:  “12 ’He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. 13 ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” 

            Now we have talked about those who overcome in every letter that we have looked at so far, I will repeat it for this church also “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5).” 

            First promise that Christ gives is that those who are believers, He “will make them a pillar in the temple of God, and he will not go out from it anymore.”  When one looks at a pillar they think of stability, something that is permanent and immovable.  Just yesterday our Pastor gave a report of his mission’s trip to Europe and we saw pictures of many pillars in the city of Rome, pillars that have been there for over 2000 years.  Now in pagan temples you would often see pictures carved on them to honor a particular deity.  Those who John wrote this letter to would understand this better than we do.  MacArthur writes “The marvelous promise Christ makes to believers is that they will have an eternal place of honor in the temple of God (heaven).  To people used fleeing their city because of earthquakes and enemies, the promise that they will not go out from heaven was understood as security in eternal glory.”

            Next promise is that Christ will write on them the name of God and this speaks of ownership.   Perhaps when your children were small and you took them to their Sunday School class you would put their name on them and this meant that these children belonged to you.

            The next promise speaks of something that is mentioned for the first time in the book of Revelation and that is the New Jerusalem and Christ promises to believers that they will have a home in this city that is described in Revelation chapter 21.  This is the city that is a fifteen hundred mile cube with streets of gold so pure that they are transparent.

            Finally we see that Christ promises believers His new name.  MacArthur writes “Christ’s name represents the fullness of His person.  In heaven, believers will ‘see Him just as He is’ (1 John 3:2), and whatever we may have known of Him will pale in the reality in which we will then see Him.  The new name by which we will be privileged to call Him will reflect that glorious revelation of His person.”

            Christ ends the letter with the same words He has ended all of them “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  Let us look at this verse in several different versions of the Bible. "Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches." (Message)  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. (NLT)  Let the listener hear what the Spirit says to the Churches. (Philips)  Christ is telling those who read this to listen and beware what has been told to this church listen and take it in. In the Greek the words “let him hear” are one word and here are some of the meaning of this word:  “2b) to attend to, consider what is or has been said; to give ear to a teaching or a teacher; to comprehend, to understand.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am a person who is often times in a hurry and don’t take time to listen as well as I should, so this message given for the sixth time brings conviction to my heart.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand and live in the love Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Israel” (2 Kings 15:27).
Today’s Bible question:  “Who pleaded with God not to destroy Sodom?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/23/2015 3:12 PM