SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/20/2015
9:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Concern
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
2:4-7
Message of the
verses: But I have this against you,
that you have left your first love.”
I think that one of the benefits of studying the book of
Revelation along with also studying the book of Ezekiel is that there are times
when there are parallels between the two books.
Ezekiel was living with the exiles in the land of Babylon trying to make
them understand the consequences of why they were there and not back in the
land of Israel, a land that God had given to them as a promise to the patriarch
Abraham, as seen in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. We can look at some of the different prophets
along with Ezekiel to see what was the real problem that God’s wrath came upon
His children, the children of Israel, as we could say with truthfulness that
they broke the covenant that God had given to them. We could also say, and it would be true that
they had continually disobeyed the Lord since they entered the land by
worshiping idols, and this would be true, in fact after God graciously brought
them back to their land the problem with idol worship ended. Now the kind of idol worship that ended was
they did not bow down to “gods” made of wood, stone of metals any more. But as we look more deeply into the real
problem as to why the Lord’s wrath came upon them it was a heart issue, as they
stopped their love for the Lord. If they
would have truly loved the Lord with all of their heart, soul, and strength they
would have not bowed down to any idols or done the other awful things that they
did. Let us now look at some verses in
the book of Jeremiah to show that Israel’s love for the Lord continued to wane.
“2 “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying,
’Thus says the LORD, "I
remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, The love of your
betrothals, Your following after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown.
3 “Israel was holy to the LORD, The first of His harvest. All who ate of it
became guilty; Evil came upon them," declares the LORD.’" 4 Hear the
word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of
Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD, "What injustice did your fathers find in Me,
That they went far from Me And walked after emptiness and became empty? 6 "They did not say, ’Where is the LORD
Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness,
Through a land of deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and of deep
darkness, Through a land that no one crossed And where no man dwelt?’ 7 “I
brought you into the fruitful land To eat its fruit and its good things. But
you came and defiled My land, And My inheritance you made an abomination. 8 “The
priests did not say, ’Where is the LORD?’ And those who handle the law did not
know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me, And the prophets prophesied
by Baal And walked after things that did not profit.
“9 "Therefore I will yet contend with you,"
declares the LORD, "And with your sons’ sons I will contend. 10 “For cross
to the coastlands of Kittim and see, And send to Kedar and observe closely And
see if there has been such a thing as this! 11 “Has a nation changed gods When
they were not gods? But My
people have changed their glory For that which does not profit. 12 “Be
appalled, O heavens, at this, And shudder, be very desolate," declares the
LORD. 13 “For My people
have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living
waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water
Jeremiah 2:2-13).”
Now from a passage in the book of Ezekiel that not too
long ago we looked at in our study of Ezekiel.
From Ezekiel 16:8-15 we read: “8
“Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love;
so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you
and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine," declares
the Lord GOD. 9 “Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you
and anointed you with oil. 10 “I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put
sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and
covered you with silk. 11 “I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your
hands and a necklace around your neck. 12 “I also put a ring in your nostril,
earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 “Thus you were
adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and
embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly
beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 “Then your fame went forth among the
nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor
which I bestowed on you," declares the Lord GOD. 15 "But you trusted in your
beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your
harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing.”
When John wrote the letters to the seven churches it was
some forty years after the time when these churches began. Remember that it was the Ephesian church that
was the “mother” church that began the other churches. We are now in the second generation of these
churches, and the problem with the Ephesian church was that they were doing
things by mechanical orthodoxy. Perhaps
we could say that it was similar, but not exactly life the orthodoxy that the Pharisees
did. Now not exactly but similar for it
is doubtful that many of the Pharisees had any love for the Lord at all, but
the still did things in a mechanical way.
This love that they had lost could include things like
love for God and Christ, love for each other and also having a love for the
lost, wanting to see them come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord.
Now we know that the all seeing, all knowing glorified
Lord Jesus Christ will tell them what they need to do in order to overcome what
He had spotted wrong with them.
The Command (Revelation 2:5): “5 ’Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first;
or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its
place-unless you repent.”
This is a very serious statement or perhaps a very
serious command that the glorified Lord is telling them to do. They are to remember, repent, and do what
they use to do when they first became believers. When we look at the word remember it means to
continue to remember, keep on remembering from where they had fallen. Think about how good it was when they first
became a believer and their love for the Lord was fresh as they joyfully were
doing things for the Lord because they loved Him. Now one of the things that I enjoy about
listening to the sermons of John MacArthur is that he always reviews what he is
teaching so that if perhaps you forgot something he will remind you again and
again. I know that this irritates some,
but to remember is a good thing, and reinforcing points from MacArthur’s
sermons is also a good thing that he does.
John MacArthur writes this concerning the word “repent.” Second, they need to repent in a deliberate
rejection of their sins, because to fail to love God will all of one’s heart,
soul, mind and strength is sin (Mark 12:30).”
Repent means to “1) to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent 2) to change one’s mind for better, heartily
to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins (Greek/English Dictionary).” MacArthur writes that “they needed to
recapture the richness of Bible Study, devotion to prayer, and passion for
worship that had once characterized them.”
As stated earlier this was a very serious issue they were
facing and John MacArthur concludes this section by writing the following: “Underscoring the seriousness of the
situation, Christ warns the Ephesians to take the necessary steps to recover their
first love for Him. He demanded that
they change or be chastened: ‘I am
coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. The coming to which Christ refers is not His
second coming, but His coming to them in local judgment on that church. Failure to heed the warning would cause Him
to remove the lampstand (symbolic of the church; Rev. 1:20) out of its
place. Tragically, Christ threatened divine
judgment that would bring an end to the Ephesian church. “
The Counsel (Revelation 2:7): “’He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the
tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’”
1/20/2015 10:38 AM
1/20/2015 1:00 PM
I want to say something here about this first part of
verse seven “’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.” We see this phrase at the end
of each letter to the churches and we will go over as to what this means and
then we will understand it. I want to
make one more point before we go on to look at what this means and it comes
from “Re 13:9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” What we see here is that this verse is not
saying “what the Spirit says to the churches.” When we look at chapter four we see a picture
of John going to heaven in the Rapture so by the time we get to chapter
thirteen the church is in heaven and that is why the verse in not completed
like when Christ is speaking to the churches.
This verse, according to John MacArthur means “It emphasizes
the sober responsibility beliers have to heed God’s voice in Scripture. The use of the plural noun “churches”
signifies the universal nature of this invitation each time that it
appears. This call cannot be limited
just to a group of overcomes in a single church; it must apply to all
churches. Every church needs to hear
every message.”
Now lest talk about the word “overcomers” I realize that
the verse says “To him who overcomes.”
Who is the one who overcomes?
John, who also wrote the gospel of John along with three letters has
this to say about this word: “1Jo 5:4-5
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that
has overcome the world-our faith. 5 Who
is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son
of God?” John tells us that all
believers are the ones who overcome, so this is not a special class of believers,
but simply those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord.
Jesus promise those who are in Ephesus who are believers
that they will one day eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of
God. All the way back in Genesis we see
in the garden of Eden that there was a tree that if Adam and Eve would have
eaten of before they ate of the tree of knowledge that things would have worked
out much better for all of us, however they lost the rite to eat of this tree
because of sin. The following is what
John writes in the last chapter, chapter 22:2 “in the middle of its street. On
either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit”, 14
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the
tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” 19 “and if anyone takes away from the words
of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life
and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”
John MacArthur finishes his commentary on the church at
Ephesus with the following words: “The
example of the Ephesian church warns that doctrinal orthodoxy and outward
service cannot make up for a cold heart.
Believers must carefully heed Solomon’s counsel: ‘Watch over your heart with all diligence,
for from it flow the springs of life.’ (Proverbs 4:23). Those whose love for God has cooled would do
well to heed the exhortation Hosea addressed to a backsliding Israel: ‘1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 Take words with you and
return to the LORD. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity And receive us
graciously, That we may present the fruit of our lips. 3 “Assyria will not save
us, We will not ride on horses; Nor will we say again, ’Our god,’ To the work
of our hands; For in You the orphan finds mercy’ (Hosea 14:1-3).
“And to those who return to Him God promises, ‘I will
heal their apostasy, I will love them freely’ (Hosea 14:4).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have expressed
that I feel my need for 2015 that I need to love the Lord with all of my heart,
soul, mind, and strength, however until I found out that this was a sin I did
not confess it as such since I did not realize this. I have since and the letter to this church
has helped me to realize that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to understand how much God loves me.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:5-9.
5 Now for this very reason also,
applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your
moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self control, and in your
self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your
godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your kindness love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are
increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his
purification from his former sins.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Deuteronomy.”
Today’s Bible
question: “In which year of his reign
did Solomon start building the temple?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/20/2015 1:41 PM
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