SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/9/2015
10:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Toward the
Throne PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
4:8b-11
Message of the
verses: When we finished yesterday’s
SD we were in the middle of writing about the worship of God through the
element of Him being the Almighty God which is seen in the eight verse. We stated that there were five hymns of
praise beginning in the last part of chapter four and going through chapter
five. We also mentioned that this mighty
oratorio of praise could be divided into two movements which were creation which
is seen in chapter four and then the hymn of redemption which is seen in
chapter five. This element of worship to
God as Creator has several elements and we looked at the first on, that of his
holiness and then began the second on, that of He being Almighty or we could
describe it as one of His attributes, omnipotent. We now continue on this element.
“and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY,
HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO
COME." 9 And when the living
creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him
who lives forever and ever, 10 the
twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will
worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the
throne, saying, 11 "Worthy are You,
our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all
things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."”
John MacArthur writes “The
phrase ‘He is able’ expresses God’s power toward His elect, redeemed children. In Ephesians 3:20 Paul praises God for being ‘able
to do [far more] abundantly beyone all that we ask or think, according to the
power that works within us,’ adding in 2 Corinthians 9:8 ‘God is able to make
all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything,
you may have an abundance for every good deed.’ Paul wrote to Timothy expressing his confidence
in God’s power working on his behalf: ‘I
know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I
have entrusted to Him until that day’ (2 Tim. 1:12). Hebrews 2:18 reveals that the Lord Jesus
Christ ‘is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted,’ while Hebrews
7:23 reassures believers that ‘He is able also to save forever those who draw
near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.’ Jude closes his brief epistle with a doxology
of praise: ‘Now to Him who is able to
keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory
blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and
forever. Amen’ (Jude 24-25).”
We stated when looking at the holiness of God that when
looking it through this passage that it had to do with His righteous judgment
and the same is true with His power.
Examples of His power for judgment as seen in His judging Satan and his
angels, expelling them from heaven; when He drowned the world’s population
during the flood; destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, and when He drowned Pharaoh’s
army in the Red Sea which destroyed the most powerful army of the world at that
time. As you read through the Old
Testament you can find others, and now in the NT book of Revelation we see a multitude
of God’s power in judgment about to come upon the whole world.
The prophet Nahum writes “Who can stand before His
indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out
like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him (Nah. 1:6).” Malachi adds “"But who can endure the
day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s
fire and like fullers’ soap (Mal. 3:2).” Here is one from the Psalms that I like
because of our leadership in this country at this time: “2 The
kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed,
saying, 3 "Let us tear their
fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!" 4 He who sits in the heavens
laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them
in His fury, saying, 6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon
Zion, My holy mountain."” Yes all
the rulers of who think that they can stand against the Lord will all have to
answer one day. Remember that the best
type of ruler is one who realizes that he is second in command.
We next see that the twenty-four elders praise and
worship the Lord because of His eternality saying “who was and who is and who
is to come.” This is not the first time
we have looked at this in our study of Revelation for it also was seen in
chapter one. Who lives forever is also a
part of His eternality. The following
are a list of verses that speak of God being Eternal: “Isa. 9:7; Dan 2:44; Dan. 7:13-14; Luke 1:32,
33; 2 Peter 1:11; Rev. 11:15).” I
realize that the truth of God is difficult for us humans to totally understand,
but as other truths about God we must take them by faith for God is the God of
truth. As humans living on this earth we
see things begin and then end, but God is without beginning and has no end, for
He is eternal. As believers we gain
comfort from this truth for we know just as God cannot change, He will never
end, and so the promises that He gives to us are forever.
Now as the four living creatures give glory to the Lord,
so then the twenty-four elders also do the same. “9 And
when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on
the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before
Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever.” We will see this falling down before the Lord
five more times as we continue our study in the book of Revelation.
MacArthur then writes “Amazingly, after prostrating
themselves the twenty-four elders ‘cast their crowns before the throne.’ They are not preoccupied with their own
excellence. They are not concerned about
their own holiness, honor, or reward.
All those things pale into insignificance and become meaningless in
light of the glory of God.”
Next we see the elders add their own not to the chorus of
praising the Lord which was initiated by the four living creatures as they cry
out “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and
power; for You created all things and because of Your will they existed, and
were created.” MacArthur points out that
the word worthy is Axios. He writes that this word “was used of the
Roman emperor when he marched in a triumphal procession. The focus of the elders’ song is on God’s
glory manifested in creation; He is presented as Creator throughout
Scripture. The elders are acknowledging that
God has the right both to redeem and to judge His creation. Their song anticipates paradise lost becoming
paradise regained.”
In this first song we see that the praise pictures God
about to judge Satan, demons, and also sinners and then take back His
creation. Then the following will happen
as Paul wrote of in Romans 8:19-22 “19 For the anxious longing of the creation
waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility,
not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery
to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we
know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth
together until now.” When our Lord
returns to planet earth as seen in Rev. 19, He will not only reclaim the world
for the glory of God but will also redo the earth itself in preparation for the
millennial kingdom. Some of this can be
seen when we get to the last part of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is good to
praise the Lord in these specific ways of being holy, and also being all
powerful, but also to praise Him for the fact that He created all things, and
will one day reclaim them as promised in His Word. That will be a wonderful day indeed.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to love the Lord with all of my
heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in His love as I learn more about
it from the study of His Word.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In the bulrushes in the river”
(Exodus 2:5).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who promised the Lord that if
he would give her a son, she would give him back to Him?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/9/2015 12:03 PM
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