SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2015
9:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Pit Unlocked PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
9:1-2
Message of the
verses: “1 Then the fifth angel
sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the
key of the bottomless pit was given to him. 2 He opened the bottomless pit, and
smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun
and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.”
We mentioned what Jude wrote about these demons that are incarcerated
in this pit, but to remind us as we get started this morning I want to quote
this again: “angels who did not keep
their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode,” and then he goes on to say
that God “has kept [them] in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment on
the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since
they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after
strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of
eternal fire,” (Jude 6-7). Now I have
mentioned in an earlier SD that it is the belief of John MacArthur and others
that the reason that God had to destroy the earth with a flood was because
angels were cohabiting with women on the earth and this would raise a race of
people that Christ would be unable to die for.
Now I know that this is hard to believe, and as for me I am not sure
that this is what happened, but I am willing to look at the evidence that is
available, and a part of it is in these two verses that Jude wrote that we just
looked at as he speaks of strange flesh.
Now the strange flesh that was happening at Sodom and Gomorrah was
homosexuality for we actually read that when the angels went down to Sodom that
the men of Sodom wanted Lot to give them to the men to have sexual relations
with them. I am not saying that they did
now they were angels, but perhaps they did and as far depraved as they were I
doubt that that would have made any difference.
Jude equates the strange flesh at Sodom with why these demons were in
this pit. Let us look at the verses from
Genesis 19:1, 4-5 “1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was
sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed
down with his face to the ground. 4 Before they lay down, the men of the city,
the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from
every quarter; 5 and they called to Lot
and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them
out to us that we may have relations with them."”
John MacArthur writes “Peter reveals when this angelic
sin occurred:”
1 Peter 3:18-20 “18 For Christ also died for sins once
for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been
put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation
to the spirits now in prison, 20 who
once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of
Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight
persons, were brought safely through the water.”
It is best to quote MacArthur for this section to help
understand why he teaches what he teaches here:
“The ‘spirits now in prison’ in the abyss re those ‘who once were
disobedient…in the days of Noah.’ They
are the demons who cohabited with the human women in Satan’s failed attempt to
corrupt the human race and make it unredeemable (Gen. 6:1-4). The demons still fear being sent to the abyss
is evident from the fact that some pled with Jesus not to send them there (Luke
8:31). That suggests that other demons
have been incarcerated there since the events of Genesis 6. The demons released by Satan at the fifth
trumpet may not include those who sinned in Noah’s day (cf. Jude 6), since they
are said to be in ‘eternal bonds’ (Jude 6) until the final day when they are
sent to the eternal lake of fire (Rev. 20:10; Jude 7). Other demons imprisoned in the abyss may be
the ones released. So the pit is the
preliminary place of incarceration for demons from which some are to be
released under this judgment.
The following is what I wrote about verse two from a
former SD: “When the star opened this
bit smoke came out of it and John describes it like smoke from a great furnace
and this smoke made a lot of pollution, so much that it added to the darkness
that was already on the earth at this time.
It could be said that these judgments will certainly not make the
environments very happy with all of the pollution that they cause.” (June 20, 2005)
4/26/2015 10:14 AM
4/26/2015 11:40 AM
John
Philips comments on this verse: “Picture
what the world would be like if we were to open the doors of all the
penitentiaries of earth and set free the worlds most vicious and violent criminals,
giving them full reign to practice their infamies upon mankind. Something worse than that lies in store for
the world. Satan, cast out of heaven, is
now permitted to summon to his aid the most diabolical fiends in the abyss to
act as his agents in bringing mankind to the footstool of the Beast.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The more
that I read about all of these judgment to come the more thankful to God I am
that He saved me before all of these things will happen and will one day take
me to be with Him in glory before all of these things take place. “13 But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the
rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For
this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain
until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the
Lord. 18 Therefore
comfort one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:13-18).” “’Because you have kept the word of My
perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is
about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth (Rev.
3:10).”
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 live in that love so that I can obey the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Luke” (Luke 24:13-31).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘Not so, Lord: for
I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.’?”
Answer in our next SD. 4/26/2015 11:53 AM
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