The Reaction of Fear (Rev. 6:15b-17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/4/2015 8:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  The Reaction of Fear

Bible Reading & Meditation                                           Reference:  Revelation 6:15b-17

            Message of the verses:  “hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”

            I suppose that one would think that after all of the horrors of this sixth seal being unleashed upon the earth that men would want to repent, but that does not happen, and as we move through the book of Revelation we will see this repeated.  Blindness, spiritual blindness is the problem that these people have, and as I said it will continue as we go throughout the different judgments that are seen in this book.  One of the odd things is that these unbelievers will finally acknowledge that these judgments are coming upon them from God as we can see in our verses we are looking at today.  One of the reasons that these people will not follow the Lord, but follow the deceptiveness of Satan is found in the following verses from 2 Thessalonians, verses we have studied just last year:  “11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”

            It is because that these people are unbelievers that they will do some things that are irrationally, and even foolish as seen in the last part of verse fifteen where we read:  “hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;” David wrote the following in “Ps 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”  Jonah also found out the truth of God’s omnipresence when He tried to hide from God.  In chapter two of Isaiah’s book he wrote “17 The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, 18 But the idols will completely vanish. 19 Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. 20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats Their idols of silver and their idols of gold, Which they made for themselves to worship, 21 In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.”  It seems to me that this would not be the safest place to go, in the caves of the earth, when an earthquake of the size and terror which just happened but men do strange things when they are in great fear.  It also could be that these men wanted to commit suicide in order to get away from the wrath of God, but that will not work for as we will learn later on in the book of Revelation there comes a time in which we will see “The White Throne Judgment,” where all unbelievers will one day stand before the Lord.

            In his sermon and also in his commentary John MacArthur writes that these events are the basis of a huge worldwide prayer meeting  but the people will not be praying to the Lord but to the rocks and the hills (mother nature) and they will be asking that “to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”

We did touch on this a bit earlier, but we can see that these unbelievers have gone way too far in their rebellion against God to be able to repent.  I do believe that God’s grace extends only so far and when a person rejects the good news of the Gospel so many times that the Spirit of the Lord will not continue to work in their hearts any more.  The following are the words to a song that I have listened to in the past that has to do with the need to come to the Savior while there is time, and the title is “Over the Dead-Line”

O brother, the Savior is calling for thee,
Long, long has He called thee in vain;
He called thee when joy lent its crown to thy days,
He called thee in sorrow and pain.

Refrain.

O turn, while the Savior in mercy is waiting,
And steer for the harbor light;
For how do you know but your soul may be drifting
Over the dead-line tonight?

O brother, thine ears have been deaf to His voice,
Thine eyes to His glory been dim;
The calls of thy Savior have so wearied thee,
O what if they should weary Him?

Refrain

O brother, the Spirit is striving with thee;
What if He should strive never more,
But leave thee alone, in thy darkness to dwell,
In sight of the heavenly shore?

Refrain

O brother, God’s patience may weary some day,
And leave thy sad soul in the blast;
By willful resistance you’ve drifted away,
Over the dead-line at last.

Refrain

        Now the words “Him who sits on the throne refers to God, and these men will have a clear understanding that it is God who is causing these terrible things to come upon those on the earth, but whether or not they realize that it is because He is bringing judgment upon a sinful people on earth I am not sure that they realize that.

        We also see that John speaks of the “wrath of the Lamb,” and we know that this speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Remember what happened to John when He saw the glorified risen Christ at the beginning of this book.  He was very much different who John saw when he walked with Him on earth some sixty plus years before.  He is now the One who will be judging the world where as when He first came to earth He came to die on the cross for man’s sinfulness.  Much different now!

        John MacArthur finishes his commentary with the following words:  “This picture, horrifying and frightening as it is, is not altogether hopeless.  The church will be delivered from that time (3:10).  Great multitudes of people will be saved in the midst of the terrors of diving judgment, both Gentiles (7:9) and Jews (Romans 11:26).  But for the rest the sobering words of the writer of Hebrews will apply:  ‘For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries…It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb. 10:26-27, 31).”

        Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is a verse that says “Today is the day of Salvation,” and that day came to me on the 26^th of January 1974, and I am thankful that it was not “Over the Deadline Tonight” for me, but when the Spirit of the Lord came to me with His effectual call that afternoon that He completely saved me and changed my life.  I will be forever thankful for that day as it was by far and away the most important day of my life.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “New bottles” or “New Wine Skins” (Luke 5:38).

Today’s Bible question:  “Complete the beatitude, ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the…’”

Answer in our next SD.

4/4/2015 10:06 AM