SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/11/2015
10:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
An Unusual Announcement
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
10:5-7
Message of the
verses: “5 Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea
and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever,
WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT,
AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh
angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the
prophets.”
Perhaps I jumped the gun in yesterday’s SD when I wrote
about the word “mystery” as it is in verse seven and we will probably go over
it a bit more in this SD. Now we spoke
earlier why John MacArthur does not believe that the angel we see in this
passage is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we also spoke earlier that he believes
that we are past the mid-point of the tribulation period. Well in my Spiritual Diary dated July 15,
2005 I wrote something different and this just goes to show you that not
everyone is on the same page as far as certain things found in the book of
Revelation, but I will paste a part of this former SD to show that there are
differences of opinions by two very good men:
“Dr. Wiersbe points out that this section of Revelations is the middle
of the tribulation period and when the seventh angel blows his trumpet the last
half of the tribulation period will begin and the judgments that will take
place then will be even worse that those of the first half of the period. There is kind of a laul at this point as far
as the judgments are concerned and while this is going on this Angel, who is
believed to be the Lord Jesus Christ swears by and oath in the Name of the God
of creation that God will wait no longer and that the things that will soon be
fulfilled have been announced by the prophets of old. One of the earlier judgments saw those who
have been murdered for their faith in heaven asking God how long it will be
before He judges those who had murdered them, and the answer to that question
is found in Peter’s writings where he writes, “9 ¶ The Lord is not slow about His promise, as
some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish
but for all to come to repentance.”
Actually the whole chapter of 2Peter 3 is a good reference to answer
those martyrs questions.
“I want to focus in on the word “mysterious” of “mystery”
as to how it is used in Scripture. This
word is not used in the same way one uses mystery in our English language where
it means that the outcome is not know.
The word as used in the Bible means that God’s people know what is going
on but those of the world system do not have a clue as to what is going
on. Jesus spoke of God blinding the eyes
of some of the Jewish leaders when He was on earth, and it seems that they were
blinded so that they could not understand these mysteries that were spoken of
by the prophets.” Good men differ in
some things when it comes to the Scriptures but they don’t differ on the very
important things like salvation or the deity of Jesus Christ. I have to say that I go along with John
MacArthur in his view that this is not the Lord Jesus Christ for whatever difference
that makes.
We see the angel lift his right hand to heaven while in
his left hand we find the little book and we know that heaven is where God
dwells and this is according to John MacArthur “the standard gesture for taking
a solemn vow (cf. Deut. 32:40; Dan. 12:7).
To take such a vow is to affirm before God that one is going to speak
the truth. That vow indicated that what
the angel was about to say was the utmost importance and truthfulness.” Now we see in verse six that the angel took
his vow in the name of “Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and
the things in it, and the earth and the things in ti, and the sea and the
things in it.” What we see here is the
eternity of God along with His sovereign power which is in an over every single
thing in His own creation. God owns
everything for He has created everything and ultimately is in control of
everything. God is the creator in spite
what the evolutionists believe, for they just don’t want to be accountable to
God, but one day everyone will be accountable to God and all men will either
stand before the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ where all true believers
will stand or they will stand at the Great White Throne Judgment which we will
talk about later, but not one believer will stand before God at this
judgment. Paul and Barnabas spoke these
words in Acts 14:15 “"Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men
of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn
from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND
THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM.” Paul
also spoke the following words to the men of Athens in Acts 17:22-26 “22 So
Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I
observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was
passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an
altar with this inscription, ’TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I
proclaim to you. 24 “The
God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven
and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by
human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people
life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of
mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed
times and the boundaries of their habitation.”
We see in both of these Scripture passages form Acts that Paul “identified
God to pagan Gentiles as the source and first cause of the created universe.” As believer in Jesus Christ we also need to
proclaim this message as a lead in to the message of salvation. God is eternal and has always existed and
always will exist. I know that this is
hard to understand when we live in a world of time, but as I have been mentioning
that there are some things we don’t understand but believe by faith and this is
one of them. God is eternal.
I mentioned in the earlier SD from July that when we read
the words “that there will be delay no longer,” that is an answer to those
souls found under the altar we saw earlier in the seal judgments who prayed that
God would act and He is acting as there will be no longer any delay. John MacArthur writes “The phrase ‘but in the
days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound’ indicates
that the judgment of the seventh trumpet is about to come and that is not a
single event, but covers ‘days’—indicating a period of time. This period includes the seven bowl judgments
(16L1-21), which would appear to require some weeks or months to unfold. So the sounding of the seventh trumpet brings
the final judgment depicted in the bowls of fury poured out on the earth.” God’s patience is complete or done and the
following is what we read in Revelation 15:1 “Then I saw another sign in
heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in
them the wrath of God is finished.”
Now only is God’s patience done, but when these seven last judgments are
finished so the wrath of God will be finished.
The last part of this section speaks of the “mystery of
God” and we went over it in yesterday’s SD and also a bit in the SD from July
which is copied into this SD so I will not write any more on this subject in
this SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: In the sermon
that was at our church last night our Pastor spoke on brotherly kindness which
is found in 2 Peter chapter one and as I looked at the SD from July and the one
that I am doing today I have mentioned that there is a difference of opinion
between two men I have great respect for when it comes to teaching the Word of
God and this makes me go back to the sermon from last night. The reason for this is that as believers we
are to have brotherly love for other believers even when we disagree with what
they believe about certain passages in the Bible as long as they do not go
against the doctrines of God, but in the case of what we are looking at there
is a need for brotherly love and to respect each others opinions and leave it
at that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Show brotherly love and also love the Lord
with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to continue to learn to
live in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ with things like showing brotherly
love for my fellow believers.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Revelation”
Today’s Bible
question: “How old was Joseph when he
was sold into Egypt as a slave?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/11/2015 11:06 AM
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