SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/28/2015 11:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Plan for Judgment PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 11:18b
Message
of the verses: “and Your wrath came,
and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your
bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the
small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."”
In our last SD on this topic we
looked at how the OT and even some of the NT verses spoke of the judgment that
was going to come upon the world because of the sinfulness of mankind and
because of their failure to understand the simple truth of the Gospel. Now remember what we said about where we are
at in the Tribulation Period as we look at this 11th chapter of the
book of Revelation. We are actually very
near the end of the Tribulation Period as what we see here is the angel
sounding the seventh trumpet which brings on the last seven judgments called
the bowl judgments, but then we will look at the career of the antichrist in
chapters 12-14 before we again catch up with when these bowl judgments will
happen.
John MacArthur writes “Not only will
the seventh trumpet signal the outpouring of God’s wrath on earth; it will also
indicate that ‘the time’ has come ‘for the dead to be judged.’ Time translates kairos, which refers to a season, era, occasion, or event. The establishing of Christ’s kingdom will be
a fitting time for the dead to be judged.”
Now we are not talking about the “Great White Throne Judgments” in this
section as that is in chapter 20:11-15, but instead we are talking about what
our Lord speaks of in the 25th chapter of Matthew where we
read: “Mt 25:32 "All the nations will be gathered before
Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the
sheep from the goats; Mt 25:33 and He
will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.” Now this will happen soon after the Lord returns
to set up His kingdom for 1000 years on planet earth. John MacArthur writes on this judgment from
Rev. 11:18b “It is best to see the reference to judgment here as a general
reference to all future judgments. The
elders in their song make no attempt to separate the different phases of
judgment as they separated in the closing chapter of Revelation. They simply sing of future judgments as
though they were one event, in the same way that other Scriptures do not distinguish
future judgment from each other (cf. John 5:25, 28-29; Acts 17:31;
24:21).” Now this statement does not
conflict with the judgments mentioned in Matthew 25:32-33. I also believe that this will be the time when
the OT saints will be resurrected as seen in Daniel chapter 12, and they will
also be judged for their good works that they did as believers in the salvation
that God would provide when their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ would suffer
and die for their sins as well as ours in the church era, and for that matter
in the Tribulation Period and also in the Millennial Kingdom.
We see the phrase “the time to
reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints” which speaks of all who
have proclaimed the truth of God throughout redemptive history even from the
tome of Moses and including the two witnesses that we saw at the beginning of
this chapter.
Next we look at the saints which are
mentions after the prophets in verse 11:18b and further defined as “and those
who fear Your name, the small and the great.”
Now I don’t want to pick on any established religion here but I want to
define the word “saint” so we know exactly what John is speaking of here.
“AV-holy 161, saints 61, Holy One 4,
misc 3; 229
Holy,
characteristic of God, separated to God, worthy of veneration
1)
Its highest application is to God himself, in his purity, majesty and glory.
{#Lu 1:49 John 17:11 Re 4:8}
1a)
Of things and places which have a claim to reverence as sacred to God, e.g. the
Temple: {#Mt 24:15 Heb 9:1}
1b)
Of persons employed by him, as angels: {#1Th 3:13 marg. } prophets, {#Lu 1:70}
apostles, {#Eph 3:5 }
2)
Applied to persons as separated to God’s service:
2a)
Of Christ: {#Mr. 1:24 Ac 4:30 }
2b)
Of Christians: {#Ac 9:13 Ro 1:7 Heb 6:10 Re 5:8 }
3)
In the moral sense of sharing God’s purity: {#Mr. 6:20 John 17:11 Ac 3:14 Re
3:7 }
4)
Of pure, clean sacrifices and offerings: {#1Co 7:14 Eph 1:4}” This comes from
my Online Bible dictionary. Every person
who has been born again from the OT to all of those in the NT church age are
called saints. Let us take a look at a
few of the many verses that have the word saint in them at the beginning of
some of the letters that Paul writes and we will see that he calls those who
are true members of the church, those who have been born-again saints, even
those who were a part of the churches that were have problems like the
Corinthian church. “Ro 1:7 to all who
are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” “1Co
1:2 To the church of God which is at
Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling,
with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their
Lord and ours.” “2Co 1:1 Paul, an
apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the
church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout
Achaia.” “Eph 1:1 Paul, an apostle of
Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are
faithful in Christ Jesus.” “Php 1:1 Paul
and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus
who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.” “Phm. 1:7 For I have come to have much joy
and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed
through you, brother.” Okay I think that
we understand that when Paul uses the word “saints” or “saint” that he is
speaking to believers, all believers.
The last part of verse eighteen says
“and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
Now I mentioned in an earlier SD that when I studied this book using Hal
Lindsey’s commentary and way back in the 1970’s when I would listen to his
tapes on his sermons on the book of Revelation that he would use this portion
of verse 18 to say that God would use mankind in the judgments and thus that is
why John writes this portion of the verse.
I am not saying that God cannot use man and man’s weapons to bring about
some of these judgments, but the more that I study this my thoughts have
changed and I believe that God is the one who will bring about these judgments
the way He wants to, for we have seen that men curse God for bringing these
judgments on planet earth. With that
said this portion of the verse is about judgment, judgment for those who have
destroyed the earth in sinful ways. This
verse in not something that the environmental people can cling to, but I am not
saying that believers should not care for the earth that God created, but in
the end God will destroy or perhaps “un-create” planet earth along with the
entire universe and we have learned this truth from the second letter that
Peter wrote.
John MacArthur writes “Given
stewardship and dominion over the earth (cf. Gen. 1:28), man instead fell into
sin and throughout his history has continually corrupted the earth (cf. Rom.
8:19-21). When that corrupting reaches
its apex, God will destroy the earth and create a new one (21:1; Isa. 65:17;
66:22; 2 Pet. 3:12-13).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The
reason that Peter writes what he writes in 2 Peter 3:12-13 is that he is
telling his readers that we are to live in a way that glorifies the Lord while
we live in these temporary bodies on this temporary planet. Take time to tell others what is going to happen
in the future so that they can be taken out of the mess that the tribulation
will bring.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to
say that the stressfulness of yesterday for me was full of answers to God’s
people who had prayed for me, and the day, as I look back on it, I believe
brought glory to my Lord Jesus Christ, which in the end is what I wanted it to
be.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Seventh”
(John 4:52).
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said ‘Behold the
Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world’?”
Answer
in our next SD.
5/28/2015
12:19 PM
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