SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/6/2015 8:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Reaction
of Defiance
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
9:20-21
Message of the
verses: “20 The rest of mankind, who
were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands,
so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass
and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21 and they
did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality
nor of their thefts.”
I am not sure how many people were on the earth when God
brought the flood upon the earth, but when we see in this sixth trumpet or
second woe judgment that one third of the earth’s population will die which
could be up to two billion people we probably can compare this judgment with
the flood of Noah’s day as far as how many people will die. When we read all that we have been reading of
all theses judgments and then we read what is in these two verses we should be
amazed, amazed that people who know that it is God who is bringing judgment
upon planet earth do not repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Lord
and Savior.
These people who are defying the Lord have heard the
144,000 Jewish evangelists, they have heard the two witnesses, and by this time
they will have even heard the preaching of an angel in the sky which we will
read about in Revelation 14:6-7 “6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven,
having an eternal gospel
to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe
and tongue and people; 7 and he said
with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His
judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and
springs of waters."” Not only all
of this but they will have heard belieers who had been saved also, so they will
be without excuse, but after all of this they still refuse to repent, and
repentance is the key issue here. All of
these things as far as the Gospel being preached is a prophecy that Jesus gave
to us in Matthew 24:14 where He said “"This gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end
will come.’” Similar things happened to
people when Jesus came the first time and people saw all of His miracles and
heard all of His teachings, yet they not only would not repent but they killed
Him to keep Him quiet, but that did not word for God raised Him from the grave
and then His disciples began to tell those same people what they did and that
Jesus was still alive. All of that was,
according to Isaiah and also Jesus, is seen in John 12:38-41 “38 This was to
fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS
BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?"
39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE
HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE
WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM." 41 These
things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.” We also read in Hebrews 4:7b “"TODAY IF
YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS."” This same truth is available today and yet
people are still turning from it even though they know it is the truth. What will these people of this time period be
worshiping, for we all worship something even though many people do not realize
what they are worshiping. Revelation
13:4-8 give us the answer: “4 they worshiped the dragon
because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast,
saying, "Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with
him?" 5 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and
blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. 6 And
he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His
tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was also given to him to make
war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and
people and tongue and nation was given to him. 8 All who dwell on the earth
will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation
of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.”
As we conclude our study of chapter nine we read of five
sins that John writes that these people will not repent of “did not repent of
the works of their hands
and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”
We see in the first on, “the works of their hands” that
this included the making of idols so that they could worship them, when
actually they were worshiping Satan as they did this.
Murders that they committed they may have thought that
they were allowed to do this because of the government that was in place at
that time would encourage people to kill believers.
Sorceries is a very interesting word in the Greek as we
get our word “Pharmacy” from it so this has to do with the use of drugs in some
kind of worship. While speaking to some
prison inmates when I was living in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai I asked if anyone
knew what the Greek word “sorceries” meant.
One of the men knew the answer, but they wanted to know why I would ask
this question. My answer was simple in
that many people in prison today are there because of they use drugs. The pastor I was with read from the NLT
“Prison” edition and in that version the word Pharmacy was actually used.
Immorally is the Greek word Porneia where we get the word pornographic or porn from. This is a huge problem all around the world
even today.
Thefts is the last sin identified in this section and I
suppose there will be a lot of stealing going on during this very difficult
time even as there is in today’s world.
John MacArthur finishes his commentary on this ninth
chapter with these words: “Under the
influence of the massive demon forces the world will descend into a morass of
false religion, murder, sexual perversion, and crime unparalleled in human
history. It is sobering to realize that
the Lord will one day come ‘to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all
the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way,
and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him’
(Jude 15). In light of that coming
judgment it is the responsibility of all believers to faithfully proclaim the
gospel to unbelievers, thereby, ‘snaching them out of the fire’ (Jude 23).” 5/6/2015 9:16 AM 5/6/2015 2:13 PM
Spiritual Meaning
for my life today: I think that it
is wonderful how the Greek language brings out the true meaning of things like
sorcery and also the word that is translated porn in English. These are two sins that are very prevalent in
our culture at this time and it is because of these sins and also three other
sins that we learn in this section that people will not repent of and so it is
because of these sins that God will judge them for, and of course others,
especially the sin of not repenting and trusting the Lord as their Savior and
Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To continue in my quest to love the Lord with
all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to continue in my quest to live
in the love of the Lord and to better understand more about His love.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Righteousness, peace, joy in
the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:7).
Today’s Bible
question: “When Jesus went up to a
mountain and set down when He got there what did His disciples do?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/6/2015 2:21 PM
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