SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/29/2015
8:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
Introduction to Rev. 18
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
chapter 18
Message of the
verses: In Today’s Spiritual Diary we continue to look
at the introduction to the 18th chapter of the book of Revelation
which tells us about the economical Babylon, the Babylon from which the
Antichrist will be ruling the world as it is the head of his empire.
John MacArthur writes “From the beginning to the end, the
Bible warns of coming judgment on sinners who reject God and blaspheme His holy
name. Job declared that ‘the wicked is
reserved for the day of calamity; they will be led forth at the day of fury’
(Job 21:30). David noted that ‘the Lord…has
established His throne for judgment, and He will judge the world in
righteousness’ (Ps. 9:7-8). Psalm 96:13
warns that God ‘is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His
faithfulness.’ Isaiah wrote ‘According
to their deeds, so He will repay, wroth to His adversaries, recompense to His
enemies; to the coastlands He will make recompense’ (Isa. 59:18).”
This time to judge this system is spoken of by our Lord
in Matthew 13:40-50 in the form of a parable.
You see that in the 12th chapter of Matthew the Pharisees
accused of Jesus of doing miracles by the power of Satan (Beelzebub), and so at
that time Jesus began to speak in parables so that His own would understand
them, but those who opposed Him would not and the following is one of those
parables: “40 “So just as the tares are
gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41 "The Son of Man will send forth His
angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those
who commit lawlessness, 42 and will
throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. 43 “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the
kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
“44 "The kingdom of heaven is like a
treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy
over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and
upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and
bought it. 47 "Again, the kingdom
of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every
kind; 48 and when it was filled, they
drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into
containers, but the bad they threw away. 49 “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels
will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will
throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.”
John MacArthur writes “The apostle Paul declared to the
Greek philosophers gathered on Mars Hill in Athens that God ‘has fixed a day in
which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man who He has
appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead’
(Acts 17:31). To the Thessalonians he
wrote: ‘the Lord Jesus will be revealed
from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not
know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal
destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power, 10 when He comes to be glorified
in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have
believed-for our testimony to you was believed (2 Thess. 1:7b-10).”
As we have learned in our study of Revelation that this
book speaks of this judgment more than any other book in the whole of the Word
of God, especially chapters 6-18. As we
have learned these chapters have taken us through the seal, trumpet, and bowl
judgments given by the Lord. We have
learned that these judgments were on a worldwide scope, but they were mostly
focused in on the kingdom of Antichrist, his world empire centered in
Babylon. MacArthur writes “That empire
will involve both a religious and a commercial aspect. At the midpoint of the Tribulation,
Antichrist will destroy the false Babylon religious system, which will be
absorbed into commercial Babylon.
Religion will not cease to exist, but will be restricted to the worship
of Antichrist. The Babylon in view in
chapter 18 is Antichrist’s worldwide commercial empire, which will rule the
world during the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. That Antichrist will be able to build the
greatest commercial empire the world has ever known in the midst of the
devastating judgment of the Tribulation reveals his incredible power.”
The theme of chapter 18 is the destruction of this
commercial Babylon, and as we study this chapter we can look back at the little
book that John ate making his mouth sweet, but his stomach bitter and telling
of this judgment is a portion of the bitter part of prophecy, and yet we have
to be glad that God is a God who judges evil and evil is what this section is
about.
I just want to say that there are commentators who say
that what is being written about here is a system, and not a city, however the
chapters reveals that it is a city and this city will be destroyed. I will go more into this aspect in our final
introduction to this chapter.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “By the river Ulai” (Daniel
8:23).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who interpreted a dream about
a vine with three branches?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/29/2015 9:32 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment