SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/3/2015
8:48 AM
This Spiritual Diary is going to be a bit different than
the others as I have been thinking about chapter eighteen of Revelation and
have also been listening to some sermons that John MacArthur has on this
chapter and he asked a question that I have been thinking about in one of those
sermons which kind of prompted me to want to put this special SD together. I want to first quote from this sermon at the
point where at the end of the sermon he asked why do we study this book and why
did God put these things into the book of Revelation.
“So the whole world allies with
Antichrist in this final system. That is the beginning of this chapter and that's
really all it is. I just want to wrap this point up by making a couple of
comments and I'm going to let you go.
“Why all of this? Why is it necessary? Why does the Bible tell us this?
Are we going to be there?
“Well, obviously the saints of all the ages who lived and died aren't
going to be there. Was it relevant to them?
“It's my conviction that the saints of this age aren't going to be
there because before this stuff ever starts, we're going to be raptured, taken
out as the Lord gathers His church.
“What's the point?
The point is multiple. One, to give you confidence that no matter what is happening in the
world, in the end Jesus Christ will triumph. This is, after all, the
book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, not the book of the Revelation of
prophetic curiosities. It is to give you the confidence and the assurance that in
the end Christ will reign. And the corollary to that is to let you know beyond
a shadow of a doubt that in the end no matter what goes on with Satan and his
demons, they cannot defeat Christ. It can't be done. And you see them amassing
all that they can as an arsenal against Him, only to be defeated in a moment as
if they were nothing at all.
Furthermore, it is to give hope to the godly that the wretchedness and
the wickedness of this fallen world will someday reach an end. And the cry of
our hearts for justice and equity and purity and righteousness and goodness
will someday be fulfilled. And it will. Furthermore, it is written as a warning
to the ungodly of what is to come. You say, "Well now wait a minute, not
all of the ungodly who have lived through the centuries are going to be
there." That's right, but anybody who reads this is going to understand
God's attitude toward sin. And all of this that goes on, on the earth is not as
bad as hell. There are many reasons why the Lord gives us this truth, to give
us confidence in the coming of Christ in His glory...to give us assurance that
sin will have its day and finally be destroyed...to give us hope for a just and
equitable and righteous kingdom and to warn those that do not know Christ that
God hates sin and He punishes it with severe judgment. We can only who know
this truth respond to it like John did. It's both bitter and sweet. Bitter
because sinners will perish, sweet because the righteous will prevail. Bitter
because Satan and his demons will succeed in their deception, sweet because
Christ will in the end be victorious.
“Well so much for the pronouncement of judgment. Next time we'll look
at the escape or the avoidance of judgment.
“Father, we thank You again for Your Word. We've covered so much and yet we've seem to have gone
so few steps into this great chapter. Lord, help us to know confidently,
assuredly, that we belong to You and we're on the triumph side. Help us to
rejoice that no matter how bad it is in this world, Jesus is coming and He will
establish His glory. Help us to know that sin will be destroyed and righteousness
will reign. At the same time, help us to know that sinners will perish. And
while on the one hand we are rejoicing in our triumph, give us a heart to call
the lost to salvation, to call them away from demon deception. Let the light of
gospel truth shine through us and draw many to yourself. As the world gets
worse and worse and darker and darker, we long more and more for the light of
the coming King. It's in that hope that we pray in His great name. Amen.”
I have to say something here which is actually between something else
that goes along with what we have just read and that is we learned in chapter
17 about the fall of what was the religious system that the Antichrist would
ride into power and then disposes of it in order to bring about what we are
learning about in chapter eighteen and that is the worship of the
Antichrist. What we are learning about
is that people during this time will be worshiping the Antichrist as he will
claim to be god, and there will also be another thing that we will begin to
look at in chapter eighteen that I think is prevalent in our country and for
that matter around the world today and that is the worship of things. We will look more into detail of this as we
go through chapter eighteen.
Now I want to do kind of a book report, actually a very small book
report on a book that I have read, well actually I do have a few more pages to
read in it, but I still want to report on what I have learned from it. The book is by Dr. David Jeremiah that he
wrote in 2011 entitled “I Never Thought I’d See The Day.” In this book Dr. Jeremiah goes through nine
different things that he says that he never though he would see them happen in
our country. In the tenth chapter he
then writes what we as believers are to do if great trouble breaks out in our
country because of these nine things he writes about. The Last chapter is entitled “When Changing
Your Mind Could Save Your Life,” and as I said this tenth chapter is the climax
of the book after given nine things that have happened in our country that are
not good at all. I became a believer in January
of 1974 and as mentioned before that God used end time events to draw me to
Himself and so off and on I have been studying what the Bible teaches will
happen in the end times. It has been my
belief for a long time that the United States is not a prominent player in the
end times and since we now and have held the position we do as the military
leader and the economic leader in the world that I felt we would have to fall
from this position before the end times are ushered in. As I studied the Bible I found out that there
are a number of steps that nations and for that matter even individual people
take that will cause them to be judged by the Lord. Paul writes a list of these downfalls in
Romans 1:18-31 “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness,
19 because that which is
known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are
without excuse. 21 For even though they
knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile
in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the
incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and
four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their
hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For
they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this
reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the
natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the
men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire
toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in
their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to
acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those
things which are not proper, 29 being
filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of
evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without
understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God,
that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the
same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
Another thing I learned which Dr. Jeremiah goes over in his book comes
from Genesis 12:1-3 “1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your
country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land
which I will show you; 2 And I will make
you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you
shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless
those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all
the families of the earth will be blessed.’”
When people or nations begin to treat Jews in ways that they should not
be treated just because they are Jews then God will begin to judge them.
Now I will quote a bit from this book from the last chapter as he lists
the things he has gone over in the first nine chapters: “This transformation is vital, for it
determines your response to everything we’ve addressed in this book. It enables you to live through whatever comes
without fear or anxiety—more than that, it enables you to live joyfully. Fail to make this transformation, and you
will find yourself vulnerable in the nine arenas of life I have discussed in
the book. You will be weakened and
unable to stand against the conforming powers of this world. Slowly but surely you will find yourself…
·
Questing the
very existence of God;
·
Victimized by
Satan in spiritual warfare;
·
Fearful of
identifying publicly with Jesus Christ;
·
Questing the
necessity for entering into, or remaining in, marriage;
·
Lowering your
moral standards;
·
spending less and less time reading and
studying the Bible;
·
Becoming disinterested
in and uncommitted to your local church;
·
Growing fearful
and confused about the rise of rogue nations like Iran;
·
Putting America
at risk by growing complacent about the future of the Jews.
I cannot go over all that he writes in the last chapter as it seems
that all of the chapters are 30 pages in length but what he goes over is a
commentary on Romans 12:1-2 “1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
As believers we are to give ourselves to the Lord because of the mercies
of God. We are not to be conformed to
the world system, a system that will find its final fulfillment as seen in
chapter 18 of Revelation, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of or
minds. That word transformed in the
Greek is “metamorphoo” and the meaning of it is “1) to change into another
form, to transform, to transfigure
1a) Christ appearance was changed and was resplendent with divine
brightness on the mount of transfiguration.”
(From my Greek/English dictionary on my Online Bible Program.)
If you couple the things from what John MacArthur said in the last part
of his sermon which I have quoted in this SD with what Dr. Jeremiah has written
in his book you will find out that things are not getting better, but God is in
control and He will care for His own. We
need to give ourselves to Him as Paul speaks of in Romans 12:2 and trust Him
for what happens in our lives.
Last night at prayer meeting a video was played and when I got home I
watched the rest of is in Youtube. I
will give you the web address as the last part of it has to do with what
happens when we are going through troubles, what we are to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orLsHlmy2hw
We will continue on in our journey through the book of Revelation in
our next SD as we pick up where we left of in yesterday’s SD in our next
SD. I thought that what I have written
in this SD is worth writing at this time seeing all the difficulties that are now
going on in our country.
Answer to yesterday’s
Bible question: “On things above”
(Colossians 3:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “At what event did the heavens
open, and the Holy Spirit descend in a bodily shape like a dove?”
Answer in our next
SD.
9/3/2015 11:24 AM
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