SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/13/2015
9:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to Revelation 19 PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Revelation 19:1-10
Message of the
verses: “1 After these things I
heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
"Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; 2 BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS;
for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her
immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." 3
And a second time they said, "Hallelujah!
HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER." 4 And the twenty-four elders and the
four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne
saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!"
“5 And a voice came from the throne,
saying, "Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear
Him, the small and the great." 6 Then I heard something like the voice of
a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of
mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the
Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." 8 It was given to her
to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the
righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, "Write, ’Blessed are
those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’" And he said to
me, "These are true words of God." 10 Then I fell at his feet to
worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and
your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy.’”
Now we have mentioned the following in previous SD’s, but
I think that it bears repeating as we begin to look at this 19th
chapter of Revelation. This is the chapter
when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to take control of planet earth from the usurper
Satan who got control way back in the third chapter of the book of
Genesis. Now we know that God is always
in control of even the things that He allows Satan to do, but as we mentioned
at the very beginning of our study of Revelation was that one of the purposes
of the things that John sees will happen was to show us that the Lord Jesus
Christ will bring about judgment upon those who are not believers during the
tribulation period in order to come back to earth to set up His promised
Kingdom that has been promised to Israel.
We have to remember the Lord’s prayer as we call it and Jesus tells His
disciples to pray “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.”
John MacArthur entitles this first chapter in his book on
the 19th chapter of Revelation “Heavenly Hallelujahs” which covers
the first ten verses of the chapter, and then he entitles the second chapter in
his commentary on the 19th chapter of Revelation “The Glorious
Return of Jesus Christ.” We will
probably have introductory comments on that chapter as well.
We can see the word “Hallelujah” four times in this
section and we will have more things to say about that in our SD’s on this 19th
chapter of Revelation.
John MacArthur writes that there are a number of things
in the Bible where we see that we are to praise the Lord for and I will try and
give the list that he has in a shortened way.
God is to be praised for “the perfections of His glorious being.” “Give thanks for His name,” next we are to
give thanks for His holiness, and this is a wonderful thing to praise the Lord
for, for He is the only One who has perfect holiness. Next he writes we are to praise the Lord for
His mercies, and then we are to extol God’s goodness, and finally he says that
the Bible tells us to give thanks to the Lord for the comforting knowledge of “God’s
nearness.”
I have mentioned that we are to praise the Lord for each
and every one of His attributes as they all give Him glory. We are also to praise the Lord for His works
and the first work we are to praise Him for is His creation, for without that
none of us would be here. Now since we
are here as a result of His creation we must praise the Lord for sending His
Son to care for our sin problem, for that is the only way it could ever be
cared for. Praise the Lord of His Holy
Spirit and the fact that He indwells us and seals us and will bring all of us
safely to heaven. Praise Him for His
wonderful grace and mercy that He gives to us.
We can praise Him for the basic things He gives us for life like air to
breathe and food to eat and water to drink.
MacArthur writes “In summary, giving thanks to God is to be done always
(Eph. 5:20) and for everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18).”
Now what I am going to mention now has been mentioned
before and for some it will be hard to understand. I have mentioned the wonderful book on the
attributes of God that I have read and reread, “The Joy of Knowing God,” and in
that book the author Richard Strauss writes that we are to not turn away from
new things that we learn about God as we study the Scriptures. God is to be praised for His destruction of
the wicked: “"Rejoice, O nations,
with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render
vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people’ (Deu.
32:43).” Psalm 48:11 “Let Mount Zion be
glad, Let the daughters of Judah rejoice Because of Your judgments.” Psalm 58:10-11 “10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the
vengeance; He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 And men will say, "Surely there is a
reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!"” Psalm 96:11-13 “11 Let the heavens be glad,
and let the earth rejoice; Let the sea roar, and all it contains; 12 Let the
field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing
for joy 13 Before the LORD, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the
world in righteousness And the peoples in His faithfulness.” John MacArthur writes “As man’s day draws to
a close and the true King prepares to return to earth, heaven will
rejoice. Heavenly hallelujahs ring out
in chapter 19 over the final destruction of the evil world system and the
glorious victory of the returning Messiah (cf. 5:9-14).” We will pick up on the remainder of this
introduction in our next SD on Revelation 19.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful that
one day the Lord Jesus Christ will return to judge the wicked who have been
causing trouble for a long time. I have
to wait and that is something that no one likes to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: In our Sunday school class today our instruction
mentioned that no one likes to wait, but we all know that waiting causes us to
learn patience.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Bethany” (John 12:1-3).
Today’s Bible
question: “Whom did Jacob pretend to be
before his father?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/13/2015 9:57 PM
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