SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2015
10:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 of Introduction to Rev. 19:1-10
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.’”
John MacArthur writes “As that
long-awaited time approaches, the scene in Revelation shifts from earth, where
it has been since chapter 6, to heaven.
The intervening chapters have detailed God’s cataclysmic explosion of
judgmental fury on the sinful world.
That fury began to be poured out when the Lord Jesus Christ, the
rightful heir to the universe, received the title deed to the earth from His
Father (5:1-14). As He unrolled that
scroll and broke its seven seals, terrifying judgments struck the earth. The seal judgments were followed by the
equally devastating trumpet and bowl judgments.” The long awaited time of having the enemies
of God defeated is what MacArthur is writing about here and because they are
defeated heaven sends out its hallelujahs.
As stated we have learned that the
target of God’s wrath was Antichrist’s worldwide religious, political, and economic
empire and also the capital city of Babylon a symbol of what this evil empire
represents. We have mentioned also that
this system began back in Genesis chapters 10-11 a time after the flood had
been used to judge the world the first time, and now even after that horrible
judgment mankind goes back to doing the same things of rejecting God and trying
to bring about their own worship system.
MacArthur continues “Some might
think heaven’s rejoicing over Babylon’s destruction to be insensitive and
uncaring. But that shortsighted view
ignores the reality that those sinners will have had the greatest opportunity
to repent of any people who have ever lived.
They will have experienced the unprecedented disasters of the
Tribulation, which they will acknowledge to be God’s judgments (6:17). They will also have heard the most powerful
preaching of the gospel in history, from the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, the
two witnesses, the host of the redeemed saved during the Tribulation, and even
a powerful angel (14:6-7). Yet despite
all that, they will remain unrepentant to the very end (9:20-21; 16:9, 11),
hardened into irreversible unbelief and defiant hatred of God.”
As we have been looking at the
different chapters in Revelation we have seen much praise that has gone
on. Sometimes it begins with a seemingly
small group like the four living beings and then goes to the twenty-four elders
and then the angels and saints and then all who are believers get into the act
of praising the Lord. There is nothing
wrong with praising the Lord over the destruction of the wicked. Can you imagine how people celebrated after
the victories of WWII came about against two wicked empires, and this was just
done by people, and it may have also had praises in heaven too, but people were
happy that these two evil empires were defeated just the same. Ezekiel writes some things that we need to
look at showing us that this heavenly rejoicing is not over the damnation of
those who reject God “"23 Do I have any pleasure in the death of the
wicked," declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should turn from
his ways and live?” “32 “For I have no
pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD.
"Therefore, repent and live."”
“11 “Say to them, ’As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ’I take no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his
way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die,
O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 18:23, 32;
33:11) This is a difficult thing to
understand, but knowing God’s attributes helps me understand it better.
MacArthur gives us a preview of what
we are going to look at in these ten verses:
“As the text unfolds, five reasons for heaven’s joy become evident,
Heaven rejoices because full salvation has come, because justice is meted out,
because rebellion is ended, because God is in control, and because the marriage
of the Lamb is completed.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I know
that there are times when I study the Word of God that I do not fully
understand what I am studying, but one of the things that helps me in these
situations is that God is holy and can never do anything wrong even if I don’t
fully understand all of it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord to help us get things ready for our company in a peaceful way.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Esau”
(Genesis 27:19).
Today’s
Bible question: Which book describes
Gentile rule from the rise of the new Babylon empire to the time of the
settlement of Messiah’s kingdom?”
Answer
in our next SD.
9/14/2015
11:17 AM
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