SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/26/2015
8:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 Introduction to the Return of
Christ
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
19:11-21
Message
of the verses: Well late last night
I had to stop in the middle of some verses from the Old Testament that help us
better understand what we are learning about the return of Jesus Christ and so
we will continue with more from the Old Testament in this SD.
John MacArthur writes at the beginning
of this paragraph that I am looking at “God’s people throughout redemptive
history have eagerly anticipated the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to defeat
His foes and set up His kingdom. That
will be the time when the destruction of Satan is completed,” and then he goes
on to speak of different things that will happen of which we have looked at
some and will continue to look at more in today’s SD. “When the armies of God and Magog will be
shattered” this is found in Ezekiel chapters 38-39. Next we look at “when the nations will be
judged” found in Joel 3:1-2, 12-14, “1 "For behold, in those days and at
that time, When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations And bring them
down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them
there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have
scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.” “12 Let the nations be aroused And come up to
the valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to judge All the surrounding
nations. 13 Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The
vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” Next “After their defeat in battle by the
returning King” and this is found in Zechariah 14:3-4 “3 Then the LORD will go
forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. 4
In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of
Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from
east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move
toward the north and the other half toward the south.” Next “when the angels will gather the wicked
for judgment” and this is found in Matthew 13:41-42 “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.” Matthew 25:41 “41 “Then He will also say to
those on His left, ’Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which
has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” Next “when the wicked will face God’s wrath
and indignation” this is found in Romans 2:5-9 “5 But because of your stubbornness and
unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON
ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: 7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for
glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; 8 but to those who are selfishly
ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and
indignation. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who
does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.” Next “When the Lord Jesus Christ will descend
visibly” found in Revelation 1:7 “BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and
every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the
earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” Next “From heaven in flaming fire, burning
retribution of the persecutors of His people” as found in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9
and we also must compare Revelation 6:9-11 and that will end this section of
verses: “6 For after all it is only just
for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to
you who are afflicted and to us as well when 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.” “9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw
underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word
of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they
cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true,
will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the
earth?" 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were
told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their
fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been,
would be completed also.”
I want to say again that this
section in the commentary from John MacArthur, the one that I am following and
will take us a fairly long time to get through it, but if I did not think it
was important then I would not take the time to look at what he has researched
to make this most wonderful of all events for the believers understandable to
us.
He writes “The second coming of
Jesus Christ is thus the culmination of redemptive history. Believers of all ages have eagerly
anticipated that glorious event (cf. Isa. 64:1-2). In fact, the apostle Paul defined Christians
as those ‘who have love His appearing’ (2 Tim. 4:8). Many believers, however, are enamored by the
things of the world and do not love Christ’s appearing as they should. Certainly the Tribulation believers will have
no such problem. They will be
persecuted, hunted outcast (cf. 13:17), living constantly under the sentence of
death (13:15) in an unspeakably vile, demon-infested world. Christ’s coming will be what they long for
and pray for.” When I was a young
believer my Pastor spoke some words on the passage from 2 Timothy and said that
we would receive a crown for loving the second coming of Christ, but would not
receive one if we just knew the details of His second coming.
We will not begin a list of things
that are compelling reasons why Jesus must return to earth. The first reason is that there are numerous
promises of God in the Bible that show us He must return, and we have noted
some of these earlier in this SD. Next
we know that our Lord promised that He will return and so this also demands His
return. A couple of examples are from
Matthew 24:27, 30, 37-44; Matthew 25:31; and 26:64. Next we see that another reason is that of
the guarantee of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Truth as seen in John
14:17; 15:26; 16:13, and we know that it is the Holy Spirit who has inspired
all of what we read in the Scriptures so this is another great reason for the
return of Jesus Christ. Another reason
for His return is that if He did not return then the promises of the Father,
Son, and Spirit would not come to pass, and this could never happen. God’s plan for the church also necessitates His
return. We, as members of the church are
promised to be with the Lord in the air at the Rapture in order for us to
participate in the marriage supper of the Lamb, something we recently
studied. Next we learn that Jesus must
also return because of God’s plan for the nations, for the nations must be
judged and we have already looked at verses from both Joel and Matthew on this
subject. God has promised the salvation
of Israel, for even Paul wrote in Romans 11:26 the following “and so all Israel
will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION,
HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.’”
This will happen during the last part of the Tribulation period, perhaps
when the great earthquake happens in Jerusalem, for after that we learned that
those who were still alive after than praised the Lord. John MacArthur writes on this next reason “Christ’s
humiliation at His first coming, when He was scorned, hated, and despised (Isa.
53: Matt. 26:67; 27:27-31), demands His return to display His glory (Matt.
25:31). Satan’s exaltation is another
reason Jesus must return to earth. The ‘god
of this world’ (2 Cor. 4:4) will not be permitted to keep his usurped throne
(cf. Luke 4:5-6) forever. The rightful
Heir to earth’s throne must return, defeat the usurper, and take what is
rightfully His (cf. 20:1-3, 10).
Finally, the hope and expectation of God’s people demands that Christ
return (6:9-10; Titus 2:13; 1 John 3:2-3).”
In our next SD we will look at as
promised the difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ to
planet earth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to
love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul speaks of when he wrote to
Timothy.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Paul”
(Titus 2:13).
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said ‘"You of little
faith, why did you doubt?””
Answer
in our next SD.
9/26/2015
9:46 AM
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