SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/23/2015
10:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 Marriage Supper of the Lamb
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
19:7-10
Message of the
verses: “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.’”
We have been looking at some different passages from the Old
Testament showing that Israel will be invited to this marriage supper of the
Lamb and now we want to continue and look at a promise from the book of Daniel
12:2 which promise the resurrection of the Old Testament believers, whose
bodies have long been in decay. “"Many
of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting
life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” John MacArthur writes “The souls of those
believers are already with the Lord.
Their bodies will be raised for the kingdom. Daniel 12:1 connects the resurrection with
the Tribulation: ‘"Now at that time
Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will
arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there
was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is
found written in the book, will be rescued.’
It is best to place that resurrection at the end of the
Tribulation. They are raised to be
guests at the wedding and enjoy all the festivities of the glory of the
Kingdom.”
When we speak of verses like what we are looking at
concerning Israel we must realize that during the OT times Israel was pictured
as God’s wife, but then when we studied the book of Hosea we found out that God’s
wife (Israel) was unfaithful to Him, and yet we know that God is gracious and
the promises of the unconditional covenants that God has with Israel are still
in effect. There are some who believe
that because of Israel’s sin that the promises God had with her and not null
and void, but this is not the case.
Hosea 14:4 gives us the promise from God that “I will heal their
apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them.” John MacArthur writes “In the kingdom, God
will restore His relationship with His unfaithful wife. And Israel will have a prominent place in the
New Jerusalem, as the descriptions given of it in Revelation 21:10-14
reveals: ‘10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a
great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down
out of heaven from God, 11 having the
glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of
crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and
at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names
of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the
east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates
on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on
them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.’
“Whenever distinctions are made in Scripture, all
believers of all ages will enjoy the full glories of eternity. Henry Morris writes: ‘Whatever distinctions may exist between the
saints of the pre-Abrahamic period, the saints in Israel before Christ, the
saints among the Gentiles from Abraham to Christ, the saints of the
tribulation, and the saints in the churches from Christ to the rapture…such
distinctions are secondary to the great primary truth that all will be there by
virtue of the saving work of Christ and their personal trust in the true
Creator God and His provision of salvation.’”
At the end of verse nine we read that the angel tells
John “These are true words of God.” It
is good to hear this from the angel reaffirming the truth that we have just
read about. Can you imagine how this
very old Apostle who had been through so much in serving the Lord, to the point
of being in a prison like place on a desolate island perhaps wondering what
will happen to those who were being persecuted at that time? This must have warmed his heart to hear that
statement that these are true words of God.
We see once again that John falls at the feet of the
angel to worship only to be told that he should not do that for the angel was
also a servant of the Lord. I can imagine
that John truly felt like worship at that time and when he saw the beauty and majesty
of the angel he did what he did.
John MacArthur writes “The angel’s final word to John is
a reminder that ‘the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’ The central theme of Old Testament prophecy
and New Testament preaching is the Lord Jesus Christ. Until the coming of His kingdom, all who
proclaim the gospel must be faithful to the testimony of Jesus, the saving
gospel message, which was His message.
Those who are not will forfeit heavenly affirmation of their ministry.
We see from our study of Revelation thus far that we are
at the point when the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and judge those who
have been trying to destroy Him. We have
learned that it was God who called all the armies of the world to come to
Israel and fight in the last battle where they would first be fighting each
other and then when the armies see Jesus returning from heaven with many saints
and angels they begin to fight against Him, but with the Sword in His mouth He
will destroy those who fight against Him and those who are left over will be
thrown into the lake of fire with the devil, the antichrist, and the false
prophet. Paul writes the following to
the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 “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.”
I want to at this time quote from the SD I did from
November 5, 2005 on verses 9-10. “Dr.
Wiersbe gives an interesting statement about verse nine when he writes that the
ones who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb would be the OT saints,
they would be the guests at this event along with the tribulation saints, but
it is the Church, the Bride of Christ who will be there as part of the
ceremony. He went on to say that some
commentators have said that it is possible for this marriage supper of the Lamb
to take place for the entire millennial kingdom.
“It is interesting that the words “he said to me” are
found three times in these two verses, as this angel was telling John different
things that he would eventually record in this letter to the seven
churches. In verse ten tells John that
he should not worship him because he was only a fellow servant like John was,
and then the angel went on to say something very interesting when he said, “for
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” I am not sure exactly what all of this means,
but I do believe that prophecy has all to do with Jesus. In Hal Lindsey’s book “There Is A New World
Coming,” he makes this statement about this section of verse ten, “The angel
also reminded John that every aspect of prophecy is ultimately a testimony
about Jesus. His Spirit permeates it.”
Then he goes on to say, “Woe to the Christian who minimizes or rejects prophecy
in the light of this statement by the angel!
It’s the same as rejecting Christ Himself.” I know some people today who would certainly
not agree with that statement, and will have nothing to do with the prophetic
word, and I think that is a huge mistake on their part.”
While listening to a sermon from John MacArthur on the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the next thing we will be looking at,
he gives another review and I may quote that for our next SD. It took him several years to study this book
with his people and there were times when he had to leave to preach other
places and when he returned he wanted to review where they had been and I am
one who likes reviewing for it reminds me of where we have been before moving
on, and in this case moving on to something we have anticipated looking at
since we began this study in January of this year.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am happy for
the grace of God as I have been saved by grace through faith, faith in the
finished work of Christ on the cross. I
am also happy for God’s justice, knowing that all who are against the Lord
Jesus Christ will one day answer for what they are doing to those who are worshiping
in spirit and truth.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To be patiently waiting for the King to
return and being about His work while He allows me to live here on planet
earth.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The Christians.”
Today’s Bible
question: “From Jerusalem, how long did
David reign over Israel and Judah?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/23/2015 11:07 AM
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