SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/17/2015
10:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Scene PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
20:11-12a
Message of the
verses: “11 Then I saw a great white
throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away,
and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small,
standing before the throne.”
We remember that when John writes “Then I saw” we have
learned that John is moving onto another vision. Now the vision that he saw was what we have
called “The Great White Throne” judgment.
“The Great White Throne judgment follows those of the Millennium
(20:1-10), and the Second Coming (19:11-21), and immediately precedes that of
the new heaven and the new earth (21:1ff.)” writes John MacArthur.
I count around 40 times that the word throne and thrones
are used in the book of Revelation according to my Online Bible program, and in
this case we see the seat of God’s sovereign rule. We believe that it is called great because of
the size of it, but not only that for it is greater than the thrones mentioned
in Revelation 20:4 “4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment
was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because
of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had
not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead
and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand
years.” Another reason for the word
great is of its significance, majesty, and authority, for after all the God of
the universe who created all things will be sitting in judgment on this throne. We have come to learn that white symbolizes
purity, holiness, and also justice as we have studied Revelation. The verdict that comes down from this throne
will be absolutely equitable, righteous and also just, and there will be no
cross-examinations, only what God will speak will be heard. David wrote in Psalm 9:7-8 “7 But the LORD
abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, 8 And He will judge
the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with
equity.” We need to say a hardy “Amen!”
after reading these verses. Let us now look at how the prophet Daniel describes
this scene from Daniel 7:9-10 “9 "I kept looking Until thrones were set
up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And
the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its
wheels were a burning fire. 10 “A river of fire was flowing And coming out from
before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon
myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.” John MacArthur writes “Jesus described this
scene as the ‘resurrection of judgment’ (John 5:29). Of this judgment, the apostle Paul wrote, ‘Because
of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for
yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteousness judgment of
God’ (Rom. 2:5).”
Now when we were back in Revelation 4:8-11 we saw a
description of who it is who is seated on this throne, and we know that He is
none other than the eternal, almighty God:
“8 And the four living
creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and
within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is
THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME." 9 And when the living creatures give glory and
honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and
ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will
fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives
forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God,
to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because
of Your will they existed, and were created.’’”
At this point in this SD I want to quote from what I
wrote on November 21, 20005, and I have to say that some of the things that I
wrote back then are somewhat similar to what we are looking at now. However we will continue looking at these
verses in our next SD as well.
“This section, from verse 11 through
verse 15, is probably the most sobering verses in all of the Scriptures. This theme is given other places in the
Bible, but in these verses are seen the culmination of what these other verses
were written about. Daniel saw this
happening in a vision just like John is has seen it and written about it
here. Daniel 7:10 & 11 has this to
say about this scene: “10 ‘A river of fire was flowing
And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books
were opened.
“11 ‘Then I
kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was
speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and
given to the burning fire.’” In this section John is seeing the judgment
of Antichrist, and it seems to be this same judgment that John is writing
about.
“John is writing here about the
Great White Throne Judgment, which is the place where every unbeliever will be
judged and then will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is also named
hell. In verse eleven John writes that
there is One sitting on a great white throne, and that One is Jesus Christ and
John goes on to write that the earth and the sky had vanished. It is good to remember how all of this has
come into existence in the first place, and that is through the spoken Word of
God, as something was made from nothing, and now the process will be
reversed. Peter writes about this in 2
Peter 3:10, “But the day of the
Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar
and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its
works will be burned up.”
“In verse twelve John describes
those who will be at this judgment and also the things that will condemn them,
that is the books, and one of them will probably be God’s Word, the Bible. The Book of Life is also there, and in this
book are the names of all who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and
none of these who are at this judgment has their name recorded in that
book. There are other books there that
will have recorded in them the things that all of these people will have done,
and that is the reason that they find themselves there. None of these people will have ever accepted
the forgiveness that God has provided, and so they must stand on their own
righteousness, and that will never be good enough to satisfy a Holy God.
“It seems that there will be
different degrees of punishment in hell, not only can it be seen from these
verses, but also from other places in the Scriptures such as Matt. 11:20-24.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I look
around at what I can call the demise of our country and then look at this
passage of how God will care for in perfect judgment those who are destroying
our country along with many other countries in the past, I can have complete
confidence that what God will do during the Great White Throne Judgment will
care for all the wrong that is being done now and for all the wrong that has
been done since man first sinned on planet earth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Never forget
that God is in complete control, and always will be.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “By
sowing to the spirit” (Galatians 6:8).
Today’s
Bible question:
“What
was done for Jesus when he was forty days old?”
Answer
in our next SD.
10/17/2015
10:40 AM
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