SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/14/2015
7:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Immediate Proclamation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Rev.
22:10-11
Message of the
verses: “10 And he said to me, "Do not seal up the
words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 "Let the one who does wrong, still do
wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous,
still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself
holy."”
On December 8, 2005 I wrote the following about these
verses and although at this time I man not totally agree with all I wrote then,
most of it I do so I will quote from that Spiritual Diary here and then go on
with more comments on these verses: “John
is told not to seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, unlike Daniel
who was told to seal them up until a later time. He then said that the time is near, and I
have written on this subject in an earlier verse when the word soon was
used. For one thing I do not believe
that the verse speaking of a thousand years is like a day to the Lord as some
have used to try to explain this. Here
is a possible way of understanding this verse.
The Bible speaks of the “day of the Lord” in different places, and this
can mean that from the time of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to earth until He
comes again at the end of the tribulation period is the day of the Lord. A person who believes in dispensations, as I
do, believes that there are different ways in which God dealt with man since
the creation of man. The first
dispensation was the age of innocence, and then there was conscience, and human
government, and the Law and so on until we come to the age of grace, or the
Church age, and this can also be described as the Day of the Lord. With all of this said one can look at this
word near and say that because the age we are living in is the Church age, and
at the end of the Church age all of these things written in this book will come
true then indeed it is near. John is saying
not to close up the words of the prophecy of this book, and I believe that He
is saying that this is profitable for all of the Church age to read this, for
indeed God has promised a blessing to all those who read this wonderful book.
“John goes on to write about write about the difference
between those who will believe what has been written in this book, and
therefore turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and he also write
about those who will not believe the prophecies of this book and thus continue
on in their sinful life.”
Now the one who is speaking here is the angel who had
been speaking to him and the angel tells John “Do not seal up the words of the
prophecy of this book.” Let’s compare
this with Revelation 10:11 “And they said to me, "You must prophesy again
concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."” This was written after John had eaten the
little book, something we wrote about when we studied chapter ten. We also mentioned about the book of
Revelation being a prophecy as stated here in this verse. This message from the book of Revelation was
to be spread in order to produce obedience and worship. We also mentioned that Daniel, who did not
understand the visions he had seen was told to seal up that book (see Daniel
8:26 and also Daniel 12:4-10). John
MacArthur writes “Immediate proclamation of this book is called for because the
coming of Christ has been imminent for every generation from John’s day until
the present.”
MacArthur continues “That the specific words of
Revelation are not to be sealed up stresses again that there is no hidden,
secret meaning apart from the normal sense of the text. If the truth is not clear in those words then
this command is nonsense. If the plain,
normal understanding of these words of Revelation does not convey the meaning
God intended its readers to grasp, then those words are sealed.” This goes a
long way in saying to those who refuse to look at the book of Revelation saying
it is a lot of dreams and visions we cannot understand that they are totally
wrong. Why would God say not to seal it
up if by the Spirit of God we can understand what is written in it?
At the beginning of this book we first of all see Jesus
in all of His glory, and then Jesus tells John to write in a book all that He
saw, sees, and will see. Next we see the
letters to the seven churches, and then we see all that will happen during the
seven years of tribulation when Jesus Christ takes back control of planet earth
and then we see Him as King of kings sitting on the throne of David for one
thousand years. Next we saw the judgment
of the ungodly and then the new heaven and the new earth. Now I ask you what possible reason would
there be not to have people in the church age to not read and understand this
book? Our Lord Jesus Christ is exalted
throughout this book and for that reason alone it is worth reading. If God tells us to read this book then His
enemy will do everything in his power not to have us read and understand this
book and he has done a pretty good joy on many Bible believing Christians on
that subject as many say they will not look at the book of Revelation.
John MacArthur writes next about why the statement “Let
the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be
filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the
one who is holy, still keep himself holy,"” found in verse eleven. He writes “Some may think its connection with
the command that preceded it is not immediately apparent. But the truth it dramatically conveys is that
people’s response to the proclamation of the truth will fix their eternal
destinies. Those who hear the truth but
continue to do wrong and be filthy will by that hardened response fix their
eternal destiny in hell. On the other
hand, the one who continues to practice righteousness and keep himself holy gives
evidence of genuine saving faith. The
adverb eti (still) may have the sense
of ‘yet more.’ In that case, the meaning
is that those who do wrong and are filthy in this life will be even more so in
eternal hell, where there will be absolutely no good influence to mitigate
their evil. In contrast, those who are
righteous and holy in this life will be perfectly holy in their glorified
bodies in heaven.”
For those who do not know the Lord this book, this
portion of this book calls them to come to know the Lord as Savior and Lord so that
what is seen in the awfulness of the judgments of this book and the awfulness
of hell mentioned in this book will not be a part of their future, but the
wonders of being with the Lord Jesus Christ living with Him forever, being a
part of the millennial kingdom with Him and living in the eternal city of the
New Jerusalem will be their future. Let
us look at a couple of verses that speak of how the Spirit of God will not always
call sinners to repentance as the Scripture warns sinners not to harden their hearts
to the point where God judicially abandons them: “7 For He is our God, And we are the people
of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, 8
Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the
wilderness (Psalm 95:7-8), and repeated in Hebrews 3:15 and 4:7 “while it is
said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN
THEY PROVOKED ME."” “He again fixes
a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time
just as has been said before, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN
YOUR HEARTS."”
MacArthur concludes his commentary on this section: “Preaching Revelation draws the line. Its truths will melt the hearts of the
repentant and harden the hearts of the unrepentant. Those same truths thus become either an
instrument of salvation, or an instrument of damnation (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor.
2:15-16). They must be proclaimed so men
and women can hear them while there is still time.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire to live
a holy righteous life so others can see that the Lord Jesus Christ lives in me
in the Person of the Holy Spirit, trying to do what He wants me to do, to
complete what He wants me to complete.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Get the word of how one can receive
salvation and miss the judgments found in this book either on the internet or
in person.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Man and wife” (Ephesians
5:31).
Today’s Bible
question: “What temple did our Lord
refer to in John 2:19?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/14/2015 8:38 AM
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