SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
11/16/2015 11:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Introduction to “God’s Last Invitation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
22:13-21
Message of the
verses: “13 “I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." 14 Blessed are
those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of
life, and may enter by the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs and the
sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and
everyone who loves and practices lying. 16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to
testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant
of David, the bright morning star." 17 The Spirit and the bride say,
"Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the
one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without
cost. 18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this
book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written
in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy
city, which are written in this book. 20
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”
In today’s SD we begin to study the very last portion of
the book of Revelation, a study that we began on the second day of this year, a
study that has taken many, many hours to prepare and look into. John MacArthur has around 80 messages on the
book of Revelation, a study that took him a number of years to complete and
took me many hours to listen to in preparation for this study. I am thankful to the Lord for the book of
Revelation, for our Bible surely would not be complete without it, and as
stated before there are so many people who have not even opened to the
wonderful book.
There will be an extended quote from both John MacArthur
and also from W. A. Criswell whom is quoted in John MacArthur’s commentary in
this introduction, and introduction that I hope will set the stage for the
remaining verses we have to look at before this study is complete. We begin with a quote from John
MacArthur: “In these its concluding
verses, the Bible comes full circle. It
opened with a promise of a coming Savior, who would redeem His people from
their sins. That promise, which came
immediately after the Fall, is recorded in Genesis 3:15: ‘I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise
you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.’ Just as the Bible opens with the promise of
Christ’s first coming, so it ends with the promise of His second coming. The faithful Southern Baptist expositor W. A.
Criswell writes: ‘First, the Savior is
to come that He might be crushed, bruised; crucified and made an offering for
sin. He is to come to die as the
Redeemer for the souls of men. After God
made that promise in Eden, hundreds of years passed, millenniums passed, and
the Lord did not come. When finally He
ded arrive He came unto His own and His own received Him not. He was in the world and the world was made by
Him and the world knew Him not. The
thousands of humanity had forgotten the promise or else they scoffed at its
fulfillment. When finally announcement
came that he had arrived, the learned scribes pointed out the place where He
was to be born, but never took the time to journey the five miles from
Jerusalem to Bethlehem to welcome this promised Saviour of the world. But however long he delayed and however men
forgot and scoffed and however few of a faithful band waited for the
consolation of Israel, as old Simeon, yet He came. In keeping with the holy faithful promise of
God, the Lord Jesus came. It is thus in
the text that God speaks in closing His Bible, ‘Surely, I come quickly.’ Here a second time, however infidels may
scoff and however others may reject ad however the centuries may grow into
millenniums, this is the immutable Word and promise of the Lord God, ‘Surely, I
come.’”
We are reminded that verses 6-12 of Revelation chapter 22
was addressed to believers and it demands our proper response to Christ’s
imminent return, and so verses 13-21 calls unbelievers to repentance. MacArthur concludes his introduction: “The inspired canon of Scripture closes with
an urgent invitation, pleading with sinners to come to Jesus Christ and receive
the free gift of eternal life before it is forever too late.
“God’s final invitation to sinners comes in verse
17. But surrounding that invitation are
several incentives designed to motivated people to respond to it.” In the coming days of our study I want to
quote from the first sermon that MacArthur does on this section as it moved my
heart when I listened to it this morning.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: In an ever
increasing dangerous world that we live in as seen by what happened over this
past weekend I believe that the only hope that mankind has is the truths that
are found in the Word of God. The
invitation to unbelievers in this last portion of the book of Revelation goes
out and has gone out to the world since it was written and we are told that this
book is not to be sealed up, but to be read and preached from so that people
can hear and understand about the only hope for mankind, and that is the Lord
Jesus Christ who came to earth almost 2000 years ago to purchase sinners for
His Father and He will come again soon to take them to heaven to be with Him
forever.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is my desire to continue to put the truth
of God’s Word out onto the internet so that the Holy Spirit can draw people to
it in order to be saved, to grow, and to have revival in their hearts so that
they can tell others about the Hope of Jesus Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Elisha” (2 Kings 2:9).
Today’s Bible
question: “Of what country was
Nebuchadnezzar king?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/16/2015 12:03 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment