SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/8/2015
8:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Rev. 22:6-12
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Rev. 22:6-12
Message of the
verses: “6 And he said to me,
"These words are faithful and true"; and the Lord, the God of the
spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things
which must soon take place. 7 “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he
who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book." 8 I, John, am the one
who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to
worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9 But he said to
me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren
the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God." 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." 12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me,
to render to every man according to what he has done.”
We enter into the second to last section of the 22nd
chapter of the Book of Revelation to which John MacArthur entitles this section
“The Believer’s Immediate Response to Christ’s Imminent Return.” We began our study in this last book of the
Bible, a book that many true believers do not even look at, a book that tells
us what is going to happen in the future, a book that in it we are told that if
we just read it we will be blessed, and a book that we have been studying, not
just reading. I am grateful to the Lord
that in the last days of last year the Lord put this book on my heart to once
again read, and study and to put my studies on the internet so the Spirit of
the Living God could use to draw people to Himself, and to cause believers to
hopefully better understand the mysteries that are found in this book. My prayer has been most every day after
posting my study onto my blog that God will bring people to Himself through
salvation, and also cause believers to grow and for believers to have revival
in their hearts.
As we look at the beginning of this second to last
section we see from the title of MacArthur’s study that this section will show
us as believers that we should have an immediate response to the imminent
return of our Lord Jesus Christ, that our hearts should be filled with
excitement with the things we have been learning and therefore be changed,
remembering to tell others of what will happen in the not to distance future,
which will bring glory to the Lord.
What we are looking at here at the end of this book is an
epilogue to the book of Revelation. As
mentioned we have seen much in our study and now we want to learn from this
epilogue.
John MacArthur writes “Bracketing the book of Revelation
along with the epilogue is the prologue, recorded in 1:1-3 ‘1 The Revelation of
Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which
must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His
bond-servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of
Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed
the things which are written in it; for the time is near.’ The prologue introduces the theme of
Revelation, the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The epilogue provides a fitting conclusion to the Apocalypse by pointing
out what is to be the believer’s response to the Second coming (vv. 6-12). The postscript also, on final in Scripture,
invites nonbelievers to come to saving faith in Christ before it is forever too
late (vv. 13-21).”
He goes on to write, and we will end with this in this
SD: “In a series of rapid-fire staccato
statements that move breathlessly from theme to theme, verses 6-12 delineate
the responses every believer should convey a furious rush of energy, a wild
furry of excited effort to call forth immediate reaction to the vital truth
they communicate. The text is pregnant
with urgency, pressuring every reader to take action based on the truths it
presents.” With all of this said I am
anxious to continue to look at this introduction in our next SD, and then go on
to look at what this text has to say in a different light than I have looked at
it before.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The Holy Spirit and power”
(Acts 10:38).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Behold the fire and
the wood: but where is the lamb for a burn offering’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/8/2015 8:37 PM
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