Characteristic of Purpose (Rev. 14:4c)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2015 7:09 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Characteristic of Purpose

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 14:4c

            Message of the verses:  “These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”

            First I would like to go back to Revelation 5:9 “And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”  We can see from this verse that John is again showing that the Lord Jesus Christ has purchased men from among  every tribe and tongue and people and nation, which is similar to what we read in our verse today.  Now according to this verse in Revelation chapter five and other verses like Acts 20:28 which reads “"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”  We can also look at 1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  Next 1 Corinthians 7:23 “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.”  Next 1 Peter 1:18-19 “18  knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19  but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”  All of these verses show that God is the One who has purchased us through the blood and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, but for these 144,000 God had purchased them for a special purpose.  Our verse for today states that they have been redeemed as “first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”  We will have to go back to the Old Testament to understand what the term “first fruits” means.  I will give a couple of references here to show what this means, the first from Deuteronomy 26:1-11, but we will not write this one out but will look at Deuteronomy 18:3-5 “3 “Now this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep, of which they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 “You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep. 5 “For the LORD your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to stand and serve in the name of the LORD forever.”  Now in Deuteronomy 26:1-11 we can see that this passage speaks of the first part of a crop to be harvested were offered to God.  Now what does this have to do with the 144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14?  John MacArthur writes “As previously noted, the number 144,000 does not symbolize all the Tribulation saints, but rather designates a group of Jewish evangelists.  The purpose of their lives will be to serve the Lord by proclaiming the gospel to the lost, perishing, Christ rejecting world.

            “It is also possible to view the 144,000 as ‘first fruits’ in the sense that they represent the first of many others who will be saved.  Paul used the term in that sense when he noted that ‘the household of Stephanas …were the first fruits of Achaia.’  The 144,000 may legitimately be viewed as the first fruits of redeemed Israel, foreshadowing the nation’s salvation when Christ returns.  In that day ‘they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a first born’ (Zech. 12:10).  Of that day Paul wrote ‘25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB." 27 “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS."”

            I want to go back to Revelation 5:9 and look at the phrase “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”  What we don’t see in this phrase is the word “race” for all of what John speaks of here is from the same race, the human race, but he does talk about different tribes and tongues and people, and nations, which are all a part of the human race.  I have spoken about this in earlier SD’s and so this is not new, but this is a great problem in our world today and it comes from the false religion of evolution.  This is just another bad thing that comes out of evolution that is we have different races of people when in fact there is only one race and that is the race of man that God created on the sixth day.  Also as I earlier stated that one of the other problems of the religion of evolution is that since we are all one big accident that there is no one we are accountable to, but this is wrong for all men are accountable to God.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the things that I am learning from the lives of the 144,000 mentioned in these two chapters of Revelation, happy that I can learn from their lives, and even happy that since I believe that we are close to the return of Jesus Christ to come to take His bride that I even pray for these men from time to time that God will do just as He tells us He will do with them during the Tribulation Period. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength, and to be thankful for the love that the Lord has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Solomon” (Luke 12:27).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which Psalm begins, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands’?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/12/2015 7:45 AM

Characteristic of Partisanship (Rev. 14:4b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/11/2015 7:16 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Characteristic of Partisanship

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 14:4b

            Message of the verses:  “These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”

            I am not sure if I ever heard of the word “partisans” before, but at least it has been a long time.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary this word means “on who takes part of sides with another; an adherent or supporter of a party, person, or cause…a devoted or zealous supporter…One who supports his party ‘through thick and thin’; a blind, prejudiced, unreasoning, or fanatical adherent.”  John MacArthur quotes John Phillips is showing how the 144,000 are completely loyal to the Lamb:  “They allow no rivals, no refusals, and no restraint to mar their dedication to Him.  Does He need someone to stand upon the steps of the Vatican and cry out against the marriage of Christendom to the Beast?  There are 144,000 ready to go!  Does the Lord need someone to beard the Beast at some high function of state and roundly denounce him, his policy, his statecraft, his religion, his economic boycott, his mark, his ministers, his alliances with Satan?  There are 144,000 eager to go!  Does the Lamb need evangelists to proclaim to the untold millions the gospel of the coming kingdom of God? To climb the highest Himalayas, to cross the desert stands, to blaze evangelistic trails through steaming jungles, or to mush huskies across wide arctic wastes?  There are 144,000 ready to go!  And though the Beast’s Gestapo [sic] dog their footsteps and wreak upon their converts his direst vengeance, yet on they go undaunted and undeterred.  That was the very spirit of their consecration as they followed the Lamb whithersoever He led them on earth, and their reward is in kind.”

            These are the kind of loyal followers that the Lord Jesus Christ is looking for as He states in Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”  In another Word from Him as He spoke to the rich young ruler He advised him “"If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me’ (Matthew 19:21).”  Another time from the gospel of John Jesus told a crowd of unbelieving Jews that they were not His sheep for if they were, He says that “"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me’ (John 10:27).”  Paul says the following in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”  John writes the following in 1 John 2:6 “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

            As we continue to look at the 144,000 from the fourteenth chapter of Revelation we can learn what it means to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ, and these men will do this in the worst time that the world has ever faced as it will not only have judgments from the Lord, some we have already looked at and some we will look at later, and also have the restraint taken away, that restraint that is in the world today, and they will also face the wrath of Satan as he and all of his demons have been kicked out of heaven and some of the demons that have been locked up in the pit will be let loose, so you can see that these men will be truly sold out for the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I remember a sermon that Billy Graham preached in the western part of Canada many years ago, and in that sermon he spoke of the difficulty of being sold out to the Lord Jesus living in the prosperous world of that day, and I suppose you can say of this day.  Too many distractions cause believes not to be truly sold out to the Lord when we really need to be, I need to be.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I need to think about what I am learning concerning these 144,00 men and then make some changes in my life so that I, like them can be surrendered to the Lord in a similar way.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Spain” (Romans 15:24).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who in all of his glory was not arrayed like the lilies?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/11/2015 7:49 AM

Characteristic of Purity (Rev. 14:4a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/10/2015 7:41 AM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  Characteristic of Purity

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 14:4a

            Message of the verse:  “These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste.”

            Now according to 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 which reads “6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”  I am not going to get into all that this verse means as I went over it in my study of 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians last year, but the point that I want to make here is that when the restraining of sin is removed then people will act without being restrained, in other words people will act as vile as they want to act and if you think that things are bad on earth now, and they are getting more worse all the time, this is nothing to what life will be like in the Tribulation Period.  Sexual sin will be worse than it ever has since man was on the earth and that makes what we read in this first part of verse four more unbelievable that we can imagine. 

            As the world grows ever darker and darker in the Tribulation Period these men will shine as a bright light to all they come in contact with for their lives will be pure as the verse says that they will not be defiled by women which will be the normal thing during this time period.  John MacArthur writes “That the specific sin that they will avoid involves women indicates that sexual purity is the view here, not detachment from the corrupt world system.  That the 144,000 will be separate from Antichrist’s empire has already been made clear; they bear God’s mark, not the beast’s (7:3-4).  Nor does this passage teach that they will all be unmarried, since sex within marriage does not defile anyone (Heb. 13:4).  What it means is that they will stand apart from the sin of their culture; 144,000 morally pure preachers amid the defilement that surrounds them.”   

            We now live in a world where being sexually pure is becoming more difficult all of the time, for we can view things on smart phones that were actually against the law fifty years ago, and I suppose they are still against the law, but no one enforces that law any more.  The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.”  The Bible is very clear what sexual immorality is as we can read about what it means in different parts of both the OT and the NT.  One man and one woman living in marriage forever is the correct kind of sexual purity, or a man and or a woman never having sexual relations before they are married.  Jesus went on to tell us in the Sermon on the Mount that if a person thinks about having sexual relations in their minds they were actually having them and this is sinful, for it is the mind that first commits sinful acts as a person acts out what they are going to do and then if they do not check these sinful thoughts while in the mind they will actually act them out.

            In his commentary on this section John MacArthur quotes a rather famous Pastor, Robert Murray McCheyne who writes the following paragraph for the benefit of a young preacher:  “Do not forget the culture of the inner man—I mean of the heart.  How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his sabre clean and sharp; every stain he rubs off with the greatest care.  Remember you are God’s sword, His instrument—I trust a chose vessel unto Him to bear His instrument, will be the success.  It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.  A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. (Andrew A. Bonar, Memoirs of McCheyne [Chicago: Moody, 1978], 95).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose that once man fell that one of the easiest sins to fall into has to do with a sexual sin.  God made man perfect, so perfect that both Adam and Eve could walk around naked and there would be no problem with any kind of sexual sin.  After man sinned one of the first things God did was make clothes for them and we have been wearing clothes ever since.  Keeping my saber clean and sharp is difficult at best, but just as the Lord will give power to those 144,000 He will also give power to me and to all who seek His power.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Keep my sword clean and sharp.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Pharaoh’s daughter” (Exodus 2:9).

Today’s Bible question:  “In writing to the Romans, Paul told them he planned to visit them on his way to what place?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/10/2015 8:17 AM

Characteristic of Praise (Rev. 14:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/9/2015 8:43 AM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  Characteristic of Praise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Revelation 14:2-3

            Message of the verses:  “2 And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth.”

            As we look at these two verses and then look back at some other verses in the book of Revelation we will see that the praise which goes to the Lamb and to God comes in stages and continues to grow larger and larger.  One may think that the 144,000 would not be ready to praise the Lord after all they went through, but it seems that their desire is to praise the Lord for the protection that He has given them throughout their ministry on the earth.

            Verse two begins with John hearing a voice from heaven, a loud voice, and this is not the first time that he has heard a loud voice from heaven as it also was heard in Rev. 4:1; 10:4, 8; 11:12; 12:10, and will be heard again in 14:13; 18:4; and 19:1.  It is described “like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder.”  In Ezekiel 43:2 we read “and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.”  In Revelation 1:15 the voice of the Lord Jesus is described as “His voice was like the sound of many waters.”  Revelation 19:6 says “Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.” 

            Now let us go back to where the song begins which is in Rev. 5:9-10 “9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."”  This song begins with the four living beings and the twenty-four elders in these verses.  Now in 5:11-12 we read “11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12  saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."”  7/9/2015 9:02 AM      7/9/2015 6:38 PM

            This was not just a voice, but also the text tells us that it is a song as we read “heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps.”  I think that it is fair to say that because of harps being used that we can contend that this is a joyous praise to the Lord as seen in several OT passages which I will quote some of them and list some of them too.  “Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, and with lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and cymbals (2 Samuel 6:5).”  Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings (Pss. 33:2).”  “Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre (Pss. 150:3).”  Others include 1 Chron. 13:8; 15:16, 28; 2 Chron. 5:12-13; Neh. 12:27; Pss. 71:22; 144:9. 

            John MacArthur writes “The new song in heaven before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders is the song of redemption (cf. Pss. 33:1-3; 40:3; 96:1-2; 98:1-2; 144:9-10; 149:1; Isa. 42:10).  The angels will join the Old Testament saints, the raptured church, and the redeemed Tribulation martyrs in praising God for salvation.  While angels do not experience redemption, they do rejoice because of it (Luke 15:10).  All heaven will overflow with praise because God’s redemptive work culminating in the return of Christ is accomplished.” 

            We read that no one but the 144,000 know the song, but it is not stated why so MacArthur again quotes Henry Morris who has a possible explanation:  “Although the words of the song of the 144,000 are not recorded, it surely dwells in part at least on the great truth that they had been ‘redeemed from the earth.’  Although in one sense all saved people have been redeemed from the earth, these could know the meaning of such a theme in a more profound way than others.  They had been saved after the rapture, at the time in history when man’s greatest persecutions and God’s greatest judgments were on earth.  It was at such a time that they, like Noah (Genesis 6:8), had ‘found grace in the eyes of the Lord’ and had been separated from ‘all that dwell upon the earth’ (Revelation 13:8).  Not only had they been redeemed spiritually but, precursively as it were, they had been redeemed from the very curse on the earth (Genesis 3:17), being protected from pain an death by the guarding seal.”

            These 144,000 will join with the heavenly chorus in praising the Lord for the marvelous work of redemption.  Let us look at least part of what they will be singing which is found in Rev. 15:3-4 “3  And they *sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! 4  "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED."”  Now when we think about what is going on here we have to understand that redemption is the greatest gift that can be given from a holy and also a just God.  God is the One who sent His only Son into the world to  provide the salvation that only He could provide, and so as we think of it in that perspective we can take time to praise the Lord for His gracious and merciful gift of salvation, for as the song tells us “Jesus paid it all and all to Him we owe.”

            As we go over some of these characteristics of the 144,000 starting with power and today looking at praise we can practice from what we learn as we live out our Christian life here on earth.  John MacArthur agrees with this statement as he writes “A mark of triumphant Christian living in any era is constant praise to God.  The 144,000 no doubt praise God throughout their time of trial and persecution.  Because their ordeal is over and they are victorious, they will burst forth in praise to God for their deliverance.  Joy is the proper outflow of a heart that trusts in God’s sovereign power (Phil. 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thess. 5:16; James 1:2; 1 Pet. 4:13).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Praising the Lord daily for the gift of salvation is something that needs to be incorporated in my walk with the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Praise the Lord for the marvelous gift of salvation.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing’” (Luke 5:5).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Take this child away, and nurse her for me, and I will give thee thy wages.”

Answer in our next SD.

7/9/2015 7:06 PM   

 

Characteristic of Power PT-2 (Rev. 14:1)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2015 8:46 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus: Characteristic of Power PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 14:1

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.”

            We continue looking at the characteristic of power for these 144,000 Jewish Evangelists from Revelation 14:1 and we note that each of them had the Lamb’s name and also the name of His Father on their foreheads.  Now remember that when we finished looking at chapter thirteen we saw that those who were unbelievers had the number “of their father” on their foreheads, or on their arm.  Why would I say that?  Here is what Jesus said to the unbelieving Pharisees in John 8:44 “"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  This statement is true of all those who are not believers in Jesus Christ as John the Baptist stated in John 3:36 “"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."”  He is stating that there are only two types of people that have ever lived on planet earth or ever will live on planet earth, those that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and those who don’t and those who don’t are children of the devil.  The mark that God gives to these 144,000 are for their protection, and even though Satan will try his best to have them killed God will provide protection for them as they tell others about what is truly going on during the Tribulation Period and telling them that the Lord Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life, and that He will be coming back to planet earth soon.  These men will enter into the Millennial Kingdom after the Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth and after children are born to those others who come into the kingdom they will continue to tell them about the salvation that is only in Jesus Christ.  The OT prophets tell of things that will happen during the Millennial Kingdom, although they did not realize how long it would last, they knew that it was coming as God promised Israel to have a kingdom.  Isaiah tells of children being born in the kingdom “"They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them (Isa. 65:23).”  The Scriptures also speak of salvation during the Millennial Kingdom:  “"Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising (Isa. 60:3).  “"Thus says the LORD of hosts, ’In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’ (Zec. 8:23).” 

            John MacArthur writes “The story of these victorious survivors illustrates the divine side of triumphant Christian living:  God will preserve His won.  The 144,000 will be living proof of the promises found in Psalm 91:5-16:

‘ 5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; 6  Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. 7 A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you. 8 You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked.

    ‘9 For you have made the LORD, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. 10 No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. 11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down. 14 “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. 15 “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 “With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation."”

            As we look at the protection that God has promised to give these 144,000 we can rest assured that He gives all His children protection and will not allow anything to happen to them that will cause their death before their word in the Lord is finished on this earth.  One of the most godly people I have ever known past into glory soon after her retirement for a missions agency, and she stated that she did not think that the Lord was done with her on earth, but He was and I believe that when she saw the Lord He told her “well done thou good and faithful servant.”  Believers are eternally secure in Christ Jesus as He stated in John 10:28-29 “no one will snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”  Paul knew of this eternal security as he wrote in Phil. 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Jude praised the Lord in verse 24 of his letter where he wrote “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.”  Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:5 “who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 

            As believers we can live confidently and minister boldly for God will care for us as we have seen his promises.  Let us conclude with what Paul wrote in Romans 8:31-39:

            31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I know that there are times in my walk with the Lord when I don’t believe the promises that I listed in this SD, and I suppose that this is the evil one telling me the same lie that he told Eve when he told her that God was holding out on her, not telling her everything He should tell her, and she believed that lie as I also do at times.  God has given us wonderful promises that show us how much that He loves us.  I desire to believe all of them.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Believe those wonderful promises of God.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The Pharisee” (Luke 18:11).

Today’s Bible question:  “How did Peter reply to Jesus’ instruction to launch out into the deep?

Answer in our next SD.

7/8/2015 9:24 AM

Characteristic of Power PT-1 (Rev. 14:1)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2015 9:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  Characteristic of Power PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 14:1

            Message of the verse:  “1 Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.”

            A reminder to what we are looking at in these first five verses of Revelation 14 is seen from this quote from John MacArthur “In addition to the prophetic significances, this passage yields important practical principles for triumphant Christian living.  Seven such features will characterize the 144,000: power, purity, partisanship, purpose, precision, and perfection.”  We look at the power in our SD for today.

            John writes the phrase “I looked, and behold,” or something similar many times in the book of Revelation and this speaks of the surprise that John has when he sees something in the vision that God is showing him, and in this case it is the 144,000 who were standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.  As we study the book of Revelation we will see that the Lamb is depicted as being slain in 5:6; and 13:8, He is seen as glorified in 5:8, 12-13; exalted in 7:9-10, as the Redeemer in 7:14, and also as a Shepherd in 7:17, the Shepherd of His people, and also the Lord of Lords and King of Kings in 17:14. 

            John MacArthur writes “The appearance of the Lamb on Mount Zion is a monumental moment in redemptive history.  The psalmist wrote of this moment in Psalm 2:6-9 ‘6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain." 7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ’You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ’Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ’You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’"’”

            Another Psalm, Psalm 48:2 also describes Mount Zion as “Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth Is Mount Zion in the far north, The city of the great King.”  Isaiah states in 24:23b “For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.”  Now as we look at verse one of Rev. 14 we can see that these prediction are now fulfilled.

            I mentioned in an earlier SD on chapter fourteen that some equate Mt. Zion in this passage with the one written about in Hebrews 12:22-24 which states “22  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23  to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”    The reason that it is believed that this passage from Rev. 14:1 speaks of the earthly Mt. Zion is that if it were the heavenly one then the whole point would be lost as to how the Lord kept these 144,000 men alive throughout the Tribulation Period, for if they had died then the scene would be in heaven, but since they were alive the scene must be on earth in order to fulfill the prophecies we wrote about from Psalms and Isaiah. 

            Another mistake that some commentators make is who these 144,000 are.  We have read in chapter seven that they came from the twelve tribes of Israel, 12,000 from each tribe, and now people have trouble in believing that this is where they came from.  The Jehovah Witnesses use to believe that there would only be 144,000 of them but since there are now more they changed their tune and state that only the best of them will be included in this number.  I go back to the statement that I have made many times in my Spiritual Diaries, and that is “When the plain sense of Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense.”

            John MacArthur quotes again John Phillips who writes about the uniqueness of this group:  “No other age has produced a company like this, a veritable army of militant believers marching unscathed through every form of danger.  It has been theirs to defy the dragon, to bait the Beast, and to give the lie to the false prophet.  Their calling has been to preach the gospel from the housetops when even to name the name of Christ called for the most dreadful penalties.  They have been surrounded, these later-day Jobs, with impenetrable hedges, also to laugh to scorn all the grand inquisitors of hell.  They have walked the streets in broad daylight, careless of the teeth-gnashing rage of their would-be tortures and assassins, true witnesses of Jehovah in the most terrible era of the history of mankind.  The devil knows about this coming band of conquerors, and writhes already in an agony of anticipation.”

            We will continue this section in our next SD.   7/7/2015 9:54 AM  7/7/2015 11:28 AM

            Spiritual Meaning for my life Today:  The more that I think about the 144,000 Jewish Evangelists of the upcoming Tribulation Period the more respect and awe I have for them and desire to be like then in my world each day.  I pray that God will give me the power to do what He has planned for me to do each day that will bring glory to His Name.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To trust the Lord to provide to me the power to do the things that He has planned for me to do in eternity past as seen in the following verse:  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “By making his father Isaac think he was Esau” (Gen. 27:29).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who in a prayer thanked God that he was not like the other men?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/7/2015 11:40 AM

 

Introduction to Rev. chapter 14 PT-2 (Rev. 14:1-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/6/2015 8:50 AM

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  Introduction to Rev. chapter 14 PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 14:1-5

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. 4 These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. 5 And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.”

            I want to mention a couple of things before we go back into the introduction to chapter fourteen, and that is when we come to verse one we see the phrase that the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion and with Him were the 144,000, and we mentioned that they are the same ones that are found in chapter seven, however there is a debate as to which Mt. Zion is spoken of here, the one in heaven or the one in Israel.  In my SD from August of 2005 I stated that it was in heaven, but after further study I believe it is in Israel and will explain more in a later SD.  The other things I want to state is that this chapter is divided up into three different segments and our introduction in this SD is mainly for verses 1-5 as we will probably have two more different introductions to the other two segments found in chapter fourteen.

            We were talking about heroes in our last SD and gave some examples of different heroes both from secular and Biblical segments of our population.  Today we want to focus in on these 144,000 men that we will be looking at as we study these first five verses.  John MacArthur stated that there are probably no more than 50,000 missionaries in the world, and he made that statement in the early 1990’s and so even though the population has grown I doubt that there are any more than that today.  During the Tribulation Period we see that God will call these 144,000 Jewish Missionaries to help tell the world about Jesus Christ.  These men are godly men who are constantly in danger, and yet God will preserve them to the end to do their calling.  I believe that soon after the Rapture of the Church that the Antichrist will be revealed and then he will make the pact with Israel for seven years that begins the Tribulation Period and very soon after that these men will be called and they will be sealed by God to do His work in the most dangerous time that the earth will ever see.  We have already studied most of what will go on during this time period with the exception of the last seven judgments, the bowl judgments which we will look at when we get to chapters 15-16. 

            These men will survive both the wrath of God which is going on during this period and also Satan’s wrath and persecution of many during these times.  They will be wanted and will probably be the most wanted during this time other than the two witnesses we looked at in chapter eleven, but God will protect them as He protected others from both the Old and New Testament times.  Malachi’s writes in 3:16-17 about the remnant of his day and this can surely be spoken of for these men:  “16  Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. 17 “They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him."”  Think about Lot who God preserved along with Noah and then also we think of Rahab as He kept her safe in Jericho, even when it was destroyed.  When Israel was in Egypt God kept them safe until it was time to bring them out and then He kept them safe until they reached the Promised Land with the exception of those who had sinned against Him.  Psalm 37:39-40 says “39 But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in time of trouble. 40 The LORD helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, Because they take refuge in Him.”

            John MacArthur writes “A brief overview sets the stage for the vision of the 144,000.  The reader should recall that chapters 12-14 of Revelation form an interlude in the saga of God’s final judgments on the sinful world.  The unfolding of those judgments is described in chapters 6-11, as God will begin to take back the earth from the usurper, Satan.  Chapter 22, and verse 15, records the sounding of the seventh trumpet, though the judgments associated with it will not begin to unfold until chapter 15.  Chapters 12 and 13 recapitulate the events of the Tribulation, this time giving them from Satan’s perspective.  They expose Satan’s efforts to destroy Israel (chapter 12) and detail the careers of Antichrist and the final false prophet (chapter 13).  Chapter 14 returns to what God is doing.  It contains three visions that give a general preview of the judgments yet to come that culminate in Christ’s return.

            “Chapter 14 is a bright contrast to the darkness of chapter 13, which describes Satan (the dragon), Antichrist, the final false prophet, deception, the unredeemed, idolatry, and the mark of the beast.  Chapter 14 describes the Lamb, angels, redeemed saints, genuine worship, and those sealed by God.  In chapter 13 there is falsehood, wickedness, corruption, and blasphemy; in chapter 14 there is truth, righteousness, purity, and praise.

            “In addition to its prophetic significance, this passage yields important practical principles for triumphant Christian living.  Seven such features will characterize the 144,000; power, praise, purity, partisanship, purpose, precision, and perfection.”  As we look at these qualities we see that why we can call each and every one of these men heroes. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The things that describe these men are important for me to emulate and follow in my walk with the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to bring about some of the characteristics in these men into my life as I love the Lord and live in His love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Exodus.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How did Jacob obtain the blessing of the firstborn son instead of Esau?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/6/2015 9:37 AM