"Toward the Throne PT-2" (Rev. 4:8b-11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/9/2015 10:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Toward the Throne PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 4:8b-11

            Message of the verses:  When we finished yesterday’s SD we were in the middle of writing about the worship of God through the element of Him being the Almighty God which is seen in the eight verse.  We stated that there were five hymns of praise beginning in the last part of chapter four and going through chapter five.  We also mentioned that this mighty oratorio of praise could be divided into two movements which were creation which is seen in chapter four and then the hymn of redemption which is seen in chapter five.  This element of worship to God as Creator has several elements and we looked at the first one, that of his holiness and then began the second one, that of He being Almighty or we could describe it as one of His attributes, omnipotent.   We now continue on this element.

            “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."”

John MacArthur writes “The phrase ‘He is able’ expresses God’s power toward His elect, redeemed children.  In Ephesians 3:20 Paul praises God for being ‘able to do [far more] abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,’ adding in 2 Corinthians 9:8 ‘God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.’   Paul wrote to Timothy expressing his confidence in God’s power working on his behalf:  ‘I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day’ (2 Tim. 1:12).  Hebrews 2:18 reveals that the Lord Jesus Christ ‘is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted,’ while Hebrews 7:23 reassures believers that ‘He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.’  Jude closes his brief epistle with a doxology of praise:  ‘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, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.  Amen’ (Jude 24-25).”

            We stated when looking at the holiness of God that when looking it through this passage that it had to do with His righteous judgment and the same is true with His power.  Examples of His power for judgment as seen in His judging Satan and his angels, expelling them from heaven; when He drowned the world’s population during the flood; destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, and when He drowned Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea which destroyed the most powerful army of the world at that time.  As you read through the Old Testament you can find others, and now in the NT book of Revelation we see a multitude of God’s power in judgment about to come upon the whole world.

            The prophet Nahum writes “Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him (Nah. 1:6).”  Malachi adds “"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap (Mal. 3:2).”  Here is one from the Psalms that I like because of our leadership in this country at this time:  “2  The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3  "Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!" 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, 6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."”  Yes all the rulers of who think that they can stand against the Lord will all have to answer one day.  Remember that the best type of ruler is one who realizes that he is second in command. 

            We next see that the twenty-four elders praise and worship the Lord because of His eternality saying “who was and who is and who is to come.”  This is not the first time we have looked at this in our study of Revelation for it also was seen in chapter one.  Who lives forever is also a part of His eternality.  The following are a list of verses that speak of God being Eternal:  “Isa. 9:7; Dan 2:44; Dan. 7:13-14; Luke 1:32, 33; 2 Peter 1:11; Rev. 11:15).”  I realize that the truth of God is difficult for us humans to totally understand, but as other truths about God we must take them by faith for God is the God of truth.  As humans living on this earth we see things begin and then end, but God is without beginning and has no end, for He is eternal.  As believers we gain comfort from this truth for we know just as God cannot change, He will never end, and so the promises that He gives to us are forever.

            Now as the four living creatures give glory to the Lord, so then the twenty-four elders also do the same.  “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.”  We will see this falling down before the Lord five more times as we continue our study in the book of Revelation. 

            MacArthur then writes “Amazingly, after prostrating themselves the twenty-four elders ‘cast their crowns before the throne.’  They are not preoccupied with their own excellence.  They are not concerned about their own holiness, honor, or reward.  All those things pale into insignificance and become meaningless in light of the glory of God.” 

            Next we see the elders add their own not to the chorus of praising the Lord which was initiated by the four living creatures as they cry out “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.”  MacArthur points out that the word worthy is Axios.  He writes that this word “was used of the Roman emperor when he marched in a triumphal procession.  The focus of the elders’ song is on God’s glory manifested in creation; He is presented as Creator throughout Scripture.  The elders are acknowledging that God has the right both to redeem and to judge His creation.  Their song anticipates paradise lost becoming paradise regained.”

            In this first song we see that the praise pictures God about to judge Satan, demons, and also sinners and then take back His creation.  Then the following will happen as Paul wrote of in Romans 8:19-22 “19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21  that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”  When our Lord returns to planet earth as seen in Rev. 19, He will not only reclaim the world for the glory of God but will also redo the earth itself in preparation for the millennial kingdom.  Some of this can be seen when we get to the last part of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is good to praise the Lord in these specific ways of being holy, and also being all powerful, but also to praise Him for the fact that He created all things, and will one day reclaim them as promised in His Word.  That will be a wonderful day indeed.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in His love as I learn more about it from the study of His Word.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “In the bulrushes in the river” (Exodus 2:5).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who promised the Lord that if he would give her a son, she would give him back to Him?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/9/2015 12:03 PM

"Toward the Throne PT-1" (Rev. 4:8b-11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/8/2015 7:38 PM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Toward the Throne PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 4:8b-11

            Message of the verses:  “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."”

            Again I want to begin this SD with a quote from my earlier Spiritual Diary dated 04/18/2005:  “In verse ten there is a description of God the Father when it says of Him that He lives forever and ever.  The verse also tells about four living creatures giving honour and thanks to God the Father the One sitting on the throne.  While this is going on the twenty-four elders are falling at the feet of God the Father in worship by casting their crowns before the throne and while they are doing this they say “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”  This is the quote of the 11^th verse in this 4^th chapter of Revelations and it is one of the most meaningful verses in all of the Scriptures when it comes to real worship of God.  God is worthy to receive all glory and honor and also power because He is the One who created all things and it is because of His will that they were created and have their being.  This verse is about worshiping God the Father because of His wonderful act of creation.”

            John MacArthur points out that in this section of chapter four and into chapter five we have five great hymns of praise, “during the singing of which the size of the choir gradually increases.”  In verse eight we see a quartet which consist of the four living creatures, and then in verse ten we add the twenty-four elders and then in chapter five and verse eight harps are added to give more music.  In chapter 5:11 the rest of the angels added their voices and then finally in 5:13 every created being in the universe join in this mighty chorus in order to praise the Lord.  We know that worship is only for the Lord alone even though it is something that Satan has always wanted.

            MacArthur writes “This mighty oratorio of praise and worship may be divided into two movements:  the hymn of creation (chap. 4), and the hymn of redemption (chap. 5).  The hymn of creation, the first movement, may be divided into several elements.”  We will try to get through a few of these movements and then pick the rest of it in our next SD.

            The first element is found in the last part of verse eight which contains the threefold singing of the word holy, and this speaks of God’s holiness.  This is seen in other parts of the Word of God like Isaiah 6:3 which says “And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."”  Holiness is a part of God’s attributes and in the books that I have read on the attributes of God it is mostly listed as the first attribute.  “God’s holiness is his utter and complete separation from evil in any and every form.”  In my Greek/English dictionary it records the following in the first section of the word “holy.”  “Holy, characteristic of God, separated to God, worthy of veneration  1) Its highest application is to God himself, in his purity, majesty and glory.”

            Let us look at Habakkuk 1:13a “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”  (NIV)

            In our verse in Revelation chapter four the holiness of God is exhibited through judgment.  God hates sin so He has no alternative but to judge sin and evil.  Now one may ask what about us, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  When we look at the cross, when God caused darkness to fall on the land while Christ was on the cross we learn that at this very time God was taking out His wrath on His Son for us, and in exchange for that we receive His righteousness, that is those who accept Him as Savior and Lord.  “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).”  It is because of His grace and mercy that God restrains from judging all unbelievers at once, but there will come a day when all will be judged and we will read about that later on in the book of Revelation. 

            The next element of worship is His power and this is seen in His name “the Almighty” and this is the title that God identifies Himself to Abraham as found in Genesis 17:1 “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.”   This also speaks of one of God’s attributes and that is His omnipotence, meaning that nothing is stronger than the Lord, and if anything was then He would stop being God Almighty, but that cannot happen.  Because His is all powerful He can do whatever His holy will desires to do “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable (Isa. 40:28).”  Psalm 115:3 says “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.”  The more you know about God through the study of His attributes the better you can worship Him. 

            In 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 we read these words that speak of God’s power demonstrated in His creation, the fact that He controls it:  “11 “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. 12 “Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.”

            We will continue to look at this element of worship in our next SD, but for now remember that God is worthy of being worshiped because of His holiness, and also for His omnipotence.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The better I understand the attributes of God the better I can worship Him and the better I know Him, and this is important to me.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jesus” (Matthew 22:42).

Today’s Bible question:  In what place did Pharaoh’s daughter discover Moses?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/8/2015 8:25 PM

"In and Around the Throne" Rev. 4:4b-8a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/7/2015 10:04 PM

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  In and Around the Throne

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 4:4b-8a

            Message of the verses:  “and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. 7 The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.  8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within;”

            What we are seeing in this passage is the introduction to the four living beings, and we will see that these beings will play a significant role in what will happen from the throne room of God throughout the book of Revelation.  Their position is in the inner circle nearest the throne and now we want to look at an extended look at a portion of Scripture from the book of Ezekiel, actually 21 verses from chapter one and verses four-twenty-five.

            “4 As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire. 5 Within it there were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their appearance: they had human form. 6 Each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, 9 their wings touched one another; their faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward. 10 As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each had two touching another being, and two covering their bodies. 12 And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go, without turning as they went. 13 In the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire. 14 And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning.

    15 Now as I looked at the living beings, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living beings, for each of the four of them. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another. 17 Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved. 18 As for their rims they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes round about. 19 Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also. 20 Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction. And the wheels rose close beside them; for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. 21 Whenever those went, these went; and whenever those stood still, these stood still. And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose close beside them; for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. 22 Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads. 23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other; each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side and on the other. 24  I also heard the sound of their wings like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. 25 And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads; whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings.”

            John MacArthur writes “Ezekiel’s description appears incomprehensible, almost incoherent, as he struggled to make sense out of the spectacular, supernatural scene that he witnessed.  Both Ezekiel’s description and that in Revelation 4 describe what could be called the divine war machine ready to unleash judgment.”

            Now we look at one more verse from Ezekiel as we will see it specifically identifies these four living beings:  “Then the cherubim rose up. They are the living beings that I saw by the river Chebar.”  What we see is that these beings are Cherubim’s, something that is seen different times in the pages of the Old Testament from Genesis, and Exodus and then in other books.  These Cherubim are usually associated in the Scriptures with God’s power. In Genesis 3:24 we read “So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”  This was done by the Lord to keep man from eating of the tree of live in their sinful condition which would have caused man not to die and that would not have been good at all.  I have read a very interesting book entitled “One Minute After you Die,” which is written by Erwin Lutzer who is the Pastor of Moody Church in Chicago Ill.  He talks about why death is necessary to man and also what happens to people as soon as they die.  I will not take the time to go over all of the times that Cherubim are mentioned in the Bible but if you want to know you can look the word up in a Bible Concordance.

            We mention Ezekiel having trouble in his description of these four living beings and John had similar trouble giving a description of them.  In Ezekiel we see a little different description from what is seen in Revelation and that is that each cherub had four faces in Ezekiel’s description and only one in John’s.  They had faces like a lion which represents wild creatures, a calf for domestic animals, the eagle for flying creatures and man the pinnacle of creation.  It runs in my mind that one commentator has written that these four different faces represent what the theme of who Christ is in the four Gospels, not sure if that is true, but it is interesting.  One thing for sure these are angels, high ranking angels, and powerful angels as they are in the very presence of God Almighty. 

            The following is what I wrote in my first study of Revelation from April 16, 2005 on the description of these beings.  “These four living beings all had six wings which were full of eyes around and within them, and this could represent the wisdom of God, and it could also point to God being omniscient, but this attribute is only reserved for God alone.  Another attribute that God alone has is being holy, and that is what these beings continue to say is holy, holy, holy, for God has complete and perfect holiness.  It is good at this point to remind myself that the scene that is read about here is worship and that these four living beings may indeed represent a number of the attributes of God they are worshiping God the Father who is sitting on His throne in heaven.  These beings are calling God the Lord God Almighty, and this name is used in all eight times in the book of Revelations, and only once again in the NT in 2Cor. 6:18, but in the book of Job it is used as many as  thirty-one times.  Job is a book where nature is seen in it a lot and God has made a covenant with nature along with mankind not to bring a global flood upon this earth ever again, and it could be said that the elements of nature have the tendency to obey God even better than the human race.  In the 8^th chapter of Romans Paul points out that all of nature is groaning as they wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and set up His Kingdom.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to agree with the statement that nature has a better time obeying the Lord than people do, and people are the highest form of creation God has made, for the Bible tells us that we believers will rule angels in the future.  Nature also does better in worshiping the Lord than we humans, and so do the angels.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand that love Christ has for me and to live in that love.

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

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘What think ye of Christ?  Whose son is he?’”

Answer in our next SD.

3/7/2015 10:43 PM

 

From and Before the Throne (Rev. 4a-6a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/6/2015 1:00 PM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  From and Before the Throne

Bible Reading and Meditation                                                     Reference:  Revelation 4:5a-6a

            Message of the verses:  We will be looking at two different sub-points in this SD because they are both rather short, the first one is what John saw coming from the Throne and this covers verse Rev. 4:5a “Out from the throne come flashes of lighting and sounds and peals of thunder.”

            Let us back up a bit and review that when we are speaking of the throne that John saw that he is speaking of the presence of God, and it is in the temple in heaven that John was carried up to.  John sees flashes of lighting and sounds and peals of thunder coming from the throne.  This is not like some kind of a thunder storm that we see here on earth, but this is the furry of God who is about to bring judgment on this earth.  Let’s look at a couple of OT verses to help us better understand what is going on here.  First let us look at Exodus 19:16 “So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.”  Next we will look at Ezekiel 1:13 “In the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire.”  On October 25^th of 2014 I looked at this verse along with others from the book of Ezekiel and I concluded by writing “What Ezekiel saw is similar to what John saw in heaven as he described in the book of Revelations, and what they both saw was the glory of God.”

            Before the world went through the flood during the time of Noah there was not thunder of lightening storms, but now they are very common to see and also very dangerous.  God judged the world through the flood so to me this reminds me what I am seeing in this verse from Revelation four is all about judgment.  This is just the prelude to the coming judgment that we will be looking at when we study chapters 6-19.  A preview of this is seen in Revelations 8:5 “Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”  Next we look at Revelation 11:19 “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”  Revelation 16:18 “And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.”  I have stated before that the book of Revelation can be studied by using a concordance to see where passages like the one we are looking at today are found elsewhere in the Scriptures and this helps us to understand what we are looking at.

            Now we will look at what was before the throne as seen in Revelation 4:5b-6a “And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was, something like, a sea of glass like crystal.”

            John is seeing two things that are before the throne in heaven, the first were seven lamps of fire, and the second is the seven Spirits of God.  Have we been over these two things before in the vision of Christ from chapter one or from the churches we studied in chapters 2-3 of Revelation?  Well if you are thinking of the seven golden lampstands seen in the vision of chapter one, that is not what John sees here, but these are like burning torches, not lampstands with lamps on them.  Now as far as the seven Spirits of God we have looked at this at least one time before and this speaks of the fullness of the Holy Spirit that we saw in Isaiah 11:2 “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”  We also looked at Zech. 4:1-10 “1 Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep. 2 He said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; 3 also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side." 4 Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, "What are these, my lord?" 5 So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord." 6 Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. 7 ’What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"’" 8 Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 10 “For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel-these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth."”  This vision that Zechariah saw represents the power of the Holy Spirit while the one Isaiah saw represented the Spirits wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, reverence, and deity.  John MacArthur writes “Torches are associated with war in Judges 7:16-20 and Nahum 2:3-4.  John’s vision depicts God as ready to make war on sinful, rebellious mankind and the Holy Spirit as His war torch.  The Comforter of those who love Christ will be the Consumer of those who reject Him.”

            One more thing to look at and that is the sea of glass that is like crystal.  We know that there is no sea in heaven so this is metaphorical in description.  The sea is the floor or base of the throne and was a vast pavement of glass which was shining brilliantly like crystal.  Let us again look to the book of Exodus to see another description that relates to this.  Exodus 24:10 “and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.”  Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel saw this sight.  We have seen, in our study of Ezekiel something similar in Ezekiel 1:22 and 26 “Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads.  Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man.”    I hope that these descriptions of heaven will wet your appetite to one day go there and be with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  One may ask how this can happen.  The Bible teaches us that because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden that all people are born into sin, thus all people sin for that is their nature.  The book of Romans tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  The word Gospel means good news and the good news of the Gospel is that the second person of the godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth as the God-man to live a perfect life and then die on the cross to pay for our sins.  Because God was satisfied with His payment for our sins He raised Him up from the grave three days later.  We must admit we are a sinner and believe that Christ died for our sins and then invite Him to live in you in the person of the Holy Spirit so that you can serve Him.  Doing this will make you His child of God, and will make it possible for you to see what John saw in heaven for that will be where you will live with Christ.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Heaven is wonderful news for those who know Christ as their Savior and Lord, but as we have seen in this section the judgment and furry of God’s wrath is about to come upon those on the earth who are sinners and for three and a half years it will go on.  The good news is that I can tell others about this so that they will not have to go through these three and a half years of terrible judgment.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand the love of the Lord so that I can live in that love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He was a tanner” (Acts 9:43).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which Gospel book does not record stilling the storm?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/6/2015 1:51 PM

Around the Throne (Rev. 4:3b-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/5/2015 10:02 AM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  Around the Throne

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Revelation 4:3b-4

            Message of the verses:  “and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.  Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.”

            Let us take a look at what I wrote about these verses on the 11^th and 12^th of April in 2005, and then we will go on and add to what we see here:  “The last part of this verse describes a rainbow, resembling an emerald that circles the throne.  The rainbow is first spoken of in Genesis 9:11-17 which is what the Lord put into the air after the flood to show that He would never destroy the world again by a flood.  The first rainbow was seen after the judgment and this one is seen before the judgment.”

            “Verse four continues to explain more of the scene in heaven.  The verse tells of twenty-four thrones that surround the throne of God the Father, and seated on these twenty-four thrones are twenty-four elders.  The question arises as to who these twenty-four elders are or who do they represent?  It is not likely that they are angels; for one thing the word “elder” from the Greek does not mean an angel.  Most likely these are men who represent the Church age, as they are clothed in white and have crowns upon their heads.  Believers are told that they will be dressed in white garments and also believers can earn crowns for their work done on earth for the cause of Christ.  It is possible that the number twenty-four means that these could represent the two groups of those who belong to God, for there were twelve tribes of Israel, and there were twelve apostles in the New Testament.”

            We see that the rainbow is like an emerald in appearance.  As I stated in my SD in 2005 John must had had a hard time describing this rainbow for he uses the simile “like” to help in his description of it.  Green must have been the dominant color for the emerald is green.  MacArthur writes “This again is introduced to show the many-splendored glory of God (cf. Ezek. 1:28).  The rainbow provides a comforting balance to the fiery flashings of judgment earlier seen emanating from God’s throne.  According to Genesis 9:13-17, a rainbow symbolizes God’s covenant faithfulness, mercy, and grace.  God’s attributes always operate in perfect harmony.  His wrath never operates at the expense of His faithfulness; His judgments never negates His promises.  God’s power and holiness would cause us to live in abject terror were it not for His faithfulness and mercy.”

            Now we want to address the twenty-four thrones and who it was sitting on these thrones.  There has been much debate as to who these are who are sitting on these thrones, but it seems best to see them as representatives of the church something that is seen above in my Spiritual Diary from April 12, 2005. 

            We will look at some different reasons that John MacArthur has in his commentary as to why these represent men from the church age.  We see first of all that these are reigning with Christ and no where do we find that angels reign with Christ, but we will, as believers reign with Christ.  “26 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 ‘He will rule them with an iron sceptre; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’— just as I have received authority from my Father (Rev. 2:26-27).”  And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28).”

            As mentioned in my 2005 Spiritual Diary the word elder is never used in Scripture to refer to angels.  It can be used of older men as being elderly or leaders in Israel and in the church. 

            Angels have been seen in what as in Acts 1:10, but more commonly this is the dress of believers, and we did go over this when we were looking at the different churches in chapters 2-3 of Revelation.

            Next we see that these elders had golden crowns on their heads and this provides us with more evidence of them being human as we don’t see angels with crowns.  MacArthur writes “Stephanos (crowns) is the victory’s crown, worn by those who successfully endured the train, those who completed and won the victory.  Christ promised such a crown to the loyal believers at Smyrna:  ‘Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life’ (2:10).”  There are other references to crowns worn by believers in the New Testament. 

            As we look through the Scriptures we see that numbers mean things and the number 24 according to what John MacArthur represents completeness, but this still does not tells us who they are.  From my first study of the book of Revelation I have though that these represent men from the church age and nothing has changed my mind about this, although John MacArthur writes that these come from the glorified saints that have been raptured and he points to Revelation 5:8-10 “8  When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 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."”  He writes “They have their crowns and live in the place prepared for them, where they have gone to be with Jesus (cf. John 14:1-4).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Looking at this I can say that when times are not so good on this earth and I read promises like this one then I can be nothing but encouraged and for that I am thankful.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand and live in the love or Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Seven good years would be followed by seven years of famine” (Genesis 41:25-27).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the occupation of the man with whom Peter stayed in Joppa?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/5/2015 10:44 AM

"On the Throne" (Rev. 4:2b-3a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/4/2015 2:52 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  On the Throne

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Revelation 4:2b-3a

            Message of the verses:  “and One sitting on the throne.  And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance;”

            Now as we look at this verse we can get a picture of the One who is ruling this universe, it is not run by chance or run randomly, but by God, and this verse sees Him sitting on the throne.

            Let us take a look at a couple of verses from the book of Hebrews, Heb. 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” and now Heb. 10:12 “but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,” and lastly Heb. 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  As we look at these verses and compare them with our verses in Revelation there is a difference in what Christ is doing, and that difference is that He is not resting, but sitting in a posture to begin to judge, for the judgment of sin was taken care of on the cross, but now the judgment that will soon take place on the earth is being readied. 

            John does not mention who the One sitting on the throne was, but when we look at Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6:1 we will see who this is:  “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.”  Let us also look at what is a relatively unknown prophet has to say in 1 Kings 22:19 “Micaiah said, "Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand on His left.”  Let us also look at Daniel 7:9-10 “"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.”  This also reminds me of the first three chapters of Ezekiel, but we will only look at Ezekiel 1:26-28 “26 Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. 27 Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. 28 As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.”  These visions that were seen by these prophets brought fear into the hearts of some of them, like Isaiah, Daniel, and also Ezekiel, and when John saw the risen glorified Christ in chapter one he too fell down as a dead man, unlike those who claim to have gone to heaven and seen God in our day and age.

            John MacArthur describes what John saw when he wrote “like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance.”  “That description is reminiscent of the flashing light, blazing fire, and vivid colors in Ezekiel’s vision.  Revelation 21:11 describes jasper as ‘crystal-clear’; therefore, it is best to identify this stone as a diamond.  All the shining, flashing facets of the glory of God are compared to a diamond, brilliantly refracting all the colors of the spectrum.  A sardius, from which the city of Sardis got its name, is a fiery, bloodred ruby. It too expresses the shining beauty of God’s glory, and may also symbolize God’s blazing wrath, about to be poured out on the sinful, rebellious world (chapters 6-19).”

            The high priest wore a breastplate which had on it twelve stones which representing the different tribes of Israel.  On that breastplate the first stone which represented Reuben was a sardius, and the last stone was jasper which represented Benjamin the last son.  It may be possible that since these stones represent God’s covenant relationship with Israel.  The judgment that was about to come upon the earth will not negate the covenant that God has with Israel.  We know that because in the 7^th chapter of Revelation we will see 144,000 Jewish evangelists going out into the world to tell the world that salvation comes through what Christ did on the cross and in the tenth chapter we also see the two Jewish witnesses.  Paul writes in Romans 11:26 that “all Israel will be saved,” and this will happen in the tribulation period. 

            MacArthur finishes by writing “John’s vision of God’s throne is not one of peace and comfort.  Its flashing, glorious, splendorous magnificent reveals the terrors of God’s judgment.  Truly, ‘Our God is a consuming fire’ (Heb. 12:29; Deut 4:24).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In my prayers that I pray every day I think about the fear of the Lord and then try and realize how I am to fear the Lord.  Seeing this description of the Lord and the others and knowing the reaction that these different prophets had I truly can fear the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand and live in the love Christ has for me.

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

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Joseph say was the meaning of the kings dream?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/4/2015 3:28 PM       

 

"The Throne" (Rev. 4"2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/3/2015 9:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                         Focus:  The Throne

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 4:2a

            Message of the verse:  “Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven.”

            In our first SD on Revelation chapter four we mentioned the outline that we are going to follow as we go through this chapter and all of the elements of this outline had to do with the throne, and today we will look at the throne that John saw when he was in the Spirit and in his vision was taken to heaven where he would see things that he records in this last book of the Bible.  Remember the meanings of the word Revelation, unveiling, “1) laying bear, making naked 2) a disclosure of truth, instruction 2a) concerning things before unknown 2b) used of events by which things or states or persons hitherto withdrawn from view are made visible to all 3) manifestation, appearance.”  The Greek word is “apokalupsis,” for our English word Revelation.”

            We also mentioned in our last SD that chapter four and five show us what true worship really is as we see it happening in heaven from the vision that John gives to us.

            As in chapter one we saw that John was in the Spirit, meaning that the Holy Spirit had control of him, which is something that the OT prophets would experience when they received visions from the Lord.  We have seen this happen in the book of Ezekiel which we are also studying.  The first thing he sees in this vision is a throne which is standing in heaven.  This brought amazement to John and that truly is understandable as I am sure all the things he saw in his visions brought amazement to him.  John MacArthur writes on this throne John saw “This was not a piece of furniture, but a symbol of God’s sovereign rule and authority (cf. Pss. 11:4; 103:19; Isa 66:1) located in the temple in heaven (cf. 7:15; 11:19; 14:15; 15:6-8; 16:17).  According to Revelation 21:22 the heavenly temple is not an actual building:  ‘the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb’ are the temple.  The use of the term temple symbolizes God’s presence.  The throne was said to be standing because God’s sovereign rule is fixed, permanent, and unshakable.  A vision of God immovable throne reveals He is in a permanent, unchanging, and complete control of the universe.”  As we think about this in relations to what John would see in his remaining visions this had to have brought comfort to him, and as we look around the world and see things that can cause us to at times fear, we too can be comforted by this truth that God is on the throne and is in complete control of His world.

Let me take the time to look at the verses that MacArthur references in the above quote.  We will begin with Psalm 11:4 “The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.”  Psalm 103:19 “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.”  Isaiah 66:1 “Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest?”  Next we will look at the verses he mentions from the book of Revelation beginning with 7:15 “"For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.”  11:19 “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”  14:15 “And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe."”  15:6-8 “6  and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”  16:17 “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done."”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at these verses showing that God is in His temple on His throne which shows that He is in complete control of all that goes on in this world, but also all that is going on in my life I can take time to praise His Holy Name.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mary” (Acts 12:12).

Today’s Bible question “What city was the capital of Judah, the southern Kingdom?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/3/2015 10:29 AM