Praise for God’s Sovereignty PT-2 (Rev. 11:15-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2015 11:08 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  Praise for God’s Sovereignty PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:15-17

            Message of the verses:  “15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever." 16  And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17  saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.”

            Before we continue looking at these verses under the topic above I want to quote from my Spiritual Diary from 08-02-05 which was written for verse fifteen:  “First is seen in this verse is that the seventh angel sounds his trumpet and then there is heard voices from heaven talking about the Lord Jesus Christ reigning forever and ever.  At first this may seem like a strange place in this book for this to be heard, after all the battle for the earth has not yet been fought and Christ is still in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father.  However when this seventh angel sounded then it will signal the start of the last set of judgments, the vial or bowl judgments and at the end of these judgments the wrath of God will be finished and the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth and set up His Kingdom on earth that will last for 1000 years. 

Another thing to think about is that Jesus Christ has always ruled this earth and when He returned to Heaven after being resurrected from the dead after His death on the cross to pay for the sins of the world His Father gave Him His inheritance as spoken of in Psalm 2:4-9:  “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:  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, ‘Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee.  8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.  9 ‘Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.’"

            Now we will continue to look at where we left off yesterday and begin to look at a number of verses which tell about Jesus Christ reigning forever and ever.

            John MacArthur writes “The glorious truth that the Lord Jesus Christ will one day rule the earth permeates the Scriptures.  In chapter 15 of Revelation John “saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. 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’ (Rev. 15:2-4).”  Now we will continue to look at different verses on this subject.  In the book of Exodus we read in chapter 15 the “song of Moses” and we can find in this song that it anticipates the moment when Jesus Christ would become King of the world.  Now in the portion that came from my older SD we saw what was written in Psalm 2.  Psalm 2 is what is called a Messianic Psalm which speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and in this case it predicts the coming earthly reign of Him. 

            Next we will look at some of the OT prophets as they looked forward to Christ’s reign on the earth beginning with Isaiah 2:2-3 “2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

            Next we will look at Daniel 2:34-35 “34  "You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 35  "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”  The stone is the Lord Jesus Christ as seen in verse 34.  Daniel writes the following in 2:44-45 “44  "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. 45  "Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.’”  The kingdom that he writes about here comes from the ten toes of the statue and speaks of the Antichrist led kingdom which is what we are looking at in Revelation 6-19 and Jesus will crush this kingdom as we will later see in Revelation chapter 19.

            Daniel sees another vision in chapter seven. “13  "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.”  Now verses 18 and 22: “’But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.’” “22 the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.”  Verse 27: “’Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’”

            We will look next at Micah 4:1-3 “1 And it will come about in the last days That the mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, And the peoples will stream to it. 2 Many nations will come and say, "Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the house of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the law, Even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3 And He will judge between many peoples And render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they train for war.”

            John MacArthur writes “Summing up a lengthy discussion of the Day of the Lord and the coming of Christ’s earthly kingdom Zechariah wrote, ‘And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one’ (Zech. 14:9).

            The angel Gabriel said the following when he announced the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ to Mary:  “31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32  "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33  and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.’”  We know that this did not happen at His first coming, but will happen at His second coming. 

            MacArthur writes “The monumental moment in redemptive history anticipated in the Old Testament prophecies, in the announcement of Christ’s birth, in the preview of Christ’s second coming glory at the Transfiguration, in Christ’s teaching and miracles, in the covenant promises to Israel, in the promise to believers that they will reign with Christ, in the promise to the twelve disciples that they would judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and in the promise of Jesus that He would return in glory will be imminent.  And that will cause all heaven to praise God for the wonder of His sovereign plan that Christ should reign.”

            The following is a quote from my SD from 08-03-05 on the sixteenth verse of chapter eleven:  “In verse 16 it can be seen that the 24 elders get off of their thrones and worship God, who is upon His throne and this is the third time this has been written about in this book.  This time they worship God for His soon judgment upon the earth, something that is hard for Christians today to understand fully.  God hates sin and has provided forgiveness for all who sin, which is everyone, and so those who reject this forgiveness will be judged, and those who have accepted this judgment will be judged for their works at the “Judgment Seat of Christ.””

            It has been a while since we have seen the 24 elders, but we said that they represent the church and sit around God to worship Him as we saw earlier, and so that is what they are doing in this scene. John MacArthur writes “The elders’ praise focused on three of God’s attributes.  Pantokrator (Almighty) describes God’s sovereign, omnipotent, irresistible power.  Nine of its ten New Testament uses are in Revelation (cf. 1:8; 4:8; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22).  It has the sense of God exercising His all-embracing, and all-encompassing will by means of His irresistible power.” 

            Next we see the phrase “who are and who were” and this speaks of God’s eternity, for God has no beginning nor has any end, another thing that is hard for us humans to understand since we live on planet earth and see the birth and death of people all of the time.

            Next we see the attribute of God’s sovereignty that the elders praised the Lord for when they said “because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.” 

            MacArthur concludes “All attempts to equate this glorious reign of Christ over the whole earth with any past event or with the church is utterly foreign and contradictory to the clear eschatological teaching of Scripture, including especially this passage.  There is no way this text can be fulfilled except by the universal reign of Jesus Christ over the whole earth—as the prophets had for so long predicted.”  And to that I say AMEN!

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can praise the Lord who has opened up the Scriptures to tell me and all who will listen that He is coming again, and when He does He will rule and reign forever and ever.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To praise the Lord for His love and watch care over me and my family as we celebrate the freedom we have in this wonderful country and also celebrate the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.

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

Today’s Bible question:  “Who discovered that the Syrians had fled from Samaria after a long siege?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/25/2015 12:03 PM

 

     

Praise for God’s Sovereignty PT-1 (Rev. 11:15-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2015 8:21 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  Praise for God’s Sovereignty PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:15-17

            Message of the verses:  “15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever." 16  And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17  saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.”

            What we see in these verses happened in heaven, all of the praise of what was about to take place on earth, but these effects would take some time to happen on the earth.  However they were going to happen on earth soon as this is a promise from God that the kingdom of the world, that is Satan’s kingdom would be taken away from him and given back to God and His Son where it should be as this is one of the purposes of what we are studying in chapters 6-19.  The proclamation we see here has to do with this seven trumpet or third woe as we read the following in chapter fifteen and verse one:  “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.”  Now we mentioned in our last SD that what we will see in chapters 12-14 is the tribulation period through the eyes of Antichrist who is controlled by Satan, so even though we see the sounding of the trumpet in our text today the events of it will not be seen on earth until we get to the fifteenth chapter which previews these events and the 16^th chapter we see these seven bowl judgments.  It is a bit complicated, but worth taking the time to understand it.

            As I stated the highlighted portion of verse fifteen speaks of “the kingdom of this world,” and that kingdom is headed up by Satan as we spoke of in our last SD.  Jesus Christ did not dispute this when He came to earth, but by His death, burial and resurrection He defeated the world the flesh and the devil, and set up His spiritual kingdom which is what the Church is involved in at this time, but what we see in Revelation 6-19 is Him taking back His kingdom and when He returns in chapter 19 will set up His promised earthly Kingdom for 1000 years.

            Now I want to quote John MacArthur here to help us understand the words “has become” fond in verse fifteen:  “The tense of the verb translated ‘has come’ is what Greek grammarians refer to as a proleptic aorist.  It describes a future event that is so certain that it can be spoken of as if it has already taken place.  The perspective of the verb tense looks to a point after the action of the seventh trumpet will have run its course.  Though this event is future from the point of chronological progress reached in the series, it is so certain that the verb form used views it as an already accomplished fact (cf. Luke 19:9).  The timeless heaven rejoices as if the long-anticipated day when Christ will establish His kingdom has already arrived, although some time on earth must elapse before that actually happens.  The phrase ‘the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ’ emphasizes two realities.  Kurios (Lord) usually refers to Jesus throughout the New Testament, while in Revelation it more often refers to God the Father, thus emphasizing their equality of nature.  This phrase also describes the kingdom in its broadest sense, looking forward to divine rule over the creation and the new creation.  No differentiation is made between the earthly millennial kingdom and the eternal kingdom, as, for example, Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.  At the end of the thousand years, the millennial kingdom will merge with the eternal kingdom, in which Christ ‘will reign forever and ever.’  Once the reign of Christ begins, it will change form, but never end or be interrupted.”

            We will continue the thought of the glorious truth that Jesus Christ will one day rule the earth in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I find it very comforting to know that what God says in His Word about what will happen in the future will happen as explained by John MacArthur speaking of the proleptic aorist tense of the Greek verb seen in our passage today.  I had heard of what was called the “prophetic tense” of a verb and perhaps this is the same thing.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Fear the Lord and to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Tamar” (2 Samuel 13:1).

Today’s Bible question:  Now this should be a really easy one:  “Which book sets forth the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of Christ?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/24/2015 8:54 AM

           

 

Introduction to the Seventh Trumpet (Rev. 11:15-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2015 10:39 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  Introduction to the Seventh Trumpet

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:15-19

            Message of the verses:  “15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever." 16 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17  saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. 18  "And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth." 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.”

            As I was doing my exercise yesterday by taking a walk with a little light jogging I was listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this section that is before us today in order to be better prepared to do my Spiritual Diary.  One of the things that, at least for me, is hard to discern is putting chronological order the things found in the book of Revelation.  We have thus far looked at almost half of the book of Revelation and it seems that we are almost finished with what is going to happen in the Tribulation Period and that is why it was so important for me to include the last quote from John MacArthur’s sermon in our last SD, a quote I wish to again put into this SD:  “:  “Now as we come then to the seventh trumpet, we come to the very end. You say, "Why does the book go on and on from there?" Because it recapitulates and goes back and describes the career of Antichrist, describes the one-world church, describes the one-world economy, goes back historically in ways that fill in that seven-year period, and we'll be looking at that in the future. Next time, in a few weeks, we will look at the seventh trumpet that is blown starting in verse 15.”  Now in his sermon introduction for our verses today he goes on to bring more light into what he said in the quote above.  I believe that it is important for us to know where we are in the study of the Tribulation Period as best as we can discern and we will try to get a handle on it in this SD.

 

            Let us go back and look at Revelation 10:7 “but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.”  MacArthur writes “The mystery is the full revelation of the consummation of God’s plan.  It was prophesied by the Old Testament preachers, but its fullness was never revealed until the book of Revelation.  That the seven bowl judgments, which represent the final outpouring of God’s wrath, are included within the seventh trumpet is evident from 15:1: ‘Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.’  Those ‘seven plagues’ that finish God’s wrath are the seven bowl judgments:  ‘Then I heard a loud a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God’ (16:1).  Since both the seventh trumpet and the seven bowls are said to finish God’s wrath, the bowls must be part of the seventh trumpet judgment.”

           

            We have learned that these last three trumpet judgments were called “woes” from Revelation 8:13, and we have seen the fifth judgment (first woe) being finished in Rev. 9:12 “The first woe is past; behold two woes are still coming after these things.”  In Revelation 11:14 we read “14 The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.”

 

            We can determine that this seventh trumpet judgment (the third woe) will complete the judgments that God will bring upon planet earth and then the Lord Jesus Christ will return to planet earth to set up His earthly kingdom.  His return is seen in the 19^th chapter of Revelation during the battle of Armageddon, in order to stop that war from actually ending life on planet earth as seen in Mt 24:22  "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

 

            So the question is how do we look at chapters 12-15 in the book of Revelation?  MacArthur writes “Although the seventh trumpet sounds in 11:15, the judgments associated with it are not described until chapter 15.  Chapters 12-14 are a digression, taking readers back through the Tribulation to the point of the seventh trumpet by a different path.  They describe the Tribulation not from God’s perspective, but from Satan’s.  Chapters 4-11 focused on Christ’s taking back what is rightfully His by means of the seal and trumpet judgments.  Chapters 12-14 focus on the ultimate human usurper, the final Antichrist, whose career spans from the same time period as the seal and trumpet judgments.

           

            “The scene as the seventh trumpet sounds unfolds in four stages: praise for sovereignty, paroxysms of rage, plan for judgment, and promise of communion.”

 

            We will look at these in our upcoming SD’s. 

 

            One thing we need to understand is that God is in control of all things that go on, on planet earth, but Satan does have a kingdom here on planet earth, a kingdom that even Christ did not deny when He was here on planet earth the first time.  “5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." 8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, ’YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY (Luke 4:5-8).”  Jesus, of course, did not fall into what Satan wanted Him to do, but when we come to the end of the seventh bowl judgment we will see that Jesus will receive His kingdom and Satan will be chained in hell for 1000 years only to come out for a short time and then put in hell for eternity.

 

            I for one am glad for what I have learned in how to better understand chapters 12-14.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I know that we are living here on planet earth in darkness as we live in a world controlled by Satan’s kingdom, but I also know that I am not of that kingdom, but of God’s kingdom through the blood of Jesus Christ and I look forward to the day when the trumpet of God sounds that will take me to heaven in the Rapture, for that trumpet is much different that the 7^th trumpet we see in our passage today.

 

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

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Damascus” (Acts 9:22-25).

 

Today’s Bible question: “Who was Absalom’s sister?”

 

Answer in our Next SD.

 

5/23/2015 11:26 AM

 

 

           

 

The Impact of the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2015 11:02 AM

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  The Impact of the Two Witnesses

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:13

            Message of the verses:  “13  And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

            In this SD we want to focus in on what happened after the Two Witnesses went to heaven in their resurrection and it is very amazing.  First of all we see a great earthquake and the verses goes on to say ‘a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake,” and then it goes on to say that the remainder who were terrified and so they gave glory to the God of heaven.”  This is different than what we have been seeing in earlier parts of the book of Revelation and what we will continue to see in later parts of the book as in many cases we have witnessed that people were cursing God because of the judgments, but not this time. 

Now remember that from the beginning of this chapter it has been about the nation of Israel as we learned from the measuring of the temple we saw that God was focusing in on the people of Israel.  Let me go back even further to the book of Daniel and in the ninth chapter of that wonderful book we see the greatest prophecy found in the Word of God and we have gone over this before, but need to briefly go over it again.  The prophecy that God gave to Daniel was one for 490 years (seventy-sevens in the Hebrew), and it begins in Nehemiah chapter two and then after 483 years ends temporarily when Christ offers Himself as King and is rejected.  Luke nineteen is where is see the stop to this prophecy where Christ comes into Jerusalem on a donkey at what is called Palm Sunday.  In the period following that we have the Church age which begins in the second chapter of the book of Acts.  The church age will end at the Rapture of the church as seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and shortly after that the Tribulation period will begin and this is the period that we are in the midst of looking at in Revelation 6-19 which ends with the return of Jesus Christ to planet earth as seen in the 19^th chapter of Revelation.  God is dealing with the nation of Israel in this seven years of the Tribulation Period just as He did in the first 483 years of Daniel’s prophecy.  Now the apostle Paul knew what was going on here as he wrote the book of Romans and in chapters 9-11 he speaks of Israel and writes the following in Romans 11:26 where he writes “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."”  Now what we see in the verse that we are looking at, and this is my opinion from what I have learned in my study of Revelation in the past, is that Romans 11:26 is fulfilled in this passage from Revelation 11:13 where we read “and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”  When we see this in other parts of the Scriptures “gave glory to the God of heaven” we see that it is speaking of salvation.  It is my belief that after the earthquake that Israel wakes up and understands that Jesus Christ is their Messiah and the remaining people who are not killed by the earthquake are saved thus giving glory to God. 

            The interlude ends on this note and the third woe is coming quickly after that.  John MacArthur writes on this word quickly “Tachu (Quickly) means ‘soon’ (cf. Rev. 2:16; 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20) and expresses the imminency of this last woe, which is the seven bowl judgment ushered in by the sounding of the seventh trumpet.”

            It becomes exciting when you compare Scripture with Scripture and see how this all fits together. 

            We have a few more SD’s to do in this 11^th chapter of Revelation and then we will move into the second half of the book of Revelation.  At this point I want to quote the last paragraph from John MacArthur’s sermon on this section of Revelation 11 as I believe it is important to understand what he spoke here:  “Now as we come then to the seventh trumpet, we come to the very end. You say, "Why does the book go on and on from there?" Because it recapitulates and goes back and describes the career of Antichrist, describes the one-world church, describes the one-world economy, goes back historically in ways that fill in that seven-year period, and we'll be looking at that in the future. Next time, in a few weeks, we will look at the seventh trumpet that is blown starting in verse 15.”

           

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Understanding the future is very important to all believers in Jesus Christ as it gives “hope” to us.  When I put on the Spiritual Armor, one of the things that I put on is the “helmet of salvation” and Paul calls it the “helmet of the hope of salvation” in his letter to the Thessalonians meaning that our hope for complete salvation is something we need to put on our heads (spiritually speaking) each day as this is our hope, the return of Jesus Christ.  Paul writes to Titus “Tit 2:13  looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”

 

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

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Athaliah” (2 Chron. 23:13).

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Where was Paul let down from the wall in a basket?

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

5/22/2015 12:38 PM

 

The Resurrection of the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:11-12)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/21/2015 2:12 PM

My Worship Time                                                Focus:  The Resurrection of the Two Witnesses

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Revelation 11:11-12

            Message of the verses:  “11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. 12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.”

            I suppose if you look at the resurrection of these two men in the way that the world will see it through their partying and giving of gifts they will be a happy bunch of people that is until what happens in these two verses occurs.  Now all of the TV people will be reporting of this event and will be seen around the world as we saw from the words “Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations” which means the Gentile nations.  Can you imagine perhaps an on the spot reporter would be describing this scene as he looks upon the dead bodies and happily begins to report that they are still lying in the streets right where the Antichrist had them killed when all of a sudden they begin to move and get up and then the reporter cannot believe what he is seeing, but they come back to life and then he hears a voice from the heavens “Come up here,” and at that time their partying is all over.  One may ask why these two did not continue to witness to the people who were there and we can see the answer from the 16^th chapter of the book of Luke where we read about the rich man and Lazarus.  Abraham is speaking to the rich man who is in the “hot” part of Abraham’s bosom “’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’"”  This is true indeed as we look at the resurrection of Lazarus in the 11^th chapter of the book of John we do see many people happy, especially his sisters, but then we read:  “45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs.”  We see here the truth of it all as some believed in Christ the day He resurrected Lazarus and some did not and went to cause trouble because of this great miracle.

            The question is how do you view the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, do you see it as those who ran to the Pharisees or  do you see it as those who believed in Jesus Christ that day and received eternal life.  John the Baptist said the following:  “"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."”  There are only two kinds of people on planet earth, those who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and those who do not.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ who is my Savior and Lord, and just as He was raised from the dead so these two witnesses will also be one day.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To heal them” (Luke 5:17).

Today’s Bible question:  (A real tough one)  “Who said ‘Treason Treason’?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/21/2015 2:36 PM

           

The Death of the Witnesses (Rev. 11:7-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/20/2015 12:00 PM

My Worship Time                                                                   Focus:  The Death of the Witnesses

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:7-10

            Message of the verses:  “7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. 8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.”

            Perhaps we could call this a “Satanic Christmas” from what we read in verse ten since gift exchanges will be going on all around the world because of the death of these two witnesses.  Another thing it see is that they were killed “when they have finished their testimony.”

            While these two witnesses were doing their preaching and teaching they were protected as we have seen already, and one can believe that there have been many attempts at trying to kill them, but none of them was successful until their work was done.  Finally it is the “beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them” that finally has success in killing these two witnesses.  John MacArthur writes “This is the first of thirty-six references in Revelation to the ‘beast’ and anticipates the more detailed information about him to come in chapters 13 and 17.  He is introduced here with emphasis on his origin.  He is said to come ‘up out of the abyss,’ indicating that he is empowered by Satan.  Since Stan is depicted as a dragon (12:3, 9), this figure is not Satan.  The revelation about him in chapter 13 indicates that the ‘beast’ is a world ruler (often called Antichrist) who imitates the true Christ, rules over the people of the world, and demands their worship (13:1-8).  The ‘abyss’ is the prison for certain demons, (something we have already studied in chapter nine).  Though he is a man, the ‘beast’ is energized by the demonic presence and power coming from the abyss.  To the great joy and relief of the sinful world, the beast (Antichrist) will finally overcome the two witnesses and kill them.”

            The city described here is Jerusalem, but John does not call it by its name as he spiritually calls it “Sodom and Egypt.”  This is due to the wickedness that went on there, and it is tragic because once Jerusalem was a godly city.  When we see the other description found here “where also their Lord was crucified,” we know for sure that John speaks of Jerusalem.  We see that these two witnesses will die the same way that the Lord died which puts more shame on the city of Jerusalem. 

            I have mentioned that when we look at this passage we see that the “peoples and tribes and tongues and nations” will see what happened and so we can figure that cable or satellite TV will be working so that all can view this tragic event.

            As mentioned this could be called a Satanic Christmas for what we see in verse ten.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When God is done with a person’s life it is time to go and be with Him.  My prayer is that I will be doing what the Lord has for me to do, that I will be doing what Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Passover” (Acts 12:4 NASB).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did the power of the Lord enable Jesus to do for the Pharisees and teachers of the Law?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/20/2015 12:29 PM

The Power of the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:5-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2015 9:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  The Power of the Two Witnesses

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:5-6

            Message of the verses:  “5  And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. 6 These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.”

            As we look at what we have been looking at thus far in the book of Revelation, as far as the judgments that have come upon the earth and also the fact that rulers of the earth will be able to kill people for not following them, but being committed to the Word of God and to the Christ of the Word and along comes these two witnesses who have been given great power from the Lord, power that is defined in these two verses and there will be nothing that the rulers of this world including the Antichrist can do to stop them from using this power “as often as they desire.”    

Now we have stated that the things that these two witnesses’ have as far as their powers are similar to what Moses and Elijah had while on the earth and whether or not it is Moses and Elijah we do know that they have these similar powers. 

            These two men will be like Noah before the flood and Moses before the judgment came upon Egypt, they will be fearless in proclaiming the Word of God and as Noah and Moses God will protect them in order that His Word will be proclaimed by them.  All the people of the world will be able to see these two men doing what they do for the cause of Christ.  Years before the modern technology that we possess today people probably wondered how this could be possible, but we now can see almost immediately what goes on around the world, especially in the Middle East.

            Now it is because of what they are proclaiming they will be hated by many people in the world, so much so that when they are finally killed people will send presents to each other, something we will look at later on. 

            John MacArthur writes “Those who wish to harm the two preachers ‘must be killed in this way’ because God does not want their preaching stopped until their ministry is complete and will judge with death those who try to halt it.”  What way will they be killed?  “Fire will flow out of their mouth and devour their enemies.”

            There is one good thing that these two witness will do as they proclaim the Word of God, one among many, and that is that the environmentalists of the world will be few and far between, for when the world sees the miracles that these two men do they will realize that it is God is giving them the power for they will tell the world this.  The environmentalists will also be few and far between as they see the world being destroyed by the Lord and when these two men begin to preach they will also stop the rain from following on the earth for three and a half years and  not only that but they will have the power to turn water into blood. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  One of the things that these two witnesses teach me is that God will protect people who are serving Him for as long as He wants their ministry to go on.  Sometimes missionaries are killed at a young age giving out the Gospel, but God was done with their ministry as far as what He wanted them to do while on this earth.  I cannot help but think of those men killed in South America in the 1950’s while ministering to a very ruthless tribe, but even today we see God’s purpose for that as their ministry is still going on in spite of their death which I am sure many thought was not timely.  These are some of the things that are hard to understand and to cope with, but impossible without faith.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To buy Food” (Gen. 41:57).

Today’s Bible question:  “Herod intended to keep Peter in prison until after what holy day?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/19/2015 10:23 AM