" Introduction to Rev. Four" (Rev. 4:1-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/2/2015 4:30 PM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Introduction to Rev. Four

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 4:1-3

            Message of the verses:  The first thing that I want to do is to quote a portion from my earlier SD dated 04/09/05.  “Most people that have studied this wonderful book have come to the conclusion that Revelations 1:19 is the outline for this book and it divides the book up into three parts:  “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.”  Chapter 4 and verse one seems to be the dividing point for the last part of the outline and it has been subjected that chapter 6 and verse one could also fit into this division, yet it seems to fit into 4:1 better for in this portion of this book it is possible that the rapture is being described in this first verse and thus the things “which will take place after this” seem to begin.  The Church, which is what was being written about in chapters two, and three is not mentioned again, and it could be that the reason that it is not mentioned again is that the “Church Age” is over at this point of the book, for “she” is now in heaven, and the description that is given in chapters four and five tell us what the church will be doing after it has been taken to heaven at the event most scholars call the “rapture.”  Rapture is not found in the Scriptures, yet the idea of it is there.  Rapture is a Latin word that means to “snatch away.”  To snatch away is a good description of what this event does, and this verse in Revelations four also describes this event.  The verse starts out by saying “after these things,” which goes along really well with the “outline verse” in Revelations 1:19.

            “Revelations chapters four and five give a wonderful description of what real worship is all about, and this real worship is going on all of the time in heaven, even at this time.”

            Now there are some who think that John going through an open door into heaven is a picture of the Rapture of the Church as seen in my Spiritual Diary of ten years ago, however after listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this section he seems to think that this is not a picture of the Rapture, but just John receiving another vision from the Lord.  I am not going to argue one way or the other, but one thing is certain as stated in the quote the church is not mentioned in the book of Revelation again and so I conclude that beginning with chapter four we find the church in heaven.  I do like the quote from above that chapters four and five are a picture of true worship.

            If one looks at a concordance for the word “throne” in chapter four they will find it eleven times, and if one looks for the word “throne” in the entire book of revelation they will find it thirty-five times, so needless to say this word is important in the book of Revelation.  In fact in John MacArthur’s commentary on Revelation he actually breaks up his outline by using the word throne and because we are following his outline we will do the same thing.  He writes at the end of his introductory commentary the following:  “The central theme of John’s vision is the throne of God, mentioned eleven times in this chapter.  All the features of the chapter can be outlined based on how they relate to that throne of divine glory.  After describing the throne, John tells us who is on the throne, what is going on around the throne, what comes from the throne, what stands before the throne, who is in the center and around the throne, and what is directed toward the throne.”  You see here his outline from this quote.

            We see in this chapter John’s vision of heaven, as to whether or not He was actually in heaven is not certain, but we remember Isaiah’s vision of heaven in chapters 5-6 of his book, and Ezekiel saw things that were from heaven in the first three chapters of his book.  Of course Paul tells of his journey to heaven in 2 Corinthians, and we can be assured that Paul was actually in heaven.  Now as for others, who have recently reported that they were in heaven for a while and then came back, well all I can say is that I doubt that it happened and leave it at that.  When Paul was in heaven he could not talk about it, but John, as we will see gives a pretty detailed account of what he saw.  What we see in chapters four and five are John second vision, his second revelation as the first one was in chapter one.

            We first see the words “after these things” MacArthur writes this “relates to John’s personal chronology.  It notes that his second vision followed immediately after John’s vision of the risen, glorified Christ (1:9-20) and the letters to the seven churches (2:1-3:22).  The phrase “after these things is used throughout Revelation to mark the beginning of a new vision (cf. 7:9; 15:5; 18:1; 19:1).”  This is seen in Revelation 1:19, which gives us the outline of the book of Revelation.  Now in 4:1 we are looking at this second occurrence of “after these things,” and this is the chronology of the Lord, as its use marks an important transition in the book of Revelation which goes from the end of the church age to the beginning of the third great division of the book which is described in 1:19 as “the things which will take place and this goes all the way from chapter four to the end of the book, chapter 22.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This is exciting to me as from almost the first day after I became a believer I was taught about the Rapture of the church, the end of the church age, and I have looked forward to it since that time.

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 Christ has for me and live in that love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Babylon” (Revelation 18:2).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the name of John Mark’s mother?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/2/2015 5:08 PM

 

 

"Christ’s Counsel to the Laodiceans" (Rev. 3:21-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/1/2015 8:46 PM

My Worship Time                                                       Focus:  Christ’s Counsel to the Laodiceans

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 3:21-22

            Message of the verses:  “21 ’He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"”

            What a wonderful promise that Christ gives to this church, a church that as far as we can determine has no believers in it.  The promise is to “he who overcomes,” and the word “overcome” has been in each of the letters, speaking of being a true believer in Jesus Christ, so Christ is offering salvation to these unbelievers, something they truly need as do all unsaved people need.  He also offers to them to grant to sit down with Him on His throne, as He “also overcame and sat down with the Father on His throne.”  MacArthur writes “To enjoy fellowship with Christ in the kingdom and throughout eternity is sufficient blessing beyond all comprehension.  But Christ offers more, promising to set believers on the throne He shares with the Father (cf. Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:29-30).  That symbolizes the truth that we will reign with Him (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 5:10; 20:6; cf. 1 Cor. 6:3).”

            The following is a list of the many promises made to those who are called overcomers in the book of Revelation:  1 The privilege of eating from the tree of life (2:7), the crown of life (2:10), protection from the second death (2:11), the hidden manna (2:17), a white stone with a new name written on it (2:17), authority to rule the nations (2:26-27), the morning star (2:28), white garments, symbolizing purity and holiness (3:5), the honor of having Christ confess their names before God the Father and the holy angels in heaven (3:5), to be made a pillar in God’s temple (3:12), and to have written on them the name of God, of the new Jerusalem, and of Christ (3:12).

            In each of the letters we have seen this phrase:  “22 ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"”   It is our job as true believers to tell those in the apostate church to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation.

            With this SD we have finished looking at the first three chapters of the book of Revelation and are moving on to the things that shall take place from Rev. 1:19, which gives the outline for this book.  Chapters four and five will get us ready to look at what will happen in chapters 6-19 which will be the end of the tribulation period, and then we will look at the millennial Kingdom where Christ will reign from Jerusalem for those 1000 years and then we will look at the un-creating of planet earth and the New Jerusalem where all those who have overcome will live and serve the Lord for eternity.  I have learned many new things in this study of Revelation 1-3, and pray that the Lord will open my eyes to see new things as we continue to look at the rest of the book.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I wish to be open to share the gospel with those who are in apostate churches, praying that the Lord will bring them onto my path.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Adam” (Genesis 3:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “In Revelation what city is said to have fallen?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/1/2015 9:11 PM

"Christ’s Commands for Laodicea" (Rev. 3:18-20)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/28/2015 7:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  Christ’s Commands for Laodicea

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 3:18-20

            Message of the verses:  “18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ’Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ’Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

            As we have looked at this church over the last few days we have seen that there were no believers in it, and so Christ could have destroyed this church, but that was not what He desired to do at this time so He gives them a threefold appeal which are played on the three features that the city of Laodicea was most noted for, and most proud of, and that was its wealth, its wool industry, and its eye salve.

            He speaks of buying gold refined by fire from Him, and this in no way is speaking of buying one’s salvation.  “5 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved? 6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away (Isa. 64:5-6).”   Now we will look at Isaiah 55:1 “"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.”  Isaiah writes that you can buy without even having any money to buy with, and this speaks of the free gift of salvation.  So what are they going to offer in exchange for the righteousness of Christ?  They must offer themselves, their wretched and lost condition in exchange for the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  This does not seem like a fair exchange, and that would be true, however that is the gift of God because of His great love, mercy, and grace.  So we see when Christ tells them to buy gold that has been refined by fire He is offering them the free gift of Salvation, but they must turn from their sins, repent and accept that free gift from Him.  They said they were rich, but Christ tells them that they were poor.

            Next we see that Christ advises them to buy white garments in order to clothe themselves so that their nakedness would be covered.  They were famous for black wool, but Christ wants them to have white garments which represent the righteousness of the saints.  Now when I say saints I am speaking of all of those who are born-again believers in Jesus Christ, and all will one day be clothed in white garments showing that they are righteous before the Lord.

            Next He offered them eye salve in order to anoint their eyes so that they could see.  They prided themselves on their false righteousness, one like the Pharisees boasted about, that is their good works, but they were blind and could not see that they could not work their way to heaven, but must rely on the finished work of Christ on the cross.

            John MacArthur writes “Some argue that the language of Christ’s direct appeal to the Laodiceans in verse 19 “those whom I love, I reprove and discipline,” indicates that they were believers.  Verse 18 and 20, however, seem better suited to indicate that they were unregenerate, desperately in need of the gold of true spiritual riches, the garments of true righteousness, and the eye salve that brings true spiritual understanding (v. 18).

            “Christ has a unique and special love for His elect, Yet, such passages as Mark 10:21 and John 3:16 reveal that He also loves the unredeemed.  Because the Laodiceans outwardly identified with Christ’s church and His kingdom, they were in the sphere of His concern.  To reprove means to expose and convict.  It is a general term for Christ’s dealings with sinners (cf. John 3:18-20; 16:8; 1 Cor. 14:24; Titus 1:9; Jude 15).  Discipline refers to punishment (cf. Luke 23:16, 22) and is used of God’s convicting of unbelievers (2 Tim. 2:25).  Thus, the terminology of verse 19 does not demand that Christ be referring to believers.  The Lord compassionately, tenderly called those in this unregenerate church to come to saving faith, lest He convict and judge them (cf. Ezek. 18:30-32; 33:11).”

            And now a word on true repentance from C. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound.  It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form.  You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practice, and you deny yourself, and take up the cross and go after Christ.”  Christ gave a message to this lost church in the same way He does to all unbelievers, and that is their need to repent of their sins and turn to Him for salvation:  “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’ (Acts 11:18).”

            If you have been a believer for some time you probably have heard that verse 20 is speaking to those who are unbelievers and since we have said that this church was full of unbelievers we can say that Christ is offering salvation to those inside this church.  I have seen pictures of Christ standing at the door knocking and what is unique is that there is no door handle on His side of the door, meaning that the person on the other side of the door is the only one who can open it to receive the salvation He is offering.  So we see Christ offering a personal invitation for salvation to this unbelieving Church the same way He offers salvation to all unbelievers.  The question is will you let Him in?

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at what has been written about repentance I know that as a believer when I sin I am to confess my sin to the Lord and then repent and turn from it. 

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, and then live in His love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To put in on a candlestick” (Matthew 5:15).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid’?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/28/2015 8:11 AM

"Christ’s Concern for Laodicea" (Revelation 3:15-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/27/2015 1:43 PM

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  Christ’s Concern for Laodicea

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 3:15-17

            Message of the verses:  “15 ’I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ’So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ’Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,” 

            At this point in the other letters Christ would say something good about the church but there is nothing good to say about this church so He goes into the concerns that He has for them.  Now even though Christ did not chose to use His description from the vision in chapter one we know that Christ is the all seeing, all knowing God who rules over the churches and so the first thing that He says to them is that He knows their deeds.  Christ is speaking of their works that are done after a person is saved by grace through faith, and those works or fruits or deeds give evidence that that person is truly saved.  You are not saved by works, but as I said saved by grace through faith as Ephesians 2:8-9 tell us, but verse 10 speaks of the works that God planned for us to do before the world was made.  Many people get the wrong idea when the read James, thinking that James is teaching that a person is saved by their works, but that is not what he is saying at all, he is simply saying that if you are saved you will be doing works for the Lord, and as Christ looked through His all seeing, all knowing eyes He saw no works that this church was doing, and that means that there were no believers in this church. 

            Next He rebukes them for being lukewarm, and it would have better for them if they were either hot or cold, now hot means that they were on fire for the Lord, which would be best and cold would mean that they knew nothing about the Lord and it would be easier to have those saved than the lukewarm people in this church.  We wrote earlier about the lukewarm water that the people in this city had to drink and that lukewarm water had many impurities in it, so much so that one can look at pictures of the rocks that the water was flowing through and see that it was mostly clogged up with impurities.  Their church was full of impurities, impurities like so many churches are today, like not believing that Christ is God, and that is the first thing one has to believe about Him.  The water in the other two cities in this valley had hot springs or cold water that came from the mountain and this represented what we hear Christ say about what this church would have been better of being.  This is a lukewarm apostate church who though they needed nothing, thought they were rich, and yet were poor. 

            Christ tells them in essence that they made Him sick and so He would vomit them out of His mouth.  Let us look at what Christ will tell a church or people like this when He judges them:  “22  "Many will say to Me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ’I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS’ (Matt. 7:22-23).” 

Now I have been writing in earlier SD’s how my study of Ezekiel makes me think of things that I am studying in Revelation.  We know that the Jews were chosen by God to do many things for Him, and were given many blessings too, and yet they turned their backs on God and as we have seen in Ezekiel God’s wrath was upon them as He took them out of their land.  As we look at the New Testament we see that Christ came to die upon a cross for the sins of those would accept Him as Lord and Savior, and we also know that at least in this time period there are many Bibles to read telling about this, and yet people are in churches today that the Bible has no effect on how they live their lives for they do not believe what it says about salvation.  Just as Israel turned their backs on God so many people in apostate churches today do the same thing and God will judge them for this.  John MacArthur quotes a man named R. W. Scott who writes “Perhaps none of the seven letters is more appropriate to the twentieth-century church than this.  It describes vividly the respectable, sentimental, nominal, skin-deep religiosity which is so widespread among us today.  Our Christianity is flabby and anemic.  We appear to have taken a lukewarm bath of religion.” 

As mentioned these people thought they were rich when indeed they were poor, blind, and also naked.  They were being self deceived in what they were being taught.  I have to say that too many people today put God in a box, they make up their own God and live like their God wants them to live and this gets them in a world of trouble as the God they made up to satisfy themselves has little truth in it when compared to the God of the Bible.  Satan was doing a good job in making these people spiritually blind and he continues to do this in churches just like this one today in the 21^st century.

Spiritual meaning for my life today: I must make sure that the things that I believe about God are true and come from the Word of God so that I do not begin to sink to where these people had sunk.

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 and to live in that love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Because he was very rich” (Luke 18:22-23).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jesus advise if one lights a candle?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/27/2015 2:25 PM    

Laodicea, The Church and the City (Rev. 3:14a, 14:c)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/26/2015 9:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                    Focus:  Laodicea, The Church and the City

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 3:14a, 14c

            Message of the verse:  “The church in Laodicea”

            We look at this portion of every church that we have been studying and have found out that there is no clear evidence as to how any of the churches were started with the exception of Ephesus, and because of Acts 19:10 we believe that all of the churches began as daughter churches from the Ephesian church.  “This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”  John MacArthur does add the following possibility:  “Since Paul’s coworker Epaphras founded the church in nearby Colossae (Col. 4:17), he may well have founded the Laodicean church as well.”

            The City of Laodicea (Rev. 3:14b “Laodicea.”  There is a lot to say about this city and similar to other letters when Christ speaks to them He uses familiar things of their cities to bring about spiritual truths.  We will learn more about this when we look at what Christ has to say to this church in His condemnation to the church.

            Laodicea was one of three close cities that were in close proximity of each other, Colossae and Hierapolis were all in the Lycus valley which was about 100 miles east of the city of Ephesus, and Laodicea being the southeastern most of all of the seven churches.  Laodicea was geographically nearly impregnable, and that surely was a good thing during that time period.  However one of the problems that Laodicea had was water, for in the dry season they would run out of water and so they took it upon themselves to build a very long pipe line out of rock to get water to their city.  The problem with this was twofold, first the water was horable tasting and it was always lukewarm, and second an enemy could stop the flow of water to the city and just wait for them to run out of water.

               The following quotes are from Bibleplaces.com:  “The city is located in the Lycus River Valley together with Hierapolis and Colossae.  This valley is a natural route of travel from east to west.

“The city was founded by the Seleucid king Antiochus II and named for his wife Laodice about 260 BC. 

            Aqueduct

The water that was piped to Laodicea was rich with calcium which over time would cause the pipes to clog.  The engineers designed the aqueduct with vents covered with stones that could be removed periodically for cleaning.

Jesus' condemnation of the city's church for lukewarmness rebukes not their lack of fervor but their lack of effectiveness.”

            In his commentary John MacArthur tells through his research how it is known that there were many Jews living in this city.  He writes:  “A local governor once forbade the Jews from sending the temple tax to Jerusalem.  When they attempted to do so in spite of the prohibition, he confiscated the gold they intended for that tax.  From the amount of the seized shipment, it has been calculated that 7,500 Jewish men lived in Laodicea; there would have been several thousand more women and children.  Even the Talmud spoke scornfully of the life of ease and laxity lived by the Laodicean Jews.”

            With the coming of the Pas Romana, which was peace under Roman rule, the city prospered because of the roads that went through it and also because of the things that they made, and were actually famous for.  However in 60 AD a great earthquake destroyed the city and after that the Romans wanted to fund the rebuilding of the city, however the proud Laodicean people told Rome they needed no help and built the city with their own funds.  I have to say that because I am a retire from Ford Motor Company that when the other two major auto companies needed money to survive Ford told our government they were just fine.  Sorry about that but it kind of similar.

            The city was famous for bad water, beautiful black, soft wool used for making women’s clothes and fine carpet.  They also had a medical school there and were also famous for eye save that brought relief to the eyes.  They were also big in the industry of finances.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I read through this list of things that Laodicea were famous in and of themselves are no problem.  However when you look at their overall spirituality we will find out that there is something very wrong with that.  Perhaps they were more involved with their business than the business of the Lord, and this can easily happen in our world today, something I must not do.  I have a friend who mentored me right after I became a believer in Jesus Christ and he told me a saying that I have never forgot, but may be hard for me to write it out.  He said to me that you must keep your enfasses on the right syliable in other words you must keep your emphases on the right syllable, or one my say that you need to watch your priorities and keep them inline.

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 He has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Six years” (2 Kings 11:1-2).

Today’s Bible question:  “Why was the ruler sorrowful when Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/26/2015 10:47 AM

           

 

           

           

 

 

Jesus Christ, The Correspondent (Rev. 3:14c)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/25/2015 9:26 AM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  Jesus Christ, The Correspondent

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 3:14c

            Message of the verses:  “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:”

            The first thing I want to do is to quote from my Spiritual Diary from 3/23/2005 on what I wrote on the word “Amen,” and then I will be adding more to that quote on what this word means.  ““The word "amen" is a most remarkable word. It was transliterated directly from the Hebrew into the Greek of the New Testament, then into Latin and into English and many other languages, so that it is practically a universal word. It has been called the best known word in human speech. The word is directly related—in fact, almost identical—to the Hebrew word for "believe" (amam), or faithful. Thus, it came to mean "sure" or "truly", an expression of absolute trust and confidence.” (HMM)”

            We noted when looking at the church at Philadelphia that Christ did not use a quotation from the vision that John saw in chapter one, and the same is true with this letter to Laodicea. 

            As quoted from my older Spiritual Diary the first words that Christ uses to describe Himself is “The Amen,” and we want to look further into the meaning of this word at this time.  We must note that this is the only time in the entire Word of God that this word is used to describe Christ and it reminds the reader of what is written in Isaiah 65:16 “"Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!”  The word “truth” is the Hebrew word “amen.”  So we are looking at the God of amen or as it says the God of Truth.  Every word that God has ever spoken is truth and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in Johns Gospel as the Word of God.  Now through the Word of God the word amen is used to affirm truth.  Let us look at a couple from the OT “and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen." (Num. 5:22).”  Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground (Neh. 8:6).”  Now a couple from the New Testament “’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]]’ (Matt. 6:13).”  to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen (Rom. 16:27).”  John MacArthur writes “where the underlying Greek amen us rendered ‘verily’ in the KJV and ‘truly’ in the NASB.”  Now he wrote this statement after listing a number of verses in the Bible in which some of them are quoted in the sentences before this quote.  He then goes on to write “Whatever God says in true and certain; therefore, He is the God of truth.”

            So we have learned that Christ is the God of truth, but there is more to this word than that.  Let us look at 2 Corinthians 1:20 “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.”  What we can see from this statement is that “It is through the person and work of Christ that all God’s promises and covenants are fulfilled and guaranteed.  All the Old Testament promises of forgiveness, mercy, lovingkindness, grace, hope, and eternal life are bound up in Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection.  He is the “Amen” because He is the One who confirmed all of God’s promises.”  (John MacArthur’s Commentary on Revelation)

            The church at Laodicea should have no problem in understanding that what Christ is about to write to them is going to be truthful, for He is truth “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6).” 

            We have one more thing to look at in the description that Christ gives of Himself and that is He calls Himself the Beginning of the creation of God.”  As I was listening to the sermon from John MacArthur this morning while walking to nowhere on my treadmill he stated that when you look at how this statement is translated into the English it seems like it is saying that Christ was a created begin, but we know that this is not truth.  Now it is true that the humanity of Christ came into existence when He was formed in the womb of Mary, but Christ as always existed, and in fact He is the One who created the world, and that is what this means.  MacArthur says that the English is ambiguous and misleading.  He then goes on to write that “there is no ambiguity in the Greek text, however.  Arche (Beginning) does not mean that Christ was the first person God created, but rather that Christ Himself is the source or origin of creation (cf. Rev. 22:13).  Through His power everything was created (John 1:3; Heb. 1:2).”

            MacArthur then goes on to write that the church at Colossae, the letter that Paul wrote to them has similar things in it as they too had a problem with Christ’s deity, just as the church at Laodicea did, in fact when Paul penned his letter to the Colossian church he told them to read it to the church in Laodicea and to have their letter written to them.  That letter could well have been the letter he wrote to the Ephesian church for that letter was a “circuit” letter that was supposed to circulate to the different churches in the area.  The letter of Ephesians that Paul wrote tells it readers how the church is to operate, and from the looks of things both Colossae and Laodicea needed to read it.

            MacArthur finishes by writing “Firstborn’ (prototokos) is not limited to the first one born chronologically, but refers to the supreme or preeminent one, the one receiving the highest honor (c. Ps. 89:27).  Christ is thus (rche) of the creation, the supreme person (prototokos) in it.”

            It was because of this damning heresy of not believing that Christ is truly God was why this church was dead and also why many churches are dead in the world today.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  My testimony of how I became a believer in Jesus Christ took a different route than many, and I will not go into it at this time, but I do want to say that when I first came to Christ I had some bad thoughts of who Christ was and if not for the grace of God I could have gone down the wrong road believing like the church at Laodicea went, but my conversion was true and since I am one of God’s true children He would not allow me to believe an error like that.  For that I am truly thankful and have been truly blessed.

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

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

Today’s Bible question:  “How long was Joash hidden before becoming king of Judah?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/25/2015 10:41 AM

"Introduction to Laodicea" (Rev. 3:14-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2015 11:29 AM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  Introduction to Laodicea

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 3:14-22

            Message of the verses:  “14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ’I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ’So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ’Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ’Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ’Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ’He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"

            Well we have finally made it to the beginning of the last church that the glorified Christ sends a letter to, and this church spiritually is at the bottom.  Laodicea is the last stop on the mail route that included everyone of the other church we studied thus far.  I just wonder what the messenger or Pastor who first read this letter thought.  If one goes by the prophetic view of the order of churches that we spoke about in previous SD’s then this would be the dominant church in the world before our Lord returns in the rapture to take us to be with Him.  Hal Lindsey states in his commentary that this church became dominant beginning in 1900.  This church could be called the lukewarm church.

            I do not find it a coincident that I have been studying the major prophets for the last few years and am now at this present time am studying the books of Revelation and also Ezekiel, for there are parallels between what happened to Israel and what is happening to the churches in the world today.  If you go back all the way to when God created the heavens and the earth and then created man on the sixth day only to have man sin and bring sin upon the earth to which its effects are still seen today, you find that God was providing a way for man to come back into fellowship with Him through the promised seed of the woman found in Genesis 3:15.  We then see that God had to judge the earth and all who live on it with a flood that covered the entire world and killed all life that needed air to breathe with the exception of those who were on the ark that Noah built.  Mankind has come from those eight people who were on that ark.  Later God had to scramble the languages because of the sinfulness of man and finally God called a man named Abram to begin a people that we know today as the Jewish people.  Some four hundred years after Abraham his descendants were found in Egypt right where God told him they would be.  God was forming a nation in order to have a people who would write down His Law and who would also be the people that Messiah, the Seed of the woman would come from.  God would use Moses to bring His people out of Egypt by doing ten great miracles that would bring Egypt to its knees in defeat.  After leaving Egypt the people of Israel sinned against the Lord and wondered around the wilderness for forty years before coming into the Promised Land led by Joshua.  Their history was up and down spiritually, but mostly the line would go down and finally God would judge them.  The writer of 2 Kings writes the following in 2 Kings 17:7-23 “7 Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. 9 The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the LORD their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the LORD had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the LORD. 12 They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing." 13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets." 14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them. 16 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. 18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah. 19 Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. 20 The LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight. 21 When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and made them commit a great sin. 22  The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them 23  until the LORD removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.”

            Now as we read of the demise of Israel we also have been looking at what Judah did seen through the eyes of Ezekiel, and in the end they sinned greater than Israel and God took them into captivity in Babylon.  One may wonder why I would bother to write this very brief history of Israel and Judah.  Well as we get to the church of Laodicea we find a church that is in a similar situation and we will also see what the Lord has to say to this lukewarm church.  One point to be made here and that is that God still has plans for Israel as seen through the prophets in the OT and also in the writings of the NT, especially Romans 9-11 where Paul writes about Israel and their future, but none the less the sinfulness of the nation of Israel surely found itself into the lives of the people of the New Testament Church. 

              John MacArthur writes “Tragically, the sorrowful unbelief of Israel finds a parallel in the church.  There are many people in churches, even entire congregations, who are lost.  They may be sincere, zealous, and outwardly religious, but they reject the gospel truth.  They have all the rich New Covenant teachings about Christ’s life, death, and resurrection contained in Bibles they neither believe nor obey.  As a result, they are doomed, just as unbelieving Israel was.  Paul described them as those ‘holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power,’ and then wisely consoled believers to ‘avoid such men as these’ (2Tim. 3:5).”

            As we look at the church at Laodicea we will find out that this church represents apostate churches that are found and have been found in the world since the church age began.  We mentioned that there was a downward spiral that began in Ephesus with those believers leaving their first love and now it ends with the apostate church of Laodicea where we find Christ at the door trying to get in as seen in Rev. 3:10.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Paul wrote that as believers we are to learn from the sinfulness of those believers found in the Old Testament.  I can also learn that the key to avoiding this slide is to continue to love the Lord, remembering those first days when I became a believer and the richness that Christ brought into my life. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Abraham” (Genesis 18:23-32).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who authored the book, the Song of Solomon?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/24/2015 12:14 PM