The Reaction of Defiance (Rev. 9:20-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/6/2015 8:35 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  The Reaction of Defiance

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 9:20-21

            Message of the verses:  “20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

            I am not sure how many people were on the earth when God brought the flood upon the earth, but when we see in this sixth trumpet or second woe judgment that one third of the earth’s population will die which could be up to two billion people we probably can compare this judgment with the flood of Noah’s day as far as how many people will die.  When we read all that we have been reading of all theses judgments and then we read what is in these two verses we should be amazed, amazed that people who know that it is God who is bringing judgment upon planet earth do not repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Lord and Savior.

            These people who are defying the Lord have heard the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, they have heard the two witnesses, and by this time they will have even heard the preaching of an angel in the sky which we will read about in Revelation 14:6-7 “6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7  and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters."”  Not only all of this but they will have heard beliers who had been saved also, so they will be without excuse, but after all of this they still refuse to repent, and repentance is the key issue here.  All of these things as far as the Gospel being preached is a prophecy that Jesus gave to us in Matthew 24:14 where He said “"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.’”  Similar things happened to people when Jesus came the first time and people saw all of His miracles and heard all of His teachings, yet they not only would not repent but they killed Him to keep Him quiet, but that did not work, for God raised Him from the grave and then His disciples began to tell those same people what they did and that Jesus was still alive.  All of that was, according to Isaiah and also Jesus, is seen in John 12:38-41 “38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?" 39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM." 41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.”  We also read in Hebrews 4:7b “"TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS."”  This same truth is available today and yet people are still turning from it even though they know it is the truth.  What will these people of this time period be worshiping, for we all worship something even though many people do not realize what they are worshiping.  Revelation 13:4-8 give us the answer:  “4 they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?" 5 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.”

            As we conclude our study of chapter nine we read of five sins that John writes that these people will not repent of “did not repent of the works of their hands and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” 

            We see in the first on, “the works of their hands” that this included the making of idols so that they could worship them, when actually they were worshiping Satan as they did this.

            Murders that they committed they may have thought that they were allowed to do this because of the government that was in place at that time would encourage people to kill believers.

            Sorceries is a very interesting word in the Greek as we get our word “Pharmacy” from it so this has to do with the use of drugs in some kind of worship.  While speaking to some prison inmates when I was living in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai I asked if anyone knew what the Greek word “sorceries” meant.  One of the men knew the answer, but they wanted to know why I would ask this question.  My answer was simple in that many people in prison today are there because of they use drugs.  The pastor I was with read from the NLT “Prison” edition and in that version the word Pharmacy was actually used.

            Immorally is the Greek word Porneia where we get the word pornographic or porn from.  This is a huge problem all around the world even today.

            Thefts is the last sin identified in this section and I suppose there will be a lot of stealing going on during this very difficult time even as there is in today’s world.

            John MacArthur finishes his commentary on this ninth chapter with these words:  “Under the influence of the massive demon forces the world will descend into a morass of false religion, murder, sexual perversion, and crime unparalleled in human history.  It is sobering to realize that the Lord will one day come ‘to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him’ (Jude 15).  In light of that coming judgment it is the responsibility of all believers to faithfully proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, thereby, ‘snaching them out of the fire’ (Jude 23).”     5/6/2015 9:16 AM    5/6/2015 2:13 PM

            Spiritual Meaning for my life today:  I think that it is wonderful how the Greek language brings out the true meaning of things like sorcery and also the word that is translated porn in English.  These are two sins that are very prevalent in our culture at this time and it is because of these sins and also three other sins that we learn in this section that people will not repent of and so it is because of these sins that God will judge them for, and of course others, especially the sin of not repenting and trusting the Lord as their Savior and Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue in my quest to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to continue in my quest to live in the love of the Lord and to better understand more about His love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “When Jesus went up to a mountain and set down when He got there what did His disciples do?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/6/2015 2:21 PM

 

The Return of Death PT-2 (Rev. 9:15-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2015 8:25 AM

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:   The Return of Death PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 9:15-19

            Message of the verses:  “15 And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.”

            We continue to look at these verses today and I want to think about how awful it will be for this much death to be upon the earth as we think about having one third of the total population of the earth being killed.  When Israel came out of Egypt there were probably two million people that came out and by the time that they were suppose to go into the Promised Land they sinned and God said that all people over the age of twenty years old would die in the wilderness over the next forty years.  Now if there were one and a half million who were over twenty years old that meant that one the average 105 people would die each day and have to be buried in the desert as they traveled to the Promised Land.  That must have been a huge problem, but this is even a greater problem as one third of the world’s population would be killed in this judgment of the horses.  There is close to eight billion people on the earth at this time.  If one billion would go up in the Rapture that would leave seven billion people.  The first judgment would take one and three-quarter billion people as that is one fourth of the earth population.  Now if another one fourth died from some of the other judgments that would leave five billion people and now if one third of five billion people died in this judgment that would be around one billion six hundred million people who would die leaving over three billion people alive on the earth.  Many more will die due to the wars that we will look at later so it is my belief that one out of four will be left on planet earth after all the judgments are complete, so that will leave around 1.5-2.0 billion people, but then when the Lord comes He will judge between the sheep and the goats according to Matthew 25 and so there may only be around one billion people to go into the Millennial Kingdom when it begins after the Lord returns. 

            Satan will by this time be kicked out of heaven which we will actually study in Rev. 12, but now he has many of his demons and is probably near full force because of some being let out of the pit which we studied earlier.  This will be a horrible time to be alive on planet earth due to all of this satanic activity and also because of the judgments that will come upon the earth as we are seeing.

             Now who or what are these two hundred million riders on these horses that are described here?  Some believe that this is Red China who boast of having a army that large many years ago, and I used to learn towards this, but have since changed my mind as I believe that these are demons and these demons are not going to just sting their victims as we saw in the last judgment, these demons are going to kill their victims.  In Revelation 16:12 we read of a great many people coming from the East to be involved in the battle of Armageddon:  “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.”  This verse does not tell the number of how many will be involved in this battle from the East so we must say that this judgment and the one we are currently studying are not the same as one is a trumpet judgment and the other is a vial or bowl judgment.

            John MacArthur writes the following:  “Before describing the horses, the actual agents of destruction, John briefly described those who sat on them.  He noted that the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone.  The color of fire is red; that of hyacinth, dark blue or black like smoke; that of brimstone, a sulfurous yellow, describing the rock which, when ignited, produces a burning flame and suffocating gas.  Those are the very colors and features of hell (cf. 14:10; 19:20; 20:10; 21:8), and they paint a terrifying picture of God’s wrath poured out on the sinful world by these demons.  These colors are reminiscent of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the nearby cities (Gen. 19: 24-28).”

            We have spoken about horses in earlier SD’s and said that they are agents of war as seen throughout the Scriptures, but these are not actual horses as John describes them they have heads of lions and we know that lions are very dangerous and like to kill their prey.  Out of the mouth of these “horses” comes fire in which they kill their victims and we also see that smoke and brimstone are used to describe these horses. 

            MacArthur writes “It may be noted that the word ‘plagues’ will appear frequently in the remainder of Revelation (11:6; 15:1, 6, 8; 16:9, 21; 18:4, 8; 21:9; 22:18) as a term for the destructive final judgments.”

            More deadly descriptions are given of these horses as John writes “For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.”  John is giving us a description of death in these verses as he describes the power that these horses have to kill one third of the earth’s population.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at all of the prophetic things that are found in the book of Revelation and for that matter in other parts of both the OT and the NT I think that it is my obligation to tell others about what is going to happen so that they can make a decision to trust Christ as Lord and Savior so that they will not have to be here when these things happen on planet earth in the future.

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 the Lord and also to be ready to tell others of the truths that I am finding in the Word of God.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” (Exodus 20:4).

Today’s Bible question:  “What is the kingdom of God?” 

Answer in our next SD.

5/5/2015 9:11 AM

The Return of Death PT-1 (Rev. 9:15-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/4/2015 8:49 AM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  The Return of Death PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 9:15-19

            Message of the verses:  “15 And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.”

            I wrote the following almost ten years ago July 7, 2005 about the two-hundred million horsemen:  “There has been some debate as to whether these horses and riders were human beings or whether they were some sort of demons like the ones that were described earlier that came up out of the pit and stung people.  Some believe that these are the armies of China, for China has boasted to have an army of two hundred million soldiers as far back as forty years ago. John says in verse 16 that someone gave him the number of two hundred million.  John again uses similes to describe the riders of the horses and also the horses themselves.”  We will further discuss as to the possibility of whether or not these are human riders or demon riders.

            We have named this “The Return of Death” as now we see that more people will be killed by this judgment, the sixth trumpet or second woe.  The fifth trumpet judgment did not bring death but those who were affected by it wished they were dead and possibility they will get their wish in this judgment.

            Let us look again at verse fifteen:  “15 And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.”  I want to focus in on the phrase “who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year” and then look at a verse from Matthew to show that Jesus tells His disciples that God is the One who knows when things will happen as He is all knowing:  “"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone (Matthew 24:36).”  Now this verse if from what is called “The Olivet Discourse” as Jesus was giving it on the Mount of Olives and it was given in a response to a question that His disciples gave to Him about when He was going to return to set up His kingdom on earth, so what He is speaking about here is eschatological in nature.   I really like things like this when I see them in the Word of God for it shows me the preciousness of God and we can believe that this will happen exactly when God has planned for it to happen, not one minute to early or late for God knows all things and controls all things.

            What is the purpose of these “horsemen” any ways?  Well we read that they are to kill one third of the people on the earth.  Now I don’t think that there purpose is to kill believers but those who have clearly said in their heart that they want nothing to do with God and His Christ as we have seen in different parts of this book.  Now we must remember to keep our focus on what God is doing during this seven year period of time and that is that He is taking back control of planet earth and will rid it of Satan, his demons, and also those people who want nothing to do with Him.  We have seen this kind of thing happen in the Old Testament when the Lord brought the flood upon the earth as seen in Genesis and then when the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians who were about to attack Jerusalem.  God has the right to do this and it is hard for some to understand these kind of things including myself but again remember Deuteronomy 29:29 as we looked at in our last SD:  “GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation (Message).” 

            Now remember that in the fourth seal judgment back in 6:8 we read that one fourth of the world’s population would be killed with that judgment and not we see another one third killed with this judgment and this totals more than one half of the world’s population that will be killed with just these two judgments.  Now this staggering fact of those who died does not include all of the death brought on by other judgments that we have looked at.  John MacArthur writes “The repeated emphasis throughout the trumpet judgments on one-third (cf. 8:7-12) demonstrates convincingly that these are controlled, precise divine judgments and not mere natural disasters.”  I believe what he is saying is that God is in control of all of these judgments.

            We have one more day of our vacation as we plan to get back home, Lord willing, tonight and therefore I will have more time to devote to my Spiritual Diaries and it is my desire then to also begin again my study in the last eight chapters of Ezekiel.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am amazed, but should not be at the preciseness that the Lord has in doing what He wants to accomplish as we see in this section of Scripture.  God is in complete control of all things even those difficult thing that happen in our lives, things that are tests that we go through to draw us closer to Him.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To trust the Lord in all things even when it hurts, and to love Him with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in His love and better understand it.

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

Today’s Bible question:  “What is the fourth commandment?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/4/2015 9:32 AM

The Release of Demons PT-3 (Rev. 9:14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/3/2015 9:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  The Release of Demons PT-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelations 9:14

            Message of the verses:  “14 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

            This should be the last SD on this section as we want to look at a bit of history of the Euphrates River as it goes all the way back to when God created the earth and was one of the rivers that flowed through the Garden of Eden.  Now I must say that even though that was the name of one of the rivers it surely was not the same one that is in the Middle East today, but the name is the same.

            Let us look at two verses, one from Deuteronomy 1:7 and then Joshua 1:4:  “7 ’Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.”  “4 "From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.” John MacArthur writes the following on the Euphrates “Rising from sources near Mount Ararat in Turkey, the Euphrates flows more than seventeen-hundred miles before emptying into the Persian Gulf.  It is the longest and most important river in the Middle East, and figures prominently in the Old Testament.”  We mentioned that it was in the Garden of Eden “The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates (Gen. 2:14).”  The first sin was committed near that river and the first murder was committed near that river and then the first grave was made near that river, so it does have a great history as we read the OT. 

            We can look at Genesis 15:18 and see that the Euphrates River is the Eastern boundary of the Promised land “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.”  The promise is in other books of the OT as well.  Now as far as I know the entire land that was promised to Abraham has never been a part of the land that Israel controlled, although when David reigned as king they had influence near that river as seen in 1 Chronicles 18:3 “David also defeated Hadadezer king of Zobah as far as Hamath, as he went to establish his rule to the Euphrates River.”

            Now the three lands that oppressed Israel the most were near the Euphrates River, Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia.  Today there are also nations near this river that want to destroy Israel too, so not much has changed.

            John MacArthur writes “The use of the definite article suggests that these four angels form a specific group.  Their precise identity is not revealed, but they may be the demons that controlled the four major world empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.  Daniel 10 provides insight into the warfare between holy angels and the demons that influence individual nations.  As far as my Spiritual Diary on Daniel 10:10-21 it can be viewed on this blog sight by looking at December 18, 2013.  As MacArthur writes it is not sure if these angels are the ones that are seen in this section of Revelation, but it is a very interesting portion of Scripture in the tenth chapter of Daniel to read up on. 

            MacArthur finishes his writing on this section by writing “Whoever they are, these four powerful fallen angels control a huge demonic army set to wage war against fallen mankind when God releases them to do so.  Satanic forces, imagining they are doing the work of their leader the devil and aggressively thwarting the purposes of God, are actually God’s servants doing exactly what He wants done.”  I realize that this statement is very difficult to accept and to understand, but as far as I am concerned it is true.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The sovereignty of God is difficult for us to understand, but like other things that are difficult to understand in the Scriptures we must take it by faith.  When things like this come into my mind, things from the Word of God that I find hard to understand I go to a verse in the book of Deuteronomy and read it:  “"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law (Deu. 29:29).”  GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation (Deuteronomy 29:29 The Message).”   

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 of Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Naboth’s” (1 Kings 21:1-2).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which book records the exploits of the judges in Israel after the death of Joshua?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/3/2015 10:33 PM  

The Release of Demons PT-2 (Rev. 9:13-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/2/2015 8:44 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  The Release of Demons PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 9:13-14

            Message of the verses:  “13 Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."”

            We have been talking about the altar of incense in both heaven and the one on earth in our last SD and although this is not exactly the main point that is in these two verses it is a very important to understand these points that we have been making.  One of my favorite people was a missionary from Brazil who is now with the Lord, and he used to speak of the Spiritual Diaries that I would send him as veins of gold that were mined from the gold mine of God’s Word.  Sometimes when you study the Word of God the Holy Spirit directs you to different sections of the Scripture like we are doing in this passage as we talk about the altar of incense.  As we continue in this section we are still in what I would call a difficult section of the SD.

            We begin by saying how shocking it is for this altar of incense to be associated with mercy to hear words of judgment come forth from near it.  We realize that our God is merciful and that He is also gracious and compassionate yet we read the following from Genesis 6:3a “"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.”  Just as in the days of Noah when God judged the earth with a flood He will now continue to judge the world with the judgments from the scroll that we were first introduced to in chapter five.  When we see this trumpet of judgment sounded which is the second woe the time for mercy will be ended.  Now I am not saying that people will not be saved from this point on, but I truly believe it will be difficult for this to happen because of the repeated times we read about the hardness of men’s hearts knowing that these judgments come from the Lord yet we read that they will not repent. 

            Let us look at Hebrews 10:28-31 “28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY." And again, "THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE." 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

            Okay now let us take a look at verse 14 and discuss what is going on there.  “one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”  Now as we see the words “release the four angels” we can surely believe that these are demons for God’s good angels do not have to be bound, but we have already been talking about some demons coming out of the pit that Satan opened up so perhaps these four demons may have been the ones who, along with others, came out of the pit.  “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 6).”  “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment (2 Peter 2:4).”  One more example to look at is in Revelation 20:1-3 “1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.”  MacArthur writes “God’s control over demonic forces is complete—they are bound or loosed at His command.  The perfect tense of te participle translated ‘bound’ implies that these four angels were bound in the past with continuing results; they were in a state or condition of bondage until God’s determined time came for them to be released to execute their function as instruments of divine judgment.” 

            Now there is a lot to say about the Euphrates River and we will save that for our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Many years ago I was listening to a Pastor on the radio, one my mom use to listen to on many mornings, a program called “Morning Sunshine,” Pastor Ralph Neighbor was the Pastor I was listening to and he spoke of how the Holy Spirit can move in a person’s heart as they study the Scriptures to make other portions of Scripture come alive with the ones they are looking at.  I believe this is true as God has been moving in my heart to look at prayer and although this has been going on over the past year or so it is exciting to me to see how the Spirit shows me different elements of prayer.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Egypt” (Hebrews 22:27).”

Today’s Bible question:  “Whose vineyard did Ahab want?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/2/2015 9:35 AM

"The Release of the Demons" (Rev. 9:13-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/1/2015 7:33 PM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  The Release of the Demons

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 9:13-14

            Message of the verses:  “13 Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."”

            Before I begin this Spiritual Diary I have to say that this one has been a struggle for me to understand all that is involved in these two verses.  By God’s grace I will do the best that I can to help us understand what these verses hold in them.

            First we need to understand that in the Greek we see that there is only a single person who is speaking, John says “I heard a voice” and this means only one was speaking.  Now we do not know for sure who it is who is speaking, but let us give two possibilities as to who it is that says “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”  We know that the voice comes from where the four horns of the golden altar are for John tells us that.  We also know that the Lamb was seen near the throne in Rev. 5:6 “And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.”  It is in verse seven that we see Him take the scroll in order to break the seals “And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.”  We also see that He broke the seal after taking it out of the Father’s hand as seen in 6:1 “Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come."”

            Now another possibility is that the angel who John had seen in 8:3 standing near the golden altar “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.”  As I said we don’t know who this was and I suppose that if God really wanted us to know that He would have made it clear.

            Now comes the hard part of this Spiritual Diary.  We don’t know who spoke but we do know that his location was near the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.  This is not the first time that John had seen this altar which is the heavenly counterpart of the Old Testament one which is described in Exodus 30:1-10 which we will look at in a moment.  Actually John had seen this altar two times in his visions as seen in 6:9-11 “9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”  Now before we go on we need to realize or remember the purpose of this altar which was to burn incense which symbolizes the prayers of the saints which is what we actually saw in the verses above as the people under the altar were praying, actually praying imprecatory intercessions to the Lord as they wanted vengeance on those who were killing them. 

            Next time we saw it was in chapter 8 and verse 5 where we read:  “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.”  The action of this angel set the stage for the trumpet judgments that we are, and have been studying for the last few days.

            Now let us look at Exodus 30:1-10:  “1 "Moreover, you shall make an altar as a place for burning incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. 2 “Its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit, it shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits; its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3 “You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides all around, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding all around for it. 4 “You shall make two gold rings for it under its molding; you shall make them on its two side walls-on opposite sides-and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it. 5 “You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6  "You shall put this altar in front of the veil that is near the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7 “Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. 8 “When Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations. 9 "You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar, or burnt offering or meal offering; and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it. 10 “Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year; he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD."”

            I wrote the following on July 17, 2008:  “The altar of incense is a picture of prayer, and this can be seen in Psalm 141:2 where David writes, “May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.”  John also speaks of this in Revelations 5:8, “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.”  John speaks again of this in Revelations 8:3-4, “  Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.”

            “The alter of incense stood before the veil that separated the holy of holies from the holy place and the priest burned incense on it each morning and evening when he trimmed the lamps. 

            “Now the fire that the priest used to burn the incense came from the brazen altar, which is where the sacrifices were offered to God.  Warren Wiersbe points out that this suggests that true prayer must be based on the work of Christ on the cross and also our complete dedication to God.”  I also wrote the following later on that day:  ““A true fervency in prayer isn’t a religious emotion we work up ourselves; rather, it’s a blessing that God sends down as we yield ourselves to Him.”  This is a quote from Warren Wiersbe’s book on Exodus.  James writes in James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  James is saying that our prayers are not to be coldhearted for that is not effective prayer.”

            John MacArthur writes “As noted in the discussion of 8:4-5 in chapter 18 of this volume, the incense altar was located in the front of the veil that separated the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence dwelt, from the Holy Place.  No one but the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies and he only on the Day of Atonement.  But the high priest was permitted to enter the Holy Place, and was commanded to burn incense on the incense altar morning and evening.  While sacrifices were not normally offered on the incense altar, the high priest was required to offer a sin offering on it once a year.  That illustrates the important biblical truth that atonement provides the basis for prayer, worship, and communion with God.  No one whose sins have not been atoned for has access to God.”  This highlighted portion of his quote is a very important thing to remember. 

            We will continue to look at this important aspect of prayer and incense and other things in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God has speaking to me about prayer in some of the Spiritual Diaries that I have been doing beginning last year when we studied 1 and 2 Thessalonians.  The two quotes, one from Warren Wiersbe from my SD from July of 2008 and this one from John MacArthur has spoken to my heart today and I am thankful.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Stephen” (Acts 7:56).

Today’s Bible question:  “By faith Moses forsook what country?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/1/2015 8:17 PM

 

           

 

“Introduction to the Second Woe” (Rev. 9:13-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2015 7:50 AM

My Worship Time                                                        Focus:  “Introduction to the Second Woe”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  Revelation 9:13-21

            Message of the verses:  “13 Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." 15 And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm. 20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

            As we get ready to end our vacation and drive the 1400 plus miles home I do not have as much time to spend on these Spiritual Diaries as I have had or probably will have when we get home.  With that said and also because of what I read in John MacArthur’s commentary as he begins the 21^st chapter in his commentary on the book of Revelation I wanted to share what he wrote as to me when I read it I saw what is happening to our country in a nutshell.  As the Supreme Court takes up the case on “Gay Marriage” I can’t help but think of how devastating the effect will have on our country if they chose to uphold something that the majority of people in this country do not want.  I believe with all of my heart that the judges who voted in 1973 to allow unlimited abortions in our country, if they had the chance to reconsider it now, as they are all dead, that they would change their vote.  Our country has changed for the worse because of that vote as over 50 million babies have been killed in the wombs of women and also because death is no view as cheap since that decision.  As I read John MacArthur’s comments that he wrote in the early 1990’s I can’t help but think of what they mean in our country today some 20 plus years later.

            Now before I quote from his commentary I want also to quote from Ezekiel 9:4 as this passage to me also has a lot to do with what is going on in our country, especially in the church.  “4  The LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst."”  We have looked at this verse in both the Spiritual Diaries in Ezekiel and also in Revelation as it related to the mark that was given to these people.  I wonder how many people in our country sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed today in our country.

            “Mankind lies between two powerful opposing spiritual spheres, each seeking to conform people to itself.  No one is neutral in the cosmic battle; everyone is either part of the ‘domain of darkness’ or the ‘kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son’ (Col. 1:13).  As they yield to one sphere or the other, people become the companions of God, or the companions of Satan; the companions of holy angels, or the companions of demons, the companions of saints, or the companions of sinners.    

            “To doubt the reality is the gravest mistake any person can make because making the wrong choice results in eternal disaster.  God offers people the life-giving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; Satan and the forces of hell lure people to their destruction by dangling before them the ‘passing pleasures of sin’ (Heb. 11:25).  The loud voices of hell have always tried to drown out the preaching of the gospel.

            “There is coming a day when the siren call of hell will be so loud as to be all but irresistible.  The people of that time will ignore the repeated, powerful preaching of the gospel and the warning conveyed by terrifying, devastating judgments from God.  Having rejected all offers of grace and mercy, they will see death come upon mankind through the trumpet and bowl judgments, which will deliver death on a scale unprecedented in human history.  Yet even then they will not repent; in fact, they will curse God (cf. 9:20-21; 16:9, 11).  People at that time will have made the irrevocable choice to side with the forces of hell.

            “While there will be divine judgments throughout the seven-year Tribulation, they will escalate during the last three and one-half years—the time Jesus called ‘the great tribulation’ (Matt. 24:21; cf. Rev. 7:14).  As has been discussed in previous chapters, those judgments will unfold sequentially in three telescoping series:  the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls.  Out of the seventh trumpet comes the seven bowl judgments.

            “Like the fifth trumpet (9:1-12), the sounding of the sixth trumpet heralds another, more severe demonic attack on sinful mankind.  The attack, unlike the previous one, brings death.  It unfolds in three stages: the release of demons, the return of death, and the reaction of defiance.”

            The first two paragraphs of this quote are the ones that are the most important ones as far as what is happening to our country.  My prayer for our country is that the Holy Spirit will send a revival, and that God will extend His great mercy on our nation.  To give us what we deserve at this time would not be good at all.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To the church in Antioch in Syria.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God’?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/30/2015 8:26 AM