SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/23/2015 10:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to the Seventh Trumpet
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
11:15-19
Message of the
verses: “15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven,
saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and
of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever." 16 And the twenty-four
elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped
God, 17 saying, "We give You
thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken
Your great power and have begun to reign. 18
"And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time
came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the
prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great,
and to destroy those who destroy the earth." 19 And the temple of God
which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His
temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and
an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”
As I was doing my exercise yesterday by taking a walk
with a little light jogging I was listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this
section that is before us today in order to be better prepared to do my
Spiritual Diary. One of the things that,
at least for me, is hard to discern is putting chronological order the things
found in the book of Revelation. We have
thus far looked at almost half of the book of Revelation and it seems that we
are almost finished with what is going to happen in the Tribulation Period and
that is why it was so important for me to include the last quote from John
MacArthur’s sermon in our last SD, a quote I wish to again put into this
SD: “:
“Now as we come then to the seventh trumpet, we come to the very end.
You say, "Why does
the book go on and on from there?" Because it recapitulates and goes back and describes the
career of Antichrist, describes the one-world church, describes the one-world
economy, goes back historically in ways that fill in that seven-year period,
and we'll be looking at that in the future. Next time, in a few weeks,
we will look at the seventh trumpet that is blown starting in verse 15.” Now in his sermon introduction for our verses
today he goes on to bring more light into what he said in the quote above. I believe that it is important for us to know
where we are in the study of the Tribulation Period as best as we can discern
and we will try to get a handle on it in this SD.
Let us go back and look at Revelation 10:7 “but in the
days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is
finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.” MacArthur writes “The mystery is the full
revelation of the consummation of God’s plan.
It was prophesied by the Old Testament preachers, but its fullness was
never revealed until the book of Revelation.
That the seven bowl judgments, which represent the final outpouring of
God’s wrath, are included within the seventh trumpet is evident from 15:1:
‘Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had
seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.’ Those ‘seven plagues’ that finish God’s wrath
are the seven bowl judgments: ‘Then I
heard a loud a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, ‘Go and
pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God’ (16:1). Since both the seventh trumpet and the seven
bowls are said to finish God’s wrath, the bowls must be part of the seventh
trumpet judgment.”
We have learned that these last three trumpet judgments
were called “woes” from Revelation 8:13, and we have seen the fifth judgment
(first woe) being finished in Rev. 9:12 “The first woe is past; behold two woes
are still coming after these things.” In
Revelation 11:14 we read “14 The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is
coming quickly.”
We can determine that this seventh trumpet judgment (the
third woe) will complete the judgments that God will bring upon planet earth
and then the Lord Jesus Christ will return to planet earth to set up His
earthly kingdom. His return is seen in
the 19th chapter of Revelation during the battle of Armageddon, in
order to stop that war from actually ending life on planet earth as seen in Mt
24:22 "Unless those days had been
cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those
days will be cut short.”
So the question is how do we look at chapters 12-15 in
the book of Revelation? MacArthur writes
“Although the seventh trumpet sounds in 11:15, the judgments associated with it
are not described until chapter 15.
Chapters 12-14 are a digression, taking readers back through the
Tribulation to the point of the seventh trumpet by a different path. They describe the Tribulation not from God’s
perspective, but from Satan’s. Chapters
4-11 focused on Christ’s taking back what is rightfully His by means of the seal
and trumpet judgments. Chapters 12-14
focus on the ultimate human usurper, the final Antichrist, whose career spans
from the same time period as the seal and trumpet judgments.
“The scene as the seventh trumpet sounds unfolds in four
stages: praise for sovereignty, paroxysms of rage, plan for judgment, and
promise of communion.”
We will look at these in our upcoming SD’s.
One thing we need to understand is that God is in control
of all things that go on, on planet earth, but Satan does have a kingdom here
on planet earth, a kingdom that even Christ did not deny when He was here on
planet earth the first time. “5 And he
led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6
And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory;
for it has been handed
over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You
worship before me, it shall all be Yours." 8 Jesus answered him, "It
is written, ’YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY (Luke
4:5-8).” Jesus, of course, did not fall
into what Satan wanted Him to do, but when we come to the end of the seventh
bowl judgment we will see that Jesus will receive His kingdom and Satan will be
chained in hell for 1000 years only to come out for a short time and then put
in hell for eternity.
I for one am glad for what I have learned in how to
better understand chapters 12-14.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I know that we
are living here on planet earth in darkness as we live in a world controlled by
Satan’s kingdom, but I also know that I am not of that kingdom, but of God’s
kingdom through the blood of Jesus Christ and I look forward to the day when
the trumpet of God sounds that will take me to heaven in the Rapture, for that
trumpet is much different that the 7th trumpet we see in our passage
today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind and strength, and to live in the love of Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Damascus” (Acts 9:22-25).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who was Absalom’s sister?”
Answer in our Next SD.
5/23/2015 11:26 AM
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