Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Friday, August 26, 2016

Today’s Scripture:

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Revelation 14:6–7).

Introduction:

As we said yesterday, at a time when the prophet Daniel was bewildered and seeking God diligently, He chose to reveal the ministry and sacrifice of the Messiah. Of all the events that would occur between the time of Daniel and the end of time, it’s remarkable that God chose to give a snapshot of the gospel. This blessing is continued in Revelation 14. No matter one’s religious persuasion, or dissuasion for that matter, there is no doubt that we are living in bewildering times. All one needs do is read the daily news headlines to recognize the fact.

Is there any hope in judgment, cleansing, and the everlasting gospel?

Today’s Observation:

We have already highlighted the fact that God’s judgment can reveal righteousness worthy of eternal reward for those who are perfected in love. None need to experience the condemnation, which comes from habitual rejection of God’s love, mercy, and correction. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, not people. Unfortunately, and for whatever reason, millions of people seem to want to join them. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of today’s thought, will you commit not to go that route? Will you commit today to make it a habit to listen to God’s voice and accept His blessing of repentance and Jesus’ righteous covering? I certainly hope so.

In the ancient Hebrew system of ceremonies and sacrifices, the holiest day of all was the Day of Atonement. This occurred one time every year. The blessing of this day was that all throughout the year, the people of God were confessing their sins, which were symbolically transferred from them to the innocent sacrifice, to the priest, to the temple, and then a miraculous expungement occurred on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), wherein the symbol of their confessed/forsaken sins that had by that point been atoned for, would be symbolically laid on the head of another animal that was carried out of the camp. All of this was considered a time of judgment, because the people had a choice: They could enjoy the solemn blessing of confessing and forsaking their sins all throughout the year and awaiting the time that the total cleansing took place, or they could take it lightly and be found guilty through unrepentance. The penalty for unconfessed sin is death. The blessing is that God would not hold repentant people’s sins against them once they confessed them while they awaited expungement or yearly cleansing of their sin record. I just crammed months of Bible teaching into a short paragraph.

There many issues worthy of note here, a few of which I will highlight:

1.Only people who participated in the process of confessing and forsaking their sins were included into this blessing of judgment that would lead to cleansing

2.At any point in time, being the free moral agents we are, we could choose to turn our backs on God. He never forces people to love Him. That would be contrary to the love principle

3.By the time the symbol of sins were carried out of the camp, they had already been atoned for

4.This aspect of judgment is actually part of a three-phase continuum

Let’s start with point number one: As I said, the people of God were confessing their sins all year long and being forgiven through a series of intricate rites that represented the sacrifice and ministry of Jesus Christ. As a new Christian many years ago, I wondered what happened to those who were not confessing their sins, etc? What about people who had no idea about God’s way of...