To Encourage You

Revelation 5:11-14 “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’ The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”

In the awesome scene above, we are told what will one day happen. Only God knows the future, and He has told us this future scene for our own good. One day, everyone, no matter who they are and where they are, including those who are “under the earth,” i.e., in hell, will one day say the words in this passage with a very loud voice. Everyone will proclaim Jesus as the Lord of Glory and bow their knee to Him. Elsewhere this is reiterated where it says “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). Notice this passage too includes those who are “under the earth.” What a sober warning to those who reject Christ and proudly go their own way. This prophesy is indeed true and will be fulfilled just as certainly as the over 300 prophesies in the Old Testament that prophesied the first coming of Christ. The tragedy is that those who reject Christ now, those who have no time for Him, will proclaim Him Lord with a loud voice when it is too late for them. They will have passed beyond the point of no return. They will be in a place of torment, where we are told “between us (the believers) and you (the unbelievers) a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us” (Luke 16:26).

If you are an unbeliever, this should at the very least give you pause. Think you can go your own way and do your own thing, and reject Jesus, who died on a cross to make it possible for you to have eternal life and be forgiven of all your sins? While the truth is, you certainly can reject Him, at least for a time. But when you come to your senses in the scene above, there will be no turning back. The Bible urges you to consider that “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).”

Please don’t let this day pass you by.