Weekly Devotional 6-27-22 A Timely Alert
Our weekly devotionals are read by thousands each week, many of whom are Christians but there are many who are not, yet they find interest in what we have to say. We are humbled by this knowledge. That said, please understand that this week’s devotional is directed to those who are not Christians. We feel its time that we sound the alert. The church age may end very soon and with its end there will be a time of trouble that is going to come upon man that Scripture says has never been equaled nor will be.
Now I know that many of you are skeptical because many over the years have predicted the end of the world, and yet everything continues. Rest assured, we are not saying that the world will end soon. We are only pointing out that Scripture declares the church age will end and that it will be followed by seven years of terrible tribulation, followed by the return of Jesus Christ to rule as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Our alert is, if you are not a Christian and not part of the church in all probability you will find yourselves in that tribulation. Now of course you may die soon after the church age ends, just before the tribulation begins but again, according to Scripture you will be even worse off for you will be banished from the presence of God forever, to a place where there will be a never ending of weeping (sorrow) and gnashing of teeth (immense pain). Jesus spoke of this on several occasions (Please see Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30 and Luke 13:20). However if you should enter the tribulation, your fate will not be much better. You will either be martyred having come to faith in God, or enslave d by a very wicked, Satanically indwelt individual referred to in Scripture as the Antichrist. If this be your lot, you will suffer at the hands of humanity gone amuck and the wickedness of the Antichrist. In addition to this you will be exposed to the wrath of God as He pours out that wrath on unregenerate man, Satan and his demonic legions, and the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet. You just do not want to face these things. No rational man would. Beside this, at the end of your physical life, having not come to God in the present, or during the tribulation, you will face the judgment of God. Concerning this judgement I add these words of the apostle John recorded in the Book of the Revelation.
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. 7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation, chapter 20).
Please note, this passage talks about two judgments concerning man; the judgment of the righteous (those who had come to faith in God) and the judgment of the unrighteous (Those who rejected Him). According to Scripture, it is your choice. God has provided the means by which you can be judged as righteous, this provision is found in the sacrifice of Jesus, God’s only begotten Son. Consider. “14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:14-18).
These words are excerpted from a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a Pharisee (A religious leader of Judaism). In the discussion Jesus said that like the serpent that Moses lifted up for the healing of those who had been bitten by deadly serpents (See Numbers 21:1-9) He must be lifted up (crucified) for the redemption of those who would turn to God for the salvation of their souls. God planned this and Jesus in obedience to His Father’s will sacrificed Himself for that purpose.
John, the human author (Jesus was the divine author) of the Gospel according to John closed chapter 3 with these words: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
Well, there it is: A timely alert. Please, at least consider these things.
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