Revelation 21:5-7: And He [Yehovah] that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
But the cowardly, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Notice: It is not only the vile and blatant sinners; murderers, the sexually immoral, all liars, etc., who will perish.
Observe that the first on the list are the cowardly coupled with the unbelieving.
This is the very same word-order Jesus used to describe the fearful disciples who thought their boat was going down in the midst of the tempest on the sea!
Before
calming the winds and the sea, Jesus directly asked his disciples, “Why are you
so fearful, O men of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26; Mark
Jesus actually asked, “Why are you so cowardly?”
You will
note that both those who are thrown into the
Unbelief, says the Bible, is the inevitable product of cowardice.
Conversely, the courage to choose to trust and obey Yehovah will produce the kind of faith that conquers and overcomes the world (I John 5:4).
It is cowardice that leads to little faith that can eventually lead to unbelief, which, unless repented of, leads straight to the furnace!
Listen to God’s own testimony concerning those who abandon their faith in His Son, “But my righteous one will live by faith, but if he shrinks back, my soul will have no pleasure in him”. Now then listen to the writer who draws his own lesson from that word: “But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved” (Hebrews 10:38-39).
Observe the context of this statement about a faith that is cowardly to the point of shrinking back to perdition concerns the Second Coming of Jesus. The writer reminds us that we must persevere in doing the will of God because in doing so we will be richly rewarded … "in just a very little while when he who is coming will come and will not delay" (v.35).
If you have not been plunged into the stormy sea and felt the wind of doubt whipping around your ears if you have not felt yourself sinking into the waves only to discover Jesus saving power as he lifted you back into the boat, how do you know if you have genuine faith or not? Only a tested faith is proved genuine, for it comes out of the smelter as pure gold (First Peter 1:7).
Observe the context of this statement about a faith that is cowardly to the point of shrinking back to perdition concerns the Second Coming of Jesus. The writer reminds us that we must persevere in doing the will of God because we will be richly rewarded … "in just a very little while when he who is coming will come and will not delay" (v.35).
Yes, these are days when multitudes are abandoning the Messiah Jesus for all sorts of reasons. And I hear Jesus asking with loving pathos in his voice again, “Will you also go away?”
May our hearts echo Peter’s reply, “Lord, to whom else can we go, for you have the words of eternal life?” May we determine with God’s help never to shrink back and so be lost.
Written by Greg Deuble [https://thebiblejesus.com/] and edited by Bruce Lyon
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