Endurance, Part 6

Today we will conclude our series of meditations on the subject of endurance. This will be the last one that you will have to endure on this subject. We have seen that endurance is the ability to undergo hardship without giving way. In the context of Christianity, it is the ability to undergo hardship without giving up one’s faith and hope. Connected with endurance is patience, which is the enduring of pain, difficulty, or hardship with calmness and composure; it is abiding the issue of time without rage or discontent. It is the ability to hang in there when the going gets rough and not allowing the difficulty to reduce you to complaining and bitterness. It is continuing to believe God and His promise although you wait long for the reward. We have considered two examples of endurance set forth for us to follow, the example of Abraham and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. And last time, we saw that those who do not endure lack root in themselves. Their faith is superficial. For them, faith is more a matter of emotion than of a well thought-out commitment.

Now our Lord speaks of a time and condition when many will not endure.

Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

To wax cold is to become cold. Now what is meant here by the word cold?

Cold - Void of ardour, warmth, or intensity of feeling; lacking enthusiasm, heartiness, or zeal; indifferent, apathetic. Of persons, their affections, and actions.

Indifferent, apathetic people who lack heart and zeal are not prone to endure. Love is the very incentive to endure. Paul wrote that charity (love) “endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). Therefore, when love waxes cold, then the motive to endure is gone.

It is amazing how much people will endure for someone or something they love. Love is a very tenacious thing. Solomon spoke of the strength and toughness of love in the following passage:

Song of Songs 8:6 …love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

Death, the grave, and a vehement flame are all very tenacious. Solomon said that the grave and fire are never satisfied (Proverbs 30:15-16). They never say, “It is enough.” Death endures until it finally brings down its victim. The grave endures until it swallows its prey. And just consider the giant fires recently occurring in California to get an idea of something that doesn’t give way easily. Love is so tenacious, so persistent that floods cannot drown it. All that a man might give for love is of no consequence. Considering Solomon’s description of the power of love, we can easily understand why Paul says love endures.

This brings to mind the story of Jacob, who had to labour seven years to get Rachel for his wife. We are told that those seven years “seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her” (Genesis 29:20). Jacob could well endure those seven years because he had so much love for the woman he was labouring for. Love eases the pain of endurance and helps one better cope with the passage of time. The more we love the Lord, the better we will be able to endure whatever He sends us to endure. When we truly love someone, then we delight in pleasing that person. If we know that enduring our tribulations patiently is pleasing to God, then we will have a reason to endure them because we love God and want to please Him. People can generally endure anything better if their endurance has meaning and purpose.

Now our Lord said that it is abounding iniquity that causes love to wax cold. If we live in a time of abounding iniquity, we will be surrounded with more temptations to sin. And as more and more of those around us succumb to the iniquity of the times, godly people will stand out all the more. This in turn will bring the pressure of persecution, the pressure to capitulate and go with the flow of the times. It is no wonder that in such times, “the love of many will wax cold.”

In contrast to the many whose love will wax cold, our Lord speaks of those who “endure to the end.” Their love will not wax cold, even though iniquity abounds. They are like Noah, who preached righteousness in a world turned so wicked that God would bear it no longer. They are like Elijah standing faithful to God against the wicked court of Ahab and Jezebel, and the 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:22). They are like the faithful few in the end times who will not worship the beast, nor his image, nor receive his mark, when the whole world wonders after that monster of iniquity (REV 13; 20:4). It is to such souls as these that our Lord utters the promise: “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.”

Oh, blessed promise! Whatever we endure will end. This agrees with the often heard saying: “This too shall pass.” It may seem like your hardship will last forever, but it will end. God’s word assures it. And at that end the expected deliverance will come.

Proverbs 23:18 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

So, no matter the struggle, hold fast your faith and the practice of that faith. Do not give up and draw back. Forge ahead with endurance.

Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Keep your sights on the end, on the saving of the soul. At the end of your struggle you will experience everlasting deliverance, eternal rest, and unmingled joy and peace as you gaze on the radiant face of God. Expect it. Wait for it. Endure until you receive it. I close with these beautiful verses describing what believers can expect in the end.

Revelation 7:14 …These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Revelation 22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4 And they shall see his face.

Endurance, Part 5

I still have more I want to convey about the subject of endurance. Today I want to address why it is that people give up, why they fail to endure. Our Lord states a reason in the parable of the sower.

Mark 4:16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

Recall that in the parable of the sower our Lord describes four different types of ground on which seed falls. He draws a comparison from this to four types of hearers of the word of God. He likens a certain class of hearers to stony ground, which receives the seed so that the seed immediately springs up. But because the seed does not have much soil in which to grow, it does not take root. It lacks depth. So when the heat of the sun lights upon it, it becomes scorched and withers away. Our Lord then compares this to people who hear the word of God and immediately receive it with joy. But they lack depth. The word does not take root. So when afflictions or persecutions arise because of the word of God, they become offended and give up their faith. They “endure but for a time.” And why do they cease to endure? Because they lack depth! They are not rooted in the faith. This explains why Paul gives us the following instruction:

Colossians 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

The person who walks in Christ as he has received Him, will be rooted in Christ and “stablished in the faith,” so as not to be moved from it. It is a matter of staying with your original faith and commitment, holding it fast and firm. It is as John put it:

1 John 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

It is good to constantly remind yourself of why you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to begin with. The faith you placed in Jesus Christ is a reasonable faith. The gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is not a myth, it is an historical account. These events occurred in time and space as much as any other event of history and these events meet all the tests for valid history. These things really happened! The once dead and buried Jesus is now alive. It helps to constantly be reminded of this. Remember how you were convinced that you were a great sinner and remember how you found in Christ a great Saviour with great grace, greater than all your sin. Remember the joy that came when you realized that there was hope for such as you, hope for forgiveness of your sins and hope of eternal life? Committing your life to this Redeemer was the most reasonable choice you ever made. Don’t ever forget that. If you let what you heard in the beginning abide in you, you will stay with it, even when it costs you comfort, companionship, or convenience. You will realize that what you receive from the Lord Jesus Christ is worth far more than anything this perishing world can offer. In short, you will endure. I know this works for me when I am tempted to give up.

The problem with the stony ground hearer is that he has only had a superficial experience with the facts of the gospel. The gospel sounds good, so he receives it. But the influence of the gospel does not deepen in his life. He does not give it the place in his life that it ought to hold. His experience is more a matter of shallow emotions over something that sounds good. So whenever the pressures of following Christ exert themselves, he abandons his faith.

Over against the stony ground hearer, who does not endure, is the hearer who received the seed on good ground. Hear what Christ says of these hearers:

Luke 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

For them, receiving the word is a matter of a well-considered commitment of faith to something that they have verified as truth, truth worthy of the full commitment of one’s life. They receive the word in an honest heart. An honest heart desires more than just a pleasurable feeling. An honest heart wants only what is good and right and truth, and it will not commit to something until it has verified that it meets these criteria. The noble Bereans are an example of good ground hearers.

Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

The Bereans believed after having verified by careful searching that what they heard was so, that is was indeed the truth. Such hearers “keep” the word and “bring forth fruit with patience.” And as we have seen already in these meditations, patience is the enduring (of pain, trouble, or evil) with calmness and composure. In other words, good ground hearers endure.

How deep does the word of God go down into you? How deep is your commitment to Christ? How you endure affliction and persecution will tell.

Endurance, Part 4

Last week we considered Abraham as an example of endurance. This week I wish to turn your attention to the supreme example of endurance, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

We are called here to run with patience the race that is set before us. Remember that patience is the quality of enduring with calmness and composure. That we have to run a race suggests a great expenditure of effort on our part. If you have ever run for any length of time, you know that there are points when you feel like you just can’t run one step farther. It is as though everything in you wants to quit. Being an avid exerciser, I know whereof I speak. What you need at this point of weakness is endurance, which is the ability to sustain the continued hardship without giving way. Therefore, we are called upon to run with patience the race. It takes patience to keep on keeping on when you want to give up. If you run the race with patience, you will endure to the finish.

In order to encourage us to run our race with patience, we are told to run “looking unto Jesus…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” And then we are told to “consider him (Jesus) that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.” Jesus is set before us as an example of enduring hardship. We are told to look to this example and consider it. Now consider the definition of consider.

Consider - To contemplate mentally; fix the mind upon; to think over, meditate or reflect on, bestow attentive thought upon, give heed to, take note of.

When I tell you to “consider the definition of consider,” I am doing more than just making a play on words. I really want to you bestow attentive thought on this definition. Do you consider the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you fix your mind on Him? Do you meditate on Him? How much of your mental attention does He really command? What I am writing here is so extremely important because it is the key to enduring hardship! One reason people give up is that they have misplaced their attention. Rather than looking to Jesus, they look to their hardship. They consider how difficult their pain or trouble is to bear rather than considering Jesus. If they would bestow attentive thought upon Jesus Christ and what He endured for them, it would put their present hardship into perspective and make it more bearable.

Have you ever given serious consideration to the life of Christ? His life was so full of grief that He is described as “a man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3). Consider how often sinners contradicted Him when He spoke. He endured that throughout His ministry. His words were constantly being misinterpreted and argued against, sometimes even by His own disciples. In fact, it was because sinners took issue with the things He said that He was ultimately delivered up to be crucified. So much contradiction of sinners, day in and day out. And yet He endured to the end. And when it was time for Him to go to the cross, He did not give up and run away. He endured it! And where would we be if He hadn’t? It you have ever taken time to reflect on the sufferings of Christ on that cross, then you know that nothing that you have to endure even begins to compare with the pain He had to sustain on all levels, whether physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. He understands any pain you are sustaining. He has been there. He knows what it is to endure.

But we are also told that Christ endured all this “for the joy that was set before Him.” As He faced His sufferings and death, He looked beyond what He would have to endure to the joy on the other side at the right hand of God. He focused on the victory He and His people would enjoy e HGon the other side of the apparent defeat of the cross and the tomb. Here are our Lord’s words spoken in prophecy:

Psalms 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Is not this exactly what I have been instructing you to do as you endure hardship? Remember that at the end of enduring hardship is the crown of life (James 1:12). This is the incentive to calmly abide the issue of time as you endure the tribulation. Keep your sights set on the outcome. Set the Lord Jehovah always before you as did Jesus. This is also what Moses did and it enabled him to endure his hardships.

Hebrews 11:27 By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Moses looked beyond the difficulties he could see to the God that he could not see. Moses believed God was there. He believed God’s commandments and acted on them. In that faith he endured all the difficulties that came with a life of obedience to God. And if you know the history of Moses, you know he faced plenty of frustrating circumstances that would make any one want to quit.

The fascinating thing in all of this is that as you take your attention off of the pain you are enduring and bestow it upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be better able to endure the pain. I have found this true in aerobic exercise like running or cycling. If I think about the strenuous activity, and the pain, and how much longer I have to go, I begin to grow weak and the urge to give up increases. But if I am thinking about something else, I find I can keep going. I have found this especially true when I get caught up listening to some lively music. I can just go and go, because my attention is distracted from the exercise to something more uplifting. As so it shall be when you keep your attention fixed on Jesus. In fact, notice that our text instructs us to consider Him “lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." When you become weary, your patience and energy becomes exhausted. When you faint, you are at the point of giving up. The antidote to reaching this point of giving up is considering Him, keeping your attention focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider Him. Consider where He was in His hardship and where He is now in His glory. Hang in there. The reward at the end is well worth the struggle.

Endurance, Part 3

I still have more to write about the subject of endurance. I trust you can endure reading more about it. Last week we showed that the endurance that pleases God is endurance with patience. Godly endurance is more than just simply bearing hardship. It is bearing hardship with calmness and composure; it is being able to hold fast our faith and hope without rage or discontent. Those who endure with patience hang on in expectation of God keeping His promises. They endure even when their present circumstances bear down upon them with such pressure that they are tempted to throw away their faith and hope and to just look out for themselves. And while they are hanging on, they do not let the hardness of their present situation make them angry or bitter.

Now the Scripture gives us an excellent example of patient endurance in our father Abraham.

Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Hebrews 6:14 is a quotation of Genesis 22:17, where God promised with an oath to multiply Abraham’s seed after Abraham had offered up Isaac on the mount. The seed that God was speaking of was the seed that would come through Isaac, Abraham’s promised son. Although Abraham had other children, the promises God made in Genesis 22 were realized in Isaac, who was called Abraham’s “only son” (Genesis 22:2; Hebrews 11:17). But this was not the first time that God had promised to multiply Abraham’s seed. God had promised to make Abraham’s seed as numerous “as the dust of the earth” back in Genesis 13:16, just after Abraham parted ways with his nephew Lot. This promise was made to Abraham before he even had a child. Now in Genesis 22:17 God repeats the promise, but this time He confirms it with an oath.

Consider what God promised to Abraham when He promised to multiply his seed.

Multiply – To cause to become much, many, or more; to make many or manifold; to augment the number, amount or quantity of.

God promised to increase the number of Abraham’s seed. God promised Abraham more than one offspring, which is all Abraham had when God made this promise in Genesis 22:17.

At the time when Abraham offered up Isaac, Isaac had no children. Isaac was not even married at this time. Isaac did not marry until he was 40 years old (Genesis 25:20). In fact, when Abraham offered up Isaac, Isaac was still a lad (Genesis 22:5, 12). A lad is a boy or a youth. Isaac was not yet a fully matured man when he was offered up. The Hebrew word rendered lad in Genesis 22 is applied to boys from the age of infancy to adolescence. Adolescence was originally considered as the time of youth from age 14 to 25 in males. So Abraham had not yet seen his seed multiplied, when God made this promise to Him in Genesis 22:17.

Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. When Isaac had his sons, Jacob and Esau, Isaac was 60 years old (Genesis 25:26), which would have made Abraham 160 years old when he had these grandsons. It was at this time that Abraham saw his seed being multiplied. Consider! God promised with an oath to multiply Abraham’s seed when Isaac was but a lad. Now Isaac was 60 years old when he had his twin sons. It was at least 35 years or more that Abraham had to wait before he saw the fulfillment of God’s sworn promise to multiply his seed. So it was after Abraham patiently endured that he obtained the promise. And add to this that God had promised to multiply Abraham’s seed long before Isaac was even born. It was well in excess of 60 years that Abraham had to hold out waiting for God to fulfill His promise. All this time Abraham believed that God would keep that promise. It must have been hard for Abraham to keep believing and hoping during this long time because the Scripture says he endured. Recall that to endure is to bear continuous hardship without giving up. Abraham’s example matches the definition of patience that we saw last week, which is the calm abiding of the issue of time.

Now Paul instructs believers to be followers of this example of faith and patience that we see in Abraham. I have encountered people who will whine about having to endure a hardship for a few months. Some cannot even endure a difficulty for a few weeks. How pitiful! The example we are called to follow is of a man who waited over 60 years for something God had promised him.

Paul instructs us to be “followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Paul commended the Thessalonians for their “patience and faith” in all the persecutions and tribulations they endured. Observe that faith is linked with patience. They go together. The key to greater patience and thus to greater endurance is faith. The more we believe what God tells us, the more we will be able to calmly abide the issue of time. If we are confident that God will do as He has promised, we will be better able to endure whatever hardness comes upon us. Knowing that God will come through for us in the final issue will sustain us through the hardness. Faith was what enabled Abraham to patiently endure.

Romans 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

And so if you are having a problem patiently enduring hardness, check your faith. Follow the example of the apostles of our Lord and pray the same simple prayer that they prayed.

Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

And then attend faithfully to the reading, meditation, and hearing of the word of God. God has ordained His word as the means for the increase of faith. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). And Paul stated that his ministry was “for your furtherance and joy of faith” (Philippians 1:25). So when you are reading Paul’s epistles or hearing them expounded, you are doing something designed to further your faith. The more your faith is furthered or advanced, the more patience you will have. You will develop a greater ability to endure hardness with calmness and composure. It is amazing how much a Bible passage can calm you down and enable you to endure when you believe that passage. With greater faith, you will be better able to calmly abide the issue of time. I conclude this week’s meditation with this exhortation:

Hebrews 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.