(Isaiah 40:3-8)
Today I am preaching on endurance. However, I won't be necessarily giving you tips of how to endure, I will simply be telling you what you are to endure in.
There is nothing that endures apart from the eternal life of God.
What is eternal life? It's not simply about going to heaven when we die. Eternal life is what God purposed from the beginning for His people, that we would endure eternally in communion with God.
Enduring in communion with God is the responsibility of all who understand God in the Scriptures, to LIVE according to what has been made known by God. The completed Word of God, preserved in the Bible, apply to THIS life, for all its imperishable qualities will remain for those who endure.
Luke 3:1-6
*Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight.
‘Every ravine will be filled,
And every mountain and hill will be brought low;
The crooked will become straight,
And the rough roads smooth;
And all flesh will see the salvation of God.’”*
The first step to endure in communion with God is to respond to Him.
You are responsible to respond according to what you know.
You know you are a fallen creature in Adam. Adam was the first created man. He disobeyed God and was banished from the garden of Eden, where he would've been sustained in perfect communion with God. Whether you like it or not, you are in Adam and you are marred by the sin he committed against God. Likewise, every sin you commit against God is blood on your own hands. Since you know this, repent!
You also know you are redeemed by the blood of the Son who revealed Himself in the flesh to the world, who was crucified on the cross, taking the punishment for your sin, suffering an eternal death only to be raised up in bodily form, ascending to heaven to be seated at the right hand of God, so that all who believe in Him will be saved.
There is only one way to the Father. That is through the Son.
John 14:1-14 (Jesus speaking)
*“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.*
Since you know the Son, believe in Him!
And if you didn't know any of this, now you do.
So, repent! and believe!
Jesus gives a simple analogy concerning our response.
John 3:1-6
*Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.*
By flesh, you are in Adam, who was marred by sin. By Spirit, you are in Christ, who, despite being the one sinless man and the Son of God, became sin by suffering the punishment for your sin (for the wages of sin are death), so that, in exchange, you are washed clean and born again as a new creature by the Holy Spirit of God.
John 3:7-8
*Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”*
You who are born of the Spirit are truly the work of the Holy Spirit who gives life in this age to those who were formerly dead in their sin. However, the completed work of the Holy Spirit will be revealed in full in the age to come. So be alert! Endure!
You, who are hearing this, are responsible to respond according to what you hear. And it's not simply a one time response, it's an enduring response.
So repent! believe! Endure in repentance! and endure in belief!
What are we repenting from?
Genesis Chapters 1-3
*In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.*
So, what are we repenting from?
We are repenting from sin. Sin is rejecting God's very gift of eternal life, which is unending communion with Him, in exchange for the illusion of eternal life apart from Him.
Adam knew better than to eat from the tree, but he disobeyed God.
He let Eve be deceived and partook in her deception.
He was grasping a knowledge separate from what was handed down to him from God.
Therefore, he was cursed with a perishable life filled with strife and hardship and was banished from paradise.
What does Adam's sin have to do with us?
According to the flesh, we are in Adam. Adam is our father. Yes, every human being was created by God, and yes, God created every human being through Adam and Eve. Sin is not simply a list of bad things you have done, it is the condition that you are in. Adam surely died, and you are the result of that death. You are dead in your sin.
You may ask, if someone is raised well by their parents and grows to be thoroughly respected in society that no one says a bad word about them, are they still a proponent of death? Adam was the only man raised by God in paradise and was respected by angels. Yet all death was charged to his sin. How well were you raised that you think you are not a sinner?
The following passage is an example of a young man who was supposedly raised well and was respected in society.
Mark 10:17-22
*As (Jesus) was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.”*
In this passage, Jesus quoted the law that was handed down to Moses from God. The law was written some generations after the fall of man, after the salvation of Noah from the destruction of the flood, and after the image bearers of the promise (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) were chosen by God. God revealed our sin through the law. The ten commandments listed in Exodus Chapter 20 were given by God as a summary of the Jewish law.
Jesus quoted the back-half of the ten commandments to the young man. The man confessed before the crowd to have followed each one of these commandments that Jesus listed, and he did so having confidence that the crowd wouldn't have a charge against him, for this man was well known. However, by commanding the man to sell all of his possessions and give it to the poor, Jesus revealed that the man has broken the first commandment (Exodus 20:3), and in not being willing to repent, the young man was unable to submit to the God of life.
Have we acknowledged the true God in all our ways, for all of time, in all our gifts, for the very life that He gives and preserves? None of us have. We've all broken the first commandment and we are sinners.
Since we are sinners, we must repent, for all sin is rooted in the desire to be independent from God. We must turn away from the sin that we know, and be willing to turn away from the sin that we don't yet know. Repentance is not simply knowing our sin. True repentance requires faith to turn away from it.
Enduring in faithful repentance is continually knowing we are sinners according to the flesh, therefore continually knowing that we require something more to endure in communion with God.
Confessing your sin gives you no power to turn from your sin unless you believe in the One who cleansed you from your sin. You may turn from a sin, but you will simply turn from one sin to another, that which better preserves your original sin rooted in your desire to achieve life apart from God. For example, if you are so sick of your drug addiction that you are willing to turn from it, you may be able to turn from it in twelve steps. But unless your higher power is Jesus, who took the punishment for your sin, you are simply turning away from one sin to another. You may find that you can seemingly preserve your life more effectively if you turn away from drugs, but the sin of self-preservation is equally as deadly.
In your lifetime, you may be able to make choices that make 'life' work for you apart from needing God, but the more successful you are at achieving this illusion, the more you are in bondage. Therefore, repentance is useless to the unbeliever, repentance is for the believer.
So, what are we to believe?
We are to believe in the Son⎯the Lord Jesus Christ.
The whole Bible is about the Son and is the very revelation of the Son.
The Son shows us the Father (who we disobeyed)
And the Father shows us the Son
By revealing the law through Moses
Then fulfilling the law
By revealing Jesus in the flesh to the world
Being born of a virgin woman
Living in full obedience to the law
Hence, lifting the burden of all sins that are exposed by the law
He was crucified by sinners
And, although he was sinless,
He took the punishment for all of sin
Dying a sinner's death on a cross
He was buried by men
Then, on the third day, He was resurrected by the Father from eternal damnation
Appearing in bodily form before women and men
Then ascending into heaven, He was seated at the Father's right hand
So that all who believe in Him
Will be raised with Him on the last day
This is what we are to believe.
And by believing this,
We are believing the work of the Holy Spirit
Whose work will perfect the will of the Father, through the death of the Son, to save those who believe. Those who truly believe will be saved from the eternal damnation that is due unto the sinner, and will receive everlasting life through the unending grace of Jesus Christ.
The Bible is the very revelation of Christ. Read your Bible and obey Jesus as Lord. It's not simply the new testament that reveals Christ, but the whole Bible⎯the old and new testament.
We have to believe that obeying Him according to His Word is the very participation of the everlasting life that we WILL see in fullness. Belief is not simply knowledge. Belief requires faith to obey.
Enduring as a faithful believer is knowing the Son as He is revealed, and obeying Him according to His revelation. By this, we know we endure in communion with God. Jesus Christ endured the cross so that His promise would be made alive for those who repent and believe through the enduring work of the Holy Spirit.
So Repent! And Believe!
Because believing the right things and praying the right prayers apart from true repentance is impossible. [Therefore, believing in the Christ is exclusive to those who repent.
However, truly believing by way of repentance is not merely being resolved to apologize to God as many times as you need to. Truly believing is being empowered by the Holy Spirit to turn to Christ, the Christ who endured Adam's death, the death that separated the Holy Christ from His Father. For on the cross Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
So endure in repentance, and endure in belief! For your endurance is the very endurance of Christ Jesus.
(If you pray with sincere repentance, you are asking.
If you are reading the Bible willing to believe its Word, you are identifying the name of Jesus.
If you ask in the name of Jesus, He will write His Word on your heart.
If you are receiving His Word being written on your heart, you are receiving from God what you are asking for.
For Jesus said, "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."
If you ask Jesus for life, He will give it to you.)
1 Peter Chapter 1.
*Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
“All flesh is like grass,
And all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
And the flower falls off,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word which was preached to you.*
Questions:
Since you it has been made clear that you are saved only through faith in Jesus Christ⎯the Son of God, what is your response to His work of salvation?
What are the opponents that test your endurance in walking in His obedience?
