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If you would please open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. As you're turning there, let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask his blessing upon our time together. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you that we have this great privilege and this great opportunity to gather together.
We do not take it lightly to think that there was a day when we would not really care about the things of God. We would be far away from a church service and truly would not want to bow and submit ourselves to your precious holy word.
But we're grateful that by your great power and your great might that you have rescued us from such a deplorable condition that we found ourselves in, outside of Christ, hopeless and graceless and Christless.
And you reached down and you saved us. Salvation is truly of the Lord. How it does burden us as was prayed this morning when we know that there are people that are outside of Christ, some that come to our church building week after week, and we would pray for their souls that truly you would save them and that they would experience what we, those that have gathered here in the name of Christ, that name the name of Christ, have experienced the wonderful salvation of our God.
Pray for those that are here, Lord, that you would bless them tonight. As we look into your word, may we be encouraged. Even though the message is somewhat preaching to the choir, those that are faithful, Lord, still yet we need to be encouraged every once in a while.
I pray that you take your word and use it powerfully in our lives. Think of a prayer request that has come to mind from this morning. We pray for Stephanie Blackstone with her situation with the cyst and all the hopes and dreams for the future, just the pain that she's in and being in bed resting, having to rest there until a decision is made.
We pray that you would give her and Wes a great peace and a great comfort which only comes from you, the God of all comfort, in this great time of trial and struggle, that you give her some ease with the pain and that you would just help them, Lord, both of them to rest in you.
Now as we come to your word, your word which is the lamp under our feet, Lord, the light for our path that is settled forever, it is that which you use to instruct us. May it come to our hearts powerfully this evening.
In Jesus' name, amen. What I'd like to do this evening is speak on the subject of endurance. And I know that I'll be going to a pastoral epistle to 2 Timothy where I've asked you to open in chapter two.
But even as Paul instructs the pastor, and so as the pastor ought to live, so the people ought to live. And all the instruction that can encourage and help them will be, I trust that of encouragement that can come to us too.
In the Bible, we see the word endurance and sometimes you'll see in a translation it'll use the word patience. And as followers of Jesus Christ, we have been called into a life of hardship. A life of suffering for the Lord's sake and for the gospel's sake.
And by the favor of God, God who has, as I, when I was praying, God who is rich in mercy and is great love wherewith he had loved us, by grace we've been saved. It is the work of God is from beginning to end.
He is the author and the perfecter, the author and finisher of our faith from beginning to end. Everything that has to do with salvation, that great unspeakable gift of his son and comes from God, the changing of our lives, the desires and the drive and the focus and the love and all that we have in our lives.
As I said, we would not before want to find ourselves in the house of God, but we delight. As the Psalmist said, it was good for us to go into the house of the Lord and to be able to worship. And that's what God has done.
But in that, we've also been called to take up our cross, have we not? We've been called to be people to be faithful to the Savior all the days of our lives. And to do this, we must purpose in our hearts to endure.
And I hope to bring out some illustrations here in this chapter and also in Hebrews chapter 12, which will just encourage all of us who name the name of Christ, when we leave this place and we go home and then we go out into the world and we go into the fray and the battle which truly is that we find ourselves just so that we can be encouraged to keep on keeping on.
To do this, we are going to need to endure and to endure means in the scripture, when you see that word, it means to stand. It means to patiently continue. In the word, it comes from a Greek word which means to abide under or to remain under.
So to endure means to tolerate. It means, it has the idea of a constancy. It has the idea of being steady and firm and unwavering and going forward. Peter puts it this way when he wrote in 1 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21, for what glory is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently, but if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently.
That word patiently has the idea of this, this endurance that this is acceptable with God. For even here unto where you call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.
And if we miss anything this evening, we can understand this, that when we see the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we see that he was one who came to do the Father's will and he never quit, he never gave up.
And he went and he charged forward and he endured the cross, despising the shame so that we might be redeemed. We might be the people of God. And as believers, we need by God's grace and inner strengthening in order to have the power to persevere in the faith.
We need God's grace to do that, but we also in ourselves, by the grace given to us, need to make up our minds that no matter how difficult it gets, we are never going to quit. There will always be supposed reasons to quit.
I don't know if you've either thought of these or heard these, but some people will say when it comes to the Christian life and when it comes to ministry, when it comes to following Jesus, I mean, it is just so hard.
Well, it was never meant to be easy. It is hard. And the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11, though, if you remember, he said, take my yoke upon you. He said, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly and hard and you shall find rest to your souls.
And he goes on to say at the very end of that chapter, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. It is not something that we do on our own. It is something that he is there with us, our yoke fellow, so to speak.
You also hear people say a reason that they might want to quit is, I'm just tired of doing the right thing all the time. It doesn't have sometimes, it goes through, I know sometimes it's like, is anybody gonna just stand up and stand up to the plate and just go and strike at the ball that's coming and always want to do right?
And we need to do, as the psalmist said, trust in the Lord and do good. And it's not just whenever we feel like it, it is always that we ought to live that way, doing the right thing. How about this one?
Others aren't doing their fair share, and why should I? I mean, other people aren't toeing the line, why should I do it? And the reason is, is that when it comes to our service, it is not to be with an eye towards what other people are doing or not doing, it is with an eye toward the Lord in doing what he has called us to do, to labor for him from the dawn till the setting sun.
Till our breath, till we breathe no more and lay our head down upon our deathbed, we ought to serve him with all of our might. Here's another excuse. God is just asking me to sacrifice too much. But he's asking too much of me.
Well, when a person thinks that way, they're not thinking of that great and ultimate sacrifice that the Lord has done on their behalf. He gave all, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And we have life through the sacrifice of Christ. And if he gave his life's blood for us, if he shed his blood and died and was buried and rose again so that we might be redeemed, should we not just give three score and 10, 70, 80, 90 years, whatever it is that the Lord gives us?
How about this one? I've given my all to God and he's just not rewarding me. I mean, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but God is not rewarding me. And I put in parentheses when I wrote that, so you think.
I mean, isn't the Lord just so merciful to allow us to breathe his air and to eat his food and to walk upon his earth and to enjoy his son and to have a life that we have and life and breath in all things.
And I don't know if you notice in all of these, and as I'll tell you the last one, this religion thing, I mean, it just isn't working for me. Did you notice in every one of them, it's too hard for me.
I'm tired. Others aren't doing their fair share, why should I? God is asking me, I've given my all. It's not working for me. This religion is not working out for me. And it's too self-focused. When you come to these ideas about quitting, it is when we get too much looking and concentrating upon ourselves and not concentrating on what it is that the Lord has called us to do.
He saved us and he's called us with a holy calling to take up the cross and to follow him. And it never meant with that calling that it would always be beds of ease and flowery meadows and green grass and blue skies.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, as Paul wrote, shall suffer tribulation. It will come our way. And there is going to have to be a persevering in this faith, a determination, a resolve.
We used to sing a song, I am resolved to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day. Heed what he saith, do what he willeth. He is the living way. This idea of resolution. But the problem is the day in which we live in, it is so foreign, this idea of commitment.
It's so foreign, this idea of doing something and sticking with it. Whatever, even if it means a job, even if it means marriage, relationships, being faithful, there's not this idea of committedness and wholehearted pushing forward in something and sticking with it.
But people want excuses. And they come up with supposed reasons to quit. But didn't our Lord Jesus say, may he that endures until the end shall be saved. I want to read in 2 Timothy 2, one of the first illustrations that we see as Paul is instructing young Timothy.
And I do believe that all of us can glean from this, this first thought that he gives here of what it means and how it is that we can kind of get some type of teaching and understanding about endurance, where he says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 3, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. I know that Paul is speaking and he's encouraging and desiring to encourage young Timothy as a young pastor on how the church ought to be run and everything about upholding and standing fast and sound doctrine and taking care of the business of the church.
But that is not just for the pastor. It's not just for the elder, it's for all. I mean, we are, you know, onward Christian soldiers. We're all in this battle, none excluded. And we're called to be soldiers of Christ and like good soldiers, we ought to be people who would desire to endure as it says here, hardness.
And I was thinking about soldiers, Veterans Day and all of that. Soldiers withstand hardships, don't they? The rain and the cold and the lack of sleep and the shortage of food and the constant fear of the enemy attacking at any time.
I was watching recently, I believe it was one of the more recent documentaries. I think it was called the war and just the weeks and weeks and weeks that some of these men would be in the trenches without a shower and without a change of clothes and just the sacrifice of day in and day out.
And you know, the small amount of variety of food that they would have and just the constant bombardment of the enemy. And what are they doing this for? They're doing this for love of country and they're doing it for the protection and the care of the comrade that's right beside them.
And like that in the Christian ministry and in the service of Christ, we need to be single-minded. Jesus has died for us and we have obeyed and believed the gospel and he has marvelously saved us. And now we are his possession and whatever he is committed to, we ought to be committed to as soldiers underneath his banner.
Whatever Christ is fighting for, we ought to be fighting for. Wherever he leads, we will follow, but it will take endurance. In this text, in this verses that I just read, Paul instructs young Timothy in the faith and he speaks about being a soldier.
And a noted author wrote this, the Bible says the good soldier doesn't get entangled in everyday life because he can't bother himself with trivial things. In other words, he or she travels light. They have small rations, few letters from home.
They endure filthy clothing. They go unshaven. They have matted hair and is always seeing the bigger picture and therefore the soldier endures. I was reading of a, I found this, another instance I'd like to read here from a quoting from someone by the name of Smiles and he wrote about in India, a battle that the English were involved in.
And Sir Charles Napier, when he was in India with his men encountered 35 ,000 of the enemy. He only had 2 ,000 men of whom only 200 were Europeans. They charged up a high bank and the battle was undecided for three hours.
Imagine that, three hours, 2 ,000 against 35 ,000 and they don't have the good ground. They're going up a high bank. And at the last, they did have to turn and flee. And their commander was proud of their determination.
And it is said of him about his men, saying this about his men, it is this type of tenacity and determined perseverance which wins soldiers battles and indeed every battle. It is one neck being closer to the finish line that wins the race.
And that one strong pull of the oar that puts the winning boat over the finish line. It is the one march more that wins the campaign. It is the five minutes more persistent courage that wins a fight. And though your strength is less than others, you equal and outmaster your opponent if you continue longer and concentrate more than others.
And this is what I'm speaking of tonight. It is a constant vigilance. It is a continual pushing on with patience in the light of everything that comes our way. And like the soldier, they endure all kinds of hardship yet they do it.
And Paul uses that example for Timothy to understand and for him to get it that he is been enlisted in the Lord's army. And so have we. And I can remember in 1976, going to Springfield Mass and signing on the line that I would be inducted into the United States Army.
And I remember when the pen came off the page, in my mind I kind of said, I am no longer my own. And I don't know what's going to happen. And they shipped us on a train down to Fort Dix, New Jersey and began to do all manner of evil against us.
So, I mean, it was humiliation. It was the old, you know, dump out your duffel bag, everything that you got. I mean, it was, and they just made fun of the things that came. I mean, back then, this is the late seventies.
I mean, it was being, the bags that we had were being dumped out in suitcases. And whatever it was, they would, the drill sergeants would go around just picking up things like hair brushes and pictures of girlfriends and all this and just beginning the training.
But why? Was that just because they wanted to be in control? I can remember they used to tell us, men, you will become a unit. And they used to talk in such a way that we hadn't arrived yet. But I remember the day when the drill sergeant came out and boy, we were all snapping.
The uniforms were looking good. It was near the end of basic training and we were all marching in step. We could not do the full nighttime 20 mile march on the first week. I mean, it was good enough for us to be able to go around the parking lot a couple of times.
But through the training and through the discipline and through just learning from these men who had fought in battle, we learned how to become a unit. And I remember that sense of pride when they came out and said, men, you are one, you are a unit, you've got it.
And we were just all smiling, just even though we were sweating and it was difficult, it was good to understand what all that training was all about and what it meant for us and what we had to do. I mean, if you quit and there were people who quit, I remember guys who left, they just said, I've had enough of this.
They thought, I don't know if they thought they were coming to a gym class or whatever, but it was just too much for them and they gave up. And I guess I am gonna encourage you tonight as I remember one of my first pastors did back in 1980 and 81 preaching a message about never, never, never quitting, never throwing in the towel when it comes to being a Christian just to go on.
Well, let me go on with Paul's instruction in Timothy. First, he uses this idea of the field of battle. And now he moves into a different field. He moves into the field, as you will see, of athletics in chapter two here and in verse five.
He says, and if a man also strives for the masteries or strives in athletic competition, yet he is not crowned or he doesn't win except he strives lawfully or he competes according to the rules. So he goes into this idea and illustrates going from the battlefield to the field of athletics.
And I, when I was trying to think of this, well, how can I illustrate this idea of what, and I was just thinking of the Olympics that we're all well aware of. Happened every four years and thousands of athletes gather together to compete.
But in order to be on an Olympic team representing your country, it has taken these athletes years of training and discipline and sacrifice. And they've had to endure much hardship to get their place to compete in that event.
And some have been training. You'll read some of the stories. Some have been training since they're three and four and five years old. Their families have spent a lot of money and their parents have gotten up early to take them to practice.
And these hopefuls have gone to bed late sometimes at night, very tired, and their parents are tired and they're sore. The kids are sore. The training makes them have lots of pain and everything about their lives is regimented.
How long they can sleep, what they can eat, when and what and how to practice, how to use their muscles and so on. And the daily practices that they go through and many of them compete even. I can remember gold medal folks in gymnastics.
I remember just not too long ago, maybe less than 10 years ago, a young lady had, I believe, just about fractured her ankle and had to do one last vault or something and she got a 10 and won the gold medal.
But they give up their all. They compete with pain. They live, eat, and sleep their sport. It's all they think about. And if they quit, there is no chance of winning. If they want to win the gold for themselves or their family or their coach or their country, they must persevere and they must endure.
And I remember Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 9 when he's speaking about those who he says, do you remember, they discipline themselves and they work and they labor and they compete in these athletic activities for what type of a crown?
Do you remember? A perishable, a corruptible crown. A little wreath of leaves to go upon their head. But we labor for the master for a crown that is not going to perish, an incorruptible crown. In our service for our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, I mean, they're doing it for that thing that will perish, but we, as we heard of this morning, for when the lion comes and he sets up his kingdom and we will be with him forever and ever, and everything that God has promised unfolds before our very eyes, and we are co-heirs with Christ and we receive the crown and we receive the reward and it is all going to come to pass.
We are laboring today for that. We are giving ourselves today and going day by day and month by month and year by year, enduring all that comes our way because it is only for a short period of time when you consider eternity, we are to be a people endure.
Brethren, if we ever expect to win the prize, as it says in Philippians 3, or to successfully advance God's kingdom, or to please and glorify the Lord or reach lost souls for the gospel sake, we are going to need to focus on what is really important with a daily commitment and sacrifice and be willing to endure.
Needing to endure the pain and the hardship of service and patiently enduring all things that come to us. Now we've seen Paul use this example of the battlefield and we've seen him use the example of the athletic field and then Paul shifts again and he goes into another field, the field of the farmer.
You'll notice in verse six, the husbandman or the farmer that labors must be first partaker of the fruits. And farmers endure, don't they? In a different way than a soldier would or an athlete, but yet they still must persevere.
Many times a farmer and brother Lewis was just talking about this last night when we had gotten together for some fellowship, something missing in today's, the day in which we live because we can just go to the grocery store and pull everything off the shelf.
But we were an agricultural country with so many farms which has been dwindling over the years, but the farmers, they experience disappointments. They prepare the fields, they plant the seeds and work the land and then they wait.
But every so often might come a drought or a flood or diseases or insects which destroy their crops. But they patiently endure as they have always done year after year. They've saved their money, they've invested their time, they've invested their labor.
They get very tired in their work. I've known and spoken to farmers and particularly those that have animals that have to be taken care of from morning until night. It is a lot of work, but they hang in there and they don't quit because they know the fruit will come.
They know that they will be rewarded in harvest time. And I wanna ask us all some questions. As I'm thinking about our day-to-day duty as Christians and following Christ. Like a soldier, are we single-minded and willing to endure the hardships so that we can fight until the end and not quit?
Not raise the white flag, not as the boxer who is just ready to give up and throws in the towel, but just not to turn but to endure. And like the athlete, do we know anything about daily discipline? And by that I mean, daily discipline, I mean, an athlete can't quit.
They just can't hang up that exercise and the regimen that they have and just think that they're going to win. It's daily regimen of discipline and the spiritual disciplines as we'll hear or we know of when our dear brother, Don Whitney comes in the books that he's written on those subjects.
And if you haven't looked at them, glean from those. But disciplines like fighting temptation and mortifying sin or the daily intake of the word of God or the continual prayer and dependence that we need upon the Lord throughout the day.
Not thinking that we can do it ourselves but looking to the Lord when it comes to any decision that we need to make or any stumped place that we get to in our lives, rather than just trying to do it ourselves but to pray and cry out to the Lord to give us wisdom and to help us.
Daily repentance, a daily fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with other believers. And I was speaking to brother Pradeep Tilak last night about a subject I read when Deb was recovering or trying to recover last Sunday from her surgery.
I read a message by Spurgeon on meditation. My meditation of him shall be sweet, of the Lord shall be sweet. And he said, and I was thinking as A .W. Tozer said that worship is the missing jewel in the church.
I was thinking that this is such a missing thing today because in this day when the computers, I remember when they were telling us in the 60s, the computers were gonna come and just revolutionize everything and it was gonna free up our time.
It was gonna be a paperless society and the computers were gonna do everything for us. And it was, but now what do we have? We have people that are just glued to these things. You know, they're doing this and they're doing this.
And you go into the mall and you're hearing somebody talking to you and you turn around and you think they're talking to you but they got this thing with this little blue light on in their ear and they're talking to that to somebody else, you know?
And it's like, and you gotta go here and here and buzz in the fax and the CDs and the internet. And there's such a busyness of life that we can't just even settle down and think about and just meditate upon the things of God, to chew the cud, to read a portion of scripture, and to memorize a portion of scripture and ask God, oh, please teach me what this means for me.
What is it that you want me to do and to change my life about this verse? And please don't make me just, I don't wanna just go through the Bible. I want the Bible to go through me. This idea of meditation, but daily discipline and sacrifice so we can compete and not give up before we reach the finish line.
Now, too many have begun the race called Christianity and given up so quickly. And I wonder, have we purposed that we will endure until the end, no matter what comes our way? And like the farmer also, even if we suffer a major setback, will we continue to press on in planting the gospel seed and watering it with prayer and tears because we know what we've been called to do.
We've, as 1 Thessalonians 2, 4 says, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God which tries our hearts. God has called us to a gospel ministry to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
And are we going to continue on in that? I just love Psalm 126, five and six, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. And he that goes forth and weeps bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
And as Paul uses these examples of the soldier who must endure in order to win, of the athlete who must be in the regiment and be disciplined so that he can gain the prize and the farmer who labors day in and day out so he can be a partaker of the fruits of the field.
Notice what he also goes on to say here in chapter two. He says in verse seven, consider what I say. Exercise your mind. That's what the word consider there means. Exercise your mind. Heed, comprehend, think, understand what I'm saying here.
And he says this, and the Lord give you an understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. And I believe what he's saying here is as we're gonna see in Romans chapter 12, as first Peter chapter one, verse 20 and 21 said, that we have the example of the Lord who endured.
The example of the Lord who set his face as a flint to the cross and never gave up on our behalf, went there and endured that penalty on our behalf paying for our sins so that we could be his very own.
And here he says, remember Jesus or recollect. That's the word in the definition of that word. Rehearse it or be mindful of what it is that Christ has done the example. And then he says this in verse nine, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even under bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
And listen to verse 10. Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Paul's not doing this for himself. He sees the bigger picture, just like the soldier who sees the bigger picture, the athlete who sees the bigger picture, the farmer who sees the bigger picture, the fruit will come, the prize will be won, the finish line will be obtained.
And Paul says the whole idea of this enduring and that word again means to stay under, to remain under or to bear the trials, to have the fortitude, to persevere. I endure all things. And what kind of things did Paul endure?
Just think of his life. You're just probably going through your mind the things that he went through, the trials, the load of ministry, the pressure, the ridicule, the toil, the pain and the suffering.
And doesn't it sound like sometimes the things that we go through on a weekly basis, the words that come our way, the people that do not understand what we're all about and the way that we're labeled and in the day-to-day responsibility in the load that we have, yes, by the grace of God being relieved and us being helped and strengthened for strength for the day, grace for every need that we have and power for every duty that the Lord has called us.
The Lord is there upholding us, but it's still something that we experience, isn't it? It's something that we know that comes our way and we are pummeled at times and we're bombarded by words and by feelings and things that rise up in our heart and the words that come to us that almost where there's the attacks that come and the temptations that come almost want to have us throw in the towel, but we need to persevere to see the bigger picture.
And what was the bigger picture to Paul? He says, I endure all these things for the elect's sake that they may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And isn't that what it's about?
The Lord has called us to follow him. And he said, in following him, he will make us what? Fishers of men, souls being saved, the gospel being proclaimed in this church and in our lives so that we can have an influence and be used of the Lord as instruments of righteousness to pull some of the brands out of the fire, as Jude said, and to make a difference in the life of people.
So here we see Paul's focus, this whole idea of what it was that he was thinking about when it comes to this idea of a soldier, of an athlete, and of a farmer enduring. And I want to ask you personally, as a child of God, how is your endurance?
Are you strengthened within by the spirit of God, applying what you're daily reading in the word of God, and are you resolved to never raise the white flag, to never stop running the race, or to never leave the work of the Lord's fields?
Are you close to quitting? What would make you quit? What has entangled your mind in life and keeps you from going on in the faith as you should? And let me tell you what should encourage every child of God.
Even though life can be difficult, and we have many responsibilities when it comes to the home, the school, the work, in the church, in our families, in our marriages, in our relationships, in our community, in our personal living.
Let's turn to, if you will, turn to Hebrews 12, just a couple books to the right. What can encourage us is that first and foremost, of course, we understand that the Lord is on our side, and we will not fear what man can do unto us, and the Lord is for us, who can be against us.
The Lord is so faithful, great is his faithfulness towards us. And God has been faithful to others who've gone before us. There have been millions of believers who have gone through life and have faithfully and patiently endured.
And if you look at Hebrews 11 and Hebrews 12, it's particularly in 11, the great faith chapter of the scriptures, we see God mightily working in people's lives who endured much, who never quit. You see Moses, you see Abraham, you see Noah.
These men who never gave up. Moses, it says, he endured as seeing him who is invisible. You see that up in, we could read that in Hebrews 11, verse 27, by faith, Moses, speaking of him here, forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him, or seeing him who is invisible.
He endured, and he never gave up because he knew that he could count upon the Lord to be so faithful and strong on his behalf. He lived not by sight, but by faith. And we see all of these examples here, and we come to Hebrews chapter 12, and we see that it opens up with these words, wherefore, seeing we are also encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which thus so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Notice the same thread as in 1 Peter 1, as in 2 Timothy 2, here he says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher, or the author and perfecter 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, verse three, for consider him, or contemplate him, or attentively reflect upon Christ, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your mind.
And we will be wearied, and we will faint, and we will have reason, or we would think we have reason for supposedly quitting if we look at ourselves, and we take our eyes off the Lord, and off his great example that we are to follow, the steps in which we are to follow, Christ, who never flinched on our behalf, who never gave up, that song says, he didn't come down.
Oh no, he didn't come down. 10 ,000 angels were encamped all around. He stayed, and he hung on the cross, and died in our place, and never gave up. And now, even today, at the right hand of the Father, he ever lives to make intercession for us, never quitting on our behalf, having given his all upon the cross, and in his life daily, he never gives up on our behalf, strong, and faithful, and true.
On our behalf, we are to look to him. And when I think of endurance, and I'm thinking of this chapter, there's a couple of things I'd like to share with you. First, endurance involves encouragement. Maybe this will help us practically.
What can I do? What can I do, not only to be encouraged, but to be an encourager? Endurance involves encouragement. Paul wanted us to consider, that's where the wherefore in chapter 12 comes from. It's referring back to chapter 11, and the testimony of the lives of those folks in Hebrews 11.
We read about real people here, who went through these real life experiences of hardship and testings, like Abraham's up on the mount, where God had asked him to sacrifice his only son, and it just didn't make sense.
And it went against everything that he had his hope in, because there's the promise of God and his son, and God is asking him to take the life of his son. And of course, we know the whole story, but Abraham did not, and yet he persevered.
He did not quit. He raised the blade and God stopped him, yes, and provided the sacrifice. But Abraham had such faith and not living by sight, that he believed that if his son were to be killed, God could raise him from the dead.
That's how much he trusted in the character of God. We have this type of testimony of people with these real experience, and we're encouraged by their endurance. And like others in the Old Testament, Joseph endured through a life that was so unfair.
Noah endured ridicule for over 120 years. Moses didn't give up and quit, even though all the people did for 40 years was to mumble and groan and complain. Samuel endured when the people wanted a king instead of him, even though from a very young age, from the time he was weaned, he was given over to the Lord and given over to the people of God.
We need to learn from their examples. We must say within our own hearts, if they endured, so can I. If the Lord loved them and upheld them and sustained them in their lives, in all the testings and the trials and the labors and the toil and the sweat, God was for them, God will be for us also.
We need to be encouraged, and we also need to be encouragers. I mean, practically, I mean, it doesn't take much to say something like, good job. Your faith has been an encouragement to me. In our family, we use this term, you go girl or you go guy.
Or how about your faithful obedience is such an encouragement to me or a way to go. I mean, let me try to put this in a personal, I'll give you a personal example of this in my life. When I went to high school, my folks had just been divorced recently, right before, at the end of junior high.
And so my mother had to go to work immediately into the workforce. And from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, so when it came to school functions and things, my mom was not able to be there, although I know that she supported and she was behind the things and allowed me to do the things that I did.
And one of the things that I did in school was I competed in athletics. And there was a family that had a couple of sons and I competed with them. And their mother, dear Lois McCabe was her name, from Westboro, she would sit up in the bleachers or she would come over to the event where I was competing and she would just encourage me.
She would just be there and she'd wanna know what I did and how I placed in an event or how I did on the field. But one of the greatest supporters that I had was my future wife. And I played football also.
And she used to be up in the stands, yelling and screaming, go Dave and all that. And you know what, she didn't have a clue what we were doing on the field. She did not understand football, didn't know, but she just knew I was there.
And it was just an encouragement to me. And I would come in when it was time for a break and I was like not playing and I'd be getting a drink of water or whatever. I could look up in the bleachers and I knew where she was.
And it was such an encouragement to me. So much so, and I'm saying this because you never know what kind of an influence you have upon another person. There are gonna be times in your life if you're faithfully encouraging other people.
Just think of Barnabas, the influence and the impact that he had on the ministry and the life of the Apostle Paul. There is the Apostle Paul who wreaked havoc upon the church and here he is supposedly saved and everybody's doubtful of whether this is kind of like some plot and is he gonna come in and is he gonna do something to just, is this some undercover thing and do something and wreak havoc in the church even more so.
But Barnabas was one who encouraged and helped him and went along with him to bring him to the others so that he would be accepted. And when I think about that too, I mean the impact that you can have upon somebody to where they in their lives are encouraged to do good, exhorting people and encouraging someone else and encouraging them to keep on keeping on.
I'll give you one last example in my life. It was my last year of high school and I did track and field and one of the events that I did was the javelin. And I only did it for two years, junior and senior year.
And I did okay my junior year and through my senior year. It was the tail end of the season and I qualified to go to the States in over near Boston and compete and I didn't wanna go. The reason why I didn't wanna go was because I didn't think that I would do very well against all of the people in the state of Massachusetts and I just didn't have that drive to go.
And sure enough, my future wife helped me out. She came behind me and she said, Dave, I just think you should go. Just give it a shot, just try it. And so I did it, got on the bus and I went and I got there.
And if you know what a javelin is, it's a spear. Well, we practiced in an area where there were a lot of rocks and when I got there, I mean, it was like everything was against me. My javelin didn't qualify because it was a quarter inch too short because the tip had been pushed in and dented.
So one of the guys that I competed with throughout the year in Algonquin Northborough schools, he had the same exact javelin and he let me borrow his. And we were competing, it was a little rainy, it was a little bit wet and it came down to the very last throw and I threw it and came home with a gold medal in my class and a state record.
And that was not my doing, because I wouldn't have gone. Deb encouraged me. You have no idea and over and over again, you know this, there have been people who have come up to you and they've said, thank you so much.
I didn't understand, I had an issue in my life or there was a problem, I just didn't know what to do. And you said a few words and look at me today, I've overcome that or I've got beyond that or I didn't enter into that relationship or I didn't go to that job or I didn't move and it changed my life.
And you're thinking, when did I do that? You just don't know what kind of an impact you have on other people. And what I'm saying here is when it comes to endurance, it is something that we can encourage each other in to just keep on keeping on and to never give up because the world is full of discouragers who only want to gloat when people fail, especially there's a whole host of people looking at the Christian church, desiring and wanting it to fail.
We ought to keep and hold up each other's arms, I believe. May God make us encouragers, coming alongside of each other, people who rejoice when others are rejoicing and rejoice in their victories, holding them up in prayer and holding them up with word and holding them up in deeds and recognizing their forward progress and personal growth and affirming it and also entering into each other's grief and weeping when others are weeping.
This is what it means to encourage. And may I say, don't look to be always on the receiving end of this. That's where the person says, who's going to help me today or who's going to encourage me today?
And I believe that if you purpose in your heart to be an encourager, if you come in to a church service here on a Sunday and you say, and you ask the Lord, who can I be a blessing to? Not only will you bless them, but God will bless and encourage your heart because you will be doing that which you've been called to do to one another, each other, to help each other.
Secondly, endurance involves laying aside anything and everything that could hinder us. And we see this here in Hebrews 12, and in verse one, I mean, to be able to go forward, we can't have anything that's keeping us back.
One of the things that can keep us back what I already dealt with is discouragement. But this is another point here. He says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with, notice, patience, run with this patiently continuing, this endurance, run like your race this way that is set before you.
How do we lay aside the things that slow us down in the race? Well, again, like the runner, he wants to win. And he, I mean, do you ever watch an Olympic hundred meter dash and you see the guy go out there and he's got, you know, a Big Mac in one hand and he's got those weights, those training weights around his ankles, you know, and some floppy hat, you know, baseball hat off to the side.
They're stripped down, aren't they? I mean, I think sometimes they must go into a room and they just get sprayed, that uniform that they're running in just gets sprayed on them. I mean, it's like so slick.
And we need to know what weight it is that's, that is, we need to know what the weight is in order to have it laid aside in our own lives. Like I said, Olympic runners, they carefully choose their clothing and their shoes.
They have to be light and it's got to be functional. I mean, the swimmers shave their heads, don't they? And I understand that the bicyclists, they shave their legs. And we know one bicyclist who needs to put some type of a bee and wasp repellent on his helmet, right?
But they do these things and so that they're slick and they're not encumbered so that they can go forward. And I wonder if we know what is weighing us down. Do you know what's slowing you down? Do you know what is giving you thoughts of quitting?
Once we know what that is, whatever the excess weight is, we need to lay it and our sin aside. The verse says that we ought to lay both aside, the weight and the sin, which easily besets us. It's usually one sin, but here in particular, I think of this, if Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter and we come right into chapter 12, where he's dealing with laying aside so that you can run a race.
I wonder if maybe because Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter, that maybe this main sin for many of us is unbelief. We just doubt God. We just don't believe that it's going to happen for us. So what God says is true and we have all these thoughts and it isn't most of our battle in mental, it's these, we're allowing thoughts to come in that are causing us to these fiery darts of doubt to come in and causing us to get off track and to not think properly.
That's why I believe he talks about consider Christ. Don't forget about Jesus, the example, and go like he went forward for the Father and to do the Father's will. But he says, lay aside this weight and the sin which does so easily beset us.
And maybe it is something else the sin is, it's some other form of disobedience or rebellion. And if we know what it is, we need to just confess it and forsake it and continue in the race. And if you don't know what it is, maybe we ought to do as the Psalmist said, search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see if there'd be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Laying aside the weight or the encumbrance. And he, Paul puts this word on, he says, this thing, these things that they beset us, that literally means it stands easily around us or encompass us.
These things are like the enemy who has come in through our broken defenses and gotten the advantage over us and encompassed us and is prevailing over us and trapping us to lay it aside, to flee from sin, to repent of it, to confess it before the Lord and whatever it is.
And if it is unbelief, to be a people who hold up the shield of faith and just believe God, as I preached in my last message, that God will do what he says he will do. To lay hold upon his word by faith and to live by faith and do not walk by sight.
Running the race with patience or endurance as he goes on to say before us, living our lives for Christ our Savior, making our days count for God's glory, looking for ways to be useful for other people, towing the line, pulling our oar, so to speak, carrying our load.
I mean, I don't know if you ever did anything where you're rowing in a canoe or you were in a boat with somebody and it's like they're just not doing their part. We're in this rowboat and you have this oar, I have that oar and we're just going in circles because I'm doing my job and you're not doing yours.
I mean, all of us pitching in. The Christian life will not be easy, but we must endure. And it will be worth it all as the apostle Paul wrote the Corinthian church. I'd like to read this. You can say there in Hebrews 12 and in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 58, listen to this.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye flexible. Did he say that there? Be ye pliable, be ye uncommitted, be unresolved, just melt. Don't put your face to it as far as enduring. No, he says, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
What an encouragement to us, brethren, that everything that we will do for Christ and in his name for the gospel sake and for the advancement of his kingdom will be worth it. And whatsoever you do, as he wrote to the Colossians, do it heartily, not an amend, but do it unto the Lord, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ.
Endure with calmness, endure with self-control, endure without complaining, endure in the trials that we experience in our service, endure in the trials of our faith because letting patience have her perfect work means that patience or endurance perfects our Christian character.
Enduring chastisements, if you go on and read in chapter 12 in verse seven, when the Lord spanks his children, patiently enduring the correction from our loving father, also enduring in undeserved afflictions as I brought up in 1 Peter chapter two.
Enduring in well-doing, listen to this section of scripture from Romans chapter two where Paul wrote, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality and eternal life.
Patiently continuing in well-doing. But the day in which we live in is so uncommittal that you can just start anything and just give up. There's always an excuse to be able to get out of any commitment.
And when it comes to following Christ, it's all or none. When it comes to a marriage, it's all or none. I mean, it is for me, I always think this and I get a smile out of people or I get a weird face, facial contortions from people when I say one wife for life.
And I mean that. When it comes to honoring Jesus Christ, it is no matter what comes our way, we won't quit. We will continue to go on. He has done all for us. He has given us everything richly and freely and we're seated in heavenly places.
I mean, think about that we have been made partakers of the divine nature. We have the life of God within our soul. We've been given eternal life. And Jesus said that there is no way that anyone can pluck us out of the Father's hand.
We are safe and secure from all alarms and we're going to give up. We're gonna throw in the towel. We're going to quit because we get a sliver or we bump our toe. And I know I'm minimizing some of the things that come our way, but what is it that could cause us to say, okay, that's enough, I've had it.
Brethren, I hope you resolve to say nothing. Nothing will ever cause me by the grace of God, I will continue to go on forever. We endure and of course, I said all those other things we endure and then we endure in the race that God has set before us.
Endurance isn't something that comes easy. We have to stand for something and stand against many things and among them being us very own selves, the world, we stand against Satan and his onslaughts and any influence that tries to make us quit.
We bring every thought into captivity to obedience of Jesus Christ. And we say, he is my, as Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Never quitting not being in our vocabulary. And here's a probing question.
Will we purpose to run the race for Jesus Christ and never quit no matter how rough it gets? That is endurance. Galatians 6, 9 says, let us not be weary in well-doing. For in due season is the hope. In a short time, we shall reap if we do not faint.
If we don't quit, we will reap. If we continue to go on in our Christian lives, the more we press forward, the stronger our faith will become. And the more we will understand the power of God working in our lives, enabling us to go on.
We are persevering in the faith as the Lord our God is preserving us. We are kept by the power of God through faith in Jesus Christ. If we are faithful in little areas, we will be rewarded with greater responsibilities and greater fields of service.
Only if we stand, only if we tolerate the hardships, only if we patiently endure until one day we hear those words from Jesus, our Lord, well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.
It is okay to get tired in the work, isn't it? Just don't ever get to the place where you get tired of the work. Well, then I ask in conclusion, do you want to endure? Or the opposite of that is to give up, to go A-W-O-L, absent without leave, to leave your post.
Louis, I know that you probably served and when you did, you actually had some posts that you did in wartime. Mine were all in peacetime, post-Vietnam. But I remember just the responsibility when they drove us around with a Jeep and they plucked us someplace on the post and they said, you're here for the next two hours.
You walk from here to there, you carry this weapon that has no bullets in it. I said, well, what is all that about? But you're not leaving, you stay here. And I remember one time I got put in the armory where all the M -16s were and the captain said, I don't care who comes to this door, you don't let him in.
If it isn't me, don't let him in. I was thinking, that's my order, right? So there I am inside this, I'm a private, I'm an E -1. I don't even have a stripe. Or if I did, is the E -1 no stripe and the E -2 is the one deal, yeah, no stripe.
And this officer comes to the door who is higher ranking than my captain and he knocks on the door. He says, let me in. And I said, my name is Private Jeffrey's captain so-and-so said I can't let anybody in until he comes back here.
He was banging on that door. And to this day, I don't even know if it was a test or not. I don't know, but all I know was for one hour I was shaking in my little black boots that I couldn't shine very well like some of the other guys because all I knew is I couldn't let anybody in but my captain.
And when he came back later on and I let him in, I told him what had gone on and I to this day never got the whole full story but I know what it means. And something about, I use that as an illustration of the post, the responsibility that we have to stand up for Jesus Christ.
We sang the song twice today, standing on the promises and there's another hymn, stand up, stand up for Jesus. He soldiers of the cross, lift high his Royal banner. It must not suffer loss. To stand in the gap, to live differently than the world.
The world runs. It's not like, as I said, I know I've used the word many times. It's not committed to anything but we're committed to Christ and for his namesake. And I wonder to do that, what do you do?
If you wanna stand, if you wanna, as I wrap this all up to be constant, to be patiently enduring, get a cloud of witnesses around you that will encourage you. Be careful who you fellowship with. Choose your friends wisely because they will either weigh you down or lighten your load.
They will either encourage you or discourage you. That's the first thing. Secondly, do you wanna endure? Put aside the weight and the sin that hinders and slows you down and be real with that and be honest with the Lord about that and confess it and forsake it and live pure before the Lord and desire to be a chaste vessel ready for the Lord to fill, clean.
And then thirdly, run your particular race with endurance as Paul says here in 12 .1. Run your race with patience, that race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Don't look to the side, don't look behind you. There's a lot of mistakes back there and those things will pull us down too. Do what Paul said in Philippians 3, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth, going forward.
Don't look side to side, look straight ahead as you patiently endure and keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we remain, stay under, persevere, bear up under and patiently endure all things.
I believe that we can do what the Apostle Paul did when he came to the end of his life in this very, the book that we just looked at in 2 Timothy chapter four, where he said, I have fought a good fight.
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. One of the last things I wanna read for you is from books. And he said, no grace, no not the most sparkling and shining grace can bring a man to heaven if of itself is without perseverance.
No faith, which is the champion of grace, if it faint and fail. Nor love, which is the nurse of grace, if it decline and wax cold. Nor humility, which is the adorner or beautifier of grace, if it doesn't continue to the end.
Not obedience, not repentance, not patience, no, nor any other grace, except they have their perfect work. It is not enough to begin well, except we end well. If you will remember Manasseh and Paul began bad, but they ended well.
And others like Judas and Demas began well, but they ended bad. And may we be a people who have the testimony of God upon our very personal lives and upon this church, that we are a people who were bad, who were totally outside of the realm of Jesus Christ, lost and dead in trespasses and sins.
And God, we were useless, worthless. And God has made us something. And God has made our lives so very precious in His sight. And so our works that we do now, so very worthwhile in His sight when we desire to please Him and to serve Him.
And let's take the Lord, the words of our Lord to heart, the very end of scripture, in the book of Revelation, where He said, behold, I come quickly. Do you believe that brethren? Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which you have, that no man takes your crown.
Let us pray. Father, we live in a day where they have made void your law. We live in a day where it is truly hard to see in the public venue, people who are known and people who are given many accolades because of their Christian life, their Christian testimony, and the things that they do for Christ.
Because we live in a godless day. We live in a day where man is exalted and you are brought low. And we desire to live our lives just the opposite to where you are exalted. And as the scripture says of our brother, that we might decrease and that Jesus might increase.
To do that, we understand that you've called us to a life that goes so contrary to the course of this world. And it will take some resolve and it will take some endurance and perseverance. And how we ask, oh, our father, would you please strengthen us so that when we live in this world, when we go to our jobs and our schools, our neighborhoods, our families, and in our homes, that we would stand and stand up for Jesus Christ.
And stand firm in the truth and not waver in it nor any doctrine. That we might not compromise in our lives when it comes to anything that will cause anybody to stumble. That we might not ever jettison any part of the word of God, but that we would stay true to it.
That we would remain loyal to the cross of Jesus Christ. Father, that you would strengthen us so that we would patiently, not grumbling and moaning and complaining, but patiently endure, even when there's setbacks, even when there's much heartache.
And many things, the things that have come our way, that we would be resolved to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day. We're thankful, Lord, for the lives that you've given us. The joy that you've put in our hearts to be the people of God, that you have set us free.
You have made us your very own. And help us, Lord, to be bright, shining trophies of your grace in this dark, dark day in which we live. All only for the glory of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.