Unity # 6: The Perseverance of the
Saints
Dear Father,
Thank You that Your Son is the Author and
Perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of Your throne. Thank
You that as we consider Him who endured such hostility by sinners against Himself,
we do not grow weary and lose heart, but rather lay aside every encumbrance and
the sin which so easily entangles. Help us to run with endurance the race set
before us as we fix our eyes on Your Son. May it be that one day you will say
that we have persevered and endured for Your Name’s sake until the end.
In Jesus Christ’s
Name,
Amen
Dear
Beloved,
By a single
offering our Savior has perfected for all time us who are being sanctified (Heb 10:14). We
are being sanctified right now, all of us who are His chosen people,
regenerated by the Spirit and Word. His call to us each day is to endure until
the end. Jesus promised us that in the last days brother will betray brother to
death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and
cause them to be put to death. He told us that we will be hated by all men
because of His Name, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
(Matt 10:21-22). If we do not endure in our faith, we will not be able to
endure in the days when God deals with mankind in His fierce, righteous, and
just anger against the wicked (Ez 22:14). Our goal is to have hearts that are
as the good soil which hear the Word of God, accept and retain it, and bear
fruit 30, 60, and 100-fold. He does not want us to fall away when trials,
persecutions, and the deceitfulness and pleasures of the world come our way.
(Mark 4)
As truly regenerated servants, we cannot remain the
same. Rather, His Spirit of freedom transforms us into Image of the God with
ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:17-18). This transformation is created by the
Spirit, though we could not bring it about on our own, He works in us to will
and to act according to this good purpose of His for our ongoing and certain
transformation into His Image: SANCTIFICATION.
His
Spirit continually convicts us of our sins; both willful and hidden sins are
brought into the Light as we abide in Him. When we forsake His Law and do not
walk in His judgments, when we violate His statutes, and do not keep His
commandments, He punishes our transgressions with His Rod and our iniquity with
stripes (floggings). Our Savior has been wounded, flogged, and crushed by His
Father for our sakes, and the discipline which we endure is nothing compared to
His infinite suffering for our sakes. We endure through His chosen types of discipline,
because in them, God treats us as His own children. What beloved child is not
disciplined by his Father? But if we are not being disciplined, we would be
illegitimate children and not sons. Through His discipline, He does not break
off His loving kindness from us, deal falsely in His faithfulness towards us,
nor alter the utterance of His lips. For He has sworn long before by His own
holiness, which never changes because He cannot lie, that the throne of David,
that is, the throne of our Lord Christ, will endure forever like the sun and
moon before Him. The witness in the sky is faithful. His discipline is for our
good, and it is effective, because we have a perfect Father. The result of His
discipline is that we share in His holiness, the same holiness that He swore
by. All discipline seems sorrowful rather than joyful at the moment, but when
we are trained by it, it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. And thus we are not continuing in sin, but
we are being made into His Image. (Ps 89:30-37, Heb 12:7-11). We know that
in our struggle against sin, no temptation has overtaken us but such as is
common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow us to be tempted beyond
what we are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also,
so that we will be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13). The love which He pours into our hearts by
the Spirit bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures
all things (1 Cor 13:7).
For
what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it
with patience? But if when you do
what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. I Peter 2:20
Paul
wrote to the Thessalonian saints about the persecutions and afflictions that
they endured. He said that these trials
were a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that they would be
considered worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which they were suffering. It
is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict us, and to give us
relief when we are afflicted as well as when the Lord Jesus is revealed from
heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. At this time He will deal our
retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not OBEY the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction,
away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He
comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among
all who have believed. (I Thess 1:3-10)
11 To
this end also we pray
for you always, that our God will count you worthy of
your calling,
and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with
power, 12 so
that the name
of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thess 1
Do we truly suffer as it has been appointed for us as
followers of Christ? God has exhibited the apostles last of all as men
condemned to death, a spectacle to the world, to both angels and men. They are
fools for Christ’s sake, weak, without honor, hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed,
roughly treated, homeless, toiling, and working with their own hands. When they
are reviled, they bless. When they are persecuted, they endure. When they are
slandered, they try to conciliate. They have become the scum of the world and
the dregs of all things, even to this day. (I Cor 4:9-13) After we are
enlightened through the Spirit, we endure a great conflict of sufferings,
partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations,
and partly by becoming sharers with those who are so treated. We ought to show
sympathy to the prisoners and accept joyfully the seizure of our property,
knowing that we have for ourselves a better possession and a lasting one. So,
we should not throw away our confidence, which has a great reward. (Heb 10:32-35)
Remember Moses who, by faith, when he had grown up, refused to be called the
son of Pharoah’s daughter, but chose to endure ill-treatment with the people of
God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of
Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to
the reward: Abraham’s Shield and very great Reward. By faith he left Egypt not
fearing the wrath of the king, he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. (Heb
11: 24-27) But we are blessed when we persevere under trial, for when we are
approved, we will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to
those who love Him (James 1:12).
Why do we persevere? We pay close attention to ourselves and what we
speak, persevering in His Word, for as we do this we will ensure salvation for
ourselves and our hearers (1 Tim 4:16). We endure all things so that we will
cause no hindrance to the Gospel of Christ (1 Cor 9:12). We imitate one another
as we endure and share in the sufferings of Christ. We endure all things FOR THE
SAKE OF THOSE WHO ARE CHOSEN, so that they also may obtain the salvation which
is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory (2 Tim 2:10)
10 As an example, brethren, of
suffering and patience, take the prophets who
spoke in the Name of the Lord. 11 We count those
blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the
Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of
compassion and is merciful. James 5
Excellent
Messages:
Praise: God helped Anand to give an excellent
sermon (10/7) at Battleground Bible Church (his church in IN) on preaching the
Gospel in the community.
Love in Christ,
Preethi
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