Be Diligent to Supplement Yo..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. I'm going to invite you, beloved of Christ, to open up your Bibles to the second letter of the Apostle Peter. We are going to continue with our study through the second letter of the Apostle Peter in our conclusion with this second letter.

And we are now studying this topic of spiritual growth. How are we to grow spiritually? How are we to grow in the knowledge and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, according to the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans, how are we to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? In other words, as I said last week, how are we going to die to self so that the life of Christ will be in us and then we will be more like the Lord Jesus Christ?

We are through this first chapter trying to understand each one of those virtues that the apostle Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls us to add to our faith. And that is particularly there in verse five, in which the apostle calls us to be diligent, to to make every effort to supplement our faith. And when then we have all of those Christian characteristics. And it has been my goal that we will have a biblical overview of each one of those characteristics or each one of those virtues, if you want, so that we will have not only a deeper and better doctrinal understanding of what the Bible means that we are supposed to add to our faith, but also that we as a church will have a very practical understanding of each one of those virtues because what we are trying to do here is not only to be religious, coming on a particular Sunday to tick a box and to appease our conscience, but rather to have the heart of Christ that moves us in his life and in his power so that when we are in the world, We are not us anymore, but rather is the life of Christ in us, the Lord Jesus Christ enthroned in our hearts, ruling what we say, what we think, what we do, how we stand so that those who attack us, those who even persecute us and those who will bring a claim against us will be left speechless because of the glory of God in earthen vessels that shine through us by the mercy of Christ and for the glory of Jesus Christ alone. That requires that self dies and that Christ will be enthroned.

And that requires power and not religion. That requires the spirit of Christ and not traditions of men. So beloved of Jesus Christ, this afternoon we are going to be addressing the following of those virtues or the following of those characteristics that the Apostle Peter has given to us in starting there in verse five in chapter one through verse seven. And that characteristic or that virtue is, according to the ESV, steadfastness. You may have a different translation, the word endurance or the word patience.

It says in verse six, and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness or with endurance or with patience. We have spoken about faith in general, and we have also spoken about how that faith is to be added with virtue. And I said to you that we are to have in our mind that virtue is this good works that God prepared beforehand in Jesus Christ that will be the qualifier of the life of our faith. Because James says that faith without works is dead. We have said that to that virtue we're to acknowledge, which I said to you, beloved of Christ, is a certainty that we're to have in our hearts when we hear God's word by faith in the scriptures that does not only resides or abides in our heads, but that moves us to action.

That is biblical knowledge that takes us from knowing to doing. That is knowledge. And also we spoke about self-control. And I said to you last week that self-control is a spiritual gift that empowers the saint to refrain or to abstain from the passions of the flesh. And we spoke about that last week.

And now this afternoon, our task is by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to speak about step fastness or to speak about endurance or to speak about patience. Whatever translation you have there, I'm going to be referring to this to endurance because that's the word that I have in my head. So we're gonna be speaking about a step fastness, endurance or patience, according to the different translations that you have there. Generally speaking, beloved of Jesus Christ, dear brother, sister and soul that are here with us. When we speak about steadfastness or endurance or patience, we are speaking about this course of action that a Christian takes, walking towards a particular direction or destination, not swerving away or not deviating.

That is what, generally speaking, we say or we understand for endurance or steadfastness, this continuous, ongoing, focus, walk of the Christian through this course of action as if you were going from one place to another, not deviating through any direction, but rather focus on the final destination, trying to arrive to that particular purpose. That is what a steadfastness or patience or endurance, which is the word that I'm going to be using today, is generally speaking. So as we always do, beloved of Christ, having Try at least call to your attention and your mind to the general thing that we're going to be doing. We're going to be reading a scripture together. Second Peter chapter one from verse one to verse eleven.

And we are going to be speaking primarily, as I said, about this concept of this topic of endurance or steadfastness. What I want you to do, as I always say to you, is not only that you read by faith in the spirit, not in a religious attitude, by expecting that the Lord will speak to your soul. while we're going to be going through each one of those words so that we will be edified individually as Christians and also as a church. And also, I want you to pay attention to the progression of the argument of the apostle, how he moves from us having faith moment of salvation to the moment of the entrance into the eternal kingdom. And that is the development of the thought of the apostle from verse one to verse 11.

Now I feel that I'm speaking very fast and I'm speaking very fast. You understand this Colombian accent? So let's read these first 11 verses of chapter one. This is the word of the Lord. Simeon, or Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. Verse three. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness or endurance, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind. having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall." Then verse 11, for in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That is the reading of God's word. Amen. Brother, sister, dear soul, you can see here the progression of the Apostle Peter, how he speaks of this faith that we have, that we have received by the righteousness of God that is in Christ Jesus. And how, because we have this faith, he has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by His glory and virtue, and it's through those things that we have received exceedingly great promises by which we are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of this world. For this very reason, we are to take our faith and to add all of these virtues that we have here, because if we have them, we are fruitful.

If we do not have them, then we are so near sighted that we have forgotten that we were saved. If we confirm our calling in keeping these qualities, he concludes in verse 11, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. From faith to faith, according to Romans chapter 1, verse 16 and 17. That is the power of God unto salvation, rescued by the grace of God, by faith, unto final faith of entering into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the life of the Christian is a life in which we are always living with our head looking towards the past, the things that the Lord Jesus Christ has done, but also with our heart and with our souls looking towards the future, always expecting and desiring, looking forward to the things that the scripture promises.

Why is this very important? This is very important because endurance or steadfastness derives its importance from the future more than from the past. Endurance, beloved of Jesus Christ, dear soul, derives its importance more from the future and the things that are ahead rather than from the past. Of course, we endure because of the things that the Lord Jesus Christ has done in the past. But endurance is always valid when we continue to endure.

When we continue to be steadfast, the moment that we stop enduring, the moment that we stop being steadfast, the moment that we stop continuing in the faith, it does not matter what we have done in the past. That is the end of endurance. Endurance in that sense, beloved, is attached to a wholesome faith. Remember that I mentioned that a few weeks ago, a couple of months ago, perhaps this very important concept of having a wholesome faith, a complete faith. If we want to grow in the knowledge and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Christian is to have a wholesome faith.

And that wholesome faith is a faith that does not only see to the past, to the things that the Lord Jesus Christ has done and accomplished with certainty and assurance and believes those things. But a wholesome or complete faith is the faith that looks towards the future. And when the promises of God are uttered through the scriptures, with equal certainty and with equal assurance, hold those promises, because that which is in the future is as assured and as certain as the things that have taken place just because God has spoken. So, beloved of Jesus Christ, endurance, steadfastness, or patience, endurance, is very attached to the nature of a wholesome faith, because we are to believe that God has said that we will endure, and that endurance derives its importance from what comes ahead. Now, the truth is that when it comes to having certainty of our endurance, or having assurance of our endurance, or having full conviction of our future endurance, or our future steadfastness, practically speaking, we don't experience that full conviction.

I don't need to know you and you don't need to know the secrets of my heart. But when it comes to the future, it is natural for us to have uncertainty and it's natural for us to have doubts. Sometimes it's even easier for us to be more certain and to be more convinced of someone else's future endurance than ours. What would happen if this comes? What is it going to happen to my soul if this situation happens here in Australia?

What is going to happen to my heart, to my mind, to my professional faith if these circumstances take place? Even though we are to have full assurance and certainty because it is written in the Scriptures and these are the promises of God, it is easier for us to doubt the things that are coming in the future. That is the whole story of the Israelites. That's why Moses spent so much time in the initial chapters of Deuteronomy speaking about the things that happened in the past. Because the things that happened in the past were supposed to give the people of Israel certainty and full conviction of the fulfillment of the promises that was going to come in the future.

Why? Because we are so weak and feeble that when it comes to the uncertain things, it's easier for us to look to self and to try to be a strong in and out of ourselves. And when we find out that we are not sufficient to hold this future that comes ahead, then fear comes. and not the type of fear that the brother was speaking about. No, biblical fear, but rather fleshly fear, dear soul.

You ought to distinguish between fleshly fear, that is, fear that you have uncertainty of the future or whatever is going to happen in the flesh, and biblical fear according to the scriptures. fleshly fear, the one that is centered upon you and who you are and how the circumstances depend upon your strength, is a type of fear that is going to bring a burden upon your soul. And that burden is going to weaken your heart. And once you are weakened because of that burden, you continue and continue and continue in sin. Because the genuine fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord that is in the heart of the person, according to what we read in Exodus chapter 20, that type of fear is the fear, the reverential fear of the Lord that will move a person to holiness.

The Apostle Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter six from verse 14 to chapter seven, verse one, that we are not to be unequally yoked with the world. He elaborates and then he says, because God lives with you now because he lives within you and he dwells with you, you are to cleanse yourself from all wickedness of your flesh and your spirit, bringing holiness to perfection in the fear of the Lord. Genuine biblical fear of the Lord will bring holiness to completion, will sanctify. So when we see the things that are taking place in our lives and when we see the things that are taking place in our world, are we to fear the things and the effect that those things can have in our lives? Absolutely not.

We are to be certain in the God that holds the whole thing and who is sovereign above all the things that are taking place and is sovereign and is ruling on everything. And we are to fear him and his judgments upon the earth and his judgments upon the church. Because when we have the fear of God in our hearts, then the yoke is easy. It's not burdensome. Then we are not taken captive by our flesh, but we are liberated and free.

And then that does not bring more sin, but that brings holiness. Purify yourself from the wickedness of your flesh and your spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord. Now, when it comes to endurance, beloved of Jesus Christ, I think that many times we Christians have fleshly fear. When we think about what is going to happen to my soul? What is going to happen to my life?

Even with all my sins, with all my unrighteousness, with all my shortcomings and all of these temptations that I have, am I really a Christian? Am I really going to make it to the end? What is it going to happen when there's persecution and when the government comes and does this or that? Am I going to be able to stand? Am I going to be able to endure?

Fleshly fear has taken place. Fleshly fear that not knowingly, it is derived from just trying to assess our own strength. And then when we conclude that we are strong enough, we derive temporary peace, trying to appease ourselves as if we were enough to endure until the end. Beloved of Jesus Christ, I'm going to argue and I'm going to try to show you from the scriptures, first of all, that having absolute certainty of our endurance is not only possible, but that is needed. that having absolute certainty of the endurance of the Christian until the end is not only possible, but that is also needed.

And that when a person has absolute certainty of his or her endurance, then that is going to empower that person to endure. A person cannot endure genuinely in the Spirit and by the Lord if there is doubt about what the Lord has promised that He can do in our lives. So my goal, my desire, beloved of Jesus Christ, dear soul, is just simply to encourage your heart, to encourage your soul, and to show you by the Scriptures and through the Scriptures, and I hope with assistance and power and intervention of the Holy Spirit to speak into your soul that we can can have absolute certainty of our future endurance and that while we will have fear of things that are taking place, we can be assured that even if someone takes our life or even if something happens to our souls, to our bodies, The Lord is the one who holds our souls and our eternity in his hands, and hence we can have peace, joy, and certainty of these spiritual realities. That is endurance. That is the type of endurance that I want us to speak and meditate about.

Endurance that, according to Peter, is to be added to self-control. An endurance, beloved of Jesus Christ, that is a vital aspect, not only of the spiritual growth, but as you can see here, endurance is a vital aspect of genuine salvation. Those who endure until the end will be Saved. It is only the one that endures until the end, the one that will be saved. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospels.

And that is the testimony of the first chapters of the Book of Revelation, that the one that endures until the end will be saved. So endurance is not only a very important aspect of spiritual growth in the present time, but it's a qualifier of genuine salvation. So it is mandatory and it's necessary and it's an urgent need for the soul of the Christian that we will have a deeper and biblical understanding of what genuine endurance is and that we will be empowered by the Spirit to endure until the end. That we will have an entrance richly provided for us into the eternal kingdom of the one that is King of kings and Lord of lords. And his name is Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, I just want to present to you a very simple definition of what endurance is, as I have done it with the other characteristics and other virtues, so that we will have a biblical framework of what endurance is. And then from there, I just want to encourage your heart a little bit from that definition. So what is endurance? How are we going to understand endurance or steadfastness or patience according to the different translation that you have? First of all, we're going to say that endurance is a God given promise.

It is a God given promise that we will make it until the end. And this promise of God, that we will make it until the end, is to be evidenced, is to be presently manifested in the fact that the Christian abides in the faith even under or through adverse circumstances. Again, beloved of Jesus Christ, your brother or sister soul, whoever you are within the sound of my voice, I'm saying to you that biblical endurance or biblical steadfastness is a God given promise comes from God. It's a promise from God. And the content of that promise from God is that we will make it until the end.

But that promise that abides in God, that has been given by God, is presently evidence, is presently seen, observed in the present time by the fact that the Christian remains, abides in the faith, that he's not falling away from the faith, but rather abiding in the faith, even under or through adverse, or you might want to say difficult circumstances. Beloved of Jesus Christ, this endurance is, first of all, unfoundationally a promise of God. And you ought to believe that. We are not going to have the peace that surpasses all understanding, that keeps our mind and our heart, that is through the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do not understand that Future endurance is a God-given promise. It does not start with us.

It does not start with our might or with our strength, but rather it's a God-given promise. And this God-given promise is not only a collective promise that God has given, but if by grace through faith you are in Christ, this is the promise of God for your soul. Whatever your name is, your background is, when the Lord saved you, the promise of the scriptures is that God has promised that he will bring you to the end, that you will make it until the end. This is a divine promise that you ought to believe, not with your head abstractly, but that you are to make every effort and diligence by the Spirit of God to believe that as a conviction in your heart. that God has promised that your soul, independently of who you are, if you have been genuinely saved, you will make it until the end.

In the Old Testament, this doctrine of this, this is clearly evident, particularly in the life of David. Think about this. David is a saint that went through so much difficulty, persecution. He was persecuted even by his family. He committed sin.

Even the Lord at times brought judgment upon him. But in his many persecutions and in his many tribulations and in his many pains of the soul, David always relied and trusted, not in that he was going to be able to overcome that particular situation, but rather, Oh, Lord, you are the one who delivers me from my enemies. Oh, Lord, you're the one who has given me the promise in your steadfast love. You are the one who has promised that the work of your hand will be completed. Psalm 138.

that the work of your hand, O Lord, will be completed. Do not forsake the work of thy hand, O Lord, upon your servant. David says from his mouth and from his heart, he was fully convinced that independently of the circumstances that he was going through, that the Lord was going to be the one that will deliver him from all of the enemies and all of the difficulties that he was going through. Beloved of Jesus Christ, this promise is clearly seen in the New Testament when we read and when we hear this glorious verse that everyone knows in Philippians chapter one verse six, the one who has begun a good work in us will bring it to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the apostle Paul, with full certainty and with full authority of the Spirit, precedes that statement saying, I'm fully convinced, I am assured, I am confident that the one who has begun a work in you will bring it to completion.

And the completion of that work is in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother and sister, dear friend, I know that you've heard this truth so many times. It is one thing to hear these truths with our ears and to have them abiding in our mind. It is a very different thing when your soul faces the uncertainty of what is coming ahead, and you are anchored in the truth that God has given a promise to his people that he will bring them to the end, and that he will complete that work until the day of Jesus Christ, and not for everyone else, but for me. there is a very great difference between knowing in the head and then having that established in the heart.

The testimony of the scriptures is very clear, that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Why? Because the Lord has foreknown us so that we will be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. And those whom He foreknew, He has also called. And those whom He called, He also justified.

And those whom He justified, He also glorified, beloved of Jesus Christ, accomplished in the mind of God, finished, completed in the mind of God. There is no doubt, no uncertainty in the mind of God that this is what he has promised for his people. But all of these things, you know, you know that God has promised that he will complete the work in us and that it will be until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The important question is, why can we trust the promise? Why can we be sure that that promise that God has given it is true and that is actually going to take place?

A simple answer will suffice, and that is that God has said so. and that is clearly written in the scriptures. And that should be sufficient for the heart of the Christian, that if we truly have faith, which is rooted in our belief in the word of God, because he has clearly said so, then the heart of the believer should be so overwhelmed by the love of God that even knowing all of our sins and shortcomings and all of the things that he has promised that he will take us until the end, that when we are in the dark place of our affliction, Even though we are aware of the difficulty of that dark place, at the same time, we are rooted and established in the certainty of that promise. That this darkness and this moment will come to an end because He has promised that He will make us and bring us until the end in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that does not happen in our souls.

So I'm going to give you a couple of reasons deeper into the scriptures so that we will be rooted in the truth and why we can actually be sure that the promise of the Lord for us is that we will make it until the end. And I'm going to give two answers to that. Why can we know for sure? Why can't we be completely convinced that God's promise for us is that we will make it until the end? The two answers that I want to share with you are found in Ephesians chapter one.

So I'm gonna take you to Ephesians chapter one, a chapter that all of you may know very well, and perhaps even know what I'm going to say now. But let's just meditate about this together. So go to Ephesians chapter one. Why can we fully trust and why can we be fully convinced That is the desire of the Lord, and that is the promise of the Lord for us, that we will make it until the end. Why can't you, dear brother or sister, be fully convinced and empowered by that conviction that we will make it until the end?

That our endurance is primarily and foundationally rooted not in our performance, but is rooted in God's promise? First, because of the heart of the promise. And second, because of the purpose of the accomplishment of this promise. First, because of the heart of this promise. And the heart or the root or the core element of this promise is called union with Christ.

Pay attention to chapter one, verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ, that is in union with Christ, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him, that is Christ, when? Before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. Beloved of Jesus Christ, if by grace through faith you have come to believe that Jesus Christ is the savior of your soul, if by thy grace through faith you have come to believe that your soul has been rescued by the eternally begotten Son of God, then the same faith is to communicate to your mind and to your heart that your soul, your being, was chosen in union with Christ before the foundation of the world and that the eternal purpose of God for your soul did not start when you were born or when you were saved, but rather the eternal purpose of God for your soul and for my soul started when things had not started yet. before the foundation of the world, united not to a concept, but to a person.

How are we going to explain that we were in Jesus Christ eternally from before the foundation of the world? Why can we fully assure that the genuine Christian will make it until the end and will endure through all the difficulties of the life and of the world? Because your union with God did not start in the moment in which you believed. But rather, your union with Christ started in eternity past in Him, and it was the desire of God out of His love that it will come a time in creation in which you will be vitally united to Christ by faith, never to be separated. So we cannot be separated from the love of God that is in the person of Jesus Christ.

We are hidden with Christ in God, and we're hoping, we're expecting the blessed hope of the coming of our Savior, so that this will come to a final consummation. The heart, the root of this promise of God for your soul, dear brother or sister, is eternal union with Christ. But there is a purpose. There is also a purpose of the accomplishment of all of these matters that it starts there in verse five. It says he predestined us for adoptions as sons.

This is what this union with Christ. It is now in time manifested is in adoptions as sons. through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. And then verse six, gives us the purpose of our adoption in God through Christ, that is the result of our eternal union with Christ. In verse six, it says, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

to the praise, it says in verse six, of His glorious grace. Beloved of Jesus Christ, brother, sister, and friend, the God of this universe who is in no need of receiving glory or praise from anyone, the one who is self-sufficient and self-existent, the God of this universe who did not need to create the world, did not need to do anything that he has done in order to receive greater praise and glory, he has decided. that through this work of redemption and saving your soul, when the time is fully come, he will receive praise and glory and honor in the rescuing of your sinful, dirty, wicked, and righteous heart. Why? Because there is no greatest manifestation of the love of one being to another than to love them through forgiveness.

So if God was going to manifest His grace in loving us, He had to forgive us. And for that forgiveness to be the greatest manifestation of forgiveness, then we had to commit the greatest of the offense. And that is sin against His character and His being. And the solution for that problem being only the giving up of His eternal Son, Jesus Christ, who is and was in eternity past the object of His love, so that by dying upon the cross, all of us who are genuinely saved by grace through faith will become the object of His love in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. On that day when sinners are rescued from every corner of the world, on that day when people from every tribe and every nation will come and will be gathered and will come and will receive an entrance into the eternal kingdom of God.

Then there will be praises and honor to the one who saved us because he has accomplished that. which was completely impossible to be accomplished in the flesh. For when we were without strength, in due time Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous person one would ever dare to die. Perhaps for a good person one would dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love. God demonstrates, shows, reveals his own love. Not a limited measure of his love, but the greatest manifestation of the love of God. God demonstrates his own love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And when the creatures who had not been redeemed, the angels and the heavenly creatures, when they see and they witness the redeeming of the church, then there is nothing else that they will fall on his faces, on their faces to praise the one who brought to accomplishment something that was completely impossible.

That's why even the angels longed to Luke the proclamation of the gospel, according to Peter in first Peter, Chapter one from verse nine to verse 13. Because in the redeeming of the church, there is the greatest manifestation of the love and of the mercy of God. So, beloved, dear soul, why can we be? Why can we be fully convinced, certain that God has promised that we will make it until the end? Not only because he has said so, but when he said so, he has also revealed unto us that your wicked, unrighteous, my wicked, unrighteous heart and soul and my shortcomings, my sins in the present and in the past, in the present, in the future, all known by God.

that He chose us before the foundation in Him, in union with Christ, and that the redeeming of our soul is for the praise of the glory of God. Glory will be brought to the divine place because of the redemption, not of the soul of the people of the church, but your soul. And in the moment that you do not understand that in the personal sense, brother, sister, and friend, and in the moment that this is a general understanding of your religious system, and in the moment that this is just a general doctrine that you have been taught through church and it's not applied to you particularly, then in that moment, you have lost the power of the truth of the Scriptures. When you disconnect the word of God with your heart and your life and your soul in that moment, that which is contained in the scripture is lost in the year that has not been applied to your heart. Because the promise of God to keep us until the end is for each individual member of his universal church as he has been pleased to save them and to redeem them.

I am fully confident, the apostle says, and I can say with him that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the destination, beloved, the destination of your endurance is not next week. You will not endure until next month, or you will not make it through COVID crisis, or you will not make it through these wicked times. The destination, the final point of your endurance is the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Either you are taken up to glory because you died before that took place, or the Lord Jesus Christ comes and he rescues his bride from the whole world.

The endurance to which the Christian has been called and the endurance that the Christian has been promised is an endurance until the end. That is, until we are fully united to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Peter can say, bless it, be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has begotten us again, according to his abundant mercy to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is undefiled, incorruptible, that does not fade away, that is kept in heaven for us who are being guarded, who are being kept by the power of God through faith. He says a salvation that is ready to be revealed. This is an inheritance that is kept reserved for us in heaven.

And he says that we are kept by the power of God. But he does not leave us only with that statement because he says also that is through our faith. So beloved of Jesus Christ, you are to understand foundationally that our endurance is rooted in God himself, as he has promised. But that promise is to be presently manifested in our abiding by faith. So How does genuine endurance that is rooted in the promise of God manifest itself in your life?

How is genuine biblical endurance supposed to be lived out in your individual personal life? If the endurance that you have and that you have been promised is indeed rooted in God, then what is the manifestation of it? when I said that this endurance is when you abide in the faith. even through or under adverse circumstances. The manifestation of biblical endurance in your life is that when a Christian is going through or under difficult or adverse circumstances, that person abides, as we abide in Christ, abides in the faith, that we remain in the faith, that we are steadfast in the faith, that we...

Please ourselves if you want in that faith and we do not depart from the faith. Now, these beloved of Jesus Christ does not mean that enduring as a Christian is just to be a Christian when you were saved when you were 15 and then be a Christian when you were 50 or 60 years old. Endurance is not an ongoing, continuous confirmation of the mind that you're a Christian. I was born in a Christian family and I was raised as a Christian. So I became a Christian because my parents took me to church and now I'm 20 or 25 or 30 or 50 and I continue to be a Christian.

That is not endurance. Endurance is not a mental assessment, assessment, or a confirmation of the mind, if you want, that just because you prayed a prayer, or just because you became a Christian at a particular point of time, and you continue having that conviction in your head, that then you are enduring in the faith. Abiding in the faith is something that requires transformation. If you go there to 2 Peter, that is the heart of the conclusion of the letter in 2 Peter. If you go there to the final verses.

2 Peter 3, verse 17 and 18. You remember that he says, You therefore, beloved, knowing these beforehand, speaking of all these false prophets and all of these things that they do, you therefore, beloved, knowing these beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. That is that you lose your endurance. Be careful that you will not be carried away by all of these things that these people are doing, and that you lose your own stability, that you lose your endurance, that you do not endure anymore. And the contrast to it is not, but be steadfast, but endure.

But rather the contrast to it in verse 18 is, but grow. in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because being steadfast or not losing our own stability is seen by us growing spiritually. A person endures not only when they have gone through a difficult circumstance or a difficult situation, but when they grow. Because, as you very well know, the purpose of all of our trials is that we will grow and that we will die to self.

So it would be not only unbiblical and contrary to the scriptures to say that I'm just enduring because when I started with my trial, I was a professing Christian. And when the trial was removed or seemingly removed, then I remained to be a Christian. And yes, from time to time I go to church. Biblical endurance, biblical steadfastness happens and takes place once a Christian has been providentially placed in a difficult situation. And in the beginning, that person was rescued and saved.

And in the end, that person was rescued and saved, but he or she had grown spiritually. That person had been transformed by the things that had taken place. That person had endured. That person had gone through the difficulty. That person had made it to the other side of that period of time.

But when the Lord Jesus Christ comes and takes us, then we are more than what we were when He first saved us. We have grown spiritually speaking, is not a mental ascent. It is not a confirmation of the mind. That is pure religion that day by day sends souls to hell by the numbers. that just thinking because a person comes to a church and sits in a chair and then just do Christian things, that then that person has been spiritually rescued and saved.

That is not what the scripture teaches. So in the same way, beloved of Jesus Christ, when we biblically endure, then there is growth in our soul. independently of the nature of the dark time, independently of the nature of the trial. If it's a trial of the mind, if it's doubt, if it's an infirmity in the flesh, if it's something that has been imposed by the world, if it's Satan, his demons, if it's something that providentially has taken place, independently of what the trial is. Then when the person has endured and make it to the other side, the Lord would have worked in that person, his spiritual growth, because that is the sovereign, the providential purpose of our glorious Lord.

Very important to understand that. And as I said, there are difficult circumstances in which we are going to be put through in our lives. But I just want to briefly speak to you about three main categories. of trials, if you want, or three different type of categories of adverse, difficult circumstances that we are called to endure. And not only that we are called to endure, but that we are also called to grow as we go through those difficult situations of these adverse situations.

Three different types. The first one is the one that the scripture speaks the most. And then the first one will be the one that you're more familiar with. The second one and the third one are not so clearly stated in the scriptures, but they are there, of course, and sometimes are the type of adverse situations that we fail to endure. Three different types of categories, if you want, or three categories of things that we have to face that are adverse, or many times difficult, as you can see it that way.

The first one is general trials and suffering. Trials and suffering. And these can be of various types. James says in James chapter 1, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Why?

Because these trials can be of many, many times. They can be the providential hand of God that has allowed you, just as Job, to go through a portion of your life in which you're in difficulty and in darkness. It can be Satan and his demons bringing oppression or difficulty to your soul, to your heart, to your mind. It will be darkness and oppression. It could be just persecution from the world because those who decide to live a godly life will be persecuted, they will suffer the persecution from the world.

They could be the trial of the suffering that we face even within the context of the church. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians that he had this anguish pain because he did not see the brethren being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a trial. That is a difficulty. When was the last time that you had this anguish in your heart because of the lack of conformity of your brethren?

That is a distress for the heart. When you see or when we see sin and sin and sin and sin, compassion, of course, but that is a distress, an anguish to the heart. This is a trial that the Lord has allowed us. Various kinds. various types of trials the Lord allows us, infirmities in the flesh, difficulties in your mind, persecution from your coworkers or the people that you study with, your friends in the world, the government, the nations, the powers of this world, Satan, his demons, so many trials and difficulties that we will be through, that we will be put through by the providential hand of God, and all of them All of them are governed by the hand of the Lord.

Even beloved of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you this. Biblical endurance is begotten in suffering. Biblical endurance is produced by trials and suffering. In a sense, we will not learn to endure if we don't go through different types of suffering and tribulations.

There is a sense in which we are to thank and praise the Lord that in his hand, he has allowed us to go through difficulties because trials and tribulations produced Endurance. Produce patience. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, James says, knowing that the testing of your faith through the trial produces endurance or patience. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter five, when he's speaking about the justification that we have by faith, he speaks of the same reality. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And we rejoice, the Apostle says, in hope of the glory of God. That is that because we have been justified by faith, we have now peace with God. And there is a glory that is to come that for the Christian is not the reason to be depressed, but rather to glory in that. And then he continues. And not only that, but we glory or rejoice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produce endurance.

Biblical endurance is begotten and is produced by tribulation. How is the Lord going to teach us to endure? there was a point in my life in which I was actually afraid of my soul. Everything seemed to be so good. Everything seemed to be so in place that when I was reading the scriptures, it's like, I know, Lord, that your grace is so abounding and your grace always is there.

But Lord, there was a sense in which deep into my soul, I was just reading these things. And endurance is begotten by tribulation. Oh Lord, where is the tribulation? Not that I had a perfect life, but it was only to think about those things in order for the Lord to start to reveal, not tribulations at times of the external things that are taking place, but here, here, deep into our soul where no one sees. When you don't say anything, when it's just simply kept inside many times.

When you cry, not with crying, not with tears from your eyes, but it's your heart that is broken inside, even when your face is just smiling. Tribulations and trials that begot or that produced endurance. The apostle continues saying that this endurance produced character. You cannot have a Christ-like character if you have not gone through a tribulation that produced endurance. And that character is not only there because that produces hope and that hope does not disappoint.

Why? Because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that was given to us. That is that tribulation, the beginning of tribulation is to end in hope. Hope of the Lord who has saved us and rescued us. That is according to Paul in Romans chapter five.

But according to James in chapter one verse 12 is, blessed is the man who endures temptations. Oh, blessed is the man who endures trials. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Brother, sister, dear friend, every type of tribulation and suffering that takes place is with the sovereign control of the Lord. And that is reproducing as a type of endurance that will bring to us character and this character of hope.

And this will give us power to know that that which is happening is needed. So that the Apostle Peter in First Peter chapter one, verse six through nine, he can say that this is for the testing of the genuineness of our faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes with fire. So that at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, your feeble faith, your feeble life will be for the praise and the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Corresponding to what Paul says in Ephesians chapter one. It is that when the Lord invites us as faithful servants into his kingdom, is the Lord the one who has sustained us and kept us, is the Lord the one who has purified our faith, is the Lord the one who has nourished us and the one who has taken us by his hand so that in the end we will receive the joy of the Lord and the praise will be with him or for him.

First and main category, beloved of Jesus Christ, of adverse circumstances. As someone said, let us not waste our tribulation. Let us not wait our trial. Let us not waste our difficulty. that we will not be so self-centered in the moment, but rather that by faith we will have a glimpse of the purposes of God in the difficulties through which we are going.

And then when we read the scriptures, Romans chapter 5, James chapter 1, then we will know that the hand of the Lord is the one that has not only sustained us, but is the one that has promised us that we will make it until the end with a particular purpose, the testing of our faith and the glory of the one who rescued us. But there is another two types of difficult circumstances that we are to endure that I want to call your attention, and then I will finish with that. And those two are found there in 2 Timothy chapter 4, so let us please go there. 2 Timothy chapter 2, chapter 4. Chapter 4.

Very briefly. I'll try to speak about this. Just bear with me, just perhaps five or 10 minutes. Pay attention to this type of adverse circumstance that implicitly Christians are to endure. Try to explain as clear as possible, not to have any confusion here.

Chapter four, verse one, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and be by his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, he says to Timothy. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And then pay attention to verse three.

For the time is coming. when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itchy ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry, Timothy, he says. Now verse three, for the time is coming when people, that is in the context of the church, will not endure, will not endure sound teaching. When people will not endure, will not be steadfast, when they are under the preaching of sound doctrine.

We are to endure and to be steadfast through trials and dark times and difficulties of various types. But brothers and sisters, we are also to endure the fleshly reaction of our heart towards the word of God that exposes who we are less because of a carnal offense We deviate from the light that the Lord brings, and then we redefine what faith is and accumulate unto ourselves teachers that will say things that will not offend us in the flesh, but rather will correspond to our own passions. It is the word of the Lord, the one that has saved us in the very beginning and is the word of the Lord, the one that is to purify us. It is the word of the Lord, the one that sanctify us. And as we are sanctified in the process of putting ourselves under the authority of the scriptures, our flesh is going to be offended because our natural ways are contrary to the ways of the Lord.

Once there is offense in the heart, then we are to be pleased and glorify the Lord because he has convicted us of what is in our hearts. And we should not allow the passions of our flesh to offend us so much that we will depart from the preaching and the pouring and the sound doctrine that comes from the scriptures. Beloved of Jesus Christ, many people will accumulate unto themselves teachers that teach in them according to their own passions. Why? Because they have not endured the sound doctrine that is in the scriptures.

Of course, many of those people will fall into the category of the ones who have not received the promise of eternal endurance. But I think this is something important for us just to meditate upon. And then the third thing, just to be brave. Then the third thing is just down there in verse nine. Now, let me just preface this in your mind with this.

I have said to you, brother, sister, dear friend here with us, that these types of circumstances that are adverse, that we are to endure, are general trials and sufferings, which the Bible speaks very clearly and abundantly. The one that desires to be godly or Christlike will be persecuted. Persecution and difficulties of all types. I have also called your mind and attention just to simply meditate to the fact that in our flesh we are to endure the preaching of the word. Now, here in those two, you find offense, you know, when you find difficulty, if you want under trials and suffering, you are suffering.

You don't want to be there. It's not nice to be in a dark place. It's not to be. It's not nice. It's not satisfying to be broken and to be persecuted and to be mocked and to be persecuted by the government.

So this or that is not nice. You don't want to be there. When the sound doctrine or this position of the word, the soul is testifying to you through conviction that there's something that is not wrong in you and you don't want to be there. And that's why people move on to accumulating unto themselves teachers that will tell them what appease them. But there is an enemy that we are to endear that operates in a very different way.

And they're implicitly given in verse nine and 10. And then I will elaborate on that. And then I will finish as the Lord leads. Do your best, he says, to come to me soon for Dinas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Dinas, in love with this present world, trials and the words of God, they test our faith.

But there's something that we are to endure that tests our love, and that is the world. Remember what I said to you last week, beloved of Jesus Christ, the world is going to offer to us things that are more in alignment and in agreement with the type of nature that we have. And at many times and in many different ways, those things that we, especially the Western church, call blessings that are fleshly comforts. make us love the world in such a particular way that we do not realize, but that we are being taken by the world itself and we're changing the love of God for the love of the world. We are to endure, beloved of Jesus Christ, the pleasures and the satisfactions that naturally this world gives to us that very easily can move our hearts from God to the world.

Not all the things that are in the world are sinful in and of themselves, as we have mentioned many times. But the pleasures and satisfactions and the things of this world very many, many, many times can capture the affections of a person in such a way that we end up just calling those things as blessings. When in reality, we are just simply satisfied with a slothful, lazy, Western way of Christianity, while many of our brothers and sisters are giving up their lives in the front lines of the preaching of the gospel in countries where reality is very different to the reality that we have in this country. Brother, sister, dear friend, we are to endure through the temptations of this world. We are not to be taken captive in our hearts by the deceitfulness of this world, but rather we are to make it to the other side with a heart that is established upon the truth, that is established upon the love of God.

Because if we love the Father, then we cannot love and be yoked with the things of the world. Not with the passions, not with the satisfaction, not with the pleasures of this world, but rather that God himself is the ultimate pleasure of our heart and is the ultimate satisfaction of our soul. So that by having him as the ultimate goal of everything that we do, we can genuinely and freely relate to the things of this world. It's very easy for us to say, brother or sister, but as first world people in which we live with certain amount of freedoms and comforts in which we have a place and chairs and all of these things, we can easily, very easily just simply pass the fact that the substance of our faith does not depend on the external comforts of our life, but is established upon the True that we have been rescued by the person of Jesus Christ independently of what the world has to offer us or not have for us. Many Christians are easily taken by the world of the love and by the love of the world, and their hearts are moved, changed from the direction of the Lord to love themselves in the context of this world.

Brother, sister of Jesus Christ, it is my heart and is my desire that as we face as we do not only uncertain things that are taking place in our world. But as we face trials of the heart, that many times are greater than the trials that the world has. As we face difficulties of the mind, as we see darkness so thick in the depths of our soul, that we won't have the certainty that we can endure, because it's God the one who has promised that he will bring to completion this work. that He will complete what He has started with His hand. And when we come to the genuine realization that it's Him, the one who does this work, that our soul will be so in awe of His love and His grace, that immediately we will receive the forgiveness that we need, that we will receive the consolation that we need, that we will receive the hope that we need, that we will receive the strength that we need, that we will receive the endurance that we need.

So that are going and continuing in the faith does not depend on our emotions or our personal circumstances, but rather brother, sister, friend, you who are within the sound of my voice. It depends purely on your faith established upon the Lord Jesus Christ, because we do not walk by sight. But brother, sister, we walk by faith, and that is looking on to Jesus Christ as Hebrews chapter 12 says, the one who endure all sufferings, right? For the joy that was said before him. all of the sufferings the Lord endured and the Bible calls us to look unto him, not just to look in a romantic sense, but actually to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ in the heart, to give up to self, to come to the realization that in the dark moment, your strength is not enough, to come to the realization that in the trials and in the difficulty, your wisdom is not enough, So that when you give up, then you turn naturally to Christ to say, Nothing in my hands I bring only to you, O Lord Jesus Christ, I cling.

Only to you I come and I'm dependent entirely on you by faith. So, Lord, take me to the other side, not because I deserve it, but because you have promised that I will endure and we will endure. Amen.