You Shall Endure!!!

Prophetic Scripture:  II Timothy 2:3 (KJV)

This is the Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy.  This Epistle is the 55th book of the Bible.  It depicts Christ “As Our Example.”  II Timothy has 4 chapters, 83 verses, and 1,703 words.

II Timothy 2:3  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s occasion for writing the epistles was the need to maintain the faith and to insure the continuity of the Church of Jesus  the Christ.

The solemn charge:  “That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us”.   (2 Timothy 1:14)

Paul was telling Timothy and Titus, together with all the Church, that they are charged to keep “the faith,” “the deposit,” the written record, by the work of the Holy Spirit, and YOU SHALL ENDURE!!!

As much as living the Christian life is about loving God and enjoying the peace He gives, we have to remember that Christianity drafts us into an army called “the army of God.” Whether we want to face it or not, we are in spiritual warfare.

The entire Bible is filled with combative discussion about the power of God defeating evil. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus said, “…..I came not to send peace, but a sword.”  Jesus isn’t saying He doesn’t offer peace; He is saying that when the Kingdom of God enters an atmosphere where there is darkness, conflict arises.  Everywhere Jesus went, He created a stir. The early apostles encountered ongoing and vehement opposition.  We shouldn’t think that we will encounter less if we are truly in the Kingdom.

The Lord needs us to willingly enter the battlefield as a soldier, not just as peace-loving believers who don’t want to make waves.  So even in the trials you face in your own life, you need to approach them as a soldier.  While that won’t be the only angle with which you address these trials, it does need to be one of them.  In everything you face, God is developing your skills specifically as a soldier so you can withstand anything.  So declare today that YOU SHALL ENDURE!!!

The subject of trials is a natural starting point for the simple reason that everyone in the world encounters them.  Because the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), we experience trouble sometimes on a regular basis whether we are Christians or not.  Even when we succeed in getting our own little worlds under control, something inevitably messes up.  We do everything we can to attain peace and comfort by protecting ourselves from trouble, but trouble arises nonetheless.

Marriage was designed as a source of fulfillment and happiness, yet 1 Corinthians 7:28 says those who are married "shall have trouble in the flesh."  There is going to be trouble even in the best of what God gives to us because of the sin principle that is active in the world.

• Jesus Himself experienced trouble and warned His disciples to expect tribulation in the world. John 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
• John 11:33  When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.
• John 12:27  Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
• John 13:21  When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.  

These scriptures record Jesus' troubled responses to the devastating effects of sin.

Paul said he was troubled on every side (2 Corinthians 4:8).  So it is reasonable to expect trouble in our lives as well.  We experience it in our families, from our friends, on our jobs, at school, and with our nation.  It comes in the form of criticism, persecution, illness, death of loved ones, personality conflicts, or inflation.  Trouble is a way of life so don't think you're alone if you're experiencing it.

The Reason for Trials

A jeweler gives what is called "the water test" as one of the surest tests for identifying a true diamond.  An imitation stone is never as brilliant as a genuine stone.  But sometimes the difference can't be determined with the unaided eye.  A jeweler knows that a genuine diamond placed in water sparkles brilliantly while the sparkle of the imitation is practically extinguished.  That test makes picking the real diamond relatively easy.

By way of analogy we’ll find that the faith of many people under the water of sorrow or affliction is nothing but an imitation.  However, when a true son of God is immersed in a trial, he will shine as brilliantly as ever.  An early scholar once stated: "I believe in getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean."  Now you are talking about a sure way for testing to see if we are genuine believers.

Sometimes there is no better test than the hot water of difficult circumstances.  How one handles trouble is an indication of the ability of one's faith or the lack of it.  That is why James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ whose purpose is to give us tests of living faith, introduces the test of trials.  James says in his Salutation that if your Christianity is genuine, it will prove itself in times of trouble.

If my faith in God is only good when I'm doing well, then it is of little value.  True faith is to sustain me when everything goes wrong.

• James 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (various trials).

The Greek word for "various" (poikilos/poy-kee’-los) means "many colored" or "variegated”

(marked by variety; one of the definitions of variety is a group set off from other groups by specific characteristics).  Talking about the Sons of God which typifies the “Sun” - a church dressed and shining with the Light of God.  Various emphasizes not the number but the diversity of trouble that can come our way.

The Greek word translated "trials" (peirasmos/ pi-ras-mos’) refers to that which breaks the pattern of tranquility or happiness. We don't know what specific trials James had  in mind as he wrote, but his instruction is applicable to any trial we might encounter.

You Shall Endure because the Sons of God are made to go through their trials.  Well how do you know, preacher?

Because we are the SON/SUN, and we are established with the fullness of Christ and arrayed with the promises and truth of God.  We are a church dressed with the light of God dawning a new day on the east side.

Peirasmos /pi-ras-mos’ (trial) is not necessarily connected with evil.  The King James Version has translated it as "temptation" because of the evil connotation  that word carries.  So a trial is not necessarily a solicitation to do evil as the context here clearly shows.  Rather in James 1:2, “trials" refers to the difficulties God allows for the proving and strengthening of our faith. Peirasmos is rare in secular Greek but common in biblical Greek because the testing of faith is such an important part of spiritual life.

The verb form of “trial” means "to put someone to the test," regardless of whether the results of the testing are positive or negative.  Every trial that comes into your life becomes a test of your faith.  You either pass or fail.  To fail the test by wrongly responding to it allows it to become a temptation.  If it ends up leading you to stumble, it has proven to be successful in tempting you.

But if it ends up in victory, it has proven to be successful in strengthening you.  How you respond to the trials in your life will reveal whether you really believe God and are genuinely a follower after Christ, and it will also reveal how strong your faith really is.  James is not distinguishing here between internal and external trials because that's an artificial distinction.  I have found in my life that every external trial soon becomes internal.  No trial I've ever seen stays on the outside; otherwise it isn't much of a trial.  It's when it gets in and festers in my mind that it becomes a trial. Any trial is external and internal.

Trials come in the form of disappointments, frustrations, misunderstandings, unfulfilled dreams, unmet expectations, great loss, loneliness, fear, criticism, persecution, and conflict.  Although they may start on the outside, sooner or later they end up on the inside.  Trials come for the purpose of testing our faith and therefore apply to believers as well as unbelievers.

If you consistently persevere through trials and never abandon your trust in God, then you prove to have genuine faith.

Psalm 31:24  Be of good courage, and he [God] shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.

Psalm 37:23, 28  The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord .... The Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved forever.

Psalm 97:10  Ye that love the Lord, hate evil:  he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.  

The Greek word for “preserveth”, which is shamar ( shaw-mar’) means to hedge about (as with thorns; guard; to protect; attend to; keep).

Psalm 121:4-7  Behold, he who keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.

John 6:37, 39  All that the Father giveth me shall come to me ... of all which

he hath given me I should lose nothing.

John 10:28-29  I give unto them (those who follow Christ) eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Romans 16:25  Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel.  

The Power of the Holy Ghost will stablish  us (working from the inside out) as well as establish (working on the outside to within).

Philippians 1:6  He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24  The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

2 Timothy 1:12  I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

He had committed his soul to God.

Jude 24  Now unto HIM that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding  joy.

When a false Christian goes through a test, it will inevitably reveal his true colors.  When a true believer goes through a test, he will be driven to prayer, leaning on the strength of God rather than his own weakness.

Trials burn up imitation faith but strengthen true faith.  They may cause pain in confronting us with our weaknesses, but they have the good result of causing us to turn from ourselves to the infinite strength of God.

The Result of Trials

1.  HAPPINESS

James ends his discourse on trials in James 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation (trials); for when he is tried (after his trial is over), he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

We know that crown is a badge of royalty.  We will be in a place of not just son-ship, but priests and kings on the earth!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!  (Revelation 1:6; 5:10)  Priests because we can intercede for the people, and kings because we can rule with power and authority!!!  Because we know THE KINGDOM is a person/ Jesus the Christ - HIMSELF - who has taken up residence within us!!!!  Oh come on somebody and give God the Praise!!!!!

James 5:11 reiterates the same thought:  Behold, we count them  happy which endure.  

People who successfully endure trials are truly happy.  James is not saying happiness comes in freedom from trials but in victory over them.  There is a big difference.  It's not the shallow joy of the spectator who never experienced conflict, but how many know it's the exuberance (extremely joyful and vigorous) of the participant who fought and won.  James here is not referring to temptation.  If that were the case, he wouldn't have said happy is the man who endures it, but happy is the man who resists it.

The three key ideas in verse 12 are endurance, trials, and being tested.  The same ideas appear in James 1:2-3.

• James 1:2-3  Count it all joy when ye fall into various trials, knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience (endurance).

2.  ENDURANCE  

Endurance in James 1:12 speaks of patiently and triumphantly enduring.

Greek: Hupomeno; hoop-om-en’-o:  The Greek word Hupomeno; (hoop-om-en’-o)  is the root Word for “endurance” meaning to remain; to tarry behind; to preserve (under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one’s faith in Christ); to endure, bear bravely and calmly: ill treatments.

• James 5:11  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Endure in verse 11and perseverance (or patience), also in verse 11, are forms of hupomone.  I should tell you that hupomone (hoop-o-men-o) means "to remain under."  Hupo is under, mone is remain or stay.  Originally the verb form of hupomone meant "to stay behind" or even "to stay alive".  Why is this?

The Greeks used hupomone to describe soldiers who volunteered to hold a position while the rest of the army moved on.  This could be in various forms.  (Remember I told you earlier that various/poy-kee-los meant not in numbers of trials but the diversity of the trial.)

It connotes (signify or suggest certain meanings, ideas) passive or even painful survival and focuses on the outcome of being victorious.  The person who goes through trials and comes out a winner never gives up his faith or abandons God.  He is shown to be the genuine one, and all genuine Christians will receive the crown of life.  This “crown” is worn here, not up beyond the blue!  Some people come to the church, profess Christ, and even get baptized.  Yet when trouble comes into their lives, they're gone.  And they may never come back.  Maybe they encountered a broken relationship, the death of a loved one, or some other struggle, and the circumstances were so overpowering that they blamed God and walked away, convinced that Christianity doesn't work.

THE PROOF OF FAITH

Persevering through trials is proof of living faith.  James identifies those who persevere as people who love God (verse 12).  

• James 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

That's because loving God is the natural outflow of salvation.

• 1 John 4:19  We love him [God], because he first loved us.  

Christ like is a love relationship between man and God. Those who are truly believers have a deep ongoing love for God.

• 1 John 2:15  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

People will love God or the world, but not both. Unbelievers who profess Christ demonstrate that they love the world when they depart from the truth. It's in the trial that true love is made manifest.

• 1 John 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for it they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
• 1 Peter 1:6-8  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:  that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom, having not seen, ye love.

Our faith is being tested to prove its genuineness so we will be able to stand no matter what the enemy launches at us.

A Christian is not someone who simply at one point in time believed the truth.  A true believer has an ongoing love for God that holds fast even in trials.  And let me clarify what love means:  Jesus said several times that a person who loves Him will keep His commandments (John 14:15, 23; 15:9-10; 1 John 2:5-6; 5:1-3).  So the genuineness of faith is built on love that obeys God.  As believers we may experience times of struggle and doubt, but our faith will never be destroyed.  We cling to the Lord despite our trials because we love Him.  That kind of loving perseverance results in true blessing.  One purpose of testing is to expose the quality of faith.

The phrase in James 1:12  for when he is tried can be translated "when he is approved after testing”.  When tests come in your life in the form of loneliness, a death, or a financial loss, God is putting you through the fire, as it were, that you might come out with the dross burned off and your true faith shining bright. Those who hold fast to their trust in God through trials show that their faith is genuine.

I  believe that the true Sons of God will never abandon their faith; they will always persevere in believing God through every trial until God is glorified in that situation.

True believers won't believe for a little while and then bail out.

That is evident in 1 Corinthians:

• 1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation [trial] taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

You Shall Endure because of the prayers of Christ!!!!

Christ constantly intercedes on our behalf as our Redeemer and Advocate so that any sin we commit does not alter the status of our salvation.

In John 17:20-24, Jesus prayed for His present and future disciples to enter into the fullness of salvation.  HALLELUJAH!!!  AMEN!!!!

• Luke 22:31-32  Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not:  And when thou art converted [recommitted after Christ's resurrection], strengthen thy brethren.
• 1 John 2:1-2  If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Christ is our intercessor.

You Shall Endure because of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The indwelling Holy Spirit is our guarantee of endurance and eternal life.

• Ephesians 1:13-14 says Christians have been sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.

A believer is saved because he was chosen by God before creation (Ephesians 1:4), yet he is not saved without exercising faith (Romans 10:9-10).  He is secure because of the covenant faithfulness of God, but he is still responsible to persevere.  Eternal life is wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit in energizing the true believer to endure all trials.

So our part is to endure until Ephesians 4:13 is manifested in our lives totally:

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

• Colossians 1:21-23  You, that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.

You're secure only if you endure.  Endurance is the process by which the security of one's salvation is verified.

• Hebrews 2:1  We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest that any time we should let them slip.
• Hebrews 3:14  We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.
• Hebrews 4:14  Let us hold fast our profession.
• Hebrews 6:11-12  We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:  that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
• Hebrews 10:39  We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
• 2 Peter 1:10  Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.

When someone doesn't endure, they fail the test of genuine faith (1 John 2:19).  No trial is so great that it could sever you from your Lord if your faith is genuine (1 Corinthians 10:13).

HOW CAN A CHRISTIAN ENDURE TRIALS?

James 1 tells us several things are required:

A joyous attitude - Count it all joy (verse 2).  That prevents you from avoiding trials the Lord intends you to face and will provide the motivation to face the trials head on.

An understanding mind - Knowing this (verse 3). That allows you to perceive the reality and purpose of a trial.

A submissive will - Let patience have her perfect work (verse 4).  That allows you to accept it from the Lord and learn what He wants you to learn.

A believing heart  Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering .... A double-minded man is unstable (Verses 6-8).  That allows you to remain firm in spite of difficult circumstances.

A humble spirit  The brother of low degree is exalted ... but the rich ... shall pass away (verses 9-11). That allows you to accept God's greater wisdom, recognizing that what's valuable in life is eternal.

Clap Your Hands and Give God The Praise!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!

~  Evangelist Jackie Burton