Steadfastness

Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 1. You will recall that we did venture into 2 Peter 1 when we were talking about self-control. And there was a list of qualities that if they're increasing with you, it will make your calling and election sure. And that is one of the goals. Did you get one of these books? I thought it was you two.

There you go, good. And so when we were, I'm actually really impressed with Austin for taking a single passage of scripture and in a sense going verse by verse exposition while we were here. And I wanted to do something like that that isn't normally how I preach through books of the Bible in church. But at the same time, Tim told me I was building men.

I had a couple of thoughts. and one of the really two predominant thoughts about what I would preach about in the absence of just maybe picking a passage and maybe going through a few verses for one sermon and the next few for the next. And the two thoughts were this. I knew it was a unique opportunity to speak to men who are all here to hear the word of God preached.

So I don't need to go to certain basics like proving God's word is true and things of that sort. So I wanted to be advanced enough for people who are trying to seek maturity. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to pick topics that I thought don't at least in my experience, don't get a lot of focus. So you can go to a men's conference every weekend probably in the United States somewhere and you hear 50 sermons on just pornography.

There's some of the common themes that come up a lot. And so I wanted to talk about things that at least from my perspective aren't talked about a lot to challenge people maybe to think about things that aren't what they're being confronted with in their Christian life. And then the second thing was that I wanted to talk about things where in my personal experience, not only with my own self and dealing with my body of flesh that still has an Adamic nature that I have to fight.

But in my experience, discipling other men and talking to other men, and in particular, sometimes younger men, things that I see as areas that need improvement. So that's the TED Talk way of saying you're failing in some of these areas. And so self-control was the topic of the first sermon. And if you look at 2 Peter, 1, 5-7. Let me read the text. 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 and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. We pray. Father in heaven, we ask your blessing on not only the reading of your word, but the preaching of your word. We know that it is your spirit and your spirit alone that has power to anoint a man to preach as well as to cause hearers to hear.

And so we pray that your spirit would prevail over each of our wills today, that we might not be self-willed but filled with your spirit. Thank you that you've already done everything necessary for our salvation that we may simply try to grow and learn from your teaching. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. So what you'll see in this passage, and I would encourage anyone to just study through this passage, there's several different words used here, and understanding how they're distinct from one another and even how the progression of them makes very good logical sense is a good study for yourself.

But we're told in verse 6, add to your self-control steadfastness. And so the topic tonight is going to be steadfastness. If you want to try to get a little bit cute with it, which I like doing, I guess, Matt effectively preached on godliness earlier. And that's the next one. And most of what Matt was teaching us about the futility of mind of the Gentiles in our thinking, the antidote is godliness and godly thinking.

And so there's some overlap there. And I think as Tim pointed out, it was really kind of neat for me, having not spoken to the other preachers and having gotten very little help from Tim and selecting a topic, to see how the Lord actually puts it all together so that the messages will be in some sense cohesive and overlapping in their application and yet distinct and unique in that way. So I want to talk about steadfastness.

And so if you'll turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Amen. in verse 35 Hebrews 10 the author writes therefore do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised Now, steadfastness and endurance are very similar topics. And when we talk about steadfastness, you may notice that when I'm preaching and reading the different verses, I going to almost use those words interchangeably And because I think they utterly similar at least for this context The idea of steadfastness is constancy It's not being tossed to and fro by the winds.

It's not being easily changeable. So, you know, unlike God, who's immutable, we in fact are changeable. It's one of the reasons why we actually have the opportunity to repent. And so thank God we're changeable. But one of the issues that we face in our Christian life is that we need to be able to sometimes stand firm in the faith. We need to be able, once we're on the right side of something, to not be easily swayed away from it.

And my experience, in particular, with Christian men in the United States, which is the only place I've really ministered much, is that we lack the ability to really make commitments and follow through with them. And I think there's a few reasons for that, and some of them actually come from maybe some good attempts to not make poor commitments and fail to keep them. But I think that we as men need to be more able to count the cost of commitments and then follow through with them.

And so follow with me here to the book of James. I'm going to jump around to a few verses about steadfastness. In James chapter 1, there's another progression here. James 1 verse 2, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James, who I believe was the brother of Jesus Christ, the half-brother, shared the mother Mary with him. James is writing to a group of people, and by extension, I think he's writing to the whole church of God, this includes you, includes me, and he's warning them that when the trials come that Jesus promised, in this world you will have tribulation, right? But take heart, I've overcome the world.

When these trials come that are promised, because all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, he's concerned that people will actually become depressed or maybe they'll become whining, whiners because trials are not fun if it was fun it would be called play or something else the whole concept of a trial is that it's difficult and it's straining upon you and it's stressful and it hurts and in the history of the church which is just littered by the blood of martyrs trials are the standard. Our American condition is actually a little bit unique in the history of the American church and I wonder if history will show that maybe maybe American wasn't such a church as sometimes we thought it was visibly. But when the trials come which will come.

This is a whole different sermon about suffering but when the trials come, James is commanding them by the Holy Spirit's inspiration to count it as joy. So he's not saying necessarily that you're to sit there and rejoice and to smile in the face of extreme difficulty or pain. But he's saying to count it as joy. So in your mind you reckon it that way. You think of it as something joyful.

And the reason why a Christian can endure suffering is because he understands that it was appointed by God. And he understands that it was appointed by God for the reasons given. For you know that the testing of your faith, the trial you're under because you claim the name of Jesus Christ is a test of your faith to see if you will continue to claim the name of Jesus Christ if denying Him or denying His veritable truths that have been revealed would relieve you of the trial.

And He knows it's going to produce steadfastness in you, though, because each time you endure suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ, or even if it's not overtly for the sake of Jesus Christ, if it's just for the sake of truth, if it's for the sake of His teachings, Those trials are strengthening you and building in you character and endurance. And you will then, I'd love to say I'm sorry to tell you this, but I'm not because I think it's scriptural. Then you'll be ready for the harder trial.

And then eventually, one day you'll get a glorified body and no more trials. But in this world, you will have tribulation. You will have suffering. Unless you want to recant your faith. in which case you then won't get the glorified body and you'll prove yourself to be son of the devil yes, amen and so if you look at Romans chapter 5 we'll look at a little bit of a progression now that comes and so we want to understand that the steadfastness is the endurance under trial.

It's the ability sometimes not just under trial but it the ability to keep your commitment Oftentimes it simply your commitment you know I have decided to follow Jesus though no one else go with me I will follow Jesus right You have that song. We are to continue in the faith, and although the perseverance of the saints, and I know it might get me in trouble in a mixed group, but although the perseverance of the saints is promised in the gospel, I believe, it is still your job to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Because it's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

And it is your job to continue to strive to enter that rest that he has promised to his people. So if you look at Romans 5, a little bit more about endurance. So the exhortation here is that you need endurance. and just like with self-control I could make a list I could make a list of things that people probably lack self-control in and as soon as I make a list of them there will be someone in here who they've got that list down and I didn't think of the thing that they actually need to repent of their lack of self-control and in fact the list that I made about self-control wouldn't have included the thing that a brother in this room came up and lovingly confronted me about after my sermon.

Something that he pointed out, I thought, wow, that does fall under self-control. And praise the Lord for brothers who have the courage to come up to someone and say, hey, are you practicing what you just preached? Because that helps me. And it helps you if you have brothers in your life willing to do that. So don't surround yourself by people who just think you're a hero. now Romans 5 so think about the areas of your life where you're not following through the areas of your life where you're able to be worn down by the enemy where you're able to be worn down by your wife where you're able to be worn down by whoever it is in your life who can get you to change your mind about something that at one point you were utterly convicted about now praise the Lord I hope nobody in here denies Christ under pressure.

But sometimes I think we deny Him in small ways when we give in to the pressure to not stand up for Him in certain ways. But in Romans 5, we'll start at the beginning. It's such a wonderful passage. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

So you're a Christian, you hope in the glory of God, you have this hope. And the best life would have been being the thief on the cross and dying shortly thereafter and going straight to paradise, right? But most of us don't experience that. Most of us now exist in this sin-cursed world that's fallen, surrounded by wickedness, and then as much as we hate all of that when we go to bed at night we find the wickedness is still there and if we hide ourselves in the closet we still find the wickedness because we all still carry this nature from Adam we all still have a flesh that wars against the spirit because you've not been glorified and so we have this hope, so we sit here and we hope and we hope he returns and we hope he comes quickly and some of you have little kids and you think well I hope he doesn't come too quickly, I want to save my kids first and there's all these things we think about and it can stress you out, I get it, but we have this hope.

But in the meantime, what are you going to do? Well, Paul, just like James says, we rejoice in our sufferings. So he didn't even say count it joy, he says we rejoice in them. He says, knowing that suffering produces endurance. Which again, that's like steadfastness, right? And so we have this hope here.

And for just a moment, if you'll just entertain the idea that the Apostle Paul, who wrote, We rejoice in our sufferings, knew more about suffering than you. Okay? So just for a moment, I know somebody in here probably has a pretty bad story. But I would like to think that we can all agree that the Apostle Paul had experienced more suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ than maybe any of us ever will.

He says we rejoice in our sufferings. Why? Knowing that the suffering produces endurance. It is to the effect of giving you the endurance that you will need to make it through this life till glory so that you can have the joy of the assurance of salvation while you're in this life. You're not rejoicing because suffering is so great. You're rejoicing because the suffering is God's indicator to you through His decree from eternity past that you're one of His. so you rejoice in it you thank him for it it says our endurance produces character you need character that that doesn't come until you start to have the endurance your character produces hope that's when you start to really understand okay I really hope I really hope when Jesus returns I'm one of his not in the weird hopey like I hope I hoped Dave would win the nailing contest.

I didn't know David never hammered a nail before, apparently. So, you know, that was just a totally irrational hope, right? When we talk about hope in the Bible, we're talking about a certainty that Jesus Christ returning is actually more certain than I'm standing before you right now. You can be deceived about everything in this room. You cannot be wrong about Jesus Christ's return. and hope doesn't put us to shame.

Why? So what's the end result? Remember 2 Peter 1, what was the end result? Brotherly affection and love right Hope does not put us to shame because God love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us Your suffering rather than being the indicator that you are hated by God, which is what the world will tell you when you suffer, which is what the prosperity charlatans will tell you when you suffer, your suffering as as a result of your godly virtue is the evidence that God loves you.

And if you don't believe it, keep in mind that the person that God loves the most is Jesus Christ. And nobody in here will suffer like he had to. So now, I want you to turn to Matthew 5. most of you should recognize Matthew 5 as being our Lord's sermon on the mount where he effectively exposits the law of God and explains to people how God's law was about more than outward actions and it is here where I want to make a singular application of commitment and steadfastness and endurance So basically I had three sermons, and I found these two I think I could mush together and pretend it's one sermon.

So it's kind of a different topic, considered a subtopic. But I think one of the major issues that I've seen in my own life that I've had to learn that I needed to repent of, but that I've seen in particular how it's affected me with other men, is the inability for men to simply do what they say they're going to do. and I think part of the problem is they don't think of it as sin every time they do that and so then in order to correct that some men have figured out well if I just don't commit to anything I'm never in trouble right? if you don't say you're going to be there then you're not wrong if you don't show up and we have a whole nation of what did you call them decadent man babies? a whole nation of decadent And you think I'm talking about everybody else. I'm talking about us.

We're part of the decadent man-baby culture. Maybe not the vultures or whatever. Maybe you guys are still doing okay. But we're part of this culture. And I don't think sometimes we realize how much worldliness we're influenced by because we're just so part of it. Most of us have secular jobs.

And like Austin said, we've got these secular neighbors. We go to the store with them. and your kids play soccer with them or something. I don't think sometimes we realize how much the worldly influence affects us. So I want you to consider whether or not you are keeping commitments that you make as we go through these passages, but I also want you to consider whether you are avoiding commitments that maybe you should be more manly and decisive about making so that then you just follow through. because my thing I needed to repent of was I stopped making commitments because I knew I wouldn't keep them, and I didn't want to be a liar, but I overcorrected, and I just stopped committing to things altogether, and then I basically became an unreliable, useless person to those around me.

And what we want is for men to say, I've thought about what I'm going to do, this is what I'm going to do, and then you do it. and it's always of course under the umbrella of Lord willing we get that but I think sometimes we use Lord willing as like an excuse like well the Lord didn't will that I'd get out of bed and work today well that's not how it works we're talking about providential hindrances that kept you from something when we say Lord willing we're not talking about not making commitments so Matthew 5.33 Jesus says Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all. He says, either by heaven, for it's the throne of God, or by the earth, for it's his footstool, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king.

He says, do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Austin can't even make one hair, right? Let alone change the color, right? I always love when preachers do hair jokes. I always think that's funny. You guys seem to think so too.

Good. And then Jesus says, one of the most convicting verses, I think, in all the Bible. I've got to come back to it. God had made a few perfect heads. and the rest of them. That's a good one, yeah. But then he says, one of the most convicting statements of the whole Bible, and I think a lot of the times we can gloss right over it, because some of us actually have so many problems that we're dealing with that we're not even at this level.

But let what you say be simply yes or no. That sounds simple enough, right? But then he says, anything more than this comes from evil. Now, Jesus is quoting the Old Testament. So let's take a look at the Old Testament. And let's look at some of the verses that have to do with this.

So you can turn to Leviticus 19. And then we will make some application of it. what I want you to consider is whether or not your yes is yes and your no is no but also I want you to consider whether you are actually saying things too I don't want you to just be a guy that just never says either one of them so that you think you're somehow exempted Leviticus 19.12, you shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God, I am Yahweh, he says. Sounds like a verse Jesus could have been quoting for sure, right?

Turn to Numbers 30. We'll just jump around a couple verses here. I want you to turn with me. Your Bible needs to be known by you. You need to know when you open to different pages, like which side of the page you're looking at, because you've read it so many times, you're used to it. If you haven't, let me give you a quick manly, godly man exhortation.

If you have never read the entire Bible, make a plan right now to do so. Make sure that at some point in the next, it shouldn't take you more than a year, that you can say, I've read every chapter of the Bible. There's plans out there that will help you. And some of us need to get back to doing different plans that get us into the passages we haven't looked at in a while.

There's a really neat plan called the Grant Horner Plan that if you look up the Grant Horner Plan, you end up reading the Bible a bunch of times in a pretty short period and you really get to know your Bible well. In Numbers 30, verse 2, it says, If a man vows to Yahweh or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

So when you read these verses, you see what the Pharisees saw, which is if you make a vow to the Lord, or if you make a vow to Yahweh, then you're supposed to keep it. And so the people of Jesus' time that he was trying to correct with some of this, they were making these vows by the temple, or by the gold in the temple, or by the Lord. And what they found is that, well, if we would make a vow, but we don't make it to the Lord, then we can break it.

So it's like when you were a kid, and I don't know, I guess if you're a cardinal like me, when I was a kid, if you wanted to lie, you'd cross your fingers and you'd put them behind your back. Man, I was a pagan kid, so maybe if you're a Christian kid in here, you didn't do that. But this made what you said not important. It's the same concept. These guys were thinking, well, we didn't make a vow to the Lord, right?

Because we make all sorts of vows, is what Jesus is telling us when we open our mouths. and we're not keeping them because we don't take it seriously because when we speak, unless we were saying I swear to God I'm going to do this, we seem to think somehow it doesn't matter that we just committed to something or said something and it's called lying it's deceit that bears false witness about who God is turn to Deuteronomy 23 a couple more verses 23-21 if you make a vow to Yahweh your God you shall not delay fulfilling it for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you and you will be guilty of sin and so again we have this repetition of vows before God but then look at the next verse But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. And so people were reading a technicality in here. And they were seeing in here Deuteronomy 23, 21, and 22.

Oh, if I don't make a vow, I'm not guilty of sin. And they were thinking, if I don't make a vow to God, if I don't swear by God, then I can kind of say I'll do something, and if I don't do it, I don't do it. verse 23 here's a good one for us you shall be careful to do what is past your lips for you have voluntarily vowed to Yahweh your God what you have promised with your mouth so these passages tell us very clearly turn to Ecclesiastes 5 these passages tell us clearly that it's a very serious thing to vow before the Lord and yet Jesus if I could find Ecclesiastes I don't have bookmarks near anything so I kind of skipped too far and my brain was like where am I so let's get through Ecclesiastes and then we'll look back to what Jesus said guard your steps when you go to the house of God to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools so the sacrifice of fools is going to be a topic here. For they do not know that they are doing evil.

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth, therefore let your words be few. This is not about preaching, okay? I'm allowed to keep going here. For a dream comes. What?

Ecclesiastes 5. For a dream comes with much business and a fool's voice with many words. He says, when you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. So you vow a vow to God, you don't pay it, you're a fool in his eyes. When you vow a vow to God, and you don't pay it, it's your way of saying, I don't really believe there is a God.

The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. We live sometimes when we don't keep our commitments to people as if there no God who watching But he says again it better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay I think this is important to understand And I think this is where we overcorrect. It is better to not vow than vow and not pay.

So keep your promises is what it's trying to tell you. But again, I think we overcorrect. And we just stop promising anything. Because we're not committed. We don't have endurance. He says, let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake.

Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? So again, we have these Old Testament passages talking about vowing a vow. Now we go back to Matthew 5, 33, or 34. Jesus quotes this passage. They understand what he's talking about. He's speaking to people who would have had these Old Testament scriptures understood, memorized.

They've been taught them already. Jesus is letting them know this is what this means. He says, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. He lets them know this whole business of saying, basically what we do in 2020, we say, I swear to God.

That's what people in our day and age say. This whole idea of casually swearing to God that you're going to do something, or on a technicality, swearing by something else so that maybe you don't have to be committed to it, is the problem. And I'll share with you briefly, This is not a complete way of Jesus saying never take an oath ever. If you read the London Baptist Confession of Faith, there's actually a whole chapter on oaths and vows.

And it's explained in there. But it's our casual nature by which we take them. He says simply let your yes be yes and your no be no. And so although each and every one of us has certainly failed at times to keep vows, an easy one for you married guys in here is if we went and grabbed your marriage vows that you in fact did make before God and before a group of people, how are you doing?

Right? The marriage vows, mine were pretty solid. You know, they're hard to keep. Often you review them and think about, I've actually vowed to do this. Jesus says, let my yes be yes and my no be no. My following through.

I want men who say, I'm going to do the things I say I'm going to do. you can just turn it outside yourself for a second you hire a guy to come help you put something in your house and he doesn't show up you're mad some of you might be sinfully angry but I'm talking about you'd be bothered by that, it's unacceptable you do the same thing every single time you say you're going to do something and you don't do it or you say no to something and then you change your mind that's what kids do to you, right? Dad, can I do this? No.

Dad, can I do this? No. And finally, fine, go do it. Right? What you show your kids is you're not steadfast. You don't have the endurance to continue to tell them no or sometimes just tell them no more questions is actually the right answer.

So I want to encourage you that Jesus Christ who told you to let your yes be yes and your no be no, He always did those things. Jesus Christ let his yes be yes and his no be no. And he didn't let the winds of change or the emotions of people around him change his mind about anything. He set his mind on the things of God. And he non-stop did what was right all the time and there was nothing that was going to deter him even if the very things going on in his circumstances were completely difficult.

You and I are sometimes so easily changed in our resolve about something because of the way the circumstances change that I'm scared. I'm scared for us what will happen when things get really difficult. We are not training ourselves to have the endurance we'll need. So turn to Hebrews 12. Now I want to encourage you back talking more about endurance. That was just a brief foray into commitment because it's a little pet peeve of mine.

I've had it so many times now in my Christian life that Christian men have said they were going to do something and then they don't do it. And you can see how the events leading up to them not doing it were bad decisions they made. and it just irks me and then there's always an excuse oh I got a flat tire there's always some excuse it's amazing we make excuses better than we make idols at the end of Hebrews 11 right before Hebrews 12 verse 39 and all these the people of faith that were just described. The people who were justified by faith in the Old Testament, not justified by works, not justified by the law, not justified by the keeping of the moral law or the ceremonial law.

People who were justified by faith, who spent their lives trusting in Christ as Old Testament saints and yet never got to see the result. They believed to the end. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. since God had provided something better for us that apart from us they should not be made perfect So now therefore because of the perseverance of the saints of old because of their faith that they had that brought them through all sorts of trials And if you read Hebrews 11, we call it the hall of faith.

If you read it, it's also the hall of suffering. Right? These are trials. What did they say, the one guy got sawed in half? Yeah. Yeah. it says because therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses since we have so many people who are witnesses even before the resurrection of Christ of his power, of his glory, of his anointedness of his coming because there were witnesses people who believed what God had placed in their heart by faith let us also lay aside every weight and every sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance.

The race that is set before us. You're running a race. You're running a race and it's an endurance race. It's not a sprint. Some of you think it's a sprint. You're going to run really hard and then you burn out if you haven't trained yourself for endurance.

But he says you're going to run this race with endurance. I find it interesting that he says lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. And I do not think those terms are synonymous. I don't think that the weight described here is sin. I think we're to lay aside every sin because we love the Lord. We hate what sin did to him.

We hate what sin currently does to him, to us, to everyone around us. And yet you should lay it aside. I think that's obvious. when he says to lay aside every weight I think he's talking about some of the things that we carry along with us in this race of life that aren't helping us get to the end simple examples like if you're an adult male and you still play video games things worth thinking about I'm not going to tell you it's absolutely wrong.

I won't say that's in the sin category. But some of you, you're real good at call of duty, but couldn't defend your wife, right? There's things that are more important in the life of a Christian than some of the stuff that's actually legal for us to participate in. But we participate in the fun things, the amusing things. You need to lay these things aside because you're in an endurance race.

You need to train yourself for it. Nobody in here is going to go run a marathon without training first. It's that simple. We all know that there are certain things that are too hard for us. We have to work up to them. It's the same with your Christian life, but we treat it like it's nothing.

There's men all over this country training right now to win gold medals and Super Bowls and all these things. And they put Christians to shame how much harder they work to receive that imperishable wreath. Or the perishable wreath. And you're going to get an imperishable one. Work for it. But now here, looking to Jesus.

This isn't a moralistic sermon. Because I'm not going to tell you that you need to go and pull yourself up by your bootstraps or get a group of guys that will help you out and figure all these things out. Your job is to look to Jesus. He's the one who ran the race before us. Listen to what he did. He's the founder and perfecter of our faith. who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus Christ endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. And if you wonder what the joy that was set before him is, go read Zephaniah 3, where it says, Yahweh, the Lord is going to exalt over you, his people, with singing. That's Jesus' joy, and His crown and His joy is you. His reward for all of His suffering is His people, His bride. I loved Austin's talks today and sermons.

Jesus is going to come and defend His bride one day. He's going to slaughter those who have abused her. Different sermon. Look, verse 3. My Bible says, Do not throw weary in the ESV. consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself and says so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted the so that is the considering it's not that he endured it so that you wanted when you consider him and what he endured that should cause you to not grow weary and faint hearted so you might get tired you might hurt but as it's said in some story that I heard about Peter when Peter the apostle's wife was crucified what he said to her is remember our Lord consider him and then verse 4 another convicting and yet I think neglected verse in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood some of you aren't in the battle enough I'm talking about trying to let your yes be yes and your no be no and you're too busy looking at comic books and other childish things that men put away when they become men you're still struggling to just control your anger and your outbursts there's things that we all need to work on and we're at different levels and that's okay but I think it should be convicting that there's places we all want to get to.

I think we should all want to grow from where we're at and grow in our endurance. Then you can be looked up to by others So we sang that song Faith is the Victory right And so if we look at 1 John chapter 3 sorry, chapter 5, verse 4, Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Jesus is already one. Okay, we're just kind of playing out the end of the story now. He's already one. So I want to give you a little picture here because I want you to be hopeful that with Jesus Christ's help, because He is the great high priest who has passed through the heavens, right? And He has been tempted in every way just like you were. And yet He's without sin and He's given you His Spirit to dwell inside you and bear fruit in your life, and it's promised.

It's promised. Justification was promised. Glorification is guaranteed. And sanctification is guaranteed as well. And some of us walk around and live lives like it's not. Like, well, we know we're justified, we know we'll be glorified, but we don't actually believe that we can have victory today over the sins that beset us.

We just give up. That's a lack of faith. But look at what seven churches get written letters in the book of Revelation. I just want you to listen to these words. 2-7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Listen, to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Are you an overcomer? right? Are you a conqueror? Are you learning steadfastness and endurance? These are the things that are going to when your faith is tested your faith will come out as gold if it's real. 2.11 He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

The lake of fire is for the losers. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. How do you overcome the world? Your faith. This isn't about you bulking up and getting strong. This is about you increasing in your faith by grace.

Showing up at church and partaking of the means of grace that are provided to you. Coming to conferences, having other men you talk to. Opening the word of God on your own. praying along with God, preparing yourself so that when the suffering comes that will come, you'll be able to count it all joy. Still in chapter 2, verse 17. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers.

I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone. that no one knows except the one who receives it. Chapter 2, verse 25. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. Chapter 3, verse 5. See a theme yet? the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments and I will never blot his name out of the book of life praise God for that because if you could fall you would God has guaranteed your salvation he says I will confess his name before my father and before his angels who's going to bring a charge against God's elect It's God who justifies.

He didn't spare his own son, but freely gave him up. He's going to give you all things. There's nothing else for us to do but trust in him. Verse 12 of chapter 3. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God. the new Jerusalem, which comes down from God out of heaven, in my own new name.

And then finally, the church in Laodicea. We'll start in verse 20, because I like that verse. I know people like to argue about it, but I think it's a sweet verse. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

He who hasn't fear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Brothers, add to your self-control steadfastness add to steadfastness godliness look at that whole list of things but self-control and steadfastness were the topics I wanted to talk about and I want you to take it seriously and introspectively and I want you to understand that Jesus has conquered and Jesus Christ is going to take you with him and he offers he promises the power of God in your life over sin over the laying aside of every weight that so easily ensnares you in your race. He promises it.

It's there already. So I'm hoping to awaken that in you, that you might, for lack of a better phrase, tap into it. Make it available to yourself. Use it. Employ it. And be a conqueror with Christ over your sin.

And make a difference in this world where you desperately need Christian men to be making a difference. Pray with me. Father, you are holy and righteous and perfect. And your love toward the saints is overwhelming when we realize how unlovable we truly are. And yet you have loved us in Christ before the foundation of the world, electing us to salvation by your grace, granting us faith at the proper time, promising future glorification to us. and we thank you for that.

And we ask that your Holy Spirit would fill us. And would give us the strength and the endurance that we need to obey your righteous law. To trust what you have said is true And to live the Christian life that so many of us know we are called to and yet struggle to achieve I pray for those in this room who have beset themselves with sin and weights. Whose mind is not set on Christ, considering Him who endured such hostility from sinners.

I pray that you give us all the conviction to put down things that we ought to put down I pray that you would fill us with gratitude that we would be men of thankfulness men of praise to God men who are concerned that you are glorified that your son's name is made famous that your spirit is not blasphemed. Lord, we ask, and I ask on behalf of these men, for holiness, practical holiness. And I ask that as the affliction that is promised to come comes, that you would keep us faithful and comfort us, even in our very hearts.

We come to you knowing because of your son that you hear our prayers and whatever is according to your will, you will grant. Amen.