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        I have a confession to make: Although I pray for the lost to be saved, I have high anxiety that those today professing themselves to be Christians and followers of Jesus are so inexperienced in their faith that many will fail in their faith to be saved under the tremendous pressures that lie ahead of us in these last days. The Word bears this out.

The Word Bears This Out

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† Matthew 24: [Jesus said:] 9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many [Christians!]. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

† 2 Thessalonians 2: [Paul said:] 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [of Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away (apostasia: defection from the truth; from to separate, divorce) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. . . [In direct opposition to those many that will fall away, this is how we are to stand:]

† Revelation 12: [John saw:] 11 And they overcame him [the Devil and all his forces] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. . . 17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant (remaining ones, residue; from left of from among those absent) of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

        In His Word, God makes a number of statements that we can count on if we will completely believe them and act in faith regarding them. By abiding under His conditions for receiving such benefits (the promises, guarantees of) we are assured that what He says He can do He will do.

        However, you should balance that fact against this: God takes action when He chooses to and not usually in our preferred time (“God is the only one I know that can take so long to be right on time!”).

        Our God will act on our behalf, whether to stop the trouble like He did for Hezekiah against the army of 185,000 († 2 Kings 19:35), or God will be with us through the fires of trouble, as He did with the three Hebrews who refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol and were cast into the furnace or like God did for Daniel in the presence of killer lions († Dan. 3:24-25, 6:22).

        As I stated in part one, “We must know in our heart of hearts that God can be trusted to fix the problem or—lead you and me through great hardships and personal losses.” We often will not know which will be the case (“fixing” or “being lead through” and must proceed by faith).

Leading Us Through the Hardships or Losses

        The perfect illustration of what “leading us through the hardships or losses” was revealed to us in what the Holy Spirit instantly dropped into my heart last week: “Your house is on fire in the rooms between where you are and the exit. To escape, you must run through the room engulfed in flames to reach the door to safety.

        The Lord runs through the fire with you protecting you as you make your way to the exit, much like He did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.” Perhaps they remembered what Isaiah had said by the Spirit:

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† Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

† Daniel 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. 27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

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 [ This is “One of God’s Guarantees: ] 

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† 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation (putting to the test by adversity or evil) taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted (tested, enticed) above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape [through the fire!], that ye may be able to bear it.

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 [ Here are examples of things that will be our
house on fire intended by the devil to destroy us. ] 

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† Luke 21:16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. 17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. 18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish (Dan. 3:27; whether literally or eternally). 19 In your patience (endurance, constancy of faith) possess ye your souls.

† Matthew 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth (hypomeno: stay or remain under, undergo, bear the trial, persevere, be patient) unto the end (conclusion, termination), the same shall be saved (delivered, protected, preserved) to the end shall be saved.

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 [ And Jesus said this again here: ] 

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† Matthew 24:4 And Jesus ... said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure (hypomeno: stay or remain under, undergo, bear the trial, persevere, be patient; v. 10:22) unto the end (conclusion, termination), the same shall be saved (delivered, protected, preserved).

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 [ We Cannot Fail in our Faith! ] 

        So we see in these several passages spoken by Jesus, and in the context of at least very hard times, if not the end times of our day, [we see] that we must “endure” or be “patient” in our faith and trust in God if we are to be saved at the end of His appointed time of our lives.

        That simply means that you and I and all that profess to be Christians must get through great troubles by maintaining true faith in Jesus, in what our Father promises, and the Word of God says—and as we do, we will be saved.

        Now the Holy Spirit uses this word “endure” many times in the New Testament where it is something we must do—we must endure (“remain under, bear the trials, persevere, be patient”); being “patient” is another word used quite often that has the same word-DNA as “endure”.

        Although we absolutely cannot be wishy-washy or give up and step away from our faith in God to save us into Heaven at death, what is expected of us goes much deeper than that—we must trust Him continually and in all circumstances by an everyday life of faith († James 2:14-26).

        To not trust Him more than just to save us into Heaven can easily lead to being double-minded in our faith (often seen as we can believe Him for this but not for that), and that is spiritually dangerous; or at its extreme, we can fail in our faith, which is an eternal catastrophe for one that does not endure.

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† Ezekiel 18:24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

† 2 Peter 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

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 [ Recall Paul’s revelation of those “falling away” ] 

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† 2 Timothy 2: [Paul said] 11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: 12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

        If you know your Old Testament, Jeremiah repeatedly warned the kings and people of Jerusalem that because of their terrible sin that devastating trouble was coming their way under Nebuchadnezzar.

        But the strange things about Jeremiah’s warnings were that God said that for those that would surrender and submit to this powerful king, whom God was sending according to His purposes, if they would turn themselves over and be taken to Babylon that they would survive and even thrive during the 70-years of their prophesied captivity.

        If they would not surrender, the city would be burned to the ground and the people would die at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar’s armies. The king and many people died resisting the invasions of the Babylonian king. It is clear that God sent the trouble but arranged for “a way through it” for those that would trust Him († 1 Cor. 10:13)!

        In this part of Judah’s history we can see a lesson for us in what I am sharing. In these two discussions about being trained and equipped to have a strong faith in God and what His Word says, we are assured that He will do what He says He will for us, if we will trust Him (seen in the Jews being saved alive and blessed in their captivity).

        Through Jeremiah, God told the Jews that if they would surrender to the events and leave behind what they knew that they would survive and in fact, do very well in Babylon but if they did not go, they would die.

        We see from the what Jesus and the apostolic writers said that if you and I will surrender to the Word and the work of faith the Holy Spirit is tasked to accomplish in each of us, we will do more than survive those things, we will walk in victory before the Lord.

That Outcome Requires We Know God

        But that outcome requires we know God, know the Word in writing and the Word made flesh, and believe all three. If we are not equipped with a resolute faith in God and what He promises, in contrast and by an ill-equipped faith we may buckle under the weight of the increasing troubles that come against us in the times we will face.

        If we find ourselves spiritually challenged to trust the Lord today in reasonably safe and yet abundant times, how can we possibly do so when we have to (in a fashion by our faith) run with horses and deal with floods, as Jeremiah points out?

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† Jeremiah 12:5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee [imagine a fat soldier], then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan [when “the enemy comes in like a flood” († Isaiah 59:19)]?

† Jeremiah 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

 [  What is the sharp point of what I have said now in these two weeks? ] 

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        It is that as the people of God in Christ, we are not ready for what tomorrow holds if we do not have a well-developed faith in God. The handwriting is already appearing on the wall that the sentence of judgment on our land is beginning to be carried out.

        I ask you, what are your options when you can no longer get what you truly need—will you compromise your spiritual integrity or will you remain loyal to what the Word teaches us?

        When you cannot get fuel, when your employment runs out or your retirement income stops, when you have no money to pay your bills or buy food, or there is no food to buy, are you today able to ask the Lord for what you need knowing it is asking for a miracle and then pa-tient-ly do without until He provides it?

Can You Endure, Be Patient?

        An ancient saying urges, “Know thyself”; take notice and have respect of what you don’t know and what you are not equipped yet to do. All believers would be wise to say to the Lord as is disciples did at († Luke 17:5), “Increase our faith”.

        I closed-out part one saying this: “Are you yet strong enough in your trust of God to not be shaken by your life possibly being broken into pieces and scattered all over the ground that was your good life?

        Are you ready to stay true to your faith in God and to endure to the end and be saved? Before you boldly think to yourself, ‘I am’, I urge you to be rather bold enough to ask God if you are!”

        To become more resolute in your faith you need to stay in the Word daily, you should be having daily fellowship with God in prayer, praise and worship, and you must spiritually grow up enough to say as Paul said “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong”.

        If you believe and respond to your hardships like this, then at the end of your life also be able to say this: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

Beloved Brothers and Sisters   Make it your business to grow fortified in your trust of God and His Word!

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† Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (be afraid + quaking with fear [saying, “I gotta get this right!”]). 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure [“to will” = have the “want to” to do those things that pleases God].

† Jude 1:20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

† 1 Corinthians 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, [and God’s guarantee?] 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. 14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved [in such times], flee from idolatry [any love for the world, its things and idolatrous ways].

† Hebrews 6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham. . . 15 . . .after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

† Hebrews 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

† 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.

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~ Brother Scott ... With ... The Right Word^© ... For Today~

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