Scott Wiley here, the Executive Director of Wisdom International. We're celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. What began as a radio programme in a single city has grown into a global ministry now in sixteen languages. We're hosting a banquet to celebrate all that the Lord has done and you're invited. Please visit wisdomonline.org slash twenty-five.
That's wisdomonline.org slash twenty-five. There's a link in the show notes. And now here's Stephen with today's message from Wisdom for the Heart. That's the perspective of the Apostle Paul. He was a realist.
And he writes with realism to the Corinthians, he writes, we're afflicted in every way. But not crush. There you go. We are perplexed, even the Apostle Paul. Was perplexed.
Aren't you glad? but not driven to despair. We are persecuted. But not forsake them. Struck down.
but not destroy. I love The paraphrase, thrown to the mat. but not pinned. Marcia and I traveled to France several years ago. We had a lot of people who were in the middle of the year.
Been invited to sing in a wedding for a couple. from a small church pastor by a Frenchman and his wife. They had become our friends. The pastor and his wife described to us some of the challenges related to Pastoring in that country, very difficult country to reach to this day. The Protestant uh Reformation in the 16th century had made a significant impact in this country During the early decades, thousands of new believers had left Catholicism and Began forming protesting churches, protestant, which gives us the word Protestant.
In this particular country, they were nicknamed Huguenots. It was a rather derisive, slanderous, mocking label. That meant these Christians were rebels.
Well finally in 1685 at the urging of church leaders The Protestant community was outlawed. By the king Huguenots were hunted down, many of them put to death. Persecuted. and put into prisons, hundreds of thousands of them fled. to other neighboring countries.
Several thousand of them fled to the Saiyan Saban mountains in the south of France, where they rebuilt their lives, built villages, They would meet secretly in the forests to worship. in their homes. in caves We visited one of those Huguenot sites in a forest where they worshipped.
some 350 years ago. Many would be captured from that one site. and imprisoned. One of them was Marie Durand. An 18-year-old who had taken her stand.
for Christ, much like these teenagers have done today. It was thrilling to watch their public testimony. She was taken to the Tower of Constance. 65 miles away. It was a stone circular tower that was being used to hold Huguenot women.
Marie was never given a trial. She was never given an official sentence. She was offered freedom only if she Recanted. of her faith in Christ alone. And she refused.
Many women were candid. Many died in that tower, brutally cold environment, only straw to sleep upon, those stone cold floors. Scraps of food. given to them disease malnutrition. She would spend 38 years.
in that tower. But she spent her time serving the other women, leading them in Bible studies, organizing. meetings writing letters on their behalf. assisting the sick and the weak. And for 38 years, she refused.
to recant. Eventually, the religious laws softened. And She was released at the age of 56. She returned to her home village. Got involved once again in The Protestant movement Twelve months later, passed away.
into the presence of the Lord. She never married. She never sought revenge. She never recanted. Over time, the accounts of her witness and her service in the prison.
made its way out into the public.
Something inside that tower remained carved into the granite windowsill of the cell she occupied with about twenty to thirty other women. Prisoners confirmed that Marie had taken a piece of iron and had traced, and over the years that tracing it would deepen as she would repeat it. into that stone ledge. A word that's still there to day A word translated into English is the word Endure. Endure.
This is the word the Apostle Peter Adds to his list of seven supplements that we have been uncovering. Let me invite your attention back to that list. 2 Peter Chapter 1. In his Commentary on this passage, the Greek scholar Lensky wrote that these. Supplements are seven gemstones.
All of which are fastened to the necklace of faith. In Christ. And he pointed out that Peter's statement at the beginning of verse five. But he says make every Effort. Make every effort to supplement your faith.
You have faith.
Now add, supplement to that. In the original language, that's a decisive Imperative. You could write a little exclamation point after that phrase, make every effort. Exclamation point. In other words, these gemstones are not suggestions that you might, you know, add to your life if you.
Yeah.
Now this is a decisive Mindset. It's a command. Peter's effectively saying, make up your mind. Go after these Seven. Give it everything you've got.
as we've learned.
Okay. Let's move on to the fourth supplement in the study. Let's get a running start here at verse. Five. 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. Your translation might read Haitians.
Or It durant.
Now we've discovered that these supplements are both the work of God's Spirit. In cooperation with the surrendered Believer. They're not handed out to you at salvation. These are developed. in your life through daily surrender and that surrender is called the process of Sanctification.
But God is... God is at work. Changing habits, changing attitudes, changing your vocabulary, changing your perspective on life. It isn't Quick, it's lifelong. He'll complete it.
At the day when you see Christ. and you're glorified and perfected. Along the way, he's chiseling away. What sanctification means.
So it's not a matter of perfection. It's a matter of direction. This is the direction in which your spiritual toes. are pointed.
Now we come to this fourth supplement. Endurance. It's been called in church history, by the way, the queen. of all virtues This is a compound word. It's made up of two parts.
The opening preposition means under. And the verb means to remain. to remain Under. is the idea to stay under. That load to stay under.
to bear up under. The pressure. The challenge. The battle. In fact, secular Greeks used this word to describe swords.
Swords endured. That was because the idea that swords were designed to withstand the blows. And they were in a battle. Fighting for victory. And there's that little nuance we need to keep in mind as we think of the word endure.
Kittle's Greek Dictionary describes that little nuance of someone courageously enduring with an expectation of victory. Victories might come along the way, not nearly as often as we'd like, but that final victory is in view.
So there is this eschatological sense, this future prophetic sense as well. It's no surprise then that This same word is used of our Lord describing everything that he encountered at his crucifixion. Listen to the combination. of this idea of suffering with Victorious expectation. Here's how the writer of Hebrews described it, Hebrews 12, verse 2.
For the joy that was set before him. He endured, same word. He endured. The cross. He stayed under.
Aren't you glad he did? all the way to victory. It isn't remaining under a burden and letting everyone around you know how miserable it is.
Now this word refers to remaining under the weight of pressure and difficulty all the while trusting that God is in control and you are remaining in his Care. Spurgeon, I love the way he balanced this idea when he wrote that we are at our spiritual best. When we are shipwrecked. On the island of God's sovereignty. There's that Combination.
Challenged? Pressured? Suffering as if shipwrecked on an island. Yes, but that island is labeled. God's presence.
God's plan. God's sovereign. Control.
Now is it possible for a Christian to live without endurance. Is it possible for a Christian to experience. Suffering without having any expectation. Of victory? Is it possible to be under a cloud so thick that at times you cannot feel the light?
of his grace. Absolutely. And this is Peter's challenge to those who want to develop strength for those pressures and challenges, to be under the burden. without giving up in the battle. That's the idea.
You explore your Bible, take this word, go to the Concordance, and just sort of ransack the Scriptures to find illustrations, and you'll find more than you have time to chase down. I often think of, for instance, Taking a biblical tour, as I do in my mind, at times, to that land, Phil. where villagers brought their Trash. to be burned. It was the town dumped.
Go out there while the ashes are smoldering, and they always were. That was a place where lepers congregated and fought over scraps of food. There you'll find a man sitting in the ashes. He's rocking back and forth as he's scraping his terribly itching body with a piece of broken pottery. There's such a man who was once the most famous man in the region, wealthy.
Wise.
Well known Now haunted by ten gravestones Where his ten children's Bodies are buried. All of them take in. At that same hurricane moment when wind came in unexpectedly and toppled the house where they were celebrating. the birthday of the oldest child. Came out of nowhere.
His body is riddled with 29 illnesses, if you care to count them. But I have. He's deserted by everybody except his wife. They all assume God has abandoned him. He's been left to die.
But listen to him. As late as in chapter 19... Deep into his suffering. He says I know. That my Redeemer Liz.
And at last he will stand upon the earth, and in my flesh I shall see God. Huh. God hasn't abandoned me. I'm heading toward a resurrection. Talk about a final victory.
See, this is courageous endurance. with the expectation of some victory along the way, But final victory. At last. No wonder James refers to Job in James chapter 5 as he talks about the endurance. Same word.
Of Joe. I think if Historical examples, and I give them to you often. And you know, if you've been around here, why one of my favorites, Hudson Taylor, the pioneer missionary to China, 50 years of experiencing riots. Sicknesses Threats to his life. Financial Desperation.
Death of Some of his children. And his motto was this, and I quote, difficulties are God's Airbus. In other words, difficulties are the vehicle whereby God works his will and way into your life. And mine. Hudson Taylor often described things that happened in life, and he gave them three words.
He said, They follow in this progression. I love this. I've given to years ago. The first one is labeled The first stage is impossible. The second stage.
Difficult. The third stage. Done. Impossible? Maybe that's where you are right now.
Difficult? Maybe that's where you are. Done. A moment of victory. Along the way, and the Spirit of God through Peter commands us.
Make up our minds. With all diligence. Add to the necklace of faith the gemstone. Of endurance.
Now, let me break down this biblical command into three reality checks. Let's get as real as we can. Here. Number one, we're told to add endurance because every Christian doesn't automatically have it. That's a challenge.
It's a warning from Peter.
Now keep in mind This is not a list telling you how you're saved. By God's Spirit. This list is evidence that you are surrendered to God's Spirit. This letter is written to believers, that you're growing. in your salvation.
If endurance was a guaranteed possession, For every one of us, he wouldn't have warned us in verse 8, you don't want to be without it. Because if you are, he writes, for if these supplements or qualities are yours and are increasing, they protect you. They'll keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever lacks these qualities He's so nearsighted that he is blind. having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Can you imagine a sense of blindness being associated with a believer? Peter does. He just did. This isn't automatically handed to you. This is something you make up your mind to pursue.
If these were automatically given to us in the little glad bag, you know, and we came to faith, we'd all have it.
Now this is what we develop if we are willing to pursue it. He says if you neglect it, you're going to forget where you came from. You're going to forget what Jesus did for you. You're going to forget what you're supposed to do. You're going to forget where you're going.
To be.
So the question isn't can a Christian afford to pursue this supplement. The question is how can we afford Not to.
So here's reality: check number one. We're told to add endurance because every Christian doesn't automatically have it. Number two. Endurance cannot be added to your life unless you accept trials with the right spirit. In other words, it's possible to waste.
Suffering. Suffering's hard enough, don't waste it, right? In his letter from James, Chapter 1, it's a familiar passage. He uses the same word for endurance, where he makes the same connection with joyful expectation and suffering. He writes in verse 2, Consider it, count it up.
as joyful. My brothers When you meet trials, not if, but when. of various kinds. Why?
Well, you know that the testing of your faith produces Endurance, the ability to stay under. the pressure. And let endurance have its full effect that you may be mature, that you might grow up. In your faith.
Now, this isn't about somebody being joyful, the trials are showing up. Hey, we love trials. No. This isn't about somebody saying, hey, trials are coming my way. Yay.
No, you need medication if that's how you feel. One author wrote that this refers to enduring difficulty and delay and inconvenience without complaining. Not a fake smile. You know what? not expecting from God a quick fix.
Endurance is added over time. It's like chiseling that word endure that took years. The chisel. It's formed. in the furnace.
Over time. It's like iron, willing iron. One author wrote, which is fashioned On the anvil by the pounding circumstances. of life.
Some of you have come in here. Assuming every one of us, and you've been pounded by something. And you're going to get up tomorrow and you know you're going to get a pounding again. None of it is a surprise. It's part of the development program.
For endurance. This is David writing in Psalm 119. The benefit of affliction. He writes, Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I keep your word.
It is good for me. That I was afflicted. Wait, what? It was good for me. to suffer.
So that I might learn your statutes. I might learn what your word really means. When the rubber meets the road. That's endurance. To supplement When a believer says, affliction's coming, But I'm going to trust that God will demonstrate his strength.
as I give him my willing heart. Although these trials are going to be heavyweight, on my mind. I choose To consider the joy of being in the Lord and in his plan, especially when I cannot find joy in anything else. That's the perspective of the Apostle Paul. He was a realist.
And he writes with realism to the Corinthians. He writes, We are afflicted in every way. What kind of testimony is that? We're afflicted in every way. But not crushed.
There you go. We are perplexed. That word means at times we don't know. Which way to turn? Even the Apostle Paul.
Was perplexed. Aren't you glad? But not driven to despair. We are persecuted. But not forsaken.
Struck down. Thrown to the ground. but not destroyed. I love The paraphrase, thrown to the mat. but not pinned.
So here's the reality check. Endurance. Cannot be added to your life unless you accept trials with the right spirit. Let me give you one more. Reality check number three.
Endurance is added to your life. When you make even the smallest decision, to demonstrate. Doesn't have to be monumental. You don't have to sail to China for 50 years. It's in the moment.
That moment of frustration when you're tempted to quit. to walk away. to walk out. To throw in the towel. And you take a deep breath.
Pray that quick prayer. And you walk back in. It's that moment when sin derails you. And you failed the Lord and the tempter He's licking his chops. comes to you and says, you know, you need to give up on that commitment thing.
That's not for you. That's for somebody more mature. As for a better Christian, look at you. Give up. And you defy the enemy.
Of your soul, the God of this world. Satan the lion. Who roams about seeking someone to devour, and you remind him of the cross. You remind him of your forgiven status. You remind him of the grace of God.
And you get back up. It's that moment. When you stay on the path, when it seems like everything around you is trying to push you off. You're going to stay the course. This is the cooperation.
of your decision with God's provision. This is the cooperation of your daily commitment. at God's daily Empowerment. It takes both. You make up your mind that you want to demonstrate in small ways and big.
You're determined, as Peter says, to give all diligence to this, give it everything. You've got. No matter how old you are. No matter where you are, it is today's decision. Just today.
I read recently that George Mueller, you're older in the faith, you know well of him. I've talked about him. provided for more than 10,000 orphans. Through the course of His ministry, he and his wife started when he was about 28 years old. When he retired from the orphanages, having turned seventy, He decided he really wanted to keep on.
Preaching. Traveler. He had been turned down by four missions agencies in his 20s because he wanted to be a four missioner.
So now at 70 he decided he didn't need them. And he was just going to accept invitations to go, and he began to receive them. He would travel for the next two years. Twenty years. Speaking in 42 countries.
Six thousand times. Logging. 200,000 Miles. When he was 90, he was interviewed. And he said, That one of his favorite verses was Hebrews 11:6.
God rewards those who diligently pursue him. I mean, I just get the idea this guy's all grit, man. Don't don't slow me down. Every believer In here has a race to run. It's your own unique rings.
Nobody else is running it. You face the temptation to give in. And give up. I came across this poem. Two frogs.
fell into a deep bowl of cream. One was a persevering soul. But the other saw only a dismal scene. We won't drown. He said, without more ado, and with a last despairing cry, flung up his legs and said, Goodbye.
Said the other frog, with enduring decision. I can't get out. But I won't give in. I'll just swim on until my strength is spent. I won't.
Give up in this gloomy event. Bravely he swam ahead, though it would seem, as swimming only churned that cream. But then cream turned to butter. And at last he stopped. And out of the bowl he finally hopped.
What is the lesson? Tis easily found when you can't hop out. Keep swimming around. For you deep theologians, you're thinking, oh, I can't. Can't believe he went to seminary.
Well, you know, here you go. Simple as that. Make up your mind. Add this to your life, which is another way of saying. I don't know how deep it is for you.
Just keep swimming. It's another way of saying if I go back to my opening comments, it's like chiseling over time. into the stone windowsill of what might feel like a cell. That worked. Endure.
That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart. A production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline.org. Mm-hmm.
