Persevere till the End

[Kokavkrystallos]

Jeremiah 4:19,
"My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war."

Oh, how I can relate to this verse on so many levels! The trumpet sound of war in the physical sense every time you look at news - that's a given. But there are others; those who persecute and wage a spiritual war against me, and it should be happening to you - all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Tim. 3:12)

But I don't worry much about all that, for Psalm 91:8, has proven true over and over: "Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked." Sometimes it's like "Yeah! Go LORD, you have vindicated me and judged mine enemy!" But honestly that is a swiftly passing and fading fleshly thought and I end up praying for the pathetic lost soul that has been judged, and has not listened to reproof, and spurned the things of the LORD and mocked His people. I pray they turn to the LORD and repent, because the way many of them live, they lose jobs, they get busted with drugs and go to jail, they get evicted, their girlfriends or wives dump them over some abuse, and over the years I've even seen Ananias & Saphira scenarios on 3 occasions, and close to it in 2 others. Freak stuff happens, and it can only be the sovereign will of God because someone has refused His ways.

Revelation 14:2 & 7,
"And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:"
Oh how wonderful when we can catch a glimpse of this power and majesty. It's not just words in a book! He is a LIVING GOD! He is THEE Living God!
"Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters"

Oh, that judgment is set, and is carried out, even beginning now, and has been, and will continue to show forth more and more. The Scripture WILL BE FULFILLED!

Psalm 17:3,
"Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress."
I long to say this, and pray daily for the pureness of heart that I may say it. Persevere to the end. "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matt. 10:22)
Jesus admonishes us in Revelation 2 & 3 to overcome.

John 6:27,
"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed."
This is an ongoing and continuing thing. This is endurance. The perseverance of the saints, which is a sound Biblical doctrine.

John 2:19,
"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if 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."
It's the same as those who receive seed on stony ground, or as Luke says on rock :"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away." (Luk 8:13)

Be encouraged to persevere, and to overcome. Be sure the seed is rooted well in good soil that it brings forth fruit and in the end everlasting eternal life. Amen.

Psalm 17:15,
"As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness"

 

[Kokavkrystallos]

"The certainty of faith depends on the grace of Christ alone; but piety and holiness of life distinguishes true faith from that knowledge of God that is fictitious and dead: for the truth is that those who are in Christ, as Paul says, "have put off the old man" (Col 3;9) The soundness of our knowledge is to be gauged by the obedience which it produces.

"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (1 John 2:4) In those words the apostle declares any knowledge of God which issues not in obedience to Him is worthless, and that the lawless one affirming a saving acquaintance with God is a deceiver.

In 2:4 profession is made of knowing God in Christ, which is simply an avowal of His name and salvation; but in 2:6 the claim is made of abiding in Him, which signifies a continuation of the same, for perseverance is necessary to confirm it. As our Lord declared, "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matt. 24:13)"
- A.W. Pink, from An Exposition of the First Epistle of John

There is nothing I can really add here, as this expounds quite perfectly the doctrine, and we see here Jesus not once, but again says "he that endures to the end shall be saved."