INTRODUCTION: If you desire and strive to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, your joys in Christ will increase, the saints will love you and be more encouraged by you, God will be more and more pleased with your life, and the world will hate you more and persecute you because of your Christlikeness. “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

When you are persecuted, you must bless (Romans 12:14) and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44), as well as rejoice because your reward is great in heaven (Matthew 5:10-12).

I. WHEN YOU ARE PERSECUTED FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, YOU MUST ENDURE (1 Corinthians 4:12c)

1 Corinthians 4:12bc “When persecuted, we endure.”

TWO SOBERING TRUTHS CONCERNING ENDURANCE

I) False Christians will not endure to the end, but will fall away from the Word when persecution comes (Matthew 13:20-21).

Matthew 13:20-21 “20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”

II) You must endure, believer (Matthew 10:22).

Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

2 Timothy 2:12 “If we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us. . .”

Therefore, I say to you all what God says through John in Revelation 14:12:

“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

THREE HELPFUL TRUTHS CONCERNING ENDURANCE

I) The enduring love of God for you in Christ will help you endure, believer, even in the midst of persecution (Psalm 51:2).

Psalm 52:1 “Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day.”

Romans 8:35-39
“35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

II) Love is a great crutch to help you endure (1 Corinthians 13:7).

1 Corinthians 13:7 “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

(I) Love for Christ is a crutch that will help you endure. Christ was persecuted for you and endured, can you not endure persecution for Him out of love for Him?

(II) Love for sinners is another crutch that will help you endure. “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Do you love sinners, even pitying them in their blind state? Or do you think you are somehow better than them because Christ has saved you and not yet them? “What do you have that you did not receive?”

III) The Lord will rescue you from all persecutions and sufferings, therefore let that encourage you to endure in the meantime (2 Timothy 3:11).

2 Timothy 3:11 “Persecutions and sufferings...happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.”

THREE DIRECTIONS CONCERNING ENDURANCE

I) The Word of God will endure forever, therefore tie yourself to this mast and you will be able to endure (Psalm 19:8-10).

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. . .”

Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

II) If you would endure, pray to God to strengthen you for all endurance (Colossians 1:11).

In Colossians 1:11, Paul prays that the saints in Colossae would be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. . .”

Romans 15:5-6 “5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

III) Look to Christ in faith who endured the cross for you and you will be able to run this race with endurance (Hebrews 12:1-3).

Hebrews 12:1-2 “1 Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, 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. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

TWO MOTIVATIONS TO ENDURANCE

I) Sinners may be saved through your endurance (Stephen and Paul in Acts 7 and 9).

II) Christ’s face will make up for all the persecution the world can chase you down with, therefore endure for His sake (2 Corinthians 4:17).

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,”

CONCLUSION: “Your life is short, your duties many, your assistance great, and your reward sure. Therefore faint not, hold on and hold up, in ways of well-doing, and Heaven shall make amends for all” (Thomas Brooks).

However heavy and painful the crown of thorns is that you wear in this life for Christ’s sake, the crown of glory you wear in heaven will be heavier—Christ’s joys shall make up for the world’s pain.