[Mr. Rick Shabi]: Well, it’s an interesting thing when you are in your next to last regular week in a congregation that you’ve been in for many years, and you want to say things to every single one of you. I want to start this sermon by saying, “I love you all very much – every single one in this room. You are family.” I know Debbie feels exactly the same way. We have loved every single minute that we’ve been here living among you. We will miss being here. But even though we aren’t here, we will still be family, no matter where we are, no matter where you are – for now, as long as we’re alive. And in the Kingdom, in the resurrection, we’ll be part of you. And I want you to know that.

So, as we talk, I want to leave you with some things that I want you to think about, because we want to see – more importantly, God wants to see everyone here, everyone listening on the web – to be in His Kingdom. We all want to be there. But we have the rest of our physical lives to continue with God and to do the things that we must do, as we yield to Him, so that we can be that family forever – what you want, what God wants, what I want – that when Jesus Christ returns everyone here will be there.

So, today I’m going to give you some things that you may say, “Well, these are clichés.” And you’ve probably heard me say recently that, as you hear these clichés in the Bible, we need to stop and think about what they really mean and not just let them run off of our lips. Like, “Oh, we know what that is. We’ve heard it a thousand times.” It’s time in our lives to look and see what God said and remind ourselves and refresh ourselves of what that truth is that He has called us to and what we must do. So, I’ve got just three points today, and I’ll continue next week with a few more, as we’re here with the Kennebecks. But, the first one is one that you’ve heard, and you may think, “I’ve heard it.” But we’re going to talk about it, because we must do it. And that’s “Endure to The End”.

You know, we’re entering a time in this world that is so totally different than everything that has gone before. Life has changed tremendously for all of us. We may not even understand how life has changed and is changing. What we’ve been through is such an easy, easy road compared to what is coming. You know, if we turn – in Jesus Christ’s words…. We’re going to use Jesus Christ’s words today, because you and I are disciples of Jesus Christ. He is the head of this church, He is leading us. And if we follow Him, and if we follow His directives, we will be there. He wants us there at the time of His return – that we’ll be picturing at the time of the upcoming holy days. But in Matthew 7:13. I’m in the wrong book. Okay, Matthew 7:13. I was going to say, “That certainly doesn’t look like the scripture!”

Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate” We’ve read this before “For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.” That’s not just for the world. That can be us, too. Jesus Christ was talking to His disciples at the time He said that. “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it.”

You know, one of the statistics that I heard years ago – I had a hard time believing it when I first heard it – and I mean decades ago I heard this – that, of everyone who ever came into God’s church and got baptized into God’s true church, over 90% of them left! And as I thought about that over the years, and I’ve seen people come and go, and I realized how many people used to come to church decades ago – 50, 60 years ago – that aren’t here anymore, I realize they’re right. What Jesus Christ said – “wide is the gate that leads to destruction!” They didn’t endure to the end. They knew the truth. They were baptized and they committed to Jesus Christ – they would follow Him no matter where He went. They didn’t do it! That can’t be us. We have to commit to God that we will endure to the end and all that means.

Matthew 7:14 “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.”

Life has been so comparatively easy for us that lived in the 20th and 21st centuries – nothing like the people who lived back in Christ’s time, nothing like the people who lived in the Middle Ages. Life was really difficult for them. And if they were going to obey God, and follow the Bible, and resist the universal church that was on earth at that time, their lives were at stake. I don’t think any of us have had any kind of physical threats against us at all. That time – that time could be ahead. Difficult is the way that leads to life, but with God’s Spirit and with Him leading us, we can be there and we can endure to the end. Jesus Christ said, “He who endures to the end will be saved.”

 Back in the book of Hebrews – in Hebrews 10 – you know what’s in Hebrews 10 – is talking about assembling yourselves together – not forsaking that part of what God says is important for His people to do – and to consider one another, to stir up love and good works. And as we move past those verses, as we get down to verse 36, when He is talking about people who didn’t do those things that He called them to do, and going back to the world, He says, to you and me…. Always remember, when you’re reading the words of the Bible, they pertain to you and me.

Hebrews 10:36 “For you have need of endurance.”

Remember, we talked in the Bible studies on Hebrews, endurance. That’s that Greek word hupomone, means patient continuance. You need to patiently continue in the way of God. There may be varied times when you can kind of just float through it – no ripple in the water at all – but other times the storms can come up, the waves can toss to and fro, things can happen, but you have to patiently endure it. How do we do that? We’ll talk about that a little bit. He says to you and me.

Hebrews 36-37 “We have need of that patient continuance so after you’ve done the will of God, that you may receive the promise.” Got to live God’s way of life, got to go through it. “For yet a little while and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.”

We know that. You know there are many – Peter talks about it in 2 Peter 3, where it says, “Where is the promise of His coming.” We’ve been waiting for the return of Jesus Christ for thousands of years now – from the time He was resurrected. And probably many – some among us – think, “Is it really going to happen? Could the United States really fail? Is all this stuff in the Bible really going to happen? Well, yet a little while He will come and will not tarry. “Patiently continue – endure,” God says.

“The just shall live by faith”(Hebrews 10:38).

I know, no matter what happens in the world – whether it’s good or favorable in our minds, or unfavorable in our minds – I know that Jesus Christ will return. I know the words of the Bible are true and I won’t let anyone, or any event, or anything else sway me. It will be God. I will live by faith, because I absolutely have come to trust in Him and yield my entire belief system over to Him.

Hebrews 10:38, quite a warning. “If anyone draws back” – if there are any doubts – draw back from the growth that God wants us to have – the life that He wants us to live as we endure to the end – “If anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” Keep going forward, patiently continue, endure to the end. But He says a very encouraging thing to you and me: “We are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”

That’s you and me. We are not those who draw back. We are here to endure to the end and to follow Christ wherever He would lead us.

If we back up in the Bible a few chapters here to Hebrews 2:1. You know, “those who draw back to perdition” – those who fall away, if you will – doesn’t usually happen overnight – that one day they’re here and the next day they say, “I quit. I give up. The world has more to offer than God does.” It happens gradually, as they allow themselves to drift a little bit, make allowances for themselves on what the clear word of God is. And God, as He inspired the author of Hebrews 2:1.

Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must give the more.” Notice the word more. “More earnest heed to the things we have heard.” You know, as time goes on, and we’ve been in the Church 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, boy, we have to go back, and we need to give more earnest heed to the things that we’ve heard and taught. We have to pay attention to, and not just think, “Oh, I’ve heard that all before. I can just discount that.” We have to stop and think about what God said, and make sure we’re still following in the Way, and we haven’t just watered down in our minds what we need to do, and we’re now a nice mixture of the world and God’s truth – doing some of the physical things that He says, but also allowing ourselves to be part of the world that God says He wants us to be coming out of. “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”

And that’s what happens to people. They drift away, just like that boat we talked about when we talked about this in Hebrews 2. They let it drift out just a little bit. Nothing happens. Drifts out a little further, and just keeps going, and pretty soon, the goal is not in sight anymore. It’s all been washed away. There’s no more vision. There’s no more recognition of where you are. You’ve just sort of drifted away, or as the Bible says, fallen away.

We must give the more earnest heed to what we’ve heard. We must give the more earnest diligence to the Word of God – digging into it, and making sure that day by day, year by year, we are living more fully and completely to every Word of God. That’s what He called us to. That’s why we have these physical lives that we’re living in – so that we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, but that we also grow in the complete giving of our hearts, minds and souls to God. We become more like Him. That doesn’t happen only through physical adherence. It comes from a complete yielding to God – a complete surrender of ourselves to Him. “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. “

If we back a few more books – back to the book of Acts – Paul has a very poignant and a very good analogy of enduring to the end. You remember, in Acts 27, when Paul was on his way to Rome, a ship departed after the Day of Atonement, and it was tossed to and fro. Everyone on the ship, remember, thought they were going to die. It was because of Paul that they survived. God let them know, this is what you do to survive all those storms. And the people on that ship listened. When they saw land, they all wanted to jump off and swim – “Oh good! God has delivered us!” Remember what Paul said back in chapter 27:31.

Acts 27:31, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you can’t be saved.” “Unless these men stay in the ship… Boy, you’re going to want to jump. You’re going to want to go and do it your own way. You’re going to want to finish it up yourself. You can’t. Unless we stay in the ship, we can’t be saved. Unless we endure to the end.” He says. “You can’t be saved.” We must stick with it and we must remain with it. Remain close to God – closer and closer to Him, closer and closer to each other – because God called us to be a body. He didn’t call us to be lone wolves. He called us to be a family. And we know that He’s working through His Church to grow us, mature us, and help us to become the people He wants us to become.

We back up a little further to the book of Mark and a familiar parable. You’ll hear it, you’ll think, “Heard that before.” But let’s look at it again, because it has specific meaning for us today and we could find ourselves part of this parable. Well, we do want to find ourselves part of the parable, but in the last part of the parable – of the fourth group that are there. In Mark 4:13, it’s the parable of the sower and the seed. And I won’t read the parable, You remember the parable. But, as the disciples heard that parable, they asked Christ, “What is it? What is it that  You’re trying to say? In verse 13, He says to them – He says to you and me:

Mark 4:13-15, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.” Many are called. Many have their minds opened. Many come to understand about a Sabbath day, even holy days, the things of God. “These are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.”

So, we’ve seen that over the years. You’ve seen that. One of the things, as I’ve been a pastor, that has always bothered me, but I’ve come to understand, is someone can call on a Wednesday, or a Thursday, or a Friday. They’ve come to understand the Sabbath. They’re all excited that there is a congregation here in this area or Jacksonville. We talk for fifteen, thirty, forty-five minutes – sometimes an hour. They get it all. They can’t wait to be at Sabbath services – and then they don’t show up. And then you never hear from them again. They don’t respond to phone calls. They just disappear. And it bothered me for a long time. I thought, “What am I not saying? What am I not doing?” But it’s not me. It’s Satan comes. And some people hear the word and he immediately snatches it away. What a sad thing! – that it didn’t hit the depths in them, that they would follow God first, and follow the truth first. But whatever it would be – something…a family affair comes up – they’re going to do that instead, or whatever it is that interrupts them. Maybe a family member says, “Really? If the whole world is observing Sunday, how can they be wrong?” Who knows what it is. We may never know. What a sad thing! But the word is sown out there. God does open people’s minds, but so many of them you never hear from again after they make that first little contact. In verse 16, we find another group.

Mark 4:16-17, “These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who when they hear the word, immediately they receive it.” – A better translation there is, accept it. They take it. They take what God has given them. “They immediately receive it with gladness.” – “I found the truth!”
 – like the first group there, right? They found the truth, but they “have no root in themselves and so they endure only for a time.” And so we’ve all met people that have been with us one week, two weeks, three weeks, several months, and then all of a sudden, they’re not there, and you wonder what happened? How could you be coming along and then, you’re not there? And what happens is, they had no root. Something came up, or they just gave up. It just became common to them. It’s like, well, “We’ve done it.” It just wasn’t that important to them. “They have no root in themselves, and so they endure only for a time and when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.”

You know, it doesn’t have to be persecution or tribulation, I’ve learned. It can just be interruption of observing the Sabbath day. I don’t know how many people – over the 11 years I’ve been here – who have come, and they’ve continued for weeks or months, and then all of a sudden, something comes up – “Oh we’ve got this wedding we need to be at on the Sabbath day, oh, we have this funeral this Sabbath day. Oh, we’re going to be on vacation for the next two weeks, so we won’t see you.” And when they interrupt that obedience to God, you ever see them again. Something happens. Something happens when they say, “I’m going to do this first.” I can give you some examples – and I’m not – that have pained me over the years. It’s like, we sat and we talked, and then you made a decision to do your will rather than God’s will. It’s like Eve taking that forbidden fruit – “I knew what to do and yet, I did what I wanted to do” – thinking, “It’s okay. At least I’m not working, punching the clock, out mowing my lawn, or whatever else.” Very, very sad. They continue for a while but tribulation, persecution or just my own personal desires – “I want to do this on that Sabbath” – and how that it can take them away.

Mark 4:18-19, “These are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word.”  That would be you and me, too. Right? You’re the ones “who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things.”

Think about other things and underline that. What are those other things? You know, Christ talks about, in Luke 21:34-36, as you get to the end of the age, He said, “Don’t do the carousing. Be careful. Don’t let the cares of the world catch you asleep.” And here He talks about these people who continue for a while – years? decades? The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things – what could that be? That could be anything – get upset because something didn’t happen that you expected it to? Something happened that you just didn’t like the feel of that, because it wasn’t what your preference was so you thought, “Can this be the Church?” And I’m not talking about any doctrinal issue or anything like that. The desires for other things entering in choked the word, the attitude changes. “I’ll blame the Church. I’ll blame the Church. Well, I look at that and ask, ‘Can that really be?’ This person maybe did this, maybe something happened over here.” We never judge the Church by people. We judge the Church by the truth, right? Where is the truth being taught? We are all imperfect human beings – I hope all striving to become spiritually mature – and when things are brought to our attention where there have been problems, we would reconcile with one another, be open with one another, and do the things that God would say to do. But those things happen, and so this group of people leaves. They may have been here for decades – just gave up or whatever it was.

Mark 4:19, “Other things entering in choke the word. It becomes unfruitful. It no longer is a benefit to them.”

And then they have the group that everyone here, everyone listening – we pray for each other that we are in this group – these are the ones who endure to the end:

Mark 4:20, “These are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word.”

Here the translators in the New King James use accept it – really, they don’t just accept it. They receive it, it becomes part of them, it becomes part of their…they internalize it, it changes who they are. Those who hear the word, they receive it and they bear fruit. How is God pleased with us? When we bear fruit. When we’re using the Holy Spirit – that, when we repent – truly repent – and have hands laid on us, and receive the Holy Spirit, the fruit will develop. That’s what God is looking for. “These are the ones who receive it, bear fruit – some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

That’s what God wants us to be, that’s the group…we pray for each other to become part of. That’s the group, if we see some drifting away, or if we sense something in them – and I don’t mean we’re going to go run around looking at people, and judging people, and judging motives or anything like that – but, if we see a pattern of drifting away, send an email, pick up the phone and leave a message. Send a text: “Missed you. Where are you?” – whatever. Watch out for one another. That’s Hebrews 10:24-25 assembling ourselves with one another, and then knowing what’s going on with each other. We expect to see each other in this assembly for God. It’s not me who called this assembly. It’s not you who called this assembly. It’s God who called this assembly. How dare any of us reject an assembly that God has called us to! I mean, I don’t think we sometimes think about the message we give God. If He is, and we know He is the Supreme Being of the Universe, how could any of us, when He calls an assembly say, “Got something better to do. I’ve got to do this instead.” When He sanctifies 24 hours in a day for us to be alone and close with Him, how do we ever say, “Eh, that’s too much time. I don’t need that alone time with God.”

What are we here for if we don’t need the time with God in order for him to work with us, grow us, have Him in our minds and be able to see the things that sometimes, the things of the world just crowd things out? We need the Sabbath day. God knows we need the Sabbath day. He knew it before He created it. That’s why He put it there on the seventh day of creation week. Don’t ever think you don’t need it, and that by just sleeping through the day, or not working on the day is enough. There is a real meaning and purpose to the Sabbath day. And those who endure to the end will learn that and live it. And the Sabbath day will become a delight and the day – the most important day in your life, as we come to understand that.

So, endure to the end. Think about endure to the end. “Endure to the end,” Christ said, and we will be saved. Let’s look at Matthew 4, we’ll see in the next one another catchphrase – nothing brand new here – but something, maybe, we have just not thought about in a while, and what God has called us to. In Matthew 4:17, Christ is beginning His ministry. He’s been baptized. He didn’t need to be baptized, except that He set the example for us, and we must be baptized. We must go through that, if we’re going to receive salvation. If Christ did it, there’s no reason that any of us should think, “I don’t need to be baptized.” Of course, we need to be baptized! Christ didn’t have any sins that needed to be washed away, but He knew we needed it, and it’s a symbol of surrender to God and burying the past life and knowing and realizing we have a different life ahead of us.

Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

A message for the ages – a message that the Church – His Church that He began – that follows His commands will be preaching. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It was at hand when He was here on earth. How much can we say today, “Is the kingdom of heaven at hand?” Yes, it’s pretty near when you look at the world around us – when we don’t have our heads buried into what the media might have us believe. But you look around us and you know, it’s nearer now than it was two, three years ago. We see those buds in full bloom. 

Matthew 4:17-19 “‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, ‘Follow Me.’”

“Follow Me” – those are powerful words and those are instructions to you and me from Jesus Christ – every disciple – “Follow Me.” Now, we might look at the English word follow and think, “Oh, following is pretty easy.” If I invite you to my house, and I say, “Well, just follow me,” you don’t have to think. You just have to stay close to the car, and I’ll lead you right to where it is. But following Christ, we’ve already read, isn’t easy. The way is difficult. The gate is narrow. And there are few who find the way, because following Christ – “following Me,” as He says – requires something very…well, it requires our entire lives. “Follow Me,” He said to Andrew and Peter, “and I will make you fishers of men.” They were fishermen, but Jesus Christ said, “You follow Me and your life changes. Your priorities will never be the same as they were before. You will not be the same people as you were before. You will still live in the world. You will still work in the world. You will still do the things of the world, but now you have a greater purpose. Peter and Andrew –

Matthew 4:20, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”

And their lives were never the same. They were never the same when they listened to Christ say, “Follow Me,” and they laid down their nets. Their lives were never the same. If we look back at our lives, when God opened our minds, and we heard those words - if I can say – “Follow Me. I am the Way. I am the truth. I am the life.” Our lives – if those words meant something to us – would never be the same again. They couldn’t be. And if they were – and we just kind of believe the way the world believes, then they would – we would just go on with our lives and not a whole lot would change. But for you and me, life changed. If we didn’t go to church at all before, now we were going on the seventh day. If we used to follow the first day, now we were going on the seventh day. We were no longer keeping pagan holidays. We were keeping the Feast days in the Bible. We were no longer eating lobster, and pork and all these other things. We were doing what God said. Our lives changed.

And it has to stay that way the entire rest of our lives, if we’re going to endure. Those are physical things, but there’s the spiritual that is more important than the physical – not that the physical isn’t important. That had to change – the way we think, the way we act, the way we speak – the things that entice us, the entertainment that we watch, the things that we want to do – you know, those things that we read about back in Peter, when he says, “Your friends say, ‘Wow, you’re not the same person anymore.’” Good for you! That’s exactly the way it should be. You shouldn’t be like your friends were before – shouldn’t find what they are doing to be exciting or what enthralls you. Their lives were never the same again.

Matthew 4:21-22 “And going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them…immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”

They followed Him in detail for the next 3 ½ years. They were with Him all time. They were observing Him. They saw how He was among people. They were listening to His teachings. They were learning the difference between Judaism and true Christianity. They saw His love for people. They saw His concern for people. They understood the differences between what had happened to the Jews, as they put their own spin on the truth or the scriptures of God, and they saw what true religion was in the figure of Jesus Christ. And He taught them. He taught them as they walked with Him and followed Him for those 3 ½ years. And it’s through their words, Jesus Christ said in John 17, that many, many have heard, because He speaks to us today in the way that He does – a subject for another time – but He taught them.

And we are disciples. We’re disciples, He calls us to be. We need to not just know Jesus Christ’s words, we need to live them. We need to compare what His words are to what we are. Are we like Him? Are we engaging with people? Do we love all people? Are we growing in that aspect? Do we care about all people? Do we pray for all people? Jesus Christ went around, and He healed everyone. The disciples saw Him – “Wow! Everyone who is brought to Him, He heals.” He’s preaching the kingdom of God, which is so different than what the Jews knew.

And the true church of God teaches the same thing that Jesus Christ did. It’s His Church. He trains and His words ring true today. When God calls us, and we receive – and I mean really receive, and not just say, “Yah, that makes sense. I see that” – but we dedicate ourselves to God, we’re never the same again. I won’t turn to Luke 14, verse 28 – if you’re taking notes you can put it in there. It’s where Christ said, “Count the cost.” Anyone I’ve ever baptized, or been part of that, I talk about counting the cost. Understand what God has called us to. He hasn’t called us to an easy life. He hasn’t called us to an easy road to follow, as we know, and as we will learn as we endure to the end – Jesus Christ and His return. He hasn’t called us to that, so count the cost.

You know what counting the cost is? We have to prepare our hearts. We have to prepare our hearts to follow God – meaning you have to think about it. Will I do that? I mean, it’s easy to say, “I would give my life for anyone in this room,” but would we really do it? When the time came, and if someone had you, and anyone else in this room, and said, “It’s your life or theirs,” would you let your life be taken? Jesus Christ did it. He counted the cost. He prepared His heart before He was there. He was ready, and He endured to the end in the calling He was given.

Preparing our heart is a huge thing – getting ready for what lies ahead, preparing our heart to follow God, and not allow this little idea to take me astray, or this little thing to keep me from doing what God wants me to do? Preparing our heart to say, “You’re first, God. You’re first. I obey You first.

In John 12, you know, part of our prayers can be to ask God to prepare our hearts. Do we even know what it is? You can ask Him, “Am I preparing my heart the way You want me to?” And if you find that alone time with God, you’d be surprised how many thoughts and clarity come into your mind when you give Him the time to answer your prayers, and not limit Him to fifteen minutes or thirty minutes, or whatever it is before you go to work. But you have time…God did give us 24 hours on a Sabbath, so none of us have an excuse. We all have time to be alone with God, and we can ask Him the questions, believe me, He loves to hear, “I want to do it Your way. Help me to understand Your way.” We sing a song, Teach Me Your Ways. God wants to hear that from us. In John 12:25, as we follow Christ and all that means – not just the simple little two-word phrase – but follow Him the way His disciples did – the way – we read in the Old Testament – Abraham did, as we see what they went through and how they endured to the end. In John 12:25, we can ask ourselves some questions about…are we there? Are we following Him? And, will we continue to follow Him? Christ’s own words.

John 12:25-26 “He who loves his life.” You know, it doesn’t mean just your physical life. We all love our lives. We all want to be alive. We enjoy life. But life isn’t just this physical breathing that we do. We all have jobs. We all have homes. We all have things that we do. Hey, my life is pretty good. I kind of like it. I kind of like what’s going on right now. Do you like it so much that, if God said change it, would you? “He who loves his life will lose it” – will lose it. It’s not always going to be there. “He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life” – and it doesn’t mean hate it. It means, love less it – love God more than what you love in this life – “and he who loves less his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life.” Let’s contemplate that verse. We’ve read that, if not hundreds of time, dozens of times. “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me.” You know, in ancient Israel, “follow God,” it wasn’t the straight path out of Egypt over to the Promised Land. It was a very crooked, unpredictable turn all the way for forty years to get to that Promised Land. When they followed Him, it didn’t make sense on paper. We might look at things and say, “Well, that doesn’t make sense. Never saw that coming along the road. I don’t want to do that.” We follow Him no matter how long the road, no matter how crooked the road, no matter how much it doesn’t make sense to us, because it all makes…He knows the way and we don’t. We follow Him. “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”

You know, the reward is great. (I’m looking for a scripture here that I know is there, I don’t see it in my notes. But let’s look at Matthew 19. While you’re turning there, let me look at one thing here.) Okay, Matthew 19:29 – oh, well, this is the verse!

Matthew 19:29 “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.”

What He’s saying here in Matthew 19:29 is, are you willing to lose your life? Do you love Me more than mother and father? Do you love Me more than your child? Are you going to do what I say rather than what you want? Do you love Me more than your house, love Me more than your lands? Will you follow Me above all those things? God will see. He knows what’s in our hearts. What are we willing to give up? What would it be in our lives that would say, “Nope God, I won’t do that. I won’t do that. I won’t follow You there. I won’t give that up.” Is there anything? Oh, we will all be tested on that. Will you do it? And He says, when we do, and when He sees through the patterns of our lives, that we will follow wherever He goes, we’ll be enduring to the end. We’ll be there when Christ returns. So, “Follow Me. Endure to the end. Follow Me.”

You don’t have to turn to John 14:6. I’ll tell you what it says – you know, it’s in the Bible. Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.” The way – the only way to the Kingdom of God, the only way to the first resurrection, the only way to eternal life is through Jesus Christ – the only way – and we must follow Him in exactly the way that He says to follow Him. Any other way, any other perversion of His way that we think is okay with God – He understands the situation – He is looking for us to follow Him exactly. It’s His way. “I am the way” – follow Him – “I am the truth and I am the light.”

If there are two things that mark the Church of God. We’ve talked about it lately. You’ve probably heard some things through the General Conference of Elders and the Council of Elders – Ephesians 4:15 – it says, truth in love. Truth – only one Church – and I don’t mean just one organization or corporation – only one Church is preaching the truth of God today, and that’s the Church that Jesus Christ started. If another church is teaching anything but the entire truth, then it’s not the church Jesus Christ started. There is only one Church that Jesus Christ says, “As we live that way of life, as we embrace the truth, as we receive the truth, that we grow into the agape that God wants us to have.”

In John 13, He says, “By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have agape for one another” – one of the fruits of His Spirit. Remember, those who endure to the end have those fruits that they display. Jesus Christ says He’s the truth. Jesus Christ and God the Father are love. That’s what He’s called us to – to become like Him – and He’s given us our physical lives to do that. Truth and love. And so the truth is what we cling to.

Let’s go back to the Old Testament for a moment in Psalm 86. You can see, as you look at David’s words, where God opened his mind to a lot of the truth. There are things that David would only know, as he recorded in the Psalms, if God had revealed those to him. In Psalms 86, and verse 11, he writes:

Psalm 86:11, “Teach me Your way, O LORD. I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name.”

Unite my heart. May the singleness of my heart fear You. May the singleness of my heart seek Your truth. May the singleness of my heart follow You and follow the truth. May the singleness of my heart, that is yielded to Your holy spirit of truth, lead me in the truth. And when I find truth, I reject everything else.

Psalm 86:12, “I will praise You, O Lord my God with all my heart, I will glorify Your name forever.

Truth – find it, follow it and learn it. You know, in the gospel of John, He talks about truth a lot. John, you will recall, was a disciple who lived the longest. He was there into the 90s A.D. And he talked about and used the word truth in the gospel of John more, and it appears there more, than any other book in the Bible. And then in his epistles, that were written later into the 90s A.D., it appears in those three epistles the second most places of anything.      John knew the value and the importance of truth and how we must be grounded into it. Let’s just look at a few things, We’re certainly not going to go through all twenty-plus verses that he has, but let us just look at a few things that John says, as we follow the truth and as we cling to the truth. In John 1:14, talking about Jesus Christ who became flesh, right?

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Full of truth. He came to earth, He was full of grace and truth.

“The law was given through Moses” (John 1:17). And you notice the word but is there in italics. They don’t know. You know, the law was given through Moses…probably the better conjunction there – there is none there in the Greek. “The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

John 4, as Jesus encounters the woman at the well in Samaria and she is understanding He is the Messiah, as He reveals that to her. In verse 23, he says: “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth – for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).

Worship Him in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must – must – worship in spirit and truth. Truth – clinging to truth

“You will know the truth, the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).

There won’t be any laws of the land, won’t be any great ideas that we have – the truth. You will know the truth and the truth will make you free. True freedom – things that we need to contemplate – true freedom from the bondage of this world and everything that holds us back from becoming what God wants us to become are wrapped up in this world. The truth makes us free. A few verses later in the same chapter, in verse 44, He contrasts the truth to the ways of the world. As He’s speaking to the Pharisees, who had the Bible, or at least the Torah in the Old Testament, but they weren’t worshipping God in spirit and truth. They weren’t worshipping the way that God had intended them to, Judaism had become perverted by their own desires and their own twists, and turns, and additions and deletions from it over the years. In verse 44 He says:

“You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do” (John 8:44). That’s what Romans 8:7 says. We want to do those things that are part of our natural nature. “He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.”

Who’s the great influence in the world today? Is it God? No, it’s Satan. The Bible tells us, “Satan is the god of this age.” John says, “The whole world is under the sway of Satan.” Is there truth in the world today? Is there pure truth in the world today? The answer is no. Christ says it. He doesn’t stand in the truth, because there’s no truth in him. He’s the opposite of truth. He may use a little bit of truth, mixed with a little bit of error. It no longer is truth - when you mix just a little bit of it into there. Satan is so clever at what he does – so cunning. We can be so deceived if we pay attention to it. Pure truth – exactly the way Christ said, exactly the word that the Bible is - that is, pure truth – that’s what we must abide by and learn to love.

John 8:44-45 “He doesn’t stand in the truth, there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.”  And then He says in verse 45. “But because I tell you the truth” – I’m telling you the truth – “you don’t believe Me.”

You don’t want to hear it. You want your own way. You’re just like Eve. “I choose. I want to do my way. I want to have it my way rather than God’s way, I’m not completely yielded to Him.” Well, if you look at John 10:3, he doesn’t use the word truth here in John 10, but He talks about the shepherd. And Jesus Christ is the great Shepherd. We follow Him. We know Him. We learn His voice. And that’s what He says in verse 3 here in John 10.

“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep, to him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:2-3).

The sheep know the shepherd’s voice and they learn to listen to just Him. They learn to discern truth from error. Remember, I think it’s in the gospel of John: who, “by reason of use, learn to discern good from evil; truth from error.” You have to know the truth, have to understand the truth, have to be looking into the Word of truth in order to know it. You can’t just read it. You’ve got to absorb it, think about it, meditate on it, compare you and me to the truth. That’s the self-examination that we do, if we truly are looking to follow Christ. John 16:13 – these are the words that He said to His disciples on that last Passover that He was on earth as a human:

John 16:13 “However, when the spirit of truth has come…” – That’s the Spirit that God puts in us when we repent, when we’re baptized, when we have hands laid upon us – “When the spirit of truth has come, it will guide you” – it will guide you – “into all truth.” Of course, that’s what God would do – lead us into truth. That’s who He is. “It will guide you into all truth. It will not speak on its own authority, for whatever the spirit hears, it will speak, and it will tell you things to come.”

Not physically speaking to you – you know, standing in front of you and saying things – but the thoughts that come into your mind when you pray, when you’re engaged with God, when you have that relationship with Him, when you ask a question and you’re alone so that you can hear His response, and not have it muddled out by whatever it is that might be muddling it out. When you’ve dedicated that time to be with Him, He’ll provide. He will lead you into all truth. John 17:17, don’t even need to turn here. I know we know this verse. “Sanctify them” Set them apart, that’s you and me, everyone in this room, everyone hearing, everyone in the true Church of God. “Set them apart by Your truth.”

That’s what sets them apart. God is truth, Jesus Christ is truth. We must become truth. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. We have it. He tells us where to find it. This is it! Christ said the scripture can’t be broken. In verse 19 of 17.

“For their sakes I sanctify Myself” For their sakes. “I sanctify Myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” And then He says: “I don’t pray for these alone, but for all those who will believe in Me through their word” (John 17:19-20).

What I teach them to preach – repent, and believe the gospel, and the kingdom is at hand, and the truth that they’re taught. So, truth. One more. Let’s go back to 1 John. I mentioned that he talks about truth in 1 John as well. 1 John 2:17, certainly a verse. The first few words here that are absolutely true in our age – always have been – but we see it today.

“And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God.” That’s those who endure to the end. “But he who does the will of God abides forever. Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know it’s the last hour. They…” Those who have left “They went out from us, but they weren’t of us.” All those seeds that were sown that haven’t endured to the end. “For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” In patient continuance by enduring to the end and not giving up for whatever reason. “If they had been of us they would have continued with us. But they went out that they may be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you…” – you, me, everyone listening – “you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know things. I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and that no lie is in the truth” (1 John 2:17-21).

It’s pure – this is the pure word of truth. Christ said, “By every word of God, live by it. It is pure truth.” Has Satan attacked the truth? Absolutely he attacks the truth. He knows where the truth is. He knew where it was in the Garden of Eden. It will be one of those things that will be fascinating to hear, if Christ chooses to let us know: What is it that Satan said to Eve that so convinced her that she would turn against the Creator and eat that tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What could he have said, how cunning and how clever is he that he could have turned her against God and said, “My way is better.” And if he could do it to Eve who…Adam and Eve were seeing God, walking in that Garden with them, that were being trained by God…that they could be deceived? Could you and I be deceived? If we don’t watch it, yes. If we don’t pay attention to our calling, if we don’t pay attention to what we’re supposed to be doing, yes, we could be deceived. That’s why Jesus Christ says, “Don’t be deceived, don’t be deceived, don’t be deceived!”

There are things coming up that will be really easy to believe, if we don’t watch what’s going on, and if we don’t know the truth, and if we don’t know the Shepherd’s voice, and if we don’t know where truth is. It didn’t happen long after Paul started the churches in Galatians, right? He went out there, many were called, they all received the Word. As we went through the book of Acts, we saw what happened in those three churches of Galatians. But then Paul went through and remember what he said in Galatians 3? “Galatians, what happened to you? Who bewitched you that you have turned from the gospel that I taught you? Who have you been listening to? Listen to the truth. Hold on to it.” If it happened to them, it could happen to any of us, if we take things for granted.

Back in Isaiah, you know, we’re here in our Bible studies right now. We’re in the book of Isaiah. We’re going to learn a lot of things – a lot of things in the book of Isaiah. It is a book that has so many points in it that you can’t even number them. Here in Isaiah 59:14, we see a picture of the world we live in today, just like we’ve been seeing in Isaiah 1, 2 and 3 as we’ve gone through that.

Isaiah 59:14 “Justice is turned back” Boy! Justice is turned back! Justice today is no longer what it used to be, right? All political. Who do you follow? Well, none of them are following Christ. You never hear His name in any of this justice. It’s this and that and whatever. “Justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off.” Hear anyone anywhere in the world talking about God? Anyone? “Righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street.” It’s no longer there. Truth has fallen. Now the world is grappling along its own way – the opposite of truth. Satan is leading it. Satan, the father of lies, leading people to believe one thing over another. They think their own way: “What I prefer is different, or better, or as good as what God wants.” “Truth is fallen in the street and equity can’t enter.” Don’t look at that word equity. I know there’s a word equity that’s out there in the world today, that’s not the same word. That means integrity. Look it up. “…and integrity cannot enter.” People of principles can’t enter. People don’t pay attention to that anymore. “What do you believe? Are you woke? Well, then I believe you. I’ll follow you.” What? You believe in the Bible? I’m not going to listen to that stuff.” Right? “Integrity cannot enter. So, truth fails, and he who departs from evil, makes himself a prey.”

Think there are times coming, when we say, “This is what we believe, and we’re not departing from it,” that the world isn’t going to say, “Well then, we don’t want anything to do with you. We’re going to make your life miserable until you agree with us.” Well, that’s the type of stuff we prepare our hearts for. That’s the type of stuff we look to God for. That’s the type of stuff that we pay attention to and get ready for as we engage in God and as He gets us ready for that time.

You know, truth, as we talked about in Ephesians 6, it’s the one offensive weapon we have. When people fire something at us, we can use the Word of God, and it will stop them in their tracks. They may divert the argument. They may divert attention from it. You can’t argue with the Word of God. When Jesus Christ was facing the great temptation, what He used was the Word of God – the Word of God to counter Satan.

2 Thessalonians 2 – can’t talk about truth and clinging to the truth without reading these verses in 2 Thessalonians 2 – again, familiar, but we have to bring ourselves right into the words here. Because you and I are in these words in 2 Thessalonians 2 – just like we’re living in Isaiah 1, 2 and 3 and 4, 5, 6, and all the way up to 66. We’re living in 2 Thessalonians 2. This is us, right?

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 “Let no one deceive you by any means. For that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first” What’s the falling away? Those who don’t endure to the end. People who give up for whatever reason. Cares of the world, tribulation, persecution, beast power, mark of the beast – all those things. What would be the thing that would lead you to fall away? Now’s the time to be developing the character and the strength with God’s Holy Spirit, because it’s only as we’re attached to Him, through His Holy Spirit and being strengthened by Him, that we can. Let no one deceive you. “For that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

Oh, that one that’s coming that’s saying, “Worship me. Follow this. Bow down to me. I have all the answers. I’m the salvation. I’m the one who has rescued the world from the complete chaos that they’ve put themselves into.” There’s only one Savior. The world will be deceived. They think they have no choice. You and I know: You follow God right to the end. You have the patient endurance to follow Him and endure to the end. Paul says the same things that we might ask ourselves: “Don’t you remember?” he said. “Don’t you remember that when I was with you, I told you these things?” We have to go back and be reminded of these things – that they are. We drop down to verse 9.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying.” Not truthful. “…lying wonders.”

It will be the people of God who are close to Him that will be able to see past those wonders that God allows Satan to work.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 “...lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception…” – boy, deception – “with all unrighteous deception among those who perish.” He’s not talking about the world. He’s talking about you and me, because we are in these verses – we could be this, if we’re not watching out “With all unrighteous deception among those who perish…” Why do they perish? “Because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

Without truth, and commitment to the truth, and without the love of the truth – that means you love it. You love the truth. And you love it and you display that because it becomes you. It becomes your life. And when you see something that you’re doing that’s apart from truth, you start building into your life that truth. No matter how much you don’t want to throw out the other part, you throw it out, and you put truth into your life. If we don’t do that, if we’re not watching as God gives us those opportunities to cling closer to Him, to understand His Word more, to see the faults that we have in our lives that have to be weeded out, so that we become the people that He wants us to become. Because He’s not going to have anyone in His Kingdom that He has doubts about. He will know, as He works with us: Will you follow My way? Will you endure to the end? Will you teach and have it become part of you – the truth that is in the Bible? Have you studied Jesus Christ? Have you studied it? Have you made it you? And are you living by it? Because if we’re not, why would He ever think that we could teach it? They didn’t love the truth. The question for us is: Do we love the truth? Not just know – got to know – but you’ve got to love it. And you show you love it by the things that you do and the changes you make in your life. Verse 11, think God won’t test us to see if we know it? He says it in verse 11.

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 “For this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie.” Will they believe Me, or will they believe the lie? That’s a pretty clever thing that this one out here is saying. That’s a pretty marvelous work that this one is saying.  You know, that makes sense, what this man over here, or this government over here has said, or whatever it is. God says, “I’ll know what’s in your heart.” Do you love the truth? Are you following the truth? Do you recognize the voice of truth? “For this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie.” Now is the time. Now is the time to be embracing the truth, seeking the truth, building truth into life. Why will we do that? “That they all may be condemned who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Goes back to what will I not give up? “Man, I’m not going to give that up. Don’t want to give that up. That’s really important to me. I think God understands that I don’t have to do that and I still love Him.”

How does God know we love Him? All our hearts, all our minds, all our souls yield to Him, submit to Him, surrender to Him, do His will. That’s how He knows whether we love Him or not.

So, let me end there for today. Next week I’ll talk about another thing, but I hope that you will keep some of these things in mind. Again, all of us, always part of the body of God, all of us, always part of the same family that God has called us to – no matter where we are or no matter what time it is – for eternity. Put that into your minds, put it into your hearts, determine that you will be there with everyone that God calls at the time of His return.