THOU THEREFORE ENDURE HARDNESS

This verse has many applications today.

I. First, how it applied to me.

I trusted Jesus in a Bible study early in 1977. Right away I started looking to go deeper in Christianity. I read the writings of the Church Fathers, the early Christians of the first three centuries. I read how they were tortured by the Roman Empire and did not deny Jesus.

Then I read Richard Wurmbrand’s book, “Tortured for Christ.” He and many others were tortured in Communist prisons in Romania. That still happens in China, North Korea, Iran and other countries.

Seriously, I wondered if I would hold up. I looked around the Bible study. The girls wanted to eat ice cream. The guys wanted to look at the girls. No, they wouldn’t make it.

I started looking for a strong and serious church. I was invited to a Wednesday night prayer meeting of our church, at a house in West Los Angeles. Dr. Hymers came in and gave a talk. He gave that very verse. And he told us to be like Richard Wurmbrand. That was when I decided to be here!

And that is why I have stayed here. I didn’t mind the heavy schedule. That’s training. I didn’t mind the discipline. I didn’t mind the rules. I didn’t mind much the rebukes. All that was training! You may not think of church that way, but I do. Most people think church is a place to study the Bible and have fun. It is much more than that.

Most churches have no standards at all! We have some standards: church Sunday morning and evening, dress nice on Sunday, let all things be done decently and in order (I Corinthians 14:40). Can you handle it? Or is it too much?

II. Second, how it applies to you in your daily life.

All of you have challenges and conflicts in your life. Sometimes you have troubles. You may get sick. You may get fired. You may have financial trouble for another reason. Maybe church just isn’t as fun and happy for you as it used to be. Everyone has troubles. What are you going to do? Are you going to obey our text, or not? I say be strong in Christ. Honor. Service. Love. Suffering if you have to.
And a Christian attitude. That’s it!

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

Will you put up with a little hardness, or not?

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

III. Third, how it applies to our country and our society.

Let’s face it. Things are going downhill fast. You know it and I know it. Today we have demonic things taught as normal:

Homosexuality

Abortion

Transgender

Mutilating children

Hating conservative Christianity and churches

Socialism (really communism), failed everywhere, but they want it here

Islam honored – and tremendously so in England, France, Germany and Spain. But it’s growing here too.

Because our country turned its back on God, God turned His back on us. There are many ways we could go down, slowly or quickly. Or first slowly, and then quickly.

$40 trillion national debt, unpayable

$2 trillion or more deficit every year

Unlimited social benefits for people who don’t work, both Americans and immigrants

Money wasting and graft: the bullet train, the homeless

A big earthquake in Southern California. Everyone agrees it will come someday. Everyone knows we are overdue. But almost nobody, not one in a hundred, is prepared in even a small way. Imagine what would happen in a big city like LA. Riots and worse.

Stock market may go down (and most people’s money is there, in 401K and IRA).

Warren Buffet, the greatest investor of our time, is now 96 years old. He said, “the dollar is going to hell” (exact words)

Inflation. Everything costs more every year (the dollar goes down). We all know it. Have you thought about it?

Trump may do something crazy. Sure, he may.

A disputed election, 2026 or 2028, quite possible, with real consequences

A depression, otherwise known as hard times. No money, no jobs. My parents went through it in the 1930s. So, it is possible. What if the party time ended and it happened again?

Terrorism. Drones? Already been done.

Electrical blackouts

Water system

Disease (predicted in the Bible). It came out on Sept. 29 that Fauci had been working on an aerosolized version of Ebola with your money. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

AI gets dangerous. An AI gets out and does things. Already started. In one company, an AI fired people without any human being involved. Or even worse, somebody programs an AI to do dangerous things like start a war, design a virus, or destroy the financial system, or the electrical and water system, or who knows what? Would people really do that? Want to bet AI won’t do something big in the next five years?

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said that in the next few years 1 billion people could be killed by something AI did. I’m not looking forward to that. Question, Mr. Gates. Are there some out there, maybe you, who want just that?

Climate change. At least some of this is real.

This is not science fiction. All these things are possible right now, or happening now, or in the next few years.

Now, I didn’t say that all of these, or even any of them, WILL happen in the next two or three years. But everyone knows they COULD happen. Want to bet none of them will?

Here in the US we have had it very easy for the last 80 years. But will it always stay that way?

There are so many dangers that this is all called a polycrisis. It is a crisis with a whole bunch of things that could happen, separately or together.

I try to be prepared, but the most important thing is to be strong and ready spiritually. So what do you do? Live with honor. Live in Christ. Develop a strong Christian character. Share the Gospel. Show a good attitude. Get some training. That’s what I want to do.

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

IV. Fourth, think of how it will apply in the Tribulation and just before.

The Bible says there will be a world government headed up by the Antichrist. Through computers and AI, he will control everything. You will not be able to buy and sell without his mark. The mark means ownership, so Christians must not ever take it, no matter how much they suffer. You don’t know how bad you’ll get hit – but it will be bad.

There will be a universal false religion, or group of religions. Anyone else will be persecuted.

There will be terrible wars.

There will be famines.

There will be gigantic earthquakes.

The green grass will die.

The ocean life will be killed.

A gigantic mountain will fall into the ocean (asteroid? Nuclear weapon?)

Troubles with the sun and the moon.

Demons running around to do terrible things.

You have no idea how hard you’ll get hit.

And there are more. Read the Bible.

If this happens in my lifetime, I don’t think I will live through it. You probably won’t either. But you CAN be ready spiritually if you prepare by training. I must not deny Jesus. Nor should you. That’s the point. The Bible says,

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:11). These Christians didn’t live. But they overcame the devil by the Blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony. They loved not their lives unto the death.

You do read the Bible, don’t you? You do believe these things will happen, don’t you?

The point is not for you to physically live through all this. The point is to be faithful to Christ. So what do you do? Honor. Service. The Gospel. Suffering if you have to. A Christian attitude. Jesus said,

“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).

Will you stand by Jesus, or deny Him? I thought about this many years ago. I hope I will stand for Jesus. But you’ve got to get strong now. An easy time now won’t help you then.

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

V. Fifth, think how it will apply in the later years of your life.

It definitely will. Sooner or later, your life will fall apart. Your health will fall apart. It happens to everyone. It will happen to you. You will not live to be 200 years old. Something will happen to you, and it may come by surprise. You know this. It’s not popular, but it’s true. Someday the floor will fall in. But you don’t like to think about it.

My Parkinson’s Disease didn’t finish my life, but something else will. I, and all of you, are just going on till something hits us. Like what?

Cancer

Heart attack

Stroke (Dr. Hymers had one and that’s why he is in bed)

Falling down. That can break your hip and put you in a wheelchair for life. I’m scared about going up and down stairs.

Dementia (Cruel. My mother had it)

Osteoporosis (you can’t walk, and you can easily break something)

Losing your sight (macular degeneration)

Kidney disease

Excruciating pain

Pneumonia (with my Parkinson’s I can swallow wrong, food into my lungs, get an infection in my lungs, and get pneumonia)

And more and more and more.

We all know about these things. Maybe you have seen some of this happen to others. Are you ready if it happens to you? It will, you know. Are you spiritually strong? You can be.

I can’t say which of these will hit you. I can’t say when something will hit you. But I can be very sure of this: sooner or later, something WILL hit you. Then something else. Finally, you will die. It happens to everyone.

Admit it. It’s true. Now I ask you, will you be able to handle these things and keep up a Christian life and a Christian attitude? You won’t be as strong physically. But can you keep acting like a Christian with a Christian attitude? Honor. Service. Suffering if you have to. Love. The Gospel. And a Christian attitude. That’s the answer! It will be hard, but you can do it if you train. Start acting that way now!

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

And the first thing to do is to trust Jesus. He will wash your sin away with His Blood. Trust Him. I hope you will do that. Amen.