Turning Point

Guest (Male): Jesus never promised his followers an easy life. In fact, he said believers would face greater hardship and persecution in Earth’s final days. But take heart. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah returns to Matthew 24 to offer words of encouragement and tools for building endurance. With a spiritual pep talk, here is David to introduce his message: In the world of the end, be determined.

Dr. David Jeremiah: And thank you so much for joining us today as we come to the end of our message. I want you to remember everything we've talked about because these are the words of Jesus concerning the future. And here is one of the final emphasis for all of us: in light of all that is happening, all that we see, everything that we experience, the message is to have a spirit of determination to be God's person in this day.

The subtitle of the book from which this series has been taken is *How Jesus’ Prophecy Shapes Our Priorities*. When we see how God has controlled the future and the plan He has for us, we can live with confidence and be determined to go forward and not be taken away by the things that happen around us. We’ll get to part one in just a moment, but I have just a couple of days to tell you about this book.

This book is 241 pages. It’s every word you’ve heard me say during this last month as we have taught this series of lessons on the world of the end. I’d like for you to have this book, and you can receive it by sending a gift of any size to Turning Point and asking for the book. When you do that, you will receive it; it’ll be sent to you right away. Don’t miss this opportunity.

We’ll be on to something new in the month of May, but right now, we still have two days left for you to get this book. Simply send your gift, and when you do, ask for the book and it’ll be sent to you right away. Here’s part one of *In the World of the End, Be Determined*.

Flying across the Sahara Desert of North Africa is an incredible experience if you have a window seat. For hours and hours and hours, the only thing you’ll see is scorching expanses of sand. This is the hottest, harshest desert on the earth, and it's as big as the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Along with sand dunes are gravel-covered plains, salt flats, and barren plateaus. The eastern boundary of the Sahara is the Red Sea, and the western edge is the Atlantic Ocean. It’s like America between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, except it’s all Death Valley.

One November morning, three men dipped their toes in the cold waters of the Atlantic in Senegal, and they began to run. Their goal was the Red Sea, some 4,300 miles away. Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin were attempting something never before conceived in history: to run across the Sahara Desert. They were doing it to raise awareness of the millions living in Africa without access to clean water. But according to Charlie Engle, he and his friends were also driven to be pioneers. The challenge of doing something that had never been done before really appealed to all of them.

Their journey was plagued with challenges, some of which were geographical. Their route ran through six different nations: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, and Egypt. They endured blazing temperatures, sandstorms, government corruption, and sometimes had to run on two-lane highways where cars whizzed by at over 100 miles per hour. The physical challenges were even greater. The three friends averaged almost 40 miles a day, and there were several days in which they ran the equivalent of two marathons back-to-back or longer.

Each runner had to work through more than 50 blisters on his feet. They lost weight, they faced dehydration, and they slept no more than five hours every night. But the biggest obstacle for the runners was mental. It was much more of a mental exercise than physical, said Engle. It was much tougher on the mind than it was on the body. Near the end, the runners were seriously breaking down. Two suffered from severe tendonitis. All three were dealing with intestinal viruses. Their feet had swelled into another shoe size.

The youngest runner, Kevin Lin, began to talk openly about giving up and going home. As expedition leader, Charlie Engle encouraged him to stay the course, to keep trying as hard as possible until the last moment. It’s something I’ve learned from adventure racing, Engle said. Don’t ever pull yourself off the course. Go until you can’t go because something might change. You keep going. And they did. They dipped their toes in the cold waters of the Red Sea after 111 grueling days. It was an unequaled feat, and I don't mean F-E-A-T, but F-E-E-T, an unequaled feet of endurance.

If you were to check through the dictionaries and online resources, you probably couldn't find a better definition for endurance than Charlie Engle’s statement: You just keep going. You just keep going. That's what it means to endure. That's what Jesus communicated to his disciples on the Mount of Olives. As we have learned so far, the signs of the times about which Jesus prophesied were frightening, and frightening to me.

He warned about deception from the outside and inside the church. He warned about famines and earthquakes and pestilences. He foresaw tribulation and persecution, lawlessness and lovelessness, and even those who profess to be Christians, he said, would fall away. But all the negatives lead to an incredible positive, a phenomenal promise found in the 13th verse of Matthew 24: “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

Now, I know that sounds a little bit contradictory to what we normally talk about when we talk about salvation, but if you’ll give me a little leeway here, I’ll straighten that all out for you a bit later. The promise was true for Christ’s earliest disciples as they endured attacks from the Roman Empire and the religious leaders of their own community. That promise has been true for all who have remained faithful to God’s kingdom throughout the ups and downs of history.

And that promise is especially critical for us today as we approach the world of the end. Yes, we’re going to face obstacles and difficulties. In so many ways, this world is a giant Sahara Desert. But we have a race to run, and we cannot give up. We must keep going with enthusiasm, with the strength of Christ within us, and the victory in sight. So, let’s begin our journey through this passage and this short verse with the strength of our stand. Let’s look at the first part of Jesus’ promise: “But he who endures.”

The Scriptures are packed with admonition and encouragement for God's people to keep going in tough times. That’s why we love the Bible, because we go through tough times and we open the Bible and there’s something to help us get through it. We know that. You all have come to me on occasion and said, "How did you know what I was going through?" I don't know; I just read the Bible and I preach it, and the Bible covers the issues.

We certainly face obstacles and difficulties. In so many ways, this is like a Sahara Desert. But the Scriptures help us, and the biblical writers employed many terms to describe the quality of character that it takes: endurance, steadfastness, faithfulness, perseverance, and so on. But the basic idea is for followers of Christ to keep following Christ all the way, no matter what happens. Jesus said, “No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Paul instructed Timothy to keep going in the face of trials: “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Sometimes people ask me how are you doing, and I hear myself saying, "I'm soldiering on." We soldier on, don't we? We keep going. A few verses later, Paul added to Timothy, “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

And then James wrote, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” Now, the Bible word for endure in Matthew 24 is a word which means to stay or remain, to lock your feet in place and not move. So, the picture Jesus used to describe those who endure is those who are determined to stay under the load until Christ lifts the load.

It refers to submitting to a specific directive or command and choosing to stay in a certain spot even if others have moved on or moved away. We might say that today while we're watching all the values of our world being decimated, we are not going there. We lock step in the place that we know is right and true, and no matter what else is happening, we shall not be moved. In today's terminology, you might say it's the person who hangs on to the end who shall be saved.

That's not easy. It takes a lot of strength to hang on. We often think of endurance as passive. It's not passive, I promise you. Did you ever endure a lecture from a boring teacher? That’s passive. What about suffering through an all-night shift? In cases like that, you just grin and bear it. That’s passive endurance. But Jesus is not talking about passive endurance. He’s calling for endurance as a command for his followers to take a stand, to push against the current and refuse to be moved, to hold firm in their convictions and their character even when it seems like the whole world is against them.

Paul wrote to the earliest believers these words: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Did you know that in the Bible, there is no instruction for us to attack? The instruction is for us to stand firm in the ground that we have. We didn't get that ground ourselves; it was given to us by Almighty God. He doesn't ask us to do anything except stand strong and defend our territory. There's no place where we attack. We stand, and standing is hard. You know why? Because we want to attack.

Almighty God says, "I want you to have the endurance and the strength and the courage and the steadfastness to believe what you believe, to know what you believe, and stand strong in that belief, no matter what anybody else is saying." Let them believe what they want. Some of it’s so crazy you wonder how any intelligent person could believe any of it. And yet, here we are. The strength of our stand.

Notice secondly, the stamina of our stand. Running across the Sahara Desert takes stamina, which is a word having to do with resilience. We not only endure, but we endure until the end. Notice the middle section of our Lord’s sentence: “But he who endures to the end will be saved.” The end of what? That's widely debated, and if you read 10 commentaries, you might get nine different answers. But to me, it's not difficult.

A perennial stamina. First, we're to keep on going until Jesus comes for us or calls us home. We're perennials, not annuals. By that, I mean we just keep coming back again and again. This is not for a short time; this is all the time. We have two stopping points: the Rapture or death. And we keep going until one of those two things happens. God has called us to be faithful.

John 17:4 says, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” Those are the words of Jesus as He talked to His Father toward the end of His time here on Earth. He said, "I have finished the work that You gave Me to do." We're to pursue the Lord’s will and calling for our lives until we can say like Paul the apostle, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

What I'm talking about today is this generation in which you and I have been placed, not because we chose to be here. I could have been a Renaissance man, and you could have been anyplace. But he put us here. And there’s never been a time like this, I admit that. I watch television every day and I think, "Oh my goodness, where did that come from? This is crazy what's happening."

And so we've gone through this whole series of all the stuff that's happening, and it's almost like at the end, the Lord is wrapping his arms around us and saying, "Look, here's what I want you all to know. Stand firm in what you believe. Stand strong in what you're committed to. Don't be wavering by what's going on around you." You don't have to attack it; just stand against it and stand strong.

We don't have to use our own strength even because we pray like the prophet Isaiah prayed in Isaiah 33:2: “Be our strength every morning.” Isn't that a great prayer? You can personalize it: "Lord, be my strength every morning." Isaiah 33:2. Or we can claim Isaiah's promise: “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.” For those of us living in the world of the end, Jesus’ words are a call to keep going as the signs of the times are exploding around us.

We’re to run through the smoke, we’re to run through the trembling earth, through the spinning battlefield, and through the agitation of our age. We cannot stop until Jesus comes. Our calling is a road that has no off-ramps. It’s a road straight to where God has called us to be. The attitude doesn't always appear as public feats of gallantry. This is not something we get on television with.

Usually, it shows up quietly in our lives. Raymond Edman of Wheaton College used to tell his students, "It's always too soon to quit." Now I want to ask this question; you don't have to answer, you can grunt if you want to. Have you ever thought about quitting? Yeah, we all have, haven't we? We've all had moments when we wonder as we total up both sides of the equation, what am I doing here?

When it comes to our faith, there's no quitting place. Paul felt this way in Acts 20. He told the Ephesian elders this: “See, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit tells me that in every city chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me,” he said, “nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify of the gospel of the grace of God.”

I love that little phrase in the middle of that verse: “None of these things move me.” Talk about all you want to talk about that's happening, and I'm not even going to start on the list because it'll derail us all. But none of these things should move us. You know why? Because we're locked in place in the center of the will of God, and Jesus Christ is in our hearts, and the Holy Spirit infills us.

And whatever's going on out there, it might be uncomfortable and it might be something we wish desperately it wasn't happening, but what really is important is Jesus Christ is at the center of our lives and we're standing strong in Him. You see, what everybody wants you to know is that all that's going on out there, that's reality, and what's going on inside is just sort of a quiet spirituality. Totally wrong. Everything that's happening out here is headed toward a disastrous ending. Everything that's in here is headed toward eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ. I am an eternal son of God, and so are you, an eternal daughter of God if you're in faith.

The Living Bible says this: “Life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others the good news about God’s mighty kindness and love.” What a slogan that is. So, what I want to encourage you to do today—I hope you're getting this message—is that in the midst of everything that's happening, the thing you need to do is be strong in the Lord. Know what you believe, believe what you know.

Don't be afraid to be a student and get stronger in the Word. But while these things are happening, put your anchor down deep and don't be moved. Because that's what the enemy wants to do. He wants to come with all these influences and move you off the sweet spot of your relationship with God. He has no other purpose than that. He wants to devour you and destroy your influence and remove you from the joy that is found in your walk with Jesus Christ.

So you get up every morning and you say, "Lord, I don't know what's going to happen today, but I shall not be moved. I'm with you and you're with me. We're going forward together and we'll face whatever happens." Then there's personal stamina. Every once in a while, I get a little tempted to be a little grammatical with you. I've told you before that I was an English major a long time ago. And I love grammar, and I love the way if you look beyond the words, you find meaning that you wouldn't find if you didn't study it.

So let me show you one situation like that. It's in our passage today. A careful analysis of Matthew 24 gives us a clue about the stamina we need to endure to the end. It's personal. So if you're a student, you will discover that biblical Greek can tell us some things we wouldn't know if we didn't study it. And I don't want to bring this up to make you feel like if you don't know Greek you can't study the Bible. This is just a little nugget I want to leave with you.

When we see the word "you" in English, we don't know what to think, but in the Greek language, you can tell that. The Greek language is different. For instance, Jesus used the plural "you" in these verses in Matthew 24. When you go through this with me, you'll understand what I'm saying. In Matthew 24:2, he said, "Do you (plural) not see all these things?" He's using "you" in the plural. In Matthew 24:4, Jesus answered and said to them, "Take heed that no one deceives you." He's talking to the group.

In Matthew 24:6, "You (plural) will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you (plural) are not troubled." This is the plural "you." In Matthew 24:9, "Then they will deliver you (plural) to tribulation and kill you (plural), and you will be hated by all the nations." But there's a shift in Matthew 24:13. It's a wonderful shift. The word translated "he" in that verse is not plural, but singular. “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

We don't endure as a group; we endure as individuals. The "he" here is singular. He could have said, "But you (singular) endure to the end, you (singular) will be saved." Isn't that interesting? Here in verse 13, Jesus spoke to you and to me as individuals. He was encouraging each of us to hang in there and keep on hanging in there for as long as it takes. Enduring as a follower of Jesus requires not only strength, but also perennial personal stamina.

And so don't be afraid to take your stand for what you know is right and what God has communicated through His Word. Then keep standing no matter what comes your way and remain steadfast until the end. As a pastor, I'm a pastor-watcher. I watch other pastors. One of the most grievous things to me over these last few months and years has been to watch guys that I knew and respected who had strong positions on the social issues that the Bible addresses, but because of the pressure of their community, because of the pressure of the people they're trying to reach, they didn't go out with the right strategy.

They changed what they believed. They went soft on the issues. They no longer declared, "Thus saith the Lord." They allowed the social pressure to come in and change what they said, and they lost their power. They lost their ability to make a difference. Listen, if all we are going to do is try to figure out how close we can get to what the world is, we got nothing to offer them. The world doesn't need what they already have. They already have people that are willing to give up their positions on no matter what situation they're in.

But so many of the guys I know—and thankfully not all of them—but so many, I look up and I read an article and I think, "Oh my goodness, not another one. Not another one who used to believe what the Bible says but now believes this." It's frustrating and makes me more determined than ever. I'm going to be a grouchy old man to the end. I love that phrase: "I shall not be moved." You're not going to change that. I'm not changing my position on that. As we approach the world of the end, we're going to have to learn what it means to strengthen our stand.

Amen. Because the winds of deceit and disobedience and evil are blowing very hard against us. God has called us to stand, to be determined. And we’ll have more of this tomorrow.

Guest (Male): But let me just take this opportunity on the day before this offer goes away to remind you that there are resources for the series you’ve been listening to on the radio that will enable you to use this material for small groups or however you get together with others to share the Word of God. And the resources are, first of all, the book, which you can get for a gift of any size. Get your request in the mail today, and this book will be on its way to you.

There’s also a study guide and a set of CDs and DVDs for the series, and you can get this material from davidjeremiah.org. Get the resources and you be an instigator of a study of these things that the Bible says will happen in the future. One last message tomorrow. Hope you’ll join us then. I’m David Jeremiah.

For more information on Dr. Jeremiah’s series *The World of the End*, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected: our monthly magazine *Turning Points* and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org/radio. That’s davidjeremiah.org/radio. Or call us at 800-947-1993.

Ask for your copy of David’s informative and inspiring book, *The World of the End*, with a special "Be the Answer" bookmark. Yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah’s decades of study. Get all the details when you visit our website: davidjeremiah.org/radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we conclude the series *The World of the End* on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.