"Endurance and the Chastening of the Lord" Rescue Radio with Marjorie Cole

0:00 Music. Rescue Radio, because there's a war for your soul. Yes, the war. The war goes on and continues, and even in every level of our existence. So, Father God, we pray for divine peace, protection, revelation, pulling us back from the grip and the edge of the cliff into the place of abiding in you, Lord God.

0:45 We thank you that your will be done, O God, on earth and in and through us. As it's being done and declared in heaven. Teach us how to abide, teach us to endure, teach us to realize and believe and continue to believe that you are with us, you're for us, not against us, and that in all things, all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes, Father God. And we thank you for Jesus Christ who endured the shame of the cross. Despising that shame, even that he might bring us to salvation and for the joy that was set before him. I pray, Father God, that you continue to give us great, that we would treasure our salvation, that we would treasure our lives, that we would look into a place where we can refine or explore those precious gifts that you've given us, and that we would come into a new place of fruitfulness in your kingdom.

1:33 We bind the powers of darkness, witchcraft, charms, enchantments, sorcery, all kinds of things that the enemy has put on the heads and over and veils over the eyes of the people of the nations and the people individually. We come against those spirits of enchantment. We come against those deceivers. We come against the divination. We come against the powers of darkness with the blood of the Lamb of God and the Word of Jesus Christ. And we ask now for divine favor, blessing, protection, and Father, even promotion, that the things, the Word of God would be promoted in the midst of the earth, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, today we're going to be talking about, of course, endurance and the chastening of the Lord. This is a complicated subject because a lot of people don't, at first, at face value, if they don't really understand what's really at the root of or why we go through all these hard things.

2:21 You know, when all is said and done in doing life, one of the most foundational things, the most important and critical things, is to decide who do you believe. What do you think and feel and have to believe? Do you believe what the God of this world is saying and teaching you and has kind of programmed and brainwashed us to believe? Or what the Lord God says, the God of the universe, the one who created us, the one who has revealed himself to us. When all is said and done, really, it becomes a matter of whose report do we believe? And with all that, many people are troubled, their minds are troubled, because they cannot figure out what life is all about.

3:05 Because life is full of confusion, complications, it's layers, it's deceptions, it's games, it's all kinds of things, clever strategies that the enemy has used to entangle us, ensnare us, entice us, to cause us to actually waste the precious life that God has given us. With all of that, making decisions on how to follow God and stay the course, actually require a lot of endurance, determination to follow Him no matter what. Yeah, endurance. There was a famous NFL football coach named Bud Grant, coach of the Minnesota Vikings, and he said, the greatest ability is durability.

3:47 And that's really true, what you're talking about, Marjorie, as far as endurance, and endurance is really. The critical factor, the critical factor, to keep going. And basically, endurance can be defined as to harden, to hold out. That doesn't mean harden our hearts, but just to keep going, to toughen up, right? Yeah. And keep going, to hold out, to last, to continue to stand, to bear pain without flinching. The ability to stand against distress, pain, and fatigue, and to keep, just to keep going. Keep going to perseverance. But you know, the thing about perseverance, and I agree with you, enduring means, again, to suffer something painful or difficult patiently.

4:36 The Bible says to bear up under hardship. Endure with patience. Yeah, to withstand hardship, adversity, and persecution. But the thing is, if you're enduring something for the wrong reasons, it's a waste. You know, like, for example, there's, you know, you can be faithful and endure. If you're a hen trying to hatch some eggs and you can endure, you know, with hardship, you go without food. You sit there for 28 days or how many days it is, I don't remember. But if you're not sitting on eggs, you're sitting on doorknobs instead, trying to hatch doorknobs, you're enduring for the wrong reason. So, not that we're going to go there exactly, but to endure means with Christ and going through the Word of God. we look at Hebrews 12, where Jesus is enduring the suffering of the cross.

5:24 Can you start with 12.1 and then go through 3? Yeah, Hebrews 1 through verse 3. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance. King James Version says patience, endurance, the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. One translation says the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

6:05 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Yes, it's amazing. If we think about endurance suffering patiently. Jesus' pain, the physical, biological pain in his body at that time, was not the main thing, I think, that he was having to endure because he had to endure the grief, the sorrow of seeing when he came here in the beginning to see the rejection, the rebellion, the resistance, the degradation, the idolatry, the religious perversions of his father's word that had taken over the human race.

6:47 Even when, you know, in Matthew 23, when it talks about he wept over Jerusalem, you know, all of the things, and this was just right before the crucifixion. So he's got all these things, on his mind. And, you know, the thing is, enduring means there's something very difficult that you're going through. And we see, obviously, he endured it. He despised the shame. In other words, he wasn't even worried about what it looked like. That wasn't despising the shame. He endured the sufferings because that was the most important thing. Yeah. And endurance, you know, in sports, almost any sport, you need, especially sports that have a lot of physical movement.

7:31 You have to develop endurance. There's physical conditioning, and it gets to be some painful things, some— In the weight room, stuff like that, yeah. In the weight room, running, whatever, different exercises. Going beyond what's comfortable. To build up endurance so when you're actually in the game, you're not going to just wear out and fizzle out. Well, I believe that Jesus was physically fit when he went to the cross, but I don't think that was the thing. You know he says he despised the shame that word means take no thought for or minimize or make it of a little it's little the shame was a little thing it wasn't you know shame means i am bad i am bad because guilt says i did something bad but jesus was not bad he knew the shame was not for him or him but he he looked to everyone who was watching him very very ashamed i mean And stripped and beaten and mocked. Right.

8:30 I mean, hanging naked, just like a torn up piece of meat on the cross, in all due respect. But this is who he was. But what he was doing is he was doing it for us. He was bearing all our sin. And basically the wrath of God against sin that is ours was placed upon him. Yeah, in the Old Testament, they had sin offerings, they had burnt offerings, and they had all kinds of offerings. But Jesus became the offering for sin, the trespass offering, all of it. And yet, we see that he's using this, the writer of Hebrews is using this to explain to us that we should not grow weary or, you know, weak or despise the chastening of the Lord.

9:18 He says, my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. In other words, don't become overwhelmed. Don't make it a big thing. Don't get offended. Don't get bitter. I think chastening, you know, the temptation when someone is being corrected or chastened or trained up is to become bitter. But you notice the athlete does not become bitter when he's going through the hard things to endure, learn and temper his body to endure. He shouldn't. The student doesn't become bitter against the teacher. The inductee doesn't become bitter against the drill sergeant because they are really willing there to submit to the challenges, to learn, to be tempered, strengthened, so that they will prevail in the task that they've set themselves to.

10:06 And the coach or the drill sergeant, they're not the enemy of the person. They're the ones that are preparing them. They're the ones that are helping them develop endurance because they want them to succeed in what they're doing. And the only way you can do it is through hardship. And chastening. Chastening. Correction. And sometimes people don't want to take correction because you think a correction that's given is an assault against you personally, which is not an assault. It's correction from the Lord. It's done in love because you're seeing that this is going to harm you later on.

10:52 You need to know about this. You need to do it this way instead of this way. And so that correction is part of developing endurance. And character. And, you know, with that too, with correction, you said from the Lord. Yeah, we can all take correction from the Lord and it's okay. But when God uses someone else to correct us, like maybe a donkey, for example, in the Old Testament, or he uses a person who's not perfect themselves to draw something to our attention, to correct us, we then get offended rather than realizing that even though the correction is coming from a negative source or someone who doesn't love us or someone who's jealous of us or whatever it is, that the chastening, the difficult thing that you're going through, whatever it is, whether it's financial, emotional.

11:43 Relational, physical, it is all, The original originator of that chastening or the permitting that chastening to come to you is the Lord. And whether it comes to a system or a person that you can find fault with doesn't matter. Jesus could have found fault with everybody who was correcting him that day, correcting his religious beliefs because he wasn't traditionally touting the traditions of the elders. He could have, but he didn't despise it because he knew that the Father was permitting it because the Father was perfecting him and also setting before him joy, eternal joy and a position at the right hand of the Father. So, again, looking at that word chasing and how it comes to us, we can always find fault with how the corrections are coming.

12:31 So we fail, we wimp out, we melt away when it comes to enduring because we are offended. at me because why is this happening to me? How dare you say this to me? Because look at who you are. Or, you know, again, just that defensiveness, that being offended, defensive, all those things are maybe exactly what God is causing this chastening and endurance to root out of us. And you think of back in the day when you were in school, maybe you are in school now, but the people you really learn from are not the people that the teachers are just going to let you get by with everything, but the ones that are tough on you, and sometimes they think they might be really mean, and there are some teachers that are just plain mean, but those that are strong and strict and demand and want you to get better, those are, I think of that, teachers that I had back in school, even elementary school and high school, the ones that were the toughest, they cared about us, they wanted to develop us. Make sure you learn something.

13:32 And you learn from those and not from the ones that let you get by with everything. Well, yeah, and the word chastening in itself means correction. And I think no one really likes to be corrected. And chastening, Jesus was, he was enduring. He didn't need to be corrected. No, he didn't. There was no sin in him, but he was enduring the pain of all of our sin and our rebellion against God. So when God chastens us, he wants to bring us to the place of training, endurance, The truth, walking in the power and strength of the truth.

14:14 When Jesus told the parable of the sower and the soils, he said there's some that, some when they hear the word, like in Mark 4, 16. He said, the ones sown on stony ground, they hear the word and immediately receive it with gladness. They think, oh, this is good. Yeah, praise God, I got this. But then verse 17 says, and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Enduring, yeah. We've seen a lot of this in our day. People that start out fine and they don't endure for very long. Because there's no trouble in the beginning. There's no death.

14:57 There's no depth of, what is it, talk about? To persevere. Depth of earth, right? And they just keep, for a little while, they have no root in themselves. And so without, they can't endure. Well, it means to be strong, to be firm on wavering, to persevere beneath a heavy or a difficult burden or something that's long. I think of Abraham who endured his faith. He did not waver in his faith, even though it was a very, very long time that God had promised him. It was 25 years. 25 years. And the promise still hadn't shown up. And I think some of us are in these kinds of, And that is a chastening in a way, but also what you do in that chastening is you determine, declare, decide that you're going to continue on no matter what it looks like and no matter how long it lasts.

15:46 Because we have to know that in a trial, a tribulation, God is also in the midst of that trial, like with Job. God was in the midst of it to strengthen Job and cause him, give him grace to endure. Job was able to prevail. He didn't get bitter. He didn't, you know, succumb to the chastening of his friends who were, you know. Examining him and saying, what have you done that made God so mad at you? So an endurance is an ability to continue with your commitment to remain faithful to God despite what it looks like and feels like. And the seed that was sown in these stony places, there was no resistance.

16:34 The seed was sown on top of the ground, basically. The seed did not have to break through an inch or two of soil to sprout. And it had no root because it had no resistance. And so if there's no resistance, there's no root. And so we have to realize that with God, we have to be rooted deep in the revelation of His love and truth. And so, for some of you, you're going through fiery trials, long trials. Some of you, they're shocking. Some are sudden. Sometimes their trials are so... They just spring up from nowhere. But we have to realize in all of this, in every tribulation, in every trial, God is faithful to keep us and to complete his work in us.

17:15 And he is actually the one also walking. He is afflicted with us. This is when he was afflicted with the children of Israel when they were afflicted. He went with them in those afflictions. God also suffers. Don't you think that if you have a child and your child is suffering and you have to train them, maybe even discipline them or punish them or whatever, that you are not also suffering. Yes, you're suffering. And of course, you're suffering with them because you don't want to see them do something that will destroy them. And so we go through not only on both ends of the endurance and suffering to correct and be corrected. In Romans 5, beginning with verse 1, it says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

18:07 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. Wow. I mean, most of the time we just, we hate those things. They say, this is the piss. This is terrible. But he says, we glory in tribulations. Why? Why can we glory in trouble? because knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So when you know what you're going through is building perseverance and character and hope, character is what you really are.

18:51 It's basically developing the development of Christ-like qualities within you. We call it the fruit of the Spirit. I believe that Satan is testing our faith. He is despising us and wanting to pull us away from God, call us to a place of failure and shame and humiliation. So endurance comes from using the grace of God. And one of the things that often happens, even when you look at Jesus, going back to Hebrews 12, verse 1, 2, and 3, that he endured the shame and the humiliation of the violent injustices of the cross. When it says he despised the shame, that means he made little of it, minimized it, did take no thought of it. He didn't take it personally.

19:36 And I think that the humiliation was nothing compared to the joy that he knew he had in his heart. He knew God was faithful to bring forth that joy and that peace. But one of the reasons that chastening and endurance are, you know. A primary—difficult, I should say—they're difficult because many times the suffering is coming through an injustice. And someone's wronged you, robbed you, ripped you off, shamed you, stole your place, made you look stupid, betrayed you. So the injustice becomes a big part of the issue.

20:16 Jesus could have sat on that cross, hung on that cross, and been just offended to the max, been so upset. I don't deserve that. Because everything about that cross was an injustice. Everything. How they treated you. Yet it was an injustice, yet, but justice was accomplished. Because Jesus forgave them. That was the critical piece. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And I think many times this is exactly what needs to be said. Forgive them. I release them from my judgment. I forgive them because they have no clue about what they're doing. And that was the truth when they were mocking him and screaming at him to come down off the cross. So when you're in this place of being chastened.

20:59 What is God really testing? What is he bringing forth? Our faith as pure gold. But what does that mean? That means that he is allowing what is real and solid and precious to come forth and what is dross and offense and defensiveness and bitterness and all that to be burned off. So, what's left is goodness and purity and holiness, and that your heart is right with God because it's a heart of integrity, so everything that's not, full of the goodness of God, is being purged out of us through the chasing.

21:41 So in the chasing, you have to stay in the fire. That's the endurance part. You have to stay in the fire, stay on the altar. What is it, Romans 12, 1 and 2, present yourself a living sacrifice? Holy and acceptable to God. Yeah, don't jump off the altar in the middle of it and say, I can't do this. This is too much. I can't take this anymore. And a lot of times it's, the question is, is the length, how long, Lord? I want to read just from Psalm 13. He says, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? You know, how long will you hide your face from me? How long should I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

22:22 Consider and hear me, O Lord, my God, enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemies say I have prevailed against him, lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in your mercy. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. That's the question that we ask oftentimes. How long? I mean, it just seems like you're there. Have you forgotten about me? Have you hidden your face from me? I can't do this anymore. How long am I going to have this sorrow? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? We see that it seems like the enemies are riding roughshod over us and riding roughshod over this world.

23:08 But he comes to the place here. He says, I have trusted in your mercy. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. So this is part of the endurance is just the weight where it just, you know. God gives us the grace and strength to do that. You know, we want everything just fast and quick. Take care of it now. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, zip with our technology and stuff. Faster internet and everything. God is, he can be very fast, but he can be very slow, it seems to us. In Psalm 102, he talks about, but you, O Lord, shall endure forever and the remembrance of your name to all generations. And he goes on many places in that Psalm to talk about the endurance of the Lord to keep us. That's what his endurance is, to keep us, to be faithful, to keep us in the midst of these fiery trials, in the midst of this snake pit.

23:59 That God is faithful because he loves us. And it says in verse 26 of Psalm 102, He says. They shall perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will grow old like a garment. He's talking about our enemies. Like a cloak, you will change them, and they will be changed. But you are the same, talking about God. And your years will have no end. The children of your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before you. So all of the chastening and the endurance is for that one thing, to establish us before the Lord and our descendants. So ultimately, eternity is at stake here, and life is temporary on this end. The time that we're in our lifespan on this earth is of a limited number of years or days or whatever weeks.

24:45 But God in His eternity endures forever, and what He's doing right now is good for us, even if it doesn't seem like it's good for us. And if there is some, you know, it says the curse without a cause does not come. If there is a curse in operation, which there more than likely is because Satan is using any opportunity he can to bring a judgment against us and bring calamity against us and then blame it onto God. Even in all of that confusion, in all of the devil's intentions to kill us, God still ultimately gets the last move. God is ultimately the one who says, that's enough. And so it is the love and mercy of God that endures forever, his faithfulness that endures forever.

25:28 That is how Jesus got through his test, because he was looking to eternity. He was looking to the faithfulness and the goodness and the justice of God. And the only way you can get the justice of God is to forgive the people who Satan is using to torment you and who God is permitting Satan to use to torment you. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 1, it says, You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ, the favor that is in Jesus Christ, the favor, the power that is in Jesus Christ. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

26:09 And then he says this, he says, verses 3 and 4, You, therefore, must endure hardship. As a good soldier. Of Jesus Christ. Are we in a war? Oh, yeah. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. Don't get too entangled, people. It's all going to pass away. If you're in the army, you're not a civilian. Yeah. That he may please him who has enlisted him as a soldier. You know, and he talks about the athletes. He's not crowned unless he competes according to the rules, and he's got to have endurance. And the farmer. The farmer has to endurance. He waits for the crops. He waits for the crops. He believes.

26:51 And a lot of times, not only we're waiting, it seems like things go so long. It says in the last verse, 10, verse 10, he says, Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake that they also may obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. So, this is the case that Jesus endured for us, and Paul is enduring for his people, and we are enduring for those around us, our families and children, loved ones. We have to stand faithful because our endurance, our strength becomes courage and strength for them. And in verses 11 and 12 there, it says, 2 Timothy 2, This is a faithful saying, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

27:38 If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, and he cannot deny himself. So basically, we endure with him. We're going to reign with him. And another part of endurance, Marjorie, is that we trust him when we don't understand. There's a lot of things that come to us that we just don't understand why. We can ask why, why, why, but, you know, the best thing to do when we're tempted to ask why is just, Lord, I'm trusting. You know, interesting is we are built by God to trust Him in our spirits. In our souls, we waver and we vacillate and we go into double-mindedness if you use your mind, will, and emotions.

28:22 But if you go into your spirit and His spirit is bearing witness with your spirit, you already were created by God to know that He is trustworthy. He doesn't lie. He's honorable. he's good in, that he loves us. God loves us. And this is a very hard concept for us to grasp when we're going through chastening, when we're trying to endure because we don't get it. Why, why, why? Why me, God? What did I do? So we're assuming that we did something wrong, which isn't necessarily always the case. I don't believe chastening always comes because you've done something wrong. Punishment might come that way, but chastening is a correction or a deepening of the understanding, the comprehension, the maturity level, the endurance, the faithfulness, so that you will be able to be entrusted with even more things from the Lord in His kingdom to do for Him.

29:13 Yeah, you mentioned about the farmer later, earlier here. 1 Peter chapter of James, rather, 5, 7. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets. Verse 10 there of James 5. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience.

29:55 And indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the patience, the perseverance. Patience King James says, New King James, perseverance of Job. And seeing the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. And being confident of this very thing, Paul writes to the Philippians, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. So our salvation is up to him, and we are in his hands. He has not forsaken. He has not forgotten us. So be encouraged in the Lord, and we thank God for his faithfulness.

30:39 Yeah, and let me just, as we close here today. Galatians chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. And let us not go weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. He says, don't grow weary, don't give up, don't let it all go. Just keep going while doing good. because in due season, at the right time, there's a harvest coming. There's a reward. There's a reward coming. There's a reward for endurance. Amen.

31:22 So, Father God, we thank you for giving us grace and strength. It is your example on the cross that you endured the shame, despised the shame, didn't come down from the cross. For the sake of us, Lord, and thank you for giving us that same spirit of encouragement, faithfulness, endurance, that you are the one working in us, both the will and do of your good pleasure. And we will not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we will reap if we do not faint. Lord, I just pray for those that are listening today, some that maybe are going through some of the deepest trials of their life. Amen. Just agony and confusion. And Lord, we pray for encouraging and your encouragement that somehow this, what we share today will encourage them, will lift them up.

32:08 And there are some that are just in a place of confusion say what is going on some that maybe just have had such a sudden attack of ill health or something else Lord that bad news that's come their way we pray that they will just not freak out not lose heart not be shaken by this but they will just say Lord I'm trusting you, Give me wisdom. Show me what I need to do here in the midst of all this. Thank you, Father, for ministering your love, your truth, your mercy, your grace, your encouragement to everyone. People that are just kind of ready to give up or weary, tired, frustrated, Lord, let them just get with it again.

32:55 Amen. Just begin to pick themselves up by your grace and move forward with you. In Jesus' name. Amen. And I want to pray for someone who I see right now has, there's pain between your eyes. Your eyes are in pain. There's a lot of pain for whatever reason, I don't know, physical pain in your eyes. And it's kind of coming together right in the bridge of your nose where your eyes, there's a pain there. There's something going on there with the pain in the eyes and the bridge of the nose. And so I pray right now, Father, for this one or one many, that this affliction, I come against that affliction. It's a fiery sword against that with the blood of Jesus Christ.

33:37 I command the enemy the demonic judgment. Satan is put against your vision. I command you, enemy, take those burning firebrands out of their eyes in the name of Jesus Christ. I come against you, separate you from this person's vision, their eyes by the blood of Jesus Christ and the sword of his word And Father, we release them into a fullness of miraculous healing, that they won't have to go any further in investigating what's going on, but that you'll simply just lift this burden and this fear off of them now. Father God, clear up their vision, remove the pain in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So I have a book that might be of interest to people who want to understand the justice and the chastening of God. As a matter of fact, it is called A Case for Justice, and you can get it on our website, liferecovery.com.

34:28 It talks about chasing. It talks about testing. It talks about Job. It talks about the various members of the Bible, well-known characters who were tempted in trials, chastened. And so, again, the book is A Case for Justice. There's a lot of answers in that book. And the main issue we discuss is if God is so good, then why? So, again, liferecovery.com. We enjoy being with you, and thank you for joining us. I have an emergency. What is your location? Music. 3, 2, 1...

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