“HOLD FAST” – ENDURANCE AND PATIENCE
Hebrews 10:35-39; James 5:7-11; Revelation 3:7-13
We have lived through unprecedented times in the last two years, dear brethren; I am sure we are all aware of that. We have felt the restrictions that had to be imposed. The pandemic has been felt across the whole world. God has allowed these things, and He has allowed them to affect believers. I was encouraged to read these scriptures as having in mind that we might learn from what we have experienced.
These scriptures speak of endurance and patience, and I think that is something that we can learn from the experience of the last two years. How important these features are for all of us, dear brethren, that we should be marked by having endurance and patience. We have read scriptures which speak of having patience, and there are many other references. The same Greek word is sometimes translated as endurance and sometimes as having patience. Two years ago, we heard about a new virus; since then, we have been subject to various restrictions, and believers have been restricted from gathering together. There has been some suffering while we have waited for this to end. We have waited for the time when we could be together again, waited as seeing and hoping that it would be soon, but not knowing exactly when it might happen. But now we give thanks to God because it is an answer to prayer that we have the liberty of gathering again, that we can meet in larger numbers on an afternoon like this. Believers generally have been marked by having endurance, by having patience, through this time of waiting. But that feature really is to mark this whole dispensation of waiting on the Lord’s coming, and it should mark us, dear brethren, in these last days, as we await this day that we have read of, the coming of the Lord. It says where we read in Hebrews, “For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay”. He will not delay.
Last week, we heard in an address about being prepared for His coming. I was encouraged to say a little more about that. Perhaps the Spirit is emphasising the need for us to be awake and have our hearts lifted and our eyes lifted, to be waiting for that glorious day when the Lord will come. What is that day? I know that the Lord Jesus is in heaven now; that is true, but He too is waiting for that time when He will come and take His own to be with Himself. “He that comes will come, and will not delay”. He will come; it is actually going to happen! It says, “the Lord himself …” (1 Thess.4:16); He does not delegate it to another, as has often been said, but He will come Himself and gather up all who are precious to Him, the dead in Christ as well as the living who remain. Those living and waiting will be caught up, never tasting death. What a glorious thing that will be, but we should all be ready for Him, for “he that comes will come, and will not delay”.
This glorious fact was in the minds of all who were living in the early years of Christianity. It was a constant reality to them; they were always waiting and expecting the Lord’s soon return. But then time went on and that hope became a little less bright in the hearts of believers. Through the history of the testimony – speaking generally at least – that light grew dimmer and dimmer until there was a revival as to the reality of the Lord’s coming. And now, I believe we may be in the very last days of this time of grace; indeed we may be in the very last hours of it! Are you aware of that? Are you hoping and expecting the soon coming of the Lord? And are you waiting for it with patience and endurance? “For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay”. The Lord says that not even the Son knows that hour, “but my Father alone”, Matt.24:36. When the moment comes and the word of the Father goes out, the Lord “will not delay”. The Lord Jesus is waiting, and as soon as that moment comes, He will not delay. He will come and take all who are precious to Himself to be with Him for ever.
“But the just shall live by faith”; this section that we have read at the end of Hebrews 10 goes on into chapter 11 which sets before us these great examples of faith. In verse 5, it speaks of Enoch; “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God”, Heb.11:5. In Genesis, it says that “Enoch walked with God” (chap.5:22); he had that testimony for these three hundred years in which he was walking with God. We often hear it said that Genesis is the seed plot3 and we see everything laid out in it, all of God’s original thoughts laid out there for our instruction. Enoch is a type, an example for us of one who did not see death. He was translated; it says, “for God took him”, Gen.5:24. He was not found on the earth any longer, and he is a picture of believers who will still be alive at the coming of the Lord. The living who remain will be taken up to be with Him in this same way. Dear friend, are you looking for that? It says, “For ye have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise”. God’s promises are rich, and they are full! He promises us the very greatest things and they are all set forth in Christ. The writer says that “ye have need of endurance”; it is a feature that we have much need of. As we go on in our responsible pathways down here, years pass and we may think that the Lord has not come this year and He did not come last year – when will He come? I suppose that would be the way the natural mind thinks, and if we allow it, the brightness of the Lord’s coming would perhaps grow dimmer in our hearts. That is why it says “ye have need of endurance” and we are to “run with endurance the race that lies before us”, Heb.12:1.
We do not know the hour, we do not know the moment when it will be, but we have a wondrous goal set before us, and as having endurance and having patience we can see that this glorious end is in sight, He will come. It is not a hope that it might or might not happen, it will happen. We do not know when this hour will be, that moment when the Lord will call His own. Dear hearer, I would appeal to you: are you the Lord’s? Do you know the Lord Jesus for yourself? This is not the gospel, but you may not have another opportunity to listen to the gospel preaching; the Lord may come and take His own to be with Himself. Do you know Him for yourself? Are you the Lord’s? Have you put your faith and trust in Him? It says here “the just shall live by faith”. We are justified in Him; we cannot stand in our own strength, but we can live, as it says here, by faith in God and in all of His promises towards us. We have the Holy Spirit; it speaks of Him as the “Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph.1:14) and He would set before us these wondrous things. He would help to maintain us at the height of God’s purpose for us, so that this hope is always before us, that we are always looking for the Lord’s coming in expectation.
In James, it says, “Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord”. We are to be marked by that patience, awaiting that time which will be a perfect time, all in the Father’s hand. We have sung,
‘Lord Jesus, come’ (Hymn 274),
and then we wait in patience for Him. We are to have patience; it is one of the things, as this scripture says, that believers are to have done. It is in the ‘aorist’, according to footnote ‘e’; we are to have that feature of patience marking us characteristically. It does not mark us in the flesh, for we are naturally impatient. If we see something, or want something, we want it now; even the youngest child wants it now. But patience is to mark believers, especially in the present time. There is something that I am sure we all desire and long for, and that is to be with our Lord and our Saviour, to be with Him for ever as we read last week: “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3:2. What a blessed prospect we have, and we are to have patience as awaiting that time. We need patience and endurance because there is so much that would beset us. We have spoken about the pandemic and how believers have been restricted from gathering together. There is much that is going on in the world around about us, there is much that would make us uneasy perhaps, things that would discourage, but we are to have patience as keeping our eyes fixed on the goal which is above. The hymn says,
‘The sky, not the grave, is our goal’ Hymn 238.
That goal is there before us, but we are to have patience until the coming of the Lord, until that moment. We will not need this feature after that moment, for we will be with Him for ever, but we are to have it until that day.
Then it says, “Behold, the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, having patience for it until it receive the early and the latter rain”. This feature that is to mark those who are His is found pre-eminently in the Lord Jesus. He is the One who has patience at this present time: what precious fruit there is for Him here on the earth. The Lord has given everything He had to secure it and now He is waiting in patience until that time, “until it receive the early and the latter rain”. The Spirit’s long service here on the earth is bringing out these precious fruits as a result. Think of how the Lord spoke in parables about the man sowing good seed in his field but then an enemy sowed darnel amongst the wheat. “And the bondmen of the householder came up and said to him, Sir, hast thou not sown good seed in thy field? whence then has it darnel? And he said to them, A man that is an enemy has done this. And the bondmen said to him, Wilt thou then that we should go and gather it up? But he said, No; lest in gathering the darnel ye should root up the wheat with it. Suffer both to grow together unto the harvest”, Matt.13:27-30. Think of the Lord in patience waiting for that harvest, when all this wheat, speaking of all those who are the fruit of His death, will be His. He has patience in view of that time. The man in the parable says to his bondmen, ‘No, have patience until the harvest’, until the time of the end, because that is the moment when this work will be complete.
The scripture speaks of “the early and the latter rain”. You think of the Spirit working through this whole period of God’s grace, what we call the dispensation of grace, longer than any other. The Spirit is still here, dwelling in believers’ hearts, and how He would show to us the glories of the Lord Jesus. So “the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth”, what is most precious to Himself, “until it receive the early and the latter rain”. Think of the revival that there has been through the Spirit’s work over the last two hundred years; how the thought of the soon coming of the Lord has been brought before the hearts of believers in a more prominent way than for centuries previous to that. James says, “Ye also have patience: stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh.” Our hearts are to be established in this blessed truth, we are to be established and rooted in this truth and to be awaiting the coming of the Lord. And while we wait, we are to have patience. How we long for things, especially if we do not have a fixed date before us; we are liable to become impatient; but here the writer says, “Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord”.
I want to speak about these verses in Revelation. This book was a revelation given by God to John the apostle. He says, “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience” (Rev.1:9); patience marked him. John had a long life in the testimony, and he received this revelation. These addresses in chapters 2 and 3 were given through His apostle by the Lord Jesus to these seven assemblies, and they show the state that might mark us in the time in which we live. They cover the whole history of the Christian testimony from its very first days when what was for the Lord’s pleasure declined so quickly, even in Ephesus. He said to Ephesus “thou hast left thy first love”, Rev.2:4. How sad it was for the Lord to have to say that. But then He speaks to the angels of the assemblies in Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis and then Philadelphia. He commended what He found in Philadelphia. We must take care never to claim anything; we certainly cannot claim that those we walk with are Philadelphia, but we should be encouraged by what the Lord said about what was found in the saints at Philadelphia, and to be exercised to be like them. It is a most blessed portion of scripture.
The Lord Jesus Himself addresses what He found there, saints going on in smallness, having “a little power” but marked by faithfulness to Himself. How that should mark us as believers, dear brethren. The Lord says, “These things saith the holy, the true”, these saints in Philadelphia were faithful to Him. He had said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and He addresses Himself in this way to these believers: “These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David, he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open”. Think of how He is over all; we would own Him as having that authority. The Philadelphian saints were going on in faithfulness under the Lord’s direction, and we are to do the same while waiting here for Him in patience. Why is it that, over the last two years, the outgoing of the gospel has been restricted in this area? Why is it that, for a time, we were not able to have the preaching of the gospel in our meeting rooms? The Lord says, “he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open”. The Lord has allowed all of these things during these two years.
Then He says to these saints in Philadelphia, “I know thy works”. He had looked upon the believers in Philadelphia, and what He saw there He was able to approve of and commend. May it be so with us all! May He be able to look upon the believers gathered here today and commend them in this way. He says, “because thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. His Name is still being trodden underfoot in the world around us, most often when it is taken upon people’s lips as blasphemy, but He says to these saints, “thou … hast not denied my name”. How they had been faithful to that Name, faithful here amid unfaithfulness. That is something that is the hardest test of all, when we find that even among believers, there may be what is not faithful to His name. But the Lord Jesus said that they had “not denied my name” and had “kept my word”. As having the Holy Spirit, these saints had been able to keep His word. The Spirit is not spoken of in this section but how could you keep the Lord’s word if it were not for the gift of the “Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph.1:13), the One who keeps before us the promise of the Lord’s coming?
The Lord’s coming is prominent in what He says to these last four assemblies – Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, and we would understand that they set before us various aspects of what might be the state marking Christendom publicly until the time when the Lord will come for His own. What is set before us in the addresses to these assemblies is by way of warning and we should heed these words about having a name “that thou livest, and art dead”, Rev.3:1. How solemn that is. But I read this section addressed to Philadelphia to encourage our hearts because it is very encouraging to read what the Spirit says to this assembly. I particularly had verses 10 and 11 in mind but I thought I should read the whole section, for it says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world”. That wonderful promise is given to His own; “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial”, so that if we are faithful to Him, if we keep the word of His patience, if we are going on in endurance and patience, in simple faith, reliant upon Him, the Lord Jesus from His side will keep us out of this hour of trial that is about to come. We can see things round about us in the world that trouble men, and we can see God’s hand in that. We can see it from this scripture, “the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”. God may bring these things upon the world to try men, to see what is in those who are His own, and to test and to try His work.
But in the saints here in Philadelphia, there was no need of that. He was able to own what was true to Himself, He was able to say, “I know thy works” – what was there in these saints was established. What a blessed state these dear saints in Philadelphia were in, because they had kept the word of His patience. He was able to look upon their works and to say that they had “kept the word of my patience”. The Lord Jesus Himself is patient, He has been waiting for that time and He said, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial”.
That should encourage us, even the youngest among us. The children at school might hear and see what is going on in the world, the wars and famines and other things; we might be scared. What if war comes? What if famine happens? What if there is another lockdown? The Lord Jesus says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial”. How encouraging it is that the Lord Jesus knows His own, what is true and faithful to His name, and He says, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial”. I would like to encourage even the youngest of us, that the Lord Jesus sees His own and He would keep us out of these things because what He sees in those who love Him, if it is true to Himself, He will hold. May it be so with every one of us, that we would be kept in nearness to Him. Because to be kept out of the hour of trial means that we will be with Him! The “hour of trial” will be the time in which the tribulation will come upon people, when there are all these rumours of wars, famines, pestilences, all these things, upon the earth. The Lord says that things will get so bad that “if those days had not been cut short, no flesh had been saved”, Matt.24:22. How terrible a day that will be! Things around us now might seem to be getting worse, but they will get a lot worse upon the earth then. But every believer, all those who are precious to the Lord, will be kept out of that. The assembly, what is precious to His heart, will be kept out of that according to this scripture and many others.
What the Lord says here is, “I come quickly: hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. He commends the saints in Philadelphia for having kept His word but then He says, “hold fast what thou hast”, and I would like to encourage us all regarding these two little words, “hold fast”. The Scriptures set before us several things that we are encouraged to “hold fast”; perhaps we could look at them briefly. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “But I make known to you, brethren, the glad tidings which I announced to you, which also ye received, in which also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, (if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings)” (vv.1,2). We are to hold fast the gospel. Think of Paul preaching the glad tidings; it says that as soon as he was converted, “straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God”, Acts 9:20. Paul preached a Man in the glory because he had had an encounter with that Man. The glory of the Lord Jesus Himself was shining towards him and so he preached that word. I think that is what he speaks of here to the Corinthians, when he says, “if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings”. We are to hold fast to that, dear young friend. Perhaps you have come under the sound of the glad tidings and under the shelter of the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ already. If you have, hold fast to that! If you have not, I would urge you now, before a single minute more goes by – come under His shelter and His influence. We are to “hold fast” to that.
There are other scriptures that encourage us to “hold fast”. It is put in a negative sense but in Colossians 2, Paul refers to “not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God” (v.19). We know the Lord Jesus as Head, and His body is here on earth, and we are to hold fast to that, hold fast to Him in all his authority. We are to remain faithful to Him and we are to be subject to Him. Holding fast takes purpose from our side, not to go on in all our fleshly self-will but to hold fast to the Head, to go out of sight and to be subject to Him. We have a glorious living Head in heaven, and His body is comprised of all believers here on earth at the present time. Soon we shall be taken up to be with Himself, to be united to Him for ever, and in the meantime, we are encouraged to hold fast the head.
We are encouraged too by these wonderful chapters of Thessalonians that speak of the coming of the Lord. In nearly every chapter in Thessalonians there is a reference to the coming of the Lord. Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2, “So then, brethren, stand firm, and hold fast the instructions which ye have been taught, whether by word or by our letter” (v.15). We are to hold fast to the instructions of Paul by which we have been taught. The Spirit still speaks. We have the word of God; the Bible that we hold in our hands is certainly instruction to us. The current speaking of the Lord Jesus to His own as the Word is always in accord with the Scriptures. The Philadelphian saints kept His word, but He is the Word; God is speaking in and through Him. Then we have the present speaking of the Holy Spirit. These instructions of Paul have been given up in some places. Christians go on but they may leave aside the teaching and the instruction, the detail of what the apostle Paul taught, and what he says is that we are to hold fast to these things.
One other reference I thought it might be encouraging to look at is in Hebrews 4: “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart” (vv.14,15). What a great High Priest we have to help us “hold fast the confession”. Not profession, not merely professing His name – that might have been the state in Sardis – but as the writer says here, “hold fast the confession”. What is that? Being faithful and true to His name as confessing it, knowing the One whom we have in heaven above, the One who has passed through the heavens. Our brother Bert Taylor would often say, ‘the one that we have who has gone into heaven itself, there to appear before the face of God for us’ (Heb.9:24). He is there for us! Not only does He appear before the face of God, but He is there for us! We have a great High Priest, One who is able to sympathise with us as it says here, but “let us hold fast the confession”, let us be determined to hold fast the confession, hold fast to Him, to be faithful to His name in this scene of testimony. As we gather for the Supper, we gather to the name of One who has been rejected, but the Lord as looking on His own could say, “they are not of the world, as I am not of the world”, John 17:14. He is not of the world, He is one who has passed through the heavens; indeed, He is the heavenly Man, the One who is risen and ascended and has been glorified. These things I suppose would all be included in holding fast the confession.
In this section in Revelation, it says “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. What do we have as believers? We have all these things and more! Dear brethren, they are all set forth in Christ. It is all there in Him, everything that we know of God is revealed to us in Him. The Holy Spirit Himself, the One who dwells in our hearts, comes from Him, comes from that scene of glory above. We are encouraged to look towards that scene of glory, as we see our eternal home there on high. We are encouraged to look to that, but in the meantime, we are to “hold fast” to this: “I come quickly: hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. What a crown it will be. Think of the way in which these saints at Philadelphia were marked out. The Lord Jesus goes on to say, “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name”. What a name that will be! No one knows that new name yet, but it will be known then in that time, it will be there imprinted upon each one.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, “Ye are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read of all men, being manifested to be Christ’s epistle” (vv.2,3). How much He is writing upon our hearts at the present time, writing in an inward way. Through the working power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord is working these things out at the present time. He might allow believers to pass through times of testing and trials during which we need this feature of endurance and patience, but it is all with a view to His own work, His own ends. He is working these things out in an inward way at the present time. But what a time it will be when He will write this publicly upon us: “I will write upon him”. It will be seen there; we will have bodies like “his body of glory” (Phil.3:21); we will be identified with Him. What a glorious time that will be, when we will be like Him for ever, and be with Him for ever, “for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3:2.
May our hearts be encouraged to hold fast, for His name’s sake.
Edinburgh
30 April
Edward J McLaren
EXTRACT – THE SOUL’S DESIRE
I’m waiting for Thee, Lord,
Thyself then to see, Lord!
I’m waiting for Thee,
At thy coming again;
Thy glory’ll be great, Lord,
In heavenly state, Lord;
Thy glory’ll be great
At thy coming again!
Caught up in the air, Lord,
Thy glory we’ll share, Lord!
Each saint will be there,
At Thy coming again:
How glorious the grace, Lord,
That gave such a place, Lord;
It’s nearing apace,
At Thy coming again.
……….
But better than all, Lord,
To rise at Thy call, Lord!
Adoring to fall,
At Thy coming again:
With Thee, clothed in white, Lord,
To walk in the light, Lord,
Where all will be bright,
At Thy coming again.
……….
I’ll talk of Thy love, Lord,
With Thee there above, Lord!
Thy goodness still prove,
At Thy coming again.
Selected verses from ‘The Soul’s Desire’ by J N Darby, published in ‘Spiritual Songs’
For the other verses, see Hymn 19
Edited and published monthly by John Brown and Paul Martin
Additional copies are available, free of charge, by emailing
notesofministry@virginmedia.com or paul@nofm.co.uk
36 Laverock Park Linlithgow EH49 6AT
Printed by Crystal Print, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ