Daniel 11:2-12:4: Perseverance and the Sovereignty of God

Intro

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb 12:1).

I do not know a single Christian that does not long to say with Paul I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith (2 Tim.4:7).

And if you’re anything like me, you read those verses and you ask yourself, “How?”

How do I run this race? How do I keep the faith?

No one can get off the couch and just run a marathon. You need coaching. You need training.

You need to know what it takes to keep you going when everything in you wants to give up at mile 22.

How do you run your race? And how do you run that race when the race you thought you were running turns into an impossible Ironman that goes uphill both ways?

How do you run the marathon of faith, and how do you keep running when the world gets dark, pushes back and makes that race harder than you ever imagined?

What does perseverance look like then?

That is the message of Daniel’s last and final vision in Daniel 11:2-12:4.

Now this is a long passage and we do not have the time to go through every single detail of every single verse.

Not only that, I think doing so would actually defeat the whole purpose of a sermon in the first place because we would get so bogged down in the weeds of historical details that we would miss the jewel, the theological truth, God has for us in this passage.

And at the end of the day, that’s the whole point of preaching a sermon in the first place.

To proclaim the glory of Christ and edify the saints.

So I’m just going to tell you, we are going to fly over some of this stuff.

We are not going to look at every verse.

And some of the verses we are going to look at, we are going to breeze over.

Its not because its not true and its not because its not important. Every word of Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable (2 Tim. 3:16).

But my job is to make this sermon profitable.

So to do that I want to take a 30,000 foot view and focus on only those passages that especially drive the point home that I want you walking away with today.

The theological truth that I’m hoping God will allow to grip your heart and take root in your soul so that you might run the race with endurance all the days of your life.

And that is...

True Perseverance rests in God's sovereignty and faithfully endures all things, all trials, for an eternal reward.

And because we are going to be talking about a lot of history, a lot of new history, I want to give you a very simple road map so that you can stick with me and not get lost.

We are going to have 3 points today:

One: Perseverance Rests in God’s Sovereignty

Two: Perseverance Strives for Faithfulness

And Three: Perseverance Runs for an Eternal Reward

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. Perseverance Rests in God’s Sovereignty

Daniel 11:2-4 And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.

Remember. An angel has been sent to Daniel to give him a vision of what’s going to happen in the days to come.

All throughout Daniel God has been promising to send the Messiah who would save His people and establish a Kingdom that would never grow old and never be destroyed.

That the kingdoms of men would fall and give their glory to Christ.

And in chapter 9, God promised that the Messiah would atone for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness once and for all, but until that time, the people of Israel would go through a troubled time.

A time of distress. Hardship. Tribulation.

And this vision reveals what that troubled time is going to look like.

And that’s why God ultimately gave Daniel this vision.

To keep them going when everything looked dark.

To encourage them to persevere and strengthen them to face all the persecution and hardship, all the hundreds of years persecution and hardship, they were about to endure.

In their darkest hour this prophecy was meant to remind that God had not forgotten them.

That He had not abandoned them.

That He was still with them, and He was still faithful.

Those are encouraging words for us today.

And so the angel starts the vision and says Behold three more kings shall arise in Persia and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them.

The first King is Cyrus, who is followed by three more, until ultimately the fourth king, Xerxes takes the throne.

Xerxes is also known as Ahasuerus in the book of Ezra and the book of Esther.

And he was exceedingly rich (Es. 1:1-8).

After Xerxes, the Persian Empire began to decline and the Greeks began to rise.

Eventually, came Alexander the Great.

That is the king in verse 3. Daniel 11:3 Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills.

Alexander the Great conquered the world extraordinarily fast while he was just a young man.

Remember in chapter 8 where Daniel saw a male goat that flew across the earth without his feet touching the ground (Daniel 8:5).

And then at the height of his power, Alexander died.

As soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven.

Going back to the he-goat in chapter 8, Alexander was the conspicuous horn that was broken, and out of that horn came four other horns.

Those were Alexander’s generals who divided up his kingdom toward the four winds of heaven.

That’s why it says it will be divided, but not to his posterity.

In the fray of who would rise to power, Alexander’s two sons and entire family was murdered and the four generals took four different parts of the empire.

In the east, Cassander took Macedonia and the Greek Peninsula.

Antigonus took control of Turkey and Asia minor.

And for our purposes, the other two kingdoms are really the ones that matter.

Seleucus took the northern part of Alexander’s kingdom ruling over Syria and what we might call Mesopotamia.

In the south, Ptolemy took Egypt.

Both of these dynasties, the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires, became the kings of the north and the kings of the south that we read about in Daniel chapter 11.

If you look at these kingdoms on a map, you’ll see Israel is sandwiched between the two of them.

The Seleucids ruled in the north and the Ptolemies ruled in the south, and they were in constant conflict with each other with Israel stuck right in the middle.

That’s why so much of the vision focuses on the king of the north and the king of the south.

These are not individual kings, these are the dynasties of the Seleucid, the king of the north, and Ptolemaic Empires, king of the south.

And that’s what verses 5-20 are all about.

The king of the north and the king of the south are not just individual kings.

They are the line of kings of these two warring empires from the death of Alexander all the way down to Antiochus Epiphanes who we are going to focus on in the next part of this sermon.

And here’s what you need to know.

Daniel prophesies the politics and war between these two kingdoms (and really all of chapter 11) with such precise detail, that false and non Christian scholars cannot believe Daniel actually wrote it hundreds of years before any of it ever happened.

Its so accurate, down to the finest detail, that they say somebody other than Daniel had to have written it years after everything had already happened, and they would have need a very good history book to do so.

Providence

But Daniel did write it, and he got it exactly right because God Himself is sovereign over history.

That’s why this passage was written. That’s why God put it in our Bible.

Israel was about to go through hundreds of years of trouble.

They would return from exile just as God had promised, but they would never become a sovereign nation again.

They would be trampled underfoot by pagan nations, and in the coming years even face some of the most intense forms of persecution.

And God told His people all of this beforehand to encourage them and strengthen them to keep going and persevere no matter the cost.

That everything was ordained by God.

Nothing was going to happen by chance or by accident. Everything, even their sufferings, was going to happen according to the perfect and sovereign plan of God.

Theologically we call this God’s Providence.

His working in the world to bring about and accomplish His perfect will.

God tells His people before hand so that when the dark days came they would not give up or grow discouraged, but would preach to themselves, everything is going according to plan.

God is sovereign. He told us beforehand. He wants us to be faithful.

And this is where this passage starts to drive home for us today.

If we are going to walk through Babylon, if we are going to persevere in dark days, we need to have a Big Picture of the Sovereignty of God.

Isaiah 46:9-11 I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

God is sovereign over every detail of history. Over every detail of your life.

Calvin says everything is guided by the bridle of God’s providence (Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism (Darlington, Co Durham: EP Books, 2019), 223).

Just as you lead a horse with the bit in its mouth, God leads of all history to perfectly accomplish His will and purpose.

And what is that? What is God’s purpose?

His own glory in the salvation of sinners through Jesus Christ.

Everything in history, everything that happens, everything that ever has happened and everything that ever will happen, is all driving towards the glory of God and our salvation in Jesus Christ.

Now why is that so comforting?

Why was Spurgeon able to say There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty (Daniel, 191).

For one, God is perfectly wise.

He knows what is best, and He always knows what is best.

Two, God is perfectly good.

He never does evil. Everything He does is right.

And three, God is love.

God loves us, and has proven His love for us by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place for our sins, while we were still His enemies and dead in our trespasses and sins.

And when you put all of that together that means nothing, not the greatest blessing or the most trying hardship, comes into your life without first passing through the hand of your heavenly Father who loves you, and has promised good to you.

This is why we need a big picture of the sovereignty of God.

Godless men curse God when trials and hardship come into their life.

Even we as Christians criticize God and blaspheme His Name when we grumble against His loving and wise providence.

Listen that’s convicting to me. I grumble. I complain. But every time I do, all I’m really saying is that God is doing a bad job.

He’s not wise, He’s not good, and He’s certainly not loving because I don’t like how my life is going right now.

Grumbling and complaining really just exposes a heart of unbelief.

But when we have a big picture of God’s sovereignty. We can be patient under His hand.

That even when hardship and affliction come into our life, we know God is using it to serve His glory, and sanctify us in Jesus Christ.

Is that not the promise of Romans 8:28-29?

Romans 8:28-29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Even the hardest things are God’s blessing in our life because God uses them to make us more like Christ.

To purge us from sin and worldliness and live more and more of our lives for Him.

But we can only see it that way when we see with the eyes of faith that God is perfectly sovereign and perfectly good and His infinite wisdom knows precisely what is best.

That’s why I said Perseverance rests on the sovereignty of God.

Is God not good? Is God not wise? Is God not in every way kind and loving?

Then what do I have to fear? He is sovereign over every detail of my life and I will trust Him even when all looks dark.

Not a hair of my head can fall without the will of my Father in Heaven (Heidelberg Catechism, Q1).

When that’s our view of God, we can endure anything. Anything.

No matter how hard no matter how difficult, no matter how far God leads us into the valley of the shadow of death...

Everything, (Everything!) every blessing and gift, every suffering and trial, is ultimately serving our good, (making us more like Christ) and God’s glory.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that what this life is all about? The glory of God!

What do we live for? Our comfort? Our life? Our happiness and ease? Or do we live for the glory of God?

God told Israel all of these things beforehand so that they would see He is sovereign.

That in the dark days ahead they would humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and persevere in faith.

Listen. We don’t know what’s coming in the days ahead. We don’t know how dark the days might get.

But if we want to persevere and run our race we need to cast our lives on the sovereignty of God.

To take every hardship and trial, and even persecution if it comes to it, in stride God is using this for our good and to Him be the glory.

Perseverance rests on the sovereignty of God.

Number two...

II. Perseverance Strives for Faithfulness

Go down to verse 21. The Seleucids grew dominate. And from them came Antiochus Epiphanes.

Daniel 11:21 In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

After spending the first 20 verses covering a period of around 150 years, the next 15 verses focus on a single Seleucid king.

This contemptible person. Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus IV.

He’s the Little Horn from Daniel chapter 8 that comes out of the He-Goat, the kingdom of Greece, to blaspheme God and persecute God’s people.

Antiochus was not originally in line for the throne. That’s why it says royal majesty was not given to him.

His brother died and Antiochus’ nephew was meant to take the throne.

But Antiochus came in, Daniel says without warning, and obtained the kingdom by flatteries.

Basically he said he wanted to just hold the throne until Demetrius was ready, but after he had bribed enough people and had enough of a loyal base, he tore the mask of and said the kingdom was his own.

Verse 23, Daniel says he became strong with a small people.

And he truly was a contemptible person.

He took for himself the name Antiochus Ephiphanes which means “God made manifest” because he believed he was God in the flesh.

But the Jews called him Antiochus Epimanes which means “mad man” or “insane one.”

He was an absolute monster and one of the most wicked tyrants that has ever ruled.

Like the passage says, Antiochus was cunning and deceitful and he did everything he could to solidify his power and make his name great.

To do that, he imposed a very strict policy of Hellenization.

The goal of Hellenization was basically to make everybody Greek. To let go of your old way of life and customs adopt Greek culture, philosophy and religion, or at least mix them with your own.

You have to remember there are multiple kingdoms in the world all vying for power.

And the Seleucids themselves had been at war with Ptolemies for around 150 years.

And just as Jesus said, a kingdom divided against itself will not stand, and so all these kings were constantly trying to make everyone in their kingdom one people. Greek people.

Antiochus basically took it to the extreme and tried to force everyone in his kingdom into a Greek way of life by any means necessary.

That put Him on a collision course with the Jews. They were not just going to give up their identity and the worship of the One True God, and so Antiochus hated them.

He hated them, he hated God because they were a direct threat to his sovereignty and kingdom.

So what did he do? He turned up the heat.

He swept away anyone that stood in front of him, even the prince of the covenant. That’s verse 22.

It probably refers to Onias the High Priest who Antiochus deposed and replaced with someone more willing to get onboard with convincing the Jews to compromise with Greek culture.

He even used bribes. Verse 24, scattering among them plunder, spoil and goods.

This tells us one of the main ways the world tries to pressure us to compromise our faith.

They bribe you.

They try to get you with the love of the world.

Things like money. Position. Respect. Comfort, happiness and ease.

The Greeks ruled the world. Come on! Don’t you want to be in? You don’t want to be one of those religious fuddy duddies do you?

Just get on board and you can be like one of us. You can be on the right side of history.

How much does it cost to soften your faith?

But when that doesn’t work, they threaten you. They ramp up the persecution and shame.

If the world can’t buy your faith, they will try to crush it.

And that’s exactly what Antiochus did, but let me give you a little bit of history first.

Ptolemy - Rome

Basically verses 25-28 describe a small war between Ptolemy VI, the king of the south, and Antiochus Epiphanes.

After this war, Ptolemy basically became Antiochus’ puppet over Egypt, and Alexandria the most powerful city in Egypt said, No, No, No. We’re not doing that.

And they made Ptolemy’s brother, Ptolemy VIII, the new king.

So Ptolemy IV goes to Rome for help.

His dad, Ptolemy V, had a relationship with Rome, and Ptolemy IV thought basically, “If you guys help me out, get me back over Egypt and out from Antiochus, I’m yours. I’ll help you out. Do whatever I can.

At this point Rome is a growing power, so they saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of an unsettled Greek landscape in hopes of eventually taking over themselves.

That brings us to verse 29.

Daniel 11:29-30 At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before.

At an appointed time - again hitting at this idea that God ordains everything that happens.

Antiochus comes back Egypt to help his puppet get rid of Ptolemy VIII, but this time its not as it was before.

He’s not going to have a great victory.

For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant.

Ships of Kittim in Daniel’s day were the western coastlands, so these are ships from Rome.

Antiochus shows up with this huge army, and he’s met by this small Roman force led by a senator named Gaius Popillius Laenas (Luh-nay-us).

Popillius tells Antiochus Rome has a treaty with Egypt, and that if Antiochus continued his invasion of Egypt Rome would take that as a breach of treaty and it would bring the full weight of the Roman Empire against him.

Antiochus is sitting there in front of all his soldiers and says I need a minute to think about it.

Popillius drew a line in the sand around Antiochus and said, “You don’t understand. You’re done here. And if you step out of that circle without giving me an answer, we are going to take that as a declaration of war.”

Antiochus was, of course, humiliated. This small, Roman Senator, basically just defeated his whole army with a stick in the sand.

So enraged, Antiochus went back home, and took out all of his anger on the holy covenant. On the people of Israel.

He unleashed one of the most severe persecutions ever faced by the people of God.

Verse 30...

Daniel 11:30-31 [He] shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.

This occured in 168 BC where Antiochus completely desecrated the temple.

He slaughtered a pig on the altar, the most unclean animal imaginable for a Jew, and made the priests eat its flesh.

Then he set up an idol of Zeus and turned the Temple into a Pagan brothel where Gentiles and apostate Jews would profane God’s house with sexual immorality and pagan sacrifices.

And for three years Antiochus cut off the sacrifices and worship of God’s people.

During this time he continued his policy of Hellenization ordering everyone to stop circumcising their children and offering sacrifices.

To ignore the Sabbath and other religious holy days like the Passover.

And to even eat unclean foods and join the pagans in offering sacrifices to idols.

Antiochus wanted to completely obliterate the Jewish religion and the true worship of God.

1 Maccabees 1:56-61 The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king. They kept using violence against Israel...According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and their families and those who circumcised them.

Again. I want you to remember why God put this in the Bible. To encourage His people to persevere. To keep going. To stand firm no matter the cost.

Because this is where the rubber meets the road with perseverance. Its not just making it to the end. Its making it to the end staying faithful all the way through.

True Perseverance strives for faith and faithfulness.

Daniel 11:32-35 He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.

Antiochus seduced many Jews into abandoning their faith.

1 Mac. 1:43 Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.

But the wise, the people who know their God, refused to compromise with the world.

They may have faced sword, flame, captivity and plunder. But those that truly knew and worshiped God, resisted and stood firm.

That is what perseverance looks like.

The little help is probably a reference to the Maccabean revolt in 165 ousted Antiochus’ men and rededicated the Temple. Restored the worship of the one true God.

But the big idea is that despite the pressure, despite the suffering, despite the pain, they stood firm.

And that’s the point I want to make for us today.

The goal of perseverance isn’t just to make it. Yes. You need to make it.

But true perseverance isn’t just making it by the skin of your teeth. It is standing firm to the end.

It doesn’t compromise. It doesn’t given in. It doesn’t conform to the world no matter the cost.

No bribe is rich enough to buy our faith, and no threat is terrible enough to squash it.

Lord give us faith...

How did the Jews persevere under Antiochus? How did they stand firm?

Daniel tells us...They knew God...

They knew He alone was worthy of all their worship and all their praise and they lived like it.

They had a high view of God and His glory

They treasured Him more than everything else.

And what about us? What is our greatest treasure?

Is it God?

Are we living for Him and His glory in every area of our life or are we living for something else?

That’s true perseverance.

And look what it says. The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.

That word is important.

Take action literally means that “to do” and it is the same root word used to talk about the kings doing as they will.

In other words, those that know God will stand firm and push ahead no matter the cost. No matter what obstacle stands in their way.

Nothing will stop them from staying faithful to the end.

And that’s true perseverance.

True perseverance doesn’t coast. It takes action. It runs with all of its might after Christ.

Faith is not passive.

There is a sanctified, God-driven effort and intentionality needed to strive for faith and faithfulness in every area of our life.

A holy discipline to root out sin, worldliness, and compromise everywhere we might find it, so that we can give all of our lives to Christ.

You might call this striving for faithfulness a relentless godliness.

How many days have we wasted living out a passive faith? I know I’m guilty.

And now what would it look like, how would our lives change if we all became relentless for godliness and the glory of Christ?

That’s a church that sparks a reformation. That’s a church that changes the world.

But here’s what I don’t want to happen. This would be the greatest mistake you could make.

We could talk about perseverance and you walk away thinking its all up to you.

Listen. There is a holy intentionality in living for God.

But its also all entirely by His grace.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

There’s that holy intentionality. Casting off every weight and sin and running with endurance.

But then it says...

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

You’re perseverance doesn’t rest on you. It rests on Christ.

You don’t look to yourself and you’re strength. You look to him.

That’s how you persevere by faith.

The saints under Antiochus persevered because they knew God. They had a big picture of God’s glory.

There is no bigger picture of God’s glory, no way to know God other than Jesus Christ.

We look to him. Focus on Him. Run to Him.

And so here’s the question: Does that describe your life?

Are you striving after holiness? Casting off every weight and sin?

Striving to honor Christ? Striving to bring all of your life in submission to him and doing everything you can to live for His glory looking to Him all along the way?

That is what it takes to persevere.

That’s what it takes to stand firm and take action. You grab hold of Christ and you never let go.

Perseverance rests on the sovereignty of God...

Strives for faithfulness to the glory of Christ...

And number 3...

III. Perseverance Runs for an Eternal Reward

Now I’m going to fly over something that is heavily debated.

Verses 36-45 describe a king who shall do as he wills, and there is a lot of debate over who that king is.

Some think its Antiochus.

Others see this as a future beast-king who will persecute the church just before Christ returns.

If you’r asking my opinion, I side with Calvin who sees this king to represent the whole Roman Empire just like other kings in the vision represented entire dynasties so far.

Verses 36-39 describe Rome exalting themselves above God and trusting only in the god of fortresses, that is their own military might and strength.

And verses 40-45 describes how Rome expanded their empire into the Mediterranean world.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, who you think this king is, because Daniel jumps forward thousands of years to the last day of human history.

To the resurrection when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.

Daniel 12:1-4 At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. [That is referring to the Great Tribulation and the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD]

But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

Why does Daniel jump ahead?

Why does he go from Persia, Greece, and probably Rome, to thousands of years into the future with to the resurrection?

Remember why God gave this vision.

It wasn’t just to tell the future. It was to remind His people that God was in control to encourage them to stay faithful to Him no matter what.

And he caps of this vision with the resurrection where the wise will be raised to everlasting life, and the faithless and apostates will be raised to everlasting contempt.

Daniel jumps ahead, to encourage the Church of all ages to stay faithful to God no matter what because God will give them an eternal reward.

Notice how Daniel says the wise will shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

These are the same people from verses 32 and 33.

The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder.

Who are the wise? The ones who know God and stand firm and take action no matter the cost.

Even though they may stumble, they may fall by sword and flame, captivity and plunder they will rise again to an eternal reward.

And that is true for all of God’s people who trust in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in John 6:36-40 Whoever comes to me I will never cast out and everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him would never perish have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

This is God’s promise to everyone who believes in Christ. He will raise them up on the last name to everlasting life.

This is the grace of the perseverance of the saints.

If it were up to us, every one of us would fall away. But Christ holds us with His strong hand.

He is our rock and our salvation.

And on that glorious day we will shine like the brightness of the sky above and like the stars forever and ever.

What is that promise? What is our eternal reward?

We will shine with the glory of God. Every trace and stain of sin will be washed away forever and ever and ever.

God will be our God and we will be His people in perfect fellowship and communion with Him just like He created us for in the garden.

What greater joy could their be than that? What greater joy could their be than God Himself?

Jesus said Matthew 6:19-21 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Run for an eternal reward.

We may suffer on earth. We may be pressed down and trampled under foot. But one day, Christ will return.

And all the faithful, all those that put all of their faith in Him and His death on the cross for our sins and resurrection for our justification, will rise to everlasting life.

And in the new heavens and new earth, all the sin, pain, and suffering of this world will pass away, and our reward will be Revelation 21:3-4.

Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

That is what God has promised to everyone whose name is written in the book of life.

And yours can be too if you believe in Jesus Chris.

The one who conquers [ the one who perseveres and overcomes] will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life (Revelation 3:5).

Conclusion

True Perseverance rests in God's sovereignty and faithfully endures all things, all trials, for an eternal reward.

We started this sermon by asking how do you run the marathon of faith? How do you run with endurance?

And in particular how do you keep running when Babylon starts to push back to try and squash your faith?

God revealed all of this history hundreds of years before hand to show His people He was in control of all of it to help them stand firm and persevere even in the darkest of days.

They could trust His sovereignty.

If God really is in control and He really is wise and He really is good, then we can follow him anywhere knowing everything is working out for our good and His glory.

We can strive for faithfulness, a relentless godliness that refuses to compromise because God is worthy.

And we can persevere, knowing that even if we lose our life, God has promised us an eternal reward in Christ.

A new heavens and new earth where every trace and stain of sin is washed away.

So let us persevere. Let us strive for Christ and His glory, looking to Jesus all along the way.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

1 Timothy 6:11-16 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.