Rev 14:12+13, Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them." 
	Two weeks ago, in this chapter, we began to look at the phraseology, Here is the perseverance of the saints… with regard to the effects that it is to have on the Church in the times in which we live. This morning, after a brief review, we will wrap up our current reflection on this perseverance of the saints. 
As we began to deal with it, we saw this perseverance as the patient expectation and determination of the Church set in Jesus Christ as Victor no matter what! No matter what we face, no matter how hopeless the façade put before us by this realm, we know, without hesitation or wavering, that God will do what He will do when He chooses to do it! His effective and efficient will is going to be accomplished on this earth. In the established truth of the Victory of Jesus Christ, we stand against all the doubts and the accusations and the propaganda of this age and declare that Jesus Christ is the Risen Lord of all creation.
We are so resolute in this truth because of the fact that we so love Him, that we cannot forsake Him. We know Him and in that personal knowledge, we cannot abandon our hope and trust in Him. We could never deal with the aspect of denying Him and His great love to us. We looked at many passages written to the Church in Rome by the Apostle Paul with regard to this living relationship with Jesus. 
	In those passages, we saw that the motivation of our Love for Christ is what holds us true to the life that we now have in Him. As opposed to legalism, we obey Him because we want to honor and glorify Him. It is our love that constrains us to live forth in the manner that lifts up our heart unto His heart. We are not entangled with the ropes of repression under the law. We are rather freed to express our love for Him in the most glorious manner of showing just how much He means to us.
	As well, we recognize that it is in the midst of tribulation that perseverance develops and blooms. It is impossible for it to be any other way. When there is no conflict, there is no need for perseverance. When there is no pressure, no opposing tension, no reason to utterly rely on the Lord, there is no growth and no enlargement in the capacity to endure under the conflicts and the assaults. It is as those harsh attacks crash upon us in seemingly endless waves, that we are driven to absolute and undeniable clinging to the love of God in Christ Jesus or perish.
	As the Apostle Paul so encourages us, it is this extreme perseverance under the harshest and cruelest of assailments that leads to proven character and hope. Our hope is set in the personal and living relationship that we have with Christ as He manifests Himself through the darkest times and tempests. As we are so borne up by Christ’s very life as our own, we come to the realization that this whole process of the perseverance of the saints causes us to set the glory of God above all else in our lives. We begin to live for His sake and not for our own. Everything is seen in terms of His will being accomplished in the lives that we have given to Him. In this reality, we ended with the catalogue of our protection in God as listed in the letter to the Ephesians. He never abandons or forsakes us, but rather shields us through the power of His Holy Spirit and the knowledge of His Word. This is where we pick up this morning.
	The Apostle Paul writes the following in 2 Thess 1:3-5. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. In this passage, we read of the direct result of this perseverance of the saints within the Church itself. 
	First is the fact that their faith was being enlarged. There was a working of the Holy Spirit in their growth into the fullness of the faith of Jesus Christ. It was as they were persevering under the conflicts that were assailing them that the evidence of their heart was being shown forth in faith. That was causing the Apostle and the others who were concerned about the Churches of Thessalonica to rejoice in the goodness of the Lord. There was thanksgiving unto God for the depth of the faith that was inherent within those who so loved the Lord that they were willing to persevere against anything that was against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
	Second, there was a true expression of love for each other that was growing along with this faith. As the members of the Church were persevering, they were growing together in their shared heart of Christ’s love. This is an important truth that we must never overlook. As we read in 1 Cor 12:26, And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 
We do not go through things by ourselves, no matter how alone we may feel at times. This is key to the growth of the Church into the one Body of Christ. We share together in all that we undergo. There is no separation among us. We are not left to drift by ourselves. We are vitally and livingly connected through the life blood of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. 
	Whenever we face adversity and trial and tribulation and anguish and suffering, we will have one of two choices. We will forsake the Body that God has given us, and find ourselves seemingly lost in a labyrinth of self-pity and hopelessness and depression. Or, we will experience the overruling work of God which causes us to become all the more fully and vitally connected to Him with each other. The anguish and the suffering and the heartache are real and will not disappear. But the ability to persevere through it will be supplied by the Holy Spirit, with the effect of drawing us closer and closer into that complete oneness of being in Jesus Christ. While everything around us may be decay and destruction, within our heart and souls and spirit will be a building up into the Body of Jesus Christ that we will never have before experienced with such intensity and purpose and solidity and certainty.
	This will establish our very pattern of how to live on this earth, as we read in Paul’s letter to Timothy. 1 Tim 6:11+12, But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 
As we learn to persevere through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives will reflect the true characteristic of Jesus Christ. We will become known by the manner in which that proven character, forged in the fiery dilemmas of our perseverance, will be demonstrated to the glory of God on High. Our daily pursuits of behavior and attitude will be entirely reflective of the quality of life that Jesus is in us. Perfection will not be found in us on this earth, but we will have a complete desire after it no matter what it costs in terms of our earthly lives. We will be known by the manner in which Jesus Christ is ever more perfectly able to live forth His life from us unto others in … righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
	Again, as the Apostle encourages Timothy, we will not expect anything else from this life that we are called to live. 2 Tim 3:10-12, But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me! And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 
There are many teachings in the churches of this day that claim that to be a Christian means no more problems and continual success in all our endeavors. The truth is that if we are truly Christians, we will face nothing but those avenues in which Christ is given the opportunity to show His so great love for us in our every deliverance. Because He so fully and absolutely loves us, He delivers us from every tribulation and persecution. His deliverance may not be the manner in which we thought it would be, but it will always be the perfect and faithful expression of His heart of Love for us. 
To look for anything else is to be completely dissatisfied with that which He chooses to do in our lives. It is to tell Him that we want something other than His perfect and pure plan for our lives. It is to sell our souls for the sake of the comfort and the ease and the treasures of this realm rather than the immensity of the riches of our more perfect relationship with Him.
	Continuing, then, The Apostle encourages us in Titus 2:2, Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Let us ever seek to become those saints of God whom this passage describes in detail. We are to be so set on the foundation of Jesus Christ that there is no doubt about where our hearts are fully focused. This is something that many of us need to learn to appreciate in our dealings with one another. As we persevere, we should be learning what it means to be … temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love… We should be able to guide and to direct others in the course that will honor and glorify God because of the manner of our dealings with each other. We should not be looking for the easy way out of situations. We should rather be encouraging and standing with each other in the course of enduring all that comes our way to the greater value of Christ that it will establish in our lives, individually and corporately. 
	The Apostle Peter joins this chorus in 2 Peter 1:5-8, Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Please note the truth that perseverance leads to godliness. When we consider all that Jesus Christ had to persevere as the Son of Man in the midst of this, His very creation, we gain a deeper sense of how important this is as a characteristic of godliness. 
It is definitely not a matter of us becoming gods unto ourselves. Never, never, never! It is the fact that as Jesus Christ lives forth His life from us, He manifests Himself in the manner in which we express those elements of His character which are true and pure and of greatest value. We live forth in Him, and our lives express Him to others. It is His perseverance that carries us through our day to day walk on this earth. It is His perseverance that manifests ever increasing love for one another. It is His perseverance that stands against the seemingly overwhelming persecution and betrayal and crucifixion. And, it is His perseverance that flourishes in the resurrection power of His life. 
	This is so important to God that He declares it in His messages to the churches at the beginning of this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Rev 2:2+3, 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. Notice the value that God puts on the fact of this perseverance of the Church of Ephesus. This church is known by God for its endurance for His name’s sake.
	Then to the Church in Thyatira, He writes in Rev 2:19, 'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. This perseverance has become so manifest that the deeds of this church have increased in greatness. There is a wonderful and powerful valuation of God that is being exhibited in their witness and testimony of Him.  
	And finally, to the Church in Philadelphia, He writes in Rev 3:10-12, 'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth. 'I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, in order that no one take your crown. 'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and 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. 
	Can we see how vital this entire truth of the perseverance of the saints is to the heart of God? It is the very characteristic of His Only Begotten Son that will be evident as the Church sets her faith and her trust and her certainty of love upon Him! It is the inherent evidence of how much we actually love Him that is on universal display! We cannot persevere if we do not believe in and love Him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength! 
There is no other manner in which our love for Him can be more fully and perfectly expressed than to persevere everything for the sake of His name and His glory on this earth! Never let us shirk our call to endure all for Him! Never let us compromise His great love by making a pact with this world, choosing its comforts and its facade of success at the horrible cost of His so vast love in our hearts and lives! Ask the Holy Spirit, not for the easy road in this life, but for that road which will serve to more and more surely give Him every opportunity to cause His perseverance to be the central core of this life that we live unto Him! This is to be the heart of every individual and every corporate expression of God’s love in Jesus Christ on this earth! So be it!
Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them." Amen. 

	This morning’s benediction is 1 Chron 29:11-13. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. Amen.