3 Doctrines that Fuel Endurance

This episode contains portions from the follow programs:

"The Lord Will Hold You Fast"

"Life in the Spirit"

"The Two Buckets"

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Dannah Gresh: Ever feel like the hard stuff will never end? Erin Davis reminds us of a verse in Revelation 21 that says, “The former things have passed away.” That means one day, every struggle will be behind you.

Erin Davis: Tears? Former thing. Death? Former thing. Mourning is a former thing; crying is a former thing; pain is a former thing. All physical pain your body will ever experience, it’s a former thing. All heartache your heart will ever experience, it’s a former thing. Everything that is broken in our culture and everything that is broken in us, they all go in the former things bucket.

Dannah: We’ll hear more from Erin in this episode. I’m your host Dannah Gresh, and you’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

Big Word Alert! Today, we’re exploring three doctrines that fuel endurance: soteriology, pneumatology, eschatology.

Now you might be thinking, Doctrine? Big words? I’m out!

Wait! What if I told you that you are a theologian? I’m serious! You are! 

Theology has a really simple definition: the study of God and all things in relation to God. That means every time you open your Bible, you’re a theologian. And every time you pondered the origin of a beautiful sunset or the truth about a headline, you were a theologian then, too! 

But here’s why you really want to study theology: It gives you hope . . . with grit! 

Today we’re talking about how your theology can help you to endure challenges with hope. First, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is walking us through a doctrine called perseverance of the saints—which is a subtopic under soteriology, or the doctrine of salvation Then, Kelly Needham is giving us a little theology of the Holy Spirit, pneumatology. Finally, we’re wrapping up with some eschatology—the doctrine of last things—and gaining an eternal perspective. The point of it all? To let truth fuel our endurance.

Now . . . the perseverance of the saints. If your faith is feeling flimsy today, then this doctrine is for you. Here’s Nancy to tell you more.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The fact is, we don’t keep ourselves in Christ. He keeps us. We only keep holding on to Him, which we do because He keeps holding on to us. He is the one who makes our salvation secure both now and forever, as Psalm 121 says in verse 8.

Let me read you a few New Testament verses that expand on and emphasize this point.

First Peter 1:3 says that, “According to his great mercy . . .” Just see how God-centric all this is. It’s of God. God initiates our salvation. God keeps our salvation. “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (vv. 3–5).

Now, this is one of those infamous apostle’s sentences that goes on and on forever and ever, so you kind of have to step back and unpack it a phrase at a time. We’re not going to do that with this passage today, but did you get the concept that there is a salvation waiting for us in heaven that God has bought for us by His mercy? We have been saved. We are being saved, sanctified. And we will be saved, we will be glorified.

And when we get to heaven, we’ll find that there’s a treasure that He has been keeping for us, our final, ultimate salvation. He’s been keeping it for those who, all during this life, have been guarded, kept through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

God is keeping us for something that He is keeping for us. It’s all God doing the keeping, the guarding. It goes back to Psalm 121: “The Lord is your keeper.”

Philippians 1:6. (Here’s a little shorter sentence. This might be easier to digest.)

And I am sure of this, [Paul says] that he who began a good work in you [at the point of your initial salvation, He] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

If God saved you, then He is going to complete that salvation and complete the work of sanctification and transformation until the day we see Jesus Christ. Paul says, “I’m sure of this. I don’t have any doubt about it. I know it.” That doesn’t mean we don’t fail. It doesn’t mean we don’t blow it, but we can be sure that He who began the good work will bring it to completion.

Here’s another one: Romans 8:29–30. And, again, lots of theological concepts in here. We won’t get bogged down in them. But just listen to the whole concept.

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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and [listen to this last phrase] those whom he justified he also glorified.

Every person that God calls and brings to faith in Christ to be justified, made righteous through Christ, every one of those people God will glorify. He’s going to finish the work. And at the end, we’re going to be like Jesus. That process of transformation will be complete.

So, if you have been justified through faith in Christ—these are lots of just precious words and other ways of describing our salvation—if you have been saved, if you have been justified through faith in Christ, you can be sure that you will also be glorified. God will finish the work He has begun in you.

God has promised to keep us. We read in the last session from John 17 where Christ prayed to the Father, asking that the Father would keep us in His name. “Keep them that You’ve given to Me.” He prayed for that.

Listen, we can be sure that prayer is going to be answered.

We also know, Scripture tells us, that Jesus today is in heaven praying for us as our Advocate before the Father. So when we sin, or when Satan comes and makes accusations, “Did You see what she did?” And those accusations can really mess with our minds and our faith and our assurance of our salvation. But we have an Advocate before the Father. Today He prays for us.

He said about Peter, “You will fall away. But when you have returned, go and help your brothers so they won’t fall.”

He says, “I’ve prayed for you.” Jesus has prayed for us. He prayed for us there in John 17. He’s praying for us today that our faith will not fail.

Listen, if our faith doesn’t fail, it’s not because we had great faith. It’s because we had a great Advocate, a great Intercessor who never stopped praying that our faith would not fail.

Then in Romans 8—I just read verses 29 and 30, but now you go to the end of Romans 8, the last two verses—Paul says,

I am sure [this is after talking about the saving death and work of Christ—based on that, I am sure] that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation [nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv. 38–39).

Now some people would say, “Yes, nothing can separate me from God, but what if I separate myself from God?” Are you part of anything and nothing? Nothing. Not even you. Not even we, as we sin, can separate us from His love once we have experienced that and come into His family.

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, flooding the weary heart with Scripture. If your faith feels weak today, first of all: Know you’re in good company. Every follower of Jesus experiences times of weariness and doubt. Second of all: Know you're safe—not because you hold onto God, but because He holds onto you. You can, and you will, endure until you’re with Him face to face. He’ll make sure of it.

Next up, we’re taking on a little pneumatology with author and speaker Kelly Needham. That means we’re about to study the Holy Spirit’s role in our endurance. Kelly gave this message called “Life in the Spirit” at Revive '19 to close out the conference. She wanted to send off each and every woman with a strong dose of courage. Let’s listen to part of that message now. 

Kelly Needham: The Spirit has a role—a specific function—in our lives. I’m just going to list some of the things the Bible tells us about His role in our life. The Bible calls Him primarily a “helper,” but how does He help us?

The Bible says He teaches us all things and guides us into all truth. Who do we know is the Truth? Jesus, right? Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” The Holy Spirit:

• He reminds us of Jesus’ words. 
• He testifies about Jesus. 
• He glorifies Jesus. 
• He helps us in our weakness. 
• He intercedes for us. 
• He helps us feel the reality that we are children of God by the blood of Jesus!
• He gives us power to follow and obey Jesus. 
• He helps us understand the things God has given to us in the gospel of Jesus. 

Whose name is coming up a lot here? Jesus, right? The Holy Spirit’s job primarily is to keep putting our eyes on Jesus our Savior. You see, being a Christian is not about one moment of salvation but a lifetime of being saved by Jesus out of one pit after the other.

And the Spirit’s job is to keep us looking to Him, keep us trusting Him, over and over and over again. So what does it look like to walk by the Spirit? Let’s put it together. I would say walking by the Spirit is this: it’s living our life hour by hour letting the Spirit lead us to Jesus. 

I chose that word “letting” on purpose, because the Spirit always wants to lead us to Jesus! But just sometimes we don’t let Him. We’re so determined to do it on our own! We are too busy to hear His voice. But if in every challenge we face, we would just stop for two minutes and pray, the Spirit would be able to lead us to Him, to lift our eyes off of ourselves and to cry again to our Savior, “Jesus, help me right now. I can’t do it!” 

See, God’s answer to our desire for lasting change is not a five-year plan; it’s a five-minute plan. It’s not providing what you need to make it to next year; it’s providing what you need to make it through today. It sure feels better with a five-year plan though, doesn’t it? We don’t really want the hourly one.

It feels so much safer, it gives us more control. But I promise you this: in five years of self-dependent effort, you’ll look up and realize you’re going in circles. But if you will choose to be content to walk in hourly dependence upon the Spirit of God, you’ll look up in five years and realize you’ve made more progress than you thought was even possible!

I want to give us four simple phrases as we close out this session in this moment, to help us remember: “Am I walking in self-dependency right now or am I walking in Spirit-dependency?” 

• Self-dependent people focus on rules, on what they can do.
  • But Spirit-dependent people focus on Christ and what Christ has done already.
• Self-dependent people look inward for strength, to themselves.
  • But Spirit-dependent people look outward for strength, namely to Christ. 
• Self-dependent people believe they are spiritually wealthy, that they have something to offer.
  • But Spirit-dependent people know they are spiritually bankrupt. They believe what Jesus says that, “Apart from You, I can do nothing.” 
• Self-dependent people seek to reform their old ways, to turn bad habits into good ones.
  • But Spirit-dependent people seek to crucify old ways. They know there’s nothing worth reforming about that old way of life. It just needs to die, so that Christ can live through them.

Spirit-dependent people can say with Paul, earlier in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Lasting change is possible. It is! It’s promised to you. If you will walk by the Spirit that you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. When we walk by the Spirit in hour-by-hour dependency we’ll see change happen. The choice is set before us today: Who are we going to depend on when we walk out these doors? Self or the Spirit?

Don’t believe the message of the world, that you have the strength within you to accomplish the changes that you want to see in your life. It sounds good, but it’s a lie. Only the Spirit can produce lasting change. The good news is today that, if you are in Christ, He’s with you every moment of your day!

Dannah: Amen. He’s a good Helper. That’s Kelly Needham on living a Spirit-dependent life. Endurance is possible because He dwells in you. 

Well, to close us out today, we’re looking at one of the most hopeful doctrines of all—the doctrine of last things (also known as eschatology). 

Erin Davis, one of my dear friends and fellow Bible teachers, loves to talk about Revelation chapter 21 . . . and for good reason! It’s all about the final state of the redeemed, and it fills her with hope for discouraging days.

Before we listen to Erin, let’s read part of that passage together. Starting in Revelation 21:1: 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

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.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Here’s Erin to explain how this passage fuels her endurance—and how it can fuel yours, too.

Erin: Here’s what Revelation 21 has done in my life: It has run a steel rod of truth straight up my back! It helps me stand for the gospel in ways that no other passage really does, and here’s why. Because Revelation 21 puts everything in my life into two categories.

I had a short stint as a secretary in college, and I struggled with the filing system because there were so many different categories, different colors of folders, different places for things to go. Revelation 21 gives us just two categories! I am a farm girl, and so the farm girl in me likes to think of them as two buckets: former things and eternal things—that’s it.

There’s no third option; there’s no gray area. There are just former things and eternal things. This passage has given me a new filing system for everything in my life. Either it will last forever, or it is destined to pass away. It’s either a former thing, or it’s an eternal thing.

The former things are listed for us right here in Revelation 21:4: 

He [the “He” is Jesus] 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.

Tears? Former thing. Death? Former thing. Mourning is a former thing; crying is a former thing; pain is a former thing. 

All physical pain your body will ever experience, it’s a former thing. 

All heartache your heart will ever experience, it’s a former thing. 

Everything that is broken in our culture and everything that is broken in us, they all go in the former things bucket.

They’re goners; they’re circling the drain. I like to think of it with a different word picture: They’re expired milk; they’re just waiting to be thrown out. Now, sure, they might sink, but it’s not something that I am going to have to carry with me forever.

We think about our own lives; we think about what keeps us up at night, what makes our stomach tied in knots with anxiety. What keeps us from worshipping, because we’re so consumed with worry? What fractures our human relationships, because we just can’t let it go?! All of those things will ultimately end up in the “former things” bucket.

And yet, those are the things that we spend the most time thinking about, the most time trying to fix, the most time venting about or talking to others about. Scripture is saying, “Put them in the former things bucket. It’s where they belong. They’re destined to pass away.”

So, what remains? What goes in the second bucket? Let’s turn in our Bibles to Hebrews 1. I’m going to read to us Hebrews 1:10–12: 

You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.

These verses give us this language: They perish; they wear out; God will roll them up.

Well, what are the “theys” and the “thems” in these verses? It’s everything listed in Revelation 21:4. Tears . . . they will perish. Pain . . . it will be rolled up. Death . . . it will be gone. The broken earth beneath our feet is a former thing.

But force your heart to sit in this for a moment, Hebrews 1:11 again: “They will perish, but you remain.” You can think about anything in your life right now that’s causing you grief or sorrow or anxiety, and you could look at that thing and say, “They will perish, but You remain.”

Here’s my deepest area of sin and need: discouragement, which often veers all the way into despair. I will wake up every morning and drive my life into that sin-ditch every day without the Lord’s help. I’ll wake up and find myself discouraged before I’ve even had my breakfast! This is especially true in every area of ministry. 

Motherhood: where I’m trying to raise four boys to be warriors for the kingdom. I feel discouraged in that space every day. Serving in my church: I’m sure your church is like my church in that it is full of sinners. It can be so discouraging to serve alongside sinners! Loving my neighbor sounds really lovely, until I practically try to do it . . . and it’s hard!

Leading women to know and love their Bibles is a great passion of my life . . . and a great source of discouragement, because so many women that I know and love aren’t opening their Bibles! And bearing with each other in love is a ministry all unto its own and a place where I fight chronic discouragement.

Without the perspective of God’s Word, I would always be discouraged in those areas. And being discouraged inevitably erodes our joy. Without the perspective of God’s Word, I would be a discouraged, fruitless, miserable Christ-follower, and that’s not who I want to be!

So here are the three words that lift my eyes from my discouragement every day. Ready for them? Three words: But. You. Remain. Jesus, You remain! All of this will pass away, but You remain! 

I will always face discouraging circumstances, but I need not always face discouragement because what recalibrates my heart, what reenergizes my work, what refocuses my eyes on the mission is the permanence of Christ and His kingdom . . . which brings me to that second bucket. What goes in that bucket, that eternal things bucket? 

It’s so simple. Only three things go in that bucket. God goes in the eternal things bucket. Psalm 102:12 says, “But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.” God is eternal!

God’s Word goes in the second bucket. It says in 1 Peter 1:25, “But the word of the Lord remains forever.” In Isaiah 40, verse 8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” My Bible goes in the eternal things bucket!

One more thing: people. God’s people will exist with Him forever, and those who do not know him will exist without Him forever. All people are eternal things. That’s it! Just three things: God, His Word, and people. Those three things will exist for a million years; those three things will exist for a million, million years.

I don’t know the numbers that are bigger than those, but as far as our numbers go and beyond that, God, His Word, and people will exist forever! They’re eternal things! And this is the reality of Revelation 21 that has changed my life. 

It is what shifts our hearts away from the challenges we face and away from the challenges the people around us are facing—everything from minor annoyances to major heartbreaks has to go in one of the two buckets. God’s Word helps us see that so much of it is “a former thing.”

Dannah: What an encouraging word from one of my favorite theologians, Erin Davis. We just heard so much good eschatological doctrine. Tears, mourning, pain, conflict, discouragement—these are passing away. If you’re exhausted today, I want you to hear this: Your endurance has an end date. 

Let’s close with one last passage, 1 Thessalonians 4:16–18: 

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

What weary friend can you encourage today? Who needs the comfort of eternal perspective? The best theologians don’t just store up knowledge so they can impress people with words like “eschatology” or “pneumatology.” They learn theology so that their love for God and neighbor expands. So encourage one another with these words.

If you or someone you love is facing hard circumstances, we’d love to remind you about Endure: 40 Days of Fortitude. This booklet invites you to endure in the Lord’s strength. It would be a great addition to your bookshelf or a thoughtful gift for a friend. Request your copy when you make a donation of any amount to support Revive Our Hearts. You can do that by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com.

By the way, all three of the speakers you heard today, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Kelly Needham, and Erin Davis, will be with us this coming week at True Woman '25. It’s not too late to sign up. If you can’t make it in person, you can watch the livestream from the comfort of your own home. It all starts this Thursday! Find out more information at TrueWoman25.com. 

Next weekend, we’re getting super practical here on Revive Our Hearts Weekend. If you’ve been in need of some fresh tips for your time in God’s Word, I hope you’ll come back and join us. 

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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