Exposition of Matthew 24:12-13

Introduction: The Gospel and the Sermon's Theme

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, July 25, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I could not help but think of some of my earliest days as a Christian as we sang that hymn, barely having celebrated my 18th birthday and preaching in a little mission hall where there was an old white-haired saint who sat over to the left, and he looked as though he were sleeping. He would sit there with his arms like this and his head bowed,

0:44 but he was very carefully scrutinizing what we young bucks were saying from the pulpit. And when we got on such themes as is beautifully captured in this hymn that the only one who can do helpless sinners good is Jesus Christ, he would say without opening his eyes or moving, Amen, Lord, if that ain't the gospel, don't know what is.

1:14 And old Mr. Schofield's words have leaped over 41 years tonight. Dear people sitting here, if what we've sung in that hymn ain't the gospel, I don't know what is. We are poor and wretched.

1:33 We are weak and wounded. We are sick. We are weak and sore. And none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.

1:45 But blessed be God, he can do us good. And he is willing and able to do you good if you will but go to him in all the vileness of your sin, turning from it as you would from your own vomit, and cast yourself upon Christ. You will find him. To be everything we've sung about in this wonderful hymn.

2:14 Let us pray now that God will bless the ministry of the word of God to each of our hearts. Our Father, our hearts do run out with praise and adoration. Surely, if anything, would unseal our lips to sing your praise. It is the truth embodied in the language of the hymn we have just sung.

2:40 None but Jesus can do. He is willing and able to do helpless sinners good. And we thank you for that great truth and pray for sinners sitting here tonight in their own sins, under condemnation, in bondage. Oh, Lord, through the ministry of the word, may the Holy Spirit convince them of their true state of lostness, bondage, helplessness.

3:10 And may he, through the word, point them to Christ, as a willing and an able and sufficient Savior. And may they embrace him as their own. And we pray for your people, that you would minister to us with power, that we may hear the word of Christ, upon which we shall meditate, coming to our hearts with freshness and power, fastening itself upon us, so that we cannot escape it long after we have left these woes. Oh, God, by the Spirit, come with power and minister to us, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Christian's Danger and Duty in an Age of Abounding Lawlessness

3:53 Amen. Now will you turn, please, to the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 24, and follow as I read in your hearing two verses from this chapter of God's word. Matthew 24, verses 12, Because iniquity or lawlessness shall be multiplied,

4:33 the love of the many shall wax cold. But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. The Christian's danger and duty in an age of abounding lawlessness, such will be our subject for the ministry of the word tonight and, God willing, for the next two Lord's Day evenings before my wife and I get away for a couple of Sundays for a much-needed and church leadership-mandated vacation.

5:17 The Christian's danger and duty in an age of abounding lawlessness. In the text which forms the basis and the framework for our consideration of this vital subject is the text read in your hearing, Matthew 24, verses 12 and 13. But before we attempt to grasp the meaning of these words and their implication to us, let me take just a few minutes to highlight their setting and the propriety of isolating them and expounding and applying them

6:00 under this theme of the Christian's danger and duty in an age of abounding lawlessness. Most of you familiar with the contents of the Gospel of Matthew will know that Matthew 24, along with the parallel passages in Mark 13 and in Luke 19, contains what is commonly called the Olivet Discourse. And it is called that because Jesus spoke these words on the Mount of Olives. And in this discourse our Lord is responding to a question raised by the disciples with reference to two great events.

6:45 The first, the nearer event, namely the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., which would result in the throwing down of every stone in the temple so that literally not one stone would be left upon another after that destruction. And then the second great issue that our Lord addresses is that which responds to the question with reference to His coming and the end of the age.

7:19 And so two great events are interwoven in the discourse commonly called the Olivet Discourse here in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and a portion of Luke 21. Those events at times very clearly stand out in distinctiveness and certain things are said in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem that are obviously limited to that event. Other things are said with respect to the second coming of our Lord Jesus at the end of the age. And those things are clearly

8:00 and exclusively related to that event. Other things seem to be related to the period between those events and aspects of life in general, conditions in society, circumstances that will surround the people of God from the entire age from the destruction of Jerusalem until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of the practical warnings and the directives have relevance not just for the age that then was

8:43 but for every subsequent epoch of human history and will have application down to the final age until the end of this age when our Lord Jesus comes in the clouds with power and with great glory. I share the conviction of many commentators that the section of Matthew 24 from which these two texts are taken does indeed apply throughout this entire age. Our Lord had spoken in verse 8 of things that are but the beginning of travel. He had stated in verse 6 that in spite of certain things

9:28 that would happen the end is not yet. And this section closing in verse 14 speaks of then shall the end come. But in the light of Scripture's own self-interpreting capacity in which one Scripture gives light to another we need not unravel the details of the exposition of the whole of Matthew 24 to see that these words because iniquity shall be multiplied the love of the many shall wax cold but he that endures to the end the same shall be saved have relevance to the professing people

10:13 of God in every age from the time that our Lord spoke them to this present hour. And as I attempt to unpack these verses tonight I shall do so under three very simple headings. First of all the condition described. Secondly the declension predicted and thirdly the resistance demanded.

The Condition Described: Abounding Lawlessness

10:42 First of all the condition described by our Lord. Notice verse 12a And because iniquity shall be multiplied Our Lord is describing a state of general moral degeneracy in the world. And the key words in that description are the words iniquity and the verb shall be multiplied. Now the word translated in the 1901 American Standard Version iniquity

11:23 is better rendered lawlessness. It is that word which takes the word law and puts what's called the alpha privative an A in front of it that negates it and means without law or lawless. And according to 1 John 3, 4 the very essence of sin is anomia, lawlessness. This is what John says in 1 John 3, 4 Sin is lawlessness.

12:00 That is sin is acting, thinking, desiring looking for, seeking to possess anything, any person in any relationship contrary to the law of God. It is acting, thinking, desiring, reacting in such a way as to say by that thinking, desiring, acting and reacting I am accountable to no one but myself. There is no God who has a right to say to me thou shalt and thou shalt not. No God who has a right to bind me

12:42 by His law epitomized in the Ten Commandments the first four of which point directly to our duties to God and the last six our duty to our fellow men starting with our parents and culminating with the very disposition of our hearts toward them thou shalt not covet. Sin is the disposition that says I have no fixed moral obligations to God. I have no fixed moral obligations to God. I have no fixed changeless binding moral obligations to my fellow man.

13:21 Different strokes for different folks I'll do my own things God or no God. That is the very essence of the meaning of this word. Sin is lawlessness and the condition described by our Lord is one in which iniquity or lawlessness is said to be multiplied. To be multiplied.

13:52 And the word for multiplied is that word that we saw in our study this morning in Acts chapter 6 and verse 1. The growth of the church was so unusually quick and so unusually impressive in terms of its numerical growth the Spirit of God decided and describes it in Acts 6-1 the disciples the number of the disciples was multiplied not just adding up but multiplying. Two times two is four four times four is sixteen sixteen times sixteen you mathematicians figure it out. And there was this exponential growth

14:36 of the church and so it is said that the number of the disciples was multiplying. Likewise when Peter gives an opening benediction upon the Christians in 1 Peter 1-2 he speaks of grace and peace be multiplied. The same word used. So the meaning is obvious.

14:58 It either means great numerical increase exponential numerical increase or unusual measures of influence. When he says grace and peace be multiplied he is saying may you enjoy. Unusual measures of grace and of peace. So in this description of the condition of society which is described by our Lord we have one in which lawlessness which has been present from our first parent sin in the Garden of Eden in every culture in every age

15:43 in every set of circumstances the spirit of lawlessness is the very essence of sin and sin is found wherever man is found but our Lord in this passage indicates there will be seasons when the general condition of lawlessness will be exponentially increased. It will be more. There will never be a time when lawlessness is not present until Jesus ushers in the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwells righteousness alone and that he will not do

16:27 until his second coming. But our Lord then is describing a condition in society in which lawlessness comes to a greatly increased measure or an unusually heightened level of influence. When men and women not only live as though there were no law to bind them to their duties to God and man but they live as though they had no conscience when they flagrantly violate that law they lose the ability to have any shame. As God said to Israel you have a whore's forehead

17:10 you refuse to be ashamed. It is one thing for someone to fall into gross moral sin and then to be swallowed up with shame and to blush at the thought of one's sin but Israel had become so utterly abandoned that God says you're like a common whore you can walk down the street parading your sin and no blush upon your cheek. Such an age is an age of abounding wickedness. Now that there are such periods in the history of man is clearly revealed in the scriptures.

Biblical Examples of Abounding Lawlessness

17:48 I want you to look with me at several clear examples of this. In Genesis chapter 6 we'll not unpack the verses carefully I shall do that God willing when we resume our Old Testament character studies and fasten our attention upon Noah come this fall but the condition at the time of the flood is described in Genesis 6 5 in these words and the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

18:31 Wickedness and evil had been present from the garden of Eden but now wickedness became a great commodity in the earth and evil was continually incessantly practiced and filled even the thoughts of the hearts of men. And it repented the Lord that he had made man in the earth and it grieved him in his heart and then we have God's determination that he will blot out that entire generation except Noah and his family because it had become a generation marked

19:13 by abounding lawlessness. Verse 11 of the same chapter says that the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God saw the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. This was an age that fit precisely the language of our Lord Jesus and because iniquity or lawlessness abounds the age of the flood was one of abounding lawlessness. The period at the time

19:57 of the judges closes with these words Judges 21-25 and if any of you have read the book of Judges in your own devotions or family worship recently you know there are chapters that make one blush at the utter heartless atrocities and base and bestial acts of immorality and perversion and God does not veil them from our sight. And unlike Hollywood's treatment when we read them in the word of God they never titillate they disgust they fill us with horror they fill us with fear they fill us with dread. Lest we should fall

20:41 into the same sins and when anyone tells you well the Bible's a dirty book it records adultery and fornication and concubines and it's a brutal book it describes in the book of Judges how one woman was hacked up and dismembered my friend listen the difference is this you never read that and find sin attractive or are you titillated or tempted to the sins that are described never never don't buy that lie it's from the pit and the book of Judges ends with these words look at them Judges 21-25 in those days there was no king in Israel every man did that which was right

21:25 in his own eyes do you think the concept of doing your own thing is modern is that exactly what this text says you come up to a person living in the days of the judges and say sir what's your philosophy of life by what standard do you regulate your conduct he said I do my own thing I do that which is right in my own eyes I answer to no king in Israel and certainly to know Jehovah as king over the king of Israel I'm a man who does his own thing I'm a woman who does her own thing I'm a woman determined to find my own fulfillment

22:09 on my own terms and no one man or woman will tell me what those terms will be in those days you see it was an epoch a period of abounding lawlessness when every man and every woman was a law to himself and to herself and refused to acknowledge any standard but that which he or she set for her conduct or his conduct furthermore when we turn to Romans chapter 2 chapter 1 we have a description of that which and here I agree again with most of the responsible commentators does not happen once for all in human history

22:53 but it happens in epochs and periods of human history and Paul is describing a process by which men move out of the realm of what we would call the influence of common grace where what they know of God from the actings of conscience within their hearts what they see of God in creation without if it never brings them to a knowledge of his grace and salvation in Christ it nonetheless restrains them from living by the rule I'll do my own thing I'll do what's right in my own eyes I'll live as though there were no ten commandments

23:38 I'll live as I want to live how I live and don't anyone dare tell me that there's anything wrong with it when people move from a posture where there is at least a restraining influence upon that disposition and come to the posture described in Genesis 6 described at the end of the book of Judges it is because of that which we read in Romans chapter 1 note verse 18 the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hinder or suppress or hold down the truth

24:22 in unrighteousness because that which is known of God is manifest in them for God manifested it unto them and he here teaches that men know from God's creation which is smothered with his fingerprints you cannot look at a blade of grass you cannot look at a twinkling star you cannot look into a baby's face without seeing that blade of grass and the star and the face of that infant smothered with the fingerprints of God but men play tricks on themselves and say no fingerprints blade of grass is just there notice what verse 21 says because knowing God

25:07 in that sense not knowing him in a saving way knowing him in a personal and intimate way but knowing him as creator and themselves as created and accountable to God they glorified him not as God neither gave thanks but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image and he mentions the origin of idol worship and what happens verse 24 God gave them up in the lust of their hearts unto uncleanness that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves

25:52 for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever amen for this cause God gave them up unto vile passions and then he mentions how it is that people give themselves to a homosexual and lesbian sodomite perverted lifestyle it's when God gives them over to their vile passions it is an act of his judgment for men saying I will not live in the light of the reality that screams at me from the creation without from my own deepest consciousness from within I am the creature God is the creature I am God I am God I am God

26:37 I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God God is a creator he has claims over me when they play these moral head games and push God out of their knowledge God Says alright you wanna make man the object of your worship and therefor making man the object of your worship you'll worship man with his appetites and passions becomes, I'm unashamed,

27:20 marching, demanding that the rest of the world say, I'm okay, you're okay.

27:31 That never happens unless already a process of judgment has gone on in God's government. God gives them over. And then when you read verses 28 to the end of the chapter, tell me, tell me, does not this seem like you're reading a chronicle of one of our inner cities today? And as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters,

28:15 hateful to God or haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, infallible, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection.

28:35 The affection of an animal to protect the little one that she carries or the egg that's in her nest. Go near to the bird when she's sitting on her eggs. And her bird says, I must protect my progeny with my...

28:55 my very life, if necessary, without natural affection, walking in, shamelessly, to the abortion clinic, say, kill the baby in my womb. Shamelessly, as a woman being considered for the highest court of the land say, the only way there can be the full affirmation of a woman's identity and dignity is to give her the right to kill the baby in her womb without impunity. And that's not a misrepresentation, a misrepresentation of Mrs. Ginsburg's position.

29:30 It is an accurate representation. The only way you move that you have the shackles of your identity imposed upon you by men is to get pregnant and then kill your baby as the testimony that you are your own person. You talk about God giving men over to the foolishness of their hearts. Irrelevant, isn't it?

Contemporary Abounding Lawlessness

30:08 We could then turn on, and I will just mention it briefly, too, 2 Timothy 3, 1 and following. Paul says to Timothy, remember what we're seeking to establish that there are epochs and periods in human history, in societies that are perfect mirror images of what Jesus talks about in Matthew 24, excuse me, when lawlessness abounds. And Paul tells Timothy that what he and all new covenant ministers can expect, from the time of the first coming of Christ to the time of the second coming, that there will again be epochs, called here grievous times,

30:51 better perhaps, grievous seasons. Know this, 2 Timothy 3, 1, that in the last days, that is the days from the first coming of Christ to the second coming, grievous periods or seasons shall come, for men shall be lovers of self, all of the religion of self-esteem and self-love and self-worth and self-fulfillment and self-identity. No new thing under the sun. They shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, needs no comment,

31:34 boastful, haughty, railers, guilty of vile, abusive, unrestrained speech, turning one's tongue into a dagger and a sword. And he lists 17 or possibly 18, how you divide up the last one, dominant characteristics of certain seasons in the last days, seasons that our Lord calls abounding lawlessness. Now let me ask you, having sought to demonstrate from the words of Jesus that there will be seasons,

32:16 seasons when lawlessness shall abound, seen such seasons, Genesis 6, Judges 21, Romans 1, 18 and following, 2 Timothy 3, let me ask you a very simple question. Are we in our own national life here in the U.S. of A.,

32:42 are we in such a season? Do we need to have some kind of a twisted, negative, screwed spirit to come to the conclusion that we are in a period where there is frightening, abounding lawlessness? The violence that fills our streets and has the mayors of our cities wringing their hands and begging to throw more money and more police at the problem?

33:21 The sexual license which is the order of the day, in which the great theme of the soap operas that mold the morals of a whole nation of women and even men who watch them, football players carrying their TV sets into training camp and admitting they're hooked on the soaps, where everybody's got the hots for someone else's wife and I only know from what I read of the reviews of them, I would not defile my eyes and my mind by watching the things themselves. When sodomites and perverts are not only out of the closet

34:06 but in the streets, shamelessly stand as members of Congress, demanding not equal protection under the law, but approval on that which God says is against nature, and then pseudo-scientific investigation trying to prove it's all genetically programmed by certain chromosomes. Dear people, I take no pleasure in saying what I'm saying. Have I said enough to convince you that we are in such a period?

The Declension Predicted: Love Waxing Cold

34:49 The moral description or the moral condition described by our Lord is one in which iniquity or lawlessness abounds. And Jesus speaks of such a season. Not simply to inform us, but he has a tremendous, I say it reverently, pastoral burden as the great shepherd of his people. For he goes on from this moral condition described to set before us what I'm calling the spiritual declension predicted.

35:32 Look at the language of the text. And because iniquity or lawlessness shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold. The spiritual declension predicted. I want to ask three questions of this part of the text.

35:55 Number one, what is the nature of the declension predicted? Look at your text. The Lord focuses not on the grace of faith, but on the grace of love. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.

36:18 And that love is most likely a reference of professed disciples' love to Christ, which is always, inevitably, the fruit and the accompaniment of saving faith. For Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1.8, whom having not seen ye love, in whom believing ye rejoice. The joy unspeakable and full of glory.

36:46 All who believe in him love him, and they love him because having come to believe in him, they love because he first loved them. Their love is not self-creating. It is the reciprocation of the believing reception of his love. By faith we come to possess the benefits of the love of God in Christ, those benefits that focus upon his work in dying upon the cross, the just for the unjust.

37:22 And the heart of the gospel is, Christ died for sinners. And the trumpet note of the call of the gospel is, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The call of the gospel is not love Jesus Christ, it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When the jailer, trembling under a sense, of impending wrath, and not being right with God, came trembling into the presence of Paul and Silas and says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

37:53 Paul didn't say love the Lord Jesus. He said in Acts 16.31, Believe into upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. However, if that faith is real, it will always carry in its very arms the grace of love, to Christ in whom believing you love.

38:17 And that love will always manifest itself in a life of principled, not perfect obedience. For Jesus said in John 14.21, He that hath my commands and keeps them, he it is that loves me. You see, he takes it totally out of the realm of the subjective.

38:33 He doesn't say, he that puts the loveometer on his heart and it rises to 80 on the scale loves me. No, no. He says, He that hath my commandments, the objective revelation of my will, keeps them, not perfectly but purposely, not out of a legalistic spirit trying to earn salvation, but out of an evangelical spirit, keeping them because we love him and desire to please him. He it is that loveth me.

39:07 Jesus does not identify anyone as a lover of himself who does not have and keep his commandments. He knows no one who loves him, who does not seek to know and obey his precepts. That's the clear teaching of the Word of God. Now, the nature of this declension is such that it focuses upon that grace of love to Christ, which manifests itself in obedience.

39:36 And the verb suko means to become cold or to be extinguished. This is its only use in the New Testament. The noun form is used several times and is always translated cold. And that's probably why our translators translated it this way.

39:58 And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But in secular Greek literature, it is used in such a way as not to be thought of as cold, but utterly extinguished. If love is a living flame, it is utterly extinguished. It doesn't even have any dying, glowing end.

40:25 Your fire ought to look like when you've been camping in the woods. And before you leave, you douse it with buckets of water and poke around with a stick until you're sure every last glowing little bit of charcoal is extinguished. Because iniquity shall abound, the declension predicted is the love of the many shall wax cold or be extinguished. What's the nature of the definition?

Widespread Declension and Its Occasion

40:52 Of the declension? It is the waning and the extinguishing of love to Christ. Second question. How widespread will it be?

41:04 In periods and epochs of abounding lawlessness? And will this of the water of the influence of the world around us put out the last glowing embers of apparent love to Christ? Look at the text. And I tell you, dear people, this text has fastened itself.

41:26 It has been in my heart and has been tracking me down for months until finally this Saturday or Friday. I said, Lord, I can't live with it anymore. I don't feel ready to preach on it, but neither can I live with it clawing at me. It won't let me go.

41:42 Will you look at your Bibles and see what they say? Because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many, the love of the many, the love shall wax cold. What will this declension be? It will not be an occasional, exceptional instance, but it will be the order of the day.

42:17 Verse 11 says, And many false prophets shall arise and shall lead many astray. They'll have a plethora of followers, because iniquity shall be multiplied, or lawlessness multiplied, the love of the many shall wax. The way from the faith will be as popular in the days of abounding lawlessness as falling into the faith was easy in days of relative calm and great measures of common grace.

43:02 And isn't that exactly what Paul warns Timothy about in the chapter from, in the next chapter from which we just read, recently look at 2 Timothy chapter 4. To me, one of the most frightening prospects set before young Timothy with biblical realism. Paul charges him before the very presence of God and of Christ Jesus and in the light of his second coming to preach the word, to be urgent in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. And in this setting, why does he tell him to do that?

43:42 For the time will come for Timothy when they will not endure the sound doctrine. But having itching ears, they've got a religious bent and a religious appetite. It comes to focus in the vestibule of the ear and they want it tickled and scratched. They don't want their hearts pierced.

44:16 They don't want their lives changed. They don't want Christ to become all absorbing and the world become in their eyes the thing that it is. No, they want their religious itch relieved by a little bit of tickling. So he says they will heap to themselves.

44:33 Look at the imagery, heap to themselves. No problem of a shortage of elders in their churches. No problem of a shortage of preachers in their congregations. No, they'll heap to themselves teachers.

44:48 Now notice, after their own lusts have taken over and are now the regulative principle in their lives, no longer the commands of Christ, no longer the will of Christ, no longer the glory of God and the law of God and the precepts of God. No, it is their own lusts, which are the driving passion of their hearts. And you see, truth always tends to holiness and righteousness. Make a man feel at least semi-comfortable in his sins.

45:27 So he says they will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside unto fables. They'll believe the most ludicrous, ridiculous nonsense. Why? Because it tickles the ear, but it never touches their darling sin.

45:44 It never talks about sins as dear as right hands that need to be amputated and cast off and sins as dear as right eyes that need to be couched out. No, no. All the religious ear, tickling leaves them utterly free to pursue every base lust of their hearts. The declension will be wide, widespread.

46:11 Jesus said it. And because iniquity or lawlessness abounds, the love of the many will wax cold. Question one, what's the nature of the declension? It is the waning and the utter extinguishing of professed and apparent love to Christ.

46:31 Second question, how widespread will it be? It will affect the many, the many of those who profess the name of Christ, who hitherto have given some semblance of attachment to Christ in faith and therefore some adherence to the ways of Christ as the fruit of that love which is the handmaiden of faith. Question number three, what is its occasion? What is the occasion of this declension?

46:59 Look at the text, and here I must be a little technical, but remember, we believe in verbal, there is only one use of the form of a verb, passive infinitive in the New Testament, and this is where it's found. And when the infinitive is found joined to the preposition dr, it has the concept, the preposition dr, of cause and effect, so that the translation, because iniquity shall abound, is the right translation. You don't have a simple future, because iniquity shall abound.

47:42 An awkward but more accurate representation of the original is, iniquity having come to a state of abounding, the love of the many shall wax cold. And the occasion of this widespread declension in love is the presence of this condition of abounding lawlessness. It is precisely because, because lawlessness multiplies, that the influence of that lawlessness upon professed disciples

48:19 causes the many to wax cold in their professed love. The pressures become so great, one commentator has put it this way, the great increase of the violation of God's law among the wicked will generally tone down and chill the zeal and love of the great mass of the professed subjects of Christ. Another commentator has spoken in this way, thus lawlessness will be multiplied,

49:01 the hold of the law which directs the Christian in avoiding sin and doing good works will be broken. So all manner of lawlessness will multiply, the license practiced by the one, will infect others. And on this account, the love that flows from faith and evidences its presence and strength shall grow cold as though it had been struck by an icy blast. Its fervor and its strength depart.

49:32 And that means that its root, faith, has withered and is dying or is already dead. One of the pitiful sights in the life of the church is the effort to galvanize back into warm activity the love that has been chilled to death. One of the most pathetic and pitiful sights is the effort to galvanize back into warm activity the love that has been chilled to death. Go back to the camping illustration, how pathetic to see a dad with his son

50:16 who's fully and properly extinguished, his campfire, start to leave and then realize that either they cannot make it back to their other base and need to spend the night there, have no more matches and they want the warmth of that fire and they're bent over blowing upon a soaked, soggy pile of charcoal upon which they can blow and towards which they can move a piece of Kleenex and hopefully rekindle the fire. They blow and they blow and all they do is move

50:54 the black gooey around the pile of what once was a fire. Pitiful, he says, when in the professing church men try to galvanize back into warm activity the love that has been chilled to death. Such is Jesus' picture of the sign which marks his parousia and the end of the world. It is dark and the darkness increases steadily.

The Resistance Demanded: Persevering to the End

51:32 We've looked at the condition described. Lawlessness shall abound. The declension predicted. We've asked three questions of it.

51:44 The nature of that declension, it focuses on love to Christ. How extensive will it be? It will affect the many. What is its occasion?

51:55 The very moral condition that Jesus described. But then notice in the third place, having looked at the condition described, the declension predicted. The resistance demanded. But, verse 13, he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.

52:19 And I'm calling this the resistance demanded. And I want to make three observations under this head. Number one, it is an intensely personal and individual resistance. Notice the change in the emphasis.

52:36 Because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he, he moves to the singular now, the one, he, the one who endures to the end, the same shall be saved. You see, we've been looking at broad strokes of the state of our society as one that could legitimately come into this category of abounding, exponential lawlessness. We have considered what our Lord says about the widespread declension.

53:12 These have been broad strokes. These have been generalities. But now it becomes intensely personal. But the one, he, the one who endures to the end.

53:29 In other words, sitting here at this point, my friend, there should be a sense in which there's only one person in this auditorium, and that's you, two people, and the living God. And God's saying something to you. It's intensely personal, this resistance demanded. Secondly, it has to do with persevering to the end.

53:49 Notice, he that endures to the end. Now, the word for persevering means to bear up under, not to cave in under pressure. In the noun form in Luke 18, our Lord's interpretation of the parable of the sower, he said, this is he that has received the word into good soil, who brings forth, fruit with perseverance, with patience. That's the noun form, hupomeno, the verb, hupomene, the noun.

54:22 It has to do with persevering, enduring. Think of the context. With all pressure upon our own sinful nature and the best of the children of God with his remaining sin, all of that lawlessness clawing at his mind and his soul, and his imperfectly sanctified appetites and desires, he must endure. He must bear up under.

54:52 He must secure by every means ordained of God that the coals of his love will burn brightly, that faith will not wane, and love will not flag, that he will persevere, not to the end. There's no article in the original. There is. In this section, up in verse 6b, but the end is not yet the end of the age.

55:21 At the end of verse 14, this gospel shall be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come. But there's no article here. You can't, it's not good English to say, but he that endureth to end. The Lord deliberately speaks that way to show it's not the end, that is, to the second coming, but to the consummation of one's own life.

55:46 For some, it would be in martyrdom. He had earlier spoken of this opposition, rising to such heights that there will be times, verse 9, when his people will be hated of all the nations for his name's sake, and people will deliver up one another and shall hate one another. But our Lord is saying, he that bears up under, he that endures to the end, that is, to the end of his allotted period in this present life, it has to do with persevering to the end. Whatever resistance we must offer to the pressure of the abounding lawlessness of this age, it will not do.

56:30 As one writer set forth a very powerful illustration, the man bought a plot of land having heard that there was a vein of some precious metal in it, and he spent months and thousands of dollars boring into solid rock, seeking to find that vein. And he finally gave up and said, there's no precious metal here, and sold off the plot of land. The next men came in and drilled one yard further and discovered gold. You get the point?

57:07 He hadn't persevered to the point of the reward of his investment. And our Lord is here saying that this resistance demanded is not only intensely personal and individual, it has to do with my persevering to the end. And notice, thirdly, it is a matter of salvation or damnation. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.

57:39 I thought he already was saved. Yes, but he shall be saved. That is, he shall know that dimension of complete salvation that is brought to every true believer at the coming of the Lord Jesus, when we will receive our resurrection bodies, joined to our perfected spirits. And if we are alive, it is coming.

58:02 We will receive perfected spirits and glorified bodies in one installment. And that is the salvation envisioned here, what the theologians call eschatological salvation, from the Greek word eschatos, which means the end, the salvation that comes at the end, when the Lord Jesus winds up, the history as we now know it, and ushers in eternity. Dear people, this is not a matter of rewards, a little bag of yo-yos or a big bag of yo-yos. This is a matter of salvation or its opposite, damnation.

Perseverance: Certainty and Necessity

58:43 And I am convinced in every fiber of my being that as I move amongst you, dear people, there are altogether too many of you that are not really convinced of this very truth, that persevering to the end, no matter what the pressure may be from abounding lawlessness, is a matter of salvation or damnation. You say, Pastor Martin, are you teaching we can lose our salvation? No, no, no, no. All who are truly once saved are forever saved.

59:25 He that has begun a good work in us, will perfect it until the day of Christ. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never, never perish. All who are truly saved are forever saved. But only the one who perseveres to the end, Jesus said, shall be saved.

59:53 What's he talking about? He's telling us here, the flip side of that glorious truth. All of the saved shall persevere, but all of the saved must persevere to prove that they are saved. They shall, but they must.

60:10 I shall breathe until the moment God has decreed my death. But I must breathe. I shall, but I must. Certainty and necessity are not contradictory in the word of God.

60:33 Remember the classic illustration from the book of Acts. Paul says, the Lord is come to me. An angel of the Lord stood by me tonight. Don't be afraid.

60:43 He's told me not one life on this ship will be lost. We'll all be saved. A few minutes later, some of the guys start to let down a skiff to try to make it to shore. He says, ah, ah, ah, don't do that.

60:55 Except you abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Well, didn't you tell us we're all going to be saved? He said, yep. But now I'm telling you, get out of the ship and into the boat, and you won't be saved.

61:08 Any contradiction? None whatsoever. It was certain they'd be saved. It was necessary.

61:14 They stay on the ship. It is certain we shall be preserved. It is necessary that we persevere. I said my main purpose tonight was unpack the text.

Application: Call to Self-Examination

61:28 Let me just, in closing, just give a couple of brief applications. First of all, is not this text and the subject matter of the danger and the duty of a professed disciple of Christ in an age of abounding lawlessness, is it not a call? To serious, close self-examination. It's been a long time since I've preached on texts that I used to preach on all the time.

62:01 Thirty-five years ago when I was in an itinerant ministry going around evangelical churches in various parts of the country, texts such as 2 Corinthians 13, 5, examine yourself. Prove yourself whether you be in the faith. Know ye not your own selves that Christ is in you except you be reprobate? Examine yourself.

62:21 Prove yourself. Put yourself to the test. 2 Peter 1.10, give diligence.

62:28 Give diligence. Don't assume and presume, but give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Dear friend, young or old, I want to ask you a very simple question. Is your religion real?

62:43 The acid test of it is this. Do you love Christ? Remember the focus? Because iniquity shall end, shall abound, the love, the love of the many shall be extinguished.

62:59 Do you love Christ? If you do, you will desire communion with Christ. Your greatest grief will be those days when you've allowed your so-called schedule to crowd out time alone with Christ. Your greatest joy is when you sit down quietly and alone or standing by an ironing board alone with the kids asleep or whatever the external circumstances may be.

63:26 You actually enjoy communion with Christ that is as real as the communion when you hold your wife in your arms and look into her eyes and say, Dear, I'm not. Do you know anything about communion with Christ? Love without communion is a contradiction in terms. There can be no love for Christ without delight in communion with Christ.

63:55 Is your greatest grief rooted in the knowledge that you've displeased with Christ? Not broken some abstract rules? Not jeopardized your standing as a good member in Trinity Church? God have mercy on you if that's the only grief you know in the presence of sin.

64:16 Do you know any grief like the grief that flows from Calvary's wounds? This sin that I've done. This angry word to my wife. This snippy, nasty, catty word about my brother or sister.

64:32 This retort in anger to my husband. This impatience with my children. This lustful glance. This inordinate desire.

64:43 This covetous spirit caused his wounds. It opened up the wound inside. Covered the heavens in darkness. It rung the cry of abandonment.

65:03 My sin did that to my safety. Do you know anything of grieving over sin because of what it did?

65:13 Do you know anything of desire for and delight in communion with Christ? Are you careful and meticulous about obeying Christ? He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me.

65:33 I'm concerned with more than the mere broad strokes of obedience to Christ. My love to him drives me to want to obey him in all things. It's a call to self-examination because, you see, if you know nothing of that kind of love to Christ that delights in communion with him, is grieved at the withdrawal of that communion, is grieved when you displease him and sin against him, but is careful to obey him, mark my word, whatever semblance of love you have to Christ, the waves of the influence, of abounding lawlessness,

66:17 is going to drown the coals of that kind of love, and you will be the fulfillment of this text because lawlessness abounds. The love of the many. Mark it, my friend, the many are going to be made up not from the pagans who never professed love to Christ, not from the Madeleine Murray O'Hairs who say there is no God and is no Christ, if they don't profess love to Christ. It's to have love to him.

66:58 It's professing Christians in churches like this. It's why Paul could say, if any man loved not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. 1 Corinthians 16, 22. Why?

Application: Call to Self-Distrust

67:14 Because the root of the matter is not in him. I call you to examine yourself whether the root of the matter is in you, my dear friend. Not only is it a call to self-examination, but a call to self-distrust. 1 Corinthians 10, 12.

67:31 Wherefore? Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Self-distrust. And the Lord said, One of you shall betray me.

67:43 The disciples were beginning to be humbled, and they said each one to another, Lord, is it I? I am capable of betraying you. When you've come to know your own heart, you say, Oh, God, my heart is capable. It left without the influence of your Holy Spirit.

68:02 My heart left to itself, amidst the chilling wintry arctic blasts of the lawlessness of this age, will become like a lump. Oh, Lord, have mercy on me. Kindle my love to you, Lord Jesus. Feed the springs of my love to you by your Spirit.

Application: Avoid Dampening Love for Christ

68:27 It is a call to self-distrust. And finally, it is a call to serious avoidance of anything that will, in any way, dampen your love to Christ. If you persevere to the end. And how will you persevere to the end?

68:50 By dealing with the slightest things that, here and now, dampen your love to Christ. And I want to be very blunt and frank here. I'm shocked when I hear from the mouths of members of Trinity Church language like this, Oh, that wasn't a bad movie. Had only one sex scene and only a half a dozen personals.

69:13 I tell you, I'm shocked. Agree. You mean you're going to pay money, to watch people fornicate, and then come out and justify it, even openly before a fellow believer, and say, Oh, that wasn't a bad movie. Had only one sex scene.

69:29 Only one explicit, blatant act of fornication, that is lawlessness, that says there is no seventh commandment. And listen, you look upon it with anything but hatred and disfavor. It won't be long before you'll entertain it in your own mind. And then you'll break the heart of a husband, and a wife, and everyone that loves you.

69:55 One of our sister churches, a pastor called me this past week, a heartbroken, a heartbroken adultery. In a church where the word is preached powerfully, warmly, and passionately, somebody thought they could go watch the movie with only one sex scene. Watch a little bit of the soaps. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold.

70:31 Deal with anything that would dampen, your love to Christ. However innocent it may appear, it is the first step to becoming the fulfillment of the words of Jesus. May God grant that our consideration of this passage will become the basis of ongoing meditation and prayer and reflection. Some timid soul may say, Pastor, I'm scared to death.

71:06 Good. If your fear drives you to Christ, and drives you to watch, and to pray, that you fall not into temptation, if it drives you to flee fornication, if it drives you to abandon all cocky self-trust, and take heed lest you fall, then blessed fear, blessed fear. And for some of you who ought to be afraid but aren't, I fear for you, your cockiness is altogether inconsistent with the realization of what a horrible, tender box of evil you carry within your breast. May God humble us all that we may be determined that the cold,

71:50 of love to Christ, will not only resist the dampening influence of abounding lawlessness, but that they may proportionately burn the brighter to resist its intense and concentrated effort to cause those colds to be extinct. A few drops of water will put out the last glow of a little ember. They won't touch a large, crackling, living cold, with tongues of fire shooting out. Those drops will sizzle when they hit it, and God give us hearts like that for Christ.

Conclusion and Prayer

72:33 And then the world can pour the buckets of its embers, swallow it up, will persevere to the end, and be saved. Let us pray. We thank you for our Lord Jesus, and his honesty with his disciples, and therefore his honesty with us. Thank you for his realism.

73:04 Thank you that he did not paint a picture, that would lull his own to sleep. Help us to lay to heart what we have heard tonight. Have mercy upon those who have never known any true love to Christ, because they've never known what it is to believe upon him. Draw them powerfully, we pray, to turn from sin and to cast themselves into the arms of the inviting and the waiting Savior.

73:37 Help your people, O God, that we may be determined by your grace that no amount of abounding of lawlessness will dampen our ardor for Christ. O make us ruthless, ruthless, Lord, with everything that would in any way draw us one millimeter away from closeness. Seal your word to our hearts, and help us that in this gathering of professed disciples, there will be a blessed exception to the prophetic word of our Lord Jesus,

74:20 that the love of the many shall wax cold or be extinguished. O God, may the love of the many in this place be such as to grow and increase until we see him face to face. Dismiss us with your blessing, we pray, in his worthy name. Amen.