Perseverance in a Lawless Age

Introduction: The Olivet Discourse and the Focus on Perseverance

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Monday evening, October 21, 2002, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, during the annual pastor's conference. The preacher is Pastor Albert N. Martin. Now may I encourage all of you who have brought your Bibles to turn with me to the portion of God's Word read in your hearing, the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 24.

0:30 Now having the written Word open before us, let us again cry to God that the author of that Word, the Holy Spirit Himself, will be present in His special activity promised to preachers when they preach, and to the people of God when they sit under that preaching, that we may plead for that operation of the Spirit together, and in the expectation of faithfulness. Faith, look to God to grant it to us. Let us pray.

1:12 Holy Father, we come again into Your presence, not as a matter of ritual or form, but because many of us have been brought to the place where we truly believe that unless there is in the coming minutes together a distinct, special, immediate activity of the Holy Spirit upon us, preacher and listener alike, our time will be in vain. And surely, Lord, You have not brought us together, filled us with yearnings to know Your presence, filled many with expectation of Your blessing, only to send us away disappointed and grieved. O God, for Your glory, for the praise of Your beloved Son, fulfill Your promise, to us in this very place tonight, that You would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. We are asking. It is Your work to give.

2:21 O Lord, give us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, many of you know that Matthew chapter 24 is commonly designated as our Lord's Olivet Discourse. As Matthew 5 to 7, is known as the Sermon on the Mount.

2:47 This chapter is known as the Olivet Discourse because our Lord spoke these words on the Mount of Olives according to verse 3. It begins with our Lord's prediction concerning the destruction of the magnificent temple and its adjoining buildings in the city of Jerusalem. And in response to that prediction, the disciples asked the questions recorded in verse 3 and as he sat on the mount of olives the disciples came unto him privately saying tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world and the rest of the discourse from verse 4 onward we have Jesus response to these questions whether we regard them as two questions or three questions it is evident that our Lord is responding to the questions of his disciples when shall these things be what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age without attempting to unravel some of the exegetical complexities oseries

4:07 of this chapter, I am assuming that you are at least mildly persuaded that what is described for us, particularly between verses 9 and 13, are those things that will be present throughout the entire inter-advental period. That is, the period between the first and the second coming of our Lord Jesus, between the day in which our Lord spoke to the disciples, and prior to the end concerning which he speaks in verse 14, with the words, then shall the end come. And tonight we are going to focus our attention, in the midst of that discourse, on verses 12 and 13. And because iniquity or lawlessness, shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And with this passage open before us, I want to speak to you

A Prevailing Condition Predicted: Abounding Lawlessness

5:27 on the necessity for personal perseverance in an age of pervasive suffering. Lawlessness. The necessity for personal perseverance in an age of pervasive lawlessness. And we will look at our text under three heads which lie on the very surface of the text. First of all, we will note a prevailing condition predicted. And because iniquity or lawlessness shall be applied. And we will look at our text under three heads which lie on the very multiplied then a tragic consequence anticipated the love of the many shall wax cold and thirdly a personal implication articulated but he that endures to the end that one shall be saved first of all then note with me a prevailing condition predicted and because lawlessness

6:41 shall be multiplied the scriptures unmistakably assert that lawlessness anomia is the constant and universal disposition and character of unregenerate men and women in every age in every nation you in every culture and in every society from the fall of our first parents adam and eve however the scripture teaches us that there are periods there are seasons in societies and nations in which the baseline disposition of lawlessness and its manifestations are exponentially increased the bible tells us in first john four four that sin is anomia sin is lawlessness and the disposition of lawlessness is very succinctly described in a text such as god for it is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can it be so then they that are in

8:02 the flesh cannot please god that's the baseline disposition of everyone who is a stranger to the regenerating work of god the holy spirit however as i've indicated that baseline lawlessness the common denominator of every society in every age there are seasons according to the statement of our blessed lord in which that spirit of lawlessness is exponentially increased and because lawlessness shall be not just mildly increased but multiplied this is the term that is used to describe that exponential increase of the church in the early days of its apostolic blessing in jerusalem act 6-1 speaks of the the fact when the number of the disciples was multiplied and again in act 6-7 and when we read the history from 120 to 3 000 3 000 to 5 000 and then we read that many more including a great number of the priests become obedient to the faith and so our lord is speaking of seasons within the inter-advental period when it can be said that lawlessness

9:28 shall be exponentially increased i believe this is precisely what the apostle paul is referring to in what are well-known words to many of us in second timothy chapter 3 and verse 1 but know this that in the last days that is the days between the first and the second coming of our lord jesus grievous times grievous times grievous times grievous times grievous times grievous times grievous times grievous seasons shall come for men shall be lovers of self lovers of money boastful haughty railers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection implacable slanderers without self-control etc there will be seasons of the exponential increase of the spirit and manifestations of lawlessness and surely brethren one last season of the season of the season of the season is upon us one need not be a prophet to discern that such a season is upon us in our own beloved country and in the vast majority of what we would call western society at large i will not

10:46 weary you with the statistics on the specific manifestations of this spirit of lawlessness but wherever we turn from the highest echelons of elected office a few years ago into corporate headquarters into every facet of the business world the sporting world into our universities in our offices the media wherever we turn there is not merely baseline ordinary lawlessness but there is abounding exponentially increased lawlessness some of us who are of the older generation have witnessed this with our own eyes i remember as a move boy when all of my hormones were churning within me and everything in my own regenerate heart would have delighted to bring him the wretched phil for pornography i could go to the local store and there was no pornography on the shelves non what so ever and when television first began to come on in the early fifties and ordinary lower middle class people could purchase a little six or eighteen screen there was nothing

A Tragic Consequence Anticipated: The Love of Many Shall Wax Cold

12:12 that spoke of the lecherous and beyond clean and that's sort of then the base nothing we're living in a period of a bonding lawlessness i say i'm will not live in the本当 to be able to live in the true world of the universe with the true world of the universe will not pause to give you more than those broad strokes broad stroke reminders of that reality because i want to come very quickly to our second head our lord not only sets before us that this prevailing condition will be a reality but he tells us then a tragic consequence anticipated and because iniquity or lawlessness shall abound and you greek students you have a with the infinity so it's a cause and effect relationship because in the light of this abounding lawlessness this tragic consequence is anticipated by our lord and what is it it is this it is this it is this it is this it is this it is this it is this it is this it is this it is this that the love of the many shall wax cold the love of the many shall wax cold

13:37 now what has fascinated me as i've meditated upon this text is why does the lord say the love of the many shall wax cold in a period of abounding lawlessness is it not accurate to say that faith is dampened and even abandoned that holiness is jettisoned yes it is but our lord focuses upon the grace of love the love of the many shall wax cold and why does he in setting before us this tragic consequence anticipated as a result of this abounding lawlessness why does he focus upon love well i would not be prepared to propose an answer for which i die but it is one that i will give with some measure of confidence enough to preach it and it is this the essence of the laws demand and directive is what supreme love to god

14:54 and selfless love to one's neighbor what is the first and great commandment in the law is the question proposed to our lord and our lord answers it is this thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart mind soul and strength and the second is like unto it you shall love your neighbor as yourself well if the essence of the laws demand is whole-souled love to god and selfless love to one's neighbor then what will be the most critical manifestation of the law of the many shall wax cold and love to one's neighbor into the beggars and their liars the flip side of the law will not just be the exaltation of abounding exponentially increased lawlessness it will be the absence the dampening of whole-souled love to god and the eradication of selfless love to one's fellow man and then note what our lord says about the extent Yet the love of many, but the love of thee, many shall wax cold. He had indicated in verses 9 and 10 that hostility and opposition to the people of God

16:21 manifested in murder, hatred, and betrayal will cause many to apostatize. You see that in verses 9 and 10? Then shall they deliver you up to tribulation. They shall kill you.

16:37 You shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake. And then shall many stumble and shall deliver up one another and shall hate one another. And so the hostility and opposition manifested in murder, hatred, and betrayal will cause many to apostatize. And furthermore, our Lord indicates that false prophets will be cast out of the kingdom of God.

17:03 And shall lead many astray. Verse 11. And many false prophets shall arise and shall lead many astray. Many will be in the horrible train of apostasy from opposition and betrayal and false teaching.

17:25 But it is thee, many, whose love shall wax cold as a result of a climate of apostasy. Abounding lawlessness. Moffat suggests that this little phrase, the many, should be understood as the majority.

17:47 Many apostatize from persecution and opposition. Many apostatize from the influence of false teachers. But the many shall apostatize from the influence of abounding lawlessness. The climate of apostasy.

18:06 The climate of lawlessness will take a greater toll upon professing Christians than the combined opposition of fierce persecution and the devious ways of false prophets.

18:24 That ought to strike fear to your heart and fear to mine.

A Personal Implication Articulated: He Who Endures Shall Be Saved

18:30 Well, from the prevailing condition predicted,

18:34 because lawlessness shall abound, the tragic consequence anticipated, the love of the many shall wax cold, consider with me thirdly, a personal implication articulated. But, verse 13, he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And I have said this is a personal implication articulated because our Lord uses not a plural participle and a plural demonstrator. A plural demonstrator.

19:12 And a plural demonstrator. And a plural demonstrator. And a plural demonstrator. And a plural demonstrator.

19:13 And a singular demonstrative pronoun. But a singular. If we were to give a wooden translation, it would sound something like this. But he or the one enduring to the end, that particular one shall be saved.

19:36 And so by the singular participle and the singular demonstrative pronoun, our Lord is underscoring how personal is the implication of these words. It is a personal implication articulated amidst the many whose love will grow cold, amidst the many who are sucked into the vortex of the whirlpool of the influence of abounding lawlessness to change the imagery lawlessness that hangs in the air like a thick penetrant, like a prevailing fog amidst the many whose love will grow cold. There will be this one and that one, and this one, and that one, and this one, and that one who will endure in spite of that climate and endure to the very end. And as a result, our Lord says, such ones shall be saved. Such ones will experience.

20:53 The blessed fulfillment of what our theological friends call full eschatological salvation. That's just fancy language for telling us that they shall be saved. That is, they will come into the possession of a perfected soul inhabiting a deathless body in the new heavens and in the new earth. In the company of a host of redeemed ones with perfected souls in their deathless bodies in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb.

21:35 That's what Jesus meant when he said, he, that particular one enduring to the end, that one shall be saved. That one shall experience in his or her own person. All of the wonder and the glory of a completed salvation. That salvation purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ and secured for all of his true people.

22:07 Applied by the power of the Holy Spirit. They, such ones, shall be saved. Now in the light of this brief exposition of the text. With its prevailing condition predicted.

Application 1: Realistically Reckon with Peculiar Dangers

22:26 Its tragic consequence anticipated. The personal implication articulated. I want to lay before you three, what to me are crucial burdens of application. Number one is this.

22:45 You and I, each one of us, must realistically reckon with the peculiar dangers. Of living, and my fellow pastors, ministering, in an age of abounding lawlessness. Jesus spoke these words that His followers might realistically reckon with the peculiar dangers of living and ministering in an age of abounding lawlessness. He wants them to recognize that in such seasons, there are peculiar dangers, particularly to dampen the ardor of our professed love to God and to our fellow man. Let me illustrate it this way. Those of us who've gone to so-called third world countries, we are warned, duly warned, especially by someone who didn't take someone else's warning, that before we go, we ought to take certain shots and there are certain medications that we ought to take in our suitcases and in our shaving kits.

24:06 For you ladies, whatever you call the kit in which you keep your face and all the other things. We are told that. In these third world situations, one's gastrointestinal system is peculiarly vulnerable to little microscopic things that will make you sick. Sick, I mean really sick.

24:31 Well, you've got to have your track shoes on if you're going to get through the night. I know. Trying to find a little slit in a piece of concrete, two inches wide by eight inches in the middle of the night. In the backyard of a missionary's home in Pakistan, I realized I was a fool for not taking the warning.

24:56 All right? You've got to know. And knowing, you must take the particular precautions essential to that place of unusual vulnerability and danger. And one who ignores it is a fool and he generally pays for it.

25:15 The Lord Jesus here says, And because... Because lawlessness shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold, but he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved.

25:33 I am warning you, that warning you, you will realistically reckon with the peculiar dangers of living and ministering in such an age. Let him who thinks he can go to Pakistan with no shots and no pills. Take heed, lest he get to Pakistani trots.

26:06 Now that's a crass, very earthy illustration, but it carries the message.

26:16 You and I did not choose to be born when we were born. To live in this period of the history of Western culture, in which common grace has well nigh been swept away by the tidal flood of lawlessness. In which things that 20 years ago would have shocked any decent person, even non-Christian, is now part of the thinking and the language and the whole social fabric of our society. My brothers and sisters, you and I must realistically reckon that we are not impervious to all of this.

26:57 It is a thick fog that is around us and is seeking continually to seep into the very fabric of our souls.

27:10 It is not neutral in its influence upon you or upon me. And I am utterly surprised at how many Christians act as though they can go to Pakistan with no shots and no Imodium and come away. With no gastrointestinal sickness. A sense of our peculiar danger when all the while God says, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Application 2: Be Persuaded of the Absolute Necessity of Perseverance

27:53 We must realistically reckon with the peculiar dangers of living and ministering in an age of abounding lawlessness. But then secondly, and this is the central burden. Of my message tonight, you and I, and listen to me carefully, you and I must be persuaded concerning the absolute necessity of our persevering in spiritual life and vigor.

28:27 We are to be saved.

28:33 Now that's going to set some of you on the back of your pew.

28:37 But that's what Jesus is saying. In spite of the fact that the love of the many shall wax. Cold, the one enduring that particular one in during shall be saved. You and I must be persuaded concerning the absolute necessity of our persevering in spiritual life and vigor.

29:11 If we are to be saved, I am not suggesting that we are able to do this apart from the continuous. Supplies of grace that come to us within God's covenantal commitment to his people, secured by the indwelling of the spirit by whom we are sealed to the day of redemption, the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, which secures that all for whom he intercedes shall be saved to the uttermost. I am not denying. I am not bypassing, nor am I ignorant, but my text.

29:53 If you don't. If you don't endure to the end, you're presumptuous to think you're going to be saved. And I'm convinced there are many sitting here who really don't believe it. You really don't believe that unless you persevere, you'll be damned.

30:14 You don't believe it. And I am here to preach tonight, and I trust with the blessing of God to persuade you. You must believe it, because Jesus said it. He.

30:29 And only he. That endures to the end, the same shall be saved. God never saved anyone because he persevered in the mere profession of attachment to Christ, while abounding lawlessness sucked away his love to Christ and his love to man. Nor did he save anyone because he persevered in the ministry and continued to preach orthodox sermons.

31:01 And lead. God-centered worship.

31:06 He saves them by his grace in a way of persevering in the graces of the Spirit, in love to the end. It is only this unshakable persuasion that will produce three things that are essential to our perseverance. These are not peripheral. They are essential to our perseverance.

Essential to Perseverance: Ruthless Mortification of Sin

31:33 And I'm suggesting that it's only a conviction. A conviction of the absolute necessity of our perseverance that will drive the wheels of our commitment to these three things. What are they? Number one.

31:49 Perpetual, ruthless mortification of our own peculiar sins. Ruthless, perpetual mortification of our own particular sins. Number two. Number three.

32:07 Number four. Number five. Number six. Number seven.

32:07 Number eight. Number nine. Number ten. Number eleven.

32:07 Number twelve. Number eleven. Number twelve. Number eleven.

32:08 Number twelve. Number twelve. Number twelve. Number twelve.

32:08 The Lord who spoke the words of Matthew 24 spoke these words in Matthew 5, verse 27. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say unto you that everyone that looks on a woman to lust after her, doesn't say everyone that looks upon a woman and has a legitimate appreciation of her beauty, but who looks with a view to lusting, who looks and kindles desire to have, who so looks to lust, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. But Lord Jesus, that's an unrealistic standard.

32:47 We got eyes and there are beautiful women. What can we do? He says, I'll tell you what you can do. You can go to gouging out your eyes.

32:55 The next verse. And if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it's profitable for you that one of your members should perish and not that your whole body be cast into hell. It's pluck or be cast.

33:12 Jesus said it and Jesus meant it. Did he mean a literal plucking out of the eye? Of course not. If you're given to lust, blind men can lust as much as sighted men.

33:23 But he's saying there must be this commitment to perpetual, ruthless mortification of sin. He repeats the words in a totally different context in Matthew 18, 7 to 9. Paul in Romans 8, 13 says, If you by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. And it's interesting that in the Matthew 5 passage, our Lord does indeed focus upon sexual sin.

33:56 And part of the aggravated manifestation of lawlessness is in that area in which we have such a God-like capacity. If some of you have wondered why with this abounding lawlessness, does so much of it manifest itself in the sexual dimension? It's because in that dimension, we've been endowed with such God-like capacity to create, to enter into an intimacy with another that is reflective of the intimacy within the triune God. And so the devil does his best to pervert that which in many ways makes us most like God.

34:38 And it's in that area that unless we are committed, to perpetual, ruthless mortification, we're going to be sucked down into the vortex because of the abounding lawlessness in that area. The shameful stuff that pours over prime time network television. I'm not talking about cable television. The video's available, the local corner.

35:12 And here I'm going to speak very pointedly. The wretched, demonic use, of the computer and the internet. One of my pastor friends was telling me the other day, he's not on the internet. He just got an email service and up on the email, pop addresses for pornographic sites on his email service.

35:40 And I would be very surprised if there are not sitting in this room tonight, men who in the secrecy of their studies, when wife has gone to bed, no one else is there. You fall in prey to this vile, wretched, hellish form of impurity. And you're hooked, you're hooked. You've repented, you've prayed, you've cried, you've fasted, but you're hooked.

36:21 And nothing short of perpetual ruthless mortification is going to deliver you. And that may mean for you, get rid of your stinking computer. If the filter services do not work, and you find yourself unable to resist when an address and a picture pops up in front of you, and you don't have the will to delete, my friend, cut off the right hand. There's nothing in the Bible that says you won't get to heaven without a computer.

37:05 But my Bible says, if you don't mortify the sin of lust, you'll go to hell. And you don't believe it. That's why you dabble, and you pray, and you cry, and you confess, and you go right back to the stinking, rotten, vile, hellish cesspool you don't believe. It's a matter of heaven and of hell.

37:31 And may God help you tonight to say, Lord, I believe you. I believe you. I must endure to the end. Therefore, I must, in your strength, in your power, pluck.

Essential to Perseverance: Continuous Spartan Self-Discipline

37:52 I tell you, that's vigorous language. Another thing essential to our perseverance that you won't engage in unless you're persuaded concerning the absolute necessity of your persevering in spiritual life and vigor. And it is this. Continuous.

38:16 Continuous. Continuous. Spartan self-discipline of your bodily appetites. Continuous Spartan self-discipline of your bodily appetites.

38:35 Here I turn you again to one pivotal passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians and chapter 9. The apostle has been dealing with the subject of Christian liberty. How he cheerfully relinquishes many of his liberties, things that are not sin in themselves.

38:59 But he relinquishes them for the sake of others in the progress of the gospel. And he says in verse 23, and I do all things for the gospel's sake. Now notice a switch of emphasis, that I may be a joint partaker thereof. I'm doing what I do not only that others may be saved, and partake of gospel blessings.

39:27 But I do what I do in the relinquishment of my liberties, that I also may be a partaker of gospel blessings. And then he launches into this imagery drawn from the Grecian games. Do you not know that they that run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Even so run that you may attain.

39:57 And every man that strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it, that is exercise self-control. Their whole life is under a regimen of self-control to win the prize. From morning till night, the thing that is before them, I must win the prize.

40:22 Everything I do, the things I don't, do are all determined by my passionate commitment to win the prize. They do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we, we an incorruptible. I therefore, here's the personal implication, I therefore so run not as uncertainly. He said, I run not like a guy who's out for a leisurely jog on a lovely fall afternoon.

40:53 He just goes out and just jogs. Oh, look at those nice trees. He stops and he looks around and jogs a little bit over here. He said, I don't run like a jogger who's unfocused.

41:04 That's not me. Then he says, so fight I not as beating the air. I'm not like Rocky out taking his run in Philadelphia streets, shadow boxing. He's out running, music's playing, pow, pow, pow, pow.

41:18 What's he hitting? Nothing, just shadow boxing. He said, that's not me. That's not me.

41:24 I'm not out taking the lead. I leisurely jog unfocused. No purpose, no. I'm running a race with a focus.

41:32 I'm not one who's out shadow boxing. Now notice, but I buffet my body, a vigorous Greek word. I beat it under the eye and bring it into bondage lest. Now notice, by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be.

41:55 Abdakimos, not put on the shelf. That's ridiculous philology and rotten theology. He says, the issue at stake is being tested and disapproved reprobate. And he says, for me, the only way I will be a joint partaker of this gospel that I preach in a pattern of self-denial for the good of others, is if I exercise, spartan self-discipline, over my own bodily appetites and passions. Now, unless some of you think this is some bizarre Al Martin interpretation, I hope J.W. Alexander has a little credibility and he writes, in the present day, out of opposition to the ascetic life, we all probably act too much as if we were children of the bride chamber.

43:01 quoting from the scripture those who are rejoicing no self-discipline and too much neglect the subjugation of the body that a man is a minister is no token that he shall not be cast into hellfire the instances of apostasy within our own knowledge stare at us like the skeletons of lost travelers among the sands of our desert way that's one of the saddest statements i've read in a long time skeletons strewn along the sands of our desert way no temptation has befalling them but that which is common to man the apparitions of clerical drunkards and the like should forewarn us let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he perish paul expresses his view of this in terms of which the force cannot be fully brought out by the translation of the scripture but i keep under my body hupo piazzo i strike under the eye so as to make it black and blue a boxing phrase indicative of strenuous efforts at mortification as who should say i subdue the

44:21 flesh by violent and reiterated blows and bring it into subjection i lead it along as a slave having subjugated it by a salt and beating i treated as a bondman as boxers in the palistra used to drag off their conquered opponents and the reason for this mortification of the flesh i would use here not so much the concept of mortification but the discipline subjugation is less that by any reason or means when i have preached to others i myself should be a castaway dreadful words but simply to win against the wrath of god is not to do that nothing can stop us therein no need for it but to come and to kill is the most unspeakable sin of all time the sin of sin is the death of the world that is the death of the whole earth and it is the death of our home earth and all that is the death of all our living things this is the when we are killed we are loosing ourselves from it This may never be known to the world, yet it may lead to his ruin.

45:44 It may never come to open, shameful knowledge among our churches. But there is one who walks amidst the churches with eyes as a flame of fire.

46:01 What does he say? Is it fun to live a life of continuous, spartan self-discipline of our bodily appetites and passions at any time? No. But in a society that worships at the shrine of self-indulgence, it is all the more difficult.

46:26 Everything around us says, take it easy. Indulge yourself. Enjoy yourself. Now this is the same man who says in Romans 8.35, I'm persuaded.

46:41 I'm persuaded that nothing shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But he was equally persuaded he'd go to hell if he didn't go to heaven in the way of spartan self-discipline of his bodily appetites. Together. I don't put them together.

47:00 I just live with them.

47:02 As Spurgeon said, when people ask us to reconcile truths that seem contradictory, he said, no, I don't try to. You only reconcile enemies. I don't spend any time reconciling friends.

47:15 And at times, my friend is the. That in spite of all of the pressure and all of the internal tendency that operates within my own soul, like positive polarity to the negative polarity of sin around me. And I say, oh, God, how can I ever make it in the way of maintaining the grace of love for you and for your people and for holiness and for truth? It is then that we throw ourselves on the water.

Essential to Perseverance: Relentless Use of Means of Grace

47:47 The wonderful cushion of God's promises to keep us the efficacious nature of the intercession of Jesus. He will save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him. We feed our souls upon his high priestly prayer. I will that those that you have given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.

48:12 We feed ourselves upon his words. I came down from heaven. Not. To do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.

48:19 And this is the will of him that sent me that of all that he has given me, I should lose none as the Lord. That's me. You're not going to lose me, but raise me at the last day. And in the appropriate setting, you feed your soul upon the promises of the indefectible nature of grace.

48:39 But in other settings, you feed your soul upon the absolute necessity of your persevering. In the way of holiness and love and truth. But you see, we're not going to do that. We're not going to be prepared for the perpetual, ruthless mortification of sin.

49:02 The continuous Spartan self-discipline of our bodily appetites and passions. And there's another thing we're not being prepared for. And it is this. Relentless, rigorous, principled use of all the means of grace.

49:19 Relentless, rigorous, principled use of all the means of grace. Just as in the conversion of a sinner. The God who has elected a sinner and decreed his salvation. Has decreed that he shall come to possess that salvation by means of hearing and believing the gospel.

49:48 And I trust there's no. Debate about that among us. In the same way, the God who has decreed that the believer in Christ shall persevere to the end and be saved by Christ. He's ordained the means to that end.

50:08 And just as it is high presumption to expect men to be saved without the means of the gospel. And without their believing the gospel. It is high presumption to think we will be kept. And ultimately preserved if we are indifferent to the means decreed by God for our preservation.

50:30 Those personal means.

50:33 Reading our Bibles. Praying. Meditating. The corporate means.

50:41 Confessing our sins one to another. Praying one for another. Exhorting one another. While it is called today, lest any be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

50:53 Provoking one another to love and to good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. And that which combines all of these personal and corporate means in their most wonderful collation. A sanctifying, a principle sanctifying of the Lord's day.

51:16 Sabbath. The great market day of the soul. When we have the approval of heaven. When we have the approval of heaven.

51:24 One day a week to set aside our ordinary employments and recreations. And to spend the whole day in the public and the private worship of God. As one businessman said to me some years ago. He said, Pastor Martin, I can't understand all this flap about the Lord's day.

51:43 If God didn't mandate it, I think I'd be ready to go out and make it just to keep my sanity.

51:53 My brothers and sisters. It's a hectic age. Part of it. Part of it is the fruit of the lawlessness.

52:00 I won't go into how. But it is. And with that there will be increasing pressure upon us.

52:09 Cut off the Sunday night service. I mean, let's be reasonable.

52:16 And then it will be cut out that afternoon service that was put in to replace the Sunday night service. And then it will be. Well, you know, our lengthy services need to be trimmed back a bit. And in 25 years.

52:32 We'll be nothing. But a mausoleum of empty religion because of our lack of relentless rigorous principle use of all the means of grace.

52:54 And this ain't no novice talking 40 years in one place and the pressures to cave in sort of come in different ways periodically.

53:09 You're going to feel them, brethren. You give in. You encourage your people to give in. And before long, what was unthinkable in church after church in this area a hundred years ago will be our experience.

53:27 There are times I come over to this building to pick up my correspondence and other things in the office. And I come up in this auditorium and I walk through it and I say, Lord, what sounds will reverberate from this roof 25 years from now? What will be said in this pulpit? 25 years from now.

53:55 Only God knows. But I know one thing. The devil knows far better than to try to attack the central nerve centers of the life of the people of God. He starts with the outer bulwarks.

54:12 The disciplined use of the ordinary means of grace. The sanctifying of a whole day unto God. And when he has torn down the outer bulwarks, it's only a matter of time. When he's in the citadel and drives his knife into the soul of true and vital religion.

54:34 And it's somebody got unpersuaded concerning the necessity of perseverance. You see, the very concept of hupomeno, it's bearing up under. The indication is perseverance ain't walking through the tulips.

55:00 Perseverance is not something we like. Perseverance is not native to us. But he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. Well, I've laid before you my first two applications.

Application 3: Be Convinced of God's Keeping Power

55:20 That we must be aware of the peculiar dangers of living in an age of abounding lawlessness. Secondly, we must be persuaded of the absolute necessity of perseverance. And spiritual grace and vigor. If we're going to be saved.

55:37 But thirdly, you and I must be convinced of the absolute certainty of the keeping power of God that ensures that we shall be saved in spite of the climate of abounding lawlessness all around us. Isn't that in the text? And because lawlessness shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold. But individually.

56:09 And in the midst of that, some will persevere and be saved. Why? Because the Holy Spirit indwells them. Because the Lord Jesus intercedes for them at the right hand of the Father.

56:25 And he is committed to the salvation of his people. As the text says, he that endures to the end shall be saved. The analogy of scripture allows us to say, but he that is truly saved. Shall endure to the end and be saved.

56:45 You see, the teaching of the Bible is, I'm not saved regardless of what I do. The teaching of the Bible is, I am saved. And what I do is the ongoing manifestation that I am saved. And because I am truly being saved, I shall be saved.

57:03 Peter rejoices that those harassed believers in Asia Minor. First Peter 1.5. Are kept by the power.

57:12 The power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Romans 8.30. Moreover, whom he called, them without exception, he also justified.

57:27 Whom he justified, them without exception, he also glorified, justified, glorified. All of his elect are called. All of his called are justified. All of the justified.

57:44 Are glorified without one exception. And when we feel the horrific pressures of the abounding lawlessness around us, that's our call to look beyond and through that thick fog of lawlessness. Behold at the right hand of the Father, one who has carried into heaven the reminders of his sacrifice. And the Holy Spirit has delivered us from bad times.

58:17 We know what we have to endure for sinners. They shall look on him whom they have pierced, some indication that he may yet bear in his glorified exalted state the marks of his suffering. And of him, Isaiah said, he shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. He'll be satisfied because not one for whom he shed his blood will at last be lost.

58:36 And you and I need to be condemned by Jesus Christ. I come to you and you are coming to me. I come to you and you are coming to me. I keep on seeing you in the hearts of the crowds.

58:40 We must see Jesus in the hearts of the people. And in the hearts of the people. We must see him. And in the hearts of the people, we must do the work.

58:44 We need to be convinced of the absolute certainty of the keeping power of God that ensures we shall be saved in spite of the abounding lawlessness. In recent days in an area where I have faced some fierce assaults of the enemy, there have been times when morning after morning I have read through the first 14 verses of Romans 6 and I have affirmed out loud in the presence of God, Oh God, I do believe in Christ. I died, I was buried, I've been raised. I am in Him and in Him and because of my union with Him, sin's claims have been exhausted and you have said, God, it shall not lord it over me. And in that confidence I reckon it to be so. I present my members afresh to you. And then I've said to that sin, You will not be.

59:49 I am. It may seek to press in upon me. I can look it in the eye and say, You're not going to get me and pin me. I'm in Christ.

60:04 Christ is in me. I'm united to Him in the virtue of His death, His burial and resurrection.

60:13 And what a wonderful sense of triumph. Yea, I to the end shall endure. As sure as the earnest. Is given more happy, but not more secure.

60:27 The glorified spirits in heaven.

60:31 Oh, dear people of God. This is what nerves us. What a horrible thing to think you fight all your life and at the end lose. Why fight?

60:42 But in the end, we're going to found a win. And knowing we're going to, we're ready to fight. We're ready to war in the confidence that we shall be found overcomers in the last day. By the grace of our Savior.

Call to Unbelievers and Concluding Prayer

61:00 Now, there are no doubt some sitting here tonight who have never fled to Christ. You know nothing of what it is to be in the midst of this conscious warfare with the climate of lawlessness. You're a part of it.

61:16 My friend, you need to get extricated or you'll be carried with it down to hell. And the way of extrication is in a crucified Savior. He gave Himself for us to deliver us. From this present evil world.

61:34 Christ died to redeem a people from ungodliness and from lawlessness. Unto a life of sober evangelical law keeping in the power of the Spirit. You need to go to Christ to get delivered. From the horrible, oppressive, captivating power of this present evil age.

61:59 And whom the sons. Set free is free indeed. And dear people of God. I trust before you pillow your head tonight.

62:10 You will pray back to God the truth of this passage. Oh God, forgive me. When I've carelessly trotted along. Not recognizing the peculiar dangers.

62:23 Of this age of abounding lawlessness. Oh God, more deeply persuade me that I must persevere. If I am. If I am to be saved.

62:34 Oh God, convince me afresh. That I shall persevere. In the grace. And in the strength.

62:44 Of your beloved son. Let's pray.

62:54 Our father.

62:57 We wish it were not so. That we were living in an age of abounding lawlessness. We have read of those seasons when in societies. And parts of nations you have come with such.

63:11 Power. Through the gospel. That whole communities. Have been baptized.

63:19 In great measures of righteousness. When jails have been emptied. When brothels have been closed. In our day should you give such a moving of your spirit.

63:33 We believe that television programs by the handful would be cancelled. Because no one watched them. And. And the wheels of the commercial.

63:44 Passion that drives them would grind to a halt. Lord we believe that with all of our hearts. But you have not granted that to us. And you have called us to shine as lights in the midst of this wicked.

63:59 And perverse this scoliotic this crooked. Generation. Oh God help us not to be a part of it. Help us as we heard last night.

64:11 To be so different from it. That by your grace it will awaken the inquiry of others. As to what it is. That makes us different.

64:21 We pray for our churches. Deliver us from the subtle encroachments. Of this lawless age. Particularly its erosion.

64:31 Of the sanctifying of a whole day unto you. Give your servants as watchmen discerning keen eyes. That they may see. The approach of the enemy upon the outer bulwarks.

64:44 And may be determined by your grace. To shore them up. And to guard them jealously. Thank you for your presence with us this night.

64:54 For the privilege of meeting unmolested. No fear. That people will burst through our doors with AK-47s. We think of so many of your people in so many parts of the world.

65:06 Our dear brother Arif there in Pakistan. Our dear sister Kathy. We think of your people in so many parts of Indonesia. And in other parts of the Middle East.

65:17 In countries there in Africa. Oh Lord. Be merciful to your children. Receive our thanks.

65:25 For the mercies that we have known. Now we ask you to seal your word to our hearts. Dismiss us with your blessing. Take us home in peace.

65:35 And in joy of the Holy Spirit. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.