In (V4-14): The Lord Jesus answered His disciples’ questions: “When shall these things be”? “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world, and of the end of the world?” There will be MANY religious deceivers in the last days, even men who confess to be Christ. These men will present themselves as deliverers. Theu-das and Judas of Galilee: Acts 5:35-37 & Simon Acts 8:9-11 There will be wars, plagues, earthquakes in many different places; and there will be saber rattling ~ nation shall rise against nation, etc. Christians will be persecuted and killed; Christians will be hated of all nations because they/we identify with the Christ. Because of this hatred of Christ, there will be betrayals in what were once close relationships; families, sons will betray fathers, daughters will betray mothers, friends, even some that once professed faith in Christ will betray those who REFUSE TO waver or forsake their faith in Christ. All of these things that precede (V12-13) are troubling, but the most troubling thing to me is found in (V12). Christ speaks of times in which the hearts of genuine believers will grow cold because of abounding or increasing iniquity in the world; and it is so powerful, it will negatively affect the spiritual lives of TRUE BELIEVERS. In these last days, we will see, and have seen iniquity abounding or increasing, AND AS A CONSEQUENCE, the love of Christ and love to Christ in “many” has grown cold. The Lord Jesus is speaking of those in the church and in the hearts of “MANY” of God’s people. The embracing of any sin in your life will erode and weaken your love to Christ, and then in turn, the love of Christ, which would/should come from your Christian life to others. That’s why the doctrine of mortification is so important to every believer here; if there anything you need to hate, it’s your own sin; you need to KILL IT every day! This “COLDNESS” spoken of in our text will become evident in your life by your lack of desire toward the things of God: Your Bible devotions and prayer life will cease or simply become cold and lifeless. You will become a non-participant in times of “fellowship” and aloof when others gather together in the Name of Christ. You will lose your desire to gather with the saints on the Lord’s Day. Paul, Peter, and John, (Apostles) saw the effects of sin in the infant NT church, and knew that sin would continue to effect the church in the last days, and so wrote to the churches, praying that the love of Christ would NOT grow cold in the hearts of God’s people, but that it would increase and be warmly kindled by the Spirit of God in their/our lives. (This should be our MOST ardent of prayers for our assembly) Philippians 1:9: “And this I pray, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment” 2 Peter 1:7: “Add to your faith, charity or love” Hebrew 10:24: “Let us consider (discover) one another to provoke unto love and to good works” 1 John 2:15: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Revelation 2:1-5: READ . Questions for you: Is your love to Christ ABOUNDING or ABATING? Jesus is asking you: “Lovest thou me”? Is Christ more precious to you now than when you believed? Is He at least as precious to you when you believed? Are you more or less committed to the means of grace, which God has given you? By means of grace, I mean your personal devotions, prayer and communion with God, the gathering or assembling together of the saints, fellowship with the saints outside of the church, witnessing to the lost? Have you isolated yourself from the saints? An isolated Christian is a Christian that has grown cold. Do you bring warmth (and the Spirit of God) into the church? Or hardness and coldness? Luke 24:25-34. If you are in Christ, a partaker of the divine nature and of the new birth: born again by the power of God and of His Word, then you are in possession of a new heart and a new spirit. In that new heart, there MUST be life, warmth, and heat; therefore, if you’re in Christ, there should be signs of life in you. If you are united to God by faith, there should also be deliberate and purposeful communion with God. Union with God begets communion with God. You should have a HIGH affection for heaven, which will be seen in your affection for the church and God’s people rather than an inordinate affection towards worldly things. i. Ephesians 2:1-6, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Colossians 3:1-4 Let’s look at some preventive measures against our hearts growing cold towards our God. First: Christian, you MUST tend to the love of Christ in your heart, because if you DON’T, your love to Christ will grow cold, and the love of Christ coming out of your life toward others will also grow cold. You need to fertilize it with the Word, prayer, and in meditation! John Flavel: “Man’s heart is the worst place before he is saved and the best place after he is saved. The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God.” Proverbs 4:20-27, Jude 20-21 Second: Beloved of God, you need to counteract the world’s influence with heaven’s influence. But in order to do this, you need to be able to recognize when coldness is happening to you, and then act upon it. FIRST PRIVATELY: To prevent being in a cold place, get into a warm place of PRIVATE/PERSONAL fellowship with God. Matthew 6:6: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret;” Look at the principle of getting alone with God in prayer and apply this to your heart and life when you perceive your heart growing cold. SHUT THE WORLD OUT and DON’T LET ANYTHING INTRUDE into YOU getting alone with God! If you never shut the world out of your life, you’re going to grow cold! Don’t get alone with theology! Get alone with God! If you never get alone with God privately, you will begin to grow cold toward God’s people PUBLICLY. In the same way that you cannot stay away from communing with God privately, so you MUST NOT stay away from communing with God publicly. We NEED the public assembly/the church. Why? Because it was ordained by God! The less you are with the saints of God in the public assembly the less you will be in the presence of God, and in the place where He speaks to His people. Back to Hebrews 10:21-26 You say, I have Sermon Audio; Sermon Audio does not replace the ministry of the local church. If you think it does, you’re dead wrong. Since WE KNOW that iniquity is abounding and increasing all around us, we need to make sure we deliberately put ourselves in the place of abounding grace and in the presence of God. Psalm 100: Serve the LORD! Come before His presence! Enter into His gates! Enter into His courts! Limit yourself from bad company and bad influences. 1 Corinthians 15:33 This scripture should be of great comfort to you that believe to the saving of your souls and to you who love Christ. Why? Because Christ said: “The love of many shall wax cold” not the love of all. 1 Peter 1:3-5 Jude 24-25: “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” What an encouragement! Finally: Yes, the Lord warns us that our love to Christ can wax cold, (He does not say it is lost), therefore, our love to Christ can also be revived. That’s up to you! You can stay in the cold; or you can come into the warm presence of God! Aren’t you so thankful that God’s love toward us NEVER grows cold? What is the sign that we are close to the return of Christ? Christ warns us of a coldness that can affect the hearts of many in the church, and this is a consequence of the increasing influences of sin in the world, and all around us. If we don’t shut it out, it will infect our lives! Is your heart cold this morning? You know! Do something about it! We need to keep our hearts with all diligence and maintain them, so that we might counteract the influence of sin our lives. How do we do that? In private and public communion with God. Since I know that sin is abounding, I need to put myself in the places of abounding grace. If my love to Christ has grown cold, it can certainly be revived. I am so glad that I am kept by the power of God, and not by my power.
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