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 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, 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 from his posture, Amen, Lord. If that ain't the
gospel, don't know what is. And old Mr. Scofield'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. We are weak and wounded. We are sick and sore. And none but Jesus can do helpless
sinners good. 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. Let us pray now that God will
bless the ministry of the Word of God to each of our hearts. Oh, 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. None but Jesus can
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. O Lord, through the ministry
of the Word, may the Holy Spirit convince them of their true state
of lostness, bondage, helplessness. 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
walls. O God, by the Spirit, come with
power and minister to us, we plead. through Jesus Christ our
Lord. 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 and thirteen. And because iniquity or lawlessness
shall be multiplied, 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. The Christians' danger and duty
in an age of abounding lawlessness. And 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
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. 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. 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 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, but for every subsequent epoch of human history
and will have application down to the final 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 travail. He had stated in verse 6 that
in spite of certain things 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 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. 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 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. 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 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, changeless,
binding moral obligations to my fellow man. 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. And the word
for multiplied is that word that we saw in our study this morning
in Acts chapter 6 in 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 describes it in Acts 6.1, the disciples,
the number of the disciples was multiplied, not just adding up,
but multiplied. 2 x 2 is 4, 4 x 4 is 16, 16 x
16, you mathematicians figure it out. And there was this exponential
growth 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. 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's sin in the Garden of Eden, In every culture, in every
age, 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 multiplied. 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 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 hoarse forehead, 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. 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. 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 and the earth, and it grieved in 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 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 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 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
line. 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 in his own eyes. Do you think the concept of doing
your own thing is modern? Isn't 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 no 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 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 one, 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, 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. 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 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 in 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, 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,
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 creator. He has claims
over me. When they play these moral head
games and push God out of their knowledge, God says, all right.
you want to make man the object of your worship and therefore
making man the object of your worship you'll worship man with
his appetites and passions all now debased and twisted by sin
I'll give you over to your God and when given over to his God
man so worships his passions he becomes an unashamed
out of the closet, marching down the street, pervert, demanding
that the rest of the world say, I'm okay, you're okay. 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,
back-biters, hateful to God or haters of God, insolent, haughty,
boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without
understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection. 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 instinct says I must protect my progeny with my very
life if necessary without natural affection walking in shamelessly
to the abortion clinic say kill the baby in my womb shamelessly Does 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
of Mrs. Ginsburg's position. It is an
absolute representation. You women, the only way you can
prove that you have thrown off 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. There's the picture. Pretty relevant,
isn't it? We could then turn on, and I
will just mention it briefly to you, 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, 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 boastful, haughty,
railers, guilty of vile, abusive, unrestrained speech, turning
one's tongue into a dagger and a sword. And he lists seventeen,
or possibly eighteen, how you divide up the last one, dominant
characteristics of certain seasons in the last days, seasons that
our Lord calls abounding Now let me ask you, having sought
to demonstrate from the words of Jesus that there will be seasons
when lawlessness shall abound. Seeing 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 US of A? Are we in such a season? Do we
need to have some kind of a twisted negative screw 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. 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 A day when sodomites and perverts
are not only out of the closet, but in the streets, shamelessly
stand as members of Congress, 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 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. 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. 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. 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. with joy unspeakable and full
of glory 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 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 not being
right with God, came trembling into the presence of Paul and
Silas and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 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, 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, it takes it totally out of the realm of the subjective.
He doesn't say, he that puts the lavometer 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, and 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. Jesus does not identify anyone
as a lover of himself who does not have and keep his commands.
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 to Christ. 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. 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 embers. It's what 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 declension?
It is the waning and the extinguishing of love to Christ. Second question,
how widespread will it be? In periods and epochs of abounding
lawlessness, how widespread will this growing 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 on 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. 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 of the many shall wax cold. How widespread will this declension
be? It will not be an occasional,
exceptional instance. But it will be the order of the
day. 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
cold falling away 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. 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 on suffering
and teaching. And in this setting, why does
He tell him to do that? For the time will come! For the time will come! Timothy, the time will come 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. 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. 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. Now notice, after their own lusts. 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. Error alone will make a man feel
at least semi-comfortable in his sins. So he says they will
turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside on the fables. They'll believe the most ludicrous,
ridiculous nonsense. Why? Because it tickles the ear
but it never touches their darling's sin. 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 of the religious
ear-tickling leaves them utterly free to pursue every base lust
of their hearts. Therefore, the declension will
be wide. Widespread. 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. 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? Look at the text, and here I
must be a little technical, but remember we believe in verbal
inspiration. There is only one use of the
form of a verb called an aorist passive infinitive in the New
Testament, and this is where it's found. And when the infinitive
is found joined to the preposition be are, It has the concept, the
preposition thea, 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. 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 lawlessness
multiplies that the influence of that lawlessness upon professed
disciples causes the many to wax cold in their professed love
to Christ. 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. 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,
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 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. How pathetic. Not one little
red glow 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 the black gooey mush
around the pile of what once was a fire. How pitiful, he says,
when in the professing church men try to galvanize 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. We've looked at the condition
described. Lawlessness shall abound. The
declension predicted? We've asked three questions of
it. The nature of that declension, it focuses on love to Christ. How extensive will it be that
will affect the many? What is its occasion? The very
moral condition that Jesus described. But then notice in the third
place, having looked at the Kish condition described, the declension
predicted. The resistance demanded. But,
verse 13, he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. 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,
because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of a 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. These have been broad strokes,
these have been generalities, but now it becomes intensely
personal. But the one He, she, the one
who endures to the end. 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. Notice, he that endures
to the end. 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 It has to do with persevering,
enduring, think of the context, with all of the pressure upon
our own sinful nature. and the vest 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 a condor, he must
secure by every means. He is ordained of God that the
coals of his love will burn brightly that faith will not wane and
love will not flag, but 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. 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. But our 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. 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. 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? 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?" Well, 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. Join to our perfected spirits,
and if we are alive, it is coming. 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
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. And I'm 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 damage. 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. 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. 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. 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. You remember the classic
illustration from the book of Acts? Paul says, the Lord has
come to me, an angel of the Lord stood by me tonight. Don't be
afraid, he's told me, not one life on this ship will be lost. We'll all be saved. 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. 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. Any contradiction? None whatsoever. It was certain they'd be saved.
It was necessary they stay on the ship. It is certain we shall
be preserved. It is necessary that we persevere. Well, I said my main purpose
tonight was unpack the text. 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. 35 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 you not your own selves
that Christ is in you, except you be reprobates? Examine yourself. Prove yourself. Put yourself
to the test. 2 Peter 1 10. Give diligence. 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? The acid test of it is this.
Do you love Christ? Remember the focus? Because iniquity
shall abound, the love, the love of the many shall be extinguished. 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. You actually enjoy communion
with Christ that is real as the communion when you hold your
wife in your arms and look into her eyes and say, Dear, I love
you. 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. Is your
greatest grief rooted in the knowledge that you've displeased
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. 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. This retort in anger to my husband. This impatience with my children,
this lustful glance, this inordinate desire, this covetous spirit,
it caused his wounds. It pressed the crown of thorns
upon his brow. It opened up the wound inside. It covered the heavens in darkness. It wrung the cry of abandonment
from his heart. My sin. Did that to my Savior? Do you know anything of grieving
over sin because of what it did to Christ? 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, plural, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me. 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 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
shall be extinguished. 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 Madeline Murray O'Hairs who say
there is no God and there is no Christ, How can the love of
the many wax cold if they don't profess to have love to him?
It's professing Christians. The church is like this. It's
why Paul could say, if any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema. 1 Corinthians 16.22. Why? Because the root of the matter's
not in him. I call you to examine yourself whether the root of
the matter's in you, my dear friend. Not only is it a call
to self-examination, but a call to self-distrust. 1 Corinthians
10, 12, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall. Self-distrust. And the Lord said,
one of you should betray me. 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. My heart left to itself amidst
the chilling, wintry, arctic blast 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. 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
loved Christ. However, you know you're not
an apostate if you persevere to the end. And how will you
persevere to the end? 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 persons. I tell you, I'm shocked. I'm
grieved. 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, well, it wasn't
a bad movie, had only one sex scene. 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 or wife and everyone that loves you. One of our sister
churches, a pastor called me this past week, a heart broken. A heart broken! Because of the outbreak of 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. Deal ruthlessly with anything, everything, that would dampen
your love to me. 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. 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 coals 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 coals to be extinguished. A few drops of water will put
out the last glow of a little ember. They won't touch a large,
crackling, living coal with tongues of fire shooting out. Those drops
will sizzle when they hit it and vaporize. May God give us
hearts like that for And the world can pour the buckets of
its influence and love for Christ will swallow it up and will persevere
to the end and be saved. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
our Lord Jesus and his honesty with his disciples and therefore
his honesty with us. Thank you for his realism. 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. 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. Oh, make us
ruthless, ruthless, Lord, with everything that would in any
way draw us one millimeter away from closeness to Christ. 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 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.