“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Matthew 24:12
It is no secret nor is it any hidden thing that the
time of apostasy has happened. As we study the seven churches of Asia Minor, we
see only one church that remained faithful to the Lord, the Church in Smyrna.
We do see the church at Ephesus left their first love “thou hast left thy
first love.” But there is nothing said about their repentance and return to
their first love; therefore, we must assume that they never returned. True
churches today are called Smyrna type churches because they have remained
faithful to the Lord and His word of Truth. It is sad when a church of Truth,
or a Smyrna type church has allowed themselves to turn into an error church in
the time of apostasy. The scripture we are looking at Matthew 24:12 is a
scripture describing a sign before the Lord’s return. Jesus is privately asked in
Verse 3 “And as he sat upon 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 thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Jesus’s
reply was, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold...”
I believe, the Lord is describing some churches and Christians here, because
we all know that the world will wax worse and worse therefore this is speaking
to the lawlessness of many churches. Just as six of the seven churches fell from
the Lord and left their first love, so many have today. The Lord prophesied “…the
love of many shall wax cold.” That is both churches and Christians, they
have “left thy first love.” We can look into the world and see the
heathenism, and as that is expected, but when we see this in the personal lives
of Christians and even worse in churches, which is unbelievable. As the recipient
of God’s grace of His gift of salvation and His gift of honor of being a church
member, some need to ask themselves “how did we leave our first love”?
The Lord answered this very question in verse 4 “…Take heed that no man
deceive you.” Deception causes Christians to leave the Lord, and, in some
cases, entire churches left their first love. They were deceived by their
fleshly lust, for many different reasons to ignore the word of Truth and to
think for themselves. This lawlessness that the Lord is talking about is not
the world but rather His churches and Christians. When Christians refuse to
join or attend a Smyrna type church or a church that has remained faithful to
the Lord, then they are not godly believers. Church is not an option for a
believer and remaining faithful is not an option for churches. Jesus said in
verse 8 “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” That is, all these
things listed in the verses above, including the lawlessness of churches and
believers. Christians need to stop using ungodly excuses and lying to
themselves and others, repent and return to the Lord because they have left
their first love. However, as sad as it is, they’re going to believe their
deception, justify their fall and never repent and return. In the end, only the
Lord’s elected remnant will remain faithful, which leaves us asking, “where
they ever really part of us?” “They went out from us, but they were not of
us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us:
but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of
us.” 1 John 2:19 Falling from the Truth and leaving their first love is no
simply thing, it is inexcusable, it is ungodly even with all the fleshly excuses.
I am personally not asking if all people who have fallen from the churches are
Christians or not, I just repeated what God has said. But how do God’s children
fall from the churches, from the Truth, and away from their first love and not
even think it is wrong? Churches are absolutely dying because Christians refuse
to attend and support their churches. There is no excuse for this sin against
God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who assembled the churches. “iniquity shall
abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” And there are no excuses because
the Lord warned us all, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…”
Heb. 10:25 Please stop with the excuses, stop trying to justify your apostasy,
stop using ungodly excuses and just realize that one day, if you are truly a
Christian, you will stand before Jesus and understand you left your fist love, because
He sure did not leave you! Did your love for the Lord and His church wax
cold? “…the love of many shall wax cold.” If so, it is time to repent,
its time to return, and it is time to ask the Lord for forgiveness, and if you
do not, you will answer to Jesus in judgement. And if you believe that I am cruel
in writing this, wait tell Jesus judges you.
