It is about the Lord, and not about you.

“And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not…” Jeremiah 45:5a

Humility to every believer is their greatest walk in life. It is so easy to gain pride because pride is natural, but humility is a gift from God. We can see the greatest humility in the men who penned the scriptures, because they all understood that the Spirit of God gave them the gift of writing the Holy Script. I cannot say if they knew that what they wrote was going to become the Word of God for thousands of years. But I can promise you this, they knew it was special because they felt it deep in their hearts. I would have to assume that the most humbled servant of God must have been the Apostle Paul, because he arose from one of the biggest haters of Jesus Christ to one of the most loyal servants of Him. In his past he reaped the greatest havoc on the Lord’s church in Jerusalem to become one of God’s greatest servants. God used him so great, and of his greatest accomplishments he wrote anywhere from 13 to 15 books in the New Testament, while a Missionary, Pastor, and while being imprisoned. And of all his accomplishments he wrote these humble words, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 He never thought of himself as anything except a very blessed servant of God. We see this same humility in so many of God’s servants throughout the scriptures, and it should make us very humbled in what God calls us to do. Humility begins with the understanding that we are nothing, that every accomplishment is a blessing from God. Greatness is not something we earn, it is God’s grace and humble servants do not seek greatness neither do they need it, because all glory is the Lords. The greatest man to have ever lived never seek glory for Himself, He said I come to do my Fathers will. “I can of mine own self do nothing…because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” John 5:30. Whenever a believer that God saved, called to be a servant, and gives him everything he needs to be successful, then God is to be the glory not him. As servants we never need to think of ourselves more than we ought, Rom 12:3, but to humility thank God for every success. Jeremiah knew this when “the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.” Jeremiah 1:9 Whatever we are, it is by God’s grace and work, and it is not about us, and it never will be. Never seek the Lord’s glory for thyself!

Lawlessness is a sign of the Lord’s return.

“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.