“The Love of Many Will Grow Cold” in the Last Days
Summary: Jesus ominously warned that in the last days (the end times) the love of many will grow cold! [Some translations even say: "the love of most will grow cold"] Are you losing your love for the Lord? Is your love for Him waning, losing intensity? There is a simple solution that will keep your love for Him strong and growing. Come see.
Matthew 24:12-13 (NIV)
- • This is a warning from Jesus about one of the signs of the end times, the "end of the age" (vs. 3). That’s the primary context of chapter 24. And it’s a warning for believers, because unbelievers don’t have any love for the Lord in the first place (if they did, they would be believers!).
- • I want each of us here today to “stand firm to the end.” Jesus said that it is those who "will be saved." Stand firm against what?
- • (1) Firm against the increase of wickedness, of lawlessness, in the last days, when "the love of many will grow cold" ("the love of most will grow cold": NIV), as our Lord prophesied. Things that were unimaginable in the USA just 50 years ago are now commonplace in our culture — for example, gay marriage and abortion on demand. In many American cities there are more children born to unmarried women than to married women. The nuclear family has broken down, and a “love-‘em-and-leave-‘em” mentality has taken its place in a large segment of our society. Jesus calls us to “stand firm” in these latter-day times of increasing iniquity.
- • (2) As this rampant wickedness grows, Jesus warned that the love of many will grow cold. The majority of translations say “many.” Some say “most.” In either case, we are talking about millions of believers’ love for the Lord going into decline in the latter days. And that precarious position of love-grown-cold could, for some, decline further into outright apostasy from the faith (1 Timothy 4:1).
- • I want to share with you today some warnings and some encouragement from the Scriptures that will help you keep your love for God burning brightly in your hearts. Remember that Jesus Himself taught: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment" (Matthew 22:37f). It's possible for a committed Christian to be doing the Lord's work faithfully, yet to fall into the error of the first-century Ephesian church, to which Jesus said, "I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first" (Revelation 2:4). Be warned, and be diligent to keep your love for the Lord fresh and alive. He greatly desires our love.
- • Recall the apostle John’s words (1 John 2:15): “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” Or the apostle James’s warning (James 4:4): “Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
- • This world, with its evil ways, is not your friend! In many ways it is attractive, seductive, tempting, and always calling for your attention. It wants to pull you into habits and ways of thinking that are contrary to God’s ways. More focus on the world can easily cause a cooling of your love for the Lord. In fact, it most likely will.
- • Take a moment and ask yourself: do you dress according to the current fashions of our culture? Do you go to vulgar, indecent movies because “everybody does”? Have you let your language get a little bit borderline, with a few mild cuss words, sexual innuendos, and the like?
- • Here’s a simple way to find out if you’re becoming conformed to this world? Ask yourself: would I be pleased to have Jesus see what I choose to wear? Would I invite Jesus to go to this movie with me? Would I speak to Jesus with the same language I use with my coworkers on the job? If yes, then that’s excellent! If not, then you’ve become conformed to some patterns of the world, not of the Lord. And that is one of the fast tracks to your love for the Lord growing cold.
- • This is a prophecy for those living in the last days. And we are almost 2,000 years closer to them than Paul’s hearers were. Many Bible scholars believe we are likely in the literal "last days" now. I lean to that belief.
- • The apostle tells us by the Holy Spirit that some believers in later times will abandon the faith. I have seen it happen — dedicated Christians declining nearly or even fully into unbelief. I’m thinking of a successful pastor friend from years ago who more recently admitted he was unsure about believing in God. I think of another anointed minister of God’s word whom I knew well who turned away from walking with the Lord in his later years and became deeply embittered.
- • “Deceiving spirits … things taught by demons” — Satan and his evil demons are out to rob, kill, and destroy your Christian walk (John 10:10). They are at work 24/7 trying to turn you aside from a close, personal, fresh daily walk with the Lord.
- • “Led astray from ... deceived by … corrupted from” — here again, just as in the Garden of Eden, Satan uses his cunning, his devilish wiles, to try to turn you away from Jesus Christ.
- • How can the devil succeed in damaging our walk with the Lord? By using every demonic trick in his strategy book to cause us to lose focus on our “sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (NIV). By working to corrupt us from the “simplicity that is in Christ” (KJV).
- • It’s so easy to get caught up in the world’s stressful pace and lose sight of a simple, direct, daily communication with Jesus. I encourage you to think often of the words of the great hymn: Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.
- • We need the Lord’s light for our path and our life. You and I need understanding, wisdom, and knowledge of the things of God. Where will we find them? In His word!
- • His Word the bible lights our path, is a lamp by which we see, and gives us understanding of Him and His greatness.
- • Regular time in His word will enhance your love for Him. The more you get to know Him through the Scriptures, the greater your appreciation of His magnificence. Our hearts are stirred as we “see how very much our heavenly Father loves us” (1 John 3:1, Living Bible). And in turn, “our love for Him comes as a result of His loving us first” (1 John 4:19, Living Bible). In the Scriptures we see the revelation of His great love for us, and that stimulates more and more love in our hearts for Him.
- • By contrast, let the word of God drift to a place of unimportance in your life and thoughts, and you will gradually find the world taking up a greater portion of your attention, and love for the Lord will become increasingly just an intellectual thing, not a heartfelt relationship.
- • The context was Samuel exhorting Israel to serve the Lord with all their hearts (vs. 20). And he was interceding regularly in prayer for them.
- • The prophet considered it a sin if he were to cease praying for them.
- • Prayer helps us stay in communion with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. And that fellowship in prayer helps to kindle the fire of our love for the Lord. Think of your spouse, or someone you’re dating. It’s hard to maintain a vibrant love relationship if you never see each other! It’s the same with prayer, where we either find ourselves regularly in the company of the God of heaven, or we rarely check in with Him, and the fervor of our love for Him is diminished.
- • There’s the danger. We can find our hearts becoming “hardened.” By what? By “sin’s deceitfulness.” Sin doesn’t usually just come suddenly out of the blue and consume your life. More often, there is a gradual loosening of our standards, a relaxing of our defenses, a weakening of our resistance to temptation. It becomes easier and easier to justify “little” sins. And the next thing you know, sin has deceived you, your heart has become hardened, and your love for the Lord has deteriorated into coldness of heart. Remember Jesus' warning that in the last days men's hearts will grow cold in their love for the Lord, and that in large numbers!
- • Don’t back off on your faithfulness to church services! Already in the first century the writer to the Hebrews had to warn Christians who had become slack in their church attendance.
- • We need “church”! In the gathered assembly of believers we worship God, we hear anointed preaching and teaching of the word of God, and we experience the manifestation of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 14:26). I find that these things keep the flame burning in my heart. In the church service I have an encounter with God Almighty in worship of Him, in the revelation of Him in His word, and in His touching and blessing our lives through the spiritual gifts. How can that do anything but cause our love for Him to grow!
- • I’ll close with the solution I promised at the beginning. How can we avoid our love growing cold? How can we stir up our love for the Lord God and for His Son Jesus? Quite simply. A very respected minister of the Gospel once told me this profound wisdom: “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8, KJV).
- •
Draw close to Him in prayer, in His word, in praise and worship, in sincere and pure devotion, in quiet fellowship, in the gathered church service. You will see the grip and lure of the world, the flesh, and the devil lose its hold on you. That closeness to Him will fill your heart with His love and will increase the fervor of your love for Him. - • Yes, Jesus prophesied that the love of many will grow cold. But it does not need to happen to you! Draw near to Him in simple, pure devotion. And the first-listed fruit of the Spirit — love! (Galatians 5:22) — will fill your hearts and minds and will push out everything that tries to come between you and your Lord. Your love will not grow cold; it will burn brighter and brighter.
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BONUS! For those desiring an in-depth study of the end times, I highly recommend Bible teacher Elton McMillan's website. I believe it's among the very best end-time Bible studies available today. Elton's many excellent, descriptive charts and artwork are best viewed on your desktop or laptop computer. You'll find this free treasure trove of last-days teaching at The End Times Explained Step by Step | Bride of Christ
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Check out our related sermon: A Surefire Sign You Love Jesus
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Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.