WHAT CAN CAUSE A CHRISTIAN TO GROW COLD IN HIS LOVE FOR GOD AND THE GOSPEL?

• And because lawlessness [sin] will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. Matthew 24:12-13
• “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
• “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
• “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit…Abide in Me, and I in you… If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love. John 15:1-10
• All these warnings from Jesus Christ are very serious because He is going to be our Judge at the end of time. We need to listen to His warnings, the warnings of the disciples who wrote the Bible, and the warning of the Spirit of Christ in us.

1. A WEAK PRAYER LIFE:
   • Jesus told the disciples: ““Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Luke 22:40
   • The Lord’s Prayer: “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:13
   • Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:36
   • Jesus emphasizes prayer as a way to block the entrance of temptations from the evil one, the devil. On our own, we can’t stop the enemy’s temptations and messages from getting to us. But, when we enter into that dialogue of prayer with the Almighty God through His Spirit and in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ, then His strength, power, protection, and angels come to assist us against the attacks of the enemy.
   
   
2. THE WORLD AND ITS LURING SPIRITS:
   
   • A HEART GOING AFTER THE THINGS OF THE WORLD: “But take heed to yourselves, lest, your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” Luke 21:34
   • THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER — THE WORD OF GOD CHOKED BY SPIRITS OF THE WORLD: “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” Luke 8:14 [The fruitless branch is taken away by the Father, the vinedresser. John 15:1-2]
   • THE LOVE OF MONEY — CAN’T LOVE GOD AND MONEY AT THE SAME TIME: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Timothy 6:10
   • PAUL’S DISCIPLE, DEMAS, GONE BACK TO THE WORLD: “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica.” 2 Timothy 4:10 [Demas had been with Paul through more than 10 years of ministry. Church history tells that Demas remained an apostate of the faith the rest of his life.]
   • THE CHURCH’S YOUNG WIDOWS MARRYING OUTSIDE THE FAITH: “Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some have already turned aside after Satan.” 1 Timothy 5:14-15
   • FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD MAKES US AN ENEMY OF GOD: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:1-7
   • WARNING FROM JOHN ABOUT THE ATTRACTION OF THE WORLD: “For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17
   • When Eve tried to enter into a conversation with the serpent/Satan on her own, he simply used Eve’s senses to get her to be attracted to the forbidden fruit, and Satan was successful!! “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Genesis 2:6 The enemy uses this world with its many luring spirits to capture us in its web of temptations and destroy us—what we could have done for God’s kingdom is gone, as it happened to Eve and she suffered the consequences—and so will we!
   
   
3. FOLLOWING DOCTRINES OF DEMONS COMING INTO THE CHURCH:
• Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. 1 Timothy 4:1 NKJV [ As we get closer to the “latter times,” which Paul is referring to, doctrines of demons will be inundating the churches brought in by false prophets. Some will depart from the faith enticed by the demons controlling those doctrines.]
• And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. 2 Timothy 2:17-18 [These two church members were proclaiming that the resurrection had already occurred, and in a sense, the rest had been “left behind.”]
• For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 [The interest for the truth of sound doctrine will grow smaller and smaller while the craziness for the flamboyant false prophets will grow bigger]
• O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge — by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. 1 Timothy 6:20-21 [Paul was warning Timothy about the “new science” coming into the church because it was another demonic doctrine]


4. A HARDENED HEART BY THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN:
• “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.” Hebrews 3:13-14
• For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? Hebrews 10:26-29
• THE PRACTICE OF SIN OR THE PRACTICE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.” 1 John 3:7, 8
• My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1. [Jesus Christ is our Lawyer, our Defender before the Throne of God and He will defend us against the Accuser, the devil.]
• The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
  A broken and a contrite heart —
  These, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:17 [King David was appealing to God’s grace and mercy to purify him from his own sins, as the prophet Isaiah repeats in his prophecy:
• For thus says the High and Lofty One
  Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
  “I dwell in the high and holy place,
  With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
  To revive the spirit of the humble,
  And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15


5. UNBELIEF OR NOT TRUSTING GOD’S PROMISES FOR HIS CHILDREN:
   • Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God… Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. Hebrews 3:12; 4:1-2
   • For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. Hebrew 6:4-6
   • “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:6-7 [For Paul, the most important achievement of his ministry was that he had kept “the faith” all the way to the end.]
   • He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard. Colossians 1:21-23
   
   
6. THIS IS THE FAITH CHRISTIANITY DECLARES:
• Paul said in Romans that FAITH comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. When we hear the Gospel of Salvation, the Holy Spirit gives us the FAITH to believe it. [Romans 10:17]
• The Spirit then testifies to us about Jesus; He will glorify Jesus; He will take what is about Jesus and declare it to us; He is the Spirit of truth and will guide us into all truth; He will then convict us of our sins, of righteousness, and of judgment; He will bring us to repentance —that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. [John 16:8-15]
• The work of Jesus was to be obedient to the Father who sent Him to Earth to die for our sins and to undo what Adam did in the Garden.[ Isaiah 53; Romans 5:12-21]
• Jesus died on the cross, was buried, on the third day resurrected from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father. [Acts 10:36-43]
• On the cross, Jesus took all our sins. [Isaiah 53]
• When we believe, He washes our sin with His precious blood. [Hebrew 9:14; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 1:5]
• Then, Jesus sends His Holy Spirit into our heart, and we become “born again of the Spirit.” [John 3:3-18]
• JESUS SAID: Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” [Luke 18:8]

* All biblical references are from New King James Version