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Book: Matthew
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Matthew 24:12 Keep The Fire Burning
I. Jesus is giving the Disciples the signs that shall precede His coming
again.
A. One of the signs will be the abounding iniquity.
1. As we look around our world today, surely we see
iniquity abounding.
2. We used to have laws that protected us from much of the
iniquity that is filling our land today, but one by one
these laws have been struck down by the Supreme Court,
or new laws have been enacted, some of them giving
special privileges to those who do those things that
used to be illegal.
a. I think of the obscenity laws that used to
protect us from the tons of filth that now fill
our land.
b. I drove by Paddy Murphy's yesterday and I saw
many brave and courageous people with signs
asking for the closing of that place of evil.
The tragedy is that the city fathers would like
to close it, but the courts declare any
ordinance that they seek to form, as
unconstitutional.
c. Soliciting someone for purposes used
to be a crime, but just try to get a conviction
on that count today.
d. When a body gets so weak that it cannot purge
its system of the poisons, then death will
quickly follow.
e. The body politic is no longer able to purge
itself of the poisons, and you can be sure that
death is not far off.
f. When a nation can no longer judge the evil
within walls, then God steps in to insure
judgment.
B. The effect of the abounding iniquity is even felt in the
church, and love of many has waxed cold.
1. There are those who used to burn with holy zeal for the
Lord, who were delivered from the mire and muck of the
world, but like pigs, they are wallowing in the mire
once again.
a. The enemy has gradually crept in, they started
out watching R movies, but it soon became
movies, now their minds are addicted
to this sexual stimulus, and it has become as
a narcotic.
b. In the book of Hebrews the believers were
warned:
HEB 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things
which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them]
slip.
HEB 2:2 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
reward;
HEB 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which
at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard [him];
c. The phrase translated "let them slip" is more
literally translated, we should drift away.
Drifting is a slow, almost unperceptable
process, you do not perceive that anything is
happening because you are moving with the
tide, but in time you can get so far away from
your mooring that you are lost.
d. Some of you have drifted pretty far away in
your heart from the place of devotion that you
once experienced.
II. What are the things that put out the fire?
A. Luke in recording this same discourse by Jesus to His disciples
adds,
LUK 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be
overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of
this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares.
LUK 21:35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the
face of the whole earth.
LUK 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of man.
1. Surfeiting is living a life that is dominated by trying
to appease the appetites of the flesh.
2. Drunkenness is the clouding of the brain until you are
not thinking rationally. This can be done with alcohol,
drugs, or watching too much T.V.
3. The cares of this life are self explanatory. Just so
busy trying to keep even that you begin to neglect the
things of the Lord.
B. The big three enemies that we have to contend with are the
world, the flesh and the devil.
1. These three work in concert against you putting out the
fire. Any one or two of them is no problem. but you get
all three in concert, and you have a real problem.
a. The world and the devil would be no problem for
me except for my flesh.
b. The world and my flesh would be no problem if
the devil wasn't around.
c. The devil and my flesh would be no problem if
it were not for the fallen world in which I
live.
d. Satan draws my flesh after the things of the
fallen world in which I live.
2. We are commanded in the scriptures to love not the
world neither the things that are in the world, if any
man the love the world the love of the Father is not in
him.
a. When we speak of the world, we are not speaking
of the earth as God created it. We are speaking
of the fallen world that is under the control
of Satan, and is in rebellion against the
righteous laws of God.
b. This is the world that Satan showed to Jesus
and offered to give it to Jesus with the glory
of it, if Jesus would just bow down and
worship him.
c. Paul writes of Demas who had forsaken him,
because he loved the present world.
d. In Romans 12, Paul tells us not to be conformed
to this world.
e. Paul reminded the Ephesians that in times past
they walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power the
air that even now works in the children of
disobedience.
1. The word translated walked here is
better translated meandered. It is
interesting that the Meander river
passed through the ancient city of
Ephesus. It snaked its way through
the Meander valley above Ephesus.
2. Paul identifies Satan as the one
directing the course of this world.
Satan has come out of the closet,
he used to direct in subtle ways from
behind the scenes, but is not very
blatant. Movies, Rock music, all have
occultic overtones.
f. James said, Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know you not that friendship with the world is
enmity with God? he that would be a friend of
the world is an enemy of God.
g. The appeal of the world is very strong, and
Demas is not the only one that has left the
service of God having been succumbed by it.
3. What are the basic attractions of the world?
a. Money. The love of money is the root of all
evil, which while some coveted after they have
erred from the faith.
Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and Mammon."
b. Glory. Satan offered to Jesus the glory of the
kingdoms of the world. Your name in lights,
the world adoring you.
1. Look at the pain, the sacrifices, the
torture that men are willing to put
their bodies through just to be
admired as the best in the world.
4. How does Jesus give us victory over the world?
a. Paul said,
GAL 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me,
and I unto the world.
b. We have victory over the world by reckoning
our old man to be crucified with Christ.
ROM 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that
the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should
not serve sin.
c. You can put the most alluring enticements in
front of a corpse and it will not even stir.
C. The next great enemy is our flesh. My body appetites. These
are a part of my biological makeup and were marvelously
designed by God for the maintenance and perpetuation of
life.
1. The body is designed to function independently, to
think, to love, to repair itself.
a. For this my cells need fuel to burn, and fresh
supplies of minerals and vitamins.
b. Look at the marvelous design.
2. Satan has a way of taking the natural purposes of
things and ing them to unnatural use.
3. Alexander Maslov sought to identify the body drives
that were designed to keep the homeostasis, or the
body balances.
a. He sought to list them in the order of their
strength. Air, thirst, food, bowel and blatter,
sex etc.
b. These are all proper and necessary to keep you
going. They are designed by God and when used
for their God given purposes are good.
c. There is nothing sinful, or wrong with the sex
drive. If God had not created it, man would not
be on the earth today. Adam would have said to
Eve, "Nice to meet you, and now if you will
excuse me, I think I will go fishing."
End of story.
4. God never intended that you should be a slave to your
body drives. This is what happened at the fall of man,
he yielded to the appetites of the flesh over those of
the spirit.
a. Paul tells us that the flesh is lusting against
the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh,
and these two are contrary.
5. How does Jesus give us victory over the flesh?
a. Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness.
b. As Paul cried out in distress because of the
weakness of his flesh, "O wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from this body of
death?" He answers his own cry with the words.
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind, I myself serve the law
of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which be in Christ Jesus. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me
free from the law of sin and death. Walk after
the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts
of the flesh.
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