3301. A Prophetic Warning

A Sermon Published On Thursday, May 9, 1912.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. {Mt 24:12}

1. Christ had spoken to his disciples of earthquakes in various places, famines, and pestilences; but these were only the beginning of sorrows. Such things as these need not trouble Christians, for though the earth is moved, and the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, yet the believer may be confident, and his heart may remain at rest. Even when the Master told his disciples that they should be hated by all men for his name’s sake, that did not need to afflict them. He had taught them before, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” So they were braced up to meet the fiery trial. Earthquake, and pestilence, and war, and persecution fail to disturb the serenity of believers in Christ; but the evil spoken of in our text — this is the wound, this is the sorrow! Here is something to tremble about: “Because iniquity shall abound,” — that is worse than pestilence; “the love of many shall grow cold,” — that is worse than persecution. Just as all the water outside a ship can do it no harm until it enters the ship itself, so outward persecutions cannot really injure the Church of God; but when the mischief oozes into the Church, and the love of God’s people grows cold, — ah, then the barque is in severe distress. I fear that we are much in this condition at the present hour. May the Holy Spirit bless the alarming prophecy now before us to our arousing!

2. I. Notice, first, THE CAUSE OF THAT GRIEVOUS CHILL OF HEART which is spoken of here: “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.” When love grows cold, it is a serious sign. Then the heart is affected, — affected with a chill! Is this not the forerunner of death? What is the cause of it? According to our text, it is the abounding of iniquity.

3. Sin does its best to destroy grace. So much sin, so much the less of holiness, so much the less of every Christian grace. Sin is like a poisonous atmosphere; if a man has to live in it, he has good reason to pray that he may not be overcome by it. You and I, since we are in this world, and cannot go altogether out of it, must come into contact with evil. In our daily vocations however careful we are, we must encounter this infection. We can only feel that the evil around us is a hindrance to our holiness, and a detriment to our growth in grace. When the society around the Christian becomes flagrantly wicked, corrupt, and offensive, it is hard for him to maintain the purity of his life, and the strength of his spiritual character. At this time, we live in an atmosphere which hinders our growth; yet in the early days of Christianity the Lord’s people had, as a rule, to live in worse society than what surrounds us today. I will not say this without an exception. There are quarters of London, I am told, as vicious as ever existed in Corinth, or in old Rome; and I am afraid that some of the grossest vices, which we dare not even mention, abound in this city. We have a fringe of respectability which barely conceals the licentiousness and abomination which abound. I have been reading today some details concerning the number of illegitimate births, and I am perfectly astounded at the awful wickedness of this land. We call ourselves a Christian country. Forbear to speak so falsely. This is growing to be a heathen land, part of it bowing before images, another part howling out, “There is no God,” and a third secretly revelling in unutterable filthiness.

4. Still, most of us do not come into contact with vice to the same degree as the first Christians did. Society in the Roman Empire was utterly rotten. It is a wonder that God permitted the world to exist in that loathsome age. It tended greatly to the depression of Christian principle for infamous crimes to be tolerated in the society which surrounded the faithful. Look at these first churches which some think so much of! They were not half as good as the churches of today, bad as these are. Take the church at Corinth, for example. Did you ever hear of a church in our day which allowed drunkenness at the Lord’s supper? Have we personally found a church which would knowingly allow a person living in incest to remain in its membership? I hope not! But gross offences had become so common in general society in Paul’s day that it did not strike even Christian people that some of these things were wrong. Iniquity abounded, and it was greatly detrimental to grace.

5. Again, iniquity is especially injurious to the growth of love. Because iniquity abounded, therefore the love of many grew cold. Men inside the Christian Church found themselves betrayed by other members of the Church. Frequently, the leaders of the brethren were sold to the executioner by hypocrites like Judas. That would greatly tend to injure Christian love. Men began to suspect each other. You did not know that the man who sat next to you at the Lord’s table would not inform against you tomorrow, and get blood-money for you; therefore suspicion entered with its wintry breath. It was natural that it should be so: albeit that there was sin in it, yet you and I would have probably fallen into the same. All around, men were so loathsome that Christian love, which teaches us to pity the most degraded, and to do good to the most unworthy, found it a hard struggle to live. Godly men endeavoured to win the ungodly from their lusts, but they found themselves persecuted as a result: the more they sought to do good, the more they were hated; and this put their love to a severe test.

6. I think that you can see why our Saviour has given us a warning in this particular form.

7. Iniquity is naturally opposed to grace, but it is most of all injurious to the grace of love. If sin abounds in a church, it is little wonder if the love of many should grow cold. Young members introduced into the church after a short time find that those whom they looked up to as being examples, are walking disorderly, and using lightness of speech and of behaviour. Those young people cannot be very warm in love: they are stumbled and scandalized. Older saints who have for years held on their way in integrity, and by grace have kept their garments unspotted from the world, see those around them who have come into the church who seem to be of quite another race, who can drink from the cup of Belial and from the cup of the Lord, who seem to follow Christ and the devil too; seeing this evil, these godly men gather up their garments in holy indignation, and find it hard to feel the love of purer days.

8. Oh, friends, if the frost of sin rules in a church, every tender flower is injured, and nothing flourishes! Love is a sensitive plant, and if it is touched by the finger of sin, it will show it. The lilies of Love’s Paradise cannot bloom amid the smoke and dust of unholiness.

9. Because iniquity abounds even in the professing church, the love of many is growing cold today. What a sermon one might preach on this! — but I shall not do anything of the kind. I am not so desirous to deplore the evils of others as to watch against evils within myself. I am not so anxious to make you discover transgression in the church as to make you watch against it in your hearts; for rest assured, if you give sin any licence in your heart, your love will grow cold. You cannot walk in love for Christ and yet live in the love of sin. If today you have indulged in unholy temper, if you have given way to covetousness, if you have in any way transgressed against the Lord, you will not feel that warmth of love towards Jesus Christ which you felt yesterday. Your life will have lost much of its beauty and its sweetness. Cry to God that he would give it back to you. Do not rest satisfied until it is perfectly restored.

10. II. Now let us consider THE SERIOUS CHARACTER OF THIS EVIL. “The love of many shall grow cold.” It is a very dreadful thing that love in any man’s heart should grow cold. Observe the bearings of Christian love, and you will see its sin under various aspects.

11. Our love is, first, a love for the great Father, our Father who chose us before the earth ever was, by whom we have been begotten again, and received into his family. If our love for him grows cold, what mischief that must bring! Coldness towards the father in a family, — do you know any household afflicted in that way? I should be very sorry to be a member of it. Coldness of love for the father? Why, that household is scarcely a family! It has lost the bond which holds it together, and constitutes it a family. May the good Lord save us from this ruin of all holy unity!

12. Next, our love is love for Jesus Christ, “who loved us, and gave himself for us.” If love for Jesus should grow cold, the result would be grievous. Is there any spiritual grace within you that can be in a healthy condition when your love for Christ is declining? Are you right anywhere if your heart is wrong towards your Lord? Can you do anything earnestly when love for Jesus is chilled? Can you sing properly? Can you pray properly? Can you live properly? Do not let us dream of producing fruit if we are severed from the Vine. It is vitally important that we should love Jesus with all our heart, and soul, and strength.

13. Christian love also embraces the truth. Those who love God and his divine Son, love the truth which he has committed to them. The Church is the trustee of the gospel: she is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” And when men begin to play with the truth, and think that one set of doctrines is as good as another, and that nothing is of any particular importance, evil must come. In former days, our fathers considered it a little thing to go to prison for a doctrine, or to be burned to death for a testimony. Look at the multitudes in Holland who were drowned, or who were tied to ladders and roasted to death, for nothing but their conviction that believers should be baptized. Nowadays, people consider scriptural views of baptism to be a mere trifle. I question whether our present Broad-Churchmen think that there is any doctrine worth a person’s losing the first joint of his little finger for: as for burning to death for a truth, that must seem a great absurdity to these liberal theologians. Now that things have reached this state, need we wonder that heresies and all kinds of errors rush in torrents down our streets? When she can afford to trifle with truth, what is the church worth?

14. Our love is also love for our fellow Christians. This is a vital principle. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.” But when members of churches have no love for each other, when a professor does not care at all what becomes of his brethren, has the church any Christianity left then? No, it has a name to live, and is dead. Christianity is gone when the heart is cold; its very life is mutual affection.

15. Then, again, we are to love the ungodly and the unconverted. It is by love that we are to win them to Christ. But if the church has no love for the dying sons of men, what is she worth? Where will be her missionary operations? What will be the use of her ministry? Think of her Sunday Schools without love for the children. Think of people pretending to win souls who have no love for them, and do not care whether they are lost or saved. Can the church sustain a worse loss than the losing of her fervent love for perishing men? And yet, if iniquity abounds, this is the great risk we run, compassionate love will cease to minister to man’s miseries.

16. Beloved, when we love best, how little is our love compared with what it ought to be for him who left the royalties of heaven for the shame and sorrow of our nature! If we glowed with seraphic fire night and day, through a life as long as that of Methuselah, our love could not repay the love of Christ. If that love, poor as it is, grows colder, what will it come to? Oh, eyes that are to look at the Well Beloved for ever and ever, if you cease to see beauty in him now, what has blinded you? Oh, hearts that are to glow for ever with delight in the presence of the Reigning One, who once was crucified, what ails you, if you grow chill when you most need his love, and are receiving most from him? I cannot bear it — that we should love Jesus little. It seems horrible to me. Not to have your heart all on fire for Christ — this is abominable! Let us love him to the utmost. Let us ask him to give us larger hearts, and to fire them with the flame that is in his own, that we may love him to the utmost possibilities of affection.

17. Ah! then, beloved, think again. Suppose our love grows cold, do you not see how it paralyses the entire system? If the reservoir is empty, you cannot expect to get much water from the pipes. If the heart grows cold, everything will be coldly done. When love declines, what cold preaching we have! All moonlight — light without heat; polished like marble, and as chilly. What cold singing we get, — pretty music, made by pipes and wind, but oh, how little soul-song! — how little singing in the Holy Spirit, making melody in the heart to God! And what poor praying! Do you call it praying? What little giving! When the heart is cold, the hands can find nothing in the purse; and Christ’s Church, and Christ’s poor, and the heathen may perish, for we need to hoard up for ourselves, and live to grow rich. Is there anything that goes on as it ought to go when love grows cold? I should like to act throughout life as I have and when my soul has been stirred to its innermost depths with affection for my Lord. I would continually act as if I had just seen him, and had put my fingers into the print of the nails. I would live as if I had been just sitting at his feet with Mary, indeed, and were still sitting there. I would speak for him, and work for him, and give for him as if I had freshly lifted my head from John’s place on his bosom.

18. III. Thirdly, THE SOLEMN DANGER of the spread of this mischief.

19. I will read the text to you translated accurately: “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall grow cold.” That is a more saddening expression than “the love of many.” It is “the love of the many,” that is, of the major part of the church — most of it. This supposes a dreadful state of things, because, when the many have become cold, they keep each other in that state. One cold brother says to the other, “What is your temperature?” “I think I am far below zero.” “So am I,” says the first one, “and we are about right.” If the majority are warm, then the cold ones are thawed; but if they are all below zero, then they freeze into a wretched mass. It is the most sober, respectable church you ever knew: they have no quarrelling, everything is so comfortable, and orderly. Alas! they are frozen together, and their peace is that of death. The love of the many has grown cold; and they are full of mutual admiration for their quietness.

20. They have no one to rebuke them. If the many have grown cold, then the few among them, instead of being able to rebuke with authority, are themselves snubbed. “He is a terribly fanatical young man! That zealous fellow never leaves anyone alone!” “He will grow out of that,” one says; “by the time that he gets to my age he will be as prudent as I am.” That good woman feels great anxiety for the conversion of souls, and she is making a stir. A lady of repute declares that she is too forward, or has a bee in her bonnet. Active people are looked at as rather troublesome when the love of the many grows cold. The few have a hard time of it; and if they dare to give a rebuke, they are soon snuffed out: this confirms the evil.

21. And then the tendency is to grow even colder. They go on freezing. There is no telling how cold people can be. I have been burnt with cold, and I suppose you have been. I have preached in places whose spiritual temperature was that of an ice-house; and, preach as hard as I could, nothing could possibly come of it, for my words fell to the ground like lumps of ice. Churches become colder and colder, until at last the great God, who breaks up icebergs in due season, destroys a church, and its place knows it no more.

22. IV. In the presence of the danger which is seriously threatening many churches, there is A CALL FOR SERIOUS ACTION ON OUR PART. What is that serious action?

23. Why, it is, first, that we should remember that, if the love of the many may grow cold, then our love may grow cold. What are we that we should think ourselves secure where others are in danger? If other men, as good as we are, have gradually cooled down, may not we? Let us be watchful and careful, and let us go to God for more grace.

24. Let us notice, next, that if the love of the many grows cold, it is not much use our complaining about it, but the few must get together, and pray. The real vitality of a church seldom lies in the many, but generally in the few. Inside the election there is another election. Do you remember that out of Christ’s disciples there were twelve; out of the twelve there were three; out of the three there was one? And so election has rings within rings. Inside the nominal church — (we cannot say whether they are all God’s people or not,) — the many may grow cold; but there ought to be a remnant who continue in life and love. May God grant that we may belong to it! We must at once grow warmer. We must live nearer to Christ. We must be more enthusiastic. Oh, for a band of choice spirits, — men fit to walk with Christ in white, for they are worthy, — men who will be prepared to follow the Lamb wherever he goes! The Spirit said, “You have a few names even in Sardis that have not defiled their garments”; and so in every church there are some who have not grown idle or heretical. Let them get together, and help each other. I thank God for those whom the Lord keeps very near to him; may their number be daily increased! May each one of us be filled with the Spirit! When I hear of one minister after another giving up the old-fashioned gospel, do you know what I say to myself? I resolve that I will stick all the closer to it. If the many cannot bear Calvinistic doctrine, I will be more Calvinistic than ever. The more men do not like the truth, the more they shall have it. Let this be our line of action. If men become more worldly, we will become more puritanical. If professing Christians do not exhibit the spirit of Christ, we will ask our Lord to give us sevenfold of his Spirit, that we may maintain the truth. Suppose you expected a famine in London as there was in Paris during the siege. {a} Everyone who could do so would get in a hundredfold supply of provisions. Every good housewife would lay out every penny that she could get, and fill her cellars full of food. There is going to be a spiritual famine, therefore buy the truth, and do not sell it. Go to your Lord, and get larger supplies from him. Do not go to each other for it. That will be like saying, “Give us some of your oil”; and your companions will wisely reply, “Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you.” Go to your Master, and ask him to fan the fire within you to a great heat, so that, if there should be cold everywhere else, there may be warmth in your hearts. May the Lord help you to do this, dear friends, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

{a} The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871, and the consequent capture of the city by Prussian forces, led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire as well as the Paris Commune. See Explorer "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(1870%E2%80%9371)"

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Mt 24:1-28}

1, 2. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The King, having finished his final discourse in the temple, left it, never to return: “Jesus went out, and departed from the temple.” His ministry there was ended. As his disciples moved away with him towards the Mount of Olives, they called his attention to the great stones of which the temple was constructed, and the costly adornments of the beautiful building. To them the appearance was glorious; but to their Lord it was a sad sight. His Father’s house, which ought to have been a house of prayer for all nations, had become a den of thieves, and would soon be utterly destroyed. Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Josephus tells us that Titus at first tried to save the temple, even after it was set on fire, but his efforts were of no avail; and at last he gave orders that the whole city and temple should be levelled, except a small portion reserved for the garrison. This was so thoroughly done that the historian says that there was left nothing to make those who came there believe it had ever been inhabited.

We sometimes delight in the temporal prosperity of the Church as if it were something that must certainly endure; but all that is external will pass away or be destroyed. Let us only consider that to be substantial which comes from God, and is God’s work. The things which are seen are temporal.

3. And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”

The little procession continued ascending the Mount of Olives until Jesus reached a resting-place from which he could see the temple. {Mr 13:3} There he sat down, and the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?” These are the questions that have been asked in every age since our Saviour’s day. There are here two distinct questions, perhaps three. The disciples enquired first about the time of the destruction of the temple, and then about the sign of Christ’s coming, and of “the consummation of the age” (1881 English Revised Version, margin). The answers of Jesus contained much that was mysterious, and that could only be fully understood as what he foretold actually occurred. He told his disciples some things which related to the siege of Jerusalem, some which concerned his Second Advent, and some which would immediately precede “the end of the age.” When we have clearer light, we may possibly perceive that all our Saviour’s predictions on this memorable occasion had some connection with all three of these great events.

4-6. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Take heed that no man deceives you. For many shall come in my name, saying, ‘I am Christ’; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you are not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Jesus was always practical. The most important thing for his disciples was not that they might know when “these things” would be, but that they might be preserved from the particular evils of the time. Therefore, Jesus answered and said to them, “Take heed that no man deceives you. For many shall come in my name, saying, ‘I am Christ’; and shall deceive many.” They were to beware lest any of the pretended Messiahs should lead them astray, since they would pervert many others. A large number of impostors came forward before the destruction of Jerusalem, claiming that they were the anointed of God, almost every page of history is blotted with the names of such deceivers; and in our own day we have seen some come in Christ’s name, saying that they are Christ’s. Such men seduce many; but those who heed their Lord’s warning will not be deluded by them.

Our Saviour’s words, “You shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars,” might be applied to almost any period of the world’s history. Earth has seldom had a long spell of quiet; there have almost always been both the realities of war, and the rumours of war. There were many such before Jerusalem was overthrown; there have been many such ever since; and there will be many such until that glorious period when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

“See that you are not troubled” is a timely message for the disciples of Christ in every age. “For all these things must come to pass,” therefore let us not be surprised or alarmed by them, “but the end is not yet.” The destruction of Jerusalem was the beginning of the end, the great type and anticipation of all that will take place when Christ shall stand at the latter day on the earth. It was an end; but not the end: “the end is not yet.”

7, 8. For nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

One would think that there was sorrow enough in “famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places”; but our Lord said that “all these” were only “the beginning of sorrows,” the first birth-pangs of the travail that must precede his coming, either to Jerusalem, or to the whole world. If famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are only “the beginning of sorrows,” what may we not expect the end to be? This prophecy ought both to warn the disciples of Christ what they may expect, and wean them from the world where all these and greater sorrows are to be experienced.

9. Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.

Our Lord not only foretold the general trial that would happen to the Jews, and to the world; but also the special persecution which would be the portion of his chosen followers: “Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” The New Testament gives abundant proof of the fulfilment of these words. Even in Paul’s day, “this sect” was “everywhere spoken against.” Since then, has there been any land unstained by the blood of the martyrs? Wherever Christ’s gospel has been preached, men have risen up in arms against the messengers of mercy, and afflicted and killed them wherever they could.

10. And then many shall be offended, and shall betray each other, and shall hate each other.

This would be a bitter trial for the followers of Christ; yet they have always had to endure this. Persecution would reveal the traitors within the Church as well as the enemies without. In the midst of the chosen ones there would be found successors of Judas, who would be willing to betray the disciples as he betrayed his Lord. Saddest of all is the betrayal of good men by their own relatives; but many of them have had to bear even this for Christ’s sake.

11, 12. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.

What could not be accomplished by persecutors outside the Church, and traitors inside, would be attempted by teachers of heresy: “Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” They have risen in all ages; in these modern times they have risen in clouds, until the air is thick with them, as with an army of devouring locusts. These are the men who invent new doctrines, and who seem to think that the religion of Jesus Christ is something that a man may twist into any form and shape that he pleases. Alas, that such teachers should have any disciples! It is doubly sad that they should be able to lead astray “many.” Yet, when it happens, let us remember that the King said that it would be so.

Is it any wonder that, where such “iniquity abounds” and such lawlessness is multiplied, “the love of many shall grow cold?” If the teachers deceive the people, and give them “another gospel which is not another,” it is no marvel that there is a lack of love and zeal. The wonder is that there is any love and zeal left after they have been subjected to such a chilling and killing process as that adopted by the advocates of the modern “destructive criticism.” Truly, it is accurately named “destructive,” for it destroys almost everything that is worth preserving.

13. But he who shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.

Again our Saviour reminded his disciples of the personal responsibility of each one of them in such a time of trial and testing as they were about to pass through. He would have them remember that it is not the man who starts in the race, but the one who runs to the goal, who wins the prize: “He who shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.” If this doctrine were not supplemented by another, there would be very little good news for poor, tempted, tried and struggling saints in such words as these. Who among us would persevere in running the heavenly race if God did not preserve us from falling, and give us persevering grace? But, blessed be his name, “the righteous shall hold on his way.” “He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then the end shall come.

The world is to the Church like a scaffold to a building. When the Church is built, the scaffold will be taken down; the world must remain until the last elect one is saved: “Then the end shall come.” Before Jerusalem was destroyed, “this gospel of the kingdom” was probably “preached in all the world” so far as it was then known; {Col 1:6} but there is to be a fuller proclamation of it “for a witness to all nations” before the great consummation of all things: “then the end shall come,” and the King shall sit on the throne of his glory, and decide the eternal destiny of the whole human race.

15-18. When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoever reads, let him understand;) then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains: let him who is on the house-top not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes.

This portion of our Saviour’s words appears to relate solely to the destruction of Jerusalem. As soon as Christ’s disciples saw “the abomination of desolation,” that is, the Roman ensigns, with their idolatrous emblems, “stand in the holy place,” they knew that the time for them to escape had arrived; and they did “flee into the mountains.” The Christians in Jerusalem and the surrounding towns and villages, “in Judea,” availed themselves of the first opportunity for eluding the Roman armies, and fled to the mountain city of Pella, in Perea, where they were preserved from the general destruction which overthrew the Jews. There was no time to spare before the final investment of the guilty city; the man “on the house-top” could “not come down to take anything out of his house,” and the man “in the field” could not “return back to take his clothes.” They must flee to the mountains in the greatest haste the moment that they saw “Jerusalem surrounded with armies.” {Lu 21:20}

19-21. And woe to those who are pregnant, and to those who nurse in those days! But pray that your flight is not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

It must have been an especially trying time for the women who had to flee from their homes just when they needed quiet and rest. How thoughtful and tender was our compassionate Saviour in sympathizing like this with suffering mothers in their hour of need! “Flight … in the winter” or “on the Sabbath day” would have been attended with special difficulties; so the disciples were exhorted to “pray” that some other time might be available. The Lord knew exactly when they would be able to escape, yet he told them to pray that their flight might not be in the winter, nor on the Sabbath day. The wise men of the present day would have said that prayer was useless under such conditions; not so the great Teacher and Example of his praying people; he taught that such a season was the very time for special supplication.

The reason for this injunction was stated like this by the Saviour: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Read the record written by Josephus of the destruction of Jerusalem, and see how truly our Lord’s words were fulfilled. The Jews impiously said, concerning the death of Christ, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” Never did any other people invoke such an awful curse on themselves, and on no other nation did such a judgment ever fall. We read of Jews crucified until there was no more wood for making crosses; of thousands of the people killing each other in their fierce faction fights within the city; of so many of them being sold for slaves that they became a drug {b} on the market, and all but valueless; and of the fearful carnage when the Romans at length entered the doomed capital; and the blood-curdling story exactly bears out the Saviour’s statement uttered nearly forty years before the terrible events occurred.

22. And unless those days should be shortened, no flesh would be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

These were the words of the King as well as of the Prophet; and as such, they were both authentic and authoritative. Jesus spoke of what “should be,” not only as the Seer who was able to gaze into the future, but as the Sovereign Disposer of all events. He knew what a fiery trial awaited the unbelieving nation, and that “unless those days should be shortened, no flesh would be saved.” If the horrors of the siege were to continue for long, the whole nation of the Jews would be destroyed. The King had the power to cut short the evil days, and he explained his reason for using that power: “For the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Those who had been hated and persecuted by their own countrymen became the means of preserving them from absolute annihilation. It has often been so since those days, and for the sake of his elect the Lord has withheld many judgments, and shortened others. The ungodly owe to the godly more than they know, or would care to acknowledge.

23-26. Then if any man shall say to you, ‘Lo, here is Christ’, or ‘there’; do not believe it. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Therefore if they shall say to you, ‘Behold he is in the desert’; do not go out: ‘Behold, he is in the secret chambers’; do not believe it.

It is a grand thing to have such faith in Christ that you have none to spare for imposters. It is important not to distribute your faith too widely. Those who believe a little of everything will, in the end, believe nothing of anything. If you exercise full faith in what is sure and steadfast, “false Christs and false prophets” will not be able to make you their dupes. In one respect, the modern teachers of heresy are more successful than their Judean prototypes, for they do actually “deceive the very elect,” even though they cannot “show great signs and wonders.” One of the saddest signs of the times in which we live is the ease with which “the very elect” are deceived by the smooth-tongued “false Christs and false prophets” who abound in our midst. Yet our Saviour expressly forewarned his followers against them: “Behold, I have told you before.” To be forewarned is forearmed. Let it be so in our case. Our Saviour’s expressive command may be appropriately applied to the whole system of “modern thought” which is contrary to the inspired Word of God: “Do not believe it.”

27. For just as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.

When HE comes, we shall know who he is, and why he has come. There will be no longer any mystery or secret about “the coming of the Son of man.” There will be no need to ask any questions then; no one will make a mistake about his appearing when it actually takes place. “Every eye shall see him.” Christ’s coming will be sudden, startling, universally visible, and terrifying to the ungodly: “as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west.” His first coming in judgment at the destruction of Jerusalem had terrors about it that until then had never been experienced on the earth; his last coming will be even more dreadful.

28. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

Judaism had become a “carcass,” dead and corrupt; fit prey for the vultures or carrion-kites of Rome. Eventually, there will arrive another day, when there will be a dead church in a dead world, and “the eagles” of divine judgment “will be gathered together” to tear in pieces those whom there shall be no one to deliver. The birds of prey gather wherever dead bodies are to be found; and the judgments of Christ will be poured out when the body politic or religious becomes unbearably corrupt.

{b} Drug on the market: A commodity which is no longer in demand, and so has lost its value or become unsaleable. OED.

C. H. Spurgeon’s Useful Books at Reduced Prices.

“Good Tidings of Great Joy.” Christ’s Incarnation the Foundation of Christianity. “Central Truth Series.” Vol. 1. Cloth Boards. Published at 1s. 6d., offered at 1s.