Do Not Love The World

“Do Not Love the World” (1 John 2:15-17)

Introduction: In the story of Bunyon’s Pilgrim’s Progress, a very provocative conversation takes place between Christian and Faithful when they first meet. Christian asks Faithful what kinds of trials and temptations he had had to face so far on the road. Faithful tells him of his adventures and this particular story which will help orient us very well to the topic this evening. Faithful said to Christian, “’When I came to the foot of the hill called Difficulty, I met with a very old man, who asked me who I was, and where I was bound. I told him that I am a pilgrim, going to the Celestial City. Then the old man said, “You look like an honest fellow; will you be content to dwell with me for the wages that I shall give you?” Then I asked him his name, and where he dwelt. He said his name was Adam the First, and that he dwelt in the town of Deceit. Ephesians 4:22. I asked him then what was his work, and what the wages he would give. He told me that his work was many delights; and his wages that I should be his heir at last. I further asked him what house he kept, and what other servants he had. So he told me that his house was maintained with all the dainties in the world; and that his servants were those of his own begetting. Then I asked if he had any children. He said that he had but three daughters: The Lust of the Flesh, The Lust of the Eyes, and The Pride of Life, 1 John 2:16; and that I should marry them all if I would. Then I asked how long time he would have me live with him; and he told me, As long as he lived himself.’ Then Christian said, ‘Well, and what conclusion came the old man and you to at last?’ Faithful replied, ‘Why, at first, I found myself somewhat inclined to go with the man, for I thought he spoke very fair; but looking at his forehead, as I talked with him, I saw there written, ‘Put off the old man with his deeds.’ Christian then said, ‘And what happened next?’ Faithful answered, ‘Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his house, he would sell me for a slave. So I told him that he need not speak any further, for I would not come near the door of his house. Then he reviled me, and told me that he would send such a one after me, that should make my way bitter to my soul. So I turned to go away from him; but just as I turned myself to go thence, I felt him take hold of my flesh, and give me such a deadly twitch back, that I thought he had pulled part of me after himself. This made me cry, “O wretched man.” Romans 7:24. So I went on my way up the hill’” (Sage 175-176). This story illustrates for us the struggle in the heart of a Christian with the sin which still remains in it. Notice that in this story, Faithful, a converted man, is tempted by Adam the first, which is his old man, or old nature. He wants to take him home to the town of Deceit to indulge him in the delights of the flesh, and to marry his three daughters, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The time which this would go on would be for the rest of his life. However, when Faithful sees the warning of his Lord written over the man’s forehead, it comes like a searing brand in his mind, that if he gives himself over to this corruption, it may very well place him in bondage forever. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” (Rom. 6:16). So then he takes off running, but part of him is still desires to stay, which is shown by the deadly twitch back which feels as though the man had torn off one of his members. And as he runs, he cries out in the words of the apostle Paul, “O wretched man.” “O wretched man that I am! Who shall

2 deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). Last week we saw that in the Christian life there is no place for neutrality. We are either for the Lord Jesus Christ, or we are against Him; we are either gathering with Him, or scattering (Matt. 12:30). We must purpose in our hearts that we will fight for the Lord and for Him alone, if we to arrive safely to our heavenly home! We also saw this morning that if we are to enlist our children in this warfare to fight on the Lord’s side -- that is, if we are to see them converted to fight the battle on the side of Christ, rather than on the side of the enemy, for they are in the battle on one side or the other--, then we must do all in our power to sanctify ourselves, in order that we may be a powerful means to their conversion. Tonight, I want us to see that to do so, We must not love the world, nor the things in the world, but we must love God.

I. First, let us look at what the apostle John means by the command, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.” A. Does this mean that we are not to have any concern at all for anything in all of God’s Creation? 1. We need to realize first that the word “world” is used in different senses in Scripture. 2. Its basic idea is of an organized system. And it is applied by John in several ways. a. He uses it to refer to the created world of things. He says, “But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (3:17). b. He uses it to refer to the whole world of fallen men which the Lord Jesus Christ came to save. John writes, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (2:2). c. He uses it to refer to those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, “Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you” (3:13). “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (4:5-6). d. But he also uses it to refer to the kingdom of the evil one in this world, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (5:4-5). “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (5:19). e. It is undoubtedly in this last sense that John means it here. What we are called by God not to love is the system of wickedness which the usurper has raised within this created realm. This does not mean that we are not to enjoy what God has created. What we are to stay far from is what the evil one has distorted. B. This is made more clear by what follows: “Nor the things in the world.” 1. What are the things in the world? What are the parts which make up the devil’s evil empire? John writes, “For all that is in the world, is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.” a. Each of these can be summarized by one word. b. The lust of the flesh is the desire for luxury, the thirst to fulfill the natural passions.

3 c. The lust of the eyes is covetousness. The eyes are the gateway through which the tempting things of the world inflame our passions. d. And the boastful pride of life is ambition. It is the desire to be elevated above all others. 2. It has been noted that these are the three areas in which Eve was tempted in the garden. a. When the serpent showed Eve the fruit, she saw that it was good for food (the desire of the flesh), it was a delight to the eyes (the desire of the eyes), and it was desirable to make one wise (the pride of life) (Gen. 3:6). b. Each of these had an appeal to her, and she chose against what she knew was right and fell to the temptation, and Adam fell with her. 3. And isn’t it interesting that it was in the same three areas that the devil tempted Christ after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights. a. In Luke 4:2-3, we read, “And He ate nothing during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ Here, the devil was appealing to His natural appetites. But Christ replied, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE’” (4:4). b. Next, the devil “led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours’” (vv. 5-7). Here, the devil was appealing to Christ’s eyes, seeking to tempt Him. But Jesus replied, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY’” (v. 8). c. And lastly, the devil “led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, “HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,” and, “ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE”’” (vv. 9-11). Here, the devil sought to tempt Him to pride, either by presuming on His Father’s word to protect Him for His own purposes, or in usurping the Father’s plan to reveal Him as the Messiah. But again, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘It is said, “YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST”’” (v. 12). d. Christ was in the wilderness being tempted of the devil for forty days, which was really a recapitulation of the wandering of the children of Israel for forty years, and He was tempted in the same three areas as Adam and Eve, which was a recapitulation of their temptation. Yet in both of these situations, Christ came forth without sin. He passed the probation where the others had failed. And so Christ fulfills all righteousness on behalf of His people. He not only keeps the Law perfectly for Himself, but He also repairs all the failures of His people. e. But these things with which the tempter tempted Adam and Eve, and Christ, are the things upon which his kingdom is established. 4. But the question arises, “With all the things that are currently present in the world, how

4 can we distinguish between those which are of the world and those which are not? How can we know what are legitimate pursuits and what are not for ourselves as Christians?” The following are ways we can tell: a. Anything which fits the description of the things of the world are off limits. If it incites your bodily passions, if it causes you to covet, if it causes your pride to swell in an evil way, then it is sin. b. There are legitimate desires which fall into these categories. If you are hungry, you may eat. If you see something which will help you in your service to Christ, like a good book full of godly wisdom or some kind of tool or machine which can perform valuable service to you, your family or brethren, it is good to desire it. If you take pride in serving the Lord and boast in the Lord, that is good, not evil. c. But if what you desire incites you to sin, if it takes away in the slightest your relish for divine and holy things, if it captures your affections and cools off your love for God, then it is of the world and it is sin. d. You must carefully examine the things which you do on the basis of this last qualifier. You may find that many of the things you allow in your life do not help your love for God at all, but rather quench it. e. We must, by God’s grace, seek to glorify Him in all things, even as those familiar words of the apostle say, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). II. This last principle is also seen in the reasons which John gives us as to why we should not love the things of the world. A. First, John says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1. This is to say, that if you love the world, you do not love the Father. a. These two loves are mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common with one another. b. It is the same thing which our Lord Jesus told us in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” c. Now, I don’t think that John is saying that if you have any desire for the world then you have no love for the Father, for each of us struggles daily against the temptations of the world. If we had no desire for it, then we would not have to fight against it. d. But the idea here is if the world has control of your heart, you do not love the Father. Jesus refers to the same thing in His parable concerning the Sower. The seed sown on the thorny soil did not bear any fruit because it was choked out by the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matt. 13:22). e. In John 15, He says, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away . . . and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned” (vv. 2, 6). f. You cannot love the world and the Father. 2. However, it is still possible to struggle with love to the world in varying degrees. And I am convinced that to the degree that we give our hearts over to the love of the world, to that degree we will quench out the love of the Father. a. Those historically whom the Lord has used and who have been most useful to Him, are those who have loved Him the most.

5 b. And who has loved the Father more than anyone else in history? It is Christ, of course. And He also was most used of the Father. c. The apostle Paul, speaking of himself and his colleagues, wrote, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Think of how mightily they were used of the Lord. d. And so what should you do? Jude writes, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life” (v. 20-21). e. The more you flirt with the world, the more you will love it, and the less you will love God. f. But the more you turn from the world, and loose your hearts from the things which so easily entice it, from the things which rob your attention and affection from God, the more you will love Him, and the more useful you will be to Him. B. The second reason John says not to love these things is that they are “not from the Father, but . . . from the world.” 1. Contrary to what some believe, God is not the source of this corruption and evil; the devil is. a. God ordained that there would be evil, and that He would overrule it for good. b. But that evil did not come from Him. It arose from the creature. 2. And so for the Christian, these things of the world must be hated, for they are contrary to the Father’s nature. a. When we were in the world and of the world, we walked according to the world (Eph. 2:1-3). But now that we are the children of the light, we are to live as children of the light. Paul writes, “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret” (Eph. 5:8-12). b. In the new birth, God gives us a relish, or desire, for holy and divine things. At the same time, He also gives to us a hatred of the things which are contrary, or opposite, to Him. c. The things which John describes are from the world and not from God. Therefore we are not to love them, but hate them. d. William Law once wrote, “Choose any life, except the live of God and heaven, and you choose death; for death is nothing else but the loss of the life of God” (The Spirit of Prayer, Sage, 102). C. Thirdly, John says, “And the world is passing away, and also its lusts.” 1. Jesus introduced His kingdom at His first coming, and it continues to advance throughout the world.

6 2. And with the advancement of this light, the darkness is being dispelled. a. Paul wrote, “But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:29-31). b. John wrote, “On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). c. With the introduction of the eternal kingdom of God on earth, the form of this world is passing away, it is vanishing. Christ’s kingdom is one that will eventually overrun every other kingdom, and destroy them forever. d. Therefore, if we love the world and the things of the world, we, along with it, will vanish forever. Paul writes, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). D. But, on the other hand, “The one who does the will of God abides forever.” 1. If you love the Father, then you will do His will. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). 2. If you do His will, then you are His friends. Jesus said, “You are My friends, if you do what I command you” (15:14). 3. And if you are His friends, then He will take you to be with Himself. He said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (14:3). He prayed, “Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world” (17:24). 4. If you love the Father, you may once have been outside of His kingdom, but now you are His children. Paul writes, “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). And now that you are His children, you will forever remain His children. What better reason can you have to hate the world and to love God? 5. And so in closing, I would ask you, Do you want to side with Christ and to gather with Him? Do you want to make an impression which will be decidedly for Christ in the lives of your children, and in everyone you come in contact with, for that matter? Then do not love the world, nor the things in the world. Love the Father. Love His Christ. Love the things of His kingdom. Seek to make these the greatest desires of your heart. And then see what the Lord will do with you to promote His glorious kingdom in the lives of those around you. May God give us all the grace to do so. Amen.