I'm going to read from 1 John 2, beginning at verse 15. 1 John 2, beginning at verse 15. The Apostle John says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 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 passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever. So I mentioned this morning that as we continue our practical meditations today, I want to look with you at the idea of worldliness. Now worldliness is something that sometimes when we think about it as a topic, we think of it more as a fundamentalist discussion than a reform discussion, but I want to encourage you that worldliness is something that the scriptures call us to avoid. A recent Banner of Truth article on worldliness said, creation, matter, earth, and body are not inherently evil. Such a theory, more in line with platonic and dualistic thought, cannot be reconciled with the clear biblical statements of Genesis 1 and 1 Timothy. Hence, we should be suspicious of blanket definitions of world or flesh that seem to draw from these philosophies rather from scripture. When we read the scriptural condemnations of the world, it makes most sense to think about the world as a system, an ethical and philosophical edifice erected in opposition to God in his revelation. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? So worldliness is a system of thinking, primarily. It's a mindset, or it begins as a mindset, and then it works itself out in the practical matters of life. Sometimes when we think about worldliness, we think about it in terms of the applications rather than the mindset. Worldliness is not, first and foremost, the applications. It's not someone's worldly if they choose to enter a vocation that is one that makes a lot of money, you know, somebody inherently interested in theology and yet they enter a field where they are able to pursue wealth. That's not necessarily worldly. Worldliness is not a separation from the world in only buying Christian products or having Christian friends. I remember when I first became a Christian at the age of 17, at the end of my senior year of high school, and was a little bit dumbfounded by the number of Christians that wanted to replace things that I liked with Christian versions of the same. You know, you like this band, well, you should try this. You read this type of literature, you should try this. And always wanting to swap out something Christian for something that in their mind was worldly. That's not worldly to necessarily enjoy those things. Worldliness is not a neglect of education or the sciences or art or literature or politics. Sometimes when people have pursuits that they enjoy, whether it's artistic or scientific or political, and Christians at times will not be too into those things, thinking that that is something that maybe is too worldly and something that we should not enjoy. And lastly, worldliness is not a uniform. Christians are not called to mark off the fact that we are Christians by a dress code. That does not show that we are not worldly by having some dress code other than modesty. Worldliness is not found in these things, what we necessarily do, or the things that we enjoy, or the work that we do, or the clothing that we wear. It can be, but it's not necessarily. So I want to look at some of the principles of worldliness that we find in the New Testament. The first is that we are called right from the beginning of the Christian life to not love the world. We are called to flee this idea of worldliness. We read 1 John 2, 15 and 17, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. You know, that is a serious self-examination. question, and we have this principle that our love is not to be divided. We are to love the Lord and the world, and even things that are to be enjoyed or to be used in the world, we are free to enjoy them and free to use them. It's just that they are to be held with an open hand rather than with a closed hand. We see in the Scriptures that the spirits of the world is different from the Spirit of God. That which drives the world versus that which drives the believer are different. 1 Corinthians 2, 12-13, now we've received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truth to those who are spiritual. So in the mind of the Apostle Paul and in the mind of the New Testament, there is a mindset, a spirit, a worldview that is worldly, that's driven by the world and the principles of the world and the starting points of the world. And that's to be different from the Christian mindset that is thinking from the Word of God and seeking to conform his or her mind and life according to the scriptures rather than the principles of the world. Because you remember that the principles of the world are ever shifting. They're ever-changing, and that which is considered to be right and wrong, that which is considered to be woke, those are always changing in the mind of the world. I mean, we could think about, even for an example, what we do with the homosexual community. Christians have a principle based in Scripture, and the world has a different principle. The president that we currently have was the first president in the United States ever elected with saying that he was completely fine with homosexual practice and with gay marriage. Even our previous president was not elected on that platform, in a sense. He was, at that time, saying, I'm against these things. But the world's principles change and they fluctuate and they shift. But the principles of the scripture and our mindset, the things that are to be driving what we do and how we think and what we love, those are things that do not change because they have a spirit that comes from God, as Paul would say, rather than a spirit that comes from the world. Now, another principle is that by Christ and his death, you have been delivered from the world. This is something that you are freed from. You're not just forgiven from your sins, but you are actually delivered from the world, and world here being used not for the terra firma on which you walk, but the mindset that drives your neighbors. Galatians 1.4 says, he gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and our Father. That present evil age is the same idea that we would use for worldliness. It's that system or that mindset that drives those who are outside of Christ. John 16.33 tells you that you are called to overcome the world. And that's 1 John 5.4. And the reason you're able to overcome the world is because Jesus himself has overcome the world. So we follow in the footsteps of our Savior who overcomes the world, and then we too are called to follow in his footsteps. John 16, 33, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. And then John picks up on that in first John five, first John five, four, for everyone who has been bored of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world. our faith. So we see that by faith we're able to overcome that. We're able to have our mind changed and conformed to the scriptures that we begin to think like Christ. We begin to think in such a way that the scriptures would have you to think. And that allows you to put off those worldviews and put off those understandings and those vain philosophies that come at us from all sides. So the world is something that you're called to overcome, and it's something that Christ has already done. James 4.4 tells you that worldliness is enmity with God. It's not something that is able to cohabitate with the Christian. It's something that needs to be separated from us. James 4.4 says, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend with the world makes himself an enemy of God. So those are some of the principles that we think about. You know, the starting point, we want to throw off that old idea that worldliness is, you know, dancing or playing cards or, you know, wearing clothes that you know, that previous generations may not have been okay with. It's not the old fundamentalistic ideas. It's not that. Worldliness is something that begins in the mind, and it's a mindset that thinks like the world and wants to pursue the things that the world pursues and say that which the world says. And the New Testament says, push that aside, get rid of it, get it out of your mind, because you have been delivered by Christ. You're called to overcome the world. Worldliness is enmity with God. And the spirit of God is different than the spirit of the world. And you are called to not love the world. So how are some ways that we would make that application to our life? Well, Any of you that are fans of Ligonier ministries know the first place we're gonna go Romans 12 to We are to have our minds Renewed that is the starting point to fight worldliness We are to have a mind renewal Romans 12 to do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So conformity to the world is taking your mind and hearing whatever the pundits are saying or whatever the professors or the philosophers are saying at the time and just inserting that and being fed and saying, yes, I'll just think like everyone else thinks. Where the scriptures say, Take that mindset that's coming at you from the world. Don't let that in. Don't let it in your mind. And instead, have your mind renewed. have your mind renewed by the Word of God. Know what is good and acceptable and perfect according to the scriptures. So that's the starting point, is be in the Word of God. It's very easy to be duped and fooled by worldly systems and thoughts, but we must have our minds renewed and we must throw off conformity to the world as we think about things from a Christian perspective. Now another application comes from the fact that we are to walk in this. We are to walk in such a way that we are not unstained by the world. And so the application point that I would call this is that it is part of what the Apostle James would call undefiled religion. Remember that from James chapter 1, verse 127. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart. This person's religion is worthless. And then verse 27, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. And we're often good at quoting that part, but how's it end? and to keep oneself unstained from the world. So that's the application. We live it out in such a way, visiting orphans and widows, but where does that begin? It begins in your mind, that you would live in such a way that you are unstained by the world, and you are being conformed to what the scriptures call you to do, which are found within the Word of God. Now this is also something that we are to do in fleeing. We are to flee worldliness, but we should know that it is costly. Part of the application is that it may lead to trouble. It may lead to persecution. It may lead to humiliation. It may lead to the world hating you. But John 15, 18, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. That's what the Lord Jesus says. So those are some of those principles and some of the principles of application, but I want to give a bit of a warning as well. 2 Timothy 4.10 talks about a man named Demas, and Demas was one who was either a minister or an evangelist, somebody that was working with the Apostle Paul. And the Apostle Paul says concerning Demas, 2 Timothy 4.10, He says, for Demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Paul is deserted by one who was a partner in evangelism or a partner in ministry, and he was abandoned. because this man Demas had become worldly. So what's the warning? The warning is that worldliness can lead to apostasy. And I think you have friends that, if you're like me, you have friends that end up leaving the faith And as you reflect on them and their trail, so to speak, out of the Christian life, you see the mindset slowly changing. And you see them saying things that are not according to scripture, but more in accordance with the philosophies of the world. And you see how that slowly unfolds, where somebody ends with saying, you know what, I have abandoned I am no longer a Christian. And that is a process that most people that end up leaving the faith, it's not just a decision where one day they wake up and they say, you know what? I'm not a Christian. It's something where slowly the mindset and the worldview is being chipped away and they're no longer thinking according to biblical patterns, but they're thinking according to worldly patterns. So there's a warning there. And then one other warning from Matthew 13, and I chose Matthew 13 instead of Mark 4, because we'll deal with this a little bit next week in Mark 4. The cares of this world can choke out the Word of God. So worldliness can choke, that's the word Jesus uses, it chokes out the Word of God. the word of God, and it causes one to fall away. Matthew 13, 22, As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfaithful. That's a great warning for us, especially in what we do by the scriptures. So we see that worldliness is being guided by the world's philosophy or the worldview or the standards of ethics that the world puts forth instead of the scriptures or the commitments that the world is committed to rather than the things that the scriptures are committed to. Secondly, it's a mindset that one lives for this world rather than the things of the world to come. It often can be discerned in your own heart is if your mind is a mind where you're living merely and primarily for the things of this world and put very little thought into the things of God. Thirdly, it is often seen also in being controlled by the world's sense of time. You can think about the urgency or the matters of importance, seemingly as though everything is always on fire and you need to rush, rush, rush and do, do, do, when the scriptures call us in a cycle of rest and work, rest and work, rest and work. And when we get thrown out of that cycle and into the crazy cycle that the world wants to put us into, often that is a sign that we have been pulled in by worldliness. And it's something that we should pull back from. Put Bible reading and prayer and family worship and Sabbath keeping, put these things above the things of this world. And then something else that is there when we think about worldliness is when we find our full satisfactions and joys in what John Bunyan called vanity fair, you know the the smells and sights and feels and touches and tastes that the world provides and if one is living for these things and he or she will not be able to live for the things to come. It's something we are to throw off. I wanted to end with a little bit of application from a letter. It was a letter that was written by a young woman to John Newton. You probably know who John Newton is. And the letter is dated October 3rd, 1778. It's available in his works and under this section on on letters, and it's the question of how does one fight against worldliness? And Newton gives three applications. He says, the first application, the way we fight against worldliness, the first is prayer. And here, above all things, we should pray for humility. It may be called the guard of all graces and the soil in which they grow. The second is attention to scripture. Your question is directly answered in Psalm 119. How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word and following its rules. The precepts of the word are our rule and delight. The promises are strength and encouragement. The good recorded of the saints is for our encouragement in the miscarriages. are landmarks to warn us of the rocks and the shoals which lie in our passage. And the third is consideration or reconciliation or recollection, a careful regard of the temptations and snares to which our tempers, situations, or connections are immediately exposed and by which we've been formerly hindered. It may be well in the morning before we leave our rooms to forecast the probable circumstances of the day before us. Yet the observance of this as well as every rule can be offered. It may dwindle into a mere form. However, I trust the Lord who has given you desire to live in him. He will be your guard and teacher. There is none who teaches like him." So John Newton giving giving three, be in prayer, be especially in prayer for humility. When we are humbled before the Lord and relying heavily upon his word, we are less likely to fall into this snare. Secondly, paying attention to the scriptures, knowing the scriptures and letting the scriptures be our mind and our guide. And then the third is having a consideration or a regard for those things that the world offers that we easily fall into and seeking to avoid those, seeking to fight against those, knowing what it is that God would have us to do. And then I love how he ends, looking to Christ, our teacher, there is none who teaches like him.