We'll read those three verses that's been the theme of our studies in this topic of sinning saints. 1 John chapter 2, commencing the reading of the Lord's Word in verse 15. Let's all hear the inspired, infallible Word of God. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Amen. God bless the reading, brief though it be, from His precious Word. We return one final time to look at this passage in I John chapter 2 where the Holy Spirit reveals what our heart's attitudes should be toward this world. In dealing with this subject, of sending saints, how they assist the Holy Spirit in their own transformation into the image of Christ, we are compelled to consider the ways in which Satan tries to stop us from giving the Holy Ghost any aid, but actually help Satan and his plans to ruin us. I've been maintaining that the one method that the serpent uses above all others is what John describes as the world and the lusts. thereof. Remember that in John's epistle this term world usually refers to fallen mankind organized in its rebellion against God the Creator. It is this world that is under the control of the wicked one, the prince of this world, and this world is that which lies in spiritual darkness and therefore it is this world that is under divine judgment. The world is basically fallen human nature, depraved human nature that is consistently acting out itself in the humanity of mankind. We see it all around us. That's just fallen nature working itself out in society, humanity. It is the place where the carnal mind reigns. That mindset, that law of the flesh that is opposed to God, that is opposed to God's law and therefore opposed to anything that is holy and spiritual. It's not just a matter that it's not interested in those things that are godly and spiritual. The world is opposed to it completely. It's an antagonist of anything righteous. It's a friend of Satan and not of God. It is this world, this world that John says we are not to love. He indicates that love for God and love for the world are incompatible. For if any man loved the world, Matter of fact is the love of the Father is not in him. Why then would John write this warning to Christians whom he clearly holds as the children of God, who he views as not being of the world, yet he is led by the Spirit of God to warn them. Children, love not the world. Well, in the first place, he gives this warning because every child of God lives in a situation that is one of tension. You and I, as the Lord's people, live in a state of tension. On the one hand, The child of God is, as Christ puts it plainly in John 17, not of the world. Not of the world. Doesn't belong to the world. He has passed from death into life. He has been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And the darkness has passed, John says, and the true light now shineth. When that individual has been born again, he has been regenerated, he's been saved by grace from the condemnation of sin. It's been deliverance from the world so that he will not be condemned with the world. And I must stop here and speak to any who may be in this meeting tonight who have never Never in your life have you been regenerated. You've never been saved by the grace of God. You still love the world. You're pursuing the world and everything that's within it. You lie under that condemnation. And if you do not come to Christ and pray that He would deliver you from the condemnation of the world, You'll be at the left hand of the judge of all the earth on that day. You'll be there with the goats. And you will hear those chilling words of Christ Himself when He tells His angels, bind them hand and foot and cast them into the lake of fire. And there'll be nothing you have to say. Your mouth will be silenced. I think you just might remember this night when there was a preacher who warned you about this very time when time is no more. And you will say then, why? Why did I not listen? Why did I not flee the world? Why did I believe that this world was worth pursuing and all of its pleasures? Why? But then of course it's too late. Here's where the tension comes in for the child of God and one of the reasons why John must warn them about loving the world. While the child of the Lord is not of the world, he still lives in the world. He lives in this perverse and crooked generation. And because there is a world that is still in his heart, we saw that on Saturday night, A world still in his heart, he is not only exposed to Satan's attempts to use the world on the outside to entice him to sin, he actually has something that is within him, something that is in his heart that will, if not checked, if not mortified, if not killed continually, he will pay heed to that allurement. He will be tempted and give way to the suggestions of Satan. And then the progress, the transformation into the image of Christ is stymied. I tell you again, I have to keep reminding you that this transformation is going to take place no matter how much Satan gums up the works. No matter what devices he uses and at times is successful in tripping us up and we fall. We can say boldly, rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, for when I fall, I shall arise. That's bottom line truth. Not because of any determination on our part. but because God has said He will subdue our iniquities. He will drive them out. It just has a lot to do with whether or not we're going to pay heed to this warning of loving not the world. And to the degree that we heed the warning and all that's suggested by the warning, we will make great strides in Christlikeness. But there is another reason that John gives this warning to true believers. And that reason introduces the message this evening. John not only says love not the world, he adds this, neither the things that are in the world. Now why did he write that? You ever stop to think? He didn't stop with saying love not the world and expect everyone to get it. The Holy Ghost said, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. A Christian understands, believes, convinced that the world out there, we think, the world out there is our enemy, not our friend. We know that it is a system of evil, a habit of life, a world that is characterized by rebellion against God. So far, so good. But when you begin to look separately and in detail at the things of the world, you will find that although the saints know right well that there should be, I don't know if you have this expression over here, that there should be no truck with the things of the world. The reality is that those things of the world still have this power to seduce us. Perhaps you were seduced today. The temptation, before you ever walk through those doors tonight, Satan came with some one of those things of the world and tempted you and you gave way to it before you ever came to the house of God. And yet, you will sit there and tell me and agree with me, the world is a wicked place. It's evil. It's my enemy. It's the things of the world that got you. So what are these things? What are these things of the world that Satan uses to tempt us to behave in a way that is so contrary to the Word of God and so antithetical to one who says, claims, I want to be like Jesus, who would sing, May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me in everything. What is it that makes for real worldliness in a Christian's life and makes him behave in ways that grieve the Spirit of God, that quenches work and make him look so unlovely? That causes the child of God, instead of giving off the aroma of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sweetness of Christ, there's the stench of the world. Because it does stink. What are those things that we all know right well, not only from theory, but we know from experience? From verse 16 where John writes, For all that is in the world, The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. That's the things of the world. From that verse I want to speak for a little bit tonight on overcoming the lusts of the world. There are three simple thoughts I want to leave with you in this little bit of time. I smile as I say a little bit because I don't know when I'll finish. But I know one thing compared to eternity. If I, like the old Puritans, preach for two hours, what is it? Hourglass, turn it over, another hour. Aren't you glad there's no hourglass up here? overcoming the lusts of the world. The first thing I want us to consider together is the lusts of the world exemplified. The lusts of the world exemplified. Note, please, the different names John gives for the one thing. The things that are in the world, verse 15, is the same thing as all that is in the world, verse 16, which is the same thing as the world and its lust. So you have 15, 16, 17, three different ways to talk about the same thing, the lusts of the world. And what John says in our text in verse 16 is the Holy Spirit's commentary on what He means by these things, these all, these lusts. Here are the lusts of the world exemplified. They fall under three heads and under these three heads you will find the epitome of the lusts of the world that need to be, that must be overcome. I rejoice to tell you that the Holy Ghost is there. God makes at our disposal all of His power to overcome the lusts of the world. No matter how many they are, no matter how strong they are, not a one of us who are a child of God because we have the Holy Ghost. We have the third person of the Trinity who dwells in us and He is omnipotent. I admit we are a massive weakness, but we're not talking tonight about our weakness. We're talking about the Holy Ghost and what He does in us, and even what we do to assist Him, we do by His grace. Dismiss from your mind the notion that you cannot do something. You can. through the power of the Spirit of God. You have to believe that and go over that again and again in your mind because the one thing that Satan wants you not to believe and not to lay hold of, that you are not subservient to this sin, you can kill it. You can overcome it. You can get the best of the lusts. And then your smell becomes so much sweeter. You smell more like the Savior. And your influences, like Mary, when she broke that box, that alabaster box, and the ointment was poured forth, the savor of that ointment just filled the house. Everyone smelled it. And you won't have to try to be something that you're not. You will be a sweet-smelling savor unto God. And that will be done by the Holy Ghost. And I know that for a fact because the Word of God teaches. God has promised His people, has He not, in the covenant of grace that He will write His law upon our hearts? It's there because the Spirit of God is there. and enable us to fulfill that law. All of that blessing, what I'm talking about tonight, and this overcoming this lusts of the world has been secured for every one of you who belong to Christ by the blood atonement. It's sealed. It's secure. You have no right whatsoever to doubt that it's the will of God for you, because this is the will of God. Even your sanctification, even your victory, you're overcoming the loss of the world that perhaps you came into this meeting tonight and you thought that you could not overcome. Maybe you're here as a visitor tonight, Maybe it's the first time, but the very title of the meetings attracted you. Maybe it wasn't so much the title, but it was that little paragraph that talked about saints, and yet how many of us have not felt we act more like the devil than we do a saint. Maybe that's what drew you here tonight, because you say, you know, that's really a description of me, and maybe, maybe there'll be some help for me. I'm here to tell you there's all the help you need. It's right here in this book. The lusts of the world exemplified. You know them well. I fear I come to that broken record syndrome fear that I have. You've heard it so often it's going to sound, no, I might just check out. Please don't check out because you do need to hear this again. The lust of the flesh, let's define our terms as we did with world and worldliness and being worldly. We've got to get our terms right. If we're going to know what they really are, let's define our terms. Lust, we saw last night that the word used here, lust, denotes a desiring, a craving, a longing for something. You want it. There's nothing wrong with craving. Nothing wrong with having deep desires. Wanting something badly. God is the one who has given us certain appetites, certain desires. He's also the very one who has provided us means by which those desires He's given us can be satisfied. God gave us an appetite. He's the one, I mean, you know, He didn't have to make us this way. He could have made us as human beings that don't need to eat. He could have done that, but He didn't. There's a lesson in that, you know. He created us with hunger, and we get hunger, and God's the one that's provided the things out there for us to eat to satisfy that craving, that hunger. When you're really hungry, you know what it's like. I'm ravished. I can't wait to have breakfast or lunch or dinner, whatever it might be. God put that in you. It's good. There's nothing wrong with it. God is the one who gave man and woman physical desires. And He provided them for each other to satisfy those physical desires as long as it's in the bonds of marriage. There's nothing wrong with having the desires. God made us that way. But God also said, here's the only place you are to satisfy those desires in the bonds of marriage. You shouldn't feel, should never ever feel guilty about having them. God did not mean us to go through life and somehow think that being spiritual, being holy is being miserable. That's not God. I think there's some Christians that actually think that. Paul told Timothy, God giveth us richly all things to enjoy, all things legitimate, all things legal to enjoy. God is not some old scrooge who doesn't want to see his people rejoicing and happy and satisfying the desires that he's put within us, as long as they're legitimate. As long as they're lawful. That word richly means abundantly. All things to enjoy. I think some Christians actually feel guilty if they enjoy themselves. You know, they think that if I have a bad time, that's holiness. And I've got to go around with a sad and sorrowful countenance What a load of nonsense. But while none of those things are to be equated with the lusts of the flesh, every one of them can become a lust of the flesh and a temptation to the child of God, one that Satan uses to just trip us up. It's the nature of the desire that makes it a sinful lust. And its nature is described by that word flesh. It's not just lust, it's the lust of the flesh. This word flesh speaks of the sensuous nature of fallen man, the animal creature, whose cravings, the cravings that incite us to sin, to break the boundaries, to step over what God's forbidden. It's these lusts of the flesh that are of the world and therefore opposed to God. It is the world, now mind you, it is the world that takes these desires and the prince of the world who takes these desires and perverts them and uses them to pander to that corrupt, fallen nature that still resides in every child of God. As Paul said, again, the sin that dwells within me for those that haven't been here throughout the week. That which he fights against. As I said, God put within man physical desires that are perfectly legitimate as long as those desires are satisfied within the bounds of marriage. But it becomes a lust of the flesh when it looks for satisfaction for those desires outside of marriage. Whether that outside of marriage means fornication, it means adultery, it means homosexuality, or it means self-gratification. Any one of them. Any one of them. It's crossing over the bounds. Whether or not you're married, it makes no difference. You cross the bounds. It's the lust of the flesh. You give in to it, it hurts you. It hampers the influences of the Spirit of God. You're not going to advance like you want. You're going to have that smitten conscience, and if you keep on giving in to desires, it just becomes more and more regular, and you've got a real problem on your hands. When God's people in any way attempt to fulfill these natural desires in any other way than through the legitimacy of a husband and wife, they have been seduced by the devil's temptation through the lusts of the flesh. Then there's the lust of the eyes. The eye delights, delights to look upon that which is beautiful in God's creation. Whether it's a glorious sunrise, and I imagine you folks over here really, really like it when you see a glorious sunrise. I'd love to look at a glorious sunset. a dam, an earthen dam that I cross every time I go to church. If you've been to my church, you know what I'm talking about. There's an earthen dam, and there's a lake just right on that side, a large lake, and oftentimes it's just hitting one church. We go across in the evening, the sun is setting, and it is just beautiful. Someone has said there's nothing like the sunsets of South Carolina. And it's just a beautiful sunset. And I could just stop and just look and watch that sunset. God's handiwork in creation. Why is that? Because God has put within us that desire to look at that which is beautiful and admire it. We love to look at snow-capped ranges. I remember the first time I went out west, western Canada and saw the Rockies. I had been, you know, in the Virginia mountains, Appalachian, but man, when you get to the Rockies, those things are foothills compared to those are just beautiful. The same goes for a beautiful woman or a beautiful man. Didn't the scripture say that? Didn't the scripture point that out? The Holy Spirit himself said of Isaac's wife, Rebecca, that she was fair to look upon. She was good looking. And didn't say, don't have that thought. She's beautiful. He made her that way. You ever wondered what Adam and Eve look like? Perfect human beings right from the hand of God. Perfect. No flaws. It'll be interesting when we see them one day. He said of David and of one of his wives, Abigail, that they both were of beautiful countenance. There's nothing wrong with admiring human beauty. It's when our eyes are used to look upon that beauty and lust after that person in our heart, that sin has been committed. It's looking and looking and looking and looking and looking and looking. It's when we use our eyes to look upon that which God forbids, that we sin against God, that we grieve the Holy Spirit, and that we hinder His work. And there are no exceptions to this. No one gets a pass. Putting in your time at church will not give you a pass. being faithful and tithing and church attendance and prayer meeting, it doesn't somehow even out the balance and you get a pass and you can get away with it and not really affect you. The porn industry, that's part of the world, that's part of all of humanity working out itself in society. The porn industry has made billions by perverting a good and natural desire into one of the largest sources for Satan to use for temptations and the lust of the eyes. Ever since God covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve, Satan has been trying to uncover it. As much as he can. That's why the hemlines get higher and higher. The necklines get lower and lower. It's a disgrace. It's a shame. Sometimes I see women in the church of the living God. I see how they're dressed and I wonder why in the world did their husband let them out of the house dressed like that? Because you are begging for men's eyes to be upon you if you dress like that. You're begging for it. You wear that which is skin tight, which accentuates, what's accentuating is the skin beneath. You're asking, you're asking for men to look at you. I've asked my wife about this. Why? Women like to show off. If they have a good figure, they like to show off. But I said, do they not realize what they're doing? Why are there women in this world who are surprised that they're victims of rape when they've been begging for it because of how they're dressed? Why? You know, the next time you read of nakedness in the Old Testament after the fall of Adam and Eve is when Moses came down from the mountain after being with God and giving the law, and they were all dancing around that image, that golden image that Aaron had made, and they were dancing in nakedness. and supposedly saying, this is the worship of Jehovah. The devil was mighty in working that day. You see, in the word of God, nakedness has always been associated with shame, disgrace. And you wonder where in the world has shame-facedness gotten to? You feel like asking, have you no shame? Have you no sense of decorum? What's happened? Now it's just accepted and no one says anything. Let me just have a word with you moms and dads. Don't let your children go out looking like harlots from the house. I am not suggesting that you do. I don't live in Balamina. Most of you folks, I wouldn't even know who your children are, but I know I have it in my country. Christian parents letting their girls go out dressed like tramps. I've heard about Christian women who say, when something like this is brought up, when the minister speaks about modesty of dress, that he's got the problem. Not them. He's just got a dirty mind. No, it's not that he has a dirty mind. It's that every Christian still has the world within him. And he can be enticed by the lust of the world. When your children get upset with you because you won't let them go somewhere or go with certain people because, well, you know it's just dangerous territory. And they say, well, don't you trust me? Instead of saying, well, of course I trust you. The reply is, no, I don't trust you, and I don't trust me, and I never, ever trust the flesh. The flesh is wicked. The flesh gives way very easily, so no, we don't trust. I am afraid for women who dress after the fashion of this world and reveal as much skin as they do. They make themselves ready instruments in the hands of the devil. The devil will take that up and use it to trip up a child of God. This phrase, however, lust of the eyes, ranges well beyond looking at porn or scantily clad women. It was more to do with the eye looking upon something and being greedy for it and coveting it. You do a little search on this in Scripture and you'll find the Word of God speaks often of an evil eye in connection with greed for things, for wealth, for treasures of this world. the evil eye. In Deuteronomy chapter 15, the man who would not be generous to his servant in the year of release when he was commanded to let the servant go and goods and all that, if he was not generous, he was accused by God of having an evil eye. He wanted to hold on to his stuff. In Proverbs 28 verse 22, He that hasteth to be rich, He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye. Matthew 20, of course, that's the parable of the vineyard and those that worked all day long complained about those that got the same pay as those that just worked for an hour. Jesus asked this question, is thine eye evil because I am good? An evil eye is a lustful eye, an evil eye is a greedy eye, an evil eye is a covetous eye. Asaph, Asaph, one of the contributors of the Word of God had to struggle with this lust in Psalm 73. I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I was envious. You may care nothing for the riches of this world, for its wealth, for its prosperity, until you find yourself in a place where your back is against the wall financially. And then that lust becomes very real to you. You become dissatisfied with where God has placed you financially. You're discontent with the situation He's put you into. You may even begin to gripe and complain and act out in unbelief. And the lust of the eye begins to long for, I wish I had that man's wealth. At least I had a little bit of his money. I have served God all these years and look where I am now. Is this what I get for it? Listen, that's exactly what Job's wife said to him when he lost it all. Curse God and die. Is this how God treats you? You've been so faithful to Him? You've served Him? Just go ahead and curse Him and die. Job said, you speak as one of the women of the world, one of the foolish women talk. I've received good from the hand of God. Shall I not receive evil? Shall I not receive the affliction and the infirmities and the trials and the fire? Job could do that because his eye was not evil. Wasn't the lust of the eyes? Do not think for a moment that you're beyond it. The moment you do, I dare say you've been seduced by the devil already and you're blinded. Did he not come to the Lord of glory in the wilderness and try to seduce him with the riches of the world? If he came to Christ, is he not going to come to you? I've got to get ahead. I've got to make more and more and more. Why? Why? Because, and I want you to fill in the blank, because why? An old Bible teacher now with the Lord said to me in one of the classes, Apollonian Epistles it was called. It sort of surprised me when at first he said part of what he was going to say and stopped. We give to God in order to get. He just stopped. I'm not fresh out of the world. That sounded strange to me. We give in order to get. And then he went on to say, in order to give. in order to get, in order to give, in order to get, in order to give. The whole point was we want to get so we can give, not so we can keep as misers for ourselves. Thirdly, the pride of life. In one word, we could call this lust, the desire, the craving, the longing for self-gratification. It includes two things basically, ambition and the contempt of others. The pride of life describes a boastful pride in yourself, usually at the expense of someone else. It can take the form of pride of your birth, your lineage, pride in your family, pride in your talents, pride that you have a particular name, there's a particular bloodline, pride in your status in society, pride in your education, pride in your looks, pride in your wealth, pride in your influence, the people you know. And this just goes on. All of these things is what the world craves. They're anxious, you know, the world is to get into certain cliques. Certain circles anxious to belong to a certain club where there is a spirit of superiority. and a despising of others who are not in the club, in the inner circle. They are usually people who love to drop names about the people they know, big names, just so you will know that they rub shoulders with important people. My, how grieving that is to the Spirit of God. It's obvious from this passage here In 1 John, but the people of God are not immune to the pride of life more than any other of the lusts of the world. To speak condescendingly to someone, talk down your nose at them as if they're inferior or if they're an idiot and they don't see something they should see it so clearly because you're so better than they are, you're so smarter than they are. And you can do it ever so deftly. That is the pride of life. The pride of life. To look down on others as inferior because they don't have your knowledge, they don't have your ability, they don't have your savvy. They don't even have your understanding of the Bible. They don't have the doctrinal background that you have. They can't pray like you do. It's nothing more than hellish pride. Pride blinds us to the fact that what God esteems, what He values so highly is humility. It is self-deprecation. It is taking the lowly place. That's what He loves. The proud, the Scripture says, He knoweth afar off, but He gives grace. To what? To whom? The humble. Guess who makes strides in Christlikeness? The ones God gives grace to. Who does he give grace to? He gives grace to the humble, the lowly, the ones who honestly mean it when they say, brother, as far as I'm concerned, I am less than least of all the saints. And it's not said with any mock humility. You really believe it. Because you know about yourself and you know your sins. You know what no one else knows about you. And it is pride that would love to walk among people and have them think so highly of you. But you know what you are. You know your failings. You know what you struggle with. And where in the world, therefore, do you or I ever get off with arrogance, with talking down to someone? If you have any, you have good looks. You've got a great mind. You've got great abilities or talents. How can you boast when everything was given to you as a gift? As Paul said, why do you act like it wasn't given to you? Why are you so critical? Why are you so fault-finding? Proud people can point out what's wrong with everybody and everything except themselves. Why? Because there's nothing, there is nothing like pride that blinds you. You don't even realize what you're doing. You want to grieve the Holy Ghost? You just walk around with a critical spirit condemning, putting everybody and everything else down. You know what you're saying in essence? I'm better. Self-glorification. It is self-glorification. It is the pride of life that is the source of many an argument in the marriage. Somebody, husband or wife or both, I want my way. I'm the important one. What I want is more important than you want. And if you don't see it, there's something really wrong with you. And I am better than you are. Is that not right, brothers and sisters? I want to tell you, I am not talking theory. I've been there and done that. That's why there's many an argument, only by pride cometh contention. It's two eyes that are heading heads. It's been the cause for many a church split. Somebody wasn't willing to back down and just say it's not worth it. It's not worth the damage it's causing. They won't take the humble road. No, they've got to assert themselves. After all, they're the brilliant one. They've got to be right. They can't be wrong. They can't be wrong. Would never even cross their mind because they've got the superior mind after all. And they know better, they think. Whether or not you know they might know better, they're never given an excuse to walk over people, to treat them as if they're dirt. I believe there is no form of pride more reprehensible to God than spiritual pride. Because pride at the end of the day is man saying, I am God. You strip it down. That's exactly what it is. I'm God. Glorify me. I'm the best. You see, our chief end is to glorify him and not ourselves. And when we do that, we enjoy him. When we glorify ourselves, all we're doing is spelling misery for ourselves, misery for those around us. Do you actually like being around cocky people? You actually enjoy that? Now, if you're cocky, you like being around yourself. Do you realize, as God's people, how detrimental pride is to our own transformation? to our own usefulness in this world. I have heard ungodly law centers describe Christians and their pride, and they've been dead on right, and that completely turns them off. They look down at me. I'm a sinner. They don't have time for me. We can condemn them, the lost, and forget what we are to condemn is the sin. But they need to be loved. They need to be loved. You know, someone said, talking to parents, Christian parents, who had children who were homosexuals, You better love them, because they will find a love from their own community, and it's strong. Yeah, I know it's not the real love, but they will find it from their own community. And your love better be real, and it better be stronger. Not despise them. Pride. Humility. Hands the other way around. Wonder how much the Spirit of God is grieved. Much of a hindrance there is in our progress, our growth in grace and Christ-likeness, whether as individuals or as congregations in this world, because of this thing of pride. At the end of the message last night, I was quoting a well-known text from 2 Chronicles chapter 7. First thing on the list if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves. First thing on the list, child of God, humble the pride. Secondly, briefly, the lusts of the world recognized The devil is subtle. He's a serpent. Remember, he tempted Eve in all three of these areas and she didn't know what hit her. Now, how can you and I recognize if we have fallen prey to these lusts of the world? Ask yourself these questions. Number one, am I more concerned about the things of the world than I am about heaven and spiritual things? Am I more concerned about the things of the world than I am about heaven, about spiritual things? Because when you're… Men of the world are concerned about the things of the world and they make it very, very clear about their behavior through what they do, what they don't do, what's important to them, where their priorities are. They're very diligent about the things of the world. and they will take great pains and they will make great sacrifices. They will gladly work sometimes 80 hours a week because they are so set, they have a craving for, a longing for the things of the world. So am I like that? Do I take more time make greater effort to advance my life in temporal things than I do in things that affect my soul, in spiritual things? Am I simply a Sunday-go-to-meeting Christian? Do I belong to the Sunday morning only crowd? Do I just go to church on Sunday morning? Or do I just go to church on Sunday night? Or do I go to church on Sunday morning and Sunday night, but I really don't have time for the midweek prayer meeting? Because why? Because why? Well, because there's my favorite TV show that comes on on that night. Or because I'm tired from a long day at work. I understand there are always legitimate reasons. I get that. But to be honest, folks, I don't think that most of the reasons are legitimate. We just convince ourselves that they are. The devil has duped us. When you hear, How many times the prayer life is the powerhouse of the church? Do I give all diligence to make my calling and election sure? Or is really my diligence spent on getting my station in life secure? You say, what I'm saying is simply praying, Lord, have mercy on me. That's the prayer we must make as sinners and asking God for salvation. But merely reciting that will not bring assurance to your soul that you're one of His. There must be praying and struggling. If there's life within you, there's gotta be a struggle. And there must be crying and wrestling with God and you have to, remember, go into the classroom where you get the knowledge of the Scriptures and the Word of God and prayer. That's got to be there. So, what am I concerned more about? The things of the world? Lusts of the world? Does the world push aside and cut out the things that are of God? Is that what I have to describe my life like that, my family like that? The world just shoves those things into a corner. And I only have a little bit of time for those things because I'm just so busy. Am I content with having just a little bit when it comes to matters of the soul? I'm just content with a little bit. Am I content with a little bit of grace, with a little bit of knowledge of God, with a little bit of communion with God, with a little bit of heavenly mindedness? Yet, I am not content with a little bit of those things of the world. I want a lot of it. If that's the case, then you can recognize That's the lust of the world. Am I more grieved over the loss of outward worldly things than I am over the loss of spiritual things? Is that what really troubles me? I can get so overwrought about losing my wealth, losing my home, losing my car, I don't think a whole lot about losing out with God, losing any progress I've made in my spiritual life, losing out in the place of prayer, losing out in the knowledge of God's Word, losing out in church. I'm so concerned with losing out these temporal things. Recognize it. That is a lust of the world, your craving. Don't call it please, I beg you, don't call it anything else. Don't give any excuse for it because you will never have done with it, you will never kill it unless you see it as your enemy. If you keep treating it as your friend, you will never kill it. Thirdly, finally. The lust of the world mortified. I read this morning that verse in Jeremiah 31 verse 14. My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. Big statement. My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith It is when you are satisfied with the Lord's goodness that you don't lust after, crave the world. It kills the lust of the world when you're satisfied with the goodness of God. What's that goodness look like? What's this man talking about? the goodness of God that so satisfies the soul that the lust of the world just don't have their attraction to you. Well, it's all summed up in this one thing, this one statement. None but Christ can satisfy. None. That is the ultimate expression of the goodness of God. None but Jesus Christ can satisfy your soul. None but Jesus Christ can deal with the lusts of the world, whether that's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. You've heard it all before, but you're going to hear it again. What does that mean, none but Christ can satisfy? Does it not mean that God's people are satisfied with God's goodness and they will make progress in their transformation into Christ's image when they are satisfied with the perfections of Christ? His perfections, satisfied, content with His obedience, with His righteousness. with His goodness, with His love, with His mercy. And you're satisfied. God's people are satisfied with God's goodness when they are satisfied with the purposes of Christ. The purposes. I said, you know, you get these temptations. This world comes and allures you with its riches and its power and its ambitions and its pleasures. And you know, I want to climb the ladder. I want to be important. I want to have a position of power. I want people to think highly of me. So therefore, you really grind against and buck against the providences of God that have left you in a very lowly spot in life. Wait a minute, wait a minute. When you're satisfied with the purposes of God that are in Christ Jesus, you're satisfied with exactly where He has you in your life. It took me a good long while. I say it took me years to reach a place in my ministry where I was satisfied with a little congregation. I'm just being honest with you. I preached to about 30 people on a good Sunday if all are there. I'm not used to preaching to crowds this size. And I would plead and wrestle with God and Lord, why are there not more? How come you haven't built it up? And usually come back to this thinking that what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? Until the Lord graciously brought me to the place This is what I have for you. This is my purpose. You be satisfied and content with that purpose. I have my reasons. And so while it's still sometimes difficult to come to a Sunday night and you've got family sick and someone's out of town and you have more empty seats than you do full seats, I can just go away and preach my heart out to the 15 or 20 people who are there. That's how it works, brothers and sisters. When you're satisfied with the purposes of God and Christ Jesus, you're satisfied. You're not trying to get more. You're not trying to climb a ladder. You're happy in Jesus. You know, folks, we need to learn this now because there's persecution coming and it's all going to be taken from us. We better learn it now. to be without. God's people are satisfied with God's goodness when they're satisfied with the promises of Christ. Promises. The world promises you. Satan promises you so much and never, never delivers. The only thing he delivers is more misery, more grief, more unchristlikeness. And you thought you were going to gain by believing what he said he was going to get you. Satisfaction. And it doesn't work. But not the promises of Christ. He's always good for His promises. I can stand here and I can tell you what, you're a child of God that's walked with God, you can tell me the exact same thing. He's always been good for His promises. They haven't always come to pass when I would have wanted them to come to pass, but He's always been what He's promised to be to you and to me. Matter of fact, He's been much more than that, has He not? He's given us so much more than He's even promised us. I can live with that. That makes life in this world great. I've got the promises of God. They're mine, made out to me. So do you. God's people are satisfied with God's goodness when they are satisfied with the passion of Christ. Will you come with me just for a little bit again tonight? We'll walk through the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrow, the street that Christ was taken down with that beam upon his back that was bloody, open wounds, Our Lord was weak, extremely weak. He hadn't had sleep for hours, been beaten and beaten and beaten again. He hadn't been fed. He could only walk for a little bit before he stumbled because of the weakness. Someone else had to bear the cross. They take him out. They lay the cross down. They lay him on it. They drive the nails through his hands, through his feet. They drop the cross into the socket, just shaking his body. I just like to sit down now and then and imagine that scene. In my own heart, it does me good. Try to hear the groans that he must have had when they dropped it into the hole. They just shook his body. As they hammer, he says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. The Son of God cries out in thirst. Who made all the water in the world, he cries out, I thirst. then the darkness descends. And I, you, will never ever be able to enter into nor understand what it meant when the Father at that hour shut out heaven to His Son. It's a mystery. But mine was sorrow that sorrow we can't imagine. I won't bother to cry out with a loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But God forsook him. not for crimes that he had done, he groaned upon the tree. Why? For those lusts of the flesh that you're succumbing to right now. For those lusts of the eyes that you're indulging. For the pride the arrogance, the condescension, the critical spirit, the fault-finding that plagues your life. You're causing that pain, and in that suffering, your Lord delivered you from sin. He delivered you. He took it away. He was punished for the dirty thoughts, the harsh words, the mean-spiritedness. He was punished in your stead. In that suffering, we find satisfaction. God is satisfied with Christ and therefore God is satisfied with me. Even with all my sins, my shame, my failures, my worldly mindedness, God is satisfied with me because He's satisfied with Christ and I am in Him forever. Brothers and sisters, I cannot give you any better way to overcome the lusts, these things of the world. I have no better answer. There's no book I will send you to but the book of the gospel. Here's what I want to know. I'm sad there's only one other meeting. That's not an invitation, brother, to stay another week. Wouldn't it be nice if God just came down? There's a sadness. You see, I guess you and I are like Peter up on the Mount of Transfiguration. We see a little glimpse of the glory of the Lord, and we say, Lord, let's just build some tents here. We can just stay here. I appreciate that. I get it. You see down below in the valley at the foot of that mountain, there were the Pharisees who were making a heyday with those other disciples about the boy who was demon possessed and they didn't have the power to cast him out. And there was a work that had to be done. And the whole point, the whole point of the time on the mount was so that they could go down and minister to those that were in need. Now here's what I want to know. Are you going to be hearers of the Word only? As James says. You see, it occurred to me that what the Lord has been doing throughout this conference is bringing us to the mirror of His Word. And James describes those who come to the mirror of the word as a natural man looking at his natural face in a glass. And he looks at it. And he sees himself. God shows him what's there in his life. And it's one of two things. He sees it. God's put his finger upon it. And he walks away. forgetting what he saw, forgetting what manner of man he was, and he does nothing about it. There are no changes in his life. But James says, the one who not only hears, but the doer of the word is blessed in his deed. That's the blessing. So I ask you, what kind of hearer? I wonder when I'm all done tomorrow night, when the work here goes on, what will happen in Balaamina Freeh? Because you've testified it's been good to be here. You've testified the Lord has spoken to you. So many have come to the line and said the Lord is speaking. What's going to change? What is going to change? Do you mean to tell me you want to go back to the same old, same old? I don't want you to go back. I know I don't want to go back. Will you be a hearer only or a doer of His Word? Depends on whether or not you want to be transformed more than ever into the image of Jesus Christ. God write His Word on our hearts for His name's sake. Let's bow our heads for a moment in prayer.