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This message was given at Grace
Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information
about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Let's pray together. Father,
we come into your presence once again this afternoon and we cannot
help but to think of the things that we've heard Father, in so
many ways, our souls are filled from a weekend of being so well-fed. And yet, Lord, we also know that
we've been pierced by Your Word. Father, we know that there have
been things from 1 John that have been brought to us that
have brought conviction and have called for repentance and real
change. And yet father, we know that
we so desperately need your grace to be doers of the word. And so father, although it's
been a joy this weekend to be hearers of the word, We now pray
for the grace of your Holy Spirit to be doers of the Word. We pray,
Father, that you would help us to hate the darkness that we
easily gravitate to. Father, whether that is personal
sins, besetting sins, attitudes of ill will and even hatred,
Father, we pray that you would come with power and conform us
to the image of your son. Lord, we long to be holy. We pray for your help. We pray
for your servant and ask that you would give him the power
of your Holy Spirit one more time today. We pray that you'd
open our ears and our hearts. Lord, after much food and Much
fellowship, we can get weary, so help us. Help us to give ourselves
fully to the ministry of thy word. In Jesus' name, amen. Brother, would you come on up,
please? I don't know about you, but I am absolutely delighted
this weekend. This has been a real treat. God has over the years brought
to us many of His choice servants, hasn't He? We've had a lot of
wonderful preachers over the years, and it's just been a great
treat to have this dear brother. And so, brother, one last time. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Well, brethren, Two quick words before we turn to 1 John chapter
two and verse 15. First of all, it's an opportunity
for me to thank you for the wonderful time that I have had here since
my arrival. I've been well taken care of
in every sense. I've enjoyed the fellowship,
with a number of you across the last few days. I've even been
taught how to hold a gun. That shows how far the fellowship
has gone. So it's been wonderful. And thank you also for the overwhelming
feedback that I've received to the preaching of the word of
God. I'm grateful that there's been
a kingship of spirit that we have sensed as we have been together. And then secondly, it is to thank
you too for sending your pastor every so often over to Zambia. You would have noticed I mentioned
at least two things in my presentation on the state of the church in
Africa that were real needs. One of them was pastoral training,
and that's what your pastor's been coming to do among us, and
please continue to support not only his coming, but the ongoing
work of pastor training because ultimately a church never rises
higher than its pulpit. And if the pulpit is not delivering
God's truth, you don't expect the lives in the pews. to be
any richer. So definitely thank you and continue
to do that. And then while I've been here,
I've also been made aware of another need that I mentioned,
which is being met, and that is the provision of books. I was a little ignorant to some
extent of what has been shared with me. And again, really on
behalf of the church back home in Zambia, I would like to thank
you for that extra effort. because one advantage with a
printed page is that when somebody has it, they can refer to it
and even other people can inherit it and consequently read it and
so you're really passing on the truth of God's word in an ongoing
way as it is made available in the printed page. We're grateful
to God that in his providence he made English the official
language in our part of the world and consequently there's hardly
any need for translations and anything to that effect as it
is. Once it crosses the Atlantic
Ocean, it's already in a form that can be utilized. So I'm
grateful to God for that as well. I will be taking back home warm,
greetings from a like-minded church, from like-minded brethren,
and I trust that that will unite our churches even further over
the years to come. Let's turn then to the last passage
that we are looking at together. And it is 1 John chapter two,
verse 15 to verse 17. 1 John 2 verse 15 to verse 17. The Bible says there, 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. For all that is
in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of
the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is
from the world. And the world is passing away
along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. There are many other passages
that I could have dealt with in the second chapter, is the
passage that I have just crossed, rather skipped, where John has
three different messages that he is giving, one to little children,
the other to fathers, and the other to young men, and he seems
to repeat that twice over. I could have also skipped all
that and went on to looking at the warnings that he gives against
the Antichrist, against false teachers, against false teaching. All these are important. Remember,
we're talking about God being light and us walking in the light. And as we were doing so, we've
seen that one aspect of light is truth. and we ought to jealously
guard the truth. We ought to love the truth because
truth is from God. The God that is there has revealed
himself and he is light. So we could have done that and
I know we live in a world where we try to be so, to one another that we don't
want to talk about things that are truthful if we are with somebody
who's holding on to an untruth. And so the idea is that we are
all just Christians, let's embrace one another. And yet that's not
really the biblical position. We are to speak the truth in
love. We're to speak the truth nonetheless. So we could have handled that.
However, I want instead to deal with the love for the world,
the love for the world. And I do so not because I think
that there is a greater tendency of loving the world on the western
end of the Atlantic compared to the eastern end, but it is
a danger that all of us will easily find ourselves in and
consequently it needs to be addressed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he
was on earth, addressed it in one of his, the very first lengthy
sermon that is recorded of him, that we refer to as the Sermon
on the Mount. He reaches a point where he deals
with it and talks about this difficulty of loving the world
instead of loving God and also deals with anxiety and worry
as being yet another way in which we lose out in our Christian
faith. He also talks about the love
of ostentation, pride. Again, another way in which we
end up being losers. And all these are related to
our connection with the world. His disciple John here decides
to park in this area in order to unpack what is in this, in
these three verses that are before us. So even way back then, it
was still a very real danger. And if you as a Christian are
not mindful of this, you will find yourself in love with the
darkness while at the same time claiming to be walking with a
God who is in the light. Very well then, I think it behoves
us that we begin with trying to define what is being referred
to here as the world because that's what we're being told
not to love. We're being told not to love
the world. Now many times the word world
simply means physical things that are there around us. But clearly in this passage,
the phrase refers to that sphere of human existence that is under
the control of the devil. that is outside what would call
the realm that shows something of the love of God and the nature
of God. In chapter five, for instance,
and verse 19, chapter five and verse 19, this is the way it
is put, right towards the end of this entire epistle. We know
that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power
of the evil one. And that's the contrast we're
having here. The people of God belonging to
God and the whole world being under the control of the evil
one. And in that sense, therefore,
the devil is often referred to as the prince or the ruler of
this world. And so when John here is telling
us not to love the world, he is talking about those things
that serve this agenda. That serve the agenda that the
evil one has as he is fighting God. And that's the reason why
when John proceeds to speak about what are those things that are
in the world, notice the way he describes them. He refers
to them as the desires of the flesh. The desires of the eyes,
or as some visions would put it, the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life. Clearly, that's not God's agenda. That's not what is enhancing
godliness. It is not what is making you
more Christ-like. It is in fact what causes us
to sin against God. And so it is that which John
is seeking to address here and is warning us we must not love. Because Christians are referred
to as those who are in the world but not of the world. They are
a complete contrast in the sense that they are a people with a
different agenda altogether. from the agenda of the world
that is serving the evil one. So let's be careful that we are
not simply thinking that loving the world is simply equal to
the fact that I have bought a second car or a third one or I've bought
a better car than the one that I was driving previously. Let's
realize that it's primarily referring to this opposite agenda instead
of an agenda that has God in it. His honor and His glory as
being the primary object of my life, my thoughts, my desires,
rather I have that which is the agenda of the evil one through
this world. And I'm allowing myself to be
sucked into that. John is saying, as Christians,
we must not find ourselves there. We are being exhorted not to
love the world. We are being exhorted not to
love the things of the world. Now, brethren, that's not easy. It's not easy because we belong
to this world. We've been brought up in this
world. We've been educated with the
agenda of the world in mind. Our thoughts are corrupted. Our
hearts are corrupted. And invariably, therefore, our
wills are corrupted. Instead of beginning with God, Remember, God is light, therefore,
this is the way we should be. We instead begin with ourselves,
and then we say, well, because this is the way we are, therefore,
that's how God should now also be. And so we often reduce God
to a powerful servant of ours. to help us enjoy the world instead of seeing it differently. And that's the reason why this
is such an important exhortation. It's in the category where John
is not his usual self. Normally, John would begin with
those statements of endearment. My little children. In fact,
even soon after that, verse 18 begins with children. It is the
last hour. But notice the way he begins
here. The way in which I mentioned it in one of my sermons. Remember,
stop it. That's the way he begins. It's
just straight, don't do it. Because it's ruining you, it's
damaging you, it's destroying the cause for which you ought
to be living. It's literally military approach
here, warfare approach. Don't love the world. and don't love the things of
the world. We'll talk about the reasons
later, but first of all, don't do it. And if you know John, a disciple
of love, your first reaction is, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait,
wait, wait. What's this? But that's because of how serious
this matter is. John deals with a number of reasons
why and we'll be spending our time in this message looking
at those reasons. The first reason is that your
heart is unable to maintain two loves at the same time. It's not possible and don't let
yourself be cheated. Look at the way he puts it in
the 15th verse. 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. I remember a number of years
ago being called in to deal with a marriage situation. The marriage
was falling apart. The gentleman had been guilty
of adultery, and it wasn't just once, it was a number of times,
and in the process it was discovered it was a number of women, and
so of course the wife was just saying, look, forget it, I'm
out of here. And so when I was called in and
trying to help again, because it was really the first time,
the gentleman, as he's pleading with his wife to forgive him,
says, I love you. I've never forgotten the lady's
answer. She says, Pastor, that's the
problem. This guy doesn't know what love
is. How on earth can you be using
those words on me when you've been sleeping around? Does this
guy know love in the first place? And what he obviously meant was,
look, I'd still like to be with you. But the point is, you cannot
have more than one love in your heart. You either love your wife and
consequently don't love these other women, or you love these
other women and consequently you don't love your wife. Clearly, the point that is being
made by John is similar. The world is on one side, God
is on the other. The agenda of the world is going
one way. The agenda of God is going the
other way. You cannot have both in your
heart at the same time. And it wasn't just John speaking
like this. Remember what I mentioned from
the Lord Jesus Christ? in Matthew and chapter six. I'll
just quickly quote it because, again, basically that's what
Jesus is saying. He's saying there, verse 24, Matthew six,
no one can save two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise
the other. And here's the statement. You
cannot serve both God and money. You're not able to. It's not
possible. Your heart can only love one. And basically that's all that
John is saying here. If anyone loves the world, guess
what has happened? The love of the Father has gone
out through the window. You are no longer walking in
the light. You are no longer affectionately
committed to God. The love of the Father is not
in him. Imagine somebody watching a baseball
game. Okay, goes to show that I'm still
trying to please Brian. Yeah, Jason, when you start coming
to Zambia, I will try and change things. Imagine the two major
baseball teams play. And as one manages to overtake
the other with respect to the scores, and this guy is, hey,
come on, do it, do it, do it, with all the energy in him. And when the scores turn, come
on, do it, do it, do it, You start thinking now, this guy
must be mad. You cannot with equal energy
be supporting two warring teams, it's not possible. If I was to
speak about soccer, which makes a lot more sense to me. When one team scores, you can
know which team this guy supports. Because they literally jump into
the air, they can even kick the person sitting in front of them.
Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Because it's their team. When
it's the other group that wins or at least scores, that's no more. A guy is abnormal. If this team scores, he jumps
into the air. The other team scores, he jumps
again into the air. You say, no, no, no, no, no. There's a problem here. That
doesn't happen. He must have a psychiatric problem. Friends, that's the truth about
this matter. Your heart is in love with the
world. I'll tell you what happens when
you come to church. You are as good as a piece of
wood sitting in that pew. Your heart isn't here. It has disturbed your life. It
has disturbed your agenda. It is when you are out there
chasing the world and fulfilling its agenda that you are alive. Alive. And God is saying no. That's why his very first commandment
is you shall have no other gods beside me. That's number one. I must reign supreme in your
life. There must not be a number two,
a number three, or number four. I must be one from one up to
10. Your heart must be in love with
me. So that's the first reason that
is being given here. And as I said, we shouldn't cheat
ourselves about it. That's why we must come to terms
with this issue. That is an opportunity cost. As I'm being carried away with
this, I'm taking my heart away from the only one who deserves
my love because he created me, he recreated me, he paid a dear
price for my soul, I ought to give him my all. and I'm wrongly
giving my heart to others. There's a second reason that
John gives. And basically it is the source
from where this inspiration comes when you are loving the world. The source is not God. It is the fallen world. Look at the way he puts it in
verse 16. For all that is in the world, the desires of the
flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not from God, but is from the world. Remember what we said
in chapter one. True Christianity begins with
God. That's where it begins. You always
begin with, Who is this divine being? What kind of being is
he? And then you work backwards and
say, therefore, what kind of person ought I to be? That's
Christianity. When you are beginning with everything
else and then trying to fit in God, you're ending up with an
idol of your own making. That's what you're ending up
with. And that's the issue here. John is saying, look, the basic
problem with loving the world is that you reverse the order
completely. Because the inspiration, that
which is driving you in that agenda is not beginning with
God. It's beginning with that same
fallen agenda that is under the captivity of the evil one. He breaks down these sources
in three. The first he calls it the desire
of the flesh. And it's clearly using flesh
in terms of the fallen nature. the corrupted nature. That's
where he's coming from. And clearly, you don't get something
good out of something bad. You don't get health out of corruption. You don't do that. If the root
is sick, then invariably the result of it will also be sick. And clearly the flesh, the fallen
nature produces that which is evil. The apostle Paul in writing
to the Galatians speaks about the fruit of the spirit. But
prior to that, he also speaks about, rather, before that, yes,
he speaks about the fruit of the flesh in chapter five and
verse 16. Look at the way he puts it. He
says, but I say, walk by the spirit, that's Galatians five
and verse 16. Walk by the spirit and you will
not gratify, you will not fulfill, you will not give way to the
desires of the flesh. And what are these desires of
the flesh? Well, the war against the spirit
and the desires of the spirit against the flesh. They're opposed
to each other. So clearly you are going to the wrong place,
the opposite place for inspiration instead of going to the spirit
of God and God himself to inspire you. And then he says, In verse
19, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality,
impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
fits of anger, rivalry, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,
orgies, and all things like these. I warn you as I warned you before
that those who touch such things do not inherit the kingdom of
God. So there we have a source that
you don't want to encourage because it's a sewer that produces filth. Another source that he mentions
here, he calls it the desires of the eyes. The desires of the
eyes, or the lust of the eyes. And basically the eyes are the
gates through which the flesh says, even that I want. And even that I must get. And even that And as a result,
you end up spending your life chasing after things that will
not satisfy your soul. It's the eye gate. And you know what? Spiritual
things, the eye gate doesn't see. Try it. Try and use your I get to see
the benefit of Bible reading. To see the benefit of fellowship. So that you can now say, I want
fellowship, I want fellowship, because I get. That's by faith. It's the I of
faith. that sees that if I can drink
in this book, what a world it will be. If I can maximize on fellowship
with believers, what an enriching benefit there
will be for me and for God's kingdom. It's the eye of faith
that sees that. But with respect to the world's
agenda, I want to assure you, it's I get. And I get is never
satisfied. So your responsibility is to
learn to say no to what I get is saying I want. You need to
be able to say, how does this fit into what the eye of faith
is seeing? How does this fit into the grand
agenda of God? When I'm standing before the
judgment seat of God on the final day, and this issue is brought
forth, is it something that will be for God's glory and for my
eternal good? or will I bow down in shame at
the fact that my heart went after what my eyes saw? The lust of
the eye, the lust of the eye. And then the last is the pride
of life, pride of life. And again, this is, a source,
an inspiration. Pride of life motivates you to
do things. It motivates you into action.
Because you want to be like a peacock, as it were. People admiring you. You want people to praise you,
to be patting you on the back. And you know what the problem
is there? It steals from God's glory. It steals from God's glory. And that again is the agenda
of the world, the agenda of the evil one. Isn't that what he said to Eve?
You know Eve, the reason why you are being stopped from eating
of this tree is because God is afraid that if you eat of it,
you will be like him. He wants to be the sole owner
of this glory. But guess what, you can share
in it. And Eve began to look and look
and look through eye gate. And finally, I think, let me
also have a share in it. And yes, they did become like
God, knowing good and evil, but it was with disastrous consequences. Disastrous consequences. And
that's the point that is being brought out here. It's a wrong
inspiration. Because the agenda of the evil
one is to steal God's glory. The agenda of God is to bring
glory to himself and rightly so. He is the sole creator of
the entire universe. Surely the praise ought to go
to him. So it is only right that he should
receive praise. So it matters what is inspiring
you. It matters. It matters why you
go to church. It's possible to come to church
with the world's agenda in mind, it does. It's possible for me
to preach loving the world, it is. So that I can gain either
financially or I can gain a name for myself that's still loving
the world. So it's not the upward activity
alone, it is what inspires you, what's motivating you. Is it
love for God? Seeking his honor and his glory. Did you come to church this morning
and you sing, Lord, make me like you? that you may be glorified
in my life, Lord. Or was it, this is a good opportunity
to meet Mary, so that we can talk about that agenda we have
this week, and the other agenda, and I hope she will be there,
or John will be there, so that program that we... And so you come here, And we
are singing songs like forever on the screen. And man, when
is this service finishing? We need to chat with my friends. John is saying beware. It's possible
for you to be in a place where angels are envying you. And you are completely blinded
by the world. Completely blinded. Here are
people rejoicing in the overwhelming immense grace of God towards
fallen sinners through Calvary. And others are overwhelmed by
these thoughts and these realities as they sing them. And your heart
is stone cold. because you are being motivated
by something else and this is but a distraction to you. John
is saying, don't love the world. It will eat away your spirituality,
it will. But there's one final reason
that he gives and it is the fact that this world is a sinking
ship. It's passing away. It says in verse 17, and the
world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does
the will of God abides forever. Abides forever. Back home, in Zambia, and I suppose it's
probably true in much of Africa, the moment you see an item and
you turn and at the back it's written made in China, you normally
don't buy it. And it's not because we've got a
quarrel with Chinese, it's simply that they send a lot of the cheap
stuff into Africa. I can buy exactly the same item
here in America and it's written made in China and I tell you
it will last as long as I will last. But I buy that item in Zambia
and it's cheap. Next week I'll be needing to
replace it because the cheap stuff that will not pass quality
tests is sent in our direction. So we've just learned that if
you want something that's only going to last a day, maybe it's
for the purposes of photographs. So you buy the umbrellas because
they've got beautiful colors, you know, they know how to do
their colors and so on, and it's for the wedding day, you pull
them out and take pictures, wonderful! But when it rains, It's just one shower and the
things are damaged. So any thinking person wants
something that lasts. That's what they want. You want
to get into a marriage that lasts. You want to buy a house that
lasts. You want to buy a car that lasts. You want to buy clothes
that last. Well, you see, the problem with
this world is that you are pouring your investment into a sinking
ship. It won't be long before this
world and everything that is in it is destroyed. In fact,
more than that, you yourself are only in this world in a temporal
way. We will soon all be gone, all
of us. If the Lord tarries in a few
years time, there will be totally different people filling these
pews. And we'll all be history. So why invest into something
that's so temporal that will perish with you, why? Don't you
have a brain? Can't you think? That's all John
is saying here. That surely you don't want to
go this way because it will leave you for all eternity a beggar
burning in hell. That's all it will do. And you don't want to waste your
life that way. The world is passing away along
with its desires. So clearly, you want to use your
time and to use your money and to use your abilities in something
that will last beyond the grave. so that when you are on your
dying bed and you are looking at the world
that you are now leaving behind, you will say, Lord, thank you. Thank you that I'm now going
to my reward. As Paul did, In 2 Timothy, I'm
sure you know the passage. When he said, the time for my
departure has come. And there's no sense of regret
in him. I fought the good fight. I finished
the race. And now there is a crown awaiting
me. Not only me, but all those that
have had a similar priority in life. There's a crown of righteousness
awaiting me. It's only for those who do the
will of God. Because that defies the grave. That lasts forever. That's the
point he's making here. And brethren, this is a very
practical subject because it's talking about your use of your
time Your use of your abilities, whether it's mental abilities,
artistic abilities, academic abilities, whatever abilities
God has given you, the use of your opportunities that God has
brought your way through providence, and all the other things. If you are an individual who
does not take this seriously, It's you who's going to be the
laughing stock in the end. It's you. You will reach the end of life's
journey, which is inevitable, we will all reach there, and
there will be nothing, absolutely nothing to show for the fact
that you lived, nothing. If you are truly saved, As Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 3, you'll be saved as though through fire. You yourself getting across to
the other side. But all the, that which you had
done, which was nothing but hair and stubble, bent up altogether. Because it was all done with
the wrong agenda. Satan's agenda. self-gratification
agenda and not the glory of God. So I want to end my visit with
you by a real appeal. And it is this. God is light. And as moths get attracted to
the light of the the candle, may God open your eyes to see
the beauty, the grandeur, the majesty, the glory of God. And may your heart be so moved
to love him to honor Him, to glorify Him. And as that chorus
goes, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the
light of His glory and grace. It's not about formulas and tricks
to squeeze commitment out of you. It is you with the eye of
faith beholding him who is light with no darkness at all. And
that glory wins your heart. May that prevail over you. so
that when you look at the world and its agenda, instead of it
being attractive to you, it's disgusting. You're seeing it
as a robber wanting to steal not only from you, but to steal
from God, from God, and your heart is jealous for your God. Consequently, you want to live
for him. Love not the world. Let's pray. Lord, it only makes sense that we should
love you. You have made us. It only makes sense that we should
love you. You've paid a dear price for
us. The price of your own son. The
darling of heaven. Forsaken by you. The point of
crying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For us. For us. What a price. Lord, it's only right that we
should love you. You have recreated us in Christ. Made us a new people. Something
this world would have never done for us. It's only right that we should
love you. You have prepared a world beyond
the grave that will satisfy us, fulfill us to our deepest levels
that nothing else can ever do. But above all, Lord, it's only
right that we should love you. because you are altogether lovely, immensely glorious, with a light that radiates from
your throne, with a beauty indescribable. Oh God of heaven, help us to
love you. In Jesus name, Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message
from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a
copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516
or visit our website gracenevada.com.
Do Not Love the World
Series Walking in the Light - 1 John
| Sermon ID | 118151748240 |
| Duration | 52:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 1 John 2:15-17 |
| Language | English |
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