Let's turn in our Bibles to 1 John 2. 1 John 2. Our text today in verses 12-17 contains two things that complement each other. So I'm just calling this sermon, Affirmation and Warning. And if you're here today and you don't know that You are God's child through faith in Christ. By the way, you're not God's child in this sense without faith in Christ. But if you're here as a believer in Jesus Christ, I should say if you're not here as a believer in Jesus Christ, you've not come to him and trusted your soul to him by faith to be right with God. We're glad you're here. You need to hear today from this text that knowing God in Jesus Christ is worth anything else, it's worth much more than anything else in this entire world. But this text is not written directly to you, it's written to we who have believed in Christ, who are God's children. And so, it's those people, God's children, who are first affirmed and then warned in this text. So there's plenty here which you must hear if you are outside of Christ But the audience, obviously, the people to whom John is writing, the way he describes them, they are part of the church, not just because they went through some ceremony at some point, but because they really believe the message about Jesus Christ and they stake their lives on it. They came to him and accepted his work on their behalf to make them right with God, to make them God's children. So there's affirmation and warning here for God's people. Let's read verses 12 through 17 together before we break it apart a little bit. John has been writing some things that could stir up, even in God's true people, feelings of spiritual vertigo, of uncertainty. Am I the real thing? Do I measure up? Does my life evidence real faith in Jesus? Am I real? Have I been deceiving myself? God's children, because they love him so much and they want so badly to please him, even they can sometimes have a lack of full assurance in the moment when they see God's holy standard and they hear in broad terms what What makes a child of God different than the world? But they still see the sin that's also still in them. And so it can make them uncertain It can shake them a bit. And so John here affirms that the people who he's writing by and large He is assured that they are really believers They really belong to God and that's why he's writing these things because they've been confronted with those who care nothing for the real Jesus and and have left the church and have told them you don't even know what what real spiritual Christianity is even about. We do. So I said I was going to read so I will read starting in verse 12. He says I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. Hear the affirmation all through there. Now the warning, starting in verse 15. 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. Big idea. There's this great note of security in the first few verses. And so the big idea is that God's secure children love Him and not the world. God's secure children love Him and not the world. So as we explain the text, again, verses 12 to 14, there's the affirmation of God's children. And two things show up throughout that affirmation. Number one, people, disagree on exactly how to break this down, but in some sense, number one, there's differing stages of maturity. At least one of the terms used here for children, though, is used throughout this letter of 1 John as a term of affection for John's entire audience, for all Christians. My little children, he'll say, introducing this or that topic to all the believers sometimes. That might be true here, too, but it seems perhaps more likely that John is using Two different words for young children here, alongside words for young men and for fathers, speak of the range of Christian experience, the stages of Christian maturity in this life. And so here, if that's the case, children would be those very young in the faith, obviously. Whether or not that's the case, whether he's talking about just young believers there or all believers, It's pretty certain that he's talking to young men as those who have had some level of experience in the Christian life. They are not the oldest in the faith, not the most mature, but they've reached some stage of maturity and spiritual victory. And then the fathers are those who have been in the faith long, even longer, and they have quite a level, not of perfection, but quite a level of maturity in Christ. But there's differing stages of maturity, and everyone might not know how they neatly fit into one or the other stage he talks about here, right? But even though there's differing stages of maturity, there's a common security in Jesus. They all have in common this security in Jesus. In fact, what he says, First of all, to the fathers, you know him who is from the beginning. He says something very similar a little later to the children even. You know the father. Whether these people are addressed as children or as fathers or as young men, they all know the true God, the real one, the father who sent his son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. To the children, he starts out, your sins are forgiven for his namesake. And that's always the place to start in proper affirmation of fellow believers. And that's always the place to start with assurance. Yes, we will see spiritual fruit coming out of people's lives. We will see evidence in their conduct over time of their Christianity and that they are no longer just part of the world, but they have been chosen out of the world and made God's children. Yes, we'll see evidence in their lifestyle. That's not the place to start. The place to start is if you've believed in Jesus, You are forgiven, not because of anything you've done to make yourself better or to atone for your sins. You're forgiven for Jesus' name's sake because you simply believed on Jesus' name. That is the whole basis of your relationship with God, not your performance. The evidence that will come later, that's not a performance for God either to make sure that you really belong to him somehow, make sure you really measure up for him the distinctly Christian conduct is natural flowing out of a natural love for God who is now your father. It's just natural. But that doesn't even justify you after the fact in any sense. The place to start thinking about assurance of my own relationship with God is not my own performance. It's what Jesus has done in my behalf. And because I have trusted in his name, His name representing all He is and has done for sinners. Because I've trusted in Him, that makes me right with God. And we need to hold on to that in the face of all those who would come around with a different kind of spirituality, different kind of way to God as it happened to these people. We must hold on to this gospel. And then we go from there, that because of the gospel and what it has done to transform us and bring us who are alienated from God to God, because of that gospel, then we do know God. And we can rest in that. And as he's already said earlier in 1 John, when we do sin, then we bring it to God, we confess it, and he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. To the young men, though, he says, he says, you really know the father, the children, to the fathers, he says, you know him who was from the beginning. He says that twice to them, probably referring to Christ as the one who was from the beginning in chapter one. The young man, he says, he speaks to them as young bucks, if you were, if you will, truly young men who have reached early maturity. They've fought some spiritual battles and won them. because they're in Christ. And Christians, though they lose some some skirmishes, they win the war over time. And to the young men, he says, you've overcome the evil one. No, you haven't reached heaven and perfection yet, but you've already had victory over the devil because you're in Christ. And this isn't about your feelings necessarily about how you're doing in life. But if you are still with Christ, you're still clinging to him by faith that's evidence you've overcome the evil one and you are strong and the word of god abides in you and you've overcome the evil one how do you overcome the evil one we'll talk about this more later how are you strong spiritually not because you're a spiritual samson on your own but because god's word what god has said in our case in this book but god has said his word abides in you. It's found a home in you. You have taken it in and kept taking it in and you built your life on it. That's how you overcome the evil one. You believe what God has said. You know what he said and you believe what he said and you act on it. Very simple. So again, the context here, false teachers had arisen with their own false version of Christ. They had despised the apostles and as they would see it, those simpletons who listened to the apostles. They had departed the church of Jesus Christ. They claimed those in the church just didn't know God or have spiritual strength and victory like they did. They claimed to have a higher knowledge of Christ. So now John, the old apostle, he's affirming his dear brethren in Christ, his brothers and sisters. He's reminding them that he knows it is they who have the real thing. They should have a joyful assurance of the truth about Jesus Christ. and an assurance of their real experience of life in him. That should stabilize them. It should sink their roots down deep so they aren't shaken when things like this happen and others depart from Christ. And this now leads into a reminder then to persevere, keep going in love for the true God and his son and not to love the world as those who recently defected from the church had done. That's the whole context. We'll talk about other applications of don't love the world, but that's the whole context here. And as we would see in the next sermon text, he goes right back there about all these people who are really of the antichrist, the spirit of the antichrist that have gone out from the church because they're of the world. He's saying, keep going, hold on to love for the father and don't love the world. that's a dead-end street. So that's where we come to the warning after the affirmation. The warning against worldly affections, verses 15 through 17. First of all, there's simply a prohibited love for the world. Do not love the world or maybe stop loving the world or the things in the world. Don't do it or stop doing it. Don't love the world or the things in the world. He'll go on to, of course, expand in the next breath what he means by the things in the world. He doesn't just mean here the material stuff in the world, but more the attitudes and goals of the world, of course. But don't love that. Well, what does John here mean by the world? It almost amazes me how people love to state the obvious at this point in the commentary. It's like anyone needs to know this. He doesn't mean you can't love the physical creation. Everyone knows that's not what he's talking about here. But what does it mean by the world? Well, let me just cut to the chase and say even people who write about this text in our day, they're often way too fuzzy about this. They'll say true things that just don't give you a full enough picture. They'll say, well, it's like culture gone bad. Okay, so what's the bad part of culture? How do we know? But really, there's a parallel concept in the Old Testament that kind of becomes the world in this sense in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it was the concept of the nations or the Gentiles. The Gentiles is just the same phrase as the nations in Greek. Um, the nations in distinction from God's special covenant people, the way the nations walked or lived the world in darkness that doesn't worship or acknowledge the true God that goes its own way, worshiping demons. That was in the old Testament. And in the old Testament context, of course, God had one special people called Israel under the old covenant. and Israel was continually urged, don't look longingly at how the nations walk and how they do things and what they love. Love the Lord your God and cling to him in sincerity. There's a man named Jonathan Sheik, C-H-E-E-K, Sheik. Jonathan Sheik, who, wrote some great stuff about this not too long ago. He says, the primary distinction in the Old Testament reflecting the enmity, the hostility between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. We'll get back to that. The primary distinction in the Old Testament between these two different groups of people is that of Israel versus the nations. The New Testament continues this distinction between the people of God and unbelievers. But it gradually shifts that terminology from local and ethnic, Israel and nations, to global and spiritual, church and world. The nations oppose Israel's advancement and promote the demonic practices that draw the people of God away from Yahweh, from the Lord. Israel's mission is, number one, to minister to the nations, while, number two, remaining distinct from the nations in their behavior and thinking. The Church's role is also to minister to the world, while remaining distinct from the world. Again, I'm skipping the rock across the surface. There's a lot more here if you want to research it, but it's interesting at the very beginning of the New Testament, Matthew writes about the same concepts John's talking about here, but Matthew writing to a largely Jewish audience earlier in New Testament times, he still talks about the nations or the Gentiles, or at least he records Jesus talking that way in a way that we would equate with the world in this sense. So Matthew, writing much earlier than John, speaks of the nations or the Gentiles in terms consistent with the Old Testament, Israel and the nations. Whereas John refers to the same concepts when he refers to the distinction between the church and the world. Then there's also that thing I started to mention earlier. Where does all this start? God's people and the world distinct. It starts back in Genesis 3.15. The first mention of the gospel, right after our first parents, Adam and Eve had sinned and disobeyed God, and they willingly followed the serpent, Satan, instead of God's commands. All the way back there, God had said to the serpent, I will put enmity, I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring, your seed and her seed. And then comes that promise of the ultimate singular man the singular seed of the woman, offspring of the woman, he shall bruise your head, Satan, and you shall bruise his heel. But there's also two groups of people here, the offspring of the woman plural and the offspring of the serpent plural. So as Mr. Cheek again says, God placed enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. that enmity would result in mutual ongoing hostility between those who align themselves with the servant and those who give allegiance to God. So just to wrap up this understanding of the world, jumping back ahead to the New Testament context. Worldliness then, according to the apostles, consists of number one, living like and thinking like unbelievers, as well as number two, Desiring to be friends with and loving the behaviors and thinking that is characteristic of unbelievers. The basic problem of worldliness is that it follows after the patterns of Satan and those who operate under his influence. A failure to be distinct from the world constitutes an alignment with the seed of the serpent. A believer who adopts a lifestyle that is indistinct from that of an unbeliever aids and abets the serpent's enmity against God, and actually makes himself the enemy of God. We'll back this up with scriptures later. When a believer adopts the mindset of the world and lives according to passions of the flesh, he places himself on the enemy's side in a losing battle, and this enemy's final destruction is certain." End of quote. Okay, so in this world, there's two groups of people, and only two in God's eyes. Those who are justified before him, made right with him, made his people through covenant in Christ, and those who are arrayed in hostility against him, still following the rebel, the serpent, the evil one. Whether or not they realize it, usually they don't actively. They think they're doing their own thing, but that's what Satan thinks too. They are allied in rebellion. The world, as John's using it in this context, has that evil sense of the world in rebellion, in this fallen creation, fallen humanity, saying no to God, and being under the sway of the evil one. They don't want to listen to what God has to tell them. They want to live according to their own feelings in the moment, their own self-made priorities. It's all about them. and all about here and now. So then that brings us to talk about the rest of this. John goes on in our sermon text to say, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Verse 16, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. So there's an ungodly trio of world, the affections here. But first of all, just notice, before he breaks it down into three things, he says, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So the love which God the Father begets in his children, if we really are God's children, we'll be like him, we'll have a new nature from him that loves as he loves. The love that God begets in his children, especially love back to him, If we really love our Father in heaven, we will not tolerate love for the world. Love for God can't tolerate love for the world. The world is that system of humanity that's blinded by the evil one and defies the Father. Of course, we like God. We love sinners in the world, wanting them to come out of the world with us and be part of God's people. God so loved this wicked world, John 3, 16. that he handed over his only begotten son, even to death is the idea. So he'd be lifted up on a cross so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. God loves the world in that sense, in the sense that he wants to rescue it from being what it is now, in rebellion against him. But we may not love the world as it is content to be, in this sense. Driven by the things that drives it, We can't have affection for that. So John now uses three phrases to describe what motivates the world, what fuels it. And he shows that none of these motivations come from the father or about the father. He stated the obvious, of course, for Christians. But these worldly desires, these rebel affections actively snub the father and they snub his commands and they snub his promises. First thing he says, if you're thinking in an older translation, the lust of the flesh, here the desires of the flesh. It means that which the flesh desires. Think of desires as sort of the verb, what the flesh does. The flesh is desiring things. John uses this word for flesh throughout his writings, not so much about just our sinful nature. Paul does that more in his writings. But John, speaking of the flesh, he's often just talking about what it means to be human. What is genuinely human or merely human? So, in other words, one person put it, the desires of the flesh is the impulse of human behavior that arises from the natural, even God-given physical needs. So God gave us, as creatures, genuine needs. They produce desires. But when we are cut off from our Maker, we're alienated from Him and at war with Him, we misuse and mishandle every one of those desires and misapply them and demand them on our own terms. That's what this is talking about. The desires of the flesh. But we autonomously want and think we need for ourselves, especially physically. Then there's the desires of the eyes. You could describe this as the short-sighted desire for only what the eyes see physically, or being captivated by the outward show of things without wanting to know about their true values. But first of all, The lust of the flesh, the desire of the flesh is more focusing inward. What do I feel I want and need? Then desires of the eyes, maybe it's just the flip side of the coin often, but it's looking more outward. What do I see out there that I want or like? And then the pride of life. Pride can mean pride, arrogance, boastfulness, all those shades of meaning. Often, this word was used talking about when someone's overconfident in their own resources and their own wealth. And combined with the word for life here, pride of life, life here probably has the idea of how we maintain our livelihood, what makes up our life, maybe our job, maybe our wealth, maybe our position. maybe our status in the eyes of others in this life. We take pride in, not in God, we don't glory in that which is glory indeed, which is from God. We take glory, we take pride, we boast in, and we put our security in things we can see and touch about our own lives. If we think we have, Everything we need self-sufficiently in this life, we boast about it. And we take our security in that. Well, I have all the right insurance plans. I have all the right... The word is escaping me. Investments, there we go. Pray for me this morning. I have enough money. I have the right friends. I have the right job. On the other hand, if we don't have what we think we need in that way, then we complain about it. And we have self-pity about it. That's just another form of pride. Pride of life. You know, when the first woman, our mother Eve, when she doubted God's word, at the point that she doubted God's word, she was then seduced by the serpent using her own created desires. because those desires were now cut off from love for her Creator and from obedience to her Creator. And she was the first of our race to be seduced by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Remember what it actually says in Genesis 3, how it says it in Genesis 3, 1 through 6. The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God or like God's knowing good and evil. you'll be able to be your own definer of what's good and what's not, apart from God. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, well, that'll please my flesh. It's good for food. And that it was a delight to the eyes. It delighted her senses as she looked at it. And that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. So that had boosted her ego. pride of life, that it was to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. See the dynamic at work there, even brought out in some of the wording. Okay, so there's this ungodly trio of worldly affections, and this warning against worldly affections, and Furthermore, as the warning wraps up, there's a choice between opposite ends. Verse 17, and the world, not only does it have nothing to do with the father, not only is it directly opposed to God, the father, but verse 17, the world is passing away along with his desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. not doing my own will like the world wants me to do along with them, but doing God's will. Whoever lives that way because they're God's child and that's how God's children live. Whoever does that lives forever, abides forever. Doesn't that remind you of what Jesus said on a couple of occasions? Well, a couple of places in the Sermon on the Mount, in fact. Matthew 6, 19 through 21, Jesus said, Applying this in one direction. He said do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth Where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven Where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also But he's encouraging us for one thing Look, if you're investing in things just here on earth. That's a stupid investment. It it's going to get damaged It's not going to stay as glorious as you think it is in the moment here. Invest in heaven, things not of this earth, that's a wise investment. That'll last forever. That will never be corrupted or lose its value somehow or be stolen from you. The world is passing away along with its desires. It's on the way out the door already. You can't hang on to it anyway. Why would you love that? Something that's going to betray you. It won't last. Or Matthew 7, also, this is at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, 24 to 27, Jesus says, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. Symbolizing the one who hears Jesus words and does them thus he does the will of Jesus father in heaven he abides forever you see and Everyone who hears these words of mine Jesus says and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it and you're building your life on love for the world, it's like sand that'll be washed away with the first tempest. So reminding you again, bringing this all full circle, what's the big idea of our whole text taken together? It's that God's secure children love him and not the world. And by the way, warnings like the one here are part of what God uses in his plan for each of his children to keep them clinging to Him, keep them on the path they need to be on, because they will be tempted to love the world. They will temporarily look longingly where they ought not to look. They will be temporarily drawn into temptations of various sorts, but God keeps bringing them back in the paths of righteousness for His namesake, and He keeps them walking with Him throughout their lives. And so in the end analysis, In the big picture, God's secure children love Him and not the world. If someone, it doesn't matter if someone at one point in our day said a prayer and said, now I'm a Christian, or if they got baptized, it doesn't matter what someone said at one point about being a Christian. If they can look at the world, look at God, the true God, and just turn their back and walk away, never to return. If they can just walk out into the world and they're gone, they're not a Christian. Just like in John's day, people had just done that. They'd heard the apostles teaching about the true God who sent his son, Jesus Christ. And they said, after a while, they got bored with that. They said, huh, I think I can do better with my own version of Christ over here. I'm just going to walk away. from that God, they walked away never to return. They loved the world. But God's secure children love him and not the world. So now let's connect the text. First of all, I've been hinting at this or referring to it. Let's connect this text to the content of the letter. This can tell us things that are true, not just in John's day, but in ours. First of all, As we think about what the Apostle John was confronting by writing these things, first of all, understand that the origin, the origin of heretical teaching is in worldly affections. People don't change what they believe just because of some intellectual issue. They change what they believe according to what they value and love. And I'm not talking about every difference among true Christians on what they believe the Bible says on this or that little detail. But I'm talking about real heresy here. A false Christianity with a false Christ, something like that. That kind of heresy starts in worldly affections. One writer says, by its very nature, Gnosticism, which was an earlier version of that, was probably what John was confronting. Gnosticism was syncretistic and inclusivist, seeking to make Christianity acceptable to the world of the day. So he was trying to take some of Christianity together with what the world found acceptable and mix it all up. They sought to do that by adjusting Christianity to fit current dualism. The matter is evil, spirit is good philosophy. regard to morality, some of them tried to make a place within the Christian system for unbridled libertinism. That is, I can do what I want because of my version of Christianity. I can engage in whatever actions I want in life. But 1 John chapter 4, starting in verse 1, we see John Again saying beloved believe do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God For many false prophets have gone out into the world By this, you know, the Spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already little children you are from God and have overcome them and For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Now listen to this. They, these false teachers, who are from the spirit of antichrist, they are from the world. Therefore, that's why they speak from the world and the world listens to them. They're saying the sorts of blasphemous things they're saying because that's what the world likes and because they're part of the world, even though they say maybe they're Christians. And that's why other people of the world listen to them. He'll go on to say, whoever is of God listens to us. We value different things. We love different things. False teaching that strikes at the core of what Christianity is, that that removes the foundation of Christianity, heresy like that, it starts in worldly affections. We could demonstrate that in many places. I'm going to have to hurry up, because it's taking me longer to get through my notes than I thought. So you have all the references there I could go to. I'm just going to go to two of the shorter ones. Philippians 3, 17 to 21, Paul Paul says to the Christians, pay attention to me and the example I gave you and the teaching I gave you because there's other teachers out there. He says, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly. Blessed the flesh. and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Et cetera. I skipped Galatians, but that is where Paul says the whole motivation of these Judaizing heretics who were trying to make the Gentile Christians be circumcised and make them little Jews, the whole motivation with them was It fit their goals in this world with their fellow Jews. It was a worldly problem. And he said, far be it for me to boast in your flesh like that. I will only boast in the cross of Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Second Timothy four, Paul says, verse three, for the time is coming when people will not endorse sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers, to suit their own passions. That word for passions is the same Greek word translated here, desires or lusts, 1 John 2. To suit their own desires, their own lusts, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Not only the first false teacher who comes out speaking blasphemy, but those who really want to listen to that. Why do they want to listen to it? because of their passions, because of their worldly affections. Another way of looking at this is also because, as we see in 1 John 2, John says, these false teachers went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. It also shows the origin often, the origin of Church schism is also in worldly affections. Before someone entirely departs the church and starts their own cult or something or their own church that looks good to the world, if they're still in the church, they'll start to agitate. They'll start to cause divisions. And that sort of schism in the church That starts with worldly affections. As John said, the reason they went out from us is because they really weren't of us, they were really of the world. In fact, that's in the next few verses right after today's sermon text. Romans 16, similarly, Paul says, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. We can go to James chapter three and four. I'll let you see those references there for yourself. I want to hurry on to connect these things to the contents of our hearts, even beyond all that. It is true that there was a context to what John said here, and he particularly had in mind some who loved the world rather than the Father. That's why they left the church. But that's not all this text is saying, is it? It's saying something very broad and that applies in every direction, right? First of all, there's many faces to worldly affections. Do you understand there's many faces to worldly affections? Take the desires of the flesh. Some, everyone can immediately recognize as desires of the flesh, right? Desire for food, drink, drugs, sex, but also desire for simple creature comforts, physical safety, things like that, where we value that more than God and obedience to Him and love for Him. If someone is really happy about being part of this community of Christians for the first time until they're persecuted. And then they value their own personal safety more than this God and his son, Jesus Christ. That's the lust of the flesh pulling them away. Self-preservation. I don't often quote the screw tape letters here by C.S. Lewis, but I will today. Shifting gears a little bit. Lust of the flesh. Often we think, oh, lust of the flesh, that's just what people do who are completely out of control and they eat way too much and they drink way too much or something. Well, C.S. Lewis, of course, he's writing in 1940s Britain, so some things sound very British here. But he's imagining a senior demon named Screwtape advising a junior demon who's a tempter named Wormwood. He's advising him on the advantages of tempting through a gluttony of delicacy rather than just gluttony of excess. Here's some excerpts really quick. He says, but what do quantities matter? Quantities of food. Provided we can use a human belly and palate, your taste and your belly, to produce carelessness, impatience, uncharitableness, and self-concern. This fellow tempter of yours has this old woman well in hand. She is a positive terror to hostesses and servants. She is always turning for what has been offered to her to say with a demure little sigh and a smile, oh, please, please, all I want is a cup of tea, weak but not too weak, and the teeniest, weaniest bit of really crisp toast. You see, because what she wants is smaller and less costly than what has been set before her, she never recognizes as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others. At the very moment of indulging her appetite, she believes that she is practicing temperance. Later he says, the woman is in what may be called the all I want state of mind. All she wants is a cup of tea properly made, or an egg properly boiled, or a slice of bread properly toasted. But she never finds any servant or any friend who can do these simple things properly. Because her properly conceals an insatiable demand for the exact and almost impossible palatable pleasures which she imagines she remembers from the past. A past described by her as the days when you could get good servants. But known to us as the days when her senses were more easily pleased, and she had pleasures of other kinds, which made her less dependent on those of the table. A little later, he says, now your patient, the one you're tempting, is his mother's son. Being a male, he is not so likely to be caught by the all-I-want camouflage. Males are best turned into gluttons with the help of their vanity. They ought to be made to think of themselves very knowing about food, to peak themselves on having found the only restaurant in the town where steaks are really properly cooked. That's just a few excerpts. Sound like the Portland food scene sometimes? All I want is this, and I've got to have it. And I'm important enough that I'm going to have it this way. I'm not like those thobs over there who just gorge themselves at the, there was this place in the Midwest called the Old Country Buffet. Some people call that the old country bucket. I don't let them slot my trough over there with that stuff. I have the good food. But whatever it is to you, whatever pleases your flesh, can become an idol. The desires of the eyes can be the desire to look good to others. The desire to have what I see others have. The desire to feast my senses on things that may or may not be good in themselves. A lot of entertainment fits under this when it has a hold of us. Even when our eyes are focused on basically good things, these desires can be worldly if they run your life or if they make you willing to obey them rather than Christ. if they enslave your schedule, et cetera. You can get really simple with this, of course. Kids, children, do you, I know you do, do you dislike someone else sometimes? Maybe you can't stand your brother or sister because they've got something, you see them, that they got it, and you think you should have that. Why'd they get that and I didn't? That's the lust of the eyes. Desire of the eyes. I see it, I should have it. I want it. Do you want to watch shows or movies more than your parents say you should because your eyes just want to be entertained? Adults, of course, all that applies to you too. Adults, do you get sucked into hours of social media scrolling trying to satisfy your eyes with content? Or you're scrolling through there because you want to covet what you see others experiencing. You want to live vicariously through them, through your eyes. I don't think I need to say much about pornography, which is also about the lust of the flesh as well as the eyes. But think also this way. Back thinking about the church, do you think very little of faithful You think very lowly of faithful little churches and their people because they don't look very impressive in earthly terms. In terms of buildings, programs, worship services or liturgies that please the senses, whether it's the best worship band in town or whether it's the choirs, the organs, the incense, or Well, this church over here has the successful people in town attending it, the doctors and the lawyers and the people who have the best jobs at the best companies, et cetera. If you're easily swayed away from a faithful little church because of just what impresses your eyes, that's a problem. That's the lust of the eyes. Then there's the boasting or pride of life. Of course, there's materialism that shows the pride of life. You boast in and you get your importance and your security in what you can get for yourself in this life and have to show for this life. So materialism can be about amassing a whole bunch of stuff Or maybe not. Maybe you don't have a lot of stuff, but what you have, you hoard. You won't let anyone touch your stuff. Hands off, that's mine. I'm not going to share any of it with anybody. That's materialism too, and that's the pride of life. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus cautioned people, particularly a man who wanted him to make his brother give him his share of the inheritance. Jesus said, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. That's when he told the story of this rich fool who had way too much for himself. So he just built bigger barns to store it all in. And then he was going to party. And God said, you're a fool because tonight your life will be taken from you. Then who's all this going to belong to? And Jesus says, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. And then he turns to his disciples and says, to you who aren't so rich, therefore, don't be anxious about your life, what you'll eat, about your body, what you'll put on. Seek first God's kingdom. All these things will be added to you. And then he tells them to be willing to give because their father's good pleasure is to give them the kingdom. They'll have all they need. Pride of life, of course, can come out in boasting. and being arrogant towards others because of what I have, because obviously I'm more important or more diligent than they are somehow. I won at life, they lost. Pride of life can come out, but this isn't just a millionaire's sin. And this isn't just a money sin. This can come out at school when you are arrogant about your own accomplishments. as opposed to others. This can come out at work when you're arrogant towards your co-workers because you think you're better than they are. And we can go on. Now let's finish out by talking about how God's word can give us victory over worldly affections. Remember what John said in the last verse before his warning about the world. He'd said to the young man in the church, as it were, he's not talking about literal young men, but about those who are, who have experienced some victory in the Christian life. They have reached early maturity in the Christian life. He says, you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. Remember the way you overcome the evil one is through the word of God. And that's what Jesus did when he was tempted in the wilderness. He vanquished the devil by wielding God's word against worldly affections. Luke chapter four, for instance, we could go through there and see, okay, one temptation the devil used was lust of the flesh. Jesus was legitimately hungry. So he tempted Jesus to fulfill that, apart from his father, his own way. Command these stones to become bread. Jesus responded with scripture. Man should not live by bread alone. The devil takes him up, shows him in a vision all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and says, I'll give you all this authority, all that glory. If you'll worship me, it'll all be yours. Lust of the eyes, the natural human desire for dominion. And especially Jesus was the one who was destined to have dominion over all things. But the devil said, you can have this the easy way, not God's way. But Jesus responded again with scripture. You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil tempted Jesus to act in presumption and show himself to be the son of God to everyone by casting himself off the pinnacle of the temple. The angels will catch you. They have to. That's their job. Jesus says, it is written, you shall not put the Lord, your God to the test. Satan was trying to use Jesus' natural desire for vindication and to be vindicated and twisted into a temptation to pride and arrogant presumption. That's how we have to conquer these things. We have to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as Romans 13, 14 says, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. And how do you act like Jesus practically? One way is you have to know the scripture. You have to know what God has said so that you can do the will of the Father. He who does the Father's will abides forever. You need to know the scripture. If you don't know the scripture, you can't do what God wants you to do because you won't know what God wants you to do. So know the scripture and then obey it and respond to the temptations with scripture. Psalm 119 verses 9 through 11. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Jesus did that. And he not only conquered temptation in our place, but now he gives us the strength to do what he did in the face of temptation. God's secure children love him and not the world. Obviously, the topic of love for God and the topic of worldliness are vast subjects. We've just kind of dipped our toe in, we've touched this area, touched that area. But do you know you're God's child? If you're not God's child, you have nothing better to live for than this present evil world, and it's all passing away. But you can become God's child right now by turning in faith away from the world to Jesus Christ. Then you'll have solid joys and lasting treasure, as we sang earlier today. And if you are God's child, stop trying to love the world. Learn to say no to your rebel desires. They're lying to you anyway, that they'll give you lasting fulfillment. Discipline yourself for godliness. Seek first the kingdom of God and you'll have all you need. Let's pray together. Father, please open our minds and our hearts to the scriptures and to your will for us as you've expressed it in these words. and help us to see how worldly affections sneak in everywhere and really don't have to sneak in. They've already been in our hearts a long time, but please root them out. Not so that we can be self-righteous people who think we're holier than everyone else, but so that we can love you as we ought. Lord, we don't want to be free of worldly affections so there's a big gaping hole and vacuum inside of us. We want to be filled with love for you and for the things that last because whoever does your will abides forever. Warm our hearts towards you and towards your son. We pray this in his name. Amen.