Did we not? How rich and pure, how measureless, how endless. If you are in Christ today, you have much to rejoice in. Coming off of Thanksgiving, may your hearts abound in thanks and thankfulness. We have much to be thankful for. Thank you for the opportunity to preach again today. It's a privilege, a great privilege to be able to open God's word. Today's gonna be part three in my series on the love of God. In prior messages, we've looked at Ephesians three where Paul says, He prays for strength. Get that. He prays for strength to know the height and the depth and the width and the breadth. Why does Paul pray for strength to know God's love? We looked at that. We looked at Romans eight, who can separate us from the love of God. So today's focus will be the next step. So here's kind of the summary of where we're headed today. Really knowing the love of God should impact what I love. Knowing the love of God should impact what I love. 1 John 2 will be our main text, but we're gonna look at many other verses today to support that. So let me pray as we get started. Our great God, we bow before the exalted, the crucified, the risen savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Who are we that you would be mindful? Who are we that you would send your spirit and give us your word? We ask now for your presence, Lord. We ask for tangible fruit of the work of the spirit. We ask that our eyes may see the deep, deep love of Jesus. Take these broken words from a weak man and magnify Jesus. Amen. My second favorite childhood game when I was growing up was King of the Mountain. Maybe you're familiar with that. Our family moved frequently, often to developing neighborhoods. So there's lots of homes under construction for the grownups and lots of cool construction playground sites for the kids. And there was always a dump truck full of dirt or sand. So that was the playground for King of the Mountain, right? So we would scrap around and scramble and push and shove to climb onto the top. And it was great fun. It was loads of fun until bigger kids came. And we lost. the bigger kids won the King of the Mountain. Why was that? Why did the bigger kids always win the King of the Mountain? Well, it's not hard to figure out because they had a greater force and they were a greater power. Every day, Every single day, the Christian has a spiritual king of the mountain battle. There's a battle for what you love. There's a battle for your desires. There's a battle for your affections. There's a battle for what you'll be satisfied in. It's a spiritual king of the mountain. And for the believer, this is a very practical and it's tactical also. And if we're honest, this is deeper than we even talk about as Christians, isn't it? There's a deep battle going on that often we don't talk about. In scripture, we see a high call. The gospel is a high call. Philippians 3, count it all rubbish. To do what? To gain Christ. Ephesians 4, walk worthy of the manner of the calling Yet there's a stubborn, unrelenting fight that goes on in our hearts to these calls. Other passages say, put to death the deeds of the flesh. That's a violent term, isn't it? That's a violent term. Just the violence itself should tell you something about this battle going on in our hearts that Paul uses this death language, put to death these affections, these desires. Paul didn't say, oh, when you get around to it, when you have some leftover thoughts, when maybe you've got some downtime, then maybe try to be a better person. That's not what Paul said, did he? Let me pause here and say, I know this is a hard topic. It's hard to study it. It's hard to think about it. Answers are not always easy. Heart change is hard. I understand this. See, this is not the outer man things that we'll be talking about today. This is the inner man. This is not a question of, should I go to prayer meeting? Should I help my neighbor? This is a question of, why don't I? This is a question of, why don't I love in certain ways that the gospel calls me to? It's a very different question. then should I do something? This is why. That's what we'll look at today. God has made us with affections. He's made us with the ability to love. He's made us with the ability to be satisfied. We'll talk about that term in a moment. And everyone in this room has desires, has these workings in our heart. But God has designed that our desires are to move us towards Christlikeness and then ultimately be filled in whom? To be filled in Him. So these desires that we have need to be filled and ultimately filled in Christ. So we'll look at this passages in three ways. For those who do outlines, here's number one. To recognize opposing loves. Recognize opposing loves. Number two will be what not to love. What not to love. And number three will be a new affection. A new affection. So number one, recognizing opposing loves. So we start a discussion about heart change with what I must do. Right? No. We start a discussion with heart change with the Godhead and with Christ. That's where heart change starts. I believe part of our ongoing struggle in this topic is we don't start at the right place. We start with self-fixing. We start with fast food prayer or fast food sanctification. That's often how we try to start with heart change is from those positions. But where did John in 1 John look up in your text to verse 1, chapter 1? Where does John start? That which was from the beginning concerning the word of life at the end of verse 1. So John is saying there's something that was from the beginning that is life, that is the word of life, that defines life. This is where we, I think we need to start. And so who is this? Who is he talking about? How do we know him in order for heart change to occur? How do we know him? So outline point number 1A, The first aspect of recognizing opposing loves is the simple but very complicated idea that God is light, in verse five. That's where he starts. So why is that important? Why is it important that God is light? Well, the next chapter one and half of chapter two, he gives us seven light and darkness Reference point so he goes on to explain and and I encourage you to read these later But he paints this picture of light and darkness, right? So I want to try to Get us to think that God is light Get that image of pure holiness, pure light, pure good, pure truth, eternal glory, a glory that is so amazing, so full, so intense, so wonderful. First Timothy says, he dwells where? In inapproachable light whom no man has ever saw nor can see and to him be honor and glory forever. This is our God. I hope this stirs in your heart a sense of awe and sense of fear and sense of reverence to this holy God that we have. Because he's not like me and he's not like you. In him there is no darkness. There can be no darkness. It's just not possible that there's darkness in this God who is light. So the wonder of the gospel is that the believers have been transformed. We have been taken from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Rejoice! The wonder of the gospel is that His glorious kingdom, which will come, which you and I belong, is radically different. than the kingdom that I see here on earth. You cannot overstate the radical difference of this God of light and the kingdom to which we live. I think we've missed part of that radical difference. It's not like you're standing at the mall, you know, those indoor malls, you're standing at the mall in front of two adjacent storefronts And you're looking, should I go here or should I go there? And you look inside and you say, oh, the shopping experience is about the same. They have the same things, the same things, the same things. So does it really matter which store I go to? No. We are no longer residents of the kingdom of darkness. We don't shop in the kingdom of darkness, do we? Biblical marriage also gives us a good example of this idea of love and desires. Let's say a good friend falls in love and your friend is all excited and they get excited and tell you, I just love my fiance. And they tell you all the reasons why. Well, later would you expect to hear this? I love my fiance, but I forgot to mention, I love somebody else across the street and I love somebody else down the street. No, biblical love is exclusive, is it not? It's one of those kinds of supreme affections that eliminates all other rivals. At least it should, right? So the principle here is that my love for God should not be stirred and mixed with my love for the world. My love for God cannot be stirred and mixed with my love for the world. God calls us to a biblical love. Let me pause about darkness. There's another aspect I want to mention here. Sometimes the darkness around us is rooted in my own sin, in my own misaligned loves, but sometimes the darkness around us has come from the outside, right? That happens. There's hardships and pressures and pains that are brought from the outside. And in that season, have you ever thought, have you ever wondered, am I alone in my darkness? Am I alone in my darkness? That's a really hard place to be. Well, Micah 7 has an interesting passage on this. Listen to the expectant hope from Micah 7. And this is paraphrased. You can read it later. It says, rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall rise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. He pleads my cause, he executes justice for me, and he shall bring me into his light. Praise God. Praise God. So God reaches down into darkness. He reigns over darkness. And in due time, believer, he delivers from darkness. So John Piper said, even in darkness, Jesus has the last word. Amen? Even in darkness. So that's point 1A of recognizing opposing loves. Point 1B for the outline is this. Recognize opposing loves by wrong views of his commandments. Wrong views of his commandments. So in scripture, we know that there are many commandments, many imperatives, many instructions for the Christian living. And so when you read these commandments, what happens to your heart? What really happens to your heart when you read these commandments? How do you typically react? So realize that these negative reactions that my heart has, is an opposing love, right? It is opposing this love of God who's given us these great commandments. So let's do a quick reflective test. We like tests, here we go. I'm gonna read two commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And do not love the world. So generally, does our hearts move towards these commandments or does our heart pull away from these commandments? What happens when you hear these high calling commandments? So let me lay out briefly, very briefly, three faulty responses to his commandments that build up this opposing love idea. So here's the first faulty response. So there's a segment of Christians that sees God's commandments as a unit of measure, as a gauge of righteousness. The Pharisees, as an example. Well, I'm glad I'm not like them. So this response to God's commandments and his instructions basically become a source of pride, a source of comparison. I am better than them. I'm gonna lift myself up and push them down because I am a better person. So the second faulty response is what we might say, we take God's word too softly. His word, we take it too softly. So sometimes we look for the easy pass lane, don't we? We look for the way around his commandments, don't we? We might say his commandments are just too hard. We might privately say, well, I know God's word is good and it's true, but maybe it's just a little too radical. Because after all, Jesus knows my special circumstances, so I get the easy pass lane. Well, this person has essentially watered down holiness, have they not? The call to walk holy. The third person, or the third item here, is what I call pleasure robbing. Pleasure robbing. The wrong view of his commandments can be pleasure robbing. And boy, is this a tangled web. See if this hits anybody. This faulty view of his commandment says, God is just trying to rob me of pleasure. Anybody guilty? This view sees God's commandments as a yoke. And once it's a yoke, then your joy is gone, right? So what's wrong with this fundamentally? What's fundamentally wrong with this idea? So when Eric does this, I'm seeing God's commandments not as a means to life, not as a means to what the first verse in the gospel of John, that he is life, that he is life. To know the life giver, to know the one who gives life. I've just lost that perspective. You see that his commandments lead to life. You ask any parent in this church why they give their children commandments. Ask a parent, why do you give children commandments? I promise you, one answer you will not hear from anyone is, I want to prevent my child from having joy. You won't hear that. But why do we view God's commandments sometimes that way, that his commandments are gonna steal my joy? So let's view God's commandments as good because they are. Let's view his commandments as life-giving because they are. So why go through the struggle of light and darkness? I think Ephesians 5, 8 really ties both of these areas that I'm trying to communicate together. Let me read Ephesians 5, 8. For at one time you were in darkness, but now you are in light. Walk as children of the light. So there's the commandment, okay? You see the contrast, then there's the commandment. So walk as children of the light and listen to this, the rest of the verse nine. For the fruit of light is found and all that is good, right, and true. See, so there is God honoring good and right and trueness because he is life when we walk or follow this commandment. Does that make sense? It is not opposed to each other. So that's outline point number one, opposing views. So outline point number two is what not to love. So now with this foundation that God is light and in him there's no darkness, that his commandments are good, his commandments lead to life, we now kind of come to the text that says, do not love. Does this concept of not loving, does this concept cross your mind? during your everyday life, the concept of not loving. See, because what this really drives us to biblically is, am I desiring, am I loving the right things? Am I loving what God would want me to love? Am I desiring the things that I want to love? And this is a really interesting question because at the essence, the very essence of the Christian life, we are called to what? We are called to love. We are called to love. Bodie Bauckham says this, Christians are not just to love a little. He says, we are called to abound in love, abound in love. So the Christian love must have, you know, length and depth and breadth and width and reach, you know, our love must reach. And Mike has even preached that we are called to love when it's not easy. We are called to love our enemy. Our love must have reach, but our text clearly says we're not to love. So the Bible is clear that God is and executes perfect love. See, in him is perfect love. So therefore, we can conclude that there are items, objects, ways, thoughts that we should not love at all, right? But there's also items, objects, thoughts and ways that we should love less, right? So clearly there are things that are ungodly and these are just sin. And in love, I say we must repent and turn and cease. Because there are things that we love that are just sinful. But there's also things that it might be a little more gray. Should I love this thing less? So how do we evaluate? How do we evaluate a desire or a love? How do we evaluate on what circumstances is this a Godward pushing love? Or should I withdraw from it? Are things that we love or desire that are neutral? I don't know, is neutral even a biblical idea that we love something that is neutral? That's for a different conversation. But we know that the genuineness of love alone is not the standard. Just to have genuine feelings of love, that's not the standard that we're talking about, right? We know that the rightness or the goodness of an object that we love, that's not enough. That's not the standard either. So our text gives us three very practical ways to evaluate this. And I heard this message from Vodie Bauckham, and it helped me think through this. So on your outline, this is 2A. We're looking at things not to love. And how do we evaluate? So 2A, look at the object. That's in verse 15. Do not love. The world, so the world here is the object that we are not to love. It's the wrong object in this text. But we know John, and we know in scripture, the world, sorry, the word world has different meanings. So which does he mean here? What's the context of this? When we're not to love the world, what is he talking about? So very quickly, let me just say he's not talking about creation. He's not talking about cosmos. John is not saying don't love creation. For we know creation was good when God did it. He's not saying mankind. John is not saying do not love people. That would kind of be silly, right? We're called to be Christians. We are loved to people. So what is the context when he uses the word world? Well, again, Mike has preached on this. It's basically the spiritual realm and those in opposition to God, right? There are systems in place in my heart, in the world, in the outside that are anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-grace, and these things, and we are not to love them. James 4, you know this well. Friendship with the world is an enemy with God. Right there, you see the black and the white. You see this contrast that 1 John is laying out. James supports that. He agrees with that. So beware of this lie, everybody. Beware of the lie that I can love the world and I can love God in some special balancing act because I'm a good, special Christian. That's not going to work. but we convince ourselves of that lie that I can love both in this balancing act that we do. That's you're being deceived. I'm being deceived when we believe that. Beware of something else what I call mental loving, mental loving. And so this lie says, I can safely love something in my mind. I can safely entertain it, I can safely feed it and nurture it, but just so that I don't express it, just so it doesn't lead to an action, I can love this in my mind, that's mental loving, right? Wow, does that sow some seeds of destruction? Does it not? Bode Bauckham says, notice the commandment here, notice the commandment here is not, do not participate. He says the commandment is, do not love. So beware of mental loving. So that's the first object, that's the first way to examine a love is look at the object. 2B on your outline, look at the source. And this is not hard to follow. In verse 16 you'll see that. Does the love come from, it says it comes not from the father, but it's sourced from the world, right? So you look at the source, where's the source of this love, this affection, this desire that I have, where's it coming from? So that makes me think, wow, affections, desires, love do have a source, and maybe I need to look at the source, and maybe they can be traced. Once again, James 4 tells us The source of anger and frustration is where? James 4, you know this passage. From the desires, same idea, right? So you see the negative side of it, you see these desires that flow into anger, flow into frustration. Well, likewise, desires for love. Similarly, and then our text goes deeper, as you see those phrases, cravings, lusts, boastings. Again, we can examine, is this love being fed from cravings, lusts, boastings? And sadly, even sin can turn God's good gifts, right? You may be gifted to teach, you may be gifted to serve or to minister, maybe parenting, All these things can be turned slightly to where now they're feeding and the source is my cravings, lusts and boastings. So just be wary that even good things can get turned subtly by Satan. So that's the second examination, look at the source. So to see on your outline is look at the fruit, look at the fruit, where does this lead? And this is verse 17. The present form of the world is passing away. Where is this leading? So we look and we say, does this love or affection lead to life? Or does this love or affection lead to death? So clearly there are things that lead to life. There's clearly things that lead to eternal good for God's glory. There are clear things like that, and there's clearly things that are going to pass away. And we know Romans 1 is quite a sobering look at the ungodly, doesn't it? and includes God giving them up to what? The vile affections of their heart. Same idea, these affections. So something may seem fine, it may feel good, but in the end, does it glorify God? That can help us with this evaluation. Does it glorify God or does it lead to some kind of destruction? So let me pause here and say, some of you may be wrestling with something slightly different. You may be wrestling with a decision, sorry, a decision or a direction or a relationship, and you're wondering, is this really of the Lord? I'm really not sure. It's legitimate questioning. Is this direction of the Lord? Is it godly? Is it of the world? Is it of the flesh? It's kind of murky, you're not sure. So let me just encourage you, as you actively pray on that, let me encourage you to be faithful to what you know. Be faithful to what you know. Scripture is full. Scripture abounds that there are clear paths to life and to godliness. There are clear paths. We know what they are. So the principle is, Basic, consistent, godly decisions today can keep you on the right path. You might not know what the situation is, where it's headed, but basic decisions today can keep you on the right path. One day I got lost running in the woods. You all know I'm a runner. And it started with a twofold bad decision, and that's the way bad decisions often start, is we don't know ahead of time. My two mistakes that day, I was running a familiar path, but I was running it in reverse, and I was running it at sunset. In the wilderness, darkness envelops very fast. And let's just think about that spiritually for a minute. In the wilderness, spiritually, darkness envelops very fast. If you are in some spiritual darkness, beware, get help, reach out, call out to Jesus. Darkness envelops very fast. While I was running, I realized this. In all the subtle landmarks, all the forks in the trails that I was very familiar with, they were all strangely gone because I was going in reverse. So one wrong decision leads to a wrong fork in the road that then leads to deeper lostness, right? Because you are going in the wrong direction and you are deeper getting lost. So my senses now are rapidly firing, right? That's what happens. And my original goals, my original exercise goals and the time that I keep and all the distance things, they were gone. They're gone at this point, right? All I wanted to do was what? Be on the right path. That's all I wanted to do. I didn't care how long it took. I didn't care the effort expended. I didn't care where I was. I didn't know where I was. I just wanted to be on the right path. There are some in this church that I know feel heavy and weighted and murky right now. I encourage you, reach out for help. Sometimes just being on the right spiritual path is exactly where God will enlighten and illuminate your heart. And he'll refresh you, just being on the right path. So this text is very clear that one of the markers to stay on that right path is do not love the world. And think of the contrast. If you are loving the world and you're trying to get on the right path, that's going to help the situation? No, that's going to exasperate the lostness, per se. All right, so that's number two. So we've seen that our hearts are in daily battles with opposing loves. And John says, do not love the world. So outline point three, as we move, is called a new affection, a new affection. So let's say you identify a love that is wrong, a love that is out of balance, a desire. How does the believer love this less? How does the believer love this less? Well, the answer is by loving something else, by loving something greater. And so for the believer, A stronger love for God will supplant a lesser love. A stronger love for God will supplant the lesser love. And this is the battleground, right? This is the battleground, ground zero, if you wanna use those words from my heart. There are battles going on. How am I gonna supplant a misaligned love? You know that corporate marketing, corporate advertising know this very well. Very much, don't they? There's entire campaigns that are going after your affections. They're going after your desires. And what do you do? You follow that desire. And what follows then is money for them. But they know this. They know if I get their affections, actions, follow. I've shared this little trick question for all you science folks before, so maybe familiar, but let's say, for all you science guys, there's a few in my family. Let's say you had access to a lab with the most scientific machinery in a sophisticated science lab. How would be the most effective way to get air out of a beaker? The most effective way. Do you pump it? Do you use all the fancy machines, vacuums? Well, the answer is quickly given that you fill it with water, and the air is gone. Well, see, that sounds very simplistic. But spiritually, if we're honest, we've all tried to get rid of things in our heart, right? We've all tried to love the world less. We've all tried, and we have failed. And it can be discouraging. True false question, we love something out of duty. Do we love out of duty? No. True false, do we sin out of duty? That's a tougher one. No, we don't sin out of duty. John Piper says, we sin because it is more pleasant and less painful than the way of righteousness at the moment. That's a hard thing to grab. We sin possibly because it's more pleasurable and less painful than the way of righteousness. In 1819, Thomas Chalmers grappled with this. He preached a sermon called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. The title alone is just magnificent, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. And in that sermon, he said there are two ways that we attempt to change our affections. And the first is faulty. Let me give you the faulty one quickly. The faulty one is he's called the vanity approach, the vanity approach. So in this approach, we convince our hearts of the vanity of the object that we are pursuing, right? And our heart logically realizes the folly, and then our heart withdraws the affection from this object because our heart concludes it's unworthy. You see how that might work? But there are many problems with that approach, one of which is the human heart abhors a vacuum, and something else is going to come right in. We know that to be true. And for the believer and for those who are not abiding, sadly, that's a very bleak outlook. That's a dangerous cycle. The ruler of this world and the things of this world that we are just called not to love are more than capable to entice and feed and supply and potentially smother you. with one affection after the other, one affection after the other. How would the non-believer resist this? Why would he resist this when his affections are being satisfied, endless satisfactions? What's gonna supplant that? What's gonna change that heart? So Chalmers writes this. to change their affections, the way to dispose of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new affection, right? The expulsive power of a new affection. So how is that possible? Because confessions, my confessions are full of failures. It's tough. This is tough what we're talking about. Well, 2 Peter 1.3, and I'm going to read this verse twice. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to what? Life and godliness. Think on that. His divine power has granted us all things to pertain to life in godliness. So this verse makes perfect sense, right? Because God has freely given us the ultimate thing to love. What is the ultimate thing to love in godliness? Himself. He has given himself freely. You can't love anything better than loving him. And then how do we love him? What's the power source to do that? Well, Peter says the Holy Spirit, his divine power has given us. We see this new affection in Matthew 13, this parable. This is such a good parable. I'll make it true in my heart. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and cover it up. Then he goes and he sells it, all that he has, and he buys that field. What happened to this man internally? What happened to this man internally? He found a greater treasure. Did he not? He found a greater treasure. If you are in Christ, listen please, if you are in Christ, you have found the greatest treasure. We don't need to be treasure hunting for other treasures. We have found the greatest treasure. And I actually skipped a phrase on purpose. Did anybody catch it? What did I skip in that parable? In his joy, he goes and sells it. In his joy. So the desire and the joy for this greater treasure move this man to sell what he had, to sell what he thought was a treasure, if you will. So God has made the human heart to long and to desire. We know that God has made these to long and desire. God has also made the heart to be satisfied. So John Piper notes the idea of being satisfied doesn't make a whole lot of sense without a corresponding desire, right? Because you desire something, then you're satisfied. It's the fulfillment of that. So what are we typically satisfied in? What are we satisfied in? Listen to the psalmist to see what he is satisfied in, Psalm 90. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad. Psalm 107, for he satisfies the longing soul, the hungry soul with good things. Psalm 63, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. Psalm 103, the Lord satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like eagles. Does this sound like a closed fisted, smothering God that wants to steal your joy. No, He wants you to be satisfied in Him, believer. Oh, believer, be satisfied in Him, for you have a much greater love. And when I was reading those four Psalms about being satisfied, something stunned me, and it really shouldn't have, but every one of those, the prior verse references His steadfast love. his steadfast love. So the psalmist was satisfied certainly in part because of the love of God. You see how that goes together? The love of God, then we are satisfied. So knowing and meditating on the love of God changes what we are satisfied in. Knowing and loving, meditating on the love of God changes what we are satisfied. And because my heart is so fickle and weak, the psalmist adds that steadfast love, steadfast love. Take a guess at how many times the psalmist uses that phrase, steadfast love. Think, take a guess, double it, triple it. 123 times steadfast love is called out because that's who our God is. He is steadfast in his love. Jesus even referenced these kinds of ideas. John six, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. Whoever believes in me will never thirst. So you hear these hungering and these thirsting ideas, these satisfying ideas. Jesus even speaks of that. Oh, believer, we don't need a new bread and we don't need a new drink. Let us be satisfied in him. So as we close, will you take up this challenge? Will you take up this challenge? Would you evaluate and list two or three affections that are in your life personally that may be loving the world too much? And then would you actively study and plan how a greater love for Jesus will expel those? So we identify And then we know Christ and that expels these things. And I hesitated even to mention that challenge because just the, just the asking of the challenge, our heart can blow up against that, right? It's like, I don't want to evaluate because we get all tangled up by God's grace. Will he work? May he work. So three ways to pray and we're done. Pray that you would be changed by the love of God. Pray that you'd be changed by the love of God. Second prayer, pray for a desire not to love the world. Not to love the world in a macro sense. Oh Lord, protect me from this love. And then third prayer is specifically for these affections of your own that you would then draw away from those. So how do we change what we love? We strive to know God's satisfying love, and then we will be satisfied. Let's pray. Lord, give us grace to love you more. And we know that the gospel that calls us to walk worthy is the same gospel where there's hope to be molded into the glorious image of our Savior. Forgive us when we are casual about our faith, when we are not eager to turn from darkness, but may we be full, may our hearts overflow, may we be filled and satisfied in you, for you are the source of living water. In Jesus I say, amen.