I've selected that hymn. I've enjoyed it a long time. The chorus itself, I believe, is pertinent to the text we'll be considering today. If you will, turn with me to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. Our brother David, when he was here, preached through verse 14 of chapter two. Our brother Conrad, when he was here, preached through various portions. So I'm gonna pick up where brother David left off in chapter 214, and we're going to consider for our text this morning, verses 15 through 17. Let's read those verse together. First John two, verse 15. Let's hear the word of the Lord. 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 pride and possessions 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. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray as we come to your word that you would have the effect you desire for your word to have upon us. We pray that you would give to us two eyes full of the glory of Christ, these pages of scripture. that we would not be enamored with the perishing ways of the world, with the perishing things of the world, perishing desires of the world, but that we would live for the glory of our Lord and Savior, that while we are in this world, we would use our gifts, talents, abilities, all resources and opportunities to further your kingdom, to bring honor to your name, to exalt your son in this creation that he has made. I pray that you would help me in the preaching of your word, Father, may it be a blessing to your people you've gathered here today. This is your day, this is your house, these are your people, this is your word. I pray that you'd be glorified in all things. In your son's name I pray, amen. So for our text today, 1 John 2.15, do not love the world. I memorized this portion of scripture way back in 2011 working at Solid Ground. My favorite song on my favorite album back then was an album called Superstar Car Wash by a band called the Goo Goo Dolls. My favorite song on there was called Stop the World. And I was stocking books at Solid Ground, and there was a book cover, a little itty-bitty book cover about this big, and it was just recently published by Reformation Heritage Books. And the title was similar to that song title. It was just four words, Stop Loving the World. by Puritan William Greenhill. We just got to stack them in, so I'm putting them on the shelf, and as I pull that book out and put it on the shelf, the title sounded similar to that song title that I liked, but there was one important word in there, Stop Loving the World, and it caught my eye. And of course, I knew the book was different and had better subject matter than that song. But the book's title had me captivated in a way that the song never did. Just the title of the book was both accusing and arresting at the same time. Stop Loving the World. And here in verse 15 we come to another one of the apostles' stark contrasts. We've considered several already as we've gone through 1 John together. We saw one in verses 5-7 where John contrasts for us light and darkness. God is light and in him there's no darkness at all. We have a contrast. And then secondly we have truth versus lies in verses 8-10. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. And John poses a contrast also. There, we have the sin of humanity versus the righteousness of Christ, the Savior of humanity. In 1 John 2, Verses one and two, I'm writing these things to you, little children, that you may not sin. If anyone sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. There's another contrast that John makes for us. Fourthly, we have those who love God and keep his commandments, the new covenant Christians, saints, believers, versus those who say they love God and don't really keep his commandments, the formalists, those who practice a kind of outward religion. That was in verses Three through six. By this we have come to know that we know Him. This is how we know we know Him, if we keep His commandments. That is characteristic of the lifestyle of the Christian, the New Covenant believer, the saint. There's another contrast in verses seven through eight. New commandment, old commandment. Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you've had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you've heard. At the same time, it's a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. We have another contrast there between new commandment, old commandment. Darkness of hating a brother. the darkness of hating a brother versus the light of loving a brother in verses nine through 11. Whoever says he's in the light, whoever claims to have this fellowship with God, this intimacy that's characteristic of the Christian and yet hates those who also love the Lord Jesus Christ, That's a brother walking in darkness. Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. We have no reason to believe that someone is saved who professes faith and yet hates the people of God. They are still in darkness, writes the apostle. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there's no cause for stumbling. So contrast is normative in the language of 1 John at this point. And now we come to a negative imperative in verse 15, we're gonna see the ways of the world versus the will of God. And as we've read through some of these passages and verses, through the whole epistle, the apostle has been speaking in a stark and simple manner. Very simple language, nothing flowery, poetical, figurative, stark and simple manner. And the command he gives here in verse 15, do not love the world or the things in the world, The command almost seems to be the most Christian thing we can imagine. Devotion to spiritual everlasting things and not a temporary material creation and temporary material things. Right out of the gate it seems to be the most Christian thing and at the same time the most unchristian. Perhaps some of you thought of John 3.16 when we read through 1 John 2.15. where it says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. A verse we all know and love. So if Christians are trying to imitate God, why are we told not to love the world? When it says in John 3, 16, God loves the world and other places. And at this point, we need to define what the apostle means when he uses the term world. And so we'll go through a brief word study in John's little epistles in his gospel on what the term world means. The Greek term for world is cosmos, which we got our word cosmos, cosmology, those terms. And it's a favorite of the apostle John. He uses it over 80 times in his gospel and in his little epistles. So the concept of world is important for us. We wanna know what does John mean here if we're going to understand these verses. Sometimes the word appears multiple times in one verse of John. If you will, turn with me back to his gospel, the gospel of John 1. We'll look at a few verses. John 1, verse 10, he, speaking of the Messiah, Christ, he was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. Got three mentions of world there in John 1.10. And then a couple of pages over, John 3, verse 17. John 3, verse 17, right after the verse we just considered, for God so loved the world, we read in verse 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Another trifold usage there. We have one particular verse where John uses it five times. In John chapter 15, John chapter 15 and verse 19, Kosmos appears five times. John 15, 19, Jesus is speaking here to his disciples and he says, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Jesus there uses the term, John pens it for us, five uses of cosmos. In his epistles, it appears 23 times, the term world. In the verses we're going to consider today, we have six uses, six usages of the term world, and there's one more in 2 John 7, we have that term appear. And when we went through 1 John 2-2, if you wanna turn back to the, epistle of John, the first epistle of John. In 1 John 2-2, we considered briefly some of the different ways in which John uses the term world. And we'll go over these again briefly. 1 John 2-2 was, he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So we're going to retread some ground here. But I think we can find, four different usages of the term world in John's writings. I think first we can say that it refers to the planet itself. I'll read you some passages, you don't have to turn to all of them. Back in 1 John 1.10, we heard of Christ that he was in the world and the world was made by him. The material creation that Jesus made refers to the planet itself, the created order. And then in verse 319, another similar passage to other verses we considered, and this is the judgment that light has come into the world. The light of Christ in the gospel has come into this material world in which we live. And the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. And then also in 614 of John's Gospel, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. There was an expectation in Israel that a prophet's coming into the world. This created order. So we'll go ahead and establish that as the first way in which John uses the term cosmos, to refer to the creation, the created order. It also can refer to the general populace, the people that inhabit this planet, the population of the earth. In John chapter 7 verse 4, begin reading in verse one. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of booths was at hand. So his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea that your disciples may also see the works you're doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. Brothers asking him to come, Jesus to come, show his works to the world. Let people see what you can do. Also in John 8, 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. And a few verses down in verse 26. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true. And I declare to the world, the declaration, there's people listening, I declare to the world what I have heard from him. So Jesus is saying, I come down to this world, those that have ears, let them hear, I declare to them what I have heard from my father. And then also in John 12, 19, in John 12, 19, Verse 18, the reason why the crowd went out to meet him was they had heard he had done this sign. Verse 19, so the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. It's referring to the general populace, people, crowds are following the Lord Jesus Christ and his ministry as he does these signs. Then, The term world, this can be a little bit confusing, especially for those who hold to a hypothetical universal atonement. World can refer to, thirdly, the elect for which Christ atoned for. The world that is going to believe his gospel as it's preached and have eternal life in him. We'll look at some instances of that. John 1 in verse 29. John 1, 29. The next day he, that is John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus expiates the sin, he puts away the sin of his people. This is referring to the elect, the saints, the Christians. And then in John 3.17, we've already read that one one time, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. Romans 8.1 should be echoing in your mind. There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. There you go, there's the elect again. Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're saved through him. The gospel that goes out into the world for all men, to be preached to all men, that is the gospel that saves. John 4, 42. John 4, 42. We'll begin reading in verse 39. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said we believe, for we have heard ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." Christ saves his elect, his people. He redeems them out of this world. They are called the world, and at times, that language can trip us up. One more, 651, John 6, verse 51. Jesus says here, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The foreshadowing of the Lord's Supper. And so we see here that that the term world can refer to those for whom Christ atoned for, those for whom the Holy Spirit has given new birth, who believe his gospel, and we might say the populace of the new heavens and the new earth, the population there, certainly. But there's a fourth usage of the term world, and that is it refers to the non-elect as a kingdom that opposes God. Let's look at some scriptures there. John 8, 23. John 8, 23. We'll begin reading in verse 21. So he said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come. So the Jew said, will he kill himself since he says, where I'm going, you cannot come? He said to them, you are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. The unbelieving Jews. Jesus himself draws a contrast between the unbelieving Jews in the Messiah that has now come versus those who are not of this world, who believe in Jesus Christ. And then John 15, 18. The last few chapters of Jesus' discourse to his disciples have several usages of world in this way. John 14, 15, and 16. And then John 17, we'll consider John 15 verse 18. If the world hates you, Jesus is speaking, know that it hated me before it hated you. There's an opposition between the world and Christ and those who bear the image of Christ, those who've been recreated in his image, Christians. And then John 16, 33. John 16, 33. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. Christian, don't be surprised. In the world you'll have tribulation. But take heart, says Christ. I have overcome the world. The world that is opposed to Christ, in that opposition Christ overcomes the world. It tells us here in John 16, 33 not to lose heart. This division is, clearly seen in the high priestly prayer of John 17. We'll just consider a few verses from John 17. This is where Jesus is praying to his father in the garden. Verse six, he says, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. If you need a proof text to disprove universal atonement, there you go. There's some saved, there's some not. And then Jesus Christ prays on in verse nine, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you've given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I'm coming to you. So Jesus Christ here prays because they're not of the world, just as I'm not of the world. He asked the Father to keep them. Give them perseverance. This is seen in the prayer of Jesus as he uses this term world to refer to that system, that evil system, that world that is opposed to the kingdom of Christ. And now let's zero in on our, closer to our text. First John, this is even more clearly seen than in the gospel. If the gospel wasn't convincing, let's go to the epistle itself and John will hopefully make this clear First John, let's look at chapter three, verse one. First John three, one, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. There's the division right there. Look at verse 13. He picks it up again in verse 13. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hate you, 1 John 4, 4. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Again, that warfare language. We have the Holy Spirit living in us who is greater than the powers of this world. Who is the power of this world? Well, let's look at 1 John 5, 19. We know, 1 John 5, 19, we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Now this is a verse still to come, but I wanted to go through a brief word study there and consider cosmos in the context of the writings of John, because I think it's important. The term world, we can play fast and loose with the scriptures, and we want to be careful understanding who the term world is referring to. The world here in view in verse 15 is referring to that kingdom of darkness that is at war with God's kingdom of light. That's the term world. Do not love the world or the things of the world, the material creation. That would be idolatry. Do not love the world, do not be in love with the world's evil system, or the things of this world, John gives to us right out of the gate. Negates both the imperatives in the Greek, says love, and the imperative, and then follows it with a negation. Do not love the world, the system that's at war with God, system of light, or the things in the world. The world, as we read in verse John 5, 19, it lies under the power of the wicked one. And this wicked one would seek to supplant us in the same way he supplanted Eve in the garden. Satan holds before us material things and says, isn't this better than God? Wouldn't you rather have this than God? And he tries that same method, if you will, on each of us, to turn our eyes from off of Jesus and onto something of this world. material things, the ideologies of this world. And so we need to be aware of Satan's devices and not love the world, not load his guns for him. Eve, when she took of the fruit, she loved the world more than God. She loved herself, the idea that she could be as God. That was more important to her than serving God. We remember in Genesis 3, she considered that it was good for food. There was the desire of the flesh we're going to get to. It was pleasant to the eyes, the desire of the eyes we're going to get to in verse 16. And then it was desired to make oneself wise, that autonomous pride of life. She was going to possess wisdom she did not have beforehand. So Satan is still using this method from Genesis 3 to 1 John 2 and then to 2019 in the year of our Lord. Satan is still employing that same method. And we're to stand away from that and not love the world or the things in the world. God would not share his glory with Satan but cast him out of heaven. Now Satan is trying to use anything. to cause people to worship, those who were made to worship, to worship anything besides the God whom Satan refused to worship. There's a war going on. We're foolish if we dismiss that or think otherwise. And for us to love The world, we help Satan in his attacks against us. Wherever there's a foothold, wherever we have a temptation to go after the world, have an affiliation, affection for the things of this world, that's something Satan's gonna play on. He's going to use to tempt us to seek, to bring about our fall and our ruin. It's to commit idolatry. Do not love the world or the things in the world. The things of this world, referring to materialism, referring to idolatry. We read the rich young ruler in Matthew 19. He wanted internal life so bad. He kept commandments and yet he forgot to keep the first two commandments. You shall not have any gods before me, you shall not make any gods. And he had made his possessions, all of his material wealth, into his God. You notice Jesus did not read those two commandments to the rich young ruler. He read him five and then those after five, and the rich young man had missed those two commandments. And so the things of the world were his God, his idol. Ecclesiastes 5, we read that to heap up riches, it's vanity. We can't bring anything out of this world. We certainly didn't bring anything in. If I brought anything in, it was trouble. But we're definitely not going to carry anything material out. There's nothing going into this nether realm with us. something the pagans got completely wrong. We find tombs filled with things they thought they needed in the afterlife that they obviously didn't need because we found them unused. But that's a pagan idea, pagan concept. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6. See another New Testament passage there on materialism. 1 Timothy 6, this is a good one. 1 Timothy 6. Brother David, when he went over how a Christian should think biblically about wealth and material possessions, he spent some time on this passage. We'll read it for our consideration this morning. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 6. Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment. For we brought nothing into this world, we cannot take anything out of the world." Sounds like Ecclesiastes, sounds like maybe Job. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich, those who love the world and their affections are after the world and desire to be rich, have this world's goods, what does the text say? They fall into temptation. Not that they risk falling into temptation. They fall into temptation. They've given it, they're playing into Satan's hand now. They're giving their worship, they're giving their agapo, the verb there in 1 John 2, they're giving that to something else. Their heart is not with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not their treasure. Their heart is with the things of this earth. They desire to be rich. They fall into a snare, into many, picking up our reading in verse nine, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains." A Christian is not characterized by a desire for wealth, a desire to attain, accumulate, pile up the things of this earth. For the Christian, our home is the mansion Jesus goes to prepare for us. We're looking forward to that home. That is our home. Our home here is not where we get our mail and where we hang our hat up. Our home, Christian, is the mansion we're going to that our Savior's prepared for us. We travel light through this world. Yes, we say we're going home. We know what that means, where our bed is, where we get our mail and stuff. But for the true Christian, we're pilgrims going through this earth. We're going home. We haven't made it yet. There's a homecoming, but we're not there yet. Love belongs to God alone. It does not belong to the things of this earth, the things of this world. And a good litmus test for idolatry is to ask yourself, what needs to be in heaven to make it heavenly? Start itemizing things. It should be a really easy short list to make. It should just be one item. It should be Jesus. Jesus is all we need to make heaven heavenly. We don't need fishing holes and motorcycles and all this nonsense people talk about looking forward to when they get to heaven. We go to heaven to worship Jesus, to look at our Savior, to get two eyes full of His glory, to sit at His feet and worship, fellowship with Him. Thank Him for what He's done on behalf of us poor ruined sinners. If our list includes anything else beyond Jesus, we might need an allegiance check. We need a heart check to see whether or not the love, our love, is on the things of this world. We want to be careful, though, as is the case. We can go to extremes. We must note, however, that John is not saying do not love the world because this material world is made altogether evil by man's rebellion. John is not saying don't love this world because it's evil. It's used by the evil one, yes, but it's not evil. Remember who John is writing to, who we started out with in this book. He's writing to the docetists. brief refresher, the Docetists were those who believed that the material world was evil. Everything created was inherently bad, sinful. And so their problem came in their Christology, they could not have a Christ who was both God and flesh, because flesh is evil. So if God is righteous, he cannot have flesh, that's evil, that's a marriage that can't be had, it's a union that could not exist in the theology of the Docetists. And that's whom John is writing concerning, the Didostos. He's writing to the church concerning this error that's creeping in, this heresy that's got to be snuffed out. They believed the material world was evil by nature. And this is where we find the balance of the Christian worldview. We've got the one extreme, Gnosticism, and his son, Docetism, over here on the other hand. The material world is bad, evil, and to be despised. And the other extreme would be materialism. That the world is the best stuff there is. That all that God has created, that's all we have to live for. That's the best we'll ever get. Your best life now, get all you can. And who cares about loving your neighbors yourself? We have two extremes. We have Gnosticism. We have Materialism. And the Christian, of course, strikes a balance, as Christianity always does, between the extremes of this world. The balanced Christian worldview sees the world as neither God nor as garbage. but as good if it's used in the service of God. Our love doesn't belong to the war, our love belongs to God, and it's that love that drives us to use the things we have in this world, these bodies that we have in this world, these lips we have, to tell His gospel, to do His work, to do His goodwill. That's the Christian balance. John is contrasting, in stark terms, the life of the unbeliever and the life of the believer. There are those who love God and His children, John 2.10. There are those who love idols, Loving and worshiping is not the problem. What is the object of your love? What is the object of your worship? The question is put before us with this text. Do not love the world or the things of this world. The verses have to do with allegiances in the battle, that either our allegiance lies with the world, which is opposed to the kingdom of God and is passing away, or it lies with God, who never passes away, but recreates this world to give to those who didn't Live for it. It was not their God. So there is both a immaterial aspect of allegiance to the world system, its ideology that is antithetical to the truths in scripture, to the truth that is scripture. And then there is the material aspect as well, the things of this world that we get two eyes full of and oh boy, we get excited. And very quickly, for some of us, tempted to retreat, or advancing to idolatry. We want to conclude from verse 15 that anyone whose love is manifestly for material things, look at the verdict John gives to us. The love of the Father is not in him. God's love does not abide on this person and God's love does not flow from this person. The love of God has to abide in us, be given to us by God before it will flow from us. Neither are taking place for the soul that is in love with the world, whose allegiance and affiliation is with this world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. God doesn't desire those to be with him who desire to be with all the stuff of this world. That's the naked truth of it. There's nothing lovely about a materialist. There is nothing lovely about a materialist. Somebody who heaps up stuff. You ever seen the show Hoarders? Materialism at its peak. Stuff's nasty. You got walls rotting and caving in from all the stuff people accumulate. Stuff the thrift store wouldn't even accept. The house is good for nothing but to burn it down, bulldoze it. There's nothing lovely about a materialist. This imperative here doesn't give us any room for negotiation rights. Steve Lawson. We can't have God and just kind of love a little bit of the world. I really like my car. I really like my wardrobe. I really like my library. And we start picking things out. And so we have an allegiance to God, to Christ, and we use what He blesses us with for His service. There are some who take the name Christ and want to have all they can of this world. Me and Rebecca watched the documentary that was done by the folks who did the Logic on Fire that we watched for our Reformation Sunday. They did one called Christ Alone, the American Gospel. Fantastic film, if you haven't watched it, go get it on Amazon. Two and a half hours, you won't regret that. Two and a half hours, not a minute of it. And they attack the idea of the prosperity gospel that runs rampant today, broadcast on television, it's everywhere, literature. The false idea that Jesus Christ is a means to material ends. If you just give money to the pastor, Jesus will bless you sevenfold, whateverfold. That whole, Wrong ideology. There's an immaterial aspect bound up with the material. It's idolatry. That Jesus is a means to my material ends? Rubbish. that I may live my best life now, surrounded by all the things my heart desires, that I may live in my dream home, whether it's ranch, mansion, lake, cottage, whatever, with all the best furnishings, drive the nicest cars, wear the nicest clothes, send my children to the best colleges, none of us ever gets sick, none of us ever gets injured. That's what health and wealth promises. Just imagine things that you want, that's what we'll give you. It's dangerous, it's a snare, it's absolute wickedness, it's idolatry parading under the banner of Christianity. We can't let it have roots, take roots in our hearts. It's pure discontentment, pure idolatry. With food and clothing we'll be content. We don't have to have cars and mansions and big libraries and whatever else. And what's ironic is that the very ones who claim to be so loving and inviting toward others that hold to this false system, God says, none of my love abides in them. These prosperity guys are always smiling, always on TV smiling, grinning, trying to look like they care about you and your suffering and your pain and your material lack and all this stuff. God says, my love's not in these people. If they love the people, they give them Christ. That's the best thing you can, that's the richest form of love you can show a person. Give them Christ. Believer or unbeliever, that's how you love somebody, you set Christ before them. He is altogether lovely, the scriptures tell us. God says none of my love abides in these people. God does not exist to give me stuff and I do not exist to get stuff I want. The truths the apostles trying to get across to us, material possessions, We exist to worship the self-existent God who made us, who has blessed us with material things that we use. He's provided for our needs. God made these bodies to have needs. We need sleep, we need food, we need to go to the bathroom, we need to work out and exercise. He made our bodies with needs, and He supplies these things. So, material things are not altogether evil. We look to God for some of them. It's the love of them, the desire for God to have more, God to have more. This is what I want. This is what God exists to give me. the peak of idolatry. We may rightly conclude the love of the Father most certainly is not in anyone who teaches such things. But these guys are easy to pick on. I mean, none of us pulled up today and none of us landed in our own helicopter pad. None of us drove up in a Rolls Royce or a Bentley. None of the ladies walked in with an Hermes bag, I don't think. You guys got Rolexes on and stuff. I mean, it's easy to pick on the prosperity guys and all the highest quality things that they get to enjoy, but we can still have a love for the world and not possess the best of what this world has to offer. We can still be proud of our little mud hut. A guy in a mud hut with a few mud dishes and firewood can be just as much worldly and just as much in love with the world as any of us can be. So the command doesn't, you know, do not love the world or things in the world. Well, those guys are obviously loving the world. They're easy to pick on. We need to examine our own hearts in light of the truth of this text. Where do my allegiances really lie? If I go home today and everything's burned down and I have what I wore here today and whatever's in my car, am I going to be happy with that? I mean, Jesus didn't burn down. I've still got him. So, we can still love the world and not have the nicest of the nice. Stephen Lawson again, love for the world and love for God cannot coexist in the same heart. These two loves are mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed to one another. The contrast is so clear. The world, God. The world, God. The uncreated creator, the created possession. the uncreated material possessions, or the created material possessions, excuse me. Either love for God will drive out love for the world, or the love for the world will displace love for God. So, the Christian, they're a one master man. They have Christ. He is their leader. He is the one that they treasure. Jesus made this plan. He said, no man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and Mammon. You said you cannot. It's not that you may not. He's not telling us you don't have permission. He says you cannot. It's an impossibility. You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot serve the uncreated creator and his created creation. We want to be lovers of God rather than lovers of pleasure. We read about that in 2 Timothy 3, if you're still in 2 Timothy. that list of things that every generation of Christian reads and says, Oh, we're living in the last times. Second Timothy three. But understand this, in the last days, there will come times of difficulty, okay? This list is gonna sound like our society, but you study history, it sounds like a whole bunch of societies. For people will be lovers of self, verse two, 2 Timothy 3, 2. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The Christian, he loves the pleasure that is God, and he delights himself in the Lord, Psalm 37.4. That's the Christian. What would you say is your great love of the only two loves you can have? We are all either in love with this world or we're in love with God. There's no third option for any of us. We are of this world or we are not of this world. Jesus demands total allegiance. Who would the people around us say our allegiance lies with? Is it with Christ? Is it with the world? When people said that about the rich young ruler, oh, he keeps the first, the last six or seven commandments, but he's kind of missed the first two. What would they say about about us. Jesus makes it clear in Luke 14, 33, Therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Your allegiance to that has to be totally renounced. We have to count it all as dumb, as Paul says in Philippians 3, in order to have Christ. It's an all-or-nothing allegiance. There's no third party, it's the world or it's Christ, and it's an all-or-nothing allegiance. Even if People can tell that we live simply and we don't have great abundance. That doesn't mean we can't be idolizing the little bit we have. I mentioned that earlier. Those who are in love with this world love to hang out with those who love this world. There's no calling people out on that. The children of darkness, they pursue the things of this world. They fight, kill, rob, and steal, and use each other to get material possessions. But mammon is not our love. It's not worth our love. That belongs to God. And God alone is worth infinitely more than all the love we can give Him and all the thanks we can give Him. All we have is to be spent in the service and worship of God, showing our allegiance to Christ, this will manifest itself in love for his children. We love the children of God. We read, Brother David read to us, preached on 1 John 2, 9 through 11. True religion all through the Bible is that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, not the world. That's Deuteronomy 6, 5, and then Jesus reiterates it in Luke 10, 27. And even in Luke 14, our love for our closest family almost looks like hatred compared to the love, the surpassing love that we have for the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We go to Luke 14. Luke 14. Luke 14 in verse 25. Now great crowds accompanied him, Jesus, And he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yea, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. The surpassing love that we are to have for the Lord Jesus Christ. Does anybody almost wince kind of inwardly when you read things like that? I thought I was supposed to love my wife. Here I said I'm supposed to honor my father and mother. Here I said I'm supposed to hate her. And children, I thought I was supposed to provide for the children in my household. Here I said I'm supposed to hate them. Brothers and sisters, everybody's included here. Even my own life cannot be my disciple. We wince inwardly, or I do. That makes us almost cringe. Aren't we supposed to love others? Our heart cries out. Yes, that's the second table of the law. That's Commandments 6-10, 1-4 about our love for God. That's the first table. And if we wince at the thought of breaking the second table of the law, love for others, how much more should we cringe at the thought we might be breaking the first and not loving the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that we might actually love our husband or wife, father, mother, son, daughter, more than God. Yes, we love them. That's the command of God. More than God. That love is to be so surpassing for Christ that the love we have for them almost looks like a hatred. And we shouldn't cringe at how much more we should love God more than our husband, wife, mother, father, son, or daughter. We should cringe we love God less than these. That's the point. that we might love people more than God. The love is to be so surpassing. People worth so much more than even material possessions. One soul, we're told, by Christ, is worth more than the sum of all that exists in the world. A man gains the whole world and loses his soul. What has he profited? It's a rhetorical question. He's profited nothing. One soul is worth more than the wealth of the world. So, how much more shame should we feel If we love the things of this world and the ideas of this world more than those made in God's image and even more than God himself who made him, who's altogether glorious, argue from the lesser to the greater there. Back to 1 John. We're to walk in the light. We're to love the Father. We're not to love this dark, dying world that hates our Father. Our hearts are to be so full of love for our Father, that there's no room left for the world. We read in verse 16, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eye, and pride in possessions, or the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. Again, contrast. There's worldly things, there's things that are of God, that he gives to us. Christianity is an entirely different set of values from what my flesh and eyes desire, and from what my life takes pride in. altogether a different set of values. Now, we can't enjoy, as we read in Ecclesiastes 5, we can't enjoy our labors. We can enjoy these things as we do them for the glory of God. That's the only way to enjoy labor I know of, do it for the glory of God. All other forms of enjoyment end up being hollow in the end. We enjoy these things as a gift of God, but our flesh is naturally, by nature, dead in sin, opposed to desiring the Lord Jesus Christ. And we desire, our flesh desires things, our eyes desire things, we have pride in our possessions. The selfish attitude behind materialism, all of this is not from the Father, but is from the world. The hindrances to living a godly life in Christ Jesus, they're not just the things outside of us. They're the desires within us that are a great enemy that we have to fight. I'll go so far as to say that the Christian's greatest enemy is not Satan, it's himself or herself. The Christian's enemy is the flesh. The flesh is a whole lot closer than Satan is. And the flesh is what we have to do daily, battle against these natural wrong desires. They're inward. They desire things that are not the Lord Jesus Christ. We are just as much a frustration to our growth and grace as the world is when these desires spring up within us. They're not of the Father. We want to quench those desires, put them out. Our desires must be realigned by the grace of God to where we now give thanks for what he's given, we use what he's given to further his kingdom, but it's not is not our greatest good. Our great desire of our heart is not the material things of this world. We want his help. Keep us, Lord, from forming idols. Calvin, the classic statement you all know, Calvin said the human heart is an idol factory. It's one of those 24-7 factories, it seems like. It never shuts down. The machines are always running, cranking out idols. And we want to stop that. We want to pull the power plug on that factory. We don't want to be yoked with the world, the unequal yoking of the world with its materialistic drive, with its desires that are antithetical to the gospel. The philosophies of this world, that they can bring about peace apart from souls believing in the gospel. It's utter futility. They'll never find peace. The only peace that mankind ever has is when their soul is right with God through Jesus Christ. So trying to form some kind of pseudo-peace, artificial peace, never gonna work. Philosophies that teach that man's problem can only be addressed by psychology, that people that teach the Bible can't speak to the problems of man. The only problems I've ever had spoken to are when somebody spoke the Bible to me. Just gonna put that out there. Where brothers and sisters came to me and said, thus says the Lord, chapter and verse, Micah, here you go. That's what realigned and corrected my wrong thinking. That's what the Holy Spirit uses. Not psychology, not philosophy, none of these things. The ideologies of the world, the material possessions of the world. The flesh is opposed to God. No one who's in the flesh can please God. We read in Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse five, those who live according to their flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. This is the old man we want to see dead. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit, those things that are spiritual, eternal. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. There's more truth in that verse than psychology all bound up together could ever attain to. Whoever sets for the mind that is set on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. There you go. You want life, you want peace? Set your mind on the Spirit. For the mind that is set on the flesh, verse seven, is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. There's another cannot. It's not that God's told the mind that's set on the flesh, you may not, you may not submit to my law. It says you cannot. It's a statement of impossibility. Not that he lacks permission, it's that he cannot. It's impossible. Those who are in the flesh, he sums it up in verse eight, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. It's an impossibility altogether. Those who have not been regenerated cannot. So they seek after material. What are these things, though, in comparison to the weight of the soul that each of us here possesses, that each of us here is called to tend to, to give in service to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? What are these things? What will it profit you? If you are here today loving the world and seeking to gain all that the world gives you to the neglect of Jesus Christ, if your allegiance is there and not with the Lord and with his kingdom that is coming, what will it profit you? if you throw away your soul to get all of it. You aren't even close to getting all of it. But even if you could, you wouldn't profit your soul anything. If your eye causes us to sin, pluck it out. The desires of the eyes, if I've got two eyes full of material possessions, better not to see them at all. Better to have new eyes in the new heavens and new earth and see Jesus than to spend these eyes on desiring things. I've got to be careful about this because I like to get on... I like to go online. I'll be a real person with you. One temptation I have is to look for antique cars for sale. I love those old things. I like working on them. I like driving them. when they actually do drive. Rebecca could tell you about some times I got a little frustrated. But anyway, I love looking at those antique cars. To me, they look beautiful. Not as beautiful as you, but they do look nice. I like working on them. I like driving them. And so that's a temptation for me. And as I thought through this verse, do not love the Lord. Is my heart constantly in its when I'm not required to think about anything, is that where it goes? Does it gravitate to something material? These cars are all rusting away, most of them are. They're not gonna last, they're passing away. My heart is to be set on the Lord Jesus Christ and my desire is to be for His kingdom, for His glory. These are the desires of the Christian, not the desires of the eyes. Don't need to have two eyes full of cars, need to have two eyes full of Christ. Don't need to have two eyes full of Making cars fast, make them look nice. The only thing fast about a car is how fast you spend money on it. That's the only thing I've learned. If I've learned one thing in my 28 years to be on this earth, that's it. The pride of life, pride of possessions, the pride of a self-sufficient attitude that doesn't see any need to acknowledge God. We heard about that when Brother Gables came. Remember in James 4, 13, 17, where we had the two men that said, okay, we're gonna go to this town, and we're gonna sell and trade and do business, and we're going to make such and such a profit, and then we'll come back and we'll be set, you know, fixed. Not a bad plan, but where was God in any of it? He wasn't in any of it. And that was what their plan lacked. They had pride in their possessions, what they were going to do, what they were going to accomplish. But it lacked God. God wasn't in any of it. They didn't see the possessions through the eyes of God, that they're to be used for Him. If we become rich and wealthy, give it to others, give it liberally. God loves it, should forgive her. No, that's not a plea for socialism, by the way. But at the same time, pride of possessions, pride of possessions. Some people's possessions, they become their all in all. That's not from the father. It is from the world. We've all heard the saying, the one who dies with the most toys wins. Well, that's actually wrong. It's the one who dies with the most toys still dies and has to leave the toys, put them away. You can't carry anything out just like you didn't carry anything in. Pride of life, pride of possessions, the whole keeping up with the Joneses attitude. The Joneses are ahead of me in many ways spiritually, and I'm glad for that. But keeping up with the Joneses materially is the idea that I've got to do just as good as my neighbor does, that I've got to somehow, you know, look really nice and impressive. Then we actually had this, there was a block in Homewood where we used to live where they It was a classic example of Keating with the Joneses. This one family took their house and actually lifted it in Homewood. There's a lot of really small houses, all about 100 years old, really small by comparison to the homes in Mountain Brook and such. But they lifted this home up, put it in the air, and built a floor underneath it. So their old home became the second floor. That was really impressive, until their neighbors came along and lifted their home 10 feet higher and built a ground floor underneath that one. And those two homes are still sitting there. I always think of that phrase, keep it up with the Joneses. They really got in a money-spending feud there, so you could build the nicest house. And you know what? Both those houses, they're going to crumble one day. Anyway. This world is passing away, verse 17, alluded to it many times. This world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. There's those who desire possessions for themselves, they're passing away. There's those who desire to do the will of God, who desire to use this material creation to do His will, to love Him, to serve Him, to praise Him, to worship Him, to make Him known in creation. Those people are the ones that abide forever. They're the ones with everlasting desires, and they're gonna have those desires into eternity. being with the Lord Jesus Christ. They will get more of him and never have enough, always wanting more. Those are the desires that are gonna last forever. World refers to material creation. The world is passing away. All the ideologies that set themselves against Christ is passing away. There's gonna come a day when they're no longer here. Hallelujah. And the desires, all the material possessions, God is making all things new at the molecular level. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3, verse 10, that all these things are gonna burn. All these things we spend money and time on, they're all gonna burn. The day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. And the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. The elements will melt with fervent heat. I'm pretty sure it's the way the King James puts that. There's a molecular change that's going on here in the making of new heavens and the new earth. And to love this world and all its perishing contents is the equivalent of polishing brass on a sinking ship. It's going down. You're spending your life, your time, your effort, your energy, your love on something that does you no good in the end. These things we live for can't save us. With wisdom, we use what the world offers for the advance of God's kingdom. The material world is not evil. Love for it is the very root of evil. If our hearts are with the treasures of this world, we too will perish with them down here. We'll perish with them. C.S. Lewis, quote from him, the only things, I'm sorry, anything that is not eternal is eternally out of date. It's nothing worth spending your eternal soul living for. Translation of that would be the only things that matter are those of an eternal character, have an eternal aspect. Those are the only things that matter that we're to spend our life on. Daniel Aiken, professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he writes in his work on 1 John, pride, prestige, power, and position count for nothing in the kingdom of God. We might think of the verse, God's no respecter of persons. The value system of this world is turned on its head when God provides the evaluation. In Philippians also, Philippians three, verses 18 and 19, we read, 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, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things." The person with their mind set on earthly things, they need to hear the gospel. They need to be warned. Because their end is what? The beginning of verse 19? Destruction. They've fallen into the temptation. They bought Satan's sales pitch that he sold Eve way back in the garden. You might think of Jim Elliot's quote, he's no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. We're going, we're going somewhere beyond the grave. And we know we're going to leave all this behind. So better while we're here to spend it for something eternal treasure. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. God's not against accumulation, just the wrong kinds of accumulation. We are to lay up treasures in heaven, but not here on this earth. James writes, we got Paul there, James writes in chapter four, verse four of his book, friendship with the world is enmity with God. We'll bring this to a close here with some applications. We must examine our hearts to see the what, the where, how we love the world. There are things that have our heart, that our heart holds onto, runs to. Is it the praise of the world? Is it fame? Is it the pride of life? Pride and possessions? Is it ideas and philosophies of the world? that are fleshly, desires of the flesh, antithetical to godliness? Is it material possessions that our eyes desire, two eyes full of those that our hearts crave more and more of and never says enough? We read in Ecclesiastes, when goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with their eyes? We want to see things used up, used up for the glory and service of God. Jesus said, of course, John 18, 36, my kingdom is not of this world. This world is a perishing kingdom. We are called to live for the imperishable, incorruptible, eternal, spiritual kingdom. Whoever loves the world is under the power of him who has the world under his power. Satan, if we love the world, that is satanic, to love the world. Say, I want this, I want this stuff, I don't want Christ, I want the world's ideas, I don't want God's ideas. To love the world and the desires and the things in the world is satanic, nothing less. Do we cling to what we have? Do we cling to the world's ideologies? Or do we cling to Jesus, what he taught, what he said? Does Jesus have all authority over what we have? Have we surrendered all that we have to his service? End with two quotes. James Montgomery Boyce, as Christians, we are married to Christ. Therefore, we must not dishonor that relationship by adultery or even flirting with the world. I like that picture there, that's a good one. And then Douglas Sean O'Donnell, in his commentary, makes a similar statement. You cannot have God as your spouse and have the world as your mistress. Ask your wife how she felt if you had a mistress, guys, not too happy. God is not happy at all if we want to say, yeah, I'm a Christian, and then have our hearts all in the world entangled with the loves, the desires of this world and its false ideology. So may God help us to love him supremely, to serve him supremely with all that he gives us, not despising the world as the Gnostics did, but not idolizing it as materialists do. Let's stand for prayer. Father, God, we're grateful for the time we've been in your house to consider your word. We thank you for the word which pierces the inward man, which exposes the thoughts and intents of our heart. We pray that you would help us in order to think rightly about this world, about our time here, that we would not have hearts that are mixed, that desire the world, desire to be known as Christian, but that we would not be caught up Love for this world, material possessions would not be the great desire of your heart, but it would be Christ, to have two eyes full of him, to have a heart wholly devoted to his worship and to his service. Pray for those who are struggling, Lord, with the things of this world, who perhaps have idols. Pray that you would give them the grace and the strength to search those idols out, to displace them, to be rid of them, that they might serve you afresh, with new vigor, with the heart they were formerly giving to idols. Lord, we pray that you would bless us, that you would fill us with your Spirit, Lord, that we would walk according to the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of our flesh. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.