Obama Needs To Hear This

The harmony of these kids will just bless your heart. Amazing! I can't stop listening to them.

"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."
2 Corinthians 5:20-21

Enjoy

DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD

BFG Lesson

10/4/2009

1 John 2:15-17

Notes based on sermons by John MacArthur and John Piper
Prepared by Robert Moritz



“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 in 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.” 1 John 2:15-17

The text begins with a command — it's the only command in the text and therefore probably the main point. Verse 15a: "Do not love the world or the things in the world." Everything else in the text is a reason for or against why we should not love the world. A big problem with Christians today, especially in America is our love for the world and the things of the world. When we chase after the things of this world we end up committing idolatry.

The first reason John gives for not loving the world is that "if any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him" (verse 15b). In other words the reason you shouldn't love the world is that you can't love the world and God at the same time. Love for the world pushes out love for God, and love for God pushes out love for the world. Its one or the other. Jesus even said, “whoever is not with me, is against me.” Math 12:30a

Then in verse 16 comes the support and explanation of that first argument. Take a look at verse 16: The reason love for the world pushes out love for God is that "all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions, is not of the Father but is of the world.

Jesus also told us, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24). So don't love the world, because that would put you in the class with the God-haters whether you think you are or not. "If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him." That's the first reason John gives not to love the world.

Even though that one reason alone would be enough, he then gives two more incentives not to love the world. One is a negative and the other a positive.

The World Is Passing Away and Its Lusts - Negative

First, in verse 17a he says, "And the world passes away, and the lust of it." Nobody buys stock in a company that is sure to go bankrupt. Nobody builds a house in sinking sand. No reasonable person would lay up treasure where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, would they? The world is passing away! To set your heart on it is only asking for heartache and misery in the end.

That's not all: not only is the world passing away, but also the lusts of it. If you share the desires of the world, you will pass away. You will not only lose your treasure, you will lose your life. If you love the world, it will pass away and take you with it. "The world passes away and the lust of it."

If You Do the Will of the Father, You Will Live Forever - Positive

Second, in verse 17b John says, "But he who does the will of God abides for ever." The opposite of loving the world is not only loving the Father (verse 15), but also doing the will of the Father (verse 17). And that connection is not hard to understand. Jesus said, "If you love me you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). John said in 1 John 5:3 which we’ll look at in a few weeks, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." So loving the Father in verse 15 and doing the will of God in verse 17 are not really separate things.

If you love God, you will love what he wills. It is empty talk to say I love God but I don't love what God loves. So John is saying in verse 17, "If you love the world, you will perish with the world, but if you don't love the world but love God, you will do his will and live with him for ever."

The Reality of Satan's Reign

Before we go any further, we need to look at what John means by the world. Here John doesn’t just mean material things. He’s also talking about the whole world system.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden they forfeited their right to rule the planet as God intended. Instead they obeyed Satan and sold their rulership of the world to him. Much the same way that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for food. Satan then created an evil world system opposed to God and that is what now dominates the planet. Satan’s system will continue to dominate the planet right up until the Great Tribulation.

In verse 15 John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” Why? Because the things in the world are part of the satanic system. John MacArthur says, “1 John 2:15 tells us to stop loving the system and the things that are in it; for if anyone is in love with it, his claim to love God is invalid. The system that Satan has developed is in total opposition to God. A person cannot love both. John is defining a Christian as one who loves God, rather than Satan's system.” Satan’s world system can be characterized by 3 factors that enabled him to control the world:

• False Religion: Satan needed to counteract the truth. So he developed lies about God, eternal destiny, and other spiritual truths. All false religions claim that man enters God's presence not on the basis of what God has done by His grace, but on the basis of what man can do himself if he is good enough.

• Crime and War: Satan brought fear and bondage into man's life through crime and war. Men are pitted against men. Throughout history, Satan has used crime, arguments, riots, and wars to destroy the unity that God had intended for the world to have. All forms of crime are a threat against unity. Every time a person steals, covets, or destroys what is someone else's--even to the point of killing them--the unity that God designed for mankind to experience disintegrates further.

• Godless Living: Is a way of living that operates independently of God. Satan has developed a system in which he can captivate men. It is anti-God and anti-Christ. It is rebellion to truth and contradicts God’s will. Although he may not be directly responsible, Satan is behind all Godlessness taking place today in opposition to God’s Kingdom.

First John 2:15 tells us to stop loving the world system and the things that are in it; for if anyone is in love with it, his claim to love God is invalid. The system that Satan has developed is in total opposition to God. A person cannot love both. John is defining a Christian as one who loves God, rather than Satan's system. James makes a very similar statement that I’d like us all to take a look at. Turn if you will to James 4:1-4: You see if you love the world not only are you denying God, but you are an enemy of God. (READ) Love for the world and love for God are absolutely antithetical. In other words they are polar opposites. A person cannot love both at the same time. A true Christian does not love the world. It is impossible because its in direct opposition with who he is.

One reason we do not love the world is because of what it does. It incites to sin. The world's system is designed to tempt a person to sin. God wants to generate holiness in our lives as we become more like Jesus Christ. Satan uses the world to tempt us. Some of us are able to resist the world's temptation because of our maturity in Christ. But that does not change the evil intentions of the world, which opposes the holiness that God desires in every Christian's life.

Plague of the Christian Church in America

According to verse 15 in our text, if your love for God is cool today it may be because love for the world has begun to take over your heart and choke your love for God. The love of the world and the love of the Father cannot coexist. And every heart loves something. The very essence of our nature is desire. We all lust after something, we all covet something.

So what is this "world" that we are not to love? Verse 16 says it is characterized by three things: "lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." The first two—lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes—refer to desires for what we don't have. And the third—the pride of possessions—refers to the pride in what we do have. The world is driven by these two things: passion for pleasure and pride in possessions.

According to John Piper, “the passion for pleasure is described in two ways because there are two large classes of pleasure—physical and aesthetic. There is the lust of the flesh—bodily pleasures; and the lust of the eyes—aesthetic and intellectual pleasures. There is the lust of the gutter and the lust of the gourmet. There is the lust for hard rock and the lust for high Rachmaninoff. There is the lust of Penthouse and the lust of Picasso. This book ends with the ringing command: "Little children, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS!"—whether they are crude or whether they are cultured.”

Anything in this world that is not of God can rob your heart of the love of God. Anything that is not God can draw your heart away from God. If you don't have something, the lust for it can fill you with passion to get it. If you get it, it can fill you with pride that you've got it.

The Apostle Paul deals very succinctly with the pride of life when he says in 1 Corinthians 4:7, "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though it were not a gift .” and again in 1 Cor 1:31, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" So let there be no boasting in possessions because it all belongs to God.

(I was just thinking about this very thing this past week and a friend also posted this very thought on her Facebook page last night. The fact that every thing we have is a gift from God. We own nothing. Every breath we take, Every drop of water, every morsel of food we eat is a gift from God. We cannot live without any of those things for very long. Yet God provides them to us every day without us even thinking about what a blessing it is to be alive.)

And against the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes the psalmist says, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee." Therefore let us desire nothing but God. Possess nothing but God; pursue nothing but God.

The Problem With The Church Today

One of the greatest iniquities plaguing the Christian Church today is worldliness. If you drive across the country today, you can tune into many different “Christian” radio stations along the way and hear a whole host of teaching, the least of which is true Christian doctrine. Instead, what you hear will reveal much about the secret motivations that drive many Christians today. The same holds true for “Christian” television. Some of these broadcasts would be hilarious if they weren’t so sad.

Instead of true Biblical teaching we have false teachers deceiving and exploiting the gullible. They run around with all kinds of gimmicks to convince people that all they have to do is trust in Christ and they can have health, wealth and success in His name.

• I’ve heard one speaker offer holy water and lucky charms to those who send a donation of X amount of dollars.

• I’ve seen people like Robert Tilton who offers his listeners a prayer cloth that has been blessed by him which would bring money, new cars, health, etc.

• I heard one speaker say he would mail out holy soap which he had blessed. It would wash away any bad luck, evil friends and sickness.

Of course as a true member of God’s elect, these kinds of things should bring real disgust to our hearts because we have our present day Gnostics, teaching a false gospel and leading deceived sheep down the broad road to destruction. And how is this stuff being marketed? Churches are using every type of gimmick imaginable from famous athletes, beauty queens, even business men and politicians who, “make it in the world and have Jesus too.”

Unfortunately today, Christian values are defined almost totally by success as it is promoted by Madison Avenue marketing. Even many Christian ministries gauge their effectiveness by the standards of Harvard MBA’s. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So what can we say about today’s evangelical Christians who follow after the desires of this world. Getting into debt for cars, homes, furnishings and clothes that probably aren’t needed and sacrificing family, church and health for corporate promotions and career advancement. Should Christians be loving the world system so much?

I believe all this is deception engineered by the god of this world to ensnare and destroy effective Christians and to keep them from sharing the Gospel with those who need it. In his book, “Revolution In World Missions, Dr. K. P. Yohannan compares and contrasts what it is to be saved in America vs. what it means to be saved in Asia. The American version, he states, goes something like this: “I was sick and broke, a total failure. Then I met Jesus. Now everything is fine; my business is booming and I am a great success.” It sounds wonderful, if you’re having problems in this life, all you have to do is become a Christian and you’ll get that bigger house and a new car and a boat and you’ll be able to take that vacation around the world.

Dr. Yohannan goes on to say, “ if that were really God’s way, it would put some believers living in anti-Christian and third world countries in a pretty bad light. Their testimonies go something like this, “I was happy. I had everything – prestige, recognition, a good job, and a happy family. Then I gave my life to Jesus Christ. Now I am in Siberia, having lost my family, my wealth, my reputation, job and health. Here I live, lonely, deserted by friends. I cannot see the face of my wife or dear children. My crime? That I love Jesus.” What a difference. Satan has so completely twisted the way we look at Christianity in America today that it is completely backwards.

And what about the heroes of the faith down through the ages? The apostles laid down their lives for the Lord. Christian martyrs have written their names on every page of history.

(Book – Fox’s Book of Martyrs.) Countless stories of men and women down through the ages who have given their lives for the cause of Christ.

One Indian man named Sundar Singh, born and raised in a rich Indian sect’s home became a Christian – his own family tried to poison him and banished him from their home. He lost his inheritance and walked away with one piece of clothing on his body. Yet, following his Master, he made millions truly rich through faith in Christ. American Christianity is so corrupt and backwards. It follows after the system of the world which as we saw was created by Satan. It has become fat, dumb, lazy and happy. Content to just watch the world go by, unwilling to lay it all on the line for the cause of Christ.

Today we have people like Joel Osteen telling his followers that they can have their best life now. That God wants them to be happy and that they can preserver and overcome their struggles. What a damnable message. And he preaches to 30,000 plus every week, not to mention the people he reaches around the globe via TV. He’s leading them all down the path of destruction. His message is a complete polar opposite to what John is talking about in our passage this morning.

Christians in Asia and other parts of the world often suffer for their commitment to Christ. Coming from non-Christian backgrounds, they often are literally thrown out of their homes, lose their jobs and are beaten and chased from their villages when they accept Christ. They faithfully serve Christ daily, suffering untold hardships because Jesus promised His followers in John 16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Christ never promised us health, wealth and prosperity in this life. In fact, He promised just the opposite – trials and tribulations. We can face them because we know He already has won the battle. God does promise to meet our physical needs. And He does, indeed, bless His children materially. But He blesses us for a purpose – not so we can squander those resources on ourselves but so we can be good stewards, using our resources wisely to win the lost to God’s saving grace.

Some people say, "It's so hard to live a pure life today." It's always been hard, but the media today has probably made it more difficult to maintain a pure life. There's no sense in watching a movie that is filled with profanity, violence, and sexual immorality. Exposing yourself to things like that is only going to allow your mind to be preoccupied with the world's value system. And this is something I struggle with all the time. Like, when the latest movie comes out and we want to go see it, we’re giving our money in support of Hollywood which is a large component of the current world system.

Have you ever carefully listened to the music of world? I like many kinds of music, but the ideas that are conveyed through the music of the world rarely square with what the Word of God says. If your ears are constantly bombarded by such music, you may find yourself following the world's morality. The same is true with television: When you watch it, you are sold the world's standards in a very slick way. The system is geared to generate sin, and if you want to play with it, that's exactly what it will do in your life. If you want to stick yourself in the world's mold--its materialism, humanism, and immorality--you are going against the very nature of your identity in Christ. Since we are called to "shine as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:15), we had better make sure people can see that there's something different about us. We need to disconnect ourselves from the system by saturating our minds with the Word of God to establish the right kind thought patterns.

Conclusion

If you are a Christian, are you living the holy life that the Lord expects of you?

Knowing that we are conditioned to accept the world's values through secular media, we must carefully evaluate the kinds of things that we expose our eyes and ears to. Is TV programming you with its distorted perspective of human relationships and materialism? Its influence on you may have been so gradual and subtle that it has been hardly noticeable. Have you become so worldly that it is difficult to tell you apart from an unbeliever who attends church? Based on your understanding of the Word of God, examine yourself to see how brightly your life shines in the world as a lighthouse of truth to the people lost on the sea of secularism.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. John Piper puts it best when he says, "If the love of the Father is in you, if you love God with all your heart, then every room you enter will be a temple of love to God, all your work will be a sacrifice of love to God, every meal will be a banquet of love with God, every song will be an overture of love to God."

AMEN