Sermon Brief
Date Written: February 18, 2009
Date Preached: March 04, 2009
Where Preached: Oak Park (Wed Evening)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Series from 1 John
Sermon Title: Called to Reject the World!
Sermon Text: 1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Introduction:
I once heard a story of a not so smart farmer who wanted to save himself so money. He was tired of paying a high cost for the oats that he fed his mule, and so he decided to begin gradually substituting sawdust in the mule’s diet.
The mule did not seem to notice and ate whatever the farmer placed in front of him and for a while all was well. However, by the time the mule was fully weaned from the oats and eating ONLY sawdust, it did not take long before he died.
From a spiritual perspective, as believers, when we begin feeding ourselves the ‘sawdust’ of the world… things like worldly desires and pleasures… rather than the ‘oats’ of the Word of God… we do not realize that we are dying until it is too late. Only God’s word can satisfy and feed the soul…we must flee from the world and cling to the Word of God and to God himself to sustain our walk in Christ!
Tonight I want us to look at these verses from John and see just how we cannot substitute ANYTHING this world has to offer for what we have IN Christ. Anything this world has to offer is like sawdust and carries NO value, and in the end will destroy us, we must cling to the MEAT of the Word of God to be fed!
Let’s take a look at these 3 verses tonight and see what John has to say about NOT substituting God’s word for ANYTHING this world has to offer…
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Now, we just read a couple of weeks ago that God has called us to LOVE each other and show God’s love to all. The Bible says that God is love and that God desires ALL to come to repentance, so how can John shift gears so quickly and say something like, “Do not love the world…”
Well to understand this we must understand how John defines the word “world” and what context he is using it. John is speaking of the world in terms of those who are against God…those who are NOT seeking to honor God, or even acknowledge Him.
John’s description of the world here refers to the immoral, self-centered worldly stance that pleasure for SELF is all important and that seeking to please God is NOT our focus. The ‘world’ that John refers to here is the Satan influenced sinful nature that permeates all of humanity to go against God and to seek self instead!
In 2 Tim 4 Paul makes mention of a co-worker in Christ who abandoned him because of his love for the world, turn to 2 Tim 4:10 and read with me as Paul says, “…10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica…”
John is writing to BELIEVERS in this letter, not to those OUTSIDE the grace of God, but believers who had received God’s grace and forgiveness, but they were having a problem living what they claimed. It seems as if John’s admonition here is because they were having trouble letting go of their old lives and habits and John was calling for them to walk worthy of that calling!
So it is in THAT context in which John tells the believers to which he is writing… to NOT love the world or the things this world has to offer… to shun these things because these things are what God hates…. Which John goes on to describe in the next verse! Let’s read that verse now…
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
Here we find John detailing what he had introduced in v.15. John basically breaks down the worldly characteristics into 3 basic categories:
The lust of the flesh
The lust of the eyes, and finally
The pride of life
And this ties directly to the sinful nature of humanity and actually ties all the way back to the fall in the garden as these 3 categories SEEM to correlate to the temptations that Eve faced from the serpent in the Garden.
Likewise these 3 categories also SEEM to correlate to the 3 temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness temptation by Satan himself. But there is really no evidence to prove that is what John is alluding to in this case, but there is no doubting the correlation that these categories have to those 2 particular and documented occasions of temptation.
However, more than likely John was just making a short list of where humanity falls short… places and occasions that lure believers to fall into sin and AWAY from their loving relationship with God.
Let’s look at each of these categories and define each one so that we can fully understand what John is speaking about…
The lust of the flesh
Represents the sinful sensual desires of the heart, this is in reference to any sexual sin.
The lust of the eyes
Represents the lust for material things and the coveting of material things that do not belong to you.
The pride of life
Is the area of temptation that one takes PRIDE in what they have accomplished, pride here is used pejoratively as a negative, in the sense that God hates a prideful spirit. Unlike the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes which are fairly obvious and recognizable, this form of temptation is most hideous as it has a tendency to hide itself in good works and bearing fruit… we must always be on the guard for this particular temptation.
John completes this thought by stating to these believers, and to all who will hear him that these 3 categories represent things that are NOT of God, but are carnal in nature and they should be avoided and shunned.
These 3 categories of temptation for the believer cover the entire human spectrum and any and all temptations can fall into one of these 3 categories. John is putting out the warning that we are NOT to fall prey to these hideous downfalls…but that we are to seek a walk close to Christ so as to avoid these pitfalls in our relationship with God.
Finally John wraps this thought up in v. 17 as he tells the believers the end game for these types of actions and temptations, let’s read v.17…
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
The temptations listed in v.16 are not things that we can hold onto because these things are NOT eternal, but they are temporary and will pass away. The things we lust for physically and sexually are things that pass away.
The things we covet and set our hearts to own or obtain, these things are material and will NOT survive. The power and position that brings a pride in one’s self is also fleeting and will fade and NOT survive…
All of these things the world has to offer… although they are very alluring and attractive to the human heart… and although we THINK that they are things that will bring happiness and contentment, we must understand that they are hollow and empty.
The promises of this world will let us down, and disappoint us…they will NEVER fulfill us! We cannot lay our eternal hopes on sexual pleasures, materials wealth OR position in this life… none of that is eternal, it is all temporal and will let us down!
But when we are obedient to Christ and do the will of the Father we are blessed in that we have Christ abiding within us forever. Jesus promised that He would never leave nor forsake His disciples… that NO ONE could take them out of His hand.
Jesus did leave this earth after His crucifixion and resurrection but He brought in the Holy Spirit that indwells the heart of the believer and is counsel and guide to all who profess faith and trust in Christ. All other things will pass away, but God’s presence is always with those who profess Him as Lord.
We must always realize that this world will offer things that are appealing to our eye… things that are appealing to our desires… and things that are appealing to our ego and self-centered idea of who we are… BUT this world’s promises will not last, they are but temporary and empty promises that will NEVER fulfill our heart!
God has promised total and complete contentment in Him. We will not know that total contentment here on this world but we will one day as we stand in His presence and hear the words of our Savior say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord!”
