1 John 2:15-17
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
The Bible clearly states that it is not the will of God for any to perish.
2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Revelation 22:17
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
I can confidently stand here this morning and tell you that if God had His way about it, there would not be one soul that would be lost!
It is the absolute, unequivocal, definite will of God for every man, woman, boy and girl in the world to be saved and live in heaven for eternity!
The promise is to everyone, the invitation is given to whosoever will, the love of God extended to everyone, and it’s not the will of God that any should perish.
But, will everyone go to Heaven?
Will everyone be saved?
Will everyone partake of the precious promise?
Of course we know that they won’t, but why?
Why will some be lost when salvation is free?
Why will some go to hell when it’s the will of God for everyone to go to Heaven and spend eternity with Him?
Here’s the simple answer, some will be lost because they simply love this present world!
Some will be lost simply because they can’t get their sights set on heaven!
Some will burn for eternity in a lake of fire, simply because they loved the present, temporary pleasures that this world has to offer!
THE DRAW OF THE PRESENT WORLD HAS CAUGHT MANY UNSUSPECTING CHRISTIANS IN IT’S TRAP.
The scripture is littered with the stories of people who started out with a strong spiritual purpose and anointing, but got sidetracked by this present world!
People like:
Samson
A man whose birth was announced by an angel, much as the birth of Jesus. A man of whom it was prophesied, “He shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines”
A man with Godly purpose, and divine design on his life. A man who was blessed with strength above any man.
A man whose actual birth is recorded in scripture thusly:
Judges 13:24-25
24 And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Now, if this was the last recording we have of Samson, we could safely assume that he
kept his focus,
fulfilled his purpose,
Allowed the spirit of God to use him.
But, sadly enough, this is not where his story ends.
Without explanation, or a lot of historical backdrop, Chapter 13 ends, and here is how we find the man Samson at the beginning of Chapter 14:
Judges 14:1-2
And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
Now, in all of this, God continued to move thru Samson, and maybe that’s what fooled him.
In time, he loses this wife to a friend.
But, he’s gotten a taste of the world now, and next we find him visiting a harlot.
He’s experiencing the temporary pleasures of sin.
And, soon after his visit to Gaza, we find his eye being caught by a young lady named Delilah.
You know the rest of the story, I don’t have to recount it for you today.
But, let me say this: The full potential of a God-anointed life was never realized for one reason:
Samson loved this present world!
He could never elevate his sights heavenward.
They continually were on this present world!
Ironically, the Bible tells us that the Hebrew meaning of the word Delilah is “feeble”.
In light of his strength, Delilah was a feeble, fragile, weak vessel of destruction………..
but, it was this feeble temptation that brought a great man of God to destruction!
It was Paul who asked the Galatians, incredulously, Galatians 4:9
9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
The things that entice us in this world, in light of eternal riches are feeble and weak.
Yet many will sell their souls for the weak and feeble things of this present world.
We need people like Moses, of whom the Bible says:
Hebrews 11:24-26
24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Contunued: on next page…
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
The New Living Translation says it like this: Hebrews 11:26
26 He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of the Messiah than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the great reward that God would give him.
Oh God, help us to get our eyes off of this present world, and on the reward that is ours in heaven!
Help us to look beyond this fleeting life and into eternity!
I think of Solomon, a man whose beginning is recorded in this manner:
2 Samuel 12:24
24 And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him.
His anointing is described in 1 Kings 4:29
29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
He went on to write 3000 proverbs, and 1005 songs.
He wrote proverbs such as:
“Wisdom and discretion shall preserve thee, Proverbs 2:16
16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
In speaking of the harlot, he says this: Proverbs 7:24-26
24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. 25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. 26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
Scattered throughout the proverbs in the following chapters are sporadic references to ungodly women and the inherent dangers of association with such.
And, it’s almost ironic, a cruel twist of fate to read:
1 Kings 11:1-2
But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
The very thing that Solomon preached against caught his eye!
The very world that Solomon railed against trapped him!
The very warnings that he so vehemently broadcast for the young men who were to follow him, he ignored!
And Solomon died dancing around the idol Chemosh, hidden in the darkness of the groves, throwing babies into it’s flaming mouth…….simply because he fell in love with this present world!
I think of Demas, a man who could have been the next Timothy.
A man who had the opportunity to pick up the mantle of Paul and light up the world with the gospel.
A man so close to Paul that he was mentioned, and specifically referred to as “my fellow laborer” by the great Apostle.
But, the sad decline of Demas is found in the fact that he’s mentioned only three times:
Demas is my fellowlaborer
Demas is with me
Demas hath forsaken me……HAVING LOVED THIS PRESENT WORLD!
What a sad epitaph of a wasted life! A life that was anointed of God, started out on the right path, but was side tracked by the temporary pleasures of this present world!
Could the hurt of this desertion still have been fresh in the heart of Paul as he instructed the young man Titus to allow the grace of God to keep him righteous in “this present world”?
We live in this present world, but we cannot fall in love with it!
We’re here for one purpose, to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to this world!
Jesus said that we are IN the world, but not OF the world!
In our text this morning, John says, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him!”
God help us to love the inhabitants of this world enough to share the gospel, but help us to not love the pleasures of this world!
THE REASON WE TRADE THE SPIRITUAL FOR THE CARNAL IS THAT WE CAN’T SEE THE SPIRITUAL.
One of the dangers of the end time is that we become so preoccupied on the material, the temporal, the carnal…..that we forget that there is a heaven and a hell that will last for eternity.
The allure, the shine, the glitter of worldly things will block out our view of the eternal if we let it.
Astronomers are now faced with a problem—the glare of city lights is threatening some of the country’s largest optical telescopes out of business, in California especially.
The blinding glow from nearby Los Angeles has rendered Mount Wilson Observatory’s 100-in. telescope useless in looking at distant galaxies.
Even the 200-in. Hale mirror on Mount Palomar—the world’s largest telescope—may soon be seriously imperiled by the increasing glare of San Diego and Los Angeles.
California astronomers agree that the day is not far off when they will have to transfer to new peaks—if any suitable ones can still be found.
When the glare of the world blocks our view of the heavens, we need to find another vantage point.
A United Press survey found that the “typical American” is a twenty-seven-year-old who does not read one book a year.
He is materialistic,
satisfied with small pleasures,
bored with theological disputations.
Although he may attend church twenty- seven times a year, he is not interested in the supernatural.
He is concerned with neither heaven nor hell.
In fact, he has no interest whatsoever in immortality.
His principal interests are football, hunting, fishing, and car-tinkering.
Loving this present world…….
A dulling of the spiritual senses by the enticements and temporary pleasure of this world…..
RELIGION DECLINES IN USA
Last year, 29.4 million Americans said they had no religion, compared with 14.3 million in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.
The study, which was conducted among 20,000 US households also showed that the proportion of the population classified as Christian declined to 56% in 2001, down from 77% in 1990.
“In fact, the number of Americans who do not belong to an organized religion is so large that, if it were its own denomination, it would be the third largest in the nation behind Catholics and Southern Baptists, “ said Fred Kniss, an expert on the sociology of religion at Loyola University in Chicago.
Paul warns that in the last days, men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God………
There is a certain tribe in Africa that elects a new king every seven years but it invariably kills its old king.
For seven years the member of the tribe enjoying this high honor is provided with every luxury known to savage life.
During these years his authority is absolute, even to the power of life and death.
For seven years he rules, is honored and surfeited with possessions, but at the end he dies.
Every member of the tribe is aware of this, for it is a custom of long standing; but there is never lacking an applicant for the post.
For seven years of luxury and power men are willing to sacrifice the remainder of life’s expectation.
Scores and hundreds and thousands are willing to be bankrupts through eternity if they may only win their millions here.
It is the goal of our enemy to blind us to the eternal, to fill our vision with the temporary pleasures of this world and cause us to lose our souls and spend eternity in a devil’s hell.
CONCLUSION:
Are we in love with this present world today?
Are we like Esau, willing to trade an invisible birthright for a visible bowl of pottage?
God will never send anyone to hell, but some will send themselves, simply because they love this present world.
Luke 4:5-8
5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
James 4:4
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Timothy 4:10
10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Titus 2:11-13
11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
