Do you Love The World

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Christian greetings to one and all this morning. Kind of a privilege to be with you this morning to share the word of God, to worship together, to honor him in truth and in holiness. Who else would we want to turn to? [00:00:33] As I was meditating recently, reading through Chronicles, there's something that was outstanding to me. And I'm sure that each one of you who have read through there maybe probably went through the same kind of feelings that I did. But we notice one king after another. many of the times at the beginning of the chapter it would say his kingdom and how long it would last and then it would say something else and it would say he didn't serve God [00:01:08] or he turned away from God and then there were maybe a couple of those kings and then all at once there were those who would come on the scene And it says, and this king did that which was right in the sight of God. And it was a refreshment. Here it was a king that had turned away from, and it says that many times he would destroy the idolatry and take down the places of worship where they were doing, the groves. [00:01:39] And they would build up the temple again, which would be taken down during those other kings' reigns. Kings like Josiah and Malachi, a time of refreshment. But one thing that was grieving to me, many times, in each of those times you say, Oh, here there's a blessing now, and they've turned around and they've come back. Then we notice that the sun takes it way back the other way again. [00:02:11] I kept saying, What's wrong? What went wrong that here we have a reign of maybe 30 to 50 years and then the sun goes back to idol worship? Spoke to my heart, do you love the world? Old familiar song found in Christian hymnal. And I said, yeah, Lord, we know the world in us. [00:02:41] That's what takes us away from God. But, Lord, that's pretty blunt. Is that what you want from us? We're raised in a lot of, we have teaching, we have Christian churches. Sunday after Sunday we come together. Do we need a message on something like this? Surely not. Fell asleep, woke up again with a song on my heart, the same one. Did that about four times. [00:03:16] I said, yes, Lord, I'll preach the message. That's what we need. We need a message that tells us that we have an adversary. We have one who wants to take us away. He wants us to love, not him. We have an adversary that wants to take our sights off the God of the universe. Even though we might do things right, he comes right into our own homes and he tries to persuade otherwise. [00:03:51] Turn with me to Scripture and 1 John 2.15. We'll read several verses. 1 John chapter 2 reading several verses here 15 through 17 and if you will we'll do like we do in Romania in Romania there we always stand to read the word and honor to it so this morning we will stand and we'll read these three verses here in 1 John [00:04:28] And there it says, 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. 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. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. He may be seated. Amen. We have instruction here in the first verse. [00:05:03] It says, love not. God is saying, choose a better way. God understands the result of loving the world. Make a proper constructive decision. Who is getting your devotion? Man is built, made in such a way that we give devotion to someone. [00:05:37] Who is getting that devotion? Cain and Abel brought forth a sacrifice at the beginning of time. We all know as children, we know the results. One was accepted and the other was not. Abel was honest with a true devotion and God blessed him. I'm not sure, you know the story books say that the smoke went up. I don't know what it was. But there was assurance there, there was a blessing. [00:06:11] Cain's worship was deceitful. He brought his own idea of worship before God. It tells us the scriptures that he brought the first fruits of what he was doing. Well, that's honorable, bringing the very first. But I think the key, and we know also that that was not blessed. God did not bless his sacrifice, his offering that he had given. [00:06:44] Why? Why didn't God bless it? I'm not quite sure, but we know that it was deceitful because as we think of the sacrifice and what it represents, sacrifices represent our giving before God. And we know that the sacrifice that God wanted was that of blood because it typified the ultimate sacrifice that would bring our redemption. the sacrifice of Jesus and his death [00:07:15] the spilt blood was that which was victorious over the adversary I don't know if that's what was wrong here or not I have a tendency to believe that Cain decided I'll give my type of sacrifice that I have my own opinion of worship my own opinion of giving of myself and that should be satisfying to God and it wasn't Like we heard this morning in the opening, it needs to be God's decision on what kind of worship we have. [00:07:47] We need to be obedient to that. That's the only thing that's going to count. And it didn't count for Cain. It didn't require, it wasn't blood. So it was a wrong kind of worship. It was a devotion that was not true. It was a false worship. How many times do we, in our worship to God, have our own idea of what it should be? And we don't ask and we don't look. [00:08:21] And when we do find it in the Scriptures, we question, is this really true? Is it what I need to be doing? Surely this could be right. My mind goes back to the Old Testament again where when it came time in Nehemiah's time and they brought out the book of the law and they found it and they were back reconstructing Jerusalem [00:08:51] and they found the book and it was brought to them And there was a great trial ahead for Nehemiah. The book of the law said that they were not to intermarry with the people of the land. And they had. Nehemiah believed that. And he said, we need to take care of this or there will be no blessing on our people. [00:09:22] There will be no blessing on the rebuilding of Jerusalem. And so they had to go through that terrible ordeal of separating those that were not of their people. Nehemiah knew what it took. Nehemiah was just like Abel was. He knew what it took. It was not like Cain that decided surely this will pass. And it wouldn't have. Where is your devotion this morning? [00:09:55] As I think, I was reading, I read it again and dug out that tract by Simon Schrock. May I ask who's calling as we think of this message this morning? Do you love the world? We have two voices that come to us continually. They began before the foundation of the world. As we read here in verse 16, it talks about, for all that is of the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. [00:10:26] These are not of the Father, but of the world. It identifies what that is. What is the world? They began with Satan. Satan started to entertain those thoughts and he carried them forth as the root of all sin. And of course, he was cast out of heaven before the founders of the earth. And thus, when the earth was formed and God caused the earth to be a glory to him, here he comes. [00:10:59] He's the adversary and he tries to destroy the works of God that he had performed and made, created. And he deceived the very people that God brought on the earth to be a blessing to his earth that he had created. and a blessing to his kingdom. We have two opposing sides and they both want our attention. God wants our attention. He has a right for our attention because he created us. [00:11:33] He has a right for our devotion because we are his subjects. We're the ones he created to bring honor and glory to him. But Satan is one who is trying to take us away. He's trying to take that devotion and bring it to his side and build a kingdom that will not stand. It's already judged. [00:12:06] Whose voice are you taking your orders this morning? One voice is interested in long-term benefits. The other is concerned about pleasures now Unconcerned about the future Satan is not one who is interested in our well-being But he's interested in his own destruction And he doesn't want to be alone I'm not sure what all is in mind Maybe he's trying to say that if I gain enough [00:12:37] Which is also a worldly thought If I gain enough support, I'll be able to overthrow I don't know what Satan is trying to think or has in mind, but we also know that he knows he's already judged. But that's what deception is. Deception is thinking that we can do something we aren't able to do. That's the way, that's the condition of Satan. And he's trying to get many more people into that rut, into that way. [00:13:09] Love not the world. What is the world? I found a definition I want you to think about very seriously here. I'm going to repeat it because I think it's very worthwhile. What is the world? That which is temporal rather than eternal. Meditate on that. That which is temporal and not eternal. There's different ways of saying world. [00:13:45] Our earth is our world. And I had to think as I was meditating on that, well, that which is temporal. My body is temporal. I need food and we're having a fellowship dinner yet if the Lord gives us opportunity to live that long. to meet our physical needs. Is that wrong? It's temporal. It's something that we need to have. [00:14:17] If I take it away, I would probably perish. If I take the water away, it would probably be much quicker that I would be in a box if I'd refuse to drink water. We need those things. What are we talking about then? That which is temporal rather than eternal. We need these things. And as I was meditating on that, I had to think of something years ago that we had in school. The teacher, it was right at the time when they were trying to show us that the human wisdom is better than the scriptural knowledge that we gain from the Bible and so forth. [00:14:57] But they said, is it really wrong to steal? Is it really wrong? Suppose, they said, you would be starving to death. You hadn't eaten for a long time, and then you come, and you're traveling, say in a desert, and you come to a place where there's something to eat, and you're famished, and you just, there's no one there to ask, so you just take it. And you eat. Is that stealing? Is that wrong? You need that to survive. It's a must. [00:15:31] But you didn't have permission. You just took it. You ate, and you survived. Is that steely or isn't it? I'd like to ask another question. The prodigal son, you know when he left mom and dad, left dad, he said it was no problem for him to ask dad for his inheritance that wasn't his. It wasn't his until his dad died, his father died. But he asked for it and he took it and he spent it. [00:16:04] No problem. It's theft. That's what it was. It wasn't right for him to have it. No problem at all. He was doing it. But during life's course, we notice that he learned something, a thing or two. And he found out that the end of the journey was out there in the pig pen. He found out that he wasn't worthy to be called dad's son anymore. [00:16:37] He'd learned something. If I could just go back and be with dad and be his servant, I'd at least have something to eat. But it tells us he had food there. He could have eaten the swine's food, but it says no man gave it to him. He had learned something. He had learned that if he had taken the swine's food without permission, it had been stealing. Stealing. So he was asking or desiring to go back to the Father where he could be a servant and have food in the right way. He had learned something. Is it wrong? Yes, it is. It's stealing. But you know our philosophy, the way the world would have teach us that that's not wrong. It's survival. It's okay. But God is teaching us a better way. [00:17:33] God is teaching us that we should not love the world. We should not practice its deceits. We are to be thinking about eternal things. If our heart's right and we die of starvation, we have eternal gain. But if we steal and we're hungry and our heart's not right and we do something wrong and we use theft and use other corrupt means, we're not eternally ready for eternity. [00:18:08] We're ready for destruction at that time. God is saying those things that are temporal need to be secondary. Eternal things need to be primary. We need to keep them that way. So as we look at the question, what is the world? It is those things that are primary. Those things that are associated with eternity, that put us on the right side of the track in eternity. There's also an eternity on the wrong side. [00:18:41] That is not life. That is death. Eternal destruction. Ephesians. Turn with me to Ephesians 2. And we'll read a portion of Scripture there. We don't need to stand for that. But I'd like to challenge you to read along with me in Ephesians. Ephesians 2, verses 2 and 3. And there it says, Where in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, [00:19:12] the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of the flesh Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind And were by nature the children of wrath even as others The way of the world, that's what it's explaining here It's pointing it out very specifically some of the things that are involved in the way of the world Fulfilling the lusts, just like it said there in that verse there in 1 John [00:19:45] The three basic sins that were committed there The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life Here we see it pointed out a little bit more clearly We become the children of wrath We don't have peace We fulfill those things that Satan wants us to do. We're listening to the wrong voice. The world is not eternal. [00:20:19] 1 Corinthians 7.31 says, For the fashion of this world passes away. Why do we cater or desire and want to do those things that would appeal to that which is going to pass away. Sometimes we earn great money. We've seen that where people have become so dedicated in providing a living for themselves and they make goals and they have ideals and they want to become rich. [00:20:55] And one of the first things that seem to slip away from them is their family because they're never home. They have the primary thing is earning money is their goal. And soon the family is gone. Then value slips away and then they might have huge investments. But what good does it do? It slips away. It all ends at the grave. Temporal things will disappear. Eternal things will last for eternity. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.4 [00:21:29] and he gives the illustration of a soldier and he says, and we all know that story he says that we need to take off all those things that hold us back we take all the weight off so that we don't have anything that would hinder our ability to be a soldier that would hinder our ability to be a good warrior and stand true It tells us there that he doesn't entangle himself with the affairs of this life. [00:22:04] I like that terminology. It's not saying that the affairs of this life aren't important, but it's saying that we don't get entangled with it. They don't become a primary for us. They are a secondary. If there's a choice that needs to be done, we ask God and we say, Lord, we'll do what you say. If it's time for me to sell the farm and move on to some other business as you're calling me to, I'll do that. [00:22:36] Obedience. Entangling means getting wound up in, becoming possessed of it, and then we lose out. We cannot continue the work of God. God, don't let the philosophies of this age sidetrack you from your goals. That's so easy to happen. Because we have one who is deceitful and he tries to move and influences in deceitful ways. [00:23:13] I don't want to use too many illustrations, but I'm going to give an illustration that we face quite often there in Romania with the boys. and I will point it out very specifically the way that Satan works and he does it with the philosophies of the world or the things that we're involved in and the things that we do to get us off course. They need to have permission whenever they leave. So they often ask permission. Well, some don't. We have to punish for that. [00:23:44] But then when they do, they ask permission and they want to go to this certain place and do something. And they do that. You can follow up. They went there. They were there only maybe five minutes. But they didn't come home for three hours. They didn't say the untruth. They just didn't tell everything. That was the thing to give permission to do what they wanted to do. The other things they wanted to do. [00:24:19] That's the way Satan works. He makes it colored nice. He gives us these nice things, you know, appears good. We come to church. But wait a minute, what do we do during the week? We come to church Sundays. But, well, the fair is going. Nobody will see us there. They don't know that we went. [00:24:51] or maybe some other things that we do that nobody knows. He's deceitful. We cover it up, make it look good. We're serving the Lord, but yet we're not. We have become entangled with the affairs of the world. We're listening to the wrong voices. And so we slip away. [00:25:23] Maybe it feels good, looks good. Others are doing it. Why can't we? You're so restricted. Hear that quite often. But God has a way. We don't become entangled with the affairs of this life. because we have a primary goal and we look to it and we keep ourselves clean and devoted to that. [00:25:56] Another thing that seems to be a burden to me, and it's not just in this area, but it seems like it's going throughout all our constituency. I remember 30, 40 years ago when our churches became very concerned about some of the teaching that was being done. [00:26:27] For years and years earlier, from the beginning of our country, our country was concerned about that we have, And I see this happening in Romania also, especially just coming out of the revolution. We see some of these things. The first thing they did is they wanted to make sure that their schools and they would teach them the things. They wanted all the people to be taught. And our country did the same, so they set up school systems. And that worked. We were taught the necessities of life until the corrupt philosophies began to infiltrate the teaching. [00:27:05] And our parents, my parents, those, my grandparents became concerned. They said, if we could only have our own schools so we could teach and be able to filter out the wrong philosophies and to teach the things of God along with the things of the academics, the things that we needed to learn. And so, but that wasn't easily done. Some communities had it long before others did. because the government would not allow it. [00:27:38] They were concerned that the children become taught. They didn't want these children coming up that couldn't read because they weren't going to school. Or they were going to school not being taught. They didn't know. They had no control over that. And it was hard for our parents to get across that we have church schools. So we had church schools and we put ourselves, they put their efforts and their time, their money into starting church schools because it was important to them. [00:28:13] They sacrificed much, put a lot of hard work to it. And today we have many of our church schools or many areas. I would presume almost all our consistencies have church schools, and yet what's happening? Reminds me of Sam Ballard when he come back when they were building the wall, and they said, ah, they're doing okay, they're building, but you know, it's going to fall down and crumble. They'll stop before long because they're going to lose, that's a great work and they won't keep up. [00:28:49] But when they seen that they continued, seen that there was another force behind it, God was with it, then the tune changed and they come back, Sam Ballard come and he says we're going to start pulling away, we're going to hinder the work, we're going to meet them, we're going to fight them, we're not going to let this work continue. It seems to me like that's what's happening here. We notice that for our schools, people are not backing them up anymore. We're saying that it costs too much and we have difficulties. [00:29:22] I know what that's like. I went through that too. But God provided when we have faith, we have a cause, we have a goal. He meets that need. He's surprised for us. I think we need to be very careful because Satan is trying to undermine our schools causing them to stop different ways I think homeschooling is correct in its proper places [00:29:54] but if we have a church school I think we need to support the church the church school to meet its needs when you support it, supply its needs There's a time coming, I'm afraid. We might not have that privilege anymore. The government is going to say, just like it does in other areas, this is enough. I don't have any control over it anymore. I don't know if they're learning something or not. [00:30:25] We're going to make sure they do. And you'll go back to having the government regulate the school. I hope not. I hope not. By the grace of God, where are you going to stand when that happens? Are you willing to be persecuted? Are you willing to say that I will not place my child in your kind of doctrine? In Romania, how did the communists get their children into school? [00:31:01] How did they get their land, first of all? I had someone tell me. He said that they would, the children went to school, and if they didn't have their land signed over to the government, they would send them home. Your child can't come to school until your grandfather signs over the place. And so that's how they used deception to gain the rights to the land that they did during the communist time. [00:31:33] But they counted it high that they be taught. What kind of sacrifice will you make? We need to continue. What should we love as we think of our, no, I want to say a few more things here. What happens when we love the world? One of the things that was impressive to me is when we love the world, a thought that was impressive to me is we have scripture that tells us exactly what happens. [00:32:07] In Deuteronomy 12, 29 and 30, I'd like to read those verses. It tells us there that we become like the world when we love the world. Deuteronomy 12, and there it says, 29. When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land, take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them. [00:32:41] After that, they be destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so. And so on, the next verse. But what happens is telling us that when we, they were supposed to destroy those people, take them all away, because they were not to be there, but they didn't. And so they lived among them. But then what happens? You take in their gods. [00:33:19] And then, in curiosity, you do what they say, or you ask questions about it, and the first thing you know, we do the same. That's how that happened. That's the way it works on us. We're among the world. The seed is sown among the tares. And we need to be very careful that we do not allow that love to become our love. That's what happened to them. time after time in Deuteronomy. [00:33:50] That's how come we had kings that served God and kings that didn't because of the influence that was there and they did not separate themselves. I like that thought here of not marrying together was also a thought that I wanted to bring out. That was an instruction, specific instructions that they were not to do it. We have the separation principle that's very important and we need to be practicing that continuously. It's pointed out through the example of circumcision in the Old Testament [00:34:22] and then in the Old Testament even God talked to us in Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 where he talks about having a circumcised heart. That's basically what God was after. The physical circumcision was just demonstrating what he really wanted in the heart. And so we likewise need to be separated unto God. 2 Corinthians 6.17 says come out from among them and be separate. We are to be a holy people, a righteous people. We are not to be mingling and allowing ourselves to be entangled with the affairs of these natural things that will perish. [00:35:05] We are to, in 1 Peter 2.9, it says that we are to be a holy nation of peculiar people. A separated people is really what that word means there. One that is held in high esteem with God. We have His goals first in our lives. That doesn't mean that we don't eat or drink or take care, provide for. We have much instructions that we need to do those things. But they need to be secondary. Primary needs to be serving God. [00:35:41] If we don't do that, it tells us when you think of what happens when we love the world, we become the enemies of God. James 4.4 says that whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. We have cut ourselves off from God's truth and his word. We have cut ourselves from his mercy. God wants us to be on his side. He wants us to choose him and to have him as our priority. [00:36:13] And what else happens? In Matthew 16, verse 26, it says, and we will lose our soul. What is a man's advantage if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? You know, there's judgment. Glenn talked about judgment. God is a God of judgment. John 16 verse 11 says the prince of this world is judged and it goes on to say that all those who associate or are part of him and do his bidding will also be judged. [00:36:46] That's negative. I'd like to leave our message this morning with a positive. What should we love? We know what we should love. We should love God. Galatians 6.14 says that glory in the cross of Jesus Christ that's what we need to be doing I become crucified to the lust and the cares of the world and I glory in what he has done for us we are to be transformed in Romans 12.2 [00:37:20] by the renewing of the mind and God will do that for us we will have a new mind and that will be one that will have our focus on God and will transform our lives and our actions will be in relation to that. We will not want to serve the things of the world. Turn with me to Romans 3 and I'd like to read a few verses there. Romans 13, not 3. Romans 13, in relation to what we should be loving, reading verses 12 to 14. [00:38:05] The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and in drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strive or envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. This is what we are to do. How do we do that? John 3.3 tells us that we are to be born again and to accept God, to accept Jesus Christ into our hearts and life. [00:38:43] And we can have, that is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making, and when we do that we don't make provision. We become crucified to ourselves and we don't make provision to that which works death in our life. We need to choose that which is right, and God can bless us, and we can have the blessings of God upon our lives. Matthew 22, verses 37 to 39, it's the greatest commandment, and what is that? It's to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. [00:39:17] The second is likened to it, to love our neighbor as ourselves. All those, we are subject to everyone else because of what God has done for us. The blessings that come as we think of that. One thing I forgot to do is I wanted to read that song that I was pointing out. The song that was dear to my heart that kept coming back. I'd like to read the first portion of it. Do you love the world it's pumped and show? [00:39:49] In its course of sin, will you onward go? Is the pride of life more than heaven above? Do you love? Will you lose your soul for the sins you love? Do you love the world? Will you selfish be when the Lord provides everything for thee? Can you still refuse? Will you come and bow, give your heart and life to his service now? Verse 2, Do you love the world, its applause and fame? He soon will end in sorrow, remorse and shame. Jesus bids you come and redeem your soul from its awful doom ere the judgments roll. [00:40:25] Do you love the world more than Christ who died? How the blood flowed free from his pierced side? When it cost his life to prepare that place, will you die in sin and refuse his grace? Do you love the world? Will you selfishly? When the Lord provides everything for thee. As we think of that which God has provided for us, that was an impressive part of the song that I, and really what I couldn't, I didn't have access to the Christian hymnal at that time, and I could only remember a few of the verses, and the first one was that, do you love the world, and the second one was, when the Lord has provided everything for you. [00:41:10] And as I was meditating on that, picture with me in your mental eyes the hurt in the eyes of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The greatest gift that was ever offered and the cost it was to God himself, leaving the glories of heaven to come down to provide salvation for us. And then we turn aside and we turn our back and we look away. We don't claim the gift. What a price. [00:41:41] The price of redemption of life He so willingly paid to redeem mankind. The grace that He's waiting to give, will we turn our back? Will we choose to love the world, not Him? We want to have pleasure for a season. I think of Moses that said, I would rather suffer with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. One is eternal, the other is not. [00:42:13] And Moses chose the right gift, the right choice. Today we can do the same. Will you choose to become selfish and greedy at others' expense? We'd rather have gold and friends than to love the Lord. Is that your situation today? Matthew tells us in 16 verse 26 For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? [00:42:48] Then going back to our theme verse this morning, 1 John 2.17 But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. As I was meditating at the closing of these things, another song came to my mind, very precious, where he says, Take the world, but give me Jesus. Today, is that your call? What choice are you making? Do you want to surrender the world, which will offer nothing for us in eternity? [00:43:24] It will only condemn our soul Or are you going to choose for Jesus?