Love Not 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. But I'm going to be reading a few scriptures in fairly quick succession here and then I would just like to look at these with you. Colossians 3 verse 2 set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth [00:00:32] for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is your life, who is our life, I'm sorry shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry It was interesting for me to notice that some of the rendering said crucify, therefore, your members. [00:01:05] And then it, I think it's the, not the NIV, it's the Amplified, it gave an explanation of what it means, and the one would be to put to death, the other is to at least render inactive, if I remember correctly. Something very nearly like that. Now I'd like to look at James chapter 4. Verse 4 reads this way, 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. [00:01:44] Now turn with me to Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 14 through 16 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation We're not to be as we were previously, but we are to be holy. [00:02:18] The positive that I was looking for, and you notice positive aspects in others' scriptures that I read. Now, chapter 2, verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Having your conversation, or your walk of life, honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. [00:02:54] In 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riots speaking evil of you. Now, that's kind of stopping in the middle of a sentence, but now turn with me to John chapter 2. John chapter 2 verse 15 [00:03:28] 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, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. The love of the world is the one side of the picture. [00:04:06] Now here in the passage that I just read, the love of the Father, it says if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So it's either one or the other. It's not both. And there are other scriptures, there are other positive aspects, but I am blessed by the way that the scripture is inclusive. He leaves us no doubt about how we should live, about what we should do. [00:04:37] And I was reminded, although this does not necessarily, this doesn't relate to our topic this morning that we'd like to address, But I had to think of the commandments. And the last commandment that was given, first of all, God said, thou shalt not covet. And he could have left it at that. And it would have been complete. But he didn't. And he went on and he said, you're not to covet your neighbor's wife. You're not to covet your neighbor's house. [00:05:09] Nor their manservant, nor their maidservant. and if that wasn't enough he said nor anything that he has and that again makes it all inclusive even as it was at the beginning but sometimes I wish that God were more explicit in his word but God is explicit enough for us I think to understand what it is that he would say to us as I look at the title of the message Love Not the World [00:05:41] and then he gives us the two different things that we can be involved in here in Love of the World and I debated in my mind how we could illustrate this. I grew up under the teaching of Brother Willie Wagler and Brother Willie Wagler would often use illustrations and somebody has called illustrations hooks where you can hang the idea on so you can remember them, so you can go there and I tried to think what would be an illustration and I thought well maybe I can pick on Daryl He's sitting back here close to the light switches and just asked Daryl to snap out the lights, but not all the way, just halfway. [00:06:19] Not half of the lights, but just snap them halfway off. Could he do that? Not usually. They're usually either on or they're off, right? Isn't that the way it is? Isn't that what we are told in Scripture? We are to be in love with God. and the other option is to be in love with the world as I understand what I have read here this morning. I know that people would sometimes kind of like to straddle the fence [00:06:51] but I understand that that is not possible if I understand correctly. Now, there is something like cooling off and I recognize that and I want to understand that. I don't want to underestimate that. But even as the light switch is either on or it's off, we are God's people or we are not God's people. Matthew Henry said something interesting. He said this about 1 John 2.15. [00:07:26] He said, the heart of man is narrow and cannot contain both loves. It's either the love of God or it's the love of the world. And that's just what I was trying to illustrate by the light switch. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, I don't know if we would have to turn to this, but alluding to the being involved with things that are temporal or being involved with things that are eternal, [00:07:57] Paul said that the things that, maybe that's not that scripture, but Paul did say this, he said about the things that are temporal are things that we can see. The things that are eternal, we can't see. Now, there are some temporal things that are also not readily visible. If we would, well, some of these things I guess we can see the evidences of at least. But if sometimes man is tempted to seek popularity, man, especially youth, I think are, and not all of us are influenced by this, but we want to be accepted by our peers, right? [00:08:42] And that is especially true for young people. I can't really put my finger on that, and yet it is something that is of this world nonetheless. Now, to have God's approval is correct, and we should make sure that we do that. Maybe we should just simply turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and look at what Paul has to say there to us. [00:09:15] Verses 16 through 18 is what I would like to look at. For which cause, and this I recognize what is the cause here, but for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. [00:09:50] Paul refers to the struggle that we have in life. And I wonder, why is it that we as earthbound creatures need so much admonition about setting our affection on things above? And I thought of an example again, and I don't know if this example is a good one or not. But recently I noticed in the Goshen News that a man was convicted of murder, murdered his own son. I don't know what was behind it. I didn't read it carefully. [00:10:24] It seems as though maybe I read it earlier. But I thought of children in abusive home situations. And I thought of what those children do, what they suffer, and you would think that a child like that would flee that situation given the opportunity. But what is the truth about the matter? I understand that many times those children will still stay with that which they know. [00:10:56] Now, even if it's an abusive parent, they prefer that to a stranger that they do not know. Now, it is true as well that once a stranger has gotten their confidence, once they know that child, then sometimes that child will reject the parent and will go to the person that is now no longer a stranger. But I just thought of the situation there. And I guess I would just simply say that maybe it's because you and I are like that abused child. [00:11:31] We are that abused child in our old life, in this earthly situation, and we cling to that which we know, rather than going to our Heavenly Father, which has our best interests at heart. But it seems to me that we do well to remember, we do well to remind ourselves that our Heavenly Father has our best interests at heart Even as sometimes a stranger has a child's best interests at heart more than the parents do [00:12:07] Like in the case that I just wrote about, or just talked about, that which I read I trust that you and I can this morning respond to our Heavenly Father and when we are asked to deny God as some of our martyr forebearers were we can say like they did [00:12:39] Was this Polycarp that said this, I think, when he was asked to deny Jesus, or you will be killed for your faith? I think Polycarp was a bishop that followed Timothy? I'm not sure about that. But he faced death, and his answer was something like this. This is my own words, but basically this is what Polycarp said. He said, why, when Jesus has only done good to me, he suffered and died for me, would I renounce him or turn my back on him at a time like this? [00:13:13] And he died. And I don't know, was he killed by a wild beast? It seems to me that that is the case. As God's people, we need to be in love with the things of God. Turn with me back to 1 John. I'd like to read in chapter 4. We need to be about the things of God. We need to immerse ourselves in the things of God. [00:13:44] And yet, even as we do that, there can be an inherent danger that I would like to look at with you a little bit later here. 1 John chapter 4 verse 4 says this, Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, the enemies, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God, he that knoweth God heareth us, and he that is not of God heareth not us. [00:14:21] Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifest the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [00:14:59] Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Now, if you notice, some of the scriptures that I looked at talk about a love of the Father or a love of God. But here, and in some of the other scriptures, it talks about a love for one another. and that love manifests itself in different ways but I was just simply moved to share with our Sunday school class one thing this morning [00:15:30] we had some differing ideas about well differing ideas or people said this some people look at this scripture in one way some people said they look at it in another way and we had I thought a good exchange I don't know how the rest of the class felt but I felt good about our being able to exchange that And I sensed a love there for one another. And I suppose it especially stood out to me because one of us said that he was in a situation where this was discussed where it got kind of warm. [00:16:05] Not warmness as warm love, but it got hot, in other words. And I think that we as God's people should not, that should not be named. We should be able to hear different things and I appreciate hearing that. I was reminded as I was studying this of something that I read in a newsletter that we got from SMBI. And it's kind of interesting, Joel, I don't know if he knows this or not, but he's a reason that we got that newsletter. [00:16:38] When they moved back to Costa Rica years ago, he had attended SMBI before. He asked if he can use our address as a place to send things. We said, sure. And we ended up getting that newsletter for quite some time. There was something that a student wrote, and this was when Val was at SMBI, Sharon Mennonite Bible Institute, that I never forgot, and I did not have it at my fingertips in order to bring it back. But it's something that I think we do well to remember. [00:17:12] This student asked a question something like this. Why is it when God blesses us in one area that we pursue it in excess? And that pursue it in excess is my words. He said we go, this is the words that he used, we go whoring after it. I don't know if you can identify with that or not. But take this in our everyday life. The thing that I work, I enjoy. But not everybody has to do what we're doing. [00:17:47] In fact, it would complicate things if everybody did what we did, complicate things for us. I am interested in the thing that I am doing, and I think that's right. But I trust that what you are doing is meaningful to you and is interesting to you as well. And that can be true as God reveals spiritual truths to us. You know, sometimes we have a kind of a, we refer to it as a hobby horse, when somebody mentions something over and over again, and preachers, being the more visible, are probably the more suspect for this, because you hear us more than we hear you, perhaps. [00:18:26] I think it is good to have a special interest and to pursue that but if I pursue that in excess it becomes something that can be out of balance and that is why we need one another in the brotherhood as I pursue, as I get insight in one area maybe you need that But by the same token, as the Lord grants you insights into scripture in other areas, I need that as well. [00:19:03] The thing that I am saying is that we need one another to retain balance. But coming back to what John was saying, why, and my question, why is it that we get so, why are we so prone to emphasize the things that are seen rather than the things that are not seen? So the Lord brings reminders to us, as he did pretty vividly to us as a church in the past month, that we're not here forever. [00:19:47] We are here, we are passing through, and we need to make preparations. And I trust that that can be very true and very vivid in our lives. Along with the question that the student asked of Val Yoder, why is it that when the Lord blesses us in a certain area, we tend to pursue in excess? We go whoring after this. I would ask that question, too, of us. [00:20:23] Why is it that we have the hobby horses? We pursue one area and it seems as though we pursue them relentlessly. We just continue. I think that the Lord would have us be balanced and that the Lord would have us hear what others have to say. I think the Lord would like to communicate to us the fact that he has important things to say to us today. [00:20:54] And I trust that we can be blessed by him. We can be blessed by...