Words are important, aren't they? And knowing
their right definition and use helps us in our
communication. I was reading a letter to the
editor in a Christian magazine recently that
was thanking the editor for an article in a past
issue. Apparently in the article, the editor
spoke about the importance of rearing children.
And the letter writer was saying, thank you for
reminding us that we don't raise our children,
we rear them. I had never thought about that
difference before. I'm just trying to get it
done one way or the other. But I guess it's important
to use the right words, isn't it? And especially
when we're trying to communicate our thoughts
to other people. The title of the message today
incorporates a word that is often misunderstood,
the word worldliness. We come to understand as
Christians that it means something bad. We know
that Christians aren't supposed to be worldly,
but what does that mean? Is worldliness defined
by the clothes that one wears, or by the length
of one's hair, the music he listens to, or the
makeup she puts on her face, or certain amusements
that we're involved in? The word worldliness,
as you probably know, comes from the word worldlikeness.
So, to be worldly means to be world -like, just
as to be godly means to be god -like. So, does
that mean that if I drive a car and eat hamburgers
and kiss my date, that I'm worldly? Because the
world does all of those things too. What does
it mean to be worldly? It may help us to understand
what the Bible says regarding the word world.
in the first place, this word world in the Greek
language is the word cosmos, which is not unfamiliar
to us. Cosmos is the opposite of chaos, another
transliterated Greek word in the English language.
We understand chaos. That's what home is like
on Sunday mornings if you're trying to get ready
for church. That's chaos. Cosmos is just the
opposite of that. It means that which is ordered.
The word cosmos in the New Testament is used
of the earth as a created object for God's glory.
It's also used of people, the world in the sense
of all of humanity. John 3 .16 uses that word
in that way. But the word is also used in a negative
sense. Cosmos is used of the kingdom of Satan.
In 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 3 and 4,
we are reminded that if our gospel is hid, it
is hid to those who are lost, in whom the God
of this cosmos has blinded the minds of those
who believe not. The God of this world is what
Satan is called there. In 1 John 5, 19, John
says, And the whole world, the whole cosmos,
lies in the lap of the wicked one. In other words,
the world, the cosmos, is his baby and he's rocking
it. He put it together and he's caring for it.
The world in this negative sense is the dominating
present order of things which controls the mass
of unregenerate humanity and which is also headed
by Satan. The world is defiantly and determinedly
opposed to God and serves as an invisible government
over the governments of the world. The world
is a system of evil that imposes itself on the
world that we know. It is a system. It is characterized
by moral and spiritual darkness that leads to
disobedience and hostility toward God. Though
the world often appears outwardly as cultured,
intelligent, scientific, elegant, and even religious,
its basic underlying principles include greed,
power, self -ambition, and illicit sensual pleasure.
And so you see the world takes one form outwardly,
which makes it seem very acceptable to any reasonable
person, but inwardly it is corrupt because its
basic principles come from the devil. Therefore
I want to say today that the world is the empire
of the evil one. the system of thought and values
that excludes God and controls all unregenerate
people. If you're a child of God, you must not
love the world. Would you turn to our text, please,
in 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. Verse
15 is our memory verse for today, which I trust
that you've hidden in your heart. 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, says John. He goes on to say, and I'm
reading now from the New American Standard, For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride
of life is not from the Father, but is from the
world. And the world is passing away, and also
its lusts, but the one who does the will of God
abides forever." If you are a child of God, you
must not love the world or the things in the
world. That is a command that is delivered to
all of us. I think coming to grips with the following
three facts will help you guard against entanglement
in the world. The first fact is this, one cannot
love God and the world simultaneously. The last
part of verse 15 makes that clear, doesn't it?
One cannot love God and the devil's world system
simultaneously. You don't really believe that,
do you? If we really believed it, then why do
we so regularly practice what the verse says
can't be done, or at least try to practice it?
Because we are convinced in our 20th century
Christian minds that somehow we can find a balance.
We can love God enough to keep Him off our backs,
and we can love the world enough to still have
fun and fit into it. That's really what we believe,
many of us. What a tragic misconception about
God our way of thinking reveals. In fact, the
Word of God says that the Father and the world
system are direct opposites, one of the other.
The world and the Father are mutually exclusive.
The nature of the Father is that He is holy.
The nature of the system is that it's evil. Each
contradicts the other, and both demand total
allegiance of those who follow. The Father and
the world are rivals. They are not equal. Don't
misread that, but they are rivals. as you cannot
be here and there, as you cannot be present or
absent and absent, as you cannot be dead and
alive. So the Bible says you cannot love God
and love the world system simultaneously. We
are warned that to develop an affection for the
world is to commit a heinous sin in the eyes
of God. James talks about this, if you would
turn back just a few pages. As you're backing
up, go past 1 Peter and you're there to James.
And look in the fourth chapter, the fourth verse.
James uses shocking language. He says, you adulteresses,
do you not know that friendship, that is, affection,
With the world is hostility toward God. Understand
he is not saying that to have friends in the
world is sin. That that makes us hostile toward
God. That is not what he's saying. We ought to
have sinner friends. People who are not Christians
but who know us and we know them and we're developing
relationships with them. But what he is saying
is Do you not know that to develop affection
for the system that controls those unsafe friends,
that that is hostility toward God? Therefore,
whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes
himself an enemy of God. My friend, that is strong
language. If a person chooses, as an act of his
will, to be a friend of the system. By that act,
he is also making himself an enemy of God. We
cannot love the world system and God simultaneously.
It is impossible. Going back to John, I want
you to notice the strength of his statement in
verse 15. In the last part of the verse he says,
if anyone loves present tense, if anyone as a
pattern of life, if anyone habitually loves the
world, it says the love of the Father is not
in him. What is John saying? Well, I believe
directly what he's saying is that if a person
is characterized in his life, as an ongoing pattern,
as loving the system. He is giving evidence that
he's not a genuine child of God. But the fact
is a genuine child of God can fall into the habit
and the pattern of loving the system. That's
why he begins the verse directed to Christians.
By saying stop loving the world because that's
literally what he says they were in the process
of doing that Now I want to repeat if someone
does that habitually It is the pattern of their
whole life and continually they are loving the
system They are giving evidence that the love
of the father is not in them But even one who
has the love of the father in him who is a Christian
can fall into loving the world. And that's what
John warns us about. Stop loving the world, he
says. Stop loving it. We cannot love the world
and the Father at the same time. Who could imagine
a Christian deliberately setting out to be a
contradiction? Does any of us do that? Do we
deliberately want to be a contradiction to our
deepest identity? I would think not. if we're
in our right mind. We really want to be consistent,
but the fact is that we become worldly, we begin
to love the world through subtlety and through
deception. It is a slow process of compromise
and accommodation, little steps, that we hardly
notice until at some point we lift our head up
and we look and we see where we've come from
and where we were and what God really wants of
us and suddenly we see that we have slipped and
we have begun to love the world that God tells
us not to love. The world is the empire of the
evil one, of Satan. Do not love his empire. You
cannot love that empire and God at the same time.
But I see a second fact here that we need to
grapple with and that is that what the world
desires is contrary to what is of God. John proceeds
to say, all that is in the world. By that, he's
not talking about the created things, the mountains,
the lakes that we enjoy on vacation. He is not
talking about the animal kingdom, all that is
in the world. In fact, he defines for us all
that is in the world. He uses three phrases here
that highlight the snares. used by the world
to trap you and to trap me. These three phrases
describe the motivations of the system, or the
goals, you might say, that it establishes for
living. These three snares hold captive the unregenerate
people living on this planet. It is what the
world desires all that is in the world, encapsulated
in three brief phrases. The lusts of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride
of life. Let's think about those for a moment.
The lust of the flesh, that is the cravings arising
from our bodily appetites. That's one of its
meanings. Even those appetites and desires of
our bodies that are good and holy and given to
us by God can be twisted and perverted by the
world to an evil purpose. We have to be on guard
against that. But the lust of the flesh goes
beyond just our bodily appetites. It speaks about
the lusts of our selfish desires. The dictionary
of New Testament theology puts it this way. It's
the outlook oriented toward self. That which
preserves its own ends in self -sufficient independence
of God. The lust of the flesh. It is the selfish
satisfying of my own desires. The lust of the
flesh. It is what is oriented toward me. And
what fulfills me? And what's good for me? The
lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes. That
is, the cravings arising from what we see. A
desire to possess. It is covetousness. The lust
of the eyes is greed. This phrase strikes at
the heart of the world's commercialism and advertising.
The use of glitter and show that captivates and
motivates one to go out and get that product.
It's the root of the credit crisis in our country
that has undermined the financial stability in
many homes. The lust of the eyes. You see it,
you want it, go get it. It's what makes us miserly.
It's what makes us unwilling to share with others
so that we might have for ourselves what we want.
God condemned His Old Testament people for idolatry.
And we are warned in this age of a religion that
all of us can fall into, a false religion, another
kind of idolatry. It is called covetousness.
Which is idolatry says the Apostle It is a false
religion When I begin to live by what motivates
the world When I begin to set my standard as
being what I see is what I want and I will get
that at any price Even if I have to borrow for
it, even if I have to risk my future my family
for it. I want that the lust of the eyes. And
then the boastful pride of life. That is the
exalting pompous boasting of a person that has
the boasting that has no basis in reality. It
is exaggeration that is intended to impress.
You've heard that kind of person haven't you?
Maybe that person is your roommate. Maybe you
work with that kind of person. Maybe you am that
kind of person. The kind that stretches the truth
beyond any facsimile of reality. I mean, it's
not really a lie, is it? It's just, you know...
putting the positive side forward. It's just
brushing it up a little bit to take the edges
off. And we, you know, we put it out here, and
our whole purpose in that is to impress other
people. We want them to think that we're the
greatest, that we're the most successful, that
of all of those, we're the most popular. That
we are the highest earning person. We think it's
important to have that degree at the end of our
name. That on the station area says doctor so
and so. I recently got some material across my
desk of a gentleman who is seeking to establish
a counseling practice in the Twin Cities area.
and made a point calling himself doctor and putting
Ph .D. after his name. I began to go through
the list of his credentials. I found out where
he got his masters and his Ph .D. I've never
heard of either one of them. Degree Mills. But
it's a Ph .D. and highly advertised. But it's
worthless. But it's impressive. It's got the
glitter there. You can boast in it. The boastful
pride of life. By the way, it's not wrong to
have a degree. It's not wrong to be the greatest.
It's not wrong to earn the most or to be the
most successful salesman. It's not wrong to do
any of those things. We ought to be ambitious,
and we ought to do the very best that we can.
But the point is, when we take that to the extreme
and we begin to boast in it, that's when it becomes
like the world. Ambition is a good trait, but
when it's geared towards self -promotion, to
attain recognition or position, then it becomes
worldly. Worldliness is living for passion, the
lust of the flesh. Worldliness is living for
possessions, the lust of the eyes. Worldliness
is living for power, the boastful pride of life.
And he says that kind of living is not of the
Father. All that is in the world is not of the
Father, therefore don't love it. Do not love
the system, because what it's made up of is not
of the Father. We might ask the question then,
what is of the Father? Turn over to chapter four,
verse seven and eight, and you'll find out. Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is from God.
And everyone who loves is born of God and knows
God. The one who does not love does not know
God, for God is love. According to verse seven,
what does come from God is love. I don't have
time to develop this, but you go back and look
at those those three phrases in chapter 2. And
you will find that one who is truly living in
love cannot participate in any of those. Because
those things are of the world. And we who are
of God must live in what is from God, love. And
so the point is very clear. What the world desires
is contrary to what is of God. Therefore, do
not love the system. There's a third fact we
need to look at, and that's found in verse 17.
To love the world is to waste one's life on the
meaningless. Not just the trivial, because that
has some meaning to it. But to love the world
is to waste one's life on the meaningless, absolutely
meaningless. What tragedy surpasses the living
of one's life within the world's values and its
measurements of success? Only then to die into
inner eternity and to realize that it accomplished
nothing that was worthwhile. For when one enters
eternity, he leaves behind the possessions and
all of the passion and all of the pride. It's
gone. It's stripped away. And he stands before
God. To live for the world is to waste one's
life on the meaningless. Notice the contrast
here. The world is passing away and its lusts.
That's the one side. John says this in a rather
interesting way. He says the world is already
putrefying. He says the world is already in the
process of decay and corruption. It's like a
corpse that has not been buried yet. Not a very
pleasant thought. The world is corrupting, he
says. Have you ever seen? A body that had not
been buried in time. It's not a very pleasant
sight. We bury bodies for good reasons. There
is a corruption that sets in at that point. He
says here that the world system is corrupting.
It's decaying right before us. Why love it? Why
love something that's in the process of decomposition?
The world is passing away and it's lusts. Do
you smell it? What he's saying here involves
far more than the archaeological ruins of past
civilizations or the decaying monuments in our
own generation. It's the system. that is decomposing
and which is creating such a stench in God's
universe. The system is passing away. That's
one side. But he says, the one who does the will
of God abides forever. In one sense, I think
he's talking here about a Christian. Because
the will of God is that we believe in His Son,
the Lord Jesus. But by way of application, I
want to take it broader than that. I'll make
three quick observations about the will of God.
The first observation is this, that the will
of God is a way of life. The one who does present
tense. Sometimes we look upon the will of God
as a destination that we arrive at, but actually
the will of God is the journey. Remember that.
Because some of you are looking at certain destinations
and you're saying, oh God, what is your will
about that? But what about up there? What do
you want me to do then? The real thrust of the
will of God is today. What are you doing today?
The will of God is a way of life. The second
observation I would make is that the will of
God is an individual adventure. He talks about
the one who does the will of God. We cannot determine
God's direction for another except in the word
as God tells all of us what his will is and he
does in many instances. But with regard to our
particular purpose in being in this world, we
must make our own decisions under the direction
of God's Spirit, and then we must give account
to Christ one day personally. He says, the one
who does the will of God. Just one at a time.
The emphasis is on the individuality of it. And
I might point out that there's a certain loneliness
that occurs here. We can be in groups and we
like fellowship and we want counsel from other
people, but when it comes right down to it, you,
my friend, are responsible to God. Not the group.
The decisions you make is not the responsibility
of your counselors, it's you. And particularly
when one decides to take his stand or her stand
against the system around him, he gets pretty
lonely to do the will of God in that situation.
The one who does the will of God, would you be
one? I don't know if there are two or three or
ten others, but would you be one who will do
the will of God? and not love the world. The
one who does the will of God abides forever.
The third observation is that the will of God
holds promise. Not the world, friend. There's
no promise with something that's already dead
and in the process of rotting. There's no promise
in that at all. But there is promise in the will
of God. The one who does the will of God abides
forever. That is in total contrast to what is
passing away. The child of God will go on forever
and forever in his worship and service of God.
We might also point out that the work, the life's
significance of the child of God goes on forever
and ever too. All of us long for significance
in the world. That's part of being human. God
has built that into us. We want to do something
so that when we're gone, people will know that
something is missing. And we want to leave behind
something that's going to make a difference.
If that's truly your desire, there's one way
and only one to do it, and that is by doing the
will of God. Abel, being dead, yet speaks, says
the writer of Hebrews. Gone hundreds and hundreds
of years, still speaking because he did the will
of God in his life. So why love the world? Why
live for the world when you can live for what
counts forever? Don't waste your life on the
meaningless. Don't be taken in by its glitter.
By the perfume that Satan has poured over the
corpse to try to make you think that it's attractive
Don't be taken in by that lie Do not live for
what is meaningless But live for the eternally
significant Invest your life in the will of God
Enjoy his smile now and his reward in eternity
Now, having talked about the world a little bit,
perhaps we're in a better position to understand
what worldliness is. Personally, I like the definition
of Warren Wiersbe in his book, Be Real. He says,
anything in a Christian's life that causes him
to lose his enjoyment of the Father's love or
his desire to do the Father's will is worldly.
and must be avoided. And so when you ask, what
is worldliness? It's not as easy as getting out
a list of rules or the ruler to measure one's
hair length or skirt length. It's not as easy
as that. If we're going to be serious about finding
out what worldliness is, we've got to ask ourselves
some tough questions. Is there something in my
life that is causing me to lose the enjoyment
of God's love, or to lose the enjoyment of doing
His will? Oh God, show me where the lust of the
flesh, for living for myself dominates me. Lord,
reveal to me where the lust of the eyes, where
covetousness and greed have taken possession
of your territory in my life. O God, expose in
me the pride and the boastful exaggerations intended
to impress people. For all of that is worldliness.
And give me repentance of that. It is important
for us to examine ourselves and to see how the
empire of evil and its lord of darkness have
deceived us and subtly, subtly caused us to accept
the world's thoughts and the world's values as
our own. You cannot love the Father and the world
simultaneously. What the world desires is not
of God. To live one's life for the world is to
live for the meaningless. May God write those
facts upon our hearts and make a difference in
the way that we live this week. Let's pray. Isaiah
was perhaps the most godly, righteous man in
his generation. But when he stood in the presence
of God, he said, woe is me, for I am an unclean
man. I have unclean lips, and I dwell in the
midst of an unclean people. I would dare to say
that the most godly person in this room today
has to some extent been stained by the world.
James says that pure religion and undefiled religion
is this. He lists a couple of things, one of
them, to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Friend, all of us have repenting to do. God help
us to do it. Father, you have called us out of
the world, and yet we live in it. But I fear
that the world also lives in us. too much. As
the people that you have called out and sanctified
to serve you, I pray that you lovingly will examine
us and wherein we are worldly, may we face the
facts and be repentant. For Father, you have
called us to love you. Oh, Father, forgive us
when we become adulterers. God, forgive us when
we become defiled and polluted by the world you've
called us to live in. I pray that you will cause
our hearts to respond today with deep desire
to be cleansed and to start anew and afresh and
to be done, to be done with the affair that we've
carried on with the world system. For who would
be seriously in love with a corpse that's decaying?
But alas, we have often been deceived. Open our
eyes and focus them on heaven. And may we set
our affection on things above and not on things
on the earth. In Jesus' name.