The great mass of nominal Christians
are nothing but unconverted worldlings. By Charles Simeon. It is to be
feared that the great mass of nominal Christians are nothing
but unconverted worldlings. 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, for all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life. is not from the Father, but is
from the world. 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 and
16. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye, and the pride of life, that is, pleasure and riches
and honor, these are the great objects of worldly ambition to
which every gaudless heart is attached to. if after they have
escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Apostle here takes for granted
that this effect will universally and invariably follow, that all
who know the adorable Savior will escape the pollutions of
the world. There never was, nor ever will be, one exception to
this truth. All who savingly know Christ
will no longer supremely love the world, but escape from its
enticements and pollutions. Yet it is to be feared that there
are many professing Christians who have never been delivered
from the pollutions of the world. Their desires and hopes and joys
and pursuits are all worldly. Be assured that you cannot love
the world and God also, for they are diametrically opposed to
each other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Know that while
you love and desire and pursue earthly vanities, then you have
not yet truly devoted yourselves to the Lord Jesus. Whatever your
situation or circumstances may be, God's view of worldliness
is the same. You adulterous people, don't
you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?
Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy
of God. James chapter 4 verse 4 Remember
Lot's wife. Scripture paints the world, and
all who love it, in dark some colors. Oh, that all the votaries
of gaiety, and fashion, and pleasure, would realize what Scripture
compares them to, swine wallowing in the mire, and dogs returning
to their own vomit. Yes, this is the feast to which
your earthly friends invite you, Learn to view the world as God
views it. Regard it as a country infected
with the plague. Let your great concern be to
get through it in safety. Therefore come out from them,
and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I
will receive you. I will be a father to you, and
you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Corinthians
chapter 6, verses 17 and 18. He gave himself for our sins,
that he might deliver us from this present evil world. Galatians
chapter 1 verse 4