Well, turn with me this week
to the first epistle of John and the second chapter, and I
want to look at the verses from 12 to 17. We're having a series of disconnected
sermons, if you like, just one-off individual sermons rather than
a series in a book. So I want to look at this in
verse 15 particularly, love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. And I've called the message incompatible
loves. Two loves that are incompatible,
the love of the world and the love of the Father. And I'll
start by asking you a question. What is the highest experience
of this life? What's the biggest thrill of
this life? Now, at different ages, you might
say different things. You know, they might say, if
you're about to go to Florida, the biggest thrill going is one
of the biggest rides somewhere in Florida. You know, they're
sort of zooming down this thing that will make your pulse race
at a colossal rate. That might be a great big thrill.
The world offers much. And let's not be, don't misunderstand
what I'm saying. God gives gifts to all freely
to enjoy. I don't want you to be in any
doubt about that. I'm not in any way, and this
passage isn't in any way saying that we all ought to wear horsehair
shirts and go and live in a monastery to make sure that the world is
not around us. Not at all. Ecclesiastes says
this, Every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all
his labor. It is the gift of God." Right? Don't be in any doubt. You know,
there's good things to enjoy. Psalm 104 verse 15 says, "...wine
that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face
shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart." There are good
gifts that God has given. There's the beauty of creation
all around us. There's the stimulus of knowledge.
Some of you have been studying for exams. You know, stimulus
of knowledge. It's good to learn. There's the
comfort of love and of companionship. Genuine, genuine good things.
There are the best works of man and the skills of man in the
arts, in music, in sport. in engineering, in literature.
There are good things, God gives us all things freely to enjoy.
Those things are good, but I would say apply what I call the Philippians
test to this. Do you know what the Philippians
test is? It's in chapter 4 and verse 8. It says this, and especially,
it's a good thing, write it on a notice and put it next to the
television. Or next to the magazine rack. Whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, and
pure, and lovely, and of good report, if there be any virtue,
any praise, think on these things. Think on these things. Think
of all the things you could bombard your mind with. Think on these
things. That's the Philippians test. Good things in the world
to enjoy, but put them to that test. Whatsoever things are true,
and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report,
any virtue, any praise, think on these things. But you see,
Satan is very subtle. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. Satan is the great deceiver.
Satan is the father of lies. He was a liar from the beginning,
said Jesus. He's the father of lies. And
he used these same things in the world to tempt the man, Jesus. Jesus was God in human flesh,
but he was a man in a human body, a real man. We sing that hymn,
a real man there is in heaven. He used those things to tempt
the man Jesus were away from the Father, away from the love
of the Father. He tempts the children and the
people of God with the pleasures of sin for a season. He takes
that which is inherently good or neutral or nothing in it that
is sinful and he makes it into something sinful for us. When
it becomes an object of affection that takes a higher place than
it should have. Now in contrast, the scriptures
tell us And the testimony of the saints of God down the ages
confirms that the highest, the purest, the most satisfying of
all human experiences is the love of the Father. You talk,
and when I say talk, I mean go and read what they wrote. Go
and read the writings of those that were suffering persecution
for the gospel's sake. Go and read the testimony of
those that were tied to the stake for burning in those dreadful
days in the 1500s of the Reformation. When those who hated the gospel
of sovereign grace tied those that preached it to the stake
for burning. And read their testimony. Read
their testimony that this world with everything that it had just
paled into insignificance. This was the pearl of greatest
price that they had. The flames of fire around them
couldn't take that away from them. The walls of a cell and
the bars of a prison cell couldn't stop the Spirit of God coming
into their heart and flooding them with the love of God in
the gospel of His grace, even though they had none of the things
that we would count as the essentials of life to be enjoyed. No, they tell us, the scriptures
tell us, the love of the Father is the highest, the purest, most
satisfying experience of human existence. Remember the old catechism
says this, what is the chief end of man? That's you and me.
You and me, what is the chief end of man? What is the chief
ambition? What is the chief objective of
man? And it says this, to know God and to enjoy him forever. I apologize if I've misquoted
that in some respect, but I think that's pretty much what it says.
To know God! You know, oh, to go have this
experience, to go to this place, to do this, no! To know God and
enjoy him forever. The disciples knew it. The disciples
of Jesus knew it. In John chapter 14, you know
I often quote it, Philip said, show us the Father, and that
will do. That will suffice us, that will
satisfy us. Show us the Father. If we know
God, this is what Philip, that ordinary guy, not with a university
education, ordinary guy, but seeking the truth, seeking the
knowledge of God, he said this, if we know God in his pure, holy,
omnipotent essence, then we'll be satisfied. Other experiences
are insignificant compared to that. We want to know about God,
about eternity, we want to know about abundant life, we want
to know what is this really all about. Well let's have a look
at our text, verse 15 of chapter 2 of 1 John. Love not the world,
Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. Incompatible loves. The love of the world and the
love of the Father. Just as you can't serve God and
mammon, said Jesus, you can't truly serve God and the things
of this world. You just can't do it. They're
incompatible. So at the same time, you can't have in the one
human heart that affectionate love of the world, and at the
same time, a true love of the Father, in which resides the
height of human experience. If you're a believer, if you
are truly a believer this morning, This scripture says you have
the love of the Father in you. That's what you have. As a believer
this morning, you have the love of the Father in you. You live
here in this world for a while, for a number of years, we don't
know how many. In the case of the thief on the cross, it was
no more than a few hours at the most. In the case of others,
it's from a very young age of profession of faith right through
to being old people and dying. For here, for a season, as determined
by God. And we enjoy God's gifts in the
world around us, so long as we put them to that Philippians
test, whatsoever things are true. But if you love the world, if
you have a deep affection for the world in your heart, you
must question whether you truly have the love of the Father.
And having the love of the Father is the essence of true belief,
of true salvation, as I'll show you. John writes in this epistle
to encourage faith. He writes in this epistle to
stir up gospel obedience in those who profess belief of the truth.
You note he doesn't write with law as the rule of life obedience
as his objective. It's gospel obedience. It's obedience
to the precepts, the commands of the gospel. There are the
promises of the gospel, and there are the commands of the gospel.
And you know, it always goes hand-in-hand, very much together.
He writes this epistle to stir up faith, to stir up gospel obedience
in those who profess belief in the truth. Look at verse 1 of
the same chapter. My little children... He's talking
to believers. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not, don't sin. Don't sin. People of God, don't sin. And
then he says, and if any man sin, as if kind of, and if occasionally,
or if once in a, no, that's not what it means. It's, and when
you sin, which you do, because if we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, verse eight of
the previous chapter. When you sin, when you sin, which
you do, Do I mean do? No, I mean are. Which you are. Sin which you are by nature. The sin that you are by nature,
but you have an advocate, my little children. You have an
advocate. Do you know what an advocate
is? You know, the law and barristers and legal people. If you're on
a charge before a court of law in this country, you need an
advocate. You need somebody who knows the
law inside out to speak for you. Don't try and do it yourself.
You need somebody to speak for you. Oh, in the court of divine
justice, little children, when you sin, don't sin. Flee from
sin. Oh, desire not to sin. Do what you can not to sin. Don't
sin. But when you do what you do,
which you are always, you have an advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is his people's righteousness. That's what you have. You have
an advocate with the Father. And true believers desire to
conform to Christ. You do. You desire to conform
to Christ. In thought, oh, that my thoughts
would be wholly devoted to Him. In my speech, that it might never
reflect the vileness of my flesh and the sin within. In my actions,
in my temper, in my demeanor, in my interaction with others.
or that it might be conformed to the image of Christ, to the
pattern of Christ, that we might sin not. And why do I want to
do it? Constrained by, what is it the
scriptures tell us constrains true believers? The love of Christ. The love of Christ constrains
us. It's not fear of punishment, or fear of the loss of reward,
according to law. No, it's not the law that constrains
us, it's the love of Christ. And so he writes, let's look
at some verses from verse 12. of this chapter. I write unto
you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for
his name's sake. He's stirring up faith and gospel
obedience and he writes to them as little children. I write unto
you, little children. He's already called them little
children. My little children. I write unto you, believers,
the tender lambs of the great shepherd of the sheep. I write
to you little children, all believers are as little children. Unless
you, what was it that Jesus said about the children, unless you
come into the kingdom of God like a little child you don't
come at all. as little children, not in your high-minded sophistication
and arrogance and pride, no, as little children. I know it's
not right to think of little children as innocent, but you
know, in that innocence, in that innocence of childhood, that inexperience with the wiles
of the devil and the devices of the world. That sort of innocence
to little children as believers, as little children, especially
those who are young in the faith. And how are they little children?
Look, I write to you little children. Why are you little children?
Why does he call these people little children? Because their
sins are forgiven them. Who are the little children?
Those whose sins are forgiven them. And why are they forgiven?
For his name's sake. For Christ's sake. For the sake
of his name. They're justified in Christ.
Justified in him. justified in Him who is their
Creator, their Saviour, His namesake, remember, His namesake. What's
His name? Jesus Creator, Jehovah Creator,
Jehovah Saviour, Jehovah Jesus. Jehovah Redeemer, Jehovah the
Lamb of God, Jehovah the Shepherd of His sheep, Jehovah the Substitute,
Jehovah the Surety, Jehovah the Righteousness of His people.
It's a privileged position to be a little child. Your sins
are forgiven for His name's sake. sins forgiven for his namesake,
heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, little children, not
servants or slaves in the household, little children, heirs of God,
joint heirs with Christ, heavenly dwellers, here now, but we're
told, seated in heavenly places in Christ, risen with him, ascended
with him. This is where you are, if you're
one of these little children. You're a heavenly dweller. You
live in heavenly palaces. I go to prepare a place for you.
In my father's house are many mansions, glorious mansions. Don't think of cold, stark royal
palaces. Think of opulent, lovely, wonderful,
peaceful, blessed places and compare that with the filth and
the deprivation of the refuse dump. You know, you see those
dreadful pictures of deprived children in deprived communities
who can only scrape a living by scavenging in amongst the
stink and the dirt of the refuse heap. And that's what they have
to do. What would you exchange? The
bliss and the glory of the palace wherein you reside as little
children of the king? Or the filth and defilement and
deprivation of the worst side of this world. No, then he goes
on, and I write to you fathers because you have known him that
is from the beginning. We'll read verses 13 and 14 together.
I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked
one. I write unto you little children because you have known
the father. And then he seems to repeat that just for emphasis. I have written unto you fathers
because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have
written unto you young men, because ye are strong, and the word of
God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. To fathers,
and to mothers for that matter, older ones in the faith is what
he's talking about, those that have been believers for a long
time, for most of their life, those who have known the Savior
from the moment they believed, And who is the Savior that they
have known? Who's the one that they know now, the same one that
they believed in then? Having begun in the Spirit, how
do you continue? In that same Spirit, knowing
that same Savior. Not becoming better Christians
as they've gone on, not becoming more sanctified or set apart
for the purposes of God, but growing in His grace the longer
you go on. Growing in knowledge of Him and
in His name. And also, to young men, to young
men, to those who are in the prime of strength and agility. You're strong in Christ, he says.
Why are you strong in Christ? You have no strength in yourself
against the day of judgment, but you're strong in Him. Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. You've
overcome Satan in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got the Word of
God in you. The Word of God, look, and the
Word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked
one. The Word of God is in you. You
can read its words on the page, but we have the promise of His
Holy Spirit, that that is like food for your soul, and it's
in your being, and it becomes part of you. And by gospel knowledge
of Christ, And by knowing Christ, and knowing the Father, Jesus
said this to Philip, you know, show us the Father, show us the
true essence of God, and we'll achieve that highest experience
that we can. Philip, have I been so long with
you and yet you have not known me? He who has seen me, has seen
the Father. He who has the love of Christ,
he who knows the gospel of Christ's grace and of His saving, saving
redemption, he who knows those things has the love of the Father
within him. The love of the Father in the
beginning, in the covenant of grace, the love of the Father
was that which led to the choice of a people. for His own glory.
That love of the Father gave those people to the Son. The
Son covenanted to be the surety for those people, to go and accomplish
all things that were necessary, that they might be saved from
their sins, that they might be justified, that they might be
sanctified in Him, that they might be counted righteous in
Him. He covenanted to do all of those
things, and that's what it is, to know the love of the Father
and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ inside you. Is that you
this morning? Can you say that's you this morning?
Are you amongst these little children, these fathers, these
young men? You know, you've overcome the wicked one. How? Christ has
overcome him. At the cross of Calvary, He's
overcome him. He's bound Satan. He's taken
him captive. That which Satan possessed as
his own, he's dispossessed him of it at Calvary. Dispossessed
him by his broken body and his shed blood, the very thing that
Satan had schemed would be the end of the rule of God. That very thing. In that, he
triumphed and overcame. You've overcome the wicked one.
The Word of God abides in you. You've known Him from the beginning. Are you amongst that number?
Is that you, a child of God, with that testament this morning,
either long in the faith or a new believer? Are you anchored in
the rock of Christ and his gracious gospel? And what is his gracious
gospel? Sovereign grace, particular redemption,
utterly distinctive. Don't ever let anybody deceive
you with anything different. Utterly, utterly distinctive. Distinctive. The fact that Christ
covenanted to die and pay the price for that people the Father
gave to him. and that every one of those for
whom he died are justified from all eternity. The price was paid
in time when he came. This is the gospel, and on that
basis, if you're a believer this morning, you have assurance.
Just like you knew that that rich man, overflowing with abundance,
went down to the bank and cleared your debts all those years ago,
and the bank record now says, nothing owing. Nothing owing. debts all cleared. You know,
that's the assurance. Any other gospel, anybody else
will dress up a false gospel of human will to sound like this. That's the devices of Satan.
He comes as an angel of light, able to deceive even the elect
if that were possible. But of course, in that is the
implication that it isn't possible. He cannot deceive God's people.
He cannot deceive the elect. Let's beware, because there are
around, all around us in religion, it sounds awfully like the truth,
but it's error, and it's wrong. It's that which puts merit and
emphasis on the works and the doing of people, rather than
on that which they trust in, that Christ has done for them
and in them. So is that you this morning?
Are those the promises on which you rely and build? Oh, look
where we are. What a glorious position. We're
children of the heavenly palaces. Is that where you rest, right?
Okay, well no. Here's a gospel precept. Here's a gospel exhortation. Here's a gospel command to the
people of God. It's not a law-based rule of
life. But here's a constraint of the love of Christ and the
love of the Father. And this is what it says. Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Don't
love the world, neither the things that are in the world. In the
time we've got left, three things. What is the world? How do we
recognize it? What is the command? And what's
the reason for the command? I won't be long. The world is
not the physical place, as such, where we live. It's not that. It's everything that is opposite
to God. And where is it? Look in verse
16. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. I'll tell you where the world
is. It's in this heart of flesh. That's where the world is, in
the heart of flesh, in the heart of man, in your heart, and my
heart, I don't care how long you've been a child of God, it's
in your heart, by nature. Verse 16, the lust of the flesh,
the lust, lust is wanting to have, must have, consuming desire
to have, the lust of the flesh, whatever the flesh is attracted
by, Whatever it's attracted by. Think about it. There's a lot
of self-examination to do here. You know, this is to me as well
as to you and anybody else that listens. Examine my own heart. Look, how do I measure up to
this? How do I respond to this? Whatever the flesh is attracted
by. Food, drink, things sensual. objects of desire in those magazines,
must do things. You know I'm reminded of the
Athenians in Acts 17. In Acts 17, they were always
looking out and searching for something new. Have you done
the latest thing? Oh, you've not heard about that?
Oh, we've been there and we've done this thing and oh, you need
to do that thing and that. Always looking out for some new
thing. Covetousness, the lust of the
flesh. which is idolatry, says Paul
in one of the other epistles. Covetousness is idolatry. Bowing down and worshipping things
and the vain thoughts of our imaginations rather than God.
It's seeking happiness and pleasure and good feeling and satisfaction
and achievement without God. It's that which is opposite to
God. And we try, we try, don't we?
We try in self-justification We try to dress our worldly lust
schemes up as if they're God-honouring campaigns. You know, we dress
them up like that. It's a bit like Philpott said,
it's like a corpse. You can take a corpse and the
undertaker can dress the corpse in the finest suit of clothes
and make it look really good with a nice tie and, you know,
proper bespoke tailoring on it. And he says, what is it at the
end of that? It's a dead corpse. We try and justify. We try and
make up our worldly lust schemes as God honoring, but they're
not. They're just a dead corpse dressed up in fancy clothes.
And then he goes on and he says, the lust of the eye. In one of
Bunyan's books, is it The Holy War, I think, where the eye,
the different senses are the gates to the soul, to the inner
being of man. And he talks about the eye gate
and the mouth gate and the ear gate and the lust of the eye
and the eye gate is such an important gate to the soul. Again, Philpott
mentions, because he lived in the 1800s, when transport in
London was, I know they started to have some early tube trains,
but basically it was horse-drawn carriages everywhere. The motor
vehicle had not been developed to a sufficient stage in his
lifetime. Horse-drawn carriages everywhere. And of course when
you get horse-drawn carriages, unless you do it the way they
do in Bruges, where they have carrying bags at the back of
the horses, you get dung in the streets everywhere. And they
used to employ young boys and give them jobs with, the boys
would go around and they'd pick the dung off the streets and
put it, and to keep the streets relatively clean, because there
was so much dung in London and the other big cities from the
horse-drawn carriages. And he says, the lust of the
eye, the eye is like the little boys going around picking up
the dung off the streets. And your eyes look. and you see
all these different things around, and it's like sweeping up the
dung from the world, through that gate, into the soul, the
lust of the eye, like those boys picking the dung off the streets.
And what the eye gathers, quickly becomes the object of lust. And
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out. Don't look at it. Don't look
at it. Don't look at the pleasure it
gives you, don't, don't, Don't do that. No. Beware of those
things. It's the world. The love of the
world. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye, the pride of life. It's good to achieve things.
It's good to have ambition. It's good to want to do things.
It's good, it's terrible to have no ambition to do anything. To
just, to just vegetate. It's a complete denial of the
life that God has given you to do nothing. It's a good thing
to have some ambition to do something. But beware of the pride of life,
says John. The pride of life. you know,
the self-made man, the one who came from nothing and everything
he is now, he's done because of his own goodness and his own
intelligence and his own worth, etc. It reminds me of Nebuchadnezzar,
who in Daniel walked around Babylon and he said, look at this great
Babylon that I've made and look at the wonderful things that
I've done. Aren't I, aren't, what a good, you know, little
Jack Horner, put in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said,
what a good boy am I. The pride of life. It's the world,
the pride of life. You see, all the good gifts God
has given in this world to enjoy are there for us to enjoy. But
the flesh and sin can turn them into objects of lust and of sinful
pride. John says, love not the world.
You've got the promises of the gospel, you've got where you
are if you've believed Christ, you know the promise that awaits
you in glory, now love not the world. precept, love not the
world. And here it is, the command,
it's to children, it's to young men, it's to fathers, it's to
all believers, don't love the world. But my flesh always tends
to love it and seek it, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Of course it
does. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. This flesh will
always, to the day you die, you won't become gradually more and
more sanctified until you've got to the point where you don't
lust after the things of the world anymore, because your flesh
will always lust after the things of the flesh. Always will. Those
who shut themselves up in monasteries, we find in the course of time
that out of it come the most horrendous tales. of horrible
sin and terrible behavior. No, you can't do that. The flesh
is the flesh, and the flesh always remains the flesh. But, in the
believer, it's like the old factory with the old rusty machinery.
And the old management has been deposed. And although the old
machinery is still there, there's now a new management inside.
That new management that John goes on to talk about more in
chapter 3. He talks about that new management
that doesn't sin, that cannot sin. This is the new nature. This is the new birth. This is
what must happen if we're to see the kingdom of God, the new
birth. A new man of God must come by the Holy Spirit. And
there's constant tension within. This is the believer's experience.
Constant tension. Not, I've arrived and I'm in
such a happy place. Constant tension of the new management
that wants to do the will of God and wants the love of the
father within and the old flesh that constantly lusts after the
world. How to obey? This is the thing. How do we obey? How are we going
to overcome? In this battle of constant tension
within, the spirit striving against the flesh, and the flesh against
the spirit. In Romans chapter 7, read the
whole chapter, and we'll get to it in our studies in, well,
what will now be a few months time. But in verse 18, Paul says
this, and I'm paraphrasing this, but I'm not doing any violence
to the sense of it. He says, for I know that in me,
in my flesh, dwells no good thing. That's the testimony. If you
don't think otherwise, go and read that. And this is what the
Word of God says. In my flesh, as a believer, dwells
no good thing. I want to obey the precept, the
command, but in my flesh, I can't find the means or the strength
to do it. This is what Paul says there.
He says, he goes on, further expanding the idea of this struggle. And he says in verse 24, who
then shall deliver me? I'm completely trapped in this
cycle. Who shall deliver me? I want to do good, but I have
flesh, which constantly keeps turning out faulty objects. Who
shall deliver me? I thank God, through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. I thank God through Him. Not
through me, through another. I look to Him. The command is,
don't love the world. How am I going to do it? Looking
to Him. It's the grace of God in the
soul that is the power that enables the believer to pull back from
that which the flesh lusts after. The grace of God in the soul.
You know, you're tempted to selfish indulgence, let's say. That's
the flesh, lusting after, you're tempted to selfish indulgence.
What should the believer do? Look to Christ. Look to him. What did he do? He gave his life
for the sheep. Look to him. Now, in looking
to him, in that moment of temptation with the lust of the flesh and
the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, looking to him
when that temptation is there, doesn't that pour a cold bucket
of extinguishing water on that fire of temptation? Doesn't it extinguish it, looking
to Him? You see? It's gone, isn't it?
You look to Him. How can that selfish indulgence
be pursued? Look to Him. Now, I know we fail
constantly. I know we never sit back and
partake of the pride of life in saying, oh, haven't we done
well today as believers? No, no, we never do that. But
that's the way That's the way to heed the command. And what then is the reason for
the command? Verse 15. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. If any man loved
the world, now your flesh loves the world. Your flesh lusts after
the world. Your eyes lust after the world. You're proud of your life in
this flesh. But if the settled state of your
life is one of love for the world, the scripture says, the love
of the Father is not in you. Let a man examine himself. It's
a stark warning. You say you desire eternal life. Yeah, you desire eternal life.
You don't want to go to hell. You don't want to face the judgment
of God and know that you stand there in your sins. You desire
eternal life. You desire peace with God rather
than enmity from God. You desire the assurance of justification
in Christ. You desire the love of the Father
within. Well, it's incompatible with
the love of the world. It's completely incompatible
with the love of the world. You'll have it there in your
flesh. Believers are not without sin. Paul, as I've already said
in Romans 7 and 8, it's a constant testimony of the fact that he
would want to do good, but sin is there with him. David in Psalm
65 says this, iniquities prevail against me. That's the believer's
experience. Who shall deliver me, says Paul? The grace of God in Christ shall
deliver me, looking to Jesus. That's what pours the extinguishing
water on the fires of worldly lusts. That's why, that's the
reason why it's incompatible, completely incompatible. Look
at verse 17. This world, after which the flesh
lusts, is passing away. And the lust of it will go. We see people go to their graves. We see people die, all the time. They say we're living longer.
We haven't stopped dying. We haven't stopped dying. And
we will go on dying. those around us will die, and
with them the lust of the flesh dies with them. That dead corpse
cannot lust after the things of the world anymore. But, but,
think of these things, these scriptures, burn them into your
soul, remember them, but he that doeth the will of God abideth
forever. That doesn't mean he that obeys
the Ten Commandments. It doesn't mean that, it cannot
mean that. It means this, he that does the will of God, he
that believes the gospel of grace in Christ, he that trusts Christ
for everything, he that seeks to serve Christ and honor Him,
abides forever, abides forever. The world and its lusts, all
passing away, but he that does God's will, obeys, lives, gospel
commands, abides forever. And what should be our prayer?
Please God, pray God this, keep me looking to Jesus, looking
to his redemption, looking to his promise of eternal life.
enrapture, love, love, enrapture my soul so that I less desire
the things of the flesh and the world. And that's why we're going
to share bread and wine shortly, and that's why we have this reminder.
This is why Christ gave us this reminder, to remember his death,
to remember his broken body, to remember his shed blood. Doesn't
even the thought of it now pour extinguishing water on the lusts
of the flesh? the things of the world? The
things of the world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory
and grace. So we're going to share bread
and wine shortly. Love not the world, neither the things of
the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him.