Now our text begins in verse
15. With love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. 1 John 2.15 Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. Now by the grace of
God and by the love of God that's shed abroad in the hearts of
His people by the Holy Spirit. God's saints do not love the
people of this world. Now, we seek to help and to be
a help for the spiritual good of unregenerate men in this world. We seek their temporal good.
That's what Christ meant when He said, love your enemy. Love
your enemy. In that sense, we do love the
world, but the people of this world, no matter who they are,
whether they're our family or neighbor or whoever, they're
never to be a rival for our affection over Christ. and never to be
a rival over his people. Our Lord said, if any man come
to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brethren and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. There can be no rivals for our
love and our affection with Christ. There can be no rivals to come
between us. By the grace and love of God,
God's people do not love this world as though it's our permanent
home. We're just strangers here. We're
pilgrims here. Abraham didn't let his stakes
sink too deep in this world. And we're not to let our roots
run too deep in this life. This is not our home. Our conversation,
our citizenship, Paul said, is in heaven. from which also we
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change
our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious
body by that same power whereby He is able to subdue all things
to Himself. And by the grace and love of
God, God's saints don't love the things of this world. Now
the Apostle Paul told Timothy, God giveth us richly all things
to enjoy. But enjoying those things in
a godly manner is to remember that they're the gifts of God,
that He's our provider, they're to help ease our troubles in
this life, but they're to keep us knowing that He alone is our
provider. Let me give this to you from
Ecclesiastes 5.18. It's good and comely for one
to eat and to drink. and to enjoy the good of all
his labor that he taketh unto the Son all the days of his life
which God giveth him, for it is his portion. Every man also
to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and to whom God hath
given power to eat thereof, and whom God hath given power to
take his portion, and whom God hath given power to rejoice in
his labor, This is the gift of God. For he shall not remember
the days of his life, because God answereth him in the joy
of his heart. God gives us a job, He gives
us the fruits of our labor, and He gives us the ability to enjoy
those. and joy to enjoy those so that
we're not overly distressed with the troubles of this life. That's
what he means when he says he shall not much remember the days
of his life. He won't remember the trouble.
The fruit of our labor, the things he's given us to enjoy helps
us not remember the trouble. And it says, because God answers
him in the joy of his heart, he makes us remember God's our
provider. He makes us to enjoy those things
but to enjoy them looking to the giver and not to the gifts. But we never love the things
of this world above God that gave them. We don't love the
things of this world. Christ said, Whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple. There can be nothing as far as
temporal things. that compete for our affection
with Christ. So our subject tonight is the
love of godliness. That's what we're talking about
here, is godliness. And when I say the love of godliness,
I've titled it that because I'd already preached a message from
this passage titled The Love of the Father. But the love of
godliness we see here is the love of the Father in the heart.
That's what gives you a love of godliness. The love of the
Father shed abroad in the heart. It makes us cease living in worldliness,
which simply means living for the world. And it makes you begin
to live in godliness, which is simply living for Christ and
living for His people. And that's the will of God that
we're to obey. is to believe on Christ and live
for Him, live for His kingdom. That's godliness. Worldliness
is living for this world. Godliness is living for God,
for Christ, for His people. Now here are three reasons that
God's saints no longer live for this world. Here's why we live
for Christ. Number one, the love of the Father
is in us. He says in verse 15, if any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Secondly,
the love of the Father turns us from this world. He teaches
us what is in it and what it consists of and He turns us from
it. He said in verse 16, 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. The Lord teaches us this in our
heart, makes us understand this, turns us from this. And then
thirdly, the love of the Father makes us do His will. He says,
verse 17, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but
he that doeth the will of God, he abideth forever. And it's
that love of the Father that makes us do the will of God. Now first of all, God's saints
live in godliness. We live in godliness by the love
of the Father in us. He says in verse 15, If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now get
that, read it again. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. You remember what Christ
said. Christ said, No man can serve
two masters. He will either hate the one and
love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the
other. You cannot love God and mammon. You cannot love God and the world. But get what he said now. You
put Christ's word together with our text and you get a fuller
meaning. If I love the world, then I do not have the love of
the Father in me. But I'm not just neutral. If
I love the world, I hate the Father. Christ said He'll love
the one and hate the other. If I love the world, I hate the
Father. And the love of the Father is
not in me. So it's not just a neutral thing. It's just not that a man
just doesn't have the love of the Father in his heart. He hates
God. He hates God. Every sinner comes
into the world this way. Turn to Ephesians 2. And every
sinner God regenerates comes into the world this way. Every
single one. Ephesians chapter 2 and look
at verse 2. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. Everybody here right now that
does not believe on Christ, does not have a love of the brethren,
are disobeying God. And this right here, God says
this is the spirit you're under. The prince of the power of the
air, that's the devil. You're under his power, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. But we all walked
according to that course. Everybody God regenerates walk
just like that. Look here in verse 3. Among whom
also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of
our flesh. We're going to see the lust of
our flesh here in just a moment. But that's what we walked in.
The lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind. We were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. Children of wrath means we hated
God just like others did. We hated God. We were children
hating God in our heart. Now we were dead. That means
we were spiritually dead. We loved the world, we lived
for the world, and we hated God just like all sinners in this
world. Now who made us to differ? Look at verse 4. But God, who
is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. So what does that mean? It means
by grace you are saved. By grace. The difference was
not something we did. The difference was God, for His
great love, wherewith He loved us, hath quickened us together
with Christ. It was the love of God. That
love of God that's in Christ toward His people. His great
love toward us. God gave us life. He gave us
life. We didn't have spiritual life. He gave us life. Look over Titus
3. He gave us life and He made us
behold His great love in sending Christ for us. We didn't see this by nature.
He gave this in our hearts. Shed His love abroad in our hearts
and He made us behold Christ. Look here in Titus 3 in verse
3. We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Where did it appear?
It appeared in our hearts. Look here, not by works of righteousness
which we've done but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. that being
justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. God gave us life, He shed His
love abroad in our hearts making us behold how He loved us when
we didn't love Him. Making us behold how He chose
us freely by His grace. That's the love He had for us. He chose us freely by His grace
and He made us see the love wherewith Christ loved us. in laying down
His life for us, justifying us from all our sin, making us joint heirs with Him
of the Father, giving us that hope of eternal life. We have
a good hope now, a hope that enters into the veil, into that
inner holiest of holies where Christ sits. And our hope is
right there. We're going to be with Him one
day and have eternal life. And when He showed you this,
He made you fall in love with Him. Remember how He spoke of
Hosea, Hosea spoke of Gomer, how He was going to bring her
out into the wilderness, and He was going to woo her, He was
going to show His love to her? That's what God did for His people.
He says, so when we read our text, it says, if any man loved
the world, The love of the Father is not in him. But conversely,
that means if any man loves the Father, and any man has a heart
to live for the Father, and for his son, and for his people,
it's because the love of the Father abides in us. That's what
makes the difference. But every believer still has
flesh. We still have this sinful flesh
that loves the world. And so we have to be constantly
reminded, love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. John would say that if we didn't need that. And this
is the word of our Redeemer, love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. And if any man loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. Are you a child of God? Are you born of the Spirit of
God, have the love of God in your heart, you have the hope
of eternal life, then treat this world like it is. It's dead. All this world and the things
of this world are dead and useless to us. Don't live for the things
that dead men live for. But rather, let us live for Christ. Let us live for Him who loved
us and washed us and justified us and made us His. Let us live
for Him. We live for Christ by giving
ourselves to further the gospel of His grace. That's how you
live for Christ. Do everything you can to further
the gospel in this world. And do whatever you can to serve
the Lord's people. That's what it is to live for
Christ. That's what it is to walk in
godliness. It's to live for Christ. It's
that simple. It's to live for Christ. Now
secondly, look at this. The love of the Father turns
His child from this world by teaching us what's in this world.
That's what He's doing here and giving us this text. He's teaching
us what's in this world. And He doesn't teach us just
one time. He keeps teaching us what's in this world. And we've
read this. We've heard this preached. We're
going to hear it preached tonight. We're going to hear it preached
more. Because God's going to continually teach us what's in
this world and keep His children turned from it. He says here
in verse 16. And I want our young people here,
especially you that haven't believed on the Lord. I want you to hear
this now. Because I know you got big eyes right now for the
world and for the things that you want to achieve in the world
and what have you. Listen to what God says right
here. 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. All that is in the world, that
means this right here is the sum total of everything that's
in the world. God summed up this whole world
beginning to end. The whole space of time from
beginning to end and everything in this world, He summed it up
in one verse. One verse. Right here. This is
it. And it's not what false religion
teaches. It's not. Here's what's sad. It makes up 99% of what religion
is today. What he's going to give us right
here makes up 99% of what religion is in our day. That's what's
sad. First of all, it's the lust of
the flesh. That is the lust of the body.
The lust of the flesh. We read two or three scriptures
that talk about how we walked according to the lust of our
flesh, the desires of our mind and of our flesh. That's what
he's talking about. It's living for the carnal, for
the sensual, for the desires of the flesh. In other places,
it's called living for the belly, living for the pleasures of this
world. Now, false religion appeals to
the lust of the flesh. Paul said in Colossians 3, he
said, Touch not, taste not, and handle not. Those are all worldly
elements that are going to perish with the using. And that's what
the world is appealing to. That's what they tell you godliness
is. Don't touch that thing. and touch this other thing. Touch
not, taste not, handle not. Don't touch this, don't touch
that, don't wear this, don't wear that, don't eat this, don't
eat that, don't hang out with this person, don't hang out with
the other person. That's what they tell you worldliness is. And godliness
is not doing that, not doing those things. and they entice with pleasure
and they entice with entertainment. Listen to this, Philippians 3.18, There's no thing in this world
that is sinful or wicked. No thing. It's what you and I
do with those things that make them sinful and wicked. The sin
comes from our heart. That's where the sin comes from.
In 2 Timothy 3.1 it says, In these last days perilous times
shall come. Men shall be lovers of their
own selves. And then he says, lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God having a form of godliness. But denying the power thereof
from such turn away. He's talking about religious
folk. But this is the same principle that the world operates under
just doing whatever the flesh craves. That's how religion operates
by giving you things you can do and not do to make you godly. That is the lust of the flesh.
That's what the flesh wants. A spiritually dead man will say,
don't preach Christ and Him crucified, don't tell me Christ is all,
give me some do's and don'ts, because that's the lust of the
flesh. That is the lust of the flesh. And then here it is, it's
the lust of the eyes. It used to be covetous, for things
that gratify the sight. Things you see that you want,
that you covet just for. But I'll tell you something else
this is. And it's really predominantly this. It's that covetousness
for men to see one's own self a certain way. The lust of having your eyes
see me a certain way. That's the lust of the eyes,
to be seen of men. Our Lord said don't do anything
to be seen of men. Now, we want to be careful how
we live in this world because men do see us and we're aware
of that. We don't want to do anything
to bring reproach on the Lord. But our Lord told us don't do
anything to be seen of men. As far as your prayer goes, and
your giving, your almsgiving, anything religious, you don't
want to be seen that way. Christ said don't do anything
to be seen of men. But He said a pharisaical will
worship religion, He said this, all their works they do for to
be seen of men. Everything they do is to be seen
of men. And they push that because they're
constantly checking up on one another and bringing you under
censure for different things that you do. And that teaches
you, I need to make sure how people see me is good. And that's
hypocrisy. If I'm just doing what I'm doing
to be seen of men. Our Lord said, you're they that
would justify yourselves before men. But God knows your hearts
for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination.
Where? In the sight of God. In God's
eyes. In lust for the eyes of men to
behold them a certain way. Our Lord said, but this is how
God sees you. He sees your heart. He knows
what's in the heart. He knows what's in the heart.
And this is where it starts is in religion. That's why when
you turn on the television, you see the world doing what they're
doing. Everything is to be seen of men.
Everything is to be seen of men. And that evil gets worse and
worse and worse when it's not being preached from the pulpit
that this is the lust of the flesh. This is worldliness to
want and to see me a certain way. That's worldliness. And
then there's the pride of life. Or it could be called the pride
of living. That's the word that could go
there, the pride of living. It's ambition for honor. popularity,
for prominent positions, for luxury, for pop. It's that ambition
to be praised. To be praised. So you have here,
this is worldliness. And this is what, this desire,
this pride of life, this is how religion operates. Nowadays,
to become a member of some churches, you have to undergo a bunch of
study and a bunch of tests and jump through a whole bunch of
hoops because it's operating on the same principle as a fraternity. If you do all these things that
are difficult to do, it's going to make you not want to leave
it because you got so much invested in becoming a member of it. And then from there, once you
do all that to become a member, then you start striving for the
uppermost seats in the place and become a teacher and have
a title and all of those things. The Lord said, they love the
uppermost rooms of feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues
and greetings in the markets and to be called Rabbi, Rabbi. And Christ said this, how can
you believe which receive honor one from another. And don't seek that honor that
comes only from God. And this is what the world is
made up of, seeking honor one of another, but not seeking that
honor that comes from God only. See, religion says worldliness
is eating certain things, dressing a certain way, But our Lord said the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink. It's not meat and drink. It's
not in eating a certain way and dressing a certain way. That's
not the kingdom of God. I guarantee you, if you saw the
Lord Jesus Christ and how He dressed, and how He wore His
hair, how He wore His beard, who He hung out with, what He
drank when He was sitting at the table, you would say he wouldn't
be allowed in most churches. He wouldn't. I guarantee you in most churches
in our day, if they knew a man owned a winery or was distilling
alcohol, they wouldn't let him join the church. Christ made
all the guests at that wedding at Cana, He made wine for them.
There's nothing wrong with wine. It's getting drunk on the wine. That's the sin. That's an example. It's not the thing that's sinful.
It's what you do with it that's sinful. So this is, worldliness
is a heart attitude. It's the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And he says here that
all of this is not of the Father, but it's of the world. We saw
Sunday where it came from. It came from the fall. It came
from our sin and our death in Adam. That's where it came from.
This is all the works of the devil. And Christ said, He that
committed the sins of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. And so Christ came
forth made of a woman and the first thing he did after he entered
his public ministry was he went into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. And the devil tempted him in
every way he tempted Eve. He used the same subtlety he
used with Eve. And Christ overcame all the temptation
perfectly saying, as it is written, as it is written. He kept going
back to the word of God, as it is written, as it is written.
And he overcame him. He destroyed the works of the
devil by his perfect obedience to God his Father, by his perfect
love to the Father and to his people all the days of his life. Perfect. And then he went to
the cross and destroyed the works of the devil for his people by
bearing our sin and by his sin atoning blood so that the devil
can't accuse us of any sin anymore before God. Because Christ put
it all away. And then He destroys the works
of the devil in us by the Spirit of God, by sending forth the
Spirit into our hearts whereby we're created entirely anew. And everything He does in giving
faith and repentance and this love in the heart is all in that
new inward man that He's created. It's created in His righteousness
and His holiness so that we're partakers of His nature. This
is what He does, and by this He destroyed the works of the
devil. And so those that Christ has perfected, we're not of the
world. All these things He's talking
about here, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life, it's not of the Father, it's of the world.
But you and I who have been redeemed by Christ and born of God, we're
not of the world, we're of the Father. We're just the opposite to all
these lusts. We're of the Father. Christ said,
I've given them thy word and the world hath hated them because
they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I pray
not that thou should take them out of the world but that thou
should keep them from the evil. They're not of the world even
as I am not of the world. So you see, the only way we were
saved from this is by being made not of the world. That's by God
the Father loving us and choosing us freely by His grace apart
from anything in us before this world was ever made. Talk about
not being of the world. God chose His people before the
world was even made. Much less before we sinned. And
we're not of the world because Christ redeemed us. He purchased
us. We're not our own. We belong
to Christ. We're His. We're not of this
world. And we're not of this world because
we're created anew of the Holy Spirit of God. Nothing of this
world had anything to do with this new creation. So we're not
of this world. And that's how we're saved from
this world. That's how God thinks our lives
are no longer ruled by these worldly principles anymore. Now,
our lives are governed by Christ our Master, constrained by the
love of Christ, by the love of the Father, which is shed abroad
in our heart. This is how we're constrained
to do what we do, to live for Christ and for his people. Now,
young believers, whenever it gets time for college, I was
talking to my physician this week. His friend is dean of something
at Rutgers. And he said, he tells high school
graduates, don't even go to a four-year university your first two years.
Go to a community college and then go to a college so that
you don't have a mountain of debt when you get out of college.
But what I'm saying to you is, wherever you go, Be near home
where you can come home and hear the gospel preached or if you
go off, go where the gospel is preached and be there. Don't just go to where the gospel
is preached and then stay in your dorm on Sunday morning.
Go where it's preached and go to that service and be there
where it's preached in truth. And when you get ready to look
for a career or a job, let this be the first thought. What can
I do that won't consume me? Something that will enable me
to live for Christ and for His kingdom and further His gospel
and serve His people. I don't want to be consumed by
it. And for all of us, we need to
remember this brethren, the cares of this world, the cares of this
world. Paul said a person who is married,
they are going to care for their spouse. We're talking about these kinds
of cares. You have children, you don't care for your children.
We have to do those things, they're honorable, we should do these
things. But remember this, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness
of riches and the lust of other things entering in choke the
word and it becomes unfruitful. These are things we need to remember,
constantly remember. We can become overly careful
for our children and for our jobs and for these things that
we need to do honorably in this world. And we can, these deceitful
riches, and that riches is not just money, it can be promotion,
it can be all these different things that tempt you and these
things that take you away from the Gospel and take you away
from the Word of God, and before long, it's choked out the Word
completely. Now if that happens, we were
never His to begin with, because He's not going to let it happen
in His child, but we need to still be aware. And His grace
and His love in your heart makes you be aware, makes you guard
against that. Here's the last thing. The love of the Father
makes His children do His will. Verse 17, The world passeth away,
and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth
forever. One morning, I should have done
this this time, and I don't know why I didn't, but one morning
a long time ago when Rob was just a little bitty fellow, so
were these others, I brought a little jar of bubbles, a little
plastic thing of bubbles. into the pulpit and I blew those
bubbles and blew them up into the air and there they were coming
down, you know, and I said, there's Bordentown, there's Rocky Hill,
and there's Pennington, and there's all these different places where
we all live. And we just sat there and watched
them and they just floated down to the ground, some of them busted
in the air. The other ones floated down and
they one by one just busted. That's what he means right here.
The world passeth away. and the lust thereof. Whatever
you're going after, whatever you're lusting after, whatever
you think is going to make you happy, it ain't going to make
you happy. I can tell you that. But number
two, it's going to pass away. And so are you, and so is that
lust. But he that does the will of
God, believes on Christ and lives for Him, he's going to abide
forever. I can tell you this, I can read
it to you plainly, you can read it plainly right here from God
Himself. And you're going to ignore this,
you're going to go right on and go for this world. But I'll tell
you what will make you obey this and do God's will. What did John
say back in verse 5? He said, whoever keeps His Word,
how does he do it? In him verily is the love of
God perfected. The love of God has brought him
to that end. the will of God. When the Holy Spirit sheds this
love in our hearts, Christ speaks and He says this to you, love
not the world. Love not the world. He used John
to write that. But that's the word of our Redeemer.
And when He speaks this affectionately, that's when we hear it. Love
not this world, neither the things that are in it. All that's in
the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride
of life, if I'm not content with what God's given me. Whatever
it is, my job, my spouse, my position in life, my children,
whatever, I'm not content with where I'm at. God's put me there. It's the lust of the flesh, it's
the lust of the eyes, and it's the pride of life. And it's not
of the Father, it's of the world. And Christ teaches us this in
our heart. And the world passes away, and the lusts pass away,
but He that does the will of God abides forever. Christ has
to teach us this in our heart. And He speaks into your heart.
Look at Matthew 16. This is what He says to you,
right here. Matthew 16. And He makes this word like a
lightning bolt. Look here, Matthew 16, verse
24. Jesus said unto His disciples,
I pray tonight He will teach somebody in our heart. Look at
this. If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it. You want to save these lusts
and save this worldliness? You are going to lose your life.
But whosoever will lose his life, Let go of all of that and follow
Christ. Believe on Christ and start living
for Him. He lives for my sake. He's going
to find His life. For what is a man profited if
he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall
come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He
shall reward every man according to his works. That's what He's
going to do. To them who by patient continuance
and well-doing, doing the will of God, believing on Christ,
living for God, They're seeking for glory, they're seeking for
honor, they're seeking for immortality. That's what they're looking for. Christ is going to freely give
them what He earned for them, and that's eternal life. But
unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but
obey unrighteousness, Christ is going to give that man what
he earned, indignation and wrath. Christ has to teach us this,
and He has to teach you, Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a
man keep my sayings, he'll never see death. And by His power,
by His grace, we hear it. We hear it. And it makes sense
to us. And we understand it. And all
these lusts become what they are. They become dead, sinful
lusts. And we don't want them. We hate
that now. And we love the Word of God. and we begin to obey
God. First, by casting all our care
on Christ. And secondly, by saying, what
can I do for Him? What can I do for Him? I've been
living for myself. I've been consuming it upon my
lust. I've been living for my belly.
What can I do now for Christ and His people? Old Moses, he
heard this word. Moses was the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. And I'm telling you, if a man
ever wanted to go after the lust of his flesh, Moses could have
done it and he could have been the richest man in this world.
But what does the Scripture say? By faith Moses. That means he
heard. He had this love shed in his
heart and he heard Christ speak effectually. And it says, Moses
by faith refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
I don't know who the richest man in the world is now, but
it would be like saying, I'm not going to take anything he'll
give me. That's what Moses did. Richest
man in the world at the time. He refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God. rather than enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season. Why did he do that? He esteemed
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in
Egypt because he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. That eternal life with Christ,
that's what he was seeking and he knew that would be greater.
I want to read you something. I just thought of this before.
Go to Revelation 20. Revelation 20. Here's what Moses looked for rather than enjoying the pleasures
of sin for a season. Verse 2, I, John, saw the holy
city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared
as a bride adorned for a husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for all those
former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write,
for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me,
It's done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, and I give unto him that's a thirst of the fountain
of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things, and I'll be his God, and he shall be my son. Doesn't
that sound good? Doesn't that sound better than
the pleasures of sin just for a season? I pray God tonight
shed that love in your heart and make us live for Him. Amen.