May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn
to the first epistle of John and the second chapter and reading
verse 15. The first epistle of John, chapter
2 and reading verse 15. 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. Such a word was clearly necessary
when the Apostle John wrote these words, and they have been necessary
down through the ages, and they will be necessary down to the
end of time. And so we should be thankful
that we have a word like this just to instruct us and to direct
us into the right way rather than the wrong way. The Apostle John is often described
as the loving disciple and no doubt to a large extent that's
very true. But nonetheless he does write
some very straight things as he writes his epistle. And how
needful it is for us to recognise that these words are written
for our instruction and for the good of our souls. Because if
we just carry on our lives, ignoring the word of God, ignoring the
truth of God, ignoring such statements as this, we will find that we
very soon become, or at least remain in, a very hard and carnal
and fleshly situation. We do not enjoy, we will not
enjoy communion with the Lord. We will not enjoy His favour
and love toward us, because there will be that gulf between us
and our God, and that gulf is really the world. And so here
we have this statement before us this evening. Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world. And of course
that's comprehensive, isn't it? The Apostle does go on to just
illustrate three points. He says, 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. It just gives us there some indication
of some of those things which are worldly and will not benefit
us in our eternal state. Will not benefit us really in
our natural life, in a spiritual way. We have to live on the earth
obviously, we have to mix with the world. But we are told that
we are to be in the world but not of it. And that's a very
great statement. Because that means that there
will be that separation between us and the world. And if the
Spirit of God has worked or is working in our hearts, there
will be that recognition that the people of the world are not
really our friends. It may be in a natural way, but
our best friends will indeed be the people of God. And one
of the reasons is, of course, they will understand our position,
they'll understand the battles and the hardness of the way,
and perhaps the darkness and the difficulties that we enter
into. And we'll find that there are
companions amongst the Church of God. people who understand,
whereas in the world, the world at large, there's no understanding
of these things. If you were to speak about how
you felt, they would mock you and laugh at you and they wouldn't
understand anything. But if you speak to the Church
of God, they will understand. There will be a realization that
there's a companion and you're walking the same road and the
same route to glory. So we should be very thankful
that in this day and age in which we live, we're still favoured
to be able to gather and to meet from time to time with the people
of God. We're not left, we're not isolated
like some people are in the world today. So great are our blessings. So we have this statement then,
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
And perhaps, on the face of it, we may think, well that's a very
harsh and hard statement. Well, it will be if the world
is all that we want. If we only want the things of
this world, then it will be a very hard statement to love not the
world, because that's what we want to love. That's what we
want to be involved with and in. But if the gracious Lord
has touched our hearts and caused there to be a difference, we
shall, by his grace, be seeking after those spiritual blessings,
those eternal blessings, and we shall be concerned as to where
we shall end our life, where we shall be. And that will be
a great question and a great concern with us. And therefore
such a statement as this, love not the world, nor the things
that are in the world, will not be as harsh to us as at one time
it would have been. But now we can be thankful that
we have a little understanding and a little view of what it
means, because if we are only loving the world, if we occupy
with the world, loving the world, and the things that are in the
world. There's no room for God. And there's no room for the things
of God. And we find we're occupying ourselves
with the things of the world rather than the things of God. So we should be thankful that
we have statements like this in the Word of God to encourage
us in our pilgrimage. And it is a pilgrimage. And a
pilgrimage is really a foreigner He's travelling through a foreign
land. He's not at rest. He's in an alien place. That's
what a pilgrim is. And if we are pilgrims, we shall
be in a foreign land. This won't be our rest. We may sometimes want to make
ourselves more comfortable in this world, but there will never
really be true comfort to the believer in this world. The only
true comfort is to be found in Christ. Now that's a place of
comfort. And that's a place of refuge.
And that's a place of happiness. And that's a place of joy. To
know that we are in Christ Jesus. And the nearer we are able to
live to the Lord Jesus, the easier it will be to love not the world. The closer we live to the Lord
Jesus, The easier it will be to part from the very many things
in this vain world which will not truly benefit us. But if
we live far off from God, then you see the things of this world
will have a great attraction. Now, let us be clear, while we
are in the body, we have a sinful nature. We have an old nature.
And if we are born again in the spirit of God, we have a new
nature. We have those two natures. and they are striving against
each other, going in opposite direction. One seeks after holiness,
the other seeks after the things of this world. And therefore
if we possess the grace of God, there will be that light in our
hearts which will direct us to desiring and praying for spiritual
blessings and sometimes almost against our will. I think that's
a strange statement to make. But you see the devil is very
strong and he will try and encourage us to go along with the things
in the world. And as we may be very keen on
certain aspects of the things in the world, it won't be easy
to pray against them. It won't be easy to pray that
the Lord will turn our affection away from them, to take away
the interest and the love of such things. Well, what a blessing
it is when the Holy Spirit of God comes and influences our
lives to this extent, so that we read a word like this and
we understand what it means, and we desire that we may possess
that grace to follow out the wise words, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. Well, the world at
large, the world is rushing on headlong to a lost eternity and
everybody is just looking after themselves to a large extent.
They're concerned about what they will be doing concerned
about what's going to happen to them, where they're going,
how they're going to prosper their way. They only look to
themselves, they only look at their own natural lives. And
they want to be thought much of, they want to be viewed highly,
and they're not prepared to take the lowest place. Now the apostle,
when he wrote this account, he addressed three types of people. The three types of people really
encompass everyone. The first, little children, and
then young men, and then fathers. So, we have a comprehensive statement
really. And he says he's writing to each
section as it were, and he desires then that they might be blessed
and he says this, I write unto you little children, because
your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. Now you may think,
well, is that really so? Well, if the Lord has touched
our hearts, if the Lord has really called us by his grace, it is
because, and this is the wonder of it, it is because he has laid
down his life for us. And if he has laid down his life
for us, He's laid down his life to take away our sins, so that
we are washed in the blood of the Redeemer. And we are cleansed
and we are pure and we are white. And therefore this statement
is gloriously true. I write unto you little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. And then he jumps and goes to
the fathers. I write unto you fathers, because
you have known him, that is from the beginning. The Lord Jesus
Christ of course was from the beginning. He had no beginning.
He never was. And so we have this statement
here, I write unto you fathers because you have known him. What
a blessing that is, to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. To know Him personally. And religion is, of course, a
personal experience. It's an experience between our
soul and our God. And it's personal to each one
of us. We each have, if we're called
by grace, a personal relationship with God. Isn't that amazing?
To think of that. To think that you and I possess
a personal relationship with God. And because of that, we
know God. We know Him. And then He says,
I write unto you young men, because you have overcome the wicked
one. I write unto you, young men,
because you have overcome the wicked one." Well, how do we
overcome? Let's be quite clear about this. We're not strong
in ourselves. We overcome through the blood of the Lamb. We overcome
through what Christ has done. We overcome because He has conquered.
There's our hope, seeing what Christ has done. The Lord Jesus
Christ must be magnified. He must grow in our estimation. He must become ever greater and
ever more glorious. And then he comes back and says,
I write that to you little children because you have known the Father.
You have known the Father. You see, a little child has a
father. We know that, don't we? Every
little child has a father. And every child of God has a
father, a great father, a father in heaven. Alright, and to little
children, because you have known the father, and little children
mostly know their fathers, so true it is with the Church of
God, every little child of God knows their father. And the blessing
is, that as a little child goes to his father, Very simply, and
he can go at any time. A toddler, a toddler's up to
his father. So, you and I can come in our
low condition, as a little child with very little knowledge, yet
we can come to our father, because we know he is our father. He
goes on, I have written unto you fathers, because you have
known him, that is from the beginning, I have written unto you young
men, Because you are strong, and that's of course strong in
the Lord, not strong in ourselves. And the Word of God abideth in
you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. So having given a
description like that, he then, to these people, he then speaks
to them in love, and this is the words he speaks, love not
the world. It's an admonition to the people
of God, to the Church of God, It's a warning. You may say,
well surely I don't need to be warned about such a situation. Surely I know that's true. Well
we do know it's true, but we need to be reminded of it. Because
we are by nature carnally minded. We are fleshly minded. And by
nature we go after the things of the world. And we need therefore,
and we bless God, the Spirit of God does, apply the word to
warn us, and to correct us, and to remind us of a situation like
this, that we are not to love the world. There are those temptations
which come before us, and remember, the devil is looking for a chink
in our armour to get inside. He's always on the outlook, and
if he can find anything, that will make you love the things
of the world. To love the world, he'll do all
that he can to produce that love. Because the word of God tells
us this, you cannot love God and mammon. Well, mammon can
be described as money or the things of the world and truly
you cannot love both. And yet you see our nature tries
to do just that. And we need a reference like
this, to love not the world. Love not the world, that we might
be reminded of it and be concerned that we do not love the world,
but rather that we love God. Now, the difference is, loving
the world doesn't bring any peace. The love of God brings a great
peace. And one of the reasons for that
is, the love of the world is passing. It fades away. It disappears. The love of God
remains with us forever. If once we tasted the love of
God, my friends, that will never be taken away from us. what a
blessing it is to realise such a truth as that. To know that the Lord is a gracious
God, a merciful God, a God who is full of compassion, a God
who does not deal with us as our sins deserve. Well, Job when he wrote his epistle,
wrote his book rather, He reminds us about how short our life is. He says this, I remember that
my life is wind, mine I shall see no more good. Our life is just like that, just
passing away. It's good that we remember our
life is just like wind which passes away. So if we are therefore
concerned about the things of this world, let us have the perspective
that the things of this world are but for a moment, just as
wind. We're told also our life is like
a vapour that vanishes away, it just disappears. Love not
the world. If you and I are therefore a
love in the world, we will find we do not love God as we should.
We find that God is in the background and we are pursuing these worthless
things in the world. And they are, because if you
compare the things of the world with the things of eternity,
if you put them in a balance, and you put the things of the
world on one side and the things of eternity on the other. There's
no comparison. The weight of eternity, the eternal
weight of glory. The apostle uses that expression. It's a very apt one. Eternal
weight of glory. It's very heavy. He does use
the other analogy and he says, our light of affliction, which
is but for a moment. Well, we might consider the affliction
being to love the world. Because it is really an affliction
if you and I are left to love the world. So therefore in loving
not the world we have this comparison between the lightness on the
one hand and the eternal weight of glory on the other. Well,
surely we can understand there's no real comparison, is there? They're so different. There's
a great gulf fixed between those two situations. And so may we
each be concerned to hear words like this, the love, not the
world, neither the things that are in the world. Obviously,
we have a picture of loving the world in a general sense, You
know that means perhaps loving our natural life. You may hear
people say sometimes, and I hear them say it sometimes, and it
always saddens me when they say, I want to live my life to the
full. Well, that's their life. My friends,
that's a very feeble life, and it will soon be snuffed out.
What a glorious thing it is if we want to live our life in Christ. Not to live our life to the full,
not to live our life in the world, just be taken up with everything
the world has to offer. It's a polluted place, isn't
it? If we're honest, we look around
and we see the world, it's a polluted place. Why? because of sin. Sin has entered in and it's affected
everything in this world. You know you see beautiful plants
grow up, don't you? They soon fade away. Oh yes,
you see everything disappearing. Oh, my friends, to have our heart
and our affection upon things above, not on things on the earth. The world, the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof does. Well, just for a moment, for
all that is in the world, it gives this expression, the lust
of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Well, we have these three simple
examples. The lust of the flesh, how we
want things of the flesh. You remember in the word of God,
there's a number of instances, but just to take two, we have
that account of Achan, you may remember, when Israel had gone
over to Jordan and went over to start taking the cities of the
promised land. And they were told what they
could do, what they could take, what they could not take. And
they were told not to take gold and jewels and raiment. And this
man Akan, you know, he saw in a tent, he went into these things. And what was he? He was lustful. He wanted them for himself. God
had said very clearly through Joshua what they could do or
not do, but Achan went and hid these things in his tent. He didn't realise that God was
in every place, beholding the evil and the good. He thought
he had hidden these things out of sight. But it came to the
light and as you may know the account, eventually he and his
family were taken and he was taken and they all perished. They all perished. He was loving the world. Another occasion, King Saul you
may remember, he went to battle. And the Prophet had told him
very clearly that he was to destroy everything and not to keep anything. And what did they do? They kept
the best cattle. They wouldn't destroy it. No. Why? Because they loved those
things, they coveted them. And Saul had to be told that
to obey is better than sacrifice. You see, he made out that he
was going to use animals for sacrifice. And he was told to
obey is better than sacrifice. How important that is for us
to know. What was he doing really? Well,
he was loving the world. He was lustful. He wanted those
things and he kept those things. Well, we are not to do that.
We see how easy then that we can be taken up with this situation
for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh. We are
not to allow our lust to go after things which just please us and
we want this and we want that. I suppose because of the climate
we live in, with, generally speaking, sufficient funds to buy many
things. You know, sometimes we want a
certain thing and we perhaps save up and we then go and buy
it, and perhaps we don't really need it. And if we really analyse
it in our own mind, by the grace of God, perhaps it is that we
are being lustful. Our flesh is lusting after something,
and we perhaps want it. I hope we're not like some people
who say, I must have that. And therefore they're not content
until they've done all in their power to get that which they
lusted after. And then you know, usually speaking,
when we have things and get things, well, the joy or the pleasure
of them very quickly erodes. and they're not so attractive
as they were before we had them. The lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes. Well, how our eyes take in things,
don't they? In a moment, they just take in
things and we can lust after them in so many ways. I don't need to go through a
list for to understand what that means, because again sometimes
you and I have different things that our eyes would lust after.
But nonetheless it is a very real sin that our eyes lust after. And the word of God is here,
love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
The illustration is here, the lust of the eyes. We are not
therefore to lust after things with our eyes. Now, what do we
need to do? We need to turn away from things. Turn away from things. Turn our
eyes away from things. And that's not as easy as it
sounds. But sometimes we may have to pray. And often think,
if you get up in the morning, a good prayer is, lead me not
into temptation and deliver me from evil. And that would apply
to the lust of our eyes, that we may turn away then, as we
may see things which we lust after with our eyes. And the
pride of life. Well, by nature we are all proud,
proud people. And how sad it is to realise
that that is in our nature. Pride. Pride bringeth destruction. and a haughty spirit of fool. How easy it is to be proud. It's
also easy to be proud of being humble. Yes, pride is very insidious
and it affects very many things. And I believe that's one of the
spiritual growth that the people of God are favoured with. We
pray that we may grow in grace, and sometimes that growth in
grace is to show us more of the pride which exists within our
heart. And things at one time which
we wouldn't have thought we were proud about, now we see that
there's pride. Pride is mixed with so much,
so sinful. And so here we have this expression
and the pride of life. Well, 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. That's a very stark statement,
isn't it? If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Well, are we concerned about
having the love of the Father in us? Well, I hope we are. And if we are, then I believe
there will be that battle, and you'll understand the battle
as you desire to overcome your old nature. so that you do not
love the world, neither the things that are in the world. You will
desire to know the love of the Father in your heart, to know
that the Lord God has ordained you, He has chosen you, and you
are one of His children who He is fitting and preparing for
your eternal home. The Apostle tells us and the
world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the
will of God abideth forever." Now the will of God is that we
love not the world, neither the things in the world. And so to
be reminded that this world is fading and is passing away, and
with it the lust, all those things will disappear and all pass away,
But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Yes, and
what a forever that will be. Forever with the Lord. Oh, what a wonderful prospect
that is for the Church of God. Our prospect for time things
is fading. The things that we have, they
fade. They're not forever, they're
just passing. But the eternal blessings are
forever. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. He says then, little children,
it is the last time. And as ye have heard, the Antichrist
shall come even now. Are there many Antichrists whereby
we know that it is the last time? And then he tells us, he says,
but ye have an unction from the Holy One and know all things. I have not written unto you because
ye know not the truth, But because ye know it, and that no lie is
of the truth." That's a great statement, isn't it? The truth
of God is true. Thy word is truth, the Lord Jesus
said in his high priestly prayer to his father. Thy word is truth. We can rely upon the word of
God. And so he says, I'm not written
unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know
it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar? But he
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist, that
denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son
hath the Father also. Now this is a very solemn and
very straight word that the Apostle brings here. love the world or
things that are in the world. And what that also means is we
are not to lean to our own understanding. No, that is loving the world. Leaning to our own understanding.
But we are to hear the word of the Lord. Because the question
is asked, who is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ. And that you see is of the world. If we deny that Lord Jesus is
not the Christ, we are a liar. He is Antichrist. We read about
Antichrist, don't we? It's clear, isn't it? Someone
who is against Christ, Antichrist. We don't want to be Antichrist,
do we? Let that therefore abide in you
which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall
continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise
that he has promised us, even eternal life. What a gift, what
a promise, eternal life. See, the Apostle works through
this, directing us to the poor things of this world, the poor
things of the flesh. Oh, my friends, turn away from
them. They won't do you any good. You
might think they will. You might think you'll enjoy
them. They're passing. They're fading. Oh, the things
of Christ are eternal. What a blessing there is. There's
no greater blessing, you know, than to be found at the foot
of the cross, viewing the Saviour, seeing the Lord Jesus Christ,
by faith, suffer for us, to take away all our sin, shedding His
most precious blood. You see, this brings that peace,
brings that holy joy to realize that by His grace we are amongst
those who have been given this gift of eternal life. And this is a life which will
therefore never cease, never cease. Eternal life in glory. What a wonderful consideration,
what a wonderful prospect it is to be able to look forward
to that glorious inheritance which is incorruptible and which
is undefiled and which fadeth not away, which is reserved in
heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last times. It's all of
grace. It's for His glory. so that we
cannot indeed boast of anything ourselves, but shown by Spirit
the reality of these things, then I believe there will be
in our hearts that true desire to heed the words of the Apostle
here, to love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world, realising that if any man loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him, but also then to recognize
that, let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from
the beginning. If that which ye have heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall also continue in
the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise, that
he hath promised us even eternal life. Amen.