John's First Epistle, Chapter
2. I was having a conversation with Abigail
this week, and she has learned from one of her cousins about
several different games, one of which was truth or dare. Now, how children play that game
and what they do with it, it baffles me. But I didn't like
it, because one of the dares was, go outside and stand in
the rain. And she did. And when she came
back in, I said, what are you doing? I'm playing a game with
my cousin, truth or dare. And I went, well, dares are for
dummies. Dares are for dummies. And immediately
she goes, I'm not a dummy. I said, then why did you do the
dare? Cat food is for cats, I said to her. Yeah. Do you eat cat food? No. I said,
why? Because it's for cats. I said, could you eat cat food?
Yes. I said, would it still be for
cats? Yes. Would that make you a cat?
No. It'd make you eating cat food, right? That's right. So
when you do a dare, you're doing like a dummy, even though you're
not a dummy. Dares are for dummies. Cat food
is for cats. When we do them or we eat that,
it doesn't make us that thing. Sin is for sinners. Hate is for
the wicked. When we do them, it doesn't make
us those things, but we act as though we are. We embark on these
things. John, as he writes this letter,
is writing again and again and again, I emphasize this, to the
elect, to the chosen, to the beloved, to the secure, to the
children, to those who are in Christ irrevocably, and they
cannot be lost. He is not telling them to prove
that they are in Christ by their love. He is saying because you
are in Christ's love. So the motivation is not fear
of judgment. The motivation is faith in the
love of God. The ignorance that rises in the
mind of man as he pretext, little tiny phrases and sentences out
of the context of writing is amazing to me. Because we can
take a simple sentence in contrast to everything around it and create
an entire theological system based upon it, and it is ridiculously
dumb. Doesn't mean we're dummies, but
we're doing dumb stuff. Same thing is true when we read
Beloved. Beloved, my little children,
look at chapter two, verse one. My little children, I'm writing
these things to you that you may not sin, but if anyone does
sin, he, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, who is our propitiation, who satisfies us for God the
Father, who satisfies God the Father on our behalf. That's a better way of putting
that. God the Father is satisfied with you, beloved. And until we get that in our
thick skulls, We will continually be motivated to operate in our
lives and dealing with our affections and dealing with our focus and
dealing with everything else from a perspective of trembling
and fear and suspicion and everything else. We will be suspect of whether
or not God is pleased. God is pleased with you, beloved,
in the context that you are in Christ. But God can be displeased
with us in the way a father can be displeased when he sees his
daughter standing in the rain acting like a dummy. But never ever could she do anything
that would eliminate her relationship with me. She may tear it up. My children have done Crazy things. I, as a child, have said stupid
things to my parents, knowing that if I weren't their child,
if I was just some random guy hanging out of the house, I would
never come back. And I know that sometimes relationships
between parents and children are torn up, but we don't look
at our relationships in this world and then say, oh, that's
how it is with God. You remember when I made Daddy
mad because I broke the lamp? You know, we didn't see each
other for a couple of weeks. That's not how God operates.
God is not a five-year-old. He's not a fifth-grade boy that
gets his feelings hurt and goes home and tells mommy, they didn't
play purdy. But yet, that's how we treat
Him. That's how we treat Him in our mind. He is immutable. He never changes. His love for
us was, is eternal. It has no beginning. God did
not function in his psyche one day and go, I think I'm going
to make something to love. He's not goofy at Disney World.
He is the supreme being that we cannot comprehend except that
he revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ, his eternal
son, so that he would redeem his people, that he is eternally
loved in the death of Christ. And he raised him from the dead.
And he promised us the same life. My little children. My little
children. In verse 7. Beloved. Look at
chapter 2. Beloved. I'm writing to you no
new commandment but an old commandment. John is talking to little children
in the faith who are beloved. There is not one, listen to this,
there is not one person under the hearing of this letter and
its intention that are not my little children or the beloved. There is no secret sinner sitting
amongst the ranks of the assembly that John's trying to be sneaky
and sort of speak to him indirectly. I'll show them. I'll call them
children. No, Paul doesn't do that either. Paul's very direct.
I should call you mature, but I'm going to call you kids. That's
not a term of endearment. Here, it's a term of endearment.
You are my children in the faith. And he talks about the very command,
the very thing that personifies the love of God is what? The
death of Jesus. And the very reason that Jesus
died was that God would be glorified in redeeming a people and his
redemption is motivated after the counsel of his own will.
And Paul says it very clearly in Ephesians, because he has
a love with which he loved us eternally. He predestined us
in love. Now why am I emphasizing this
now for the 10th week? Because if you forget what we're
learning, you will recreate a false doctrine. And I don't give any care to
what history or what my daddy or what a theologian has to say
about it. The Bible is its own authority. Period. And anyone who teaches
you otherwise, is trying to throw shade on the revelation of God
Almighty. I am writing to you, verse 12,
that's where we are today, little children, because your sins are
forgiven for His name's sake. We went through this last week.
I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven
for his name's sake. I want you to put yourself as
that audience for a minute. I want you to make believe and I want
you to think about receiving a letter from a spiritual father. I want you to think about receiving
this information from your own parent or grandparent or someone
who is a mentor in your life and you know you. and you know
your struggles, and you know what is going on inside your
mind, and you know the turmoil of what your flesh is doing,
and you know that your flesh is alive. Yes, you are saved. Yes, you have been given the
new man, Jesus Christ. Yes, you are empowered and indwelt
by the Holy Spirit. Yes, you are a child of God. Yes, the bondage and the power
of sin has been torn away. You have been set free, but you
are still very much alive, and your flesh is still very much
sinful. And childish arguments. Oh, you're
trying to show that you're totally depraved now that we're Christians?
No! Stop it! You're stupid! I'm just
going to be very frank and a little bit crass in the next few weeks
because I'm tired of dumb people saying dumb things and dividing
the sheep of Christ. I'm sick of it. A question is always respected. A stupid assertion is a stupid
assertion. And most of the time, we know
our flesh, don't we? People don't say those things so that they
can parse out the differences. They say those things so that
they can cause division. Beloved, you are not totally
depraved in your new birth, but your flesh is still dead. What is the instruction of the
New Testament? Put to death therefore the things
of the flesh. John's about to say the same
thing. Why would we put to death that which is glorified? You
see what I mean? And you might think, why is he
so upset about that? Folks, it is destroying people's lives. Debating theology is not something
that is fun when it destroys the sheep of Christ. God will
have fury on theologians and pastors and so-called believers
who have made sheep tremble in their beds and pray beside their
beds and fall on the floor in fear because they see division
amongst the ranks of their brothers and sisters. God will crush them
under His mighty feet. He will destroy the very fabric
of their lives this very day if He so chooses. One day judgment
and recompense will come upon those false teachers. No matter
how close they get. And I will tell you this, I hate
to say it. They're mostly the most popular people you know.
And they're little goonies. It's time to stop it. It's time
to protect the sheep of Christ. And we are in a pandemic. We
are in an epidemic. We are in a position where people
can't even be together. And so shepherding people's fears
is even more difficult. Do you lay awake at night worried
about how people are worrying? Do you sit there and do you labor
and you can't even think about what you're trying to read? Because
all you can do is be concerned with the fact that there are
Christians who are your responsibility, who are your brothers and sisters
in the faith, who are scared to death. They don't know what
they should do. They don't know what they should believe. They
don't know where they should go. And they'd rather be living in
a car somewhere close to brothers and sisters who can help them
see the light of Christ rather than live comfortably somewhere
else in a safe haven in the mountains. We are in a very different time. A time in which this country
and the congregations of this country has never seen, ever. And the warfare that is going
on in the minds and the hearts of believers is bad enough. We don't need stupid and foolish
debates with pompous arrogance fueling the fire behind it so
that we can show people we're right. You're not right when
you have to prove you're right, you're wrong, even if what you're
saying is true. See, we, John, my little children,
is that how we discipline our children? As parents, no. What do you think you're doing?
What's wrong with you? I mean, that's what we say sometimes.
And those are terrible things to say as a parent. What's wrong
with you? Why? Because a child takes that literally. Something wrong with me? We all
know that children are brain damaged until they turn 35. We know that. It's okay. We were
too. And it's like, we got 35, and
then we still have some sense in which we are not all there
in our understanding of things. We don't have complete wisdom.
I don't care how smart we are. So there's always a generation
ahead of us going, look at those weirdos behind us. Look at those
silly folks behind us. Look at those foolish people
behind us. Look at those silly gooses behind us. But a better parental
approach to a child is to say, hey, son, hey, daughter, hey,
my little children. Have you ever been gotten on
to by a boss and it really wasn't your fault? It's just like somebody
messed up so the whole office gets it. And it's uncomfortable. And you have people come in,
I haven't even seen this in the context of ministry jobs, you know, the
boss man comes in and just starts railing. And then when he gets
through, he realizes how harsh he's been. You know what, I'm
sorry, I love all y'all. Had an algebra teacher that always
do that. And he would teach, and he was
a very good teacher. And there was always somebody not paying
attention. And then they'd ask the same question that he just
answered. And he'd pick up an eraser and he'd hit them with
it and say, don't ask dumb questions. What, you sleeping? He said,
you sleeping? Put that calculator up. What
are you trying to be? Go down there to remedial math
and start over, because you can't be in my class. But I love you. He'd say, but I love you. See,
John doesn't have to say, but I love you. He starts out with
that, and he sends that theme throughout the entirety of his
writing. I love you, my little children. I love you, my beloved. I love you. I love you. And he reassures them. Verses
12 through 15, 12 through 14, yeah, 14. As I said last week, it's the
poetic expression of John's pastoral and parental affection for the
audience that he's writing to. This is the quintessential centerpiece
of how we know. Not only is it all throughout
it, but how we know where he's coming from. He is giving them
the very truth that they are. in Christ, that they are secure,
that they are growing, that they are learning. But what happens? We get frustrated. We get frustrated
when we see ourselves not maturing the way we want to be. We get
really frustrated when we see others around us who aren't as
spiritually adept as we are. I mean, I get frustrated every
single day. about something. It's confession
time. We talked about a little bit
men's group yesterday. Pass the microphone around, confess our
sins. But I get frustrated and it is a sinfulness about me. It is part of who I am in my
DNA and in my character and in my flesh because the root of
my frustration is impatience. The root of my frustration is
I would have to admit arrogance. Why can't they remember what
they just learned as if I have? It's the pot calling the kettle
black. It's the sinner or the guilty man making fun of the
guy who's guilty and so on and so forth. But I get frustrated.
I get frustrated because we just need to love each other. And
then I get frustrated because love isn't taking place and then
I act unloving. It's like at a camp one time
when one of my friends, I mean, when you get high school and
college students together en masse in thousands, they're not
going to behave. It's like you got a straight
dog comes up, wags its tail. It's a cute thing. Two dogs could
be over on bushes. Three dogs as a pack, they'll
bite you. Yeah, he's getting a little aggressive. Me too.
Hey, let's just be wolves. Little chihuahuas, they think
they're going to kill everybody. You put teenagers into a position
where you're trying to get them to be quiet and This is a true
story. All these youth are coming into
this assembly and there was one requirement. Please be quiet.
Don't talk. We have people who are in council
and who are in prayer. We want an attitude of reflection. Don't talk. And so one of the leaders was
standing there and there's just this group right outside the
door that's hacky-sacking or something. I went, hey, what's
up? Juggling fire. I don't know having a grand old
time. So he stands up on the chair. He says shut your mouths
We're trying to worship. I mean, you know just like that
by some Saturday Night Live sketch or something some comedic interlude
and Everybody's like well, I feel real worshipful now I mean, that's
how I feel as a parent sometimes when the love is not in my house,
or my neighbors aren't loving, or the church isn't loving, or
there's some strife, and I'm like, I'm gonna be hateful in
my attempt to correct unlovingness. John's not like that. Now, why
go to all that extreme, to be honest? Because I think sometimes we
sit there thinking, yeah, you know what, I got my love down. I'm
doing pretty good. The commandment is love. And I want us to all truly look
into the mirror of our soul this morning right now and I want
us to say, I don't love the way I should. Because there are sins in our
lives, there are things in our lives that we willfully continue
in. without any openness whatsoever for prayer, without any openness
whatsoever for encouragement, without any approach to even
considering the fact that what we do in our flesh and in our
mind ruins our ability to pray. Peter would say in one of his
epistles, you know what? Walk in a manner worthy so that
you don't hinder your prayers. We see that same instruction
apostolically to husbands. Don't be harsh with your wives
because if you do, God's not gonna listen to your prayers.
It's gonna hinder your prayers. And what is a hindrance to prayer?
How in the world am I to pray for you if I'm frustrated? I mean, ask that question. How
are we to pray for one another if we're afraid? How are we to
pray for one another if we're fearful? Because when we get
the opportunity, what are we doing? We're crying out to the
Lord on behalf of what we think ought to be. And that's not love. You don't
think Jesus could have written a better narrative than going
and being humble and being quiet and keeping it to himself and
then dying on a cross? The Marvel writers could have
written a better narrative than that, was more creative and more
Majestic, but that's the most majestic and wise and loving
thing that you will ever know and see. Jesus, who is God, laying his
life down for evil people. And saving them. Despite them. These little children are forgiven
for the sake of Christ. These fathers, these leaders,
these overseers, these maturing and mature Christians know these
young men. It's encompassing the entire
assembly in its poetry. You are secure. You know the
father. You know Christ. You are strong because the word
of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. You have overcome him. The victory
is in seeing the victor and what he accomplished. As a matter
of fact, we talked about this yesterday with some brothers.
If we continue to look at the small battle within us, we are
seemingly still fighting the war that has been won. And a
lot of people think that the overcoming sin aspect of the
Christian faith is to focus on the sin. It's to say, well, you
know what, I'm not going to do this, and I'm not going to do
that, and I'm not going to do that. Or to replace the sin,
I'm going to proactively do this, and I'm going to proactively
do that. These are psychological things that don't last. But what does last is the Word of God. And what
does last is the will of God. Nothing else lasts. So let's look and see what John
has to say about that. Verse 15. Do not love the world. Love
one another. Love your brothers. Love your
sisters. Love them as Christ has loved
you. That you may be one. That you
may walk in unity. That you may be seen in a way
that reflects Christ. Remember how I closed last week's
sermon? Stuck to you. And you are stuck to him. Christ did not love the world.
He came to save His people out of the world. So now John commands us, beloved
little children, his audience, now for us, do not love the world or the things in the world. Now we know that John, in his
use of the world, he uses the idea of the world when he talks
about that. And in his gospel, we see how
Jesus speaks of the world in John 3. We see how John writes
it and explains it in the context. We know that it means the totality
of sinful humanity. It doesn't mean that dirt and
trees and sky and atmosphere is evil. It means that the people
who comprise, quote, the world are not to be loved in the sense,
listen to this, of their beliefs, of their affections, of their
actions. Because Christ says to love our
enemies, Christ and his humanity loved his murderers. He even cried out that God the
Father might, if it be His will, forgive them. So when we see do not love the
world, we do not take the approach of hating those who hate Christ. We do not take the approach of
hating those who are different in their worldview. We don't
take the approach of hating individuals or groups of people or sex of
people. Or people who represent ideologies
who are not politically aligned with us. Like some people like to say
demon-crats or, you know, republicants and different things like that.
It's ridiculous. It's divisive and a Christian
is sinful when they do it. We don't love the world. We don't love what it stands
for. But Christ did it come. Let me say this before I keep
on going. Christ did not come into the world to change the
world. I want you to hear this, beloved. Christ did not come into the
world to change the world. He came to save His elect out
of it. To take them away from it. So that when He burns it all
in righteousness, We're not in that judgment, you see? And if
you want to get my, I'm on a track about burning stuff right now.
So Wednesday night, you can listen to how I, the going through the
Holy of Holies and Jesus just burns it all down. Jesus did not come to stop abortion. Jesus did not come to stop racism. Jesus did not come to stop greed
and capitalism and misogyny and sex trafficking. And if we can,
as citizens, do our part to have an impact on one life in those
contexts, then let's do it. But let me tell you something,
beloved. The church can weed out a lot of that garbage from
amongst themselves, and that is the call of God. Do not judge
the world, Jesus says, or Paul says, but judge those among you.
So when you're racist, misogynist, greedy, live in sexual debauchery,
The brothers and sisters will call you out. You'll change your
mind and stop or you'll be disfellowshipped. It's just as simple as that.
That's not antinomian and it's not legalism. It's gospel truth
and it's gospel living out of the commands of Christ because
of the gospel. The world is everything in it. When Jesus talks in John
3, he says, the light came into the world, but the world, the
people love the darkness rather than the light because their
works are evil. He's speaking directly to Nicodemus, whose
daily routine was extremely pious and extremely religious. And
John is reminding these Jews don't love the world. Don't love
the world of Judaism. Don't love the world of paganism.
Don't love the world of nationalism. Don't love it. And Lord, have
mercy. What would John or Paul or Peter
or one of these men think today if they could look into the world
and see all that there is in the world? I mean, what was in
the world in the days of these apostles was very limited. Technology
was very limited. You realize we have the clothes
on our back at the retail price of what we're wearing right now
is worth more than the national, not the national, worth more
than the annual salaries of most people across the world. Yet, this is a little faded.
Chug it out, buy a new one. The world is crazy. There's so much stuff that we
deal with as we'll get to in a minute. There's so many things
that inundate our minds, so much maintenance, so much maintenance,
so much maintenance. And what in the world, pun intended,
are we doing? Do not love the world or the
things in the world. Love your brothers and sisters.
Don't love the world. So you see the contrast there?
See, John is explaining, you're secure in Christ. That's why
he does so poetically what he does in those verses there through
14. Love your brothers, don't love
the world. And the world encompasses a lot,
as we'll see starting in verse 18. Because he says, if anyone loves
the world, now listen to this, The love of the Father is not
in him. How do you explain that? Beloved, can you have the Spirit
of God in you and not love him? I want you to think hard about
what we've learned in John's Gospel. Yes. Because the love of the Lord
your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your
strength and all your mind means you don't have love for anything
else that this world could ever offer you. That you never have
an affection for anything. For that new car, for that new
lawnmower, for that friend across the street, for what you wish
you had, what you wish you could have kept, what you're glad you
did keep, for the amount of money in the bank, etc. If you love
any of that in any way, you're not loving God with all your
mind. You cannot do it. And people who say they can don't
understand grace. They don't understand the call.
They don't understand the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. They
don't understand that the law is the picture of Jesus. Jesus
fulfills the law, not because He did it all, because He is
the righteousness of God by whom All the world will be judged.
Are you as Jesus is in all your divine holiness, in your humanity?
No? Then you are condemned before
the Father. And the only way that you will
escape that condemnation is before the world began. God has loved
you with an everlasting love and He put your sin, guilt on
the Son and crushed Him in your place. And that is the only good
news that you will ever hear and anything else is adding to
the gospel or taking away from the gospel. We are sold to Christ
and He purchased us with His blood. We are given to the Lord
Jesus by the Father and God is satisfied with us. And Jesus
Christ loved the Father with all of His heart and all of His
soul and all of His mind. And one day, when we are stripped
from this dead flesh that fights against us, we too will experience
that reality. Right now, we only imagine it. But in practice, this is what
John says, this is what Paul says, this is what James says,
this is what Peter says. We love the Father when we are actively
loving one another. And when we're sinning, we can't
love one another, so we're not loving God. When we're worried
about getting the next big thing, going to the next big place,
dealing with the next big promotion, etc., we're not loving God because
we're more worried about our image than we are Christ. You
don't believe me? You know I preach ahead of the
text. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. You're not loving the Father. For all that is in the world,
and he describes it, the desires of the flesh and the desires
of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father. Now think about that. Now does
that say your job and your house and your income is not from the
Father? No, because He's the Godfather that gives. It didn't
say these things are not God's blessings to you. This isn't
a call. We don't get radical and throw
everything in the trash and become useless to everybody. God has
provided what you have for the sake of what? Your love for Him. How? That you may use what you
are, who you are, and what you have for the sake of your brothers
and sisters in the faith. You see the difference? It's
a fine line. It's a really fine line. And
this section of text is difficult because it's so hard pastorally
to preach it accurately and then let you off the hook. I think
that's why John does what he does in the verses before it.
You know him who is from the beginning, beloved. You know
God, you've learned, you're growing, you're doing well. What does
Paul say to the Thessalonians? He didn't get on to them. John
is not getting on to these Christians. He's not getting on to them. He's affirming them. He's reminding
them. See, I thought I had outgrown
this, but I haven't. I remember being a kid and when
my mom would give me instruction with something I knew, I felt
like she was thinking I was stupid. And now my teenagers have done
it. My two adult girls, and then
my son, and he's sort of outgrowing that now, and now my other, Ruby. And then I've got Abigail gonna
be coming up to the teenagers. But you say, hey, you know, be
sure you wash the dish. I know. Make sure you make your bed.
I know. I was on the phone with my mom
a few months ago, and I was just bemoaning. She said, son, you
did the same thing to me. You had the worst attitude of
any kid in Georgia. You were horrible. You knew everything. You were the smartest guy in
the room, no matter what room you were in. And nobody could
tell you anything. Your shoes untied. I know. Well,
tie it. I'm not ready to tie my shoes.
It's just an arrogance. I don't want to do what I've
been told to do. Way of reminder. Son, be careful. It's wet outside. Be careful. There's a storm coming. Drive
safely. And young people think we're
just going, hey, dummy, you're going to be so silly you can't
survive. Let me tell you how to survive.
No, it's a reminder. Why? Because we love them. Beloved,
don't be like a child when you hear this instruction. Don't
love the world. Don't love the world or the things
in the world. See how much easier that is to swallow? That's why
week after week after week preaching is just about worthless if you're
not reading the Bible every day or often during the week. Because
the tone and the timbre and the message of these letters is not
going to resonate with your soul if you are academically poking
the sentence out of the page and parsing the Greek and going,
ta-da! I did my grammar lesson for the day. Beloved, listen
to the word of the Lord from a man who loved these sheep as
Christ loved them. because he gave his life for
them. These men went to prison and their only concern was I
gotta get my hands free to write a letter to these people. Not
I gotta get my hands free so I can play ping pong, which is
probably what I would be doing if I was in prison. I'd be the
champion. Levi and I, we'd just be tearing it up, Georgia State
pin. Some Milli Vanilli in the background.
We'd be tearing it up. Inside joke. No, they had a concern for the
sheep. You're beloved. This is not, don't stop loving
the world. No, don't love the world. Why? Because you are loved
by the Father, and you should spend time loving and putting
your energy in loving each other. So don't love the world and the
things of the world. If anyone loves the things of the world, the
love of the Father's not in them. How am I gonna show you the love of the Father
if I'm loving the world? Because my affections are divided,
right? How does Jesus say this? This
is just a reiteration of Jesus' teaching. Jesus said it this
way. You cannot serve both God and what? Money. For a man cannot
have two masters, he will love one and despise the other. or
hate the one and love the other, vice versa. You cannot serve
two masters. So in the same way, John is expressing
this as a way of reminder. This is the command I've given
you from the beginning. It is a new commandment because
it has been found in Christ Jesus. Therefore, you are living this
out by the life of Christ by faith. And in this reality of
putting your mind on that which is not of this world, Paul says
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, As we look to the things that are
unseen, not to the things that are seen, because they're transient,
passing away, but to the unseen, we put our focus on the love
of God, and in that way, God's love for us is a way of reminder
to stir us up to love and to good deeds, Hebrews chapter 10.
as we are gathered together so that everything that we are in
life, everything that we have in life, and every goal that
we want in life is for the sake of loving God and the only way
we love God in a tangible sense is to love each other in a physical
sense, not in an emotional sense. As a matter of fact, I think
the church would do well to grow up a little bit in their emotionalism.
We got too much of that. We don't need counsel, and therapy,
and coddling. We need truth, and solidarity,
and affection, and unity, and intimacy, and protection. And
all of those things come under one umbrella, and that's love. You're gonna wash your hands
in my house. You're gonna brush your teeth
in my house. You're gonna pick up your dirty clothes in my house
because I love you, and I don't want you to be a slob, and I
have some problems, and I can't handle it mentally. It's okay. It's good stuff. I didn't like how I'm asking
him to do things that are out of the character, out of the norm. All
that is in the world, all that is in the world, he explains
them. The desires of the flesh and the desires of the hours
of private life is not from the father. The father is not these
things. The love of God does not display
these things. This is not the point. The life
that is ours in Christ does not come from the world. It comes
from the Father. Do these things overlap? Yes.
Can we have things and not love them? Yes. It's hard. Idolatry
is deep. There are things that if they
become available and I have the resources, I'm going to buy.
Let's look at these things for a minute. The desires of the
flesh. Some of your texts say lust of
the flesh. Now the obvious thing that comes to mind there is physical
things like sexuality, food, drugs, of course they're there. But beloved, what is it that
drives you? What is it that drives us to
want anything? It's the flesh. It's the flesh. And I remember
back years ago in sales training classes and all, I remember one
guy telling me one time, he says, you know, one of the greatest
sales tools you could ever do is take away the ability to have
it. Just take it away. And in car
sales, it'd be like, you know what, sir, I see you're looking
at a car, I'm sorry, someone else was looking at that, I think
it may be sold. Dude, they'll offer you $1,000 more than is
on the ticket if they want it. Oh, you mean I can't have it?
Well, by golly. Or to say, do you need to go
home and get permission from your wife? I don't ask permission for nothing. You
know, little things like that. But take it away. When we don't
have something, we want it. And there's not much that we
can't do in our life to obtain it or to strive for it. Do people want a good living
or do they want to be filthy rich? Do people want a stable
marriage and a wonderful healthy family or do they want whatever? So even in the normal things
it can be the desires of the eyes, the desires of the flesh
rather. To have and to keep and to adore and to love And beloved,
we're going to find that's why I need to continue to help you.
Remember that you are beloved. You are the children of God.
We are the children of God. We're not in trouble here. We're
being reminded here that these things get in the way of our
love for the Lord because they get in the way of our love for people. The desires of the flesh. What
do we really want? What do we really need? What
are we working for? Listen, that includes, and these
three things overlap too. That includes, what do people
think about me? I don't want to be seen with
this type of life. I don't want to be seen with
this type of car. I don't want to be seen with this type of house. I don't want to
be seen with this type of job. I don't want to work for that
type of company. I don't want to work in this type of environment. I want to be looked at differently.
How do people see me? How do people see what I have? I mean, it's tough. I was raised
as a child by my great-grandparents to always remember that there's
two things about you when you step out of the house that need
to be tended to, your hair and your shoes. And you always wear
a belt. I mean, just silly stuff like
that. And so it's ingrained in you. If your shoes aren't clean
or are tattered, you're probably not gonna get a job. That's what
I was taught. You got that one nice pair of shoes, you wear
it to the job interview. You wear it when you go out to town.
You wear it when you go to church. I mean, your suit could be holy, but
your shoes better not be. I mean, just little things like
that, they set with you, and they set a precedence in our
hearts and minds to get to the point where we begin to idolize
even those little type of worldviews to the point where we then, what? It's not that big a deal if you
put it on yourself, but you put it on others. Huh? Muddy shoes,
huh? Probably don't have sense not
to walk in the mud. What about if they live on a
farm? I mean, see how easy that is? It
might be in a spiritual sense. Well, look what I've accomplished.
Look what I have. I want these things, the desires
of the eyes, the desires of the flesh, the pride of life, the
things that we want, the things that we long for, the goals that
we have. Let them not be the goals of the world. The things
that we see other people have with our eyes, we wish we had.
Covetousness. The law in the beginning to love
your neighbor as yourself includes do not commit adultery with his
wife. Do not steal from his stock. Do not murder his help. Do not disobey the master. It's all about loving. So you see even in the Decalogue
that Jesus added to numerous times throughout the narrative
of his ministry is just a picture of the impossibility of perfection
without grace. And that that perfection is imputed
to us. That we get the credit for all
of the beauty. So what do you think right now?
You think, man, I've got a lot of idols in my life. That's what
you're thinking, right? And that's not what you should be thinking.
This is where pastoral preaching has to really pay attention.
You shouldn't be thinking, I have a lot of idols in my life. Now
that's what a lot of people want you to be thinking. What you
should be thinking is, thank God the righteousness of Christ
is counted to me. Because no matter how hard you
work today, tomorrow, in the next 10 years, next 20 years,
next 100 years, you're never going to be satisfied if you
compare yourself to the righteousness of God. You're always going to
have a love. But brothers and sisters, this
is the practical sense. We know the difference. We know
the difference when we've said things that we shouldn't say.
We know the difference when we've longed after something that we
shouldn't long after. We know the difference when we're not
trusting by faith, because what we're doing is we're setting
ourselves on a trajectory to continually pursue that rather
than pursue what's in front of us, which is the love for our
brothers and sisters in Christ, that by doing so, we're loving
the Lord. The love of the Father in me
grows as I love you. And when I divide my time to
you, between you and the lust of my flesh, then I am not loving
you and the love of the Father is not in me. Do you see that?
This is all about the real practical sense in which we learn. Learn to minister, learn to love,
learn to give, learn to be attentive, learn to pray, learn to care, How do we care? We've learned
to care. It's not normal. It's not natural.
We've got a new baby in the congregation, and I can guarantee you they
love that thing to death. Exponentially, it's amazing.
Something's weird about this creature that enters into your
home. You're like, I love this little blob of noise and smells
and helplessness. At three in the morning, not
so much. Especially after a week or if it's a colicky child or
it's a child that talks back or something is not quite right.
It is not easy. It is not always how we feel
towards what we do. So I hate this creature, but
it needs food. I mean, you tend to it, you give
it what it needs, even begrudgingly sometimes, because that's what
love does. But no parent, well they may
be, but no good parent sees a child crying in its infancy in a bed
and says, you know, it's three o'clock in the morning, I think
I'm gonna watch a late show and let it cry. Because a late show
makes me happy. See, that would be some of the,
that'd be a silly example of what John's talking about, on
some deeper things. The pride of life. What is it? I said many years ago that every
human being in the world is an evangelist. We tell the good news of that
which is good news to us. So the overflow of the heart,
the mouth speaks. What we deal with, what we focus
on comes out, what we're giving attention to goes in and then
it comes out. And so all you gotta do is talk
to me and let me take my mask off and be honest. Even before
service or after service, you can tell some things that I've
been thinking about this week or things that I've been reading
this week or people I've been talking to this week because
I'll have a particular subject on my tongue. And a lot of people are concerned
about making sure everybody knows what they've done and what they
have and what they've accomplished and how much they have and how
good it is and how much people love them and so on and so forth. This is the way of the world.
This is the way of missionaries across the world. Let's print
a magazine and talk about all the things that we've done. Praise
God. Yet my friends in Afghanistan
can't do that. My friends in Communist China can't do that.
Oh, but it's easy to do it in Kentucky. It's easy to do it
in the inner cities. It's the glory that comes from
men. Some pastors at this season of
life are more concerned about how many people are watching
their video feed than they are loving and praying for the church. How do you know that, James?
Because they ask me about our own statistics. And I'm like,
I don't know. I know what the number was Sunday
night because I'm sitting at my desk. I don't care. I know the number of emails I
get and hate mails I might get, but that's not the point. The lust of the eyes, the lust
of the flesh, the pride of life. This is not from the father.
It is from the world. This motivation, these affections
are not from the father. And when they bite or when they
then they take our focus, we are divided. That's where I was. Now, why is it other than the
fact that remember I talked about dummies? In the beginning, here's
the point. Other than the fact that it divides
our time and it ruins our fellowship and it ruins our intimacy and
it destroys our prayer life and it hurts our ministry, digging
into the world and diving into the world. We do what we need
to do in the world because it's what we need to do. We had a
little conversation yesterday with some of the brothers and
we had eight or nine things about what are some practical sense
in which we can understand what it means to walk by the Spirit.
And of course, the spiritual things are there. And one of
the practical sense is that we as human beings, a part of a
community or a culture, we have a minimum responsibility to do
things regarding that culture. Like in my neighborhood, you're
supposed to take your trash can away from the road after it's
picked up. You're not supposed to put mattresses
on the sidewalk. You know, yet out in the country,
you can do whatever. You can burn a mattress in your
front yard. You can put it in your living room. You can throw it on top of your
roof. It doesn't matter. But in town, they don't want that. There are
some things that we have to do. This is some practical instruction
to the church that is also walking by the Spirit to know that there
is a spiritual implication of every time we divide our time
out. I mean, in this season of life, I have seen the stocks
of video feed companies and movie companies just go out the roof. Because there's a lot of people
who can give a lot of time to a lot of cinema. And good cinema's
good, great, if you enjoy it, good. But just in those little
things, we divide our time just in practical sense. Have you
ever had laundry you needed to do, but you'd just rather go
watch TV? Or you get through eating and you got, it's always
customary, we load the dishwasher as we're done, or we rinse them
off, but you know, we're tired, let's just go sit in the living
room. One hour turns to three, three turns to five, we'll do
it in the morning. I need to get the oil changed in the car.
So we divide our time even on the things that we should do,
that we're supposed to do. We're not always as disciplined
as we ought to be, but beloved, we should not let our love for
the brothers and sisters go by the wayside. That's why the assembly
is essential. Because when I'm looking at your
face, I can't forget you. When the Lord has prompted me
to be praying night after night after night and day after day
after day, sometimes to the detriment of even sleep, because I worry,
I sinfully worry. And I need to believe and to
trust. Pray for me in that, that I would have peace in the midst
of my burden. And I pray for you. When I see
you, my joy is full, because now I can know that you're at
least well, and I can see, if you're honest with me, what you
need, and we can see to it that your needs are met. Whether it
be spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially, whatever.
But if my life is inundated with this worldliness, not even talking
about sin, but it's in view, because John's already said,
I write these things, you may not sin, which is sin, I mean, you have
no hope to receive the gift that I have. And vice versa, we aren't
there for one another. So that in itself is motivation
enough, but here's the dummy part. Loving the world is for
dummies. Loving the world is for dummies.
And we're not dummies, because we know something about the world
that the world doesn't know. And this is it. The world is
passing away, along with everything in it, its desires and everything. It is passing away. So when we
put our affections in the world, we are actually investing garbage
into garbage. We are shoveling manure, not
for the purpose of fertilizer, as some people would argue, into
piles of manure and saying, look at our investments. We are eating
out of the trash can when the table of gourmet is set before
us. We are living in squalor when
the mansion on the hilltop has our name on the deed. We are
effectively wasting our lives. And John is saying, don't do
it, because we're smarter than that. The world doesn't have
a hold on us. We've conquered the world. You
ever play Monopoly and the guy that wins after nine hours gloats? You know what you can do? You
can take that board up, fold it up, dump the pieces in the
bag, and put it on the shelf. Now where's your gloating? Oh,
woo, you won fake money. Woo, you had rental property
and I went bankrupt, woo. And we've had some intense Monopoly
games. Not as intense as Trivial Pursuit, but intense as, and
it's intense. Yes, we've played nine hours before. Investing in the world and its
affections is just like that Monopoly game. Because one day
God's gonna say, yep, time's up. Oh, you boasting about your
boardwalk? That's as good as it's gonna
get for them. Your best life now belongs to
the world. We don't have to. Christ has
overcome the world. And if you realize what John's
about to say when he comes to verse 16. The world is passing
away, but we, who are in the will of God, we abide forever.
Paul does what the first Corinthians. He talks about the ministry to
people. And then I'm done. He talks about the ministry to
people when he says that, you know, somebody comes and plants
a seed, somebody else comes and waters, but God gives the growth. And when we come to understanding what we're doing in this life
and why we're here as believers, He goes on to say, I think it's
2 Corinthians, yes, chapter 3. We're fellow workers and you
are God's field, you are God's building. God is growing you,
and how does God grow you? The same way He grows me, through
each other. According to the grace God given
to me, like a skilled master builder, I'll lay the foundation
and someone else is building upon it. When we're gone, somebody
else is going to come upon it and build upon it. The difference
is, everybody needs to take care of how they build upon it. For
no one can lay a foundation other than that which is already laid,
which is Jesus Christ. Because if someone builds on
that foundation with anything but Jesus, it's burned away.
God's gonna fold it up, put it in the box, catch it on fire. Each one's work will be shown
for what it is in the day of judgment, because it'll be disclosed,
because it'll be revealed by fire, and the fire will test
what sort of work each one has done. And if the work that anyone
has built on the foundation survives, he receives a reward. What is
the reward? You are. Your maturity, your joy, your
peace, the love of Christ in you, you are my reward. And vice versa. So why would we take time to
invest in that which doesn't even give us joy? It causes us
headache and heartache and it's a frustration from day one and
a burden that is ridiculously dumb when we need to be giving
our time and attention in spirit and in mind and in body to making
sure that the world and everything in it does not invade our ability
to love and to serve one another. And if anyone's work is burned
up, He will suffer loss. Though He Himself will be saved,
but only as through fire. And the context there is he's
talking about people, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. He's talking about
the people who are in connectivity with each other in the assembly
of God, and that when we serve and build, we are yielding fruit. The fruitfulness that John is
talking about in his letter is an affectionate love that builds
this intimacy, that builds this affection, that feeds it. But
as long as we are not doing that, we are not loving. And when we
are loving, we're not loving the world. We cannot be divided
in that. We abide forever, so let's don't be dummies and do
what dumb people do, which is to invest in garbage. And then out of the world comes
many things. And that's what chapter, that's what verse 18
begins to teach us. Children, listen to this, so
you'll be ahead. Read the whole letter this week
three times if you can. Children, it is the last hour. And you
have heard that Antichrist is coming. So now, as it is, many
Antichrist have already come. Therefore, we know that it is
the last hour. They, the Antichrist, went out from us. But they were
not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued
with us. But they went out, that it might
become plain that they were not of us. But you have been anointed
by the Holy One, and you have all knowledge. I write to you, not because you
do not know the truth, but because you know the truth, because you
know it, because no lie is of the truth. the Antichrist, all
of them are liars. They say they loved Christ, but
they did not know Christ. And they stopped loving you.
And when they got the reminder, they went, I'm tired of being
told what to do. I know! But they don't know. They don't know. Demas, Paul
writes to Timothy, in love with this present world, has abandoned
me. He has hurt me. He has left me. That's the draw. Is that not
what Jesus teaches in the parable of the sower? The cares of the
world, persecution from the world, the debates of the world, the
attention of the world takes away the gospel. that was never
planted in the seed, I mean, in the heart of an elect. A lot of people love to hear
teaching from the pulpit. But many people, most people
don't want to be called to live intimately because of it. And
that's the difference. Do not love the world because
it's passing away, but you and I are abiding together. Let's
invest therein and be watchful what the world will bring, as
we'll see in the weeks to come. Let's pray. We thank You, Father,
for Your Word. Lord, I pray for myself. that I may have peace in the
midst of uncertainty, as you promised us, that we would look
and that I would look and lead others to look to the truth of
your promise. You promised us suffering. You
promised us trials. You promised us persecution.
You promised us affliction. You promised us all these things
in this life. But you've also promised us eternal
life, abiding life, and glory. Help us to put our mind there.
We worry too much about the world, Father. We worry too much about
tomorrow. We worry about what people think,
about what we have, about what we don't have, about what we
think we need. Help us to be content so that
we might love one another and to serve one another and to live
for one another. And that as you bless us with
that, the goods of life, as John will
tell us, now we have the opportunity to help each other. When you gift us with a gift,
we have an opportunity to serve one another with that gift. Lord,
you have given us all things in Christ, and all things are
subject to Him. And in your sovereign hand, all
things lie. Let us be at peace. Father, I
pray for each of us. I pray for all of the church.
Those who are still fearful, those who are disconnected, those
who are concerned. Lord, we pray for our joy, for
our peace, for our learning. And Lord, we pray that we might
live in a manner worthy because of your love for us. For that
is the message of the cross. And we pray in the name of Jesus
who hanged there for us. Amen.