This sermon was preached on Tuesday
evening, October 17th, 1989, at the Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. In looking out upon the congregation,
I see again tonight visitors from some of our sister churches,
and it is a special delight to have you with us, especially
some of you who were members at one time of this assembly
and have now become what we'd like to affectionately call our
holy transplants, whom the Lord has providentially transplanted
into fellowships where the truths we hold dear are loved and proclaimed
and lived out by the people of God. and particularly for your
sake and any others who may not be fully aware of the theme that
has run through the conference this year, and that by design. Let me say just a word about
that theme and how the subject we shall examine tonight relates
to it. The general theme of this year's
conference is the Christian and the world. And for four of our
morning sessions, Pastor Waldron has been addressing the matter
of how a Christian is to relate to the structure of worldly authority,
particularly the civil government. God willing, tomorrow for our
two sessions, Pastor Nichols will speak on the subject of
common grace, And we could describe it as God's goodness to a fallen
world that though it does not result in the eternal salvation
of those to whom it comes, is a marvelous benefit in restraining
evil and conferring many good things upon men who though they
lie under the wrath of God, yet are the recipients of His gracious
gifts. And then the two final messages
on Thursday morning will deal with the Christian's witness
to the world as Pastor McDiarmid speaks to us. And then the concluding
address by Pastor Pizzino, God's overtures of mercy to the world
as he speaks on Christ's gracious invitation to worldlings laboring
under the horrible weight of their sin Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And
as we were prayerfully planning the theme of the conference and
the various aspects of that theme that should be addressed, my
brethren felt that I should address in one of these evening sessions
the subject of worldliness. And the moment one mentions the
word worldliness, One can only imagine the various images that
come before the minds of his hearers. For some, the word worldliness
immediately conjures up the picture of a modern Jezebel. a woman
who must have very strong posterior neck muscles to hold up a face
laden with paint and with all forms of attempts to somehow
either recapture her lost youth, for it seems that often worldly
women, in direct proportion to the loss of their youthfulness,
try to somehow hold back the encroachments of time as it makes
its marks with ever-increasing tracks of crow's feet and lines
upon the face and so there are forms of makeup to fill up the
holes and obliterate the cracks and to draw away the attention
from the sagging face tissue and for some worldliness immediately
conjures up the image of a painted Jezebel perhaps wearing a dress
two sizes too small and seeking to give de facto lessons in female
anatomy with every step that she takes. For others, the word
worldliness immediately brings into focus certain forms of entertainment,
what some would call moving picture shows. And for others, matters
of external patterns of behavior immediately come to mind with
the word worldliness. And as I wrestled before God
with this subject, I thought that one of the most difficult
thing was going to be to make an attempt to somehow clear the
deck of our minds of all of those images which may or may not have
anything whatsoever to do with worldliness when contemplated
from a biblical perspective. And so what I must attempt to
do tonight is, first of all, to set before you from the Word
of God a definition of worldliness. And then, having done that, I
will attempt to address The subject under these headings are native
attachment to the world, our gracious deliverance from the
world, and our present danger in the midst of the world. First of all then, a definition
of worldliness. And coming up with any biblical
definition of worldliness is impossible unless we understand
that when the term the world, which is the biblical term that
is used, not worldliness, but the world, when it appears before
us in the scriptures in the sense in which I am to address it tonight,
We must understand that two basic words are used in the original
when making reference to that which we mean when we speak of
worldliness as the characteristic of those who are living according
to the standards of the world. And those two words are cosmos
and ion. Now, the word cosmos is a word
that has many legitimate and broad usages in the New Testament. But when we find it in a passage
such as 1 John 2, verses 15 and following, perhaps one of the
most well-known texts on the subject of worldliness, It is
being used in the orbit of our concern tonight. 1 John 2.15,
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. Now obviously, though it
is the same Greek word for God so loved the world, when we are
commanded not to love the world, it has an entirely different
significance. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. And when the word cosmos is used
in this sense, it is referring to the whole present order of
men and things and everything belonging to that order as that
which is at enmity with God. that which is lost in sin, wholly
at odds with anything divine, anything that is pleasing to
God. It is referring to the whole
present order of men and things in a state of alienation from
God. As such, the world, the cosmos,
is ruled by the prince of the world, the devil himself. Turn please to John chapter 12.
John chapter 12 and verse 31. Speaking of his soon coming death,
Our Lord Jesus says in John 12, 31, now is the judgment of this
world. That is, the whole order of things
in alienation from and in opposition to God, now is the judgment of
this world. You see, the same act which was
the world's salvation was the world's judgment. speaking obviously
of two different worlds. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. Well, what world has a prince
who is cast out in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus? It is that
whole order of men and things in opposition to and in alienation
from God. It is that world over which the
Prince of Darkness rules the devil himself. You find a similar
reference in John 16 and in verse 11, where our Lord is speaking
of the coming of the Holy Spirit and His influence in coming. He says He will reprove the world
of judgment, verse 11, because the prince of this world hath
been judged. As such, this cosmos, this world,
this whole present order of man and things, in alienation from
and in hostility to God, not only is ruled by the prince of
this world, but John uses an even more graphic image when
he says in 1 John 5 and verse 19, 1 John, the first epistle of John,
chapter 5 and verse 19, we know that we are of God, and the whole
world lieth in the evil one. It speaks of this whole cosmos,
this whole order of men and things in alienation from and in opposition
to God as lying in the lap of the evil one. And because this
is so, it can be described as the world, the cosmos, marked
by utter Stygian spiritual darkness. Ephesians 6 and verse 12, in
this passage in which we are apprised of the reality and nature
of our spiritual warfare, We read, for our wrestling is not
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against
the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against
the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. And so our wrestling, our opposition,
has to do with a cosmos that is marked by darkness. So we may say in summary that
where the word world is used in the kind of warnings that
we find in 1 John 2.15, where it is used to express, as we
read in John 17, that out of which all of the true people
of God have been delivered, it is referring to that whole present
order of men and things which is alienated from God and in
a state of enmity to God. But then there is a second word,
the word I own. And the Ephesians 6.12 passage,
I am sorry, should not have been used. The word I own is there. I drop down to my notes under
I own. Now the word I own literally
means a segment of time or an age. We find the phrase in the
Bible again and again, this age and the age to come. That's the
I own, this I own, and the I own to come. But when it is used
in conjunction with our subject, worldliness, it refers to this
present age in contrast to the age to come, this present age
in its present characteristics with reference to sin, evil,
and the devil. This is why we are told in Romans
12, 2, that believers are not to be conformed to this age,
but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. The characteristic of this ion,
this age, is that it is an evil age. Galatians 1 and verse 4,
a passage we shall have occasion to come to again later on in
our exposition tonight. Referring to our Lord Jesus,
the apostle writes, who gave himself for our sins, that he
might deliver us out of this present evil age. This present age, and there are
only two ages, this age and that which is to come, This present
age is one that is characterized by evil, so much so that it can
be used, the word evil, as a dominant descriptive adjective. As we say, it was a sunny day,
we mean that the primary characteristic of the day was the brightness
of the sun that shone, So when this age is called the evil age,
the word evil is used as a dominant descriptive adjective. Evil is
that which predominates in this, I own this age. Furthermore,
it is an age ruled by the devil under the rule of God. Hence,
in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4, The great apostle who affirms
again and again the absolute, all-pervasive sovereignty of
God, of Him, through Him, unto Him, o'er all things, to whom
be glory for ever and ever. Romans 11, 36. The God who works
all things after the counsel of His will. Ephesians 1, 11. Yet that same apostle is not
ashamed to set forth this stark realism of 2 Corinthians 4 and
verse 4, back up to verse 3. And if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled in them that perish, in whom the God of this world,
this aeon, this age, hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving,
that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God, should not dawn upon them. He is called
the God of this present age. And because it is an evil age,
and because the devil is its god, it is indeed in a state
of spiritual darkness. And the word I own is used there
in Ephesians 6 and verse 12. Now, in summary then, we may
say that when the word world is used in warnings, when it
is used with reference to that out of which the people of God
have been delivered, when it is spoken of as that which comes
under the judgment of God It is referring, whether the word
cosmos or I own are used, to man and his institutions, his
surroundings, his standards, his goals, his principles of
thought and action as penetrated and controlled by malignant,
devilish moral forces. That's the world. That's the
cosmos that we are not to love. That is the ion over which Satan
stands as God. Man and his institutions, surroundings,
standards, goals, and principles of thought and action as penetrated
and controlled by malignant, devilish, moral forces. And it's very, very interesting
that there is one place in the New Testament where there is
a conjunction of the two words, cosmos and ion, and I want you
to turn to that passage as we conclude this aspect of seeking
to get some kind of a biblical and yet working definition and
concept of what the Bible means when it speaks of the world in
this way. In Ephesians chapter 2, we read
in verse 1, You did he make alive when you were dead through your
trespasses and sins wherein you once walked according, now here
is the phrase, according to, and if you have the old 1901,
you'll see in the margin, according to the course or the age of this
world. What you have is Kata Iona to
Cosmu Tutu. according to the age of this
world. And the two words are brought
together, and then notice what follows right on the heels. According
to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit who now,
and this Greek verb is exactly the same verb as we have in Philippians
2. God worketh in you, the Spirit
who now worketh in the sons of disobedience. And how does our
walking by nature according to the ion of this cosmos according
to the prince of the power of the air, that spirit who energetically
and actively and imminently works in the sons of disobedience,
how does that manifest itself? Verse 3, Among whom we also once
lived Life with its standards, life with its motives, with its
goals, life with its perspectives and value systems. We once lived
in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. even as the
rest. And here those various lines
of thought are brought together, and though I would claim no inspiration
for this working definition, I believe in substance it fits,
and you could substitute it in the language of this text. What
is then the world? That world which we are not to
love. that world out of which we are
delivered by redemptive grace. It is that world of man and his
institutions, surroundings, standards, goals and principles of thought
and action. Notice lust of the mind and of
the flesh. fought in action as penetrated
and controlled by malignant, devilish moral forces, the spirit
who works in the sons of disobedience. Now that I said before you as
a definition or a working description of the world. Now, having done
that, and that was essential, As Albert Barnes says, he who
would expound the word must do so not under the impulse of a
vivid imagination, but under the discipline of mind prepared
to give a reason for the meaning one attaches to biblical words
and to convince the judgment of his hearers that those reasons
are correct and that those judgments are correct. Well then, Let us
consider first of all then with this definition as our working
tool, our native attachment to the world. There's one thing
I can say of every person in this building, including the
preacher. Every single one of us was born and lived by nature
as a worldling. We lived in perfect rapport. with the institutions surrounding
standards, goals, principles of thought and action as penetrated
and controlled by malignant, devilish, moral forces, we were
all of us by nature worldlings. For in the passages already read
in your hearing we are told the whole world lies in the evil
one, among whom, Paul says in the text we've looked at in Ephesians
2, we all once lived. And when Jesus is praying for
His own, He says that they are those whom He has taken out of
the world, but they were once in it up to their ears. The world was their native environment. The world was their native habitat. The world was their native atmosphere. They ate it. They breathed it. They thought it. They lived with
it. They slept with it. The world
was their orbit of existence. And in that condition, according
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, There was an active blinding power
of the devil upon our minds. According to Ephesians 2, there
was an active energizing of our baser lusts and passions by the
devil. We were the disinherited sons
of God who had cast in our allegiance with the prince of this world,
with the god of this world, we were of our father, the devil. Now that's not very flattering.
According to Dr. Schuller, that is the worst way
to make a convert to Christianity. To tell a man that he is a worldling
by nature, and that to be a worldling means that regardless of how
innocent he or she may appear in his or her outward demeanor,
And regardless of how much common grace operating through an awakened
conscience, through godly parental restraint and a host of other
factors may make that person very upright and respectable
and honored in his or her community to tell such people that they
are enmeshed in this cosmos of this present age that is an evil
age and that they themselves are evil, that it is an age which
lies in the wicked one, and they indeed lie in the lap of the
wicked one. No, humanly speaking, that is
not a way to make converts to Christianity. If your Christianity
is simply a self-help scheme, a psychological manipulation
of men, but if your Christianity is biblical Christianity, that
announces thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins, then the kindest thing you can do
to any man is tell him honestly how bad he is by nature, and
what a mighty and glorious Savior Christ is, and what he can become
by grace, and so all of us by nature Our worldlings, we are
natively attached to the world. As much as you, after conception,
were nourished in your mother's womb by an umbilical cord that
attached you to that internal life support system within her
body, So we were born with an umbilical cord that tied us to
the world system. It was the womb of our existence. But now, let me address secondly,
and this is where the heart of our meditation will lie tonight,
our gracious deliverance from the world. And I want to break down this
heading into the initial deliverance, the continual deliverance, and
the perfected or the consummate deliverance. Now hear me very
carefully as I take up the first subheading. Our gracious deliverance
from the world initially. In every true work of grace in
the heart of a sinner, there is without exception a radical,
a fundamental, a real deliverance from attachment to the world
and to a fundamental pattern of worldliness. Now let me repeat
the statement. I've written out the words and
I've chosen them carefully and deliberately. In every true work
of grace in the heart of a sinner, There is a radical, fundamental,
and real deliverance from attachment to the world and a pattern of
worldliness. In other words, the umbilical
cord that tied us to the womb of our native worldliness is
cut when we are born into the kingdom of God. And if your whole
life support system is still one in which that which flows
from the womb of the world determines who and what you are, I care
not how much you know about Christ, how much you can speak about
Christ, how often you are found among the people of Christ. You
are a worldling. You are in a state of wrath and
of condemnation. For in every, every true work
of grace in the heart of a sinner, there is a radical, fundamental,
and real deliverance from attachment to the world and a pattern of
worldliness. Now, as the men in the academy
hear me often say, he who asserts must prove, and he who asserts
most loudly and boldly must prove most convincingly. Now why is
this so? Why am I so bold to be so dogmatic
on the issue? Well, let me give you two very
simple reasons. Number one, because Christ died
with the intention of cutting the umbilical cord between the
saved sinner and the world. Turn to Galatians chapter one.
Christ died with this very intention in view. Galatians 1 verse 3, Grace to
you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. who gave himself for our sins,
the whole doctrine of substitutionary penal satisfaction, who gave
himself for our sins, and then ahena clause of purpose in order
that He might deliver us from hell in the day of judgment according
to the will of the Father. Now if Paul had written that,
that would be good sound theology. It would be true. Because in
another place, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul says that you
turn to God from your idols to serve the living and the true
God and to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, who delivers
us from the wrath to come. It is not wrong to contemplate
the Lord Jesus who in dying for our sins has delivered us from
the coming wrath. Don't ever talk as though that's
a little part of our salvation. Were we to meditate more upon
the day of judgment and envision ourselves standing before that
brilliant throne from which heaven and earth flee away, and if we
were to hear the sentence in our ears of the mind as it ought
to come forth towards us in terms of what we are by nature, And
think of the horrors of being cast into outer darkness where
there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and where
they have no rest day nor night and the smoke of their torment
ascends up forever and forever. I say we would have both a greater
appreciation for our salvation and a greater burden for the
lost. But our text does not point us there. Our text says this,
"...who gave himself for our sins in order that he might deliver
us out of this present evil world according to the will of our
God and Father, As we saw last night, our Lord procures no other
salvation than that which is purposed in the counsels of eternity. What the Father purposes, the
Son purchases. And here we are told that it
was the will of our God and Father that in giving Himself for our
sins, He might deliver us out of this present evil world. All that surrounds the shame
of his nakedness, all that surrounds the beating, the bruising, the
mockery, the shrouded heavens, the cry of dereliction, he shall
see at the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Why? because
he gave himself for the sins of a people whom he determined,
in the application of that salvation, would be wrenched out of this
present evil world. The umbilical cord would be cut. When in the dynamics of redemptive
grace, elect sinners would be brought into the kingdom of God
and into the possession of the forgiveness of their sins. That's why I'm bold to assert
that in every true work of grace in the heart of a sinner, there
is a radical, fundamental, real deliverance from attachment to
the world and a pattern of worldliness. Why? Because Christ died with
this intention in view, and secondly, because the Spirit makes that
intention efficacious in the application of the saving virtue
of Christ. Turn to Galatians 6. Because
the Spirit makes that intention efficacious in the application
of the virtue of the death of Christ. Without going into the
context of the entire epistle to the Galatians, The part of the text that I wish
to highlight stands on its own feet without any reference to
either the overall or the immediate context. Suffice it to say the
Judaizers were boasting in the external forms and rituals and
making converts to a visit to the rabbi and to subsequent adherence
to the trappings of Jewish ceremonies. But Paul says in verse 14 of
chapter 6, But far be it from me to glory or to boast, save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which I have
obtained the forgiveness of my sins and the hope of everlasting
life." Now that would have been true. And in other places Paul
says that. But that's not what he says here.
Look at his language. God forbid, far be it from me
to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, not the
piece of wood on which He died, but the redemption effected upon
that piece of wood, far be it from me to boast, save in the
death of Jesus Christ by which what has happened The world is
crucified unto me, and I unto the world. What does he say? Remember our definition of the
world? What is the world? What is this thing called the
world? It is man, it is institutions,
religious included. His surroundings, religious included. His standards, religious included. Goals and principles of thought
and action, religious included. How can a man get right with
God? The world has its standards, principles of thought and action.
It is all of that is penetrated and controlled by malignant devilish
moral forces. And Paul says, when I was brought
into a saving appropriation of the virtue of the death of Christ,
the world was crucified to me. In other words, that whole cosmos
under the control of the devil, with men's devilish thoughts
of how to be right with God, with men's devilish thoughts
of how to find acceptance with God, with men's devilish standards
of how to please one another, that world system became to me,
as attractive, as virtuous, as desirable a companion, as a Roman
felon hanging on a cross with his dead bloated body having
its flesh plucked off by the buzzards that swirled around
its head and its sunken eyes. He said the cross of Christ made
the world as desirable and attractive a companion to me as an ugly,
dead, stinking, bloating body hanging on a cross with the vultures
and the buzzards plucking its flesh. You say, all right, Pastor
Martins, enough, enough. I had supper two hours ago. I
don't want to puke. God have mercy. If I got a little
more graphic, Some of you might puke up your supper, but you've
never puked up the world. The world to you is still a handsome,
striking fellow. His slightest glance makes your
heart beat and go pitter-patter. A stroke of its hand makes you
glow for a day. You'll sell your soul to hell
forever to have his smile. The world man and his institutions
surrounding standards, goals, his principles of thought and
action, his approval, his acceptance, his standards of what is virtuous
in speech, in dress, in music, in entertainment, in diversions. You would never dare do anything
that would cause the world to frown. He's so handsome to you. He's such a desirable companion.
You will curry to His every whim. You will jump to His every wish.
Just a glance of His eye and you're at His feet. Why? Because you're still of the world
and under the power of the Prince of this world. And the cross
of Christ has never been efficaciously applied to your heart by the
Holy Ghost. No sinner ever receive forgiveness
of sin rooted in the virtue of the cross of Christ who did not
have the world crucified to Him in the virtue of that same cross. This is not some higher life
dimension of experience because my Bible says They that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts
thereof. He said, the world is as attractive
to me as a cadaver hanging on a cross. But he says, you know
something? Coming into the virtue of the saving work of Christ,
something happened that is the obverse of that. Look at it.
by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."
Now, before Paul came to a spirit-wrought understanding of who Jesus of
Nazareth was and the significance of his cross, he was the darling
of a whole segment of Judaism. He was their fair-haired boy.
He was their rising star on the horizon of the triumphs of Pharisaic
Judaism. He said he outstripped all of
his peers in zeal. He was Gamaliel's fair-haired
boy, his prize pupil. And it was particularly the Jewish
world with all of its Jewish nationalism and its Jewish pride
and its Jewish arrogance. And in that context, Paul was
a worldling, not one who abandoned himself to the standards of the
lecherous men of this world and to the cheating men of this world. No, he said, touching the external
standards of the law, I was utterly blameless. But he was nonetheless of this
world. And he said, When my eyes were
opened to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, and
I came to understand the identity of this person, who art thou,
Adonai? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? If Jesus is God, and he has arrested
me in grace, then I have been a fool. And if he has arrested
me instead of summon me to judgment and damned me here, Lord, I give
myself away. It is all that I can do. And
when he came to an understanding of the identity of Jesus and
an understanding of the significance of the cross of Christ, not only
did the world become crucified to him, but he says he became
crucified to the world. What's that mean? He said, well,
just as I looked upon the world, particularly that religious world,
and that was the issue in the epistle to the Galatians. If
I should yet please men, I should not be the bond slave of Christ,
he says in the first chapter. He said, when I became, when
the world became crucified to me, he said there was a precise
parallel in the world's estimation of me. when I began to acknowledge
that in spite of all of my pharisaic perfection, touching the law
blameless, that when I saw my heart, Romans 7, 1 to 12, I saw
a seething cauldron of all forms of evil desire and impulse, and
I saw myself a wretched, hell-deserving, vile and polluted sinner. And when that estimation was
made of myself, and I cast all the weight of my guilt and my
sinfulness and my bondage upon Jesus of Nazareth as crucified,
and I found forgiveness and life in Him, and I declare boldly
in the synagogue of my hometown that He is Son of God and Messiah,
the world that looked upon me as the handsome man whose glances
they loved, from whom they desired a stroke and a touch. Suddenly
I became as attractive to the world as a cadaver hanging on
a cross. I became crucified to the world.
I began to live by a set of standards. I began to live by a set of perspectives. I began to conduct my life under
the pressure of goals and desires and longings and realities that
made me as despicable and out of place in good, upright, decent,
respectable company As a cadaver hanging on a cross, there was this cleavage that
went in both directions. And my friend, it happens every
time. The virtue of the cross is applied
by the Spirit. That's why Jesus could pray They
are not of the world as I am not of the world. And then went
on or previously said, if the world has hated me, it will hate
you. Why? Because you are not of the
world even as I am not of the world. And as we come to contemplate
the implications of this truth, of our deliverance from the world
and from worldliness. No true child of God ever lives
dominated by the threefold cord by which sinners are bound to
the world. That's why John says in 1 John
2, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,
Why? If any man loved the world, if
there is a basic, fundamental, undisturbed attachment in love
to the world, not talking about the struggle with remaining affinities
for certain aspects of the world and its pleasures and its standards. He is talking about a fundamental,
basic pattern of attachment to the world. And he says, if any
man loved the world, he doesn't say the love of the Father is
in him but not developed as it ought. The love of the Father
is in him, but he is squelched. The love of the Father is in
him, though you can't see it. He says the love of the Father
is not in him. The term worldly Christian is
a radically heretical misnomer. You're either a Christian or
a worldling. An imperfect Christian? But a
Christian, the world has been crucified to you, and you to
the world. So you no longer live under that
impulse of seeking simply to enjoy things, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, to have things, the pride of
life, to be somebody. Now you see, it can be a very
small circle. It can be a very limited number
of things. But if that which makes you tick,
that which sets your standards, that which draws out your energies
and excites your emotions, has to do with the lust of the flesh,
merely enjoying things, the lust of the eyes, merely having things,
and the pride of life desiring to see somebody, be somebody,
my friend, the love of the Father is not in you. You have never
known the application of the virtue of the death of Christ,
either in forgiveness or in the dynamics of cutting the umbilical
cord that holds you entrapped in the womb of this present world. You see, the child of God no
longer dances to the world's tunes, no longer marches to the
beat of the world's drum. He's got a transplanted citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven. From whence we wait. For the
coming of our Lord and where our citizenship is, that's where
the rules that govern us originate. And we live by the rule and the
law of heaven. We live not for this present
age, but for the age to come. We are strangers and sojourners. We have here no abiding place,
but we look for a city to come. And above all, we look for the
king who sits enthroned in majesty and splendor and glory. For the
lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land. Our gracious deliverance
from the world and worldliness begins on the threshold when,
in a true work of grace, there is a radical, fundamental, real
deliverance from attachment to the world and a pattern of worldliness. But then, very quickly, let me
touch on this gracious deliverance as it works out continually,
just like with the matter of sin. In the initial implantation
of grace, the dominion of sin is broken. It no longer reigns,
though it remains. It is not the president, while
it is yet resident. And the same is true with the
world. The fundamental attachment to the world in the imagery of
the world being our moral womb and our unregenerate hearts,
as it were, the umbilical cord that bind us to that realm of
existence. Though that umbilical cord is
cut and we are transplanted into the kingdom of God's dear Son,
and we become crucified to the world and the world to us, the
reality is that part of our remaining sin finds expression in the remnants
of worldliness. That is the desire to have the
approval of those who are doing what? Living by the standards
and goals and principles of thought and action which are penetrated
and controlled by malignant devilish moral forces. And so we are tempted
for the saving of face. We are tempted for the sake of
peer acceptance. We are tempted for economic advancement,
to conform to the world's standards of ethics. Our yea is not quite
yea in a business deal. Our yea is not quite yea in a
personal relationship where we may incur the frown of a worldling. Our nay is not nay when the overtures
are made to us as single men and women that we should allow
ourselves the indulgence of the use of our bodies under the impulse
of God-given sexual appetites to compromise and to begin to
indulge in forms of sexual intimacy and kissing and petting and even
intercourse outside the sacred marriage bed And that's why Christians
fall into that worldly sin of fornication. How is this gracious
deliverance to be continually wrought in us? Well, let me give
you just three simple heads and a text on which to hang them.
We must believe it is crucial to fight against worldliness. You see, if you're not convinced
that you must fight against it with all your being, you'll never
make any headway. James says it is of the very
essence of true religion, pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is what? To visit the fatherless and the
widows and their affliction. to show practical compassion
to the needy and then listen, not to keep oneself respectively
aloof from the world, but unspotted from the world. The purity of
my religion is in direct proportion to my commitment that I shall
not allow one stain of the world to be placed upon the garments
of the imparted, not imputed, righteousness that God has graciously
granted me in His regenerating work and in the cleansing work
that He did on the threshold. Do I really believe what James
says? What vivid language. He says
in James 4, 4, don't you know that Whosoever would be a friend
of the world makes himself the enemy of God. Not only is friendship
with the world a form of expressing enmity to God, but if you read
earlier, he uses another imagery drawn out of rich Old Testament
perspectives. He says in verse 4, you adulteresses! Don't you know that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God? When you curry the favor of the
world, you are guilty of spiritual adultery. Why? Christ died as
the heavenly bridegroom to have a chaste and spotless bride whose
heart is wholly His. And when you flirt with the world,
you're guilty of spiritual adultery. You teenagers, listen to me.
When you say, well, I know that some of the standards for dress
and hairstyles that are present, I know that they are reflective
in great part of a lifestyle and a perspective on life that
is not biblical and godly, but I couldn't bear being out of
step with the latest hairstyle. with the latest clothing styles. I must be the world's friend
in my external appearance. At the price of being a harlot
to Jesus, God have mercy on you. Well, you see, when the kids
get together, if I can't name the latest troops, they look
at me like I'm some kind of a dummy. Oh, I know that the lyrics are
abominable and hellish. I know that the music itself,
with all of the din of its repetitive cacophony, is like music out
of the pit of hell, where there is no order and beauty and symmetry. But, you know, they'd mock me
out and they'd laugh me to scorn. I've got to listen to just enough
to be able to be with it. at the expense of being a harlot
to Jesus? I didn't write it, folks. People
tell me, Pastor Martin, you're coarse in your preaching. My
friend, you open your Bible and tell God he's coarse. And how
do you commit adultery? By having illicit sexual intercourse. When you voluntarily open your
soul to receive the world, you commit spiritual adultery. As much as a wife who goes to
bed with her neighbor's husband. And that's not Albert Martin
coarseness, that's Holy Ghost bluntness. And if you're offended, it's
probably because you're guilty of that very harlotry. and the raw nerve of your own
love of the world has been pinched. You and I will make no progress
in the continual battle against the world in worldliness unless
we believe it's crucial to fight worldliness. Do I want pure religion
with a pure conscience that I must fight to keep unspotted from
the world? If I would have my heart as the
heart of a chaste virgin to Christ in the language of Paul, I must
be sure that the world's smiles or frowns never cause me to alter
my standards, change my goals in any way, shape or mold what
I am convinced from the Word of God are the standards for
personal dress and appearance and the use of TV and what movies
I do or do not watch if I watch any, what TV programs I watch
or don't watch, where I go and will not go, it is a matter of
I'm jealous to have a virgin's heart for my blessed Savior who
loved me and died for me. You better believe it's crucial
or you'll never fight. Secondly, you must use every
God-ordained means to conquer worldliness. I commend Pastor
Bob's sermon on Romans 12, 1 and 2. You must use every God-ordained
means. Be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And what is the
grand instrument of that renewal? Psalm 1. The blessed man is he
who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, the worldling,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth
he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted.
And may I again pour out my heart to you young people. I thank
God for so much that I see in so many of you. But you know,
frankly, one thing that disturbs me, I don't see many of you unless
I'm really ignorant. And it could be that I am. There
may be hidden depths that I've not yet locked into. I don't
see you using the relatively carefree single state to soak
up your Bibles. When God saved me at age 18,
in two years' time, I wore out a Thompson chain reference Bible,
committed whole passages to memory. I couldn't get enough of my Bible.
Sure, it meant sometimes. doing construction work and being
awake all night with asthma. So don't anyone cop out. It's
amazing how people will try to squirm out of things. Ah, you
had it easy. No, no. I know what it's like to sit
in a chair wheezing like an old horse ready for the glue factory
all night with asthma. Before going off to do coolie
work for a mason and plaster construction man, eight and nine
and ten hours in the hot human weather of Connecticut in July
and August. to get that Bible out and pour
over its pages and pray in its truth. Oh, dear young people,
the world is seeking to squeeze you into its mold, its standards,
its perspectives, its values, scream at you through all the
media, scream at you through your peers and their attitudes,
their bearing, their dress, their walk. How can you ever hope to
be the blessed man, the blessed woman of someone unless you use
the God-ordained means of constant interaction with the Word of
God? Other texts could be quoted, but then thirdly, we must continually
trust in our great High Priest. That's why I asked Pastor Lamar
to read John 17. At times when it seems that the
remaining propensity to reattach that umbilical cord to that whole
womb of worldliness is so strong. Oh, what power there is when
I remember my Savior is praying, Father, I pray not that Thou
shouldst take them out of the world. You see how world is used
differently there? That is, don't take them out
of the realm of the inhabitants of the earth. And that little
orb down there into the safety of my presence and into the company
of just men made perfect. I pray not you should take them
out of the world, but keep them from the evil one. Blessed be
God at times when it seems that every last defense was down.
And we were as vulnerable before the foul power of the enemy of
our souls. And we cannot trace our deliverance
to any human means. It's in those times that I look
back and I say, Lord Jesus, were it not for your intercession,
I'd have been gone. I'd have been gone. When Peter
looked back after his oaths and after his self-maledictions that
he never knew him, no attachment to him, I wonder how many times
in later life he said, look, there was nothing in me that
was keeping me attached to my Savior. I was sold out to the
world in those moments of weakness. He would remember the words of
Jesus, Satan hath desired you to sift you as wheat, but I have
prayed for you. And when you are turned again,
my prayers are efficacious. And, O dear child of God, while
believing it is crucial to fight worldliness, while engaging in
every means to oppose it, constantly remember and look to your blessed
Savior at the right hand of the Father who is praying that you
shall be kept from the world and from the evil one. And then,
of course, our gracious deliverance that begins initially as we've
described, goes on continually, will be consummated in the age
to come. This age is the age where worldliness
is part of the burden of the overlapping of the ages. Heaven
is in our heart and in our deepest affections, and yet the world
and the devil are still very much our daily companions. But thank God in the age to come,
it will be the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwells
nothing but righteousness. I love it sometimes when I'm
running, sometimes when I'm engaged in other activities where I'm
in direct contact with the terra firma. I like to look down and
say there's a time coming when every square inch from the surface
I'm running on, right down to the center of the core of the
earth, will be marked by nothing but righteousness. The new heavens,
the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. And this io, this
world system, this cosmos, under the curse and under the prince
of the power of the air, will be no more. Satan and his minions
and all of his children will be banished to eternal perdition. And the people of God will shine
as stars in the firmament of God's redemptive glory. Now I want to close. on this
very sober note. Having given you, I hope, what
is at least a somewhat accurate biblical definition, and then
having considered our native attachment to the world, our
gracious deliverance from the world, I want to close on this
note the present danger we all face from the world. In my preparation, my preacher
brethren, you know what text kept coming back to me. Demas
hath forsaken me, having loved this present age." Think of it! To have prayed with Paul, labored
with Paul, at one point he calls him Demas, my fellow worker! Read Hendrickson's commentary
on 2 Timothy 4.9. I don't have time to read it.
I brought it with me, but it's so moving. Think of it. Demas,
who knelt and prayed with Paul, who heard him weep over his fellow
countrymen, the Jews, who saw him with his tears staining the
parchment when he wrote his pastoral letters. Demas has forsaken me
and all that this man was. to whom the world was crucified,
who was crucified to the world. Demas hath forsaken me. And what
caused him to leave Paul and everything he stood for? The
world bewitched him. My preacher friend, listen to
me. You beware of anything that has its taproots in this world's
standards of success. If you don't die to the world's
standard of success, you'll learn how to begin to cut the corners
off the offense of the cross. That's what the Judaizers were
doing. Paul said at the root of their heresy was not a real
conviction about truth. He said they didn't want to bear
the offense of the cross. It was an aversion to persecution. And who among us does not have
an aversion to persecution? And if you've not died to your
own success standards and your own success image, determined
to say, if I must preach to nothing but the echo of my own voice
against the walls, I will not cut off one right angle of my
Father's truth. I don't understand. I don't stand
in judgment on any man, because I know at least one or two sitting
here, and you brethren know me well enough to know. I trust
I am not speaking of you, but frankly, I don't understand. Wherever I go in pastors' conference,
every Tom, Dick, and Harry is getting his team in, spending
hours getting an advanced degree. Where do they find the time? I think they've allowed the world
to influence them. If on your letterhead you've
got demon, give you a little more influence. Rubbish! The
time you spend chasing that demon, you spend on your knees, crying
to God for the Holy Ghost to come upon you, and to come upon
your people, and to come with power upon sinners! And you'll
have the only validation a true servant of God needs. Paul says,
you are my epistle, living transformed lives. Now don't anyone go out
and say, Pastor Martin said anyone got a D-min, he's backslidden
in the world thing. Pastor Martin didn't say that.
What Pastor Martin did say is, if you got the itch for a D-min,
you better ask, where did the itch come from? Did it grow out
of your most intimate seasons of communion with Christ when
the world lay at your feet as a cadaver? Or did it grow out
of your association in the local ministerium where everybody was
talking about his degrees and you felt a little baggy-kneed
and snotty-nosed academically? That's worldliness. That's worldliness! That's the world dictating your
standards of ministerial credibility. Beware of it, men. under the
guise, well, I really got to understand the mindset of my
generation. You're reading a little bit too
much secular literature. You're watching programs on the
TV under the guise of ministerial enlightenment that you know are
titillating to your remaining sin. Things that once made you
blush now can't even bring a twitch of red to your cheek. Beware,
my brother, or it may be said of you So and so hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world. You single men and women,
listen to me. Many, many, many a single man
or woman professing the name of Christ has forsaken Christ
because they got a worldly perspective on marriage. They got their standard
from the ladies in the men's magazines, the body worship magazines. They didn't get them from the
Bible. And because they bypassed opportunities to marry according
to biblical standards while they waited for their world dictated
dream standards, they then got desperate and jumped. Beware of the danger of the world. Preachers, single men and women,
beware members of Trinity. God have mercy on us if these
lovely walls and impressive beams become a source of carnal pride. And God will let the walls stay
and the beams stay, but take away the only thing that's beautiful
around here. And that's His presence. And
God help us if that day ever comes. Jesus won't draw near
with the kisses of his gracious presence to a bunch of spiritual
harlots who've opened their hearts to worldly pride. May God grant that in the constant
fellowship of His cross, the world may lie at our feet as
dead, and we dead to the world. Let us pray. Our Father, once again we bow
in Your holy presence. filled with a mingled sense of
shame on the one hand that hearts made for you should have been
so unreservedly given over to the world and to the devil. O Lord, we're not proud that
the world was our womb. We're ashamed and we would afresh
mourn the horrible fruits of our attachment to the world.
And yet we are filled with joy and with wonder that according
to your own purpose you sent your Son to deliver us from this
present evil world. And we thank you that many of
us bowed in your presence can say with Paul that the cross
in which we have found forgiveness and pardon of all of our sins
is the cross by which the world has lost its attraction to us
and we unto the world. But, O Lord, in the very thanking
of You for that reality, we must cry for greater weanedness from
the remnants of our worldliness. O God, take the word meditated
upon this night and make applications in a thousand ways that Your
servant could never make those applications. that we may be
a people marked as true pilgrims and sojourners who make it evident
that this cosmos and this Aion are not our resting place. Oh,
may it be evident in all of our demeanor and bearing and speech
and attitudes, in our physical appearance, everything about
us. Oh, may we be marked as pilgrims,
Lord. And we pray then that the light
of your own grace in us and through us would then awaken in poor
worldlings who carry the burden of their attachment to a world
that is perishing and they with it. Oh, that we might be used
to see multitudes rescued and brought into the glorious liberty
of being cut loose from the world and translated into the kingdom
of your dear Son. Oh, Lord, we know unless you
seal the word to our hearts, we'll flick it away in a moment's
time and go back to business as usual. Lord, don't let us
destroy ourselves through a careless indifference to the word preached. But may we by prayer and meditation
wait upon you. until, as it were, it percolates
into all of the recesses of our hearts and bears the fruit of
righteousness to your praise, we ask through our blessed Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.