Transcript

Amen. 1 John 2. Let’s go back there. 1 John 2. John is the aged apostle and, ah, there’s just a tenderness and a sweetness in his tone yet at times he can be quite clear and quite stern and quite to the point because he love for the truth always directed his emotions and his compassion. Notice that phrase, his love of the truth directed his emotions and his compassion. That’s the way we all want to be as we look out in our world today and find emotions run amok. I’ve never seen a time when just feelings were everything and the feelings don’t have to be based on any facts. As I said in a sermon a week or so ago, the new mantra is, “If I feel, it’s real, and I can judge you and, ah, determine that you’re this or that or whatever if I feel that that’s the way you are.” It’s a bizarre thing. Aren’t you glad we’re people of the truth and we don’t have to function that way because this is just, it can’t end at a good place. Um, you know, it’s Benjamin Franklin, Brother Matt told me before the service that, um, as he left the Constitutional Convention, they asked him, “Well, what have you wrought?” He said, “Well, we’ve developed a Republic if you can keep it.” The point is this, this nation of every man gets a vote, you know that hadn’t occurred before. They had come from Europe where everything was an absolute monarchy, a church-state had total control over everything. You had no freedoms and liberties. So they designed this Constitution for this new nation where man had liberties and he had freedoms but they said only a good and moral people can keep this. When we lose our character and we lose our morality, then, then we’ll have to be ruled by, by control and, and absolutism to keep some sort of sanity in the culture.

So let’s pray the Lord’s not ready for that and let’s pray he gives us a revival in our land, but I’m gonna tell you something, folks, I’m not here to save America, I’m here to build a church. I’m not here to save America, I’m here to build a church and, by the way, you build enough true churches you’ll do the best thing you can do to save America. One Harvard history professor said without the preaching of Protestant ministers, there’d been no discovery of America and he’s right. It was those early Pilgrims and Puritans who had a passion to go worship according to the Scriptures that really was the foundation stone that built our country.

Well, 1 John 2, John continues to write and he says in verses 15 through 17 of 1 John 2,

15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world [and here he characterizes it], the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

I’ve, um, entitled this “God Lovers Not World Lovers.” God lovers not world lovers. Now when you’re saved, you can no longer be a world lover. You can no longer love the world. And that does not mean you can’t enjoy a lot of the things God’s given us in the world to enjoy. Our Lord did that. Jesus ate in, in the home of, of wealthy Pharisees and they probably fixed him a succulent meal and there’s all indication he ate like anybody else and enjoyed it. He enjoyed that, that bounty that God has given all of us to enjoy. Jesus enjoyed dinner at Matthew’s house and we know Matthew the tax collector was very wealthy because he had cheated and basically stole people from the money with exorbitant taxation. But Jesus ate at his house. He was converted, as you know, and probably enjoyed luxury and a fine meal. Zacchaeus, the same way. He ate at Zacchaeus’ house. He filled Peter’s boat with fish. He accepted the, the woman’s perfume that she anointed him with, probably a year’s wages the Bible says. So there were times, many times when our Lord showed that he enjoyed nice and good things that are in this world. That’s not loving the world. God’s given us these common grace gifts that we can enjoy and praise him for them. That’s the key. That’s not a world lover that’s enjoying some of the things God’s given us in the world.

Now our first point will be in verse 15, loving the world and the proper definition of loving the world, is incompatible with loving the Father. Loving the world is incompatible with loving the Father, or to keep with our title, world lovers are incompatible or inconsistent with God lovers.

The word “love” in verse 15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world,” is that Greek word “agape” again but it’s used in a different way here. Generally agape is used of that unique love that only God has given to his children. He, he birthed it in us supernaturally when we were saved. Can I challenge you, young person listening to my voice tonight? You know I love you and I care for you. Can I challenge you, mom and dad? Can I challenge you, senior adult? Is there evidence of the new birth in the presence of agape love? We know God’s, has given all mankind a type of love and as Christians we have a love for all mankind. That’s why we’re enraged when we see vile criminal injustice done to another human being because we love human beings made in the image of God. We stand against that, but there is a different and separate and, and even greater love God’s given us for him and for one another and that’s usually when the Greek word “agape” is used. But here he uses agape and says, “Don’t agape the world,” and, and the idea here is that’s impossible anyway. If you have agape, you can’t love the world with that kind of devotion, with that kind of, ah, embracing, with that kind of intimacy, with that kind of loyalty. Don’t do that with the world. Though in one sense it’s incompatible, in one sense it’s impossible for that to happen, and the other way, we can backslide and begin to embrace the world as if we agaped, we had close and in embrace this world and the things of the world.

I think it’s likely that there were some in the churches John was writing to had began at least outwardly to switch allegiances and were now giving too much attention to the things in the world. I think probably for most of these they’re those, those mentioned in 1 John 2:19 because in 1 John 2:19 he’d already told them, “Well, um, don’t, there, there are those who went out from us but they are not really of us. Had they been of us, they would have stayed with us but they went out from us that it might be shown that all are not really of us.” Ah, as a church matures, the number of those in the membership who are not really of us gets smaller and smaller and smaller and that’s been our experience. It’d would that every, every, there’d be the experience of every church that matures onward in God. Ah, these churches had not been around all that long and I think they were still dealing with a lot of that and so they had a lot in the church perhaps who were false professors and in their lifestyles they still looked like they loved the world, and you had some true professors who fell into that lifestyle who didn’t need to be there.

Now one thing that this, um, ah, the word “world” here I should say, the word “world” here does not mean nature. God made the world and all that is therein the Bible tells us. It doesn’t mean that, um, ah, you can’t enjoy the things that God’s put out there that we call nature. Um, it doesn’t mean that we do not love humanity. We know God says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. We have a love for all mankind. That’s not what he’s talking about, though, here. One person said, now listen to this, if we love the world the way God loves it, we would not love the world as we ought not to love it. If we loved it the way God loves it, we would not love it the way we ought not to love it.

The world, the word rather, I can’t say those two together, the word “world” means “to order or to arrange.” Here’s what God’s saying, since sin has entered the world and things are fallen and things are upside down now, the world’s become a corrupt place, it’s arranged wrong now, it’s structured wrong now and there’s no way we can love the God of order and truth in a world of now disorder and untruth. That’s what he’s saying. You can’t embrace what the world’s become now that sin has entered into it. You can’t love, some people would call it this world system. Why? Because now the world is structured, now the world functions according to a system that is anti-God. God is no longer the center. God is no longer the foundation. Now there are times in civilizations when countries like I think earlier in our country, ah, Francis Schaffer, the Christian philosophy would say early in American history we had a Christian consensus in our country. Not every single person was a Christian but it was widely embraced that biblical truths were the way we needed to function as a people. Now that’s been radically rejected even in America. We’re about the last to go and now we are fully functioning, fully being arranged and going along in a godless way and we can’t love that. It’s all opposed to God.

Um, this world system, the Bible tells us, has temporary rulers. Satan is the god of this world, 2 Corinthians 4:4. Um, the citizens are called the children of this world, Luke 16:8. The spirit, 1 Corinthians 2, is called the spirit of this world, and this fallen world has its own wisdom, it’s called the wisdom of the world.

Um, one guy was, um, functioning on a church nominating committee for a new pastor and, and they mentioned a man that they wanted to consider calling as their new pastor and one of the men spoke up and said, “We don’t need to consider him because he is a thermometer instead of a thermostat.” He’s, he’s prone to just kinda go with whatever’s going on around him instead of being consistent in his convictions in affecting others for God. What about you? Have you slipped a little bit to where too often you’re a thermometer and not a thermostat? That’s a good point. That shows that you’re beginning to love the world too much.

Boy, I don’t want to call any names but I’m telling you, it frustrates me, it gives me a righteous indignation to hear some Christian, Baptist Christian leaders commenting on the present situation and they are 100% pandering to the trend and the spirit of the day instead of saying what the Bible says. Brothers, you can’t love somebody and go along with them even if they’re hurting and they’re not stating the truth. Did you hear me? Yes, compassion and, yes, kindness, and, yes, consideration if they’ve gone through something but you cannot love them and affirm them in error. But you know what? Southern Baptists been doing this for so long, every whim that comes along, every cultural trend, every new fad to a degree Southern Baptists have just bought in. I’ve been living too long, I’ve watched it over and over again. It’s just a new part of the circus every few years and we embrace it and say, “This will help us reach people.” I’ll tell you what it’s helped you do, it’s helped you ruin your churches and water them down and bring the world into the church.

This is the sad commentary unfortunately of too many who profess faith in Jesus Christ, that is embracing and treasuring and putting their arms around the spirit of the age and of the world that is Satan-controlled, not God-centered. Listen to what Jesus prayed in John 17:15-17. Jesus asked the heavenly Father about his followers and says, ” I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” I’m not asking you to take them out of the world but keep them safe in it. They’re not of it. Child of God, you’re in the world but you are not of the world. You’re of another world. You’re of the world in outer space. You’re an alien down here. The Bible calls us strangers and aliens. Some of you are stranger than others but we’re, we’re all strangers and aliens to a world that doesn’t know God.

Folks, listen to me, this world shouldn’t understand us. When we speak the way we see things from a biblical perspective, they’ll think we’re nuts. They’ll call you all kinds of names. They’ll label you with all kinds of terrible labels. Why? Because we’re not of the world and we don’t function according to the wisdom of the world. Right now the wisdom of the world is all about emotions and I might add, silly emotions. A lot of what I’m seeing looks like childish silly drama. “Yea, yea, yea, yea, yea.” Well, I don’t wanna go there. My wife told me not to go there so I won’t go there.

Love for the world and love for the Father cannot exist side-by-side. That’s what he’s saying here. Don’t love the world nor the things of the world. If you do, he continues in verse 15, the love of the Father is not in you. Um, what am I looking for? Matthew, Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Well, neither can you serve God and the world. Now you may struggle with loving the world, you may struggle with embracing the world, but here’s what I wanna ask you, are you listening to your pastor? Are you in the fight? I’ve had people ask me, “Can a Christian do this and be a Christian? Can a Christian be involved in this and be a Christian?” And my first response is always, “Well, I want to know are they fighting? Are they repenting? Are they struggling? Are they striving? Are they looking for help and accountability?” We all sin but you don’t have to get in a rut and run with sin and flow with sin. That’s loving the world.

So the loving the world is not loving the Father. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said this, “If I had a brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I daily consorted with the assassin who drove the dagger into my brother’s heart? Surely, I too must be an accomplice in the crime. Sin murdered Christ and will you be friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God, can you love sin?” That’s the point. There’s something in us that even in those weak moments when we’re embracing the things of the world, the anti- God things in the world, not a nice meal or a beautiful sunset or, or 1,001 good things out there, I’m talking about when you’re embracing what this world system’s about. There’s something in you that says, “This makes me sick. I hate this and I hate me for liking it.” The old Puritan said, “The sins which my flesh loves, I hate.” That means you’ve got the agape in you. Did you hear that? The sins that my flesh loves, I hate and I hate me for liking it.

Well, first of all, John says these are incompatible. You can’t embrace and go along with love for a godless world and say you love the heavenly Father at the same time. Well, now secondly, a description of loving the world. He, he describes it and unfolds it here beginning in verse 16, “For all that is in the world,” and this is something of a, a comprehensive outline but not exhaustive, and they, they really overlap one another, “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” The main idea is these are things that are not from God, these are things that come out of our fallen flesh. These are things that are of the devil. Now there is proper enjoyment. Again, that’s good. Proper enjoyment is when you participate in something that’s in this world but God hasn’t forbidden it in any way, but what makes it proper is as you enjoy it, you always sense a God-ward attitude about it. “God, thank You for allowing this.” You’re God-centered.

So there’s a God-ward gratitude. Secondly, there’s godly guidance. In other words, you wouldn’t get involved in something that’s obviously violates Scripture or against our Lord. You want to be guided into things that you do enjoy in the world by the word of God. And then there’s God-ward praise for his wisdom. That is, his wisdom that’s given you a higher aim, a higher principle to live by. Can, can, I just, it’s just amazing to me, ah, how people today, ah, they think that the Federal government is this eternal source of endless help. I mean, it’s like the Federal government will always have enough of other people’s money, our money. The Federal government doesn’t have any money, they only have our money. The Federal government’s gonna always have enough of our money to fix anything and everything I come up against in life. Every situation, they’re to bail me out. Where did we get that? That’s not what this country was founded on but that new embracing of look to the government for everything, the government has become the new surrogate father and for a lot of these feminists, oh, they hate this, they’d hate me if they heard me say it, the government has become the surrogate husband for the feminist. That’s who she looks to for her protection, her provision, her care. She don’t want to admit it but that’s what she’s doing, looking to the government to fix everything and new regulations and new laws. What’s my point is, it doesn’t matter where you go, the spirit of the age, an ungodly spirit is look to the secular authority to fix me. You know what we need in our country? We need a time when we have to get on our knees and we have nowhere to cry but to God. Nowhere to cry but to God. He may be taking us there, brothers and sisters. I don’t know.

Well, John here, though, outlines something of an outline of what this loving the world looks like and, first of all, he says the lust of the flesh in verse 16. I define that this way, satisfying a God-given desire in an ungodly way. Satisfying a God-given desire in an ungodly way whether it’s food, whether it’s sleep, enjoyments, sexuality, and on and on we could go. It’s a good thing, it’s a gift from God but we fall into the spirit of the world, we fall into the godless world and we become satisfying that in a dirty, ugly or shameful way. The lust of the flesh.

Then he says the lust of the eyes. We desire the things that the world calls good, we desire the things that, “Hey, this makes you happy,” we desire the things that the world says, “Oh, this will satisfy you,” because to our eyes it looks good. Now it’s nothing wrong to see something and say, “I would like to have that or I’d enjoy to have that,” but here’s what you say, “If it pleases God and glorifies God. God, if that would be Your will, I can take it or leave it.” I try to function that way. I’m not telling you I score 1,000 but I generally try to function that way and I’m gonna tell you how God usually works. Not all the time but usually when I don’t have to have it, he gives it to me. When he finally gets it to where I can honestly say, “If I don’t have it, hallelujah, I’ve got You,” then he’ll let me have it. Have you experienced that? God likes to do good things for his children but he does not want us to replace him with the things of the world because that would be hurtful to us and, of course, dishonoring to him.

You see, your eyes, the lust of the eyes, your eyes can have an appetite. Have you ever heard someone say, “Feast your eyes on this”? Feast your eyes on Jesus is what we should be doing. One scholar says this lust of the eyes may include or may be moreso about the pleasures of the mind, the sophisticated intellectual pleasures. The Romans and the Greeks lived for these high-faluting and, and elitist type of philosophers and philosophies and they were all godless. How much of our minds are carried away by television and computers and smartphones?

Then the boastful pride of life. This is when a person brags or boasts about deeds or possessions done in this world. Don’t be out of balance here. The Bible does not teach that a Christian shouldn’t accomplish things that the world applauds him for. Matter of fact, I want our young people to do well and I want them to, to excel, and I want them to become lawyers and politicians and, and business owners. That’s good but from your heart you don’t embrace it the way Donald Trump would embrace it. You don’t let your ego be the center of it. God’s purpose is in God’s glory is what you look for even in your accomplishments that the world might applaud. Our President, though I agree with his policies, and isn’t it the oddest thing that God would give us a President that Bible- believing Christians can agree with on so many points and he’s an absolute narcissist, pride-filled egomaniac who’s always antagonistic. He’s not my hero. He drives me crazy. But God help us, what’s our choice? Somebody said, “Well, Christians shouldn’t vote for the lesser of two evils.” I don’t. I vote for the lesser of three evils. You can vote for the Democrat and remember, you vote for who they have to answer to. Can you imagine who Joe Biden’s gotta answer to? Have you been watching the news? I mean, bizarre. Bizarre. Disband police forces. All the way down the line, just bizarre things. Well, that’s, I can’t make that choice. The other choice is to not vote for Donald Trump and actually do vote for Biden. That’s the second choice. If you don’t vote for him, you’re actually helping the other guy. And the third choice would be Trump. He’s not my hero. You know, it, he’s an interesting study because there’s a lot to teach a young man about his determination, his courage, his tenacity. He never quits. There’s good qualities and then he cancels them out with such bad qualities. You can be strong. What did they call Abraham Lincoln? He had steel velvet. Steel velvet. I’m still learning that myself. I don’t want to be too critical of leaders because I’m still being formed myself but I don’t know how I got off on all that actually. Boastful pride of life. That’s how I got off on it.

Well, anyway John is saying have you let these things get you into a tracking of being a world lover instead of a God lover? And there’s a story about a duck. This duck was flying, migrating in autumn with his duck buddies and as they’re flying over, he saw a farmer’s barn down there and a pond and some domesticated ducks and he thought, “That looks fun.” And one, he flew down there and he landed for a little while and he ate some of the corn the farmer threw out and swam around in the duck pond. There was some cutie ducks around there and then he, he flew back to join the group and he got to thinking about, “That’s pretty good down there.” So he turned around and flew back and he didn’t migrate that year and he stayed there and ate the corn and hung out with the girl ducks in the pond and had him a big time. Well, the migration season turned and his buddies came flying over and he heard them again and he raised his head and he flapped his wings and he thought about it and thought, “No, I don’t think. I, I think I’ll just stay right here.” Next migration season came and his duck buddies fly over again on their migration back and he heard them again and he raised his head and he looked and he thought, “You know, I’ve gained so much weight down here eating this corn, there’s no way I could fly and catch up with them.” Next migration season, his duck buddies come flying over and this time he raised his eyes and put his head down. Next migration season, he hears them flying over and from that season on he never noticed them again. He fell out and fell in love with another world.

No child of God can really do that but you can, you can fall down and eat some corn for a while and hang out with the guys at the pond for a while, something in you’s changed, you don’t fit the barnyard ducks anymore. That’s not who you are. Don’t love the world, John says, nor the things in the world for the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life, those things are not of God. They don’t fit you anymore. The agape factor in you has made you different.

Well, lastly the demise of the world. Verse 17, the demise of the world and he said, “By the way, the world is passing away, and also its lusts.” What a statement. Wow. What an encouragement that I have something in me that wants to be connected to God and God will never pass away. I have a change in me that makes me not want to be in, enslaved by, entrenched by and embracing the lust of the world because those things are gonna pass away but my God and his kingdom cannot pass away. What a gift that is. What a gift that is. He said, “Child of God, don’t you realize what kind of, um, idiocy is the person who, who puts their all in something that cannot last, puts their everything in it.”

Did you know that 19 civilizations have risen and fallen in the past? Nineteen have risen and today they’re, it’s oblivion. They don’t exist anymore. There’s no reason to think that our civilization will stand and the person who passes up Jesus for the love of this world will reap a harvest of insecurity, instability, and ultimately total loss. Insecurity because when you love the world, you’re trusting in something that can be taken away and insecurity is anytime you trust in something that can be taken away.

Again, this entitlement culture that we’ve developed where there’s just free stuff, free stuff, free stuff, and I like to see people who need things get helped. We all like to see people who genuinely need things get helped but it’s, it’s gone beyond that now as if it’s always gonna be there. It’s not always gonna be there unless your help is God. He’s always gonna be there.

Well, it breeds insecurity. It breeds instability. The world and all that is in the world is built on a foundation that is not eternal, it is not enduring. It’s, it’s going to be all coming to an end.

I found this somewhere years ago. There’s a certain kind of ants that have a passion for the sweet granule substance given off by the caterpillar of a large blue butterfly and these ants can be so addicted to this sweet secretion of this caterpillar they will capture the caterpillar and take the caterpillar back to their ant home, their mound, and keep her there so they can keep eating the sweet secretions. There’s only one problem, the caterpillar loves ant larvae, so the caterpillar is just devouring all the ant larvae but the adult ants don’t care because they love the sweetness. They’re intoxicated, they’re entrapped by it.

That’s what loving the world is like. We bring the world in, we embrace it, and it starts devouring. It’s always gonna do that. Child of God, would you pray, “God, let me enjoy the world with praise to You but don’t let me love the world. Let me enjoy these wonderful common graces You’ve given us but don’t let me embrace it, don’t let me love it, don’t let me put my hope in it.” That’s like the ants bringing the caterpillar into their mound who devours their larvae.

So many will live by this world and they’ll think they’re getting by. Some of you young people listening to my voice, you’ve, you’ve put God off, you’ve pushed God away, you haven’t turned to Christ, you haven’t repented and you haven’t believed on Christ and you think, “I’m just, I’m gonna live it up. I’m having fun and it’s gonna last.” I’m telling you, you’re acting like a fool. This world will not satisfy you and this world will not last.

Couple of verses real quick. We’ll just read through them quickly. Ah, 2 Peter 3:3-13, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts.” Is that not our world, a bunch of mocking? They mock God. They mock God’s truth. They mock what is right. They mock what is holy. As the preacher said after they made gay marriage legal, he said, it might be legal but it’s not righteous. It might be legal but it’s not holy. Mocking. They did that mocking God. He said that’s what the last days are gonna be like. They’ll come mocking following after their lusts, worldly lust, and they’ll say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” Where is this Jesus you guys keep talking about? “Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” He’s saying what they don’t even understand is the very ground they’re standing on, God breathed it into existence.

Verse 6, “through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.” In other words, God has brought men to account before in a global sense and they’re fools for not seeing that.

Verse 7, “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” They, “Well, where is this God and why can’t we live it up and be this way and enjoy everything? Is your God gonna do something?” They don’t understand God’s withheld judging the world because he has purposes to destroy it when he wants to and the way he wants to. That’s the only reason. It pleases him to have patience. They think they’re, I’m telling you the haughty arrogance, the proud elitism of so many in our day that want to tell us this is right and this is best, and they don’t know anything about what they’re talking about. Ungodly wisdom is what they have.

Verse 8, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” In the midst of their hardened, brazen rejection, disregard of God and wicked rebellion against God, God’s still bursting with love and patience saying, “I don’t wish for any to perish. The love of God just keeps bursting out.

Verse 10, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Now here’s, child of, God, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for,” I’ll put in the definite article, “the new heavens and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” There’s something for the God lovers that lasts forever. It cannot perish. We will not pass away with this world. And by the way and I know there’s a sense of truth in the phrase God hates the sin but he loves the sinner, but this text tells us that God will return to judge the ungodly, the sinner himself. He will not just judge his sin, the ungodly sinner himself will be judged.

So as you look at, at the world, brothers and sisters, and you think, “Well, it looks like they’re winning and it looks like they’re having their way and it looks like godliness is abounding,” you need to remind yourself that, ah, what you really ought to have for those folks is pity. They’re blinded and destruction is just around the corner when holy wrath is unleashed. And by the way, what we’re seeing right now is a part of the wrath of God but only a small part when men, when God allows men to turn to themselves and their own devices. You know what? We, we have all of this social media and all of this internet and every single thing that happens is in our face instantly. Anywhere in the world seemingly. You know what that is? It’s God mirror and he’s saying, “This is what you are.” It’s God’s mirror that reflects back and shows us the total depravity of man, the total wickedness of men.

I didn’t know until just the other day that people actually got on the internet and made a living taking pictures of themselves. I didn’t know that. I mean, the, the narcissism of that. Now if you do that, I’m not necessarily saying you’re evil but you might want to think about it. I mean, really? “Like everybody wants to see me. Look, I’m cute today. Look I’m this. Look I’m that.” It’s a crazy thing. Self-deprivation is kinda gone out the window, has it not?

In Matthew 7:21-27, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'” By the way, Satan can counterfeit all of that. Verse 23, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'” Boy, what a word for our culture. I mean, actually it is a political strategy to produce lawlessness in our country right now. It’s actually an intentional strategy and God says, “I’m coming back to banish those who practice lawlessness.”

Verse 24, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell–and great was its fall.”

The key understanding is he keeps saying this phrase or he said it twice, act on these words of mine. What does he mean act on them? He means embrace his truth that only his Son [unintelligible] you don’t need to love this world but you need to be God lover because you can’t be both. You can’t be both. You’re either a God lover or a world lover. Now again, we can and we do enjoy the common grace gifts God’s given us in this world but for us this world is not the end. These are gifts from God for us but they do not compare to the joy of us knowing him.

Is that true for you? Is that true for you, that you enjoy the world but it doesn’t compare to the gift of knowing him? Our flesh, in this sense I don’t mean our human flesh, I mean our natural humanity, our natural body, in this body we enjoy pleasures that God allows but love for God is first and foremost. We enjoy many of the things the world lovers enjoy but we enjoy them in a totally different way, in a God-centered way, grateful to him for them and knowing that they will pass away but he’ll still be there. Every time you enjoy something that’s in the world that’s passing away, enjoy it but be mindful this is just a reminder that this isn’t gonna last.

Do you know what’s interesting? I love to eat a good steak. Do you like to eat a good steak? I love to eat a good steak and every time I eat one, it’s not a day or two that I’d like to have another one because it doesn’t last. And then a day or two and I’d like to have another one. One day we’re gonna be so close to Jesus – listen to me – we will never want for anything again. That’s what’s waiting for us. Boy, what an advantage God lovers have. I get the steak and Jesus. They just get the steak. Isn’t that good? That’s how much God loves his children.

Our eyes and our minds enjoy pleasing even entertaining things that are not outside of God’s moral standards but we love these things different from the world lovers because we enjoy them in a God-centered way. We find some joy in things like accomplishments and achievements in this world, even gaining material things but we enjoy them differently than world lovers. We love the God who gave us the ability to achieve and accomplish, who enabled us to possess material things, our enjoyment is God-centered. You see, the more we see Jesus, that’s the key, look to Jesus, the more we see Jesus, the more we love Jesus and the more we treasure Jesus and the more we disdain the Satan- centered, Satan-controlled, fallen world. What did the songwriter say? “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will go strangely dim. In the light of his glory and grace.”

I charge you on this Sunday night, search your heart, are you a world lover or have you been saved, have you been born again and become a God lover?