How do we know if we really know God? We have been discussing a series of 7 tests for the past few weeks to determine if we really know God. Tonight we take test #4. Do we love the world? This is another test the believer can take to determine whether or not he knows God. READ SCRIPTURE
First we have to clarify what we mean by “the world.” After all, God created this place we call earth. Aren’t we supposed to appreciate the beauty, splendor, and resources of the earth and heavens? Sure we are! God has given us the earth and the heavens in which to live, appreciate, and enjoy. So what does Scripture mean by the world and the charge NOT TO LOVE THE WORLD?
When we use the word “World” today we are talking about the earth and the heavens that are passing away. The world is corruptible and deteriorating and will eventually be destroyed. So when I say that we, as believers, should not love the world, I mean that we must not become attached to the world, but instead, attached to God and to heaven. We are not to love the world so much that we want to stay here more than we want to be with God in heaven.
Also, when I use the term “world” I mean this: the world is a system of man-made governments and societies, some good and some bad, but none perfect. So we should respect and be loyal to the good, but reject and stand against the bad. We shouldn’t love any of these systems to the point that we become more attached to the systems of man’s organizations than we are to God and heaven.
The world means a system of sin and lust and evil and pride and rebellion against God. The world is full of sinful people, people who are evil and full of lust and pride, full of people who are rebellious against God. So, as a believer, you must not love this sinful system of the world.
Romans 12:2 reminds us ”do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.” So we should love God and not the possessions and pleasures of the world. Of course we should still appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the earth and heavens. But, again, we are not to become more attached to this world than we are to God.
In this passage we again see our two examples of how we should not be and how we should be. In verses 15 & 16 we see the professing man. This is the false professing man, the man who loves the world. In verse 17 we see the obedient Christian, the one who does the will of God. We are going to spend most of our time tonight talking about the false professing man since that is the category that we most easily backslide into.
There are three things that are pointed out in Scripture about the false professing man.
1. The professing man loves the world.
2. The professing man follows after the world.
3. The professing man is not of God; he is of the world.
Let’s take a closer look at these three points because this is the person we want NOT to be like.
First, the professing man loves the world. He is attached more to the world than to God. Sure he comes to church a little, and might even read his Bible once or twice a month. But he loves the world more than God. Now keep in mind that the people to whom John is writing are church members. They have professed Christ, yet John has to charge them, and us, not to love the world. We must guard against returning to the world because if we do return, the Bible says, “The love of the father is not in them.” Any person who loves the world does not truly love the Father.
You might say, “Well that isn’t ever going to happen to me.” I say, “Oh, really?” Do you know what happens to cause a person to return to the world and love the world.?"
1. Some begin to enjoy nature and the beauty of the earth so much that they no longer worship regularly. I have had people say to me, and you have too, “I worship in God’s temple. After all, He created the earth, and nature and all its beauty so on Sundays, I like to stay outside and worship God from the beauty of His creation.” The problem with that is that they might stay outside and away from church, but they are not worshipping. They forsake God and the study of His Word in order to be out in nature. (Golfing, fishing, hiking, bike riding, camping, etc.)
2. Something else that happens to cause a person to return to the world and love the world is that some become so involved in man’s government and social organizations that they become more attached and faithful to them than they do to God and His church and its mission of salvation. (Boy scouts, girl scouts, Future Farmers of America) Don’t get me wrong, these are good, moral organizations, but when they pull the kids out of church on Sundays, a red flag should go up.
3. Some become so hungry for the world and its things that they begin to return to its pleasures and possessions. “The best movies are on TV on Sundays. I’m going to stay home so I won’t miss them. All the blue-light specials start on Sunday morning. Sunday is the day I have set aside to polish my boat, or my SUV, or my car.”
SO WE BEGIN TO SEE HOW THE PROFESSING MAN LOVES THE WORLD.
Secondly, we said that the professing man follows after the world. There are three sins of worldliness—there is lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride. And we see that mentioned in verse 16. “For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, (That is lust of the flesh) the lust of his eyes (this speaks for itself) and the boasting of what he has and does (that’s pride) comes not from the Father but from the world.
THE LUST OF THE FLESH or CRAVINGS OF SINFUL MAN have to do with desires and urges. We must note that desires and urges are not wrong in themselves. Men and women have to have desires and urges in order to live a healthy and normal life. But they have to be controlled. If not, they begin to desire and lust more and more. For example:
• Sex is not wrong within marriage, but outside the marriage relationship, sex becomes adultery and sexual immorality and I don’t care how you try to explain it away, it is wrong, it is of the world, and it is sin in God’s eyes, and you really don’t know God because of it.
• Food eaten to fulfill the hunger feeling is not wrong, but gluttony is a sin.
• We have to desire food in order to maintain life, but if the flesh desires and desires food simply to consume and consume, then the desire becomes lust, consumption, and indulgence.
There are many sins of the flesh and they are listed for us in Galatians 5: 19-21. But that’s another sermon and I know I have preached it before. The point is that we can’t explain our way out of sin. They are listed in the Bible. The Holy Spirit convicts us of it. They are sins of the flesh and when we stay wrapped up in them we are following after the world and not God.
THE SECOND SIN OF WORLDLINESS IS THE LUST OF THE EYES. The eyes have to do with seeing and wanting to have what one sees. Again, there is nothing wrong with desiring what we see. Seeing and desiring are normal. But it becomes wrong when we see and desire what is clearly forbidden by God, and when we see and desire in order to fulfill our lusts and to indulge. For instance, there is lust of the eyes:
• For sex.
• Lust after the things of other people.
• Lust after all the pleasures and possessions of the world.
• After, wine, drugs and alcoholic drinks.
• After other gods.
All of these lusts of the eyes are specifically addressed in Scripture. For instance:
Matthew 5:28 - 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 6:23 - “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
Luke 12:15 - “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
King Solomon said, “All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. . . and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.(Ecc. 2: 10-11)
We should be convinced that the lust of the eyes will all be in vain and lead to nothing.
THE THIRD SIN OF WORLDLINESS IS PRIDE—and that’s boasting in what you have and what you do. That points straight to self-centeredness, a person who is focused upon himself or herself and wants people to notice them. It’s a person whose mind and thoughts are primarily on themselves. A proud person is a person who seeks attention through dress or looks, rank or wealth—a person who seeks honor, recognition, fame, power, position, luxury, importance.
A person who is full of pride feels capable of handling life himself. They feel little if any need for God. Let me tell you a story about where pride gets us.
A man who was not an architect decided to draw the plans for his new home. He was very proud of what he had done. He hired a builder with the firm understanding that he would follow the blueprints exactly. “You may not like my plans, but they suit me. So don’t even try to change anything, even if it appears best in your judgment. I want to take all the credit and show the world what I can do.”
The owner was out of town while the house was being framed but on his return he went immediately to inspect it. With his plans in hand, he and the builder checked out the downstairs. “Just like I designed it,” he complimented the builder.
“Now let’s take a look upstairs.” Looking around he couldn’t find the staircase. “There isn’t any,” the builder said. “The owner was irate. “How could any carpenter in his right mind build a two-story house without a staircase?” The builder spread out the plans, and recalled the agreement. To his amazement and embarrassment, the owner found that he had forgotten to design any steps.
We smile at that but there is a lesson in this story that hits close to home. All around us we have people who want a second story, a third story, or a fourth floor to their lives. They’re not happy being on ground level with the rest of us. Some even have visions of a skyscraper.
But pride and self-confidence rob some of ever achieving their goals. They brag about being self-made. They need neither God nor anyone else to plan their lives. That’s why some end up with the goal, but no steps to achieve it! BEWARE OF PRIDE.
Lastly, we said that the professing man is not of God; he is of the world. To be of God means to be spiritually born of God. It means to be born again, to be made a new creation, to be recreated into a new person, a new self.
The professing man is of the world, not of God. He is born of the flesh, not of God. He is still the same old person he was in the beginning. He is not or has not allowed himself to be re-created. He has only the perishable and dying nature of man, not the imperishable and eternal nature of God.
Let’s close this message with the positive, the obedient man. READ verse 17. The man who does the will of God lives forever. He knows that the world and its lusts or desires will pass away. The obedient man knows:
• He knows That every man leaves behind the world and all he has secured. He loses all of the world he has accumulated and enjoyed.
• He knows that He will not be able to take a single pleasure or possession with him when he leaves the world. Imagine! He can’t take a single thing.
• He knows The world and its lusts will pass away at the end of the world. The world will be destroyed by fire and a new heaven and earth will be created by God where only the righteousness will dwell.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:10-13 - 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 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!
13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
This really gets you to thinking as we watch the news and see all these bombs of mass destruction, doesn’t it?
All this is the reason that the wise man or woman turns away from the world and turns to God. The wise man or woman wants God and the life God offers, the life that is both abundant and eternal. So the wise man or woman seeks after the will of God, to do what God commands so that he or she may live with God forever.
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.(John 5:24)
Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.(John 14:23)
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.(Rev. 22:14)
The wise man or woman, youth or child will make sure they do not love the world in the way we have described this evening. And in doing that, we pass Test # 4 of really knowing God.
