Let us now turn for our scripture reading this evening to the first letter of John, 1 John chapter 2. We'll be reading the first 17 verses and focusing particularly on verses 15 through 17. 1 John chapter 2 and we'll begin reading at verse 1. This is God's holy word. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, I know him, but does not do what he commands, is a liar and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command, but an old one which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard, yet I am writing you a new command. Its truth is seen in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. He does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him. I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the father. I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning I write to you young man because you are strong and the word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil one do not love the world or anything in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for everything in the world the cravings of sinful man the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. So far the reading of God's Word. Dear people of God, a few years ago, I had the opportunity together with a friend of mine to speak to a Christian man who was an assistant, Attorney General to the one who was then the Attorney General to John Ashcroft. And this man was a member of a reformed church. My friend and I were curious, wanted to ask this man one question. What did he find to be the most difficult thing about being a Christian in politics? A Christian who is so high up in politics, what did he struggle with? And the answer was generally surprising. We had to ask him if that's really what he said. It was not some kind of ideological issue that he was struggling with. And so the unbeliever came from a different presupposition and he came here with a Christian worldview and said they could not understand each other and it was not other people. But his answer was worldliness. So we had to ask him if that's what he said. He says, yes, it's sin. It's his own personal sin that he struggled with the most. And what he knew, you see, is that if his love of the world, worldliness as he called it, if that is not subdued, then whatever else he might want to do in politics or however he acts in his life, he will not be living out of love for God. And that is, of course, the problem so often for you and me. We do love the world. We do love sin, even as we hate it. In the passage we have just read, especially in the verses preceding verses 15 through 17, we have seen that there is this call on the Christian life that whoever claims to be in Christ, to live in Christ, ought to walk just as he walked. Because believers have been redeemed, John explains this in verses 12 through 14, I write to you, dear children, I write to you fathers, young men, because they enjoy all these blessings, they are supposed to imitate Christ. Particularly, these believers are called to love their brethren. It tells much about whether they're in the light or in darkness, whether they love or hate their brethren. And so there's this call in the Christian life. In chapter 4, if you keep on reading in this letter, you will find twice this sublime statement, God is love. And as Christians are called to imitate God, they're called to imitate their Savior with regard to this love. But of course, lest we misunderstand what John is saying and we think that the Christian love is somehow a kind of indiscriminate love that will love absolutely everything. He tells us in our passage that because we love God, there are certain things we are clearly called not to love at all. As Christians, we are called to not love certain things. And as God's people, we are called to not love the world because it opposes our Heavenly Father. That is our theme for this evening and we'll consider it in three sub-points. First, looking at what the world is, what it is that you're called not to love. Then we'll consider what the world does, its actions, and then finally what we are to do in light of what the world is, beginning then with what this world is. Now, of course, we are told to not love the world, But before you can start saying what it is exactly that John means by the world, it's helpful to consider what he does not mean by it. And the first thing you must understand is that the world in this passage is not to be identified as the creation, whether before or after the fall. There are other passages in scripture where that's certainly what is meant by the world and we will even consider one of them, but that's not the meaning in our passage. You read in Genesis 1 that God saw everything that he had made and it was very good. At that point, the world as John mentions it did not even exist yet. Its beginning is rather with, it is at the fall and it's with the devil and the devil's intention to set himself up above God. Satan is the one who has been sinning and murdering from the beginning and so it's with his desire to overthrow God that the world that John calls us not to love had its birth but even after the fall the world is not God's creation you cannot simply decide well I will go somewhere outside of God's creation especially where there are very few people and that's where I will escape the world well again no you read in John's gospel in the prologue to the gospel that Jesus Christ was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not know him. Here we have the world is God's creation and the creation was made through Christ. So it's not that creation that we're called not to love. It's not the creation that is not of the Father. And if the world were the creation, then what about our bodies? All our rebellion is carried out in our bodies and wouldn't they then be the best example of what's sinful and what's wrong with the world. But if you think back to the incarnation, God who is too pure to look upon evil was made man. Jesus really did have a human body and so it's not the human body that is evil and again it is not the creation even after the fall that is evil. And then the final misunderstanding that we must be clear about that that's not what's meant here is especially as Christians we can think that the world is something that begins outside of the church or it begins outside of our house. So it's something that you can sit in your house and you can point at it out of the window and say, oh look, there's the sinful world. So I'm glad there's none of it in our house. And no, it's true that you could draw such a clear dividing line, but the line would be completely wrong. We do see the world in those things that Christians naturally think of as being worldly. Las Vegas, or a street with prostitutes and drugs, or R-rated movies. You do find the world there, but not there only, and not there primarily. God would have us have a fundamental understanding of what the world is. And the most important thing for us to understand about what the world is, is that you find it where you find sin. As John speaks of it, the world is a spiritual system of rebellion against God. And it opposes everything that comes from him. And of course, the world is defined like that. It is in you and me. And that's why we need to be told to not love the world, because we do. And John, as you notice in verse 16, he doesn't give us a completely detailed, absolutely exhaustive description of everything that you could name in the world. And yet, still, if you're struggling to understand what is meant by the world, what it is that you're called not to love, look to that verse. That sums it up very well. The cravings of sinful man and the lust of his eyes and boasting in what he has and does, that is the world. Now let's consider those three things, that description more closely. First, John says that the world that you and I are called not to love what this world is is the cravings of sinful men. And rightly, especially if you read a different translation, you might immediately think that this has to do with our sexuality and sensuality. Some of our Bibles would put it as the lust of the flesh. And certainly it should deal with sexuality. You know that, of course, it is something that's created by God and is a gift from Him. It is something over which God is Lord. The command to be fruitful and multiply is given both to Adam and Eve and it's given to Noah after the fall and after the flood. And scripture is not ashamed to speak of sexual love. If you read the Song of Songs, you will realize that it praises marital love. So scripture is certainly not ashamed of it. It is something that is good. The problem, however, with the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the flesh, as we could say it, is that it is sinful and it exposes for us, it shows us what the spirit of the world is. It takes something good that God has created, and this is fundamental to all that the world does in our passage and what it is. It takes something good that God has created and then it perverts it and twists it for self-worship. The cravings of sinful man, The lust denies everything about God's design for human sexuality. It would deny that the body is not manned for immorality, but for the Lord. It denies that man and woman become one flesh. It would deny that you can sin against your own body. It would deny that sexuality should be self-giving, not self-serving. It would deny that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. and then finally it would deny that you are to give your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And of course, as we understand by speaking of the lust of the flesh or the cravings of sinful man, certainly those are not only sexual. It has a much broader meaning also. Anything that's evil in God's sight can be called lusting after it or desiring it. If you desire anything that's evil, that's a craving of the flesh. Galatians 5 speaks of the fruit of the sinful nature. That sinful nature is the same word, by the way, as what's translated here as the sinful man. And what is the fruit of the sinful nature? Well, it's simply sin. So this description condemns sin in its completeness. And children, in that light, even your desire to talk back to your parents would be a craving of the sinful man. See, that's the flesh speaking. It's a sinful desire. And it's the craving of the sinful man is something that's gratifying to your senses but it is also something that's naturally outwardly visible, that's observable to those around you. But what's not outwardly visible to people around you immediately is what often precedes that sinful craving. What's here described as the lust of the eyes, covetousness. That's the second thing that the world is. It's covetousness or the lust of the eyes. We could also paraphrase it to say it's the desire of the eyes that you find in the world. And that makes it a little clearer for us what John means by speaking of the lust of the eyes. It's the things that you see and desire, even though that might not be visible to others that's going on inside of you. Now the problem with that, of course, the problem with coveting is when you covet you dethrone God from his throne and it's that your desires are set up higher than God. They are put on God's throne. It says covetousness says God does not care for my needs and it also would deny just like the cravings of the sinful man deny certain truths about God's word. It would deny that God is all powerful and that he is wise that he is loving in the way he is ordered your circumstances. It would also deny Jesus' words that your Heavenly Father knows what you need, that you need food and drink and clothing. It would have you not believe that and it would finally deny that you should fix your gaze not on what's seen before you but on the God who is completely unseen. And it would tell you to view this life not with the eyes of faith but with the eyes of flesh. Now, some things that we covet as Christians are certainly sinful in and of themselves. But I suspect that probably just as many, at least, would be good in and of themselves. You don't have to covet a Ferrari necessarily, but you just want a reliable car that won't break down like your old clunker. Or you might want not a mansion in Hawaii, but just a nice house. Or perhaps you just want peace in your family for one Sunday afternoon where there won't be any arguing. Those are not bad things. You could even covet good theology books. Of course, it's not wrong to desire good gifts from God. What is wrong, however, is when those desires become so strong that you find that it's those things that you crave, that you lost after, that they are your source of joy. They replace, again, God from his throne. And when that is the case, you and I need to repent. If your desire robs you of your peace of mind, if you find dwelling on it with impatience and even in church perhaps, looking forward to what you really want to be doing rather than singing God's praises, or if you let your mind wander over to that, over and over again, then you're lusting after it. Now, dear people of God, don't doubt God when He says that He knows your needs. Thank him for all of his blessings and trust that he will provide for you now and he will provide for you in the future exactly what you need. And while coveting would channel your love to the things you don't have yet and you really wish you would, the third description of what the world is focuses on the things that you already have. It's boasting of what you have and do. Again, that phrase that our Bibles faithfully renders, boasting in what you have and do, we could also say that it's pride in possessions. It's whatever you own that becomes a snare for you rather than things that you don't have yet. Now again, possessions certainly are not sinful in and of themselves. They are a blessing from God. None of us has here anything that God has not given us as a gift. But we have to be careful to not let those good gifts from God become a snare and a curse. You see, if it were not for God's generosity to his people, where would Westminster Seminary be? We wouldn't have certainly the blessing of having this church building with God's people receiving generous gifts from God and then seeking to image their God. Wonderful blessings come to the church. But what we can do nonetheless is take God's good gifts and still put them to self-centered use. that temptation certainly is stronger for those who do have more possessions. Our Lord says this much in the Gospels in a particularly pointed way. He says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples, of course, as they did not, they could only see very little and we're thankful for having those accounts when they don't understand Jesus. They ask, well, who then can be saved and remember Jesus replied that with God all things are possible and what Jesus is telling his disciples is that the problem is not simply with possessing something the problem is with boasting in it and it's a problem especially for a Christian because it undermines our confession of Christ and our confession of our sin it would make your confession of whether your confession of your sinfulness or of your savior it would make it look insincere Again, we read in 1 John 3, if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? John the Baptist said that how you treat your possessions has much to say about your true heart. And what's true for the people that John was baptizing is certainly true also for you and me. How we treat our finances, our possessions, has much to say about whether we are in Christ or we aren't. If you recall that verse in Ecclesiastes 5 that says that the only profit you get from your riches is being able to look at them. That is all that the unbeliever gets who boasts in his riches. Now, of course, you can do a lot more with your wealth, not just looking at it, but one thing it will never do for you, it will never put you in Christ. No matter how much you have, It will do not the least bit of eternal value for you. But a fright in possessions is not a proof per se that your confession of sin, not only a confession of Christ, isn't sincere. It certainly makes it look like it's not real. When John the Baptist told the people he was baptizing that they had to produce fruit worthy of repentance, he had three applications to them. Now there was one that was to everybody, One to the tax collectors and one to the soldiers. Everyone was told to share of what they had. The tax collectors told to not gather more than they were required. And the soldiers were told to be content with their wages. In every single case, producing fruit worthy of repentance had to do with your hard attitude to money. But of course, we know and we shouldn't be fooled that pride in possessions, boasting in what you have and do certainly is not a temptation only for those who are wealthy in this world and that would include most of the people in this country compared with the rest of the world. You could be quite poor and still find somebody who is yet poorer than you and feel very proud. You could be proud of your natural gifts or your good looks perhaps. The problem we see is not simply with possessing things but it is a spiritual problem. It's the attitude of the heart. And the solution must also be a spiritual one. The solution is being poor, not materially. That won't do anything for you. But being poor in spirit. So that you can rejoice in true riches. Rejoice in the kingdom of God. And Paul stated the solution to that problem again very clearly when he said in his first letter to Timothy, Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in the living God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. See, it's only God's mercy in Christ that can put an end to this endless boasting in what you have and do. This is then what the world is and what it does always flows out of its character. it's the craving of the sinful man the lust of the flesh and boasting in possessions that is what the world is and its actions flow out of that and especially they flow out of how the world views this life when Jesus was speaking to his disciples and we have that recorded in the Gospel of Luke about who are the blessed in the kingdom he also had to pronounce woes on those who persecute the blessed And in those woes, you see the attitude of the world that's revealed for us. The rich think they need no consolation beyond the wealth. Those who think they couldn't be any fuller will yet hunger. Those who laugh, who only seek laughter in this life, they will weep. Those who only have the praise of man, no praise from God, will receive the same end as the false prophets, which is damnation. And the sinful attitude that he describes for us is the one that views this life as the only thing that there ever is or will be. It wants its reward now. It wants glory now. And isn't that what you and I see in the Garden of Eden also? When Adam and Eve were told that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they rejected that there was yet greater life to come besides the life that was in the garden. They decided to give up faith in God's promises, no longer viewed this life with the eyes of faith. They did not yet see what blessing God could bring. They were only told that there was the tree of knowledge of good and heal, the tree of life. There was life to come. And yet they turned away from that and instead looked at this life with the eyes of flesh. And then suddenly, interestingly, we read that now they could see that the fruit was good for food. Previously, they were forbidden to eat from it. Now it was good for food. Adam and Eve wanted, if we paraphrase the title of a popular book, now they wanted their best lives now in every possible way and they would not wait for it. They wouldn't wait for any kind of greater blessing from God. They wanted glory, but not God's way. My brothers and sisters, this is the spirit of the world once again. And it refuses to see life the way God sees it. And it refuses to look for glory in the life to come for your best life imaginable. But instead it would look for it in this present evil age. And it sets itself up against God and says, I know better. It's humanity telling God, you have no claim on me. And it's perhaps also the world and the worldly perspective on life is perhaps it's so attractive to us as those living in the Western world because it's quite independently minded. It pronounces its autonomy from God and declares itself completely independent from any governance from God. It would separate God's good world in which you and I live from God's good word and it would separate the creation of God from his governance. It would take what God has created and put it in a direction that is completely anti-God. Now we've said that what the world seeks is to undermine our love for God, undermine God's authority rather. And the primary way in which it seeks to do it is it undermines God's authority by making it impossible for us to love God. It wants to squelch our love for God. And the second thing is because that's what it wants to do, it wants to dethrone God. it's passing away. So this is what the world does. It squelches our love for God, but because God would have none of it, it's passing away. Now let us consider then that the world would completely want to extinguish your love for God. If you read with me in verse 15, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now we understand that that phrase, the love of the Father, is not the Father's love for us, but our love for God. It's parallel with our love for the world. And that same thought that whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Same thought is expressed in James. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Just as your love for God would drive out love for all that is sinful, so also love of the world demands that love for all that's good also be driven out. Now, brothers and sisters, when you read these words, make no mistake about it, sin in your life is never static. It's never standing still and satisfied with the ground that it's been able to gain and conquer in your life. It's always dynamic. It always will want more and more of you. It's never satisfied with its conquest, but rather, again, it would always want to gain new ground, new territory. And if you've ever battled a besetting sin in your life, something that you've fallen into again and again and again, then you would especially know the truth of the statement. And in hindsight, at least, you would have seen that your love for God dwindled and even the picture of God dwindled in your eyes. That's why men whose hearts are storehouses of lust, they quickly find their Christianity to be really quite annoying. It will not let them pursue the same lusts and desires that they have. It tells them they should be fighting those. And yet they will find it harder and harder. And brothers and sisters, we're not saying, as we're speaking of this conflict with sin, or rather the sin's demands on the person, we're not saying that Christians never sin. And we know this because John writes, as we read in the beginning of the second chapter, he writes of his purpose, and his purpose is that the believers would not sin. But, of course, again, we know that they sin because he says, if anybody does sin, He's aware of that. He tells them that there's propitiation for their sins in Christ. So what he means is rather than that Christians can become completely perfect in this life, John means a life that is dedicated to loving the world when he tells us that we are not to sin or that the love of the world would drive out our love for God. John is warning us of what the psalmist observed also that all who worship idols become like them. you become like what you worship. And we would not be overstating John's case if we said that if you're living a life simply of outward profession, if that's all that people know you as, but inside, it's a reckless devotion and love of the world, not of God, you're putting your soul in danger of hell. That's simply what it says. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And you and I need to take that warning very seriously if we even consider flirting with sin. And now again, brothers and sisters, neither is John saying that believers will lose their salvation, that somehow you can start out really loving God, then you start loving sin, and then you get yourself unsaved. Christ will never lose you. If you read Jesus' prayer in John 17, it is crystal clear that all that the Father has given to Jesus, Jesus will keep them till death and beyond death. Justifying faith is also the one that will ultimately bring you to glory. That's the instrument. Those whom God has justified, he has also glorified. There is no doubt about it. So what our verse means instead is that true believers, be it ever so imperfectly, they want to love God and turn away from sin. A true believer wants to leave his love of the world behind. But if anyone loves the world, if that's the only thing that can be said of you, then the love of the Father will not be in you. And again, we need to take that warning very seriously. Now, brothers and sisters, as you hear this, and I hope it is sobering to all of us, it should also be a comfort to us, as Paul writes, for us who still struggle with loving the world, that God will carry on to completion the work he has begun in us. Every true Christian will struggle with sin and he will realize or she will realize that there is this tension. Paul certainly realized it. But God will complete his work. And because God will do that, you know the second thing about what the world does, it will of necessity pass away. If Revelation, the very end of the book, tells us that nothing impure will ever enter the heavenly Jerusalem, that means that all that's impure will have to be purged. He will present you perfect at the end. And only faith sees and knows that. The world is passing away in its desire. Now unbelief assumes, of course, that everything will continue as it is. It's always convenient if you want to overthrow God for the world to say that there will be no second judgment. There will be no second coming, rather. There will be no final judgment. That's why Peter writes about those scoffers who said, where's the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning. They would deny that Christ will come back and that the world will have to pass away. But of course we know that it's God's word that will stand true. When God the Father said to God the Son that he will again glorify his name, he was speaking about Christ's second coming and that promise that Christ's name will again be glorified at Christ's return was so certain that Jesus could already then say now is the time for the judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. See, the spiritual system of sin as we're describing the world that it wants to uproot all that's godly, all that is good. It's marked for destruction. It wants its glory now. Instead, what will happen is Jesus will come back and Satan along with the world will be completely cast out. In fact, we could say that Christ's coming who has already come in glory and has ascended to the Father's right hand, Christ's light, which is already shining, it brings to light the fading nature of the world. The world is passing away and so are its desires. Now, brothers and sisters, we've considered now what the world is and what it does. The world is the cravings of sinful man. It's the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does. As such, it would seek to overthrow God completely. It would want to extinguish all love in the Christian's heart for God. And as such, it must, again, of necessity, pass away because God is God. He's the Lord over this world. And that's why you and I are commanded now. This is what you and I are to do. Our third point, we're called to not love the world. In a diary entry of October 28, 1949, the man who had then just graduated from Wheaton College, Jim Elliott, wrote those famous words, he's no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. And that's, of course, what you and I as Christians are called to do. You and I are to gain what we cannot lose. Christ calls us to forsake the world, forsake the flesh, to deny ourselves and to follow him. God says, do not love the world, because it simply hates him. But how exactly you respond to this should be determined, again, by how God speaks of the world. Now think back with me, please, for a moment. Why is it, as we said, that when John describes the world, that he does not give us an exhaustive list of exactly all that you could ever find in the world. It seemed like that would be easier, certainly, to know what exactly you're not to love. Why does he give you an exhaustive list of all the actions you're supposed to avoid? And yet, of course, the cravings and the lust and the boasting, it is an exhaustive list, but not in a way, perhaps, that we would expect. These three things are quite enough for us to know what not to love. And if you think, again, perhaps that this is somehow just not specific enough, think what would have happened if God gave you a most detailed list of all that you're supposed to avoid, all actions, how it looks on the outside for people who do not love the world, if that were even possible to give such a list. Now, you and I might feel quite good about ourselves if then we could simply check off every item on the checklist and say, well, I didn't do that last week. That was a problem last week, but not so much today. I'm doing quite well. Check that off. You would feel that simply outward obedience is all that's required. Instead, of course, John's description does something very important for us. It tells you that there is none righteous, not one. If we're honest with ourselves, these categories under which the world is described, it is so piercing and it's so clear what it is that not a single person in this room is innocent. It's not a call to morality when John tells us to not love the world. It exposes our need for grace. It's a call to lean on Christ and to be found in Him. See, all of us haven't kept God's law. None of us could love God as we ought and that's why we need God, we need Jesus to keep the law in our place. It's only in that light that you can read those words in the verse 17 that he who does the will of God lives forever or abides forever. That is only absolutely true about Christ. He is the one who has loved righteousness and hated wickedness. He is the one who is obedient to death when God's law required it. When God's pure law demanded that sin brings death and that therefore the one who would pay for sin must die, Jesus was obedient. You and I, apart from Christ, never have been. And in writing these words to us, God would have us become like Paul. Paul also wanted to be found before God as one who has done God's will, who has obeyed his word completely. But he knew that that's only ever possible if he can be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own, but one that comes from the law. Not having a righteousness of my own, rather, that comes from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. And if Christ's righteousness is your hope, you don't need to read these words with despair when it tells you that the man who does the will of God abides forever. If Christ's righteousness is your hope, then Christ's perfect keeping of it, doing of the law, is put to your account. You are standing before God as one whose guilt is atoned for and God's wrath is turned away from you. You're standing before God as one who's clothed in Christ. But of course, seeing the gospel in this passage should not take away from its demands. It says, still, it does call us to do the will of God. And John explains this for us once again when he says that this is his commandment. This is the will of God that you are to do. It's a summary, of course. To believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. And so we end where we began. The Christian command to love, to love God, love your neighbor, love the brethren. It always includes with it being called not to love certain things that God despises, especially when they seek to overthrow God. Brothers and sisters, you have that perfect righteousness of Christ put to your account. Now live it. Do not love the world. Instead, be found in your Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.