It's so good to be with you. This morning we're continuing our series in 1 John.
It has been a great series so far. We've learned so much.
Today we're just going to look at three verses and yet they are such incredible verses that speak so much to us
where we are as individuals, where we are as a society and a real reorientation about what it will all mean in the end.
John writes this letter of 1 John to a congregation of people that are unsettled.
And they're unsettled because a number of people from among them have gone out.
They've left. They've claimed they're superior in spirituality.
They've said, well, we're Premier League and you that remain are like the Vanarama Football Conference.
We are far better than you.
And therefore we need to go in alone if you're not going to stunt our progress.
So John writes this letter to those who remain to reassure them,
to say they aren't living some sub-pseudo-Christianity.
They're not living some shadowy existence.
But they are the real deal.
In the first part of his letter he's told them four big things.
Here's the first.
That fellowship with God and his son Jesus Christ is exclusively through the apostolic gospel.
Fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ his son is exclusively through the apostolic gospel.
It is by believing the authoritative account recorded and transmitted by those who saw, heard, touched and looked upon Jesus.
Those that were uniquely empowered by the Holy Spirit to write it all down.
That it is by believing that message that we have fellowship with God and Jesus Christ his son.
Secondly, John has said that the summation of the apostolic message,
this is the message that we proclaim to you.
God is light.
In him, darkness, no, not at all.
That's what he says, that God is light.
Speaking about God's absolute purity.
And the clarity of his revelation that God in Jesus Christ has fully disclosed himself.
There's no grey areas.
There's no small print.
And then he went on to say that in the church, sin is exclusively cleansed, purified, propitiated, advocated for and atoned for by Jesus Christ.
Any spirituality that says sin isn't the problem and Jesus isn't the answer is a false spirituality.
And it seems that's exactly what these splinter church is claiming.
And so John is very clear.
He says they're liars.
They're lying.
And they're making God out to be a liar.
And then last week with Graham, he was laying out for us that the gospel has necessarily a horizontal dimension.
That the fact you're a real deal is seen not in just your love for God, but in your love for the brothers.
You therefore know you're the real deal.
You really know the God who is light if you are in the apostolic gospel, dependent constantly on Jesus' forgiveness and loving your brothers and sisters in obedience to God's command.
He finishes the first part of the letter saying to them that they really have got it.
He writes twice to three groups of people.
I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven.
He says you do know God.
You have overcome the evil one.
And the word of God lives in you.
You've really got it.
You're the real deal.
Don't doubt that if you've got Jesus, you've got everything.
And so in part one, John was making the truth really big.
And now as we enter part two, he's going to hone in and get the false teachers in his crosshairs and start to tackle them on what they're saying.
Start to undo all the promises and claims that they're making.
And also the tone of the letter changes.
In the first half of the letter, John is saying it's like this.
And it's like this.
And you are this.
In part two of the letter, there's a lot of imperatives.
You must now do this.
On account of that, do this.
He gives them lots of commands.
Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you.
Do not let anyone lead you astray.
Love not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.
Do not believe every spirit, but test.
The spirits keep yourselves from idols.
They're all commands from John.
And the first imperative in the letter is in our passage this morning.
So if you could turn to 1 John, chapter 2, verses 15 to 17.
I'll put it on the screen for you as well.
John writes this.
Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,
comes not from the Father, but from the world.
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Let's pray and then we'll look at this together.
O to grace how great a debt a daily we're constrained to be.
Let your goodness, like a fetter, bind our wandering hearts to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, we feel it.
Prone to leave the God we love.
So here are our hearts.
O take and seal them.
Seal them for your courts above.
We pray these in Jesus' name, for his sake and for his glory alone.
Amen.
Detail really matters.
Detail matters.
Specifics are important.
From the quantity surveyor to the contract lawyer to the fine artist to the civil engineer.
Details are important.
We have the phrase, don't we, God is in the detail.
Suggesting that it is in paying attention to the small things that brings great rewards.
So I was preaching at a different church last Sunday night and I went on a little bit long.
It's good to know that I keep my form at away games as well as home games.
And by the time I got to the door to shake people's hands and say goodbye, I was thirsty.
I needed coffee so badly.
So I stood there, you know, nice to see you.
God bless.
See you.
And this little woman, who I think was an angel in disguise, came and said, please could I get you a drink?
And I went, that would be lovely.
Please could I have a strong coffee, splash of milk, no sugar.
Perfect.
Two minutes later, she arrived with a styrofoam cup in a plastic holder.
Passed it to me.
I took a gulp without even looking what was in.
And what was in there was the milkiest, sugariest tea you've ever imagined.
So this morning when Karen said to me, can I get you a drink?
And I said, strong coffee, dash of milk.
And it turned up perfectly.
I thought there really is no place like home.
Detail is really important.
Or the couple who wanted a Bible verse on their wedding cake.
And so they went to the bakery, ordered a three-tier cake and requested it to be iced with 1 John 4, verse 18.
Which says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.
Unfortunately, the baker, failing to pay attention to the detail, simply wrote John 4, verse 18.
So on their wedding day, to their horror, they were presented with a cake upon which in beautiful writing was written,
the fact is you have had five husbands.
And the man you now have is not your husband.
What you say is quite true.
Detail is very important.
Paying attention really does pay dividends in the end.
And so when we come to 1 John, chapter 2, verses 15 to 17, every detail is important.
Though it is only three verses, it is jam-packed with truth that we need to hear.
And the first thing we need to hear is what does John mean by the world?
What does he mean by the world?
When he says, do not love the world, does that mean you can't stand in front of a Rembrandt and say, that's lovely?
Is that what he means?
Is it that after you have a really nice slice of marmalade toast, you can't say,
mmm, I really enjoyed that because that was worldly?
What does he mean?
And so much for our world, isn't it?
Our world is very worldly.
It would seem that John is calling the world these people that have left.
These people that are obviously quite prosperous.
And it would be very easy, wouldn't it, as those who remain to look at a church full of very affluent, prosperous people and go, they've really got it.
God is really blessing them.
So John writes this passage not to just address worldliness but to help those that remain.
Still so relevant in our day, isn't it?
Where so many would dress materialism up as the gospel.
Claiming temporal prosperity as a divine right.
Flaunting wealth as a mark of spiritual blessing.
Sowing seeds in order that investment might reap a mighty harvest in this life.
And yet closer to home, it's very easy for us, isn't it?
We've got a world that flaunts to us very lovely things.
And it's so easy as we go out into that world on Monday to listen to those lies.
And to start being enticed and enamored by the things of the world.
So John structures this very clearly.
He gives us a command.
He then gives us three reasons and one final incentive.
So let's look at the command.
It's pretty simple.
Do not love the world.
And immediately we have to discern what does John mean by the world?
What is it that we're not to love?
Well, John uses the word world in a great number of different ways in his writing.
So he says the world was made by God through the agency of his word.
He says that the world was loved by God in sending his son Jesus.
He says that the world is the object of God's saving purpose.
He claims that Jesus is the light of the world.
He says Jesus is the savior of the world.
He says Jesus is the propitiation for the world's sins.
He says Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
He seems to paint the word world in a very positive light.
But he also uses the world to describe those outside of Christ,
lost in sin, wholly at odds with anything divine or pleasing to God.
So it is the world, one John, that lies in the grip of the evil one.
It is the world that is orientated against God.
When Jesus came into the world, the world did not recognize him.
The world doesn't recognize his followers either.
The world, in fact, hates those who follow Jesus, just as it hated Jesus himself.
So in places like John 8, verse 23, where Jesus is being questioned about his identity,
he says this,
You are from below, I am from above.
You are of this world, I am not of this world.
So in context, John is warning his readers against love for this world.
Love for the world that is the godless world, a world conformed against God, bereft of knowledge of God,
an idol-ridden, rebellious, disobedient, self-indulgent, unregenerate world, and all its trappings.
A diabolical world orientated against God and inhabited without reference to God.
He says,
Do not love the world, the world that seeks to airbrush God out, that exchanges the truth about God for a lie,
and lives like God doesn't exist, a foolish world.
Having started to understand definition, our immediate response,
Do not love the world, is why shouldn't I love the world?
And what does the world look like in my own life?
Well, that's what John is going to go on to tell us.
He gives us three compelling reasons why loving the world is foolish, fatuous, and futile.
So here's the first.
In verse 15b,
If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
Love for the world is opposed to love for the Father.
John is saying they are totally incongruent.
You cannot love the world and love the Father.
They are mutually exclusive.
They are antithetical.
If you're loving the world, you cannot be loving the Father.
It is impossible.
Thomas Chalmers, that famous Scottish preacher, wrote,
The love of God and the love of the world are two affections,
not merely in a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity.
And that's so irreconcilable that they cannot dwell together in the same bosom.
It's also classic.
Jesus, not just Chalmers.
No one, not even you, can serve two masters.
Either you will hate the one and love the other,
or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
You cannot serve both God and the world.
You cannot be one who glorifies God by enjoying Him forever,
whilst at the same time seeking pleasure, meaning, and worth from stuff.
It is impossible, says John.
Loving the world and what it offers,
clinging to and craving something that isn't God,
is diagnostic that love for the Father is absent from your life.
Love for the world is diametrically opposed to love for the Father,
incongruent, antithetical, incompatible.
It is chalk and cheese, hips and hearts.
They cannot both coexist together.
Do not love the world, says John,
because if you do, you cannot be loving the Father.
It's very real, isn't it?
It's very binary,
because we all think we can.
We can have a slice of God and a slice of the world,
and that'll do us.
Second reason John gives us that we shouldn't love the world
is that everything in the world comes from the world,
not from the Father.
That it originates in the world.
Just read verse 16 with me.
For everything in the world,
the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life
comes not from the Father,
but from the world.
He helps us, doesn't he?
Tell us what love for the world looks like.
He gives us three things.
The lust of the flesh.
Those internal desires that well up inside us.
The cravings of the sinful, selfish self.
Pleasure, indulgence, status, respect, laziness.
I don't want to do any work today.
Gluttony.
I deserve all this stuff.
The selfish desires that make it all about us.
That self-serving, self-obsessed, self-seeking,
selfish streak that's in all of us.
That narcissistic trait we're prone to,
where we think no one loves me
quite as much as me.
The lust of the flesh,
those internal desires that well up in our hearts,
from which evil flows.
A world where beauty is devoid of goodness,
where pleasure is devoid of joy,
where identity is devoid of God,
and where worship is turned inward to ourselves.
Lust of the flesh is where worldliness originates from.
Secondly, we get the lust of the eyes.
That's not our internal cravings,
but our external covetings.
Not the wandering heart,
but the wandering eyes.
The eye seeing and the heart responding,
I need that.
I must have that.
I deserve that.
All the language of idolatry.
Eye seeking things first,
not the kingdom of God.
The desire to acquire.
I'll have one of those,
one of those,
two of those,
because I'm worth it.
And it's fueled in our world by advertising,
enforced by materialism,
stoked by superficiality,
and spurred on by this inward desire,
we have to keep up with the Joneses,
who always seem to be running faster than we are.
Jesus again,
at the beginning of the parable of the rich fool.
Watch out.
Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
Life,
real life,
true life,
does not consist in an abundance
of possessions.
It's the snare of our world.
You are what you drive.
You are what you eat.
You are what you make your phone calls on.
You are the make of shirt
that you adorn to your work on Monday morning.
A snare we all entangle ourselves in all the time.
It's the lies of the world penetrate into our lives.
Desires that do not originate from God,
but from the world and end
in the accumulation of stuff,
the lust of the eyes.
And thirdly,
the pride of life.
The emotional response to the previous two.
So when you get new things,
what do you want to do with them?
Well,
you want to show them to people,
don't you?
I certainly do.
The new Amazon package arrives in the office.
Undo it.
Hey,
Graham.
Guess what I got?
That's the natural response.
The pride of life.
C.H.
Dodd in his new English Bible,
he translates the pride of life
as the arrogance produced
by material possessions.
A foolish fanaticism
with replacing God
as the focus
and the source of all joy
with stuff.
Our hardwired hearts
that readily become idol factories
and latch onto things
and find our status,
our worth,
our identity from them.
Our short-sightedness
that adjusts our field of vision
to this world only
and not to the world that come.
All these are wrong.
The lust of the eyes,
the lust of the flesh,
and the pride of life.
Why?
Because they don't originate
in a good God,
but they originate
in a fallen world.
John says,
don't love the world
because love for the world
stems and flows
from worldliness,
not from God.
Don't love the world
because you can't love God
and the world.
Don't love the world
because love for the world
originates in the world.
And the third reason
he gives us is this.
The world and its desires
are passing away.
It won't last.
It's not going to survive.
We observe this
in our lives all the time.
That the stuff we buy
doesn't last as long as we want.
So in 2010,
I got my first iPhone,
the iPhone 3S.
I was really excited about it.
I thought finally
my life would be complete.
Then in September 2010,
they bought out the iPhone 4
and I couldn't even look
at my 3S anymore.
But I thought,
you've done this to me before,
Steve Jobs.
I'm going to wait.
So I waited a whole year
and got the iPhone 5.
And then,
the iPhone 6 came out
and again,
couldn't even look at it.
And so I just got a new phone,
the 6 Plus,
which is nice and big
so I can show it off
to everyone.
And I quite like it.
It's not completing my life
in the way that they promise.
But do you know what?
I don't even know
what's happened
to my iPhone 3S.
I dare say
it's in a rubbish
heap somewhere in India.
But at the time,
it was everything to me.
I had apps for everything
and isn't that the nature
of all worldliness?
That we save
and we think
and it's this one
and now I'm complete
and then it's gone
and it's passed away.
Everything is on a downward spiral
to devaluing.
It will not last.
The world
is passing away.
New cars
hastily devalued,
new houses
perpetually running down,
holidays consigned
to the Facebook album,
meals quickly digested,
gadgets superseded,
clothes rapidly worn out,
wealth consistently eroded.
Time is passing
and as time passes,
stuff passes away.
The world is
passing away.
We strive for it.
We finally acquire it.
It's quickly defunct
and eventually dumped.
That's the way of the world.
It is
passing away.
The temporal nature
of this life
makes investing
our lives in it
a bad move.
Again,
classic Jesus.
It's almost like
John and Jesus
hung out all the time
and it was
John who actually saw
and actually touched
and actually looked upon
and actually heard
Jesus
because it's classic
Jesus all the time.
Do not accumulate
for yourselves
treasures on earth
where moth and rust
destroy
and where thieves
break in and steal.
But store up
for yourselves
treasures in heaven
where moth and rust
do not destroy.
And where thieves
do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is
there your heart
will be also.
What does Jesus say
at the end
of the parable
of the rich fall?
What does it profit
a man to gain
the whole world
yet forfeit his soul
and the answer is nothing
because the world
passes away?
All this stuff.
iPhones, cars,
houses,
suits,
the end of the day
are just going to be
moths and rust
if they last that long.
If not,
they'll be stolen.
That's what John is saying.
Loving the world
is futile
because the world
is passing away.
So John says this.
Do not love the world
or anything in the world
because it's supposed
to love for the Father.
It originates not
from the Father
but from the world.
And its outcome is
that the world ends
and then you've got nothing.
But I think this is where
John's final point
is so important
because he gives us
an incentive.
We cannot simply
avert our eyes
from adverts,
put a filter
on our Amazon account
and set up
rigorous austerity measures
in our spending.
They might tackle
the symptoms
of worldliness
but they will not
tackle the heart issue.
May alter our behaviour
but won't alter our being.
It may change
the manifestation
of our wants
but it will not
quell them
from inside us.
So I read this great rhyme
from the deep south
about worldliness.
It says this.
If you want to tackle
worldliness
do not drink
or smoke
or swear
or chew
and don't go out
with girls who do.
It's just a sticking plaster
isn't it?
It's just
dealing with the behaviour.
That's why John's
final incentive
is so helpful.
He says this.
Whoever does
the will of God
will live
forever.
If you weigh up
what the world
is offering
foolishness
futility
fatuousness
short life
and you add up
what God is offering
there's eternal life
doing the will of God
and loving
loving God
is synonymous
in John.
Whoever loves me
will keep my commands.
If you love me
you'll do what I say.
He's saying the same thing
but whoever loves God
most
will live forever.
whoever
if you keep my commands
you will remain
in my love.
Whoever
has my commands
and keeps them
is the one
who loves me.
The way to disengage
from the world
is to love God
most.
As the chorus
says
turn your eyes
upon Jesus
look full
in his wonderful face
and the things
of earth
will grow
strangely dim
in the light
of his glory
as grace.
So Chalmers
again
says this
the way to disengage
the heart
from the positive
love of one
great
and ascendant
object
is to fasten
it in positive
love to another.
Then it is not
by exposing
the worthlessness
of the former
but by addressing
to the mental eye
the worth and excellence
of the latter
that all old things
are to be done away with
and all things
are to become new.
We affirm
how impossible
it is for our hearts
through any innate
elasticity
of their own
to cast the world
away and thus
reduce itself
to a wilderness.
The heart
is not so
constituted
and the only way
to dispossess it
of an old affection
is by the
expulsive power
of a new one.
Thomas Chalmers
is saying
that the way
to love the world
less is to love
God more.
When God
takes his rightful
place
the things
that we have
and the objects
we own
find their
rightful place.
We must see
that clinging
to God
loving God
and obeying
and fulfilling
God's will
is the way
to supplant
our tendency
to love the world
and to loosen
the grip
of the world
and the things
of the world
on our fickle hearts.
If you are prone
to worldliness
what's the antidote?
Love for God.
That we might say
with the psalmist
who have I in heaven
but you
and on earth
there is nothing
that I desire
besides you.
And so the big
message is
do not love
the world
do the will
of the Father.
Do not love
the world
love God
because it pays
a far more
eternal dividend.
So how do we do it?
Well I want to give you
a mnemonic
to finish
and the mnemonic
is tag
and I think
it works
with worldliness
because of things
like price tags.
So when we look
at a price tag
remember the word
tag
and the words
tag
are to remind us
of these three things.
So when we interact
with things of the world
be thankful.
Have a thankfulness
within you
that God
you are the source
of all good gifts
and I thank you so much
for providing this
for me.
All good and perfect gifts
come from
the Father of lights
who does not change
like shifting sand.
If we can orientate
our hearts
not to worship things
but to worship
the giver of all things
that will build
a far more healthy
attitude to the world.
Thankfulness
first one.
Adoration.
Cultivate your devotional life.
Love God
most.
Love God most.
Read his words.
Spend time in prayer.
All these things
to fuel our hearts
with love for God.
And as our hearts
are as full as an egg
with love for God
we'll find that
worldliness has no room
to creep in.
I read this book.
This has been the best book
except for the Bible
that I have ever read.
It is unbelievable.
It will do so much
to stoke the affections
of your heart
towards God.
And so
I managed to get them
for two pounds each
so buy them on the way out
and I think you'll find
that affection
and adoration for God
will be fueled.
Lastly,
G.
Generosity.
Use your material possessions,
money and resources
to show that
they're not your God.
They're not your treasure
but Jesus is.
Hold your things loosely
so you're prepared
to use them
to further God's kingdom.
There is nothing wrong
with having a nice house
but to think
how can I use this generously
in order to have people
around for a dinner
to cultivate fellowship
to encourage them
in their Christian life.
There's nothing wrong
with having nice things
as long as we don't
cling to them
so much
that we think
we could never do
without them.
And how can we practice
doing without them
by being generous
with them
and lending them
and using them
to further God's kingdom
showing that
He is our treasure.
Let me finish
by telling you
the story of J.P. Morgan.
J.P. Morgan
was the first
billionaire in the world.
He had a ridiculous
amount of money
and this is what he writes
at the beginning
of his will.
Before he carves up
his estate
and gives it
to his children
he writes this
Article 1
J.P. Morgan's will
I commit my soul
into the hands
of my Saviour
in full confidence
that Him
having redeemed it
and washed it
in His most precious blood
He will present me
faultless
before the throne
of my Father.
That's a great attitude
isn't it
for a man
who had so much?
He said
I count it all rubbish
because the first thing
I want to tell you about
is that Jesus
is my treasure
and because of Him
I'll stand before God
blameless.
Don't love the world.
You can't love God
and the world.
Love for the world
originates in the world
and the world
is passing away.
But if you love God
you'll live
forever.
It's a no-brainer.
So let's pray.
You have searched me Lord
and you know me.
You know when I sit
and when I rise
you perceive my thoughts
from afar.
You discern my going out
and my lying down.
You are familiar
with all my ways.
Before a word
is on my tongue
you Lord
know it completely.
You hem me in
behind and before
and lay your hand
upon me.
Such knowledge
is too wonderful
too lofty
for me to attain.
And so we pray
search me God
and know my heart
test me
and know my anxious
thoughts.
See if there are
any worldly ways
in me
and lead me
in the way
everlasting.
Amen.