Who Do You Love?

0:34If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. This is God's word. You may be seated. During the 17th century, there was an English Civil War.

1:09And out of that Civil War, you had several years where there was not a monarchy because King Charles was killed. You had a commonwealth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. And out of that, you still had a leader who acted in many ways very much like a monarch. It was the Lord Protectorate, and his name was Oliver Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell, at one point, sentenced the soldier to be shot for his crimes. And the execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier's fiancé, that was condemned, had climbed into the belfry and had clung to the great clapper of that bell to prevent it from striking.

1:59And when she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she began to weep as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. And Cromwell's heart was touched. And he said, Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not ring tonight. Now, I don't know if they went ahead and executed him the next day. I'm not sure. History doesn't tell us. But that sounds really romantic, doesn't it? Isn't that something? Love is an incredible motivation. Love will motivate us to do all sorts of things, things that we would not normally do. When motivated by love, we will do incredible things.

2:45Our love for things will affect the way that we live and the way that we relate to one another and the way that we relate to the world. The Apostle John understands this. He understands this very well because this text really is about how love motivates us. And John has a great concern with the church, with believers, and what their love motivates them to do, and what their love motivates them to do in the world. And so he says right here in verse 15, Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever.

3:51The Apostle John has one command in this text. Just one. One imperative. One thing that he says, look, this is it. This is what has to be done, or in this case, not be done. And that is, we do not love the world. Do not love the world or the things of the world. Everything else in this text is a basis for his argument for that imperative, for that command. This one command, do not love the world.

4:22So what we see in this text is the Apostle John is going to tell us that we don't love the world, and we don't love the world. Because of what it means. We don't love the world because of what it is. And we don't love the world because of where it is going. Let's look here at verse 15 just a little bit more closely. Do not love the world or the things of the world. So we need to identify a couple things here. We need to define two words in particular to really understand what John is getting at in this text. We need to identify, we need to define the world.

5:00And then we need to define love, the action upon the world, right? So let's look at what the world means. What is the world? That world, cosmos, in the Greek, is used in three different ways by John in his writings, both in his epistles and in his gospel. The first definition is obviously the created universe or the material world, the physical earth. Is that what John is warning us against? Well, the context would say no. He would agree with Moses, the writer of Genesis, that when the Lord had completed the creation of this physical earth, he looked at it and he said that it was good. Amen? It was good. So it's not necessarily the physical world that we're talking about. John affirms the goodness of the physical creation in his prologue of his gospel. In John, Chapter 1, verse 10. Another way that he uses cosmos is the idea of the world of human persons or the mankind, if you will. Is that what John is telling us not to love? Well, I don't think that's true either because of John 3:16, where the Bible clearly tells us that God so loved the world. And in this case, he's talking specifically about mankind. He's talking about people. He loved people so much that he gave his only begotten son.

6:33So it's not mankind that he's talking about either. No, when John is talking about the world here, he's using that third definition. That third definition is an evil, organized, earthly system that is controlled by the power of Satan that has aligned itself against God and against his kingdom. And it's aligned itself in such a way that another way to define the world in these terms is simply to say that which lives to exist without God. That which strives to live as if there is no God. That's the world. That's certainly the world system that we can see here today.

7:21In 1 Corinthians 3:18, the Apostle Paul says, Let no one deceive himself if anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this world. Age and that word age there is cosmos. Let him become a fool that he may become wise. The Apostle Paul is clearly warning believers in Corinth not to align themselves with the thinking of this world, with the thinking of this age. In Galatians 6:14, Paul says, But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Paul is very clearly separating himself from this system, from this world, from this age, if you will.

8:14So that's the world that John is talking about. He's talking about what the world values, what the world says is true, and how that comes in stark contrast to what God has revealed in his word as being true, and what God has revealed to us through his word that he values and loves. So think about that contrast. The world says it's about gaining for yourself material wealth. The world says that it's about power. It's about lording that power over those that don't have power. It's about extracting that fame, that glory.

9:00That is antithetical to God's understanding and God's revealed will about his system of what is good and what is true and what is beautiful. It sets itself up against that. So, with that in mind, let's define the word love. What about love here? He says, if anyone loves the world there in verse 15, then the love of the Father is not in him. Agapao, show love, to demonstrate love, to take pleasure in, to love based in its regarded value.

9:37The idea here is that it's not just simply, well, I kind of like that thing, but it's, you know what, I value that. When the Christian says, I value what the world values, there's a problem. Because that love, that valuing that the person does, it's not just something that they are expressing out there. It's also something, not just something they're declaring out there, but it's also an expression of their own heart. In our love for things, we are making a statement about what we value, about what we desire. I don't have to, when I was a youth pastor, I didn't have to go and say, hey, you know, kids, you go and ask your parents what they love. Ask your dad, this is Father's Day, this is appropriate. Ask your dad what he loves. Me, kids know what their dads love. They do. The reason why they know what their dads love is they know what their dads, what their fathers give their time and their talent and their treasure to. Because whatever that is, that's what they love. My dad says that he loves me, but he doesn't spend a lot of time with me. He does spend a lot of time in golf. Therefore, what does he love? He loves golf, right? By the way, there is no condemnation for golf lovers as you go home to watch the final round of the U.S. Open today. It's not what I'm getting at. But what I am saying is that we should really think about what we give our time, what we give our talent, and what we give our treasure to, because that's the thing we're identifying with. That's the thing we're placing value on. That's the thing that we love.

11:22Danny Aiken, in his commentary on this very verse, he makes this great statement that I wanted us to see together. He says, the difference in these uses, talking about the use of the word love, is not the emotion that is felt by the individual, but the application of that emotion or attraction in a positive or a negative manner. When an individual believer fulfills the love command by showing compassion to a brother or sister, this love is properly motivated and directed. That's good love. When people love the world, They are misapplying this human emotion in a way that will lead to their demise. In a sense, love is neutral. The object of one's love or affection is decisive. What Dr. Aiken is getting at is very simple. That object of our love moves us and sways us. It sculpts us. It's not just a one-way relationship. In other words, I don't just look at the world and the world system and what the world values and say, well, I love those things. No, my love is revealing something about my heart, and that world is going to have an impact upon myself that will make me look different than what the Bible says I'm supposed to look like, than what the Bible says I'm supposed to value, what the Bible says I'm supposed to give my time and my talent and my treasure to. We see examples of this in the scriptures.

12:57Jesus in John chapter 12 demonstrates this in talking about the Pharisees, or talking about those that were actually listening to him and were following him, but they wouldn't commit to him in John 12. And he says this about them in verses 42 and 43. He says, Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him. But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. Why? For they loved the glory that comes from him. From man more than the glory that comes from God. They loved the glory. They loved what the world could give them more than they loved Jesus. And so they would not give themselves over to the Lord. This can happen even with people that we look at and see as believers, that we would see as being Christ followers, even. Where do we see that? 2 Timothy 4:10. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to Timothy, writes about Demas, who was with him. This is the same Demas, by the way, who is mentioned as a co-laborer along with Mark and Luke in Philemon 24. He says, For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. The Apostle John understands that that enticement of love, of placing value in what the world values, is dangerous. It's dangerous because of what it means.

14:42Vincent, in his commentary on the word studies in the New Testament, he said this about that idea of love and what it looks like and what it looks like in the one who loves the world as opposed to loves God. He says, this means more than that he does not love God. Rather, that the love of God God does not dwell in him as the ruling principle of his life. As the ruling principle of his life. You know, I worked in athletic ministry for eight years. And one of the things that I loved about being in athletic ministry is just simply the relationships that you build with student athletes. And I would be on campus at Sam Houston State or at Texas AM and be with those student athletes and just love on them. And here's the cool thing. Anyway, there wasn't a student at, very few student athletes that I could find that did not profess a, quote, love for the Lord or love for God. Many of these same student athletes were raised in the culture and context of the local church. And so they went to VBS, they went to Sunday school, they may have had a relative that was a preacher or something like that. And they were raised with listening to stories of the Bible and preaching and all of that. And they would talk about, yeah, man, I love the Lord. I love God. But in being around many of these same student athletes, the same ones that might profess their love of God, their lifestyles looked completely different.

16:12They may have said that they loved God, but the truth of the matter is, with their lives, they showed that they loved the world. They showed that they loved sex. They showed that they loved alcohol. They showed that they loved all sorts of power, prestige, worth. Worldly glory, all of these other things. They would give their lives to those things and not so much to the word of the Lord. Why? Because they loved the world. They loved the world. We don't love the world. We are not to love the world because of what it is. Not only what the world is, but what love is.

16:58We also don't love the world because of what it does, what it's made up of, its composition. Look at verse 16. For all that is in the world is not from the Father, but is from the world. And he's going to describe what it is that's in the world. The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now, this isn't an exhaustive list. I mean, this isn't all that there is in the world. John doesn't make that claim, but he's trying to describe for us the totality of what it means to love the world, that it affects all different parts of us and how we think and move. He begins with the desires of the flesh. The desires, the epithema of the perishing seed sown among the thorns is described in Mark 4, as well as Paul's desire to either remain on earth, to minister to people, or to be. With Jesus in heaven. It's the same word that is used there, that word desire. It's neutral. So, what is it that makes it so dangerous? Well, it's the object of that desire. And the object of that desire is the flesh. Now, the flesh in and of itself, depending on the way that it's used, could be neutral. I mean, the flesh just means corporal body. Sarts in the Greek, it just means body. But in this context, it means so much more than that. It means not just the flesh, but it's the idea of trying to fill up that insatiable desire of the flesh. That's what John is getting at here. That this desire of the flesh can't ever be satisfied. Whether it's our appetite, whether it's our lust, our desire for money, for power, whatever it is, that fleshly thing, it can never be satisfied.

19:01That's the desire of the flesh. And then he describes the desire of the eyes. It's the same word in desire there, but this time he uses the word eyes. Ophthalamos. It's the idea of you go to the optometrist, it comes from that same root word. Why does he use the eyes here? Well, the eyes lead to covetousness. It's the idea of quickly seeing something and just wanting that, seeing something that someone else has. Or, more importantly, just seeing something that I don't possess. And automatically, when I see it, I'm drawn to it and I want it.

19:39I see it. I'm drawn to it. I want it. I got to have it. In Mark chapter 7, Jesus says this: He says, And what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of a man, comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. That word, envy, is the word ophthalmos. It's the idea of eyes. It's the idea of what we see. And Jesus says, this is what leads to this idea of envy, of covetousness. It begins with the eyes. And it reveals what's in our heart.

20:28The desire of the eyes, the desire to have something that somebody else wants. And that takes us to the pride of life. The pride of life. Pride is that arrogant manifestation of a person's independence from God. The idea that I don't need him. You know, the way John lays out these three particular aspects of loving the world, these three particular words. Ways the world works. They parallel in a couple places. One of the places they parallel is with Genesis chapter 3 in the sin of Eve and the fallenness of man. Another place that we see it is in Jesus' own temptation in Matthew chapter 4 and in Luke chapter 4. You can follow along and see how they parallel with one another, and that's not an accident. John knew his Bible, he knows his Old Testament. He wants the readers to see this, that this is not new, that this is how the world has operated from the very beginning.

21:45In Matthew chapter 4, Satan tempts Jesus, and he tempts him in three different ways. He says, Command these stones to become loaves of bread. He's tempting Jesus' flesh. He says, for him to set himself on the pinnacle of the temple in the middle of Jerusalem, the focal point of all of that place, so that everyone can see you. Set him on the pinnacle of the temple and throw yourself down. Show off. Show out. Make it not about the will of your Father. That's the pride of life, to live outside of God's will and outside of even God. God's very understanding and existence of him. And then he says that he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said, Bow down to me and I'll give them to you. He showed them these things. That's the desire of the eyes. You see this parallel so clearly here.

22:51That's what the world is, but that's what the world's always been. And it's not from the Father, but it's from the world. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 6, it says, So when the woman, when Eve saw that the tree was good for food, she saw that the tree was good for food, to fill up the appetite, that desire for the flesh, and that it was a delight to the eyes, the desire of the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. Earlier in that same chapter, Satan tempts Eve.

23:32He tempts Eve to say, That if you would take of this fruit, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And that's the temptation. That's the temptation of pride, by the way. That temptation of pride that eats at us, that gnaws at us, that tempts us to say, I can be like God. I can be the master of my domain. I can be the captain of my ship. Or in the modern vengeance, As the high priestess of our age, Oprah, would say, you be you, right? You be you.

24:08And we fall into that, right? We fall into it. We desire the world and the things of the world. We're not supposed to love the world because of what it is, because of what it means. And we don't love the world because of where it's going. Look at verse 17. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. John compares two destinies: the destiny of the worldly and the destiny of the godly. He says, The world is passing away. It's passing away. That phrase, pass away, is in the passive voice. That means the world is being caused to pass by. That is, that God is causing the world to come to its end. It is being caused to pass by in a vain, a futile show, a pathetic parade of the world. In other words, the systems of this world can never be sustained long term. They never can. What this world values, what this world thinks is true, where this world is going is passing away, and it's passing away on purpose. For God to Demonstrate the futility of this world to people that he might bring them to faith in his Son Jesus. This world's passing away, it won't work.

25:46In China, they tried the one-child system, and they brought the devastating effects of government-forced abortion upon that world. And guess what we have now? China cannot sustain itself, it has too many old people and not enough young people. The same could be said for Europe, by the way, but it wasn't government-enforced, it was abortion that was lured in by the idea of freedom and it's destroying itself. The world system is passing away, it won't work. This has always been the case.

26:29Cozying up to the world, embracing what the world has to offer, always ends in frustration and futility. The greatest example of that in all of the Old Testament, by the way, and really of all of Scripture, is the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was given this promised land. God was going to bring Israel into this wonderful land that they could enjoy. All they had to do was to worship him and to follow his commandments. But instead, Of worshiping him and following his commandments, they always were led astray to their worldly neighbors. And they would import in the idols and the religion of the nations that were around her. And she was judged, and she was disciplined, and she was exiled. And God, in his grace and in his mercy, would bring Israel back. And guess what Israel would do? The same thing in futility would embrace the world and the systems of the world. All the way into the New Testament. When Jesus, the promised Messiah, is brought forth from Israel and is shown to Israel to be Israel's Messiah. And Israel rejects Jesus. Israel rejects the Messiah. Why? Because the leaders of Israel had already embraced the world.

27:58They even got together with the Romans to murder the Messiah. I thought they hated the Romans. They did, but they didn't hate the Romans as much as they loved the world. They didn't hate the Romans as much as they loved power. They didn't hate the Romans as much as they loved national glory. And they missed their Messiah. And God judged Israel in AD 70 by the destruction of the temple and said, that old covenant is over, it's fulfilled in Christ. He's the new temple. Amen.

28:34When someone tells you to get on the right side of history, I don't know if you've heard that lately. When someone tells you to get on the right side of history, that is someone, and oftentimes when they tell you to get on the right side of history, they tell you to do that by disobeying God's word. And in doing such, by saying that, they are demonstrating to us that they don't understand history. Because history is going to a place, church. It's going to a specific point, family. It's going somewhere. It's going to Revelation chapter 22. It's going to Revelation chapter 22, where the new heavens and the new earth, God will bring the elect before him, and they will praise God in the new Jerusalem forever and ever and ever. That's where history is going. It's not going to some political end, it's not going to some structure that's going to be built up by this world and this world system.

29:35The right side of history is to be in Christ, abiding in him. Amen. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. You know, one of the things I love about John is when you get to this place and you say, Whoever does the will of God abides forever, you may have this question that sort of pops into your mind. Well, I thought. I was saved by faith. Absolutely. But I also read a couple weeks ago, it was preached right here from this pulpit. In 1 John 2, 3 says, and by this that we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. But I know that in 1 John 5, 13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Jesus, the point of the gospel of Jesus, in John's gospel, in John chapter 20, verse 31, he says, I have written these things so that you may know that Jesus is the Son of God, and by knowing him, you may have life in his name. So which is it, John? Is it knowing Christ or is it abiding in Christ? And John would answer, yes. Amen? Yes, is the answer. Why? John does not separate saving faith from an abiding life. He does not separate saving faith from an abiding life. Remember that verse 15 is the only imperative. That is to not love the world. It's the only command in this text. The loving of God, the doing of the will of God, is assumed by John on the part of the believer. His encouragement is simply not to love the world. Obey his Commands. Why? Because you love God. Why? Because he saved you and put his spirit within you.

31:39It's so good. The work of Christ happens in a person. They come to faith in Christ. God develops a love for Christ. And out of that comes obedience for Christ. He doesn't separate the two. We don't separate saving faith from an abiding life. Whoever does the will of God abides forever. And he does not love the world. I was a big fan as a kid reading the Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Big fan. And I was a fan of the movies, too. The movies weren't bad. As usual, they're not as good as the books. But they're not bad. One of the most sympathetic and pathetic characters in all of the Lord of the Rings is the character of Gollum. You guys remember Gollum, right? Or how does he say it in the movie? Gollum, right?

32:38Gollum. The story of Gollum is really sad. Gollum was once like, I guess, kind of like a hobbit that lived in the shire. All things are good and great. Anything is sweet as they live in harmony together. And one day, Gollum found a ring, a gold ring, looked very much like this. And when he found this gold ring, what he didn't understand about it was this ring was cursed. This ring, according to Tolkien, by the way, represents the world and the systems of the world. And that ring enticed Gollum.

33:19It enticed him. And what you see in the books and what you briefly see in the movies is that the enticement of the desire for that ring and the power that that ring had, it changed Gollum. And that instead of being this hobbit who was to live in peace with other hobbits, this ring changed him. It mangled him. He began to do terrible things to his body. Walked through pain and suffering and all these sorts of things just so that he could have possession of the ring. And when he lost possession of the ring, he would do whatever it took to regain its possession. He wanted it so badly. And at the end of Gollum's life, actually, his very demise is him receiving the ring as he is falling down into the pit of Mordor and Mount Doom, being swallowed up by fire. And he's swallowed up by fire. The movie does a really good job of this. With a smile on his face, his focus upon the ring.

34:28His pursuit. Of the world destroyed him. Church, love of the world only leads to dismay and destruction. It's a world that is passing away. Its power, what it says it's true, is true, is a lie. It's passing away, and only the Word of God stands forever. Christian, I implore you today, examine your life. Where is it that I'm giving myself to the world? Am I giving myself to the world in the movies that I watch, in the money that I spend, in the time that I spend engaged in things that are not eternal? Do I not see God's redeeming value in things?

35:25Or do I just spend my time and my talent and my treasure on things that don't last? Those things are fading away, but the Word of God lasts forever. And all of those, all of us who are in Christ, you have within you a love and a desire placed there by the Holy Spirit to follow His Word. When we don't, when we sin, When we act like the world, we are to repent and remember who we are in Christ, turning from sin, turning from the world, and embracing all that there is in Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you so much for your word.

36:24In this text, we come face to face with a struggle, the desire to be in the world, to embrace the world, and what the world says is true. I pray this morning, God, that as we face this, Lord, we're honest with ourselves, Lord. By your Holy Spirit, help us to examine our hearts and to see where we are giving ourselves, the best of ourselves, to things that don't last. Father, help us to respond to this world, not as the world would, in dominance and in power that will fade away. But, Lord, help us to respond to this world in grace and in truth that will last forever.

37:29Help us to be. Honest about ourselves, to confess our sin, to remember who we are in Christ, to repent and turn to you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your son, Jesus, in whom we have life that will never end. In Christ's name, amen.