Authentic Christianity #5: If Anyone Loves the World

This sermon explores the question of what we are truly devoted to, arguing that people are shaped by what they love most. Using 1 John 2:15–17, the message contrasts loving the temporary things of the world with loving God, emphasizing that worldly pursuits like pleasure, fame, and pride can never fully satisfy because they are finite and passing away. The sermon ultimately points to Jesus Christ as the only source of lasting fulfillment, teaching that true rest and purpose are found in devotion to the eternal God rather than the temporary things of this world. 

Transcript

Welcome, friends. You're listening to the Ultimate Outcome Sermon podcast. Here's Richard Elwell with today's sermon. Good morning. So thinking about it. Is there something funny? Oh, howdy. Howdy. Howdy, all. Yeah, we got the country music going this morning. What would be. What would you think would be the most important question we could ask about ourselves? I'm sure there's a lot of questions that we could think of, but one question that I have for you this morning might be in contention for being one of the most important questions we could ask about ourselves. And that question is, what do we love? What are we devoted to? What are we most devoted to? What is our greatest connection? How important is it to ourselves to answer or to know the answer to that question? And what is it about what a person loves that is so important about understanding that person, both their present and their future. What a person loves, what a person is devoted to, could be argued to be the most important characteristic about that person. We are largely defined by what it is that we give ourselves to what we're devoted to. We grow and we develop in the soil of what it is that we devote ourselves to. Think about it this way a lot of a lot of times we say people can't really change. And to some degree that's true, that people can't change. People can't change who they are or what they are unless they change what it is that they love and are devoted to. Isn't repentance, or isn't conversion actually changing? Doesn't it start with changing what it is that we are devoted to and what we love? What is a person? What is the person who isn't devoted to anything higher than himself or herself? What is a person like when a person isn't devoted to anything greater than their own self-interest? What is that person like? Can a person who is chiefly devoted to themselves really be able to love anything but themselves? What can Pete's for our devotion? And how dramatic is the choice of what we devote ourselves to in terms of defining who we are and determining our destiny? Those are questions we're going to be asking as we continue in our series entitled Authentic Christianity Reflecting Christ's Love, which is a book study of First John. Today we're going to be looking at competing devotions. We're going to be looking at the competing devotions of loving the world or loving the father, the love of the world versus the love of the father. How important is it that we know what it is that we're devoted to, and the outcome of that devotion? Clearly. In Romans chapter one, we see a stair step into depravity, and that stair step into depravity begins with a person, a feeling to acknowledge God. And instead of worshiping God, that person worships the things God created rather than God himself. This was so succinctly set up by what ash was talking about this morning in the devotion. Really, the question is, what are we going to put our focus on? And if we put our focus on and love the good things that God created rather than the good God himself, we find ourselves in a stair step into depravity. There's nothing wrong with the beautiful, awesome things that God has made. He created those things for us to enjoy. But there's something very wrong with us. When those things become the object of our devotion, when they themselves become our God. Today we'll be comparing the love of the father with the love of the world, and I want us to consider how it is that we are being fashioned by the very thing that we put our devotion on. For better or for worse, we are becoming like what we are devoting ourselves to. What is the end result of what I am choosing to devote myself to? What am I going to become because of what I love? Is it too late for me to repent and reevaluate and change the object of my love or my devotion? It never is today. This morning's message is entitled if Anyone loves the world and we'll be looking at first John chapter two, verses 15 through 17. Pray with me, if you would. Heavenly father, Lord, we just approach your word this morning. And father, we thank you that you have given us truth to reflect on and to see. And I pray, father, that as we look at the comparison between loving what you made and loving you yourself, father, that we would see how futile it is to make a God of that which is temporal and temporary, and passing away. You alone, Lord, are eternal and worthy of our worship. May we see the benefit of looking up and being filled with that which doesn't have dimension, both in time and space, that which is eternal. May we have eternity in our heart, Lord. Maybe. May we be filled with the endless wonders of your glory. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. First John chapter 215 through 17, beginning at verse 15, it says, 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 the 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. Now the world has been created by God, but the love of the world doesn't come from God. What God has created is good, but it is not good. When our lives are devoted to the created things rather than the creator. Now why not? Why can't we live a perfectly happy, fulfilled, satisfied life with just placing our affections on the beautiful things that God has created by just trying to get as much of this wonderful world as we could possibly get. What's wrong with that? As a means by which we can try to find happiness and be satisfied? Well, the theme of the message this morning is this that the world is not enough. What's wrong with that idea is it's never enough. It's not enough. And we're going to look at why it's not enough. Let's take a look at verses 16 through 17 again. For everything in the world, the craving of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away. God's word commands us not to love the world. And why does God command us not to love the world? Not to be devoted to the things that he has made? Does he want to, in his command for us not to be devoted to the very things he created, want to prohibit us, or inhibit our happiness or our satisfaction somehow? Does he want to withhold from us what would satisfy our needs? In fact, God's command for us not to love the world has the very opposite reason. The reason why he commands us not to love the world is because he wants to us to be full. He wants us to be satisfied. And if our devotion is in that which can't satisfy us, we'll never be satisfied. And the devotion to the world can never satisfy us, because the world is not enough. Now. The world is not enough. There's not enough of it to ever content us. It is because he wants us to be fully satisfied that he commands us not to pursue that which will never satisfy us. He wants to protect us from futility. He doesn't want to cause us to live in futility. The reason why the love of the world is futile again, is because it never is adequate to bring us into a state of contentment. The world is never enough. Now the world is never enough. For two reasons we see in this passage. The first reason we see why the world is never enough. Reason number one is of the two reasons why the world is never enough is number one. That the world is finite. The world is finite. We see in this passage that the world, the love of the world, is broken down into three categories. There are three categories that comprise the love of the world. And this is the one passage where I really struggle with the NIV and think it allows the job of translating the passage. The NIV says, as we already read that the that everything in the world is comprised of, first of all, the cravings of sinful man. Not a good translation. The better translation is lust of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the desire to get what we want separate from God by trying to get what feels good. The second is the lust of the eyes. That's translated correctly. The second of the third thing that comprises the whole totality of the world is the lust of the eyes. And the third thing it says here is the boasting of what he has and does. And a better translation for that is the pride of life. So we have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And what we can see about all three of those categories. The less of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is that they are all pleasures that we seek apart from God, apart from God's provision out of God's creation. And none of them are ever enough. Take the lust of the flesh to begin with. First of all, the lust of the flesh. If if, simply just think about David for a second, guys. If 300 women and wives and concubines wasn't enough for David, it is not enough for us either. If you have a woman for every day of the year, it's not enough. It wasn't enough for him. He wasn't on the top of his roof of his palace going, I'm satisfied. I have 300 women and I'm satisfied. No, he wasn't satisfied. It's not enough. There is never enough. The next category is lust of the eyes. The desire to appear good in front of others. The desire to look glorious before other people. The idea of fame is what it is. Those. Those areas of the lust of the world are the love of the world. That that is in the area of fame. Recently I was watching Lady Gaga being interviewed and she said, I am an expert on fame. I know what it takes to gain attention and remain in the public's eye. And I thought, well, you sure do. You do do a good job of that. But there's one thing that I'm absolutely certain that Lady Gaga will never say in an interview. I'm certain she'll never say my fame is enough. I have come to the place of being satisfied. I have enough attention. I have enough people looking at me. I have enough people admiring me and following me on Twitter. I have enough, I'm sure as as as the sun came up this morning that she will never say that. And the third category is the pride of life. That is the desire to be better than other people, the desire to find satisfaction by being superior to other people. And I think there's one thing that you will never hear from the proud and the arrogant, that I am high enough. I'm great enough. I'm better enough than other people that I've reached a state of satisfaction. And I can now say my soul is at rest because I'm so much better than other people. You will never hear that the proud are never satisfied, and it perhaps is the most cruel area of sin, because it is the very area of sin that denies sin itself, the proud or the least able to see their sin and the vacuum within, because they're so filled with the delusion of their own grandeur. Now that's the first reason why. The world is never enough. The first reason why the world is never enough is that the world is finite. It's not infinite. It's it's it's limited in what it can give us. And the amount it can give us is never enough. The second reason why the world is never enough is that it is perishable. The world is perishable. Look at verse 17. The first part of verse 17 says this. The world and its desires pass away. Now, isn't that an interesting thing? Let's take, for the sake of argument, to say that the world was enough, that there somehow that you could reach a state of being satiated with the things of the world, that if you had everything in the world, you would reach a state of satisfaction. Well, if you ever did reach that status satisfaction, it would be a cruel irony, because you would soon lose it. It's perishable. If we're if we're chasing out after the things God created to make us satisfied, the. And we certainly see it this week in the news. The truth is, is that it's not going to last. We can't hold on to it. It's going to be gone. It's perishable. We could work our whole life, and we could come to a moment of saying, yes, I have enough pleasure. Yes, I have enough fame. Yes, I have enough high standing among my peers. And I finally, I'm finally satisfied with all that the world has to offer and open our eyes. And it's all dissolving. It's all disappearing. It's all passing away. It doesn't sound like a good plan to me. So the thing is here that if that which is finite can't satisfy us because it is limited in time and space, and even if there was enough in a finite world to satisfy us, it would be a cruel irony, because if we got what we needed to be satisfied, it wouldn't last. You know? The question then becomes, what's left for us to pursue if the things in this world, if everything that has a shape in time and space cannot satisfy us, then what do we have left? Has God created us with a desire that can't be satiated? Is God so cruel to have created us with a hunger that can't be filled? You know, is it like God created us with the desire to breathe and not giving us any air, or the desire to drink and not giving us anything to drink? Is that what it's like? That he created us with a soul that has no means to to to find rest. Or do we have to look somewhere other than this world to find satisfaction for our soul? Do we have to be devoted to something other than this world? The world is Not Enough is our theme this morning. And point number one is only our love for God will ever be enough. Verse 17, only our love for God will ever be enough. Notice what it says here. In contrast with the love of the world and the love of God. It says here in verse 17, the world and its desires pass away. But the man who does the will of God lives forever. The human soul only finds rest in that which is infinite. The man who loves God and seeks to do God's will enters into what we would call the eternal, the forever. And this idea of the eternal doesn't mean just endless time in both directions. It also means endless quantity in both directions. It is the shattering of time and space. It is time and space without measurement. It not only is time without measurement, but it is space without measurement is a quantity with no limit, and it is a is a chronology with no limit. The soul who finds rest finds it in the infinite, that which is not measured by time or space. When we have eternity in our hearts, it's enough. It's enough to have what is eternal. It's enough to have what is infinite. It is what God created our soul for. Our God created our soul to be satisfied with him alone. And we can only find satisfaction of soul in finding him alone with our soul, finding rest in that which is infinite. Realizing that which is finite is not enough. It is more than enough to have that which has no limits. Now the problem is, how do I connect with God? How do I become filled with the infinite? It's a struggle because we can't. We we we have this sense that he's we can't see him or we can't touch him or we can't find him in the same way that we can find other things. Now, I think it was Wednesday morning. I had just woken up, and I was troubled because there was an idea that I was trying to remember that I was dreaming about, and I really wanted to remember that idea. So I was laying in bed going, I want that idea. I know that there was something good I was dreaming about. What is that idea? And the idea I was dreaming about was, why is it that the things that, that, that, that aren't substantial seem substantial and the things that are substantial don't seem substantial to us? It's like the perspective of a fish in the ocean when he sees a bubble going up to the surface. Looking at the bubble, it seems like the bubble is substantial and the ocean is insubstantial because the ocean is so ubiquitous, it's everywhere. But he'll focus. He can see the bubble and or even a fish looking at other fish. Those other fish aren't as substantial as the ocean. In ten years, they're all going to be gone. Or it's like a human and a human soul. We think of our body. I mean, if I was going to ask you the question, what's more substantial, your arm or your soul? Well, we tend to think our our, our body, our physical body is more substantial. But time will prove that's not true. In time, it will see that our soul is what lasts. Right, Lanny? We're running to heaven together. We're going to get that long run when your. Your legs are going to be good. And we're going to get. Lanny told me one time she wants the house furthest from the throne so she can run all the way there. No wheelchairs in heaven, but you know. So I'm laying in bed thinking, you know, why is it that we look at what's less substantial and see it as more substantial? And I'm looking up at the light and the ceiling, and I start asking my myself the question, why can I see that? And why is it real to me? And why is it harder to see God and he seems less real to me. And as I was looking at the light, I'm a kind of a simple man. I say, the reason why I can see that light is because I can see its edges. I can see its boundaries. I can see its dimensions. I'm able to perceive it because it has limits, because it's finite. And why I'm not able to distinguish God in the same way that I can distinguish objects around me and people around me, is because he doesn't have boundaries. He doesn't have limits. And it struck me that I am seeing God when I'm not seeing God, when I'm when I think I'm not seeing him, I'm actually seeing him. For example, I can't see the air I'm breathing. But if I got up in space and could see the atmosphere, I could see it because I could see its boundaries or its limits. Or to go back to the fish analogy, a fish cannot see the ocean if it doesn't end up going to the surface or to the bottom, because it can't see its boundaries and its limits. But was the fish is looking out. It's seeing the ocean. It just doesn't know it. Seeing the ocean because it can't see its boundaries. Or a little bug that lived in a mountain, a little bug that lived in a mountain is looking at the mountain every day of its life, but it can't see the mountain because he's living inside the mountain, and he's looking at the mountain, but he doesn't know he's looking at the mountain because he can't see the edges of the mountain. Well, God has no edges, but he is visible to us, and he's made himself visible to us. And we can see him and we can perceive him, but we have to see him without looking for the edges. God has made himself known, and he made himself known to us by His word, becoming flesh, and dwelt among us. And when we consider the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives today, we see God. It's not that we don't see him. We see him all the time. It's that do we perceive him? Are we aware that we can see him or we aware that he is perceptible, even though he has no limits? In time and space, it's harder to discover them and to experience him because he he can't be seen like objects. But he can be discovered and he is fully satisfying. He is enough. And when we know him both now and forever, we know he's enough. So how do we look for him? The best place to look for him is in His Son, Jesus Christ, the word who has become flesh and who dwells among us. When you consider the majesty of His Son, Jesus Christ, you're beholding the father. He is the one who's. He's the same one who stood there and commanded the storm to be still, the same one who commanded the storm to be still, bowed down and washed his disciples feet. He could tell the water what to do, and he served with the water, the very one that commanded Lazarus to be raised from the dead, spoken to a grave three days old, and told him to come forth. As the one who willingly died for our sins was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The one who, who, who, who, who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is the one who ate dinner with sinners and with outcasts. The one who who you know can, who could with his with a word call down legions of angels to destroy his opposition, sat silent at his mock, at the mockery of his trial, in a moment of agony, in the great moment of agony on the cross. He is the one who said, father, forgive them. They know not what they're doing. If you want to know what God is like, if you want to see the Almighty, you can see him through His Son. Jesus made the nature of the father visible. He died for us that he might live in us, that we might make the nature of the father visible. Also, our soul finds rest when the infinite is in us, and those around us are blessed. When the infinite one becomes visible through us. Again. The theme this morning is the world is not enough. Only our love for God will ever be enough. And point number two is loving God and loving the world are incompatible. Let's take a look at verses 15 through 16. 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 bless the flesh. Which says here the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is translated here. The boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father, but from the world. The love of the world is incompatible with the love of God, because it does not come from God. God is not the source of the idea. God is not the source of the idea that you can be satisfied with that which is finite. God doesn't bring us the idea that you can be satisfied with the things that he created. It isn't and isn't an idea that has its origin in him. The lust of the flesh. The idea that you can, you can, you can be satisfied through pleasure apart from God did not come from God. The lust of the eyes, the idea that you can be satisfied by looking good in the eyes of others did not, apart from God, did not come from God. The idea that you can be satisfied apart from God by being better than everyone else. That idea did not come from God. He is not the author of these deceptive paths to satisfaction. God created us to have fellowship with himself, and anything less than that is not enough. If we devote to what is, if we devote ourselves to what is inferior as opposed to what is Scipio, our devotion to that which is inferior will block our devotion to that which is inferior. Our our devotion to that which is superior. I mean, whatever tongue twister, forget that whole sentence. It sounded good when I wrote it down. Marriage is an example of that. We can be wed to the world, or we can be wed to our creator, but we can't be wed to both of them at the same time. And, you know, in dealing with this struggle of the world and its contest against God, the the 12th century theologian Thomas Aquinas did an interesting thing. He made a list of things that people pursue apart from God, in the desire to find meaning in life, that people try to find purpose in life and through various pursuits, through devoting themselves to various things. And he created a list of seven things. And the eighth thing, the eighth thing on the list is God Himself. But he created a list from the most foolish to the most wise things that are that men pursue apart from God. And this list goes like this. He created the list from what he considers the most foolish to the most wise, that men devote themselves and try to find meaning in life in the pursuit of wealth, honor, fame, power, health, pleasure, and virtue. And he argues why they are they start with the most foolish, to the most wise. And I won't go into that right now, but it's an interesting it's an interesting argument that he argues. But the one thing I want to point out right now to you this morning is that Aquinas points out that the first seven all have a couple things in common. First of all, all seven of them are, in some way or another, subject to evil. In the pursuit of those things, evil is able to enter in and corrupt your pursuit of those things. The pursuit of wealth, the pursuit of power, the pursuit of fame, the pursuit of honor, the pursuit of health, and the pursuit of pleasure and virtue can all be corrupted by evil. They all can be destroyed that way. The other thing he points out that's really interesting about these things is all these things are not an end in themselves. There are means to an end. For example, a dollar bill would mean nothing if I couldn't buy something with it. It's not it's not a good in itself. It's a means to a good that I hope to attain by it. And he he argues how all these things, including. Virtue, are a means to a greater end. And then he goes on to say that the only thing that is both the means and the end, that a man finds rest and finds purpose in life is the pursuit of God, the pursuit of the eternal, the pursuit of the one in whom you know is he is the end. He is both the means and the end to to a purposeful life. He is the purpose of life. And he is, he is. He is the reason why we were created. And being with him is our ultimate goal. Aquinas calls this ultimate goal or this ultimate purpose the pseudonym bonum, the highest good that man can can find himself in the highest reason for being alive. So what keeps men from this soul satisfying rest that can be found in Christ? Well, I think it has to do with what ash was saying earlier about the nature of man. It is our nature to want to find happiness through subjecting the things around us to our will. We don't want to become subjects. We want to subject the things that we can control to our will. Unfortunately, God isn't that manageable. We can't have a relationship with God. Having him be our subjects and having our being of having us being his master. We want to possess and control what makes us happy. And the problem is, God is not subject to any of us. We, if we want to be happy, need to become subject to him. Happy is the man who is God's subject. Foolish is the man who tries to make God subject to himself. This. This week I heard a story that I think illustrates this point. It was the story, a true story of a of a woman whose son has recently passed away. And the months after his death, she started putting pictures of him all over the house. And whenever she would talk to somebody about her deceased son. She spoke to about him showing the pictures and talking about him in the most glowing terms, about how wonderful he was and how much she loved him and how great he was. The problem with that description was that wasn't the way it was in real life. In real life, she was always complaining about him and he was never doing what she wanted. And there was always continual conflict. And yet once he is dead, now all of a sudden he's been through his pictures. He's been reborn into this new image of her son. And I thought, this is an interesting analogy of our relationship with God. We want a dead God that we can manage. We can have pictures or idols of him. I'm not talking about we, but I mean mankind. Mankind is more comfortable with a God that is manageable, that we can imagine is subject to us. We create idols, dead God idols, and we project into those idols a God who fulfills our will. And we're happy with that dead God. A living God is not so manageable. A living God isn't going to do our will. A living God does his own will, and it's incompatible to love the world which is loving that which we can try to manage ourselves, as opposed to loving God and whom we can't manage. But we need to be managed by. To love God is to give ourselves, to be possessed by him, to be possessed by the eternal. And the result is our soul finds complete rest in his infinite goodness. Again, the world is not enough. As our theme this morning, point number one is our love for God. Will our love for God only our love for God will ever be enough. And point number two is loving God and loving the world are incompatible. I'd like to conclude this morning from by reading from Matthew chapter seven, verses 24 through 27. Matthew chapter seven, beginning at verse 24, says this therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. Heavenly father, Lord, we come before you this morning, and we pray, father, that you'd give us eyes to see you. We you'd give us ears to hear you. You would give us a heart to submit to you and to your will. Lord, we recognize that this world is not enough. Sometimes we think it might be enough if we just had a little bit more. But when we look at people who have much more than we could ever hope to have, we can see that it's not enough for them. And so how could it ever be enough for us? Lord, you are enough. You are enough. In fact, you're beyond enough. You're so beyond enough that we can't see your edges. We can't see your boundaries. How could the infinite not be enough? We pray that as we stare off into you. That we would be able to see you without being able to see your edges or your boundaries, that we would be able to perceive you and know that you're there with us, and know that your spirit is living in us, and that we would understand your humble wonder and greatness, your Majesty and your humility through your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have given yourself to us, that you have served us in a way that you want to serve us. You've served us in the way that you want to serve us by dying and being sacrificed for our sins. We're sorry, Lord, when we try to get you to serve us in the way that you're not willing to serve us, but we recognize that you served us in a way that we needed to be served. Christ's name. For listening to the ultimate outcome. Sermon. Podcast. Ultimate outcomes is a nonprofit organization founded on the biblical principle that knowing and applying God's truth makes a difference in the quality destiny of our lives. Is our prayer that this podcast and its resources bless you and your churches as much. It has blessed all of us who have learned from the biblical teachings of Richard. Thanks for listening. For more resources, visit outcomes.