City On A Hill
Check out the 7th message of our verse-by-verse series through 1 John, Under Construction!
INTRODUCTION
“This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through; My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
“This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas – His hand the wonders wrought.”
“world” = Gk. κόσμος (kosmos)
a. The Created, Physical World (Ps. 24:1; Jer. 51:15; Acts 17:24)
b. The People in the World (Jn. 3:16-17)
c. The Evil World System (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:12; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Jn. 14:30)
1 John 2:15-17 – “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Q: What does John mean by “the world?”
A: Evil world system
ONE commandment: “Do not love the world or the things in the world”
I. DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD
a. It will lure you away from Christ
1. The Desires of the Flesh
Rom. 7:5 – “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.”
Romans 8:9 – “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.”
John 6:63 – “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
2. The Desires of the Eyes
Matt. 5:27-29
3. The Pride of Life
“pride” = Gk. ἀλαζονεία (alazoneia), “arrogance or bragging”
Ja. 4:4 – “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
b. It will lure you into death
v.17 – “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Matt. 7:13-14
Matt. 7:21 – “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Truth: The world is full of lies because it ruled by the father of lies.