The World

Introduction of Series

The world the flesh and the devil have us hemmed in on every side

These three things cannot be viewed outside of each other because they all feed into each other. Johnathan Edwards wrote in his journal that he wants to make every effort to cast off these things and pursue holiness.

Remember these things as we begin this three week series. The world, the flesh, and the devil. If we can conquer these three things we will no longer be trapped by the ways of sin but be free to righteousness. The problem is the flesh wants what the world has and the devil just loves to give it right to you and all of these things are contrary to what God wants for your life.

Lets begin to look at these and get a better understanding of them and how we can combat them in our lives.

Introduction

Today we are going to talk about the world. We are apart of the world and the world is a system that is in complete opposition to God. These things are often subtle and try to sneak into our lives bit by bit. When we talk about the world I am not referring to the earth that we are here standing on meaning God’s creation. What I am referring to is the sinful system that we are apart of, the culture we live in. With other people, social media, the news, the government all vying to influence us. Our world has always been sinful but here in America we have seen one of the worst things of all, the acceptance of it. We live in what I would call a Romans 1 society that is not only letting sin in but also saying that it is good.

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This is what we are without Christ. DEAD.

To fix all of the issues with the world some people will have what I call an Amish mentality. They will say that if I can just stay out of the world then I will be fine and everything will be fine. There is just one problem, you might not use all the modern things but you are still in the world. Not only that but you still have the flesh and the devil attacking you.

This sounds pretty grim. You are dead and there is no avoiding the problem. So is there a solution? In short yes there is and we will get to it, first though we must better understand the world.

The World that we dwell in

Romans 1:28–32 ESV

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

I didn’t want to spend the time reading the full section here right now because I think this is enough for you to see. This is the world that we live in. people are living in sin and others are giving approval of it. When we are trying to live we are constantly confronted with evil, there is no way to avoid it. The biggest problem is that it is everywhere and it is what our own flesh desires. I don’t want to get to deep into the flesh tonight but hear this; the flesh desires what the world has and both are in opposition to God. We are fighting a loosing battle where around every corner there is another failure.

Some of you will say that you don’t desire the things of the world and to that I will say that you are wrong. The evil things that the world offers are more accessible than ever and this is the time that you are living in. Pornography used to be available in a store where they would check your ID before you went in, now all of you sitting here just have to spend enough time on social media and you will encounter it. Homosexuality used to be unheard of, now it is on Disney channel and all of your feeds. Social media has filled us with the desire for popularity, popularity just means that you are conforming to the world.

I think that through all of this we can easily realize that we are sinners. We live in a world that is nothing but sin and most of the time we just go with it. Sinning is not just something that we do but it is who we are. This is the problem of the world. Everything that it is about is contrary to God.

The truth is, everything has been tainted. The kiss of death rests upon everything in our world. Nothing in this world will help anybody toward God.

A. W. Tozer

The kiss of death rests upon everything in our world. This is a strong quote but it calls attention to the seriousness of the depravity or the fallenness of the world. It is not hard to see guys, the world is contrary to God. So what hope is there? Lets turn back to Ephesians 2 and see what comes next in that text.

But God

Ephesians 2:4–10 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We were willingly living in the world but God showed mercy. He offers grace to those who put their faith in him. There is nothing we can do on our own to escape this world but with God we can. Grace is Gods undeserved favor, we are sinners living in this sinful world and God did not have to offer us anything but he did. God offers salvation to anyone who would believe in him and turn away from their sin. Some of you here in this room have not accepted this salvation and have not been forgiven for all the wrong that you have done. Today can be the day that you are rescued from that darkness and taken to Gods glorious light.

Those words should echo through our mind, we were dead (some of you still are) BUT GOD. You have the opportunity to turn away from the darkness that you are living in and turn to Christs glorious light. There is nothing that you can do to be saved, it’s not your doing its Gods. All that you must do is put your faith in him and you will be saved. Saved from his justice that he will inflict upon the world. If you want to come into the light of Christ and be forgiven of your sin catch me or one of the other adults as soon as we are done with the lesson here tonight, don’t even wait for the end of small group time.

so the question still remains of what we are to do now?

Now What

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Conform and transform have the same root word, form. Form meaning structure. When you are conforming you are being apart of the structure. We are to not be a part of the world. We are to be constantly transforming our mind, or in other words changing the structure that we are a part of to Christ.

This is for those that have put their faith in Christ. Because of what he did for us on the cross we are to be growing to be more like him and constantly transforming our mind so that it is no longer a part of this world. If you have not put your faith in Jesus you are a part of the world and an enemy of God and there is nothing that you can do about it until you come to faith in him.

Many people wonder what they need salvation from; the answer to this is simple, you need salvation from God. All this wrong that is in the world and in you goes against him. God is perfectly just and the punishment we deserve is his wrath. This is what you need saved from and this is also what Jesus paid the price for. We are to be transforming ourselves further away from this and closer to Christ. This is how we combat the world, it is also how we should combat the flesh and the devil. Strive for holiness.

Conclusion

The world is a place that is fully against God. We are here in the world but God calls us to not be of the world. Without putting your faith in Jesus there really is no hope, you are dead and there is nothing that you can do about it. But there is something that God has done about it through Jesus. Jesus is the way to salvation. All that you must do is put your faith in him and him alone.

This is just one side to the problem. The world, the flesh, and the devil have us hemmed in on every side. One thing remains the same though, Jesus is the answer to each one of them. though they all work together and go completely against God, Jesus is far more powerful and conquers all.