Untitled Sermon (2)

Matters of the Heart, Who do you love? – 1 John 2:12-17

1) Grow in Faith (verses 12-14)

a) “Little Children” are new believers in Christ

i) Their sins are forgiven.

ii) They have a relationship with the Father.

b) “Young Men” are those maturing in Christ.

i) They are strong in faith.

ii) They abide in God’s Word.

iii) They have experienced victory.

c) “Fathers” are those with deep maturity in Christ.

i) They have walked with God, “have known Him”

ii) They have found Him faithful, “from the beginning”

2) Guard Against the World (verses 15-17)

a) This does not refer to the literal physical world.

i) Creation displays God’s glory.

b) Nor does it refer to the people of the world.

i) It was John who recorded Jesus’ words, “For God so loved the world…”

c) John is referring to the world’s system (an attempt to live life apart from God.)

i) Our country is in trouble because we have sought to live apart from God.

ii) Abraham Lincoln in proclamation of prayer and fasting in 1863 said, “And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!”

d) Three Temptations of the World.

i) The lust of the flesh

ii) The lust of the eyes

iii) The pride of life

(1) Satan tempted Eve through these three means: Genesis 3:6

(2) Satan tempted Jesus through these three means: bread, kingdoms of the earth, prove you’re the son and through yourself down.

e) Two reasons to flee worldly allures:

i) It is aligned against the Love of God.

(1) The cares of this world choke out the Word – Matthew

(2) Parable of the Sower – Matthew 13:18-23

ii) It is temporal and will pass away

f) Love for God provides eternal joy and peace.