Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sunday 18th of March 2007*

*Standing Firm in God’s Truth*

*1 John 2:15-27*

 

When something you love is not what you thought it was.

I heard about a gang of women a few months ago that were knocking on the doors of elderly people and asking to use the phone and while one mother with a baby used the phone the other women took money from the unsuspecting older victim.

They thought they were helping people in need, but they were being robbed.

I’ll never forget seeing an image from a shopping mall in England showing a young boy was being led out the doors of the mall by two older boys.

They were holding hands the three of them.

But soon the two older boys had beaten to death the younger boy in a crime that shocked the nation.

An unsuspecting boy was holding hands with two who were leading him to his death.

Do you know how an Eskimo kills a wolf.

The account is grisly.

First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze.

Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.

Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up.

When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood.

He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare.

Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night.

So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood.

His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!

*Don’t Love the World*

*/ 15Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

/*

 

1 John 2:15

Do not love the world or anything in the world.

The meaning of this phrase as its written is in the present tense so it means not go love the world in an ongoing action.

In other words keep on not loving the world.

The kind of love is different to the love mentioned by John earlier in 2:10 where he wrote, “*/Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”/*

There love is focussed on the well being of another, where as here it is focused on the pleasure and gratification one hopes to receive.

Do not love the world – do not desire or take delight in the world.

But didn’t Jesus say, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

If God loves the world shouldn’t we.

Yes, the people, God loves the people and His creation and we should love them too.

But the way John uses the word world here is referring to the worldly attitudes or values that are opposed to God.

Viewed as people the world must be loved.

Viewed as an evil system, organised under the dominion of Satan and not God, it is not to be loved.

Why?

Because “*/If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”/*

John is saying that if we love the world in an ongoing way, then the love for God our Father is not in us.

Love for the world and love for the Father are mutually exclusive.

If a person is engrossed in the outlook and pursuits of the world which rejects Christ, it is evident that he has no love for the world.

James 4:4 shows that the two don’t go together, “*/You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God/*.”

And Jesus in Matthew 6:24 “*/No one can serve two masters.

Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other/*.”

Then John clearly explains to his readers why love for the world and love for Christ are incompatible.

He does this by explaining to us the things which make up the world…

 

*/16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world./*

There’s three elements that John mentions that make up everything in the world…

#. */the/**/ cravings of sinful man… /*This phrase literally reads “the desires of the flesh” Sinful things our bodies desire.

You can think about what these might be.

Sexual acts outside of marriage or selfishly demanded in marriage.

Drunkenness.

Drug abuse.

Eating too much food, scoffing, and on they go.

#. */the lust of his eyes…/* that is those sinful cravings which are activated by what people see, and lead to us wanting something desiring something that’s not our to have.

TV puts images and things in front of us to temp us, to entice us.

“You need this!”

They scream!

#. */and/**/ the boasting of what he has and does…/* a persons pride and possessions, about the property they own, the things that they have in their possession.

And all these things come not from the Father but from the world.

Clearly the logic goes so if you love those things they are completely opposed to the Father and the two don’t ever meet.

This is a call from John to you an I today to live a holy life!

The kind of life that is confessing our sin, walking in obedience and loving others – as Phil shared last week – and not loving the world.

Besides there’s no point in loving the world because…

*/17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

/*The world is passing away.

The evil desires, the sinfulness of people, are already decaying.

This world is slowly passing away but here’s a new kind of kingdom at work in this world, the Kingdom of God, and those who put their trust in Jesus Christ and do the will of God live forever.

Only those who are part of the Kingdom of God are those who will not pass away.

I don’t know about you but I am answering “Yes!” to John’s reasoning.

I’ll be quicker to obey the command to “Not love the world” if I remember that the while */the world and its desires/* are temporary and fading like a vapour, God’s will and those who do it are eternal.

That’s why Paul called us in 2 Corinthians 4:18 to “*/Fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal./*”

When the wealthy flaunt their possessions, when those who are sexually immoral seek to entice us, when out eyes tell us that what we don’t have we need, remember that those who do God’s will live forever!

 

 

*Look Out For Liars! There’s A Big Difference Between them and Believers*

 

*/ 18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

This is how we know it is the last hour.

19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.

For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

/*

*/ 20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth./*

*/ /*

In this passage John now wants to show us the difference between those who are people who are deceivers, heretics, liars, antichrists and those who are genuine believers.

John love the people that he’s writing to, he writes affectionately, “*/Dear Children/*”.

Then he reminds them of the time in which they live.

“*/this/**/ is the last hour./*”

This is the only place in the NT that the term is used but in other places different phrases are used like “in the last days” and “in the last times.”

Now, there is no doubt that the Biblical writers believed that they were living in the last days.

Paul, for instance, writes in Romans 13:11: */And do this, understanding the present time.

The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."/*

Paul believed that he was living in the last time and that the return of Jesus Christ could come at any moment.

Other Biblical writers felt the same way.

And because of that many people have come to the conclusion that the Biblical writers were wrong.

Since Jesus has not yet returned, some have assumed that we are not really living in the last time.

This betrays, however, an incorrect understanding of the last times.

You see, the correct view is that the last days began with Jesus.

Jesus’ first coming inaugurated a phase of history which will culminate in His Second Coming.

This age is known as the last days.

During this time things will move progressively toward that point in history when Jesus will call all things to a close.