The World’s False Promises

Introduction

What good is a promise that isn’t kept?

Have you ever had someone promise you something and then fail to deliver on it?

That has happened to me many times. I can tell you how I felt…upset, hurt, angry, in pain, betrayed.

The World makes promises to us every day. In one sense that is the essence of every advertisement you ever see. It’s a promise.

Pharmaceutical ads are the worst! They should be banned. They show people having a great time, walking on the beach and then they read out a list of side effects that is 10 miles long. If you think for a moment that drug is going to get you to the beach, you’ve lost your mind. It’s making a promise that has nothing to do with what its selling. You’d be better off buying a timeshare.

This morning we are continuing our study in 1st John, called True Christianity. What does it look like to be truly Christian? What do Christians do and what do they look like? The Apostle John wrote this letter to encourage us to live lives of integrity. Integrity means doing what you say you will do. It means making promises and following through.

The World doesn’t have integrity. The world cannot give you what it says, just like the pharmaceutical ads. Today we are going to look at our text and discover three things that the World says it will give you in exchange for your love and where it fails miserably.

Turn with me to 1st John 2 and we will read the text today. Notes are loaded into your app and the words will be on the screen.

Main Text

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

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. 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. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

As we have been working through this beautiful book, we have seen a lot of repetition of themes. Today the Apostle John is going to introduce one more theme into this book and its the World. He will speak on this a few time throughout this letter.

His message to us is simple - Do not love the world or the things in the world. When he says world, he’s not talking about the people of this world, he is talking about loving or idolizing things that are contrary to God’s word. We should certainly love the people in this world, but we should not love the things in this world.

Now John here uses the word agape. He’s talking about an unconditional allegiance, so let me remind you of something—There is no neutrality in this world. You either love Jesus or you love the world. You are either following God or you are following the world. There is no neutrality. And whatever you love, you have given yourself over to. It has become your master, whether that’s sin or Jesus.

So John is telling us that we are not to love the world. We are not to give ourselves over to it. Do not let it become your master. Do not give it your allegiance or worship. We are only passing through and it’s passing away.

To emphasize this idea, John says there are…

Three Things The World Cannot Give:

1. The World Cannot Give You What You Need

1 John 2:15 “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.”

When we read this we need to see the bigger picture. We need to ask a question.

What Do We Need?

What is it that we need the most? What is it that we cannot truly live without?

The Love of the Father. John is telling us what we actually need. Now some of us think we need lots of other things. My kids tell me things they need all the time. I need this new video game. I need this new lego set. I need a puppy.

What do we really need? We need relationship with God. That’s it. That’s the point. We were created for relationship. We were created to love him and to be loved by Him. This is what we need!

There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfil His purpose through your life.

Oswald Chambers

Our primary need cannot and will never be met by the world.

The world says that it will give you what you need. It says come to me and I will give you true happiness. I will give you money and power and respect. The world offers these things like a carrot on a string. This is why John says do not love the world or the things in the world. The things are the carrots.

If I just had a bigger house, then I would be happy.

If I just had a spouse, then I would feel loved.

If I just had kids who behaved, then I’d have peace.

The world cannot give you true love. The world cannot give you true joy. The world cannot give you peace. All of those things only come from Jesus.

2. The World Cannot Give You What It Promises

1 John 2:16 “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.”

The apostle John here is saying that the world promises three things that you will never receive. It is going to promise you everything you ever wanted, but it will fail to deliver. In other words, the world is lying to you.

John outlines three lies that if we understand these are lies and we live accordingly, it will change our life. Most of us have not only bought into one of these lies, most of us have bought into all three of them, if we are honest.

So what are these lies?

3 Lies Of The World:

Lie # 1 - What You Want Will Satisfy You

The first lie is tied to what John calls the “desires of the flesh.” Now your version may replace the word desires with lust. The lust of the flesh. The idea is the same. These are things that we desire, things we want badly. We lust for them. We must get them.

So what are the desires of the flesh? This is perhaps better known by the name greed. It’s our wants. It’s our desires. And we think, if we can just get this thing, then we will be satisfied.

Sometimes people get confused when we talk about greed and we think its a sin for rich people. It’s not. listen to this quote from Augustine.

It is not a matter of possession but of desire. One man may have much money on him but no greed in him, whereas another may have no money on him but much greed in him. —Augustine

Saint Augustine of Hippo

In other words, it’s not about how much you have, but how bad you want it.

The lie here is that if you have what you want, you will be satisfied. Your wants will never satisfy you.

This is a lie the world gives us all the time. It’s the basis for all advertising. If you just buy this product, you will have everything you need. It’s never enough!

This is the essence of greed. We never have enough, we always want more. It’s like trying to fill a bottomless pit. Or, maybe the parents will relate to this better. It’s like wanting a clean house, but having four kids or maybe just one. As soon as you get one room finished, they have completely destroyed the rest of the house.

Lie #2 - If You Get What You See, You Will Be Happy

The next lie is the sin of lust or covetousness. We see something that isn’t ours and we think, if I could have that, I would be happy. Coveting is the sin that you want things you can’t have.

We see this when someone lusts after someone else’s spouse. We see this when we want someone else’s property. We see this when we want someone else’s life.

We covet what we see. The Apostle John calls it the lust of the eyes. What we look at, we long for. What we spend time staring out, we desire. These desires eventually lead us into other sins like stealing and adultery.

Jesus recognized this was a problem and offers an extreme solution…

Matthew 18:9 ESV

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

I think one of the reasons Jesus offers such a wild solution to the problem is to illustrate a point. We often downplay this sin. We call it window shopping. Or if it involves lusting after another man or woman, we see, “I’m just looking.”

This is a sin of the heart. It’s one you can’t see. It’s not as easy to spot as stealing is, but it’s just as deadly. Jesus says this sin, the sin of lust, can send you to hell. It’s a serious sin.

The lie we are believing here is that if we can just get what we see other people have, then we will be happy. This lie is highlighted in our time by social media. We want their lifestyle. They are always going to the beach. We want their body. If I was just as skinny as she is, then I would be happy. If you think this, you have bought into the lie.

Lie #3 - More Accomplishments Will Fulfill You

The final phrase John uses is the pride of life or yours may say the pride of possessions. It’s almost the opposite of the last lie. The last lie says if I can just get what someone else has, I’ll be happy. This one says that if I can just have more of what I already have, I will be satisfied.

In other words, we think the more we can accomplish, the more respect we can gain, the more people look to us because of what we have done, we will feel fulfilled. This is the lie of pride and its based on the idea that we are “self-made men”.

Pride of life is the sin of the Pharisee in the parable Jesus tells about the Pharisee and the tax collector. He stands there praying to God, I’m glad I’m not like that man, a sinner. He saw himself as more accomplished, better than the lowly tax collector who wept with his face on the ground, crying out to God, “have mercy on me a sinner.”

Jesus says the tax collector went home justified in the eyes of God while the Pharisee did not. This is also the justification for cultural sins like abortion. If I can just get my college degree or get a better job or a new house, then I will be ready for children.

These lies pervade all of the American cultural landscape.

In one sense, it’s the sin of comparison. We compare our lawns to our neighbors. Mine is better. We compare our children to others. Mine are better. We compare our cars to others. Mine are cooler. We compare our lives to others and we feel pride swell up inside of us for what we have done.

And IT IS ALL A LIE!

Whatever we have, whatever we own, whatever we have done….God gave us those things. We didn’t earn it. He gave it to us. It wasn’t our intelligence or right living that produced those good things in our life. It was God!

Don’t listen to the lies of the world.

These are all false promises that the world makes. It cannot give you what it promises. Let’s recap. The first thing the world cannot give you is what you want. The second thing the world cannot give you is what it promises. The third thing…

3. The World Cannot Give You Something That Will Last

1 John 2:17 “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

The world and all that is it it is passing away. It will not last. It is a vapor. Your life on this earth is a vapor. The world cannot offer you anything in regards to eternity, only Jesus can.

The world doesn’t even try to hide this. The slogans are meant for us to live only in the moment, never in the light of eternity. For instance, what does carpe diem mean? Everyone has heard that.

How about one from the younger generation? YOLO? You only live once, right? In other words, only focus on today. Do what it takes to be happy today. Make something of yourself at the expense of others.

True Christianity is completely upside down to this thinking. We are not to overly focus on today, but we are to live our lives in light of eternity.

Christianity is not engrossed by this transitory world, but measures all things by the thought of eternity.

J. Gresham Machen

Jesus would say it like this, store up your treasures in heaven, where no one can steal it and it won’t rust and won’t decay. He wants us to focus on what truly matters. What is it that truly matters according to John?

Doing the will of God. Now some may want to over-spiritualize this statement, but let’s just keep it simple. What is the will of God? I think at its basic level, it’s what we talked about a few weeks ago - it’s love. Now it may be more than that, but it certainly isn’t less than that. It is God’s will for us to love him and to love our neighbors.

This isn’t controversial, but John here is saying hey if you are a Christian, you confess Jesus as your Lord, then you are doing the will of God by actively loving God and those around you.

Conclusion

Let’s stand together. Today we have heard three things that the world offers us that it truly cannot give. It is making false promises to you. What are you going to do about it?

I think many of us need to rethink how we are living our lives. Have we bought into the lies? Are you going to continue to live your life thinking that if you can just get what you want, you will be satisfied? Do you think that if you can just accomplish this one more thing, then you will feel better about yourself, you will have proved yourself? There’s nothing left to prove. Imagine what your life would look like if you just stopped caring what others think.

The only thing that matters is abiding in the love of the Father. That is what matters most.

So if you are here today and you want to receive Jesus as your savior, come up front and pray with me. These promises of his love are only true for Christians. You cannot deny the Father and receive his love. You cannot love the world and abide in the love of the Father.

Please come.