Our Enemy Without: The World

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Mike K)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Advent Reading: Peace)

Prayer of Praise (Ty Brewton)

Emmanuel (Wonder Junction)

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Prayer of Confession (Robert Smith)

Assurance of Pardon (2 Cor 6:17–18)

Angels From the Realms of Glory

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Scripture Reading (1 John 2:15-17)—page 1211 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Mike K)

Prayer for PBC—Help us to resist worldliness

Prayer for kingdom partner—Waite, Mark (Regions in Need)

Prayer for US—Lieutenant Governor

Prayer for the world—Cameroon*

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

Picture December in 1941.

Christmas trees glowed in living room windows. Shopfronts were decorated. Carols drifted across radios. Families mailed packages and letters to those who lived far away. Advent candles were being lit in churches, and America leaned into the holiday believing it was at peace.

But on the other side of the world, our enemy was preparing. Pilots were briefed. Bombs were loaded. Warplanes were flying across the Pacific.

And at dawn on December 7th, 1941 (exactly 84 years ago today) the illusion of peace shattered.

Explosions tore open battleships. Towers of smoke rolled over the harbor.

More than 2,400 Americans died.

By the time the fires were out, the world realized something horrifying: the peace we imagined had never been real.

Warm feelings cannot stop an enemy who has never surrendered.

Like Americans in early December 1941, we too are often lulled to sleep by illusions of peace.

We sing songs proclaiming “War is over if you want it” and “let there be peace on earth.”

But sentiment cannot tame hostility and holiday spirit cannot reconcile what is still at war with God and His people.

We too have an enemy that has never surrendered.

And it is foolish and dangerous to declare peace with an enemy that is committed to your destruction.

Last week we began talking about the battle we’re always fighting—even at Christmas.

We are at war with a deceitful enemy and a destructive culture that appeals to our disordered desires.

Those three enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Today, we’ll be considering our enemy without: the world.

If you’ve closed your Bible, please open it back up to 1 John 2:15.

First John was written by the apostle John around A.D. 80–95 to churches in modern-day Turkey.

John tells us his purpose for writing this letter in...

1 John 5:13—I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

He writes the letter so that Christians may have assurance of salvation.

And one of the best ways to know that you truly have eternal life is by looking at what you love.

Do you love the world? Or do you recognize that it’s an enemy committed to your destruction?

As we did last week, we’re going to ask and answer three crucial questions about our enemy:

What is our enemy?

Why is this enemy so dangerous?

How is this enemy resisted?

Let’s dive in by answering our first question...

1) What is the WORLD?

1 John 2:15a—Do not love the world or the things in the world. . . .

What does John mean by “the world”?

Often when we want to understand what a word means we find a dictionary (or an equivalent online tool) and look up a definition.

Many do something similar when studying the Bible. They become familiar with certain Bible study tools and learn to do word studies that help the reader unpack the meaning of a particular term.

While the word study approach can sometimes be helpful, it often has severe limitations. Because far too often the meaning of a word is best determined by context, not the definition given in a Bible dictionary.

This is true in English too. If I use the English word “squash” I could be talking about a vegetable, a game, or the act of crushing something.

The best way to know what I’m talking about would be to listen to how I use the word in a sentence.

Often context is more important than a dictionary.

The same principle is true when studying the Bible.

The Greek New Testament uses the word cosmos 196 times.

In our English Bibles it is typically translated as “world.”

Sometimes it refers to the physical universe God created.

For example, every Christmas we remember...

John 1:9–10—The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.”

The miracle of Christmas is that Jesus, the eternal Creator of all things, became human and stepped into His creation.

Sometimes the NT uses the word “world” to refer to the people God saves.

The most famous example of this is...

John 3:16—For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

The Father didn’t send His Son because He loved mountains and beaches and trees.

He sent His Son because He loved people. It is people who can believe in Jesus and be saved!

Other times the word “world” can refer to the world order which is in rebellion against God.

For example...

John 15:18-19—If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

The word “world” here cannot be a reference to the physical universe, because the universe doesn’t love or hate. It just is.

And it can’t refer to the people God saves, because these people hate Jesus and do not believe in Him.

C.J. Mahaney rightly says this about our enemy: “The world we’re not to love is the organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from God.” [1]

God created this world and everything in it. By themselves the things in this world are not bad. But sinful humans have taken those good gifts and misused them — bending them inward, making them serve our desires, our appetites, our cravings.

We have constructed a world order that comforts our rebellion, affirms our pride, and protects our idols.

That system — the loves, values, habits, and patterns that push humanity away from obedience — is what John calls “the world.”

When John says, “do not love the world” he’s saying we shouldn’t love the world order, “the organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from God.”

Don’t fall in love with your enemy! Don’t make peace with something hellbent on destroying you!

That seems so obvious and easy. Don’t love your enemy—check!

But John has to say this because it’s so easy to fall in love with the world.

And lest you feel like loving the world is no big deal, consider the second half of…

1 John 2:15b—. . . If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

When John says “the love of the Father is not in” the person who loves the world, he probably means that you cannot have two ultimate loves at the same time. You’ll either love the world or you’ll love the Father. You can’t do both.

As Jesus said, we cannot serve two masters. [2]

Saint Augustine puts it this way: “We can love the world, or love God. If we love the world, there will be no room in our heart for the love of God. We cannot love both God, who is eternal, and the world, which is transitory.” [3]

Your heart can only handle one ultimate love. Far too many of us—even the people of God—have left our first love. We’ve forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed out broken cisterns that can hold no water.

What is the world? It’s the the organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from God.

It’s a constant rival for our affections, tempting us to love something smaller than Jesus.

Now let’s consider the answer to our second question...

2) Why is the World So DANGEROUS?

After telling us not to love the world, the Apostle John tells us why this is such a serious temptation for us...

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.

Here John gives us three reasons why the world is so dangerous.

Charles Spurgeon calls it the “devil’s trinity.” [4]

First, the world is dangerous because…

A) It appeals to our internal DESIRES

This is what John calls “the desires of the flesh.”

We’ll talk more about the flesh next week.

For now, we need to understand that the desires of the flesh are simply any internal desires that might conflict with our desire for God.

William Barclay explains: “To be subject to the flesh’s desire is to judge everything by purely material standards. It is to live a life dominated by the senses. It is to be gluttonous in food; [overindulgent] in luxury; slavish in pleasure; lustful and lax in morals; selfish in the use of possessions[;] … extravagant in the gratification of material desires. The flesh’s desire [disregards] the commandments of God, the judgment of God, the standards of God and the very existence of God.” [5]

Obviously it is not wrong to have internal desires. We’re created with bodily desires for things like food, drink, and sleep.

The problem becomes when our lives are dominated by these fleshly desires.

We’re dominated by our fleshly desires when we desire them too much.

A desire for food is not necessarily wrong, but it becomes wrong when you overeat. Or eat too much of the wrong things and not enough of the food that will actually nourish your body.

We’re dominated by our fleshly desires when we desire them out of order.

A desire for sleep isn’t wrong, but if you desire sleep more than you desire gathering with God’s people consistently, or reading your Bible your desires are out of order.

We’re dominated by our fleshly desires when we desire things we shouldn’t desire at all.

The world says, “if it feels good, do it!”

But the truth is, not every desire is good.

You can have a strong internal desire for something that is never okay—things like same-sex attraction, or the desire to get high.

The world is dangerous because it appeals to our internal desires, what John calls the “desires of the flesh.”

Second, the world is dangerous because…

B) It attracts us with external BEAUTY

This is what John calls “the desires of the eyes.”

This refers to any temptation that assaults us from the outside.

Do you know why advertisers will spend $8 million for a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl? Because, in their minds, it’s a good investment. $8 million is a small price to pay to capture the attention of 250 million eyes.

Now again, it’s not necessarily wrong to be captivated by external beauty.

God didn’t make the world in black and white. Every morning and evening He paints the sky with color.

The world is beautiful because God is ultimate beauty!

But the world wants us to be so captivated by its beauty that we never look beyond to the Creator.

And it does this by bombarding us with images.

This happened to me, ironically, while I was preparing this sermon.

I was trying to find a quote or an illustration or something when I saw an ad for a spinning top called created by a company called “Foreverspin.”

SHOW TOP IMAGE

The image captured my attention because it looks like the top spun by Dom Cobb, the main character in the movie Inception.

Now, I assure you, I was not in the market for a spinning top.

But these things are so cool! I started reading about how they’re made and watching videos about how long they spin, and before I realized it I had wasted 30 minutes.

And I began to notice I was starting to covet one of these stupid tops. Not because I needed one. Not because I had ever thought of one before. But simply because I had been duped by the desires of the eyes.

The world is dangerous because it attracts us with external beauty, what John calls the “desires of the eyes.”

Third, the world is dangerous because…

C) It assures us of personal GLORY

This is what John calls “the pride of life.”

Martin Lloyd-Jones says this is perhaps “the most serious and terrible of the three.” [6]

In his commentary on 1 John, Douglas O’Donnell says “‘Pride of life’ speaks of the attitude of someone who refuses to rely on God as Father while he boasts in what he has seemingly gained by himself. It is self-dependence and self-glorification. It is unholy conceit in viewing God’s gifts as human achievements.” [7]

This sinful pursuit of personal glory has been around since the very beginning.

Genesis 3:4–6—But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Actually, if you look carefully, you’ll notice all three worldly desires present in the Garden of Eden.

The tree was good for food—that’s the desires of the flesh, appealing to her internal desires.

The tree was a delight to the eyes—that’s the desires of the eyes, attracting her with external beauty.

And the tree was desired to make one wise—that’s the pride of life, assuring her of personal glory.

Ever since that day, all of us have been tricked by the same playbook.

We get captured by our internal desires, captivated by external beauties, and consumed by personal glory.

All of us have fallen. All of us are guilty of loving the world.

But there was a Man who didn’t.

At the age of 30, Jesus began His earthly ministry. Right after He was baptized He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

And while He was in the wilderness, our enemy the Devil slithered up to Him and tempted Him to love the world.

First, he tempted Jesus with the desires of the flesh.

“How long has it been since you’ve had something to eat, Jesus? Forty days and nights? Wow, you must be hungry! Why don’t you command those stones to become loaves of bread?”

Adam was in a garden paradise when he gave into the desires of the flesh. Jesus was in a desert wilderness when He resisted.

So Satan tried again. He tempted Jesus with the desires of the eyes.

He transported Jesus to the top of the temple in Jerusalem.

“Why don’t you show everybody just how powerful you are. Jump off the temple and the angels will protect you. Everyone will see just how special you are.”

The first Adam failed, but Jesus—the true and better Adam—succeeded.

So Satan tried once more. He tempted Jesus with the pride of life.

He transported Jesus to the top of a mountain. He showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

“You can have it all, Jesus. Just worship me and I’ll give you all the glory you could ever want.”

Once again, Jesus resisted.

Jesus knew that one day ever knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. But before He wore the crown of glory, Jesus needed to wear the crown of thorns.

Jesus was not born in Bethlehem so He could receive all the pleasures and praise of this world.

He was born to die.

Because you and I have loved the world and fallen short of the glory of God, we deserve to die.

But Jesus lived a sinless life and died a sinner’s death in our place.

Then on the third day He rose from the dead so we could be saved.

Do you believe that, friend? Would you trust in that Good News today? The only way to be truly set free from the love of the world is to fall in love with something—Someone—better. His name is Jesus!

Jesus put it this way in...

Matthew 16:24–26— … “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

You can gain everything in this world, but in the end you’ll lose everything.

Or you can give your life to Jesus, and gain what the world can never take away!

If you’ve done that, you’re ready to consider the answer to our final question...

3) How is the World RESISTED?

Last week I introduced a formula to help us on each of our three battlefronts: against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

We resist with the SCRIPTURES in the SPIRIT beside the SAINTS.

If you want to resist the world, you need the Scriptures.

The Scriptures are like the red pill in the Matrix. They open your eyes to the truth about this world. They help you to see that it’s an illusion.

Look at how the Apostle John does this in…

1 John 2:17a—And the world is passing away along with its desires, . . . .

The world is shiny and beautiful. But it’s not going to last. It’s passing away.

If you’re going to resist the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, you need the Scriptures!

You need the Bible to help you know which of your desires are sinful, which of your desires are out of order, and which desires are just too strong.

You need the Bible to help you know what is truly beautiful.

And you need the Bible to know what true glory looks like.

If you want to resist the world, you need the Spirit.

The only way to conquer your desire for the things of this world is to fight desire with desire.

The Puritan pastor Thomas Chalmers called this “the expulsive power of a new affection.”

The goal is not to empty your heart of desire for this things of this world, but to fill your heart with a true and better desire, a desire for communion with God through the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

It’s a desire to please God above all.

It’s the desire John is hinting at when he says...

1 John 2:17b—. . . whoever does the will of God abides forever.

You don’t overcome greed by merely deciding to be less greedy —you overcome greed by loving Jesus and His kingdom more than money.

You don’t defeat lust by simply hating lust —you defeat it by delighting more in Christ’s purity and beauty than in momentary pleasure.

You don’t conquer pride by saying, “I should be humble” —you conquer pride by loving Christ’s glory more than your own.

If you want to resist the world, you need the saints.

If we’re going to resist the world, we need each other.

We need fellow Christians to point out the ways we’re being shaped by the world.

Just like the fish doesn’t realize it’s wet until you take it out of the water, we often don’t realize how worldly we spend time with other Christians who are serious about following Jesus.

We need relationships with people who will confront us about our entertainment choices and our parenting philosophies, and the way we spend our money.

We need Sunday School classes and Bible studies and late-night conversations and prayer partners and older saints and younger believers who help loosen the world’s grip on our hearts.

How is the world resisted? With the Scriptures, in the Spirit, beside the saints.

On December 7, 1941, America woke up to a horrible reality: we had been living in an illusion of peace while the enemy was already on the move.

Today, December 7, 2025, the danger is different, but the temptation is the same.

We are surrounded by lights and carols and Christmas cheer, and it is very easy to assume that all is well—that we can be friends with the world and friends with God at the same time.

But John won’t let us believe that.

The world is passing away along with its desires.

Every advertisement you see, every worldly dream you chase, every sinful desire that feels so urgent right now—it’s all fading.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever.

So let me ask you as we close: Where have you made peace with the world?

Where have you started to believe the illusion that you can love the world and love the Father at the same time?

Where have the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, or the pride of life begun to take root?

If you’re not a Christian, friend, today is not a call to try harder to be “less worldly.”

It’s a call to come to Jesus—the only One who ever stood in this world and never once bowed to its desires.

Turn from your sin. Trust in His death and resurrection. Stop trying to gain the whole world and come to the One who can save your soul.

And if you do belong to Christ, let this text be your wake-up call.

Don’t sleep in the glow of Christmas lights while the world wages war against your soul.

Take up the Scriptures. Walk in the Spirit. Stand beside the saints.

And fix your eyes on Jesus—the One who loved you, gave Himself for you, and is worth more than anything this world can offer.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Almost Home

Benediction (1 John 5:4)