Guard Your Heart!
1 John • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsIn these three verses, the apostle John is warning the believers to guard their heart passions. These verses are further commentary on the New Command to love one another. We should fight the urge to seek after and crave the things our sinful natures have an appetite for because they lead to death. Instead we need to love and obey God's will because those who do so, will abide forever.
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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.
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.
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
1 John
Do not have affection for the world or the things in the world.
Do not have affection for the world or the things in the world.
an evil organized earthly system controlled by the power of the evil one that has aligned itself against God and his kingdom
What are we talking about here?
What is the World?
The things in the world that John is talking about here, are best defined as “an evil organized earthly system controlled by the power of the evil one that has aligned itself against God and his kingdom.”
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2:
The New Commandment- Love Like Jesus Loved!
The New Commandment- Love Like Jesus Loved!
What in the world are the things in the world?
What in the world are the things in the world?
John gives us a nice little list here. Let’s take a few minutes and think about each of these three categories we are warned about.
The desires of the flesh
The desires of the eyes
The pride of life
Desires= Cravings, Coveting, Self-gratification, lust
of the Flesh= your carnal sinful nature, spurned on by the Evil One
Paul lists these kind of things in several of his epistles.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:19-21
Look at this list, which Paul introduces as a list of “the works of the flesh”. Most of us here don’t have any problem with blatant, outward actions of the first few things listed their.
We may have issues with them in our hearts, or thoughts.
Furthermore, we like to skip right over the middle section which lists such things as; enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy).
Think about that list in relation to the past month of your life.
(Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy)
How much conflict that stems from rivalry is in my life on a regular basis?
How much enmity or disagreement fills your day? James tells us that friendship with the world results in enmity with God.
How often do you disagree with God about something? How often do you find yourself arguing with God over a particular circumstance or perceived injustice? Such times are likely caused by your “friendship with the world” by the “desires of your flesh”.
How often does your life exhibit jealousy, envy, dissensions, rivalry? Each of these are the works of the flesh, which result directly from the desires of our flesh.
Lust of the Eyes- That which is seen, viewed, gawked at. One commentator distinguished the difference between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes in that the desires of the eyes is “simply feasting the eyes on the object in view” whereas the desire of the flesh is "the passionate desire of the flesh for immediate self-gratification.” Lust of the eyes carries with it the connotation of greed, covetousness and ungratefulness.
Based upon this understanding of “the desires of the eyes” it would be wise for us to ask ourselves:
What are those things that we covet?
Eyes- That which is seen, viewed, gawked at. One commentator distinguished the difference between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes in that the desires of the eyes is “simply feasting the eyes on the object in view” whereas the desire of the flesh is "the passionate desire of the flesh for immediate self-gratification.”
What do we see and desire to have, though it is not ours?
What do we look at and desire, to the point that we are not able to be grateful for what we do have?
Next John warns us to abstain from the Pride of life
A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: 1, 2, 3 John Exegetical and Critical
Hence the former includes all the desires of possession and enjoyment, of covetousness and sensuality, of vulgar or refined form, while the latter embraces the desire which longs for, seeks and finds gratification in social intercourse and the manifestations of social joys, in works of art down to the rude outbreaks of festal joy
A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: 1, 2, 3 John Exegetical and Critical
desiderium earum rerum quæ pertinent ad carnem, sicut cibus et concubitus et cætera hujusmodi
Pride of life= contains both ingredients of “pride and pretension”
A person experiencing the pride of life is further explained as “a person who extols his own virtues or accomplishments beyond the limits of truth and propriety or to put it more succinctly “one who assumes independence from God” A human life, we are told in Scripture is but a vapor, do you see the presumptuous behavior of any human to go about their life as if they are in control and know best and can predict what tomorrow will bring, and all these presumptions are done in the presence and knowledge of an infinite, perfect and eternal God. Such arrogance and presumption in a human’s life, concerning the importance of their life, is sinful and evil, and John is warning us, much like the Apostle James warned us. Listen to what the apostle James says in James chapter 4.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
I would submit to you that we can easily find ourselves operating from a heart of pride. A inner belief that says,
“I deserve more”,
“I am better than others”,
“Others are blessed to have me around”,
“they can’t live without me”,
“they are fortunate to have me on their team”,
“What would they do with out me?”
“This place would be a mess if I left”
Christ was tempted in each of these ways in , when he was out in the wilderness. Satan attacked and tempted Jesus in these three ways. But each time Jesus had a verse from Scripture to combat Satan’s scheme (the way of the World).
Guard your Heart
Guard your Heart
44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
,
Luke 6:44-45
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
Matt 15:
8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent.
Prov 21:
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19 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.
Even those who are offering “sacrifices” to God, can be doing so out of a heart that is wicked. We can “do religion” and “do church” and “do good works” that have their foundation in the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Psalm
31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
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.
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
1 John 2:
Know and Obey the Will of God
Know and Obey the Will of God
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
2 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.
Not Conformed- shape shifter
Be Transformed- Metamorphosis toward holiness.
The New Commandment- Love Like Jesus Loved!
The New Commandment- Love Like Jesus Loved!
10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2:10
LOVE!
LOVE!
A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: 1, 2, 3 John Exegetical and Critical
To love is to surrender oneself; God surrenders Himself in order to save, overcome and glorify; the creature can only surrender itself to the world to be ruined, swept along and carried off. The creature is forbidden to enter into intimate and vital communion, or entire life-fellowship with that sphere of humanity which has fallen away from God
The Guarantee of Guarding your Heart
The Guarantee of Guarding your Heart
This isn’t just a Lifetime Limited Warranty! It is a forever warranty!
Don’t be allured by the temporal things, Enjoy the blessing of the eternal
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
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