DO NOT LOVE WHAT GOD HATES- 1 JOHN 2:15-18

Introduction

We like to say that God loves everybody. In a very real sense that statement is true. Yes, God is a God of perfect love. However, it is because He is a God of perfect love that there are certain things He hates perfectly and one of those things is mankind’s love for the world. This perfect hate comes about whenever the object of God’s love is threatened. Yes, there are things that God hates and he hates them perfectly.

[read Proverbs 6:16-19]

There is one other thing that God hates. What is it that God hates? That which God hates perfectly is our imperfect love of the world. Why? Because that which threatens that which God loves perfectly, God hates perfectly. The two go hand in hand. James 4:4 tells us not to make friends with the world.

Friend, everyone of us have a particular lifespan that has predetermined for us. Some of you young people may not make it past thirty years of age. On the other end, some of you may live to become a centurnarian- one who has reached one hundred years of age, like John the apostle. There are others that will come to the end of their earthly journey by means we do not understand, especially when we assume they should have lived longer. Be that as it may, the success of that life has everything to do with your relationship with God and with godly things. Yes, it is your choice, especially you young people. You may decide to live your life for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Yes, you can decide to live for the excesses of the world. However, you must also understand that to do so is to live and to love for that which God hates. Why don’t you do it a better way. Why not decide to live according to the will and purpose of God and live a life with a love for that which God loves.

To live a life according to the will and purpose of God is to live a life that is full of meaning. We are all going to experience hurt. We all must endure to thorns and thistles of sorrow. Believers are not immune to that. You are going to have hurt and heartache. There are going to be difficult horse pills to swallow. You are going to have times of struggle in your life. The question is not about whether you will have hurt . Whether you live for Jesus or you live for the devil, you will experience struggle. So, that is not the question. The question is: How are you going to handle the struggle when it comes your way? Keep that question in mind as we look at the warning this morning: Do Not Love What God Hates. [read text

Beware the Treacherous Nature of the World (2:15).

Interestingly the word for love is not the Greek word we might expect like “phileo.” Rather, it is the word “agape.” This is the word that is used mostly in a Christian sense. One sense of this word is “to love in behalf of another.” That is exactly what John means here. Whoever loves the world for whatever he can do for the world, he becomes so immersed in the world to the point that the world has become his god. That man, my friend, is doomed to unhappiness.

There is so much that is so beautiful in our world. If you don’t believe me just come with me to the western side of the state to Mount Mitchell. On a clear day you can see forever as the song goes. Now it has been some time since I have been to Mount Mitchell. The last time we were there was when I was still at my first church. We decided to load up the old minivan and go up to Mount Mitchell. We got there after climbing and climbing that mountain. Going up for much of the trip was sunny and so picturesque and relaxing as we were making our ascent. Then we got to the top and got the children out of the car. It was a wondrous sight to see, well at least until the fog rolled in and then our visibility became almost zero. Still, it was a beautiful trip.

I almost forgot to share with you this little bit of information. I did not enjoy the trip back down the mountain as much. You see I failed to fill up the tank with fuel in the minivan we were traveling in . I had miscalculated the amount of fuel pulling that minivan up the mountain would take. Suffice it to say we were so low on fuel on the way down that I had contemplated putting it in neutral and letting it coast down the mountain. I quickly reversed my thinking on that. Finally, we got back down the mountain and by God’s grace we found a place to fuel up-just in time.

What a beautiful world God has given us. Yet, in the midst of that sometimes the fog will roll in and there are times when we presume too much and find ourselves low on fuel. In the midst of great beauty there comes great pain. There are times when life gets rough but overall the world is a beautiful place. However, you have to be careful. You have got to be sure that you do not fall in love with the world. You must be careful not to become too impressed with the world and put the world ahead of your love for Christ. The reason is if we do this, we demonstrate that we do not have the love of the Father in us. If the love of the Father is not in us then the evidence is that we are not truly in relationship with Him. You have to make a choice. You either are going to love the world and the things the world can give you or you are going to love the Father. It is one or the other. You cannot have it both ways. Beware the treacherous nature of the world in its attempts to turn your focus and love away from God.

Beware the Tempting Nature of the World (2:16)

There are three areas the writer gives that Satan will try to lure you away from God with. Before listing those three areas, think about this. Have you ever noticed that there is only one letter difference between word and world. That is it. That is all it takes for Satan to turn our focus from the Word to the world. When our focus is not on the Word it becomes easy to focus on the world. That is what the Lord is warning us about in this verse. [read verse]

I want you to think about these three areas with me for just a few moments this morning. The word for lust in this verse is “epithumia.” It comes from an old Greek word “thumos.” This world literally means “to boil up.” I picture the geyser “Old Faithful” as it boils up almost on que. The prefix “epi” simply means “on, upon, over.” Put together the word means “to boil upon, to boil on” or “to boil over.” It is one of the figures of speech to describe “heated anger.” heated anger is an anger that reaches the boiling point and then rapidly subsides. Such lust boils to the point of erupting and spreads itself all over your life.

First, there is the lust of the flesh. These are human strivings that are greatly physical in nature. In and of themselves they are not negative. However, when such physical desires become the driving obsession of your life, such desires becomes exploitative, self-centered and destructive. This becomes evidence that your love of the Father is lacking and your love for the world stands up. One such application concerns the evils of pornography. This is destroying more individuals, more families and even more churches than other single thing out there today. This is an application of God’s warning concerning the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh will hook you like a fish on a baited line and will make you a slave. Beware the tempting nature of the world and Satan’s plow to catch by means of the lust of the flesh.

Second, there is the warning against the lust of the eye. This is the human desire or craving that comes from what one sees. It becomes the obsession with what one sees. There are so many things that are beautiful to behold in this world. After all, beauty is of God. Yet, when beauty becomes your god, the lust of your eyes will eventually take you down.

Third, there is the pride of life. This is the sin of self-sufficiency. This was the sin of the Laodicean church. This is the sin of trusting in one’s self rather than placing one’s trust in God. It is to become obsessed with one’s status and/or possessions. Hear me today. Anything that you have accomplished in this life has everything to do with the grace of God shed upon you and has very little to do with you. In one way or the other, your accomplishments in this life has more to do with the sacrifices of others on your behalf than it has to do with how smart you think you are. The pride of life will take you down many roads and there are killers waiting down every one of them. Beware the pride of life.

Worldliness is the sin of loving the world’s system rather than God. This was the sin that took down our first parents. All three of the areas of worldliness are seen in Genesis 3:6. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), and that it was a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes) and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise (pride of life), she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband (apparently he had no sense) who was with her, and he ate.” In this one verse we observe all three of the lures Satan used to catch the first man and first woman and turn them from their love of God. Beware the tempting nature of the world.

Beware the Temporary Nature of the World (2:17)

Knowing everything that we have just talked about, a question should come to the forefront of our minds. What am I to do with what I have presented with. You see, what you think about is ultimately what you will be. The apostle Paul encourages us to take every thought captive (2 Cor. 10:5). That is a dangerous proposition. Your thought life will determine what you will ultimately do. You have to bring your thought life Iinto captivity. If you do not bring your thought life into captivity, sooner or later, your end will be tragic. Pastor, how do I do that. I am getting ready to tell you how. First, I am going to show you how. Skip down a few verses in your Bible if you will and would you just notice verse 20. What does that verse mean? When you surrender to Christ, the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence in your soul. From that point you are given an anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The anointing as found in the Bible was the symbolic gesture that indicated presence and power of the Spirit of God. When Aaron was anointed he was anointed with oil. You would take a small container of oil and tip it over so that you got a little on the end of your finger and pop you in the head and declare that you are healed. No, that is not the way it happened. That is the way it happen maybe on TBN, but it didn’t happen that way in the Bible. When someone was anointed they would almost drench a person with the anointing oil so that it would flow down the beard of the one being anointed and even down to the lower areas of his garment.

When you were anointed by the Spirit of God it was not that a little dab will do you. It was flowing river of anointing. Friend, you have been given an anointing and to the degree that you nourish that so that the Spirit of God is powerfully operative in your life, you can bring every thought captive in your life and you can then begin to produce the fruits of the spirit. Then your life will become a progressively happy and meaningful life in Jesus Christ. Beware the temporary nature of the world and take captive every thought that seeks to take you captive from the world.

Be Warned of the Terror Now Coming (2:18)

I will just briefly touch on this verse and we will be done. If you have been in church any length of time at all, you have heard preachers warn of the “last hour” and the fact of the coming of the Antichrist. Yet, did you notice what John says. John says that antichrists are already here. These antichrists are a preview of coming attractions. In one sense there have always been antichrists who have plagued the church. Such antichrists love to come into the church and cause problems by creating problems where there are no problems. Many times they are false teaches who make their way in an attempt to lead people away from Christ and win them to themselves. There three biblical indicators to determine is such a one or ones have accessed the church. First, antichrists have a faulty understanding of who Jesus (2:22). Antichrists have no real relationship with God (2:23). Antichrists are liars and deceivers (2:22). Therefore, we must be informed and be warned concerning the terror that is now coming .

CONCLUSION

He played football as a quarterback at a small obscure college in northern Iowa. He tried out professionally but the NFL didn’t want him. So he decided to move to Europe to play. He later played Arena Football when he returned to the United States. He married an abandoned divorcee who was living on food stamp and he worked in a grocery store after being cut by the Green Bay Packers making $5.50 an hour stocking shelves. Yet, God had something special for him. In 2000 he led the Saint Louis Rams to the Super Bowl. In 2001 he was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. His name is Kurt Warner and he is strongly committed to Jesus Christ. Commenting on his playing days in Europe, Warner states, “I really got to know the Lord there, because of all the temptations from the devil in Amsterdam. Drugs, women, promiscuity everywhere you go. The devil tried to get me to fall, but I gave my life completely to the Lord.”

The world tries to convince us to love its values and what it claims to offer. Yet, in the end, it will abuse and destroy us. Jesus loves us perfectly in order to save us and use us for righteous purposes. The world’s glitter last for just a moment, but God’s glory is forever. Remember that the one who does the will of God will live forever.