A Battle Over Love

I want to start by asking you whether you've heard of the phenomenon, it's not too new, of NASA and their plans to send people to Mars. Who's heard of that? There's a documentary coming out actually, I think on National Geographic or something like that, brand new, high budget, high production quality on this whole mission. Who's gonna go? What's it going to be like?

What are they going to do? And I wonder if you, like me, have asked yourself the question, would I go? Because it's a one-way ticket. You go and you're not coming back. Would I go?

There might be a few mums that say absolutely at this time. Leave the kids here. I'm out of here. Oh, Leanne's saying send the kids. Someone at our trivia night last night won a voucher for the vet and said that they would like to desex their kids.

Now apparently tens of thousands of people have actually applied for this. People writing in that they would love to be part of this small group that goes. Now, again, it makes you wonder what kind of person would do this? Maybe they don't have a very good life here. Maybe they don't have family here, loved ones here that would keep them.

Maybe they don't need Foxtel. Would you be able to do it? Give up everything you have here. Live on a different planet with so many things that you have here not being available. It would be hard for me, I think, to say goodbye to the familiar and hello to a whole new life and a whole new world, physically, literally, a whole new world.

But in many ways, this is the call of the Christian life. You and I, when confronted with the gospel, were asked the question, will you cross over into the kingdom of God and give up the world? The apostle John has something to say about this. Let's turn to one John chapter two and we're going to read from verse 15 to verse 27. One John two, verse 15.

Do not love the world, he writes, or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For 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. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. Dear 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. They 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. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know it and because no lie comes from that truth.

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist. He denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father.

Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and the Father and this is what He promised us, even eternal life. I'm writing these things to you, to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. And as for you, the anointing you receive from Him remains in you and you do not need anyone to teach you.

But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it has taught you, remain in Him. So far our reading. The topic today is on this theme of worldliness. And if you've ever read Puritans in the past, the Puritan writers, Jonathan Edwards, the Richard Baxters of the day, you would have heard the word worldliness being used. It's not something that Christians use very often anymore.

But worldliness at its core is not a matter of the physical world around us or the things that happen to us. Worldliness at its core is a matter of the heart. If your heart is captured by the world, you will love the things of the world. If your heart, on the other hand, is captured by the love of God, you will be drawn to Him and the things of God. And the only way we know as Christians, the only way that our heart has been transformed to love God is by this transformational event called regeneration, called new birth, Jesus said.

Paul, in another part of Scripture, calls it or describes it as a dead person being made alive again. Now remember that John the Apostle is writing to a church wracked by heresy, wracked by people who were confusing them with all kinds of teaching, infected and confused by certain heretics. These people claim to have been enlightened, but John says that they are still in darkness. They try to draw the people of God into their inner circle of knowledge, but their doctrine, John says, and their practice revealed that they did not truly know God as they claimed to have. And up until now, John has been giving tests on how to evaluate whether you are a part of them or a part of God's people.

And we've heard two tests up until this point. The first test is a moral test, verses 3 to 6 in chapter two. A moral test, a test of obedience. You will know them, in other words, by their fruit. Verse 3: we know that we have come to know Him, who is God, if we obey His commands.

A moral test of our heart. The second test comes from relationships, love for others, verses 7 to 11, and this is summed up in verse 9. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. But now a third test, a doctrinal test, a test of teaching, of belief is given.

John characteristically, like he's done up until now, draws a very sharp line. The edges are not blurred. If you love the world, you do not love the Father. If you love the world, you do not love the Father. Now what is this world that John is talking about?

The Greek word for the term, the word used here is cosmos. It occurs 185 times in the New Testament. But John loves this word. John uses it all the time. Out of the 185 times in the whole New Testament, he personally uses it 105 times.

Seventy-eight times in the gospel, 24 in his epistles, and then 3 times in the book of Revelation. Now it originally meant order and it came to refer to the universe and the well-ordered ornament of creation that God made. But in other parts in one John, or in sorry, in John, John 1:10, for example, it refers to the physical world that we have, the earth that we live on. In other places like John 3:16, God so loved the world, it refers to collectively as the people that live on the world. And so in this sense, in these two uses, we find that the understanding of the world is positive, at least neutral.

It's either neutral or positive. And so in these cases where John uses the word world, there is nothing wrong with loving the world. In other words, we can and should enjoy God's created order, God's created world. Funnily enough, the word cosmetics comes from cosmos. It's like you have to bring order to this.

Love and enjoy God's creation, firstly, and then also we can and should be concerned about the people of this world. We should be concerned like God was concerned. Positive or at least neutral, but John then uses a third style, a third context for this word which refers to an evil organised system which operates through unbelieving people. And these people are identified as being the enemies of God. They are ruled by and deeply enslaved by Satan.

John writes in one John five, verse 19. So just a few verses on in chapter five, verse 19 says, we know that we are of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know that we are ruled by God, but the whole world is ruled by the evil one. And regarding this world, Jesus Himself said in John 15:18 and 19 that this world will hate Him and those who follow Him. And that it should be no surprise when this happens. This organised system is in direct opposition to the will of God and His unfolding kingdom.

And it operates this kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of Christ on the basis of defined, established attitudes and motives, on explicit values, on structures, on systems of thought and goals that are contrary to God's will, to God's kingdom. It does not seek to promote God's glory or to submit to His sovereign divine authority. It is in direct rebellion against God. And so John gives the direct commandment in verse 15: do not love the world nor anything in this world. And he refers to a love of the system that is so directly opposed to God and he goes so far as giving this implication: if anyone does love the world, the love of the Father will not be in them.

Can you see that for him it is an either or? It is a straight line. It is not both and. John uses the word Father to describe God in verses 15 and 16 and why? It's because he's just referred to the Father love of God in the verses we dealt with last week, verses 12 to 14, which talks of His children, His beloved children that He sent His Son for as being called to be His, that their sins are forgiven, that He loves them and reveals Himself to them as a Father.

And this is what it boils down to. The life of a human being and their soul is a battle of the heart. The life of a human being is a battle for what you love. And for this reason, the Bible directs its life-giving commandments not simply to the mind, not simply to rationality and understanding a certain system, but it talks about the heart as well. The greatest commandment we are given: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

King Solomon writes in Proverbs 4:23: above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. The Puritan writer Jonathan Edwards argued, religion, true Christianity in great part consists in holy affections, holy desires. True Christianity boils down to deep and lasting emotion and feeling and passion. It comes down to the deepest desire in our existence to love God, to be faithful to Him at all costs, to seek in our lives and through our lives His highest praise, His greatest glory, His best exaltation.

And the apostle John draws the sharp distinction. If your heart is called towards this Father, captivated by the things of this world, the question is, do I belong to the Father? Now verse 16 explains what it looks like to be captivated by this world. Starting with the word for in verse 16. For, because 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.

It comes down to the desire of the body, the desire of the mind, and the desire of a proud heart. Now I don't think John is necessarily saying this is everything that there is, the be all and the end all of all worldly temptations, but it is pretty broad. And these three desires will ruin your existence. It will ruin your obedience and your faithfulness, your active decisions for living a life with God. It will totally destroy it.

And this is how I know. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Actually, let's turn to that. Genesis three. Genesis three.

The greatest, worst decision ever made is based on these three things. Genesis 3:6. When the woman, Eve, saw with her eyes that the fruit of the tree was good. It's good for food, desires of the flesh. Pleasing to the eye, desires and lusts of the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

All three of these temptations of the world is listed here. The desires of the flesh, cravings of sinful man, the NIV calls it, the lust of his eyes, it looked good, and the boasting of what he has and does, wisdom and understanding like God. And what was the result? Mankind broke fellowship with God. Again, same pattern occurs in Satan's temptation of Jesus and he shows himself in this to be the new Adam, the perfect man.

The beginning of his ministry looks totally different to the beginning of Adam and Eve's existence. Luke 4:1-12 shows Jesus being tempted by Satan and Satan tempts him along three lines. Similar lines. Firstly, Satan urges Jesus to turn stones into bread. Desires of the flesh.

Secondly, he shows him all the kingdoms of the earth and he offers them to Jesus, all of them, the greatest power and riches. He shows them all to Jesus, the lust of the eyes. And thirdly, Satan encourages Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple for he knows that God the Father will rescue him, which is an issue of pride because he is so important. Of course, God wouldn't allow him to die. But Jesus passes the test.

He resists the enemy and therefore he is worthy to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. And we see how these sins can be categorised under all of our sins can be categorised into these three headings. The greed of money, the lust for sex and sexuality, selfish ambition, overeating, alcohol abuse, anger, bitterness, conceit, all of it comes down to these temptations that come from not the Father, but the world. And it's the world that will tell you you need it. The world will tell you you need the Kardashian lifestyle.

You need to be popular. The world will tempt you with the lust to be intrigued and to desire Kim and Kanye's life. Why? Because the world is consumed by it themselves. They cannot understand any other way.

And it is an ongoing relentless thirst that cannot be quenched. It is a desire that will consume you for your whole life. If it is not Kim and Kanye, if they fall out, it will be someone else. The world will tell you that alcohol is the only thing that will satisfy you, that will make your life better. But it cannot see how trapped this world is in this ravenous desire.

And I'm just picking a few examples. There's no agenda here. But I watched a certain morning show this week where new studies have come out showing that young women are now the greater abusers of alcohol in our society, young ladies. And, you know, the presenter and a few people were giving their moral perspectives on this. And they were mentioning, you know, from their moral superior high ground how terrible it is and yet, they mentioned how every now and then they don't mind getting drunk.

And they could not see the irony, faking concern for alcohol abuse when they themselves were indulging in it, but not as much as the other guys. Those who haven't been brought to life, from death to life, cannot understand it. They will not see this contradiction. They have nothing in them to motivate themselves to break from it. They cannot and will not accept that something is terribly wrong.

And this is the crux of the love for the world. If you truly love the world, you cannot love God. You will actually not even realise it. Christians, on the other hand, will be tempted by these things because they are lusts of the heart and we still exist in this world. Our affections will be drawn away every so often.

Our feet will stumble. We will fall into sin but our souls, friends, souls that are now hidden in Christ, covered by Him and His righteousness and perfection, our souls will be bruised by sin. Our hearts will be cut by it. Our consciences will be moved and for those who have actually come to love the Father, for those who have actually come to see His love in all its beauty and splendour, they will realise and accept firstly that something is wrong. They will accept that something is wrong and they will seek another way.

And that way is faith and trust. That way is obedience to God and His will. Like that famous English hymn, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Christian heart knows that. And though it be tempted away, though it pokes its toe onto that sinking sand, it doesn't leave it there for very long.

Christian comes back to the solid rock. So friend, I want to encourage you, evaluate your heart this week. Seriously evaluate the motives of why you do things, the motives of why you feel great joy about certain things, the affections of the heart, or the other side, great sadness, great bitterness and distress. It's also an affection of the heart. Is it something that you have lost that you so desire?

What motivates you to feel these things? They are worth evaluating and if they don't line up with the truth of God's word, they are like spoilt, rotten food in your fridge. You can't redeem it. You've got to chuck it out. John writes, the world and its desires are passing away.

They are fading, but the will of God and the person who follows it lasts forever. That lifestyle of whoever you follow will not satisfy. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton's power won't last forever. Only with God is there true satisfaction for the heart and lasting rest in His power.

This is exactly why John then goes on to prove the danger of a life filled by the world. And he goes on in this next section about antichrists in verses 18 to 27, and some people's ears may have pricked up at this. Notice he doesn't talk about the antichrist, he mentions an antichrist, but he writes more specifically about antichrists, plural. Though there may be a specific antichrist coming, and as Christians reading the Bible in a system, we think immediately of two Thessalonians, the man of lawlessness that will come before the end who ushers in that final period before Christ's return. The spirit, however, of the antichrist, that the nature of antichrist is already at work in this world.

It is the spirit of the world that seeks to tempt Christians to abandon the faith, to walk away from it. And there are three things he says in this passage that we need to remember about the nature and the power of this work in the world. Firstly, they can be right under our noses. Verse 19 indicates that these individuals, these antichrists were part of the church that John was writing to. He says, they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.

In other words, they left our church because they never were a part of this church. But you probably ate with them. You probably sang beautiful songs with them. You probably invited them to your small group. The spirit of the world, however, consumed the nature of these antichrists and unfortunately, they can and will seep into the church.

We, as a church, are not immune. We don't see the heart. We can't judge from the outside. And so they might be amongst us. But the great comfort as well is that it won't last forever.

They will be removed. They will leave. They will be exposed for who they really are. They might be allowed around us, in our families, in our friendship circles. By God, they might be allowed in our circles to refine us, to test the genuineness of our faith, to make a church stronger, to bring more unity and resilience in their faith.

But after some time, they will leave. They will be exposed for what they really are and that is that they are enemies of God. Secondly, we see that they are liars. Verse 22: they deny Jesus Christ. And not only that, but they deny the entire Godhead of the Trinity.

They can't simply deny Christ without also denying God the Father who sent Him. In denying Christ the Son, John says, they deny God the Father who has sent Him. Whoever acknowledges the Son acknowledges the Father also. And so to those who deny Jesus, deny Him as the King and the author of salvation, the agent rather of salvation, they deny the Father who was the one who sent Him and who planned this salvation, the author of that salvation, who gave Jesus the command to go.

And thirdly, these antichrists will try and lead the church astray. So not only is it that they are liars and that they live under this lie themselves, but they will try to convince. They will seek to persuade you of the lie. They will not be satisfied in their own terrible, hopeless existence but will try to bring the Christian over to their side. They will want to bring you into their own misery and hopelessness.

Is there really one way to worship God? Come on. To worship God? Does it really have to be through Jesus? Join me and we can worship whatever God we want, which inevitably means we worship no God but ourself.

Do we Christians really need to stand firm on issues of values and morals that are seemingly at conflict with where society is headed? Do we need to be, as Christians, firm on the issue, say, for example, of homosexuality? Isn't that old fashioned? Isn't that bigoted? Don't we exist in the twenty-first century?

Join the new revolution. Join the new cause of social justice. But they forget that sin is sin whether a society marks it as safe or acceptable or not. The spirit of the antichrist is inseparably connected with the world and they are at war with the church, with the children of God, and therefore, we should not be surprised. We should not be dismayed.

You exist in a state of war, and the bounty and the loot that can be won is your soul. So how do we respond to this? How do we respond to this as Christians? How do we resist the urge to wholeheartedly love this world, to be so concerned about what we might lose of this world rather than being concerned for God and the guardian of our souls. John says, don't give up.

Don't give up. Don't forget the message, the truth that you heard in the beginning, that you put your trust in at the beginning. Verses 24 to 27 talks about this. And he says, you are able to do this because you have a very special mark on you. You have a very special reality.

You are stamped with the love of God across your forehead that lasts for eternity, will be there forever. You are anointed, he says in verse 26. Now this is also referring to the anointing that we find in verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you know the truth. He uses this word a few times and it means that the Spirit has entered the life of a believer. And what happens historically, anointing was the process by which a distinguished person, a person destined for greatness was marked with oil that would be poured over their head.

So a king would be anointed with oil. A crown prince knowing what lies ahead for them would be anointed with oil. Prophets of God, certain prophets were anointed with oil. And in those days, oil was precious. Oil was like our moisturiser, especially in the dry desert.

It was amazing if you could have it. And so this anointing oil would stay on this person for days. You don't wash it off. It kept your scalp and your hair and your beard healthy, and you kept it on. But symbolically, it also showed to everyone that this person is destined for greatness.

You kept it on as long as you could. And John says, you have, Christian, received an anointing that marks you for something truly wonderful. You are marked as God's own. The name of Jesus is tattooed on your forehead, so to speak. And so when you come to faith, your heart is moved in such a deep way as to say to Him, God and Father, I lay down my life.

This world that I am a part of, the things that it will demand of me, I lay it down. If only I could have You. If only You will live in me. All that is mine, oh Lord, I give to You. Lord, in the cold light of day, I've come to realise that nothing in this world can satisfy, not really.

I need You. I want You. And so in evaluating your heart and motives this week, may you find that you are frighteningly consumed by the things of this world. But friend, this is a good realisation. It means that we have something to deal with.

We've got something to work on, but then remember, remember the truth that you have heard in the beginning that has motivated you to sit in this church here today. His anointing, His mark remains on you and teaches you all that you need to know and that is that you have been liberated. You have been set free. This soul of yours does not belong to anyone else but God now. Where you may have at one point been a slave to this world, slave to Satan, slave to sin, you will never again be in that dark prison.

And if you are tempted to go back there for whatever reason, remind yourself that you are free. Free. So guard your heart that it will not be tempted to return there. Remind your heart that there are few greater joys ahead, few greater joys than the joy of God. That rubbish of your life, that filth in your past is in the past.

And pray that the God who calls you His child will continue this work of liberation. He will continue this work of freedom more and more, friend, until you reach perfection in Christ. That is the promise. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank and praise You that on the one hand, the line is drawn in the sand, that a love for the world cannot coexist with love for You, but also as sharp as those lines are.

So sharp is the promise and the truth that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, placing their trust and their hope fully and completely in Him for their forgiveness and their salvation. They are truly set free. They are truly liberated and they will never ever again be in that dark prison. Lord, I pray that by Your Spirit, the promised Holy One that You have anointed our heads with, that You have marked us with, that He will do the work in us that has been that has begun in us in Jesus. That He will see it through to completion.

That He will teach us and train us to say yes to godly things and no to ungodliness. Oh Lord, and then may Your mercy and Your grace be the things that teach us. May Your love, Your relentless pursuit of us at all costs including the life of Your Son, may that be our greatest motivation. May that be our greatest hope that You are not done with us, that You do not leave us. So Lord, we can only say thank You for what You have done.

Lord, in whatever we have, whatever is left in us, whatever we can offer, whatever we can give back to our King, Lord, You may have it all. We forsake that which is not of You, and we desire more of You in our life. In Jesus' name, amen.