Ungodly Love

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca. You can also find us on Instagram, Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word, or on Facebook.

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The Need for God’s Help in Hearing and Doing His Word

Oh Father, we are keenly aware of our need for your help now. All of us, myself as well as your people. Father, we don't come to have our ears tickled. We come to hear you, to hear what you have said.

And we ask that you would now be pleased to speak and that you would impart what you say into our hearts that we would go and leave here and do it. We do not want to only be hearers of your word, but doers also.

Oh Father, would you do a mighty work. You must do a mighty work now. But for none of us here can accomplish anything apart from you. And so we bring our time to you. Father, we trust, we pray that your word would not return void and that you would be rightly exalted.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen. As you know, we are in 1 John chapter 2. If you haven't turned there yet, feel free to turn. 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. One of the key virtues, if you will, of Christianity is said to be love.

And of course it is true that we as Christians are to be known by our love. Our love for God and our love for one another. These themes really permeate all of Scripture from beginning to end. They control our lives.

We desire to please our God and are richly blessed by and enjoy the fellowship of believers, of serving one another and of being served. The two go hand in hand. Our love for God leads to our love for one another.

They are basic part of our faith, basic part, fundamentals of Christianity. And we of course delight in them and apply ourselves to them. Our infatuation with God is what really brings us here on Sundays.

And our love for one another is what keeps us here for hours after the service. We know them as the two great commandments. But there is another love that we deal with, a third kind of affection. And this one differs from the other two I just mentioned.

It is of a completely other nature. It is neither love for God nor neighbor. It is an ungodly love and hence we are commanded not to participate in it. There's a certain type of devotion that we must not have and cultivate in our hearts.

There are things that we cannot be fond of or hold dear. A Christian affection is not limitless in the sense that it applies to anything in the world at all times. There's a dangerous kind of love. We are speaking of a love for the world.

And like the other two, it is not to be taken lightly. It has serious and eternal consequences. But we have a most interesting relationship with this kind. We are well aware that we are to stay away from it, not to play with it, that it is damaging to our enjoying God to the fullest, that it causes harm to our soul, even to those around us.

At the same time, we're not quite immune to it. Sometimes we're even attracted to and by it. We cannot quite get rid of it for good. There may be times when we can sense it less, but eventually it emerges again from its lair in the hunt for a heart.

And it's that form of love that the Apostle addresses in this chapter and these verses before us today. It is an affection for the world that is driven by our own evil desires, an affection that we must not secretly harbor in some dark corner of our lives where no one else can see it.

And we're urged not to participate in it. It is, of course, one of the great obstacles in our walk with the Lord. It never gives up, no matter how often we have tried to kill and bury it. And so John reminds and encourages his readers to continue on to resist the appeal of the world.

And he shows us three things. First, that love for the world is an infatuation that really is no love at all in the Christian sense. It is an affection void of love for God. It has no room for Him, makes no room for Him, and has no desire for Him, and in fact is actually opposed to Him.

Secondly, you will see that it is not from God. Rather, it turns from God to man and makes self the great object of its delight. And thirdly, it is a fleeting love. It is a love that will not last and will bring us none of its promised rewards.

And all it has to offer in the end is death. With that, let us look at these characteristics of this enchantment with the world. First, it is void of love for God. Verse 15a, do not love the world or the things in the world.

As I mentioned, we're often told to love. The New Testament is full of exhortations to us to love. After all, Christ urges us to love one another as He has loved us. And Paul tells us not to owe anything, owe no one anything, except to love each other.

And even beyond our love for a fellow Christian in the body of Christ, we're called to even love our enemies, to pray for them, and to do good to those who hate us. And of course, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind.

Again, these are fundamental to the Christian life. And the Apostle has already addressed these, you remember back all throughout chapter 2, as these distinguishing marks of the genuine Christian. Our love for God as we obey His Word, as we follow His commandments, as well as our love for fellow believers.

And now he adds to this list, perhaps a lack of love, a lack of love for the world. An infatuation that we must not nurture under any circumstances in our hearts. He says, do not love the world. But what does John mean by the world?

It seems to be a rather general term, and is used in several ways throughout the Scripture. But if we look ahead at verse 16, it becomes a little bit clearer in the immediate context. He says, 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 then if you just flip over a couple pages to chapter 5 and verse 19, he says, we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. John is not talking about a physical world as God created it.

But we are not to love the world and its fallenness, and its rebellion against God, the belief systems and actions that oppose him. The world as it's under the rule of the enemy, the corruptions of the flesh.

We're not to love sin and disobedience. But notice in verse 15, the language that the Apostle is using. It's an imperative. And it's an imperative in the present tense. He says, do not love the world.

It's to be a continuous action. It's not a matter of one and done, of not being devoted to the world every once in a while. We are to never cherish it in any way. Not today, not tomorrow, or 10 years down the road.

No, adulation has one single target. It is one focus, one object from which it can never stray, the triune God. The world cannot have the, or occupy, if you will, the same seat of honor in our hearts as our Lord.

Of course, we know all this. And it makes sense, right? Obviously, John would urge his readers not to do this. After all, we are not of this world anymore. We have been delivered from it and transferred to the kingdom of God's beloved Son.

We're in the world, but not of the world. And of course, we are not to love that which we are not part of. We were once dead in trespasses and sins. We have followed the prince of the power of the air, but are no longer conformed to it, but transformed in the inner man and woman.

Therefore, it's pretty straightforward. You should love your Lord. He is to rule your heart, to have all your affection. It's an easy enough charge for us to understand, isn't it? But we have one problem.

Yes, we have received that new heart. We have new desires. We do love God and want to please and obey Him, but we're not fully sanctified yet. Sin remains in us and our sinful flesh, it really doesn't.

It really likes the world. And so, this seemingly simple charge of do not love the world becomes a bit more difficult in practice for us because we're constantly tempted to love it. It's one of our greatest difficulties, the struggle between the flesh, its evil, sinful desires, and our love for God.

The world always trying to gain the upper hand. It's always after our heart. It presents itself in all these appealing ways to us. It is a constant battle. It is a fight of great importance and with great dangers.

I imagine most of us, if not all of us, can think of someone that we knew or know at some point that professed to love God. They have gone to church. They seem to be faithful. They have served in various capacities and eventually renounced their faith and have nothing more to do with God because they are, in fact, in love with the world.

Some of you not only know someone like that, but are nurturing the very same love for the world yourself. Now, you don't set out to do it, but little by little, you keep letting it in. More and more, you delight in its amusements.

You lose in enjoyment of the Father. You find it difficult more and more over time to obey Him. You've stopped resisting and really fighting against the flesh. You know these areas in your life well. This is the case where you do not keep yourself unstained from the world.

You do not despise it and loathe it. You minimize the effect it has on you, even to the point where it doesn't seem to bother you anymore. Think about, as an illustration, maybe think about Demas for a moment, one of Paul's close companions.

We don't read a whole lot about him in the New Testament, but he is mentioned a few times. At the end of Colossians and Philemon, he is listed alongside men like Luke, who wrote the gospel of the same name, as well as Acts and Epaphras, who sends greetings along with Paul and the other men.

If you will, he was part of Paul's inner circle, almost, perhaps traveling or likely traveling with the Apostle. But then there's one other mention of him. You might know where we're going. It's rather a saddening one, really, in the last letter that Paul ever wrote in 2nd Timothy.

At the end of the epistle in chapter 4, I believe it's verse 10, 9 and 10, Paul asks Timothy to come to see him. And he gives a reason as to why he asked Timothy to come. Because Demas, he says, has what?

He's deserted him. And why has Demas deserted Paul? Paul gives us the answer. He says, because he was in love with this present world. This is a man who traveled with the Apostle, fell in love with the world.

Love for the world is dangerous. The more you allow it to grow, the more your love for God dies. All the way to the point where you'll eventually completely forget God. Brothers and sisters, you have to put this love to death daily.

And don't be tempted to think that the two can coexist at all. Look at the second half of verse 15. John writes, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Love for the world stands opposite a love for the Father.

The two are mutually exclusive. So much so that if you remember our Lord's brother, James, in his epistle writes, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

You understand what John's saying, right? Those who love the world do not love the Father. I thought about that. This is almost an outrageous and harsh statement to make in our day. We don't believe, or many don't believe this truth anymore.

I'll give you an example. I know someone who professed to love the Lord, attended church on Sundays, and seemed to be faithful to the point where they wouldn't do their laundry on Sunday because it's the Lord's day.

You know, we're not allowed to work on Sundays. At the same time, this very person professed or affirmed that it was okay for men and women to live and sleep together before marriage. Now, how can we possibly reconcile this?

I'm sure you all know others like that. You see, both of these devotions to the Lord and to the world cannot both be alive in our hearts at the same time. If you desire to love your Lord, obey and please Him, your love for the world must die.

The Lord Christ say, you cannot serve two masters. You will love the one and despise the other. You find yourself at great odds with the Father. Now, not only is love for the world enmity with, void of love for God, but secondly, love for the world is self-seeking.

The Desires of the Flesh, the Eyes, and Pride of Life

Look at verse 16, 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. John now defines for us what he means by do not love the world or the things in the world, as he mentioned in verse 15.

He gives us these three examples of what love for the world is, how we're lured and enticed, and though they're oftentimes closely related, each sin can fall into one of these categories. First, John mentions the desires of the flesh.

The word he uses here for desire is used a total of 30 at times all throughout the New Testament, and every time it is used, except for three instances, it has severely negative connotation. It always refers to desires that are contrary to the will of God.

The word flesh used here can usually mean two things. It can refer to somebody simply being human, as in Christ taking on flesh, and that's the way John uses it later in chapter 4, or it can mean, as it more often does, and as is the case here, denote a sinful nature of man.

And in other places, Paul refers, of course, to the desires of the flesh being against the desires of the spirit, or in Ephesians 2, where it says that we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

John is speaking here about the things contrary to God, which the natural man in his fallenness desires, lusts, and longs for, things like sexual immorality, gluttony, drunkenness. It is really a taking of good things the Lord has given that are not in and of itself sinful, distorting and abusing them for one's own pleasure.

It is a wanting to indulge in sin, removing God and making self the object of one's worship, or not to love the desires of the flesh. I believe we ought to do what Paul did and modeled as he writes to discipline his body and keep it under control.

We cannot allow ourselves to be dominated by these desires. So Christian, when you know that these temptations are most likely to arise, I suggest you try to remove yourself, if possible, from some of these situations.

Don't give your desires anything to feed on. Don't play with fire. If possible, flee, but flee to the Lord and pray. I'm telling you, plead with Him. I suggest you remember or maybe memorize, I love Hebrews 4, 15 and 16 for this.

Remember that you have a great high priest who can sympathize with your weaknesses. He knows what it is like to be tempted in every way. And you can draw near with confidence in time of need and you'll find mercy and grace to help.

Secondly, John mentions the desires of the eyes. I think this is a subtle and perhaps very deceiving craving or deceitful craving. It's somewhat easier to hide, isn't it, and quickly justifiable when this affection really begins to take root in us.

We think watching or reading sin-glorifying behavior has no effect on us. After all, we didn't physically actually do anything, right? Things like looking with lustful intent, covetousness, even a longing after possessions and wealth, eyes that are never satisfied with riches, always hungry for more.

None of these do any good to your soul. They're meaningless vanity and splendor, as Solomon would say, a striving after win. And so likewise, these, the desires of the eyes, must not be loved and resisted against, for they are, as John says at the end of the verse, not from the Father but from the world.

And the world often seeks to gain access to our hearts through our eyes. And so what do we do? Make a covenant with your eyes, as Job did. Job 31, he says, I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin?

Guard your eyes. David, the psalmist, understood this as well and remained on constant watch. In Psalm 101, verse 3, he writes, I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. And then again, we must bring these things to the Lord.

If we try to do them in our own power, as if it was some kind of law, we are guaranteed to fail. Many of us have tried it, haven't we? We know how it goes. We know how it ends. Another psalmist understood this and he prayed to that very end.

In Psalm 119, in verses 33 through 40, the psalmist is speaking to the Lord and he pleads with him to teach him, to give him understanding, to lead him, and so on. Then in verse 37, he says, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.

Plead with the Lord to help you turn your eyes from evil. And thirdly, John speaks of the pride of life, really a desire very unfitting and perhaps shameful for the Christian, for one who is to clothe himself with humility because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Yet the glory of the world is so attractive to the flesh. The recognition, applause, the praise and honor of man tastes so good. Matthew Henry said on the pride of life, this is in part the disease of the ear.

It must be flattered with admiration and praise. Pride of life, it is in a sense, I believe, the opposite of true worship. We could say pride of life is death of worship. It is a seeking of glory not for God but for yourself.

It speaks not of the Lord's work but your work and your accomplishments and your greatness. It relegates the triune God to a place of unimportance and utter negligence. Pride says, as one man once put it, I have found within myself all I need, all I ever shall need.

I am a man of great faith but my faith is in myself. I have never failed me. Pride of life is not from the Father. It has to be targeted in our warfare against the love for the world. We must be of humble mind.

We must follow Christ as he humbled himself by taking on the likeness of men even to the very point of death on a cross. These desires are from the world. They do not love the Father. They love oneself.

They seek one's own gratification, fulfillment, and glory. And so at times, our greatest enemy in this fight is really our own self. James says that each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin and when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Brothers and sisters, are you really engaged in this holy warfare on these three different fronts?

Have you really set up and perhaps kept light in a watchtower to keep yourself undefiled from the world and all these desires? We ought to walk differently from the world. Can those around you tell that there is something different about you and how you act and how you speak?

Do you love differently from the world in the very quietness of your own heart? I know it's one of the hardest parts of our Christian walk, putting our desires to death. It is tiring. It is difficult.

It is exhausting and sometimes so discouraging when we just feel we cannot get over it. The Puritan Samuel Rutherford recognized the struggle. He says, sanctification and mortification of our lusts are the hardest part of Christianity.

Brothers and sisters, we must not take our affection from the Lord and return it to the world. But not only is love for the world void of the love of God and self-seeking, it is lastly also fleeting.

The World Is Passing Away, but the Will of God Abides Forever

Verse 17, John writes, and the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. All the appeal of the world, all its enticements, the pleasures that it promises, the happiness that it advertises, all of it will eventually evaporate.

It is temporal. Its days are numbered. You see, the world is not a field that grows anything. It yields no harvest. It is a field of death. One's own will and desires of the flesh bring destruction. Our desires for the world and worldly desires kill when really God's desire for us is to live.

The world, along with all these desires, has no future and will come to an end. In fact, it is already passing away. But those who do the will of God will abide forever. John has, up until this point, laid out what that means, to believe on Christ, to obey God's commandments, to love one another.

And then he goes on and clarifies it in chapter 3 and verse 23. And this is the commandment that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us. Calvin calls this the obedience of faith, which, however imperfect it may be, he says, is yet approved by God.

Brothers and sisters, the world is fleeting. Our love, our loving the world, will come to an end. And you're settling for much less when God has called you to the glory of eternal life through his Son, Jesus Christ.

When he so loved his people that he sent that only begotten Son to die for you. Lasting joy is not found in this life. It is loving God that will bring lasting, true joy. And that joy will endure past this life and find its fullest, its truest expression when we walk through the door of death into glory.

Don't settle for the temporary. Don't settle for the lesser, despite how appealing it may be. There is nothing at the end of it but death. It's foolishness to give our hearts to that which is momentary.

One commentator uses really strong language. He writes, when a corrupt lust that is the love of the world of this kind rules in man and so holds him entangled that he thinks not of the heavenly life, he is possessed by a beastly stupidity.

Realize that you will either live or perish with your love. You set it on that which is vanishing, you will vanish along with it. You set it on the eternal and you will have life. It's only the fear of the Lord that really bestows riches, honor, and glorious life.

Everything else is false. It'll turn out to be poverty, disgrace, and death. I have a couple more quotes. I apologize. But the Puritans, they put things in such a way that is so good. Joseph Aline writes, you must part with your sins or with your soul.

Your sins must die or you must die for them. If you allow one sin, though but a little, a secret one, though you may plead necessity and have a hundred shifts and excuses for it, the life of your soul must go for the life of that sin.

Another minister wrote, consider that it is impossible that your idle sins and you can go to heaven together. The day you will not part with these can indeed love Christ at the bottom, that is this life, but only in word and show which will not do the business.

We must maintain a constant watch of our souls before we end. Let me ask you some of this. What is your reason to love the world? Is it not absolute foolishness? It's never given you any eternal good.

It has never shown itself as a true friend or companion to us. It has not returned our love. It actually hates us and brings about destruction. It is void of affection for the Father and nothing in it is from the Father.

All it does is take from us. It has absolutely nothing to give when God the Father has all to give, when he holds nothing back from us. In fact, he's already given all. He's not withheld his only son for us.

Everything that he has purchased, everything that he has accomplished is guaranteed to be yours. Now why do we love the world? Think of all that the Father has given you already. It pales in comparison to what is in store.

Brothers and sisters, let us not love the world. I suggest it's actually not worthy of your affection if you are Christ's. Our God is the only worthy object of love and there can be nothing that competes with him.

There is nothing that competes with him. And so let us continuously, daily, all the days of our lives, put off the old self, put to death and mortify these evil desires of our flesh, the vain desires of our eyes and the self-glorifying pride of life, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

We have nothing to gain from the world that would or could surpass anything we have received from the Father in Jesus Christ. So I'll close with Spurgeon. I think he was right when he said, if you got all the world, you would have got nothing after your coffin lid was screwed down by grave dust.

Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we often do love the world, or we do not seek to do so, although the flesh is so weak. Oh, Father, we bring our temptations, our struggles, and our difficulties to you.

Oh, we know, we confess, we cannot fight this fight apart from you. And without your power, there is no power in the arm of flesh to fight the flesh. Oh, Father, would you help us, continue to sanctify us, grow us in Christ's likeness, minimize, reduce our love for the world.

Oh, we desire to decrease that Christ would increase in us so that you would receive all the glory in and through us. Oh, Father, we ask that you would increase our love for you. Many of us would confess that we do not love you the way we ought to, that we're not pleased with how we love you.

But I'm at the front of that line, Father, but we desire to love you. Oh, help us to love you, our Lord, our God, with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. In Christ's name we pray.

Closing Announcements and Benediction

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