Five Things That Characterise This World — Ian Paisley

Worshiping the Father in Spirit and Truth

The fourth chapter of John's Gospel. And the Lord says, The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

The Gospel and the Five Characteristics of the World

I want to present to you the simple gospel of our Lord Jesus. And I want to speak tonight about five things that characterize this world. Some of them, they characterize the world in its darkness. And some of them characterize the world that has heard and received the glorious gospel of the Son of God.

Now, we're all in the world. The world is our habitation for the time of our living here on earth. This is our earthly heritage, the home of all ages of men, and of all generations of mankind. The gospel is the good news from God the Father of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And that good news is for all the world. As the gospel unrolls different views of this world and brings them into focus for our eternal future's sake, we would do well to stop we would do well to stop and consider them very carefully.

The Lost World and Its Rejection of Christ

The first thing I want to say about the world that the world is the lost world. The gospel brings into focus a picture of the lost world. The greatest sin that brings damnation to those who live in this world is the ignorance of the person and power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The scriptures tell us Christ was in the world and the world knew Him not. The lost world is a world that doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. What tragic words are these? The world knew Him not. What a horrible and terrible indictment of all the inhabitants of the world who even in this twentieth century of the Christian dispensation they have no knowledge of the blessedness of the gospel and the power of the risen Christ.

Alas, the Bible goes on to inform us and it says for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof.

1 John chapter 2 and verse 17 Why is the world such a place of lust? Although Christ came to this world of lust and sin and degradation the world did not recognize Him as I have read in that first chapter of John and verse 10 the world knew Him not.

The Savior stood upon this planet. He presented Himself to the people that He had created. He showed them miracles of power. The levers were cleansed. The blind could see. The deaf could hear. And the dead were risen from their death and their sepulchers.

And yet it says they did not know Him. Our gospel tells us according to the Apostle Paul that if this gospel is hid it is hid to them that are lost. We live in a lost world. We are lost in a lost world of sinners.

Well might James Montgomery the great hymn writer an Irishman well could he say O where shall rest be found? Rest for the weary soul where vain the ocean's depths to sound or pierce to either pole. Beyond this veil of tears there is a life above and measured by the flight of years and all that life is love.

There is a death whose pang outlasts the fleeting breath O what eternal horrors hang around the sick. Lord God of truth and grace teach us that death to shun lest we be banished from thy face and evermore undone.

The Loved World and God's Saving Love

But the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not about the damnation of your soul it is rather to bring about the salvation of your soul. Yes the world is a lost world but it is also the loved world loved a world of sinners lost.

John's Gospel chapter 3 and verse 16. For God so loved the world the lost world the evil world the sinful world the vile world the lustful world he loved it. The love of God is the most wonderful thing especially that love of God as it is directed to a lost ruined and guilty world.

Well might we well ask tonight what was in this world that God should love it? What was in this world that God should love it? There was absolutely nothing lovable in this world. It was an enmity to God.

It hated God. It fought God. It rebelled against God. It broke the commandments of God. Yet that is the lost world that God almighty loved. The Apostle John used the defining word the measuring expression God so loved God so loved God loved the world.

He loved it everlastingly. He loved it divinely. He loved it freely. He loved it absolutely. And he gave the greatest the highest and most wondrous gift of all his precious and only Son to save lost souls in this lost world.

God's love springs from himself. He loved us because it is his blessed nature to love for God is love. You ask me tonight why does God love us? I can only answer in the words of the blessed Savior himself even so far because it seemeth good in his sight.

His love is so deep. His love is so wide. His love is so full. His love is so glorious. His love is so overcoming and so everlasting. It shines out in the background of our sin so mightily. I love that verse God loved the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall.

Salvation bought at highest cost. He offers free. Oh, it was love. It was boundless love. The love of God to me that brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary. But the world is not only a lost world.

The Liberated World and the Blood of Christ

It is not only a loved world. But thank God we can say it is a liberated world. My third point is a liberated world. The forerunner of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ John the Baptist cried out when he saw the Savior Behold the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world.

John's Gospel chapter 1 and verse 29 What sin did he take away we might well ask. The sin of the world. What does that mean? That expression the sin of the world. It means simply and gloriously the sins of all the Jews and Gentiles are alike with God.

He takes away the sin of both Jew and Gentile. It is not this sin of a few that Christ bore on the cross. But it is the sin of the many. You could well ask the question How many are you talking about preacher?

The Bible gives us the answer. In the last book of the New Testament the book of Revelation at the chapter 7 verses 9 to 17 you have the answer. All who wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.

How many do that? A great multitude which know that is the sin of the world. The sin of a multitude that no man can number. O sinner wash and be clean in the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's nails.

Let this world not be a lost world to you. Let it be a loved world to you. Let it be a liberated world to you. Wash and be clean. There is power in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in one moment to take away all what no priest or no parson or no religious man can do.

The blood of Christ can do it. It can take away all your sins. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. I do believe I will believe that Jesus died for me and on the cross he shed his blood from sin to sin.

The Lightened World and New Birth

But this is a dark world. But thank God my fourth point is right. It is a lightened world. The Lord has sent light into this world of ours. The light came. Christ is the light. Hear the blessed word of God.

Christ was the true light which lighted every man coming into the world. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The dark world can be a lightened world for you. For if you walk in the light as he our Lord Jesus Christ is in the light, you will have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. O step out from the darkness tonight and step out into the glorious liberty of the way of the gospel. Pray with me this prayer. Pray it right now.

Just as I am poor, wretched, blight, sight, riches, healing of the mind, yea, all I need in thee I find, O Lamb of God. And then address your Savior thus. Just as thou art, O blissful ray, that turns my darkness into day, that wakes me from the death of sin to know my perfectness with him.

The Left World and Eternal Destiny

My last word is this, that this world, that is indeed a lost world, this world that became a loved world, this world that became a liberated world, this world that became a lighted world, this world is the left world.

This is a world that we all have to, we cannot stay here. The summons has already been written. Our name is already on God's card of our life. The very time, the very circumstances when we will have to say goodbye to the world.

We'll not be sorry. We of those who are the children of God that we're going to leave this old world because it's a world of sin, a world of shame, a world of pleasure, a world of lust, and a world of rebellion.

And we must put those things all behind us. If we were of the world, the Lord Jesus said, the world would love its own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. The man who puts his faith, the woman who puts her faith, the boy or girl who puts his or her faith in Christ has got to say goodbye to the world with its affections and lust.

You cannot walk the world's road and Christ's road. They are both. And Christ never walks the world's road and you'll not find Him in the world's road. Christ walks the path of the cross. The great Apostle to the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul said, God forbid that I should glory.

Save in the cross of our Lord Jesus said that I should glory. Save in the cross. We are called to leave to leave its pleasures, its sins, its lusts, its entanglements, and its evil. Leave to Christ the rock.

And when the day comes when time for you has run out and the summons comes to make this world for you a left world. To where shall you go? What will your eternity be? An eternity that is in a lost hell of God's judgment forever or an eternity with Christ which is very far.

The Apostle said for me to live is Christ. Eternity. Eternity. Where I trust that the Lord will touch your heart and your soul and your mind and by putting your faith alone in the precious blood of Christ you shall be ready for judgment.

Ready for heaven. Ready for hope. Be with your God and Savior in Emmanuel's land forevermore. Amen. And amen. Let's bow our heads. Father bless these remarks that we have made from this pulpit tonight.

Prayer for the Gospel to Bring Souls into the Light

And bless this message in its simplicity to all who will hear it. It is not by might. It is not by power. But it is by my spirit, saith the Lord. And we pray our God and Father that this message may bring hundreds of precious souls out of the bondage of poverty into the glorious light of the Gospel.

Bless Your Word. You have told us it will not go forth and perish but after many days it will return again and it will bring the sheave with it. Lord do that for Jesus' sake. Thank You for the opportunity of presenting the Gospel of Christ tonight.

And everybody say Amen.