Know Your Enemy: The World | 1 John 2:15-17

So back on the previous Lord's Day, I had preached a sermon on contrasting darkness with gospel indicatives and I had quoted something from our good friend William Perkins. He is the the Puritan who wrote The Art of Prophesying that I want us to revisit for a little bit.

I want to quote it in full to get the context of what what I'm trying to get us to see. So he says in that book, application is the skill by which the doctrine which has been properly drawn from scripture is handled in ways which are appropriate to the circumstances of the place and time of the people in the congregation.

This is the biblical approach to exposition and to that a hearty amen to that. We fully totally 100 agree. The basic principle in application and that is of course of applying scripture to our lives like he just said, is to know whether a passage is a statement of the law or of the gospel.

For when the word is preached, the law and the gospel operate differently. The law exposes the disease of sin and as a side effect, stimulates and stirs it up but it provides no remedy for it. However, the gospel not only teaches us what is to be done, it also has the power of the Holy Spirit joined to it.

When we are regenerated by him, we receive the strength we need both to believe the gospel and to do what it commands. The law is therefore first in the order of teaching, then comes the gospel. So I had read this quote last week.

I'd also read it when I preached on the law and gospel and I kind of missed something and I wanted to see if we could catch this and just be aware of it. So I want us to think carefully about what I just read and to see if there's anything wrong with what I just read and specifically I'm referring to this last, almost the second to last sentence here when he says, when we are regenerated by him, we receive the strength we need both to believe the gospel and to do what it commands.

Okay, so think carefully about that. Now to kind of help us sort of lead into the point that I'm getting at, I want to use Lordship Salvation to heighten this contrast. So John MacArthur in his book called The Gospel According to the Apostles, which is the one he wrote after The Gospel According to Jesus, he claims this, what is the gospel after all but a call to repentance?

So he's saying the gospel is a call for us to repent. In other words, it, the gospel, demands. What does demand mean? Commands, right? Imperative. That sinners make a change to stop going one way to turn around and to turn around and go the other.

He also claims that the gospel that Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow him in submissive obedience, not just to plead to make a decision or pray a prayer. So I want to be absolutely, unmistakably, inconfusedly clear about this.

The gospel does not command. The gospel is not a command. That's what I just went over last week, right, when we talked about indicatives versus imperatives. And the gospel is one, the indicative, and the law is the other, the imperative, the command.

So the two are distinct and not to be confused. The gospel is what God accomplished for us and promises us in Christ already because it was finished on the cross. It's what God did, not what we must do.

The gospel is what God did for us, not what we must do for God or in response to God. It is not what God demands of us. That is the law. The law demands, amen? The gospel is indicative, not imperative, not a command.

The law is imperative. The law commands. The gospel is one thing, okay? The gospel is one thing that is promised, that is indicative. The command to believe it is another thing. They are not the same thing, okay?

You cannot confuse the gospel with the command to repent and believe the gospel. They are separate. They are distinct. It is very important to maintain a proper distinction between law and gospel. And this is serious law gospel confusion on the part especially of John MacArthur.

The law commands, not the gospel. So going back to what I read from Perkins when he says that we receive the strength we need both to believe the gospel and to do what it commands. He's talking about what the gospel commands.

There's the problem, right? The gospel does not command. So a better way to phrase that or to correct that would be to say to believe the gospel and to do what the law commands. So the Spirit of God empowers us both to believe it, the gospel, and to obey what the law commands, the law.

That's what he should have said. That's how we maintain a law gospel distinction properly. Now sometimes authors use the word gospel to refer to the New Testament in general. You know, that can sometimes is the case.

I don't think that's the case here with Perkins. I read, I try to read the chapter and it just didn't seem, it just seemed like an oversight basically. It just seemed like it's something that he missed.

Overall, however, Perkins does a very good masterful job of handling law and gospel distinction. It's still an excellent book and I would still heartily recommend it to all of you. But it's just, we have to be very careful how easy it is to confuse the two sometimes.

So this is also a healthy reminder for all of us, all of us to examine all things, right? To examine all things and to hold fast to what is good and to always be discerning, always be discerning. Okay, so I want to now recap from the text that I preached on last time.

Gospel Indicatives in 1 John 2:12-14

So I mentioned that in verse 11 of 1st John chapter 2, John warned us about the consuming darkness of hypocrisy that blinds the eyes. And then he makes a sharp transition to shower his audience of all spiritual ages, no matter how young or how old you are in the faith, with gospel saturated indicatives, promises, assurances.

They are not imperatives. So let's turn to 1st John chapter 2 verse 12 to go ahead and recap that context and then we can move on to the text that we are dealing with today. So in 1st John chapter 2 verse 12, we read, I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning already, already. It's indicative. I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one already. I write to you children because you know the father already.

I write to you fathers because you already know him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong, you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you already, and you have overcome the evil one already.

Now, so that's an awesome collection there of gospel indicatives. Now in today's passage, John is going to make yet another sharp transition back over to the dark side. So we're back in the dark side and let's see what he has to say now, starting in verse 15.

In verse 15, we read, And I gotta say this because for years now, I have been wanting, I've had a desire to preach and teach on this topic of knowing your enemy. And so I'm super excited about preaching this, getting the chance to preach this.

And it's just amazing how the Lord works providentially and has been working in our church, unquestionably working in our church. And this is just one of many examples. But without even intending to, the opportunity to do this actually turned up in the very first book I just decided to preach on.

So it's kind of, it just kind of amazes me how it all works together. It all kind of coincides in God's providence. And starting with this very passage. So this is actually, technically, needs to be a three-part series.

It's not just one, it's three. And why would I say that? Well, let's think about this. Why is there three things that should be addressed here, principally? As Christians, what is our greatest enemy? Or enemies, plural.

Think carefully through this. This is where we have to really know what we're dealing with. It is, the answer is basically, in church history, it's been known as the unholy Trinity. The unholy Trinity.

Trinity, of course, means three. This phrase has traveled through many roads in the history of the professing church, both Protestant and Catholic. And Thomas Aquinas, for example, you know what? I'm sorry, I over, I didn't even say what it was.

So really, the title of the full series should be, or will be, Know Your Enemy. The world, the flesh, the devil. Okay? Those three things make up the unholy Trinity. The three principal enemies of the Christian.

And that's not to say it's the only enemy. It's not. There's always, of course, people who oppose the gospel and oppose us. And a lot of times it's because the devil is the one working in them. But these are the three principal enemies that we have to deal with as Christians.

So Thomas Aquinas, for example, who was a medieval Roman Catholic monk and theologian who formalized the false teaching of transubstantiation by using Aristotle, states in his famous book called the Summa Theologica, which means, it's Latin for the sum of theology.

This is what he says, just as man is tempted by the flesh, so too is he tempted by the world and by the devil. So, and I just want to give a caveat here because I looked at the Wikipedia entry on this and it only has quotes by papists and Romanists.

So it has nothing by Protestants, which is kind of a shame because the Protestants have no, they make full use of the term and fully address this issue of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we're going to see that and correct that shortly.

But there's a big public service announcement that I want to make here now. I want us to be very, very careful with a popular Protestant fad that's making its rounds throughout the media and Christian media and all this stuff and being pushed heavily by some Reformed Baptists, people who are in our camp and use our confession, the same confession, who are actively promoting Thomas Aquinas's view of God and making it a test of orthodoxy.

Meaning, if you don't believe it or agree with Aquinas, you're wrong. You're basically committing heresy. But I just find it incredibly ironic how Aquinas warns us against the world's temptations and yet he fervently embraced and imbibed the worldly secular philosophy of Aristotle to make a mess of his entire theology.

I mean that Aristotle ruined him, sadly. And it ruined a big part of the Catholic Church as well. Not to say that he was the only cause of it, but it just made things worse. And Aquinas's view of God is utter illogical nonsense, which claims that all of God's attributes are identical, that they are indistinguishable and the same.

You think about this, folks. Like, any logical person? Like, what? In other words, God's wrath and his love are identical. They're the same. They cannot really be distinguished because that would violate his simplicity according to this view.

That's why they're saying this. And some Reformed Baptists are eating this nonsense up and it is an utter shame. It is just... makes no sense. The doctrine of divine simplicity, which we do hold to, just means that God is without body, parts, or passions.

Okay, that's from our confession in chapter 2 of the London Baptist Confession. It does not mean, however, that we cannot distinguish his divine attributes. That's absurd. We not only can, but should and must distinguish his attributes because... does the Bible distinguish them?

Does the Bible say God has love and God has wrath and it looks obviously very different how it manifests and obviously he has different attributes. He has different attributes that make up who he is. So, I don't have time to delve on this.

It's a very... there's a lot that goes into this, but I did want to mention it here because it is really becoming, unfortunately, more popular and we can talk more about it afterwards if you have questions or you want to know more about it.

But, at any rate, the... like I mentioned before, the the Protestant tradition does, in fact, address the world, the flesh, and the devil in depth and we would do well to study and study and absorb what they have to say.

So, I'll cite a few examples. In the second Helvetic confession, chapter 20, excuse me, of holy baptism, it says, "...by baptism we are separated from the world and consecrated to God. In baptism we confess our faith and pledge obedience to God.

We are enrolled into the holy army of Christ to fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil.". Amen to that. That's just... Amen. Well said. Now, there's the... there's also the Orthodox Catechism, which is a Reformed Baptist version of the Heidelberg Catechism.

It's actually the Catechism that we're reciting every Sunday. Question 148 says, "...what does the sixth request of the Lord's Prayer mean?". The answer is, "...and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.".

Means, by ourselves, we are too weak to hold our own, even for a moment, and are sworn enemies. Guess who they are? The world, the devil, the world, and our own flesh never stop attacking us. "...and so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win with the complete victory.".

Amen to that, as well. And then there's also one more word here, an awesome word of sound doctrine and encouragement from our Presbyterian brother, Charles Hodge, in his Systematic Theology. This is really good stuff.

"...we are not to overlook," he says, "...or undervalue the constant exercise of the kingly office of Christ.". So Christ has three offices, principally. He has a prophetic office, the priestly office, and the kingly office.

So he's talking about the kingly one. "...he not only reigns over his people, but he subdues them to himself, rules and defends them, and restrains and conquers all his and their," our, "...enemies. These enemies are both inward and outward, both seen and unseen.

They are," guess who? "...the world, the flesh, the devil. The strength of the believer in contending with these enemies is not his own. He is strong only in the Lord, and in the power of his might. The weapons, both offensive and defensive, are supplied by him, and the disposition and the skill to use them are his gifts to be sought by praying without ceasing.".

And to that I would add the means of grace. The Lord's Supper, studying, preaching, all of those things help us. He is an ever-present helper. He's our advocate, our paraclete. Whenever the Christian feels his weakness, either in resisting temptation or in the discharge of his duty, he looks to Christ, and he seeks aid from Him, and all who seek find.

Amen? All who seek find. So that was really well stated, I thought, and just a tremendous encouragement for us to consider regarding what we're dealing with as believers, as all of us as believers have to deal with.

Now, as for Scripture, one passage in particular describes for us all three enemies. It's in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 -3, if we can turn there to discover what it says. Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 1.

So Ephesians chapter 2, in verse 1, we read, "...and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.". He's talking to believers. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.

Who is that? The devil. "...the same spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom 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.".

Amen. So notice too, let's go back to 1 John now. John discusses our three enemies all throughout his letter. So, which is why, again, it is ideal to preach a series on knowing your enemy by preaching through 1 John.

And I want to preface this as well by saying that we are in a war. As Christians, we are in a war. We must know the enemy. We cannot be confused about who the enemy is. We must know the enemy. If you don't know your enemy, you are going to lose the battle, period.

If you do not know and understand your enemy, like the back of your hand, you are going to lose. You are going to suffer loss, and you will sin. You will fall into temptation. You will fall into sin. You will fall in great danger, death, all of that.

So we must know our enemy. We are not ignorant of Satan's devices, like Corinthians says. Amen? So, in 1 John 2 .15, the first verse here in our text today, it says, do not love the world, right? Do not love the world or the things in the world.

So it's comprehensive. Don't love the world or anything in it. And then he continues in verse 16, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Notice what he's doing. Notice what he's connecting. Okay? He's connecting dots for us, okay? In verse 14, the previous passage that I preached on, he says, I write to you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome, who?

The evil one. The evil one, the devil. Amen? Later on, and later on, John also warns against Antichrist in verse 18 in chapter 4. And in chapter 3, John explicitly refers to the devil. In chapter 3, verse 8, we read, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.

For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Verse 10 says, by this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil.

One or the other. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. And of course, remembering what Perkins said, that we who believe the gospel receive power from God to obey God's law.

It's not by our own strength or efforts. So, but notice what John did. He's connecting these three things for us. He's connecting the world, the flesh, the devil. All of these operate together, okay? We're going to pursue that a little bit more.

They are all conspiring together. But before we go further, first, we need to do something very important. Like I always say, we must define the terms, biblically and consistently, always, always. What is the world?

What does it mean? What does world mean? Now, this is kind of a trick question, okay? Because the word world, it actually depends. The answer is that it depends on the context, right? The word world has several different meanings in Scripture, depending on the context.

We need to define the world carefully, in light of its immediate context, and of the context of the entire Bible, as a systematic doctrinal whole. This goes back to the analogies of Scripture and of faith.

We need to exercise these principles to make proper sense of the world, because the word world is a very controversial term, especially in Arminianism versus Calvinism and all of those things. A lot of times, that's a failure to interpret the word world accurately, because we're not taking into account either or both of those contexts, okay?

The word world can mean at least, I've heard like 16 different things sometimes. So, we have to be very careful with that. Even, and this is throughout the New Testament, but even within just the letter of 1 John, there's several different meanings in 1 John alone.

And some of the meanings are exact opposites, including in John's letter. So, the word world in Greek is kosmos, kosmos, cosmos, right? Cosmology, even cosmetics, that also comes from the same word. Order, system, it's like, that's what it suggests.

We've previously come across the cosmos in 1 John, specifically in 1 John 2, verse 2, where he says, and he, that same Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins, the atoning sacrifice that holds back the wrath of God, that would otherwise be directed at us because of our sinful nature, our worldliness, our lifestyle.

And not for ours alone, but also for the sins of the whole world. What does this mean? What does the whole world mean here? It means the sins of all believers throughout the whole world. Jesus Christ's death, his atonement, is the full satisfaction of God's justice, the full redemption, the full propitiation of God's wrath for the sins of, not just his immediate audience of mostly local Jewish believers, but of all believers from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, the whole world of believers.

But it's like the jacket, right? That's one of my favorite jackets, members only. It's believers only. It only applies to believers. So I encourage you to listen to the sermon that I preached in that verse, The Power and Extent of Christ's Death, if you want to dig more into that.

So we cannot simply define words superficially or with an overriding bias, as is clear from John's diverse use of the word cosmos. Just like in 1 John 5, 19, where we read, we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

There we see again, the devil. The whole world lies in the, so believers lie in the power of the evil one? I thought the gospel and the cross broke the power of the devil and of sin over us. And that's because the word world here means something else.

It means something more closely to what we're dealing with in verse 15. In chapter 2, verse 15. So public service announcement. Here's another one. Speaking of defining our terms carefully, let's dispel a Greek myth about love.

And that's an intended pun there.

You'll see why.

Given that Valentine's Day just passed, and our text today also deals with love. So you may have heard that Greek has three major words for, there's a lot of threes today, three major words for love. Some claim that Eros, Ero, Erao, refers to sexual or sensual love.

And by the way, Eros, he's actually the false Greek god of love, lust, desire, and sex. And his Roman counterpart is Cupid. So that's Eros. Now Phileo is like Philadelphia, right? Philadelphia means love of the brethren, love of the brothers.

Supposedly refers to love of friendship. It's a friendship type of love. And then there's the third one, Agape, right? Agape, or Agapao, supposedly refers to divine love. It's divine love. So God's love for man, or man's love for God.

But these definitions are basically totally misleading. They're a myth. They're a myth. So it's wrong. If you heard this, you might have heard this. It was kind of popular. And it's not right. It's totally wrong.

For one, Gordon Clark, who was a Greek scholar, explains that in the New Testament, Phileo and Agapao, Phileo and Agape, are indistinguishable in meaning. So the New Testament uses the terms synonymously.

They are used the same way in the same sense. And in the Old Testament Septuagint, Agape sometimes refers to perverted loves, so not just divine love, or spiritual love, or pietistic love, pious love, but also refers to perverted, sinful lust, even incestuous love, such as when Amnon incestuously raped his sister Tamar, both of whom were offspring of King David.

If you recall that episode, the word there in the Septuagint is agapason. It's agape. That's some love, right? I mean, it just doesn't work. And back in 1 John 2 .15, the same word is used, agape, for both love of the world and love of the father.

So in verse 15, it says, do not love, agapate, the world or the things.

In the world.

If anyone loves, agapa, the world, the love, agape, of the father is not in him. So case closed. That should be settled. Now let's get back to defining the word world. It's just important to make sure that we understand these terms correctly.

John actually describes the word the world, what is in it, and what he means by it in our text today. Let's reread 1 John 2 .15 through 17 with some amplification from the Amplified Bible. So verse 15 says, do not love the world of sin that opposes God and his precepts, nor the things that are in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust and sensual craving of the flesh, and the lust and longing of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, pretentious confidence in one's resources or in the stability of earthly things, these do not come from the father but are from the world.

The world is passing away, and with its lusts, the shameful pursuits of ungodly longings or desires, but the one who does the will of God and carries out his purposes lives forever.

OK.

So now, let's use this, what we've learned so far, to establish a concrete definition of what John means by the world here. One obvious observation is that the love of the world and the love for God are mutually exclusive loves.

They are incompatible. Right? You cannot love one and the other. At the same time, you cannot do it. You either love one, or you hate the other, or you love the one, you hate the other, or you will submit to the one and despise the other.

You can't do both. Can't have it both ways. Just like faith and works. Faith and works are mutually exclusive categories. They are not the same. They must be kept distinct. And this is part of what's important of dividing the word, like Paul says.

So Gordon Clark has a very clear, concise, no-nonsense definition. It's probably my favorite one. He says, the world here means unregenerate civilization. Plain and simple. Unregenerate, ungodly, unbelieving society.

That's what it is. It's society as a whole, the unbelieving society as a whole. Now, very useful. Now, Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary also has over 22 definitions of the word world, but here are some of the relevant ones for us today.

Number six is a secular life. By the world, we sometimes understand the things of this world, its pleasures and interests. A great part of mankind are more anxious to enjoy the world than to secure divine favor.

There you see the contrast again. There's the world versus divine favor. You can't have both ways. Number 19 is the carnal state or corruption of the earth as the present evil world, the course of this world, like Galatians 1 .4, which says, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.

And like we read in Ephesians 2, which says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world. So number 20 is the ungodly part of the world. So like when Jesus said, I pray not for the world, but for them that thou has given me.

That's that members only thing again. I'm not talking about the world, about unbelievers. I'm talking about believers, the elect, the people you have given me to save. Challenge question now. Now that we know what the world is, who governs or rules this evil world?

Who governs or rules this evil world? Now think carefully about this. Think carefully about this. This is kind of a trick question. Because ultimately, God is in charge and in control of everything, including this evil world.

Amen?

So we can't lose sight of who's really in control. Isaiah 45, verse 5 through 7 says, I am the Lord, and there is no one else. There is no God except me. I will embrace and arm you, though you have not known me.

That people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun, the world over, that there is no one except me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. The one forming light and creating darkness, causing peace, and creating disaster.

I am the Lord who does all these things, all of them. Now we have an awesome God, do we not? Because God is still in control of the world, even the present evil world. However, however, this is why it's sort of a trick question.

We have to make sure we're putting the pieces together. God also uses the devil and allows him to control the world. Like 1 John 5 .19 says, that we just read earlier. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Lies in the power of the evil one. 2 Corinthians 4 .4 says, in their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, darkness, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

So now that we're starting to get a big picture of all of these things, in other words, or maybe more, what we want to get out of this is our three enemies, the unholy trinity of the world, the flesh, and devil are allies.

They are allies that conspire to steal, kill, and destroy us. Because who rules the world in an immediate sense? The devil. So how does the world and the devil infiltrate the believer? It's through the flesh.

So all of these things conspire against us. Now, this next section I thought was the world illustrated. I thought that was clever, like sports illustrated. But so what does the world and all that is in the world or worldliness look like?

What does it look like? And some of the best illustrations of the world, in the sense that John is referring to here specifically, come from our other good friend, John Bunyan, from his classic allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress.

By the way, the full book of the title is actually The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come. Now, allow me to introduce to you, many of you might be familiar with this. And if you're not, I highly recommend that you read the book and check out the recent movie that came out.

Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair. And as I read this, ask yourself if it sounds familiar to you. Just to see if it sounds familiar. So Christian and faithful presently saw a town before them. And the name of the town is Vanity.

And at the town, there is a fair kept called Vanity Fair. It's like a carnival. It is kept all the year long. It beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity, Psalm 62 9.

And also because all that is there sold, all that is there sold, or that cometh hither is vanity. As is the saying of the wise, all that cometh is vanity. Ecclesiastes 11 8. This fair, this carnival, is no new erected business, but a thing of ancient standing.

I will show you the original of it. Almost 5 ,000 years ago, there were pilgrims walking to the celestial city, as these two honest persons are. He's talking about Christian and faithful. And Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, who is he talking about?

The devil, right? Perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of vanity, they conspired here to set up a fair, a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long.

Therefore, at this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as harlots, prostitutes, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and whatnot.

And moreover, at this fair, there is at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind. Here to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false swears, and that of a blood red color.

But as in other fairs, some one commodity is the chief of all the fair. This blew me away when I reread this. I was like, I really, it blew me away. So the wares of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, and her merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair.

Now, is this an accurate description of what's going on today or what? It is absolutely everywhere. You see the chaos, the law and order breaking down in cities all over the country, Democrats tearing the nation apart, bringing it to utter destruction because they're too busy having all this fun at Vanity Fair.

And notice, I was trying to accentuate the intentionality of the devil planning Vanity Fair literally in the way of Christians as a deliberate stumbling block. That's what the devil does, right? He walks around like a lowering line seeking who he can devour.

He's trying to lay traps for you. He's trying to ensnare you. And so also fascinating how he mentions the Church of Rome as the centerpiece of Vanity Fair. And it's amazingly accurate because the Church of Rome is behind a lot of the utter destruction and vanity that you see everywhere in the world.

Who's pushing immigration, illegal immigration and illegal immigrants? Rome, the pope. Who's pushing ungodly ways of salvation and biblical ways of salvation? Rome. Who's promoting pedophilia and pederasty and all this disgusting stuff with the priests and stuff?

That's Vanity Fair. That is Vanity Fair right there. Very revealing stuff. So make no mistake. We are surrounded by the world in this dark and evil sense. It is everywhere, all around us. We must be aware of it and guard ourselves against it.

When you go out, when you turn on the TV, to most channels, most stuff you listen to is worldly. It's worldly. Either implicitly or explicitly, it's worldly. The Democratic Party, my God help us, is one of the best examples of what the world is and does, just like the Church of Rome, which is everything.

Literally, if you read the Democratic platform, go to the website, read their Democratic platform position statements of what they believe, everything they hold to is in direct contradiction to the word of God.

That is the world, folks. That is the world. And everything that God hates, despises, and abhors in the word. Another word to describe the world is darkness. It's darkness. Everything that John has been teaching us in the rest of the scriptures, what they mean by darkness.