Confronting the Illusions of Our Culture

1
LOVE NOT THE WORLD
James 41-6
2
LOVE NOT THE WORLD

• WHY?
• What is the matter with the world that we should
  not love it?
• The world is passing away
• a. 1 Corinthians 731
• b. 1 John 217
• 2. The world is under the influence of Satan and
  he is being cast out and will be condemned (John
  1231, 1611)
• 3. Such does not bode well for those that follow
  him
• a. The world will be condemned (1 Cor. 1132)
• b. Satans Judgment will be the worlds (John
  1231)
• c. To follow a worldly course is to follow
  Satan (Eph. 22)

3
LOVE NOT THE WORLD

• The world hates all that is holy

4
THE WORLD HATES

• The Lord (John 77)
• The Followers of the Lord
• 1. John 1518-19
• 2. 1 John 319

5
LOVE NOT THE WORLD

• The world hates all that is holy
• We become enemies of God

6
ENEMIES OF GOD

• This constitutes spiritual adultery (James 44)
• To love (set ones affection upon and within
  find ones chief delight) the world is an affront
  to God
• 1. The World hates and opposes the Lord
• 2. The hearts affections are misdirected (Col.
  31-3)
• One cannot love God and the world at the same
  time
• 1. Bigamy is unlawful
• 2. One cannot have two masters (Matt. 624)
• 3. Consider the example in John 1241-42
• This leads to strife, factions and wars (James
  41-3)
• 1. Love for the material puts one in conflict
  with the spiritual
• 2. When worldly participation become ones
  chief delight and he seeks to obtain more of it,
  he will find himself in conflict with others who
  may or may not have similar motivations

7
ENEMIES OF GOD

• Worldliness is also a state of mind
• Whoever would be Consideration without
  participation (James 44)
• A person may refrain from a life of worldly
  indulgence who may desire it nonetheless
• Still an enemy of God (Rom. 86-8)

8
ENEMIES OF GOD
How can we know who is an enemy?
While it is impossible to probe the hearts of
others and to know the innermost motives which
influence them, it is nevertheless true that the
friends of the world are easily recognized by
their dispositions and acts. One is an obvious
lover of the world who finds greater delight in
the association of worldly people than with those
who are followers of the Christ who experiences
greater pleasure in frequenting those places
which are sinful and secular, rather than the
assemblies of the saints and who promotes those
things which are of the world in lavish fashion,
while giving bare pittance of his means into the
service of the Lord. To be thus engrossed in the
ways of the world, however pious such may at
times appear, is to exhibit a worldly
disposition, and to fall under the condemnation
of the Lord. Those who take their stand for the
world, in this very act, take their stand against
God! When the world is permitted to come into the
heart, God is thereby crowded out. (Guy N.
Woods)
9
Remember . . .

• DEMAS
• He Loved
• This Present World
• 2 Timothy 410

10
LOVE NOT THE WORLD

• The world hates all that is holy
• We become enemies of God
• The world does not know God

11
DOES NOT KNOW GOD

• The world knows its own (1 John 31)
• The world hears its own (1 John 45-6)
• The world loves its own (John 519)

12
LOVE NOT THE WORLD

• The world hates all that is holy
• We become enemies of God
• The world does not know God
• Gods people are distinguished from the world

13
CHRISTIANS ARE DISTINCT FROM THE WORLD

• Consider the prayer of Jesus
• (John 17)
• Consider 1John 41-6

14
THE CHRISTIANS DISPOSITION TOWARD THE WORLD

• Not to conform to (Rom. 122)
• Must be crucified to (Gal. 614)
• Shine as lights in (Phi. 215)
• Keep himself unspotted from (James 127)
• Escape its corrupting influence (2 Pet. 14)
• Ultimately must overcome (1 John 54-5)

15
THE LORDS DISPOSITION TOWARD THOSE IN THE WORLD

• Gave himself for (John 316)
• That He might save it (John 317)