Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - Do Not Love the World

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - Do Not Love the World · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Good morning. It is a delight to be back at
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: ligand area. It has been far too long. If you
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: have your Bibles with you, open them to the Book
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of First John, First John, Chapter two, First John, Chapter two,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and we find here what is in many ways a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: very controversial text. But I think it's a text critical
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: for our day, and I'll explain why. First, let's look
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: at it, beginning in verse fifteen. Do not love the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: world or the things in the world. If anyone loves
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: For all that is in the world, the desires of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: pride of life, is not from the Father, but it's
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: from the world. The world is passing away along with
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: his desires. But whoever does the Word of God abides forever.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: In one way, this passage seems like it ought to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: collapse under the weight of other texts. It appears to
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: be completely out of place and almost contradictory in light
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of the fact that we as Christians are not just lovers,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: we're profligate lovers. We are called to love like nobody's business.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: We love because God is love. We love because God
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: first loved us. We love the Lord, our God with
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. And we love
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: our neighbor as ourselves. There are myriad commands to love
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: one another. In fact, that's how the world knows that
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: we're Christians by our love and our love for one another.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: But not only our love for one another, we love
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: our enemies. By love, we fulfill the law. The apostle
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Paul says in Romans thirteen eight to ten, owe no
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: one anything except to love each other. The one who
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments you
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: not still, you shall not covet, and any other commandment
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: are summed up in this word. You shall love your
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: love is the fulfilling of the law. And then there's
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the issue of the world. This seems to contradict our
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: most beloved verse in the Bible, John three sixteen. For
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: God so loved the world that he gave his only son,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: have eternal life. So what can make this text of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: ours so confusing. In light of all of this, it
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: comes as a shock to the system when we read
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the words do not love, And yet there they are,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: do not love. Even when I just let that sit there,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: you don't like it. You're like finished a sentence. Now
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I want you to hear those words do not love.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: It's a command which means that if we violated that,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: we're in sin. In other words, love can be sinful.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Remember I told you this is an important word for
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: our day. Love can be sinful. We live in the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: midst of a culture that needs to hear that. It
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: needs to hear that from us because it's coming at
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: us with this whole love is love mentality. And how
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: can you be against love? Nobody can be against love.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Certainly Christians can't be against love because God is love
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and we are called to love. Therefore, how can you
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: stand in the way of any two people who love
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: one another? But our text today makes it very clear
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: that there are instances when love can be sinful. In
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: other words, this is more than just a theoretical theological
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: discussion for us to have. This is a very practical
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: rubber meets the road issue. This issue of love being sinful.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: The question is what makes love sinful? What could possibly
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: make love sinful? Under what circumstances would love be considered sinful? Well,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: first of all, love becomes sinful when it is directed
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: at the wrong object. Love becomes sinful when it is
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: directed at the wrong object. Look at verse fifteen. Do
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: not love the world or the things in the world.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: is not in him. Do not love the world. Now,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: it's very important to note that this word world, especially
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: in Johannah in literature, is used in at least three
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: different ways. First of all, the world can refer to
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: all creation. You see this in John one, John three,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: John four, John six, John seven, John eight, over and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: over again. This word cosmos refers to all the world,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to all the created universe. John is not saying here
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: that we should not love this universe, this world, this
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: earth that God created. That that's not what's being said here. Secondly,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the term world refers to the people that inhabit this
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: world that God created, and God is not saying do
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: not love people. Do not love mankind, absolutely not. We
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: know that it doesn't mean that, because the love that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: we're called to give, even to our enemies, the great commandment,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: love the Lord you're God with all your heart, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: love your neighbor as yourself. So John can't be talking
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: about that first world here, and he can't be talking
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: about that second world here. That would be a contradiction. However,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: there is a third use the term world, and that
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: third use refers to the spiritual realm that is in
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: opposition to God and in rebellion against His kingdom. It
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: is that third sense of world that is being discussed here.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: So when John says, do not love the world, he says,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: your love becomes sinful when it's directed at that system
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: that is anti God, that system that is anti Kingdom,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: that system that is satanic. And he makes it obvious
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that it's satanic because he uses it several times here.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Even in First John, John writes that by faith the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Christian is able to overcome the world. In First John five,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: four and five. In our text, he says the world
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: passes away. In Chapter three, verse one, he says the
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: world is ignorant of God, and three point thirteen he
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: says the world hates believers, and for one he says
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: it's the abode of false prophets, and for three, it's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the abode of the Antichrist, and in four five it's
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the abode of unbelievers. And last, the whole world is
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: controlled by the evil one. It is obvious here that
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: when John refers to world in this text, he's referring
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: to that world that is under the control of our adversary,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the devil, that world that is spiritual and ideological, and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: at war with our king and his kingdom. And we
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: are told, do not love that world, not at all.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Listen to Calvin, he had said before that the only
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: rule for living religiously is to love God. But as
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: when we are occupied with the vain love of the world,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: we turn away all our thoughts and affections. Another way,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: this vanity must first be torn away from us in
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: order that the love of God may rain within us
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: until our minds are cleansed. The former doctrine may be
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: iterated a hundred times, but with no effect. It will
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: be like pouring water on a ball, you can gather
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: no not a drop, because there is no empty place
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to retain the water. Like pouring water on a ball,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: when when your affections, when your love is pointed toward
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: the world, there is no room for the love of God.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Because when your love and your affections are pointed toward
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the world, they are pointed toward that which opposes God.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Thus love can become sinful when it is directed at
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the wrong object. James says something similar in James four
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: in verse four, You adulterous people, do you not know
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Therefore,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: himself an enemy of God. No man can serve two masters.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: He will love the one and hate the other. This
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: is an either or situation. You cannot love the world
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and love God simultaneously. In fact, in our regeneration, in
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: our salvation, we are taken out of the world. We're
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: taken out of that system. We're brought out of darkness
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and into His marvelous light. We transfer kingdoms, we transfer allegiances.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: But if our love is still for the world, our
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: allegiance has not legitimately been transferred. Which is why in
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: two nineteen, just after our passage, John says, they went
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: out from among us because they were not all of us.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: If they had been of us, they would remained, But
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: they left so that it might be known, so that
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: it might be obvious, that we might see that they
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: were never ours, they were never his, because their love,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: their affections were pointed at the system that is opposed
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to God one John five to four. For everyone who
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: has been born of God overcomes the world, and this
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: is the victory that overcomes the world our faith John
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: fifteen nineteen. If you were of the world, the world
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: would love you as its own. But because you are
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: not of the world, but I chose you out of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the world. Therefore the world hates you John seventeen sixteen.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: They are not of the world, just as I am
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: not of the world, John seventeen eighteen. As you sent
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: me into the world, so I've sent them into the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: world again. We've been sent into the world to proclaim
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the Gospel. But we're not of this world. We're in
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: this world, but not of this world. And we are
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: a most assuredly not to love this world. A great
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: way to see this picture is to think about the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: love that a man is commanded to have for his wife. Husbands,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: himself up for her. There's a love that husbands are
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: called to give exclusively to their wives. And the moment
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you turn that love onto another, you are guilty of idolatry.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: It's the same point here. The moment you turn that
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: love that we are called to have for God, that
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: love that has been shed abroad in our hearts, the
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: minute you turn that to the world out of which
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you were saved, that minute you are communicating the fact
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that you do not have the love of God, or
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: love for God beloved. We must constantly examine our hearts
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: for the presence of this love of the world. Now
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: be careful here, but because there is a tendency to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: take this in very wrong directions, we've got to fight worldliness.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: And so what that means is you don't drink, smoke,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: cus or chew or date the girls to do right.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: That's not what this is. That's the enemy's sleight of hand.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Because I can love alcohol and not drink it, Amen,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I can love drugs and not take them. I can
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: love I can love these things. My passions and my
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: affections can be pointed in these directions. And yet my
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: legalism and my moralism says I'm better, not just than
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I was, but I'm better than you, Amen, Because I
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: fight the urge. Because I don't participate, I still love
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: it with every fiber of my being. John's not saying here,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: don't participate in the world. He says, don't love the world.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: We must develop discernment in order to determine the difference.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: But not only that love becomes sinful when it arises
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: from the wrong source, not only when it's pointed in
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the wrong direction, pointed toward the wrong object, but when
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: it arises from the wrong source Verse sixteen. For all
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that is in the world, the desires of the flesh,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the desires of the eyes, the pride of life is
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: not from the Father, but is from the world. So
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: there's a problem first with the object, and now here
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: there's a problem with the source. That this love for
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the world arises from the world, just like our love
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: for God and for the things of God arises from God.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: It is God who gives us the capacity to love God.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: But here we have a love that is arising from
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: a different source. The first two categories that are mentioned here,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: cravings and lust, are sinful desires. Boasting, however, is sinful
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: behavior from internal to external. The first two are internal
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and hidden sins. Last one is revealed. The first two
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: pertaining to the individual person. The last one pertains to
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: this person in community with others. Chris Democra says three
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: categories cravings, lust, boasting. These things arise from the world
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: cravings inordinate desires for things. And again we have to
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: separate these two. When we say cravings and ust and boastings,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: we have to recognize that we're talking about this third
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: world and not the first two. First example, in that
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: first world, I can love the beauty of a sunset.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: I can love the beauty of a perfectly cooked stink. Sorry,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I can. I can love the beauty of music art. Again,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: those things in this world that God has made, I
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: can and I must love the people whom God has
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: created in this world. But the kind of love that
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I have for those things is a love that arises
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: from God himself. But even those loves can be perverted.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: And so now instead of me loving the beauty of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: a sunset or a beauty of God's created order, now
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I worship God's created order. I worship the creature rather
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: than the creator. Rather than loving the beauty of those
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: things that God has given us, Now all of a sudden,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: those things become means to an end, to satisfying myself,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to gratifying my flesh, to quenching my lustful desires. That's
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: when they've crossed a boundary. And then there are these things.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: That's when it gets outward my cravings, my lust, and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: then my pride. True love can lead me to share
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: my testimony. Pride can make me exaggerated. True love can
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: cause me to use my voice to proclaim the truth
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: of the gospel. Pride makes me love the sound of
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: my voice so that I just talk too much. True
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: love can lead me to share my story, but my
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: pride causes me to make myself the hero of every
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: story I tell. Can make me one of those people
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: who constantly gives you their resume. That's what it looks like,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: looks like when it becomes outward. True love can show
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: gratitude for the things with which God has blessed me,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: But my pride can make me constantly give you the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: price tag of those things so that you can be impressed.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Are you smelling when a step in here? So? Our
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: love can become sinful based on its direction and based
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: on its source. But finally, and ultimately, and most importantly,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: our love becomes sinful when it produces the wrong fruit,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: when it leads to the wrong ends, looking verse seventeen,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and the world is passing away along with its desires.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Here
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you have these, these two opposite ends. On the one hand,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: you have this world that is passing away, and on
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the other hand you have our God, who abides forever.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Love becomes sinful when it leads to wrong ends and
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: produces wrong fruit. Passions become sinful when they are pointed
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: in directions that lead to death and destruction, as opposed
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: to leading to life. One Corinthians seven twenty nine thirty one.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: This is what I mean, brothers, The appointed time has
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: grown very short from now on. Let those who have
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: wives live as though they had none, and those who
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: buy as though they had no goods, and those who
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: deal with the world as though they had no dealings
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: with it. For the present form of this world is
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: passing away. There is no life there. And this leads
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: us back to what I was mentioning earlier, the poignant
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: way in which this is so pertinent to our times
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: because of the Love is Love crowd, particularly in the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: area of same sex marriage. How can you be opposed
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to same sex marriage when same sex marriage is just
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: about people who love each other being allowed to express
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: that love. But that's a love that's pointed at the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: wrong object. That is not a love that comes from
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: God or that brings glory and honor to God. It
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: is pointed at the wrong object. It is a love
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: that arises from the wrong source. Look with me if
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: you will at Romans chapter one, beginning of verse eighteen,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: familiar passage. But I want us to look at it,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men, who, by their
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: God is plain to them because God has shown it
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: creation of the world in the things that have been made.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: So they are without excuse. For although they knew God,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: they did not honor him as God or give thanks
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: to him, but they became feudal in their thinking, and
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: for imagists resembling mortal man, and birds and animals and
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up to the lusts
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: of their hearts, to impurity. Here we are, these lusts,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: these desires, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and worship, and served the creature rather than the Creator,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: who was blessed forever Amen. For this reason, God gave
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: them up to dishonorable passions. Dishonorable passions. The desires themselves
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: are dishonorable enough already with this gay Christian stuff. And
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I don't just say enough already. I don't mean this
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: in a sense of you know, they're over there and
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I'm over here. I mean this in the pastoral sense.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: How cruel is that if a man comes to me
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: talking about a desire for a woman who is not
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: his wife, I'm not going to tell him to just
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: go ahead and embrace the desire, because the desire in
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and of itself is okay. It's not. God gave them
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: up to dishonorable passions for their women, exchange the natural
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameful acts
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: their error. There is the bad fruit. It's pointed in
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: the wrong direction, it is arising from the wrong source,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: and it is producing bad fruit. Therefore, it falls into
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the category of love that is sinful. It falls into
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the category of love that does not glorify God. It
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: falls into the category of love for that third version
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: of the word world, not the first God's created order,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: not the second people in the world, but that third,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: that system that is openly opposed to all that God is,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and that rebels against the reign of God and his kingdom.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: And that is precisely where we are, brothers and sisters.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: And not only that, this rebellion is no longer covert,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: but it has become overt. It is out there, and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: it is in our faces. And unfortunately it is being
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: urged along by people within the church who are essentially
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: arguing that love is always righteous, love is always godly,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: love is always appropriate because God loves everyone and God
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: loves everything. And right here the Bible says, do not love.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: There are some loves that are out of bounds. There
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: are some loves that are unacceptable. In other words, there
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: are some loves that are not truly love. And if
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: you're here today and you wrestle with that, let me
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: say to you that the last thing you need to
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: do is to give in to that love and define
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: yourself by it, because that's love of the world. Do
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: not love the world. Do not love based on your
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: passions and your desires. But love the Lord your God
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and all your strength, which means your passions are to
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: be turned in his direction and no other. We must
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: reject the lie that says there is no love that
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: is out of bounds, because ultimately, that lie that says
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: there is no love that's out of bounds is a
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: lie that says there is no truth in God. I'm
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: a father nine times over. What that means is I
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: am very well acquainted with the fact that love is
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: not find by allowing those whom you love to have
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: what they want when they want it, just because they
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: want it. Some of the most loving moments between me
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and my children have been moments when I have said
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: authoritatively and unequivocally no Amen. And we see that here
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: in this text. Why lean with this? Look at it again?
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: The world is passing away along with its desires, But
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: whoever does the world of God abides forever. You see
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: what's happening here. This do not love the world is
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: not God saying, listen, there's good stuff out there that
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I want to keep from you. That's the lie of
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the serpent. This do not love says that looks good
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: to you, and may even feel good to you, but
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: in the end you will perish. I'm calling you away
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: from it because I actually do love you, and in
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: loving you, I want you to abide in God, to
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: remain in God, and to not perish. Because our desire
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: is that Christ indeed may have the fullness of the
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: reward for which he died. So do not love the world.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Let's pray our gracious God and our heavenly Father, God
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God who created
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: this world and everything in it, the God who is
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the King and ruler overall God, we bow before you
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: as a humble and grateful people, and we bow before
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: you recognizing that we have a tendency to love the world. Ironically,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: we have to fight to love that first world, and
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: fight to love that second world, and fight not to
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: love that third one, because we are fallen and frail
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: human beings. Grant by your grace that we might have
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: not only the wisdom to see the difference and the
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: faith to trust You to transform us, but that we
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: might also have the will to deny our flesh and
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: to not love the world. Father, I pray that this
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: would not cause us to flee out of the world,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: but that we would be wise enough to be in
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: the world and not of it, and that in doing
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: so we would be distinct and continue to be those
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: who are known by and marked by our love. Love
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: for God, love for the brethren, love for mankind, love
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: for the lost, even love for our enemies, but not
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: love for the world. Grandpa, your grace that this may
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: be true of us, for we ask it in Christ's
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: name and for his sake. Amen. Ap