All That is in the World: 1st John Lesson 10

1 John 2:16-17

How to Tell What is of the World – v 16

Why We Do Not Love the World – v 17

 Welcome back to 1 John 2. Let’s turn there this morning for our study of God’s word. We are studying 1 John verse by verse. We are looking at a series of tests by which we may know that we have eternal life. We have examined the fellowship test, the sin test, the obedience test, the love test, and now we are looking at the love of the world test.

 Last week we looked at 1 John 2:15. Here we found a straightforward command. “Do not love the world nor the things in the world.” Following the command is this concern. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” In other words, if you love this world, you fail the love of the world test. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father has not transformed him, or her. John is black and white and crystal clear.

 Then John goes on to explain how we identify those things that are in the world. He writes, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” John tells us what we need to know in order to be able to identify and avoid all that is in the world. He makes it clear. All that is in the world is not from the Father, but is from the world.

 If you remember last week you should remember that we are dealing with two diametrically opposed systems, or orders, or kingdoms. This is what the word “world” means as John uses it here. It is this world order, this evil system ruled by Satan that we are not to love. The differences between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God  are dramatic. The differences should be obvious. One is a kingdom of darkness, the other is a kingdom of light. One is a kingdom of deception, the other is a kingdom of truth. One is a kingdom of unrighteousness, the other is a kingdom of righteousness.

 But here is the problem. Those who are in the kingdom of this world don’t know it. Those in the kingdom of God are the only ones who can see what is going on. Only those whose eyes have been opened and who have ears to hear can discern the difference between the domain of the world and the domain of the kingdom of Christ. Remember what we saw last week. Those in the world are among those who lie in the power of the evil one. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Those who are in this evil world system don’t know it. They are blind. 2 Cor. 4 tells us that Satan blinds the minds of the unbelieving. Col. 1:13 tells us that we have been rescued from the domain of darkness. Those who have not been rescued are still living in the domain of darkness. In the domain of darkness they are unable to see.

 Just to remind you of what we learned last week, this world hates Christ and His people. The goal of this evil world system is to oppose God, oppose the word of God, and to oppose the people of God. This “kosmos” or order of evil in the world is hell bent on destroying the plans and purposes of God. But I want to remind you again that Satan is not God’s equal. Satan does the will of God, all the time. That may be hard for you to believe and fathom, but Satan is not free to do what he wants. He always acts under the sovereign control of Almighty God, and he hates it.

 And understand this. Satan works to destroy all of mankind. He opposes God and the word of God and the people of God but he also wants to destroy all of humanity. These things we are going to see today, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, these are Satan’s tactics against all of humanity. He doesn’t just use them against the people of God. He uses them to lure everyone down a path of destruction. The difference is that we who have been rescued from the domain of darkness have been given the ability to recognize the problem and avoid the outcome. The outcome will be different for the believer, especially the one who puts on the whole armor of God and stands firm against the schemes of the devil.

 But this is not the case for the non-Christian. Those who have not been rescued from the domain of darkness will live under the dominion of these lusts, these influences, continually. They can’t help it. They are powerless to stand against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Lost people cannot help but act like lost people. They are powerless to overcome their fleshly passions and their prideful rebellion against God. They will love darkness and turn from light. They will buy into the lies and pursue a path that will inevitably result in their destruction. Unless God reaches into their lives and opens their blind eyes and shines the light of truth in such a way that they might be enabled to see, they will not turn, repent, and believe.

 But we who have been rescued can see. We can tell what is from the Father. We can discern what is not from the Father but is from the world. Not only have we been given the ability to recognize the difference, we have been given the power to live differently from the world. We have been given the spiritual resources to avoid falling to these influences that are in the world.

 John gives us the pathology of the world order. He tells us how the world is working to lure humanity into love for its evil ways. He tells us that all that is in the world involves three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Let’s begin with the lust of the flesh.

 God has created us all with physical needs. We have the need for food, for sleep, and with maturity into adulthood comes the need for sexual fulfillment. God has also provided a way to fulfill all those needs in a way that is righteous and honoring to Him. There is nothing sinful about getting hungry, getting tired and wanting to rest, or wanting a companion with whom we can find sexual gratification. God has provided a righteous avenue for all these needs to be met.

 The problem comes when we are tempted to satisfy the God given needs in ungodly ways. If we eat to excess we are gluttons. If we sleep to excess we are lazy sluggards. If we pursue any unrighteous avenue for sexual fulfillment outside of God’s definition of marriage we are fornicators, adulterers, or part of the alphabet soup of sexual perversions.

 This world system that is controlled by Satan is particularly interested in the sexual realm. Sexual enticement is everywhere. Through the entertainment industry and the computer and internet, and other mediums of communication, we are bombarded with sexually tempting images and innuendos constantly. We went to a high school football game recently and the high school dance team performed a dance that was nothing but sexually suggestive. It was exploiting these young girls, making them objects of the sexual desires of every fallen man in that stadium. The world system celebrates doing that to young women.

 The lust of the flesh was the problem with the children of Israel when they became dissatisfied with the manna God provided in the wilderness. They wanted meat. Psalm 78:18 says they put God to the test by asking for food according to their desires. Solomon provided a lot of instruction in the book of Proverbs warning about the dangers of a seductive woman. Proverbs 6:25 says, “Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her eyelids.” Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:28 that if we look at a woman with lust we are guilty of adultery in our hearts.

 The lust of the flesh works to a large degree with the lust of the eyes. The eyes are a wonderful gift from God. With our eyes we can see and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation. Our sight allows us to enjoy so many of the wonders of life. With my eyes I can take out my phone, as I often do, and I can browse through the myriads of pictures I have taken of my grandbabies and I rejoice in the blessings they are in my life. I love sunrises and sunsets. Usually at this time of year I really enjoy the explosion of color in the trees. 

 But, my eyes can also be a problem. As we heard Jesus say that if I use my eyes to look with lust at a woman, I am guilty of adultery in the heart. Samson saw a beautiful woman and it was the beginning of his undoing. In Joshua 7 Achan confessed that he saw the mantle and the silver and gold and he said, “I coveted them.” Job realized the problem with the eyes. This is why he said he had made a covenant with his eyes to never look upon a virgin. 

 Satan has created world system that creates the desire for everything we see. This world system is designed to create the desire. Satan wants us to see something and decide that we just have to have it. It might be a car we don’t need and can’t afford, or a neighbor’s wife. Rather than being content, and satisfied with what God has provided, we want what we see. You see, the eye is never satisfied.

 And this plays right in to the hands of the boastful pride of life. Satan’s world system is designed to make you believe that you deserve everything your eye sees. It is the boastful pride of life that makes us think we are better than others. This is what motivates self-exaltation. If we can’t find a basis for the exaltation of ourselves, we elevate ourselves by tearing everyone else down around us. Anyone who thinks himself bigger than he really is, more important than what reality reveals, has a problem with pride. 

David was on the balcony of the palace and he looked down upon the roof of his neighbor’s house, and he saw something he thought he just had to have. In David’s sin with Bathsheba we see all three tactics working. The lust of the flesh was at work. David’s sexual appetite was aroused. The lust of the eyes was at work. All of a sudden, because of what he saw, somehow what he had available was not good enough. The eye is never satisfied. He wanted what he saw. And the boastful pride of life reminded him of how special he was. He was the king. He would be the best thing that ever happened to this woman. She was far too beautiful for a common man like Uriah. 

 The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. These are the tools and tactics of Satan. But why do they work? We need to understand this because we might tend to fall into the trap of blaming Satan for all of our failures. Flip Wilson’s theology is not sound doctrine. He used to say, “The devil made me do it.” We cannot blame our failures on the fact that Satan is using these tactics to lure us to sin.

 James tells us, “each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death.” Jesus said that things like fornication and adultery come from the heart. Satan’s tactics work effectively because he is luring sinners into his trap.

 Satan’s world system and all it utilizes is effective in luring us to sin because there is within us a fallen condition that makes us susceptible and vulnerable. How did we get into this condition? The Bible tells us. It is the result of the Fall.

 These worldly influences cannot be understood apart from a look at two passages where we see them at work. In the first case we see them utilized very effectively by Satan to lead the first man and woman into the Fall. In the second case we see them being tried by Satan but failing. Many of you could already guess which two passages I am taking us to. Let’s turn first to Genesis 3:1-7. Read these verses.

 Here is the first temptation, the first sin in the fall of the human race.  Satan comes along. He finds the woman, Eve, in the garden. Verse 1, he approaches the woman. He says, “Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” That’s the first question in history, by the way, designed to start Eve on the path to distrusting God.

He wants Eve to doubt the character of God, wants Eve to disobey God. He wants Eve to believe that God is a liar and that God is restrictive needlessly and wants to put her in bondage. So here, for the first time, he offers Eve the option of subjecting God’s Word to human judgment. This is the first time anything God said was subjected to human judgment. “Has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Satan, in the way he poses the question, turns the positive into the negative.

God had originally said, “You can eat from anything in the garden, everything in the garden, except that one tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Satan turned it into a negative, “Has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” emphasizing the negative, forcing Eve to contemplate the fact that God is restrictive. He turns what was a provision with only one small limitation into what is a prohibition.

He is implying God is restrictive, God is narrow, God hampers freedom, God wants to rain on your parade, God doesn’t want you to have something that’s really good, He wants to limit your enjoyment. He wants to limit your pleasure. On the other hand, he implies, “I am devoted to your full fulfillment, I am in the freedom business. God may even be cruel and uncaring if He restricted you from that tree. God’s pro-bondage, I’m pro-freedom.”

Well, the woman answered the serpent and said, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it.’” God didn’t say that. By adding those words, “or touch it,” she’s saying, “Yeah, you know, you might be right,” and she’s starting to add restrictions to what God said, feeling the weight of Satan’s approach.

There’s no defense of God here. She doesn’t say, “How dare you question the Word of God? You didn’t get it right. It was a provision with only a minor restriction, not a prohibition.” She doesn’t defend God at all. She says, “Yeah, you shall not eat from it, or touch it, lest you die.” God didn’t say that but she is beginning to buy into this idea that God is restrictive, so she throws in a restriction of her own. 

And she fell, really, at that moment, the moment she didn’t defend God. Satan knew it, so in verse 4, he went all the way. The serpent said to the woman, “You surely shall not die.” He knew where she was. God said you’ll die, Satan said no, you won’t, and by saying that, Satan said God is a what? He’s a liar. He’s not only narrow, not only restrictive, He not only wants to rain on your parade, He not only wants you to keep from enjoying the pleasure of that tree, but He didn’t tell you the truth. I’m telling you He lied to you, you won’t die, that’s a lie.

Well, why would God lie? Why would God say I’ll die? Verse 5, “Because God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The reason He doesn’t want you to eat is not because He loves you and you’ll die, it’s because if you eat you’ll be like Him and He hates competition, doesn’t want anybody equal to Him. 

She had fallen but she hadn’t yet sinned. She was in a fallen condition. She hadn’t yet sinned. What is the matrix in her fallenness that’s going to literally cause her to sin? Verse 6 tells you - follow this. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food,” what’s that? Stomach, bodily appetite, lust of the flesh, wasn’t related to hunger, she had all kinds of things to eat. It was the idea that there was some satisfaction being withheld from her. It was good for food, lust of the flesh, fulfill some desire, some appetite.

Secondly, she saw also that it was a delight to the eyes. That’s the lust of the eyes. It not only excited her - her sort of basic desire for the sensual joy of food, excited her otherwise noble appreciation of beauty. And she saw that it was a beautiful tree and that made it desirable. She could appreciate beauty, and so she was seduced by her hunger and she was seduced by her vision.

And then she also saw that the tree was desirable to make one what? Wise. What was that? Pride of life. That’s the matrix that sin works on, the baser desires and appetites of the body, the nobler visions of beauty and form, and the highest of all, the ability to know wisdom because you’re made in the image of God, comes to the point of pride.

 Satan is consistent. He hasn’t changed. His entire world system is based on a strategy that worked the first time and led the whole of the human race into sin. But let’s look at an example of when Satan’s strategy didn’t work. Turn to Luke 4:1-12. 

John tells us “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world…all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.” We do not have to fall victim to these worldly temptations. We who are Christians can walk in freedom.

This is why Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lusts.” Galatians 5:17 says, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another.” Verse 24 of Galatians 5 tells us, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age.”

 1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior, because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” In 1 Peter 4:2 he writes, “so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”

 The strategy of Satan did not work on Jesus and it doesn’t have to work on us. We have the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit abiding in us and we have the word of God as our weapon of choice. We are able to recognize the evil world system at work and we don’t have to fall victim to it.

 Now, in verse 17 he tells us why we should not love the world or the things in the world. “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

 You want evidence that the world is passing away? Every major dynasty and dominant world power throughout the history of the world has done what? You name me one dominant world power that has lasted. You can’t. They are all marked by decay and decline and they all, without exception, have become nothing but the subjects about which we study in our school history lessons.

 Not only do kingdoms pass away, but so do people. There is a reason the Bible speaks of this body as a tent. It is only temporary. It too is decaying and going downhill. Physical decline is taking its toll on this old man. We are all passing away.

 But there is an enduring kingdom. It is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are some who will live forever. Those who belong to Christ. And the one who does the will of God abides forever.

 Let’s pray.