Gooding, David: 3 – The World

Now let us prime our minds for our study in the first part of this afternoon by reading in the first epistle of John and chapter two. We begin there at verse twelve. I write unto you, my little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because you know him which is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written unto you, little children, because you know the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because you know him which is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now, you will remember that in our first session this morning, by consent, you allowed me to divide the epistle into three major movements of thought. Let me just remind you of their extent. We decided that we would, uh, divide the epistle into three movements of thought, one of them beginning with manifestation, one of the major themes of the epistle, the manifestation of the life eternal, and in the second movement, the manifestations of the Son of God in his incarnation and in his second coming, and the manifestations also of the children of God at that glorious event that we wait with joy and gladness, when we shall see him and be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And in the third phase, we shall think about the manifestation of the love of God, both historically in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life and death, and nowadays still the manifestation of God through, uh, to men through his people. And then we noticed that mo- this morning that at the end of these three movements, John issues a warning. A warning in the first place against false Christs. A warning in the second movement against false spirits. And a warning in the third movement against false gods, that is, idols. And then we noticed this morning that if you take those three parts of the epistle, in each of those parts you will meet two major topics: the family of God on the one hand, and the world on the other. By anybody's judgment, these then are two major topics, and we shall have to come to terms with them today and in the ensuing weeks, God willing. The family of God, of course, is a delightful subject, and here we're going to discover that not only do we have fellowship with God, we enjoy the common possession of eternal life with one another, with the Father and the Son, but that enjoyment of eternal life, that possession of eternal life puts us into the great worldwide family of God. And we shall see together today and in some coming weeks what are our joys and what are our responsibilities in the family of God. But standing in vivid contrast in each of these three major parts of the epistle, standing in vivid contrast with the family of God, is what John calls the world. We shall meet it in the first section in its guise as a very seductive and attractive world that is always bidding for our love. In the second part of the epistle, we shall come across the world in its far more sinister form as an enemy of God and as an enemy of the people of God, a world of which the apostle says, don't you be surprised if the world hates you. We shall be thinking there of its origin. It is of the evil one. And then in our third study, in the final week, we shall come across the world again as a power, as an obstacle against the doing of the commandments of God. So that if as believers in the Lord Jesus, we want to keep the commandments of God, nonetheless we shall find from time to time the world puts up an opposition against our keeping the commandments of God, and in order to keep them, we shall have to learn to overcome the world and be true followers of him who said, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Seeing then this matter of the world is such a leading topic in this epistle, I propose to spend this session this afternoon going over with you the basic concept, asking ourselves again, what exactly does scripture mean when it talks about the world? It is a term, of course, together with its adjectives, uh, that is to be heard commonly on the lips of believers. You will hear parents quietly in the home pour out their breaking hearts to you. Ah, my, my, my son, he showed such promise. He, he did used to bear a very bright testimony for the Lord, but I don't know what happened. Today he is in the world, they'll say. What do they mean when parents talk like that, somebody being in the world? Oh, said somebody else, oh, I, I, I wouldn't play snooker. Oh no. Well, that's a very worldly thing. Oh, I see. What do they mean when they say snooker is worldly? I suspect you'll observe that different people at this level have have different ideas of what worldliness is. I heard one man, I don't think he could have been serious. He suggested that football was worldly, but cricket wasn't. I think on the ground that cricket is a game that Englishmen play or used to play or something. Mm. But sometimes forms of dress are thought to be, have been thought to be worldly. What does worldly mean? Obviously, it is not a something that we can dismiss as some outmoded concept, is it? Nor must we unduly restrict it, because the words that we have read together here this afternoon are exceedingly wide. Love not the world, says John, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. How are we to understand it? All that is in the world is not of the Father. Well, butterflies are in the world, aren't they? Aren't we to love butterflies? Does this forbid us loving art and good literature and nature and people? Well, I should have thought obviously not. So then, um, what does it mean? The world in this sense, and all that is in the world. For instance, when verse sixteen te- talks about the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is it talking about the luridly sinful and evil and vicious things that people get up to in Soho in London. And I don't know where they do the, the comparable thing in Belfast, you see? You see how well I've been guarded. Is it simply immorality that, uh, John is talking about? Lurid immola- immorality and pornography and things of that order, when he talks about the world? Or is it possible for otherwise respectable believers to be worldly, even when they are sitting in their sacred moments, say at the Lord's Supper, to be manifesting a worldly spirit. So then I propose to make a few remarks on this matter. And this afternoon, and in particular in our, our first part, we shall find some help in coming at it by noticing at once that it has to do with the affections of the heart. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Apparently, these things are diametrically opposed, but we notice what is in common. Worldliness is primarily a matter of the heart and the heart's affections and love, which is why it rises ri- ri- raises itself, of course, in this context of the family. For in the family of God, all comes of the Father by definition, and it is the most basic thing that holds all members of the family together that they love or should love the Father. And if there is one thing above another that is disruptive of life in the family of God, it is when we lose our affections to the world and we love the world instead of loving the Father. It must be evident immediately, mustn't it, that being unworldly then is not, uh, it is not enough to be unworldly just to observe a code of rules and regulations. If I do this, I'm worldly. If I don't do that, I'm unworldly. It is first and foremost a matter of the heart and the heart's affection. But let's address ourselves to the, uh, uh, uh, another question. God made the whole world, didn't he? Didn't God make the whole world and all that's in it? What, uh, in what sense is John using the term world when he says all that's in the world is not of the Father? How can that be if the Father made the world and all that is in it? I suggest that our first, uh, way of understanding the matter is, as many have done, to go back to the fall of the human race and remember what happened to Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden, as we are told it in the book of Genesis. You will remember that in chapter one of Genesis, as the inspired writer records the creation of the world, he tells us constantly and repeatedly, and God made this, and he saw that it was good. All the delightful positiveness of the word of God. And of course, as late as the epistle of Paul to Timothy, the Holy Spirit is to be heard telling us that God has given us all things richly to enjoy. It is no part of s- true spirituality to run away from things natural, as though they were somehow unsuitable for believers. God has given us all things richly to enjoy. How then do you say does this word that originally described what God made, and all was very good, come to represent something that is bad and evil? Let us just recall the nature of the temptation that the evil one put before Eve. Didn't encourage Eve to go stealing Adam's store of peaches or something like that on the sly. What? Oh. Didn't tempt Eve to debauchery and wild profligacy and, uh, not even to murder Adam or anything like that. Murder was, alas, soon to come into our world as Cain murdered his brother, but it was no temptation to murder Adam that befell Eve. What was it then? You remember the story, how he concentrated her attention on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and invited her to consider how beautiful it was. Why, of course it was beautiful. God had made the thing. How shouldn't it be beautiful? But God had said of this particular tree that you shall not eat of it, for in the day they ate thereof, they should die. Nonsense, said the serpent, absolute nonsense. My dear, you'll have to learn to grow up and be mature. That kind of thing I'll do for children, maybe, but adults, I mean. And she saw that the tree was very desirable to look at. That is aesthetic satisfaction. And she saw it was good for food, that is physical satisfaction. And she saw it was desired to make one wise, that intellectual satisfaction. And you say, what's wrong with those things? Nothing wrong with them. Except this. That now what Satan was suggesting was that Eve should take these things and enjoy them independently of God and contrary to God's explicit word. Taking God's creation and enjoying it as an end in itself, apart from God and in disobedience to God. What about the word of God, says Eve to the serpent, for God has said, in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die. Oh, fiddlesticks, he said, word of God, oh, bother it, woman. You need that to enjoy yourself. And she fell. Let us observe once more that when she fell, the world went on. Trees were trees, and apples were apples, and cucumbers were cucumbers, and cauliflowers were cauliflowers, as far as I know, I mean. Do you say what's the difference then? Ah, now there was a difference as high as between heaven and hell. A creation from God to be enjoyed in fellowship with God, leading to gratitude to God, coming from God and leading back to him, had turned now into a world to be enjoyed apart from God. As an end in itself. And the serpent, as we are told, tempted Eve by her desires. Oh, pray notice again, let me repeat the obvious. He didn't, uh, come to her desires and put in front of them something luridly vicious, the kind of thing that we normally associate with the English word lust. At least I never heard any English speaker talk about lusting for apples, did you, or for fruit of trees. My brethren and sisters, it's more serious than that. Desiring anything apart from God, in disobedience to God, as an end in itself, apart from God, anything. That is worldliness. For all that is in the world, in now our bad sense, the desire of the eyes, the desire of the flesh, and the pride of life, is not of the Father. For in this sense, the world stands for a world of men and things and activities, looked at apart from God as an end in itself. There's nothing wrong in a nice home, is there? Why shouldn't you have a nice home? But suppose in life I make a nice home an end in itself, apart from the Lord. And though I might say, sing my formal hymns in church, yet my heart is totally engaged in getting myself a nice home, and God has forgotten days without number. This is my goal in life. Is that not worldly? There's nothing wrong in desiring music, is there? God created it, gave us the ears to enjoy it. But suppose I'm so wrapped up in loving music that I've no time for the Lord, and for me, music is my life, apart from the Lord. Isn't that worldly? Worldliness is also the pride of life. When this world and success in this world and the possession of things in this world comes the standard and the goal by which I rate my value and other people's value. Ha! My child goes to Eton, you know. Well, thank the Lord if he does. But what are you saying, that you're someone special now? This is the great goal in life you've achieved, and you're better than the other chap because his, um, his, uh, his son went to Orangefield Junior or something, and yours has gone to Eton. We should have to be careful how we boasted like that, shouldn't we? Because the Apostle Paul is liable to come along and say, you fool. What have you got that you didn't receive? If the Lord gave it to you, thank the Lord. But be humble enough and realist enough to admit that he gave it to you. You've no ground of boasting over somebody else. Ah, but sometimes a little worldly spirit creeps into us, doesn't it? And we make the world and its standards our goals and achievements, and we judge success, and we pride ourselves on it, apart from the Father. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. I realize that what I'm now saying, it makes it much more difficult in making our decisions in life, doesn't it? It's not, uh... It's not any longer sufficient, is it, just to get out the rule book and say, now, is this thing worldly or not? Let me look. Ah, number two hundred and sixty six. Ah, yes, the book says that's worldly, so I don't do it. Ain't that, is it? The much more subtle and sophisticated thing. There's It's a a question of my heart, and whether whatever it is I'm doing and enjoying in fellowship with the Lord as from him and thanking him for it and letting it lead me back in gratitude to him and his service, or whether the thing has got a hold of me apart from the Lord. Do you know, it would be possible, wouldn't it? And you'll perceive how I know it, for two theologians to be worldly, what? The one seeing how he can compete in brilliance with the other. As though an understanding of Bible were something that reflects credit on the man who understands it, and now he's in competition. Oh, alas. What a hideous thing. When it all should be of the Father. But when Satan succeeded with Eve, it is no wonder that all down the centuries he has adopted the same successful standards, tactics. He even tried them with our Lord, didn't he? I remind, I remind you of the famous temptation of our Lord. When Satan came along and said, if thou be the Son of God, make these stones bread. Now there's nothing wrong in hunger, surely. The desire for food, which we call hunger, there's nothing wrong in it. And in and of itself, there's nothing wrong or sinful in satisfying that hunger, surely. But on this occasion, there would have been a great deal wrong in our Lord satisfying that hunger. Because though God has in the norm given us all things richly to enjoy, there are times when he calls us to sacrifice for his sake, to wait upon his word. Sometimes when he will withhold from us what is a good thing in itself. And then so very often Satan comes with his te- temptation, doesn't he? To take something apart from God, simply because it's a good thing. And our Lord, as we might expect, magnificently exposed the sophistication and cynicism of the tempter and said, man shall not live by bread alone. That saying was not meant to be a negative, wet blanket attitude to life. Notice the term, man shall not live by bread alone. The most wonderful thing about a meal of a piece of bread and a sausage is that, uh, it comes from God, of course, isn't it? And that the whole of life is meant to have that dimension, however humble the thing in itself, as a basis of fellowship with God. And Satan will do with us like he did with the Lord. He will come in our early days, when life holds up so much that in itself is good, but tempt us to grasp it independently of the Lord, or quite in contradiction to his holy word. And if I had more experience, such experience as they have who will lead your discussion groups, I would talk to my younger and brethren and sisters in Christ about the modern world's attitude to love and marriage. How can it become very worldly when seized in independence of the Lord? But I wouldn't dare to say that, in case you said, why, you've gone to the other extreme, my good friend. There is something more sinister still, isn't there? In this idea of the world. So here now, just for a few moments, I call your attention to a phenomenon in scripture that you may well have observed yourselves. I just call your attention to it briefly. In an attempt to enrich the conceptual treasures of your mind. If you were to take some of the leading ideas in the book of Exodus, write them down in one column, and put alongside leading ideas from the Gospel of John in another column, you would see how many ideas the Gospel of John has in common with the book of Exodus. Exodus talks about Egypt ruled by a prince, namely Pharaoh, and how that prince of Egypt held Israel in bondage until a certain Moses was sent by God in order to deliver Israel from the bondage to Pharaoh and to Egypt. And how that, for Moses to be an effective deliverer, Israel had to be brought to believe in Moses, which proved a very difficult job. They began to believe at the first, and then they gave up because they said it wouldn't work. Thank God, in the end, were brought to believe in him, and he led them out. So as to provoke their faith in Moses, Moses was given to do signs. Signs given him of God to provoke the faith of the Israelites, that believing Moses as being sent from God, they might follow him out of Egypt's bondage. Another thing he was given to do to the Israelites was to declare the name of the Lord. When I go to them and say, I say, your God, your the God of your fathers has sent me, and they say to me, what is his name? What am I to say, says Moses? And the Lord said, you shall declare my name. It's the I am that has sent me. So that their faith in Moses should be provoked and their faith in God. And of course, there was the issue of whether God could, um, intervene in Egypt. Was Egypt part of God's created world or not? And then, of course, there was the d- judgment upon the land and the deliverance of Israel by the Passover lamb. And when they got out, there was manna to sustain them on their journey to their promised land. And you will at once see how, at a much higher level, the Gospel of John repeats those ideas. It talks about the world, as does the Epistle of John. And towards the end of the gospel, we read many times of the prince of this world. The prince of this world cometh, says our Lord, but he hath nothing in me. And Christ describes himself as having been sent by God. And we are to have faith in him, so that having faith in the Lord Jesus, we may be able to escape this world and overcome it. We are to believe on the Son. To help our faith, various signs are given us. And supremely in our Lord's tactics for delivering us from the world, there is his declaration of the name of the Father. I have declared thy name to my brethren whom thou has given me out of the world, and I will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Therefore, when we look at that, we can see that Exodus in the Old Testament is a kind of a prototype of what the New Testament calls the world. Let me remind you, therefore, what Pharaoh had done to the Israelites. We think of God, the great I am, the eternal God of the past, the present, and the future. We think of God in the past with all his wonderful purposes and his covenant with Abraham and his promises for Israel, great and glorious and stretching on, right on into the far distant future. But we think how in the present, Pharaoh had put a cage round Israel. He'd got them at work night and morning and noon, so that life was nothing other than their work and their play, eating and sleeping, and that was all there was. That was his interpretation of this world. And when Moses came along and said, but no, that isn't what life is. Life is a far bigger thing. Life is to be lived in the background of God's great eternal purpose. It's to be lived in the present, in the worship of God. It is to be lived for the future, God's great glorious future. And the whole of life is to be spent in that, the worship and the service of God. But when Moses came and told that to Pharaoh, Pharaoh said, oh, don't talk such drivel, Moses, don't. And as for you and all your miracles, our scientists can produce the same thing in their laboratories anyway. So go and get lost, Moses, because we don't believe it, we don't believe this God. Life for your Israelites is just what I make it in the here and now, work and sleep and play and a little literature if they've got the time and a little music, and that's that. And it required the coming in of Moses to break that prison and to lead Israel out of it. I shall scarce need to apply the parable, for the prince of this world has set up such a cage for mankind as a whole, says Ephesians, he's got them walking according to his principles. He's persuaded multitudes that this life virtually is all there is. They live for this world, and as for God's purposes in the past and his purposes in the future, they are ignorant of them and in no sense intend to cooperate with him. They know nothing but this world. And our age shall end with the biggest demonstration of worldliness that ever was seen, as finally the man of sin sits in the temple of God, claiming divine honors and defying a God out there, if there is one, and preaching to the world that our planet is a closed shop, a self-contained flat. We're in this world, but for us, surely the prison house has been broken, and the Lord Jesus has come, and we have really believed that he is the Son of God who came from the eternal beyond into our world and has gone back again and given us an eternal life, not merely in the future, but in the present of knowing God, of enjoying God, of sharing the life of God even now, and as we journey through life, living with our eye on the goal of God's eternal purpose. Ideas of the world, then. And to sum it up, what's wrong with the world? Two things, says John in the passage before us in chapter two. It's not of the Father. So that if you love the world in John's sense of that term, the love of the Father is not in you. Secondly, the world passes away. Even its best is temporary, isn't it? And to spend all my love on the world and forget the Lord, then I shall find that in the end my love is lost, for the thing upon which I set my love is but temporary, and it's passing away, and when it's gone, it will leave an almighty hole in my life. Suppose you were ever to come across anybody or a church that had a little dangerous te- tendency to worldliness. How would you cure it? How would you try to fight worldliness in people's lives? There may be many ways for all I know. I think supremely of what our blessed Lord said. I have manifested thy name to them. You say, how does that help? Oh, but friend, if only you could see God as he really is. I covet it, whatever else God may use me to do or not to do, oh, that he might use me for this. I can't do it, but then you'll have to let the Holy Spirit do it. Take the name of God and what God stands for and make it appear to you in all its eternal and measureless glory, till your heart becomes ravished with God and the wonder of God and the glory of God. And then, friend, be it so, you'll be safe wherever in this far-flung world duties for God shall take you, for they shall never steal your heart from the Lord. And now to our classes.