This Sunday is a special Sunday. It is the last Sunday of 2001. Another year has passed. This is the perfect opportunity for us to look back and reflect upon a year gone by and to anticipate the year to come. There are times in our lives, when it is good for us to take inventory of how we are living. It is an opportunity for us to examine the road upon which we are travelling and either confirm that our destination is correct or make a turn in the road to where we would want to be going.

My wife and I had an opportunity to spend several days in London a few years back. As many of you know, their subway station is called, "The Tube." It is fantastic. It is an underground labyrinth of subway trains. Underneath the city of London, there are all sorts of train tracks going every which way to take you anywhere in the city you would like to go. You simply need to follow the maps and you can go anywhere in the city. (It is no different than the "L" in Chicago), except that all of it is under the city. You descend the stairs to get to the trains; you jump on a train; you come up from underground, and you are in a different place than you were before.

As we travelled upon the tube, it was always an adventure for us. It was so new to us. We were constantly checking our maps to make sure that we got on the right train, going the right way. Every stop that we would make, we would make sure that we hadn't missed our stop. For many of the local people, they travel these subway lines all of the time, and barely notice where they are going, because they are so familiar with the system. They descend the stairs, turn to the right, jump on the blue line and get out after 4 stops. But for us, each trip was new and we made great effort to insure that we were on the right track.

Our lives are no different. None of us have traveled our lives before. It's all very new to us. As a result, we need to be constantly assessing where we are and where we are going. Tonight, that is my goal. That you would look at your life and evaluate where you have been this past year. You need either to confirm the path that you are on and say, "Yes, I am going in the right direction. I am going right where I want to go." Or else, you need to change the direction you are going. Get of the train that you are on and get on another.

Tonight, I would like for us to resolve, as Jonathan Edward did, "Resolved, That I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die" (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 1, p. xxi). As your pastor, I want to make every effort that I can to place your death ever before your watchful eye. I want you to see the road you are travelling on, and see, for yourself, if indeed it is the road that you wish to travel. I want to encourage you to press "toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).

Last year, I took the opportunity of the last Sunday of the year to exhort you to live in personal holiness. I preached about the "Blessed Man." I took two texts of scripture. The first is found in Ps. 32:1,2, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit" (Ps. 32:1,2). The blessed man is the forgiven man.

I pressed upon you the blessing of the forgiveness that is found in Christ Jesus. Apart from this forgiveness, your body will waste away (verse 3). Apart from this forgiveness, you vitality will be drained away (verse 4). But a simple acknowledgement of your sin -- a confession to God of your own guilt before Him, and you will experience the liberation of forgiveness. Your burden will be lifted from your back. Christ Jesus will become real to you. You will "be glad in the LORD." You will "rejoice." You will "shout for joy!" (verse 11), when you know the reality of this forgiveness that is found in Christ Jesus.

The second text of Scripture we went to was Psalm 119:1-2, "How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart." The blessed man is an obedient man.

I pressed upon you the blessing of obedience to God. I pressed upon you the blessing that you will find when you simply hear a command of Scripture and respond in obedience to it. The Psalmist said it like this, "When Thou didst say, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to Thee, 'Thy face, O LORD, I shall seek'" (Ps. 27:8). The eagerness of David brought him blessing in Psalm 27. I am sure of it, for the scripture declared, "How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart." The man, who hears God's word, and obeys it, will find blessing. So, I pressed upon you, for your own good, to see to it to be obedient to God's Word. Your obedience won't merit you anything before God, but it will be to your benefit during your years upon the earth.

So, I ask you, this year, have you been blessed this year? Have you known of the blessing of forgiveness? Have you known of the blessing of obedience? It has been 364 days since I preached that message. Some of you were here and some of you weren't. But I ask all of you, have you known the blessing of God upon your life this past year?

This year, I would like to give you another similar admonition for the year to come (though, it is really the same admonition). In the same spirit as last year, I want to take this opportunity as the last Sunday of the year, to exhort you to personal holiness. I want to exhort you to a life of obedience unto our Lord. Like last year, I will be more topical, than textual, but my thoughts will come from a text. My text this year will be 1 John, chapter 2, verses 15-17. Let me read these verses for you this evening...

1 John 2:15-17
(15) Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) 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. (17) And the world is passing away, and [also] its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

Within these few short verses, there is really one command. It is found in verse 15. The command is this, "Do not love the world, nor the things in the world." Though there is one command, it has two parts: (1) Do not love the world, and (2) [Do not love] the things in the world.

The question, which I ask you tonight is this, "Do you love the world?" "Do you love the things in the world?"

I have chosen this passage tonight, because I am preaching to myself. I have found too much of the world in me. This week, I wanted to do what I could do to set my heart and affections on the things above, rather than on the earth beneath. I find in my own life that this message always needs to preached to me. I trust that it needs to be preached to you as well.

I ask you tonight, "Do you love the world?" "Do you love the things in the world?"

John's exhortations get right to the heart of our American capitalistic society, of which I am a part, of which you are a part. I believe that of any verse in the Bible which ought to raise our eyebrows, and give us reason to evaluate our hearts before God, it is this verse right here. We, as Americans, swim in our wealth. We swim in our "things." We don't even see it. We are like the fish who says, "Water? Where's the water?!? I don't see it!" The poorest among us tonight is richer materially than the vast majority of the non-American world.

Just as the fish cannot avoid the water, so we, in America, cannot avoid our wealth and our conveniences. We received a Christmas card from a friend of ours who has lived abroad for several years in congested Taiwan. She wrote, "[I love] being back in the U. S. I can't tell you how much I appreciate being able to drive to the store and find parking, then putting the groceries in the trunk (instead of carrying it), and driving home, right into the garage (instead of driving around for 30 minutes looking for parking). Or going to the park and the library." They are all around us. We cannot avoid them.

I ask you tonight, "Do you love the world?" "Do you love the things in the world?"

But our wealth isn't the problem. Our conveniences aren't the problem. The world isn't the problem. Paul didn't say that money was the problem, he said, "the love of money is a root of all evils" (1 Tim. 6:10). The things aren't the problem, it is our affection for these things that is the problem. You may be relatively poor and have more problems loving the world and the things in the world, than the richest of the rich ever have. You may be one whose heart and affections are not upon what you have, but upon the things that you wish you had.

Let me press upon you the seriousness of these questions.

Look at John's next phrase in verse 15, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." There is a complete separation here. There are two things, which never can mix. You cannot have both. "The love of the world" and "the love of the Father."

The love of the world ...

... is simply the setting of the affections upon the here and now.

... is described in verse 16 as, "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life."
... is the desire for the physical things we can touch and feel.
... is the desire of the flesh, the desire of the things we possess.
... is the desire of the eyes, the desire for the things we want. (Like the car salesman, who says, "just lay your eyes on this automobile")
... is the boastful pride of life, the self-centered desire for status and honor in the eyes of others.
... is seeking that which is passing away, as verse 17 says, "the world is passing away, and also its lusts."
... is treasuring the snowflake ... that melts away.

The love of the world in contrasted with "the love of the Father." The love of the Father ...

... is love that comes from the Father, "love is from God" (1 John 4:7).
... is love given to us by the Father, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us" (1 John 3:1).
... is love we have for the Father.

We have these opposites, "The love of the world" and "the love of the Father." To love the world is to serve the world. To love the Father is to serve the Father. You cannot serve the world and the Father. Jesus said it like this, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24). James, our Lord's half-brother, said it like this, "Friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4). Jesus added the flip side as He spoke to His disciples, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).

I ask you tonight, "Do you love the world?" "Do you love the things in the world?"

You choose. You can have one or the other, not both. Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:24-26). It is a difficult task, is it not?

If you believe in Jesus Christ tonight, you stand in a predicament. On the one hand, ...

- You live in this physical world, and won't escape it, until you die. You breathe its air; you see its sights; you eat its food; you wear its clothes.
- You are a member of the world's system. You buy from those who are in the world. You sell to those who are in the world. You live next door to those who are in the world. You use the world's roads, gas stations, restaurants, and grocery stores. You pay taxes to support your government, [I hope you pay your taxes] which governs the world's system in which we live.
- You cannot escape it.

Yet, on the other hand, we are told to have nothing to do with this world in which we live ...

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2). "This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" (James 1:27).

There is the tension in the life of a Christian.

It is summed up quite beautifully when Jesus prayed for His disciples, "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:15-16). Paul expressed a similar difficulty when he said that it was impossible not to associate with "the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world" (1 Cor. 5:10).

We are in this predicament. We live in this world. We are told not to be conformed by the world. "It is okay for a ship to be in the sea; there is danger when the sea is in the ship. It is okay for the believer to be in the world; there is danger when the world gets into the believer" (Marvin Rosenthal, Zion's Fire, Volume 6:5 - September/October 1995, p. 5).

We live in a dangerous place. Many people, having been attracted to the world, have been destroyed. It is said of Demas, that he "loved this present world," and thus, deserted the apostle Paul (2 Tim. 4:10), and presumably, the faith. You might think of the world as a blueish-green "bug zappers." It is glitzy and shiny. It is attractive and appealing. But in the end, when bugs get too close, they are zapped by it.

The world is a dangerous place, particularly for young people. They begin to like the things of the world. At first, it isn't so much that they are against religion, but they sure begin to like what the world has to offer. They try to have both the world and God. As the world gets more and more into their system, religion gets pushed out, until finally, it is totally gone. I saw many at the college I attended suffer this fate. The thoughts and ideas and lusts and pleasures of the world simply sucked them away from any form of religion they had.

The world is a dangerous place. You shouldn't play with the world any more than you might play with a rattlesnake.

I ask you tonight, "Do you love the world?" "Do you love the things in the world?"

At this point, perhaps you are saying, "Okay, Steve, I get your point. I understand that I am not to love the world, but practically, what does this look like?

- Am I to quit my job, because I work for a non-Believer?
- Am I to stop buying groceries from Logli's because it is owned by non-Believers?
- Am I not to have any non-Christian friends?
- Should I quite my hobby, which I so much enjoy?
- Can I go to movies?
- Can I go to ball-games?
- Can I watch television?
- Can my children go to public school?
- Should I move to the country to home-school and home-stead and home-church?
- What am I to do, so as not to 'love the world, nor the things in the world?'"

Let me begin by saying that here is a great opportunity for legalism. I could give you a huge laundry list of things that you should and shouldn't do, so as to stay away from the world. For each of your questions you ask, I could give you a "yes" or "no" answer. But to do so, would violate the intent of this passage.

The key to this passage is the little word, "love." It describes a pre-occupation with or obsession with something. Notice that John does not say, "Do not be in the world, nor use the things in the world." No, the fact is that we are in the world and cannot escape. The fact is that we need the things of the world to survive. But, John says, "Do not love the world, [do not love] the things in the world." Remember, it is the love of money which is the root of all evils (1 Tim. 6:10).

The key to answering these types of questions above is to realize that ...

1. We live in the world and cannot escape. Now, some think you can escape from the world. Monks and monasteries attest to this. But you cannot. As far as you go away from society, you will never be able to escape your flesh.

2. There are many activities in the world, which are not sinful, in an of themselves. For the vast majority of occupations, you are not compelled to sin in order to do your job. There is nothing sinful from engaging in the world in business. We can go to stores and purchase their goods. There is nothing sinful in befriending a non-Christian. There is nothing wrong with a hobby.

3. But, these activities may become consuming for you. These activities may become your passion and your love. If they do, realize, "if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The workaholic demonstrates his love for his job (or perhaps his love for status, which comes through his job). The compulsive shopper demonstrates a love for satisfaction in things he can buy. The Christian, whose closest friends are non-Believers, is in danger of being sucked into the world. The all-consuming hobby may be pull your heart away.

So think with me, now, "Do you love the world?" "Do you love the things in the world?"

Think of one issue in your life right now which poses the most threat to your love for God. Perhaps there is a sin in your life you need to deal with. Perhaps there is something which it is a good thing, which has become (or may become) too consuming for you. If you are having difficulty with thinking of an issue in your life, think how you spend your spare time. Think of one issue.

Let me ask you, with respect to this issue, "can you give it up? Or does it have its grip on you so much, that you would never give it up?" Church family, hear the admonition of the text, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

I plead with you, if there is something in this world that has so captured your love, turn from it tonight. Resolve in your heart that you will fight its control over you. Cry to God for mercy to help deliver you from this. I have seen His faithfulness and I have prayed for specific areas in my life. He has delivered me from worldly desires in these specific areas. I urge you to pray to God for specific concerns and watch Him deliver you.

As we close, let me give you a perspective. Look at verse 17, "the world is passing away." The things in your life that most enamour you today, will pass away. There is a poem, which says, "Only one life, it will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last." Realize that your lusts and your pleasures now, are but temporary.

Imagine, with me, that you were on United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco on September 11, 2001. This plane was hijacked by Osama Bin Ladin's friends that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, . Through phone calls made on the airplane, you had heard of the other airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. You knew that the plane that you were on was simply a flying bomb. You were going to crash. You knew that you were going to die. Yet, imagine yourself being most concerned with your pillow you were so enjoying. It was so comfortable. It was so relaxing to have this pillow. It was so soothing. You placed your affections on the things that were passing away. Those things that would capture our hearts today are like pillows on a crashing airplane -- they comfort, but for a moment.

Church family, I want you to realize, that the cure for a love of the world, is a look into eternity. Look at 1 John 3:2-3, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope [fixed] on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." When you see things clearly, your affections will be drawn away from this world.

A popular chorus says,

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."

That's it! We need to turn our eyes and focus our hearts upon the Lord Jesus Christ, until the things of this earth grow strangely dim.

You want to know what will overcome your passions for the things in the world? It's not your effort. It is your faith. Look at 1 John 5:3-5, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

The enabling power for us to "keep His commandments" in a way that isn't burdensome, is to place our hope and faith in Him. We come here, week in, week out, to hear the truth of God proclaimed, that we have a hope in Jesus Christ that is wonderful. Think about our hope:

- All of your sins, you ever committed, laid upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- The God, who created the world and all things in it is with us.
"If God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom. 8:31).
- "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:32)
- In ages to come, His kindness and grace toward us, who believe, will abound to His glory.
- We are complete in Jesus Christ.

Tonight, we are going to celebrate the Lord's Supper. It is nothing more and nothing less, than a proclamation to us and to the world that our hope for all eternity is in Jesus Christ.

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on December 30, 2001 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rvbc.cc.