The following mp3 sermon by John Wagner goes into detail about defining world and worldliness. He provided a biblical definition of “world,” and examples of how the world manifests itself in a Christian’s behavior.
The information in this post is foundational to observing the world in one’s affections and conduct, which is the beginning of eradicating it via the Spirit and God’s appointed means of grace.
Highlights from – Satan’s lie about the world [statements in square brackets are mine, and emboldening]:
- 1 John 2:15 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.
- James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- Those who “overcome” the world, will be those who occupy heaven; therefore, overcoming should be of utmost importance to Christians
- Satan is earnestly trying to destroy us; you may be playing with him, but he is not with you
- You know from the Bible and from Luther’s hymn, that Satan’s power is great, his equal is not on earth; but he still successfully tempted you this week didn’t he?
- Knowing who Satan is and of his power is not the same as resisting him
- The goal of a Christian is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever; however, Satan’s tactics lead us out of the God’s Way: to disobey via temptation
- A Christian faces temptation from the moment he gets up until he goes to bed each day
- To be obedient, requires warfare
- Satan’s chief tactic to make us fall is to present the world to us in various ways according to our lusts; he wants us to believe that it is our friend
- James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
- James was addressing the contention among believers, the root of which was lusting for the world (consider with 1John 2:15 above; and with James 4:7)
- To fight as we should in our Christian walk, we need to understand the following: “world, worldliness, the world”
- World: that organized system of fallen humanity opposed to God and headed by Satan
- The worldly are those who live as though God does not exist; that have rejected God and have rebelled against Him [Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.]
- Satan presents worldly things to us as temptations because he knows that the world in us will respond; the more we choose to indulge ourselves, and forget about God, the more our affections for the world grow…
- Satan wants us to receive the world as though it is our friend; he is using it to draw us away from God, and he succeeds when we believe it is our friend and that God is not looking…[if, for example, you look forward to indulging yourself in a worldly manner, then you might be viewing that indulgence as your friend – hatred, anger, gossip, porn, materialism…self-observation is required to see these things]
- A pattern of falling to Satan’s temptations will result in hardening of the conscience such that future temptations will not be recognized as easily
- If someone called himself our friend, broke into our home, ravaged our spouse, killed our children, then we would not believe he was really our friend – Satan is doing just that to our souls by drawing us from God
- Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters….
- That is, when one is duped by Satan into highly regarding the world, then he is necessarily despising God
- Luke 14, when those invited to the wedding feast, made excuses as to why they could not come, those excuses were examples of loving the world more than God
- Luke 16, that which is highly esteemed by man is abomination to God
- When a Christian loves the world more than God, it shows in his lifestyle: for example,
- Philippians 3:19 Whose end is destruction…who mind earthly things
- Some ways of valuing the world more than God: seeking the approval of peers; sharing their values; keeping one’s faith hidden (not praying in public…); sharing worldly attitudes, judgments, opinions…[e.g., wanting to be a Christian of high standing – that is a worldly value: Christ stated in Matthew 5:3, that we are to be poor in spirit, humble]
- On what do you spend the bulk of your energy and time?
- Do your friends know that you are a Christian? Is there evidence in your lifestyle?
- Are we angered or distressed by not having the things valued by the world?
- Apostle Paul, Col 3:1; seek things above….
- If we believe the world is our friend (that our love for it is not leading us astray) then we are duped by Satan and will be led further down the road of destruction – his goal
- John characterized the things of the world as: Lusts of the flesh; of the eyes and pride of life
- In Luke 22:15, Christ used the word “desire,” which is translated “lust” elsewhere: He spoke of His desire to eat the Passover before He suffered
- The apostle Paul talked about “desiring” to be with the Lord…
- These two instances are of lusting for the things of the Lord. In that case, lust is legitimate
- When we lust for the things of the world and hold them in higher regard than we do God, that is not legitimate
- We are permitted to USE the world; NOT to LOVE it
- Several examples, including: when a woman spends an hour putting on makeup and 5 minutes in her Bible, that is worldly; when a man knows all the sport teams and players and can’t name any books of the Bible or characters in it, that is worldliness, showing itself, if you should desire to observe it
- Satan starts small, but if one is not observant, he will be far from God in no time
- James 1, everyone is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lusts and enticed = there is something in us that responds to the world outside us; Satan uses that to harm us
- One word describes that world within us: SELF: it opposes God
- The self seeks its own glory, pleasure, happiness…; not God’s or another’s; Satan uses that for his purposes
- The worldly live as though there is no God; seeking to please self
- When we choose self, we sin against God [undoubtedly why Christ called us to deny self]
- Reasons why we are NOT to love self: It is unreasonable; it will never satisfy, but leave us empty; Isaiah 55…Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me…[self-observation reveals this]
- To do so brings a scandal upon the church, as those of the world mock us and our beliefs; we then practice idolatry; we are then going further from God, exposing ourselves to greater temptations
- To view the world as our friend will destroy: our godliness; testimony, usefulness, happiness, ability to glorify God
- We need to be reminded of these things again and again
- For now, [step one] let us be keenly aware that Satan is working hard to get us to love the world, and of the consequences of doing so [to see it, requires knowledge of the definition of worldliness, world, externally and internally]
Mp3 sermon: Satan’s lie about the world, Pastor John Wagner
The following link is to the 19 part series from which this is sermon 3. If you should wish to hear the series, use the arrow that follows the word “series” near John Wagner’s picture on the sermonaudio page:
https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=111911173720
For other similar sermons, see Categories: Spiritual Warfare; Discernment, etc.