(Most recently I gave this message at The Lighthouse Chapel in Port St. Lucie on November 8, 2020. You may view the PowerPoint slides that accompany this message on Microsoft OneDrive Here)
In June of last year I brought a message entitled, Understanding the Destructive Power of the World. We examined what the Bible says about the "world." In the Bible, the word "world," can refer to the physical world, the planet earth, the people living on the earth, or the spiritual reality in which the people of the earth live.
We use the word in a similar way when we speak of the "world of finance", the "world of sports" or the "entertainment world." It is used in this sense when the Bible refers to "that system or worldview that opposes God satisfies self and serves Satan."
We noted two things about the world. First, the world is ruled by Satan. Jesus called Satan "the ruler of this world" (John 14:30; 16:11, ESV) And the Apostle John writes that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one." (1 John 5:19 NIV) Secondly, the world is in conflict with God and His Church. In 1 John 3:13, this is what John writes to believers, "Do not be surprised my brothers, If the world hates you." (NIV)
Dr. John R. W. Stott summarizes, "'The world,' therefore, is an inclusive term for all those who are in the kingdom of darkness and who have not been born of God."
In 1 John 2:16, the nature of the world is defined for us. "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves 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 pride of life—Is not from the Father but is from the world." (NKJV)
We noted three ways in which the world operates. First, the lust (desires) of the flesh, that natural inclination to be self-centered often at the expense of others. The natural drive to satisfy our physical and emotional appetites. It is what drives a person to indulge in sexual sin because it satisfies their sexual desires regardless of the consequences to others.
Second, the lust (desires) of the eyes. The world has mastered the art of stimulating and arousing unholy desires through the eyes. John is saying that one of the dangers of the world is that it has access to our heart through our eyes.
Thirdly, the pride of life or the “pride in possessions”. (ESV) This pride is linked with our relationship to others. Simply put, we take pride in who we are and what we have. We seek the recognition and attention of others. The word translated "pride" is literally "vainglory" meaning to be pretentious, conspicuous, showy. In other words "the pride of life" takes satisfaction in being noticed by others, having more than others.
We noted that these three areas are the context in which the world operates and influences the believer.
Think of it this way – there are three ways in which we give the world access to our lives. Three doors through which the world can enter and influence our minds and heart. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
This morning, I want to focus on how the believer can overcome the world in its influence and destructive power in our lives. Let's imagine that you were being introduced to fire for the first time. You have never heard of fire before. You know nothing about it. If that were the case there would be value in knowing the properties of fire. For fire to burn it must have fuel, that is, some kind of combustible material like, wood, gas, oil, etc. You would learn that fire needs oxygen to burn. You would want to know that fire is hot. Because it is hot, it can cook your supper, but it can also burn your hand, burn down your house or even kill you. You would soon learn that you do not play with fire. Hopefully, you would learn how to put out a fire. In other words, you would want to learn everything you could about fire so that you could live in a right relationship with it. That is what we will do this morning with regard to the "world”, that “system or worldview that opposes God, satisfies self and serves Satan”. We want to focus our attention on what the Bible says about overcoming the world.
There are three responses that I want to share with you this morning. First of all, we overcome the world through separation from the world. James 4:4, “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." (NIV)
James uses a very strong metaphor to describe the state of a person who is a friend of the world. He says a friend of the world commits spiritual adultery. Literally, the word is "adulteresses" a noun. It's translated as an adjective "adulterous people” in the NIV and ESV. Adultery is when a man or a woman who is married has sexual relations with someone other than their spouse. Note with me several things about adultery.
First, it is the breaking of a sacred agreement or covenant. The foundation of any marriage is a commitment to an exclusive relationship between one man and one woman for life. Adultery compromises that covenant and marriage relationship.
Secondly, the act of adultery by definition is a voluntary act. One chooses to commit adultery. In other words, it is consensual. James says, in the same way when you become a friend of the world it is a choice you make.
Thirdly, adultery is motivated by the desire to gratify self. It is an act of self-indulgence carried out at the expense of the marriage partner. "Adulterate" is the root meaning of the word "adultery." Webster's 9th Collegiate Dictionary defines adultery as, "to corrupt, debase or make impure by the addition of a foreign or inferior substance." That is what happens in adultery. The marriage relationship is corrupted or compromised by the intrusion of a third party.
A number of years ago, a pharmacist was arrested and charged with selling chemotherapy prescriptions that had been diluted or watered down. The prescriptions had been adulterated with some other solution, in order to make more money. Adultery is the image repeatedly used by God in the Old Testament in His dealings with Israel. For example, Jeremiah 3:20, "But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel, declares the Lord." (NIV) Israel repeatedly followed after pagan gods often practicing idolatry right alongside the worship of the Lord God of Israel.
James uses the same imagery here of those who choose to be friends with the world. Notice in verse 4 that he defines this unholy relationship with the use of two words, "friend" and "enemy." These are mutually exclusive terms. You cannot be a friend and an enemy at the same time. James is saying, you cannot be a friend of the world, that “system or worldview that opposes god, satisfies self and serves Satan”, without being an enemy of God.
Let me ask you a question. How do you end adultery? There is only one way. You separate yourself from the person with whom you are not married. In other words, you end the relationship with the persowho is not your spouse. That is the only way to end adultery. The Apostle Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah (52:12) in his warning to the Corinthian church about being unequally yoked with unbelievers, "Therefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord." (2 Corinthians 6:17a NIV) By nature, God is jealous of His love relationship with those who have become members of His family through faith in Jesus Christ.
In the Song of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 32:16, we get a glimpse of God's heart response when Israel turned away from Him in idolatry. "They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols." (NIV) Just as the heart of a husband or wife is broken when their spouse commits adultery, so the heart of God is overcome with sorrow when one of his children reaches out in friendship, companionship and compromise to the world. He takes it very personally. James 4:4, "Don't you know that friendship with the world Is hatred toward God?" (“enmity with God” – ESV)
But there is a practical problem here that has perhaps crossed your mind. While it is true that separation will end adultery, you might ask, does it change the desires of the heart? I was asked by my pastor to counsel a young man who had admitted to committing adultery. Though he told me he was no longer seeing the woman, it was apparent to me that he had not yet resolved the issue of his desire to be with her.
What will end our desire for friendship with the world? The need for separation from the world must be accompanied by a transformation of heart. Romans 12:1-2, "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing perfect will." (NIV)
This is similar in principle to what James goes on to say in James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." and verse 8, "Come near to God and he will come near to you.” and in verse 10, "Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up." (NIV)
This is the pattern of God's grace. As we respond to Him in submission, humility and obedience, He empowers us. He does for us and through us what we cannot possibly do ourselves. Friends this is the Gospel message! God always empowers the one who surrenders to Him. Consecration and transformation always go together. First, "offer yourselves as living sacrifices…". In other words, surrender to God. That's implicit in the metaphor of a sacrifice. Make the decision to no longer be conformed to the world and God will transform you. Let's look at this for a moment.
First, there is a negative command, "do not conform" or "do not be conformed" to the world. Phillips translation reads, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold."
You've heard of chameleon lizards. Some of them have the ability to change colors to blend in with the color of their surroundings. That is what Paul is talking about. When we conform to the world, we become indistinguishable from the world around us. We embrace the values and lifestyles of the world. We become worldly.
Secondly Paul calls for a complete change, " but be transformed" he says, "by the renewing of your mind." The Greek word for transform is "metamorpho" from which we get our word "metamorphosis". Vines Expository Dictionary says that metamorpho or transformation is "…the obligation to undergo a complete change, which under the power of God, will find expression in character and conduct." (p. 148) It means to be made into something new. It speaks of a very visible and thorough change.
Think of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. You have seen caterpillars. An insect that crawls on many legs, not particularly attractive, though often colorful. But when it emerges from the chrysalis it is transformed into a graceful and beautiful butterfly. What emerges from the chrysalis is something distinctly different from the original caterpillar. Metamorphosis has taken place.
That is what Jesus Christ wants to do for us as we live in the world. Paul uses the same imagery in describing the transformation that takes place at conversion. 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." (NIV) That is the Gospel message. God will change the heart desires of the person who separates himself from the world and calls upon the Lord.
Dr. A. W. Tozer, in his book The Root of the Righteous, writes, "The converted man is both reformed and regenerated. And unless the sinner is willing to reform his way of living he will never know the inward experience of regeneration. This is the vital truth which has gotten lost under the leaves in popular evangelical theology. The idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not given up his rebellion is contrary both to the Scriptures and to common sense. How horrible to contemplate a church full of persons who have been pardoned but who still love sin and hate the ways of righteousness. And how much more horrible to think of heaven as filled with sinners who had not repented or changed their way of living." (page 43)
So first, a negative command, “do not conform”. Secondly, a complete change, “but be transformed”. And
Thirdly, this is a continuing transformation. Paul here used the present imperative, which implies a continuous action. Similarly in 2 Corinthians 3:18 he writes,"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
The New Living Translation reads, “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” It is a continuing process. Remember the butterfly? It was transformed by the process of metamorphosis from a caterpillar to butterfly. Hopefully we can look back in our lives five years ago, ten years ago and recognize today, areas where we have been transformed as we walk with the Lord.
A negative command, “Do not conform”. A complete change, “be transformed”. A continuing transformation, “but be transformed (present imperative) and fourthly, this requires a deliberate decision. It involves a conscious decision on our part. It is not just going to happen. It involves the renewing of our mind, the center of our thoughts, the place of reasoning where we make moral and ethical choices and decisions. It will require that we turn from the world. Turn off the sensual music or television program that fuels the lust of our flesh. Turn our eyes away from every kind of visual image that stirs up impurity and creates unholy desires within us. Refuse to be sucked into consumerism and materialism by the unrelenting message of the world that has nothing else to live for except the possessions, toys, position, prestige and power that can be accumulated in a lifetime. Instead pursue God.
Dr. A.W. Tozer in his book Rut, Rot or Revival, writes, "To think God's thoughts requires much prayer. If you do not pray much, you are not thinking God's thoughts. If you do not read your Bible much and often and reverently, you are not thinking God's thoughts. Those thoughts you are having –and your head buzzes with them - all day long and into the night —are earthly thoughts —thoughts of a fallen race. They are thoughts of a lost society. They should not be your thoughts."
We overcome the world by separation from the world, by a transformation of the mind and heart and, thirdly, by incarnation. In John 17:13-21 Jesus prayed to His Father for us.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (NIV)
Incarnation is the third step. What do I mean by that? Why did Jesus insist that his followers remain in the world? A world that hated them (vs.14) as it hated him? (15:18)? Because they were to continue the mission he had begun. He prayed to His Father, "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world…May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
Notice three things Jesus prayed for us two thousand years ago. First, He wanted us to remain in contact with the world. That is the premise of incarnation. John 1:14, "The word (that is Jesus Christ) became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Jesus was God incarnate. He became a human being, flesh and blood like us, so He could save us from our sins by dying in our place. Jesus wanted us to remain in the world so that we can reach the world for Christ. "As you sent me into the world," he prayed "I have sent them into the world." verse 18.
Secondly however, He wanted us to be safe in the world. verse 15b and 17. Jesus did not mean the absence of opposition or persecution. He was talking about safety from the power and influence of the world, victory over “the lust of the flesh”, “the lust of the eyes” and “the pride of life”. He prayed, "protect them from the evil one” verse 15, the trinity of evil, the world, the flesh and the devil. Protection as we live in a world system that is opposed to God, satisfies self and serves Satan. Jesus wants us to be IN the world but not OF the world.
What will keep us holy in that hostile and dangerous environment? Notice verse 17. Jesus prayed that God would "sanctify them by the truth." The root meaning of "sanctify" is to separate, to be separated from sin unto God. And God's Word is God's provision for our sanctification as we carry out the mission He has given us in an evil world. In Galatians 6:14, the belt of truth is part of the believer's spiritual armor. David testified that, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11 NIV)
The Word of God is like a cleansing agent as we read it, digest it, memorize it, meditate on it and most important – obey it. What is your relationship with the Word of God today? The longer I live, the more I realize that my love relationship with God is inseparable from a love relationship with His Word.
Jesus prayed that we would remain in contact with the world, be safe in the world and thirdly, He prayed that we might reveal Christ to the world. Why is our sanctification so strategic in God's plan? Today Jesus Christ is invisible to the world. In other words, He no longer has a physical presence in our world. God is counting on His Church, His body, you and I who are born again, to reveal Jesus to the world. He prayed, "May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (vs. 21b) and "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me." (vs. 23b) (NIV)
The world will understand that Jesus is God when a holy or sanctified Church is one! Here is the sobering implication of Jesus' words. If the Church is worldly it is as though Jesus Christ is invisible to the world.
Compromise with the world neutralizes the gospel witness. The whole mission of the Church is at stake at this point.
At least twice, Jesus gave us His opinion of a worldly Christian. In the Sermon on the Mount, after He described the character of a Christian in the Beatitudes, He said, as recorded in Matthew 5:13, "…if the salt loses it saltiness…it is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." (NIV)
In the Book of Revelation, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, Jesus spoke these words to the church of Laodicea in Asia Minor. "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (NIV) Sobering words! May I to suggest that the primary cause of being spiritually lukewarm is worldliness. Jesus went on to say as much to the worldly church at Laodicea, "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (NIV)
Alan Johnson writes, "Observe the way this indictment is related to the general condition of the populace at large – rich in material possessions and self-sufficient. The spirit of the surrounding culture had crept into the congregation and had paralyzed their spiritual life." (Expositor's Bible Commentary, p 458) They were the victims of worldliness. That describes much of the American evangelical church today.
I want you to notice, however, what the Lord went on to say to this church in Laodicea. I believe this is His word to the American Church as well. "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:19-20 NIV) These words are often used in evangelism in giving an invitation for salvation. But these words were spoken to Christians, to the worldly church of Laodicea! Jesus spoke these words of compassion and invitation to those who needed to come back to their first love. Those who needed to repent of their worldliness.
Remember Jesus' ministry to the Samaritan woman. Speaking with this non-believer who was desperately seeking fulfillment in the world and coming up empty over and over and over again, He had but one thing to offer her, Himself! In Revelation 3, He speaks to a worldly church. Again, He has but one thing to offer, Himself!
Let me close with this word of encouragement. If you think being a Christian consists of keeping a list of rules and believing certain Biblical facts you have missed the point. While you do need to believe the truth about Jesus Christ to be born again. That he is the Son of God. That He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. That He was raised from the dead and is alive today seated at the right hand of God the Father. And you need to call out to Him in repentance and faith for salvation and be born again. But the Christian life was never meant to be lived in our strength. When you are born again Jesus Christ comes and indwells you in the person of the Holy Spirit. Paul gives this personal testimony in writing the church at Galatia. Galatians 2:20 (NIV) "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me..." A few chapters later he wrote, "So I say, live [or walk] by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (5:16 NIV) To the Ephesian church, he wrote how God "...is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." (3:20 NIV) To the Philippian church, he wrote, "…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Phil. 2:12-13 ESV) God will give the believer both the desire and the ability or power to do His will.
The apostle Peter summarized it this way in 2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV), ‘His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” That includes the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. You see, God will give us both the desire and power to do His will if we surrender to Him and allow Him to live His life through us.
I close with this word from Dr. A. B. Simpson, a Canadian Presbyterian pastor who later founded the Christian & Missionary Alliance. "A precious secret of Christian life is to have Jesus dwelling within and conquering things that we never could over-come. It is the only secret of power in your life and mine. Men cannot understand it, nor will the world believe it, but it is true that God will come and dwell within us, and be the power and the purity and the victory and the joy of our life.' (Days of Heaven upon Earth)
© James P. McGarvey, All Rights Reserved
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