“Love Not This World”
I John 2:15

Introduction

•  In 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.
• “Love not the World” God means do not love the “world’s system.”
• Love the people not their system. The system that opposes God.
• Sin is… anything that defies God’s Law. Adrian Rodgers once put it this way…“The abuse or perversion of something good.”
•  Someone may say “What about John 3:16 when Jesus said John 3:16…For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
• In John 3:16, Jesus is referring to the world as “people.” God so loved the people of the world.
• In I John the word there is translated “cosmos” which means… a system, or an order of things, a way of doing things.
• EXAMPLE: The world of Fashion, the world of sports, the world of finance.
• Cosmos is where we get the word “cosmetics.” When a woman puts on cosmetics, she is putting her face in order.
• So when God is telling is here in I John 2:15… Love not the world, He is saying to love not the system, “the world’s order or way” of doing things.

I. Love Not This World

A) The World’s Prince

• This world has a prince
•  John 12:31…Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
• John 14:30… Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
• John 16:11… Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
• I John 5:19… And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (The whole world’s system is being rocked by Satan.)
• The word “prince” means… the person of highest rank, a very important person, successful in his profession or class.
• Satan is a mastermind the person that orchestrates or controls his demons, minions, or people to become successful in destroying anything to do with God, God’s people, or God’s purpose.  The system is that “the whole world lieth in wickedness.”

B) The World’s Philosophy

• This “philosophy” is a networking of ideas and values that are skillfully woven together to entrap the most innocent.
• I Corinthians 3:19…For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
• The wisdom of this world is to do evil, live in wickedness.

C) The World’s Purpose

• What is the world’s purpose? To draw you away from God and to its system.
• Jesus said in John 7:7… The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
• Why does the world hate Jesus?
• NOT BECAUSE…He healed the sick, or because He blessed the children, or because He fed the 5000, or turned the water into wine at a wedding, or because He died on the cross. That’s not why the world hates Jesus.
• THE WORLD HATES JESUS BECAUSE… “…because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
• Have you ever told someone that what they were doing is wrong? Or have you told someone recently that what they are doing is sinful?
• Immediately the daggers start to fly from their eyes.
• The world wants us to be “tolerant” of their wickedness, their gay life, their drunkenness, their dirty habits, their bad language, their worship of other gods.
• The word “tolerant” means to allow a thing to be done or to exist without making any move to stop it.
• Do you know that the evil spirits cannot live in you because when you are a child of God the Spirit of Truth (Jesus Christ) is in you…John 14:17…Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he (Jesus Christ) dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
• John 15:18… If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19) If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
• James 4:4…Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
• If you love this world’s system… then you are an enemy of God and a traitor to Jesus Christ who died on the cross to save that which is lost.
• Our world today has so infiltrated the church that people cannot tell who is a Christian and who is not.
• But Christians know who is not of God.
• John 15:19… If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

D) The World’s People

• Look at this parable of Jesus Christ concerning a person (A steward) who handles God’s money (You and the money that God has given you) Luke 16:8…And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
• This does not mean that the children of this world are really smarter or wiser than God’s children in a sense that we are stupid.
• It simply means that they are wiser in the ways of the world and it’s system. They are craftier, they are more smart in deceiving because they follow it’s prince!
• We as Christians will always be bucking the system of this world.
• WHY? Because we are not part of this world, this world is not our home we are just passing through, we do not accept this world’s system because we are of God!
• The world’s purpose is the devil’s purpose. And that purpose is… to “conform” you!
• The word “conform” means …to make like; to bring into accord or agreement.
•  What does the Bible say about conforming (being like) to the world?
• Romans 12:2… And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
• Why does John say not to love this world? 1) Because of its character 2) because of its corruption.
• There is a war going on everyday within the heart of every Christian
• When people are born the first time, they are born of the flesh. When people accept Jesus Christ they are born of the Spirit.
• The “Flesh” and “Spirit of God” are at war daily.
• Galatians 5:17…For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
• The word “against” means that there is a war going on.
• Everything to do with the flesh is good, because God made it… your appetite (desire for food), your ambition (a desire to improve yourself), drinking, dressing or wearing nice clothes, and your sexual desires.
• The problem is that Satan has perverted the fleshly desires that God gave us and turned it into something that God hates.
• Eating is not a sin. Overeating is.
• To improve is not a sin. But why are you doing it? To be better than others to brag on yourself?
• Drinking is not wrong. But what you drink, how much you drink and why you drink is a sin.
• God created sex to be enjoyed and purposeful in fulfilling the desires of the married. Not to live in adultery.
• Sin is the abuse or perversion of something good. 
• Iniquity (perversion) is something the devil is a master at. The world has done this for years. Taking good things and making them bad.
• God made everything in the world. And what did God say when He made it in Genesis… “it is good.”
• Satan made nothing! He perverted what God had made.