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Love not the world

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Author Topic: Love not the world  (Read 188 times)
Christian40
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« on: December 28, 2010, 10:50:11 pm »

Let's face it, there is always something in this world that we are drawn to. It is the nature of our creation, as Paul put, we have been made "subject to vanity." The question as Christians is how we deal with our worldly appetites, be they lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes or the pride of life. The 'new' Christianity says that it's ok to love the world and love God at the same time, God will accept us anyway. Some are even saying that it is acceptable in God's eyes to be a believer in Christ, and still keep your old religion. But the Bible message is very clear, we cannot love God and the world at the same time. Remember that God is a jealous God. He will not give place to another. A true Christian then has only one option, that is to hate the world and everything in it. No exceptions.
 
Most modernized corrupted denominations combine most Christian beliefs with that of modernist infidels. The Bible says, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" - 2 Corinthians 6:14
 
I'll be honest with you, I don't put myself up high on some pedestal and God is dealing with me about the same stuff I'm talking about in this "Note" I'm writing right now. Lets be honest, alot of people, maybe even you, want to be saved but from now until then just want God to leave you alone. Let the truth be known, that is how some people think that are reading this right now and sitting in churches right now. I don't want that for you and you don't want that for you. As I was putting together this "Note" I can clearly see the LORD dealing with my heart. One of the things I want you to know as I am writing this, is that i'm not sitting here ground beating you or that I'm up high on some pedestal, no. It doesn't mean that what I am talking about that I have already achieved and i'm just waiting for you to catch up, no. I promise you that God is dealing with me about the same stuff that I am talking about here. God is dealing with me the same way I hope and want God to deal with you too after you read this. Does that sound fair enough? One of the worst things I think any man or any Pastor could do is to set them selves up exalted over an congregation as if he has already mastered the rules and as if hes just waiting for you to catch up, whats taking you so long. I don't want to be that person and thats not my intent of this message, and I don't want to be that way in my life either. So I ask, that you pray that God deals with me and that God deals with you.
 
Just briefly by way of introduction the book of "1 John" was written primarily to Christians. And the key verse in "1 John" is, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."
 
I'm going to ask you, how many of you have ever doubted your salvation before? I know I have before. And one of the things we do when we doubt our relationship with God is that we go to the Bible and read what it is that God said we should read, that we will know rather or not that we are saved. I'm writing this because of what Christ has done for me and I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that if I died today that I would be going to Heaven. If you know that for a fact, then say Amen. I'm going to say this to you here out of love, if you are reading this and you don't know that your saved, today is your day. The Bible says, "Behold now is the day of salvation." And I believe that God would have you to be saved.
 
But you say Christian, I pray every night before I go to bed. Christian, I ask God every now and then to forgive my sins. I say thats good to you, but what I'm going to show you here is that there is a difference between unloading off some sins to God that you can't bare anymore because you feel guilty; and a entirely different lifestyle that you are suppose to be living. What that means is that God has a lifestyle that he wants you to live in this world today, do you believe that? I'm going to give you an illustration, when God freed the Israelites out of Egypt, he did not immediately take them into the promised land did he? And their are other examples of that but he did not immediately do that. God had them on a journey of life, and God has you on a journey of life too. He's proving you, for you to figure out whose side you are going to be on. And I'm going to tell you right off the bat, that you CAN NOT be on both sides! You can't do it. We try to play that game, we try to mess around; we try to love the world and love God at the same time, and i'm telling you on the basis of the Bible that we can't do it!
 
The Bible says, (1 John 2:15-17) "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. 16 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 of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
How many of you need me to interpret that for you? Its pretty direct and self-explanatory isn't it? It's pretty much plain! Notice how it says any man, any man means any man or is there an exemption for you? Or is there an exemption for church members or for pastors or deacons or Sunday school leaders? Is there an exemption for anyone in this world, is anyone going to be able to wiggle there way out of this commandment, any body? If it says any man, it means any man, period. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. There mutually exclusive and they can not dwell together. Think about that. Verse 16 and 17 means that you're an idiot for loving the world and loving something that is going to go away. You're deliberately loving something that the Bible says is going to be burnt up in the ferment heat. Which means the love that you have for that is not going to last forever because it wont be around forever. And I'll say this, if you love the world and the world is going to pass away, what does that tell you about you?!
 
And it then says, "but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." How many of you believe that Heaven is forever? Would you like to live in Heaven forever? Or would you like to be destroyed forever in the lake of fire? So are choice is very clear, we either love the world or we love God, but we can not love both! Have I made myself clear? Has the Bible made its self clear? Here I'm praying for clarity of thought and all we have to do is read the scriptures, Amen!
 
The Bible tells us, (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."
Do you see what I am doing here? Thats two verses already. What is the principle for a witness in the the scriptures? We find the answer in 2 Corinthians 13:1 "...In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." So already we have two witnesses in the scriptures that tell us that you're either of the world and love the world or you're either of God and love God, but you can not be both! If you believe that, you believe the Bible say Amen! You can not be both! Now we already have two witnesses, and what I'm trying to convince you of and show you from the Bible is that we see so much worldliness in the house of God that is not even funny!
 
Their is a time when it was in the mindset of people that if they went to church that they couldn't be worldly, i mean they just hand that impressed upon their minds. That if they went to church and said that they was Christians, that they couldn't be worldly and they couldn't do what ever the world was doing, they couldn't do that! Thats just what people use to believe. But now-ah-days some slick guys have got up on TV shows and written there books and got on the radio and they put out to quit preaching separation from the world and developed this mindset that you can have both at the same time, and its a lie!!! It's an absolute lie! It's to the extent now, that they open up church worship service, not with the "the old rugged cross" or "Amazing Grace" but with "Rock 'N Roll or Rap" music that you would hear on your way to church. That's what they'll open up there worship service with. I saw the other day of a church that is practicing what they call "club worship" and its actually a club. We all know what that is right? So if I say you went out clubbing, you know what that is right? There clubbing and calling it church. We can't have it, Amen!
 
This is not some small concept that God through in every now and then for someone to notice once or twice. Where seeing that this is every where in the scriptures. Notice what this verse says, (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."
Notice the separation, be not conformed to the world, but be transformed to the will of God. And there separate!
(1 Corinthians 2:12) "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Here again we see the separation, we have received the spirit of God and if you have the spirit of God in you, then you do not have the spirit of the world in you! And if something has the spirit of God then the spirit of the world wants nothing to do with it. (Galatians 6:14) "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Paul was our example, I promise you, if you was to have a time machine and go back into history and go to one of Paul's church services; you're not going to see him up there preaching with a latte in his hand. He's not going to be up there with the drums and guitars and the light shows. He's not going to have him a bed up on stage talking about your sex life and how godly that should be. Thats wicked! Paul said, "the world is crucified unto me and I the world." And Paul wanted nothing to do with it, listen, if any body knew the damage that the world could do to an individuals soul it was the apostle Paul. He knew that if he let the world back into his life even a little or smallest amount he knew what that would do to his testimony and to his life.
 
God uses people to make examples out of them for us to see and to watch them. we learn by our examples, God gives us examples through out of the Bible. Look at Ephesians 2:2-3, "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
(4-6) "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
 
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." - Colossians 2:8
What he is saying is, the world is going to say one thing, and Christ is going to say something completely opposite of the world! So if the world says something and then you think God is saying the same thing, God didn't say that. God didn't say that!
 
Now there is a man in the Bible by the name of Demas. And I want you to notice from Philemon verse 24, "Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers."
"For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia." - 2 Timothy 4:10
In fact there is three times in Paul's writings where this Demas is mentioned, I think the other is in the book of Colossians but I'm not sure, but even in the book of Colossians Paul talks favorably about Demas, and at one time was on Pauls side but then in 2 Timothy which we know historically is the last letter Paul wrote on this earth. Look what he said about Demas, "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia."
Is it because Demas didn't like Pauls doctrine, is it because Demas didn't like the translation of the Bible Paul was using, is it because Demas didn't like the hymn books? NO, it's because HE LOVED THIS PRESENT WORLD!
 
I want to share something with you now, please pay attention to this. You are not so tight in with God that the devil can not come in and get you to fall back into love with the world again. And if your not careful, you're out. You say, I don't believe that Brian. Well I ask you this, did every one that left Egypt make it to Canaanland? In fact at one point, watch this now, at one point they stirred up against Moses in a revolt. And they said, you led us out here to die and to starve to death. Were going back to Egypt. And you know what happened, the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up. Why? They loved the world, and they did not love God. And you can be sitting here reading this right now and by the time your done, you can be out. Not because of me but you fall out simply because you love the world. You'll be like Demas if you love the world and not God. Demas use to be one of Paul's right hand men, and if you followed Paul and you fallen away, man you've fallen! So just get that in your head.
 
So have I made this clear enough yet? That your suppose to love God and hate the world, have I made that clear? Has the Bible made that clear so far? Peter said, "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." - 2 Peter 2:20-21
Peter said its worse off. You would be better off being born down in the Amazon Jungle somewhere they have never heard of a Bible. You would be better off being born there then to have been born in this country and have heard the gospel, act like you accept it and then go off and join the world again. You'd be better off.
 
John said, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" -1 John 5:4-5.
How many of you recognize things out there in the world that you still love? I know I do. I promise you God is not showing up until there gone! Now you can have them gone in your life, and it says, "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world" What is it that overcometh the world? Faith is. And where does faith come from? Faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the word of God.
And when the Bible is absent, there is a whole in your life. When the word of God is taken out, there is an empty whole in your life.  And I promise you, the devil has got enough candy in his jar to fill it. But when you get rid of that now there is a void that God's spirit will fill. In fact the way to get rid of that is to let the Word of God push it out! make sense? This is how it works, you want to overcome the world, get into the book, get into church, get right with God, Amen! Thats how you do it!
 
"They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." - 1 John 4:5-6
 
There are people that say, well I pray every night and I ask God every now and then to forgive me of my sins. What there saying is, that there hoping that, thats going to be good enough to get them into heaven or there saying that to get you off of there back. One way or another, there saying it. What they'll tell you is, oh well I believe in God and I believe in Jesus and I believe in the Bible but there not in church and they don't reading the Bible and they love the world. And I'm here to tell you, you're NOT SAVED IF YOU LOVE THE WORLD! Did you catch that, you're not saved if you love the world. I don't care how many times you pray or how many times you do what ever, but the truth of it is; if you wake up the next morning and there is no change in your life whatsoever and the reason why you keep having to go back to God and asking Him to forgive your sins is because God has not removed the desire of sins out of your life because you still love them. And really all you want out of God is a fire escape out of Hell, thats all you want. And I'm telling you thats not salvation! And thats not Christianity either!
 
Maybe it will take us losing everything we have before we are thankful for what he have. My elbow injury has really got my attention and makes me thankful for what I do have. And has brought me closer to God. God is just dealing with me and I like it when God is dealing with me. There are just things we ought not being doing, things we shouldn't be watching or listening to or being a part of or spending our money on or reading.
 
If you think that you're saved, and i'm not saying that you don't struggle with this but if you think that you're saved and you can do what ever you want to and live how ever you want too and have all this and the world apart of your life, I'm going to tell you that you need to get into the Bible and talk to God about your relationship with God because you may not be saved. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world!
 
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« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2010, 11:15:45 pm »

Thank you for this post, Christian!

Yes, sometimes I myself wonder why I go through a bit more suffering than I anticipate...obviously, it's because there's quite a bit of worldly desires in my heart, and am deceiving my own self into thinking that God may think it's OK if I indulge in them moderately, but just as long as I do such and such.

Every time I fall for this, it's a TRAP. You are right, we are all born sinners, and none of us our sinless people(just keep balance here, because reality is is that once we're saved, we still have some leftover junk hidden deep in our hearts needed to be digged out), but nonetheless, we can not deceive our own selves into thinking that everything is A-OK, and we have absolutely nothing to worry about.(ie-I'll admit I immerse myself into watching a bit too much football on weekends, more than I should - the more I spend in front of the tv watching these games, the more I feel SPIRITUALLY DRUNK)

And most importantly, for every minute that we waste away in putting our attention into the pleasures of this world, is another minute wasted of how we can spread the gospel to the lost, as well as our relationship with Christ.

Also - another note to add to this topic, another lie that has gotten into the church is that they say how if you want to have a loving relationship with the Lord, you have to pray a certain X number of hours/per day(like 1-3 hours on your knees). I remember the SBC(I think) made a big deal how the average prayer time of pastors is only 7 minutes. Ultimately, this is HERESAY, why? Because Paul said we should pray WITHOUT CEASING. What does WITHOUT CEASING mean? And Jesus said we need to watch and pray always, because our flesh is driven my temptations. So what does this mean? 24/7 Satan and his minions are constantly poking and tempting us, and the ONLY DOOR out is PRAYER and BIBLE READING. Ultimately, we need to do this constantly. And, what makes this X number of hours/per day heresay is that the message they're sending you is that once you pray your 1-3 hours, then THAT'S IT. WRONG!

Anyhow, just wanted to give a big thank you for posting this.
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« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2011, 01:04:23 am »

Generosity Detaches Us from This World

If God has our hearts, He will also have our money. If He doesn't have our money, it is because He does not yet have our hearts completely. Jesus said our hearts will be where our treasures are:
Luke 12:
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

There are at least six major reasons why we ought to exercise the spiritual discipline of generosity.

1.Scripture commands it 2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

2.We are citizens not of this world but of the next Matthew 6:19-21 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break though and steal: But lay up for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

3.Giving pleases God Philippians 4:18 But i have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, and odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

4.It reflects our trust in God Mark 12:41-44 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, then all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

5.We demonstrate to God that we can be trusted Luke 16:10-13 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

6.We become eligible for Gods blessing 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
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