We read together this morning in 1st Epistle
of St. John, 2nd Chapter, and at verses
15 to 17, these words.
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.
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.
And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God,
abideth forever.
As I've already said, during these Sunday mornings
of this month, I want, by God's grace,
to speak about the relationship of the Church
to the world.
I have little doubt that you will recognize
the importance of these discussions.
For we live in the world.
We are part of the economy of the
world.
We are subject continually to the pressures of
the world.
And yet the Christian is not only a
citizen of this world, he is a citizen
of another world.
His habitation is in God, and heaven is
his true home.
He is called to be in the world,
and yet not of the world.
And that is one of the supreme tests
he faces.
The dilemma is continually before him.
How can he influence the world without going
into the world?
And yet, how can one go into the
world and not become tainted with his spirit
and affected by its culture?
That, my dear friends, is the dilemma of
the Christian and the dilemma of the Christian
Church.
And it must readily be admitted that there
have been times when the Church has become
so identified with the world around that it
has been difficult to decide where the two
separate from each other.
There have been times, says Dr. D.R.
Davis in one of his little monographs, times
when the Church has most readily taken out
naturalization papers in the world around her and
become adept in singing the Lord's songs in
a strange land as if that land were
her home.
The peril before us in our generation is
very great.
The pressures are greater today, I believe, than
ever before.
I believe that all the Scripture supports a
statement like that, that as evil men will
wax worse and worse, so will the pressurization
of the world around us upon the Christian
become greater.
Our whole way of life, as well as
our thought processes, are conditioned by social and
cultural patterns and are influenced by such powerful
advertising techniques as even a generation ago were
unknown.
And you and I have to make up
our mind.
We dare not go along with the tide.
We must, by the grace of God, face
the facts and settle it within our hearts
what way we are going to go.
We must decide who is going to win
in us, God or the world.
And we must therefore search the Scriptures for
the truest guidance.
And we must also cry to the strong
one above for strength to choose the way
and to walk her in.
It's now nearly six years since I came
to Knox.
During all these years I have refrained from
speaking on this subject because I felt it
so necessary to get to the heart of
the spirit of this great people of Canada
before daring to give some clearly spoken counsel
on such a subject as this.
But I know that the hour has come
for this brand of silence to be broken.
And I know within my heart that the
Lord wants us here in Knox this month
to face the implications of Christian discipleship, and
in particular the implications of Christian discipleship in
the world.
I am persuaded the Holy Spirit wants us
as a congregation to ask ourselves again, what
must my relationship to the world around me
be?
And how can I most surely become a
means of grace to this world in which
I live?
How can I serve God and serve my
generation in the will of God acceptably?
All that will be before us this month.
And I have chosen as a kind of
theme portion for this month these words of
St. John.
Deathless words.
Listen.
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.
For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life is not
of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever.
Now these words will be before us every
Sunday morning this month.
Searching words.
Saving words.
Perhaps no better portion of the New Testament
could have been chosen on which to rest
this general discussion.
Today, however, I want to think particularly about
our Lord's thinking.
I want us to try and get so
close to him that we will be able
to think his thoughts after him.
Because after all, we do not come here
to hear a preacher.
We come here to hear the word of
the Lord.
And on such a subject as this, surely
it is supremely important that we hear what
the Lord himself said.
His word is our rule.
What then has he to say on this
great question of the church and the world?
For he certainly had a great deal to
say.
And we can only hope to summarize this
morning some of his leading truths.
Let me try and summarize briefly.
First of all, let's remember that our Lord
taught this.
That there is a permanent antagonistic relationship between
the church and the world.
That first, a permanent antagonistic relationship, tooks the
two.
The relationship he envisages of his church to
the world is one of inherent hostility.
In his last discourse to his disciples, for
instance, in John 15, verses 19 and 20,
he says, If you were of the world,
the world would love its own.
But because you are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.
And he goes on.
Remember the word that I said unto you.
The servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also
persecute you.
If they have kept my sayings, they will
keep yours also.
Remember the words of his intercessory prayer in
John 17, verse 14.
Where in prayer to the Father he says
this, I have given them, my disciples, I
have given them thy words, and the world
hath hated them.
Because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world.
Elsewhere he tells his disciples how deadly this
hatred is going to be.
Listen.
They shall put you out of the synagogues.
Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doeth God's service.
And this, which is so plainly stated, was
to be a permanent condition.
It wasn't to be just a transient outburst
of enmity confined to the Jews and only
for a brief period at the beginning of
the Christian era.
No, as we study the Lord's teaching, it
becomes so apparent that this is going to
be a permanent antagonism.
The result of the absent antagonisms of light
to darkness, of sin to holiness, of righteousness
to unrighteousness, of truth to falsehood.
This he makes still more clear in his
parables.
For instance, the parable of the tares and
of the wheat.
Do you remember that parable, how there was
wheat, good seeds sown?
And then while men slept an enemy came
and sowed tares in the field.
And then they saw the tares coming up
along with the good wheat.
And the servants came to the master and
said, Lord, will we that you give us,
do you wish us to root up the
tares now?
But the master said, no, let both grow
together under the harvest.
In other words, our Lord is here teaching
with absolute explicitness that the antagonism of the
wheat and the tare will be to the
very end of time, till he returns.
The harvest is the end of the age.
The enmity of the world to Christ's church
will be an abiding factor from generation to
generation.
But even that is not all.
This antagonism our Lord taught is not one
merely of abstract principles, but it is embodied
in person.
Because our Lord speaks of the power of
darkness, and he speaks of the prince of
the power of this world.
He speaks of the prince of this world,
and he himself was subjected to the assaults
of Satan.
He well knew that as long as Satan
continued as the god of this world, the
disciples of the Lord would have no exemption
from subtle temptations and from deadly assaults.
Our Lord recognized so clearly and taught his
disciples so forcibly that they were living in
enemy country.
They were living in enemy occupied territory, and
that the enemy of souls would not cease
in his attack until he was completely cast
out from the earth.
He might disguise his hostility.
He might assume for some time the garb
of a friend, and in that way might
lull the church into a security, or into
a forgetfulness, or even a denial of his
existence.
But this peace would only be a seeming
peace whensoever the church faithfully would proclaim the
word, proclaiming the holiness of her head, proclaiming
the sinfulness of the human heart, proclaiming the
need for atonement by blood, proclaiming that in
Jesus Christ alone is salvation, and that there
is none other name given amongst men, whereby
men must be saved, the more pronounced and
the more bitter the hostility would become.
All this our Savior taught.
There is a permanent antagonistic relationship between church
and the world.
And I do not see how you can
possibly read the New Testament, how you can
conceivably study the Gospels and study the words
of our Lord, and not recognize that the
dichotomy between the world and the church is
an absolute one.
This is basic.
And John is but lifting up the words
of his Lord when he says, when he
calls to the church, Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world.
For all that is in the world is
not of the Father.
The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof.
That's the first thing to know.
Here's the second.
Our Lord taught not only that there is
a permanent antagonistic relationship between church and world,
He taught also that the hostility of the
world to the church would not cease through
the conversion of the world.
Now that's absolutely fundamental.
And we've got to study it.
One would think we were dealing with the
ABC of the Gospel here.
But you and I live in a generation
when so many hold that we may expect
an increasing Christianization of society, and that in
due course of time the old antipathies will
die, and the rule of Christ be accepted
universally.
Where do you find that?
In the Bible.
Consider our Lord's words.
He sent His church into the world.
That is clear.
And He sent His church into the world
to preach the Gospel.
But nowhere does He say that it will
be universally accepted.
In one of the earliest preaching missions on
which He sent out His disciples, He used
words that look far beyond that mission, words
that embrace all missionary labor, and He said
in Matthew 10, 5, Behold, I send you
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.
You will be hated of all men for
my name's sake.
Think not that I am come to send
peace on the earth.
I am not come to send peace, but
a sword.
And He went on to say that even
the closest family ties would be severed because
a man's foes would be those of his
own household.
Surely from words such as these it's clear
that our Lord does not envisage a universal
acceptance of His Gospel.
But rather He envisages an increased and a
more refined opposition as the ages roll on.
The tares and the wheat will grow together.
Together.
Now in the light of this so clear
teaching, you and I must surely beware of
any counsel that would suggest the onward progress
of the world is going to coincide with
an increasing acceptance of the Christian Gospel, an
increasing acceptance of the Christian ethic, an increasing
acceptance of the Christian salvation.
Surely on the contrary we must continue to
remember the words of our Lord when He
says this kind of thing.
Evil men, He says, evil men shall act
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
This is the pattern of history.
Foretold prophetically and observable so clearly by those
to whom the Spirit of God has granted
the gift of true discernment.
Because we look out and we see the
corruption of society.
And we see the corruption of society growing
deeper as the years go by.
And we see the continuing cry of the
world calling to man to turn into her
ways and to forget the ways of Christ.
And we hear again, even in our own
generation, the cry that rang out on the
hill of Golgotha when the Son of God
was presented to the world at the very
heart of history.
There was one volume of cry and there
was no dissentient voice heard.
One volume of cry which cried out, crucify
Him.
We will not have this kind of man
to rule over us.
And this kind of cry we hear re
-echoed in the capitals of the world.
And this kind of cry we hear re
-echoed in the streets of Toronto.
And in the hearts of all who have
not turned and bowed the knee to the
Son of God.
As it was in the year of Calvary,
so is it in the year of 1961.
There is still but one answer to the
Son of God.
And it is the answer of rejection.
Now our Lord taught that.
And so the Christian mustn't be surprised at
what he sees.
Because the Lord has forewarned him.
Well there are two things that our Lord
teaches.
And you will note that this morning I'm
trying just to get completely behind this book.
We're trying to read only the words of
our Master.
We're trying to get His thinking so clear.
He teaches that there is a basic hostility
towards the Church and the world.
He teaches that there will be no total
conversion of the world to the Christian faith.
And here's a third thing.
Which so emphatically He affirms.
And it's this.
One of the supreme perils that the Church
will face.
Will be the peril of becoming worldly in
spirit and in aims.
Certainly our Lord envisages no total apostasy of
His Church.
Because He said, The gates of hell shall
not prevail against us.
The Church cannot cease to be the body
of Christ.
The Church can never cease to be the
temple of the Holy Spirit.
But even though the Church can never become
wholly apostate.
And therefore cannot be at peace completely with
the world yet.
She may become worldly minded.
And when this happens.
The enmity between her and the world becomes
blunted.
Becomes dulled.
Becomes blurred.
And the appearance of peace may exist.
Now our Lord says that this is part
of our greatest peril.
This is what He says.
Because iniquity shall abound, He says.
The love of many shall wax cold.
Indeed our Lord says that this will be
one of the great marks of the last
times.
He declares so plainly.
That the spiritual condition of the Church immediately
before His return.
Will be one of great worldliness.
It would be at His coming just as
it was in the days of Noah.
When ordinary pursuits of life.
Planting and building and marrying and studying.
And the like.
Things in themselves right and necessary.
Had so engrossed men.
That they became wholly unmindful of the warnings
of God.
And the judgment of heaven fell upon them.
Therefore unawares.
So will it be at the end of
the age said our Lord.
Iniquity will abound and the love of many
will grow cold.
Our Lord sees His people.
So taken up with the things of the
world.
True faith.
The faith that looks to Christ.
The faith that looks to Christ and prays
for His coming.
The faith that lives in daily expectation of
His advent.
That kind of faith might be lost completely.
And our Lord Himself said.
When the Son of Man cometh.
Will He find faith on the earth?
Thus He spoke to His disciples.
And thus He speaks to us today.
My dear friends.
You will recognize that what we are trying
to say this morning.
Is very introductory.
We are getting to the words of our
Lord.
But even at this introductory point.
We must ask this question.
And oh may the Spirit of God.
Take this question.
Make us willing to face it.
How far has the world taken hold of
our heart?
How far has the world possessed our mind?
How far has the world come to take
hold of our aims and our vision?
And is our love for Christ today growing
cold?
You and I live in a generation when
so obviously.
Iniquity is abounding in every hand.
Can we truly say on this first day
of 1961.
My Jesus.
I love Thee.
I know Thou art mine.
For Thee all the pleasures of sin I
resign.
Can you really say that?
Or have the things of the world.
Those things of the world which are but
for a season.
The ethos and the idiom of the world.
And our generation.
The fleeting bubbles of earth.
Have we so been careless about the defenses.
That these things have got through.
Was the result that our Lord is eclipsed.
And we do not today behold Him in
His beauty.
Our Lord
taught that there is a basic hostility to
His church and the world.
It's a fundamental inescapable hostility.
Our Lord taught as we have noted that
there will be no total conversion.
On the contrary evil men will wax worse
and worse.
Our Lord taught that there is a great
peril of the church.
Becoming like the world.
There is one final emphasis that our Lord
made.
Time and time and time and time and
time again He made it.
Pleading with His own.
Pleading with them.
It was this.
Take heed to yourselves.
Take heed.
Lest at any time your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting.
And drunkenness.
And cares of this life.
So that day will come upon you unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on
all them that dwell on the face of
the earth.
Is that all He said?
No.
Listen.
Watch ye therefore.
And pray always.
That ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things which shall come to pass.
And to stand before the Son of Man.
Worthy to escape and worthy to stand before
Him.
And He said watch ye therefore and pray
always.
And it's this that John repeats.
Love not the world neither the things that
are in the world.
For the world passeth away in the lusts
thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever.
My dear friends.
I am persuaded of this.
That the hour of decision and the hour
of truth has come for many of us.
Concerning this.
And the Spirit of God is not going
to suffer to let it pass.
And I am persuaded that today and through
these coming Sabbath days.
The Spirit of God is going to search
our hearts.
And there's going to be a winnowing in
our midst.
There's going to be a separation of the
wheat from the chaff in our midst.
Because the church must make up her mind.
Who her Lord is.
And whose word she is going to follow.
She must.
And that means you and I must.
There's no escape.
May God give us all grace.
To lay these things to heart.
To recognize that we live in vanity fair.
And that we are called to be faithful.
Unto death.
I'm but a stranger here.
Heaven is my home.
Only a sojourner.
Heaven is my home.
Danger and sorrow stand.
Round me on every hand.
But heaven is my fatherland.
Heaven is my home.
What though the tempest rage.
Short is my pilgrimage.
Heaven is my home.
And times wild wintry blast.
Soon will be over past.
And I'll reach home at last.
Heaven is my home.
Therefore I'll murmur not.
Heaven is my home.
Whatever my earthly lot.
Heaven is my home.
For I shall surely stand.
There at my Lord's right hand.
Heaven is my fatherland.
Heaven is my home.
And to that may we all say this
morning.
One grand amen.
Amen.
And may we take to our hearts the
word of the holy apostle.
Love not the world.
Neither the things that are in the world.
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.
And the world passeth away.
And the lust thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God.
Abideth.
Oh master let me walk with thee.
In lowly paths of service free.
Tell me thy secret.
Help me bear the strain of toil.
The fret of care.
Teach us what it means to be pilgrims
and strangers.
Teach us what it means to look for
a city.
Whose builder and maker is God.
Teach us what it means to recognize.
The wiles of the devil.
And teach us of thine infinite mercy.
Oh Lord our redeemer.
To walk before thee.
In holiness and in righteousness.
All the days of our lives.
And to serve thee.
And our generation in thy fear.