1. I am going to speak this morning on worldliness (I John 2:15).
2. The word “world” is used in different ways in the Bible. Our Lord said in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” 
3. The Greek word translated “world” here means “the inhabited earth” (Strong’s Concordance).  “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” (Luke 4:5).
4. Another Greek word translated “world” refers to time - the relatively brief span of human existence.  Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (age)” (Matthew 28:20).
5. The Greek word kosmos (where we get our English words “cosmic,” “cosmopolitan,” “cosmology,” and “cosmetics,” etc.) is translated in John 3:16 as “world,” where it means “the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family” (Strong’s).
6. This same Greek word for “world” is used six times in I John 2:15-17.  The context determines the meaning.  Here in I John the word is used in a negative way, meaning, “the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ,” and “the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ” (Strong’s).
7. Of course, not everything in this world is evil. There is a legitimate use of this world.  First Corinthians 7:31 says, “And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.”
8. “For the fashion of this world passeth away.”  We must remember it is transient and fleeting (cf. I John 2:17).  But we must be careful not to abuse this world (I Cor. 7:31).
9. “The characteristic spirit of the world is the opposite of the Spirit of God” (AT Pierson). 
10. There is a sharp contrast in the Bible between the “spirit of the world” and “the spirit which is of God.”   “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” (I Cor. 2:12).

I. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LOVE THE WORLD?

1. When we study the Bible, and compare and combine the various shades of meaning behind the word “world,” we see the word “world” generally refers to the inhabited earth, with everything that pertains to its material beauty, order and symmetrical arrangement. But there is also the idea that it is only fleeting.  “And the world passeth away…” (I John 2:17).
2. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).
3. This world is perishing.   Galatians 1:4 says, “Who gave himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.”
4. There are some Christians who understand that they have been delivered from the wrath to come.  But they do not seem to understand that Jesus died to “deliver us from this present evil world.”
5. James 4:4 says, “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.”
6. Worldliness is enmity with God, not because it is necessarily profane or blasphemous or immoral.  We all know certain worldly people who are virtuous and upstanding.
7. No, the danger of worldliness is that we get taken up with things that are material and temporal.  Worldly people (including not a few Christians) believe they can enjoy life to the fullest, and God has nothing to do with it.  God is not a part of their life - no church, no prayer, no Bible - they are ungodly.
8. AT Pierson said, “The grandest thing about a man is not material at all, but spiritual; not mortal and temporal, but eternal, immortal; and a worldly life at best, is unworthy of him” (The Bible and Spiritual Life).
9. I think the # 1 sin in America today is materialism, and it has swept into most of the churches.  Materialism is a form of worldliness, because materialistic people are looking to the world for happiness instead of looking to God.
10. Most Americans would rather go to a shopping mall than church.
11. Wall Street has nearly crashed.  Too many people are trusting in their money and not in God.  Jesus said, “No man 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” (Matthew 6:24).

II. THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE WORLD.

1. The Greek word kosmos, translated “world” in our King James Bible, expresses the notion of order and beauty.  Strong’s Concordance says the word means, “an apt and harmonious arrangement.”
2. So why would it be wrong to be attracted by the wondrous beauty and perfect symmetry of God’s universe?
3. Many people have devoted their lives to studying the wonders of God’s creation.  We think of men like George Washington Carver and Isaac Newton.
4. George Washington Carver was a Christian as well as a great botanist.  And George Washington Carver knew the Word of God.
5. He testified before the United States Senate Agricultural Committee that he got his great knowledge of peanuts from the Bible.   Asked what the Bible said about peanuts, he replied,  “The Bible does not teach anything regarding the peanut.  But it told me about God, and God told me about the peanut.”
6. Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and alchemist.  He was also a devout Christian.  The law of gravity became Newton’s best-known discovery. He said, “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done.”
7. Regarding the Bible, Newton said, “I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.”
8. There is nothing wrong with devoting one’s life to the study of this world.  In fact, it is commendable.  It is a life well spent as long as God is first and foremost. 
9. Colossians 1:18 says, “that in all things He might have the preeminence.”
10. The Bible says man was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26).  This is not a physical likeness, but a spiritual likeness.
11. Being created in the image and likeness of God means man was meant to know God.   Contrary to what the evolutionists teach, man is not an animal.  Man has a soul and a spirit.
12. Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63).
13. Man was created to know God and to commune with God, but man’s soul has been darkened by sin.  The unsaved man cannot understand spiritual things because he is in spiritual darkness.
14. He needs to be born again.
15. Ephesians 2:1 says he is “dead in trespasses and sins.”
16. First Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
17. Even some Christians fail to understand the things of God because they have allowed the world to darken their understanding.  They have been pulled away from God by their love for the world (I John 2:15-17; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 2:2; 6:12; II Tim. 4:10; James 1:27; II Peter 1:4; 2:20; I John 3:13; 4:1, 3, 4, 5; 5:19).
18. The good news is that, “God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (I John 4:9; cf. 4:14, 17; 5:4, 5).
19. Therefore, we are not to love the world.  We are to “overcome the world” (I John 4:4, 5).  In fact, if you are saved you have already overcome the world.  We have to appropriate that by faith.
20. “And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (I John 5:4).
21. To summarize: the world is very attractive, but when we set our affections on things above, and not on things on the earth, the world loses its glamour.  It loses its hold on us.
22. Three words describe the world: material, visible, and temporal (I John 2:16).

• “the lust of the flesh” (carnal desires, appetite)
• “the lust of the eyes” (the glitter of wealth, materialism)
• “the pride of life” (worldly ambitions, pride, selfishness)

23. It is temporal.  “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (I John 2:17).
24. The devil uses these worldly attractions to snare the unregenerate and to hinder carnal Christians.
25. The devil knows how to use the world to appeal to man’s worldly ambitions, his vanity, and greed, and selfishness, and pride.  This brings us to my third point. 

III. SATAN IS THE GOD OF THIS WORLD (II COR. 4:4).

1. Three times in the Gospel of John, our Lord referred to Satan as “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).
2. In Ephesians 2:2, Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
3. Satan is “the prince of the power of the air,” and he has mastered the art of communicating through television, radio, music, movies, and the Internet.  He dominates the airwaves.
4. The devil has even put pornography on cell phones!
5. But the devil doesn’t just lure people into immorality.  He uses pride, selfishness, covetousness, and materialism to get people away from God.
6. Some Christians are careful to avoid adultery or pornography, but they worship the almighty dollar.
7. Psalm 10:4 says, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.”
8. The devil has deceived the multitudes into thinking that this world is all that really matters.  Material things and worldly pursuits always crowd out spiritual things.
9. Loud rock music, big and bright plasma televisions, and money and all that it can buy, dazzle and confuse, bewilder and deceive.
10. First Peter 2:11 says, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts (strong desires and cravings), which war against the soul.”
11. “War against the soul” means they are contrary to our spiritual welfare.  Peter is warning “dearly beloved” Christians.  Christians cannot lose their salvation, but they can be badly hindered in their spiritual growth.
12. Do you remember when Abraham and his nephew parted company?  Genesis 13:10 says, “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.”
13. Lot did not pay any attention to the wicked Sodomites who inhabited the land.  His vision was distorted by the splendor and beauty of the well-watered land.
14. This is a vivid illustration of I John 2:16 - “the lust of the eyes.”
15. Achan “saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then he “coveted them, and took them” (Joshua 7:21).
16. King David was up on his roof, and he saw Bath-sheba washing herself; and he saw that she “was very beautiful to look upon” (II Sam. 11:2).  “The lust of the eyes.”
17. King Ahab looked upon the beauty of Naboth’s vineyard, and said to Naboth, “Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house” (I Kings 21:2).
18. Think of all the trouble because of lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (I John 2:15) - Lot lost his family; Achan lost his family and his life; King David fell into the terrible sins of adultery and murder; King Ahab had Naboth killed; etc.
19. Soon Ahab was killed on the battlefield, as Elijah had predicted.
20. Our Lord said, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24), because it takes serious effort to resist this satanic pull of the world with all its enticements and attractions.
21. Our Lord said, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).  We need to stay in close fellowship with the Lord; otherwise, the world will pull us away from God, and before long we will be cold and backslidden and indifferent to the things of God.
22. I remember a few years ago when I broke my leg, a friend warned me of atrophy because of lack of use.  Well, spiritual atrophy is far more dangerous.
23. Selfishness and worldliness can cause spiritual atrophy.

CONCLUSION:

1. I read that some visitors to Niagara Falls saw an eagle perched on a block of ice, feasting on the carcass of a lamb.  Just on the brink of the falls, the eagle spread his wings for flight but was unable to take off because his feet were frozen fast to the ice.
2. Within a few seconds, the eagle and the block of ice went over the falls, and the eagle perished.
3. Commenting on this, AT Pierson wrote, “Many a slave of this world counts on escaping from its bonds at last, but finds it too late at the dying hour, and often before that.”