Greetings! Welcome to Lechem Panim. We are continuing today our study of the epistle of 1 John, a book that centers so much on what are the marks of a true Christian and the freedom that holiness and love can bring into each and every one of our lives.L.O.T.R.-- Recently my wife Tanya and I started to watch again one of our favorite movie trilogies; a movie trilogy made of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christian masterpiece The Lord of The Rings, a story about sin’s effect on the world, how i...
Greetings! Welcome to Lechem Panim. We are continuing today our study of the epistle of 1 John, a book that centers so much on what are the marks of a true Christian and the freedom that holiness and love can bring into each and every one of our lives.
L.O.T.R.-- Recently my wife Tanya and I started to watch again one of our favorite movie trilogies; a movie trilogy made of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christian masterpiece The Lord of The Rings, a story about sin’s effect on the world, how it can poison the mind and make us slaves to it, and ultimately our redemption from it by putting it to death and coming under the rulership of the true king.
Now in this film, one of the characters we are introduced to is a character by the name of Gollum, a hideous frog-like creature named for the sound he makes in his throat. He used to be very much like a hobbit, a human-like creature in the story. His name had been Smeagol; but then he came to possess the evil ring of power, which corrupted him with its evil and led him into sin. And he became a twisted, greedy little creature that felt a great need for the ring, the very thing that was destroying his life.
Now as the story progresses he comes under the authority of the hobbit Frodo, who becomes his “Master”. And Frodo shows him grace and kindness. And Gollum slowly but steadily begins to change. And there is a powerful scene in the film when Gollum’s two natures are arguing with each other (the renewed Smeagol and the evil Gollum). And Gollum brings up all of Smeagol’s old sins and tries to make him feel hopelessness and despair; and stirs up the desire to betray his master and seize the ring again. But Smeagol weeps and then suddenly comes to a point of realization. He says that Master takes care him and that he no longer needs Gollum. And so he tells Gollum (his sinful self) “Go away! We don’t need you” “What?” Asks Gollum. But Smeagol responds, “Leave, and don’t come back!” And suddenly Smeagol looks up and Gollum has vanished. And when he realizes he is free from his old self, Smeagol jumps up and begins to dance, saying, “Gone! Gone! We told him to go away, and away he goes! Smeagol is free!”
Now what Tolkien wanted to communicate in this part of the story was the fact that you and I can experience the same kind of freedom from sin.
And it is our coming to experience that kind of victory that is one of the central purposes of John’s 1st epistle. He says in verses 12-14…
1 John 2:12-14 (ESV)— 12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Fathers, Young Men, and Little Children-- Now John is referring here to people who are on all different levels of spiritual maturity; fathers, young men, and children. But no matter what stage they are at on their spiritual journey, there is one thing that unites them; and that is a desire to keep their hearts from becoming entangled with the world.
1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)-- 15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[a]—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Loving Good Means Hating Evil-- Warren Wiersbe once told of: [A group of first graders {who} had just completed a tour of a hospital, and the nurse who had directed them was asking for questions. Immediately a hand went up. “How come the people who work here are always washing their hands?” a little fellow asked. After the laughter had subsided, the nurse gave a wise answer: “They are ‘always washing their hands’ for two reasons. First, they love health; and second, they hate germs.”]. And in a similar way, our love for Christ is going to awaken in us a hatred of those things that hurt our relationship with Him. If we love Him who is good, we will hate those things that are evil.
The World?— Now the first phrase of verse 15 can bit a bit confusing: 15 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. I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of things in this world that I love, and I think I do so rightly. I love the beauty of creation, fishing and getting out into nature and experiencing the glory of creation; I enjoy many of the things God created. But John isn’t talking about the beauty of creation; nor does he mean that we are not supposed to love the world in the sense that we love people. John himself says in his Gospel…
John 3:16 (NIV)-- 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The World/Realm of Sin-- In that sense we are to love the world and live our lives as a sacrifice to God for others. So what are we talking about here? Well, [World is used in three different ways in the Bible. (1) World of creation (Acts 17:24). (2) World of human beings (John 3:16, 17). (3) System of this world, which aligns with Satan and opposes both God and Christ (John 12:31; Eph. 6:11, 12; James 4:4).] And it is the last of these that is used here. [This “world” named here as our enemy is an invisible spiritual system opposed to God and Christ.] And if we have friendship with that system, we are in trouble, because it sets us against God. James writes in…
James 4:1-4 (NIV)-- 1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Unhealthy Appetites-- You see, what we are talking about here are appetites that we don’t seek fulfillment for in God. Instead we allow them to drive us and lead us to covet those things around us. As verse 3 indicates, they drive us to have an unhealthy focus on personal pleasure and fulfillment rather than on God. And this is what John wants to help his readers with in our passage today. And he mentions three things in particular.
The Lust of the Flesh— The first is the “lust/desire of the flesh”. Now whenever we hear that word “lust” we immediately think of sexual lust and impurity. And that is not wholly misguided because that plays a major part of it (especially in our culture). But it is not limited to that. It could also be an unhealthy desire for food or a particular kind of food. Gluttony isn’t all about eating too much; it’s about your appetite for something taking priority over what is good for you and taking control of your life.
Jesus’ Fast-- Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness with the same temptation Satan tempted Adam and Eve with; to eat something against the will of God. And Jesus resists that temptation. Now you have to understand that Jesus, during most of His 40-day fast in the desert, was not hungry. After the first several days of a prolonged fast, the hunger pangs go away as the stomach shrinks and goes into hibernation mode. And you can often go weeks with little hunger. When the hunger pangs come back (which is usually around the 40-day mark), that means that the body has entered starvation mode and has now begun to feed on live tissue; and it is then that you need to break your fast. Now (knowing this), look at what it says in…
Matthew 4:2 (ESV)-- 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
The hunger pangs have returned. Jesus is starting to starve; and there is a medical necessity for Him to start eating again. We sometimes say Jesus was tempted during that 40 days. No, it was afterwards, when Jesus was at His weakest; which is always when Satan comes; because he’s a coward and likes to kick us when we are down. And listen to how Jesus responds to Satan’s temptation to turn stones into bread and satisfy His hunger His own way. It’s so powerful. It says…
Matthew 4:4 (ESV)-- 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus was being very clear; food is not my life. And I would rather honor God and keep His Word and starve than break with His will for my life. Is there a more challenging verse in scripture than that? Now your struggle may not be with food. It may be something else. But whatever it is, Jesus can help you achieve the same victory over the flesh as He did. But we have to be willing to put God’s will first and obey. Obedience to the will of God is what brought life to Jesus; and is what He promises will bring life into our daily experience. You want life in your home or your place of work. It is going to come from your choosing to make Christ the center of your life rather than whatever else you may be clinging to; whatever the lust of the flesh looks like for you. I want to encourage you today (whatever that is), give it to Jesus. Give your life into His hands. Choose to obey Him; choose to give Him that old Gollum (that old self) and He will renew you and will make you altogether new. Give your life to Him today. Amen.
