The Christian and the World
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We face a sad spectacle in the history of the church at this time. The world has become so entrenched in the life and activities of the church, that it is frequently impossible for one to decide whether it is a churchly world, or a worldly church.
The "birds of the air" have certainly lodged in the branches of the mustard tree. The children of the wicked one hold high carnival in the conduct of the so-called Christian church.
God wrote an eternal law on the first page of the Bible when He separated the light from the darkness. The call of God is for separation from the world. The endeavor of Satan is to lead the church into world-mixing.
Centuries ago Balaam, utterly failing to curse Israel, advised Balak, king of Moab, to mix his sons and daughters with the Children of Israel in the bonds of married life. This Balak did with disastrous results to Israel.
The Book of Jude prophesies that certain men would creep into the church unawares. Of them Jude wrote, "Woe unto them! for they had gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward."
The Book of Revelation goes a little deeper when it gives warning to the church at Pergamos, saying, "Thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel."
When Samson lay his head in the lap of Delilah his hair was shorn, and he lost his power.
The church of today has lost its power whenever it has welcomed the world into its midst; or, when it has gone after the world, seeking its patronage.
The reader of this study should know what is meant by "the world." Certainly, it does not mean the trees, nor the ferns and flowers: nor is it the rivulets and the rivers. The Holy Spirit tells us that the world consists of "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life." These things are the things of the world.
In the wilderness-temptation the devil showed Jesus Christ all of the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, offering to hand them over to Christ upon the one condition that He would fall down and worship him.
The church today is proffered the same opportunity. We have forgotten that no man can serve God and mammon; neither can the church at the same time serve God and the world.
I. GIVEN TO CHRIST OUT OF THE WORLD (John 17:6)
When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the Cross He died in order that He might save us out of this present evil age according to the will of God, the Father. The call of God has always been one call to the believer: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." There can be no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness. There can be no communion between light and darkness. There is no concord between Christ and Belial.
"What part hath a believer with an unbeliever?" "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" "How can two walk together except they be agreed?"
Between the church and the world there is an impassable chasm. They are separated by a gulf that cannot be spanned.
The call of Peter at Pentecost was, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation." God has written in terms irrevocable, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men."
Jesus Christ is the Blessed Man who walked not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. We who name His Name, may count ourselves blessed, only as we walk as He walked, God has said, "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." The Holy Spirit wrote in I Corinthians, not to company with fornicators. He also wrote, "Not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater or a railer, * * with such a one no not to eat." In Ephesians, we read: "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
With such Scriptures before us, no one will hesitate to confess that God has called us out of the world.
In the time past, we walked "according to the course of this world," according "to the prince of the power of the air," the spirit that energizes the children of disobedience; but now, we have been quickened, and raised, and made to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and we are called to separation, that we may dwell apart, with Him.
In the time past, "we all had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind"; but now, in Christ Jesus, we "who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ."
In the time past, we were "Gentiles in the flesh": at that time we were "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world"; but now, we are no more "strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God."
Let us remember the solemn words of our Lord.. "The men which Thou gavest Me out of the world."
II. "I PRAY NOT FOR THE WORLD, BUT FOR THEM WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME" (John 17:9)
Those who were given to Christ out of the world hold a very special nearness to their Lord. We are not to understand from our verse that Christ did not love a world of sinners, and that He did not pray for them in any sense. We know, that on the Cross, He cried in behalf of His persecutors, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
We should remember that Christ, when He spoke the words of our text, was standing with the Twelve in the upper room, in prayer. To be sure, He loved sinners, for He had come down from Heaven to die for them. However, He peculiarly loved His own. Seven different times in this chapter which contains His prayer, Christ spoke of those whom the Father had given unto Him. From this we gather that Christ held His own in the most intimate ties of relationship.
There is a verse in Deuteronomy which says, concerning Israel, "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth."
There is a verse in Peter's First Epistle which is in line with the verse just quoted. It reads, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people: that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
How wonderful it all is! God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, but He called him, and the Children of Israel who were in Abraham's loins, into a special nearness to Him. They became unto God a people above all the people upon the face of the earth.
How wonderful it all is! The same God who called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, has called us out of the world; however, He called us out of darkness that He might lead us into light. He called us out of the world, that we might be a special people unto Himself.
III. "THESE ARE IN THE WORLD" (John 17:11)
When Christ called His children out of the world, He did not take them to Heaven, nor did He transplant them to some other planet untouched by sin and Satan.
Christ, Himself, was about to leave the world, and to go to the Father, but His children who believed on His Name were to be left in the world.
There are some who have sought an isolation from things terrestrial which is not of God.
The Christian can be in the world and yet be out of it. He can be in it without being in fellowship with it, and thus fulfill the injunction, "Love not the world." A ship belongs in the water, but woe betide the ship when the water is in it. We can be in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, without being partakers with them in their evil deeds.
One day in a mining city, we walked mid the smoke-begrimed buildings; everything around us was soiled no, not everything, for, to our amazement, we saw. a beautiful flower, white as snow and unsullied by the dirt in which it dwelt. Even so, hath God made it possible for us to be in the world, without being worldly.
The Lord Jesus, Himself, was in the world, and yet He was the Holy One of God.
IV. "THE WORLD HATH HATED THEM" (John 17:14, f.c.)
When the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, the world knew Him not. The Son of God was betrayed into the hands of sinners.
We remember how Christ said, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you." He also said, "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
It is always true that, to the extent that the believer or the church lives separated from the world, he will be hated by the world. If the world does not hate us it is because we have conformed ourselves unto the world.
There is but one message in the Word of God for a separated saint: "In the world ye shall have tribulation," God speaks unerringly, and God has said, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
There are some who argue that the world has had a change of heart, and that, today, if Jesus Christ came back, the world would know Him, receive Him, and acclaim Him. This cannot be true. Quite the contrary is true. Jesus said, "I am come in My Father's Name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive."
This world instead of being robed and ready to receive Jesus Christ, is ready, with open arms, to receive the anti-christ. The prince of this world is corning, but he will have nothing in Christ.
V. "YE ARE NOT OF THE WORLD" (John 17:14, l.c., 16)
Twice we have the statement concerning the saints, "They are not of the world." Each time that statement is circumscribed by a second statement, "Even as I am not of the world."
1. Jesus Christ was not OF the world, because He came forth from the Father. He said on one occasion, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above."
The believer is not of the world, because he was "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
2. Jesus Christ was not of the world, because His Kingdom was not of this world. He said, "If My Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight."
The believer is not of the world because his citizenship is in Heaven. He is called to lay up his treasures in Heaven, and not upon the earth. To him God says, "Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." He is to "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world."
The Christian down here has no continuing city, but he seeks one to come. If he were of the world, the weapons of his warfare would be carnal; but because he is not of the world, he is fighting the good fight of faith.
3. Jesus Christ was not of the world, because His wisdom was not of this world. He, Himself, never entered into the wisdom, the scholarship, which this world teacheth. His wisdom was from above, even as He was from above.
The believer is not of the world because his wisdom is not of the world. The world by wisdom knew not God; for, had they known Him, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. The wisdom which is from beneath, that is, the wisdom which controls the world, knoweth not the things of God. The wisdom which is from above knoweth freely the things of God. If any of us lack wisdom let us ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.
May God help the believer, and the church, to remember that they are not of the world, and therefore they should not live after the world. Woe, unto those who go down to Egypt for help.
VI. "SO HAVE I ALSO SENT THEM INTO THE WORLD" (John 17:18)
This verse is strikingly strange at the first glance. If we are called out of the world, and are not of the world, but are hated by the world; why then are we sent into the world? There is but one answer, "As the Father hath sent Me, even so, send I you."
Why did the Father send the Son into the world, when He knew that the world would crucify Him? He sent Him because He loved the world. Why are we sent into the world? Because God still loves the world. We are sent into the world for the same reason that Jonah was sent to Nineveh, that we may give a warning to the world, and call them from their sin.
The gracious words of John 3:16 are doubtless in your mind, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son."
The Lord Jesus speaks of the sower who went forth to sow the seed, and "the field was the world." God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. This ministry of reconciliation He hath committed unto us, as though God did beseech men by us.
Before Christ left to go to Heaven, He said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Let us obey this command.
VII. "THE WORLD HATH NOT KNOWN THEE" (John 17:25)
We now begin to understand the reason for everything which has gone before. God has called us out of the world, because the world hath not known Him. He has held us in a peculiar position in His love and prayer, praying for us and not for the world, because the world hath not known Him. He has said, "The world hateth you," because the world hath not known Him, and because it knoweth us not. He hath said, "Ye are not of the world," because the world hath not known Him. He hath sent us into the world, to a world that hath not known Him, because He wants the world to know Him and to believe in Him.
With what pity must the Lord have prayed! He was now about to go out to die on the Cross because the world had not known the Father, and because it knew Him not.
Even to this hour the world does not know the Father. The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, lest the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine in upon them, and convert them.
As we move among men, let us move with pity in our hearts, remembering the prayer of our Lord, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
AN ILLUSTRATION
There are few more impressive illustrations of the shame and degradation which comes through departing from the Living God, than that exhibited in the downfall of Samson, the judge of Israel. Consecrated to God from the earliest period of his existence; chosen and appointed for a specific work, endowed with a magnificent physique, and bound by the solemn vows of Nazariteship; while true to God he was the terror of Philistia and the deliverer of Israel. But when he yielded to the influence of sensual delights, and told all that was in his heart to a wheedling, coaxing, treacherous woman, suddenly he found himself a captive, shorn of his strength, forsaken by his God, and led away, the slave and scorn of those who had feared him in days gone by.
How different from Samson the mighty athlete on the wild hills of Judea, was Samson the poor, blind captive, grinding in the Philistine prison-house! No longer a hero, a warrior, a conqueror, but degraded to do the work of the meanest slave; he was helpless in captivity and bondage, and was forced to toil on in bitterness and disgrace.
And is not this ever the fate of those who, chosen of God to do His work, fall from high estate, and are led captive by Satan at his will? Are there not today many men who might have been heroes for God, but who are condemned to grind in the Philistine prison-houses, and bear the deep disgrace of Philistine chains? Are there not many who have been led astray by appetite and passion and temptation, and who now in bondage and dishonor lament the high estate from which they have fallen, and loathe the bondage from which they cannot escape?
Let the Nazarites of God take warning from the fate of Samson, and flee from temptation; and let those who are beguiled by the tempter and led astray from their allegiance to God, consider how their course must end; and let them turn with all their hearts to the Living God, and resist the devil, steadfast in the faith, and unshaken in their loyalty to Him who has redeemed them by His Blood and saved them by His grace.
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