What is it that we truly love? the battle with self is one of the biggest if not the biggest battle that we have. D.L. Moody one said "I have more trouble with D.L. Moody than any other man on the planet" that is so true, Thank God for salvation & the Grace of God to not have to yield to the flesh any more. What do you yield to most of the time? Read on and let's see.
The False Gospel: No Change in Affections
“Lovers of Pleasures”2 “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 “Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” - II Timothy 3:2-5
Another fruit of carnal Christianity which comes under the heading of wrong affections is: “Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,” (II Tim 3:4). And I say, what a sad commentary upon the poor, deceived, so-called “carnal Christian,” to believe that he can be saved, that he can be a child of God, an heir of heaven, and yet love pleasures more than he loves God! “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt 6:21); and if your treasure is this world and its pleasures, then your heart is not right with God; and fruit will not be brought forth unto perfection! When the seed, the Word of God, is sown among thorns, it is choked with cares, riches and pleasures of this life, and cannot bring forth fruit unto life, or unto perfection (Luke 8:14).
Sensual Pleasures
Now what kind of pleasures are these that men are said to be lovers of, more than the lovers of God? These are sensual pleasures and vain amusements; this is clearly brought out in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, and in the Amplified Translation of the Bible. This being so, we need to define the word “sensual” and see how it is used in the Word of God.
The word sensual means “fleshly, carnal, self-indulgent, worldly, lewd, sexual, promiscuous in sin, glutton, epicurean, lustful, immoral, and unrestrained lust”; in other words, everything that appeals to the fallen nature of man that would satisfy his depraved heart. This is said to be the fruit of the carnal Christian gospel-lovers of sensual pleasure more than lovers of God-for these very people who practice this love of sensual pleasure, and who love the flesh and the things of the flesh more than God, are told that they are saved because of a profession of faith they made. But again, verse 5 warns us: “from such turn away,” lest we be drawn into the same deception with them!
If you live in and love sensual pleasures more than you love God, no matter what you profess, you are dead, spiritually dead, while you live, and therefore you are an enemy of God and a stranger to grace and the holy ways of the Lord. For without holiness, “no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).
James 4:1-4
One of the strongest portions of Scripture against you is found in James 4:1-4, where you are called “adulterers and adulteresses,” and enemies of the living God, the Holy God who hates sin. Listen to God’s Word, first in the King James translation as we go verse by verse, and then in the Amplified Version.
Verse 1: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?”
“What leads you to strife (discord and feuds) and how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you? Do they not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily members?”
Verse 2: “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”
“You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain [the gratification, the contentment and the happiness that you seek], so you fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask.”
Verse 3: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
“[Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is, [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.”
Verse 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.”
“You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world] and breaking your marriage vow to God! Do you not know that being the world’s friend is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.”
Hard QuestionsNow let us see if we are lovers of sensual pleasures more than lovers of God (spiritual adulterers and adulteresses); or if we are indeed children of God, by asking the following questions: Do we love to watch and feed upon the majority of programs that are shown on television which appeal only to the sensual, fleshly nature? Do we feed upon the magazines, newspapers and books that appeal to our sensual, fleshly nature? Do we secretly desire to do these things, even though we would not openly do them? Has sin become such a commonplace thing that we can indulge in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and go on saying: “All is well with my soul,” while we actually remain enemies of God and strangers to the way of grace?
Do we love God and His righteousness and holiness, or do our hearts rebel against the narrow way of self denial and a life of separation from the world? Do we secretly despise the way of grace, the way of repentance, the way of bowing to the authority of God’s Word and to the Lordship of Christ? Do we follow after our own will and do our own thing without prayer and waiting upon God for His leadership? Do we love the sexual, lewd, lustful, self-indulgent way of the world; or do we indeed love God and His holiness, and seek to please Him in a life of separation from the world? Let us face these questions, and ask our hearts where we stand before God.
“Love Not the World”
“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 for ever” (I John 2:15-17).
What is the “world” spoken of here? It is the reign or kingdom of the carnal mind, the mind of the ungodly system which is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Wherever that mind prevails, there is the world. It is the “ungodliness and worldly lusts” of Titus 2:12. It is fallen human nature acting out itself under the influences of the devil, the god of this ungodly world. Its spirit is hostile to godliness; because it is dominated by carnal ambition, pride, self-pleasing, and sensuous desires and interests. The principles which govern this world, the powers which operate it, the end which it seeks, all are earthly, sensual, devilish, and not of God and holiness. The opinions of the world are false; its aims are selfish, its pleasures are sinful, its politics are corrupt, its honors are nothing but bubbles and do not last. And since the world is the sphere of rebellion against God, His people are commanded not to love it. They are not to esteem it as their portion or treasure. They are forbidden to set their affections upon it (Col 3:2).
To love the world and its sensual pleasures is to give it the first place in our hearts, to idolize it, to make everything else subordinate to the acquisition and enjoyment of it, and to despise whatever comes into competition with it. It is to make its vanities the chief objects of our pursuits, to share its friendships, to court its smiles, to conform to its ways, and to find our happiness in what it yields to us in its pleasures. When the world is loved, it possesses and governs the soul, overcoming conscience, the principles of holiness, and the Word of God. Its influence is subtle, powerful, and perilous, and leads to damnation and hell!
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” One may renounce the world systems that Satan governs as a whole, and yet the heart secretly still clings to some of its parts. No, it is not sufficient that I just renounce the world, but I should detach my affections from everything which seeks to claim them. I am not to value any object of the world if it hinders the performance of my duties to God, if it dulls my relish for His Word, or chills the spirit of praise and prayer. I am to prefer nothing to spiritual things. I must not delight in anything which would cause me to lessen my esteem of Christ and heavenly things, for I am to love Him supremely; my affections must be set on things above. I may use many of the things that are in the world, but I must not abuse them. I must not put my trust in them; I must not place my happiness in them. In other words, I am to love nothing above God, equal to God, nor apart from God.
Personal Application
Are you living after the flesh and bearing the fruit of the false gospel of carnal Christianity; or are you living after the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit, which is Christ-likeness? “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die [the death of the unrighteous, the ungodly]: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”-live eternally with Christ in glory! (Rom 8:5,6,12,13).
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