In this series, given in the early days of Waverley Christian Fellowship, Kevin Conner teaches through the New Testament letter of 1 John.
Be sure to get a copy of Kevin’s book on this topic. Visit www.kevinconner.org/1John for details.
Kevin Conner Teaches
Jewels from 1 John (Part 6)
In this podcast series, given in the early days of Waverly Christian Fellowship, Kevin Conner teaches through the New Testament Letter of One John. Be sure to get a copy of Kevin's new book on this topic. Visit kevinconner.org/onejohn for details. Alright, let's turn to first John chapter two as we continue our jewels from John. And let's again, there's a congregation, the congregation reverses 15 through to 17. Next week, we'll be on a very delicate area, the Antichrists. That's on verse 18 onwards, but let's take verse 15 through to 17. All together, love not the world, need are the things that are in the world. If amen 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 passes away, and the lust thereof, and he that doeth the will of God, have died of forever, amen. Alright, now, what did we say the world was? We'll just take a brief moment on review. What did we define the word, the word, the word, how many times is it used, first of all? Six times, love not the world, things that are in the world, and amen love the world. For all that is in the world, it's none of the Father, and the world passes, or is literally the tense thing I believe is the world is passing away. And the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God, have died of forever. So let's read off our sheet. We define four different Greek words on the word world, which we won't take time to go through. But let's read it again what John is saying, the Greek word cosmos, and in ethical sense, the sum total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God. So we said that the word world is referring to the world system. That's in hostility towards God. So that's what John's talking about, not the late planet earth, but the world system that's in hostility towards God. Now, we put on the board here, let's see if I can... We said in the matter of the temptation, there were only three points where Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, what did we say those points were? Body, soul, and spirit. So when John is dealing with this, he said, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, referring to sins of the body, lust of the eyes, referring to sins of the soul, and the pride of life, referring to sins of the spirit. He's not of the father, but it's of the world. So man can only be tempted in three points. When Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, there's only three points anybody can be tempted in. So, body, soul, and spirit. So we have sins of the flesh, sins of the body. Now there's some other occasion, we're going to go through a list of the sins, and all of the sins, and the list of sins that are listed in the New Testament, all of them can be grouped under these three groupings, either sins of the flesh, dealing with sins of the body, sins of the soul, sins of the spirit, and so last week, they already get in the Lord, the more subtle these things can become. When we're in that morning, our useless young man, we have tremendous temptations of the flesh of the body. As we get older, we have a subtle temptations, temptations of the soul, and then as you get older in the Lord, the my strongest temptations are said are sins of the spirit, because this is the whole battle. Over can be flesh, the sins of the body, sins of the soul, sins of the spirit. Okay, so last of the flesh, we found in the body, last of the minds, we found the sins of the soul, and the pride of life referring to sins of the spirit. All right, now I want you to turn back, you can turn that off now, thanks. I want you to turn back to where we finished last week on the process of sin, as you'll notice on the diagram just before you do, right? Process of sin in James 1 verses 13 to 15. I want to pick up where we finished last week and then proceed. James chapter 1. And we're going to read verse 13 through to 15, again, or I'll read it. James 1 verses 13 through to 15. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust have conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bring it forth death. Now, we're picking up this word lust in the process of sin. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, the world is passing away and the lust they are. So now we're getting to deal with the process of sin. And as I said, if the spirit of God can really birth this thing into our hearts, I believe it's one of the greatest keys to living a victorious life. If we really get to the root of the matter. All right, now, let's just draw the diagram we were looking at last week here. All right, now, I want to, for those who are new here tonight and weren't here last week, I want to handle this delicately, you're finding the language here that the Old Testament and New Testament writers are taking the language of something that pertains to natural birth and then using that language that pertains to natural birth as referring to or applying to the birth of sin. So they have natural birth language that's going to use as we're going to go through some scriptures here and the birth of sin. So the first, the natural, then the spiritual. All right, now, let's take this. First of all, we said in natural birth, we have, first of all, the seed. And just to put it in medical terms, male sperm, the seed. And then in order for conception to take place, and this is what James is talking about here, every man is tempted when, when he's drawn away of his own lust and entice, then when lust has conceived. All right, so the next thing we have here in this process of sin is this word lust. And what did we say was equivalent to lust, covetousness, okay, covetousness. What did I define lust as? Or covetousness as? Yes, an unlawful desire, an unlawful desire. I think that's what I said in that. What else did I say? Yes, an unlawful desire in order, in order. Right, I can't even find my note on it. Anyway, you've got it on yours. All right, in order for the desire, okay. Now, to correspond here, so we have the seed or the male sperm, and then the woman has to supply the ovum or the egg. Now, without this and this combining, there can be no conception. So now, what did we say the seed was, when in a matter of temptation? Yes, the seed for, the seed for. All right, now, all of us receive thoughts, many thoughts. Good thoughts, thoughts from God, thoughts from self, thoughts from the devil. And this is where we have to get right to the heart of it. So, when this seed thought combines with this lust or the male sperm, combines with the egg, we have conception, conception. Hey, listen to the languages using. Then, when lust had conceived, then we move on after conception, we have a period of formation in the natural birth, in the birth of sin, spiritual formation. Then, we have the time of birth. When lust has conceived, it bring a fourth birth. Bring a fourth sin, and sin when it is finished, the end result is death. So, we have the process of sin. Now, I want to give you some very, very interesting scriptures on this. So, we have the seed thought, lust, covetousness, or the male sperm, the egg, the combining of those two things. The thing that comes from it out, combining with something that's within conception. Period formation, and then birth, the birth of sin, and then the end result is death. Now, let's go back to those two scriptures quickly that we mentioned last week. Then, we'll go to two or three others, and then I want to move on some examples of this. Let's turn to John's Gospel, chapter 13. And we'll read verse 2, and then I'm going to go down to verse 27. John 13, verse 2, and then verse 27, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon, Son, to betray him, or I'll apply it here. The devil is the father of lies, the seed comes from the father, and so here the father of lies, he puts the seed thought into the heart of Judas, why didn't you sell Christ out? There's money in him, and there is something in Judas that he loved the money. He's going to amplify the New Testament here, anybody got amplified? Okay, I'll try and quote it, I've used it here one Sunday morning. Remember one Sunday morning we took up this thought where Jesus said, "The prince of this world is coming, and there is nothing in me that belongs to him, there is no ground in me upon which he can work, I have nothing in common with him, there's nothing in me that responds to him, something like that, so he has no power for me." So when the devil came to tempt Jesus, though he put seed thoughts there, there was nothing in the heart of Jesus to respond to it. And as I said that Sunday morning, I said again, "I pray Lord, when the devil comes to tempt me with various things, may there be nothing in my heart that responds to it, may there be no ground in me upon which the devil can work." See what I'm saying? So now the devil came with this seed thought, the devil having put it into the heart of Jesus, and the moment that thought ended his heart, as we look at these examples in a moment here, he should have said, "Get behind me," he said, "I resist that satanic thought, that thought's not from God, it's from the devil, I recognize that thought, and you see in the natural birth," and I speak very delicately, "in the natural birth, if there's no egg, no ovum in the woman, the male sperm all dies, they perish," I say, "perish those thoughts that come to all of our minds, if there's nothing in us to respond to it." Do you know what I'm saying? All right, so the devil having put it in the heart, now the end result of that was the tragedy is that the devil put it into the heart of Jesus, and there was a response in the lust, covetousness, he loved the money, he wanted the money, held the bag, not that he cared for the poor, he could sell Christ out, the tragedies he sold Christ out for money he never lived to spend, and because this seed thought from the devil and this lust, covetousness, in order that desire was in him, conception took place, formation took place, and what was the end result in verse 27? And after the stop Satan entered into him, so the thought opened the way to the devil, the only man on the scripture that's ever been possessed by Satan himself, because Satan didn't want to trust it to anybody else, so he got inside of Judas, an apostle if you please, an apostle who becomes a tool of Satan, a fallen apostle possessed of a fallen angel. Hear what I'm saying? One of the twelve, because a seed thought got in here and there was something in him that responded to it. Now let's go over to Acts 5, we looked at this briefly last week, Acts 5, and you notice how the Holy Spirit is using the language of this natural birth here, Acts 5 verses 1 through to 4, Acts 5 verses 1 through to 4, but a certain man named Anna Nis with Safari's wife sold a possession, and kept that part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle's feet, but Peter said under a word of knowledge, not discernment, not discerning spirits, but a word of knowledge here, Anna Nis, listen to it, why had Satan filled by heart to why, and imagine that, to deceive the Holy Ghost? So here's this thought, the seed thought. Now Judas is going to sell Christ out for money, an apostle who falls over money, fallen apostle possessed of a fallen angel, because the seed thought got there, and there was something in him to respond, now here's to Spirit-filled believers in the glory of the early church, and the power of God, and grace of God, and miracles happening, and now over money again, so the seed thought comes into Anna Nis, and so far, yeah, they have sold the land for so much money, and everybody's given, why didn't you give part because you could invest it, and all those thoughts began, but there was this little egg here, something in them that responded to it, and it conceived. They should have reset, and said, get behind me, I resist the thought. You see, someone's put it this way, all of our lives are bound up in a trinity, and in this trinity, thought, word, and deed, so I'm going to set a word spoken on board, so you wouldn't do the deed, or verbalize it if you did it, so where do you start, where's the victory, one, right there, wait to win the victory, the battle of the mind, because that's where all sin begins, did you know, as we're going to see in our case, sin entered through the mind, sin entered through the mind, so we're dealing with the battle for the mind, so now let's see how the Holy Spirit uses that word conceive, verse 3, then verse 4, but Peter said, and in us, why had Satan filled down heart to lock the Holy Ghost, and to keep that part of the price of the land, whilst it remained, was it not by an own, and after it was sold, was it not in their own power, you didn't have to give it, why has Thar say the word, why has Thar conceived this thing in thine heart, so you've got Satan, who puts the male sperm, the court there, and the womb of the heart and conception, why has Thar conceived, why did you allow these thoughts, and what was there in you that responded that, and you've allowed conception to take place, and the end result was formation, sin, death, Judas hung himself, he's a coward out, you know, everybody says let's get back to the book of Acts, I don't mind Acts chapter 2 and 3 and 4, but Acts 5, don't like it actually, how many want to get back to the book of Acts, ah, Pentecostal people love the book of Acts, say, oh I love Acts 2, speaking in tongues, I love Acts 3, raising of the land man, I love Acts 4, getting rescued out of prison, Acts 5, that's for the Jews, anything you don't like, give it to the Jews, you know, now let's go over to Psalm 7, Psalm 7, just a couple of other scriptures, and then we'll move on, how many can see that this is the crux of victory over temptation, alright Psalm 7, now the Psalm is dealing with some of the wicked here, then we'll take verse 11 and then move on a little bit, Psalm 7 verse 11, God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day, that'd be a nice scripture to preach on women, or would people rather John 3, 16, God say love the world that he gave, let's talk about the love of God, God is angry with the wicked every day, nobody likes to preach on that scripture, but it's Bible, now what does it say about the wicked verse 14, behold he travaille with a niquity, what's travaille to do with, he travails with a niquity, he's laboring to bring it forth, and half, that's the next word, conceived, and had brought forth, now see the three words, travaille, conception, bringing forth, and there's another scripture, I can't think where it is, I thought I had it on my little list here, but there's another scripture where it says where they can see in their mind, they can see, and with their mouth they bring forth wickedness, let me say this delicately, but you see the mind becomes the womb, and the mouth is where the birth takes place, what comes out of mouth, what is born out of our mouth, a word spoken is a thought born, because the mouth is like the earth, see how careful we have to watch our thoughts and our words, one other scripture and then we'll move on to examples, the process of sin, and so as I said once I saw this many years ago of us, the Lord helped me, helped me to watch my thoughts, helped me to get it right there, so that conception doesn't take place, all right one other scripture, Romans chapter 7, I'd like you to look at Romans 7, Romans 7 and verse 7, what shall we say then, is the law sin, God forbid, may I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust except the law had said thou should not covet, now we talked about this briefly last week that you know what is it in us, at the moment we see a little notice, wet paint do not touch, what do you want to do, what is it in us, one makes the cookies and the cake with fresh icing on, and a little notice, don't put finger on, what is it that pushes me, okay, slight little boy who used to go swimming on Sunday, and his mom said don't do it, don't spend your Sunday school money on candy, just go right by the shop, so he said well mommy the devil tempts me, so he says all right next time you go to Sunday school and you got this money and the devil says you want to spend it on the candy, he said get behind me Satan, so he comes home from Sunday school that day and mom says how did you get on, did you spend your Sunday school money, he said I did not, well she said I didn't you say get behind me Satan, he said well I did not but he pushed me in, so I went away with the swimming tank where you put, I said get behind me Satan but he pushed me in, now he should have grabbed it right there, but there was something in him that wanted to spend his Sunday school money, I had not known last except the law said don't cover, in order to desire, alright now I want you to go to your sheet here, so I've done the process of sin, is everybody clear on what I'm saying, seed thought, cause one of the males firm, lust, covetousness, in order to desire, supplying the year in the heart, conception that takes place, period of formation and the birth and then the end result of that is death, okay now let's go to our sheet and we're going to take oh maybe I could just leave this up here, let's leave this up here, put that over here, I'm going to go ahead and project it on again, please ready with you, I'm not bored sure it went in there, alright now I want you to go over to Genesis chapter 3 and we're just going to go through, throughout briefly these four examples as you can see they're all a session in themselves, but we don't exhaust you, we want to exhaust the Bible, now let's follow this process of sin here and you can start filling in here, so lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, now Genesis chapter 3 verse 1 to 6, God has put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Mr. and Mrs. Adam as we've seen before and when he made man he made man in his own image, God is triune, one, yet triune, man is one, yet triune, so God made man, spirits, soul and body in that order, now when the devil comes into the garden, the snake in the glass, what does he do, first temptation is, he's after this, he's after the spirit, he's after the wheel which acts as the veil between the spirit and the soul here, but he doesn't come straight to there, he starts to appeal to bodily appetites, God given bodily appetites, so the first thing he says is, in tempting the woman, well as God said you can't eat in the trees and what happens with the woman here, verse 6, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, okay, so in the first column I want you to put up there, tree good for food, appealing to a legitimate desire, a legitimate God given appetite of eating food, but this was forbidden food, a bodily appetite, he's appealing to the flesh and you see when it comes to what goes on today and no matter of fornication, adultery and sexual perversion and so forth, Satan is exploiting a God given bodily instinct, but it has to be kept under God's control within God's defined limits, within the marriage limits, but he's exploiting that, exploiting that, there is no sin in eating, but God has said you need everything else but to not eat this, there's no sin in sex within God's framework of marriage, you can have sex within marriage, but anything outside of marriage and any perversions is violating my law and it's going to end up in death, alright, so he's exploiting that, now see what does the devil first do, he puts the thought into the mind, half God said, so he puts the question mark over the word of God, she should have said, shut up God has said, or as she should have run along to the garden and said, hey, hubby, there's enough taught me to going on down here, there's a snake in the grass, he wouldn't have had a leg to stand on, man, if Adam had had got there on the scene, what do you, now look at the next one, the tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes, someone has said the eyes are the windows of the soul, I want you to go to a very, very challenging verse in the book of Job, let's turn to Job quickly here, Job 31, Job 31, I just want the first clause of the verse, Job 31, right now see the last of the flesh, so he's got through to that, he's appealing to a God given bodily appetite food in this case, now he's appealing to the last of the eyes, when she saw that the tree was to be desired to make one last sins of the soul now he's appealing to, Job 31 verse 1, just the first part of the moment, I made a covenant with my eyes, I'd like to encourage every one of us and I'd like to encourage the young people especially, make it covenant with your eyes, because one of the biggest exploitations of the ungodly world system today is exploitation, I get pretty agitated now even when you're watching the news that every time there's an advertisement pretty well they've got some half naked woman on the face, why, why, the billboards, the posters, the films, the theorists, what do they appeal to, lust of the eyes, something that's going to catch the eyes of the men, and we boy, if ever we need to make a covenant with our eyes, so listen eyes, you're not going to look on those lustful things, pornographic literature, comics, deadwood dicks and some of this stuff, that Christians feed their soul upon, and they wonder why they end up with moral problems and sexual perversions because they're feeding their eyes, the lust of the eyes, lust of the eye, inordinate desire, how many believe we need to make a covenant with our eyes, and I ask Christians that I've talked to many students on this, why are you having problems, Evelyn mean, and he wants to bring this type of garment into the camp of the saints, and 200 shekels of silver, I was going to give some tithes to the Lord, at a wedge of gold, a 50 shekels weight, then I say it, covered it then, and took them, see the process, first it began with the eyes, I saw, I saw, and the devil put the thought in there, and there was something in him that I covered in him, inordinate desire, no God's setting up to, but there's something in me, and sin conceived, formed, and result there, always that cycle, and we might think, well why did God stone all his family, and all the kids, weren't they innocent, no, it would be very difficult to go to battle, get a Babylonish garment with all its bright, worldly colors, and the world system of Babylon that day, and a wedge of gold and silver, and bring it home, and hide it in your tent, without the family saying, good on your dad, you're smart, we'll be really out of do something without, after the battles ever, when we should wear a crown, the family will party too, deceit, all right, second sign of chapter 11 quickly, or second sign of chapter 11, or second sign of 12 it is, it should be second sign of chapter 11 and 12 for your notes, I've got 12 on, just put down the two chapters, let's look at chapter 11, just a couple of verses here, you can fill in the same cycle here, and it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth the battle, that David sent Job, and his servants with him in all Israel, and they destroyed the tune of Ammon and besieged Robert, but David tarred still a Jerusalem, should have been at the battle, not tarring in the wrong place, and when saints or kings tarrying wrong places, they're bound to get into trouble, he should have been involved in warfare with the people of God, so what happened? First two, it came to pass in an evening tide, that David arose from up his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw, now you see how every one of these cases I've given you, make a covenant with your eyes, every one of them wish through the lust of the eyes, lust of the eyes, lust of the eyes, lust of the eyes for food, lust of the eyes for garments, gold, lust of the eyes for sex, this is what this is, every one of them have failed to make a covenant with their eyes, it's always this cycle, this is the process of sin, I saw, so what does he do? He sends and takes the woman, lust of the flesh, adultery, he had plenty of wives, what does he want to take somebody else's fall, and then the pride of life, what were the sins that arose out of that? What were the sins that rose out of that? Murder, covers up his sins, gets you liar, drunken twice, under the guise, so that in his drunkenness he would lay with his wife, and then murders him by the sword, so sin led to sin, see conception, formation, and what happened to David? The 20 years hell he went through, did you know that God pardoned David, that punished him? Pardon but punished, pardon but punished, and did you know that the four sins that came out in David's life came out in his sons? Who said, "Go up and give me God, I've heard kids say, 'Oh God, forgive me God, forgive me, God, I'll forgive you, but he may punish you.'" I say, "Take your punishment like a man, God kill the baby. Oh, how can the God, I love kill my adulterous baby?" A poor innocent kid born in sin, poor kid, he's a victim, God took the baby. Do you think God is just the same today, and people come sometimes and they wonder why things are going to go, you're reaping what you sow back there? "Oh, but God forgive me God, forgive us, but you can be part and punished, pardon but punished." Twenty years he was punished, what a hell of a life went through after that, and that's saying it plain, tragic, but then he was a leader to whom much he's given, more is required. All right, the last one, and I'll just give you the scriptures on this, because I'm, it's about one, two minutes by me. Jesus in Luke's chapter four and verses one through to thirteen. All right, the first temptation you put in the first column, the fins of the body, make these stones bread, appealing to a bodily appetite. So what does Jesus do? When Satan puts this seed thought appealing to a legitimate out of appetite, he said, "Little children, you are young men, you are strong, because the word of God hides in you." So how did Jesus defeat this? Nothing in him to respond, he said it's written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word." So he overcome in the flesh, bodily appetite, legitimate, but he was fasting for the fuck. All right, what was the next one? He showed him all the king of the world and the glory of them, and what glamour and glitter, the world's system, all these kingdoms, the glory of battle and the Assyrian meat of Persia and Greece and Rome, America and Britain and the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, all the kingdoms of the world, and he showed them in a moment of money. Flash before that, "I'll give it all to you, you don't have to go through the cross." Because they've been delivered to me, who delivered them to Jesus, who delivered them Satan? Adam did when Adam fell, he delivered it over Satan. They're lust of the eyes, but Jesus had made a cabinet of the eyes, he said, "It is written, it is written, it is written." And then the last one, "Pry life." What are you doing in the last one, according to Luke's order of the temptations? He took him to the pinnacle of the temple, and he said, "Look, the last prophecy of Malachi was, 'The Lord whom you seek shall come suddenly to his temple.'" And they're looking for the Messiah to come to the temple. There's a real question mark about the way you were born and your virgin birth. That'll be over you for years. But the message of the covenant is to come suddenly to his temple. Now, if you throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple, then you've been quoting Scripture to me, "I've got a good Scripture for you." It is written in Psalm 91, "He will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways, lest you dash your foot against the stone." Why don't you cast yourself off? And before you hit your bottom, the angels will come swooping in a circle. And then everybody, "Oh, the Messiah, the Messiah, Malachi said, the Messiah will come suddenly to his temple." And he's just come off the temple and never killed him, so he must be the Messiah. And then all that reproach of your virgin birth will be over. Pride of life. He said it is written, "Get behind me." Jesus conquered right there. And don't you worry, temptation was harder for Jesus than it was for any of us because of who he was. How many believe that there's a key to victory over sin there? We get right there. None of us are exempt from this. None of us are exempt from this. Every one of us, we know that nobody just sins. Every sin is the result of our thought and what we do with it. So I just pray the Lord help us right there, amen? And that will just say, "Lord, may there be nothing in me that responds to this." And that sin doesn't conceive and bring forth, I believe, that this is the real key to victory. Amen. How many receive this word tonight? Be sure to visit kevinconner.org for more information about Kevin, his books, and his ministry. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]