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This Present Evil Age

a sermon in the series:
Worldliness

A sermon delivered
Sunday Morning, March 1, 2009
at Oak Grove Baptist Church, Paducah, Ky.
by S. Michael Durham

© 2009 Real Truth Matters

Galatians 1:4

Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

We all know worldliness is wrong, but if we know it’s wrong, why are we often so worldly? If you would allow us to examine your personal preferences by looking at your checkbook, your Internet surfing, your TV viewing, your MP3 player, your DVD collection, or your calendar, how would it compare to a nonbeliever’s preferences? Would there be a huge difference, a moderate difference, or little to no difference? It is a fact, brothers and sisters, that if it is anywhere from moderate to no difference, you have fallen into the snare of worldliness.

But there are other ways to fall into worldliness than the snares that I mentioned above. For years, churches have defined worldliness in basically three ways: immorality, entertainment and immodesty. Use of alcohol and tobacco are considered immoral. Entertainment like dancing, attending the theater, music or sporting events have been considered worldly. Growing up, I was taught by my grandmother that playing cards were evil and worldly, no matter the game. The way you were dressed could also be worldly: women not wearing dresses or skirts, or men not wearing long sleeves; yet even within this definition there is a great deal of variance – one church may teach it is alright for a hemline to come to the knee on a lady, while another teaches any hemline above the ankle is sinful and worldly.

My point is not that we get hung up on these things like outward behavior and appearance; on the contrary, if you judge worldliness strictly on behavior, you will overlook many other kinds of worldliness and fail to see the problem of your own heart. Worldliness is more than just behavior. It is possible to avoid all of these questionable things and still be worldly.

What is Worldliness?

How does worldliness affect you, and how can you be free from it? These questions are more serious than trying to recalibrate a list of dos and don’ts.

In our text, the Apostle Paul uses a different word than worldliness; he uses the phrase “present evil age.” In Titus 2:12 he does use worldly when he says, “…teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” The Apostle John says to us in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” These three texts together tell us what worldliness is; there is a harmony of the three even though they give us a slightly different perspective.

In John’s text above, he says clearly, “Don’t love the world.” The question I would like to ask John is, “What do you mean by the word world? Do you mean this globe we call home?” It could almost sound that way when he adds, “or the things in the world.” What could capture our love but things that are in this planet we call home? So, is this a warning about becoming a tree-hugger or an environmental wacko? No, this is not necessarily his meaning. We are to respect God’s creation and we have been given stewardship of this planet, therefore we should not abuse but care for it.

But John is dealing with something much more dynamic than the planet we inhabit. You know that because in verse 16, he goes on: “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.” He doesn’t mention trees, forests, flowers, or any of those things. The focus here is not on the earth, but on a spiritual dimension that inhabits this earth. He calls it “lust” or “desire.”

Your desires are a part of the spiritual dimension that exists. Desires come from the heart or soul and therefore are not physical but spiritual. There are bodily appetites or physical desires, but even these are controlled by the heart or they control the heart. Either way the spiritual dimension cannot be ignored.

Also, the word world in the Greek New Testament is the word kosmos. The word means, the arrangement and order of things. We get our English word cosmology from it, which deals with the study of the universe and its order. We also have the English words cosmetics and cosmetology, which deal with the order and arrangement of a person’s looks. So John is dealing with a system of order that is diametrically opposed to the order of God. In other words, “Don’t love the world’s system of order and arrangement or the things that comprise that system!”

In Titus 2:12, which I cited earlier, Paul says we are to deny worldly lusts. The two words, “worldly” and “lust,” are here linked. Therefore, we can continue on this train of thought that worldliness is something more akin to the spiritual than to our behavior or dress. Evidently there are desires that are in conjunction with this world and its order that we are to deny.

Back to the words present evil age in our text. And even though the word world is not used, clearly Paul is referring to it. If you have the Authorized Version, that is the King James, the word world is used. But the word here is not the word kosmos but aion from which we get our word eons or ages. The Apostle is saying that Jesus has died to deliver us from the present work of evil in our times. What is the present work of evil in our times? And the answer is the same as 1 John 2:15; it is the present system or arrangement of evil that exists. To call it culture is not enough because this thing is larger than culture. Culture is a part of it, but not all of it. You can’t call it society for the word society simply means, a collection of people living as members of a community. There is nothing necessarily evil in that. So what is it? Again, we are back to the word spiritual or spirit.

This present world is manipulated by a spirit that the Apostle Paul calls the “spirit of the world.” He says in 1 Corinthians 2:12, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” Here we see that this thing called the world is a supernatural and spiritual dynamic. Again the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:2, “you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”

It is interesting that the word course, “the course of this world,” is the same word in our text for the word age, aion. But it is also interesting that this age or course that the world is going in is also the same thing as “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” That is why John says, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).

Worldliness has to do with a spiritual dimension, and it penetrates us at the level of spirit. Therefore, I think we can come to this definition that will help us to understand worldliness over this series of messages:

Worldliness: a spiritual principle that works contrary to God; an evil spirit; the power of Satan working in human order and arrangements. It is the pursuit of anything in this world, good or bad, by one’s own hand for one’s own satisfaction, rather than Christ.

Any institution, order, arrangement, such as philosophy, arts, government, religion – all can be infiltrated and manipulated by this spirit of this present age, a spirit that loves anything but God.

You see, worldliness is not just immorality. It can also be a morality that does good things. It can be very religious or very spiritual. Some do what they do to make God happy with them; that is worldliness. You could have entered into this service today having your own agenda or motives that didn’t include the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you did, you are right now being worldly. There is a spirit that loves things other than Christ. That is worldliness. It is a spirit that is part of the present course this world is on, and it motivates everything in this world, standing in contrast to the Spirit of Christ which we are to submit to.

Worldliness is a love for your own self, looking to the world and the things that it offers to satisfy you. We can be gripped by it and not even know it.

How Does Worldliness Work?

The spirit of this present evil age permeates everything our human hands touch. It shouldn’t have sway over us, but it can. It works in accordance with our natural human natures, our personalities and dispositions. That is why it’s so believable! Its deception is so plausible, and we believe the lie!

I hope I’m not shocking you; I’m attempting to reveal and expose this. I believe every one of us have mindsets or belief systems that are, frankly, worldly. I might not even see them as worldly; I might even defend them thinking they are biblical! How can that be? Because worldliness always appeals to your fallen human nature in these four different ways:

1.  It presents itself as being concerned for your welfare and provision.

It sounds so sensible – you must provide for you and your family, so good Christians work, burning both ends of the candle having no time for their families or the work of the church. Prayer meetings are missed because you must provide and the Sunday evening service must be missed because you must get up early and go to work. Mothers with young children forsake them and enslave themselves to a company and a boss in order to provide for themselves. And worldly wisdom will even quote the Bible defending it all, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). Very good, spirit of the age! It is true that I am to provide for my family, but I do not trust that I am my family’s provider. It is also written, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out the mouth of God.” It is also written, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).

It is the same spirit that whispers you must control your life, fix all of your problems, fix all the people in your little world, that says something to the effect of, “If it’s going to get done, it’s up to you.” That is the spirit of this present evil age.

It’s true that we are not to be lazy and not always looking to someone else to do our work for us. The Bible does say we are to bear our own burdens. But oh, the spirit of the present evil age, it will accentuate and emphasize the bearing of your own burdens. “You must rely on no one.” “Be your own person.” All of these things are of this present evil age.

1. It motivates you to promote yourself.

We assert ourselves so people will notice and appreciate us. We all do it to some degree. It manifests in many ways: the man who will not be involved in a project unless he leads the project; the woman who must have all the right clothes in all the latest fashions; the teenager who must be popular and in all the right cliques. It even works in the church with Christians who get involved in the work of the church so others can pay attention to their endeavors. They pray not to God but to the people who hear them. They love and care for others not because they really care, but because they want to bolster their reputations among the saints.

Are you offended when no one notices your endeavors or labors? Even slightly offended? Then you should know that the master you serve is not Christ, but the spirit of this present evil age.

Are you preoccupied with what others think of you? It’s the spirit of this present evil age.

Are you ever envious of the promotion of others? That’s the spirit of this present evil age.

It’s all worldliness. It is from these kinds of things we need our deliverance right here in this church! Don’t ever boast in this place – boast in the God who is working in us! Don’t ever forget, we need more deliverance ourselves.

What could you be if you, like Jesus, were concerned to promote only one Person, His Father! Why are you so preoccupied with yourself? Shouldn’t you be obsessed with others knowing Jesus? But how can you, with worldliness in your heart?

1. It motivates you to protect yourself.

Its motto is, “You must guard your heart, your reputation, your possessions, and your life. You can’t trust that to anyone; it is up to you.” I cannot expose this enough! It is so pervasive because it is so natural to us!

Much of what we call common sense is nothing more than worldly wisdom, the spirit of this present evil age. Therefore, you can be motivated by this spirit and not even know it. Here is the power of the mask: as we learn to take off our masks, you will find something resisting. It is the voice of worldliness saying, “You cannot let people know the real you! You must protect yourself against pain, hurt and rejection!” But, brothers and sisters, that is not the Spirit of Christ. The Lord bids you to trust Him with your life. He will bring pain into your life, and when He brings pain by the rejection of someone you hold dear, trust Him that it is for your good! Why? “What good can there be in that kind of pain, in someone hurting me like that?” you ask.

I can understand the anger of the question, and have only one answer. By submitting to your pain, you understand that your life is not to be something clung to as precious. It is rejection, pain, hurt and difficulty that keeps teaching you your life is not precious.

I don’t know what Tolkein intended to represent when he wrote of the ring of power; I’m sure it meant many things. But to me this morning it means one thing: your life. What will you do? What lengths will you go to, to hold your life as precious to you? That is the spirit of this present evil age. It is worldliness, and it is choking Christ in you. It is so unlike Jesus, who made Himself of no reputation and took upon Himself the form of a slave. God is not against you by introducing you to pain; He is actually trying to protect you against the person you are trying to protect: you!

This same spirit that keeps men from coming to Christ keeps Christians fearful. It can work just the opposite of self-promotion, causing you to hide in order to protect yourself. You don’t let anyone get close to you, and the few people you do allow near you, you manipulate by giving or withholding your love and affection.

Some are kept from Christ, this morning, because the spirit of this present evil age has manipulated you to believe there is some other way besides Calvary. There’s no better place to see this than in John Bunyan’s dream called, Pilgrim’s Progress, which I love. The pilgrim is loaded down with the burden of his sin. Evangelist has sent him to a place called the Wicket-gate, a narrow little gate that leads on a narrow pathway up a hill to a cross. Do you see the imagery? Burdened with sin, the only way to be free is Calvary. But Worldly Wiseman crosses Christian’s path and diverts him from Wicket-gate.

“I would advise thee, then, that thou with all speed get thyself rid of thy burden; for thou wilt never be settled in thy mind till then: nor canst thou enjoy the benefits of the blessings which God hath bestowed upon thee till then,” says Worldly Wiseman to the pilgrim, Christian. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Christian: “That is that which I seek for, even to be rid of this heavy burden: but get it off myself I cannot, nor is there any man in our country that can take it off my shoulders; therefore am I going this way, as I told you, that I may be rid of my burden.” Does that sound familiar? Is there a load on you, like a concrete block on your chest, which no one has been able to lift?

Wiseman: “Who bid thee go this way to be rid of thy burden?”

Christian: “A man that appeared to me to be a very great and honorable person: his name, as I remember, is Evangelist.”

Wiseman: “I beshrew (condemn) him for his counsel! there is not a more dangerous and troublesome way in the world than is that into which he hath directed thee; and that thou shalt find, if thou wilt be ruled by his counsel. Thou hast met with something, as I perceive, already; for I see the dirt of the Slough of Despond is upon thee: but that slough is the beginning of the sorrows that do attend those that go on in that way. Hear me; I am older than thou: thou art like to meet with, in the way which thou goest, wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word, death, and what not. These things are certainly true, having been confirmed by many testimonies. And should a man so carelessly cast away himself, by giving heed to a stranger?”

Interesting question, since Worldly Wiseman is himself a stranger to Christian.

What I want you to notice is that Worldly Wiseman didn’t argue that Christian needed to get rid of his sin; he agreed Christian needed to get rid of his sin! But his argument was “You cannot trust the Gospel or the Gospel preacher who gave it to you!”

How many times have you heard that same message? How many times have I proclaimed the Gospel to you? But you heard another voice, an attitude of the heart that said, “Surely, if I can do the same things you all do, then why do I need to go to Calvary and die? Surely if I can learn your doctrine, I shall be rewarded as you! If I can perform and talk as you all do, surely God will accept me in the end!” My friend, that is the spirit of this present evil age! It will damn your soul as it almost did Christian, for when he diverted from the path and took Worldly Wiseman’s advice, his burden got heavier. It increased to the point he was almost to death, until the Gospel preacher came and put him back on the right path.

There is only one thing you need today, and it is not to protect yourself from pain, but to embrace it and let God deliver you. That doesn’t make sense to you, I know. Ask God to illuminate your mind and give you an understanding beyond just intellect. Ask Him to show you what I’m talking about, and He will. Say, “Tell, me, what does this mean, that I must embrace the pain in order that I may live?” He will show you Jesus, dying on a cross for your sins. He will show you a Savior bleeding on your behalf, One who suffered not because He had sinned, but because He was sinless, and thereby could be the only sacrifice for your sin. He will show you three days later, in the empty tomb where they had lay His body—the grave could not hold Him. “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes!” And you begin to see that when a man accepts God’s way, God will exalt him in due season.

The apostle Peter says in his epistle, “humble yourself, and in due season God will exalt you.” The way up is down! No, it doesn’t make sense, but who asked you to approve of God’s wisdom? Who gave you the intellect that you can discern God’s ways as being right or wrong? Do you have the intellect of God? No, nor do I. But I can testify that I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see. I was dead; now I’m alive. Can you testify to that? If you can’t, don’t listen to the spirit of this present evil age. It will lie to you all the way to your grave. For that is where it means to send you!

1. It motivates you to please yourself.

This is the one area, I fear, that has the strongest grip on us. To some degree, all of us are trying to be free from the power of the world. This desire for pleasure is not evil – it is not wrong to want to be happy or experience pleasure. Pleasure is a gift from heaven. But the present evil age perverts the true pleasure with lesser pleasures: Internet, computer, TV, cars, wealth, good friends and families, good homes, good health, hobbies – on and on the list goes; the lesser pleasures are offered to you.

If you are not careful, when you taste the pleasures the world offers, like a drug addict you will want more. You wish to regain the euphoria you felt when you first experienced the pleasures of the world. But the problem is, the pleasures of the world are not long lasting! You must drag an intravenous bottle with you! You must have a constant stream, because the heart becomes addicted to the entertainment of the surrounding culture. So we do what everyone else does: we go into debt for things that will cause us to experience pleasure. That’s the strategy of worldly pleasure: to get you seeking it rather than Jesus Christ.

Our Deliverance

Our text offers our help, “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age.” Would you note with me the measure to which Jesus went to offer you help? Not only did He die for your sins, but He also gave Himself up for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age.

Some of the things I talked about this morning may have seemed harmless or natural to you. But they must be of great offense to God and so dangerous to your soul that Jesus Christ would go to the cross to die so that He might deliver you from them. His life has been given that He might set you free from these things. Your self-providing spirit cannot handle these things. You sit there thinking, “I believe, now that you have warned me, I can handle these things.” And once again, the present evil age has deceived you. That is simply more self-provision and self-protection.

The only way you can be delivered is to call upon Jesus Christ for His saving mercy to rescue you from the spirit of this present evil age that has your body and soul. Only He can save you! I am talking to the saved as well as the unsaved. He is the only one who has overcome the world. Why would I listen to the spirit of this world in order to find out how to overcome it? That is like listening to the thief tell you how he will not steal you blind!

I want to go to the One who has overcome the world. He was in this world, confronted with things far more difficult than you have been confronted with. Pain? Think about the pain Jesus had to endure as He walked in this world of nothing but woe and problems. How did He withstand? It is an amazing thing. Look at how the world treated Him—with every argument lined up against Him and every weapon they could form aimed at Him. And yet He says, “I have overcome the world.” Finally, the world gets its final wish with Him: they take Him to a place called Golgotha, and there they stretch Him out on splintery, rough-hewn timbers, and there they nail Him and kill Him. And even as the world kills Him, the world does not overcome Him or defeat Him. He alone survives in victory. He defeats it!

If you are a believer today, “greater is He that is in you that He that is in the world!” The very One who has said, “I have overcome,” said to you, “Be of good cheer!” Be hopeful, Christian! You don’t have to continually be deceived by the spirit of this present evil age! There is victory in Christ Jesus!

Dear friend who has yet to know Christ (I would like to believe that you will be saved; please forgive me if I presume upon you that you will one day be a Christian, but I have great hope in God), if the Spirit of God has spoken to you so forcefully you could not help but know it was God, you must say, “I am bound by the spirit of this present evil age. I am preoccupied with myself. I care only for me – even my own family members, I love them, but I love them only in proportion to what they do for me! I promote me or I hide from the world so I can protect me! You have described me – what is my hope?”

Your hope is my hope. Your deliverance is my Deliverer. So I extend to you now the hope of Christ Jesus. Believe in Him, trust in Him, and be saved from this present evil age. Amen.