April 6

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 1 John 2:17

Our deliverance from the world begins, not with our giving up this or that but with our seeing, as with God’s eyes, that it is a world under sentence of death, it has no future.

Suppose the government decides to close a certain bank. Will you hasten to deposit into it a large sum of money in order to save the bank from collapse? No, not a cent more do you pay into it, once you hear that it offers no prospects. And we may justly say of the world that it is under a decree of closure.

Babylon, an impressive figure of world power, fell when her champions made war with the Lamb, and when by his death and resurrection he who is Lord of lords and King of kings overcame them (Revelation 17:14). There is no future for her. We still go on living in the world and using the things of the world, but we can build no future with them, for everything belonging to this world is under sentence of destruction.