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- … The Love Of The World Makes The Love Of God Impossible.
Andrew Murray
Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917). South African pastor, author, and revivalist born in Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony, to Dutch Reformed missionary parents. Sent to Scotland at 10, he studied at Aberdeen University and Utrecht, Netherlands, returning ordained in 1848. He pastored in Bloemfontein and Worcester, later moderating the Dutch Reformed Church’s Cape Synod. In 1860, he sparked a revival in the Orange Free State, preaching to thousands across racial lines despite apartheid’s rise. Murray wrote over 240 books, including Abide in Christ (1882) and With Christ in the School of Prayer, translated into dozens of languages. His emphasis on holiness, prayer, and divine healing influenced global Pentecostalism. Married to Emma Rutherford in 1856, they had eight children, four becoming missionaries. He founded theological seminaries and the Huguenot College for women. Despite chronic illness, he traveled to Europe and America, speaking at Keswick Conventions. His devotional works remain widely read, shaping Christian spirituality across denominations.
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Sermon Summary
Andrew Murray emphasizes that the love of the world is fundamentally opposed to the love of God, as illustrated by the sin of Adam and Eve. He explains that loving the world manifests through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which distracts us from our devotion to God. The sermon highlights that true love for God requires a complete surrender of worldly desires and a focus on spiritual fulfillment. Murray calls for believers to examine their hearts and prioritize their relationship with God above all else.
Scriptures
… the Love of the World Makes the Love of God Impossible.
And wherein now does this spirit of the world show itself, and wherein does its sinfulness consist? ‘If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.’ As the great and first commandment is, ‘Love the lord thy God with all thy heart,’ so the great and first sin is the love of the world which makes the love of God impossible. It was so with the sin of our first parents. And when John defines what the things of the world are, and what the love of them, we are at once led to think of that first sin. He speaks of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Man has body, soul and spirit. Eve saw ‘that the tree was good for food’: this was the seed of all lust of the flesh, the desire for the gratification of the body with its appetites. ‘And that it was pleasant to the eyes’: this was the beginning of all that delight the visible world, its God-created beauty and treasures, in which the powers of the soul and mind are occupied and drawn off from God as effectually as by more sensual pleasures. (Excerpted from The Coming Revival, by Andrew Murray , pg. 28).
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Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917). South African pastor, author, and revivalist born in Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony, to Dutch Reformed missionary parents. Sent to Scotland at 10, he studied at Aberdeen University and Utrecht, Netherlands, returning ordained in 1848. He pastored in Bloemfontein and Worcester, later moderating the Dutch Reformed Church’s Cape Synod. In 1860, he sparked a revival in the Orange Free State, preaching to thousands across racial lines despite apartheid’s rise. Murray wrote over 240 books, including Abide in Christ (1882) and With Christ in the School of Prayer, translated into dozens of languages. His emphasis on holiness, prayer, and divine healing influenced global Pentecostalism. Married to Emma Rutherford in 1856, they had eight children, four becoming missionaries. He founded theological seminaries and the Huguenot College for women. Despite chronic illness, he traveled to Europe and America, speaking at Keswick Conventions. His devotional works remain widely read, shaping Christian spirituality across denominations.