4.28.2016 Finney on WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO OVERCOME THE WORLD?

 taken from charles finney's 'experiencing the presence of God

112  in the pages that follow, i intend to answer 4 questions:
what does it mean to overcome the world?
who overcomes the world?
why do they overcome?
how do they overcome?

first, what does it mean..it means to GET ABOVE THE SPIRIT OF COVETEOUSNESS that possesses the people of the world. the spirit of the world is the spirit of covetousness. it is a greediness after the things of the world. some worldly individuals covet one thing and some another, but all worldly men and women are living in the spirit of covetousness. this spirit has supreme possession of their minds.
now, the first thing in overcoming the world is overcoming..covetousness. the person who has not risen above this spirit of bustling and scrambling after what this world offers has by no means overcome it.
overcoming the world means NOT BEING ENGROSSED IN IT. when a person has overcome the world, his thoughts are no longer engrossed in worldly things. a person certainly does not overcome the world unless he gets above being absorbed and swallowed up by its concerns.
now, we all know how extremely engrossed worldly individuals are in some for of worldly pursuit. one is perhaps swallowed up by study, another by politics, a third by making money and a
113  fourth by fashion and pleasure. but each in his chosen way makes earthly concerns his all-engrossing purpose.
the person who wants to gain the victory over the world must overcome not only one form of its pursuits, but every form. he must overcome the world itself, along with all that it uses to allure the human heart.

overcoming the world also implies OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF THE WORLD. it is a sad fact that most people and indeed all worldly people , HAVE MUCH REGARD FOR PUBLIC OPINION. they dare not follow their consciences when doing so would incur the frown of society. one man is afraid that his business would suffer if his course were to run counter to public opinion. another man fears that standing up for the truth will injure his reputation. oddly enough, he imagines that advocating an unpopular truth would diminish his good influence - as if a man could exert a good influence without maintaining the truth.

great multitudes, it must be admitted, are under this influence of fearing the world. yet some, perhaps many, are not aware of this fact. if they could thoroughly investigate the reasons for their backwardness in duty, they would find fear of the world among the foremost. their fear of the world's displeasure is so much stronger than their fear of God's displeasure that they are completely enslaved by it.

who does not know that some ministers DARE NOT PREACH (note: and regarding all believers, SPEAK.. TRUTH)..., even if it is very important, lest they offend someone whose good opinion they are seeking? perhaps the community where a certain minister lives has a weak economy and the favor of some of its rich men seems indispensable to its very survival.  hence, the terror of these rich men is continually before the minister's eyes when he prepares a sermon or preaches or is called to take a stand in favor of any cause that may be unpopular with those who possess more wealth than piety. Oh, this bondage to man! many gospel ministers are so troubled by it that their cowardly policy is virtually to renounce Christ and serve the world. overcoming the world means to thoroughly subdue this slavery to men.

in addition, overcoming thee world implies OVERCOMING A STATE OF WORLDLY ANXIETY.   you know that there is a state of great worry and anxiety that is common and almost universal among worldly individuals. this is perfectly natural if the HEART SET ON OBTAINING WORLDLY GOOD. such a heart has not learned to receive all good from the hand of a great Father and to trust Him to give or withhold with His own unerring wisdom. but the one who loves the world is the enemy of God; he can never have this childlike trust in the Father or the peace of soul that it imparts.
therefore, worldly individuals are almost incessantly in a fever of anxiety lest their worldly schemes should fail. sometimes they get momentary relief when everything seems to go well, but some mishap is sure to befall them at some point soon afterward. scarcely a day passes that does not bring with it some gnawing anxiety. such men are like 'the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt' (isaiah 57.20).  however the man who gets above the world gets above this STATE OF CEASELESS AND DESTRUCTIVE ANXIETY.
there is a worldly spirit and there is also a heavenly spirit. one or the other exists in the heart of every man and controls his whole being. those who are under the control of the world have not, of course, overcome the world. no man overcomes the world until his heart is permeated with the spirit of heaven.

victory over the world implies that we cease to be enslaved to the spirit of the world in any of its forms. one form that the spirit of the world assumes is being ENSLAVED TO THE CUSTOMS AND FASHIONS OF THE DAY. it is amazing to see what a goddess Fashion becomes. no heathen goddess was ever worshiped with costlier offerings or more devout homage. and surely no heathen deity since the world began has had more universal patronage. where will you go to find the worldly man or woman who does not hasten to worship at Fashion's shrine? but overcoming the world implies that the spell of this goddess is broken.

those who have overcome the world are no longer anxious either to secure its favor or to avert its frown. to them, the good or bad opinion of the world is a small matter. 'with me, said paul, it is a very small thing that i should be judged...of man's judgment (I cor. 4.3) this is true of every real christian. his concern is to secure the approval of god; his chief interest is to commend himself to God and
115  to his own conscience. (see acts 24.16) no man has overcome the world unless he has attained this state of mind.
almost no feature of christian character is more striking or more decisive that INDIFFERENCE TO THE WORLD'S OPINIONS. since i have been in the ministry, i have been blessed with the acquaintance of some men who were particularly distinguished by this quality. i am thinking of one man especially. he seemed to have the least  possible inclination to secure the applause of men or to avoid their censure. it seemed to be of no consequence to him to commend himself to men. for him, it was enough if he might please God.

therefore, i was sure to find him in everlasting war against sin - all sin - however popular, however entrenched by custom, however sustained by wealth or public opinion. yet he always opposed sin  with a most remarkable spirit - a spirit of inflexible decision and yet of great mellowness and tenderness. while he was saying the most severe things in the most decided language, i often saw big tears rolling down his cheeks.
it is wonderful that most men never complained of his having a bad spirit. as much as they dreaded his rebuke and writhed under his strong and daring exposures of wickedness, they could never say that he did not have a good spirit. this spirit was a most beautiful and striking example of his having overcome the world.

those who are not dead to the world as this man was have not escaped its bondage. the victorious christian is in a state where he is no longer in bondage to man. he is bound only to serve god.