The Power of a Living Testimony

Introduction

First, I would like to thank you for the distinct privilege and honor to bring the message this morning. As you know, Pastor Roy is unable to be here with us as he is performing his duty to his family and taking care of his wonderful wife Aryn as she recovers from her surgery. To be honest, I was a little nervous at the prospect of preaching in front of you for the first time, because of the love that I have for this Church. This morning we will be looking at the 2nd epistle of John in its entirety, and specifically dealing with the issue of having a living testimony, that is walking in the truth and living out that love which we are all called to possess. You see, there is a difference between the truth, and walking in the truth. One is a concept, while the other is the application of that concept. And while the Bible is very clear that we are to always be speaking the truth, we are also called to live by the truth, or to be walking in the truth. The way that we live, or the way that we walk speaks a great deal about our relationship both with God and with one another. And the first thing I would like us to notice this morning is the unity that we posses in our love for God and His truth.

United in the love of God and His truth. (1-3)

The Author of 2nd John, which should come as no surprise to anyone listening this morning, was in fact the Apostle John. Although John does not explicitly names himself within his epistles, it was unanimously held in early Church tradition that the Apostle John was in fact the author of these epistles, being used authoritatively by early church fathers such as Polycarp, Ignatius, Papias, and Irenaeus just to name a few. Not only does John possess strong external support as the author, but there is much internal evidence as well. Themes such as love, light, truth, Jesus as the Word; similarities in vocabulary, style and authoritative tone all support this as well. The themes that we will be looking at this morning are that of love and truth. John is often referred to as the “Apostle of love” because of his frequent use of the word, even referring to himself in his Gospel narrative as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Seemingly, John was utterly blown away by the fact that God actually loved him; not in some sort of impersonal manner, but that God personally, intimately, loved him; despite the full knowledge and comprehension of the sins and unrighteousness of John. And it is this same love that not only unites the redeemed with their Saviour, but also with each other.

Take a look at the beginning of 2nd John: “The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.”

Here we see that John is writing this letter to “the chosen lady and her children”. The identity of the chosen lady and her children has a few possibilities, it could be literally referring to a women and her actual children, or it could be have been written to a woman of means who held a local church in her home such as Priscilla or Lydia, or the elect lady could symbolically be referring to just a church and it’s members. A probable reason for the anonymity of the recipient is most likely due to John’s concern for their safety. It is traditionally held that John penned these epistles in Ephesus, after leaving Jerusalem either prior to or sometime after it’s destruction by the Romans in A.D. 70. During the reign of Nero and continuing on afterwards, Christians were met with heavy persecution, and to divulge the identity and location of a church was to invite trouble and even destruction on it’s congregation.

John states in verse 1 that he loves the recipients in truth, and that he is not alone in this love, but they are loved by all who know the truth as well. And we see in verse 2 that the reason for this love is because of a shared truth which abides in them, and will continue to be in them forever. Brothers and sisters, we too are gathered here this morning for the very same reason as this! That is, a shared love for God and the truth of His Gospel. We are gathered together today for no other reason. Faith Baptist is not a social club, or a personal development program; we do not all share a common ethnicity, skin color, or profession. And despite living in Michigan, we sadly do not all root for the same sports teams. So why is it that we are here this morning, or listening remotely online? What is it that unites us together, and makes us refer to one another as brother and sister? We are the redeemed people of God, chosen by Him, transformed by the truth of His Gospel! Our identity is in Him, it is not in the things of this world! Galatians 3:28 states that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” There is so much division being spread among the people in this Nation right now, but let me stress this point: and the Bible is very clear on this, there are only two categories of people. You are either in Adam, or you are in Christ. That’s it, those are the only options. Verse 3 tells us that this identity, this redemption; this grace, mercy, and peace only comes from God, by way of His truth and love.

Walking in the Truth. (4-6)

Not only are we called to be united in the truth, but we are called to walk in the truth. This brings us to the occasion of John writing the letter, in verse 4 “I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.” John had an encounter with some members of the church receiving this letter, and he was greatly encouraged when he found them living out the faith in truth and love, just as we have been commanded to do so by the Father. This is the power of the living testimony, brothers and sisters, that the manner in which we conduct ourselves, the application of the Biblical truths in our lives, not only serves as a testimony to those who do not believe, but also serves to encourage and build up our fellow believers as well!

Have you ever known someone who was just so fired up and compassionate and loving and knowledgeable about God and His Word that it just rubbed off on you? That it made you want to go out and do likewise? I can think of several men and women that I have met in my walk with Christ that really led by example and encouraged me greatly. They inspired me and challenged me to do more, to read more, or to show more love to others. An example of this can be found in the Bible when Paul told the Corinthians to “imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Paul wanted the Corinthians to follow the example that he was leaving. So how can we walk in the truth? What does that look like?

First we see, Walking in the Truth requires love. Look at verse 5: “Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.” The first requirement of walking in the truth is that we have love, one for another. You cannot walk in the truth if you do not love your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Not only do they possess the imago Dei, or image of God, but they are also a part of God’s elect people, redeemed by the very blood of Jesus Christ. In John 15:12-13 Jesus told His disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” You know, when you truly love someone, you find that you start loving the people that they love also. I remember when I first started seeing Evie, I would go over to her grandfathers house and visit, have dinner, and read the Bible together. As I was falling in love with her, I couldn’t help but begin to love her grandfather, or “Papa” as he was called, as well. In the same way, if we claim to truly love Christ, we must love also those whom He died for. I must admit, as part of our human weakness, there are some people who are much easier to love than others. I don’t believe that is a weakness in those who are more difficult to love, but rather a weakness in ourselves. The thing we need to constantly remind ourselves is: that person that we have been called to love, is so greatly loved by the Father, that He sent His Son to die on a Roman cross and take the punishment for their sins. We need to also remember that we are no great prize ourselves, and that Jesus had to die on the cross for our sins as well. It takes humility, in order to love others as we should.

Next we see, walking in the truth is evidenced by obedience. Look in verse 6: “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.” The world claims to be all about “love”. One of the Bible verses they love to quote is 1 John 4:8b “God is love”. The problem is, the world has no idea what true love really is. As we saw previously in John 15, there is no greater showing of love than when someone lays down his life for a friend. The sacrificial love of Jesus on the Cross is the epitome of what it means to love someone. Knowing all that Jesus has done for us, John says that we need to show our love for God and His people by “walking according to His commandments”. And this should make sense, how can we say we love God, but live our lives in total rebellion of everything that He asks of us? Is that not an empty profession? That’s not to say we must obey perfectly in order to show true faith, perfection is not obtainable this side of eternity. But our lives should be characterized by a pattern of submitting our will to His. This is called Sanctification. The process by which we become more and more conformed to the image of Jesus. In John 17:17, Jesus prays to His Father, for His disciples, and says “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” In order to be walking in the truth, we need to be sanctified by the Word. The more our minds are being transformed by Scripture, and the more we will find ourselves submitting to God and obeying His word. This does not happen by accident, but rather requires intentional focus on Christ, so that all else begins to fade away. Back in John 15:14-15 Jesus says, “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” Abraham was called a friend of God, because He believed God and the promises He made to Abraham. What an amazing thing, to be called a “Friend of God”! Amen? If I could be known for one thing, I hope it would be known that I was a friend of God! And it doesn’t matter if you call yourself a friend of God, what matters is that God says you are His friend.

Running Away From Lies (7-11)

Just as important as it is for us to be walking in the truth, we must also be running away from lies. The enemy of our souls is the father of lies. The first lie recorded in Scripture is when Satan told Eve “you will not die!” if she ate of the forbidden fruit, and his tactics have not changed since. The most sinister of liars and deceivers are not found outside of the church, however, they are found within the church. The first thing we notice in verse 7 is that deceivers deny the Incarnation. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” One of the first heretical groups to come from within the Christian church is that of the Gnostics. The Gnostics were the “play-dough” of the religious and philosophical world. You may recall playing with play-dough as a child, and if you do you probably at one point dropped the ball and it fell onto the ground or the dirt where you were playing. The problem now was, everything that was on the floor is know all over the play-dough and it’s almost impossible to get it all out now! Gnosticism was the same way, it was an amalgam of Platonism, Judaism, Christianity, and all sorts of private revelation. One of the major precepts of Gnosticism was “Dualism”, where there was two realms of existence: the material and the immaterial. The Gnostics taught that only the spiritual was good, and that all in the physical realm was evil. Therefore, Jesus could not have had an actual, physical human body because that would make Him a part of the physical, and hence evil realm. The problem with this is, if Jesus did not have a physical body, then He could not have been crucified on the cross. And if Jesus was not crucified, He did not rise on the 3rd day, and as Paul put it in his letter to the Corinthians, we are still dead in our sins and are of all men most to be pitied! Some Gnostics taught that Jesus only “seemed” to have been on the cross, but that He tricked the people into thinking He was on the cross. The Early Church father Ignatius responded to this by saying they only “seem” to be Christians, but in reality are devils!

Next we see in verse 8 that the deceivers message is seductive, “Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.” The reason why John warns them to watch themselves is because the deceivers message can be seductive. Often heresies play to one aspect or another of the fallen nature of mankind, such as pride, lust, greed, etc. which is like spiritual rat poison. You might know, that 98% of rat poison is perfectly edible food, the poison only represents a small portion of the pellets. Heresy can be the same way, a little poison mixed in with some truth to make the lies palatable.

In Missouri I had a problem with groundhogs on my property. There was a whole family of groundhogs that setup shop right underneath my house, which can be disastrous to the foundation if left unchecked. I had the idea of live trapping them, so I took some watermelon rinds and used them as bait in the live trap. We were able to catch one, but very quickly the groundhogs became wise to what I was doing and left it alone. Next I decided to use the trap without a cage, rat poison! The problem was, they ate that rat poison up like it was Sunday dinner, and the whole bag was gone and they seemed to be unaffected! My beautiful wife had the idea, why don’t we get some more rat poison, but use it as bait for the live trap! Would you believe we caught 3 more groundhogs in 1 day!? John tells us to watch ourselves!

Next, we see in Verse 9 that Believers have the Son “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides int he teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.” Here we see the distinction between deceivers and believers. You cannot deny the person or work of Christ and still find your way to the Father. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Jesus is the only way! So many reject Jesus because of how exclusive the Gospel is. They’ve said to me, “Isn’t all religion basically the same, how to get to Heaven?” The question should not be, “Why is Jesus the only way?”; instead the real question is “Why would God even give us one way to Him?” It’s an incredible and marvelous thing that God would even consider mankind, as to save us from our wretchedness and filth, let alone allowing His only Son to actually die in our place? It’s scandalous! How outrageous! But such is the depth of His love and mercy!

John tells us that believers abide in the truth, those who endure to the end, are those who have both the Father and the Son. Those who begin down the path, but soon turn back and do not persevere, they are not ones who lost their salvation but instead are those who never truly possessed it in the first place. 1 John 2:19 says “They went out from us, but they were never really of us” Lastly, Believers have the Father Thank God we do have access to the Father, and though Jesus is the exclusive way, there couldn’t be a more beautiful and wonderful way than Him!

The last portion of this section in verses 10 and 11, John tells us that Believers avoid fellowship with deceivers. The Scripture says, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.” John is not saying that we are not to have any kind of relationship with unbelievers, how could we fulfill the Great Commission otherwise? But rather, John tells us that we are to avoid those who claim to Christians, but seek to poison us with heretical doctrine. This doesn’t mean that if Joey believes in a pre-tribulation rapture and you believe in a mid-trib that you should avoid speaking to Joey, that is a secondary issue. But when it comes to the fundamental truths of the Gospel, the person and work of Jesus Christ, there can be no compromise! Light has no fellowship with darkness! You know, there are many things in this world that offend me, but the most offensive thing to me isn’t atheism, or immorality, or anything like that; what I find most offensive are false Gospel preachers. Prosperity preachers and their kind absolutely disgust me. When a lost person acts like a lost person, don’t be surprised! It’s like being upset a pig for rolling around in the mud! Pigs do Pig things, cats do cat things, and lost people do lost people things. But the false gospel preachers, are wolves in sheep clothing. Even Satan himself can appear as an angel of light. The best way to spot a deceiver is to be intimately familiar with the truth. When authorities want to spot fake money, they don’t study all the different phony bills that people come up with to try and pass them off as real; instead they study the genuine article. Once they have studied real money to the slightest detail, when a fake comes along it will stick out like a sore thumb. In order to protect ourselves from these false teachings, we must bathe ourselves in the truth!

Farewell (12-13)

The last thing I want to look at this morning is to see what the fruit of true fellowship looks like in verses 12 and 13. Fellowship in truth and love brings and abundance of joy. “Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you.” True, face to face fellowship with other believers is one of the most joyous occasions we can partake in. I don’t think I have to labor this point with ya’ll here this morning. What a blessing it has been these past few weeks that we have resumed meeting in person again. So often, we take those blessings for granted until we lose them, and only then realize how precious they are to us. My wife and I have been so blessed to be a part of Faith Baptist Church, and hold dear the relationships we have forged so far. When we gather together, not only do we worship God, but we have the opportunity to encourage one another and build each other up. Our spiritual gifts were given to us to serve one another. Don’t grow weary of doing good, and do not neglect the assembling of ourselves together. To do so would only be picking our own pockets, robbing each other of the blessing of fellowship. God created us to be relational beings, both with Him and each other. Let us pray.