DONE 211128 2nd John: Walking In The Truth of Christ

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|OPENING SLIDE|

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, verse 16. In this passage the world is perfect and new. Everything is good at this point, nothing is bad and a simple command is given from God to man - don’t eat from a particular tree.

Genesis 2:16-17 “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

A simple command with a simple negative - if you eat from this tree you will die… PAUSE

We sometimes forget that up until this point, death didn’t exist. Adam didn’t know what we know… PAUSE

Adam hadn’t seen his parents die or even a favorite pet. Adam had not survived the death of a spouse, none of that, these words only had the meaning that God gave them. Don’t eat or you will experience something bad in a place where nothing was “bad”.

God had given him sufficient information for him to avoid indescribable pain in these 11 simple words, “in the day you eat of it you will surely die.”

Please turn to chapter 3.

Genesis 3:1-6 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman (WHO APPARENTLY WAS NOT THERE IN CHAPTER 2:16-17) said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” (SATAN KNEW THAT WAS NOT WHAT GOD SAID AND POUNCED)

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

We know the rest of the story, at that moment Creation began to degrade, spiritually Adam and Eve died... physically, they began to die. |INTRODUCTION SLIDE| They died just like God said they would. They died because they accepted the lies of satan and disobeyed God’s command.

God had commanded them to do one thing, one thing, in an environment where everything was perfect, where the only two people on the planet were “basically good,” and they sinned.

Everything bad in your life and mine can ultimately be traced back to our sin nature which we inherited from them and the fact that Eve was deceived and Adam rebelled against God.

They didn’t obey God’s command...

God’s commands are pretty important, are they not? The command given by God was not mean, it wasn’t unkind, it wasn’t malevolent… it was given by a good God who loves those He made. It was given so that they could stay in relationship with Him. PAUSE

Failing to take God's commands at face value has disastrous consequences, not just for us but for people we know and love as well. We need to believe Him, we need to trust Him and He has proven over and over that He is completely worthy of our trust. MAY NEED A BETTER TRANSITION PAUSE

|CONTEXT|

Today, we are going to be reading through the letter of 2nd John. 2nd John was written by an old man, the apostle John, the last surviving apostle and the best friend of Jesus.

He wrote the letter to communicate a principle truth to another group of believers in another church. His tone in this letter is warm, it is encouraging and the love in this letter tells the believers that this old man is interested in their spiritual health - he is interested in protecting them from the danger of deceivers.

He is going to write to them to remind them of some fundamental truths based upon God’s commands, commandments that they knew, commandments that they had heard previously, commandments that would protect them from harm if they were obeyed. PAUSE

The main point of this message is this

|MAIN POINT|

and I take it from 1st John 3:23 “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

God has commanded us to do something just like He commanded Adam. Believe in His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. Simple and profound.

He has commanded this to protect us, to keep us safe from harm, both individually and corporately and we will see why in today in our text of 2nd John. |BLANK|

Please stand with me and I will read this short little letter

2 John | 1 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, 2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 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.

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. 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. 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.

7 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. 8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. 9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 10 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; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

12 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. 13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.

This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God

Lets ask the Lord to bless this time together.

PRAYER

PAUSE

Father, we gladly glorify You for Your grace and mercy. We have received abundantly more than we deserve. We deserve death and yet, because of Jesus we who believe have received what we didn’t deserve and have not received the wrath that we do deserve. We have peace because of Jesus.

Father, on top of this blessing we have a copy of Your Holy Word, written in our own language, we can learn of what You desire for us, we can learn of Your character and Your indescribable love and we cannot thank You enough for the privilege.

Holy Spirit, we depend upon You to give us an accurate understanding of what Your Word says. Help us to understand the necessity of going to Your Scripture for truth. Bury it deep in our heart and protect us from the lies of the evil one - he is a liar and has been from the beginning, he does not stand in the truth and is a murderer. Protect us from his assault for Jesus’s name sake.

We desire that our precious Savior, who cleansed us from all sin, never have His name blasphemed and I pray that the reality of Your work in us would be a testimony to the world, that we have believed in Him and love each other. It is in Jesus’ name I pray, amen. PAUSE

SERMON

As we have already seen 2nd John is an incredibly short letter, but it is so encouraging - you can feel the warmth in the letter. Starting in verse 1 we will see that the foundation of their love is truth. PAUSE

|SLIDE|

I. Greetings! (v1-3)

A. The foundation of their love is truth (v1)

2 John | 1 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,

The bond here between John and those who are the ἐκλεκτῇ - or called out or chosen, is love in truth.

Truth is represented here as objective, solid, inflexible - foundational. The word for truth has the sense of being real, actual, dependable. It is not a concept that is flimsy or insubstantial. The truth is something that has staying capacity, it is not transitory, it remains.

I want us to understand something here. Truth is the reason why these believers are bonded together in ἀγαπῶ or sacrificial love - without truth, there is no relationship, there is no bond or fellowship. John is writing to remind them that this reality that will outlast even this world. Verse 2 |SLIDE|

B. The abiding endurance of truth (v2)

2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:

The reason why John is writing to them is to remind them of this objective reality and he says it abides in us. To abide is to remain, to stay, to reside. The objective reality of truth is something that is with them and will stay with them indefinitely and cannot be separated from them no matter what PAUSE

The “truth” that John is referencing here is none other than Jesus Christ - the full and complete revelation of God. |SLIDE| John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

John is writing for the sake of Jesus, who is in them and will be with them forever. Verse 3 |SLIDE|

C. The gifts given from both the Father and the Son (v3)

3 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.

I think it is interesting that John uses this unique verbiage of Father and Son especially following his greeting of the lady and her children whom are members of a church. The relationship experienced by the Father and the Son which endured for eternity past and was only broken at the cross is available to believers with God and with each other. That is a massive expansion of fellowship and it is because of the three words mentioned at the beginning of verse 3.

Grace, mercy and peace.

Grace is God doing for us what we do not deserve - mercy is God not doing to us what we do deserve and peace is the result of God’s provision of both. We have these, grace, mercy and peace, and relationship founded upon the truth because of what the Father and Son accomplished at Calvary.

This is a joint gift and it is from both of them. Look carefully at verse 3 and you will see that they are “from” God the Father and “from” Jesus Christ. This is an affirmation of their joint equality - which is no small statement and it affirms the deity of Christ which deceivers are more than happy to chip away at.

In Verse 4 through 6 we see how to practice the truth and it is through following the commandments of God. The first of which is to believe in Christ |SLIDE|

II. Practicing the Truth (v4-6)

A. The commandment is to believe in Christ (v4)

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 is encouraged because he has seen a representative sample from the church he is writing to. He has seen some of the members of the church walking in, abiding in, living daily in the truth as commanded by the Father. PAUSE

1st John 3:23 Tells us what this command is - which is also our main point “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.”

We are commanded to believe the Name of Christ, His name being His character, His message concerning Himself. To believe in His name is to place all of our hope and trust in what He has told us about Himself - that He is the way, the truth and the life and there is no access to God except through Him.

Similarly, we are commanded to do what John is modeling here for us... loving one another. He is invested in these believers and encouraging them, telling them that he sees them abiding in the truth, manifesting the reality of love within themselves and extended to others.

I would encourage all of us, when we see others here in the body developing in their faith, growing into Christ, do like John has done, tell them about it, cheer them on - it means so very much. |SLIDE|

Verse 5 “The commandment is to love one another”

B. The commandment is love one another (v5)

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.

It is a simple but profound command, already modeled by Christ - as well as John. Note, John doesn’t order in the sense that we would expect a command to be issued but he appeals, he asks that they continue growing in love toward one another, deeper in relationship, deeper in fellowship.

SPEAK SLOW He asks this body of believers that their relationship develop in faith in Christ and love for one another. This is not a new commandment. PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

Can I give us a key takeaway here? |SLIDE|

“New is not necessarily true.” “New is not necessarily true.”

What do I mean by that?

It has become common in evangelicalism today to search out a “fresh word” from the Lord. To look for “prophetic teachings” that are new and exciting and relevant for today. Friends, this sentiment is rooted in a dissatisfaction with Scripture as presented and a discontentment with God’s Word. It is based upon an ignorance of the Bible and what it says. All we need is what is contained in Holy Scripture, it is an inexhaustible resource, a well that never runs dry.

Don’t seek after that which is new, but what has been from the beginning and is unchanging, verse 6 |SLIDE|

C. The commandment is keep the commandment (v6)

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.

Sometimes we forget what love entails… Turn back a page or two with me to 1st John 3. 1st John 3:16-18 shows what the real love is that John is asking these fellow believers to manifest in their lives not only to him but also to each other. 1st John 3:16-18 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

Love is not just a kindly affection but a sacrificial work that costs. Jesus was not just a gentle preacher who spoke in general platitudes but gave up His very life for us… this is love… This is the commandment we have received from God, that we live daily in it. PAUSE

John does not have a new word for this congregation, he has an old reminder, that just as Christ loved us so we ought to love one another - sacrificially.

This sets us apart from the “deceivers” that we are going to see in a moment, who boast of something more, something new and exciting. By living out our faith and obeying the command of God by believing in His Son and loving one another, we protect the Truth from deceivers. Verse 7 |SLIDE|

III. Protecting the Truth (v7-11)

A. Deceivers are real, present and represent Antichrist(v7)

7 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.

The heresy that John is warning against is one that is homegrown - we often think of gathering together in worship as a safe place, a haven, and it is - but within many faithful churches are growing the seeds planted by antichrist… . In 1st John, we read that

1 John 2:18–19 | 18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

Friends, we have a responsibility to love each other enough to invest serious time studying and growing in our knowledge of God’s word. It is a safeguard against deceit when it is daily applied to our lives.

Can I give us another takeaway? Now, I really need you to pay attention to this… PAUSE

Biblical illiteracy is an invitation for deception...|SLIDE| Biblical illiteracy is an invitation for deception...

I would greatly greatly caution us all not to substitute anything, any book and I do mean any book or devotional, any television show no matter how much everyone raves about it, never, ever substitute that for God’s Word. I have heard multiple people mention how great the series, “The Chosen,” is…

That is not Scripture, that is not God’s Word and it has been funded by Mormons, Catholics and Jews all of which are cults. Matthew did not have Asperger’s and Mary wasn’t an alcoholic… The danger of shows and books that are not Scripture is that they shade, they color, they present a narrative that is unbiblical and they are very good at manipulating emotions to achieve a religious high - that is incredibly dangerous.

The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, it is not a canned, packaged, produced and artificially colored piece of “entertainment.” We need to be incredibly careful of going to Hollywood to inform our theology because Biblical illiteracy is an invitation for deception.

Verse 8 |SLIDE|

B. Watch yourselves! (v8)

8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

There is a tension here that is not fully resolved. The question that needs to be answered is, Is salvation something that can be lost? is that the full reward or is it the loss of rewards for service to Christ?

John 6 and 10 makes it clear that those that are truly saved cannot lose their salvation because it is not based upon their own sinless conduct; Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 and 9 make it clear that those that are chosen were called of God who foreknew them from before the foundations of the earth and created within them a new life. He has made them alive and caused them to know Him so that no one may boast.

If it is not the loss of salvation is a full reward that which will be distributed by Christ at the Bema seat judgment? 1st Corinthians 3:13-15 talks about the Bema seat judgment.

1 Corinthians 3:13–15 | 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Is the “full reward” salvation or a reward for service?

Let’s look at verses 9-11 to see if we can resolve this.

Verse 9 |SLIDE|

C. Abide in the teaching of Christ - gain access to God (v9)

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.

Is the loss of the full reward a loss of salvation? Well, if a person does not abide in the teaching of Christ, if they do not obey God, if they do not believe in Jesus Christ then they were never saved to begin with and they are unsaved.

The one that believes the Son has both the Father and the Son, verses 10-11 |SLIDE|

D. Don't support, endorse or affirm false teaching(v10-11)

10 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; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

Our question remains, is the loss of the full reward a loss of rewards for service to Christ?

Verses 10-11 seems to suggest that if we are endorsing, affirming or otherwise supporting false teaching then we are nullifying the commandment of God to believe in the name of Christ and love one another. If we love one another, we do not allow heresy and lies to proliferate…

If we knowingly support false teachers then any kindness, any goodness we are showing to them is worthless because the reality is, is that we have harmed the cause of Christ. We have not shown love to the brethren and we have indeed jeopardized any reward we would have had for showing love and kindness. PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

For years, I have taken this passage as an outright imperative to reject the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses that come to my door. It took studying this passage to get an understanding of the context. John is not saying do not say hello to the mormon kids that come to your door. He is saying that we do not house them, we do not show them 1st century level hospitality and link ourselves with them and their falsehood.

I would suggest three things:

Do not confront them when they come to your door, schedule a meeting time that works for you and be prepared for when they come

When they come, agree to an uninterrupted time to make your best most biblical case for the hope that we have in Christ alone and not in works - do not allow them to interrupt and don’t interrupt them when they speak. Make a case, like John does, for the deity and incarnation of Christ.

Lastly, be the one to close in prayer and determine if a follow up meeting is practical.

PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

Before I close out this passage I want to add a final take away. |SLIDE|

Fellowship with faithful brethren is a safeguard against falsehood. Pick out a godly man or woman in the congregation, get to know them. Bad company corrupts good morals but iron sharpens iron. Spend time with the people around you, take them to lunch after to church and spend time fellowshipping with each other. Spend time around God’s word together and watch yourselves grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord.

Verses 12-13 |SLIDE|

IV. Farewell (v12-13)

12 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. 13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.

A. The intimacy of total truth in love (v12)

B. Fellowship with our siblings who know the truth (v13)

Since we are bumping against the clock I would just say briefly that John’s desire, John’s hope is to be with these faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in an intimate kind of fellowship. The original Greek is στόμα πρὸς στόμα or mouth to mouth. He wants to be close to them and speak with them.

He knows them, and he loves them and he is not content with an arms length relationship with them. In our day, we could think that John would not content with zoom meetings and live streamed church services - that is no substitute for the reality of relationship. He loves them and wants to be with his family that knows Jesus Christ and want to love each other.

It is my prayer that we grow in our understanding of these commands and labor diligently to produce that same level of ἀγαπῶ love for each other because of Christ. PAUSE

In closing |SLIDE|

I just would like to remind us of some critical components of the message today.

We have been commanded by God to believe in the name of Jesus Christ alone and to love one another. We have a responsibility to carefully pay attention to ourselves and what we allow to influence our understanding - there is absolutely no substitute for Scripture and there is great potential to injure not only ourselves but others when we do so.

Furthermore, we learned that those that reject the command to believe in Christ and love one another are not of Him and are to be treated with extreme care. This does not mean we do not engage them with the truth but that we do not allow the truth to be compromised in any way. |SLIDE|

We have been given a great gift and a great responsibility, let us diligently steward it as we walk in the truth of Christ.

Please stand with me and I will close in prayer

PAUSE