Well, back in 2016, we did a study of 1 John, written by the Apostle John, and today I want us to begin a look at his second and third letter. Both letters appear after the first one toward the end of the New Testament, so I'd like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to 2 John, 2 John has 13 verses, 3 John has 15. Both letters were written to individuals in the church rather than to an entire church. We have other letters like that, like Timothy and Titus and Philemon. But I do wanna begin our time together this morning as we begin a new study, a new book. I wanna begin by reading all 13 verses. As I said, it's short, but we will not look at all 13 verses. We're only gonna look at the first three. Notice what he says here. 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. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father, 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. 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. 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. Watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. 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. 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. 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." As we were reading that, there were several words that stood out, like the words truth, In fact, the word truth occurs five times in the first four verses. The word love occurred two times in verses 5 and 6. The rest of the book was a warning against those who do not acknowledge Jesus as coming in the flesh or does not abide in the teaching of Christ. It follows a very similar pattern as the first letter. But something is different here. As this letter begins, he majors, first of all, on truth. And as he majors on truth, he shows how love works with truth. We use that word very flippantly when we tell someone that we love them, or we love some possession that we have, or we love an animal that we own. We use the word in a lot of ways, but one word to mean the same thing. Whereas in Greek, there are different words to describe what this word love means, and we're going to look at that in just a moment. But first, I want to say something about truth. Because we live in a world that is not interested in truth. They all have the cynical attitude that Pilate had when he said, what is truth? I mean, really, what is it? And everyone today is deciding what it is. Truth is whatever it means to you. And it's subjective. Whereas truth is really objective. And it really doesn't matter what it means to you because the truth means what it means. Whether you and I agree with it or not. But the Bible does have a lot to say about the truth. And first, I want to mention to you, so that you have it clearly in your mind, that Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4 tells us that the God that we serve, the God of the Bible, is the God of truth. And since it tells us that He is a God of truth, there is nothing foreign to truth that could be ascribed to Him. We talk about the Bible being the truth. Does the Bible have any lies in it? Careful how you answer. The devil spoke and he's the father of lies. So that would be the only lies in it is when it records the lie of a creature like Lucifer or Satan, or it records the lies of a person. But as far as God is concerned, He doesn't lie. He cannot lie, Titus chapter 1. If He could lie, then He wouldn't be God. If He could lie, then the standard that He puts upon us to be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect wouldn't make any sense. But the Bible says here in Deuteronomy 32, 4, that God is the rock, His work is perfect, for all of His ways are just, a God of truth and without injustice, How righteous and upright is He? Well, there is a mouthful of theology right there. Our God is a rock. He's stable. He's firm. And what He says is perfect, and what He does is perfect. All of His ways are perfect. You know, the Bible tells us about Christ. that He is the truth. John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth. And He claimed to be the truth. In fact, the Apostle John said of Jesus in John 1.14 that Jesus was full of grace and truth. It says, "...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Everything about Jesus is true. That is everything the Bible proclaims to us, not everything that everyone is saying about Jesus is true. Because there are people that put things out there about Jesus that are just downright lies. Jesus never married, as some say. He did not have a marriage to Mary Magdalene, as others would say. Nope, Jesus is God in human flesh. When He spoke, He spoke truth. Even the Holy Spirit in John 14, 17 is called the Spirit of Truth. And we're told even in Ephesians 5, 9 that the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture. So what you're holding in your hands is true. In fact, the Bible is called in Daniel 10, 21, the writing of truth. You can't claim that about any other book, right? I mean, we have 66 books here, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, covering a span of 1,500 to 1,600 years, 40 different authors, and they all speak truth. No contradictions whatsoever. And now the only time that you run into what may appear to be a contradiction is due to, many times, our faulty interpretation. Jesus said in John 17, 17, your word is truth. So what you're holding in your hands, the very Word of God, is the truth. Everything in the Bible That is said about God is the truth, as I said, with the exception of the lies that Satan said about Jesus, or the lies that he said about God when he accused God in Job chapter 1 and chapter 2, of putting this hedge around Job and giving him all these possessions. The Bible teaches that we're saved by the truth. And it teaches that we are sanctified by the truth. And because of those things, we love the truth. And you know, the Bible even teaches that we're going to be judged by the truth. And you've heard me say this, because I've said it to you a few times, but when I would witness to people, that's what I would say sometimes to them, that if I'm going to be judged by this book, I would like to know at least what's in it. And what's in it? The truth. We're going to be judged by it. And we are set free by the truth. Your salvation came to you and set you free. Christ set you free because that's exactly what he said he would do. He set you free. Well, it doesn't stop there. We worship in the truth. John 4.24, God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. We serve God in the truth. We rejoice in the truth. We speak the truth. We think on the truth. You know, Philippians 4.8 tells you to think on things that are true. That's how it starts. And not only do we speak it and think on it, but we desire it. We desire the truth. And I can just tell you, just in my own personal life, that when I've been listening to something else or watching something on TV, and then when I sit down to read the Bible or even have it read to me, or even to watch a little short video clip of one of these preachers that I share with you guys, my heart just longs for the truth when I'm drawn to that, when I hear that. That that's all I want to hear. And then I tell myself, why did I waste my time doing some other things when I could have been doing this? I know when I get out in my yard, my wife gives me this long list of things she wants me to do, the honey-do list. I've been married 33 years, and that list has never ended. In fact, I take one off and two go on it, and I tell her that all the time. You've got to at least let me scratch something off this thing, so I feel like I'm accomplishing something. But even though that's taking place, When I'm out there on my tractor, I like to put my headphones on and dial over to the Dwell Bible app and put on, especially if it's a book I'm studying, like when we were doing 1 Peter, and I just start on chapter one and I just let that play. And it's loud enough to be louder than the tractor and I can hear that, my mind is thinking about that. And if I'm not doing that, I like to listen to sermons while I'm out there. I could be out there for hours. Because I can't get off now, the sermon's not over, you know? Can't walk when I get off. But we desire truth. And we manifest the truth. We manifest the truth every time we preach the gospel or we open up the Word of God. And every time we open up the Word of God and it's read like we've done this morning, we hear the truth. And then when we're taught it and we're given exhortations from it, we obey the truth. But what I want to hit on this morning is walking in truth. All these things that I just said are true, but we walk in truth. Everything about us centers around the truth, and it centers around the Word of God, and it centers around Christ, the triune God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. So truth determines how we think, what we think, how we speak, how we behave. But as I said, we live in a world that doesn't want truth, nor do they want to recognize the truth. They follow lies from the father of lies, Satan. Now 2 John is a letter about the truth. It's also a letter of warning against those who deny the truth. This letter, like 1 John, was written concerning those who are trying to deceive you. John refers to them as deceivers, 2 John 1, 7, who've gone out into the world. Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the anti-Christ. Verse 9 says, they do not abide in the teachings of Christ, nor do they have God. And that's why they do not abide in the teachings of Christ. Because God is not in their life. Now the group that I'm talking about here is a very known group. They were behind the false teaching in the first letter, and that's the same is true in the second letter. And that is the group called the Gnostics. The word Gnostic comes from a Greek word gnosis, which means to know. It was a group of people who believed that they had a superior private knowledge over and above that of the Bible. Boy, that's dangerous. Because if you're putting yourself over the Bible, guess what? You're putting yourself over God. You're doing exactly what Lucifer did, right, in Isaiah 14. He wanted to be above God. There were two groups of these Gnostics. One was called the Desedic Gnostics. And the other one was called the Serenthian Gnostics. The Desetic Gnostics denied the humanity of Christ. The Serenthian Gnostics, they made a distinction between the man Jesus and the Christ. They believed that that was an aeon that came upon Him. And it came upon Him at His baptism, but it left Him when He was on the cross. Now this is what this group was teaching and propagating to the believers there in Asia Minor. And this was a problem. And so all of these letters that we have here address a problem with either the Gnostics or with an individual. For example, 2nd and 3rd John are dealing with hospitality issues. You have in 2 John where he is dealing again with the problem of the Gnostics, but you have in 3 John he's dealing with the problem of an individual, deatrophies. But again, all three letters are addressing some kind of problem. Now, let me say this as we dive into talking more about this and just really setting the letter up today before we really dive into it next week, is that John says that everyone who has the truth loves. You know, in chapter 3 and verse 14 of the first letter, he said, we know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. Here's how you know you're a Christian. Do you love other Christians? Do you love believers? And here, as he's talking about this, he's going to equate truth and love together. That if you have the truth, you love. And the reason why you love is because now you have the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth, living inside you. And we're told in Romans 5 and verse 5 that He has shed abroad the love of God in your heart. You now have the love of God in you. You have a love for God and a love for the people of God unlike you've ever had prior to your salvation. And I would also say this too, that not only do you love God, and you love others that are walking in the truth, but you also love your enemies. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 4, 4 to love your enemies. And the thing is, is that though they may make you feel uncomfortable, maybe they embarrass you, persecute you, whatever it is that they do to you that marks them as an enemy in your life, you still find a way to love them. you still find your heart having compassion for them. Because you know why? Because you know as an enemy, they're not only your enemy, but they're an enemy of God. They're what you were before your salvation. Whereas now, in Christ, you're a friend of God. But you didn't always become that. So John begins this letter, talking about truth. An interesting thing is, as he begins this, he gives what was very common during that time, and that is this salutation or formula that was very prevalent in writing letters of that day. When you would write a letter, it's unlike the way we would write letters now. In fact, we write a personal letter. You have to flip all the way to the end to find out who wrote the letter, especially if they didn't put any kind of return address or name on the outside of the envelope. If it's a business letter, everything's at the beginning, right? You already know. You know who it came from. You know who it's written to. These letters here were very similar. They would start out by giving you who the author was, then they would tell you who they're writing it to, and then it would give you some form of greeting. But as he's doing this, he keeps talking about the subject of truth. And everything that he's going to give them here is truth. Even how to deal with false teachers. with deceivers. And I believe the reason why he goes into that, and the same is true in the third letter, is because both of these letters are addressing hospitality. And not just hospitality with anyone, but hospitality with itinerant preachers. When preachers would travel from city to city, they would need a place to lodge. And the believers were told to put them up. Take care of them. We still do that in our day today. We put people up in homes, put people up wherever we can find a place to put them up, right? As we're trying to reach out to them. So John begins this letter this way. In the first three verses you have the salutation, then you have the charge in verses 4 through 6, then you have a warning in verses 7 through 11, and then it closes with his desire to come and see them, verses 12 and 13. So let's notice first of all the salutation. And notice that it begins with the writer. And the writer is telling us here who he is by just simply these two words, the elder. Like, gee, thank you. That does not help at all to just tell us the elder. So he's identified that way. But the people back then would understand who he was. It's you and I that have the problem with that and have to do the homework to see if we can figure this out. Same identification is true in the third letter. He identifies himself as the elder. And you can already tell by the placement of these two letters in your New Testament as to who the author is because they placed them with the Apostle John's first letter. In fact, some people believe that 2 and 3 John was just one letter, not two. But we have here, we have the elder, and that's a word that we recently looked at in our study of 1 Peter 5. It's the same word presbyteros. Presbyteros can speak of age as someone older. Or it could speak of an office in the church. I believe it's both here. Now you have him speaking in reference to his age and he was the last of the living apostles. He was. But also the fact is that he is the elder. He was one of the elders in the church in Jerusalem. And so again, that word Elder, Presbyterus, as a reference to a pastoral leadership. In fact, when we were doing our study in 1 Peter 5, we saw that it was used interchangeably with two other words, and the other two words were overseer and pastor. In fact, the noun form of pastor only occurs in Ephesians 4.11. The rest of the time we're looking at its verb form. And so when you read verses like Acts 20, 28, he is talking about that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers to pastor the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. And so again, all three of these terms, they relate to something about the man. Number one, he is an elder, that is, he is mature in the faith. Number two, he is an overseer, which tells us exactly what he does. He oversees the church. Number three tells us that he is a shepherd or a pastor. and tells us again what his ministry is. He oversees the church and he has a teaching ministry. And the only way that the church is going to grow is to be fed a steady diet of the Word of God. It's not going to happen by itself. Now, when we're talking about the author here, and as I said, many ascribe it to John, and I do as well, the Apostle John. Some ascribe it to John, the son of Zebedee, But there seems to be more evidence for it being the Apostle John, and I want to tell you what that is. And this is where we rely on church history to help us, because the only thing that we can note about the three letters is that their vocabulary is very similar. In fact, I wouldn't say just the three letters. I'd throw in the Gospel of John as well. But in all of these letters, He wrote the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John in Revelation, and only in Revelation does He give His name. Do you remember that? I, John, was on the island called Patmos for the testimony of Christ. That's, I think, verse 9. But when you get in here in the Gospel of John, how's He referred to in the Gospel of John? The disciple whom Jesus loved. Remember that? And He uses that phrase some five times. But when you get over to 2nd and 3rd John, all he says is that he is the elder. So how can we determine this? Well, traditionally speaking, the Apostle John is identified as the elder and identified as the author of all these letters I just mentioned. The Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and Revelation. In the 1st century, Up till the 18th century, the church consistently identified the Apostle John as the author of these letters, and especially of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. As I said, we have the phrase, the disciple whom Jesus loved in the Gospel of John, But again, as you compare the style of writing, you compare the terminology that this author is using, that all of these letters share a commonality. Now, Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp. Polycarp was a disciple of John. Irenaeus lived from 130 AD to 202 AD. He was the first writer to quote directly from 1 John and to name the apostle John as its author. He also alluded to 2 John and assumed apostolic authorship. Now there is a fragment called the Muratorian Fragment, which gives us an ancient list of New Testament books. Actually, it's the oldest list that we have that gives us the listing of the books. And we find here that the two letters by John, 2 and 3 John, are there in the list. This is a very old list. Even Clement of Alexandria, who lived from 150 to 215 AD, he recognized that John wrote more than one letter. Origen, who was a student of Clement of Alexandria, he lived from 185 to 253. He recognized both 2nd and 3rd John. Who are these guys that I'm sharing this with you? They are the early church fathers. 1st, 2nd, 3rd century church fathers. These were those that when we were studying about spiritual gifts, that we found a lot of information in the early church fathers as to which gifts they considered were still active and which ones were not. It was very helpful to learn some of this. Another one who was a student of origin was Dionysius of Alexandria. He lived from 200 to 265 A.D. And he mentions John's second and third letter as well. So the early church fathers recognized the apostle John as the author of all three of these epistles, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, which is, well, they would recognize the Gospel of John. So all of these three epistles were written somewhere between 90 and 95 AD. And they were written from Ephesus. So that gives you just a little bit of information of how we would determine the author of a letter. Now, in some situations, we don't have any information. The author didn't name his name anywhere in the book. Church history doesn't have anything on it either, so we're just left with speculating, and that's what the book of Hebrews would be. And some people, already I hear their speculation about Hebrews, they believe Paul wrote Hebrews. I would disagree on that just because it doesn't match the style at all. It's somebody entirely different. Has to be. But it doesn't matter. The point is that we have the word of God, right? The point is that we have this and that we are to study this. Now, I want you to notice the readers. He mentions that in the very next phrase, to the chosen lady and her children. He identifies his audience here by several different terms. First of all, he calls them the chosen, the chosen lady, this Greek word here. occurs 22 times in the New Testament. It means to be chosen out or to be selected. And basically it is describing those who are selected by God for eternal glory, whether it is Christ or the holy angels or whether it's the redeemed. We have been chosen by God. The only other time it's used outside of this epistle is when it's used in Romans 16, 13 for an individual. And that's where Paul describes Rufus as a choice man of the Lord. So John's description here is reflecting really a biblical truth. And in all honesty, we could camp here for a while. Because what is it talking about? By referring to her as chosen. What do you think of when you hear the word chosen? Well, I think of a word. It's the word election. And though we have an election next Tuesday, that's not the kind of election we're talking about. Right? We're talking about God choosing, according to Ephesians 1-4, before the foundation of the world, those whom He would save. This occurred before any of us were here. It occurred long before the earth was created. God had decided from eternity past who He would save. Now, that is hard to swallow. And I get choked up on it as well. But we must remember that this is what the Bible says. And not only is this what the Bible says, the Bible also says that you have to repent and you have to believe in Christ. The Bible says you have to receive Christ, John 1.12. The Bible says you have to confess Him as Lord, Romans 10.9 and 10. But the Bible also teaches that you cannot do this unless He does it first. And as I said, this becomes somewhat difficult to swallow at times, but again, we just leave all those things we don't understand to the Lord, right? We can only understand some of this to a point But the rest of it, we just have to leave it in the Lord's hands. He knows what He said. He knows that we have difficulty with some of these verses and what He said, because the obvious question comes up, how can you have a sovereign election and also a responsibility put on man to repent and believe? I don't understand all of that, but they're both there. They're both there. One of the ways that I tend to look at this, in fact several ways I tend to look at this, is I start with Ephesians 2.1. Ephesians 2.1 says you're dead in trespasses and sins. Okay, well I've been a pastor for almost 40 years and I have done a lot of funerals in that time and I have never seen someone lying in a casket all of a sudden come back to life. It would have probably been my last funeral if that happened. But I've never seen that. You know, this is not TV. This is not some theatrics that has been put on from Hollywood. No, this is reality. That people come back from the dead? Absolutely. We've got that in Scripture. When Jesus died on the cross, that there were those in the tombs that came out of the tombs. They resurrected. But you know what? They had to die again. But they did resurrect. How do we respond to all of this when we talk about being chosen? Because somebody wants to come along and say, well, if you believe in the doctrine of election, you're a Calvinist, and then they throw in hyper-Calvinism on top of that by saying that if this is what you believe, you're not going to make disciples, you're not going to witness to anybody. Well, let me just say this, if you're obedient to the Word of God, you are going to witness, because the Scripture commands us to witness, to preach the Gospel. We're told in the Word of God over and over and over and over that that is the responsibility that He has given to the Church, that's what He's given to each individual believer in the Church, that we are to make disciples, we are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. So here's how I look at this. You're dead in trespasses and sins. You cannot bring yourself to life because you're dead. What's it say in Ephesians 2 in verse 4 and 5? It says, God made you alive. What's it say in John 6? No one can come to the Father unless the Father first draws him. What's it say in 2 Timothy 2.24? It talks about how preachers are to be kind and gentle to unbelievers because perhaps God would grant them repentance. Or what's it say about the Gentiles in the book of Acts? Who when Paul kept going to the Jewish synagogue and preaching the gospel there, but they kept refusing it, and they kept rejecting it, and what did he do? He said, I will now turn to the Gentiles, and it says, as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. So the doctrine of election is in the Bible. The question is, do you have a correct view of it? Because there are some people that do not have a correct view of election. But let me read this to you. I think this is really good. This is A.W. Pink. He says, God is not working at random. The gospel has been sent forth on no uncertain mission. The final outcome in the conflict between good and evil has not been left indeterminate. How many are to be saved or lost depends not on the will of the creature. Everything was infallibly determined and immutably fixed by God from the beginning. And all that happens in time is but the accomplishment of what was ordained in eternity. So let it be plainly announced that salvation originated not in the will of man, but in the will of God. That were it not so, none would or could be saved. For as the result of the fall, man has lost all desire and will unto that which is good. And that even the elect themselves have to be made willing. And loud will be the cries of indignation raised against such teaching." And isn't that the truth? There are people that rail against this teaching. But we see it right here. He's writing to the chosen lady. And the word chosen is a biblical truth telling us that God sovereignly chooses believers for salvation. It's also telling us that the recipient is of special privilege. Because they are the chosen. So the Word is indicating God's prerogative in deciding what shall happen independently of human choice. Now if you have trouble with that, then join my camp. Because I think we all do have trouble with that at some point. And then I read verses like this where Jesus uses the verb form of the word chosen in John 15, 16. And He said this to His disciples. You did not choose me, but I chose you. How about that? Can you get clearer than that? And this is part of the family of words we're looking at right here. He says, I appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you. You did not choose Me. I chose you. So that term then, coming from the Apostle John, tells us, first of all, that he is writing to a Christian. Using terms like this gives us that indication. But what's the next word? Now, I promise you, I'm not going one word at a time. It just so happens that these words occur at the beginning of the verse, and we need to pay attention to them. And now he's saying that he's writing to this chosen lady. Now, that's very interesting. And there's been a lot of debate on who this elect lady is or how it should be taken. Is this really an individual or is this used figuratively to speak of a church? And there are many commentators that believe it's used metaphorically of a local church. But the more natural understanding in the context, however, is to take it as a reference to an actual woman and her children whom John knew personally. That fits everything he says right here. In fact, the term lady is in the feminine form, and it comes from the noun koreos, which means Lord or Sir. Now, somebody has come along and they've taken that feminine word, which is korea, and they say that is the personal name of the lady that he's writing to. And it could be the Greek equivalent to the Aramaic Martha, as both of them mean lady. is just referring to an unnamed woman who is a believer. And some of her kids are believers and they're walking in the truth. And John is writing to them because they have possibly a church in their house or they have a home large enough to house these itinerant preachers as they were coming through the city. So He wants to protect them, protect them against these false teachers, help them to recognize them when they hear them or see them. You know, we do that today. I mean, I tell people all the time that, you know, don't get your theology off of like TV shows, Touched by an Angel. because it's biblically unsound. There were no female angels in the Bible. They're all masculine. They're all men. You have Gabriel and Michael, two of the angels that are named, the only two named in the Bible. But a little cute show comes along called Touched by an Angel. And what does it do? It teaches angelology. But the study of angels from that TV show is not biblical. All you can get is a good, wholesome show. That's all you're gonna get out of it. And I remember saying that one time in a church years ago, and y'all remember Maurice? Maurice loved that show. And he came up to me, what? You know how he would talk. He thought that there were female angels in the Bible. It's probably more like this that You don't hear any mention of this lady's husband. Most likely she was widowed. And he is writing to her and her children. It includes her children. He's not only writing to this elect lady, this chosen lady, but he's also writing to her children. And, of course, that's the children of the elect lady. That's not talking about the church. And what does he say about her children? Well, notice what he says. He says, whom I love in truth. And now we're introduced to that word agape. which is a word we've seen many times in our study of the Word of God. But we're seeing here that this is a willful, sacrificial love that is devoted, is committed. In fact, it's used in the present tense to speak on an ongoing love. He's talking about always loving her children. He has an ongoing love for her, ongoing love for her children. In fact, if you read this back in Greek, you would have the word I, it would be emphatic, which tells us by that statement that it occurs more toward the beginning of the sentence. So what he is doing by using the emphatic word ego translated I, he's stressing John's personal ongoing love for them. He says here, I'm the elder, I'm writing to this chosen lady and her children whom I have this ongoing love for. And, you know, that really does point out a lot of things here of how we have an ongoing love relationship with each believer in Christ or how a pastor has an ongoing love toward the congregation. And I know, according to Hebrews 13, I think it's verse 17, that when you have some disgruntled sheep, it makes it very difficult to do the ministry. And it makes it more grieving than joyful. And some of us have witnessed stuff like that. But he's saying here that when it comes to this family, I really have a special affection for them and I love them so much, but I love them in truth. What's that? I believe he is talking about the gospel. I love them in the truth. What is the truth? It's the gospel. We pointed out so many things that can be equated with truth. But notice what else he says. Not only I, but also all who know the truth. And basically all Christians, they know the truth. And they love because of the truth. They have the truth living and abiding in them forever. You'll never have a day when you don't have the truth. You'll never have a day when you fall out of favor with God. You'll never have a day when you're not forgiven. In fact, I would just say this on the last part of verse 1, when he talks about, I'm sorry, verse 2, when he talks about for the sake of the truth which abides in us will be in us. Well, what is that? What is that truth in us? It's our salvation. It's the gospel. Our salvation is eternal. You can never be lost again. Have you ever thought about that? People that advocate losing your salvation. What would that look like? If you could lose your salvation, you'd have to go back to the exact same state of deadness that you were in prior to salvation. You would have to spiritually die again. And you would fall again, according to Ephesians 2, under the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works now in the sons of disobedience. You would walk in the lust of your flesh. I mean, all of these things would return. But instead, what we find in the New Testament is the very opposite. We find that those who are truly in Christ endure, they persevere, they mortify the flesh, They fight against those things. They wouldn't return to them. It says in 1 Peter 1.5 that we are kept by the power of God for our salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. We're kept. And if we can lose this salvation that God has graciously given to us, then we're not kept. God is not powerful enough to hold on to us. Or another verse would be John 10, 27 and 28, which says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. Now, again, if you could be lost, then that's not a true verse. That would be a lie. Jesus would be lying. Because you would perish. and you would have been snatched out of His hand. See, the idea of being in His hand is that there's no one greater than whose hands you are in. So therefore, you can't be snatched out. And besides, John says right here that the gospel abides in us and it will be with us forever. So, John is the elder. Not only the elder of the church, but also advanced in age, one of the last of the living apostles, writes to this believing lady and her children. He expresses this ongoing love that he has for them with the truth. And this truth is going to abide with them forever. You know, I was laying in my bed last night and I was just thinking that we really don't have the full reality of God. I mean, we're so limited. And I don't think we take him anywhere as seriously as we should. We're talking about the creator. We're talking about the one who made us. We're talking about the one who knows everything about us, that understands everything about us. The one that we will stand before one day, either in our sin or forgiven for our sin. I think we understand all of this. We talk about it and the longer that we're in the faith, we talk about it and we seem to become comfortable with it. And yet you read the reformers And they had a healthy view of God. In fact, even many of the reformers, prior to their becoming preachers, saw the pulpit as something to be feared. They were afraid to death to stand up there in a pulpit, represent God and speak for God. Because they had such a high view of God and a holy fear about God. But we don't have that in a lot of ways today. I mean, just look at the state of the church. Doesn't that tell you anything? Where you have homosexual pastors, or you have women pastors, and you have them ignoring the Scripture, but also saying that they're not ignoring it, and saying that this is what this means. Well, it is problematic. So you have the writer, That's John, the elder. You have the reader, the chosen lady and her children. And now you have the greeting. Look at verse 3. The greeting is, 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. The literal rendering of this verse is, there will be with us grace, mercy, and peace. That's how it reads. He uses a future verb, will be, which underlines that true believers will continue to experience these blessings. What are the blessings? Grace, mercy, and peace. Laman Strauss notes that the use of this triple formula here lends added weight in favor of the argument that John wrote his second epistle to an individual and not to a church. But let's notice what these virtues are. Well, the first is grace, and you understand grace and mercy and peace. You've heard these over and over. You live in grace. You have been given grace by God. But let's just define some things Scripture gives us about grace. First of all, it is the undeserved favor that is given to those who deserve the opposite. We don't deserve this. We deserve the very opposite. What's the opposite judgment? We deserve death. We deserve hell. We don't deserve forgiveness. We don't deserve mercy. We don't deserve grace. But here, the word grace, it views the sinner as being guilty and as being undeserving. But Ephesians 1.7 says, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. Even Romans 1.5 says that through Christ we have received grace. We've received it. Now, how did it look in the Old Testament? Some people ask the question, how were people saved in the Old Testament? What did grace look like in the Old Testament? Well, the same as it looks like in the New Testament. Because we're talking about favor. And, I mean, like, for example, Genesis 6-8, what's it say about Noah? Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He found grace. Or what's it say about Moses in Exodus 33 and 34? Moses found favor in the eyes of the Lord so that he did not or God did not judge the children of Israel. And even grace was a major theme in their worship. For example, Psalm 86 15 says, But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth. And Psalm 116 verse 5 says, Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is compassionate. But it's the same in the New Testament. The grace of God and the grace of Christ, as they're seen in the New Testament, we see, for example, that God is called the God of grace. Ephesians 1-7 talks about the riches of His grace. Whose grace? His grace. God's grace. John 14, as we quoted this earlier, describes Jesus as being full of grace and truth. And even 2 Thessalonians 1-12 links God and Christ in regard to their grace. It says, the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, salvation is seen as an act of grace. Salvation is a gracious act. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. We've been saved by grace, through faith. We can't save ourselves. So it goes back to this understanding of chosen. You didn't choose Christ, Christ chose you. And it even says in Romans 3.24 that sinners are being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It's by His grace. It even says in Titus 2.11 that the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. And the idea of this grace of God appearing teaches us that it took on a bodily form and the bodily form was Christ. But, you know, grace also involves other terms. Terms like forgiveness. Terms like salvation. Terms like regeneration. Terms like repentance. Terms like love. Moffat says these are grace words even though they do not contain the word grace. Notice the second virtue that's mentioned. He says mercy. Mercy is pity. Pity that's shown to those who are guilty and wretched. And basically it views the sinner as being needy and helpless. And Paul could certainly attest to this over in 1 Timothy 1.12. He says, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. See, but God granted him mercy. And by the way, there are many synonyms to express the many-sided concept of mercy. Synonyms like kindness, or loving kindness, or goodness, or even grace, or favor, or pity, or compassion. All these words can be used to speak of mercy. Kenneth Weiss said, God so loved the world with a pitying love, therein was the mercy, that He gave His only begotten Son, herein is the grace, that the world through Him might be saved. So grace, mercy, and look at the third one, peace. Peace literally means to bind together. And it's a harmonious relationship that results from God's grace and mercy. God gives you grace, He gives you mercy, but He also provides you with peace, which is the result of grace and mercy. It tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ made peace through the blood of His cross when He bore our sins on the cross. God has given this to these believers just as he's given it to us. But don't minimize the salutation here. Because it's very important. He's given you truth. Notice the source of this grace, mercy, and peace. It says it's from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. And what you have here, you have a dual source for this grace. And by giving us this dual source, it's telling us that they are equal, that the Son is equal to the Father. You have the Father, with whom James tells us in 117, there's no variation, there's no shifting shadow. It tells us about the good things that He gives and the perfect gifts. And then you have, and from Jesus Christ. It says in 2 Corinthians 1 20, for as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes. Therefore, also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. In other words, just as there are many promises that come from the Father, there are many that come from the Son. He is our Amen. Amen means, we mentioned it last week, so let it be. You're affirming something that's said in truth. So, let me just summarize it by saying this. This is a quote from James Montgomery Boyce. He said the unique feature of this opening salutation is John's surprising emphasis on truth and his linking of the truth. He is thus. Emphasizes to love. Indeed, the word truth occurs four times in these first three verses, and one more time in verse four. In these verses, John claims to love the elect lady and her children in the truth, that these are also loved by all others who know the truth, and that this is true precisely because of the truth, and that in this they are all following the way of the Father and Son, who indeed dispense the great blessings of grace, mercy, and peace. in truth and in love. So, beloved, this is what this elect lady and her children enjoyed, and this is what you and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, also enjoy. We are given the truth. The truth is the gospel. We are given grace and mercy and peace. They come from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth and love are inseparable. If you have the truth of God inside you, you will love the brethren. And you will also love your enemies. In fact, love them enough to give them the gospel. So the question is, do you have the truth? Do you know the truth? Do you know the truth of the gospel? Galatians 2.25 tells us that the gospel is the truth. Have you put your trust in Christ? Have you put your trust fully in Him and His work? that there's no other way whereby a man can be saved or a woman or a child can be saved than through Christ and Christ alone. It's only through Him. In fact, Ephesians 1.13 tells us this, listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise." So now, as a child of God, who listened to the gospel of God, and who believed, have been given the Spirit of truth, who abides in you. Beloved, as we go out and as we have an opportunity to minister to unbelievers, we need to keep in mind that God's desire is for them to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's His desire. So have you experienced the truth of the gospel? If you have not, you can believe on Him right now and repent, turning from your sin and turning to Christ as you call upon Him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for the Word of God. We thank You so much for its simplicity. We thank You for how that we find these words here and be such an encouragement as well as an eye opener to what you did in our life when you saved us. And we pray, Father, as we continue on in the study of this letter, that we learn some things that we can apply in our life today as well. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for your blessing that you've given to us.