Now turn in your Bibles to the book of Second John as we continue our series through Second John. And actually a second message concerning the marks of truth. I've taken some liberty as we've gone through this small book to branch out into some areas that are assumed in the text. This is a little book that really calls for the esteeming of truth and the contending for it, the holding fast to it, the walking in it. I think it cries out for us to consider how do we know what the truth is? What are the marks of truth so that we can be discerning and we can identify it so we know how to hang on to it, so we know how to reject error? And so that's why we are taking this time to look at these marks of truth. Second, John, please give your attention. Now, as I read the whole epistle to us, it's a small short book. The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, And not only I, but also all who know the truth because of the truth that 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 Father's Son, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one 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, so that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching 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 or give him any greeting. For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. The children of your elect sister greet you. Please pray with me now to ask for God's blessing on his word. Our Father, we have sung a prayer to you that you would help us to keep your word. And now, God, as we have read it, we ask again that you would be with us, that you would bless us, You would grant us the measure of Your Spirit so that we might walk in obedience to the message of Your Word. Please be with us now. Open our eyes so that we might see the riches of Christ. And we ask this now in His name. Amen. Well, having looked a couple weeks ago at what we called the probable marks of truth. Today, we will look at what are called the infallible marks of truth. Now, for easier memory, and I admitted it was kind of corny. I made the marks of truth. The probable marks of truth spell out in acrostic form the word truth for easier memory. That is, and you have it there in your bulletins. on the back of your bulletins. We are to test it against history. We are to remember that there is nothing new under the sun. We need to understand key distinctions concerning the age of a teaching. In other words, we looked at the fact that just because a teaching seems to be new doesn't mean it's false, nor does just because a teaching is old, does that mean it's true necessarily. And so you need to understand those key distinctions. A fourth mark that you are probably on the road of truth is that you test the teacher and the fruit of the teaching. And the fifth was hold fast to what is good. Well, this week the outline follows an acrostic as well. And I think that if you will prayerfully join these infallible marks of truth that we get today, together with the probable marks of truth that we looked at in our last message, you will have, quote unquote, the truth. And so we will be following an outline that spells out the word the. Let's consider the first mark of truth. First mark of truth that we need to consider the first infallible mark of truth is that it is taught in the word. It is taught in the word. This point, while so very basic to the ear of any Christian, is always first and foremost in a discussion of the truth. Now, we have spoken in some messages recently about the help and the place of creed and confession. We have talked about the help that the light of church history gives us as we try to discern the truth, but nothing compares with nor can compete with the Word of God. Isaiah has some of the most memorable and greatest statements concerning the authority and infallible standard of truth that the Word of God is. In Isaiah 8 20, we read to the teaching and to the testimony. If they will not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 40 verse eight. We read that glorious statement. The grass withers, the flowers fade, But the Word of our God will stand forever. And so when trying to discern whether a teaching or doctrine is true or false, first and foremost, you must determine whether or not it is taught in the Word. If it is not taught in the Word, it is false. If it is taught in the Word, then it is truth. The Word of God tests and it tries the words of men. It pounds like a hammer and it burns like a fire and it will reveal the truth. It pounds and it burns until the truth is laid bare as to whether something is right or wrong, truth or falsehood. God says in Jeremiah 23 verses 28 and 29, Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat, declares the Lord, is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock into pieces. So is it taught in the word? If it is taught in the word, it is infallibly true. Now, in light of this, I want to say that there needs to be great discernment on our part. There are a lot of words of wisdom flying around out there, both inside and outside of the church, and we must be discerning as to what is truth and what is error. Now, my house has recently been inundated with Christmas mail order gift catalogs. I'm sure yours has too. About every page there is a mug or a plaque or a poster with some word of wisdom or some sage saying that we're supposed to live by. Some of these are good, but some of them are bad. What is more troubling to me than this mug phenomena with these catchy phrases is the willingness of Christians to listen to people formulate these catchy quote-unquote words from God, and then you hear them say something like, oh, I really received that. That spoke to my soul. You will often hear them relay some conversation or some event and they say someone came up to them and just said, I've got a word for you. And they they speak this word to them. And then the person says, oh, wow, that really speaks to me. I receive that. You see, what this does is this insults our God. Even if the person says the Lord has given me this word for you, and even if the word is consistent with God's word, it's still insulting to God because it is as though he has never said what this person is saying. It's as though he never enshrined his word in the scriptures for his people to have through all the ages. And as though these two have this special insight on the word of God. Well, the word of God was never given for private special insights. The word was given to the church. The word was given to the world to tell them of the goodness of God. And we need to be aware of this and we need to be concerned about this when people are more readily postured to listen to the words of men or some catchy phrase from someone and to listen to the very word of God. When was the last time you heard the word of God read and someone said, I receive that. That really speaks to me. You see, we are drunk today with individualism. We're addicted to having a corner on the truth and having this sort of secret insight into the word that no one else does. You know what this is, really? It's kind of weird. It's a punk rock attitude. Punk rock got popular because kids were doing stuff that only they were doing. They weren't trendy. They weren't with the crowd. They were alternative. Well, this same kind of mindset creeps into the Christian church. We want to be alternative. We want to be punk rock in our view of the scriptures. We want to be the only ones doing it out in front of everybody else leading the way. But you know what? The faith has been once and for all delivered to the saints. There's nothing else to discover. You know what there is to do now? There's obedience. We are called to believe it, to walk by it, and to obey it. But you see, that's just not cool to us. That's just not fun. We like to be the ones to have a special insight on the Word. We need to learn to love the Word of God. And so I ask you today, you who claim to be Christians, do you love the Word of God? Is it your life? Is it the thing that you long to have? Job said, I desired your word more than my necessary food. It needs to become our joy and our delight. Not only do we need to love the Word of God, we need to love the words of God. We need to eat them up like marrow and live on them. Jeremiah had an attitude and a posture towards the Word of God that needs to become the very posture of the Christian church. Jeremiah says in chapter 15, verse 16, your words were found and I ate them. And your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts." You see, this is the statement of a child of God. That's the statement of one who is called by the name of God. You see, this very standard of truth that we are given is also to be our very sustenance. The Christian is to live by the word. We are to be eating it, drinking it up, so that we might be able to discern when something false comes about. You know, when you're out in the wild, one of the best ways to tell if a plant is, or berries of a plant are poison or not, is to taste a little bit of them. You will know very instantly whether this is toxic or not, because they taste like it. If you have been eating fresh meat, you would know instantly this is rotten meat. If we are gorging ourselves on the word of God, having our senses exercise to discern good and evil, we will know when error comes down the pike. In fact, in the book of Hebrews, the writer assails the church exactly on the issue of their ignorance of the word of God. And he tells them in these words, About this, we have much to say, and it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant use to discern good from evil. You see, the Word of God is given to us first and foremost to train us so that we will be able to discern between good and evil, right and wrong. And so the first question to ask is, if it is taught in the word, if it is taught in the word, then this is a sure and infallible mark of the truth. Secondly, take a sip of water. Secondly, it honors all of God. The second infallible mark of truth is that it honors all of God. You see, most all heretics and false teachers that assail the church would agree with our first point that doctrine must be taught in the word. And in fact, they will most of the time seem to hold to that principle with an even greater purity than the rest of the church. because they seem to only use the Word of God in their thinking. And they say that we are actually hypocritical because we don't really hold to Sola Scriptura because we still work in light of the creeds and confessions as well. And so they will argue that they alone are the ones who truly hold the principle of Sola Scriptura or Scripture alone in their determination of truth and error. And thus, we must go a step further than merely finding out whether a teaching is taught in the Word or not, because false teachers always make their case from the Scriptures. That's a mark of a false teacher. They always make their case from the Word of God. No one comes along, other than someone bold like a Mormon, and pulls out a whole other book to make their case. Most Christian heretics make their case from the scriptures. And so we need to ask the question, well, what do we do? How do we tell if if there are two teachings that seem to both be taught in the word? I mean, both of the teachers can make their case from the scriptures. I mean, they make a pretty good case. I see the text that they are going to to prove their point. And so how do I make the decision between the two? I mean, they're obviously coming to two different conclusions. So how do we know which one's right and which one is wrong? You see, we've seen that it is safe and probable that if a teaching lines up with the historic teaching of the church, it's probably true. But that's not good enough. When it comes to the stakes of truth and error, truth is not a game. The stakes of truth and error with doctrines of salvation are eternal life and eternal death. You simply cannot mess up in this area. There's no second chance of getting it right. When we start raising the stakes to the point of dividing from other people who profess to be Christians. When we start raising the stakes and we make a division between those who are going to be allowed to come to the Lord's table or who will be allowed to serve in office in the church or who will be allowed to stand and teach in the church, we better have a better reason than, well, that's what we've always believed as a church. No, we need to know What makes it infallibly true? How can we know for sure that this is the truth? The second infallible mark is, does it honor all of God? I want to look at this point under a subheading, subheadings, which themselves spell out a word. I'm getting even more corny as I go along. And these spell out the word all. And if you're clever, you might be able to twist them all around and spell all the truth or something like that. But the reason why is there are many teachings that sound very good. There are many teachings that have a semblance of being biblical. And to some extent, these teachings will even seem to be honoring to God and glorifying to him. But the question that must be asked is not simply does it honor God generally, Rather, what we want to know is, does it honor all of God? That is the key question. And so we must first ask, does the teaching do justice to all the attributes of God? Your first A there is attributes. You see, some teaching will advance some of the attributes of God, but will leave others either neglected or denied. For example, some teachings will advance the goodness and the love of God at the expense of his justice and his holiness. These teachings are to be rejected because they don't honor all of God. A great Puritan, Samuel Bolton, once said, you do not advance any of God if you do not advance All of God. Many today would say that God is love. And because God is love, there could not possibly be this place called hell or this notion of eternal punishment of sin. You will hear them say, God accepts us. That's what grace is all about. God accepts us just the way we are because he's so loving. and he's nice. This is the glorious God that we have, and thus glorifies the great and goodness of God, it seems to them. But this teaching denies that God is holy and just as well as good and loving. You see, if God accepted us just the way we are, he would not be a just God. He would be something more like a judge that decides to let a convicted child molester go free just because he wants to be nice. Well that would repulse us. We would say that's ridiculous. You can't let a known offender like that go free just because you want to be nice. That's completely unjust. That's against the very standards of justice. You're not even fit to be a judge if that's the way you're going to respond. Friends, we need to see that God would not be a God. He would not be God if he simply accepted people the way they are. He simply let sinners go free because he's gracious and nice. This is a very denial of holiness and justice and standards of right and wrong. I mean, how could saints ever cry out? How long, oh Lord, until you avenge us against their enemies? How could we ever know that God might tomorrow decide to become an evil God and kill us all? If there's no standard of justice, if God is not just in himself, then why can't he just change tomorrow and decide to act completely different? Part of the immutability and unchangeableness of God is that He is just in all His ways. He will always do what is right. You see, if God is not holy and just, then we are living in the worst nightmare imaginable. We are living in a world that is totally arbitrary, and things can change at any moment, and we have no hope any longer in God. If God is not holy and just, then we should simply eat, drink and try to be married because tomorrow we die. Does the teaching advance all of the attributes of God? This is a sure mark of the truth. When all the attributes of God are advanced, secondly, the second consideration of a teaching honoring all of God is whether it does justice to his lordship, the lordship of God. In other words, whose will is being proclaimed and advanced more in a particular teaching, the will of God or the will of man. A general rule of thumb to go by when you're assessing any teaching is whether it exalts the power, the sovereignty, and the absolute will of God, and at the same time puts man down in his place as the creature the dependent and the lost. That is a great rule of thumb to go by. Does this teaching exalt the power, the sovereignty and absolute free will of God and at the same time lower man to his place of a creature who is fully dependent upon God and a sinner who is lost? But in this, you need to be discerning Because not every teaching that seems to lower man at the same time exalts God. We're warned in the book of Colossians, chapter 2, that there was certain teaching that went around that promoted asceticism, the worship of angels, the neglect of the body. Well, this surely lowered man, but it was not at the same time exalting God. It was doing nothing to the honor of God. You see, we don't degrade man for the sake of degrading man. There's no virtue or value in bringing man low just to bring man low. We only bring man low in relation to the glory of God. We only bring man low, humbling him, lowering him for the purpose of finding all of our fullness in God. We take all of the props away from being under man, any last vestige of hope within himself, only so that he will find everything in God. Like the psalmist says in Psalm 73, whom do I have in heaven but thee? And on earth there is none I desire besides thee. Though my heart and my flesh faint, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Paul speaks along the same lines in the book of Philippians chapter 3. He says, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. So when we ask if a teaching exalts the Lordship of God, this is, or is it honoring to all of God? Is it honoring to Him and His will and His sovereignty and His Lordship? Or is it a teaching that exalts man and tries to infuse in man a pretended sovereignty, a pretended free will. This is a mark of infallible truth when a teaching advances the lordship of God. And finally, in our consideration of the honoring of all of God as a sure mark of truth, we must also determine whether the teaching honors the laws of God. The second L is the laws of God. all of God's attributes, his lordship, and his laws. If a teaching leads to the conclusion that we should immorally eat, drink, and be merry, then it is false because it is not promoting the laws of God. We must always preach the grace of God as opposed to the law of God when we are talking about the way of life for lost sinners. How is a man going to be made right before his God? Well, we must always cry down the law in that scenario. A man can never be made right by the works of the law. No flesh shall be justified in his sight. But the law of God never ceases to be the law of God. It never passes away as God's standard of righteousness. his standard for his people to live by that never changes. It always demands perfect perpetual conformity unto itself. And so if a teaching leads to wanton living or a disregard of the ways of righteousness then it is false because it is not honoring all of God in that it is not honoring his law. God saves us from our sin not so that we will continue in it. There is a double benefit to the gospel. Not only does it deliver us from the penalty of sin, that is, you don't have to go to hell and suffer eternally the consequences of your sin, but there is another cure to the gospel. There's another benefit that flows from the gospel. Not only are we delivered from the penalty of sin, but we are delivered from the power of sin as well. God says that he has set us free. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are now slaves to righteousness. We have a new Lord. We no longer serve the law as a Lord. We serve the Lord Christ. But we have been set free from the power of sin. We have come to newness of life or new creatures in Christ Jesus. And so if we exalt the excellencies of God in all of his attributes, and if we exalt the predestination of God and his election and his divine sovereignty, but yet we do not emphasize the obligation of everyone, Christian and non-Christian, to walk in obedience, to live a holy and righteous life, then our teaching is false, because we have not honored all of God. We have left off his ways, we have left off his laws. That kind of doctrine is false. And so an infallible mark of the truth is that it honors all of God, all his attributes, his lordship, and his law. And finally, we come to the final mark of truth, and that is it will promote the fact that everything is in Christ. The final mark of infallible truth is everything is in Christ. A. A. Hodge, one of that great family of Reformed theologians, said, no one truth is rightly held till it is clearly conceived and stated. That has to do with what we were talking about, a confession If you can't say what you mean, you probably don't quite understand what you think you mean. To be able to say something means that you have a grasp of it. And so no one truth is rightly held till it is clearly conceived and stated. Here's the second part. No single truth is adequately comprehended till it is viewed in harmonious relations to all the other truths of the system of which Christ is the center. Let me repeat that. No single truth is adequately comprehended till it is viewed in harmonious relations to all the other truths of the system of which Christ is the center. True teaching, an infallible mark of the truth, is that it will be Christo-centric. That means it will be Christ Centered in everything Christ will be given the preeminence Let me read why don't you turn with me to Colossians 1 for a moment turn to the book of Colossians chapter 1 Verse 15 through 20 Listen to this glorious statement of the place the Christ is to have in everything Nothing is left outside of this purview Colossians 1 15 through 20. He is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross. Christ is to have the preeminence in absolutely everything. Any teaching that comes across the pike and Christ is not preeminently the center of it and getting all the glory in it, that is a false teaching. Christ must be given the preeminence. In Ephesians chapter 3 verse 11 Paul says that the very eternal purpose of God, that is God's entire plan. His plan from all eternity was accomplished in Christ. The very plan of God came to culmination in Christ. Jesus himself taught in the scriptures. You have it on the front of your bulletin today. John 539, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is they that speak or bear witness about me. All of the scriptures talk about Jesus on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection in Luke chapter 24. Jesus taught the disciples. Luke tells us there beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. The Bible is about Jesus. If you're interpreting the Bible and you're not getting Jesus out of it, you're not interpreting it right. You're misinterpreting it. It's about Him. On His own authority, He tells us, it's about Me. This is what it's all pointing to, me. From creation to redemption to consummation, Christ is the central figure in all of the teaching of the Bible. The Law and the Prophets gave us a certain view of God. We learn different things about God from different vantage points throughout the scriptures, but it was only in Christ that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt. It was only in Christ that we saw all of God. There was no other form of revelation that we ever saw all of God in all His glories, in all His excellencies, than in Christ alone. This is why in the book of Hebrews we read, Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, who He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He, that is Christ, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. That teaching which gives all glory and praise and preeminence and honor to Christ is surely the truth. Let me give you one example of how to know, infallibly know something is the truth. Let's take the great doctrine of justification for a moment. Consider the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is a doctrine in which all of God is honored, and he is honored in Christ. This is a doctrine that is taught in the Word, It honors all of God, and it's all of God in Christ. Here is the wisdom of God. Here is the mercy of God, the grace of God, the love of God, the goodness of God, the power of God, the justice of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the truth of God, the sovereignty of God. all terminating in Christ. Everything pouring into him. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. As Paul says in Romans 3, 23 and 26, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation. He goes on. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. That is an infallibly true doctrine, the doctrine of the justification of a sinner before God, justification by faith alone. It is taught in the Bible, it honors all of God, and everything is in Christ, in Christ alone. If you will put these three infallible marks of truth together with the former five probable marks of truth, I think that you can be sure that you are resting on the truth. Do not be fooled, though. Truth is no easy game. Sometimes it has taken the church hundreds of years to analyze the teaching, to determine whether or not it was truly taught in the Word, to determine whether or not it truly honored all of God, to determine whether everything truly was in Christ. This didn't just happen overnight and you are not going to be able to figure it out just overnight. Don't approach doctrine in that simplistic of a form. This takes a lot of work. It should humble us. It should make us absolutely thankful that God has raised up able men over the years that have poured themselves into this process of painstakingly searching the scriptures, analyzing teachings that have come across to see whether or not this is really the truth. We should be humbled by this process. This is the exact path that our brothers and sisters in the church have walked for the last 2,000 years, prayerfully and painstakingly trying to determine what is the truth, first and foremost, so that they might glorify God and enjoy him forever. But secondly, so they might carry that torch of truth and to be able to hand it off to the next generation. They are the ones who are delivering to us that faith once for all delivered to the saints. If you will prayerfully apply these tests and look for these marks of truth, you will find rest for your souls. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the light of your word. We thank you that you have not left us in darkness, but that you've given us your word so that we might know the truth, and so the truth can set us free. Bless your people again, O God, to walk in your ways. Help us to be a people that are walking in the truth, even as John rejoiced in that. May we long to be those who walk in the truth and bring rejoicing to the hearts of your saints. Bless us to this end, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.