Very short. And I've been actually reading over and over and over, actually the last couple weeks, maybe even longer, just really meditating on it and trying to get a feel for it. And we decided this week to go ahead and to tackle this short letter. We'll go ahead and read the whole thing. I don't know exactly how many lessons we'll have from this. We'll just have at least two probably, maybe three. So we'll see how this goes. Second John, we want to call these messages the counsel of an old man in the faith. The counsel of an old man in the faith. Let's read this. the elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love. I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him. For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink. But I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen. Let's pray. Father, please help us as we begin on these midweek nights just to read this and to meditate upon it. to linger in the Word right here and to just let it marinate in our hearts and our minds. I pray that we would draw from this well of this short letter and the truth that is in it Help us to draw from it tonight, Lord, the riches of your word and what you have for us and help us, Father, to be a little bit more like Christ and help us to be sound in the faith and help us to hang on tight to those things which have been committed to us and help us to be true and faithful. In Jesus name, amen. All right, I don't want to spend a lot of time, as we begin to look at this letter, establishing why most scholars would be in agreement with why this letter was written by John. I mean, we'll say it's titled Second John, or it's titled Third John, or First John, but in none of those letters does it actually say they're from John. So it might be a surprise to you, but it has been believed throughout history that it was written by John. The language of the first, second, and third letters are a lot similar. There's a lot of similar language, a lot of similar commandments that can be found in those. In 2 John, which we just read here, we read that what John says in verse 5 and 6 is very familiar to 1 John 5 and 3, so it kind of connects those, which are also familiar with what Jesus taught as recorded by John the apostle in John 15 10. The language is almost identical there. As we see what is said in 2 John 7-9, also, it's a lot like what is taught in 1 John 4 about the Antichrist. There's a lot of similar instructions there. And so it really ties these letters together, making a little bit of case for what is John. And we believe this to be John the Apostle. So the book of John, 1, 2, and 3 John, and Revelation are written by these. That's what most commonly is believed. There are some people that believe differently, but I do believe that would be correct. And so let's go with that thought in mind, okay? Let's say this is John the Apostle, John the Revelator, okay? So this is John. This is that man that was very, very close to Jesus. The John that was really the only one of the apostles who actually did not forsake Jesus. Go back and read the account. He's right there with Jesus. Remember, he has to come out and let Peter in, okay? The John that Jesus committed the care of his earthly mother to. The John that outran Peter to the tomb. This is John that had Jesus revealed to him in the revelation of Jesus. You know the book of Revelation? Revelation of Jesus? He's a man that has seen Jesus in a way that the other apostles had not. They walked with him on this earth indeed, but this apostle seen how he was coming back. This is John, and that all those prophecies made known directly unto him and was entrusted to relay that to us so that we have it still today. Now, there are some, in looking at this, that believe that actually the letters of John were written after Revelation. Now, we got Revelation at the end of the book, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was the last to be written. If so, and many believe it is, if so this would make this the last of New Testament writings, 2nd and 3rd John, if that is true. 3rd John is the shortest letter written that we have in the New Testament. using only 219 Greek words. The second John, which we just read, uses 245 Greek words. So it's the second shortest letter. Now, I think it's important to bear some of these things out for several reasons as we get ready to just kind of look at this short letter. And one of these reasons is because If all of this is true, this is the same John that wrote the Gospel of John, the John the Revelator, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, it's all the same John. What does this aged John, who refers to himself as the elder, who walked with Jesus, who took care of the mother of Jesus, suffered on the Isle of Patmos, had the revelation of Jesus given unto him. What does this aged old man in the faith who greatly loved Jesus, walked with Jesus, used of Jesus, what does he write? What does he write in the end of his life? What does he emphasize when he writes to, either whether it's a person or a church, we could talk about that. What does he emphasize when he writes to them? What is important to him that they get? You know, he's probably very close to dying right here. He doesn't live too much longer after this, I couldn't imagine. And those things that we want to pass down when we realize we may not have just a few more days or years left in us, what do we want to say to those we love, to those we care about? What is the most important thing to him? What does the Spirit of God move him to say in these last years of his life? Now I stated he refers to himself here as the elder. We know sometimes elder speaks of an elder in the church, one of authority, a pastor, it's used like that, but it also means the older. And so it could be a reference to both, implying his authority as an apostle and also he's old, he's old. And it can be used just to refer to him being old. It can do that. The same word for elder is used another time in Acts 2.17 where it says that your old men shall dream dreams. Well, guess what? John's an old man. And he actually teaches us in 1 John that typically, or actually truthfully, we are in the end times once Jesus Christ ascended up into heaven. So anyhow, there's more we could say about that. But John is an old man when he has all these things revealed to him in Revelation. Now, so John is an old man in the faith. who has seen a lot, experienced a lot, suffered a lot, learned a lot, lost a lot, and at the same time gained more than this world could ever offer. So now what does this old man in the faith, who identifies himself very confidently as the one who Jesus loves, What does he have to say in such a short letter to someone he addresses as the elect lady whom he loved in the truth? Now, this lady he addresses is believed by some to be a metaphor for a church, and it can be that, I don't doubt that. Some believe that, but some also believe, and as I actually lean more towards, that it's actually an individual. that John was acquainted with, and maybe he doesn't give her name and calls her the elect lady because it would possibly endanger her, endanger her, as the letter would be passed to her through somebody carrying it to her, and so if it was intercepted, her name would be on it, and maybe it would endanger her. We do not know. So, but we'll treat the letter mainly as an individual, to an individual lady, though it could be a church, I do not deny that. But as you read this short letter, what are some of the words, as we have read this, I mean, that jump out at you? Because this letter is chock plumb full of theme, and of certain words, key words throughout this. What will be emphasized by John, Elder John, to this lady and her children that John obviously cares much about. In the first six verses, there should be some words that jump out to you when you look at it. Can you give me four words that you see emphasized down through there the most? Anybody? Truth is one of them. Yes. Another one? Love. Another one? There's two more words that are mentioned multiple times. Command or commandments, and one more. I mentioned three times. Walk. Walk. So we have love, we have truth, we have command or commandments, and walk. In these six verses. Now, these four things, when you look at them together, are so intertwined that you cannot pull one of these out of the Christian life without it unraveling all the other. Can I say it again? These four things are so intertwined in a Christian faith and life that to pull one out, you unwind all the others. As we age in the faith, As we come maybe to the last final years of our life, or maybe we're not even aging the faith, but as we grow in the faith, what is it we want to pass down to those we love, those we care about? Because I believe whether this be a church or whether it be an individual, John loves them. John loves them. What does He want them to know about? If I have one letter, a short letter to write them, and I hope that I can follow this up to see them face to face and to talk to them directly, but in case I don't, I want them to hear this. What is it? What do we want to pass down to those we care about? What would please us the most? What would please us the most to hear about those we love and about those we care about? Well, in his third letter, John to Gaius, he says this unto him, he says, There's no greater joy than to hear that my children, we see the theme there again, walk in truth. I think His children there, referring to the children of the faith, I don't think they were actual children, but His children of the faith, no greater thing than to hear that they walk in the truth. But isn't that what our desire should be for our children, our children on this earth? No greater joy. No greater joy. What brings us the greatest joy as a child of God? Let me tell you, if we're walking with God as John walked, we love Jesus as John loved Jesus. And we are a seasoned Christian of the faith. One who has really been seasoned by grace. One whose life has suffered for the cause of Christ. And boy, you're walking with the Lord. If you are really where you should be spiritually, as a child of God, this should no doubt be your greatest joy for those you love and care about the most, that they walk in truth. In other words, there's nothing else that can make you any happier than to hear that the people you love and care about, they know the truth of God. So we have to ask ourselves the question, what is it that brings us the greatest amount of joy? and our children, and those we care about, those we love. What makes us the happiest? John was very concerned about passing down the truth when you look at these short letters of John. And so how important is truth to us? How valuable is it to us? That's the one thing I want to make sure my kids get. That's the one thing I want my loved ones to get. To know the truth. How valuable is it? Is it the most important thing that we care about and the most important thing we know that we must eagerly seek to pass down? With that said, I want to just think about this together, because it's together in this letter, and it is the subject of truth and love. Truth and love. Again, you can't pull one out and eliminate it biblically from the Word of God. You can't pull truth out and then have love. And you can't have love without truth. You can't have truth without love. You can't have love without truth. They go together. We don't have to speak about them separately. They're so intertwined. To get rid of one is to get rid of both. You can't love somebody and not tell them the truth. And you can't walk in truth and not love somebody. If there are two things that our world has extremely messed up, it is these two subjects right here. Truth love. Is that not the most perverted thing we have in our world today? Those two things, truth and love. I refer to it often, but we have spoken constantly in our world, my truth, our truth, your truth. At the same time, It's no coincidence that we have not only a perversion of truth, but a perversion of what real love is. Our world doesn't know what either one is, and they're messed up on both. You can't get one wrong and not get the other wrong. And so we've got to be, that should set off an alarm in our mind as a people of God. We cannot let go of either one, of agape love, what real love is according to God, and what truth is. They go hand in hand, hand in hand. We've got to hold to both if we are going to be right. If you do not have these two things right, I assure you, everything else will be wrong. In other words, you deviate from the truth, the Word of God. You deviate from that, you cannot love other people. Not like you're supposed to. And oftentimes, people are tempted to deny the truth in order to love. You can't do that, because you can't love people without truth. If you love them, you hold to the truth. And if you love the truth, you're going to want to love people. Now if we do not know what the truth is, then we will not know what love is because God's truth teaches us how to love. That's why the world doesn't know how to love. It doesn't believe the truth. Now John says here in the beginning of this letter that he loves her whom I love in truth. Truth was what bound her heart to His. John says he loves her in truth. It bound her heart to His. It moved Him to love her even more as He ought. Our first love, our first love is to be the love of the truth. And if we love the truth, then we will also love those who love the truth. And that's what John says. And not only I, but also all those who have known the truth because of the truth, which abides in us and will be with us. So pastor, I thought we have to love the enemies of the Lord. Yes, but we love them for other reasons. We love them for other reasons. We don't love them because they love the truth. We love them because He who is truth tells us to love our enemies. And there's a big difference there. The kind of love we have for our enemies, it's a different kind of love. It acts itself out in the works of Christ, in acts of compassion, in acts of mercy. God, yes, He makes it rain on the just and the unjust. But it's not the same as what unifies the people of God who are in Christ and who love the truth of God. It's different. You love your family different than you love everybody else. And that's okay. That's okay. But our first love is a love of truth. And as we love the truth, we love those who love the truth. And that's what unites us here. So John makes it clear that those who know the truth love others who know and love the truth. That's what should unite us. Listen, what needs to bind us together here is a love for the truth. That must be the foundation upon which we have built is the truth of the Word of God. Now listen, churches can become divided for a lot of different reasons, can't they? We will not always be united on our opinions of administration, our opinions or details of ministry, our opinions of certain traditions, our opinions of the building or styles of worship. But when we boil it all down and get rid of all of that, when we boil it all down, we should be united We should be united and love one another because we know we love the truth of the Word of God and love Jesus Christ. The truth as it is found in Jesus, the truth of who He is, that is the one truth that John emphasizes here in 1 John. The latter half of the letter. In verses 7, 8, and 9, what's the truth that emphasizes? Who is Jesus? Folks, I can have... The church is different from the family of God. I believe that. I believe the Word of God teaches that. We have a special union here as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is special, very special. But I also have a union with people who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and who Jesus is, who believe the truth of the gospel. There's something that holds us together. You've met Christians, haven't you, who weren't the same of us in the faith in regards to a Baptist, but yet you've met them and you've connected with them very quickly. And they may not have been a Baptist, but what was it that united them was your common bond in Jesus Christ, that they were believers in the gospel. That can unite you real quick, can't it? And I like finding people out there like that. I'm not against them, right? We're for them. But my point here is this, is that as a people of God, we are not only built upon that truth of who Christ is here as His church, but we're built upon so many other... I don't really like to use the plural truths. Because you don't really find it used that way in the Word of God. It's used singularly. The truth. Why? Because it can't be broken down. It's all unified. It's all one. It's not just the words of Jesus. It's the Word of God. It's singular. The truth of God. Sanctify them through thy truth. Not truths. It's the whole Word. It's not just one or two doctrines. It's the whole book. And we love it all. We want it all. It's our love, for thus saith the Lord of all the Scriptures that should unite us, that should be greater than anything that would seek to divide us. Satan would always love to try to divide us. over opinions or preferences because that division keeps us from proclaiming the main truth, who is Jesus. The truth of who Jesus is is not something we should ever get tired of telling. That's something I get from this letter. The aged John, been through it all, seen it all. I mean, he lived Revelation, okay? He's seen it, okay, in that sense. God revealed that to him. But what's he talking about in the end? Stay true to who Jesus is. Don't you let go of that. Don't you let go of that. It is this truth that he wants to make sure that this lady defends her home with. It is this truth that we must know if we are to know how to love others. It is this truth that we must want others to know if we love them. Love and truth, right? Go hand in hand. Do you love somebody? Tell them the truth. Who is Jesus? That's the main truth we've got to seek to tell other people. If people are seeking to convince people that Jesus is not who He said He was, listen, it doesn't matter how loving they may appear to be, how kind they may appear to be, it doesn't matter how many good things they may do, for there are many who are religious and we may even agree with them on certain issues of morality, but to knowingly mislead people concerning the person of Christ is the greatest form of hate that one could express. So we could be wrong on a lot of things, but you're wrong on who Jesus Christ is, and it is a damnable doctrine. The greatest thing we can do to people is to expose them to who Christ is. So I have been thinking about this. Do I love people? And how do I know I love them? Well, if I do this for them, I do that for them, well, that's a show of love. I'm not saying it's not. But if I really love them, do I want them to know who Jesus is? Because there's no greater joy than to see the people you love and care about come to know the one that loved and cared about you the most. Gee whiz. Part two next week. I just, I'm going to take my time on this. I really am. There's a lot more I have here even tonight, but I believe you've got the point so far. Anyhow, let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I pray. Lord, help us to just feel the impact of this short letter that maybe so many times we have overlooked because we haven't put it in the context of of who it is that is writing it, and the experience he's writing from, and the compassion of which it's written, and the context of what is said. Lord, help us that we would feel that way, and that love and truth would be driven deep into our hearts, and that we would then walk in that truth. We would walk in that truth, and that we would love the commandments of the Lord. Lord help us, I pray in Jesus' name, and amen.