13 verses, this letter by John. In those 13 verses, we look at love, we look at truth, we look at heretics, we look at Christian fellowship in a way that only John could do in such a short book. Last week, we were seeing this codependent relationship between love and truth, and I wanted to encourage you in the idea that we shouldn't see them as things that need balancing because they can't be separate than one another. They have a codependent relationship. You cannot be truly loving towards somebody if you're not being truthful, and if you are being truthful to somebody, that ought to be an expression of love in your life to them. And so it isn't a balance, but it's a completeness that's seen in the gospel message of Jesus, where they both would be together. John, the writer of this epistle, We learn that in his early 20s or so he's in a situation where he's with another disciple and Jesus was disrespected and he said, you want us to call fire down from heaven? And later on Jesus refers to him as one of the sons of thunder. And some of you have admitted to me this week that that's something and the direction that you kind of lean, that you're more of a a son of thunder in life, that you have no problem saying what is factually true is the loving aspect that maybe you struggle with. And so 2 John teaches us counter-cultural about love and truth, and it teaches us the value and necessity of obedience, and it will help us exercise greater discernment regarding false teachers, both individually and in the life of the church. If you're a guest with us today, first time, this may be an odd theme, as we'll be talking about people that we need to make sure do not have influence on our lives. But as we just walk verse by verse through the Bible, we believe that what He has for us is what we need, and that's what we'll have here today. On Wednesday nights, I would like to draw your attention, you can see this, and they'll put a slide up, hopefully here in a second, about on Spotify and on the back table there, There is some handouts, and we're doing a course seminar on Wednesday nights. And since today, I'm going to be speaking about the negative aspects of hospitality, the things that you don't need to be part of. On Wednesday nights, we're giving the positive aspects of hospitality, and you can go back and listen to it. And then we have one more this coming Wednesday night, and it's fitting to go along the book of 2 John. And a simple definition is just welcoming people into our lives. Hospitality is just welcoming people into our lives. The word breaks down in welcoming a stranger. And so, we welcome people into our lives. And as we consider the opposite day in our main passage in 2 John chapter 10 is, if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God's speed. And so, do not help him along the way. So, in 2 John, about John, the author that wrote the book of the gospel of John, and then also these three letters that we are going to look at, Lord willing, there's a story, and I shared one story about John a couple weeks ago, and this is outside of Scripture. This is some history, and we don't know that it's certain, but it would reflect something that would be true about John. This comes from a writer, Arrhenius, who said that Polycarp, one of the people that came to Christ from the preaching of John, he writes about an incident where John is at a bathing house in Ephesus, a public bathing house, and a man walks in, and John says, ìLet us flee, lest a building fall down, for Serenthias, the enemy of the truth, is inside.î So, Serenthias was a first-century heretic, somebody who taught against the gospel, transgressed it, went against the teachings of Jesus. And the story here says that John, in a graphic way, underscores how concerning the danger is of somebody speaking something that is false about the person of Jesus Christ. Reminds you, John, son of thunder in the 20s, a man in his 80s, is somebody that if he had one message, those children love one another, but he was also somebody so committed to the truth that they decided that even though he was old and Maybe in his 90s that he had to be exiled to an island because that mess that he preached was so dangerous. So, I want to look at a few things here from our passes together in regards to some guidelines for house guests. When I say guidelines for house guests, I'm not just speaking about the people that you invite over for dinner. I'm just speaking about all the types of influences that you would allow into your lives. So the first thing I'd like for us to see here is that we need to walk in truth so that we can discern lies. First one here, walk in truth so you can discern lies. And this is love that we walk after His commandments. And this is the commandment that you have heard from the beginning, you shall walk in it. So we've been hearing this about walking in the commandments of the Lord. And in verse number seven, if you have a paragraph Bible, you might miss this because this thought certainly belongs with verse number six. So walk as you did from the beginning, for many deceivers are entered into this world. Because of that, because there's so many lies that are prevalent around us, we need to be So, I just want to encourage you all in here today that you need to be concerned about what you believe. You need to be concerned about what you believe. One of the things I don't like about being an adult is there are certain responsibilities that I have, especially around my home, that I don't like. that nobody's going to take care of them if I don't take care of them. There's some of them that I do like turn off lights and I feel like other people could help me with that, but there's other responsibilities that are just solely like that's what dad's supposed to do, that's what the husband's supposed to do, and nobody walks up and takes that from me. I want to tell you that you can't outsource what you believe. You personally need to know what you believe about the person of Jesus Christ, and it's the most important question that you will ever answer in your life. Do not be so preoccupied with lesser questions until that matter is settled in your life. So, verse 4, we saw, I rejoiced greatly because John saw some people from a church, it appears, and he saw them walking in truth. And it doesn't mean that the others weren't. Maybe he didn't see those people, but he saw, I saw some of you walking in truth, and it makes me rejoice. And so what is the truth? He says that it was keeping the commandment of God. And then he goes on to define what is the commandment of God? It's that you love one another. And so John was concerned that they would keep the commandments of God, which was loving one another. He wasn't concerned with just some kind of philosophical thought. He wanted to see a life transformed by the gospel, which is what happens when you believe that Jesus is who He says He is, you live out His commandments, you demonstrate love one for another. Another way that he would say this is that he abideth in the doctrine of Christ in verse number 9. Over the last week especially, I've been engaged in conversations with many people that would say that they're deconstructing their faith. Some would use the term decluttering, and I think that would be a better one, meaning that they take what they're given as a child about Christianity, and now they're looking at it. They're taking it apart, they're going to put it back together, and they're going to decide if it works. In some aspect, that's something that all of us do in our maturing. We decide what is it that truly belongs to me, what do I believe, and then what has just been passed on to me from tradition. Well, the thing that I would encourage them, and I would encourage any of you in here, is that when you do that, and you take that apart, and you consider, well, maybe this isn't as important as I thought it was, or maybe I'm missing something that wasn't taught to me when I was younger, is what do you do with the cross of Jesus? And all you're taking apart and all you're putting back together, the most important thing that you will consider is the person of Jesus Christ. And that is where we as a church and as individuals want to pour our lives into helping people understand who Jesus is. And so every one of us take personal responsibility for what we believe, and then we pray and we ask the Lord to give us discernment to know what is real. Verse 10, if there come any among you and bring not this doctrine. Doctrine, what is doctrine? Christian doctrines are those things about God that are taught to us by God. The things about God that are taught to us by Him. And John knew that this was the most important doctrine or teaching that we need. It's about the person of Jesus. Let's consider here for a second what are sources of authority in our lives. How do we decide what we believe? Well, one source would be tradition, and that can be helpful. It can also be hurtful for us, all right? And so we're invited to a home tonight for dinner. I'm excited about that. And so tradition is great when it says our family invites people in to show hospitality. Tradition's good. Now, we invite people over to our house because we're cannibals, and it'll help us save with our grocery bill. That would be a bad example of tradition, right? And so tradition has to be tested, because sometimes it can be, you're not cannibals, right? All right, and so, no, and so tradition would be like, well, all of us, Matt Allen, or it might have been John Allen of Papua New Guinea, they were working with a group of people, and they said, are y'all cannibals? Because we heard that some of you were, and they say, no, we're not cannibals. Human meat tastes funny. And they're like, oh, good. Wait a second, all right? Who found that out, all right? And so, tradition by itself has to be tested. There can be vain and empty traditions, and there can just be wrong traditions. You've been doing something for a long time, that is not a good reason to continue doing it, right? You need to consider and get in Scripture. So, tradition's one, and we all have them, experiences. And then, that's the next one, is experience. Something that you've experienced. first-hand. Ben Meis did a wonderful job last night leading a wedding ceremony for Malachi and Glenda. He was contrasting how there's things that you know, but then there's other things that you know because you know them intellectually, but you've also experienced them. And the blessings of the Lord was the emphasis that night. And so experience, just like when it comes to tradition, can be very good, but it can also be very bad. It needs to be measured against the Word. And then reason, that's largely made up of the first two, made up of your traditions and your experience. Sometimes when Stephanie's arguing with Thatcher, and it doesn't happen very often, but she'll say, you sound just like your dad. And why do you say what your dad says? And it's not that I'm always right. It's just that his experiences in life, his tradition in life has given him very much the same worldview about things that I do. And so our reasoning becomes very similar because we've shared that together. But most importantly, you have tradition. It can be good or bad. You can have experiences. It can be good or bad. You can have reasoning that's good or bad. But the last one, as believers, our source of authority is revelation. What has God said? Tradition is what has always been done, experience is what do I feel, reason is what do I think, but revelation that we hold in our hand is what has God said on the matter. And God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, His Son, and His Word, and the matter is settled. So it says it like this in 2 John 7, John is concerned with God's revelation about the incarnation of Jesus. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come into the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. He's very concerned about people's understanding of the incarnation that Jesus was came in the flesh and that he died and then he rose again. I really think as I was thinking about the Christmas concert, I think John would love Christmas music, John here of the Bible, right? And so we joke, should we have Christmas music before Thanksgiving or afterwards? I'm thinking John plays Christmas music the day after Easter, all right? He's like, I love the incarnation. It is so central to who we are as God's people. And I would think if he says, y'all spend so much time and energy around celebrating the incarnation, it must be the most evangelistic time for churches. And I'd hate to disappoint him and tell him that often our emphasis on the birth of Christ does not have to do about the doctrine of the incarnation and sharing that with the lost world. But as God's people, it most certainly should be. And so we're a little ahead of schedule. It's not Thanksgiving, it isn't Christmastime, but as God's people, Let's be in here on the 15th and hear those songs, and we'll sing more on the 22nd. If you're in town on Christmas Eve, we'll come in here in a candlelight service, but we are not going to let that time pass by where we do not say, praise God that He came, Emmanuel, God with us, among us. Perfect life, perfect death, and a resurrection, and a witness of the fact that He is God. That term witness, that was our theme one year for a missions conference some years ago, and we asked our missionaries to hold up a sign in their country. And I left it in my office, but I have a sign that says witness. And one of our missionaries in North Africa, in a predominantly Muslim country, he held up a sign that said witness. And the word in Arabic and in Greek, and I expect in many other languages, reflects this idea of martyr. So, he's basically holding up a sign in Arabic out on the streets that said, martyr, and because martyr is a witness that is fully committed to testifying of that truth. And so, Christians can be certain that Jesus is God's Son because God has provided several witnesses that testify to His divine nature, giving hope and assurance to God's children. In the book before the one we're in right now, in verse number 5, there's a question. Who is it that overcometh the world? And it's he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. Then in verses 6 through 12, and I'm going to show this to you here, this word witness shows up a lot. So in verses 6 through 12, and you can kind of use this as like an index, if you will. So it's going to state some areas in which God was a witness about the fact that His Son was the Son of God. It doesn't give all the explanation here, but these are important witnesses. So, when you're trying to decide what do you believe about the person of Jesus, you ought to look at the list of witnesses that God has, kind of like a court scene, if you will. And so, this is He, Jesus, that came by water and blood, and even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. And so that water and blood that Jesus Christ came and He was baptized, and there's testimony of the Spirit there at the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit says, this is the Son of God, and the Spirit has not stopped testifying that Jesus is the Son of God. That is the ministry of the Spirit in our lives today to tell us to point our direction to the Spirit. And so also in His death and through the baptism, and so there's three witnesses here. And so John is dealing with a heresy in his time. I made mention of it earlier in the story where it would say that Jesus was not human, that He came here and He did not take on human flesh, and in doing that He could not die for us. And so this verse would be counteracting some of the lies of His day. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. And if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God which is testified of His Son." If you believe in Deuteronomy and the testimony of two witnesses, eyewitnesses, if you believe that you can trust the testimony of men, this is the testimony of God Almighty about His Son, Jesus. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, and he that believeth not God hath made him a liar." And so there's another form of witness inside of us, the witness of ourselves that has come and that now abides inside of us. And so, because he believeth not the record, made him a liar, if you don't believe this, He made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. This right here, if you do not believe it, you become a liar because there's a testimony, the record comes from God about His Son, and this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." So there's a witness, a baptism, a witness, a crucifixion, a witness of the Holy Spirit, the witness of the Father, the witness of our own personal conversion, and the witness of eternal life. Charles Spurgeon says this well. He says about everything he says quite well, all right? And so here, I want to read this to you here. Christianity puts forth very lofty claims. Amen? Christianity puts forth lofty claims. We don't hide from that. We put forth the most lofty claims. She claims to be the true faith and the only true one. Amen? She avows her teaching to be divine and therefore infallible, while for her great teacher, the Son of God, she, Christianity, demands divine worship and unreserved confidence and obedience of men. Her commands are issued to every creature, and though at present her authority is rejected by millions of mankind, she confidently looks forward to a time when the truth of God shall obtain universal dominion, and Jesus the Lord shall take unto Himself His great power and reign. Now to justify such high claims, the gospel ought to produce strong evidence, and it does. It does not lack for external evidence. These are abundant. They are. There is more evidence that Jesus Christ was the Son of God than there is that I'm standing in front of you here right now. It is witnessed by God the Father. It is witnessed in every way imaginable for us here. And so we recognize that today. So first of all, if we're going to recognize the lies that are coming to us in the world that we live at, we've got to walk in the truth. We've got to invite other people to walk in the truth. We have to rejoices are walking in the truth, so we can recognize. And the reason we need, we recognize lies so that we can resist the messengers. That's the next thing here. In recognizing lies, we're able to recognize messengers and resist them. Because the lie is about Jesus, it is always about Jesus. The lie is ultimately always about Jesus because it's always about Jesus. That is the crux of the matter. That right there is where man will either live for all eternity or be separated from God as on their understanding of who Jesus is. Verse 9, whosoever transgresseth, you know, transatlantic flight to cross over, to move away from, whoever transgresseth abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. And he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son." They're not separable. If you do not have an understanding of the Son, you do not have a relationship with the Father. So through history, and we could look at history and we could think of what are the different false messengers, and what were the false lies that were trying to creep in the churches, trying to creep in the families' lives about the person of Jesus. And so, we have things like the belief that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body and die, but He was actually a pure spirit. Or the belief that Jesus had a human body, but not a divine mind. Or adoptionism, the belief that Jesus was born human, but He became divine later in life. So many different ones. One of the most common one, Arianism, the belief that Jesus was created by God and is not fully divine. And this heresy was proposed by Arius in the third century and it leads us to what some of you would know and some of you I'll let you in on kind of the joke, the meme that comes around every Christmas and the first council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. and they're having these arguments about was Jesus of the same substance as the Father? Was he co-eternal? Was he a creation of the Father? And so St. Nicholas lost his temper with Arius, according to stories here, he lost his temper with Arius who was saying that Jesus was not co-equal with the Father and St. Nicholas slapped him across the face. So sometimes you'll see around Christmas time, you'll see a picture of St. Nicholas and he'll say, I'm here to give out presents and slap heretics and I'm out of presents, all right? I don't know how many of you have seen this. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You'll know now when you see it come across. And seeing that I talked about it, it's now in your algorithm, and you're going to see it everywhere, all right? And so here, they had names for them, like that person, that's what he teaches. And so when somebody came in, when their kids came in, they're like, Hey, I got this great book by Arius. It's really good, except for that part about Jesus." They would say, that book is not welcomed in our house. All right? You don't get to get everything else right and say, you get that part about Jesus is wrong. That's what we are on guard about. That's what we are looking at. And so these things still exist today. They're embodied in false religions. I could name a few. I could go on forever, Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witness, a Oneness Pentecostal movement, or Unitarian Universalist Church, and the names go on and on. But it isn't typically those people that are trying to influence our lives and our children. So what is it that is the great lie of our day? I talked about the story of Arius, I talked about the other views of modalism or adoptionism or just all these different types of views. Recently this week there was a pastor that put out and he was showing water buckets and ice and dry ice and all that and he was explaining the Trinity and it was not only bad theology but it was bad science what he was doing. And so that comes up occasionally, but typically that's not the lie of this generation. I want to give you a second if you consider and see if we came to the same opinion on it. What is the great lie about the truth of Jesus? Through centuries there was lies about the truth about Jesus, and I believe this is the great lie of our generation, that there is no truth. So how are we going to talk about the truth of Jesus? You have your truth, I have my truth. So you have whatever truth you want to have about Jesus, I'll have whatever truth about Jesus, and we'll just agree. And so I believe the great lie of our generation is to live your own truth. And there is a huge difference between live your truth and live the truth. And so it's been redefined. The Greeks had a word for it, aletheia, accurate perspective on reality. Romans, some of you know this, some of you enrolled in a Bible college online named Veritas. It's a factual representation of events. Hebrews, truth would correspond with God's work and word and faithfulness. But in the modern era, even 50, 75 years ago, Meron Webster defined truth as the real state of things as facts and agreements between fact and reality. But our contemporary world views truth as a relative concept, and that there isn't just one truth. And this lie and its messengers seek to come into our lives, and to our bookshelves, and to our feed, and into our TVs, and to our conversations, and we want to be inhospitable to that. We do not want to welcome that into our home or into our lives. And so we have to recognize this deception. John, 2 John 7, this is a deceiver and an antichrist. The message is that Jesus is not the Messiah. He's not the Son of God coming in the flesh. Their message is a denial of the gospel. The heart of all false teaching will be a defective view of Jesus. At the heart of all false teaching is this defective view of Jesus. An antichrist here is characterized people who are opposed to that doctrine that is Christ. Some of you have been up to Dawsonville, and there's a church up there that does a drama about end times. And many years ago, I was the original antichrist at that, and I was on the screen. And since then, I've been replaced by many other antichrists. And I'm glad to know that there's people that are better antichrists than I was, all right, and that I moved on to something different there. and that there's different ones. So I want you to know that. Some of you may have heard of the Antichrist, the one that has a governmental power, something that is in the future. But there are many Antichrists. There are many people that are anti the doctrine of Jesus. And they're called deceivers because in deception, they do not come announcing that they are opposed, but they come trying to engraft a lie alongside of the truth. So as God's people, we identify false messengers and we avoid aiding them. We avoid it. How many of you have ever stayed at an Airbnb or something like that, one of those rental places? And so you go to those places and sometimes the checkout procedure is really easy, like, hey, you spent us way more money than you should have to stay here for one night. You should just get to leave. That makes sense to me, all right? Then some of them are like, well, thanks for staying. We'd like for you to do a few things before you leave. If you, you know, could do the linens, make the bed, polish the spoons, pick up my mother-in-law from the airport, you know, mow the yard, just a few things to do before you leave the Airbnb. And you're like, slow down, all right? Those people really know what they have, right, in regards to their house. And I would say between those two, I think we ought to be more like the other one when it comes to the influence inside of our home, inside of our lives. We ought to have some guidelines for house guests, and they ought to be pretty thorough. And that ought to have to do with the person of Jesus Christ. And so we must set guidelines to resist this kind of deception. Verse number 8 says, look to yourselves. Watch your step. watch your step, that we lose not those things which were wrought, but we're to receive a full reward. So, another way, look to yourselves or watch your step, continually to be on guard, continually, a present tense imperative, meaning there's no time, there's not a time, 24-7, you stay on guard for these things. And so only one road leads to living and true God. That road is Jesus. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son. If you do not have the doctrine of Christ, then you do not have the Father. And so we reject what is dangerous. There come that bring not this doctrine, receive him not, verse 10. receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker of evil deeds." If any of these things, if any comprehensive there, the teaching that John's referring to is this doctrine that we believe and confess concerning the gospel and the person and the work of Jesus. And so John is commanding here to not receive false teachers. We're not to give them a base of operation from our home, nor are we to welcome them as friends and fellow laborers for the truth of the gospel, because in doing so, we share in their evil works. Stephanie's quicker than I many times, and there was somebody that came to the door, and this is the greatest example, because all of you are probably considering we should allow false religions not into our home, like we ought to go to a place that preaches the Bible. And that's an easy understanding. But we had some people come to our home of a false teaching about Jesus, and they were there, and I spoke to them on the doorstep, and I had the hope to have the opportunity, and they said, we're really looking for Spanish-speaking people, and do you know where any Spanish-speaking people are? And without thinking, I was about to be like, well, my neighbor, and when I went to do that, Stephanie, like, put the hand down, all right? And she looked at me, she's like, don't tell them. And I'm like, oh yeah, because the virtue of Christian hospitality does not apply across the board to false teachers. We say, hey, you're on your own. You're like, I'm not going to tell you where my neighbors are that you can confuse about the person of Jesus. And that's such a vivid example. I'm grateful I have a wife that's quicker than I am, you know, in that moment. But that's not been the only chance that I've had to allow that into my life and to my home. That may be vivid and easy to see, but you're going to be tested with it before the week ends. Are you going to accommodate that kind of foolishness about the gospel? And so, to go beyond the gospel is to go without God. That's what it says. Some have went beyond the gospel. Apparently, these false teachers here, they're saying to Christian congregation, we're going to take you beyond what you've heard before. We're going to bring in a new paradigm. We're going to take your knowledge and belief to a new level. We're going to leave behind the old ways, and we're going to show you something really deep and profound, something better, something more fulfilling, something more compelling to this world. What you have, plus these other things, is the marketing scheme of false teachers. And what John is saying, when you leave Jesus behind, you leave behind the possibility of a relationship to God behind as well. Many false teachers in this world. True then and true today. More true today, meaning there's more of everything today. 2 John 7, for many deceivers are entered into this world. Many. And as I said, why are they described as deceivers? Because they're mixing the truth with the lie. The greatest lie is the one that looks the most like the truth, right? That's what we see time and time again. Your family members and your friends that are led away by a lie typically do it by somebody who said, I agree partially with what you're saying, but let's just look at it a little more in this direction and moving away from the gospel. So I want to pause here for a second and mark the distinction between the deceived and deceivers. The deceived and the deceivers. There's people in our lives that have been deceived, that they have not believed and understood the gospel. They have somehow moved on the simplicity of Christ into other things, and our heart towards them ought to be compassionate. No matter how much they're caught up in a lie, no matter how weird it might feel for you to have them into your home, all those different things, if they're a person that's just deceived, and you have the opportunity to open the Bible, we open our arms widely to those that have been deceived. But here, this Scripture is talking about the deceivers, the false teachers, those that are propagating this lie. The basic doctrinal test of professing Christian teacher is, is he or hers view of the person of Jesus Christ? That is the question. We have people that we'll have met in here on Friday, and we have some people, James has some friends from the prayer group that will be meeting here to have a Christmas event. And there's times that we have partnership with other ministries in this area. And what we want to know is, will Jesus be high and lifted up? that's the thing that we decide about this building. So one of my responsibilities as a pastor is to make sure that our partnership as a people is with people who understand the gospel. I want to take it very seriously. You have that as well. You have that as well in your own home and in your own lives. So verse 10, If there come any of you, and bring not this doctor, and receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed." Sounds really fast, right? You're not sure what Godspeed is, but that sounds really fast, all right? But Godspeed is to help people along their way. I asked a couple of weeks ago, and I'll see if it's the same, how many of you would say that you never use the word, you never use Godspeed in your language? You never wish anybody Godspeed, all right? I like to use it. Most people, when I write it, they say, that's I don't usually see that, but simply what we're wishing people helping them on their journey. As I gave a definition of hospitality, it's the practice of welcoming others into our lives. And so if a traveling teacher who did not accept the humanity of Jesus came to the church, John would say, separate from them, don't help. But the best way that I could give you an understanding of inhospitality is to look at what it means in a positive sense. 3 John 7 and 8 says, If you meet somebody and because they go out for his namesake they went forth, the reason that they're out doing what they're doing is for the name of Jesus. They take nothing of unbelieving people, Gentiles. Wherefore, we ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers of the truth. When our brothers and sisters are endeavoring to get the gospel message down the road, and if down the road is next street over, or if it's in Indonesia, we say we want to help you along in your journey. Hospitality, contribute to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality, Romans 12. Being hospital one to another, we don't do it with complaint or grudging, we are grateful because this is my brother, this is my sister, 1 Peter 4. We don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers on the way because we know that we're ministering as unto the Lord, Hebrews 13. But when we know that a person is not teaching Jesus Christ, we do not aid these messengers of a false gospel. No lodging. no support, no clicks, no shares, no purchasing of a book and sharing it, no tolerance for anything that brings confusion about the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, amen. It's the most important. We're living in a time of so much confusion. We're living in a time where so many people are speaking on behalf of God and misrepresenting His Word, and there's a famine in the land. Our friends and loved ones are so confused about the person of Jesus, and they've been so far removed in their arguments. As God's people, we need to say, we're not going to move beyond the gospel. That's where our conversations are going to be. We're going to talk about Jesus, who came in the flesh, lived the perfect life, died in my place, died in your place, and He rose again, and we don't want to move beyond that. So just a quick review here. We walk in the truth. In doing so, we can discern the lies. Parents, you're not going to be able to identify all the different types of lies that your children are going to identify. And it's kind of trite, but we know the example. It's when if you want to learn what a false $100 bill is, you don't find all the fake ways of doing it, you just know what it feels like to have a $100 bill in your hand. You ever go to the store, you give it and they hold it up in the light to see if it's real? Anytime they do that, I take the product I'm buying and I hold it in the light. I don't know why, but I just feel like if you don't trust me, I don't trust you, all right? And so they owe this up. And so our kids need to be able to have the gospel so clearly that when they go out and they'd say, well, those people seem really nice and they're doing a Bible study, but there's just something that seems off about what they're saying about Jesus. and they need to be able to hold it in their hand and know this is real. Recognize the lies so you can resist their messengers. You need to recognize where those lies are coming into your life and into your family, and identify false messengers so you can avoid them and avoid aiding them. Don't let it be. It's a boycott. That's a famous word that Christians like. Some of you all love it, and some of you hate it, but let's go ahead and decide we are going to boycott aiding anybody that leads to the confusion about Jesus. In closing here, I want to read to you a hymn, 1 Timothy 3.16. So the church, churches, early churches would sing different parts of the scripture. Well, one verse that was commonly sung was this 1 Timothy 3.16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. We know that the mystery of Jesus is the great aspect of Christianity. We know that there is, that God is something that we say that is countercultural to all the other claims. But God was made manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in this world, and received up in glory. There has been a witness to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and dwelt among us. And so, if you're a Christian in here today, then you're going to love Jesus Christ. not the Jesus Christ of men's opinions, not the Jesus Christ invented by some sect or sects, nor the Jesus Christ reduced down to human proportions. But scholars, you're going to love the Jesus Christ of this Bible, the Jesus that is offered in the gospel. You are going to love Him And so our love for one another, it's not abstract, it's not mushy, it is a solid affection for those who look and share the truth of Christ. And since our love among Christians is based on this truth that we share, it becomes a powerful protection against deception. I love you in the truth, and anything that goes to pull you away from the truth, I am going to come to your aid, and I'm going to fight with all of my life to keep it out. So, church here, today, we live in a world that is dark. We live in a world where there's so much confusion. Therefore, don't let the world, don't let the spirit of the Antichrist or the mystery of lawlessness rob you of your love for each other or the happiness of our life together in the truth. Are there some people in here today that love Jesus Christ? Is it not the most important thing in all of your lives? Is it not the thing that you want to give your life to? Is it not the thing that you want to pass down to the next generation? Don't go beyond it. Don't get caught up in other things. Preach Jesus, live, die, and be forgotten. Preach Jesus, die, and be forgotten. It's the best thing that we could do with the days we're given. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you that I get to meet on this Sunday with people that love your son. We thank you for the testimony. We thank you for the preserved word in our hands that give testimony. And so I pray for my brothers and sisters, Lord, may they recalibrate their hearts during this time of singing and worship and say, I don't want to move beyond the wonderful message that is simply that Jesus came, he died for me, and he rose again. Every Sunday morning at this time, I give a plea on behalf of God's Word. I give a plea on behalf of this church. If you do not know the person of Jesus, there is so much evidence. There is so much to be read and seen in God's Word. There's so much that I would want to share with you today. So this is my invitation. I'm going to be right here after the service. We can go to my office. We can talk about it. You can go online, the website, and set up a meeting. But you're surrounded by people. The people you're sitting with would love to talk to you about the person of Jesus. And there's things that this church and every church would do that maybe you don't fully understand, but that can come for another day. What you believe about Jesus has to be the most important decision that you ever make, and be diligent about it. And there's people in your life, believers, brothers and sisters, there's people here in your life that they're not sure about their understanding of Jesus. We need to do everything we can to supply them all the witness, all the testimony, all the record that is available to them so they can see what we have seen. They can rejoice in the good news that we have received. I'm going to pray, and then we're going to sing one of those songs that we sung the day about Jesus. Any one of them will do the job. They were all fantastic. But let us continue here today in worship as we sing about Him. Heavenly Fathers, we end our time here together. We end the service. We end the time of assembling, but these people are still your church, Father, when we scatter throughout this community. Lord, may we speak up. When this world tells lies to our friends and our co-workers, tells them that there is no truth, may we step in and say there is certainly a truth, and the truth has a name, and that name is Jesus. Lord, use us in this way to be a great testimony of the truth and a loving way to the world in which we live. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.