Today we're at verse 7 but this is our third our third message from this and You know being been this is kind of more informal Sunday school time or Bible study every way you want to call it just kind of get us thinking back to previous messages. We've been kind of looking at a theme here. But before we get to the theme, who can tell me from our previous studies, who was this letter written by? Who was the person who wrote this letter? Should be a pretty easy answer. Who do you think wrote this? John, that's correct. So, two points for Josiah. Perfect. And so we talked about that, right? That's something that's not disputed, something that's right there. And so this was a letter that was written by the aged apostle John. And he, of course, addresses himself as the elder, the elder. He writes to who? Who's he writing to? Anybody the elect lady And her children perfect perfect. Yes. He's writing to the late lady and her children Who he loves in the truth and not only I he says but all Who know the truth and so and so then as we begin to? Read through this. We've got a theme going on here. I And that theme does have to do with truth, but also we've got another underlying theme, and that is hospitality. And so in the first lesson, for those who are tuning in, this is the first time we've been live in forever. I can't even remember the Last time that I went live anywhere on any any of our channels But we're trying this out this morning, we'll see how it goes I Usually the way we do this, of course, is by simply uploading the sermons afterwards and then posting them online. But today we're trying this out, seeing how it works and how it goes. And so if you're tuning in today, welcome. Certainly thankful that you're able to tune in. If you're in the Brunswick, Glen County, Brantley County areas, we do invite you to our regular services. And certainly thankful that you're able to tune in from anywhere in the world. But if you're locally, we do invite you to come and be with us. So we've got this theme going on with truth, hospitality. We've got Joan writing to the lady and her children. The first message that I brought was truth, the basis for Christian hospitality. That's verses one through three. That's what we covered in the first lesson there, the first message. And then the second message, which was last week, was walking in the truth and in love. This is the behavior of hospitality. This is in verses four through six. walking in truth and in love. And so today we want to bring a third message from this text. This is going to be from verses seven through 11. This is going to be our text. And this is going to be in limits to Christian hospitality, limits to Christian hospitality. And certainly this is important because there are limits to Christian hospitality. And certainly, I want to bring this out. I think it's important, as John felt it was important, to bring this out to the lady and her children, as he wrote to her and her family. So let's read verses 7 through 11. It says, For many deceivers have gone out into the world, Those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the antichrist. See to yourselves that you do not lose what we accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far, does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house. Do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds." And so as he writes to her, this lady and to her children. He brings up the fact that there were many deceivers who had gone out into the world. This was a concern for the early Christians. This was a concern for John. This was a concern, as he wrote to this lady and her family, And even before the ink had dried on the original manuscripts for the New Testament, this was a concern for the early churches, for the Christians of the New Testament. Notice, if you will, just a sampling going into the New Testament here and looking at a few passages of scripture in Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven verses 15 through 20 says, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. So this is Jesus talking there. And he gives this warning, beware of the false prophets that come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. This is something he told his original audience. And of course, by extension, we are warned the same. And by the way, in the context here, when he gets down to Talking about building your house upon the rock and so that it so that it doesn't fall and all that read that All the way through from verse 15 all the way down to verse 29 and you'll find that he's talking spiritually there Spiritually speaking, you've got to have your house. You've got to build on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. But he was warning them about these false prophets, these false teachers that would come. Over in Acts chapter 20, Paul warns the Ephesian elders. In Acts chapter 20 and verses 28 through 31, He says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be watchful, remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I do not cease to admonish each one with tears. And so Paul warning the Ephesian elders of the same over in Romans chapter 16, Romans 16 verses 17 and 18. Now I urge you, brothers, to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and stumblings contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own stomach. By their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. " And so here he's telling the church at Rome, to to to to keep your eye on those and Not only that he's saying to turn away from those telling them to practice church discipline against such Over in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 Saying Corinthians chapter 11 verses 13 and through 15 He says For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds." And so he says that even Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. And so there are men, false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. He's warning them, the church accordance about these things. Of course, we're familiar with Galatians chapter one, at least those who are here, you should be familiar with Galatians. We spent quite a, quite a time there and looking at this epistle, but in Galatians chapter one and verse six, Excuse me. Galatians 1 verse 6 through 9, I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another. There are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed. Over in 1 Timothy chapter six, 1 Timothy chapter six. And verses 20 and 21, he says, Oh, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, turning aside from godless and empty chatter, the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some, while professing, have gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you. So already he's warning Timothy against these sorts of things, and he says, Guard what you've been entrusted with and turn aside, away from this godless and empty chatter. Titus chapter 1, verses 10 and 11, for there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers. especially those of the circumcision who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain. And so Paul writes to Titus and he says, there are rebellious men who are around and they're upsetting entire families. teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain. Revelation chapter two, when Jesus wrote to the seven churches, there's a lot we could say here, but in verse 20, He wrote to the church at Thyatira, he says to that church, but I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and deceives my slaves so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And so, What we find, and by the way, this is just a sampling. I know this was a lot of verses that we went to, and if you were following along, as one old preacher said, your flipping finger probably got tired there going from one passage of Scripture to another. But what we find is that there were false teachers, false prophets. There were false brethren who had crept in, and they began teaching and preaching things that just weren't true, and stirring up trouble amongst even the early churches. With so many dangers from men and women who sought to deceive these Christians, It would be foolish for us to think that these warnings should only go out to churches as a whole or even to just pastors. This lady in 2 John needed to be warned. Because the reality is that the enemies of the truth those who would preach and teach false doctrine, those who would preach and teach heresy, things that are contrary to the word of God, do not just slip it into churches. They bring it into homes. They do not just whisper it in the ears of pastors and preachers. They bring it in to the men and even the women of the house. She needed to know as a woman that yes, yes, you need to be hospitable. That is something that every Christian should be. But there's also a time not to be hospitable. We are in a battle. She was in a battle. The early Christians were in a battleground, a spiritual battleground, and you and I, we are also in a spiritual battleground. And while we may sometimes forget about it, I'm sure that there were times that they also forgot about it. Sometimes we get caught up in the things of life, don't we? The hustle and bustle of life. We need to eat and we need to drink. We need to take care of the house. We need to take care of our spouses. We need to take care of our children, so on and so forth. And it's easy to get caught up with the physical things. And yes, there are distractions in our lives. There were distractions in their lives as well. We need to be reminded of these things. And even women, women, you know, it's women need to be reminded of these things as well, because women are often the target. Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, That was deceitful serpent. He targeted Eve there in the garden. And his tactics are very, very similar in our world. Over in 2 Timothy 3, look at this text with me. I won't take the time to expound upon it, but I want us to notice what the Scriptures say here. I think it is worth noting As we consider St. Timothy chapter 3 and verses 1 through 7 and But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good. treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power, keep away from such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households, take captive, notice this, among them are those who enter into households and take captive weak women, weighed down with sins, being led on by various desires, always learning, never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth. And so he brings out households and he says, these men will enter households and take captive weak women. Yes, indeed. This woman, this lady that John wrote to needed instruction from the elder. and in a healthy, orderly church, not only will she get that, but also the women of the church will be following the model laid down in Titus 2. And if you go to Titus 2, you'll see what I mean. This is part of the commission that's given to the church, and we often preach and teach on Matthew 28. But look at Titus 2. As the directions were given there, he says in verse three, older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossip, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may instruct the young women in sensibility to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be slandered. I believe, if I remember correctly, that the way that King James translated that is that the Word of God will not be blasphemed. This is how serious this thing was. And this lady needed direction, instruction from the elder, but we see the pattern given that the older women are to teach the younger women in such a way. because we are in a great battlefield. We can't be like some, we can't encourage or be like some women are. And they say, oh, well, you know, I'm not, I'm not interested in theology. I'm not interested in Bible doctrine. We leave that up to the men at the church or my husband or, you know, listen, you need to be in the Bible too. You need to be digging into the scriptures. And while it's true that a woman cannot be usurping the authority of the man and cannot be a pastor or preacher, certainly, certainly understand something. We are in a great battle and you ought to know the things of the word of God. As he brings out here in this text that we're at in 2 John, "...for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." Just as easily as that deceiver that Antichrist can slip into the church service so he can slip into your home. And John wanted her to know that. John had warned about the Antichrist, the spirit of Antichrist in his first epistle. You remember that in first John chapter two, 1 John 2, and these little epistles are certainly packed with a lot of good practical information here that we can glean from and certainly put into practice. But in 1 John 2, verses 18 through 23, He says, little children, oh, I'm sorry, I'm in chapter three, chapter two. He says, children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they were of us, they would have remained with us. But if they went out so that it would be manifested that they are not all of us. but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, because no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father. The one who confesses the Son has the Father also. And so we find from these passages, whether in 1 John or 2 John, that sometimes we want to pushed the Antichrist over somewhere in the future. And we said, well, Antichrist is somewhere in the tribulation period. Well, that's true. There is the Antichrist that's prophesied about and all of those things. But we have to understand that the spirit of Antichrist is alive and well in our day. He was alive and well in their day as well. And the big thing that John was concerned about is the thing that we ought to be concerned about. And that is the undiminished... Let me back up for a minute. His concern was the denial of the undiminished deity and humanity of Christ. Biblical Christology, that's a fancy word that sometimes gets used for the doctrine of Christ, But the doctrine of Christ, when we look at this, maintains that Jesus was fully God and fully man. Now, it's hard for our minds to comprehend, but when he was here in the flesh, He humbled himself as a man. So much so that the glory of his deity was not seen by men. But that doesn't mean he laid down his deity. No more than when the clouds are up in the sky and they hide the sun. and one minute it's sunny and bright and the next minute the clouds roll in and you don't see the sun and it's cloudy. And sometimes so cloudy that you can take off your sunglasses because it's so dark you can't see very well so you gotta take off your sunglasses to be able to see. The glory of the sun is still there. The sun didn't give up any of its glory. Just the clouds rolled in. Jesus, when he stepped into this world, he put on that rope of flesh. He was still fully God. And at the same time, he was fully man. But the severest errors, the worst of heresies, the biggest cults in this world, they have to do with the denial of the true nature of Jesus Christ. And this is what John is warning his readers about. Such men and women should never have a platform in the churches, but at the same time, he's warning this lady who may have been a great Homemaker, a great, very hospitable woman, maybe an excellent cook, all those things, welcoming anybody and everybody into her house. And what's he saying in verse eight about this? He says, see to yourselves, do not lose what we accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. John had a concern for this lady and her children. See to yourselves, you do not lose what we accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Here's some good news. We talk about hospitality, Christian hospitality. There is a reward promised. Even when it's not much, you don't, you don't have to have a lot of money to to be hospitable as a Christian and to receive a reward. Listen to this, and you don't have to turn there, but in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 41, he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. in Matthew chapter 25 and verse 40, and the king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Over in Mark chapter nine and verse 41, for whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you are of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. there will be good rewards for good hospitality. When the judgment comes, Christians are judged, there will be rewards handed out, and one of them will be for hospitality. But let us, first of all, let's remember what hospitality is, and I've been throwing this word around. What's it mean to be hospitable? Sometimes we get all confused about this and we think hospitality is entertainment. Entertainment's very stressful. If I need to entertain somebody, that's a very stressful thing. I gotta make sure I'm playing the whole day. If you're gonna be here for a couple hours, I gotta make sure that everything is set right and all this, and I gotta make sure that everything, it all becomes about me and about what I'm doing and what's going on in my house. Entertainment is more me-focused. How am I gonna attract you and make sure that you come back and wanna come back? But hospitality is you focused. I like what Jen Schmidt wrote in a book that really impacted my life. I don't even know Jen Schmidt. Don't know anything about her, but I know she wrote a book and it's called Just Open the Door, How One Invitation Can Change a Generation. This is what she said, what's hospitality? Biblical hospitality offers our best to Christ first. Understanding that our best to others will then fall into place. It transforms our selfish motives and elevates our guest. When a hospitable hostess swings wide the door, all her attention focuses outward. You're here, I've been waiting for you. No one is more important today than you, and I'm thrilled you've come. The posture we assume in hospitality is one that bends low, generously offering our heart to one another despite whatever interruption to our own plans or comfort. Extending hospitality is about freely giving of ourselves while granting others the freedom to be themselves. Shifting our focus from us to them removes all unnecessary expectations. No need to worry about what to say or how to act. Just come as you are. Hospitality, unlike entertaining, treats everyone as a guest of honor, rather than grasping at honor for yourself. Opening your door has nothing to do with the actual setting, the guest list, or the food. And so, if all you've got's a cup of water, hey, praise the Lord. Help a brother out with a cup of water. It doesn't have to be a steak, lobster, and all those sorts of things. Relax. Enjoy the fellowship with one another. If your house isn't perfectly in order and clean and all those sorts of things, it's okay. It's okay. Good Christian hospitality will be rewarded. But in the text before us, we see a warning, a warning that's given that a loss of reward may occur to any believer who does not discriminate on the basis of fundamental truth. This is also found in Colossians 2. Colossians 2, if you want to go there for a moment, verses 18 and 19. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement. The worship of the angels going into detail about visions he has seen being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind, not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. There are limits to hospitality. There must be limits to hospitality. As he goes on in our text in 2 John 9, he says, anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in this teaching, he has both the father and the son. Now I have to pause here. to ask. When we think about Christian hospitality and fellowship, we talk about any two Christians coming together anywhere. Can you think in your mind anyone who agrees on every single point? on all matters. Do you know of any two Christians who agree? No, Leah doesn't. Barry, do you know of any two Christians? No, Barry doesn't. Isaiah, do you know of any two I don't know how this thing goes off so easily. Hopefully it wasn't off for long. But anyway, I don't know of any two Christians who disagree. Hmm. I charted these. Let me swap this one out. Okay. So I don't know of any two Christians who agree on everything, except maybe we could get all Christians to agree that not all Christians agree. That might be the only thing that we could get everybody to agree on. So it's inevitable. It's inevitable that we're going to find disagreements. We're going to have differing views on different things. And so when it comes to hospitality, where does this text fall into line? We think about disagreements. We know that there's going to be disagreements about the timing of the Lord's return. There's going to be disagreements on whether to celebrate Christmas or not. You know, that's coming up. What Bible version to use, the elements of the Lord's Supper, those sorts of things. We may still be able to have fellowship over those things. But understand something. That doesn't violate this text. John is not prohibiting being hospitable to those who disagree with us on all issues. There are some secondary and tertiary issues that we may disagree with. It is acceptable, furthermore, to have friend that you may not be able to fellowship with in church capacity, but you can sit down at the table with and have fellowship with. I have many friends, and maybe you do too, that you know that they wouldn't be able to preach in our pulpits and things like that, but We may have differing views on, say, the amount of water that it takes for baptism or we may have some different views on some other things, the nature of the church and so on and so forth. But and because of that, it causes some issues in in the church capacity. But we can sit down and we can have some good fellowship. We have good hospitality over the things of Christ. We can rejoice together over over the salvation we have in Jesus Christ and the doctrines of grace and so on and so forth. And so what is the thing he's talking about here? He's talking about those who have erred in the fundamental sound doctrines of faith and marking them as having never been born again. You get the nature of Christ wrong. You goof up the gospel. That's sort of an issue. Souls are at stake, and maybe even the soul of the person who is teaching these things, that's a major deal. B.H. Carroll commenting on this text in verse nine, where he says, anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God, the one who abides in the teaching. He has both the father and the son. He made this comment, and I liked it. He said, that one ninth verse, This is what B.H. Carroll said, he had a way with words. He says, that one ninth verse justifies putting this letter in the Bible. We do not get that thought anywhere else. The fact that this, it is written to a woman, a hospitable woman, who has unwittingly received into her house as guests, men claiming to be preachers, but who undermine the faith of some of her children, and who tell her, need not give up what you believe. You can go on loving your apostle John, but we have a new interpretation of love according to new commandments. You can stand on what he's taught, what he wrought, but do not stay there. Take a step further. There are new things to be received. Render it all the more remarkable. And this was the danger that she faced. And this is what John is talking about. Verses 10 and 11, John says, if anyone come to you, does not bring this teaching, the teaching he's talking about here is, in the context here, he's talking about the true teaching. Do not receive him into your house. Do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Again, context is key here. John is not forbidding her from opening her home to those who disagreed with her own secondary or tertiary doctrines. you sit down with anybody long enough, you're gonna find out that you have disagreements with them somewhere on something. And so it might be things like, oh, we disagree with the head covering, I can't have her over for dinner. No, that's not what he's talking about there. It wasn't about Christian liberty issues either. He wasn't telling her, oh, you don't sit down with this woman or sit down with these people if they differ with you about calendar dates or about eating meat, sacrifice, no, no, nothing like that. But complete disassociation from heretics. was the only appropriate course of action for the followers of Christ, including this woman. Nothing good will come of opening your home to those who have the doctrine of Antichrist. Hospitality to such teachers, false prophets, aids the spread of their heresy and leaves the impression of sanctioning their teacher, their teaching. Maybe, maybe Someone might be trying to be helpful and say, oh, well, you know, I know this guy. He's always been a good preacher. And now all of a sudden he's off on on this. Maybe he's preaching on the cross and he says that Jesus was separated from the Godhead and went to an eternal hell. And and maybe maybe he's saying some things that are heretical. He said, well, I'd like to help him out. And you say, well, I'll just I won't have him to preach for me, but I'll have him come sleep at my house. So you have him come sleep at your house. He's on his way to a Bible conference. He stays at your house, sits at your table, you open your house up, being very hospitable to him, he goes on down the road to that Bible conference and guess what he does? He gets up in the pulpit and he says, oh, I had a great time at brother so-and-so's house last night who opened their home to me. Now guess what? Your name has been associated with him who is teaching this false doctrine, this heresy. You see, he's got a platform at that Bible conference. Maybe he didn't have it at the church where you're at, but now he's got your name associated with that false doctrine, which by the way, is no different than what John was warning this lady about. You see, he shouldn't have stayed at your house. He shouldn't have had a platform at the Bible conference. Not in a Baptist church preaching such things. He's not qualified to clean the toilets. He shouldn't be in the pulpit, you see. The Bible's clear on this stuff. He says, if anyone comes to you, and this is not hypothetical, Why is it that the most zealous missionaries in our world are the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses? They're coming to you. They're knocking on your doors. They're zealous to bring their message. To convert Christians to them. And they trick and they deceive. tricking people into believing that they are also Christian denominations when in fact they're not. Even atheists are missionaries. Some of them. They put signs on billboards and on buses and write books. What is it they're doing? They're being missionaries. They're coming to you. And so John says, if any come to you, what do you do? Well, we had the Mormons come here not long ago. What if they come back and they want to talk more about Jesus? Well, that's great. I love a conversation about Jesus. And I love to be comfortable. And there's nowhere more comfortable than here in my house, but Mormonism, They don't like that term. They say they're the church of Jesus Christ. They're not. But they teach that Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers. That's not just heresy, that's blasphemy. I'm not gonna treat them as my brothers or sisters in Christ because they're not. and I'll not invite them into my home teaching that sort of thing. If there'll be a discussion, it'll be outside my home. They need the gospel, yes, but it'll be on my terms and not theirs. Sound harsh? Absolutely it's harsh, but it has to be. If they come to attend the worship service of the church, Sure, they're allowed. Anybody is welcome to come and attend, but if they begin to peddle their false teachings, they'll be sent out. They have to be. They have to be. You see, Christian hospitality is great. It's a blessing, but there are limits to it. In closing, I'll just leave you with this quote from John MacArthur. He wrote concerning this, he said, supreme loyalty to God and his word alone must characterize the actions of every true believer. And that includes this very important topic of Christian hospitality. I trust this has been a blessing to you. And as I close this out, I would ask, are there any questions that we have on this? All right, if none, then we'll go ahead and have another.