Well, we've completed our journey through 1 John, and now we find ourselves with the other two epistles of John, 2 John and 3 John. And we will look at 2 John this Lord's Day and 3 John in two weeks from now, Lord willing. And the interesting thing about 2 John and 3 John, many of you have never heard it taught. Many of you have never heard a sermon on 2 and 3 John because they're so short. As a matter of fact, they're the shortest books of the Bible. But they are important books. There was a sense of urgency, and you can feel that as you're reading through this and hearing what John has to say to the churches, or perhaps the church particularly in Ephesus. And what was happening is really kind of a continuation of what was happening in 1 John, is that the truth was under attack. And John, the wonderful pastor that he was, basically sent out what we would consider almost a postcard, a letter written on one papyrus scroll with this urgent message, do not forsake the truth. Walk in the truth. John, in keeping with Proverbs 23, 23, has a consuming interest in truth. That proverb says this, buy truth and do not sell it. Get wisdom and instruction and understanding. My hope this morning is that we go through second John, that you will be challenged as John challenged his readers to walk in the truth. Father, we ask that you would bless us now as we look to your inerrant, inspired, infallible holy word. It has transforming powers. It is true. When all the world is bathed in lies, and we often even listen to lies ourselves, we thank you, God, that we can go back to the rock, the pillar, the foundation of holy truth that comes to us through holy scripture. I pray, God, that you would just go deep with us today in just how important this truth is for us to walk in and for us to defend. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. As we look at these 13 verses in 2 John, I encourage you to follow along with me. We're going to basically look at four different sections here. We're going to see that we need to be walking in the truth in verses 1 through 4. Then we see ways of walking in the truth in verses 5 through 6. Warning about those not walking in truth in verses 7 through 11. And then John wanting to visit in verses 12 through 13. So walking in truth. ways of walking in the truth, warning about those not walking in truth and wanting to visit. We pick up here with verse 1 of 2 John and look at verses 1 through 4 and walking in truth. The elder to the chosen lady and her children whom I love in truth and not only I but also all who know the truth for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father, from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth Just as we have received commandment to do from the father So john introduces himself and this is a very typical greek roman letter of salutation here He introduces himself and notice though. He calls himself. It doesn't actually mention his name But he says the elder the elder is not just an elder in truth. He was an elder He was the a pastor of the church in ephesus. But at this point in time john is the last remaining apostle All the others had been martyred and he alone was left and he was quite aged at this point in time So he has taken that title and indeed recognized by the churches as the elder in the sense the last remaining Apostle here, but he writes it to the chosen lady and her children. Has that ever confused you? What is that? The chosen lady and her children. We understand what chosen is, that they are saved. God has determined that they would receive salvation and receive the truth from the Holy Word and they would be vessels of the Holy Spirit. But what is this idea of the lady and her children? Well, there's two views here. And commentators are kind of split on this, and it's not one of these liberal views or conservative views, and we're just not quite sure. One view is he's actually writing to a lady. The term that he uses here is the feminized form of the word curios for Lord, so it's curia. So he's writing to the lady, as in like a lord and a lady and her children. So he might be writing to a lady who was a member of the church, and she had children, some of whom were walking in the truth. The other idea is that it's sort of a stylized word in here that he's actually writing to the entire church. You recall, John is also the author, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of the book of Revelation. And there you get this beautiful picture that the church of Jesus Christ is the Bride of Christ. So he may be using that same sort of stylized language. It doesn't really affect the meaning, but you can kind of pick one. I sort of lean towards And this is maybe the minority view. I sort of lean towards he's actually writing to an individual with the idea that it would be a circular letter that would go around the different churches, something like what Paul did with Philemon here. But he says here, that whom I love in truth, not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth. It's just this truth, truth, truth, truth. Do you think he's got a point here? Do you think he's trying to get a point across here? This idea of truth is mentioned five times in the first four verses and eleven times throughout 2nd and 3rd John. There's just this emphasis on truth. And that needs to be our emphasis. Truth will not disappoint you. We are such emotional creatures, and we so often go through day just being driven by our emotions, being driven by our circumstances. And for those of you who've been Christians for a while, you know that when you become that way, and you become discouraged, you become anxious, you become depressed, you can go back to this rock of Christian truth. These things are true. And the things that God says about you are true, even though you hate yourself at the moment, even though you have sinned at the moment, even though you are depressed at the moment, even though you're anxious at the moment. So truth not only needs to be defended, it needs to be enjoyed. It needs to be embraced. It needs to be shared with others. Do you know that you have something that most of the world does not have? And that empowers you to be able to face the trials and tribulations of life, and even including death, because you have embraced this truth. That's the importance of walking in it. He goes on to give a salutation, but it's sort of a Christianized form of the standard Greek-Roman salutation. He says, grace, mercy, and peace be with us. I love what John Stott says about this. I want you to listen to this quote. Grace, mercy, and peace is sort of like justification, redeemed. They're terms that we've heard so many times. We don't let them affect us the way they should. But I think Stott has some great points here. Listen to this. Grace and mercy are both expressions of God's love. Grace to the guilty and undeserving, mercy to the needy and the helpless. Peace is that restoration of harmony with God, others, and self, which we call salvation. Put together, peace indicates the character of salvation, mercy, our need of it, and grace, God's free provision of it in Christ. Amen? What an amazing thing it is to be able to have peace with God. When Adam and Eve sinned, all of that was disrupted. Those two individuals, the first two humans that ever populated our planet, we all came from Adam and Eve. They had peace with God. They didn't need mercy. They had peace with God. They walked with Him in the cool of the day, in the garden, one-on-one relationship. And all that was severed with their sin. But for those who are born again, that peace can be yours again. And he will bless you with it because of his grace and his mercy. He says this comes to us from God, the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. So he's emphasizing the deity here and the Sonship of Christ. And it's in truth and love. Those are the two critical pillars of Christian community. Truth and love. You cannot have one without the other. Too often we will emphasize truth at the expense of love and we become kind of just sterile orthodox. or will emphasize love and forsake truth in a desire to get along with everybody and be liked by everybody or unite with everybody else. So you've got to have both of those, truth and love, and they need to be complementary of one another. He says here that he's very glad to find some of your children walking in truth. Well, you know that idea of walking, you find that throughout Scripture. But it's a lifestyle, isn't it? Truth is is not just some fact that you memorize It's it's a it's a fact that affects you that goes down deep into your soul That will help you make decisions in life It's it's the gas for your engine It's something that will help you keep strong during the during the difficult day but the problem is this is that we live in a world of lies and and a world that's run by the father of lies. So we're constantly having to challenge ourselves and challenge others. What's truth? What is a lie? What is a truth and what is a lie? And sometimes it's hard to tell. That's why you need to know your Bible. You need to read your Bible. You need to read good Christian books. Jesus is rebuking some of his People who were opposing his ministry said this in John 8, 44, You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father. Jesus wasn't always nice, by the way. Have you noticed that? Why? Because truth matters. And sometimes you have to hit people upside the head with truth. He just called them sons of the devil. And they were. They killed them. He was a murderer, speaking of the devil, he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. For he is a liar and the father of lies." Isn't that remarkable? The very nature of God is truth. That is His nature. The very nature of the devil is lies and deceit. That is therefore indicative of the way his followers act. 2 Corinthians 4 says this, if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world, that's the devil, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. This really, in a sad way, kind of explains why everybody's not born again. Christianity is just a reasonable religion. It makes sense. It's rational. It's powerful. Why would you not want to have eternal life in heaven, right? So we are perplexed at times why people would reject the gospel or why they would go to a church that doesn't preach the gospel, whatever. Well, this tells you exactly why. The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so they cannot see the light of the gospel. They cannot see it. They cannot see it. And until the Lord saves them and those scales fall off their eyes, in a sense, as was the case with Apostle Paul, they will not see it. That's why you need to be praying for the saved. That's why you gotta tell them the truth. And even though they may not see it at the moment, that truth will come back to them at that point in time when they come to know the Lord. Now we see here the ways of walking in the truth in verses 5 through 6. Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it." So notice here that he is pleased because he finds that some of the children are walking in the truth. Nothing makes a pastor more happy than to see people obeying the truth, walking in the truth, where the truth has actually affected their lives. Nothing makes a Christian parent or a Christian grandparent happier than their children and their grandchildren are walking in the truth. But notice this. He says some of the children are walking in the truth. Well, the implication is some of them are not. And that's the case in a church. Some people are not walking in the truth. It's also the case with the family, right? I think sometimes as Christians we think, and since God owes us to make sure that all of our children and grandchildren become Christians, and all their friends become Christians, and we live in a Christian neighborhood, and everybody has a little fish on the back of their car, whatever. We just have this kind of this ideal. And it's not that that's necessarily inappropriate, but we've got to be very careful. Often, God will not save every member of your family. Because think about this, what if he did? What if it was guaranteed that if you're born again and you have a child, that child is guaranteed that he's going to become a Christian? I hate to tell you this, you would become slack. You would act upon that presumption and you would probably not pursue the spiritual disciplines. You would not be as diligent in bringing your children to church, participating in church activities. You would not be as diligent with reading the Bible at home and praying for the children. It's just human nature. It's just human nature. So sometimes God and his great love for you and for our church sometimes does not save them. Sometimes they're not walking in truth. Sometimes they're just downright rebellious. And we all know of situations like that. Now sometimes he does that in the early years and they come to know the Lord later on. Franklin Graham, I think, is a real testimony of that. He didn't follow in his daddy's footsteps. Robertson McWilkin, the president of the seminary that I attended, his father was a godly man and Robertson McWilkin had a time of real doubt and rebellion. Ended up becoming president of the university in his father's footsteps eventually. So we never give up. But parents, don't be presumptive. Do not assume that God owes you because you're a Christian. Because the fact is, it's very likely that some will not walk in the truth. I think that's a very sobering message he has here. And this is love, he goes on to say, that we walk according to his commandments. You know, it's amazing to me when people try to draw a distinction between law and love, or law and grace, and oh, the God of the Old Testament's a wrathful God, he just gave the Ten Commandments and had fire and all that kind of stuff, and the God of the New Testament's a gracious God. You cannot separate those two. You cannot separate those two. Think about the two tablets of the law of God, right? The first tablet has to do with our relationship with God, our love relationship with God. The second tablet has to do with our love relationship with one another. The commandments are an expression of love. It's a big valentine right there coming down from Exodus. Right? But we kind of see this as sort of the harsh demands that God is placing upon us. It defines what love means. You cannot claim to love God if you're worshiping an idol. You cannot claim to love man if you're not honoring your father and your mother. And Paul makes this distinction. He says love is the fulfillment of the law in Romans 13. Jesus himself said this in John 14-15, if you love me you'll keep my commandments. Those things are just connected. And we live in this age where you see this throughout the evangelical churches. They de-emphasize the law. There's this spirit of antinomianism. Oh, don't worry about that fussy old law. God's going to forgive you. God's going to show you grace. God's going to show you mercy. And what we do is we have gone and we have lowered the bar to what is acceptable as the definition of a Christianity where all kinds of non-Christians are leaping over that bar. And what they have is they may love themselves but they are not expressing their love towards God because they ignore the commandments. And in some cases they've been taught that. We're all against legalism. But we love the law. Why? Because we love God. We love God. And we praise God for the law. Now we see a warning about those not walking in truth, and you'll really hear some sense of what we went through in 1 John here in verses 7 through 11. For many deceivers have gone out into this world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves. That is strong. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what you have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ Does not have God the one who abides in the teaching he has both the father and the son If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching Do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds Well, that's an action-packed bunch of verses Have those verses maybe caused you some confusion in the past? Well, let's break it down and see what he's trying to say here. He says here, he's warning us that there are many deceivers have gone out into the world. Interesting, that word deceiver is a plural form of the word planos, where we get our word planet from. What's a planet? It's a big rock wandering around. the universe. That's what these deceivers do. They just sort of wander around deceiving people. They're not tied to anything. They don't have their feet on a foundation of truth. They teach according to what will fill seats, or they teach according to what's vogue at the moment, that kind of thing. Jude gives us a description of, he speaks much of Antichrist as does John, gives us a description of the false teachers, he calls them wandering stars headed for the black darkness of eternal judgment. That's a good picture. And the reason why you need that kind of picture, and I think John gives you that kind of picture, these people are just sort of wandering rocks out there. It's because they don't look that way. They are very often very attractive people. They have got style. They're eloquent. Some of Paul's biggest opponents were people who were very eloquent. They had been trained to be wonderful speakers, but what they said was lies. So John warns you about these people. And he says of them that basically they do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. John learned from Jesus. When it comes to truth, sometimes you just gotta hurt people. And he's calling these wandering stars out there antichrists. They are opposed to Christ and his great teaching here. This goes back to what he taught us in 1 John chapter 4, you remember, he says, Again, this is something of a review on 1 John. The big problem that John was dealing with at the church's Asia we're dealing with at this time was the denial of the body of Christ denial of Christmas denial of the incarnation They said that God would not take on the form of the flesh and the reason why is because they were indoctrinated with Greek philosophy This comes from Socrates He said this that the soul is pure when it leaves the body and drags nothing bodily with it That kind of dualism came from Socrates, went to Plato, and then affected all the Greek culture. And they were very, very proud of their philosophical understanding of life. And in their mind, from little children all the way up, spirit is good, physical is evil. So spirit could not take on the form of a physical, because that would somehow taint it. It was ludicrous to them. It was actually, in a sense, to the Greek mind, vulgar. that God would actually inhabit a human body. That's just disgusting to them. So as a result of that, but they read the scriptures, they brought in some Christianity, they brought in some Greek philosophy, a little bit of Jewish stuff thrown in there, and they had this syncretistic religion. And you know, that's why it's so dangerous. Because it looks a lot like Christianity. But it's not Christianity. You need to know your doctrine. You need to know your Westminster Confession of Faith. You need to know the five solas of the Protestant Reformation here. This idea, I think it just, I think it really insults John too. He's just thinking, how ludicrous are these people that they are denying that Jesus appeared in the flesh. I spent three years with them. We went camping for three years all around the Holy Lands. We had meals every day with them. We went swimming with them. We went fishing with them. We went walking with them. We went to temple with them. Remember how he starts off 1st John, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we've looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was also in the Father and was manifested to us. And we have seen and heard what we've seen and heard we proclaim to you." I mean, here's John, the disciple that was laying on the chest of Jesus during the Last Supper, and people are telling him what you were laying on didn't exist. It's just ludicrous. But they're getting an audience, and they're getting an audience within the church. This is the reason why John is writing about this. But y'all, this is important for you to be able to defend. You've got to defend. We often defend the deity of Christ, but you've got to defend the humanity of Christ. That is just as important. If Christ did not have a human nature, if there's no incarnation, there's no gospel, there's no resurrection of the dead, and there's no salvation. Go back to one of John's other writers, John chapter 1 writings. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, verse 14 chapter 1. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory. Glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And what he says is anybody who doesn't embrace this truth, who are Scrooges who deny Christmas, they're Antichrists, they're false teachers. He says anyone who goes too far and does not abide in this teaching does not have God. They are not true believers. And he has to make that distinction because they're affecting the church. Some of them might be your friends. It's real interesting to me, considering all that the church is going through right now and our wonderful nation as well. This word translated goes too far is a combination of words for forward and lead. And if we were to pick a similar English word, you know what it would be? Progressive. Progressive. What does a progressive claim to do? in clerical gown or in a political sphere. What is a progressive? They're gonna move forward. They're gonna move you forward. They've come up with some way that we figured out that's gonna move you forward so you don't have to go through all this effort and all this difficulty and this kind of thing. And in the name of progressivism, they end up taking you backwards and leaving a wake of destruction. How many once great denominations followed the words of the progressives and they have dwindled over time. He says to be careful. What you need to do, you gotta be careful of spiritual shortcuts. Spiritual shortcuts always lead to disaster. You know, we get so frustrated with our sanctification, don't we? I mean, we're like, we keep thinking, at some point in time, I thought I was gonna have my act together, right? And then you go discover whole new sins. Or you become a grumpy old man, or your body hurts, or whatever it might be, and you're kinda doing things that you never did before. Whatever it might be, we get so frustrated. And because of that, And because, frankly, Christianity is so difficult at times, we want to take a shortcut. Hey, how can I get around all this discipline stuff and all this obedience stuff and this reading stuff and worshiping stuff? I just want to have this God stuff. And we attempt to take shortcuts. And I know there are some precious brothers and sisters in Christ within the charismatic movement, but my experience was, when I first became a Christian way back with John, That was one of the things that they offered. Listen, you need a second anointing. You lack power because you gotta have a second feeling of the Holy Spirit. And when you get this second feeling of the Holy Spirit, you're gonna be able to speak in tongues. And there was a significant de-emphasis on the spiritual disciplines of just the hard Christianity stuff. And a real emphasis on these experiences and things like that. And I was persuaded. I was kind of tired of all this Bible reading and obedient stuff. They weren't saying don't do that, but they were saying there's something else here that you're missing out on. And I remember I prayed, God, give me the gift of tongues. And I went out in my backyard and I said, okay, here it comes. And I didn't have the gift of tongues. So I thought I was not a Christian for two weeks because I didn't have the gift of tongues. And then some, probably some stiff Presbyterian guy got a hold of me and said, you know, by the way, that's not necessary. There's one filling of the Holy Spirit. That's what marks you out as a Christian, et cetera, et cetera. Be careful of spiritual shortcuts. It's the same thing with dieting, right? Don't worry about exercise. Don't worry about watching your food. Just take this amazing little fat burner pill. Now, I don't think there's ever been invented a fat burner pill. They just don't burn fat. You know what they burn? Money. Money. I'm not going to tell you about my experience with that one. All right, let's move on here. He gives us a warning, though. Listen to this. Watch yourselves. Watch yourselves. You're to be ever vigilant over these things. You cannot be slack. You cannot let your guard down. You cannot do it for the sake of the church. But you know what? A lot of these false teachers probably began as well-meaning Christians, and they got slack. And what's the result of that? Do not lose what we have accomplished, and then that you may receive a full reward. Now, he's probably talking about two different things. Well, he's probably talking about two things that are connected. We could lose this church. If we go out and we start doing this name it, claim it, gospel, or is this kind of easy-believe-ism or antinomianism or something like that, we run the risk of losing this church partly because there's plenty of that other stuff out there, right? Okay? And that may be what he's talking about, but I think there's something deeper here. There are indications in Scripture that that the believer, based upon his moving forward in ministry, based on his glorifying of God in this life, receives rewards in the afterlife. You're saved, but part of the fruit of sanctification may not be seen in this life, it may be seen in the next life. And that's where he says, but you may have a full reward. Okay? Now y'all, that motivates me. It also scares me. So this idea where you just think, all I gotta do is become a Christian and then everything's just fine. That is the beginning of the trip. That is the beginning of the journey. You now have said that you're going to devote yourself to Christ. Prove it! And there's a motivator out there. You will not stand, if you are truly born again, you will not stand before the great white throne of judgment. Jesus Christ has already been judged in your stead. You are justified. You're declared just. That's part of the doctrine that we teach. That's basic Christianity one-on-one. But there seems to be indicators that as a Christian, you have opportunity to, in a sense, send blessings ahead of time that will be waiting for you when you stand before the Lord as a Christian. It is on the basis of rewards, of receiving rewards that you will enjoy forever, ever, and ever, and ever. I call your attention to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 where Paul speaks about this beginning in verse 11. For no man may lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if a man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident for the day, the day when Christ comes back. The day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which has been built upon remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work which is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire." Those are sobering verses. And I don't think it's because of so much sin. I think it's what are you doing with what God's given you? It goes back to the parable of the talents. God expects you to take the talent, the gift that he's given you, the life he's given you, the house he's given you, the children he's given you, the county he's given you, the yard he's given you, whatever it is, and expects you to use that for God's glory. And expects you to worship him with it and also minister with those things. And the folk that don't come to church, the folk that don't read their Bible, the folk that, they gotta check that box, and Christianity is just sort of a Sunday thing, and even if they're born again, basically they're gonna show up to heaven empty-handed. Now they're gonna be saved, but that's through fire. That scares me. That scares me. That also really motivates me. We have such a short time on this earth, a short time on this earth. Why would you waste it? Not living for God when you're going to send ahead rewards that will bless you forever and ever and ever. I'm not quite sure how it all works because God's still gracious, right? You still have reward in heaven. I'm not sure how it works. If the parable of the Minas means anything, that the person who was very faithful had responsibility over ten cities. The person who was pretty responsible had responsibility over five cities. Maybe, maybe those of you who are really responsible, you'll be over ten cities. I want Disney World. I don't know. I don't know what it looks like. But y'all be praying about it. And you ought to be taking into account, you ought to be watching yourselves. The context in both of these has to do with ministry. You press on with Christian ministry. And you sweat over Christian ministry. Y'all, Christianity is not a spectator sport. And too many people in the churches of Jesus Christ are always willing to let somebody else do the work. And somebody else do the ministry. And somebody else do the tithing. And somebody else do the praying. Well, that's somebody else that you keep expecting to do everything, making sure everything's done for you when you show up for Sunday. They're the ones that are going to get the rewards when it comes to heaven. Watch yourselves. And it says here, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting. Have y'all struggled with this one when the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on the door? Can't let them into my house. I got to talk to me on the front porch That's probably not a bad idea. Anyway, because they may not be they may be like, you know thugs or something like that, but Let me let me help you out here. You got to understand the context Christian hoppet hospitality was at a premium in the early church in the Asian culture. We had one of our One of our members who served in the military, served in Desert Storm and some of that, he was talking to some of us the other day, talking about just the incredible hospitality of people in Asia, of the Arabs. They will give their last bite of food to take care of someone who's visiting their house. And that same kind of thing was here. You take this idea that Christian hospitality was at a premium and was highly desirable and very, very necessary because a Christian wouldn't want to go to the hotels. They were basically bars and houses of ill repute. So when a Christian traveled, an evangelist or even the Apostle John, they would go to a Christian house and stay at a Christian house. And they didn't just stay one night. They would often stay several nights and that kind of thing. And what apparently was happening, if the wording that John uses here, it says kind of if anyone, there was this sense that this lady or the church in general was showing Christian hospitality to heretics, to antichrists, to false teachers. They were staying at their house. This is the difference. The Christian home of this lady or that church, they were being used and manipulated by the heretics, and the heretics were setting up headquarters within the homes of the very Christians of the church they were preaching against. That's the deal. So, you engage with a Jehovah's Witness. You talk to the Muslim. You love your homosexual cousin, whatever it might be. We're evangelizing them. We're the ones on the offensive here. But don't let your house be used for the headquarters of a cult that's in town. That's really kind of the tempo of what he's trying to express here. Watch yourselves. But you also need to watch yourself, too, that you not get roped in to the false teaching. Islam was a Christian cult. Mormonism started off as a Christian cult. Well-meaning people got swept away by this and what's happening this happens in our church happens every church Christians want to be good. We want to be gracious and sometimes we end up getting used And what John's kind of saying here is woe to you who get used by an antichrist Because you're gonna help further his ministry, which is actually seeking to break down the very foundation of the ministry that you devoted yourself to Now this is important Because what will happen is they will use the principle of love against you in order to manipulate you. You've got to hear me out because you've got to be tolerant for me in this kind of thing. This is, of course, all within our culture right now. As one commentator says in our culture, love is tolerance without truth. Love is never insisting on changing or changing someone's views. Love is refusing to label anything as wrong. That's just anti-Christian, but that is what the culture teaches. So one of the great expressions of love within the church is hospitality. It's hospitality. But love has its limits. Love has its limits. And if it means that you're gonna get used by someone who's gonna try to break down your church, you don't let them into your house. You maybe break off contact with them. I like what O'Donnell says, to be loving to all by being inhospitable to some. There's just some things you can't tolerate and you don't want your children to be influenced and that kind of thing. Sometimes you got to be the bad guy. You know, we just have this consuming interest in being liked. Well, remember, you are a Christian. You have Christ's name on you. How much did they like Christ? They tortured him to death and then crucified him, right? That could happen. That kind of response could happen. I don't think you're going to be crucified. But this is an important lesson, and you think, well, this is no big deal. It's not happening in our church. A hundred years ago, most of the churches preached what we preach. Back in the 60s, the denomination split during the war between the states. I mean, you couldn't very well have a United Presbyterian or United Methodist Church when you were trying to shoot the other Methodists and shoot the other Presbyterians. That gets awkward after a while, especially during meetings. So they all broke up. So then 100 years later, while the North and the South are all trying to get along with each other, we started to unite everything. in order to unite certain things we basically did away with some truth or at least we kind of fudged over some truth and Some of you've been long around long enough to remember when this happened You had the the Southern Presbyterian Church was more conservative than the Northern Presbyterian Church So everybody wanted to be united and get along and be friends and everything so the Northern Presbyterian Church came in and a lot of the Southern Presbyterians were in shock and About how that northern church had in many ways some of them had a jettisoned the bible And then a lot of those people had to split and leave and start other churches same thing with methodist same thing with anything Basically the rule of thumb for a while there was anything be careful of anything with the word united in it Because it came at a compromise Now we're all about uniting with brothers and sisters. We are not about compromising the truth. And if it means they don't like us and it looks like we don't play well with others, I'm willing to accept that as your shepherd. And you ought to be as well. So he goes on there. John is just trying to warn them because there's an urgency here. These false teachers are on the way to this town. But he doesn't want to leave it there. So we close here with him saying that he wants to visit verses 12 through 13. Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face so that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you. He really he's gonna literally come to them and y'all think again John's probably in his 80s at this point in time He's gonna get on a sailing ship and he's gonna sail to Ephesus I mean, I don't know what that would be like It would not be easy I would think but he's gonna come and and literally it says mouth-to-mouth He wants to speak face to face to them. It's just too important He's gonna drop everything he's doing to come and make sure that everybody is is doing the right thing here. I So just in concluding, this idea of walking in truth is throughout the Gospels, but it's got to be throughout your life. It's got to be in your home. It's got to be in your places of work. Paul said this, that the church is the pillar and the support of truth. Now listen, Paul was the pastor of the church in Ephesus. So was John. Do you know what was in Ephesus? The great temple of Artemis, of Diana, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It sat on top of the hill. It had 127 pillars, all about the worship of Artemis or Diana. Y'all, according to New Testament scripture, the worship of idols is the worship of demons. So all of those pillars, 127 pillars, were for the holding up of a building was for the worship of Satan. They were pillars of lies. We are to be pillars of truth. John says in Revelation 3.12, he who overcomes, I will make him, Jesus says this, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. So the question is this, we know the truth. You've even got the truth in the back of that hymn book in the Westminster Confession of Faith, with all the verse references, so it doesn't look like just an opinion of men. We have truth here. The question is, are you going to be walking in that truth? Father, bless us, we pray, with a spiritual strength that we just don't have. Eyes to see, a mind to comprehend, Help us in love to move forward but also recognize there's times when we just don't express love to people who are opposed to you. That is not a reason or an excuse for racism or hatred or bigotry or whatever it might be. But you've warned us to watch ourselves. We don't always know what that looks like. So we need you. We need the Holy Spirit. We need Christian fellowship. We need good leadership. Whatever you have to do to help us walk in truth, we pray God that you would do. For your glory. And for the sake of your beloved church, in Christ name, Amen.