we come now to read your word. We thank you for it. We're amazed you've given us such a word and that you've given us hearts to love it. So we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would enlighten our hearts and minds to see what you want us to see in these words, to understand what you mean by what you wrote. Help us to walk in the light of these words and not swerve to the right or to the left. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Our scripture passage today is 2 John, the second epistle of John. Let us stand for the reading of the word of God. 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 and 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. And now I ask you, lady, not as writing to you a new commandment, but the one which you 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. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves that you might not lose what we have accomplished and 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 a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Having 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, that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you. You may be seated. Second and third John are the two shortest books in the Bible. Each one of them has less than 300 Greek words. And each one of them can be written on one page. And yet, second John, where would we be without this great book? It was written by the same man that wrote the gospel according to John, one of Jesus' 12 apostles. We know that for various reasons. The ideas that he presents are the same. The words that he uses are the same. The style that he writes in is the same. He writes these people with apostolic authority. And so he calls himself the elder. He doesn't need to identify who he is. The people to whom he's writing, probably his church in Ephesus in Western Turkey on the coast, where he pastored for many years. He spoke to them with apostolic authority and they received it. All he had to say is, I'm the elder that God has sent to you to minister to you. Now the question is, to whom is 2 John written? You got any guesses? It's written to the chosen lady and her children. Every other week I change my mind about who that is. And the two most popular views are one, it is a woman that he knew that was in one of the churches that he pastored with her children. And the other view is that it's the personification of a congregation, that the chosen lady is a local congregation. and her children are the members of that congregation. Now which is it? I'm gonna give you the best argument for each of those views, and you pick it. The best argument. The best argument that is for a local church is John's use of the pronoun you, Y-O-U. In verses four and five, You is singular. In verses, I think six, eight, and 10, it's plural. In verse 12, it's plural. In verse 13, it's singular. It seems to be, to be, not to me, it seems to be written to a particular community, congregation. The strongest argument for it being a lady, a woman who's a dear friend of John's and in one of the churches he pastored, is 3 John. The third epistle of John is written to an individual, the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. And throughout 3 John, he says many things similar to what he said to the elect lady in the second epistle. So which are we gonna take it as today? It doesn't matter. Because what John writes applies both to a Christian family and to a Christian congregation And we may just sort of slip back and forth throughout this conversation today. Last week, or two weeks ago, I thought it was a local church. Now, I mean, yeah, now I think it's a woman and her children. But either one is okay. In fact, some people have gone so far as to say that 2 John gives us her name. You know, names have meaning. And so the translation put the meaning of her name, Chosen Lady Electa Curia. But, we'll have to find out after we die. So now let's look and see how this great little letter is outlined. The first three verses are an introduction. Where he introduces himself, he introduces the persons to whom he's writing. Then in verses 4 through 11, you have the heart of this letter. What he wrote the letter to tell this lady and her children. And verses 4 through 9 is to point out the relationship of truth and love. And verses 10 and 11, to warn them of the danger of the antichrists. And in verses 12 and 13, the conclusion, where he talks about the completion of joy. So even though this book is short, it is sweet. It carries with it a great amount of truth and can be a great amount of encouragement to us. So look at the introduction. Letters written back in that century always began with a greeting. from the author to the one to whom the letter's addressed. The apostles Christianized that greeting. Rather than just saying greeting, which in Greek sounds like grace, they used the word grace. Notice what he says. The elder to a chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, And not only I, but also all who know the truth. This lady in one of his churches, he said, I love this woman. I love her family. Now what's interesting is the word I is emphatic. I love this woman. I love this family. As over against the itinerant preachers that were going around taking advantage of people. See, that's what you've got to read 2 and 3 John in the light of. In those days, travel was easy in the Roman Empire. The roads were great. If you've been in the Cotswold Mountains in England, you have ridden on roads that were built by the Romans. And the Pax Romana, there was peace all over the world for all practical purposes. You could travel anywhere you wanted to go. You didn't have to have a passport. You can go from one country to the other. And everybody spoke the same language. Everybody had his own individual national language, but everybody spoke the same language. So travel was very easy in the days of 2 John. And as a result, there not only were missionaries traveling around, like Paul going on his missionary journeys, But there were also counterfeit missionaries. There were also itinerant preachers who wanted to fleece the various flocks. They didn't preach the truth, as we're going to see. They preached the worst of false doctrine. They traveled from church to church to take up offerings. Now, where did these itinerant preachers, good and bad, stay during their travels. There weren't any holiday inns. There weren't any hotels or motels. There were inns, but the inns were not only infested with fleas and mice, they were all brothels. So Christian ministers would not want to stay at any of the local inns. They stayed, as we're going to see in 3 John, at the home of the members of the church. And 3 John is about the great characteristic of Christians, which is hospitality. Let me steal a little thunder from next week. You go through the patriarchs in Genesis 1 through 50. You go through the patriarchs, and the primary Christian trait that is highlighted in each one of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, is hospitality. Because if you're going to conquer the world for Christ, if you're going to carry out the dominion mandate and exercise dominion over all the earth, you've got to be hospitable. If you're greedy and selfish and ingrown, you're not going to be of any assistance whatsoever in the carrying out of the Dominion Mandate and the Great Commission. So hospitality was then, and it is now, one of the most important traits in Christians to carry out the Great Commission. So these missionaries would stay in the homes of Christians. So would the counterfeit heretics. Many of these Christians weren't the most educated people in the world. They weren't the most schooled in theology in the world. They were naive. And so it'd be easy to take advantage of them. And so that's what these fake missionaries would do. They would travel around and take advantage of Christians and stay in their homes. So John is saying, I really do love you. I travel. but I'm not one of these people that's taking advantage of you. These heretics and false teachers and false preachers, they don't love you. They love themselves. They love their purse. But I love you. I love you. I'm your elder. I have, God has chosen me to be the shepherd of you and your children. And I'm not the only one that love you. But everybody that knows the truth loves you too. Everybody that's heard about you loves you. And everybody that loves the truth, I love you in the truth. That's the basis of our fellowship. That's what we're gonna see. See what he says? 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. Let me see if I can remember how many times the word truth is used in John's writings. excluding the book of Revelation. The word truth occurs 45 times in all the books that John wrote. It occurs 25 times in the gospel according to John. It occurs 9 times in 1st John. It occurs 5 times in 2nd John. And it occurs 6 times in 3rd John. So, I'd say that's pretty important to him. So when he says to this woman, I love you and your children, I love your family, and so does everyone else who knows the truth. Well, that's what holds us together. That's the bond, that's the basis of our love for each other. I have to tell you a story about John Calvin's love life. John Calvin's wife, Idelette, died prematurely. And he and, excuse me, Calvin was not married. But he would go to this Anabaptist house and every night to try to witness to this Anabaptist preacher, that is, anti-Calvinist preacher. And he would go there every night, try to witness to this guy. And this guy's wife was a great cook too. So he'd go there every night and eat supper and witness this preacher. And then the preacher dies. So innocent Calvin continues to go over to the widow's house to eat supper. And he witnesses to her. And they talk about spiritual things. And he says to himself, what am I doing? I'm going home. I'm going to marry this woman. So he falls in love with her and he marries Idalit. And they didn't have any children, but they had a great marriage. Well, John is not writing a love letter in that sense to this woman. Don't read into it any kind of romance. This is an elder who loves the church and the families that are in that church, and the one things that hold them together is they all believe the same truth. We're going to see that over and over in 2 John. That's the bond. I was one time preaching in Boise, Idaho. I'm not making this up. I was preaching in Boise, Idaho, and I was traveling from my hotel to the church where I was going to preach, and we passed a church called Bondalove Baptist. B-O-N-D-A-L-U-V. I promise you that's on the sign. Bond to love, Baptist. Well, that was the bond that held this chosen lady and her children and John together and everybody else that believed the truth. That when you believe the truth, you have a unity, you have a bond that you don't share with anybody else. It's thicker than blood. Thicker than blood. that if you have brothers and sisters in Christ who love the same truth that you do and your parents don't, you know from your own experience, you can have a deeper relationship and bond with that Christian because you share the same truth. We're going to see in 2 John, that was what marked the early church. They were held together by bonds, unbreakable bonds of love because they loved the same truth, the revelation of God. What is truth? Truth is God. God is truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. The truth is the revelation of the character and the will of God. The scriptures are the truth because they contain In words and sentences we can understand the revelation of the mind and the will and the heart of Almighty God. And so it is commitment to that same truth that holds us all together. Fellowship is based on truth. That's why if somebody like me were to go into a church That's just their relationship is based just on emotional fellowship and get together and dancing and singing. But there's no real commitment to the truth of God. I would be disruptive, not because I wanted to be, not because I would try to be, but because truth disrupts fellowship not based on truth. And that's why we make such a big deal of the Westminster Standard and Catechism. not because they're written by men, but because they're biblical Christianity in their purest human expression. And that's why we wouldn't let somebody come here and preach that didn't preach the truth, had all kinds of his own views, because non-truth disrupts fellowship based on truth, just like truth disrupts fellowship based on non-truth. You got that? I mean, that's a very important observation to make. He's saying to this lady, I have a great love for you. I do, along with everybody else that loves the truth. Because of the truth that holds us together. Verse two. Let's read both of them together. It's a sentence. 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. There are people today who don't believe there's such a thing as truth, except that one truth, that there's no such thing as truth. And so they contradict themselves. That truth is God's opinion of things. And once you know the truth, that truth keeps hold of you like a power. It doesn't let you go. This foundation of the truth and the revelation of God's word that we share, it is a force that abides in all of us, that it empowers us, motivates us. And it's going to abide with us forever. It's always going to be there. Truth never changes. Cultures change. All kinds of changes take place age after age. One thing is changeless, and that is the truth. What was true to the Apostle John is just as true for us today, and will be just as true for our children and our great-grandchildren. So John's saying, Lady, I have a great love for you as your elder and your children, along with everybody else. Because we're all bound by the truth that abides in us like a force and a power. And then he gives his little greetings, except it's not really a greetings. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us. Now, I want you to notice one thing very quickly. He's not wishing for something to happen. He's not saying, may grace, mercy, and peace come to you. This is an indicative. This is a declaration. It's a statement of fact. He's not saying, I'm hoping that grace, mercy, and peace come to your house. He's making a statement of fact to him as a Holy Spirit inspired apostle. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us. That one statement, backed by apostolic divine authority, is the basis of our assurance of salvation. You love the truth as it is in Jesus? Then grace, mercy, and peace will be with you. No ifs, ands, and buts. No limitations, no conditions. What is grace? It's God's goodness and mercy. God's goodness and love for the undeserving. What is mercy? God's goodness and love for the miserable. What's peace? The restoration of relationships between that sinner and the living God. The restoration of complete health in his own life. The restoration of God's order in his life. John's saying to this woman and her children, this is what's coming to you. Because you love the same truth that I love. It abides in your heart. So grace, mercy, and peace will come to you all the days of your life. And you shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's the assurance of salvation. So you can tell this is the Apostle John. Whoever wrote John, the first epistle, wrote this epistle. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, the us, all those who love and know the truth, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. There you see once again the Apostle John emphasizing the full deity of Jesus Christ, that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are the fountain of grace, mercy, and peace. There is no grace, mercy, and peace outside of them. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And Jesus is of the same essence of the Father and equal in power and glory. So keep saying those things to you over and over. Memorize the Shorter Catechism, definition of the Trinity, because that's the only God there is. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you, dear sister, from God and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. He didn't become the Father's Son when He was conceived in the virgin's womb. He's been the Son of the Father from all eternity. From all eternity, God the Father and God the Son have been in that relationship in the one true God. In truth and love. Now why does that little prepositional phrase have to do with anything so far? Grace, mercy, and peace shall be with you from the Father and from the Son of God in truth and love. Truth and love are the consequences and the effects of God bestowing His grace upon you. You'll never know the truth. You'll hate the truth until God, who is the truth, reveals the truth to your heart. You'll never be able to love anybody until God, who is love, first loves you and enables you to love other people. So here you see in this little simple statement at the beginning of 2 John, you see the heart of the Reformed faith. Truth and love do not originate with men and women. They do not originate with human beings. They only originate with God because of His grace, mercy, and peace. And they're given to the chosen lady. Not just any lady. The lady chosen from before the foundation of the world. You see, the Reformed faith is everywhere. And now he gets to the heart of his message to her. And in verses four through nine, he's going to show her now the relationship between truth and love. Verse four, I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth. Now to me, that's happy and sad. Whether it's a congregation, he's saying, I'm glad to see that some of your members are walking in the truth and obeying Jesus. Lady, I'm glad to see some of your children are. I wish you'd have said all. And I'm sure John's praying, was praying for all of them. Why is it, you suppose, that only some of this lady's children We're walking in the truth. Now any answer that I give to that will be pure guesswork. But it'll be based on what I read in the Bible about the experience of Timothy and others who had Christian mothers but whose daddies were not Christian. In the first century you had a lot of people that were converted or one spouse was converted and the other spouse didn't convert. And you have other families where the spouses converted, but not all the children converted. This is the first century after all. This is a missionary location. I mean, this is brand new. The gospel is just preaching to them. I don't know why all her children didn't believe, but some of them did. And John's rejoicing to find some of her children walking in the truth. What is walking in the truth? You walk on a path. In the book of Psalms, the law of God is called a path. We walk along that path. Truth is something you believe. It's something you obey, but it's something that you walk in the light of and are obedient to it. You not only believe the truth, you do the truth. And so here's this woman and her children, most of them in the first century, who have chosen a path, whatever the cost, who knows what will happen to this woman. She may have suffered persecution. She may eventually have been martyred because in those days, if you stay on the path, you could get killed by the Roman government very easily or by the worshipers of false gods like Diana. So here's this woman. They've made their choice. We are on the straight and narrow way. We've gone through the gate. We know now that Jesus is the truth. All these Gnostics, all these false teachers, they don't know anything about the truth at all. Remember now, John was having a riot against a man named Serenthes. And Serenthes was a proto-Gnostic. And the Gnostics believed that only an elite group of people had a special knowledge of the truth. Everybody else had to live in ignorance. And so as a result, it produced pride and elitism. And John is saying to this woman, you've chosen the right path. Forget the Gnostics. Forget their elitism. Forget the Roman gods. There is no truth outside of Jesus. And by God's grace, God has chosen you to walk in that path and your children are walking with you. So I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the father. They're walking in the truth with you because we've been commanded to do so. Too much is given, much is required. There is tremendous responsibility that goes along with having the truth revealed to you. The more truth God reveals to you, the more responsibility you have to live a consistent life. So understand that knowing the truth isn't a fun thing. Reading the Bible, reading books about the Bible, learning more and more truth as over against other people, and knowing more truth than most people have. It's not a fun thing. It's not a hobby. That we're commanded to walk in that way and with our understanding of the truth as it increases, our consistency and our obedience to God will increase. Look at your own life. You claim to be a Calvinist. You claim to know, by God's grace, more things than other Christian churches may know. Your biggest argument for Calvinism is your life. So if you have friends that don't believe the truth as you believe it, don't argue with them, particularly family members. Don't beat them over the head with the Bible. Show them by your life it makes a difference to believe the things that you believe. That's what we're commanded to do. To whom much is given, much is required. And John's saying to this lady and her children, I'm glad you understand that. Verse 5, And now I ask you, lady, not as writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another." Now he's been talking about truth. Now he's going to talk about love and the relationship between the two. Remember how much he said about love in the first epistle of John. That loving each other with a sacrificial selfless love in the body of Christ is one of the proofs that you're a real Christian. If you profess to be a Christian, but you don't love one another in the body of Christ, your professed faith is a lie. And so now John's emphasizing the same thing here. He's saying that, you remember he said over in 1 John, I'm giving you an old commandment that's not really, a new commandment, but it's not really new, it's been old. It's been around, it's as old as the hills. It's been around as long as the gospel, as long as the Old Testament. But it's new in another sense. And Jesus is saying, in effect, it's new because I'm here and I'm the new motive and I'm the new model. And so he's going to say now somebody who believes the truth is somebody who's also going to love one another in the body of Christ, one another in the family. These children that were walking in the way, love your mother, love each other. Let the world see you love each other. And love each other in the church or don't profess to know anything. Verse six, and this is love. We're gonna see the definition of love now. He's been talking about truth. Truth is a revelation of the mind and will of Almighty God in the face of Jesus Christ and on the pages of Scripture. Now he's going to tell us what love is. Love is not an emotion. Just like belief is not an emotion. Some people have criticized John. They said, how can in the world can he command me to believe something I don't believe? How can he command me to love somebody I don't love? How do you command somebody to love? How do you command somebody to believe something that they don't believe at all? Well, you see what the basis of that argument is? That belief and love are emotions. I don't see how you can command me to love anybody, meaning How can you command me to turn on a switch in my heart that all of a sudden somebody for whom I felt nothing, now I feel very warm affectionate feelings? How can you tell me, flip the switch and start feeling warm and fuzzy towards somebody you hated? It's not what he's telling you. Because love is not an emotion. What is love? Verse six. And this is love that we walk according to His commandments. Whether you like them or not. Whether you feel warm and fuzzy or not. You walk in love and you love another person by obeying whatever commands God gives you in the Bible as to how you treat that other person. Whether that other person treats you the way they should or not is completely irrelevant. Whether you feel warm about that other person or not is completely irrelevant. That love is obeying the commandments of God contained in the Bible with reference to another person. To treat another person from the heart, the way God says in the Bible, that person should be treated. I'll never forget when I was a student in college in the early 60s, and there was a missionary there from Korea. And he gave his testimony about how the Lord sent him to Korea. You see, when I first went to Korea and God called me to Korea, I didn't like Koreans. I didn't like Asians. They didn't look like me. But I went because God called me to do it. And after a year or so, I started loving Koreans. But I didn't go because I loved Koreans. I went because God called me to preach the gospel to them. And so that's similar to this. You love each other. Husbands love your wives. Children love your parents. Church members love fellow church members. Not because you have this warm feeling toward everybody. Not because the other person is loving towards you. But all of that is irrelevant. You have a command from God. And that is, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And my commandment is, love each other according to my commandments, whether you ever get any love back or not. But you see, in the Christian church, we're held together by the bond of truth. And so there will be genuine affection. But it'll only come with obedience to the commandments of God. And this is love, that we walk according to the commandments. This is the commandment. Just as you have heard from the very beginning of the gospel, that you should walk in it. You can't deviate, you can't swerve to the right or the left. No excuses for not being loving. No excuses. No excuses for not being sacrificial in your attitude towards other people. Why? You're bound together by the truth. You say you love the truth. And if that truth doesn't produce love in your life, don't talk about being bound together by the truth. Because truth and love are inseparable. Notice three things you walk in the light of in 2 John. You walk according to God's commandments, you walk according to the truth, and you walk according to love. Those are inseparable. You don't get to pick one. The rest of your life, if you're saying you're a Christian, the rest of your life, you must walk in the path God's commandments sets out before you, no matter what. If you profess to be a Christian the rest of your life, you must walk in the way, in the path of the truth of God, no matter what. And if you're a real Christian, you're going to walk in the path of love, no matter what. Verse 7. Why? Why should we walk in love and in truth and in commandments and there be a real unity among Christians? For many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Here's why you and I must be bound together by love in Christ, bound together by obedience to God's commandments, bound together by loving each other as Christ loved us. Because there's many deceivers in this world. Many. Many of these itinerant evangelists back there in Rome, they're going to take advantage of you. They're smarter than you are. They can out-argue you. They're going to bring up arguments that you hadn't even thought of, I guarantee you. So if you think you know the answers to all the arguments, you hadn't lived very long. He says, be sure to walk in commandments and truth and love together for there's all kinds of people out there trying to deceive you. They've gone out into the world. These are those counterfeit missionaries. These are these itinerant preachers. These are these false teachers that want your purse more than your person. All kinds of people like that out there. Don't think you're smarter than they are. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, just like the apostles were sent out into the world. You see, these are fakes. He's being sarcastic. Just like the apostles went out into the world, sent out in the world, these heretics are being sent out into the world. We're sent out to teach you and lead you to the truth. They're sent out to deceive. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Remember 1 John and 2 John are the only two books in the Bible where the word antichrist is used. John says there's many antichrists already out there in the world in the first century. And an antichrist is not some big guy that you have to be afraid of that's coming during the tribulation. But an antichrist are people who deny the incarnation of Jesus. They're false teachers who deny in their teaching that Jesus is the eternal son of God in human flesh, and all that implies. That he's equal with God, he's the same essence of God, he became a man so that he'd become the mediator of the new covenant, prophet, priest, and king, so that a heretic is somebody who rejects these basic fundamental truths of the gospel without which there will be no gospel at all. They're antichrists. They're fake and they stand in opposition to Him and they're going to try to deceive you. So you better stay close to each other. Because if you think you can live this life by yourself and endure all that deceivers, you're only fooling yourself, you're only deceived. So he says in verse 8, watch yourselves. Always be on guard. Always have your guard up that you might not lose what you have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Don't ever let your guard down. Don't ever think that in this life you cannot be, you don't have to be vigilant. You gotta be watching yourself. Chosen lady, watch yourself. Watch your children. Local congregation, watch yourself. Because if you think that this evil American culture is a friend of grace, they've already got you. This American culture is not a friend of grace. So watch yourself. These deceivers are everywhere. Now verse 8, he's not saying watch yourself because you may lose your salvation. We've already been told over and over, you can't lose your salvation once it's given to you. So when he says, watch yourselves that you might not lose what you have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. He's not talking about salvation. You can't lose salvation. Grace, mercy, and peace have been given to you. But you can lose the results of works that you've accomplished, things you've done, influence you've had in churches. people that you've taught things. If you cave into these deceivers, you can ruin everything you've been doing. This week, I was crushed to read of a man that I respected. Falls, preacher. because he covered up for years ongoing pedophilia in one of his staff members. How many preachers have you seen, Paul, in the past five, 10 years? How many more will we see? So watch yourself because if you cave in to the deceptions of these antichrists, you can ruin everything you've been working for and everything you've been doing. There was another man about five years ago. You'd know the name. He was famous for years and years and years, had an audience of millions. was able to hide his sin until he was up at about 90 years old. And somebody found out. And there's a lifetime of work thrown away. Watch yourselves. that you might not lose what you've accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far is also being sarcastic. Because these false teachers were talking about going ahead, getting ahead of you poor little Christians. All you little Christians, all you talk about is Jesus. We are way ahead of you now. We've gone far ahead of you. We believe all kinds of more intellectual things. So John's being sarcastic. These guys have gotten so ahead of you, they left God. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, that is, in Christ's teaching and what Christ taught in the 66 books of the Bible, does not have God, no matter what he thinks. The one who abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son. So we see people like that today. They just want to get so far ahead, all these little simplistic things about Jesus loves me, this I know, that's for kindergartens. We've got more intellectual things to talk about now. They get so far ahead that God leaves them. There's progress in the Christian faith. Some people have taken that verse to criticize John. John says, John's making Christianity a sterile thing. John's saying that there's no progress in the Christian faith. It's all the same old stale stuff. There is progress in the Christian faith. There is growth in the Christian faith. There is development and maturity in the Christian faith. But it's growth in the things we already know. We know Christ. We believe Christ. Now we know more about Him. And we increase in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you have this controversial. Verse 10. If anyone comes to you, like one of these itinerant preachers coming to you, If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, don't receive him into your house and don't tell him hello or goodbye. Sounds harsh to a lot of people today. You're saying somebody comes to your house and doesn't believe what you believe then you don't let him come into your house and you don't say hello or goodbye. Sounds awful unloving to me. Maybe it sounds so harsh because John's concern for the glory of God and the welfare of souls is greater than our concern for the glory of God and the welfare of souls. We take so much pride in our tolerance of all views, when maybe it's not tolerance that we have, but indifference toward the truth. Now make sure you know what this verse is saying. Here you have one of these itinerant preachers coming to you with something to sell. He's not bringing the teaching of Christ. He's an antichrist. He's coming to your house to convert you. He's coming to your house to deceive you. Don't receive him into your house. Don't participate in his evil deeds. Don't support him. Don't give him any financial help. Don't give any bread or water. Don't give him a bed to sleep in. But he's hungry and he's tired and he's weary. Don't be an accomplice. Don't invite him into your house. And don't say hello or goodbye. Don't say God bless you. Come back again. You see, love has limits. Love has limits. You don't want to be deceived by this guy, but you don't want to encourage him either. You don't want to see somebody seeing you be nice and loving to this antichrist, and then your friend or your child saying, well, my mother was friendly to him, and I guess, therefore, he's OK. Our preacher was friendly to him. My daddy invited him to his house. Love has limits. Now, it's not talking about your ordinary, everyday false teacher. It's not saying, when somebody who believes the wrong thing comes to your door, don't let him into your house. It's not saying that. Somebody who doesn't believe the wrong thing comes to your house, you can even invite that person home for dinner. Take him out to eat. It's not talking about your ordinary, everyday false, somebody who believes false doctrine. It's talking about somebody who deliberately is a false teacher. and he's coming deliberately to deceive you and to leave you away from Christ. So don't become a hyper-separatist. Don't look for an excuse not to be friendly to people. If you have some friends that don't believe the right things, some Arminian dispensational friends, invite them to your house. And it's not even saying don't invite an Arminian dispensational preacher to your house. He's going to try to make you an Armenian dispensationalist. Okay. It's not talking about them. It's not talking about people who may disagree with particular points of your system of theology. It's talking about bonafide heretics who reject the basic fundamental of the gospel that Jesus is God incarnate. That's the person that is the antichrist. Not the little fundamentalist. Not the little dispensationalist or premillennialist. The heretic who wants to deceive you into believing that Jesus is not God. Don't let him into your house. Don't give him a greeting. I know it's time to quit, but I got a good story. There was these two Jehovah's Witnesses that came to my house one time, a young woman and an older man. They always have somebody new and somebody experienced to come to your door together. So this young woman and this older man come to my door. I see who they are because of their little track called the watchtower. I'm not gonna let them in the house. It's scalding hot that day. It's August. They're standing on my front porch. I'm not gonna let them in. This is all I say. to the girl, I said, did you know that that man who is with you knows that what he's getting you to believe is wrong? I mean, the look on her face, but the look on his face, because you see, I didn't know that was her daddy. They immediately left. Love has limits. And then verses 12 and 13, we'll just hit on. How many things I want to write to you, but I just don't want to put it down on parchment and ink. I'd rather come to you and talk to you face to face that our joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you. You see, that's the result and the effect of love based on truth. It's joy. There's no more, or there shouldn't be, any more joyful life than a life lived by Christians walking on the same path. Walking down the path of God's commandments together. Walking down the path of God's truth. Walking down the path of God's love. There's no more joyful life than that. and there's no more miserable life than not doing that. Let us pray. We thank you, O Lord God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the grace, mercy, and peace that you've given us. that has resulted in our knowing the truth and being able to love you and each other. Bless us and our children as we live in this world to watch out for deceivers, to love each other as you've commanded, and to realize how glorious Christ is and how hideous it is to deny Him, and how important the souls of men are, and how dreadful it is for those souls to be lost. Help us not to compromise or learn to coexist with heresy. We pray for Christ's sake, amen. Let us confess our faith in the triune God by standing and reciting together the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. You may be seated. God is the fountain of all grace, mercy, and peace. We go to hell without that saving grace and saving mercy and saving peace. God doesn't give it to everybody. Not all are chosen ladies, but he does give it to many upon whom he has said his love. And he gives them that grace and mercy and peace through the word and sacraments. That's why we call the Bible the means of grace. That's why we call the sacrament a means of grace. Because these are the instruments that God uses to pour his saving grace and mercy into our lives. So you come to this word that we just preached and you come to this table. You say, Lord, I thank you that you chose me to be the recipient of your grace from all eternity. That's why I love you. I wouldn't love you if you hadn't because I couldn't have, I would have been a rebel. And now I pray that you'd strengthen that love. I pray that you would strengthen my commitment to the truth. I pray that you'd strengthen my resolve and consistency in walking down the path of your commandments. Because I do want to know joy in this life as well as in the next. May that be your prayer as you take the Lord's Supper today. Let us pray. Lord, we know there's nothing magical about