Let's go to the Lord again in prayer. Our gracious, merciful God, we bow before You again to acknowledge that You are God and there is none other. You alone have created all things, and Your works are awesome and great. And equally true, just, and faithful are Your ways. We worship You, the living and true God, through the Lord Jesus Christ and His merits. And we also thank You that You've given us Your Spirit to enable us to do so. In fact, when we ponder the fact of what You tell us, that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we can't easily, I guess, understand the fullness of the riches of Your wisdom to do so. And Father, we come tonight then with great gratitude in our heart for who you are and for all of your great works on our behalf. Made in your image, you called us out of darkness into the marvelous light. You rescued us from the wrath to come, causing us to be born again by your Spirit from above to be able to know you as Father and to know your Son as our Lord and Savior. and your Spirit illuminates us with these truths that we understand and can know, but can we probe the depth of them? We will spend eternity exploring and never coming to fully know the infinite being that you are. But what you have revealed to us is enough. We can spend our full lives from Genesis to Revelation exploring the depths of how great you are. And still, we only know a part. God, give us a hunger and a thirst to know you better. Give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Give us a hunger and thirst to follow Christ, denying ourselves to take up a cross, being willing to go outside the gate if it necessary, to suffer for His holy namesake. We are a needy people and we are so dependent upon you. And if we would only acknowledge how dependent we are, it might make us more devoted to you. And then, Lord, may we have the delight that your children should have in obeying you. so that we do not fall aside, so that we do not get off the straight and narrow path to the celestial city in vanity fair or in the slough of despondency, but ever growing in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, moving on, pressing on for that upward call that's in Christ Jesus to become more like Him. And you've given us the means by which that will be accomplished. And tonight as we open your Word, that is one of the means, the preached Word, whereby you feed your children that we might grow. If it pleases you tonight, Father, that you might call one still dead in their sins to life. But Lord, we also ask that if it pleases you, you would work in each one of us who know you, that we might know you better, that we might know the truth that is in Jesus Christ and live by that truth, that we might glorify you in all that we do and say, that we might be found faithful to you throughout the week ahead and be a good witness for Christ. Again, we praise You, Father, that You are good and You do good all the time. And we are so blessed to be able to call You our Father. And we do so in Jesus' blessed name. Amen. If you open your Bibles to John's Gospel, chapter 15. I know you probably had 2 John already opened. There are many evangelical churches today. There are many evangelicals, I should say, in churches today that are robbing themselves of rewards. This text gives us something to think about in that term, reward. Beginning at verse 8, My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go out and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another." What is the reward Jesus says a Christian should enjoy? not that I meant to use that word in joy to alert you to what it said there in verse 11, that your joy may be full. That is a reward that Christ promises. So how were evangelicals in churches, how are evangelicals in churches being robbed of this reward? Well, the context makes it quite clear by simply not obeying God's Word. By living to please men rather than obeying commands to please God, bearing fruit that would remain. And what is the fruit that should remain? Keeping His commandments, abiding in His love, just as He kept the Father's commandments and abided in the Father's love. Abiding in Jesus Christ and His love is receiving a full reward. Now John, in his epistle, if you want to turn there, We'll mention his concern that those that he's writing to may also enjoy a full reward. But we will not get to that text until next week. That is in verse 8. Tonight we will only be looking at a review of the first six verses and verse 7. As I read John 15, there was a couple words that were repeated several times. One of them was love, the other was obey. These are frequently used by John in not only his gospel, but in his three epistles. And there's another word that while we didn't see it directly in John 15, we can by inference see that it was meant to be there, at least by the way he described what Jesus has brought to reveal to us, and that is the Father's Word. Truth. Another favorite word that is used by John When he says that he has brought the Father's word to us, we know that from other scriptures that that is nothing more than the word of truth. Psalm 119 and verse 43. Psalm 119 verse 160 says that the entirety of God's word is truth. So if Jesus brings God's word to us, it's truth. So love, obey, and truth. Those three words are so prominent in John's writings. In fact, over half of the New Testament's use of the word truth appear in John's writings. And his focus, whenever he's talking about truth, is to connect reality with the truth. A thing is true. Why? Because it lines up with reality as revealed by God. We can know we can experience such reality only by choosing to obey Jesus' commands. His words that he has spoken shows us the life that God wants us as his children to live. And he prayed in his high priestly prayer, Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So in this second epistle, John was writing to people that he had apparently come in contact with that were from this church. And that in that contact, they informed him that some in the church, John, were doing quite well. They're walking in the truth, some, not all. But that brought joy to John's heart that he knew that there were some walking in the truth. And when he writes, he wants to encourage them to continue doing so, but he also wants to give them a warning of something that he was aware of, of the present danger being posed by the infiltration of those who were denying Jesus Christ's coming in the flesh. He apparently is taking the message to those people of both encouragement with a warning. I brought this first part of the message, I don't know how many weeks ago it was, because Pastor Thomas was away and I was doing a morning service, and I started, I thought to do the whole letter, and I didn't. And I thought that I would conclude the letter tonight, but I really want to be careful how we see again the concepts of truth, obedience, and love in the first part of encouragement, but we will get through to verse seven. His message is really simple. Know the truth, love the truth, live the truth. His letter can be divided into three parts, the salutation and greeting in verses 1 through 3. The body of his letter runs from verse 4 through verse 11, and it has two sub-parts, the encouragement part, verses 4 through 6, the warning part, verses 7 through 11, and then his closing in verses 12 and 13. briefly just about the greeting part and the salutation, it is John, the apostle, who is the elder, writing to the chosen lady and her children, which I described the last time as being a local church that he was familiar with. His greeting of grace, mercy, and peace that is significant in that it says, we'll be with us. He doesn't say grace, mercy and peace be with you. It says that it is already and we'll be with them. But it's even more striking that he has at the very beginning clearly identified Jesus Christ deity. that this grace, mercy, and peace comes from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. A parallelism that shows the co-equality of Jesus with the Father. If Jesus is the one that gives grace and mercy and peace, and the Father gives grace, mercy, and peace, they are co-equal. The deity of Christ is brought out in his greeting. John could have simply said to these people, I love you in truth because of the truth, because of Christ, who is the truth. Then we come to the body of his letter, verses 4 through 11. And the first part is that which is of encouragement that the Christians need to be exhorted to continue practicing the truth, to continue walking according to Christ's commands. In verse 4, it's the walking in truth that He is encouraging them to continue. What does it mean, walking in the truth? It's what you believe that is the truth. And believe me, as I think you already do, how one believes is really seen in how one conducts themselves. Matt this morning did a wonderful job of saying to us what we believe about God, how we think upon God affects everything that we do. And then in verses five and six, he's speaking about not just walking in the truth, but walking in love. And that is where we get to that idea of the importance of how we behave, how we live based on the truth that we believe. If our homes and our church are to be true to Christ. If we're going to be able to defend the truth against all forms of false teaching and opposition against Christ's doctrine, then we must be learning, ever learning, always learning the truth. And how do we go about that? Well, God's given us the very means that we need to learn the truth. He's given us His Word, and so we need to be reading it and studying it and in church being faithful to hear it in Sunday school and in the preaching of God's Word during worship. That's a means by which God graciously builds us up in what we are to learn and to know. We also have the ordinances that when they're observed, we also have prayer the means by which we commune with God and ask Him to teach us, to fill us with the true knowledge of Himself. But most importantly, when we practice what we know, we're really going to grow. We learn truth with our minds, we love the truth with our hearts, and we live the truth by our wills, choosing to obey. The whole person, our totality of an individual, mind, affections, and our will must be engaged in that sense of handling the truth rightly. The first commandment, the first great commandment was summarized by Jesus. It's in Deuteronomy and it's also in Matthew's Gospel. Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole mind. Deuteronomy says, and with your whole strength. That's you as a person. Everything about you is to love the Lord your God. Can you love what you don't know? We must be learning to know God even better by the means that He has given us. Those verses 4 through 6, what one word do you see repeated in each of those verses four times? It should stand out strikingly, commandment. Commandment stands out in verse 4 and 5 and 6. Why is John repeating that word? Why is he using it so frequently over and over? Because he is expressing God's will for his people. We are to love God. And how do we show that we love God? By walking according to His commandments, by obeying Him. You want to test your love for God? Look at your obedience to His commandments. Verse 6, this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. Love of God that does not result in obedience to God's Word cannot be of the faith which was once handed down to the saints. The faith that Paul says works through love. The faith that James says is not a mere hearer but a doer of the Word. Love of God that does not result in obedience to God's Word Is that love? You say you love God. Do you do what He says? That's a test. And it can only be expressed, even as John says in his first epistle, in chapter 3 and verse 18, little children, let us love. Wouldn't it have been nice if he just put a period there and left it so, let us love. No, he goes on and says, with word, nope, not just with word. With tongue, nope, not just with tongue. but in deed and in truth, action and in truth. You want to test your obedience? See how much you love God and your neighbor. See, obedience, that does not lead to genuine love for God and love for others, which Jesus simply says that others will know that we're his disciples by the love we have for one another. And if we loved Christ, we would have love for one another. We can say we love people, but that's got to be rooted in our love for God first. Obedience that does not lead to love is not correct obedience being offered to God. It's legalist obedience, perhaps. It's just so that you don't get caught in a disobedient act. But obedience that is not leading to genuine love is not being obedient to God. So we are commanded. by John as he exhorts and encourages the saints that he wrote to for three things, that they are to walk in the truth, that to love one another, and that they're to walk in obedience to God's commandments. The late Dr. James Montgomery Boyce, in his commentary on this passage, put it this way, It may be objected by some that this is not possible, that a person cannot be commanded to love, to follow truth, and to pursue righteousness. But that is precisely what we are commanded to do." He goes on saying that believing God's truth is not optional and that failing to believe is not intellectual inability, it's sin. Turn with me again to John's Gospel, chapter 3. Believing God's truth, believing God's Word is not optional for a Christian. Failing to believe is not intellectual inability, it's sin. In John chapter 3, beginning at verse 18, He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." You're born judged already because you're in unbelief. The judgment is already hanging over the head the moment you're born in unbelief. And the only way that a person is able to believe is because of the work of God in us. That He first must regenerate us, quicken and make us alive to believe. And then the one who believes not only comes to the light, the light that is in Christ, the light that is sent into the world to dispel the darkness, but notice it is also the one who comes and practices the truth in obedience to the truth, to all that God has given us. So when we're commanded to love, it's nothing more than obeying God to do what Christ did, a self-sacrificing action deliberately undertaken for the welfare, for the good of others. When we're commanded to follow the truth or to pursue righteousness, it is so that we might grow in our knowledge of our God and of Christ. To grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ comes by practicing the truth by an obedient and deliberate choice that we daily have to make if we're going to pursue knowing God, loving God, and obeying Him. None. None of us will grow. None of us would ever make any change in our lives if we don't obey God's Word. It's more than the light. It is our life. Look again at verse 5. When John says that he asks this lady, he pleads with her, but not writing a new commandment, but the one that we have had from the beginning. It's not something new because the Old Testament has instructed God's people from the very beginning to love your neighbor, to love others. But what is it then that's new? With Christ coming. Then the old commandment to love God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself has now a new emphasis with a new example attached to it, and that is Christ Himself. At the last supper, Jesus took his robe and laid it aside, girded himself with a towel, bent down and washed disciples' feet. When he finished, he simply said to them, what I have done is giving you an example. I want you to do what I have done. You do as I did to you. He exemplified humble self-service, self-sacrifice. His whole life here on earth was nothing more than an exemplification of that love of God stooping down to meet our need as sinners to be redeemed. In fact, the supreme example of that love is His going to the cross. Pastor Thomas mentioned again this morning that verse, John 15 and verse 13, no greater love has anyone than that they laid down their lives for His friends. We who were once God's enemies, He sent His only Son to die for us, to reconcile us to the Father so that we have peace and we can now be called His children and we can address Him as our Father, but a friend we have in Jesus. It's also new now because we can experience this, because God has, by His Holy Spirit, poured out His love into our hearts, enabling us to obey Him, to be a self-sacrificing servant. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, Galatians 5.22. We have no excuse. God has done everything and given us everything in Christ. for us to learn the truth, to love the truth, and to live the truth. He sends his letter to encourage those in that church with those themes of love and truth and obedience. And if we hope to receive our full reward, which is more than just the joy that Christ promises when we do love Him and obey Him, It's much more, but it's something that we need to take tonight. John's exhorting us as well on those three words, love, truth, and obedience. If we want to receive a full reward, we need to pay attention to those words and live victoriously in them. Are you living in the truth? Are you living in faithfulness every day? Are you walking in love toward God and toward your neighbor, toward one another in the church? Are you walking according to God's commandments, to all that Jesus taught that we are to observe and to keep? It's only when we believe the truth, how God in His mercy and goodness saved us, and He saved us from our sins. The evidence of our salvation, so great a salvation in Christ, is to be seen in our love and obedience. And when we love God, we will obey Him. And as we obey Him, we're going to be strengthened in the truth because He will reveal it to us. In other words, it's circular in the way it's worked out, but if you don't love the truth, you won't love. And if you don't love, you won't learn the truth. And it all kind of hinges on obedience. Every day we make a decision, every moment of every day. I choose to please myself or I choose to please my Lord. When we understand what God has given us and we begin to obey all His commandments because we love Him for giving us Himself, His grace, His mercy, His goodness, we will also learn more truth. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who obey His commandments. Psalm 111 and verse 10. The fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom, but we won't grow and have a good understanding if we don't practice what we know. The evidence of one's salvation is not what you profess, but how you obey. It's not your words that you'll say, but your deeds that we observe. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me." Those are clear, easy-to-understand sentences in the Word of God from the John's writings, the Gospel in 1 John. We need to seek to have Christ, the fullness of Him, the fullness of His grace in us for those things to be real, to be a reality in our life. We can't do it in the flesh. It must be by His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ dwelling within. And if we seek Him and His righteousness and His kingdom every day, all those things He freely and wonderfully gives. The second part of John's body of the letter is that we as Christians must protect the truth. Specifically, in context, protecting the truth about His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. John mentions the opponents, the ones that pose the danger of infiltrating the churches, known as deceivers and antichrists. He warns them against them. In verses 8 and 9, He gives His command to watch, to be on the alert, so that they don't lose what's been accomplished, but receive a full reward. And then in verses 10 through 11, He's warning not to give any assistance to the opponents of Jesus Christ, who go about teaching heresy and lies. But notice at the beginning of verse 7, the word there is for. John sets forth the reason for his encouragement in verses 4 through 6. To love one another, to walk in the truth. There's a reason he wants them to walk in the truth and to love one another. It's because there are many deceivers that have gone out into the world. who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ's incarnation. Many deceivers left churches and they began to go around spreading their heretical teaching that they didn't believe that Jesus came in the flesh as a human being, a human man. They went John also dealt with these deceivers and antichrists in his first epistle. Turn back just a couple pages to chapter 2 of 1 John. These verses parallel verse 7 through 9 in 2 John, beginning at verse 18 of 2 John, 1 John 2, verse 18. Children, it is the last hour, and 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 had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out, so that it would be shown that they are not all of us." They all are not of us, but you have an anointing from the Holy Spirit and you all know. I have written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, and the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide, remain in you. which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides, remains in you, you also will abide or remain in the Son and in the Father." He's writing to those that he knows, knows the truth. They'd already heard from the beginning about Jesus Christ coming, God in the flesh. They've heard it from the beginning. And that is to remain and abide within them. And if they do, if they keep that abiding in them, that this is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully God, then you will receive eternal life. John is saying, these things that I'm writing to you about those deceivers, they're trying to lead you astray. He's confronting the heresy that denies or radically interpreted the cardinal doctrine of the incarnation. And that error, that heresy, was known as docetism. What is a docetist? What is docetism? They basically deny the fleshliness of Jesus Christ. The Greek verb, doceo, means to seem or to appear. It was influenced by what we had talked about in 2 Peter, this neoplatonic dualism, that there is a sort of a dichotomy between matter is evil, but spirit is good. And the doc, the doc, the doc, I can't say that word, the docetist took that and said, well, then Jesus cannot be man because that's evil. And if he is God, then it can't be in the flesh. And that influenced them to take on this false teaching and this doctrine that Jesus Christ could not have been fully man because matter is evil. So therefore he just seemed to be man or appeared to be man, but no, there couldn't have been real flesh there. I was taught in seminary and systematic theologies that what is not assumed cannot be redeemed. And if Jesus Christ did not assume and take on a human flesh, our bodies, our humanness, we're left without a Redeemer. They taught that the body of Jesus Christ was not real. They denied explicitly the reality of His humanity back then. One of the early church fathers, Ignatius, condemned these docetists and he wrote this. Jesus Christ was of the race of David, the child of Mary, who was truly born, and ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate." That was early writings. But the doctrine of the humanity of Christ was later dealt with beautifully by Anselm. And if there's ever a hard book to read, but it's rich, rich about defending. And so while that was an early heresy, what would you think today, not denying Christ's humanity, but seeing more and more of the denial of His deity? The pendulum of the error has swung over the many centuries. But John is saying, many deceivers have gone out into the world. And because that, you need to continue to walk in the truth. You need to continue to learn the truth. You need to continue to love one another so that you encourage one another, so that one of the sheep in the body doesn't get led astray by any who come in, infiltrate, and begin to say, you know, Jesus couldn't have been fully man. Showing the exit. We'll learn that also later about separation from the false teachers. But that word at the beginning of verse 7 links the two sections together. The encouragement to walk in love, to walk according to truth has got a good reason attached to it. There are many going out wanting to lead Christians astray. And when John knew that there were some walking in the truth, it brought him great joy, but he also knew of the danger that was happening. And he writes this explicit warning so that the church might be alerted to protect the truth concerning Jesus Christ. They defected. They left the believing community and they were going out as disciples of Satan to spread lies. And do not think for a moment that that could only exist back then. It is so true today as when we were going through 2 Peter and all of the false teachers. They turned away from the faith that was once handed down and turned again away from the truth and away from the church and all away from Christ. There are many today that turn from the truth. They abandon the church's sure foundation, the hymn that we sang this morning. They turn from the Scriptures. They turn from the teachings of the New Testament apostles and prophets. They turn from the chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ Himself. They're religious deceivers. They're religious liars. They're not Christians. And they exist today. The church must be vigilant to defend the truth, to protect the truth of who Jesus Christ is. How important is that one question Jesus asked of his disciples in Matthew chapter 16? Who do people say that I am? After hearing their answers, he looked, and I would imagine he looked at everyone in the eye. Who do you say that I am? Only a true confession that thou art Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, is faith that He is who He says He is and came to do what He did, accomplished our redemption. Well, it takes constant spiritual vigilance to protect a family, to protect a church from deceivers, Their attacks come from within. And what we believe will determine, literally, how we conduct ourselves. Wrong doctrine always produces wrong living. They always go together. The doctrine of the resurrection. When Paul was saying, if you get this doctrine wrong, you're keeping bad company and it's going to lead to loose morals. You begin to see the cracks and the crumbling. You let one doctrine go and others start to follow. Orthodoxy alone produces orthopraxy. Sound doctrine produces right living. What you believe about Jesus Christ will impact every area of your theology, of your life. These deceivers in John's days, they were attacking the very heart of the Christian faith by denying Jesus Christ coming in the flesh as incarnation. And John begins his gospel In the beginning, there was God, the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word is God, God is the Word. And the Word became flesh, John 1, 14, and dwelt among us, tabernacled with us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The end of verse 7, he says, this is the deceiver and the antichrist. Notice that the deceivers that have gone out into the world went from plural to a singular with the definite article attached to it, as well as definite article with antichrist. And John adds the antichrist after the deceiver. Their numbers are many. Their message is destructive. They are standing against the person and work of Jesus Christ. Therefore they are antichristos. They are antichrists. They are actively opposed to Christ and they proclaim a message of heresy. Is it possible for Christians to be affected by spiritual deception? Many might argue that no, that can't happen to a true Christian, to be spiritually caught up in deception. And I just want to ask, then why does the Scripture have so many warnings to us? Do not be deceived. Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and shall deceive many. And then he says in Luke 21, take heed that you be not deceived. Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2.3, Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come except there be a falling away first, a great apostasy occurring, that man of sin to be revealed, and then the coming of Christ. You can look up Romans 16.18. 1 Corinthians 15.33, Galatians 6.7, and Ephesians 5.6. There are more. Just use the concordance. Spiritual deception is real. It's frequently mentioned in the Bible. It is a present danger. It's from Genesis to Revelation. In Genesis, it was Eve. She was deceived by the serpent. It's in Revelation where it says Satan is going to go out and deceive the whole world. We have a command four times repeated in the New Testament, very succinct, do not be deceived. And then John writes in his first letter, little children, make sure that no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. Let no one deceive you. If you believe, in Jesus Christ. Your righteousness, His righteousness has been imputed to you. And you practice righteousness because you're obeying Him. What you believe will affect how you behave. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11 as we come to our close. Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians. Paul, in this chapter, defends his apostleship, but first these first five verses speak to this whole context of tonight, verse 7 out of 2 John. I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you, with a godly jealousy. For I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, You bear this beautifully. You put up with this. You submit to this happily. What's going on? What's going on in that church in Corinth that they were on the verge of being led astray, deceived from what they had not been taught, what they had not been given, The danger Paul feels, he says, I am afraid for you. That someone's going to come in and be telling you things and you're going to receive it, you're going to accept it. You're not even going to stand up and say, heresy. There's the exit. Paul tells us how this can happen. Someone comes in and they begin to speak, they begin to teach. Are we on the alert? Are we watching? Are we listening? Is that what I've been taught? Children, you listen when you've been taught at home and you know sound doctrine and you should be able to have yours as well. That's not what I was taught. You're saying something different. Those who fail to faithfully walk in the truth or to learn the truth are susceptible. They put themselves in a place of danger. If we're not taking in the Word of God, how will we defend the truth? His Word is truth in its entirety. And once a person starts straying from the sheepfold, then the wolves that Paul warned the Ephesian elders about in Acts 20. Be on guard, he says to these elders, for yourselves first, 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, Paul said, 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. It's a danger. We pray for the members of the church that God would keep you and protect you from error, but we need your prayers as your elders that we are not ones who would lead you astray. In our teaching, it would be better for a millstone to be put around our necks and thrown into the river if we ever taught you error or a lie. But we need prayers to protect us and to guard our minds and that we stay faithful to the Scriptures studying them and learn them to teach them. We must give an account one day to the Lord Jesus Christ on how we fed His sheep, how we protected His sheep, how we cared for His sheep. Pastor Thomas and I need your prayers and your support. If we are going to carry out what the Apostle John did in his letter to those that he loved, that he loved in truth, because he knew they knew the truth, And He just wanted to encourage them, but also to say, be warned. Danger is there. It's present. It's real. Watch yourselves. Next week we'll pick it up with verse 8 through the rest of the body of the letter. Let's pray.