Truth and Love (II John)

because of the truth that 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 Father's Son in truth and love.

Let's start with truth. Truth is more the key word here in 2 John. It's important to understand truth because the truth defines what love is. It abides what abides in the church. If you go back to Jude, we looked at that a few weeks ago, the saints were told that the once for all faith handed down that you're supposed to contend for, it's the faith. Well, that'd be the same thing as the truth. The beliefs and practices, the things Christ has taught us, those are the things that we're contending for according to Jude, and those are the things that we're united around according to John. A little later, we'll be reciting Apostle's Creed before the Lord's Supper. A simple summary of some of the most essential beliefs God the Father had created. His only son, Jesus Christ, who was born, who died, who rose, who is ascended and will return. The Holy Spirit in his church. We have to have a truth that we're gathering around and that we're being built upon. Brian last week pointed out that the church is God taught. Oh, we can never take that for granted. God speaks. It's not a make-up-your-own-ending kind of religion. It's not a let's just try everything and see what works kind of religion. No, it's God who has spoken with such clarity so we know Him and who He is and what He's done. We receive from Him all the truths of who He is, how He loved us, what He expects of us, how good that is, so we don't try to figure out all the different things God could possibly want from us. One of the important things as we think about the truth in love, we love God because he first loved us. That's from 1 John. He sets in motion the love. He sets the standard of what love is. And if you think about love and truth together, we have to see God, who is love, loves us first because we're prone to lies. We're prone to lies. That's why the truth of what love is is so important. We're also prone to love lies. We're also prone to lie with our love. Paul warns us that our desires can be deceptive. This is why as we think about love, we have to have a love that's informed, guarded by truth. And praise God, he's given us truth of what love is. Here, the church who belongs to Christ and therefore to one another, we embrace these truths, we come and we seek to reverberate what Christ has done with one another. There's supposed to be something very unifying that we all come together. We're supposed to sound very similar. Love shouldn't look different for everyone because it's the same measure as Christ loved us. Okay, we all speak with different accents. Some of y'all have accents. We're all different gifts. We do have different ways that we might express love, but there's a way in which we're coming together under the same love, with the same love, to express the same love. But in order to understand the truth aspect, we have to be aware we all come with some kind of lies, some kind of falseness, something we bring from our past, something we haven't yet understood. We're all seeking to be washed over with the truth. That purifies us. That purifies our love so that we can truly love. Notice verse two. The truth that abides in us. That does not mean you go soul searching for truth. John is building off of the gospel of John where it's very clear the Holy Spirit is going Jesus promises the Holy Spirit is going to come and indwell us and remind us of everything Jesus taught. What we need still comes from outside of us. What's amazing is God's word now seals our hearts. The Holy Spirit, giving us these words, writes them on our hearts. It doesn't mean we just look inside now. No, we trust the power of God inside of us through his Holy Spirit to help us see and understand and know his word. And it's forever. Grace, mercy, and peace be with us. It will be with us. If we are the elect of God, if we are loved by God, he will not be stingy with grace, mercy, and peace. Now let's look at the body of this. Let's turn now to the expectation in four to six. Well, we'll come back to that first declaration at the end of this point, but I want us to notice it's, I rejoice greatly. There's rejoicing because of all that he's gonna say. He's encouraging the church in all that he hears about what's going on. So it's not a corrective letter, it's a encouraging and warning letter. But I want you to hear, I want you to listen for something. Listen for legalism. Listen for references to the law.

I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as you were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to the commandments, and this is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.

How many references to a commandment? More than five, maybe more because it's it. The allusion to commands is significant. John sounds like a legalist. I thought this was John the evangelist. Why is he such a legalist? We're commanded by the Father? It's not a new commandment, it's a Jesus commandment. It's walking that commandment. You should walk in that commandment. I thought God was a God of love. Why all the law? Let's go back to the grace, mercy, and peace part. Why the law? These are typical and understandable questions. But they all have a falsehood and a misinformation about them. See, in order to walk in the truth, in order to walk in the love, we have to know who God is and what he said. Let me give two statements that we have to hold to dearly, church.

God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son.

Amen? That's why we all belong to God at some level. God the Father has sent his son. He so loved the world, the system of rebellion against him he loved, so he sent his son to die in that rebellion for those who were participating in that rebellion so he could pull them out in his love. In the second statement, God so loved the church that he gave her his law, amen? Both of those are love. To give us his son who is obedient in all the law because we were disobedient in all the law to save us. And then to continue to love the church by giving us who he is, what he expects of us. Love and law are not opposed. They must be understood together. Look at verse six. And this is love. What is love? We walk according to his commandments. It's too easy to adopt false dichotomies. No, rich theology holds tension together. Law and love are not opposites. God in his love gave us his law. And it's amazing is the God of love tells us in his law that he loves us. what it means to love Him. To delight in God, to love God means we love His law. To give an explanation of this, you can't love your wife and hate her words. You can't love a government and hate her constitution. You can't love God and not love His words that are more tied to Him than anybody else's. He expresses and reveals himself in his words. Now, I wanna be clear, the commands of God can be difficult. Doesn't mean they're not loving, doesn't mean they're not good. It means our sin is an obstacle for us to embrace his love and his law and enjoy them. Let's think about this for a moment. This is the God of love who has given us his law, and his law is highlighting what in these passages? Love. The God of love is highlighting love, and his love is expressed to us so that we might know how to love him. He's actually telling us what love is. Now, he says that this law, verse five, now you ask, dear lady, now, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one you've had from the beginning. This is very important. Jesus has come and he's declared a new commandment. It's not completely new, but it's new for the church. When Jesus summarized the Old Testament, the Old Covenant commands, it was very simple, very clear.

Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Now, there's a new commandment.

Love one another as I have loved you.

There's a different kind of object. recipient of that love, there's a different measure. It's too easy to fall into the lie that I'll love those who have earned it or deserve it. It's too easy to reduce love down to some kind of random acts of kindness. This is, for us church, love is Christ loved us. That wasn't a convenient love, was it? It wasn't a haphazard love. It was pursuing a people who were against him. It was intentional. It was inconvenient. If there's two words that I want to latch onto this, there's so much more we could say, but if there's two words you're going to walk away from, the love that Christ had for us that we should express to others, to one another, is intentionally inconvenient. We want to reduce it down to those who we think deserve it and when it's convenient. Maybe a random act of kindness. There's a direction. The command falls in line with other commands of God. Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself, love one another as Christ has loved you. Those are the three great commandments that summarize the new covenant law. God is the greatest of all. He receives your greatest love. We love him because he first loved us. The key question that I wanna press in that you can talk about at lunch, Love your neighbor as yourself. Well, that's because you love your neighbor as yourself because you're equals. The Bible never tells you to love yourself. It only tells you how to do it well. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love one another as Christ loved you. Key question. Who loves you more, yourself or Jesus? That's a fun conversation to have over lunch. Who would love you more? Who loves you more? Is it yourself or Christ? Is there a different layer? Is there a different kind of love being expressed? I myself find myself to be fickle even to my own love for myself. I'm pretty convinced Jesus loves me more than I do. God, one another, neighbor. I wanna get into that bigger picture because This command to love one another assumes so much, it assumes first that God loved us first. We can only love one another as God commands and expects as we've first received his love. You have no idea how to love one another if you've not first received the love God has for you and as Christ has given to you. We don't love one another because we find each other especially attractive. Are we always in agreement with, and because we never sin, no, we love one another because we've all received the same great love of God. That's the uniting force of the church. It helps us separate all the things that distract us and bother us. We are only united because Christ loved us. And that's why we love one another. We love one another because God loved us, as God loved us. It's important that measure, that as. There are a number of ways in which Jesus gives us measures to help give an evaluation, to help us think through together as a church and as members. How do we measure ourselves? We measure a reception of forgiveness by how ready we are to forgive. It's from Matthew 18. We measure our reverence for God by our willingness to submit. It's Ephesians 5. We measure our love for God by our love for one another. The love of God should be the fuel and movement of our love for one another, but really, we can ask, how much do we love God based upon how much we love one another? Again, it's not because we're alike in age, experience, political persuasion, education, opinion. God loves us because he loves us. We love God because he loves us. We love one another because he loves us. It is that simple. There's a command to walk, to obey. There's a duty here, there's a real practical expectation. He rejoices to hear the children are walking in the truth, verse four, and that they're walking and that they should walk in that commandment. There's a responsibility, it's a duty. We do realize we should love when we don't feel like it. Love isn't void of feeling. Love has a feeling component, but if we've reduced love to a feeling, it's not love. Because love is a promise. Promise to make and to keep. A promise that holds fast. It's a choice in moving your direction towards someone. It isn't just what you fall into or what you're drawn to. It's a commitment. We can't just love when it's convenient. I wanna encourage you church, there's a way in which I hope we've made it pretty convenient to love one another. It's by simply being present with one another when we're gathered on Sunday morning and Wednesday night and members' meetings and other times. If you're not present with somebody, you really can't practically engage in love. We have to know each other in order to love one another. There's a way in which there's a convenience. Here we are, we're loving one another as we sing together and as we hear together and those little conversations we have before the service and the conversations we have after the service. And well, guess what we're having after the Lord's Supper? what Jude calls a love feast. Seems like an opportunity to love one another, sharing meals and lives with each other. There's a certain way in which that should be pretty convenient, but it takes a commitment. It takes an intentionality of pursuing someone and knowing someone. One more application from this particular section, I want us to highlight that word, rejoiced greatly. I rejoice greatly. I want to drop down to 12 and 13, and I want to look at this with that.

Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. The children of your elect sister greet you.

John, the apostle, John the elder, John the evangelist, He expresses joy because the children are walking in love. Now, if you're a parent, you understand what this is at some level, right? Is there anything we desire more than to see our children growing up with maturity, wisdom, professing their own faith, making wise decisions? Is there anything we desire more for our own children? Well, here as a family, we look around and as children loving one another as children of God and brothers and sisters, there's something we long for each other. We would rejoice that we're loving God. Rejoice that we're loving one another. It has been such a absolute joy. to be with the believers here at Jefferson Park for 13 years. To be with you, to see God work in you, to see your love grow for him and for another, to endure trials together. What a joy for 13 years. What a joy to see so many who have come over those 13 years and come back within those 13 years. and they want to participate in what God is doing and knowing how to love Him and love one another. It truly is a joy to be involved in someone's life and to see them growing. The opportunities these last few weeks, especially with the interns, to encourage them and to express joy in what God has even done in those two months. The joy to see somebody go from so much scare to proclaiming God's word faithfully and publicly on a Wednesday night. The counterpart is opposite. It's true that, oh, it's devastating to see somebody walk from the faith, either with their profession or their practice. It's devastating. But the joy we get to have. You think about how full life can be with this big of a family. Celebrated the Heiler's new child being born just a week ago. There's pregnancies here among us. We're looking forward to rejoicing with the new life God's gonna give you. The opportunity we have to come alongside you in sharing the gospel. The wedding this past weekend, rejoicing that Vincent and Abigail are married. The engagements we're looking forward to. What a full-blessed life. That the baptism's coming up, the opportunity for the students to be trained by Matt and to see how the gospel's gonna go out on that camp on the grounds of UVA. Be all things to all people. But the joy, coming in closer, leaning in. Is it without problems? No. Is it without difficulties? No. Is it what God commanded? Yes. Does Jesus say that's how you'll have complete joy? Yes. He's signing Jesus in that last section. So that our joy may be complete. That is referencing what Jesus taught in John 15, 11. The command of love in another is a complete joy promising love. Rejoice with another. One philosopher on friendship says this is the highest form of friendship, where you truly grieve. Like we're grieving for all those who are at Chick-fil-A right now. We don't know this young lady, but we're grieving for our brothers and sisters who are gonna be with the other employees. We're grieving, because we're partnering with them in their lives. We're rejoicing. There's a way in which this is the highest form of friendship where we're so involved in each other's lives with love that we grieve, we rejoice. It's a full life. Even amazing there, the children of your elect sister greet you, the saints everywhere. We pray for Rockfish Valley because those are the dear saints that meet there, and we just sent a team all the way to Zambia, and we get to partner with those saints there. Praise God, he is so big. He has people elect from every nation. Praise God he's so loving that he sent his only begotten son to save us. Praise God he is so righteous that he gave us his good commandments. Let's transition to verse seven. The high expectation of love. It requires us to know each other, to be intentional to another, To recognize it's a promise that is inconvenient, but it's worth it, and the greater promises of God. Now we hear the warning. Verse 7 through 11. Notice the explanation. Why should you love one another? It isn't just because God commanded it, but there's a problem.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus in the flesh, such a one is a deceiver and the antichrist.

All right, so we now have a problem stated. Moving to the second half, many deceivers. That has to just be clearly in contrast to the truth we've seen over and over again. There aren't many truths, there's one truth that is the truth of God, and there are many deceivers. Notice I've read 2 John so many times, I don't know how many I could count, but I've never seen this before, that the deceivers have gone out into the world. Remember Jude, the deceivers were creeping into the church. He describes it differently. I assume here he's speaking of those who were once among you but not truly of you. They have denied Jesus somehow in their profession or their practice, and now they've gone out into the world because when John references the world, it's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. There's the rebellion of Satan against God. There's deceivers who have known of the truth, but they went out into the world. They do not confess the coming, of Jesus in the flesh. Now that is very important. That's the same test John tells us in 1 John to test the spirits. Do they confess Jesus has come in the flesh? That little confession is worth your memorization. Jesus has come in the flesh. It's loaded, it's loaded. Jesus, it's a whole doctrine of Jesus Christ here. It's Jesus, he's come in the flesh. All right, flesh is pretty simple, straightforward. He took on a full humanity. And that confession of him being in the flesh means he came to take on that which he created to die for those who believe in him so they might be saved. There's the taking on of the flesh, That is his full humanity, so that he might be the perfect substitute, but I want us to think about that word came. We're speaking of Jesus' coming. I'm gonna go on a limb. You all came here this morning? You came from somewhere? Everybody existed before you were in this building? Somewhere else? a home, a coffee shop, a car. To come somewhere doesn't mean you just started existing. It isn't that Jesus was born and God adopted him. Jesus came from the right hand of the Father. The Son of God entered into his creation that he created. This is a... It could be too easy to pass over, but to see it's the coming of Jesus implies and demands his preexistence. He who existed for all eternity as a son of God at a time became man and added to himself humanity. He's always been God and fully God and the son of God and always will be, but at a time, at the right time, he took on flesh. We see here The deceivers are denying some aspect of a full Jesus. Let me be clear. Everybody likes a little bit of Jesus. Everybody likes something Jesus said or something Jesus did. Right? Everybody will embrace something of Jesus. But it's, do you know all of who he is? Everybody likes Jesus as a teacher, as long as you're teaching everybody else. But is he God? The only way of salvation, the way, the truth of life. Is he God the lamb who dies for sinners because we are so pathetic and bound to our own sin, we cannot save ourselves or free ourselves? Is he fully manned to do all the things we could not do? Will he return as a judge? Believer, we have to embrace the truth without giving any qualifications. And it's important, Christian, that we gather more and more to embrace all of what Christ has done and all of who Christ is. Because as I was sharing with a dear brother this week, we talked about how difficult it is that too often the gospel is reduced to you're forgiven and then just start doing stuff. It's so dangerously close to the gospel. You're purchased and adopted and loved and brought near. The wholeness of all Christ is done as the king who rules with power, the shepherd who protects, the brother who brings you a seat at the table, a prophet who speaks words of comfort and correction, a physician that heals and unknots the heart that's tangled up in sin. We need all of Christ. We can't just choose. We too easily fall into deception when we think, I'm going to only like this part of Christ. No, it's all of Christ or none of Christ. Notice the deceivers, they're antichrist.

Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

All right, we need to just be careful here. I didn't bring any charts today. An antichrist is anyone who proclaims Christ but misrepresents him. Someone who's intentionally seeking to declare something Jesus is not or has not said or take away something. The goal here is to be consistent and faithful for who Jesus is from his own word. There are many antichrists. They're all ages, there are some that are incredibly clearly anti-Christ, but there's anti-Christ and the most dangerous here I believe you should be aware of is the preachers are anti-Christ. Those who are proclaiming something that's not true of Christ. We can think of some out there, the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, they all confess something of Jesus Christ that would almost align pretty clearly with scripture. But it's what they deny. And they all have their own revelation that tells them to deny. Hear the warning. Walk in that commandment, for deceivers have come from among you. Verse eight, the command, watch yourselves. And that's a plural. Watch yourselves. The church collective, the brothers and sisters, the children, we're watching ourselves and one another. We're watching our doctrine, we're watching our behavior, we're watching our love. Watch yourselves, and there's a purpose.

So that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

There are rewards in heaven. You're saved by faith. By God's grace, you are saved by faith alone. Notice here, he's speaking to the church, exhorting them to do what Jesus said, and the possible problem is they might lose what might be known as crowns, a reward. The elder, the other believers have been working for each believer to end the race and hear the words,

well done, good and faithful servant.

There's a labor that we rejoice in that you would faithfully persevere. And he's worried that you might lose, not salvation, because you can't, but reward. Are we living for reward when we see Jesus face to face? We're living for rewards, let's be very clear. We all live for some kind of reward, some kind of accomplishment. Let's get gritty. Could you tell me every player's name for the UVA basketball team and maybe even give me a recruitment breakdown? And yet not know a member of the church's name that you're about to take the Lord's Supper with. That's disordered loves. It's easy to love those people out there that we don't really know, because it's easy. God's called to love when another has a real eternal purpose and joy and reward. Whatever you're investing in a sport that has a trophy, we know how futile it is. The transfer portals ruined everything. We know it's futile, but that's where our hearts just so easily move like water. Direct your heart's love to what God says. Don't let it flow like water. You have a glorious God who is high and lifted up. He does not give low callings. He whose name is high and lifted up. He only gives high callings for those who he descended to save. Do not be deceived. Love one another. Do not lose heart, your reward. If you deny the son, you deny the father. Verse nine is very clear.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

Notice there, there's a negative and a positive statement. He's making it very clear. He's denied and affirmed. There's no wiggle room. If you don't abide in the teaching of Christ, you don't have God the Father. Abiding, that's the limb tied to Christ. The vine of the branches from Jesus in John 15. The opposite of what happens is we as a vine all of a sudden think, well, I'm going to try to plant myself and get my own roots and create my own fruit. You might be able to staple some fruit to your branch, but you don't produce any real fruit if you're not actually abiding, united with, obedient with God. But the opposite is true, that if you're abiding in the teaching, you both have the Father and the Son. Notice the importance of believing in Him and abiding, living in that teaching of God the Father and God the Son. This reminds us of the Great Commission,

make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I've told you.

Verse 10-11 brings us to a very weighty application point.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching,

that is, Jesus has come in the flesh,

Do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Third John, we're gonna hear, give to men like these who are partnering in the gospel and are proclaiming the same gospel. Here it's, notice how guarded it is. Somebody's coming and proclaiming Christ, not proclaiming the full gospel and the true gospel, not participating in the love of the saints. Don't let them in because if you let them in, you're participating in the wicked works. It's important, we're apostolic, we seek to make known the Christ who is because of what the apostles taught us through the word and the Holy Spirit carried along. We're a church seeking to be united according to God's word, we're warned and watched by those that teach contrary. There's an important element here that we're all under God's word Together, and I want you to see church, he's talking to you in this passage. This isn't addressed to the elders of the elect laity. It's to you. We have kind of an interesting dynamic. I'm told to insist upon God's word with all authority, and you're called to listen to God's word with reverence, and you're called to remove me if I do not proclaim God's word. I demand you do it for my own fear of condemning myself more if I'm not proclaiming the gospel. But that's the dynamic. You see here, it's not, I pray we always have elders who are proclaiming and teaching God's word, but it's your responsibility, church. This isn't a sit back and watch and see what happens kind of thing. You're responsible. You're responsible for what's being taught, for keeping the dangers away as much as the elders are. Now how could those dangers come in? So many ways. Books, ideas, songs. We need to be warned, all of us, as the kind of things we're gonna bring in that are possibly gonna corrupt the gospel. The danger is you can participate in those wicked works. by engaging them and entertaining them. As we conclude, let's back up and see this big picture. The problem stated, the diagnosis is deceivers have gone to the world. That's the danger. They deny Jesus' deity, his authority, his law. What's the prescription? The problem is deniers, deceivers are gonna deny Jesus and his authority and his law the prescription, love one another. Be united under God in his love and practice that love. What a picture, it's a little surprising. The picture is that we're all going to come together under Christ and his word, and we're going to be obedient to it. Our faith is going to have practice. A healthy church committed to Christ is more and more immune to the kind of dangers that can creep in. A healthy church is one where the members in the pews embrace, learn, and teach, and practice what Christ has taught. What we see here, there's a beautiful, high calling of God. that we can rejoice with one another as we love one another because we have been loved together by Christ. Will you pray with me? Father, we pray that we would long to draw near to you and to one another. We thank you that your grace abounds where our sin abounds that allows us to take steps of faith towards you and one another. I pray more that we would grow more and more aware and know your love for us so that we would love you more, so that we would love one another more. that we be a church united in the truth and the love of Christ. In his name we pray, amen.