Turn with me to 2 John. 2 John. And I had a prayer request this
evening, and of course we always have people to pray for. Helen,
and continue to pray for Steve, and
Dan Culver. Everybody here knows Dan Culver.
He's preached down here a lot. He had open heart surgery Monday
morning. They found him with a bunch of
blockage Sunday afternoon because he got to acting strange and
he wasn't getting enough blood. His wife took him to the emergency
room and first thing Monday morning he had open heart surgery. So
grateful that he didn't have a heart attack too. So remember
Dan, he's the pastor of Wheelersburg Grace Church where Charlie Pennington
was. Charlie got sick and wasn't able
to continue. and the neighbor, Ruby's neighbor,
and Albert and Barb's neighbor, they requested prayer for. I'm
going to read this whole 13 verses and then deal with just a few
of them tonight. The elder unto the elect lady
and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I,
but also they that have known the truth. For the truth's sakes,
which dwelleth in us and shall be with us, forever. Grace be
with you, mercy and peace from God the Father, and from the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoice greatly that I found
of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment
from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady,
not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we
had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this
is the love that we walk after His commandments. And this is
love that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment that,
as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. For many
deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus
Christ has come into flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves. that you
lose not those things which you have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward. Whosoever transgresses and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. For
he that biddeth him God's speed is partaker of his evil deeds. Having many things to write unto
you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come
unto you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. The
children of thy elect sister greet thee. Here in 2 John, there
ain't but 13 verses. And in 3rd John, there's 14. But the subject tonight, the
things that I want to look at and deal with is found there
in truth and love. Truth and love. John's an old
man now. He's way, way up in his 90s. They've tried to kill him. And
he's exiled to the Isle of Patmos in his last days, but he's probably
writing here from Ephesus, from what I can understand. But he's
an old man, and he's outlived every one of the apostles. All
the apostles, he's outlived them all. He outlived James, and John,
and outlived Peter, and Matthew, and Jude. He outlived all of
them. But he had a pastor's heart.
When you read his letters, he had a pastor's heart. He is an
elder and he loved Christ. He loved the truth. He taught
the truth and he loved the Lord's people who loved the truth and
knew the truth and believed the truth. These two pistols are
personal. They're addressed to persons,
personal people, addressed to certain people and the saints
who met together that he knew. The first was to the elect lady.
The second one down here, 3 John, he writes to the well-beloved
Gaius. So these are writing, he picked somebody, people that
he knew personally. He wrote these little letters
too. But they both of them have stern and serious warnings about
false teachers and preachers. That's what he said in verse
7. After knowing the truth and loving the truth, many deceivers
are going out into the world. And they say, he warns us, don't
you ever, ever turn from the doctrine of Christ. Don't ever,
ever even say God bless somebody who's not preaching the doctrine
of Christ, if you ever hear them preach. Don't say the Lord bless
you, if he's not preaching the truth and not preaching the gospel.
You know, it's like a fella, you know, a guy goes in with
a gun, robs a bank. Two or three go in and rob a
bank. They hold the gun. But that guy in the getaway car
is going to go to jail just as much as them fellas took the
guns in the bank. And that's the way it is if we acknowledge
and ask God to bless somebody, it's not preaching the gospel.
That's the same thing John's talking about here. And they
have serious warnings. And he warned about some things
that was going on here where Gaius met with the people. But he addresses here, he said,
unto the elder, unto the elect lady and her children. And here
He comes to address a certain woman. Don't tell us her name,
don't tell us her age, don't even tell us where she lives.
And I tell you, and her children, and you know you think that's
kind of strange. Well, no, no, in Christ there's neither male
nor female. We're all one in Christ. Christ views us all as
members of His body. And our Lord gave special attention
to women and ladies in His ministry. on this earth. You remember the
Samaritan woman at the well? Our Lord had a conversation with
her and it shocked His disciples that He was talking to a Samaritan. She was shocked that He was a
Jew and would talk to a Samaritan. But He did and saved her by His
grace. And look how He treated Mary
and Martha. The Scriptures tell us He loved
them. And He ate in their home different times. And look what
he did with the woman with the issue of blood. He turned around
and spoke to her. And the Syrophoenician woman
that brought her daughter grievously vexed with the devil. So he always
had a special relation and treated women and done things for women. And after his resurrection, you
know who the first person he appeared to? It was Mary. And when he called her name, And then you know what he said
now you run into You run to Galilee and you tell my brethren tell
my disciples that I'll meet them there And that's the she went
and told the disciples Christ said he's gonna meet you over
here in Galilee And then he said and tell Peter too. I want Peter
to be there too. So you see and then you look
in the Old Testament and When he talks about here the elect
lady, a certain woman, not mentioned her name, where she's from or
nothing. But there's Miriam, Moses' sister. And Ruth, who
could not remember Ruth, who couldn't remember Ruth. And then
there's Deborah and Esther that saved the Jews. And then in the
New Testament, there was Dorcas. Remember how they prayed? She
died and everybody was talking about what a wonderful lady was
and all the things that she had done. And they just told her,
holding all the stuff and things she'd done. And Simon Peter raised
her from the dead. And then Lydia, whom the Lord's
heart opened. And Priscilla. And then there's
Timothy's mother and grandmother, Lois and Eunice. So the scriptures
talks about women. And here John, the Lord Jesus
Christ was pleased to honor and distinguish by His blessed grace
a certain woman here. By having a letter by an apostle
addressed to her. Addressed to her. And it's in
the Bible. It's in the Bible. And look what it says here now.
Here's what John says about himself. He says the elder. He says the
elder. Now he may be talking about his
age. because he was an old, old man
at this time. Or maybe he's just talking about
his office. That's what you know. A lot of
people refer to their office as elder. And you know I'm an
elder. And Peter talked about the elders
to feed the church of God. And also, you could be referring
to his office or age. It didn't make any difference.
But it's still, he's an old man and he's also an elder before
all the other people. And then look what he says, to
the elect lady and her children. To the elect lady and her children. He's even addressing her children.
Now there's no sense in us speculating who this is, whether she's a
widow or not, but she's addressed as an elect lady. And we know
no more about her than what God's Word tells us about her. I was
reading some different people today about this, and one man
believed that it was Martha because of the way a word in there was. But he knew the Greek word for
it, and he said it's the same word as Martha. I don't know
Greek, so I don't know. And I do know this, that it says
an elect lady and her children. And that's enough for me, ain't
it you? But this is what we know about her. She's one of God's
elect. He said, this select lady, she
is one of God's elect. Chosen by His grace to eternal
life. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
says in the last days, He said, you know what I'm gonna do? He
said, I'm gonna send my angels and they're gonna gather my elect.
They're gonna gather my elect from the four winds under heaven. Now listen, Christ is going to
send his angel, gather all of his elect from east, west, north,
and south. Whichever way, he's going to
bring them all together one of these days and bless his name. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? And Noel used to, how do you
know she is elect? Look over here in 1 Thessalonians with
me. 1 Thessalonians 1.4. She was an elect lady. Called her a lady, elect lady. And look what it says here about
Paul. He said in 1 Thessalonians 1.4,
knowing brethren, beloved, your election. How do you know they're elect?
Because the Gospel came to you. How did it come to you? It came
in power. It came with the power of God. It came with the Holy Ghost.
It came in the power of God and pierced your heart, pierced your
understanding, took away your prejudices and broke down everything
that was against God. He tore it down through the Gospel. Through the Gospel. And so you
see, people know. They can know. And John here
knew that she was elect. Knew that she was one of God's
blessed elect. And that's what he called her,
to the elect lady and her children. And then it says, you know, Colt
talked about her children. And evidently her children were
grown. Look what it says down in verse 4. I rejoiced greatly
that I found thy children walking in truth. Walking in truth. So evidently her children were
grown. And evidently her children had
made a profession of faith, a profession of the gospel, a profession of
the truth. And the scripture says they walked
in that truth. They lived that truth. They continued
in that truth. But look what he says about this
elect lady back up in verse 1 and her children. Whom I love in
the truth. And what he's saying is whom
I love truly. I love her. And what he means
is that I love her from my heart. And this is from the heart. Look what he says down here in
verse 1 of 3 John. It says the same thing. The elder
unto the well-beloved Gaius whom I love in the truth. Oh, he loved
his people. Loved the saints of God. Loved
the people of God. Now listen, turn over to II Thessalonians. I want you to say something.
You know, loving the truth, loving the truth and having the truth
is something, beloved, that everybody don't have and don't want. Don't
want. You know, love and truth go together. He said, whom I love in the truth. Love and truth. If you love somebody,
The truth, if you get truth in you, cause you to love them and
the love that you have for them and the truth, love and truth
go together. If you love the truth, you love
those who know the truth and rejoice in the truth and believe
the truth. And look what he said here in
2 Thessalonians 2, in verse 10. Look what he says here. Now this
is what God's gonna do about people that don't receive the
love of the truth. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteous in them that perish, because they receive not the
love of the truth, that they might be saved. Do you know how
many people hear the truth but don't receive the truth? And
not only don't receive it, but don't love it. But oh, to love
the truth. If God ever gives you the truth,
know the truth and the truth will set you free. If God ever
blesses you with the truth, And He takes and shows you that everything
you believed up to the time He showed you the truth was a lie,
was a false profession, was a false hope. And He takes you and shows
you the truth about Christ. The truth about yourself and
your sin? Oh, sin, you don't have to, you
know, people, we don't sin like we did when we was unconverted,
but we sin in all our minds, our minds and our imaginations
and our thoughts and intents, the things that goes on inside
us. It's like, it's awful what goes on inside us. And we didn't
know that until God told us the truth and showed us the truth.
We thought sins were something weak. If we could just stop our
sins, we'd be okay. But sins is not our problem.
Sin is the problem. S-I-N. Sin. And that's what God
makes a fellow understand. Preachers are going around trying
to get people to stop sinning, and God saves a man and deals
with the sin. People talk about heaven and
hell. You know, you don't want to go to heaven, do you? You
don't want to go to hell. Of course nobody wants to go to hell. Everybody
wants to go to heaven. But heaven and hell is not the
issue. Christ and sin is the issue. Christ come here to do
what? To deal with sin. To save sinners. Well anyway, go on down here
and say that because they received not the love of the truth that
they might be saved. He's talking about love and truth
over there. And look what God does to these people. And for
this cause, God shall send them a strong delusion that instead
of loving the truth, they should believe a lie. Oh my goodness,
believe a lie? And listen to this, it goes one
step further. Not only if they don't receive
the love of the truth, God's gonna send them a strong delusion
to believe a lie. That they all might be damned
who believed, believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But listen to what he says to
God's elect. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through, listen
to this, sanctification of the Spirit. And what? Belief of the
truth. Oh, the truth is important. The
truth is necessary. Truth is necessary. Back over
in our text here. And like I said, love and truth
go together. And he said, whom I love in the
truth. And look what he says now. And
he says here in verse one, after whom I love in the truth. And
look what he says, and not only I, not only I love her and the
truth, not only I love the elect lady and her children, but also
they that have known the truth, everybody that knows the truth
loved this woman and knew this woman and knew her children and
they knew the truth and they loved her for the truth that
she had and the truth that they both loved together. Huh? Oh, listen, all who know them,
and that's what he said here, everybody who knows this elect
lady and her children, recognize and understand the truth as it
is in Christ, and they love them people for it. They love them
for it. Now, the scriptures tells us that we're to do good to all
men, but especially to them who are the household of faith. Oh,
my. I tell you, and boy, to be able
to love and do for the elect, to do something for the elect.
Our Lord Jesus put it this way. He said, if you give as much
as a cup of cold water in my name, in my name, you won't lose
your reward. Just a cup of cold water. To
who? One of his elect, one of his
people. And let me tell you something, and they said, so here in this
first verse, it says, whom I love in the truth, and not only I,
but also all they that have known the truth. In verse two, look
what he says, for the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us shall
be with us forever. You know how many times the word
truth occurs here in the first four verses? Five times. Five
times truth appears here in five verses, huh? And when he talks
about the truth, he says, for truth's sake, which dwelleth
in us. Truth dwells in us. and shall
be with us forever." So what's he saying here? Not only does
this truth dwell in us, but the truth will be with us and abide
with us forever, not just here, but forever. Truth ain't going
to change when we leave this world. But oh, look what he goes
on to say here. But what he's talking about,
he's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine of Christ.
And you can't separate the truth. You can't separate the truth.
Christ and the doctrine of Christ. If you have Christ, you got his
doctrine. If you got his doctrine, you
got Christ. And let me show you something. You know, our Lord
Jesus said, John said this about him. He said, Christ came full
of grace and what? Truth. Truth. Keep this and look
in John 18, 37. Look what our master said. Look
what our Master said over here. John 18, 37. This is what our
Master said about people. John 18, 37. You know, when He
talks about the truth dwelling in us and dwelling in us forever,
He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth that we
know about Him and the doctrine of Christ that's in us. But look
what He said here in verse 37. He's before Pilate. Pilate's
fixin' to turn him over to the mob. Pilate therefore said unto
him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world. Now listen, that I should bear
witness unto the truth. Now watch what he says. I come
here to bear witness to the truth. And listen to this now, everyone
that is of the truth, what does he do? He hears me. He hears me. And so when we hear
Christ's voice, we know we're hearing the truth. We hear him
in the gospel. We hear him in his word. Oh my. And truth to John was not just
a mere fact or some facts. You know this, if you got your
A, B, C, D, E, F all in a row, Yeah, that may be some truths,
but the truth itself, the body of truth, all the truth contained
in this blessed book. To John, it was not just mere
facts or a theory about Christ, but the truth to John was Christ
himself. That's what truth was to him.
Our Lord Jesus said, I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the truth. You won't look for truth. Look
no further than Christ. Then I'm the life, and oh, our
Lord Jesus Christ, he said, the Father seeketh such to worship
in spirit and in truth. And so he says here, for the
truth's sake which dwelleth in us, Christ dwells in us. And it says, and he shall be
with us forever. And he will be with us forever.
Christ will be with us forever. And then he talks about the truth
sake which dwells in us. The word of Christ dwells in
us. And when he dwells in us, it's an inward principle of the
grace of God in us. You know, John 17, 17 said, Father,
sanctify. How are you going to do it? With
thy truth. That's how He sanctifies us.
That's how He separates us with the truth. He just keeps bringing
the truth. And how many of y'all come here?
How many times have you come to one of these services and
say, Lord, speak to me tonight? I need you to speak to me tonight.
I need to hear from you tonight. Or you've come in trouble and
you say, Lord, Please have mercy on me and do something for me
in this service today. Speak to me. And what is it that
speaks to you? It always is the truth. The truth
always, always sets you free from whatever's going on in your
heart, your mind, your life, your soul, your problems. The truth always does it. But
then look what it goes on to say in verse three. Grace be
with you. mercy and peace from God the
Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father,
in truth and love. This is the same salutation that
almost used by other apostles. They would say grace and peace
be unto you. But here he adds mercy, grace,
peace, grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father.
And this is a salutation especially used by the Apostle Paul. But
here, it's only added with respect to the Lord Jesus Christ, that
He is the Son of God. Look what He says. Grace, peace
be with you from God the Father. Now listen to it. And from the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. John made so much
about Christ being the Son of God. made so much about it. James brought in a little old
folder this evening. There's a bunch of books for
sale and one of them with the title that they was trying to
sell the most was And this is the subject they was trying to
sell and going to sell to people. How Jesus became God. Like He came here and done something
to become God. He was God before He came here.
He is God while He's here. He was God in the tomb. He was
God when He raised. And He's God sitting at the right
hand of the Father right now. He's the God-man. And that's
what he said, he's the son of God. God, and how many times
did John, this is something that John, it was so, so close to
his heart. It was a special issue to John.
And he dwelt with this so frequently in all of his writings. In fact,
in John chapter 10, twice it says that they picked up stones
to stone him. He said, why are you going to
stone me? Because thou being a man makest thyself the Son
of God. And that's the issue. People,
you know, they could stand that if he was a man. They didn't
have no problem with him being a man. They didn't have no problem
with him performing miracles and doing great works and even
raising the dead. But if He is the Son of God,
and He was God's only Son, that dwelt with Him in eternity and
came into this world as God's Son, as God's representative,
as God's spokesman, and when you've seen Him, you've seen
God, then that became a different issue between you and God right
then and there. Because what you're saying is,
I don't believe He's the Son of God. I believe He's a miracle
worker, but He's not the Son of God. Now, beloved, John says,
you know this, This, he that is born of God believeth that
Jesus is who? The Son of God. And like that
old blind beggar boy, Sunday, Sunday morning, I said, you know,
and he said, does thou believe? And this is what he said, does
thou believe on the Son of God? He said, who is he, Lord, that
I might believe? He said, I do speak unto thee
of me. I believe! and fell down in worship. I believe
that Jesus Christ was God's Son, the only Son He had. and why
he came into this world was so he could have a body. God sent
him here to speak the truth about God. The Pharisees had so took
the truth of God and the character of God and religion had dishonored
God. The Pharisees, they made Sabbath
to be their God. They made works to be their God.
They made washings to be their God and tithe paying to be their
God. And then when God came in Christ,
they hated Him and crucified Him. And beloved, if He's not
God's Son, He has absolutely been the greatest impostor that's
ever been on the face of the earth. But He is God's Son. And
that's why John, it's a great issue with him. And oh, that's
why he's talking here about grace, mercy, and peace from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. And look
what he says now. the Son of the Father in truth
and in love. He's the Son of the Father in
truth and He's the Son of the Father in love. And oh, He talks
about truth and love. John is called by some the Apostle
of love because he spoke about it so much. And these two words,
truth and love, are repeated in his epistles and especially
in this epistle. And I tell you, beloved, these
are noble and natural companions which can't be separated on this
earth any more than it can be in heaven. Truth and love go
together. And truth and love is what binds
the believers together. And truth and love is what binds
us to Christ. Truth and love is what was given
to us in Christ. And oh, beloved, there's not
a more noble and natural companion than truth and love. You know,
God is light. That's the truth. That's what
we call the truth. That's the truth. God is light.
Oh, and it's truth. And then God is love. God is
love. Truth and love. And the family
of believers, God's blessed elect, God's family of believers, ought
to be united, be as one. And let me tell you, truth, and
you all have seen this before, truth without love. Truth without
love. becomes stern, becomes cold,
even sometimes it becomes cruel. Ah, truth without love, cold,
stern, cruel sometimes. And love without truth, if it
was possible to have love without truth. Love without truth would
be unstable. It would be without a foundation.
It'd be based strictly upon emotions. But boy, truth and love go together,
go together. And oh, and then he said, look
what he says now in verse four. I rejoiced greatly that I found
of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment
from the Father. I rejoiced greatly. Here's this
old man, here's this old apostle, and he says, this brought great,
great joy to my heart. to find the children of this
dear woman, this dear Lex sister, this woman that he wrote this
letter to, this epistle to, walking, walking, what does he say? Walking
in truth, walking in the truth, not just acknowledging the truth,
not just professing the truth, but walking in the truth, living
day by day by day, walking in the truth, walking in it, living
in it, partaking of it and going on with it. And this living in
the truth and walking in the truth continually and progressing
in that truth, progressing in truth and progressing in the
attitude of truth and love. And all their conversation, all
these things revealed that Christ was in them because they walked
in the truth. They walked in the truth. You
see, beloved, as we have received commandment of the Father, they
not only profess to know Christ, these children of this lady.
They not only profess to know Christ, but their conduct and
their conversation reveal that they had a living union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I rejoice that they walk
in the truth. And look, and he says, and we
have received a commandment from the Father. What is this commandment?
Again, it is, brethren, love not in word and tongue only,
but love in truth and in deed. And oh, this is almost then,
look what he says here in verse 5. And now I beseech thee, lady,
not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we
had from the beginning, that we love one another. This is
almost identical, and you look at it with me in 1 John 2, 7
and 8. Almost identical to what he says
here. And you know, he's quoting where our Lord said in John 13,
35. This is the commandment I give unto you, that you love one another,
even as I have loved you. And so what he says here in John
2, 7 and 8 is this. Brethren, I write no new commandment
unto you, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which you had from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing in him
is true, in him and in you, because the darkness is passed, and the
true light now shines. And he says now back over here
in verse 5 of chapter 2nd epistle. He said, I beseech you, not as
though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which ye
heard from the beginning, that ye love one another. This is
that commandment that he talked about over in his other epistle.
And he says, this is no new commandment. And what he means by that is,
this is no new commandment from Christ. There's no new commandment
formulated by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into effect
recently. No, no. You see, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever. So His commandments
and His teaching is always the same. It never changes. And so
when He says here this commandment to love one another, when He
says it's a new commandment, it's not as though I wrote a
new commandment. But I'll tell you what it is,
is the commandment to love one another is newly explained by
Him. It's purged from the error of
the Pharisees, when they said, we ought to love them that love
you and hate them that hate you. Our Lord says, that's not the
way it is. No, no, that's not the way it is. And then not only
is it newly explained by Him, but newly exemplified by our
Lord Jesus Christ in His love for us. Oh, how He loved us. having loved his own which were
in the world. And not only newly explained
and newly exemplified, but newly enforced. Oh, the commandment
that we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And
that's why John asked this question, how can a man love God and not
love another? And that's what he means. That's
what he means. And then in verse six, and that's
where I'm gonna quit, that's where I wanted to get to, do
these first six verses. And this is love. This is the
love that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk
after His commandments. We walk after what Christ said.
We what He says, we obey. What He tells us to do, we do.
As much as God will in His grace allow, this is the commandment
that as you heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. Walk in
what? Walk in love, walk in truth. And what he's talking about,
this is active. It's not just sitting back and
saying, well, you all know I love you. This is active he's talking
about. You know, actively obeying, actively
walking in truth, actively walking in love. And that's what he's
talking about. And oh my, I'll tell you something,
a lot of people have a lot of warm feelings. They have a lot
of warm feelings, they'll go and have warm feelings toward
God. They'll have warm feelings towards people. But warm feelings
don't mean deadly. It's God putting love and truth
in your heart and then walking in it, walking in it. And that's
what his children did, and that's what John said for us to do.
Walk in this commandment. This is the commandment. You
love one another. Believe the truth and walk in it. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ, thank you for the truth. Oh God, we rejoice in
the truth. Oh, blessed your holy name that
you gave us truth. Oh Lord, we do. We delight in
your truth, we want your truth. David said, save me for thy mercy
and thy truth's sake. Oh Lord Jesus, help us by your
grace to walk in the truth, to walk in love, to obey you, walk
up right before you, desire your will, desire your word, bow our
hearts before you, find you to be our all in all. And Lord,
let us not just love in word, just love in word only, But let
us love in deed, let us love in truth. Lord, we want to manifest
the Spirit of Christ, our Lord, in these things we ask in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.