I kept singing that song all
morning. So if you find yourself humming
that tune throughout the day, don't be surprised. Good, good
song. I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 2 John. 2 John. I said a moment ago, Lord willing,
I'd like to look at the first six verses of this blessed portion
of Scripture, and then verses 7 to 13 in the second message. The Spirit of God moved upon
the Apostle John to write a letter. a letter that we now find in
the Holy Scriptures. Now I doubt not that when John
wrote this letter, he was writing a letter, and I truly believe
it starts off the elder unto the elect lady, and I know we
can often refer to the church as the lady, the bride. the wording
of this is such that I truly am convinced he was writing to
a woman. He was writing to a friend and
a believer. And this is what he says. I'm going to read the first six
verses and then we'll look at each verse for just a few moments.
The elder unto the elect lady and her children whom I love
in the truth not I only, but also all they that have known
the truth. For the truth's sake, 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 love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment
that as ye have heard from the beginning, you should walk Now,
the Apostle John begins with a special greeting to this lady. She's not mentioned. There's
been speculation. Some of the commentators that
I've looked at, they speculated who it was. Scripture doesn't
say who it was. And so, if the Spirit of God
is pleased to be silent on it, well, it's a lady, some lady
that he wrote to. He says the elder, the elder. Now John at this time is probably
somewhere around a hundred years old and he refers to himself
not only as one advanced in years but one that has been blessed
of God with a calling to be an apostle to God's people, the
Lord's apostle and an elder. One that has been now kept by
the power of God through faith. He's still here. After all these
years, here he is. He's an old man. But God has
kept him. How it rejoices our heart to
behold the sustaining grace of Almighty God. And five times,
In this first part of this letter, he mentions truth. Truth. There's one thing the Lord Jesus
Christ said sets a man, a woman free. What? Truth. Truth. The truth himself, Christ
the truth through the preaching of the truth of Christ, the glory
of God. blessed gospel that we preach
and love. He addresses this letter to this
lady, but I want you to notice the elect lady. The elect lady. How the Spirit of God moved on
John to address her with that blessed title. Who is she? She's an elect lady. loved of God before the foundation
of the world, chosen to life in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
she should be holy and without blame before God in love. And John not only was writing
this to a woman that he had some confidence in, but also to her
children. She obviously raised her kids
up, under the sound of the gospel, and the Lord was pleased to bless
the word to their hearts. And I would tell, I'm talking
to all of us who are parents, grandparents, may we all be reminded,
let a priority be set upon our children and our grandchildren
concerning the gospel. This is the only way that Almighty
God has revealed, that He's going to bless to the salvation of
His people through the hearing of the truth. So here's a woman
that, she had some kids, and obviously she liked Timothy.
You know, Timothy, his mama and his grandma, they had taught
him the scriptures, made him wise unto salvation by the blessing
of the Holy Spirit. So we make, it's a priority,
over the gospel. This is not give and take here
and there. Keep your kids. Encourage your
kids. Pray with them. Teach them the
scriptures. Teach them God's word. Encourage them. Tell them
the importance of hearing the truth. John had said with others,
the elder under the elect lady whom I love in the truth. He loved He loved her. He loved
her for the sake of the truth, for the glory of God in truth.
He had a special love for this woman. By this, the scripture
says, the Lord, speaking John 13, 35, by this, by this, here's
the key, by this, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples. What, because you confess five
points of Calvinism? What, because you attend the
services? What? By this shall all men know
you are my disciples. You have love one for another. The elder unto the elect lady
and her children whom I love. I love in the truth. And John
not only confessed that he loved her in the truth, but declared
in verse 2 that he loved her, look at this, for the truth's
sake, For Christ's sake, God Almighty, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who has loved us, His people, and given Himself for
us, the truth Himself, John says, which dwelleth in us and shall
be with us forever. Here's the promise that we have.
He never leaves us and never forsakes us. Why? Because he dwelleth. You know what that ETH on the
end of that word means? He dwelleth, he dwelleth, he
dwelleth. This is the response that a believer
has with another believer. The Christ in a believer loves
the Christ in another believer. And that spirit bears witness
with one with another. And God's people, they love one
another. John said, I love you. I love
you in the truth and I love you for the truth's sake. The Lord
dwells in His people. God's people look, they see,
they know. Christ in my brother. Christ
in my sister. I love you for the truth's sake. the truth that dwells in you.
The Lord has said concerning dwelling in us, Paul had said
in Galatians 4.19, till Christ be formed in you. When the Spirit of God is pleased
to call out His people out of spiritual darkness and regenerate
us, Christ is said to be formed in us. Dwelling in us. Teaching us. It's then that God's
people know this is more. This is not religion. Religion
is rampant. Religion is everywhere. But God's
people are in love. They're in love not with religion. They're in love with a person.
It's Christ in them. The hope of glory. It's then,
when the Lord calls them out of darkness, it's then that they
know Him. That's what Paul said, Oh, that
I might know Him. And a believer that knows Him
says, Oh, that I might know Him. That I might know Him. That I
might be taught of Him. Teach me something. How many
years have many of us sat under the Gospel? Heard the Gospel? And we hear the gospel, and it's
fresh, and it's new. Every time, I say, I've got to
have that. I've got to hear. I must hear. I cannot be without Him. I cannot
be without hearing Him. I must hear Him. Lord, teach
me. Teach me afresh. The more we
know, the more ignorant we are. We know that. The more we hear,
the more we know, I need to hear. And by faith, we actually believe
that we actually have Him. We have Him. He has us, we have
Him. Spirit of God, mind of Christ
is in us and He manifests Himself. through and you notice the fruit
of God's Spirit, the love and joy and peace and long-suffering
and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance.
Oh, until this blessed rebirth takes place, actually from above,
from heaven, it's just nothing. We're just going through the
motions, that's all we're doing. There's no life. But oh, when
the Spirit of God He's pleased to move upon God's people. And
Christ is formed in them and He dwells in them. By faith,
they know it. John says, I love you. I love
you in the truth. I love you for the truth's sake,
for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ever-present, ever-faithful
Lord of glory, who is the Master. He's the Lord. The Messiah. The mediator, that's who He is. Those that love the gospel, they
rejoice in the effects that God has wrought. Not only in them,
but in their brethren. They love them for the truth's
sake. What comfort, what mercy, what
peace is wrought within a believer when the Lord has taught them
of His blessed presence in them. Now as many times as we've heard
that, that's what He says, for the truth's sake which dwelleth
in us. Now isn't it sad how many times
we forget that? We forget it. We forget to be
mindful Christ is dwelling in His people, in me. He dwells
in me. You that know Him, He dwells
in you. How can I not love you? How can
I not love one that Christ has done something for? If He's done
something for me, He's done something for you. John said, I love you. He told this lady, He said, I
love you. I love you in the truth. I love you for Christ's sake. There's life there. There's a
new man there. And then he says in verse 3,
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. He gives this wonderful word
of encouragement. God's been gracious to you. That's what he's saying to you.
Grace be with you and mercy. mercy and peace. The Lord said, I'm going to be
gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'm going to have compassion
on whom I'm going to have compassion. And John is writing to a lady
that he's convinced, he believes, the Lord's done something for
you. And he's done something for her
children too. I see and I know, moved by the
Spirit of God to behold something of the evidence of God's grace
in you. He said, I'm writing to you to
tell you how much I love you and I appreciate you. And then
he gives this special word of thanksgiving. Not only for her,
but he says in verse 4, I rejoice greatly I exceedingly rejoice
that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received
a commandment from the Father. Now he rejoiced in this lady,
rejoiced in the Lord for this lady. But there's something that
he says in verse 4 that I need to bring out. He says the wording
in verse 4, and I looked it up and I tried to get the heart,
the spirit of exactly what he was saying right here. And this,
I'm convinced, is what he's saying. I rejoice greatly that I found
of thy children. You see the word of? It's real
easy to miss it when you're reading. I rejoice greatly that I found
of thy children. What John is saying right here
is that some of her children, not all of them, but some of
them, of this lady's children, he said, I rejoice greatly that
I found of. That word of means in the midst,
within the group. I rejoice greatly that within
the group of your children, Almighty God has been pleased to show
mercy to some of your children. I rejoice greatly that I found
of thy children walking in truth as we've received commandment
of the Father. Obviously, not all of her children were believers. John rejoiced in those that the
Lord was pleased to rejoice. The Lord Jesus Christ when he
was praying unto his father, he said, Father, I thank you,
I thank you that you've hidden these things from the wise and
prudent and you've revealed them unto babes. Father, for so it
seemed good in your sight. Now, this is one thing that we
need to just understand, and we bow, we bow to the good pleasure
of Almighty God. Though not all of this elect
lady's children were, at the time of this writing for sure,
called out of darkness. Obviously there was something
that John detected, he knew that not all of her kids. I mean,
we know this. Adam and Eve had two boys, Cain and Abel. And Almighty God
was pleased to save one of them and passed by the other. Abraham
and Sarah had two boys, Jacob and Esau. And scripture sets
forth that God loved one and He hated the other one. David
had Solomon in Absalom, and God was pleased to bless one with
great wisdom, made him a king, and he left the other in his
rebellion. Now, salvation, obviously the
Lord said this through John the Apostle in John chapter 1. Salvation does not run in blood,
the bloodlines. Not by blood, not by blood. The Lord saves whomsoever He
will. And He shows distinguishing,
discriminating grace to whomsoever He will. And to those that He
is pleased to leave to themselves, He does. Romans chapter 9 verse
21, hath not the potter power over the clay to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor. Now I know that this flies in
the face of the flesh. I know that. I know that immediately
what the flesh is going to say is that's not fair. That's not
fair. But I go back to, you know, if
we want to just talk about fair, here's fair. In Adam all die. And if we talk about what's fair
now. All of us, all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. Here's
one thing we don't want to talk about. We don't want to talk
about God being fair toward us in judgment. He said, I'm a just
God, but I'm a Savior. And the greatest, the greatest
blessing that we can realize is found in that first verse.
The elder unto the elect lady. God Almighty was pleased in spite
of her, in spite of some of her children, in spite of me and
in spite of some of you. God was pleased to show mercy.
I'm going to show mercy. I'm going to have compassion.
And that Almighty God did not leave us all in the bondage of
iniquity and darkness and unbelief. But He was pleased out of every
nation and kindred and tribe and tongue. He was pleased to
show mercy to some. It's only by the grace of God.
The flesh wants to lay at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ,
at the feet of God, and say, you're not being fair. Oh, God's fair. He's fair. He's chosen a people. in His
Son and in absolute fairness and righteousness and justice,
Christ bore the debt, the totality of the debt of all of His people. He was made that. He was made
sin in an absolute fairness. God Almighty dealt with him fairly. When he bore our guilt, he received
exactly what the law demanded. He received exactly what you
and I deserve. But when he was made sin, I've
said this before and I say it reverently, respectfully, Did
He deserve to die being our substitute, bearing our guilt, being made
sin? Did He deserve to die? Yes! Yes! Yes! Somebody says, oh,
I don't believe that. Well, then God's not fair. God's
not just. How can you say that Almighty
God did something? that was unfair. He was made
sin. I don't understand the depth
of that, but I can tell you this, what we deserved. You say, well,
I believe we deserved it. Well, He was made us, and He
bore our guilt. He said, these are mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me. They're more than the hairs of
my head. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Sin was
found there. And John said, I rejoice greatly
that I found of thy children walking in truth. John was saying,
I'm glad God has shown mercy to some of your kids. I'm glad that God's been merciful
to some, shown discriminating grace. I'm thankful that the
Lord would save any. I'm thankful that God has shown
mercy to me, but I can tell you this. Had God left me to myself
to do what I want to do, I would never be able to lay it at the
feet of Him that He wasn't fair. If God Almighty left me to myself
and put me in hell, He's fair. He's right. He's just. He does as He will, but to some
of this woman's kids, the Lord had been pleased to call them
out and they exhibited the evidence of God's grace. They adorned
the gospel. They adorned the doctrine that
they confessed. They confessed the Lord. They
confessed to know Him and love Him and their conversation, their
walk manifested that the Lord had done something for them. They walked in truth. They walked
in the light of the gospel of Christ. That's a believer. A believer walks in the light. Now listen to this blessed scripture
here out of Micah. Micah 6, 8. He has showed thee,
O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require
of thee? I was thinking about this passage John was talking
about, he said, I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children
walking in truth as they received a commandment from the Father.
What commandment? What commandment? You know, we
believe Him. But listen to this. Here's a
commandment right here. Listen to this commandment. And
all that know Him and love Him and rejoice in Him that dwelleth
in us, they walk just like this. Every believer walks just like
this. He has showed thee, O man, what
is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee? But to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God. Now, what does that mean? Well,
to do justly. What is it to do justly? What
is it to do and to confess right? To do justly. I tell you, when
we confess ourselves by reason of sin, that we justly deserved
His wrath. We justly deserved it. I'm gonna
be honest with you. That's what a believer says.
I deserved. I deserved justice. I deserved
it. I did that which was deserving
of His judgment. That's doing justly. I deserved
to be cast out in myself because I sinned against Him. But here's
the next thing they do. They love mercy. They do justly. They say, I deserve this. But
we love mercy. We love the mercy of God. Do
you know, when we speak of God having mercy on us, you know
what we're saying? We're really guilty. We're guilty. I mean, somebody that needs mercy,
what I'm saying is, I've done just exactly what the Scripture
says I've done. I need God Almighty to have mercy
upon me. I need, for one, to bear my guilt. I need, for one, put away my
sin. I want God to be just. He is just. I want Him to do
that. But Lord, could you have mercy
on me? Lord, I know you're going to
deal with it. I know you're going to deal with my sin. I know you
are. Because you're a just God. Lord, I know you're right. I
know that. But Lord, is there any way that
You could show mercy to me. And it's going to be at the expense
of another. It's going to be at His expense. And Lord, how
thankful, Lord, that You willingly bore my guilt. Somebody's going
to die. Somebody's going to die. And
the Lord Jesus Christ said, I lay down my life for the sheep. I
lay down my life. Lord, Lord, I admit what I am. Lord,
how I love Your mercy. Lord, You said, You laid down
Your life for Your people. Lord, I believe You called me
out of darkness. I believe You taught me this.
Lord, I believe You've taught me that it's not by works of
righteousness that I've done. Lord, I believe that. I believe
that when You say You chose a people, in Christ before the foundation
of the world that I should be holy and without blame before
you in love, Lord, I know it's going to cost the life of your
son. And Lord, you said you laid down
your life, and Father, you said when you see the blood for all
that the Son redeemed and laid down His life, Lord, you said you'll pass over me. Lord, I
need that. I need that. I realize it Lord,
I've realized it before and I realize it now and I'm going to have
to realize it again. But Lord, I love mercy and I know that
I stand accepted of You only in Him who has laid down His
life for me. And thirdly, we walk humbly with
God while from a daily sense of our sin. We feel the corruption
within, we know, we still, We continually are asking the Lord,
Lord, forgive me. Lord, have mercy again on me. Lord, keep me from promising
I'll never do it again. Lord, I don't want to, but I
know. Lord, forgive me. Keep me from
presumptuous sin. And then, in closing, he exhorted
her to obedience. We know that the Spirit of God
moved upon John to write this, but he's teaching us, the Lord
is teaching us through this letter to this lady. Listen to this,
he says in verse 5, 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. Now, how often do we need to
be reminded of that. You know, we need to be taught
afresh. Somebody says, well, I've heard
that before. I know, we've all heard it before. That's why Paul
says, to say the same things to you is not grievous to him.
For us, it's safe. It's safe. John expressed to
his sister, that elect lady, the commandment that he was reminding
her of. You know, he said, I beseech
you, I'm going to tell you, I want you to I want you to take this
into consideration again. That's what He's saying to all
of us. Take this into consideration again. Take this commandment
that we had from the beginning. Now, you know the Lord, John
had heard the Lord say that. John chapter 13, 34, a new commandment
I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you
that you also love one another. Now, here's the thing I know. I know this. None of us will
ever love one another as in the same way as. You know that. Well,
what is he saying? The Lord said that. What is he
saying? You love one another as I have
loved you. Forgive them. Forgive them. I looked up that word forgive. We use that word. Lift it up
and put it away. If I have forgiven you, if you've
forgiven me for something, here's what I want to say. Forget it.
Forget it. That's something we can't hardly
do, is it? I mean, we can forgive them and
it's a putting away, but forgetting it. Forgetting it. That's the
thing. Forbear with them. Forbear with
them. Prefer them. What? As brethren. As one another, brothers and
sisters. Love them freely, notwithstanding
their weaknesses and their imperfections. We're brethren. We're brethren. Christ dwelleth in us. But you know, when the Lord quoted
that, In John 13.34, the Spirit of God had moved upon the writer
of Moses, the book of Leviticus, to write this. The Lord had moved
upon one of his own to pen this. Listen to this, Leviticus 19.18,
Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children
of thy people. But thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. I am Jehovah. I am the Lord. Don't try to avenge. Vengeance is mine. I'll repay,
saith the Lord. Boy, I tell you what, I'm the
world's worst. You think I'm not. You think,
you know, well Marvin, you're a whole lot more forbearing.
You see my heart, you'll say, no, I don't know. I don't know
if you are or not. I'm telling you, I can go off at the drop
of a hat. Just, I mean, in a second. But
hear the Lord. Do not avenge. Don't bear any
grudge. Guilty. Guilty. Don't. John says, I beseech thee, lady. Not as though I wrote a new commandment
unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning. Let us
love one another. forbear with one another, pray
for one another, have each other's backs, we're the Lord's. And then finally, this is love,
that we walk after His commandments, this is the commandment, that
as you've heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. This is
love, this is the evidence, this is the exhibition of it, that
we walk after His commandments, that you've heard from the beginning,
walk in it. What true love, John is saying,
is active. It manifests itself. It's not
in word only. It's not in word only. Indeed,
practice what men call love, you know, this feeling toward
God. If it's void of experience, if
it's void of actually doing it, then it's worthless. It's worthless. It's just self-serving. By this,
we know that we love the children of God when we love God and we
keep His commandments. Love one another. Admit we are,
by the grace of God, knit together in Christ. True love is found
when the Lord, when His will, His word, His glory, is preeminent. What does it matter? John said,
I love you for the truth's sake. I think here we are, right here.
For the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the unity of the
body, for the sake of, you know, my little old fickle feelings,
my little old petty, for the sake of the truth. For
the unity of the body, John said, I want to remind you something.
I want to remind you something that we heard from the beginning,
that we love one another. I pray God be pleased to bless
this message. And Lord willing, we'll go right
on into verse 7, just a few minutes, and finish the letter that John
wrote to this elect lady. So let's just take a break for
about 10 minutes, and we'll go from there.