Now this morning we're going
to be looking back again at the book of 2 John. 2 John is a short epistle concerning
the subject of love in the truth. Love in the truth. And that's
the title of today's message. Just like last week, this is
just part two. Hopefully we're going to finish
this book today because there's only 13 verses. But you know,
the scripture teaches that the crowning mark of Christianity
is love. But it's not just some romantic,
poetic idea of love, out there kind of love that has no substance. First of all, it's love for Christ. We can talk about that. We love
Him because He first loved us, John wrote in 1 John. And the
definition of love is found as it is in God, not in ourselves. In other words, we're not the
definition of love. If we were, it would be a pitiful
world. And we wouldn't know anything, because basically, by nature,
we're so sinful, we love those who love us. And our love is
a reaction. We look for qualities in people
to love. And that's not the kind of love
that God shows His people. In fact, in 1 John 4, 10, he
defines it this way, herein is love, not that we love God, but
that he loved us. And he loved us so much that
he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And that word propitiation,
remember, that means satisfaction. It's a sin-bearing sacrifice,
dying to bring satisfaction to the justice of God for our sins.
So, in other words, God's love for his people, Christ's love
for his sheep, had nothing to do with any qualification within
those people, the objects of his love. If it did, none of
us would be loved. We often refer to the passage
of Scripture in Romans chapter 9 where God reveals, he says,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And most of the
world who reads that wrestles over the fact that God hated
Esau. And really, we shouldn't have
any problem at all understanding that. That's God's justice against
Esau, God's justice against sin. Where we should stand in amazement
at and ponder and wonder how it could be done is how could
God love Jacob? And then we could ponder and
stand in amazement even more so, how could God love me? That's
the amazing part of grace. I can understand how God could
hate any of us. I can. Because we're sinners. We're rebels by nature. But God,
out of his own mercy and grace, loves his people. So that's the
standard and definition of love. And that's what John is speaking
of in this passage when he deals with the issues of love, the
issues of of life and the issues of truth. Now, love, John writes,
is guided by truth. Several times in the first few
verses here, he talks about love in the truth. Love without truth
is empty. It's nothing, really. Love without
truth. For example, if you're lost in
the woods and I come along your way and I point you in a direction
because I'm concerned for you and say I love you or whatever,
And I point you in a certain direction to find your way to
civilization or wherever, and you end up falling in the quicksand,
well, you're still dead. I just didn't know the way. Now,
certainly if I went and consciously told you a lie so that you would
end up in the quicksand, that's certainly not love, is it? But
so, love without truth is deadly, actually. Love without truth
will say things that aren't true. It will say things that you don't
mean. And so John is teaching here that love is guided by truth. Love is founded on the truth.
Love without truth is nothing. Look at verse 7 of 2 John. He says, for many deceivers are
entered into the world. Now, he's talking about false
preachers here. Satan himself is called the deceiver. of people, and the accuser of
the brethren. And these are deceivers they've
entered into the world. And how does Satan deceive? Well,
he deceives by disguising himself as an angel of light. That's
the deception. Therefore, we have to be on guard
in this matter. We have to be on guard against
error by having a solid knowledge and conviction of the truth as
it is in God's Word. And that truth that identifies
and distinguishes who God is as opposed to an idol. That truth
that identifies and distinguishes who Christ is as opposed to a
counterfeit. Look over with me at 2 Corinthians. Turn to the book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. Let me show you what I mean by
this. Here the Apostle Paul is warning the Corinthian church.
against false preachers who came in pretending to be preachers
of the gospel, true preachers of Christ. Now, let me say this
about false preachers. They themselves are deceived.
Scripture teaches that. The Lord said it of the Pharisees.
He said they're the blind leading the blind, and they'll all fall
in the ditch together. Now, you might feel sorry for
the blind. And you might have a compassion
for the blind, but if the blind leads the blind, no matter how
sorry you feel for them or how much compassion you have for
them, they're still going to fall in the ditch and perish. So in other words, your love
will not change that. Only the truth will change that. Christ said the truth will set
you free. The truth, and that's all there, the light of truth.
But look at 2 Corinthians 11. Look at verse 3. He says, "...but
I fear lest by any means, as the serpent," now that's Satan,
"...beguiled," or bewildered Eve, confused her. And he says,
"...through his subtlety." In other words, it wasn't just an
open denial. You remember back in Genesis
3, he took the Word of God and he just twisted it, as God said. And then he says, through his
subtleties, so your minds," now listen to this very carefully,
"...so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ." Now, we speak of that as a simple message, but in reality,
the language in the original would reflect this, it's a single
message. It's a single message of how
God saves sinners by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It's the single message of God's
mercy in Christ. How God can be just and holy
and righteous and still show mercy and grace and love. How
He can be, as Job spoke, just and justifier. How can a sinner
be just with God? God is holy. He must punish sin.
The soul that sinneth must surely die. The wages of sin is death.
So how can God save a sinner like me? How can He be merciful?
How can He love me and still be holy? Does He just say, well,
forget it, you don't have to worry about it, I'll just look
over it? Your sins? And the answer is absolutely
not. Why? Because He's God. He's holy. He must punish sin. He must be just. So how can He
be, as one old writer said, a righteous judge as well as a loving, merciful
Father. How can He be both? Well, the
single message, the single answer to that is the Lord Jesus Christ
shedding His blood on the cross of Calvary as the complete payment
to the justice of God for the sins of His people and His righteousness
given to them to make them a right standing before God. That's the
single message that will answer that question. Christ and Him
crucified. That's why Paul said to the Corinthians
earlier in 1 Corinthians, he said, I strive not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Him crucified
means it's not talking about a piece of wood on a wall. It's talking about His finished
work on the cross to satisfy the justice of God in the mercy
of God as the pavement for the sins of His sheep and secure
their salvation. That's what it's talking about.
That's what the propitiation is. He died on the cross to satisfy
God. You say, well, why did God have
to be satisfied? I had a fellow ask me this one
time. He said, why did God have to be satisfied? What is He,
some kind of monster? I said, no, He's holy. That's
why He has to be satisfied. He's just. Whenever a criminal
in this country commits a heinous crime, don't you cry out for
justice? What are you, a monster? No. We know what justice is. Sometimes
it doesn't get done. Many times it doesn't get done.
But we have a sense of justice. That's what separates us from
the animals. Among other things, hopefully.
But you see, God is holy. He cannot He cannot ignore or
deny His justice and His holiness. If He saves me, a sinner who
deserves nothing but death, God must do it in a way that honors
His holiness, that honors His justice, that honors His truth. He cannot turn a deaf ear to
sin. Now why is that? Because He's
God. How can He do that? How can He do it? Not but one
single way. Christ and Him crucified. Am
I right? Now, that's the single message.
That's the simplicity of Christ. My whole salvation is wrapped
up in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. My whole
salvation is wrapped up and founded upon, centers around, leads unto
who Christ is and what he accomplished at Calvary. And that includes
his resurrection. Somebody says, well, what about
his resurrection? That includes that. His finished work led to
his resurrection. He was raised again because of
our justification, the Scripture says. What does that justification
mean? It means that God, who is holy,
declares a sinner not guilty. That means God, who is just,
declares a sinner righteous. Now, how does he do that? He
punished my sins in the person of His Son." Christ drank damnation dry, as
one old writer said. That's the single message. So
Paul says, I don't want your minds to be corrupted or confused
away from that single message. And look at verse 4. He says,
for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus. Now, do you hear
that? You mean there's another? Well,
there's only one true Jesus. What does the name Jesus mean?
It means God our Savior, right? It's a derivative of Joshua.
Yeshua means Jehovah saves. There's only one God who is our
Savior. But there are many counterfeits.
Christ said in the last day they'll come and they'll say here's Jesus
and there's Jesus. He said don't believe them. You
have to go by the Word of God. They're deceivers, you see. That's
what John's talking about. So if he preaches another Jesus
whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit,
everybody talks about the Holy Spirit. How do you know it's
the Holy Spirit? How do you know it's not what the Old Testament
called a familiar spirit? You know what a familiar spirit
is in the Old Testament? He's a lying spirit. That's what
that means. He's one who tells a lie. And
I can give you a very single and simple way to determine whether
or not He's the Holy Spirit. Because if He's the Holy Spirit,
I can tell you that you'll end up in one single place for your
comfort, for your peace, for your relief, for your salvation,
and for your assurance. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If you end up anywhere else,
He's not the Holy Spirit. He's a familiar spirit, another
spirit. That's a simple message, but
it's a single message. People get convicted, they get
bothered, and that's okay in the conscience. And they'll do
anything to find relief. They'll start going to church.
They'll get baptized. They'll start tithing. They'll
start knocking on doors. They'll get on a prayer list,
they'll do all these things, and they find relief in those
things. If you find relief in any of those things, I want to
tell you something, it's not the Holy Spirit who's convicting
you. If He's the Holy Spirit, you'll find relief in Christ
and Him alone, on the cross, paying God for all your sins,
finishing the work. And then He says in verse 4,
a spirit which you have not received, and He says, or another gospel
which you have not accepted. Another gospel? There are many
false gospels. There's only one true gospel.
He says, you might well bear with him. That word him there
is in italics. That means it was supplied by the King James
translators. It should be translated me. Paul's
saying, you bear with me. But now jump across the page
there to verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 11. He says, for such are false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ. Now listen, he says, "...and
no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of life. Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works." Now the construction
of the language there is such that it's relating this. He's
talking about a person who can say some good things and some
right things for a little while. That's what the transformation
is. When he says those right things, those good things, it's
a transformation. He may even talk about grace. He may talk about the righteousness
of God, the righteousness of Christ, but he's transforming. How do you know he can't stay
with it? Here's your key. He's transforming. That's a temporary change. It
won't be long, he'll get drug off into something else, onto
other issues, onto other matters. He may preach a message that
you'll walk out one day and you'll say, well, that was grace, and
come back, and then he may lay the whip of the law on you the
next meeting. He's transforming. That's what
it is. He can't stay with the single
message of God's grace in Christ. And you know why he can't do
that? Because his heart's not there. his heart somewhere else. He
has enough sense to read some scripture when the Bible says,
for by grace are you saved, through faith that not of yourselves
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He
can read that just as much as I can. But he can't stay on that
one single message and preach all the Word from Genesis to
Revelation in light of Christ and Him crucified. Now that's
what John's talking about in verse 7. Go back to 2 John. deceivers
entered into the world. And he says they confess not
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Now some of the commentators
make a big thing out of people who deny the humanity of Christ. And certainly that would be a
deceiver. A person who comes and denies either the deity of
Christ or the humanity of Christ is a false preacher. Now understand
that. Christ is God and man in one
person. He's going to be talking about
the doctrine of Christ here in verse 9. The doctrine of Christ,
that is the truth, the teaching of the truth of Jesus Christ. That's what that means. And there
are certain truths that are laid down concerning Jesus Christ
that we as believers, if we are believers, must receive, accept,
enjoy and love and live by. And one of those is the person
of Christ, who Christ is. Who is he? The Lord asked that
question in Matthew 22. He said, what think ye of Christ?
Whose son is he? The Pharisees said he's the son
of David. They could go back to the Psalms
and to the Old Testament and read where it says the Messiah
will be the son of David. And then our Lord hit them with
this question. He said, well, then how could David, by the
power of the Holy Spirit, call him Lord? Because, see, you don't
call anybody Lord who is not God. That's right. That's why I confronted some
Jehovah's Witnesses one time. I said, do you believe that Jesus
of Nazareth is God? And they said, no. I said, do
you believe he's Lord? And they said, yes. And I said,
you're an idolater then. Because if you call anybody Lord
who is not God, that's idolatry. And so our Lord asked him that
question, how could David, by the Spirit, call him Lord if
he's David's son? What he was asking is this, how
could he be both David's son and David's God one at the same
time? They didn't know. They couldn't
answer him, so they didn't ask him any more questions. He shut
their mouths. That's usually the way to shut
a false religious person's mouth. Just ask them something they
don't know. That they can't all over the
place without. But that's just it now. Who is
he? He's both God and man in one
person. That's who he is. You say, Preacher,
explain that to me. No. And I'll tell you why. Because
I can't. And you can't either. I just
know that the Word which was with God, the Word which was
God, and the Word which created all things, that same Word, John
1, 14, was made flesh and dwelt among us. God in human flesh. That's who He is. He's as much
God as if he were not man, and as much man as if he were not
God. He's God-man. That's who he is. That's the
one person who has two natures right there. The Lord Jesus Christ. God in human flesh. And there's
no mixture of the two natures. There's no confusion of the two
natures. He's God-man. He's the Messiah. That's who
He is. Now, that's the kind of person
that it took to save His people from their sins. Listen, man cannot give and create
and sustain life. He thinks he can, but he can't.
Man cannot do that. But this man, this person who
is man, He does give. He created. He sustains life. The Bible says He gives breath
to all. By Him all things consist, He says. Now, God, now listen
to me, God cannot suffer, bleed, and die. He's God. You can't kill God. But this
person who is God did suffer, bleed, and die. Now, that's to
be attributed to his humanity, but it was an act performed by
his entire person. I can't explain that to you,
but I know it so. He's God's man. Now, anybody
who denies his deity is a false preacher. Anybody who denies
his humanity is a false preacher. He's God in human flesh without
sin. That's who he is. That's the
doctrine of Christ. Now, back here in verse 7 when
he says, those who confess not that Jesus Christ come in the
flesh," what he means by that is literally this, those who
confess not that Jesus is the Messiah who has come in the flesh.
That's what he means by that. They don't look to Jesus as the
Messiah. They look somewhere else. They're
looking for another one to come or somebody else who already
has come, but not him. They say, we will not have this
man to rule over us. That's what they're talking about.
Well, wait a minute now. He was born of a virgin. Somebody
says, well, I don't believe that. You don't believe the doctrine
of Christ. Well, he was baptized and God the Father
testified of him from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. The Holy Spirit descended on
him in the form of a dove. He was taken up into the wilderness
and tempted of Satan, and he passed every test. He walked
this earth in complete obedience to the law perfectly, never sinned,
never sinned, never sinned. He performed miracles. He made
the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk. He raised people
from the dead. He fed 5,000 people with just
a few loaves and fishes. He calmed the storm. Doesn't
matter, they say, I won't have this man to rule over us. He
suffered on the cross of Calvary, and when he said it was finished,
he died and gave up the ghost. The veil in the temple was ripped,
torn from top to bottom, signifying the work of God, that he was
finished, he'd done it all, the old covenant was gone, the new
covenant was now established. Many were raised out of the grave
on that day. Many of the dead in Christ were
raised out just like Lazarus, and they walked the streets of
Jerusalem, the Scripture says in Matthew chapter 27. And then, listen to it, three
days later, He arose from the dead. He arose from the dead
because of our justification. And He walked this earth. And
he was seen of over 500 of his disciples, and many more, really. And he sat down with his disciples,
and he taught them how to preach Christ from the Old Testament.
And then he ascended up into glory, and he's now seated at
the right hand of the Father, ever living to make enters. That's
the single message. This is Jesus Christ. Now, he
says, those who don't believe this, verse 7, this is a deceiver
and an antichrist. They're against Christ. That's
what he's saying. So he says in verse 8, look to
yourselves, be careful, be on your guard, that's what he means.
That you lose not the things which you have wrought, we have
wrought, that is, we've gained. He's not talking about you're
going to lose salvation which you worked so hard for. That's
not what he's saying at all. Believers have been tested and
tried, they stood for the truth. And those who would follow these
deceivers and deny the gospel revealed that they never were
saved to begin with. John dealt with that over in
1 John chapter 2. He said they went out from us.
If they were of us, they would have stayed with us. But they
went out so that it might be manifest that they never were
of us. So they're not going to lose salvation. And when we talk
about the things we work for, what we're talking about, he's
talking about, he says, but that we receive a full reward. That
is that in the end, what he's talking about is in the end,
it will be manifested that we are in Christ. We are true believers. We're sinners saved by the grace
of God, not based on what we've earned or what we deserve, but
because of the mercy of God. That's it. So he says in verse
9, now look at it, whosoever transgresseth. Now, remember
I told you last week, that word transgresseth there means they
go beyond. They go too far. Well, what are
they going beyond? They're going beyond the Word
of God. They're going beyond Christ and Him crucified. They're
going somewhere else. Somewhere where they shouldn't
go. They're crossing the boundary. It's almost like the sin of trespass. See, the word sin, S-I-N, that
means we've missed the mark. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We've missed the mark. What is
the mark? Holiness, righteousness. Well, we've missed it. Now, that being the case, how
can we be made holy and righteous? Only by the grace of God in Christ.
That's it. The only way I can not miss the
mark is look to Christ and Him crucified. You see that? Any
other way, I've missed it. Even right now, as a saved sinner,
when I seek to be perfect in any act of obedience, I still
miss the mark. You see, my salvation is in Christ
who hit the mark. He's the one who kept the law
for me. Now, the word trespass speaks of man's rebellion. That
means it's like when you trespass on somebody's property, you cross
the boundary. You're a rebel. Get off of that
land. And that's what it is in trespassing. When man seeks to be saved by
his own works, he's a trespasser. Did you know that? Because you're
trying to cross a boundary. God said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. And what did He
say? He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So when I start working
like Cain did for my salvation, well, the word transgresseth
here is similar, it means to go beyond. So he says, whosoever
goes beyond, crosses the boundary, and abides not, the word abide
means continue, and continues not in the doctrine of Christ,
that single message that I've been speaking of. That message
of who Christ is and what he accomplished, his offices, he's
our prophet, our priest, our king. He's the one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. For example, let me give you
an example of this now. Let's layer down to examples.
I heard a famous preacher, a famous evangelist make this statement
now. He said, there is more than one way to God. He said Christ is not the only
way. A Buddhist or a Muslim or a Hindu
can get close to God through their religion, through their
way. Now let me tell you something.
He's transgressing. He's gone too far. What does
the Word of God say? What does this book say from
Genesis to Revelation? There's one way. Christ said,
I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. Now, that's what Christ said.
Now, if you want to be a Christian, you've got to follow what Christ
said. That's what a Christian is, a follower of Christ. Now,
if you have it in your mind that there are other ways other than
Christ, you're not following Christ. You're not acting like
a Christian. You're transgressing. You're
going beyond the Word of God. You're going beyond His teaching.
You're saying I know better than he did. In fact, he ought to
be following you, in your mind. You see how desperate this is?
You see how serious it is? So if you think there's more
than one way to God other than Christ and Him crucified, His
blood and His righteousness, here's what I suggest to you.
First of all, I suggest to you that you repent. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. But the second thing
I would suggest is stop calling yourself a Christian, because
you're going too far. You've advanced away from the
single message of God's grace. The Bible says there's one God,
and how many mediators between God and man? One mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Peter said there's none other
name given among men whereby we must be saved. That's it. There's not more than one. There's
only one. You say, well, what if that man is a respected preacher? It doesn't matter. What does
God's Word say? That's the issue here, see. Now,
he says, whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ. Now, listen to what he says. He says, he hath not
God. That's serious business. In other
words, God is not his Father, God is not his Savior, he's not
in fellowship with God. He's denying God. And what's
the evidence of that? He's transgressing and abiding
not in the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of grace, the doctrine
of salvation by God's grace in Christ. He says, he that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. He's in fellowship with the Father and the Son. You see,
continuing in the doctrine of Christ, the truth of Christ,
is an evidence that you're saved, that you're in fellowship with
both the Father and the Son. Now, you see how important this
doctrine is? Now, I know I've said this before,
many other preachers have, and I understand what they mean by
this, but let me give you this statement. I want you to think
about it. Somebody says, well, we don't preach a doctrine, or
we preach a person, not a doctrine. Now, I understand what men mean
by that. But I believe it would be more scriptural to say this.
We preach the person by the doctrine. And I'll tell you why I think
that. I know that's more scriptural. Now, you don't have any physical
reality of Jesus of Nazareth to go by. Now, you may think
you do, but you don't. Now, whenever you hear the name
Jesus, what image pops up in your mind? Now, let me tell you
something. The image that probably just
popped up in your mind has a whole lot more to do with Leonardo
da Vinci than it does the Word of God. There are no physical conceptions. of Jesus Christ. That's why Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 5, we don't know him after the flesh anymore.
Now, of course, he had a physical body. He had a perfectly sinless
physical body. And when he appeared unto his
disciples, they saw him, they saw what he looked like. But
you don't know what he looked like. Nobody was around to take photographs.
There were no paintings. And most of us think, when we
think of him, the image that pops in our mind is what da Vinci
painted in The Last Supper. That's a Renaissance painting.
That is not Jesus Christ. And you know, people today, they
all see images of Him. They see Him in the clouds. Heck,
I saw on TV where somebody saw Him in a grilled cheese sandwich.
That is not Jesus Christ. Hey, they sold it on eBay. You
think people... You laugh at it, but people get
serious over this stuff. The person wouldn't dare eat
that sandwich. Sold it off to make money off
of it, but won't eat it. Sold it off. And people are fooled
like that. Whatever vision they see, it
is not Jesus. How do I know Jesus Christ? Not by some picture of our Renaissance
painter. Not by a vision in a cloud or
on a sandwich. I know Him through His Word. That's it. That's the only way
I have of knowing Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit as He
is revealed in the Word, what it says of Him, the doctrine
of Christ. And my friend, these are doctrines
that identify Him, and they distinguish Him, and they glorify Him, and
they honor Him, and they lift Him up. What we say of Jesus
Christ is important. What we preach concerning who
He is and what He did, why He did it, and where He is now,
that's vital. That's the doctrine of Christ.
Just like back over here when Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter
32 that we read at the opening, he says, My doctrine, verse 2,
shall drop as the rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew. This is good stuff, you see.
This is not just cold, dead intellectualism. People say doctrine divides.
You bet it does. But it should. I'll give you
a very plain example of that. If somebody were trying to describe
you to another person who had never met you, how would you
want them to describe you? Well, big, fat, frumpy and ugly. Well, even if you are that, you
wouldn't want to describe you that way, would you? Would you? You'd want them to tell your
good qualities. Very kind. Very becoming. Very approachable. Very loving. All of those things.
The good qualities. Well, let me tell you something.
When we describe Jesus Christ, He has nothing but good qualities.
There are no bad qualities. And we're telling the truth.
If I was describing you to a person, I might pretty it up a little
bit. Because I don't want to hurt your feelings if you ever
find out I described you. But you see, I don't have to
even pretty it up a little bit for Christ because He is everything
that is good and great and glorious. So what do we say of Jesus Christ?
He's the Son of God. That's the doctrine of His deity.
He's the Son of David, the Son of Man. That's the doctrine of
His humanity. He kept the law perfectly and went to the cross
and substituted himself in the place of his people and shed
his blood as payment for our sins and secured our salvation
by all that he accomplished at Calvary. That's the doctrine
of his reconciliation, his atonement, his death. He was buried and
rose again the third day. That's the doctrine of his resurrection.
He's seated at the right hand of God ever living to make intercession
for us. That's the doctrine of his intercession.
He's coming back again. That's the doctrine of his imminent
return. Remember what the passage that Brother Jim read there in
2 Timothy. It spoke of those who love his
appearing. Now, what does that mean? Those
who are waiting in anticipation for his return. Those are the
ones who are going to receive the crown of righteousness. Not
because of their works, but because of him. That's it. Look back at 2 John. Now, look
at this. Now, look at verse 10. Now, when
I read verse 10, I'm going to close this out, and I want you
to understand something. Now, what he is talking about
in these verses is religious fellowship here. And I'll show
you what I mean. Look at verse 10. He says, Now,
if there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, this
teaching, this truth, Receive him not into your house, neither
bid him Godspeed." That means, say, God bless you. "'For he
that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker, a sharer, a fellowshipper
of his evil deeds.'" Wow. Now, people say, well, does that
mean that I cannot have an unbeliever in my house? And the answer is
no, that's not what it means. Some of you parents here today,
you're believers, but you may have children who live at home
who are not believers. That doesn't mean you're to go
home today and kick them out. That doesn't mean that you can't
have any friendship or any socialization with unbelievers at times when
it's appropriate in the proper respect. It doesn't mean that
no unbeliever can cross your door. What he's talking about
here is this. Whenever an unbeliever, especially
preachers or teachers, come to you seeking your religious fellowship
and your support in their message, in their false teaching, in their
false doctrine, you have to draw the line right there. That's
what he's saying. I cannot support you. I cannot say, God bless
you. Now listen, we can pray for their salvation. We can tell
them the gospel. Can't we? We can point them in
the right direction and pray that God will show them the way.
Because we know that if it weren't for God's grace, we'd be just
like them. Isn't that right? If it weren't for God's grace,
we'd be just as deceived and were before God opened our eyes.
and opened our ears. That's what he's talking about
there. Don't receive him in your house, neither bid him Godspeed
as a fellowshiper in the truth, because he's not. And you know,
you'll have people call you, wanting you. I have people call
me wanting to come here and do a ministry. They want to come
in, present their ministry. And they don't believe the gospel
we believe. And I cannot let them into our house here to present
their false gospel. I can't do it. Why? Because God has put me as an
under-shepherd in charge of the sheep. I'm not going to let a
wolf in. Shepherd lets a wolf in. He doesn't love the sheep.
I can tell you that right now. I can't do it. And they think
I'm awful. They say, what's wrong with you?
Well, I'll tell you what's wrong with me. It's called grace. It's
love of the truth. What if a known drug pusher knocked
on your door and said, could I come in and get your support
for my cause? I'm going over to the schoolyard
here after I leave your house, and I'm going to start distributing
drugs to the children. Would you contribute to that?
Well, you'd say, preacher, you're crazy. Who in the world would
ever think about doing something like that? If a drug pusher came,
I'd call the police. Well, my friend, if a false preacher
comes, wanting to distribute their false doctrine, which is
more deadly to the soul, the drug pusher or the false preacher? Huh? You say, well, that's awful
hard. No harder than our Lord, who
was love incarnate. And that's what he's saying.
If you do now, if you have fellowship with them, you're a partaker
of their evil deeds. Just like if you promoted the
drug pusher, you're just as guilty and deserve jail time. If you
promote the false doctrine, the false preacher, you're a fellowshiper,
a sharer in their evil deeds. You might as well say you went
out and preached the false message too. That's how serious this
is. Well, now look at verse 12. He
says, this is his closing remarks, having many things to write unto
you. I would not write with paper and ink. What John's saying is
I want to come and talk to you face to face, but I trust to
come unto you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. And he says, the children of
thy elect sister greet thee and amen. Well, John speaking there
of his love and concern for the church. for the people of God,
and that's what we need to understand that these truths are about.
It's not about just proving your position or promoting a doctrine. It's not just about trying to
say, ha-ha, I'm right and you're wrong. It has nothing to do with
that. It's a real concern for the glory of God, the salvation
of sinners, and the good of Christ's sheep. These are serious things,
aren't they? All right.