Good morning church. Let's turn
together to the letter of 3rd John. The letter of 3rd John. We're going to have a little
conversation today, recapping some stuff, opening up our hearts
and minds to the truth of God's word. Over the last three weeks,
I've spent a significant amount of time unpacking some of the
implications of 2nd John verse 9. And while I think I have covered
enough, there's always more that could be said. There's always
more that could be said because there's always opportunity in
our day to discriminate. And when we think of discriminate,
it's usually something that is pejorative in nature when we
hear it. That means it has a negative connotation, it's used in a negative
way. But the word discriminate, in its root, we use in Christendom
in the word discern. The word discern and discriminate
are equivocal. But one has a positive spiritual
aspect and one has a negative bigoted aspect. But in reality,
when we hear information, we should always discriminate that
information. We do it automatically, right?
So if I were to say, if I were to just give a list of foods,
things that you might eat, and I were to say macaroni and cheese,
depending on what Recipe you're thinking of or the last time
you ate it Maybe it would be a restaurant or your mother's
or your wife's or your? Husband's or your uncle's or
your grandmother's or that nasty stuff you got at the truck stop
on the way to Texas Either way when I say macaroni and cheese
some of us ago. Yeah, I like that that's discrimination
That's discernment. Some of us will say, no, that's
nasty, because some of us just don't like that. If I would say
fried chicken, not a big chicken fan, not a big fried chicken
fan, guys. Believe it or not, I will always prefer the grilled
over the fried, unless it's fingers, and then the breading has to
be a certain consistency. I'm too bougie with my chicken. What about music? Well, I love
jazz, but what kind of jazz? Do you like the old school jazz?
Do you like, I mean, really old school, like the 1920s, 1930s?
Do you like the big band Benny Goodman? Do you like Michael
Brecker, you know, early 90s? Do you like fusion? How about
country music? See, when I hear the word country
and music, that's a dichotomy. There's something that's wrong
with that. Music is always, in my mind, artistic and expressive
and country next to that doesn't work. It just seems so wrong. But that's just my discrimination.
I say all these things because, beloved, we need to think as
quickly in that which we hear doctrinally as we do when we
hear about music that we like or don't like or food that we
like or we don't like. We do the same thing with people,
right? And when we discriminate and discern in the context of
people, depending our attitude and the outcome would depend
on whether it is a good type of discrimination or a bad type
of discrimination. And how we treat people in our
discernment and our discrimination is either good or evil. And that's
really where 3 John comes into play. Because John has left his
second letter very clearly. The first letter written to a
region of churches, the second letter written to a specific
congregation, and the third letter written to a man named Gaius. And this letter written to Gaius,
it's so funny how people do word searches and they say, well,
I know who Gaius is. You don't know who Gaius is. He's not the Gaius
in Corinth. He's not the Gaius in Rome. He's
not the Gaius. There is no identification. There is no relationship to John
with the people in Corinth. There is no way to know that
name was as popular as the name Jesus, which millions hailed.
You see what I'm saying? So you got to say, which Jesus?
Which Gaius? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The point
is, it was written to a man named Gaius, and it was written about
a specific, loving a specific brother called Demetrius, and
it was written about the lack of love that a man named Diotrephes
did not have. He did not have love. I know
that was a double negative, so it made him sound like he did
have love, but bear with me. I'm country. So when we look
at this letter, we have to understand in the context of 1 and 2 John.
We have to read the words and its instruction. There's something
incredible about the fact that we can have this letter for thousands
of years being preserved apostolically and then through the generations
of church leadership and other congregations throughout antiquity,
and yet it is probably just, for most people, insignificant.
I mean, I don't wanna see your hands, but I mean, how many of
you have just gone around the bend of your Christian life and
never read 3 John? You never read it. You never
read 2 John. You read 1 John, but you read
it in pretext. You read the horrible passages or the encouraging passages.
See, that's the problem. We read the Bible in passages.
We're not reading the Bible. We're just fortune cookie purveyors.
We're no different than the Gnostics. We're no different than the mystics.
We're no different than, you know, any type of mysticism when
we read Bible verses. It's like, see that the word
of the Lord says. The word of the Lord doesn't say anything
out of context ever. So there's always a discriminating,
discerning reality in our hearts and minds. We must, beloved,
we must know the letter. And we must be familiar with
the whole in order for the letters to make sense. I mean, just look
at John's writing in and of itself. And this is sort of my thing.
I have spent way too much time on John's writing to the neglect
of everything else in the Bible for 20 years. But it's okay. It's okay. But I mean, think
about all the nonsense and the knuckleheadedness that has come
out of John's writing. Well, the Antichrist is coming
in 2011. The Antichrist is coming in 1967. The Antichrist, there
is no the Antichrist. The Bible doesn't teach about
the Antichrist or the one, you know? It doesn't teach that,
but yet in our communities of the Bible Belt especially, there
are billions of dollars made in the peripheral writing about
who this man and or being is going to be. John says, anyone
who does not abide in the doctrine of Christ but goes beyond the
bounds of the revelation of the written Word of God is the Antichrist. What does that mean? Not Christ. Against Christ. Antichrist means
that that teaching, that person, that idea, that perception, that
message is against the Christ. That's what it means. But it's
so exciting to think Hollywood-esque in our understanding and interpretation
of scripture. It's so exciting to get to the
point where we're like, oh yeah, let's look at the newspaper and
see what's happening in the Bible. Well then who do you listen to?
Do you listen to Canada News? Sometimes I just put XM radio
on when I'm driving and listen to French. It keeps my ears up. I can't speak it very well anymore,
but it keeps my ears up. I knew that word. I understood
that. Sometimes I listen to NPR. Like, what are you talking about,
you know? Sometimes I listen to the British place, the BBC,
love to hear that news because they always sound authoritative.
There's something about a British accent that sounds authoritative,
you know? Like the old Doug Weathers or
Dan Rather, CBS News. I mean, you know, they always,
well, what they're saying is true. How do you discern fake
news? Not by the accent, you know. Or do you listen to Fox
or CNN or MSNBC or anything? Beloved, you have to discern.
And we listen to a whole lot of stuff and we listen to a whole
lot of things and we can get our news and you can't get the
revelation of God through the news. You can't get the revelation
of God through James Tippins and his commentary. You can't
get the revelation of God by any ideology, or culture, or
history, or historical writing, or famous pastor, or famous theologian,
famous teacher. You can only get the truth of
Christ and the revelation of God through His written word.
And only then, by the Spirit of God, can you be made aware
of its truth. How do you know you've been made aware of the
truth of what's written in the Bible? Because you rest confidently
in Christ. And I'm gonna say that over and
over again. Saving faith, which I think is a misnomer in a lot
of ways historically, is truly understood as resting assurance
and confidence in the promises of God by His Spirit. That against
everything you hear, against everything that's been taught
to you, against everything that you could come up with in all
of our philosophical minds, because we're smart, against everything
that history has ever said, You rest in the promises of God according
to his word in Christ Jesus. And resting is nearly like death. What can a dead man do to save
himself? Not a thing. What can a saved man do to hold
that salvation? Not a thing. And who is it that
keeps us and holds us fast? It is Christ our King alone.
He has purchased us and he's a hoarder. He's not about to
let somebody come in and take us off. He's not about to let
somebody come in and clean us out. Think about that for a minute.
Nobody's getting away from the kingdom of heaven. We're stacked
up like newspapers, baby. We're stacked up. And that causes
me stress to think about. So when we have all of these
ideas now, all of this philosophy, all of this thinking, We come
to the teaching here, and the last three weeks I've spent a
lot of time dealing with some examples, some further explanation
about what is a different Christ. Beloved, let me make it very
clear for those of you who may have not been here or forgotten.
If this A over here is Christ and everything revealed to us
about Christ in scripture, and this over here is not related
to this revelation, then these two things are not equal. And we're not talking theoretical,
we're talking absolutes. So to add to Christ is not Christ,
is anti-Christ. To take away from Christ is anti-Christ. To have something different in
the essence of who he is or what he accomplished or for whom is
anti-Christ. Sometimes we get caught up in
the doctrinal labels. Sometimes we get too caught up
in the, you know, the conversation or the academics, and we're not
all speaking the same language because we're not all in the
same place. And so to wash all that away
and to know who are our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we have
to get to the root of this. What is good news concerning
God's word? What does God say his news, which
is good, is? And my grammaticians are going,
that was a very bad sentence. What is it? And when someone
begins to elaborate on the good news, and they hit an element
here, and they hit an element here, it's like a perfect puzzle
piece. In middle school, my mother,
I love puzzles. I haven't put a puzzle together
probably in 20 years, but I used to love to put them together,
and I love Oreo cookies, so she bought me this huge stack of
Oreo cookies, and it was all black over here, and a little
string of white right here, and a glass of milk behind it, and
I love that puzzle. But somewhere in the scope of finishing that
puzzle, One of my brothers like ate a piece. Ate a piece. And so I could not see the glorious
darkness of Oreo. I saw the hole, you know, like last week's illustration
about my theology of roaches. We don't come to the table and
say, well, we got all these parts, but we're missing this. And I'm
not talking about doctrinal perfectionism. That is such a stupid, stupid,
stupid thing to charge your brothers and sisters with when they're
wanting to glorify God in his revelation. That is so immature. That is like when I put the puzzle
together, I was 11 or however old you are when you're in fifth
grade. We don't do that. Doctrinal perfectionism is a
thing, but that's not what it means when you're saying, this
is the revelation of God in Christ. This is what the Bible says about
who Christ is. And when others come and say,
no, this is, so when we ask what the gospel is and they get a
lot of stuff right, but they're missing essential pieces. And
I said, then we get to this, don't we? What is essential doctrine?
What is non-essential doctrine? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I don't know. What in the Bible is not important? Because that's
what it means to be non-essential. And what in the practice thereof
is not important? Do we have liberty to practice
certain things? Absolutely. But can these things become idols?
Absolutely. Can a morning believer be an
idolater? Yes, sirree. You want to take a poll? Raise your hand if you love this.
Raise your hand if you love that. Someone says do this. Everybody stand up.
We're all heretics. That's how it's going to work. But when
it comes to Christ, beloved, there's an epidemic of ignorance
in our world. And the ignorance is the foundational
platform and authority through which most fools speak. Beloved, when we're not ignorant,
we're less likely to speak up so boldly. We're more likely
to teach rather than beat. We're more likely to approach
rather than just blindside. We're most likely to pray rather
than to just become the sword bearer. So when we read 3 John, what
lens are we reading it through? Do we know the Christ? Do we
understand that evangelizing the lost, that 80% of the lost
in our circles claim to be the saved? And I'm using that term
very broadly and culturally. We are saved by the work of Christ,
not our functioning relationship therein because of how we approach
it, but in what God has done to absolutely save His people.
But how do we count one a brother or sister in Christ? When they
know the gospel. Saying, I believe Jesus died
for my sins is not a confession of hope. Every cult in America believes
that. Every cult in America believes
that. Every cult. Every non-church person in this
county believes that. Every denomination believes that.
Every historical moniker believes that. Matter of fact, I have a large
section of friends in the Islamic community who believe that. But
they're still working to appease Allah, Elohim, God. And when we stomp our feet against
that, Beloved, there is great room for discrimination, because
it is a sign of either pride, unwillingness to be honest, or
unconversion, unregeneration. We do not worship that which
man has created. We worship, like in Romans 1,
we worship and thank God for his sovereign grace. And sovereign grace is the gospel.
Free grace is the gospel. Calvinism may contain the gospel. What's that got to do with anything?
Calvin is not Jesus. What's it got to do with anything?
You see the difference? Calvinism is the gospel. The
gospel is Jesus Christ and all that he has revealed according
to his word. When you hold Even if you're
right, when you hold to the labels of history, you are treating
God's gospel as an idol of man. Stop it! There is not going to be anything
that I wrote, and I am more authoritative this day than John Calvin will
ever be. And I'm more authoritative this
day than any other pastor who has ever lived. Why? Because I'm standing here with
the Word of God and the Word of God is going to speak. You
see the difference? I'm tired, beloved. I'm older
today by dates. And I don't have time to play.
I don't have time to play. I don't have time to play. And
when we play in the, In the realm of all of these great thoughts,
we are ignoring the greatest revelation of all. You do not
need me to make you see what's true. And when I'm dead, I have
made arrangements that everything I've ever preached and everything
that I've ever written is going to be burned away from the online
stratosphere. It is going to be gone. I have
made those arrangements. It will be done. Because it doesn't matter. What
matters is that we are together in the teaching of God's word. Third John. The elder to the
beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I pray that
all may go well with you and that you may be in good health
as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the
brothers came and testified to your truth. As indeed you are
walking in the truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that
my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a fateful
thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers
as they are, who testified to your love before the church.
You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner
worthy of God. For they have gone out for the
sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore,
we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow
workers for the truth. I have written something to the
church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself before all others,
does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up
what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not
content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also
stops those who won't and puts them out of the church. stops
those who want to, who want to welcome them and puts them out
of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. You see how that pretext has
been abused so many times. Whoever does good is from God
and whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received
a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We
also add our testimony and you know that our testimony is true.
I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with
pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to
face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet
the friends, each by name." Now, there is so much here. I made
a joke that I'd make this into eight weeks, and then Trey made
a joke it could be 15 weeks, and then I'm looking at it, and
I don't know how long it's going to take to preach this text.
Because there's some good, deep, rich, loving instruction here. A couple of weeks. Y'all going,
oh my goodness. It's OK. Because when we get
out of here, we're going into the letters of Timothy. So it's
just going to be more instruction, more instruction, more instruction.
Here we see that John, as he opens up the text, as he opens
up this letter written to this brother Gaius, this beloved Gaius,
whom he loves in the truth. This isn't the first time we've
seen this. We've seen this taught in 1 John. We've seen this taught
by Jesus in John's gospel. We've seen this expressed in
2 John as well. And now we see the same type
of introduction and these adjectives applied to the people here in
3 John, to the person here in 3 John. John refers to himself
as the elder. He has personally in his heart
taken the burden of caring for this congregation and most importantly
caring for Gaius who is part of a congregation. He is caring
for the church where Diotrephes is an elder who is not doing
the will of the Lord. And you'll notice in this text
as we go through it, there is not one doctrinal error being
dealt with here. But the only error is the living
out the gospel in mutual affection and serving one another as Christ. That's the problem. And see,
when we go to 2 John, we go to 1 John, I mean, how much time
do the apostles spend? I'm gonna ask this question,
and maybe some of you who are math-minded, you could go in
and get the exact percentage, but I'm gonna ask you, how much
time do you see long extensions of these letters written for
the sake of exposing false teaching or dealing with error or things
of that nature? How much time is spent? None,
hardly at all. It's a line or a sentence or
a name and that's the end of it. Then the correction comes
with the positive doctrinal teaching continually and continually and
continually over and above all the error. Why? Because that
is the only way God will ever show the truth to any human being.
It is the only, I'm gonna say that again, it is the only way
God will ever show the truth to any human being. Because our
minds cannot process negative instruction. Now I know I got a little psychology
and philosophy last week, I have to say this. Don't think of these
flowers, don't look at this microphone. Don't say your middle name in
your mind. You can't do it. You cannot obey
negative instruction in thought. You cannot adhere to it. It is
impossible. The only way it would happen
is if you were deaf and you couldn't read lips. It's the only way. Don't look
over there. Don't look over here. Don't look
over there. You remember the old song, The Street? Don't look
at them. But it was too late. I mean, you know. Totally inappropriate. So John, as Paul does, as James
does, as we'll see on midweek in a couple of weeks, John is caring for this church.
How is he caring for this church? Through oversight. What's that
oversight include? Through doctrine, teaching, correction,
rebuke, We'll get to that in Timothy. We'll get to that in
Paul's letters to Timothy. Matter of fact, that's a phrase
that Paul uses in 2 Timothy. The training of righteousness. But see, sometimes we look at
the elders of the church and we think, well, they're not doing
their job. They're not warning enough people.
Well, I'm warning you now, you're spending too much time in the
negatives. If you're scared to death of
false teaching, you've not yet rested in the absolute sovereignty
of Christ. If you're scared of false teachers, you're not resting
in the sovereignty of Christ. Because unbeknownst to me, and
I'm not the expert, I've only been reading the Bible maybe
45, 44 years. Because I could read three. I've only been reading the Bible
44 years. I don't know how long with understanding, But in studying,
I mean, what does that make me, an expert? No, it makes me a
guy that reads. I've been reading cookbooks too, but I can't fry
an egg. And then in all my reading, I
see this revelation. I see this truth. And all my
studying from week to week to week to week for your sake, not
for my sake, for your sake. I see that the call of the elder
is to instruct and to teach and that walking and abiding the
truth is two-sided. We've seen this already. We've
got months in 1 John that we've done this. We have the recapitulation
for seven weeks in 2 John and now we're going to have a couple
of more weeks in 3 John. Here are the two things that are called
abiding in the truth without exception of the revelation of
Jesus Christ as the savior of his people by the sovereign and
free grace of God, simply put. And then walking in a manner
together with sacrifice without any obligation of another to
me or to you in absolute divine affection. What does that mean? If you love somebody, there is
nothing you can ask of them. If you love somebody, there's
nothing that you can expect from them. Nothing. If you love somebody, there's
nothing that you can command of them, demand of them, make
them do, hold them accountable to. Love, by definition, in the
revelation of God, is that God said, there is nothing I expect
of you, but I will save you. I will lay my life down for you.
Why is the false gospel so popular? Because God the Father has willed
it to deceive the nations. And it's not the cults that we
know of that are those who are greatly deceived. It is the churches,
predominantly in the context of Protestantism, that are deceived. With a continued emphasis on
how the creature can prove, provide, and empower themselves to live
in salvation rather than sacrificial love for one another because
of salvation. We all want to be mighty in the
kingdom of God. The only mighty way is to be
last. He who was God became nothing. Though he was God, he became
nothing, obedient to death on a cross, as a criminal, the creator
of the universe, took on flesh, created a woman named Mary, and
a womb in her body, and a body for himself in her womb, and
the creator of the world came into the world as a creation
that he created for himself, having never ceased to be God.
having never ceased to be God the Son, and grew up in stature
before God and men, and learned to speak, and learned to talk,
and learned to walk, and learned to wipe his backside. And then he laid his life down
for his mortal enemies, his beloved, his elect, his children, to pull
them out of the world, which was righteously condemned before
the foundation. We're not to make God into the
gods of Greek and Roman mythology. And this elder, John, has given
his life for the sake of the joy of the saints. And all authority
has been given to Christ, and all authority has been given
to the apostles, and now that same authority is not channeled
through the elders, it's just taught by the elders. The elders
are not the authority. God's Word is the authority.
Hence my continued humorous stick that if a cat meows the Word
of God we are subject to listen and obey it. Why? Because it holds authority over
us. And John writes this letter to
his beloved brother Gaius whom he loves in the truth. He loves
in the truth of Christ. How do you love each other in
the truth of Christ? You know the truth of Christ. You know the truth of Christ.
Gospel presentations have been demonically inspired since the
beginning of days. Since Adam. Well, Tippins, you just... I
mean, read Genesis 1. All is good. Read Genesis 2.
Yippee! Still good. Man and wife. Hallelujah! Read Genesis 3. The enemy. The liar. The deceiver. Satan. The devil. The adversary. He comes in and he changes things. He lies about the kingdom. He
lies by taking away the truth. and giving partial truths. Do
you understand that? The lie is a partial truth. It's not a deception in that,
sometimes it is, but moreover, it's not just a deception of
saying I'm gonna say something that's just absolutely wrong
and you're gonna believe it, that happens. But in our circles,
in our community, with our friends, with our family, with our co-workers,
with our loved ones, with our neighbors, it is the truth in
part and it is not the truth. You know what good news is? If
you eat of that fruit, you'll be like God. You know what the
good news is? If you walk down this aisle,
you'll be like God. You know what the good news is?
If you say this prayer, you'll be like God. You know what the
good news is? If you just live a good life,
you'll know that you're like God. You know what the good news is? God's
gonna work in you to make you so good that you're gonna look
so much like Jesus, He's gonna just take you right on in. Is
that my son or is that my son? I don't know, y'all come in!
I mean, is God a hillbilly idiot? No. God is the Almighty who has
saved His people. God has saved His people. He
has saved His people. And the beloved love each other
in the truth. They know the knowledge of Christ.
They know Him. And they know that the only Only
hope they have is that Christ is their righteousness. I don't know who they were, but
there was a couple that said to me yesterday after this beautiful wedding
ceremony that we had. So I have this wide eye, we're
not doing an altar call this morning. They said to me, in 52 years
of going to church, I've never heard a wedding like that. I've
never heard that taught in relation that marriage was a relationship
with the gospel. Then I heard a lot of good things
about marriage, yeah. True things? Absolutely. But
it's not the full truth. And not the full truth is a lie.
And beloved, the world in which we live is sunk and anchored
in false teaching so much that we don't have the discernment
and the discrimination to see it. And the elders of the church
are charged before God who will stand, I don't know what this
looks like, and it causes me fear. It causes me fear, but
the fear is connected to the hope that there is no condemnation
for me. So I don't know what this, I
don't know what this account's going to be. I don't know if
it's like God saying, I'm not going to tell you, but you better
hold fast, you better watch out. You know, we'll get to that when
we get into letters to Timothy because there's a lot of instructions
to me and the elder brothers of this church there that apply
to us that you also must know. But we're going to give an account
to God for how we teach you and how we hold you to the walking
in the truth as well. Not just in the doctrines of
Christ, but abiding in the love of Christ as we live to love
each other. You see the difference. It's
both. It's not one or the other. And
there are two primary things that take place in the context
of the New Testament church where we see church discipline resulting
in excommunication. We see excommunication happening
swiftly unless the resolve to false teaching that's being taught
is stopped. Oh, wow, you bring false teaching
in? You know, you're a fellow member of our family, and we're
gonna correct you, and if you don't stop, we get rid of you
quick. Let me say, church, we can't have this person among
us right now because they won't stop teaching this nonsense. That's
one. But the predominant thing that
excommunicates the body of Christ in the first century is when
they don't love each other. Even the ones who hold fast to
the gospel of free and sovereign grace. The ones who say, yep,
I know the Christ. This is the gospel. You go, absolutely.
Then why are you living in a manner that hurts the body? Why are
you doing these sins? Why are you destroying this family? You can be a gospel truth holder
all day long, but if you are destroying through your attitude,
your actions, even if they're well intended, the fabric of
our unity, that's also an excommunicable offense. Why? Because that also, just like
the marriage, displays the perfection of Christ. It displays the covenant
of God. It displays, you know, that the relationship in our
marriages, of course, our first priority, but the reason that
they are is so that the body of Christ may be built up into
maturity. The home life is rehearsal for
church life, which is rehearsal for eternity. To put it silly, And all of it's temporal, but
these relationships right here. The way in which we relate to
one another is temporal, but our eternal relationship as brothers
and sisters in the truth is forever. So we need to love each other
as if we're already standing in the presence of Christ with
nothing else to do. And it's always service. You see how hard
that is? Thank God He's not gonna judge
us by that. Thank God we're not required
to establish perfect love in a sense that we're going to have
rewards and removals and glory. The greatest reward of heaven
is resting in a perfect way in the perfection of Jesus Christ.
That our love and our adoration, you know what a reward is? In
a real psychological sense, something you really, really wanted and
you got it. Have you ever shown up to a restaurant?
Congratulations, you're our 1,000th customer. Here's a free soda.
Thanks for the dollar. Here's a lifetime supply of,
depending on where you are, it could be very exciting, Taco
Bell, not really exciting. I guess I could sell that. Hey,
tacos. What if it was like a really
five-star steakhouse? Well, we'd be fat and happy. We'd be eating all over the place. What if it's a new house? Or
what if it's a new car? I mean, what else is the process right
until they go pay their taxes on that thing? I don't know.
A reward in glory is equivocal to the joy that you have in Christ. That which you long for. Christ,
I long for Christ. Everybody says, I long for Christ. The elder to the beloved Gaius,
whom I love in the truth." Elders want the church to long for Christ. Well, beloved, if you long for
Christ without longing for one another, you're not longing for
Christ. Correctly. That's a trip, isn't it? It's a trip. Well, how are we
supposed to get there? We rest in the perfection of
Jesus, we know the gospel, we hold fast, and that as we grow
and are instructed in these ways, we are to what? We are to learn
to grow in the knowledge of grace, which includes how we live together
as a body. That's why it's very odd to me
how people, well, I'm just gonna go to another church. I'm just
gonna go to another wife. I'm just gonna go to another
house, just knock on the door and say, hey buddy, what's your name?
Hey John, get out of here. I'm gonna come in and be the
husband around here. They're gonna call 911 and take me to
Milledgeville. That's where the mental hospital
is. It doesn't work like that, but yet we treat the church relationship
like that. And churches treat the relationship
like that. That's how it's so easy to end up intimately involved
with a group of people without even knowing what they believe
and stand for. without even knowing the implications and the discernments
and the discriminations that these things, that's why you
cannot take face value commentary. You must get into the word together
and grow into the understanding of what each other means when
they say the same words. But John's desire is to love. the church, and that the church
would love one another. That's the desire of Christ in
John, where we are to love one another. We are to be found in
Christ, who gave himself for us. And that living out, this is
my commandment. If you love me, Jesus says in
John 15, you will obey my commandments. See, an Antichrist explanation
of that is, well, you're gonna follow the Ten Commandments.
That's not what Jesus is saying. He explains it very clearly.
And if you wanna know a further explanation, you can go back
and find whatever week that is in John 15, and you can listen
to it. But Jesus directly says in verse
12, and this is my commandment, that you lay your life down for
one another as I have laid my life down for you. Now, there's
a paraphrase, isn't it? infusing the very meaning that
Jesus had without having to preach it. Love one another as I have
loved you. Where do you get all that? He's
already said, I lay my life down for the sheep. That is my love for them. So
in the same way husbands love your wife as Christ loved the
church who gave himself up for her that he might present her
what blameless and spotless without blemish having washed her and
provided for her and sanctified her and cleansed her and purified
her and made her holy because he set himself apart as a substitute
in her place. That His purity and His holiness
and His righteousness would be in their place. And that their
wickedness, that their sinfulness, that their guilt would be put
on Himself. Love one another in that way.
And beloved, sometimes we don't like to think about it, but we
hear the term tough love. I don't know who all's popular
now with the talk shows or anything anymore. But there used to be
this lady named Dr. Laura Schlesinger, and she's
always talking about tough love. Tough love. She's the rudest
person I've ever heard on the airwaves, supposedly being helpful. Well, this is how I feel. Well,
you're just dumb. Don't call me again. Click. I mean, you
know. OK, then. But tough love, in the context
of the local church sometimes, is doing that which is right,
in a manner which is pleasing and kind, that feels very hard
for the person receiving it. Feels very hard for the person
receiving it. The elders have to constantly balance. I don't
know how, can we just stomp our feet? I mean, I've been charged
with being too soft. Because I'm really a hard nose.
person I am a hard person so I work diligently to pray God
would keep my heart soft and he does by his mercy but if he
ever stopped I break this pulpit now and everybody be scared and the
only ones will be back next week are the ones are too scared not
to come back you know I mean, it's so easy to manipulate
people. That's not hard love. Hard love sometimes sounds like
this. That's not pleasing to the Lord. It's going to cost
you your joy. It's going to cost you your intimacy. It's going to cost you greatly
when you act foolish. That's not true about the Lord.
You're going to be disciplined. You're going to be corrected.
You're going to have to stand before the church because what
you're saying is antichrist. Stop it. What you're confessing is not
the gospel. Why is that hateful? What you're
reading is a lie. What you're eating is poisonous.
Well, I don't wanna offend anybody. That woman was drinking strychnine.
That's none of my business. If she wants to die, I'll let
her die happy. She's not gonna die happy. Poison
is not a good death. It's painful. Beloved, we speak the truth in
love. And speaking the truth in love is God's prescription
for keeping the church in front of the gospel. For keeping the
church in front of the love of Christ as we, I'm gonna say this
word and it may not be right, as we mimic the love of Christ.
We're not going to perfect it. We're not going to say, look
at there, I'm just like Jesus. No, we are acting as Jesus acted.
We are living as Jesus lived, but it doesn't count for righteousness
because it's impure even in its best day. Our greatest love is
still perfectly subject to justice. That is why righteousness must
be given to our account because it is not given to our flesh.
It is not given to our flesh. And that is why it is all of
grace. It is all just about the kindness and love and mercy of
God for his people, where he causes us to see and rest in
his absolute perfect redemption through Jesus Christ. And John is overly and tenderly
concerned about this church. Why? Because the leader, one of the
leaders of the church is not loving one of the brothers in
the faith who's an evangelist. Because he took verse 9 as the
primary point of 2 John. See, I'm just saying that as
a, you know, that's conjecture. But I'm saying, think about that.
He took verse 9 deatrophies, and he began to just line everybody
up. Next ant! Next ant! He began to discriminate outside
the bounds of what scripture teaches. He began to dig below
the gospel and see just if there ever was anything peculiar, or
funny, or odd. Those things will come out, beloved.
We don't have to dig for them. they will come out. And what
people believe about the gospel will come out in what they understand
about the love of Christ and the call to love one another
as well. So if we say, this is the gospel, this is the love
of God for his people, and I find myself in that love, and then
I say, well then, what does that mean for this for you? See, that's
called a distinction. And they go, I don't have to
listen to that. Paul says, I mean, John says, He likes to put himself
first and doesn't acknowledge our authority. What was going
on with this guy? He was right. He was the authority.
He's the pastor around here, by golly. You see? And I did that on purpose earlier.
I'm the greatest authority standing here right now. Why? Because
God has tasked me with teaching the authoritative word. It's
not me, it's the word. And I've said that a thousand
times if I've said it once. So I want you to hear what I'm
saying, not what I'm not saying. but diatrophies like I'm the
pastor around here, doesn't matter what Paul says, don't matter
what John says, don't matter what these guys say, I'm the
elder of this church and I don't want this knucklehead in here,
I don't like him, I don't like this guy, this Demetrius, this
evangelist traveling around. I know what traveling and evangelists
are all about, they're just looking for money. You see, he's discriminating
wrongly against this man. Don't give the man who brings
another Christ or an incomplete or a conditioned or an added
to gospel. Don't give that person attention. Don't give them attention. Don't
give them reception. Don't let them have a place of stature
in the church. Don't let them teach. That's
why in order for the church to be subject to someone who teaches,
they must go through years of trial. Years of trial. Not weeks, not
months, it's not an application process, it's trial. How they deal with problems,
how they deal with correction, how they deal with doctrine,
how they deal with false doctrine, how they deal with the Word of
God, how they handle the Word of God, rightly. And all the
intricacies to be an elder is not about teaching. To be an
elder is about overseeing and caring and loving and being confident
in the gospel and dealing with the flesh of himself. Knowing that he's more of a fallen
man than any man in here. And his ultimate care, look at
verse two here, his ultimate care. is not worried about the doctrine
because he's already taking care of that in instruction. Positive
instruction took care of negative doctrine. You see that? Don't do this, but do this. Don't
receive this, but receive these. So we're supposed to put our
mind on who we receive, not who we don't receive. And John said, Beloved, I pray
that all may go well with you. Now some translations say prosper. Prosper is a bad term in our
world because it connotates material wealth, and John is not praying
for this man's material wealth. He's talking about as he is well
in the faith, he prays that God may help him go well in life,
in his relationships. I pray that all may go well with
you, and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your
soul. See, that's where we get the
Lord bless you, Christ bless, God bless. Everybody, you know,
what's the blessings of God in that context? We know that it
is all about Christ, but we also know that we are praying for
one another for the blessings of God in health. But sometimes
that blessing puts us in the hospital, doesn't it? Puts us
under the surgical knife. Puts us in a mental state that
we don't know if we can ever shake. So the only true and hopeful
and absolute blessing is the gospel, is the work of Christ. And in further explanation, continuing
there in verse 3, it says, "...for I rejoiced greatly when the other
brothers came and told me about the truth that is yours, as indeed
you are walking in the truth." Now, John's not talking about
his doctrine here. That's a given by the fact he
called him Beloved Gaius. Gaius hadn't straightened up
his gospel and got it right finally. Gaius had the gospel right long
before he was a leader in the church. Diotrephes had the gospel right
long before he was a leader in the church. Now Diotrephes' life
is antithetical to the gospel that he holds to, so Diotrephes
is in trouble. Gaius is going to have to take
up the mantle to receive the man of God who's preaching the
truth. I rejoiced greatly when the brothers
came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in
the truth." Verse 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that
my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, we can't have one and the other,
we must have both. There is no joy in the body of
Christ if there is doctrinal error, no matter how loving we
are. I want you to see this. There
is no joy if we have doctrinal evidence. How loving we are.
See, that's the majority of the American church, isn't it? We're
all loving to the way we could define it. We're doing a lot
of stuff together. We're having a lot of fun together. When times of
need come up, we're providing for those needs. We're doing
a lot of stuff that helps each other. We're kind. We're gentle. We don't talk about each other
into their face, but only on the phone. And, you know, there's
a lot of stuff that's positive, but the gospel's not there. It's
not true. And when the gospel's there,
but there's no care, and there's no love, and there's no intimacy,
and there's no concern, in practical things, not just doctrinal things,
in practical things, it's not true either. It's not a true
church, it's not a true family. It'll be like having my wife
and children and say, yeah, I love y'all, and I'm glad y'all are
here, and I'll never throw you out of your house, but you're not leaving
either. And I'm not gonna give you food or toilet paper. I love you. I don't want anything
to happen to you. I possess you. And you're on the property, but
I don't care. I mean, as long as you're here
and alive, here's a little bit of water. I mean, see how weird? That's psycho.
That's like a bad B-movie of some kind. No, the church can't be like
that. We grow in our concern for one another. And our concern
for each other is directly related to the gospel that we know because
God's concern for His, and I know some of you don't like that word,
but I'm gonna use it in relationship to this conversation. God's concern
for His people sent His Son to satisfy His wrath for them, you
see. But it was a pure and absolute decree. It wasn't a, well, I
guess I'll fix it. God didn't fix anything. He declared
it all. It was absolutely perfect. Everything
that God has done has come to pass and everything that comes
to pass is absolutely that which God has decreed. Nothing different. So this is the beauty. no other joy in my life, in the
context of my ministry and my marriage and my hope for you
as our church family, than to know that you have love for one
another, which is walking in the truth of Christ. I want you to have love for one
another. Put away our petty differences. You hear all the teaching of
Paul? Put away pettiness, put away malice, put away discontent,
put away jealousy, put away wrath, put away anger. Why? Because
God's wrath is coming upon those things and those people who are
identified by that. You have no condemnation. God's
wrath is not coming on you, so why are you acting and living
and talking like the people who are going to get God's wrath?
Don't do that, you see. You're not going to do that.
You shouldn't do that, that's what he's saying. You're not
gonna receive God's wrath. You are the beloved, you are
the children of God. He is going to teach you and
correct you and discipline you, not punish you. And that's why
we're here today. So that we may know the joy of
walking in the truth together, that there's an intimacy, and
it has a lot to do with helping to grow each other in knowledge,
and it has a lot to do with helping to grow each other in service. It's both. Because otherwise,
we could just be a complete internet church and be done. And I could
sit at home in my leather chair with my feet up, robe and a bubble
pipe. I don't smoke, but I could get
a bubble pipe if it made you feel better. Put me a fake fire
in the background and we just have church chat. Church chat,
Grace Truth church chat. That sounds good, doesn't it? Some of you are in that group.
I didn't realize how silly that sounded until I just said it. But look at verse 5. We're going
to pick up in some of this here and then we're going to be done. Beloved, it
is a fateful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers,
strangers as they are, who told of your love before the congregation. You will do well to send them
on their journey in a manner worthy of God, for they have
gone out for the sake of the name of Christ, accepting nothing
from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support
people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth."
Now, I'll make this comparison and then we're done. Fellow workers
for the truth is intimacy with the body. When we're helping
each other in any way, we're helping each other and we're
supporting the truth. When we're helping and supporting and drawing
attention to Antichrist things, we're supporting that truth.
When we're allocating this guy's my brother, this guy's my brother,
but everybody is different in their Christ, we're supporting
Antichrist. When we're giving money to ministries
abroad that don't preach the gospel just because they have
good benevolence, we're supporting Antichrist. There are a lot of
secular organizations that help people that you could support
that aren't preaching a false Christ. They're preaching no
Christ at all. But for some reason, we get enamored
with, oh, it's about Jesus, then we're doing a little bit better.
No, we're not. We're not doing anything better if we're taking aid to
a nation and preaching them a false gospel. It's not good. But beloved, before we ever reach
out across the street Are we reaching in with each other?
Are we praying for one another? Or do we have disdain in our
hearts? We cannot have disdain. Beloved, we can fight, and I
hate that word, but we can fight and talk and debate, and my goodness,
we didn't celebrate it yet, but we just had the date of our 25th
anniversary. I think in 25 years it feels
like five. Just like poof. And I can't, you know, I have
this cloud of weirdness. You know, we've really never
even really had many fights. The way I see it. But we've had
25 years of fights. 25 years of disagreements. 25
years of frustrations. 25 years of anger. 25 years of
sinfulness. 25 years of, you know, I hate
your guts. But not every day. Because we've
also had 25 years of intimacy, 25 years of children, 23 years
of children, 25 years of reconciliation, 25 years of prayers, 25 years
of hope, 25 years of sincerity, 25 years of encouragement. The body of Christ needs to be
exactly like that. And the closer we get to the Lord, I saw this
pop up this morning, it's so funny that it was good timing,
the closer we get to the Lord through the revelation of his
word, the closer we will get to his people in intimacy, and
the closer we get to his people in the trueness and the purity
of the doctrines of Christ, the more opposed the world will be
to us, the more opposed that those who not know Christ will
be. They will hate us, and they will
malign us, and they will talk about us, and they will cause
stress in our lives, and it is supposed to be that way, beloved.
Because Jesus Christ did not come down here and wave his magic
wand and just stand up there and go, behold, I'm going to
forgive all of your sins. No, he became a nothing and died
on a cross and was subject to the wrath of God and to the judgment
of men in guiltlessness. And then he was raised from the
dead because he was guiltless, he was sinless. And that promise
now of redemption is ours and it's proven because he lives
today and he's going to glorify his people with him. And that's
what the gospel is supposed to be in our hearts and minds as
we live together, as we take the Lord's table to remember
the death of Jesus Christ. So put that right there on the
front of your hearts and minds today and intimately know that
when we take this table in a moment, we are doing it as one body,
not individuals. One people with eternal intimacy
that can never be shaken. with eternal hope that can never
fade, with a blessing that comes from God greater than any good
day on this earth could ever be. Let's pray. We thank you,
Father, for the overwhelming vastness of your everlasting
love for us. And I thank you, Lord, that we can take time out
and just ponder this beautiful letter that you've written through
your apostle John. Lord, help us to truly be sensitive,
to discern, to discriminate the information that comes from those
around us concerning your son and the work that he provided
and the work that he accomplished and the power in which he did
it for your people. And Father, help us to be sensitive
and discriminating and discerning in how our love approaches one
another in subjectivity to this gospel. remembering and thinking
and flowing through this good news, this beautiful love that
you've given your people. Father, help us to reflect on
this truth as we pray, as we serve, as we live, as we work.
Even we who work to the bone sometimes, Father, we are working
as unto you. So we thank you for your love
for us and for this wonderful privilege to serve and to worship. Father, we pray these things
in the name of Christ our King. Amen.