Good morning, beloved. Let's
turn together in our Bibles to 2 John. A little tiny letter
of 2 John. And then let's put a finger over
in Romans 8, which is what we read this morning as we began. Get all the rest of my ribbons
out of my way. Peace. We hear the word often. We've talked about it in the
last few weeks. We've been preaching peace our entire lives as believers. We've been hearing the word.
We see it in our culture. We see it everywhere we go. We
hear the word joy. We hear the word love. We hear
the word church. And though we're in the practice
of gathering together in certain ways in which we do that and
certain technologies through which we can communicate and
certain means through which we are able to focus on the teaching,
you know, everything changes generation to generation. The
way ministry is done changes, the way communication is done
changes, but there's Always something that remains the same, and of
course it is the gospel, it is Christ, he never changes, the
message never changes, the purpose never changes, the people never
change. What changes is perception. What
changes is feeling sometimes like, wow, we've gotta do something
different. Because isn't that the way it is? We dress differently,
we treat our bodies differently, we brush our teeth differently.
Aren't you glad we brush our teeth? You know, we take care
of our homes and our automobiles differently than just what we
did 20 years ago. Why? Because things have changed.
The evolution of technology, evolution of innovation continues
to spread and grow, and it's going to be like that. To the
point that we often communicate now not in logical thought, but
sound bites. We leave a lot open to interpretation
in our social media. We have the 140 characters or
more through our tweets, and we have our Facebook updates,
the thumb. I mean, how many of you would ever thought this had
so much meaning? And to me, that is a, I need
to look at this later type thing. Because if you have any later
lists, my later lists need dividing into other lists. I'll check
that later. I looked at my YouTube the other
day. I had 1,700 saved videos. 1700 saved videos. It's in my watch
later category. I don't know how long I've been
doing that but I have not gotten around to it. But I mean there
are things that communicate a lot of things to us depending on
what we see. We can see a picture, we can see a color, we can have
a smell and it'll tell us something. It'll tell us something based
on our experience. We become little poets in our
minds and we remember or we reminisce. Whether it be positive or negative
or indifferent, either way We get to a place where we have
become someone new by the very nature of growth, by the very
nature of expansion, by the very nature of everything that the
world does. We don't sit still like Luddites
in this world, do we? I don't mean that in a pejorative
way, it's just historical. No, we go, we grow. Sadly, we think that the message
of the cross must also grow. I remember in the mid-90s when
the big buzz word was relative. You remember that? For those
of you who are cognitive, cognitively aware of that thing. In the 90s, it's gotta be relative.
Gospel's gotta be relative. Church service gotta be relative.
Get some smoke machines and some strong guys. Let's bend some
bars and karate chop the devil. They don't like karate chopping
the devil anymore. Karate chopping is sort of old.
Let's shoot the devil. Swat team. Anything to get a
gimmick, anything to draw people in. Guys, it's just garbage.
If you want to karate chop the devil, then get together and
do that. That's fine, but it's not what the church is all about.
It's not supposed to be It's not supposed to be, we're not
supposed to sit together in think tanks and wonder how can we reach
a generation that's lost. Because God has declared that
he's going to reach a lost generation. Number one is he's only going
to reach the elect out of that generation. And number two, he's
going to do it through the simple, antiquated, old way that he reached
all the saints from Adam to date. the Lord says through the seed
of the woman he will crush the head of the serpent and he will
save his people from their sins and all the cool stuff that entails
that that that entails and all that he's going to do
is proclaim that through simple language simple language simple
grace divinely given by his spirit who will teach his people all
of a sudden that which they did not formally comprehend Not the
depths of the doctrine, not the shadows of the mystery, but the
simplicity of His love for them and the efficacy, that means
the work, the very thing that did work in the death of Jesus. What it accomplished, what Christ
did. Christ did something, He finished
something. He finished saving His people,
past, present, and future. And then we have the letters.
We have the letters of the apostles who are by inspiration and divine
interpretation and direct illumination, God wrote his word through. And through the face of Jesus
Christ, we know who he is and we know that we are his. Because
of God's merciful grace to open our eyes that we may see and
be at peace. Beloved, if we ever needed peace, now's the time.
If we ever needed to understand the relationship between the
gospel and life, this is a good era to understand it. You know,
what's really strange is, I mean, I find myself doing this. I find
myself praying against the very will of God sometimes. You ever
do that? Would you admit it if you did?
Now, of course, I tag my prayers with the sincere reality of,
Your will be done, Lord. And I say it in a jovial way,
almost cliche this morning, to almost offend you. Pastors, that's
blasphemous. No, I want you to be honest with
yourself. Do you not pray the same way? Do you really earnestly
mean, Lord, do what you want done, no matter what it does
to me? No. We earnestly mean, oh, listen
to my prayer, but I really will do what you want to do. Because
you're going to do what you're going to do anyway, but I really
want you to do what I want done and what I think is best. But
your will be done. I'm trusting in you. It's almost
like you're tricking God. God, you said you wouldn't push
me too high in this swing. I don't want to fall out. But
you do what you want to do, and he wraps you around it, and you're
stuck up in the chain like this. What's happening? My love for
you is what's happening. That's what we do. We think peace
and how do I pray? Well, Lord, you know, deal with
this pandemic. He's dealing with the pandemic.
He gave it to start with. He's teaching us all something,
but we're wound up like a tornado, like a Tasmanian devil in the
Looney Tunes. And we're spinning around, knocking everything down,
going crazy, wondering, where is our God? Maybe we're not doing
something right. Do you know God doesn't work
that way? He's not waiting on us to get
the pieces put together so the puzzle looks pretty. Lord, help this. Lord, do that.
Lord, stop this. Lord, cause this. Lord, your
will be done. And you know what? We need to
do more than just beg Him for change. We need to beg Him to
help us love Him and trust Him. And these problems and these
momentary afflictions and these pains and sufferings, this is
the moniker, this is the label, this is the picture, this is
the identifier of the body who suffers as their Savior suffered. And John's writing letters to
the churches who are suffering. They're suffering in many, many
ways that we have never experienced. Real suffering. Now, your suffering
is real, whether you stub your toe in the middle of the night
or step on a Lego, which is almost demonic. Stepping on a Lego is
just, it will exorcise some kind of demon out of you or put one
in you. It hurts, especially if it's
on a staircase. Whether you stub your toe or
whatever, the pain is real. Oh, I hurt myself. I fell down
the stairs. I stubbed my toe. I knocked myself in the head
with the garage door. I did that a couple of months back, wearing
a ball cap too low. I walked right into it. Beautiful. It's real. It hurts. It's painful.
But then what? Somebody else comes along. Well,
I hit my head on a building. Well, a jet ran over my head.
I stepped on a rattlesnake. I stepped on hot coals. I stepped
in hell and I survived. I mean, you know, there's always
more suffering. There's always a greater degree
of pain that could be had. There's always a greater degree.
And so I'm not belittling our suffering. What we've experienced
in pain and suffering and fear is real and hard, but it's not
the same as what these first century Christians were experiencing.
Persecution for James Tiffins is divisive relationships, is
hateful words, is accusations, is years and years and years
of growing tougher skin. But I've never been arrested
for my faith. I've never been beaten for my
faith that I know of. I've been beat up a few times,
but I don't know that it was because of my faith. I've never had anyone killed
before me. I've never not been able to buy
groceries or bathe. or wonder if my children were
going to survive the night. So praise God for my pain. So our
prayers and our attitude amongst everything that's going on right
now needs to quit being so negative. That's why Paul says to the church,
do all things without grumbling or complaining. And as we're
going to talk this midweek in Hebrews, we're going to wind
up this little section of Hebrews 13 that we're in, and we're going
to deal with the unchangeable nature of the gospel, the immutable
nature of Jesus Christ and His gospel power, and the call to
be content. Discontentment is demonic. And discontentment can come between... I wish I had a better microphone.
I wish my pen was sharper. I wish my fingernails weren't
so short. Whatever it might be. Two, I wish I wasn't suffering
like this. You know the one reason that
suffering is so bad for us is that we're not thankful for it.
This first century church was suffering. And they were being
maligned, they were being invaded by those who went out from among
us because they were not of us. Remember 1 John? Those who are
the Antichrist because they changed and revised the nature of who
Christ was. And they changed and revised the nature of the
simplistic gospel of free and sovereign grace. They were rearranging
the network, if you will, of ministry, creating denominationalism
across first century Asia, minor. Palestine is Asia. And they were
causing turmoil amongst the unity of the body, the local family
of faith, who were hungry, homeless, and hammered with pain. And yet, when the light bulb
goes out, that's all I can think about. I'm not kidding. When the light's out, out there,
I can preach better when the lights are out. Because subconsciously,
it's constant. It's in my brain. Can you imagine
being ruled by the frustration that a bulb is blown? And people were put to the sword
for Christ. If I couldn't wash my hands,
I'd rather die, you know? I'm just being honest. We have
some really crazy Infantile problems. I want more. That's what we want.
We want more though, right? We want more. We want less of
this and more of this. In order to have more of Christ,
more unity, more glory, we must have much more suffering. Because you can't have one without
the other. In order for your faith to grow, you must be put
to the test. And the question is, do you love
the people you're sitting with right now? Do you love them? Do you love
the people that you're not sitting with who are sitting in the same
room? That's what John's writing about.
That's what John has been writing about in his first epistle. That's
what he's reminding the churches in his second epistle. And we
need to understand something, beloved, that love is bound to
the truth. And love is bound by the truth,
and whatever that means, it's sort of philosophical, but John
establishes that. Not only his first epistle, but
he reminds the church here in this. Let's look at verses three
through six tonight. Let's get it in our heads. Let's
get it in our ears. And then let's see if the Lord
will plant it in our hearts. Grace, mercy, and peace will
be with us from God the Father and from Christ Jesus, the Father,
Son, in truth and love. I rejoice greatly to find some
of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded
by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady,
not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the
one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another, and
this is love. Now let me pause right there.
This is love. You've heard that before, right? But John's gonna change what
he says. And this is love that we walk according to His commandments.
And this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the
beginning, so that you should walk in it. And of course, that's
referring back to verse 5. So here we are. Beloved, we've
heard, we've been preaching. I don't know how many sermons
did we do on 1 John. We probably could have done 30
more if we slowed down and just expanded upon some of the text.
There's so much stuff there. We've heard love one another,
love one another, love one another. Live for the glory of God. Live,
live, live, live. Love, love, love. Live, live, live, live.
It is the truth of the word and it is the nature of the gospel.
And ultimately we need to recognize that we love one another not
based on how the world has evolved to love. You know, we talked
about it a minute ago. See, people treat love like technology. We've
got to expand it. We've got to love in a different
way. We've got to love in a different voice. And it's not to say that our
love and concern and compassion for people isn't going to be
confronted with new things and new ideas and new philosophies
and new ideologies and new controversies. But the love of God has not changed
for us, thus the love of the body for itself, thus for God
himself, has not changed for us. But yet I'm willing to bet that
if we all sat down and wrote a little letter to ourselves
about how we've experienced the love of Christ in the body of
Christ throughout our lifetime, most of us would write about
something that the Bible doesn't teach is love. We talk about
how sweet people were at the door. Or how they helped us to the
car. Or how they brought us food when we were sick, or expecting,
or had surgery. Now is this loving? Absolutely.
But does not the world do the same? You're not going to beat the
cults in this game, guys. It is our responsibility to do
these things. And you can give as much food
as you want, but if it's not done in truth, it's not love. If you're not feeding Christ,
you haven't made the conscious, you haven't seen, you're not
aware of what really love is like. This is not a sermon on how we
should minister to each other. That works itself out, doesn't
it? The call is given and then the heart is stirred and the
truth is taught and the truth equips the church to do the work
of the ministry. So you never, you never schedule ministry. You understand that? You never
prepare it and say, okay, we're going to minister to you at 115
this afternoon. Come be ministered and minister.
We're gonna create a ministry of helps, a ministry of needs,
a ministry of finances, a ministry of youth, a ministry of children,
a ministry of singles, a ministry of couples, a ministry of hair
dye, ministry of shoes. Those are affinity groups that
we really ought to be doing in our homes. And some of them I
could care less about. Some of them may be like, that's
my thing. That's okay, be your thing. It's not about the love of God. God did not organize affinity groups and ministry
groups. First church never heard of them. I think we've missed the point
in our culture. I think most of us see it, Grace
Truth. I believe we as a family, by and large, have been taught
by God through fire of what love really is supposed to look like
in comparison to what we thought it looked like. And we are still
learning that by fire. And I think it's going to continue
to continue to continue to burn us and to refine us and to prepare
us so that our worship would be pure, purer and purer. And I say that very lightly because
we know that we will not ever worship rightly until we are
glorified before him personally. But love is bound to the truth
and truth is bound to love. That's why John says here, whom
I love, I love you, church, the elect lady, the bride, the sister,
the daughter, as we see in other places of scripture. And I love
you in the truth. And we've made an understanding,
we've come to the terms of realizing in the scripture that when the
apostles teach truths on paper, and they say, here's this precept,
here's this proposition, here's this, that's okay, that's how
we communicate it, but what we're doing is we're communicating
Christ himself. And saving faith is when those
things that we can comprehend and apprehend with our logical
minds are pointing to the person of Jesus in whom we rest, that's
saving faith. Because as long as you say, well
I know that I'm born again because I believe ABCD3, I'm suspect
that your hope is in anything but doctrine. The testimony of a regenerate
person is Christ is and Christ has done and I am. And the difference is what Christ
we're talking about. I love in the truth and not only
I, but all those who know Christ. This is review. Go back to week
one and two and listen. I'm just not new. I've repeated
myself today. and I know them and I love them
and all of those who know them and love them know Christ and
love Him and therefore they know and they love each other because
of the truth that abides in us because of the Spirit of Christ
that abides in us is why I read Romans 8. The Spirit of Christ
that abides in us and will be with us forever. It is impossible
for us to lose the Spirit of God. He will not abandon us. And then we saw this introduction
here in the salutation grace mercy and peace will be with
us and we saw this Trinitarian truth that we talked about last
week from God the Father and from Jesus who is the Holy Anointed
One of God Messiah the Father's Son in truth and in love. So there is no such thing as
love that is not in truth and there is no such thing as the
truth who is Jesus Christ who is not bound in love. You see
it? But yet it's easy to talk about
love. It's easy to hold hands and hold them up high and close
our eyes and hear some nice piano music and think we're in love.
It's easy to sit across a table at a nice restaurant and to just
think, man, we're really in love. That's not love. You can have feelings for people
all day long and it not be love. So what is love? Love is this. God loved us forever. That's what foreknown means.
Forever He has known us. Foreknowledge is love and it
is effectual and it is very, very, very myopic. God's love
for His people is eternal. And He has set them into creation
in order that He would save them through His Son because of His
love for them. So the love that is true and the truth that is
love is Jesus Christ who demonstrates the fullness of all that God
is and all that he is ever or ever will reveal to us. See,
some of us think we're gonna learn some incredible new revelations
about God or concerning the divine nature of Christ when we stand
in glory. But beloved, I think we're gonna
see without sinful meat suits the very thing that's already
been revealed to us. Sorry, that's the flesh. Somebody's like, what
is that, hot dogs around your neck? What's going on here? It's
a ham hat. Sorry, I'm done. Where's those
light bulbs at? So love. So thou Christ gave himself for
us while we were sinners, while we were dead, while we were enemies.
That's just the language that the apostles used. Because we
don't deserve it. Because we are objects of mercy.
Sovereign and free grace. I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. God
is free to give and exercise His grace as He sees it. This
is the work of God, beloved. And the whole point that we're
all sitting here together, the whole point that everyone in
this room and those who are part of this spiritual family convene
and gather and want to be a part of each other is because we understand
this truth. And we understand that the gospel
is rooted in the promise of God with himself to save his people,
the covenant. But we look at covenants, and
I don't wanna get on this, because I'm talking more about this on Wednesday
night, but when we look at covenants, I'm thoroughly convinced that
not, I don't even wanna put a percentage on it, but I bet if we interviewed
1,000 people in America and asked them to define covenant, they
couldn't. Most of them would think like
a timeshare contract. I'm stuck with this thing. Most
of them would think something like a homeowner's covenant.
Well, I can't leave my trash can out past 1101. My neighbor gets fussy. Most people would think marriage. Most people would think, oh,
something I have to do. But a covenant is easily boiled
down to this, a promise. You know why America doesn't
understand covenant? Because America will say, let's say it
to the Lord, but not today. America will say, yep, I'm here,
but not today. It's conditioned. A promise that's conditioned
is a lie. Think about that for a second.
If you, if I love you, I love you, but if you do this, I will
not love you. That's a lie. To say I love you, but this will
cause me not to love you is a lie. Now, philosophically, I mean,
idiots all the time can come up with ways of making that.
But let's think as gospel fearers right now. Let's think of gospel
hearers right now. Let's think as sheep right now. Let's think
as people who have the spirit of God in us. And let's not talk
about the temporal shadows of Israel and all these other things.
Let's not talk about the non-covenant, fake covenant, spiritually shadowed
covenant. Let's talk about the true promise
of God. There is only one promise. God has promised to glorify Himself
in the redemption of His people. Christ has met the conditions
of that promise. And He has given us to the Son. And this is good news. And as
long as we are working in our flesh to prove or to approach
or to stand before God in a better position, we have not realized
the basics of the simplicity of God's love. And thus we have
not realized the basics and the simplicity of God's truth. So
think about this for a second. God's truth, what he says and
promises, is because of his love, which is a condition of his nature,
which is part of his essence. God is love. God shows love in
that he gave his son for his people. The finished work of
salvation is good news. Love is the operative essence
of God's redemption for his people. Because God didn't have to save
anybody to be glorious. He didn't have to save anybody
to be loved. But he said that he would. So therefore it is. So the father loves the son,
and the son loves the father, and the father loves the sheep,
and the son loves the sheep. How do we know that? In John
10, he lays down his life for the sheep. I love them. I lay
down my life for my sheep, and my sheep know this. My sheep
know my voice. Do you know the voice of Christ
today? Are you hearing what is coming out of my mouth related
to the text that we're teaching, and are you agreeing with it
in your spirit, which is truth, and more importantly, does it
cause you to love the person around you? It's cause you to
understand the covenant of love. See, that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. The
son lays down his life. He became a slave. He stepped
out of glory. He took on humanity. See, go
to Romans 8. We see all that stuff. Paul starts out in Romans 8. And he says there's no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus. Why? Because Christ has set the
record straight. The law of the spirit of life
has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Do you know that if you are conceived and at the point of your conception,
you obey perfectly all the laws of God from the day you're conceived
to the point you die, you're still going to be guilty of sin
and you're going to die. You're going to be condemned.
You can follow the law perfectly and God can say you have obeyed
my law perfectly. The point is the law demonstrates
the superior divine holiness, the set-apartness of God himself
and Christ is the fulfillment of the law. And then the fulfillment
of all righteousness who is God took on humanity to die in the
place of his elect people so that they are credited with his
holiness, righteousness, perfection and glory. There is nothing good that comes
if you think you can do anything to get close to God and grace. The law of the spirit of life
has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death. For
God has done, God has finished, God has completed what the law,
weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, though it was not sinful, and
for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the
righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Now I want you to think about that for a second. Now in the context of Romans
8, it's about hope, faith, trust, all of these things. The ultimate
point of Paul in Romans is not about, you know, living good
lives instead of bad lives because we are redeemed, though he does
give some of that instruction starting over in verse 10. In
Romans 8, he's specifically dealing with the fact that no matter
how hard you try, you're always going to be snagged by the law.
You're always going to be guilty of breaking the law in your flesh.
So by faith, through the work of Christ, in the work of Christ,
who saved you through his life and death and resurrection, through
the covenant and the promise of God, by faith you are set
free. You are righteous. Which in turn
would say, now, what's your life look like as a gratitude, as
thankfulness in that context? But more importantly, Paul and
John, all the apostles, focus on the intimacy of the body in
a spiritual local family. But he goes on to say he condemned
sin in the flesh because the righteousness that is required
can only be done and can only be acquired by God Himself in
this covenant, in this promise, in this love. So when we live
according to the flesh in Romans 8, what we're doing is we're
working in our fleshly ability to try to do something to please
God in redemption. And what does Paul say about
that? You die. Anything that you can do in work is going to
be judged by holy righteousness, and anything judged by holy righteousness
is going to be found wanting, and anything found wanting is
going to be destroyed. Don't do that. Then he talks
about the mind, what we're gonna put our focus on. And why am
I going back here? Because I think Romans 8 plays
very cleanly over 2 John. I think it does. And I think
it does with a little bit more detail and without having to
go back through and preach 1 John since we just finished it, but
I think it lets us see how we ought to look at the instruction
that we're gonna be given at next Sunday. Not only that, but
today. What's the instruction? Love
one another. I'm trying. No, we're not trying. Isn't that
what we say when someone invites us to something we don't really
wanna go to? Hey, you wanna come over? I'll try. You know what
that means? I got a whole lot of other stuff
that I've gotta do, isn't it? That's what it means, because
we got all this list of things we gotta do, and we're thinking, okay,
I'm gonna go home, and I'm gonna try to get all this stuff done so
I can arrive over here. Do we approach our spiritual life like
that? Now it isn't that we don't wanna do something that we say
I'll try, it's just that we know we can't, so we don't wanna put
off all this other stuff. Sometimes we live our lives that
way. I'm gonna try to love. I guess the whole, I mean, did
Jesus try to love us? Did he attempt to love us? Does
God hope to love us, or did he love us? He loved us. There were a lot of things that
Jesus could have taken care of, right? Four years of earthly
ministry, you know, being 33 something years, almost 30, he's
in his 34th year of life. I mean, he could have done a
whole lot of stuff. He could have fixed a lot of stuff. I mean,
Jesus could have like given somebody the cure for cancer. He could
have dealt with, with, with, you know, with wickedness and
hate and all this other kind of, he could have fixed society.
It wasn't his purpose. That's what the Jews thought.
The Jews thought historically Messiah was going to come and
resurrect their kingdom on earth. It's not the point. The point
is He's not of the world. He came from the Father. The
world is made by Him for the purpose of redeeming His people.
Thus He would be glorified in it and He's going to destroy
it and He'll establish His kingdom as He sees fit. The Lord didn't
try to love us. The Lord did love us. And perfectly
at any moment, at all times, He did what was required according
to the will of the Father. This is Jesus Christ, the Son.
according to the will of the Father, because of his love for
the Father, and because of his love for his people. And I don't
think these things are mutually exclusive. If they were, then
we'd have some real problem understanding the essence of what the Apostles
are teaching, especially John when he continues to harp on
what it means to love one another, in the truth. As Christ loved
you, so love your wives, husband. As Christ submitted to the Father
and laid down His life for His will, so wives respect your husbands. It's the same thing. It's not
two different actions and two different roles. It's not two
different positions of authority. It's two different positions
of submission. It's two different positions
of slavery. It's two different places in which we can view the
same love, which is the love of God. How messed up are we
when we have done such a good job of establishing the philosophy
of what marriage is supposed to be when Jesus said it very
clearly? I give my life for the sheep. Go and do likewise. Not redemptively, not divinely,
but submissively and humbly. So we don't put our minds on
the flesh. We don't think, how am I supposed to love? How am
I supposed to love? We went to 1 Corinthians 13 in our 1 John
series, right? We looked at what love looks
like and how the scripture, how God himself defines it. We've
seen all the ways in which love is supposed to be manifest. And
we look at our lives and we think, how am I doing? Not doing very
well at all, are we? But I can try. And see, that's the problem. The
truth doesn't try to be truth. Christ didn't try to love, he
did it. Christ is the truth. And the
truth abides in us. And so we love ultimately and
foundationally in Christ and beloved. The only way that's
ever gonna work for us to our joy and to our benefit and to
our mutual ministry with one another is that we continually
focus on the work of Christ together. Together. This is why we're here this morning.
This is why we take the Lord's table. It's not for you. It's for us. This isn't for you. Sunday morning is not for you.
It's for us. It's not for me. It's for us. We set the table at a dinner
party or at a banquet or a feast for us. Everybody participates. Everybody
benefits. Everybody stands in the same
position. There's no head. The only head in this family
is Christ. He is the shepherd. He is the
great high priest. He is the God of us and the Lord
of us. And he is the lamb that laid
down his life for us. So walking in truth exercises
itself in walking in love. Because love, I believe, John
teaches, no I don't believe it, John teaches love is the adhesion
and the foundation of truth. It is who Christ is, it is who
God is, it is who the Father is, it is who the Spirit is,
it is what they have done. It is what they have revealed.
And it is all started and ended with God. It is all started and
ended with Christ. It is started and ended with
the good news. Before there was anything, God said, let there
be light. And there was light, and the light was good. The light
came into the world and took on flesh, the word, who is God
and who is with God, and created all things. And he has tabernacled
among us, and we have seen his glory. See, from Moses, what
does John say in 117? We receive the law. but from
Jesus Christ we receive grace and truth. So gospel truths center on God's
love. God's love for us rests in the center of gospel truths. God's love for us is the first
thing, is the initiator of this promise and this power. And then
our love for Him is bound to the truth of who Christ is in
His example and His work and His affection, and then we live
together as a people in the same way. And it's not a whole lot
of doing rather than it is a whole lot of being, I believe. Because
the doing comes when the needs arise. The doing comes when the
need for prayer comes. The doing comes when the need
for listening comes. The doing comes when the need
for encouragement comes. The doing comes when the need
for admonishment comes. The doing comes when interaction
takes place and we're able to feed one another. Spiritually and physically. The
doing comes when at the uttermost part of our day we are like wound
to the point of exhaustion, but yet the opportunity comes to
love as Christ has loved and His exhaustion not keeping from
the cross, you see. His fear to not keep Him from
submission. He was not driven to despair,
but he trusted and believed in the promises of the Father who
told him he would see His glory. He would not remain in this state
for long. So we love each other in the
truth. Christ's work and the knowledge of Him. The gospel
does not diminish, does it? Does the work of the gospel diminish?
Is it getting a little bit further away from the time of Christ
and the efficacy of the gospel? No, the gospel doesn't diminish.
The gospel promises don't diminish. The love of God doesn't diminish.
The presence of God doesn't diminish. The whole purposes of the church
doesn't diminish. Nothing changes. Remember, we started our sermon
like that this morning. Nothing changes in the context of the
divine, nothing changes, nothing whatsoever. And so the finished
work that we've heard about over in Romans 8, the finished work
that we've learned in 1st 2nd John, the finished work that
we've learned through the Gospels, the finished work that we have
seen, the person of God, the person of Christ, the person
of the Father, the persons of God, the person of the Spirit,
these persons have not ceased being God, nor have they been
diluted in any way, so the truth is not diluted, therefore the
love of God is not diluted. and is not diminished. So love
does not diminish just as truth does not diminish. So we are
to love in word and in deed and we love in truth. Both are true
because God's love is truth. This is just a reminder. There
are hundreds of sermons that have this teaching. So in verse 4 of this letter
now, back to 2 John, we see, I rejoice greatly. I say all
that to say this. John says, I rejoice greatly. What is he rejoicing? To find
some of your children walking in the truth. And there's a two-fold
meaning to what he just said. I rejoice greatly to see that
some of you, some of you, beloved, some of congregation, are walking
in the knowledge of Christ and in the love of Christ. You're walking in the knowledge
of Christ and in the love of Christ, and then you're also walking
in the love of Christ together. You notice that when someone,
most of the time, there might be an exception or so, but most
of the time when someone is personally named in the New Testament, it's
not a good thing. Either it's a greeting or it sends my love
or I'm worried about it. But I mean, when somebody is
in the middle of the text, in the middle of some teaching,
it's usually an example of who not to be like. He's just an
example of somebody that's done really bad things. Go read 1
Corinthians, go read letters to Timothy. You don't want to
be written in there. So when the letters are written
and we see this letter specifically written to the plurality of a
congregation, now to all congregations, the people walk together in the
truth. And this is why John, the elder,
he is a shepherd at heart for these people. He is glad and
he is rejoicing. And it's not just, I'm happy
to hear. This is the centerpiece of his soul. I mean, what is it that makes us
rejoice in the body? What is it that makes you rejoice
in the body? I'm of the opinion that a lot
of times even we don't live in a state of concerning ourselves
with the body until it's time. On our minds and on our hearts
as a whole. Think about that for a second.
And that's not to throw a guilt trip. We're going to go back
to Romans 8. There's no condemnation. Don't think about the flesh.
Don't put your mind on the flesh and think, well, I'm going to
do better. You're going to fall on your face. What are you going
to do? You're going to fall on a pile, and it's going to hurt. I rejoice greatly to find some
of your children walking the truth, just as you were commanded
by the Father. Now, there's some interesting
things there, because did the Father command that? Jesus, the
Son, commanded. If you go to John 5, what does
Jesus say in John 5 when he's talking to the Pharisees? I can do nothing on my own, verse
30, as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek
not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone
bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There
is another who bears witness about me and I know that the
testimony that he bears about me is true. And he goes on to say, not that
the testimony that I receive is from man, he talks about John,
but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning
and shining lamp and you were willing to rejoice for a while
in his reflection and his light. But the testimony that I have
is greater than that of John for the works that the father has
given me to accomplish the very works that I'm doing bear witness
about me that the father has sent me and the father who has
sent me has himself borne witness about me. And He tells them,
His voice you've never heard, His form you've never seen, and
you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe
the one whom He has sent. You search the Scriptures because
you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they
that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come that you may
have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that
you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my
Father's name And you do not receive me. If another comes
in his own name, you receive him just well. But how can you
believe when you receive glory from one another and you do not
seek the glory that comes from the only God? See, when Jesus speaks, the Father
speaks. When the Father speaks, the Son
speaks. God speaks. So here in this is now another
Trinitarian point that John is making in contrast to the very
nature of some of these revisionists and some of these protagonists
who are causing problems amongst the church who are stirring division
by these weird doctrines or these transitional philosophies or
these things that they were thinking about or things that somebody
might have told them down at the barbershop or something they
googled on Facebook or whatever and he's saying listen this command
that Jesus said was given to you by the Father distinct persons
who are one God We're not going to put our heads
around that except for what's revealed to us in scripture. It's not
polytheism. It's not three gods. It's one
God. And he has revealed himself in three distinct persons. And
all three distinct persons are actively, currently, eternally,
presently operating as God, living as God, existing as God, being
as God. And I know philosophically those
terms don't always apply to deities, but just bear with me in the
simplicity of my teaching. So I believe John now twice has
reiterated the foundational necessity of Trinitarian doctrine. In truth
and in love, without which you have neither. The Father has commanded because
the Son has commanded that we what? Love one another. Look at verse 5. This is the commandment. I ask
you, beloved lady, sister, daughter, the body, not as though I were
writing to you a new commandment. Same language. But the one we
plurally have had from the beginning that we love one another. This
is the context of the local church. We love one another. In verse
six, he says, and this is love. Remember, the love of God was
this is love. that He gave His Son for us. This is love. And His love is
being perfected in us. This is love, not that we've
loved God, but that He first loved us. We ought to love one
another. Why? Because the love that God
has given to us, He sent His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. That's what John says in his
first letter. So this is love. Beloved, this is our love. As God has shown His love, we
are to show our love, that we walk according to His commandments.
And this is this commandment, just as you have heard from the
beginning, so that you should walk in it. What is it? Love
one another. Now, is John getting on to this
church? No, he's not getting on to them at all. He's not getting
on to you, beloved. The Lord's not getting on to
us that we could, because I don't believe we live in a state of
unlovingness. I think we all need to recognize that even in
the very presence of the apostles through direct teaching. I mean,
think of the preaching of the apostles. I don't think it would
look anything like what we do today. I think it would be very
authoritative with extreme compassion and exhortation after exhortation
after exhortation that would result in explosive intimate
worship together. But here are the Apostles congregations. These are John's churches. And
he's encouraging them to love one another all the more. Sound
familiar Paul to Thessalonica, right? Paul's like, man, we've
heard of your testimony and the gospel and everything that's
transitioned in your life. We've heard of the life transformation
out of paganism. We've seen you lay down other
gods. It isn't like, yay, I've been
born again. I'm still gonna worship this statue. No, you just, you
haven't even been told to do that. It's common sense, right?
I've been drinking whatever this is somebody made for me. Oh,
that's poison. Oh, no, I don't wanna drink this anymore. They
laid it down. And the love that you have for
one another has spread all the way up north and all the way
down south, all over the region. When we showed up here, Paul
said to the Thessalonians, we were greeted compassionately
with great excitement because of your reputation. The people
of this region couldn't wait to hear the message that you
received because they were overcome by the love that you have for
one another and the testimony that flowed up ahead of us. Now
imagine that. Imagine going to a region of
the earth and getting off an airplane and getting on a little
jeep and driving and getting on a donkey and then climbing
down a mountain and ended up somewhere and somebody had heard
of the love of your household and they couldn't wait to hear
how you taught them. Crazy, isn't it? And what do
we do? We don't teach pragmatism. This
is how we get along in our relationships. No, we teach the relationship
God has with His people through His Son. And the gospel Centers
on centers us on everything gospel related everything divine the
love of God completely so then we begin to make it operative
by Experiencing it together and then all of a sudden without
even our knowledge. I'm gonna be honest with you
I think it happens without our knowledge. We begin to love each other in
a gospel way Why because our covenant and our commitment to
one another stands Because the commitment of the covenant God
made for us stands That doesn't mean there's not
room. What do I do in this situation? Well, try this. Don't say this.
I mean, we're not being silly. But those things aren't vital.
Vital, the vitality, the life in all of it is Christ. This
is love. We walk according to the commandment.
What is the commandment? That we love one another. Quit worrying
about all the other ones. Quit, and quit thinking that
we in our flesh, other than being together in the gospel and the
truth, are going to be able to love one another. Because see,
here's what happens, and here's what's happening here, and you'll
see this next week. There were people now who had left out,
who John called Antichrist in the first letter because of the
way they were changing the gospel and changing the covenant relationship
with the gospel and changing the outcome of the gospel and
changing the intimacy of the gospel with most of the people.
They were changing these things. They were trying to revise them, if
you will. And of course, that's false gospel.
It's false. It's a lie. So when they were
corrected, they refused correction. So they went out and it hurt
the church. And John encourages them, don't
worry about it. They're Antichrist. They're Antichrist. To add to
the gospel is Antichrist. To change the gospel is Antichrist.
To break your covenant is Antichrist, right? So to break up the covenant
of Christ is Antichrist. To tear up the church is Antichrist.
They're Antichrist. Test the spirits. You know the
spirit of the one that lives within you. You know the Spirit
that is truth, that teaches us truth, that has taught us truth.
You know who He is. You know the Spirit of God, the Spirit
of the Father, the Spirit of Christ, God, the Holy Spirit.
You know the truth that He teaches. You know who He is. So now love
each other and care for each other and help one another in
these things. And so they probably, a lot of the churches took that
thing and they went overboard. I want to be hospitable. I want
to be humble. I want to help. I mean, you know, it feels good to help.
It feels good to give. It feels good to serve. It does.
It really does. Especially when we know from
which we do it. When we do it because we are
serving Christ, you see. We help someone as if we're helping
Christ because we are. I mean, if you go to the chiropractor,
you don't leave your spine with him and drive off. I'll pick
my spine up in a little bit. No, he fixes you. He or she fixes
you. Your body is tuned up. You go
to the doctor with an earache, you don't take your ear and leave
it at the drive-thru and drive back and pick it up. No, your
body is being worked on, even though it may be the ear that's
being focused on. When we serve and when we love and when we
attend to one another spiritually and physically, We are fulfilling
the covenant of grace as the body who has received it. The
law of Christ to love one another. We are obeying our Father. We are obeying our Lord. We are
serving Him. Grace Truth Church may be the
cuticle on the left pinky toe of the Lord, but we're still
the body. And when we're cleaning that
up, we're still serving Christ. So we have this commandment,
and we walk in it. And John is saying, you know, you guys have
gone overboard in this letter, and there are a lot of folks
coming into town, and you are serving everybody, but I want
to get you off the hook here. You're feeling scared because
you think you've got to serve everybody. But there is an exception
to that, and John's going to give the exception. He's going
to give a correction. He commends them for loving and then he doesn't
condemn them, he corrects them. Don't serve those who bring another
gospel. You're not called to love them
in this way. In what way is that? Sharing
your life with them. Sharing your gifts, your talents,
your time, your homes. Because they are coming, and
there's a specific person. It's not just a random person
that believes. These are leaders of false gospels. These are people who came to
town here in the first century in order to put on tent revivals
of heresy. These are false believing people.
These are cult leaders. And there's a specific, and we'll
get to that. And that's why John establishes this Trinitarian
love, this power, this divine work of the gospel. You guys
love one another. I'm so overjoyed. See, I want you to have joy,
beloved. I want you to live at peace. And I will tell you this,
if you spend most of your time thinking, considering, and praying
for the body of Christ, who we call Grace Truth, that's just
a name that we put out there so people can find us when they're
interested. It's just a habitual, just like
the Church of Corinth. You imagine being called the
Church of Georgia? that meets here, where? Over
there on the corner, the red brick building. Let's give it a name. Not necessarily
biblical, but it's not unbiblical either. But it gives me great
joy to know that you live in a state of peace, in a state
of comfort, in a state of hope, and you do that more and more
and more when we love one another and serve one another in that
sense. The way we get running crazy is what? When we focus
on ourselves. And you might say, well, somebody's got to look
out for me. I promise you they will. You share your burden,
somebody will look out for you. You don't share your burden,
everybody thinks everything's fine. What burden? I don't have any burdens. Yes,
you do. You've got fears. You've got discontentment. You've
got frustrations. But it's easier to be like a
tabloid, isn't it? It's easier just to focus on all of this
terrible stuff that's going on. rather than focus on all of the
glorious stuff that has already taken place in the gospel. So when the body walks in truth,
they walk in unified, divine affection, spontaneous, supernatural
affection, from the truth and in the truth, Trinitarian truth,
through the persons of the Godhead. And then God commands, and we
walk in the commands of God, and we walk in the first command
of God by grace, the gift of faith. He grants us to see his
love for his people. and see His love for His Son
and see His love for us through His Son and God commands love,
yes. And Jesus commanded this, the Father has commanded this.
The Father sent the Son to redeem His people in love and we ought
to walk accordingly. And so this elder rejoices greatly
when he sees the people of Christ, the children of God, walking
in unity, doctrinally and affectionately. And the body here is instructed
as a whole. This is the last thing I'll talk about and we'll
pick up here next week. The body is instructed as a whole. That's
what the New Testament is all about. Even the letters that
are specifically written to certain people, they're written to elders
who then will instruct the church. So we've got to stop taking the
New Testament as islands. We've got to stop taking the
gospel as an island in gospel living. Individually speaking,
you have to reflect on the gospel yourself, but then corporately
speaking, we are one body. And beloved, we have a nature,
we have a tendency in our culture to not understand covenant at
all. When things don't go our way or things aren't really moving
in the direction we think they need to be, we just think we
have the liberty to just tear out, find a new place, find a
new people. You know, the McDonald's over on the south side, man,
they're so slow. I'm gonna go to the one on the north side. Well, we had like seven Sonics
near our house in one of the places we lived. Which one do
we go to, huh? Closest one? That's not what
it's about to be a part of the body. Sometimes we're thinking
about what we can do and what we can be. individually, but
we're not supposed to be like that. We're supposed to be thinking
corporately. We are instructed as a whole, we are exhorted as
a whole, we're admonished as a whole, and individually members
of the whole. We must understand Christ died
for his people, not for you. Christ didn't die for James so
James could be the body. I'm one molecule on an eyelash,
maybe. And the rest of you are the rest
of the eyelash. I mean, you see what I mean? We're all such a
small part of such a great whole. And the whole is the person of
Christ himself, the local assembly, the local family of faith is
what I like to call the church, is the instrument of oversight,
the instrument of organization, like administration, the ministry
of needs, The instrument of ministry, the instrument of needs, the
instrument of growth for the people of Christ. We grow when
we are corporately attuned to the love of God and the gospel
and then to each other because of that. Because without love
united in truth and truth manifesting itself in love, I think it is
impossible to live out a service to the Lord. It's impossible
to live a life of service to the Lord. I don't care what we
do online, it's not service to the Lord. I mean, I can go to the highest
mountain. I think the highest that I ever
rode a bike was like 4,600 feet. My brakes were smoking when I
came down. And there are no birds up there. But I could take birdseed
and just throw it all out up there, all I wanted. And it'll
never get eaten. But every now and then, there
might be a hulk or something up there, or an eagle, and they
might come down and lay a nest, or there might be some weird
mountain squirrel or something that I don't know about, and
they may eat it every now and then. But a lot of times, that's
how we live our lives, thinking we're serving the Lord. We're
just doing all sorts of spiritually sounding things, but we're not
focusing on anybody that we're in covenant relationship with. We are called first and foremost
to the household of faith. not to ourselves, not to our
future, not to our hopes, not to our plans, because Christ
did not come to the world to be served. He came to serve. That is the love of God. So our
love for Him is reciprocal for one another. Why? I've said it a thousand times
if I've said it once, because the love for each other brings
the truest of joy for the church the truest understanding of peace
and it surely brings a truest of joy for those who shepherd
her because it is the work of God through the teaching of the
word to prepare the church for the work of the ministry and beloved as we'll see coming
next week It is not unloving to reject lies concerning the
faith. Love is so misunderstood that
sometimes we think it's pacifist, that we're supposed to just accept
all things. It's not true. We're to accept all of one another because Christ has accepted us
and laid down His life for us. We thank you Father for this
glorious truth and Lord for the power within it. The fact that
we don't need a whole lot of commentary and explanation and
all sorts of things that could just confuse us but Lord we just
need simple reminder and repetition of the truth. Simple repetition
of the instruction that you've given us. You don't need our
creativity, Father, so keep us from creativity. Keep us from
considering how we might get the word out better. Innovation. Lord, we don't have to change
your promised message. We don't have to change your
powerful methods. Father, sometimes we're not at
peace because we are trying so hard in our flesh to execute
that which you yourself are going to do. You've been teaching us
to love one another or to love those friends and family that
are so lost and so confused. Lord, but we are not you. And
you have not promised to empower us with the divine ability to
change lives. Because the only changed life
is the life that you have given to Christ. And the life that
is changed is the one that rests. The life that is changed is the
one that hopes in Christ alone. And so as we take time this morning,
Lord, to take the elements of the table together, Lord, let
us remember just what your love looks like. And that your body,
the body of your people, Father, we're part of that body
that was broken and bled. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus, in
whose name we pray, amen.