Now, 2 John, verse 6 is where
we ended two weeks ago, where John writes, and this is love,
that we walk after his commandment. And this is the commandment,
that as you've heard from the beginning, that you should walk
in it. Four, we should walk in the gospel, walk in love. Four, he says in verse 7, many
deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus
Christ has come into flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. And we're to walk in the Gospel.
We're to walk in love for Christ and love for our brethren. Because
there are many false preachers gone out into the world. And
John describes these false preachers as deceivers. And frequently throughout Scripture,
I noticed this this week as I was looking, the apostles describe
false preachers as deceivers. They're deceptive about their
motive, what it is that they're doing in the ministry. Their
motive is to gain something for themselves. It's not for God's
glory. It's not for the good of the church. It's not for your
good. It's to gain something for themselves.
Now, they'll never tell you that. You know, they go operate under
the guise of a preacher, but that's not what their real motive
is. They're deceptive in their message. They distort God's word. They wrest the scriptures to
their own advantage because that's what their motive is, to gain
something for themselves. And when they rest those scriptures,
really what happens is for their own destruction. And unfortunately,
it's to the destruction of the people that listen to them, too.
Look over a few pages, back a few pages, 2 Peter chapter 3. It's to their destruction and
also to the destruction of their hearers. 2 Peter 3 verse 15. An account that the longsuffering
of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
these things, in which are some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do
also the other scriptures under their own destruction. Now ye
therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware
lest ye also being led astray with the error of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness. And the more deceivers, we need
to be so careful about this, is because the more deceivers
that are gone out into the world, the more watchful we need to
be, the more of them that we'll run into. Look over at Matthew
chapter 7. Our Lord gave us warning about
this in Matthew chapter 7. Showing us again, these false
prophets are deceivers. He says in verse 15 of Matthew
chapter 7, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. They don't come
to you showing you what their real motive is. It's in sheep's
clothing, trying to make themselves look and sound like a sheep,
but that's not what they are. And Paul warned the Ephesian
elders of the same thing. He said, after my departing,
I know grievous wolves are going to enter in among you. Now, they're
not going to come in as a wolf. Those men wouldn't let this just,
you know, come in upon them. They're coming in in sheep's
clothing. And when they come in, Paul said, they're not going
to spare the flock. They're deceitless. And as I
was studying this this week, you know, honestly, this is kind
of a downer. I wish I had something more positive,
you know. And we hate to talk about these
things, but we must do it. The Word talks about it, so we
must talk about it as it comes up in the Word. You know, we
warn our children about talking to strangers. We warn our children
about taking candy from strangers or going up to a car that's got
strangers on it. Don't get in a car with a stranger. You know,
my wife always told our kids when they were little, what would
an adult ever need directions from a child for? Just never
go up to these strangers. And my two girls are very different. We told Holly that, and she said,
OK. And she tried to figure out why we told her that. Savannah
just said, why? You know what I mean? Somebody
wanted to give me candy. Isn't that a good thing? Why?
And when you've got to tell them, You take away part of their innocence,
don't you? I hate talking to them about those things, the
things that could happen to them if they go talk to strangers
or do these different things. But if you love them, you must
tell them. If you care about them being
harmed, you must tell them for their own good. And this is the
same thing. While it's not very pleasant
to talk about, we must warn each other of the dangers that we
face with these many deceivers that have gone out into the world.
John says they're deceivers and they're antichrists. You know,
I saw a thing on the History Channel this week about the antichrist.
You know, people think that that's one person that's going to rise
up in power. The antichrist isn't one person. It's many people. It's people
that have this attitude and spirit that's opposed to the glory of
the person and work of Christ. These deceivers, their primary
error always centers on the person and work of Christ. And that's
where they try to deceive people. They'll say good things about
the man Jesus. He's a healer. He's a teacher. But they'll always stop short
of saying He's God. They may even say He's the Savior.
But He's not a sovereign Savior. Just listen to Him long enough.
He's not a sovereign Savior saving whom He will. No. He died to
make salvation possible. He died for everybody. He'll
save you if you'll just let him. They're not saying what Scripture
says, that he came to save his elect from their sin. They're
being deceivers, and they're being deceivers. They're using
words like grace and Savior, but they're not using them as
Scripture uses them. And in John's day, the error
that he talks about so frequently, is people deny that Jesus was
the Christ. He's God who came in the flesh. That was the error. And that
error is still in the world today. When someone denies the power
of Christ, they deny the sovereignty of Christ, they make Christ out
to be a mere man with the same limitations that they have. What
they're doing is denying that Jesus Christ came in the flesh,
that He's God manifest in the flesh. I saw this on TV this
weekend. This is interesting. I saw a
TV preacher. I was flipping through the channels. And something caught my attention.
I stopped and listened to him. He's standing there with a group
of other American TV preachers. I recognized a lot of their faces.
And standing next to him was a bunch of Jewish rabbis with
the long beards and the get up and so forth. And this man was
praying, and it caught my attention. He was saying some mighty good
things, talking about God, who's the Creator of heaven and earth,
who created this world without any help from anybody, who spoke
it into existence. Talking about God, who has the
hearts of men in His hand to turn Him, whether so ever He
will. And what he was praying about, what he was praying for,
was power. That the next day, when they
would go out, they were planning on going out to different politicians
there in Washington, D.C., and talk to them about their desires
for U.S.-Israeli relations. And he got near the end of the
prayer, and it struck me. It just came to my mind, OK,
what are you going to do now? Because here's all these Jewish
fellas standing there, and I've seen this man pray, and I saw
him this morning on TV, and he always ends his prayer in Jesus'
name. Always talking about Jesus this,
Jesus this. He never one time mentioned the name of Jesus in
that prayer. And he got to the end of it, and I thought, OK,
what are you going to do now? And you could tell from his body
language he was nervous. And he started hymn-hawing around,
talking about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of
all of eternity. And there was a long pause. And
he said, and in the name of Joshua, my Savior. He never used the
name Jesus. And he was careful to stress
my Savior, like, well, you know, these fellas, you know, They
can have another Savior, it's alright. He denied that Jesus
came in the flesh. And there couldn't be a more
obvious scriptural definition. That man is a false prophet.
And what he said on his TV show this morning is different from
what he said when he was with those Jewish fellas. Now I'm
telling you this, if it's true in your living room, it's true
in this pulpit. And if it's true in this pulpit,
it's true in your living room. It's true in the workplace. The
truth doesn't change no matter where you're at. And if you'll
change your message, Depending on who's listening to you, you're
a false prophet, because the truth does not change. That's
just so. Now, what should our attitude
about this be? That tends to get me riled up. What's our attitude? What should it be? Look at verse
8. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we
have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. What should our
attitude be? We shouldn't spend all of our
time looking at these false preachers. and getting so caught up in what
they're doing and what they're saying and pointing out their
mistakes. First place we ought to look, John says, is to ourselves.
Watch for ourselves and be sure that we aren't being deceived.
Look over at 1 Timothy chapter 4. This is what Paul told young
Timothy about these false preachers. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking
lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of
them which believe and know the truth. Now these men are in the
world, Timothy. Now look at verse 16. Here's
Paul's advice to Timothy. You take heed unto thyself. Don't
get so caught up in what they're doing. You take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing
this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. See,
we'll be protected from these deceivers by the teaching of
sound doctrine, by being pointed to Christ, by the preaching of
Christ and Him crucified over and over and over again. We'll
be protected from these false preachers, from being able to
be deceived by them. And John says, now you be careful
and don't lose the things that you've brought. Don't lose the
things that you've gained by looking to Christ. Well, what
is it that we've gained by looking to Christ? When we look to Christ,
first of all, we gain Him, don't we? And we gain everything in
Him. We gain mercy. We gain peace. We gain joy in Him. We gain His
righteousness. We gain forgiveness of sins.
Now, if someone departs from Christ, You know, they make a
profession of looking to Him, but then they leave. Well, there's
no more hope for them, is there? They're not going to find another
sacrifice for sin other than Christ. They turn away from Him.
There's not a sacrifice for sin because they've turned away from
the only sacrifice for sin. If they turn away from Christ,
there's no hope left for them. The only hope for you and me
that there is to be found is in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
turn away from Him, you've turned away from the only hope that
you could ever have. You'll never find any wisdom, any righteousness,
any sanctification or any redemption if you turn away from Christ
because they're all in Him. Now, but to the believer, if
Christ saved you, you cannot lose your salvation. Now, if
you saved yourself, you lose it. But if Christ saved you,
you cannot lose your salvation. But you know, even a believer
can build some wood, hay and stubble. Even a believer can
get caught up in some things and lose the joy and the peace
that we have in Christ. I'll show you that in 1 Corinthians
3. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 10. According to the grace of God,
which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've laid the
foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take
heed how he buildeth thereon. For another foundation can no
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man
build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, or wood,
hay, and stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the day shall declare it. But it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
Now if any man's work abide which he hath built Thereupon he shall
receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved,
yet so by fire. Now you can build on that foundation
gold, silver, precious stones. It will be tried with fire and
all the fire will do is refine it. The fire won't destroy it.
But you can build on that foundation wood, hay, and stubble and the
fire is going to destroy it. But see what it says here, but
he himself shall be saved, as so with fire. Those things he
built, that he wasted time building, wood, hay, and stubble, can be
burned up and gone. He won't lose his salvation,
but he's going to lose a lot of joy. He's going to lose a
lot of peace. He's wasted a lot of time. It's just like those
people I see on TV this week in San Diego. Lost everything
in fire. Most all of them escaped with
their lives, but everything else is gone. And that's what happened
to us spiritually. If we look away from Christ,
if we build anything ever than the Lord Jesus Christ, it'll
be burned up. It'll be taken away and destroyed.
You'll lose everything that's not the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you won't receive what John says here, the full reward. Now again,
you're not going to lose if you're a believer. You will not lose
your reward. Our reward is a reward not of
debt. It's not something we earned.
You know, you get a paycheck at the end of the week. That's
a reward of debt. You earned that. They owe you that because
you worked for it. That's not our reward. Our reward
is an inheritance of grace. And I'm telling you, every believer
receives the exact same reward. One's not going to receive more
than another. The exact same reward. Our reward is the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what he told Abraham.
He said, I am thy exceeding great reward. He's the full reward.
And we will receive that reward in spite of ourselves, not because
of ourselves, not because we did something. We don't have
a better reward than another believer simply because, well,
we did things better than they did. You know, we are more doctrinally
straight than they were. We did things, you know, better
than they did. So we have a better reward. That's not a reward of
grace. That's a reward of debt. We're
going to receive that reward. the Lord Jesus Christ in spite
of ourselves. That's true. But yet, even though
we will have a full reward, we can lose some enjoyment of that
reward right now. We can lose, allow ourselves
to have our attention and our focus taken off of the Lord Jesus
Christ by these deceivers, and we'll lose some of the joy, some
of the enjoyment of that reward now. And that is exactly what
these false preachers will try to do. They'll try to take your
attention, your focus, off something other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, verse 9, John says, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. But he that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. Now, John's talking about transgressing. He's not talking
about transgressing the law. Anybody that transgresses the
law doesn't know God. That's not what he's saying.
Because every one of us transgress and break God's law every minute
of every day. What he's talking about here
is a false prophet who transgresses the law. He transgresses the
doctrine of Christ in his preaching. His preaching does not abide
in the doctrine of Christ. The person who doesn't know God,
doesn't believe Christ, will not preach. Christ exclusively. He will transgress the doctrine
of Christ. If someone can preach something
other than the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't know Him. If you know Christ, all you can
preach is Christ. And if you don't know Him, you
can preach something else. Is that right, John? If you know Him, He's all
you can preach. And if you know Him, the only
thing you can stand to hear preached is the Lord Jesus Christ. These
other things are going to leave you empty and unfulfilled and
starving. If you know Christ, the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified is what satisfies you. And you want
to abide in it. What is this doctrine of Christ
John's talking about here? What's the teaching of Christ?
It's not real complicated. It's the teaching of Christ.
Who He is. What He did. Why He did it. And
where He is now. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, Scripture says He's God manifest in the flesh. He's both
God and man in one person. And He is everything to the believer. That's who He is. He's everything. He's our prophet, priest, and
king. He's the prophet that reveals the Father to us. He's our priest
that represents us to the Father. He's the king. whom we serve,
the king who rules and reigns over us, who's translated us
and given us citizenship in his kingdom, and we're his loving,
loyal subjects. He is the sacrifice for our sins.
He is our eternal surety. That's who he is. Well, what
did he do? He came to this earth and assumed
human nature and saved his people from their sins. That's what
he did. He produced a perfect righteousness that he imputes
to his people. And he took our sins in his body
on the tree. He imputed his righteousness
to us and our sins were imputed to him. And he put those sins
away through his sacrifice, through his death. In his death, Christ
paid the penalty that justice demands for our sins that were
imputed to him at Calvary. That's what he did. Well, why
did he do it? that God might be just and justifier
of everyone that believed in Jesus. He did it because He loves
His people, and that's the only way we're ever going to see life,
is if He died for us. Well, where is He now? He's seated
victorious at the Father's right hand. And He's seated because
the work of redemption's done. He didn't leave something up
to you and me left to finish it. The work's done. He's seated.
And He's seated there till one day He stands up and He comes
back. to receive His people, to gather
them to Himself and judge the world in righteousness. Now that's
who He is. That's the doctrine of Christ. And if any man's preaching
does not abide in that doctrine, it's simply because he doesn't
know God. And that's not me being harsh. That's what God's Word
says. And the man who abides in that, who's rooted and grounded
in that doctrine of Christ, has both the Father and the Son.
If you have one, you always have the other. If you have the father,
you have the son. If you have the son, you have the father,
because they're inseparable. They're always one. And if you
know him, that's what your preaching will be. Now, verse 10. Now if there come any unto you,
and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God's speed. For he that bid him God's speed
is partaker of his evil deeds. Now really, this is when, not
if. It's when you run into these
deceivers, because you will run into them, because there's so
many of them gone out into the world. You will run into them.
And when you do, when you run into this man who does not preach
the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't be nice to him
anyway. Don't receive him into your house.
Don't bid him Godspeed. Don't tell him you pray for him.
Don't wish God's blessings upon him. Because if you do, you're
a partaker of his evil ministry. Now, it's evil if it's not Christ,
if his message, if his ministry is not Christ, it's evil. There's
no gray area here. The Lord isn't a partaker in
his ministry, and we ought not be either. Look at Romans chapter
16. Romans 16, verse 17. Paul says, Now I beseech you,
brethren, Mark them which cause divisions, and offenses contrary
to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. For they are such that serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but they serve their own belly, and
by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the
sinful." They're deceivers. And believers have to be warned
about this because it's the nature of a believer to be hospitable.
It's the nature of a believer to be generous. And we ought to be. But not to
these men who do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let
them into your house. I think it has two meanings.
First of all, don't you let them into the house of the Lord. Don't
you let them into the pulpit. Don't you give them a platform
that they can use to spread the preaching of something other
than Christ. Don't let them into your house. And don't let them
into your house. Don't give them a free meal.
Don't be so generous to them and give them a free meal and
let them come into your house. Because that's what they want.
That's their goal. They want a free meal. They're serving
their own belly. And they get into your house,
they're going to get what they want and fleece the sheep. And then,
you know what they'll be like? I thought of this this morning.
They'll be like a stray cat. You feed them and they'll never
go away. Don't let them into your house. I'm telling you.
And once they get into your house, what they'll do is they'll privately
spread this doctrine. They'll privately persuade you
and work it in to persuade you. You know, when you've got a full
belly, you're kind of groggy, that's what they'll do to you.
So they'll have a stronger position in the pulpit. That's what they
do. Look over at 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2 verse 1. But there are false prophets
also among the people. See, they're not just out in
the world, they're among the people, among believers. Even
as there shall be also false teachers among you, who privately
shall bring in damnable heresies. When they get into your house
and you're living privately, they'll bring in these damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction in many. See, this is why we
need to be warned about this now and be on the watch, because
many and sadly shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of
whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." Now why do they
do that? Verse 3, through covetousness,
shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose
judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not. It's through covetousness they'll
make merchandise of you. They make these fair speeches,
they look like this sweet, kind, gentle preacher. But I'm telling
you, you do not mean any more to them than merchandise on a
shelf means to a store owner. You don't. The store owner doesn't
have any sentimental attachment to the merchandise he buys and
puts on the shelf. He doesn't have any love for
it. He doesn't put on the shelf and think, oh how much I love
you and we're going to be together forever. He puts that merchandise
on the shelf hoping it will fly off there quick. The only reason
he has a relationship with the can of beans he puts on the shelf
is so he can get a profit by selling it. And he doesn't care
who he sells it to as long as their money is good. He doesn't
care a bit who takes that can of beans home as long as their
money is good because he can gain a profit by selling it.
And that's the only reason a false preacher has any relationship
with people. So he can gain a profit by you.
You're merchandise to him. And he don't care who he sells
you to. Even if it means selling your
soul into hell, he does not care. Now that might sound harsh, but
that's so. Now look at verse 12, back in
2 John. Having many things to write unto
you, I would not write with paper and ink. For I trust to come
unto you and speak face to face that your joy may be full. Apparently,
there are a lot of other things that John would like to give
this lady, her lucky lady, her children. But he said it would
be better if we talked about face-to-face. Face-to-face is
always better. You know, letters are good. Janet
and I were talking this weekend when I was in college. I was
a sophomore in college. She moved off to Charlotte, North
Carolina, a long way away. I was in Columbus, Ohio. And
we wrote love letters back and forth. And I remember my apartment,
they had a bank of mailboxes out there, and I could tell if
my mailbox had been open, a letter put in it. And I'd rush back,
you know, from my classes, and I'd look to see if that mailbox
had been open. Maybe there's a love letter from
Shannon in there. And I just, I've read those things many times. I saved them. I still got them.
I mean, they were wonderful. But there was nothing like, on
spring break, when I went to Charlotte and got off that plane,
there she stood. Oh my goodness. Nothing, just a letter just didn't,
couldn't compare to that. And tapes and CDs, we record
these things. I mean, they're wonderful. I
listen to them. I'm so happy to have them. They're good. Nothing
beats face-to-face. Looking eye-to-eye with a man
preaching the gospel to you. And nothing beats meeting with
your brethren. Hearts melted together in love. Worshipping
together. We need each other, don't we? For encouragement and
support. Public worship is the way our
Lord's been worshipped. And He said, I want to come to
you face-to-face. that our joy may be full. The letter, yeah,
that's good, but face to face, that our joy may be full. In
verse 13, the children of thy elect sister grieved thee. Apparently
her nieces and nephews lived there in town. They sent a greeting
to her. Any of those greetings are good. We ought to send our
greetings to one another. We love one another, and the
miles don't diminish that. Last Sunday, John was in Danville,
and in the afternoon, he stayed with a couple of Brother Poncer
was my Sunday school teacher, and I was a little boy and lived
in Danville. And they sent a greeting to me
through John. I'm telling you, that just made
my day. I just thought, talking to Janet all night about this,
how much I love the Poncers. That greeting across the miles. I hadn't seen them in a long
time, but it meant something. And that's the way believers,
that's what I'm talking about, about the bond that we have one
to another. That's why we need each other.
And there again, That's the generosity, hospitality, and love that's
the nature of a believer. To send those greetings across
the miles. Not just across the miles, but
right here face to face too. We all hope that's a blessing.