Now this letter of 2 John is
not signed by the Apostle John, but we're sure that John is the
man who wrote this letter. The style of it is similar to
John's other writing and the content is very similar. The
wording is extremely similar to what we saw in 1 John. So
we're sure that John is the man who wrote this epistle. And he
writes this letter to a woman and to her children. I thought
this week about that. You know, a lot of the writers
kind of make a big deal about he's writing this letter to a
woman. You know, the Lord's given the rule in the church and in
the home to men. But by no means does that mean
women are not important. I don't know where people have
gotten that idea, but it doesn't mean that women are not important
members of the body of Christ. Certainly, women are not second-class
citizens at all. There are no second-class citizens
in God's family. And women matter a great deal.
You can't say that any member of God's church, His body, is
unimportant. They're all important. And you
think about the place that women have in Scripture. Our Lord,
He came and dealt with that Samaritan woman. He revealed Himself to
her and saved her. Then she went in and told the
men and the people of the town, come out and see who I found.
And he saved some of them too, but he dealt with that woman
first. He didn't go talk to those men first. He dealt with that
woman first. After our Lord's resurrection, he appeared to
the group of women first. And women are just as valuable
as men. Now you think about it. It took
the same price for our Lord to redeem a woman as it did a man.
The exact same price. It took His blood. Women are
equally valuable to Christ. He paid the same price to redeem
me, he did, James. Same price. She's just as valuable.
Well, then they ought to be to us, too. It ought not to be a
surprise that the apostle here is writing a letter to this woman.
That's what he does in verse 1. He says to the elder and to
the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth. And
not I only, but also all they that have known the truth. Now,
John calls himself the elder. And certainly that's his title
in the church. He's an elder. He's the apostle. But he's also
an old man. Everybody thinks he was around
100 years old at the time he wrote this letter. He's the only
apostle left alive. And he's the elder. And you know,
in the church, age is respected. Now, in business and different
places, a lot of times age is not respected. But in the church,
age is respected. Now, the older believer may not
always be right. but they're respected for who
they are. And that's especially true of pastors. And that's what
John here is the elder. After a lot of years with a pastor
who's been preaching to you a lot of years, you've been down a
lot of roads together. He's ministered to us a long
time. We've been blessed by his preaching many, many times. We've
learned a lot from his preaching. And that breeze of respect and
love that just comes, it just gets deeper and deeper and deeper
over time. The elder. And he's writing to
this lady he calls the elect lady. He doesn't call her a believing
lady. He calls her an elect lady. Now
we don't know who this woman is. People spend a lot of time
speculating. You may as well not. You don't know who she is.
You don't know who her children are. We don't know her name.
But God does. Because she's elect. He elected
her. He chose her in eternity past
on purpose. By name. God knows her name.
He chose her. And John could have called her
a believer, could have called her the lady of faith, but he
calls her the elect lady. And I'll tell you why. I believe
this is why. Because election comes before
faith. Election comes before everything. God's choice, His choosing came
before everything. Salvation, eternal life, faith,
regeneration, everything that goes along with salvation. All
starts with God's election, with His electing love. Scripture
says it's election that is unto salvation. Salvation has its
beginning with God, that He chose a people, that He redeemed and
put in His Son. Salvation's middle is all God's
doing. And the end of it is all of God. He is from Alpha to Omega. Christ
is all. And without election, Without
God's choosing of people, there'd be no salvation. That's why he
calls this lady the elect lady. But now, how did he know she
was elect? How did he know that? Did John go look in the eternal
book of life? No, he didn't do that. Well,
then how did he know she was elect? Look back at 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. There's lots of evidences. in the life of someone that's
elect. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4. Paul says, knowing brethren,
beloved, your election of God. I know your election of God.
How? Verse 5. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. as ye know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction,
with joy in the Holy Ghost, so that ye were examples to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad,
so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves
Show of us what manner of entering the inn we had unto you, and
how you turned to God from idols to serve the true and living
God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from
the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." All
those things, all those ways that Paul said, here's how I
know your election of God. It's the same way John knew this
lady was elect, elect lady. And this woman, this elect lady,
He is a blessed woman. John says your children are elect
believers. At verse 13, he talks about the
children of thy elect sister greet thee. Your children are
believers. Her sister is a believer. She's a blessed woman. A blessed
family. Now her children, her sister,
did not become believers because of her. Because she is elect. No, they're believers because
God chose them too. He elected them unto salvation,
too. He put them in Christ before
the world began, too. And that's a blessed family. Whether the Lord saves an entire
household, as we read happening sometimes in Scripture, or whether
He saves just one, just one family member, plucks them out. It's
all of grace, isn't it? It's God's grace. It's all of
grace. And John tells this woman that
he loves her. He loves her in the truth, her
and her children. And he said, not just me, but everybody who
knows the truth, who knows you, feels the same way. Believers
are to have a love and a care for all men. We're to love all
men. But there's a special heart love for God's family. It's a heart love. It's family
love. It's love for our brothers and sisters. And it's love that's
sincere. It's real, it's meaningful, and
it's lasting because this love is in Christ who is the truth. Now look at verse 2. For the
truth's sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever.
Now the word truth appears five times in the first four verses
of this epistle. So it must be important if John
mentions it that many times, the truth. And we know that the
truth can refer to, does refer to Christ, who is the truth.
He's the way, the truth, and the life. When you see the word
truth, you need to substitute the name Christ in there, because
He is the truth. And truth also refers to the
truth of the gospel. The gospel which is of Christ,
that concerns Him. The truth is always related to
Christ, because He is the truth. You can't separate true doctrine
from Christ who is the truth because they're inseparable.
That doctrine is true because it's of Him who is the truth.
They always go together. And to the Apostle John, and
it ought to be this way to us, truth is not a set of facts. It's not something that's just
written down on paper that's a set of true statements that
says our confession of faith and we believe this. Truth is
not just religious doctrine to John. To John, truth is a person. He heard the Lord Jesus say,
I am the way, the truth, and the light, and John believed
that. Now we've read it, we've heard it, we ought to believe
it too. The truth is a person. Now I can make good on this.
Look in John chapter 8, verse 32. The truth is a person. Our Lord is speaking here in
John 8, verse 32. And He says, And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And He's not talking
about if you know a bunch of Calvinistic doctrine, and you've
got all the five points of Calvinism lined up right, and you've got
that, that'll make you free. That's not what He's talking
about. And I can show you that if you'll turn over the page
to verse, chapter 36. If the Son, therefore, shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now wait a minute, I
thought it was the truth that sets you free. But here he says
it's the Son that sets you free. It's the exact same thing. It's
the Son. It's Christ. He is the truth. He sets us free. He sets us free
from bondage. He sets us free from the curse
of the law because He was made a curse for us. The truth is
a person. Look over at John chapter 18.
John 18 verse 37. Our Lord here speaking to Pilate
in this mock trial. In verse 37, Pilate therefore
said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest
that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. And every one that is of the
truth heareth my voice. Now again, he's not saying everybody
that's got the true doctrine can hear my voice. That's not
what he's saying. Now I'll show you that in John 10. Everyone
that's of the truth heareth my voice as it was said. Now look
at John 10 verse 16. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they, my sheep,
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Who is it that's of the truth
that hears his voice? His sheep, the elect, those that
the Father gave to him. They are of the truth. They are
in Christ who is the truth. And they hear his voice. They
hear his voice in the gospel. That's what he's talking about.
The truth is a person. And even a casual reader of God's
Word who understands language cannot honestly deny that salvation
is an internal work of grace. It's a heart work. John says,
For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us." This truth dwells in
us. Not only do you have true doctrine
in you, and you do. You've got it in your head, you
know it, and you've got it in your heart, you love it. It's
in you. That true doctrine is in you. But you know why it's
in you? Because Christ is in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the truth which dwelleth
in us. He's not outside of us, trying
to talk to us outside of us and influence his flesh. He dwells
in us. The Spirit of Christ dwells in
his people. And to deny that truth that is
so plainly taught in Scripture is simply to deny Scripture.
Now, to deny that Christ dwells in his people is to deny Scripture
just as much as if you deny election. It's just as plainly taught.
It's just as much as if you denied particular redemption. If you
deny particular redemption, you deny Scripture. I don't think
anybody in this room disagrees with that. Well, denying that
Christ dwells in his people is just as much a denial of Scripture
as that. That's so. And since Christ is
the truth, you cannot separate Christ from true doctrine. And
you can only compromise the truth, true doctrine. as much as you're
willing to deny Christ, because He is the truth. And no one,
no believer who has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them has
any desire to compromise Christ, to compromise the glory of our
Savior in redemption. You just can't do that. So He
dwells in us, and we're to love each other in truth and sincerity. Truth and sincerity. We're to
love each other for the truth's sake, for Christ's sake. And
a lot of people think that this lady that John's writing to is
a very wealthy widow. Maybe that's true. I don't know
where they came up with that. That might be true. But suppose for
a second that is true. I can tell you that's not why
John loves her. And that's not why John's writing to her. And
I'll show you that here in a second. But look over at James chapter
2. That would be totally contrary.
to the Spirit of Christ, to the gospel, if he just loved her
because she had the opportunity to give money to the church.
And that's not why he's writing to her. Look at James 2, verse
1. My brethren, have not the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of
persons. For if there come unto your assembly
a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there come in also
a poor man and vile raiment, And ye have respect to him that
weareth the gay clothing, and saying to him, Sit thou here
in a good place. And ye say to the poor, Stand
over there, or sit here under my footstool, where nobody see
you. Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become
judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren,
hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that
love him? But ye despise the poor. Do not rich men oppress
you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme
that worthy name by which ye are called? If ye fulfill the
royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect of persons,
ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors."
So supposing this woman is a wealthy widow, that's not why John's
writing to her, not out of respect of persons. For the truth's sake,
he says. For Christ's sake. She loved
for Christ's sake. And we are to love each other
for Christ's sake. You bear the image of Christ
who dwells in you. How can I not love you? It's
just impossible. How can you not love someone
who loves your Savior? How can you not honestly love
someone who loves the person who gave himself to your sins?
You have to love them. You're in agreement. You have
to love them for the truth's sake. And John says, And shall
this truth that dwells in us, Christ that dwells in us, shall
be with us forever. Christ that dwells in us, this
truth shall be with us forever. When Christ takes up residence
in the hearts of his people, it's forever. He doesn't come
and go. It's forever. That's why no believer will commit
the sin of apostasy that we talked to last week. You're not going
to leave him because he's in you. Now, I know that there are
times that we feel the presence of Christ more strongly than
other times. And those times we don't feel
his presence, does that mean that he's not in us? No, absolutely
not. The truth that's plainly revealed
in Scripture has nothing to do with our feelings. Whether I
feel it or not, if the word says it, it's so. How many times have
we heard this poem? For feelings come and feelings
go and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God.
Naught else is worth believing, regardless of my feelings. Though
all my heart should feel condemned for lack of some sweet token,
there is one greater in my heart whose word cannot be broken.
I'll trust in God's unchanging word till soul and body sever.
For though all things shall pass away, his word shall stand forever. Now, he may hide his face for
a while, but he will never leave. And I may not feel that way when
he's hiding his face, but that's what God's word says, so that's
what I believe. It's just so. And we will stumble and fall,
but we'll never fall completely away from him because he'll never
leave us. For the truth says, what's dwelt
in us, it shall be with us forever. Now verse 3, grace be unto you,
mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. Grace, mercy
and peace. Now that's the common salutation
of the apostles and the epistles, grace, mercy and peace. But just
because it's common doesn't mean we should just pass over it.
If grace, mercy and peace are important enough to include in
the salutation of almost every single epistle, in one form or
another, either grace and mercy, or in some form or another, grace,
mercy, and truth, I think are in, I guess, every epistle. I didn't really look at that,
but it's frequent. In divinely inspired writings, maybe it's
important. Maybe we ought to pay attention
to it. We shouldn't get so easily caught up in so many other things
that come our way and forget Grace, mercy and peace. We get caught up in wanting things
of this world, possessions or recognition or whatever. Even
spiritual gifts. Don't get so caught up in these
things we forget. Grace, mercy and peace. What was always foremost on the
minds of the apostles as they sat down to write a letter? Grace,
mercy and peace. Grace. Undeserved, unearned,
unmerited favor from God. Getting what we do not deserve.
Getting life from God. Getting acceptance with Him.
Getting forgiveness of sins. Receiving our righteousness.
Grace. Getting what we do not deserve.
Mercy. Not getting what we do deserve.
Not getting the judgment and wrath of God against our sins
because His wrath and judgment fell on our substitutes. Peace. Reconciliation with God that
we lost in Adam. Adam at one time had peace with
God. He had communion with God. He could come into the presence
of God. But he fell and we lost that. We lost all of it. Now,
we have peace with God and our Lord Jesus Christ. We can come
into His presence without fear of annihilation. Cecil prayed. Nobody was afraid we were all
going to be annihilated because we come into God's presence in
prayer. Adam feared it. Adam hid from
God's presence. We don't have to. We have peace
with God. We can come into His presence
and worship Him. Grace, mercy, and peace. From
God the Father, John says, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of the Father. John's always pointing out that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He points that out so frequently.
That's the theme of John's gospel, the deity of Christ. Look over
at John chapter 1. The Gospel of John, verse 1. Chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God and the
Word was God. He is God. Look over at chapter
10 of John. Verse 30. I and my Father are
one. The Son is God, Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth is speaking
here and he says, I am one with God the Father. Look over at
1 John chapter 1, verse 3. That which we have seen and heard,
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ. Chapter 4, 1 John, verse 15. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Now the Son, John points this out so frequently because the
Sonship of Christ and the Deity of Christ was under attack in
John's lifetime. There were heretics that were
coming up and teaching and denying that Jesus was not God. They
were saying Jesus is not God's So John was always quick to point
this truth out. That Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. And it's a good thing He is.
He's got to be God's Son. Our Savior has to be God. He has to have the power of God. Because only God has the power
to put away sin. Only God has the power to produce
a righteousness that a holy God will accept. He's got to be the
Son of God. And John says again here, in
truth and love. Truth and love. Henry said this
in his outline. Truth and love are noble and
natural companions, which cannot be separated on earth any more
than in heaven. God is truth and God is love. He's both truth and love. They're
noble and natural companions. And it's never good to have one
without the other. To have truth without love or
have love without truth. Truth without love will make
us cold and mean and hard and impossible to be around. Yeah,
you're right, but who wants to hear it? Who wants to be around
you? Truth without love. And love without truth, if it
were possible to have love without truth, would just be a gushy,
silly emotion. It didn't matter what was going
on. Oh, isn't that great? We just
love him so much. It doesn't matter what he does.
That's just a gushy, silly sentiment. that doesn't have any foundation.
That's not the love of God. That's not the love that believers
have. It's in truth and love together.
Now, verse 4. John says, I rejoiced greatly
that I found of thy children walking in truth, as ye received
a commandment from the Father. Now, at some point, somehow,
probably not too long before John wrote this epistle, sounds
like he ran across this woman's children. They came on a business
trip, probably to Ephesus, where John lived, or maybe they were
visiting their aunt, who apparently John knew. And while they were
there, they went to visit the old man, the old preacher. And
he is blessed by their fellowship, their time together. Maybe he
heard him talk, he saw some growth, some spiritual growth, and he
may have preached to him in the past, and he enjoyed some fruits
of his ministry, seeing some spiritual growth in these people.
He got a blessing from seeing their love for Christ. And he
sat down to write a letter to their mother to tell her what
a blessing their visit had been. It made him happy to see how
blessed this woman was, that she knew Christ, that her children
knew Christ. You could see that from their
daily walk as they received commandment. He could see evidences of Christ
in them. Now, if you think that made John happy, think how happy
that made their mother. Oh, my soul. Look at Psalm 113. There is absolutely no joy, no
joy imaginable like seeing your children come to love the Lord
Jesus Christ, to come to Him. In Psalm 113, verse 9, He maketh
the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of
children. Praise ye the Lord. When he made
that barren woman have these children that came to Christ,
that found faith toward Him and repentance toward Him, oh, that
gave her joy. Joy that's unspeakable. Now,
how'd that happen? I have children. How'd that happen? I'd like to
have that same blessing she had. Well, I know from Scripture,
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Timothy's
mother and grandmother were They taught that young boy, Paul said,
the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That tells me if we want
our children to know Christ, we need to teach them the Word,
both at home and here. It's our responsibility, both
at home and here, to teach our children the Word. Cody Groover,
a few years ago, was telling me this story. This place where they were, I
don't know if they still do this or not, but they're in Mexico.
They have one service on Sunday morning. And while Cody's preaching,
Wynn is teaching the children a Sunday school class. So Wynn
misses the Sunday service, the Sunday morning service every
Sunday. And you can imagine how that wears on a person, how she
misses that. But Cody told me, he told her,
he said, that class you're teaching is the most important thing we're
doing, teaching those children the Word. So don't forget. to pray for
our little ones. That class that's going on back
there now is important. We pray for our class. Don't
forget to pray for this one back here. I'm telling you it's important.
They've got to learn. They've got to learn. You know,
they learn first thing, I guess, they've got to learn to sit still.
It's hard for them to learn when you're three. Learn to sit still.
They've got to learn not to talk while the teacher's talking.
You can't be a good listener while you're talking. That's
what James tells them. You've got to learn while the teacher's
teaching Not to make car noises, you know, across the table. I'm
glad you don't make car noises while I'm teaching. I'm glad
you learn. That would be so distracting, wouldn't it? They've got to learn
that. They learn important things,
though. Now, those things are important. They learn from just
so little, so quickly. They learn that rock that the
wise man built on was the Lord Jesus Christ. You ask one of
them back there, they'll tell you. Who is that rock? The Lord
Jesus Christ. They learn that. They learned
about the fall of man, how Adam fell, and we all became sinners.
And no one is holy. No one is good. Even the pastor's
not holy. Janel asked me, is John holy?
And they start shaking their heads. Yeah, she's shaking. And
they go. They got to learn that nobody's holy. We fell in Adam.
We're sinners. They learned about the ram that
was a substitute for Isaac. Oh, he's going to die, but God
provided a substitute. They learn about the blood of
the Passover land. Put on the doorposts. When I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. They'll never remember not knowing
these things. They learn memory verses. God's
Word is in those little minds, comes out those little mouths.
That's just astounding to me. Just amazing. And Janet, she'll
go, you know, a year or a little longer, and then she'll go back
and do some lessons she did about a year ago. And they'll say,
I remember that one. And they remember some details. They remember
these things. I don't think they can't learn.
That's not a glorified nursery back there. This is teaching
God's Word. And salvation doesn't come through
education. Yet, I know this, the Lord uses
me. It's not unusual. for head knowledge
to come before heart faith. It's not on you. It doesn't have
to be that way, but it's not unusual. And just pray for them. We've got to pray for them. Because
I'll tell you this, we can make a Calvinist out of them. I promise
you, we can make a Calvinist out of them. They'll believe
what you tell them. They'll do what you tell them, at least
up here. They'll believe those things. But we can't make a believer
out of them. Only God can do that. So pray
for them. The Lord answered the prayer
of this woman. He answered the prayer of Lois and Eunice. Maybe
you will ours too. Maybe. He's still gracious. He's still merciful. He's still
delights to show mercy. Maybe you will. Verse 5, quickly. And now I beseech thee, lady,
not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which you
heard from the beginning, that we love one another. And this
is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment. that as you've heard from the
beginning, you should walk in it. Now this is another common
theme of John's writings, that believers are to love one another.
And this is not a new commandment. Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. The gospel is eternal. Salvation
in Christ is eternal. There's no new commandment. But
there are things that are newly explained. This message of loving
one another is newly explained. We have a new example. of loving
one another by seeing how our Lord Jesus Christ loved us and
gave himself for us. That's our new example. Believers
have a new argument for keeping this commandment. If God so loved
me, how can I not love you? And believers are born again.
So you have a new desire to keep this commandment. It's newly
explained. You have a new argument for keeping it. You have a new
example. And you've got a new desire.
It's new. And we saw this when we studied 1 John. If we love
God, we will keep His commandments. We'll walk, we'll conduct ourselves
in a way that will try to bring honor to Him. Our love for Christ,
if it's genuine, will direct our walk, will affect our conduct. And you can talk all you want
about knowing Christ, about being justified in Him, about all the
hidden mysteries of Scripture. You can use all the Calvinistic
jargon you want to, but it's all empty words unless we keep
His commandments. And what is His commandment?
That we love one another. That we walk in truth and love. That we walk humbly, loving mercy. That's His commandment. Well,
I hope God bless you.