Tonight we're in the book of
Third John, if you'd like to turn there. Third John. John, yet again, as we saw Sunday,
uses the word truth five times in this short 14 verse letter
that he wrote. Something that's interesting
about truth is that truth always goes hand in hand with love. You can't have love without the
truth, and you can't have the truth without love, and both
come from the same source. The Lord Jesus Christ is truth,
as we saw Sunday, and as we just read in 1 John, God is love.
He's not just the source of it, he is love, he is truth. And that love was manifest by
the truth of God, the word of God, and Christ being Christ
Jesus, the express image of his person coming to earth, becoming
a man. So both truth and love come from
the same source, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's read the text
here in John chapter, 3 John chapter one, verse one. We'll
read the first eight verses. He says, the elder unto the well
beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above
all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy
soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the
brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even
as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to
hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully
whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers, which
have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom if thou
bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt
do well. Because that for his names sake
they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles, We therefore
ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the
truth. John says to my well beloved
Gaius, why did John love Gaius? Well, it's the same reason that
all of God's people love Gaius. It's the same reason that we
love John. And it's the same reason that we love the Lord
Jesus Christ, because he first loved us. He first loved us. And he tells us here that it's
all for the truth's sake. And we're going to have a text
Sunday from that verse where he talks about for the truth's
sake. This is why John loved Gaius, for the truth's sake,
for the truth's sake. This is why we love one another,
for the truth's sake. This is why we love John and
Gaius as well. He says, whom I love in the truth. The elder and to the well-beloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth. I've titled this message, Love
in the Truth. love in the truth. It is the confession that each
child of God bears. It is what compels us. It's the
truth of the gospel. It is what causes us to love
one another and to love him. See, those who don't have the
truth have not been set free. They've not been given the love,
but you're given truth and love. It's the same. It's given at
the same time. You can't have truth without
love and you can't have love without the truth. We know that
Christ is the one that is the way. We know that he is the truth.
We know that he is the life and we know that he is love. and
seeing him and seeing what he has done for you, his people,
and seeing that he put away the sin of his people, does that
not compel you to love him and stand in awe of his, in adoration
of his goodness, of his mercy, of his grace? Only a sinner that's
received the truth can have those things. Only a sinner that's
received the truth can have this love towards the Lord. And only
a sinner has this love towards God. When he hears your sins
been paid for, your sins been remitted, that compels you to
love, don't it? The more you've been forgiven,
the more you'll forgive. The more we see of his love,
the more we love him, and the more we love each other in him. We love one another because he's
given the same love, his love, to us, and he's knit our hearts
together. That's what Paul was talking
about. It was one of the first messages I think I ever preached
to you all whenever I came up. Having our hearts knit together.
How's it knit together? In the love of Christ. In the
love of Christ. How is it that you can have carpenters,
plumbers, painters, doctors, lawyers, every profession, mechanics,
I don't leave anybody out, every profession come together and
have conversations, not just about life, not about their children,
but have conversations about the hope that is in Christ, because
God's no respecter of person, and he gives forth that love
to his people, and he sheds it abroad in our hearts, and he
bears witness one to another that where he is, we can rejoice
in him together. It doesn't matter about creed
or bloodline or profession. Christ is all to his people,
isn't he? Because of that, no one is more
loving than God's people. Because of the great love that's
been shown to them, no one's more loving than the Lord's people
are. When the Lord Jesus Christ took
our sin unto Himself in love towards His Father, in love towards
His Bride, the sinless Lamb of God bore the sin of His people,
putting it away, if we ever see that, Therein is love. Not that
we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to be the propitiation for our sin. Songwriter said,
because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free,
for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. That's our motivation. That's
our motivation, that our sin has been forgiven. We are motivated
by that. What does that compel us to do?
Well, it compels us to look to Christ, to say he is all, to
rest all of our hope in him. That's what love expresses towards
him. We love him because he first
loved us. We just, think about it this
way. Whenever you were dating your
spouse, You would, they called it, remember ever hearing puppy
love? You don't really know what love
is. You're too young for that. I heard that a bunch. But you desire
to see your spouse. You desire, your boyfriend, girlfriend
at the time, whoever you were dating, you'd get all dolled
up for them. Guys, we didn't really get dolled up. not look
too scruffy, you understand what I'm saying? You had a love, a
desire to see them, a desire to be with them. It's the same
thing in the gospel. When you smell the fragrance
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he only reveals to his people,
we desire to come see him, don't we? And it doesn't grow old. That's the thing that's different
than a lot of marriages sour. A lot of marriages go through
divorce, but not this love. This one doesn't change. See,
it's his love given to his people. It's his everlasting love that's
bestowed. And it reciprocates to and from
him. And we just get sweeter and sweeter.
Like hearing the good news of the gospel just gets sweeter
and sweeter. Lord's people, Serve him out
of love, out of the same love. How do we serve him? Well, we
come to worship, don't we? We can now understand something.
We're not talking about for salvation. We're talking about because of
salvation, because of righteousness. We love him. We don't look at
our love and determine whether we are saved. We don't look at
our love and determine anything. We look to Christ. But in looking
to Christ, the most glorious and beautiful savior that he
is, the only savior of sinners, do you not love him? Do you not
long to see his face? Of course, of course we do, because
he's fairer than 10,000 to our soul. We never look at our service
as our righteousness, but because he is our righteousness, because
he's given us this love, we love him. We love him. We don't love
him and determine whether or not we are believers based upon
that love. My love's cold and your love's
cold, isn't it? What did the Lord tell Peter
whenever Peter had denied him three times and Peter gave up
on life and said, well, I've quit the ministry. I'm gonna
go fishing. I'm done. I'm just gonna go back to what I know
doing. And he did. And he took John and James with
him and some others and they were, On the vessel, out in the
boat, they were fishing and the Lord is on the land and Peter
recognized who he was immediately. He knew who he was. Why? Because
Peter was given the love of Christ. It was shed abroad in his heart.
Peter jumps overboard and he swims the shore. And when he
gets there, the Lord asks him these questions multiple times. He says, Peter, do you love me?
Peter, do you love me? Now, one version of love is agape,
and the other one is phaleo. And the Lord was asking him,
do you love me in a spiritual manner? Do you love me perfectly?
Peter said, Lord, I can only love you in a physical manner.
Lord, you know I love you. I don't love you as I ought.
See, he was abased from having any confidence in his love, wasn't
he? Why? Because he denied the Lord. He
had no confidence in his flesh anymore. It's the same thing
whenever the Lord told Ezekiel, can these bones live? He said,
Lord, thou knowest. That's what Peter was saying. Lord, you know
I love you. I really do, but I can't count
on my love for you. It's your love for me that I'm
looking to now. This is the reason John is telling
Gaius, I love you in the truth, because if you we ever see that
it's not our love, but it's his love, then we'll find ourself
loving him and loving each other. Did you know that? That's just
how it works. That's just how it works. We love him because
he first love us. It's interesting that Peter was
asked three times. He denied him three times and
he was asked three times. The Lord's gonna make us confess. Lord,
it's not unto us, oh Lord. Not unto us, but unto thy name,
all glory and praise and honor. It's not about me, it's about
you. Scripture tells us here in his
love, not that we love him, but that he loved us. I've already
quoted that once, but isn't that true? It's not that we didn't
choose to love him, Think about that. A lot of religion says
you have to choose to love him. I don't have confidence in my
love in order to make a choice. My love changes. I'm emotional. We're unstable in all our ways,
aren't we? That's what the scripture says. Lord, if you love me, there's
hope. Because the Lord only loves one
way, and that's with an everlasting love. And he only gives his love,
this singular love, to his people. And he really does give this
love. reciprocates from him and to him. It's not my love. It's
your love, Lord, that I am dependent on, that I need. If he ever reveals what a wretched,
vile creature that we are, and he shows us that he took what
we are into himself and owned our sin as his own, you'll love
him. We'll love him, won't we? He
paid the debt in full. Why did he do it? Out of love.
Out of love, if he ever reveals all of that and gives us that
love, we're going to love him. Now, we often say this, and I
love saying this, because it erases any confusion whatsoever. Everything that God requires,
he must provide. We can just camp on that. Anytime
any message, anytime it's preached, that needs to be understood everything
God requires he provided. So if he's requiring you and
I to love him, he's got to provide it. He's only pleased with what
he provides. This is what Peter was being made to say, is if
you're going, if I'm going to love you, you're going to have
to be the doer of it. You're going to have to make me love
you. We don't look to our believing or our loving. We have no confidence
in the flesh. We don't look to our love. We look to Christ. We look to
Christ. And the Lord makes him fairer
than 10,000. He makes him everything to his
people. And we see here that Gaius is
being encouraged. Gaius is being commended because
for his namesake, when men would come for the ministry, it said
for the sake of Christ, for his namesake, verse seven,
because that for his namesake, they went forth. So these were
coming in and Gaius was putting them up. He was feeding them.
He was clothing them. He was giving them a place to
stay. And it was all out of love. He
called it charity here is what John called it. And the point
is, is that the reward that Gaius, and I'm trying to remember what
verse that's in, but Verse five, thou doest faithfully
whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers which
have borne witness of thy charity before the church whom if thou
bring forward in their journey after a godly sort thou shalt
do well because that for his namesake they went forth taking
nothing of the Gentiles. What is the reward to the believer? Christ is the reward. Christ
is the hope. Christ is the reward. Why do
we do what we do? What is our motivation? It's
all for his namesake. It's for what he's bestowed,
not to gain something with God. And we learn that we love him
because he first loved us. Gaius was doing all of these
things with his eyes on Christ, not for a crown, but for Christ,
our crown, our righteousness. He's not doing it to earn Christ
or to earn God's favor. He's doing it because he's found
favor in the eyes of God. He's found grace in the eyes
of God. This is what this is what John is commending him for. Christ is the reward. There's
not. It's not for a reward. It's because Christ is the reward. Am I making sense? It's not about
us trying to earn with God or trying to do something to make
God give us something. No, we love him and we rest in
his love. That's the love we rest in, not
in our love. Jeremiah 31 says I've loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Because he is love. Because he
is truth. We have a resting place. The
message tonight is is don't look to your love. Love one another. Don't look to your love towards
God, but rest in the love of Christ. That's the message. It
is. This is what is our motivation is the love that the Lord's given
us toward each other. I'm thankful to tell you that this message
was given not at a time whenever we were having trouble in our
church or somebody's causing discouragement or disarray. No,
this is, we do love one another, don't we? That's the good news.
And why do we do that? He gets all the glory for it.
He's done that. He's given his love towards his people and towards
him, towards him. We have no confidence in our
love. We never look at our love. We look at His great love. There's
rest. There's rest in His love. His
love accomplished something, didn't it? What does mine and
your love accomplish? Well, a lot of times it accomplishes heartache
because I don't love my wife as I ought to. I mean, it's just
true, isn't it? Men, we should love our wives more than we do.
Women, you should love your husbands more than you do. It's just true.
We're selfish by nature. But aren't you glad his love
is completely selfless? I can rest in that kind of love.
We can rest in the love that's completely Selfless as in what
did he know? No greater love hath any man
than this that a man laid down his life for his friends. What
was he doing on the cross of Calvary but expressing his love
towards his bride and unto his father, his love that he had
for his father? There's no greater expression of love. and no greater
motivation. Our motivation is love. It's
not the law. We don't put men under the law
saying, you need to do this and you need to do this for righteousness.
No, we're commanded of the Lord to love one another, not for
righteousness, but because of righteousness. And we do it serving
him and looking unto him because he is our righteousness. Often we have fear, don't we? But you know what the scripture
says? Perfect love casts us out fear. Whenever I have, and all
of us go through trials, all of us go through trials, all
of us get discouraged, all of us get weary. And I'm reminded
that in those fears, in those moments of fears, possibly being
just left to ourself for a brief moment where we We're anxious,
we're worried, we're overwhelmed, we're overburdened, however you
want to put it, and we're afraid, and we begin to sink. When we're
reminded of the perfect love of Christ, is there not rest
in that? What happens to that fear at
that moment? It's gone. It's completely gone. If you
see the perfect love of the Lord Jesus, we don't have perfect
love in and of ourselves, so if it says, perfect love casteth
out fear, that's got to come from Him, doesn't it? And that's
exactly what that fear does. We have no longer fear of justice,
no longer fear of judgment, no longer fear of death. Why? Because he has perfect love towards
his people. It's unchangeable, it's everlasting. This is the truth that we rest
in. Turn with me back just a few pages, 1 John 4. We looked at
this a little bit ago. Verse John 4, 17, herein is our
love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world. Now I hope I can
preach this the way that the Lord has delivered this to me
and it'd be an encouragement to each of us. But what the apostle
is saying is you have perfect love. And here's the reason why. Herein is your love made perfect.
And because your love's perfect, we may have boldness in the day
of judgment. Here's the reason, because as He is, so are we. in this world right now. As he
is, so are we in this world. You mean we're the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus right now? Yes. As he is, so are we
in this world. That's the reason that we have
boldness on the day of judgment. That's how our love is perfected,
is seeing that we are in him and he is in us. Verse 18, there's
no fear in love. There's no fear in love. That's
what our adversary uses. That's what all false religion
uses is fear, isn't it? But there's no fear in love.
There's no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear
because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. We love him because he first
loved us. Is it not true that when we see
our sin, we fear? We fear, we shudder. When the
Lord makes you a sinner, we fear. We fear of judgment, we fear
of death, we fear of separation, but our hope is found in his
love because it's unchangeable. His love accomplished something
on the cross of Calvary. His love put away the sin that
we are, the sin that we do. Him bearing him in his own body
upon the tree, he expressed his love in that way. And therefore
there's no fear of judgment anymore if we're in Christ. There's no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. There's no more fear of death
because he conquered death, hell, and the grave. There's no more
fear of separation. What did Paul say? Who shall
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus?
He said, I'm persuaded that nothing, nothing, neither height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, things present, things to come,
principalities, powers, nothing can separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus. We didn't choose for him to love
us. He chose to love us. He chose
to love us. And if he loves us, we have no
fear. We have no reason to fear or to fret because of this perfect
love that he has shown in the greatest display of love that's
ever shown or ever will be shown on the cross of Calvary for his
people. We have nothing to fear. This is why we love in truth.
This is why John said to beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
This is what we love is his glorious gospel, his finished work, his
precious blood. That's what we love, isn't it?
We love his truth. We know that it's not based upon
our love. though, is in our love, there's
fear. If we're looking to that love,
if we're looking to ourself, there's fear. If I begin to say,
okay, I know, I know that I'm a believer because I love the
Lord. I'm looking to myself, but do
I love him enough? Do I love him with the perfect love? No,
I can't produce perfect love. Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know all things. You know I love you, not as I
ought. Peter, do you love me? Lord, I love you, but you know
all things, you know I love you. Feed my sheep. That's how love
is declared, isn't it? Through the preaching of the
gospel. That's how we love one another. We pick one another
up. It ain't by saying, I found good news on channel 10 today.
No, it's the gospel, isn't it? That's what picks us up. That's
what gives each other a hug is when we're talking to each other
about the gospel. That's the best expression of
love that you can give to your brothers and sisters, that you
can give to your pastor. Remind us of the gospel. Remind
us of the finished work of Christ. That's giving each other a hug.
That's what that's doing. It's the best news. We know that
those who have been given his love do just that, don't we?
We sure do. There's only fear in looking
to our love. In religion, we always thought,
have I done enough? Have I done enough? Have I? Never
can do enough. Not possible to do enough. Christ
Jesus did. when he proved that he loved
by going to the cross of Calvary and dying, by honoring the covenant
of grace that he made with his father, he showed forth his love. It was manifest. It was made
known unto you and I in the greatest display on the cross of Calvary. No, we don't hope in us, we hope
in him. We know who makes us to differ. We know who makes
us to differ. It's not by works of righteousness
we have done. It's not by law keeping that
we have done. It's not by our love that we look to. No, it's
by him. It's according to his mercy.
It's according to his love. It's according to his grace.
Because we've been made to know that he tells him I love you
in the truth. That is the truth. It's all of
him. And we love each other in that truth, don't we? There's
liberty in that. That's what he says. You shall
know the truth and the truth shall set you free. That's liberty. That's what Christ Jesus gives
to his people. Now in just a second, I have one more place to turn
to, but before I do, understand that either we love God because
of his truth, love God's people because of his truth, Or we don't. It's that simple. The reason
we love God is because he has revealed his truth. He has enabled
us to love him. But only those that love God
love his truth. Somebody might say, I love God,
but they don't love the gospel. They don't love God because they
don't love his truth. But when he reveals his truth,
he gives us the ability to love it. We just keep loving it. I
love his gospel. I love him being the sovereign
creator of the universe and me not having anything to do with
my salvation. I love that about God. I love that he's completely
seated on his throne and salvation's been accomplished by the shed
blood of Christ alone. I love that, don't you? That's my only
hope. I love that no matter what I
do, I can't mess it up. That my salvation, if I'm in
Christ Jesus, is forever settled in heaven. I can't, nobody can
get to it to alter it or change it. No one has that power. God's
declared his people perfectly righteous. I love that. And you
love that too, don't you? That's why we love one another.
We love the same thing. We love the same thing. He sheds his love abroad in our
heart. How do I know if I have his love?
Do you love him getting all the glory and salvation? Only the
Lord's people love him getting all the glory and salvation.
I mean, not 99%. All glory. You love that? You
love him getting all the glory? Truth, Lord. I love you getting
all the glory. I am a dog. But can I have a
crumb from your table? There's the prayer, isn't it? Are you working to establish
your own righteousness? Or are you resting in the righteousness
of Christ? How do I know if I have his love?
Because you're resting in the righteousness of Christ alone
before God. All that working or keeping the
law promotes, brethren, is just pride and arrogance. It's just
self-righteousness, and it's just fear. It's just fear. Preaching the gospel of Christ
promotes love. Grace promotes love, doesn't
it? Grace promotes love, love towards him, love towards one
another. Truth reveals the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts. Do you love his sovereignty?
I love his long-suffering too, don't you? His long-suffering.
He's long-suffering to us. We're not willing that any of
his people should perish, but all should come to repentance.
I love that. I love him electing. I love that he's elected a people.
He chose to elect. He didn't have to. He chose in
his infinite wisdom, in his total sovereignty, before time ever
began to elect a people and to redeem those people and to reveal
that they've been redeemed by calling them out of darkness
into his light. I love that, don't you? I love that about
God. Now, if truth depends on our
input, it's not truth. If love is contingent upon our
consent, that's a false love. His love is contingent upon my
consent. I'm gonna allow God to love me.
That's foolishness, isn't it? No, he's gonna love me, and then
he's gonna let me know about it. I'm gonna love you, and because
I love you, you're gonna love me. I like that, don't you? How
can I love you, Lord? I'm gonna give you the love to
do it, and I'm gonna give you the love for your brethren. That's
what he does. Everything he requires, he provides. Grace is possible
only by our choice. It's not grace. We're called
by grace alone into his love, he does the calling, he does
the saving, he did it all. Now in closing I told you I wanted
to turn to John chapter 15 if you'd like to turn there with
me. And I hope the Lord allows us
to enter into these precious verses here. John chapter 15, verse
nine. Now, if you heard the Lord Jesus
Christ say these words to you, and if you're his, you are, you're
gonna hear that through the eyes of faith. Listen to these words.
What comfort. As the father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. As the father hath loved me. I mean, think about that. How
much did the father love his son? As the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you. Boy, if you heard the Lord say
those words, there's no greater comfort in the world than to
know that the Lord loves you. Do you remember When the rich
man came to the Lord, and he said unto him, Master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? What good thing? He said, good
master, first of all, didn't he? He said, good master, what
must I do? What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?
And the Lord said, why callest thou me good? There's none good
but God. good but God." And then he proceeds to tell him, you
know the commandments, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal.
And he quotes the commandments to him. He said, all these I've
kept. I've already marked that down. I've already checked that
box. I've already done all those. Every one of those I have kept
from my youth up. And the most interesting thing
that I find that gives us the greatest comfort is it says,
when the Lord looked upon him, he He loved him. He loved him. There is no other person that
I have any more confidence in all of scripture that is in glory
right now more than that man. If God loves you, his love does
something. It accomplished your salvation.
That's the good news. It's not my love towards him,
it's his love towards me. And you know that that man came
to the knowledge of the truth because of that love. The Lord
only has one kind of love and it's everlasting. This is the
good news. As much as the father has loved
me, that's how much I love you. That's how much. That's what
he says. As the father hath loved me, so have I loved you. He only has one love, everlasting
and eternal. Now we enter into this sobering
thought that as much as the father loved him, how much did it cost
for your salvation? The father put his son, he made
his soul an offering for sin on the cross of Calvary. That's
how much he loved his people. His son had to die. His son had
to die here in his love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for us.
What greater example of love do we have? As the father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments,
ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto
you that my joy might remain in you, that your joy might be
full. This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do
whatsoever I command you." What commandment? What commandment
is there necessary for you and I to keep? 1 John 3, 21, this
is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave his commandment. See,
a command's not an offer. A command's not an offer, believe. We heard that message just a
couple weeks ago, didn't we? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, love
one another. And I just love the thought that we can't help
but love one another. He does that. I love that. Lord, if you're
telling me my obligation is to love my brethren as myself, love
your neighbor as yourself, you're gonna have to do it. You're gonna
have to do it. And he does. He does. Everything required,
he provides. Everything he requires, he provides.
He sees his precious son and he's satisfied with our glorious
substitute. No, this is not an offer, it's
a command. Truly, we love him because he first loved us. We
believe on him because he commanded it. We love each other because
he commanded it. I'm thankful everything he required,
he provided. This is why we love in the truth. The truth's made us free. We
have the same father. We have the same daddy, if you
will. We love him. He loves us. Let's
pray. Father, cause us to never look
in ourself to find that which can only be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Cause us to never weigh our love
to determine our salvation. But Lord, cause us to rest in
your love, knowing that it's unchangeable and everlasting.
Give us that love, Lord, towards you, towards your people. In
Christ's name, amen. In closing, let's turn to number
228, my faith