Through the Bible - 2 John

Father, thank you for your word. I thank you for these men that you call, Lord. Holy men of God, inspired by you to write these things. Your word says that everything we read here is God-breathed and it is useful to teach us and to instruct us. As we look into these 13 verses tonight, I pray that you would continue by your Spirit to teach us, speak to us, and direct us. Direct us on how we ought to live, loving you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving others as ourselves. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, John's second letter was probably written around the same time as the first letter that John wrote, which we saw last week. This was somewhere around the early 90s AD. If you've studied early church history, you know that John was the youngest of the disciples and he lived the longest. By this time, just about every other eyewitness of the Lord had gone on to be with the Lord.

Near the end of his life, in the late 80s AD, John was exiled to the desert island of Patmos, off the coast of the Aegean Sea, near Ephesus in Asia Minor. He spent some time there because the Romans wanted to kill him, just as they had put many of the other leaders of the church to death. The story goes that they wanted to boil him in oil, but somehow he didn't die. They wanted to French fry John. So, they exiled him to the island of Patmos, and that is where he received the revelation of Jesus Christ, which we will be looking at in just a couple of weeks.

After he was released from Patmos, he returned to Ephesus, where he lived the latter years of his life. It is believed that he wrote this letter during that time.

From there, just as we said with the last letters, 1 John as well, we will see the same thing in 3 John. However, this letter is kind of unique among his letters because of the way that he writes it.

In the very first verse, it states, "The elder unto the elect lady and her children." There has been a lot of discussion over the years about who the elect lady is. Some Bible teachers believe that this is actually written to a godly woman in the church and to her family, her children. However, I believe that it is actually written to a church. When you read through the whole letter, you see that John does not directly mention anybody's name except for God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He kind of changes the names to protect the innocent, so to speak, because this was a time of great persecution, the beginning of persecution in the church.

I believe that he was writing to a persecuted church as he wrote these 13 lines, which were not verses when he wrote them, but rather a very short letter—one of the shortest in the Bible. He writes to a group of believers, whom I believe are the elect lady, whoever the leader of this church was, and her children, the body of Christ there, wherever he is writing. He writes to them to really encourage them in two areas. Firstly, to keep the commandments or to protect the truth. Secondly, to keep guard against counterfeits and to stand against those who want to come against the church—false teachers.

So, the first focus is the practice of the truth, and the second is to protect the truth. As we have been going through these letters in the New Testament, we have seen that there were a lot of false teachers coming into the body of Christ very early on. I have mentioned before that we can sometimes look at the early church and think that everything was perfect. However, if you study the New Testament, you know that was not the case.

One of the early heresies that was coming into the first-century church, particularly at the tail end of the first century and really affecting the church in a big way in the second century, was the false doctrine of Gnosticism. John is addressing that because the church was being faced with this false teaching that denied the humanity of Jesus. We talked about this last week. In our day, as I believe we are living in the last century of the church, the denial is not so much about the humanity of Jesus as it is about the deity of Jesus. Many of the higher critics deny that Jesus was God or is God in our day. However, in the first century, they did not have a problem with His deity.

Because there were eyewitnesses of His resurrection, there were eyewitnesses of His miracles, of Him walking on water, and of feeding multitudes. They had no problem with Jesus being divine; they had a hard time with Jesus being human, being man. We know the Scriptures reveal that Jesus is fully God and fully man. One of the early heresies that the church dealt with was the denial of Jesus' humanity. This denial is very dangerous because, without Jesus being fully man, He is not the right propitiation for our sins. He cannot be the atoning sacrifice for our sins if He did not come in the flesh. His physical birth, becoming a man, and living the life that He lived as a man here on earth are essential for our salvation.

You can see how Gnosticism coming into the church was dangerous. John writes to a church that was facing some form of persecution during the reign of Domitian, the emperor of Rome. In the later years of Domitian's life, he was a tyrant and quite the persecutor of the church. John is writing and somewhat masking who he is addressing. In fact, if you read the very last line, verse 13, you see that he says, "The children of thy elect sister greet you." He is essentially saying to that church, "Hey, this church that I'm with greets you as well."

He writes to the elect lady and her children, calling himself the elder. We will see the same greeting used in 3 John, where he says, "The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius" in 3 John, verse 1. In 2 John, he encourages this church to practice the truth and to protect the truth. In our day, this word of exhortation is just as essential for us within the body of Christ. We need to be those who are walking in the truth, and it is a glorious thing to walk in the truth.

In fact, in his third letter, if you look over in 3 John, verse 4, John says, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth." It brought John great joy to hear that the body of Christ, the children of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, were walking in the truth. It brings God great joy, and it also brings Him glory when we are walking in the truth, just as it did 2,000 years ago.

It does still today, and yet there are many who call themselves Christians and sit in churches, but they do not walk in the truth. They do not practice the truth. We are told that on the day of Christ Jesus, when we stand before Him and He separates the sheep from the goats, there will be many who will say, "Lord, Lord, we prophesied in Your name, we cast out demons in Your name, and we did wonderful works in Your name." He will say, "Depart from Me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness." They did not practice the truth. Although they had an appearance of godliness, they denied the power thereof.

There are people even today, and probably many within the body of Christ, because Jesus says in Matthew 7 that many will say to Him in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not done these things?" So, there are very possibly many within the body of Christ who would be tares among the wheat. Jesus' kingdom parables spoke a lot about this kind of separation, this difference between the wheat and the tares, between the faithful and wise servant and the wicked and perverse servant. You see this quite a bit in Jesus' teaching, and you see very early on in the early church that there were beginning divisions.

There is always that division between hot and cold, and many times within the body of Christ, there are those who are just lukewarm. They have an appearance of godliness but deny the power of God, as we will see in one of John's later works in the book of Revelation. He is writing to this church that they would stand strong in and practice the truth, and that they would also protect the truth.

As we've been discussing on Wednesday nights, we have been going through 1 Timothy. Chapter 1 talks a lot about those who seek to come into the church and bring in these damnable heresies that Peter speaks of—these false teachers who lead people astray. The whole point of preaching right doctrine and sound doctrine is that men and women within the body of Christ would grow and become mature. Paul said that was the whole point of why he did what God had given him to do, as stated in Colossians 1:28-29.

Now, Paul to Timothy also says that the whole point of our preaching, in verse 5 of 1 Timothy 1, is love from a pure heart, out of a good conscience, and from sincere faith. Yet there are some who have swerved, as he says in verse 6. They have turned away from this right teaching, this sound doctrine, unto vain jangling.

The King James Version says, and the NASB says, "unto fruitless discussion." There is a lot of fruitless discussion going on within the church, and there are always these false teachers. We need to be on guard and know how to discern truth from error. The best way to discern truth from error is to know the truth.

There are so many errors out there that you could spend an eternity trying to figure out all the different ins and outs of them. You could become an expert on the Latter-day Saints, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Kabbalah, Confucianism, Buddhism, or Hinduism. You could go down a list of all these different false doctrines and teachings, trying to become an expert in every single one. However, I would encourage you, and I believe the Word of God would encourage you, to become an expert in God's truth rather than in all these other things. You will be able to discern truth from error when you know the truth.

Moreover, knowing the truth, as Jesus tells us in John 8, sets us free. It is so important to be set free by His truth instead of being bound up by all these false teachings. John, just as Peter had done, just as Paul had done, and just as we will see Jude had done, encourages the church to stay away from false teachers. He speaks in very strong terms in this chapter. In fact, he even says that you should not spend time with them, not invite them into your house, and just depart from them. Paul said the same things as well.

John writes, "The elder unto the elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth; not I only, but also they that have known the truth for the truth's sake, which dwells in us and shall be with us forever." He continues, "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."

I don't know if you noticed the repetition of some words here as we go through even just the first three verses, but love and truth are coming up quite a bit. Love and truth are very important in the life of the believer and the follower of God. There needs to be a balance of love and truth in my life and in your life as well. I believe it was John MacArthur who said that "truth without love leads to brutality," and "love without truth leads to heresy." We see that.

Within the body of Christ, there were times throughout church history when the church was sola scriptura. They were focused very much on the Word of God and truth, but they departed from love. Yet, the end of the commandment, the end of the teaching, as Timothy is told by Paul in 1 Timothy, is love. The teaching of the truth is to produce in you and me a love for God and a love for others.

When we depart from the agape love of God and also brotherly love, which we read of in the Scriptures, phileo, we need to ensure that these are a part of our lives. Peter said in one of his letters that we are to add to our faith brotherly love and also agape. However, when the church stands solely upon the truth of God, which is important, but neglects the love of God, it often leads to great brutality.

If you study through church history, you can see that many brutal things have been done in the name of Jesus that were absolutely wrong. There were actions taken under the guise of Scripture that were completely off base and not at all what the Lord had called them to do. There is a danger in our own lives where we can become so legalistic that we depart from the love of God and become brutal towards people. We lay upon them heavy burdens that no man can carry, not even ourselves, and so it becomes dangerous.

Truth without love leads to brutality, but love without truth is also problematic. If you look at the last 50 years of Christianity in the West, you will see that the church has decided to set aside the truth of God for the sake of being loving. Our idea of love is so far from God's definition of love in the Scriptures. We think that love involves complete tolerance of everything.

You can see this even in the denomination that was founded upon sola scriptura, the Lutheran Church, and Martin Luther's Reformation. Within the denominational structure of the Lutheran Church today, they have turned away from the truth to gravitate towards what they think love is—being loving and accepting. I believe that Paul would write a letter, just as he did to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians, to many of the denominations in our nation today. He would say that the way they are living, trying to be accepting of everything, is carnal.

They think they are being loving and tolerant, and that it is a good thing, yet it is carnal, as Paul would say to the church at Corinth. I think he would write the same thing to some of these large denominations today. Therefore, we need to ensure that we have a balance of love and truth in our lives. When Jesus came...

We read in John chapter 1, verse 14, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Grace is something that stems from love, and so we see that Jesus, when He came, is God incarnate—the complete nature of God here in the flesh. He was full of grace and truth.

We need to make sure that when we are seeking to live out our lives as believers and walking in this world, we are also full of grace and truth. The only way that can happen is if we are abiding in Him and His Word is abiding in us. You can very quickly discern if a person is abiding or not by whether or not there is fruit in their lives. The fruit of the Spirit is, first and foremost, love.

If you come in contact with someone who is completely brutal and lays upon everybody they meet a legalistic yoke that nobody can bear, you might want to encourage them to get into the Word of God and allow the Word of God to get into them. It is so important to have God's Word dwelling in us richly, and from that comes love and truth.

However, we also need to rightly divide the Word of truth, as Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. A lot of times, people do not take the time to study God's Word because it is difficult. It takes time to study; it doesn't just happen by osmosis. Some people think that if they set their Bible on the nightstand next to them, while they sleep, it will somehow beam into their head and heart. So, that's where the Bible stays—just on the nightstand.

Sometimes we figure that if we read this book or that book, maybe "The Purpose Driven Life" or "Becoming a Better You," it will build us up in Christ. While these books may provide tidbits of information, there is no substitute for rightly dividing the Word of truth.

I read a quote years ago from Billy Graham, and I'm paraphrasing, but basically, he said that if he had it all to do over again, he would spend more time just reading the Bible. No doubt, I'm certain that Billy Graham read a lot of books over his 60 years of ministry, and he probably continues to do so. Pastor Chuck Smith also valued the Word. I had a friend a number of years ago who helped Pastor Chuck move his library, and he said it took a number of hours.

Of guys all day long moving boxes and boxes and boxes of books. One of the guys asked Chuck, "Have you read every one of these books?" He said, "Well, the good ones." I'm sure he read a lot of those books.

One of the other things that I love about Pastor Chuck is that someone had asked him—a friend of mine who was a part of the School of Ministry up at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa—how many times he had read through the Bible. He said he stopped counting a number of years ago at a hundred. He just continues to read through the Scriptures, and it shows because he is a man full of grace and truth, full of love and truth. That's why so many people gravitate towards guys like Billy Graham and Chuck Smith; they are full of love and truth.

It’s important to have this balance. John talks about it here: "Grace be with you, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." I like how he says, "Grace be with you," because we need the grace of God to be with us. We know we've received God's grace if we have received Christ Jesus as Lord. We have done so by His grace, for it is by grace through faith.

However, sometimes we can be those who have received Christ Jesus as grace but do not have His grace with us to give to others. That is such an important aspect of our lives as believers. So, grace be with you, along with mercy and peace. Just as Paul said in each of his thirteen letters, and just as we saw in 1st and 2nd Peter, we see it again here in John's second letter: grace, mercy, and peace from God. These things come from God only, and that is the only place they will be found.

In verse 4, John writes, "I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in the truth." Just as we will see in 3rd John verse 4, we see this great rejoicing in finding believers walking in the truth. I can tell you it is a great encouragement and blessing. Over the last several years, I have had the opportunity to travel around the world, and it doesn't matter what country you're in or what language those people speak; it is such a blessing when you come in contact with believers who walk in the truth.

You find that you have brothers and sisters all over the world. Sometimes, as you're traveling and maybe you're alone—I know that I've been alone a number of times as I've traveled around the world—you just kind of feel like, "Man, where am I?" Just this last year, when I traveled to the Philippines, I got on a plane in Los Angeles.

I flew to Hong Kong, and after sitting there for a while, I got on a plane to Cebu in the Philippines. Immediately upon getting off the plane, some guys from the church, Calvary Chapel Cebu, picked me up. There was immediate fellowship. I didn't know who these guys were; I had heard their names before, but there was an instant sense of Koinonia. They drove me to a bus station and put me on a bus for five and a half hours, bouncing along through the Philippines.

I was sitting next to a guy I had no idea who he was, and we started talking. He asked what I was doing there, and I replied that I was going to teach at the Calvary Chapel in Dumaguete. He said, "I'm from Dumaguete." I was surprised and said, "Really?" He continued, "Yeah, and I know Calvary Chapel as well. I'm a believer." Instantly, I didn't know who the guy was, and I would probably never meet him again until we get to heaven. However, it was great to sit there and fellowship with someone, experiencing that great rejoicing when you come in contact with someone who walks in the truth and knows the truth, and the truth has set them free.

John says, "I have rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in the truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father." The Lord has commanded us to walk in His truth, and it is a place of great rejoicing when we are doing what He has commanded us to do.

Now, I beseech you, lady, speaking, I believe again to the church. I beseech you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto you, but that which we had from the beginning: that you love one another. This is love, that we walk in His commandments. Keeping His commandments reveals our love for God.

We often talk about the fact that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yet, because of our misunderstanding of what love truly is, the enemy and our fleshly tendencies have done a good job of defiling the definition of love. When we say we love God, people often wonder, "What exactly does that mean? How do I love God? Do I buy Him flowers? Do I buy Him chocolates? What do I do to show that I love God?"

Well, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John, and John tells us here in 2nd John, that one of the ways—and the best way, supremely, I believe—that we show that we love God is by our obedience to Him, by following Him, and doing the things that He has said we ought to do. This obedience reveals that we love Him. Sometimes, we think of love in the context of doing happy, good things, making someone feel good, writing a nice card, or sending flowers. However, in reality, the best thing that we can do is to obey Him.

To show that we love God is to keep His commandments. This is the commandment He says: "I'm not writing to you anything new, but just the same thing that was from the beginning, that we love one another." This is love—that we walk after His commandments. This is how we show forth our love for God: by loving one another with this agape love. That's the word used in the original language—agape. It is a self-sacrificing love that loves without the intent of getting anything back.

In this world, people love so they can get something. Typically, worldly love is transactional; a guy will say to a girl, "I love you," just so he can get something from her. That's often the way man's love operates. Yet, the love of God is shown in a very self-sacrificing way that does not seek anything in return. We are to love one another and love God in this manner. This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. This is what we are to do. His exhortation to the church is to practice the truth and keep the commandments.

Not only are we to keep the commandments and practice the truth, but starting in verse 7, we see this exhortation to protect the truth and keep guard against counterfeits. Verse 7 states, "For many deceivers are entered into the world." I think one of the unfortunate facts for the church is that they have forgotten this truth: there are many deceivers in the world. We were told by Jesus to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. Yet, the church has sometimes done a good job of being gentle as doves but not very discerning and wise as serpents.

We need to be on guard and ensure that we know what the truth of God is. When someone comes in and begins to teach or say anything that is in error, we should be able to say, "No, I don't see that anywhere in the Scripture," or even just question them, "Where's that in the Bible?" A lot of times, the response is vague, like, "Well, it's in a verse." We should then ask, "Where in a verse? Show me where it is." Yet, many times, people cannot provide a clear answer.

We need to recognize that there are many deceivers. Jesus promised that this would happen in the last days. If you read through the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapters 24 and 25, He said that there would be many deceivers, many false Christs, and false prophets that would come, and unfortunately, they will deceive many. As a result, we need to be on guard; many deceivers have entered into the world, and this is one of the false teachings.

They were giving right here who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is the Gnostic heresy. The exact teaching is something called Docetism, which has to do with this dualistic nature, suggesting that Jesus was not fully man. This whole Gnostic Docetism, or dualistic heresy, that came into the church was being preached and taught very early on. John is seeking to guard against that, so he says to them to recognize that there are deceivers. One of the deceptions they are bringing is the claim that Jesus has not come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

These are some harsh words. Could you imagine a preacher with authority today calling out another preacher and saying that person is an antichrist? Maybe not the antichrist, but an antichrist, because they are against the teaching of God. They are against the teaching that Jesus brought. John had no problem saying that these people who teach these things are of the spirit of antichrist and are against God. Sadly, there are probably many people in hell at this moment who will find themselves there because they have latched onto false doctrine, onto heresy, and have believed it as gospel truth.

You can see that false teaching is dangerous. A lot of times, false teachers use the Word of God. Remember that Satan used the Word of God when he came against Jesus during the temptation. When Jesus fasted for 40 days, as recorded in Matthew chapter 4, Satan used the Word of God. I can guarantee you tonight that Satan knows the Bible better than you do and better than I do. He seeks to deceive us with people who use the Word of God.

So many deceivers have come into the world. They confess that Jesus has not come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Be on guard, as he says in verse 8. Don't just walk casually or meander through this life. Paul told the church at Ephesus to walk circumspectly.

Understanding the times is crucial because the days are evil. To walk circumspectly is to walk like a soldier in the Roman army. One of the reasons that the Romans did so well in conquering the known world in their time was that they really studied the art of warfare. They overtook the Greek Empire because of their mastery of military strategy. If you study some of the wars between the Romans and their adversaries during that era, you will find that they were very knowledgeable about how to craft the armor they used. They were the ones who really designed the helmet in such a way that they could hear on the battlefield, allowing them to listen to what was going on from the rear as the generals gave commands with trumpets or other signals.

The Romans studied war so that they could walk circumspectly and know how to fight in the right way. We, within the body of Christ, need to walk circumspectly as well. To be circumspect means to have your eyes wide open and your ears attentive, listening to the Lord as He directs you. However, you must also be aware of what is going on in the world. To be honest, it concerns me that I find so many believers who do not have a clue about what is happening in the world.

As many of you know, I teach at the Bible college. Just last week, while teaching through Isaiah, I asked the students in my class if they had heard about a recent event in the news. It was big news, not something buried on the back page of an obscure newspaper in Iowa. It was on the front page of every newspaper in the Western world. Yet, everyone looked at me as if they were unaware. I wondered what they were reading—were they just looking at the comic page? We need to be aware of what is happening in the world because the days are evil, and we should walk circumspectly.

There are deceivers out there seeking to mislead, and Jesus said they will deceive many. I pray that we would never fall under that deception. Yet, there are many within the body of Christ who have. We must look to ourselves so that we do not lose the things we have wrought, but instead receive a full reward. Every single one of us wants to hear our Lord on that day say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." We want to receive that full reward from the Lord. Therefore, may we not be deceived. We need to be more diligent to make our call and election sure and steadfast in Christ. Whosoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ must be cautious.

Has not God said that he who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son? The two heresies that John deals with here are significant. The first one has to do with the person of Christ, and the second one, found in verse 9, relates to the doctrine of Christ. Two thousand years later, we are still grappling with these two heresies within the body of Christ.

There are people today who are diminishing the person of Christ. In our day, the opposite of what was prevalent in John's time is occurring; now they claim that Jesus is not divine. In John's day, the heresy was that He had no humanity. This issue extends beyond the person of Christ to the doctrine of Christ. Whosoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. If a person departs from and turns away from the clear teaching of the Word of God, they do not have the Lord Jesus Christ in their life. As a result, they also do not have God in their life because Jesus is God. Therefore, a person who departs from the clear teaching of what the Bible has to say does not have God.

The inverse is also true: he who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. What is the implication of this? We ought to abide in the doctrine of Christ, stay strong, and remain plugged into Him. If anyone comes to you bringing not this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, neither bid him Godspeed.

If someone comes to your door with a little magazine they want to give you, and you know they are from the Jehovah's Witness Church, or if they come to you with another book entirely from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, John advises us not to receive them into our house. They may view this as rude, and you might even think that it is rude. However, this is the counsel of the Apostle John from our Lord Jesus Christ: do not bring them into your house.

You may choose to stand at your door and talk with them a little bit, seeking to share the Word of God. However, I have talked with many Mormons over the years, and the fact is that I have never seen one of them come to the truth through my conversations with them. I have never seen any of them turn to the Lord as a result of our discussions. I don't believe this is due to a lack of knowledge on my part; rather, it is because they are deceived, and I do not want to bring their deception into my house.

He says, "Don't receive them into your house and don't bid them Godspeed." We have a tendency, just because of our culture, to say, "Well, God bless you." However, God can't bless them in their deception; He can't.

The last time Josh and I bumped into a couple of Mormon guys was when we were coming out of a lunch meeting with the staff. These guys came up behind us and scared us. It’s a good thing that I didn't have a weapon or something; I don't know. They kind of startled us, and we talked with them for, I don't know, at least an hour and a half.

I remember one of the last things we said to them was that if they don't turn to the Lord, they have no chance of heaven. If they don't repent, they have no chance. We didn't say, "Oh, well, thanks for talking to us. God bless you." No, we let them know before they left that they have no chance unless they turn to Him.

One of the things I often share with people, whether I've talked with a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon, is to bring them to Hebrews chapter 10. Near the end of Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25 says, "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries."

Just about every Mormon or Jehovah's Witness I talk with these days, I always leave them with this. I share with them those two verses, 26 and 27 of Hebrews chapter 10, and I tell them, "Listen, I have given you today the knowledge of the truth. There's no good work that you can do to obtain salvation. There are not enough doors to knock on. There is no sacrifice for sin beyond the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If you don't receive Him, the only thing you have to look forward to is a certain and fearful expectation of judgment."

That's the only thing you have to look forward to from this day forward. If anything, I hope I scare them to death. I really do. I hope that in telling them this, it scares them. I don't care if they go away feeling like, "Man, that guy was kind of harsh." I want them to be a little bit fearful; I want them to be scared for the future. The only thing they have to look forward to is a certain and fearful expectation of coming judgment. That's the only thing, unless they repent and turn to the only sacrifice for their sins, which is Jesus Christ. That's all they have, and it should be.

Something that scares them, and as I've said a number of times, I didn't make it up. I don't remember where I heard it first, but I want to be a speed bump on people's way to hell to at least slow them up a little bit as they go. There are many deceivers that have come; they have departed from the pure doctrine of Christ. They have diminished the deity of Christ or the humanity of Christ, either or. As a result, the only thing they have to look forward to is not God's blessing but a certain fearful expectation of judgment.

In verse 10, I'm sorry, verse 11, it says, "For he that bids him God's speed is a partaker of his evil deeds." Now, that's pretty heavy, and that's something that we should consider. I know that sometimes we just kind of skim over verses like that, but we need to consider that if we wish that person God's speed, John's word here is that we become a partaker of their evil deeds.

What we should, in reality, do is what God told Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 3. We need to let that person know that all they have to look forward to is a certain fearful expectation of coming judgment, as Hebrews chapter 10 says. We need to not be a part of their sinful life. We need to seek to turn them, as the watchman on the wall, from their deception and from their departure from the truth of the Lord. Therefore, do not become a partaker of their evil deeds.

Having many things to write to you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come unto you and to speak face to face, that our joy may be full. Again, I believe that this letter was written to a group of people that were going through the midst of persecution. It was a short letter, just a very quick exhortation that they guard the truth of God, keep the commandments of God, and stay away from these false teachers.

Then John says, "Listen, I have a whole bunch that I'd like to write unto you, but you know it's a quick letter to this church in the midst of persecution." He says, "But I want to come and meet with you face to face." Why? That our joy might be full.

Now, in 1 John 1, we see that exact phrase used. In 1 John 1, verse 4, he said, "These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full." He said, "I'm writing this exhortation to you that your joy may be full." This is the message which we have heard of Him, verse 5, and declare unto you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. So, he said, "I write these things that your joy may be full," and now he says to this church.

In 2 John, verse 12, he says, "I want to come to you face to face that our joy may be full." It is in the fellowship of the body of Christ that joy is full. Why? Well, as we began our service tonight, we were praying, "Lord, thank you for your promise that wherever two or more are gathered in your name, there you are in their midst." God is in the midst of the congregation as they fellowship together.

As we see in Psalm 16:11, "In your presence is fullness of joy." What a blessing it is to be able to come together, to gather together, and to fellowship with one another. We experience the fullness of joy, and we are certainly looking forward to the day when we experience the abundance of the fullness of joy in His presence, with all the body of Christ, unhindered by space and time, right there with Him.

I just want to come to you to speak face to face that our joy may be full. The children of the elect sister greet you. Amen.

The exhortation of this book, again, is that we need to be those who, whether we were living 2,000 years ago in the first century or we are living here in 2009, practice the truth. We must keep the commandments of God. We also need to be those who protect the truth and guard against the counterfeits, because there are always counterfeits. There are many deceivers.

We also need to have a balance of love and truth in our lives, because truth without love leads to brutality, and love without truth leads to heresy. We do not want to be partakers of brutality or heresy. Amen.

Let's stand and pray together. Father, I thank you for this letter. Although short, it is potent and powerful. Lord, John, 2,000 years ago, wanted the church to be strong, to be thoroughly equipped for every good work, and to be able to stand upon the truth and declare it boldly. Lord, it is my desire that we, living here in Southern California in 2009, would also be strong in your truth. Lord, help us to...

Sanctify us in our hearts, Lord, that we would always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us, with weakness and fear. I pray that You would challenge us and stir us by Your Spirit to be those who study to show ourselves approved. We do not want to be ashamed, whether here when we interact with non-believers or on the day when we stand before You. We desire not to be ashamed because we have rightly divided Your word of truth.

Lord, I ask that You would plant Your truth deep in our hearts. As it is watered by Your Spirit, may it grow and produce fruit in our lives. I pray that my life would be fruitful for You in everything that I say and do. I also pray this for my brothers and sisters here, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

And all God's people said, "Amen." Thank you.