[MUSIC PLAYING] "The Bible from 30,000 Feet,"
soaring through the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Would you please turn in your
Bibles to the book of 2 John? Before us tonight, we
have 2 John, 3 John, and Jude, three of these
short, little books. Because they are
short, even though this is an overview from
30,000 feet, it allows us to practically cover
every verse-- not all of them, but we'll be able to
probably read most of them. This morning, I grabbed
off my bookshelf a book that I've had for years,
because it was recommended by Samuel Rutherford. Now, I'm not expecting
you to know who he is. He was a pastor from
the 1600s in Scotland. And he was basically arrested
and kicked out of his ministry because he was outspoken. And the church at that time was
already run by the government, as it is even to this
day in that country. And he, little Samuel
Rutherford-- and I say little. He was a short, wee
little man, as they say in Scotland, but very
bold, and a godly preacher. He preached at a little village
called Anwoth in Scotland-- most people don't even
know where that is-- and then also Edinburgh. Most people know where that is. But he was kicked
out of ministry by the church government,
the government-run church. And he was placed up in
Aberdeen, way up north, because he spoke out against
the archbishop's weak doctrine and teaching. Now, I say most
people don't know who he is or know much
about his preaching, but the one book that
survives by him that is worth getting if you have a few
extra dollars and you find it, especially at a used
bookstore, are the Letters of Samuel Rutherford. It's just correspondence. It's hundreds of letters
that he wrote to individuals. And they're priceless, because
you get an insight into what people were going with and how
this man, though he couldn't do public ministry in preaching,
how he cared and was able to extend his ministry through
the writing of letters. And I pulled it
off my bookshelf. I have a paperback version
I bought years ago. And it just reminds me-- when I read that
little book of letters, it reminds me of these three
letters that are before us-- 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. Little letters that
pack a huge punch. 2 John and 3 John are
two of the five books written by the Apostle John. And they're so small that
people even wondered, why are they even in the Bible? It's so tiny. It's almost a worthless
thing to put it in the Bible, until you read it and you
find out that big things come in small packages. In antiquity, in ancient
times, most Greco-Roman correspondence, letters,
were from an individual to an individual, person to
person, and were very short. And so 2 John and 3
John fit that profile. 2 John is written to the
Elect Lady and her family. I'll explain that in a minute. The 3 John is written
to an individual by the name of Gaius. And so ancient letters were
short, about 300 words. 2 John has 301 words in English,
245 in the Greek language, so it's a very short letter,
and it's individualized. All written by the Apostle John. We covered a longer
book of his last week. 1 John, and now we look at 2 and
3 John, which I have to admit are among the most neglected
books in the New Testament. Not many people spend
much time in 2 or 3 John, but they should. Because once again, like 1
John, John the Apostle is older. In fact, he introduces
himself as The Elder. And that meant not
only was he super intending a number
of congregations, but he was older in age. We believe he died
around age 94. In AD 100, he was
in his mid-90s. But he's older now,
and he has wisdom. And he has a real focus on
certain important truths, and he has, by now, learned to
say a lot in just a few words. So what is 2 John all about? It's about truth. That's the theme
of 2 John-- truth. Truth is mentioned
five times repeated, the word repeated five
times, in 13 verses. Not just truth, but
to be more specific, the theme of 2 John
is loving the truth-- loving the truth. Now, keep in mind, like
we mentioned last week, there was a group
that had infiltrated local congregations,
and they had a doctrine called Gnosticism. I explained Gnosticism a
little more in depth last time, so I won't get into it except
for one particular part of this epistle. But because Gnosticism was
infiltrating the church, the only thing that
made Gnosticism worse was the openness that believers
had toward Gnosticism. That's what made it spread. It's one thing to
have false doctrine. It's another thing
when you have people who don't have much
discernment and they welcome anything and everything. And it spread. So if you are hospitable to
the wrong kind of people, it can actually be your undoing
and the church's undoing. You are aiding and
abetting false teaching. Because of that, John,
in just a few words-- 13 verses-- talks about that. So it's about loving the truth. True love requires
loving the truth. That sums up 2 John. True love requires
loving the truth. If you're going to
really show love, your love has to be
balanced by truth. Truth and love are
not to be separated. They are always to go together. If your love has no boundaries-- that is, you just sort
of indiscriminately are open to anything
and everything and you just say everybody's
entitled to their opinion, and I'm going to accept
their opinion as their truth and another person's
opinion as their truth and not challenge it
or dialogue about it-- then you have no
boundaries on your love. And according to John,
it's not a good thing. It's actually a hurtful thing. So it begins verse 1 of
2 John, "The Elder--" again, John is probably
around 90 or in his 90s when he writes this, so
he is an older gentleman. "The Elder to the Elect
Lady and her children, whom I love in truth. And not only I, but also all
those who have known the truth. Because of the truth-- which abides in us and
will be with us forever-- grace, mercy, and peace will
be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoice greatly
that I have found some of your children walking
in truth as we have received commandment from the Father." So notice, in four versus,
five times truth is mentioned. It is underscored. You need to love truth. True love requires
love for the truth. I've often felt that Christian
love is greatly misunderstood. Sometimes the
world will use what they know to be a commandment
of Jesus against us. If the world catches
us not treating people like they think we should
treat them, they'll say, that's what's wrong
with you Christians. You don't really love people. You need to show them love. I thought you followed the
Savior, who taught us to love. Now, what they mean
by that in the attack is that you ought to tolerate
everybody and anybody's belief system, and what
you believe is not as important as you tolerating
everybody else instead of talking through it or
speaking out against it. If you dare speak out against
a lifestyle or a belief system or a notion, they want
to turn it on you and say, that's unloving. Actually, it is really love. The most loving thing you can
do is tell somebody the truth. And John always did, if you know
his writings, especially in 1 John. But he mentions, as we
said, truth five times in this section. I wonder if that notion of
how Christians should just tolerate everything-- let's just
suppose that Elijah the prophet believed that notion. Would he confront
the Prophets of Baal? Wouldn't he just say,
well, you prophets have your own religion and your
own style and your own way. Have at it. No, he challenged
them to a duel, right? Battle of the gods out
there on Mount Carmel. Or the king of the
time, King Ahab. Elijah would not have
confronted that King nor the Prophets of Baal. Paul the Apostle, if he
believed that notion, certainly would not have
shut down the Judaizers for their legalism. He would have said, ah, you
know, let the best man win. And then think of Jesus. Jesus had some
pretty hefty things to say to people who
did not speak the truth. He was confrontational, like
when Herod Antipas wanted to see him, Jesus sort
of blew him off and said, go tell that fox that I'm busy. To the religious
leaders, Jesus called them open sepulchers, tombs. Hefty, hefty things
in Matthew chapter 23. "So I rejoice
greatly that I have found some of your
children walking in truth, as we have received the
commandment from the Father." Who the elect lady
is, we are not sure. Evidently, it was some
woman who probably used her home for the church
to meet in at that time. And some of her kids,
her actual children, were believers and strong in
their leadership capabilities. Some believe it's a
metaphor, the elect lady, for the church in
general and the children being church members. I see it as a literal lady and
literal children who were also part of the church congregation
there, wherever it was written, or to whomever, whatever
place it was written to. And now, verse five, "I
plead with you, lady--" that sounds sort of like a
crass way to talk to her, but it was a term of respect. Hey, lady! "Not as though I wrote a
new commandment to you, but that which we have had
from the beginning that we love one another." Now, you know that's famous
in John's vernacular. He told people love one another. But we've also seen with
John, in 1 John and now 2 John and, by the way, also in 3
John, that true love is not indiscriminate. There is discernment
mixed with it. So he says, verse
6, "This is love, that we walk according
to His commandments. This is the
commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning,
you should walk in." So one of the most
loving things you can do is to tell somebody the truth. It's uncomfortable
to speak truth. And you are inclined to hold
back telling people the truth. Why do you do that? Why are we inclined to
not tell people the truth? Because we want them to like us. And humans have this
incredibly nauseating penchant that says we've got to try
to get everybody to like us. Oh, my goodness, you'll
be a miserable human being if you live that way. Think of a doctor looking
into the eyes of a patient after reading this scans
and the blood reports, knowing the patient
has a week to live. And imagine the doctor looking
into the eyes of the patient and saying, you're going
to be dead in a week. Now, somebody hearing
that might say, doctor, that's a mean thing
to tell somebody. You're not showing
much love to tell somebody they're going to die. Well, it is the truth. And if I love that
person, I want to get that person as
prepared as possible in this, the last week
of his or her existence. Needs to be said. The family needs to know. If I say, ah, go home, man. As your doctor, I just want
to say, live long and prosper. Take two aspirin. Smile and do your best. That's not really
loving them if I refuse to tell them the truth. OK, so, if I'm dealing with a
human being who if they refuse Christ will spend
eternity in hell and I don't tell them
how to get to heaven, am I really loving them
by tolerating them? Not really. So truth always
balances out love. You are diminishing love if
you are diminishing truth. And John shows us that truth
and love can go together. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
13, the great love chapter, that love does not
rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. And so John is doing that. Verse 8, "Look to
yourselves that we do not lose those things
that we worked for but that we may
receive a full reward." This verse seems to
indicate that you can diminish your
reward in heaven-- not that you won't go to heaven. You will go to heaven. You're saved by grace
through faith alone, period. But that it is possible to
diminish your reward eternally by refusing to stand up for
the truth because of what that would cost people. So he mentions that. We want to receive
a full reward. "Whoever transgresses
and does not abide in the doctrine of
Christ does not have God. He who abides in the
doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to
you--" now, keep in mind, one of the problems
was in openness, showing hospitality, bringing
people in to their house churches, letting people
share their belief system, including the Gnostics,
and that stuff spread. So, "if anyone comes to you and
does not bring this doctrine, do not receive Him into
your house nor greet him." That doesn't mean you can't
bring people into your house and give them a cup of
coffee and a couple cookies if they're unbelievers or they
have disagreements with you. The idea was
because churches met in homes, when you invite
people into your house church and you show the same openness
to them to share whatever they want to share as you would
have a brother or a sister, you're diminishing truth. It says, "Nor greet
him, for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds." Last week, we covered
Gnosticism a little bit. We told you the difference
between Cerinthian Gnosticism and Docetic Gnosticism. I don't need to rehash that. You got that covered. That's under your belt now. But let me explain to you the
world view of the Gnostics. And to do that, I'm going to put
up a slide so I can show you. The Gnostics divided
the entire world into three groups,
three classifications. Number one, there
were the Sarkikos, and Sarkikos is
a Greek word that comes from the Greek
root word "sarks," which means the flesh or the body. Now, the Sarkikos was the
group that represented heathens, unbelievers. They were people who just lived
for the body appetites, just lived for the flesh. So unredeemed humanity,
they were Sarkikos. They were the irredeemables. Don't spend time on them. Second group was
the Pneumatikos, and that comes from the Greek
word "pneuma," the root word "pneuma," which means spirit. And the Pneumatikos
were the spiritual ones, the truly spiritual ones. As opposed to the Sarkikos,
who lived for the flesh, the Pneumatikos were the
true spiritual people-- in other words, them. They were the true
spiritual ones. They were the only true
spiritual ones of the Gnostics, because they had this
superior knowledge. They had gone through the
rituals and the rights and attained this level
that nobody else attained, and they were worth redeeming. But there was a third
group called the Psukikos, from the Greek word
"psuke," or mind, and they were somewhere
in between the Sarkikos and Pneumatikos. In fact, they weren't much
better than the Sarkikos, but they had potential to
start at the level of the mind, the "psuke," and get
raised to the highest possible level, the level of
Pneumatikos, or Gnosticism. So when they looked at
Christian congregations, they put all of the Christians
in that third group, the group of the Psukikos. All Christian congregations
had the potential. Oh, they were weird
and they were wrong. They don't have the
true knowledge we have, the Gnostics have. But since these
Christians are allowing you to come into their houses
and into their congregations, let's infiltrate them and take
advantage of their hospitality, and we'll get a footing. And perhaps we can raise them
up to the true spiritual level. That was happening, and
John saw that as a problem. And the openness and
hospitality being shown to the wrong mindset of
people would be their undoing. So that's why he says,
don't let them come in. Don't don't greet
them like that. It became such a problem
that around AD 100, a document was circulated
called the Didache. I've shared that with
you over the years. The Didache means
the teaching, and it refers to the
teaching of the 12, the teaching of the apostles. It was apostolic
teaching on how to deal with itinerant evangelists
and itinerant pastors, people who would travel and need
the hospitality of others, come into their homes and
speak their false doctrine. And so because it
was such a problem, where churches would
invite them in, this little book was
written, the Didache. I won't read-- it's
not a long book, but I won't read it to you. I have a paragraph or two. No, just really one paragraph. So it says this. Here's some of the quotes. "If an apostle--" whom in the
book they call a missioner. "If an apostle comes to
you, he should be welcomed." If a missionary comes
out and he comes in, I come in the name
of the Lord, then you invite him in and
let him stay with you. Show him hospitality. "He should be welcomed." But it says this, "but if he
stays more than three days, he's a false prophet." Kick him out. Because it means he's
really just using you-- not taking advantage
of your hospitality to move on to the next, but
trying to get as much out of it as he can. It says, "If anyone comes to
you and speaks in a trance and says, give me money
or anything else," like give me clothes, give
me food, give me money. If somebody goes,
Thus says the Lord, the Lord's giving
me a word right now. Oh, I got a message
from the Holy Spirit. The Lord says, give me money. There's these people that
are still around today. You're to kick him
out, false prophet. "Everyone who comes in
the name of the Lord is to be welcomed,
though later, you must test him and
find out about him. Let him find employment. Make sure that he does
not live in idleness simply on the strength
of being a Christian." Don't let him just lay around
in the name of the Lord. Unless he agrees to this, he is
only trying to exploit Christ. Now, over the years, I
have had the opportunity to protect God's sheep from
would-be wolves, and I like it. I don't always
like confrontation, but I like it when I can
spot a wolf-- or others who have discernment spot a wolf--
and we can nip it in the bud and protect God's sheep
from its spreading. When I lived in California,
before I moved out here to start this church, I
remember doing a little Bible study in a town called
Garden Grove, California. It was not far from where I
lived in Huntington Beach. I'd go there every week. Had a small group of
people that grew and grew into a sizable group in a home. And I remember, on
a few occasions, people would come and
say, thus says the Lord. He's giving me a word. You need to do this
for me and that for me. But on one particular
occasion, this guy came in. And I remember this one
gal who was in our Bible study, a pretty gal. She was married
to an unbeliever. Unbeliever didn't want to come,
but she came to Bible study every week, strengthened
her interfaith. And this single guy came
into our Bible study, and he would come for
a couple of weeks. And one night, he walked up
to her after the Bible study and says, you know, the
Lord gave me a word. He didn't know she was married. The Lord gave me a word
that you're to be my wife. Well, this really
shook her, right? Because she was
married and trying to win her husband to Christ. And he goes, no, I'm certain,
you're going to be my wife. And so she showed that she had
a ring and she was married. And he said, well,
it only proves that you married
the wrong person and the Lord would have
you leave your husband and marry me. So I'm overhearing
this conversation, because it's still over
on that side of the room, and I could hear
what he was saying. So I was on him like white on
rice and showed him the door and showed him the left foot
of fellowship really quickly. Showed him hospitality with
a swift spiritual kick. So John saying, whoever greets
him shares in his evil deeds. Let's close out the letter. It says, "Having many
things to write to you, I did not wish to do
so with paper and ink, but I hope to come
to you and speak face to face that our
joy may be full." You know, distance only works
for a little bit of time. There comes a time when you
need face to face fellowship. You can social distance
and you can watch online, and that'll work. OK, we flattened the curve. But after a while,
you can only do so much where you
need it to be able to, in an accountable
setting, love one another and fulfill New
Testament command. So he is looking forward to
putting the pen and ink down and seeing her and the children,
her children, face to face, that our joy may be full. "The children of your
elect sister greet you." Now, here's an
interesting footnote. According to tradition--
and it's only a tradition. We don't know for sure. But according to
Church tradition, the elect lady that he
writes to in verse 1 and 2 and her children is Martha,
the sister of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. If that tradition
is true, that means the sister of the
elect lady is Mary. Now, again, we don't know,
but that's tradition. So that would make
verse 13 apply to Mary. The children of your
elect sister greet you. Amen. Now, before we
move on to 3 John, we told you last week
that the Gnostics denied either the
deity of Christ or the humanity of Christ. The Cerinthian Gnostics
denied the deity of Christ. The Docetic Gnostics
didn't believe in the humanity of Christ. So John says, you know, if
you are denying that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus
is the Messiah, or that Jesus came in the flesh,
if you deny he's the Son of God or you deny his humanity,
that person is an Antichrist. Now, it's not like John is
getting old and cantankerous with each passing year. He remembers that's what
the Lord Jesus said. For Jesus, this is now in John,
the Gospel of John, chapter 5. It says, "Therefore, the
Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he
not only broke the Sabbath but said God was his father,
making himself equal with God." They understood that
Jesus was claiming deity. Now, Jesus, a few verses
down, in verse 23 of John 5, says that "all
should honor the son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor
the son does not honor the Father who sent him." So true love requires
love for the truth, and the truth is Jesus is
both God and man, deity and humanity. Undiminished deity,
unprotected humanity. Now we get to 3 John. And 3 John has 14 versus in it. 2 John had 13, so
it looks longer. But in the Greek
language, it is shorter. There were 245 Greek
words in 2 John. There's like 219, I believe,
is the Greek count in 3 John, which makes 3 John the
shortest letter in the New Testament, the shortest
book in scripture. It is also the most
personal of the books. 1 John was written to
a group of assemblies. 2 John was written to
a group, the elect lady and her children. 3 John has written to a
single person named Gaius. We'll read about him
as we get into it. It says, "The Elder--" again,
that's John, the older John. I didn't tell you this, but
when he says I'm an old man, I'm elder, I'm old, know this. John outlived both Paul
and Peter by three decades. So in terms of New Testament
longevity, he's an old dude. He's an old coot. He's almost 100 years old. So "The Elder to the beloved
Gaius, whom I love in truth." Now, Gaius is a name
you're familiar with, but you're probably familiar
with the wrong Gaius. Some of you are going, I've
never even heard that name, so I'm not familiar
at all anyway. So you could just go on
and not explain this. But I want to explain it. There was an of Paul the
Apostle mentioned in Corinthians and other places, an associate
of Paul, named Gaius. He was a native of Derby
in Turkey, Asia Minor. He was an associate with Paul,
served with Paul, ministered with Paul, lived in Corinth,
and he was one of the two people that Paul baptized. He said, I baptize
Crispus and Gaius. Oh, and then he goes and
the household of Stefanus. But besides that, I don't
think I baptized anybody else, for Christ didn't
send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. So he mentions Gaius. Now, that guy, or I
should say that Gaius, is probably different
than this Gaius. That's just a common
New Testament name, even though you read
the name and go, I'm not familiar with it. It was a common
name at the time. So we believe that
was a different one. This one was probably a
convert of the Apostle John, a completely different
one, though a common name. So he's writing to a
guy that John knew, who was an associate, probably
a convert, named Gaius. Like 2 John, 3 John also
focuses on truth six times. Five times was 2 John. Six times in this letter,
he uses the word truth. So between 2 and 3
John, John mentions it 11 times in just a few verses. So that it is on his heart,
speaking of the truth. So "The Elder--" that's John--
"to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I pray that you
may prosper in all things and be in health just
as your soul prospers." Now, before I get into that,
2 John is the flip side-- or 3 John is the
flip side of 2 John. So 2 John is about hospitality. Don't be ready to show a lavish
hospitality to the wrong kind of persons who want to take
advantage of the church and get their weird doctrine in. So if 2 John says be careful
how you show hospitality to the wrong person,
3 John is saying, show hospitality to
the right person. Be hospitable to
the righteous ones. If 2 John is about don't show
an openness to a false teacher, 3 John says, do show
hospitality to a faithful teacher, a faithful
person of God. And he is talking to
somebody who did that. Gaius showed an open heart
to the right kind of teacher. But there's also a person he
mentions in this letter who did not show love and
did not show hospitality to a faithful teacher, or
any faithful teacher of God. His name was Diotrephes. He's mentioned here. He says, "Diotrephes loved
to have the preeminence." He wanted the focus and
attention all on himself. So, once again, 2 John
is summed up by true love requires love for the truth. 3 John is summed up
by this little axiom-- love for the truth
requires loving truly-- that is, showing love,
demonstrating love in the right way
to the right group. OK, back to our text. He says in verse
2, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all
things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." Now, what you just
read in verse 2 is a common saying
in ancient letters. It's like me saying, I hope
this letter finds you well. I hope you're feeling good. Just like when you
say bye to somebody, you say stay safe or stay well. It's a wish. What I have noticed
over the years, since I began my
ministry, is a vein of Christianity known
as the health and wealth vein of Christianity that has
taken verse 2 so completely out of context that it's
not a Christian hope, but it's a guarantee
of perfect health. Faith teaches love
to quote this. And Kenneth Copeland, who was-- and still is-- one of the main
proponents of faith teaching theology, calls this
a universal promise of perfect health
for the believer. They get that out of
this hope you're well. I hope that you are physically
well, as well as spiritually well. It's a common greeting,
and he makes it a universal promise
for every Christian to walk in perfect health. Well, that's as dumb,
that's as ludicrous, as taking another
localized scripture and making it a guarantee,
like in 2 Timothy when he says, go to Troas and bring the
cloak that I gave to Carpas. Bring it with you when
you come and the parchment and the books. So if I were to say,
that's what you need to do. You need to go to Troas, and
you need to get that cloak, and you need to
bring it with you. You say, well, I don't
even know where Troas is. And by the way, if you
went to Troas today, nothing there except
like a little gift shop. The town's defunct. There is no Troas. You would say, Skip, you can't
apply that in the same way. It was a localized idea. Yes, that's what this is. I'm doing that because
I want to show you how these false teachers work. These false prophets
work this way. They twist scripture and make
a universal application out of something that is
to be highly localized and not applied to
every single person. So I pray, I hope,
my wish is that you may prosper in all things
and be in health, just as your soul prospers. And by the way, that's why
they will say, if you are sick, it shows that your
spiritual life is waning. Because your health will
prosper like your soul prospers. So if your faith is waning and
you don't have enough faith, that's why you're sick. It just proves that you're
an unspiritual person. You're a Sarkikos. It's like neo-Gnosticism. "For I rejoiced,"
verse 3, "greatly when brethren came and testified
of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than
to hear that my children--" that is, my spiritual
offspring, my children-- "walk in truth." Once again, the sentiment
that people love to believe-- because it's convenient, and
you're not on the spot if you believe this-- is to just tolerate everybody's
belief system as equal. And it doesn't matter
really what you believe, as long as you're sincere
about what you believe. And that seems to
be the only criteria of what is right and wrong. Are they sincere? If they are sincere,
then they must be right. That's their truth. If they're insincere, well,
then they're hypocritical, no matter what they believe. But again, truth, loving the
truth, is important to him. So it does matter
what you believe. Truth is important. What if a blind man was
asking you for directions and he happened to be standing
on the edge, like I will do? And he's asking,
which way should I go? Which direction should I go in? Now, you know that
if he goes straight, he's going to get hurt. He could even die. So what if you
were to say, well, it doesn't really
matter which way you go, as long as you're sincere. Would you consider that loving? No, I would consider that cruel. You'd say, don't go straight
ahead, whatever you do. Turn to the right or left or get
some guidance to go backwards, and have a seat till
we get you some help. So it does matter
what you believe, because people are
stepping into eternity. Don't you want to give
them the right directions? So loving the truth. I have great no greater joy than
to hear that my children walk in the truth. And that has been my passion. I've always loved this verse,
and I've made it sort of-- not my life verse
personally, but my life verse congregationally. I've always had the desire
that this be the best fed congregation ever
in the scriptures, in the truth of God,
and the most loved. And if there's any legacy
that I want to live is that the truth of
God, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation,
has been declared. So I can leave this world
like Paul the Apostle. I can step out of the
ministry and say, "I have not shunned to declare unto you
the whole counsel of God, because I have no greater
joy than to see or know that my children walk in truth. Beloved, you do
faithfully whatever you do for their brethren
and for strangers, who have borne witness of
your love before the church. If you send them forward on
their journey in a manner worthy of God, you do well,
because they went forth for His name's sake, taking
nothing from the gentiles. We, therefore, ought
to receive such, that we may become fellow
workers for the truth." So, once again, these itinerant
teachers and evangelists, some of them were good and
godly and spoke the truth. Not all of them did,
like the Gnostics. But they depended
on the hospitality from local believers, because
they're not renting hotels. They didn't have
hotels like we had. It was just something-- you'd
invite them into your house, let them stay with
you for a while, unless it's longer than
three days or they say, thus said the Lord,
give me money. But he's saying, Gaius,
you have done that. That has been your practice. You have treated with
hospitality others who love the truth and
preached the truth. But now he's going to flip
the coin a little bit. He's going to pivot,
and he's going to introduce us to somebody
who's the opposite of Gaius named Diotrephes. Verse 9, "I wrote to the
church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the
preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I
come, I will call to mind his deeds, which
he does prating against us with malicious words. And not content with
that, he himself does not receive the brethren and
forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church." Evidently, John had written
a letter, a letter about how to deal with itinerant
people like the Didache, but not that one. A letter about hospitality. Now, John is an apostle. He's like the last living
apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. You treat a guy like
that with respect. And they did. Gaius did. The church did. The elect lady did. But there was one guy who did
not and evidently rejected that letter of John by
the name of Diotrephes and wanted nothing
to do with John and didn't acknowledge John's
authority as an apostle. Because acknowledging John
took the limelight off himself, and he wanted people to
think he was awesome. He was the important
one, instead of letting John have the authority. He loved to have
the preeminence. And notice what he
says about him, "which he does, prating against us." The word "prating" in
Greek means to bubble up. A better translation-- jabbers. He jabbers. He flaps his gums. He's just-- yeah, right. He just keeps talking,
talking, talking, but there's no substance to it. Just speaking nonsense,
prating against us with malicious words. And he's not just
content with that. He himself does not receive the
brethren and forbids those who wish to-- that is, to wish to
be hospitable to the brothers and John-- putting them out of the church. He would actually excommunicate
people, kick people out for that. Somebody once said,
a man wrapped up in himself makes a
very small package. Diotrephes was all
about Diotrephes. That's it. That was the four
corners of his life. "Beloved, do not imitate what
is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but
he does evil has not seen God." Demetrius, verse 12,
has a good testimony. So he's mentioned as
a good guy doing that. Verse 13, "I had
many things to write, but I did not wish to write you
with pen and ink," once again. "But I hope to see
you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friend greet you. Greet the friends by name." So, once again,
2 John, true love requires love for the truth. 3 John, love for
the truth requires loving truly,
demonstrating your love, showing your love to those
who are true servants of God. Now we get to the last
little book for tonight. That is the book of Jude. Hey, Jude. Now, Jude, this is
a contentious book. In this book, you are
called to bear arms, spiritually speaking, to put
up a good fight for the faith, to contend for the faith. It is written by Jude. Who is Jude? Jude was the brother of James,
who wrote the Epistle of James, and the half-brother
of Jesus Christ. So he was a son of
Mary and Joseph. Jesus, of course,
was born of Mary, but conceived by
the Holy Spirit. Mary and Joseph had
children of their own, and Jude, also called Judas, or
praise Judah, was one of them. Here, he goes by the
shortened name of Jude. The brothers of Jesus,
the family of Jesus-- James, Judas, Jude
I mean, this Jude-- did not believe that
Jesus was the Messiah. John chapter 7 tells us. They sort of chided him and
told him to go to Jerusalem. And if he's really the
Messiah, show himself and make a show, a miracle. And it says, for his brothers
did not believe in Him. And they didn't believe
in Him until Jesus died and resurrected from the dead. After the Resurrection, Jesus
made a special appearance to his own half-brothers. The Bible tells us he
appeared to 500 at a time, then he appeared
to his brothers, then he appeared to
the other apostles. And so it was probably
at that appearance of Jesus after his
death and Resurrection that James and Jude
placed their faith in Him. If I were to give the
Book of Jude a name, I would call it the
acts of the apostates. You have the acts
of the Apostles. This is the acts
of the apostates. These are people that
Jude is writing against, in very direct terms. Not a whole lot of lovey-dovey
here like John, but just right to the point and
right to the heart. And it's a call to arms. It's a call to fight. It's not what Jude
started out to write. Jude, by his own
admission, began to write a devotional,
just a short, little devo on salvation. But he was compelled
to tell the church, you need to fight for
the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. It wasn't what I
wanted to write, but I felt compelled by the
spirit of God to write that. If you're students
of the New Testament, you already know this, that
Jude has a lot in common with 2 Peter. In fact, many of the
themes and examples are almost verbatim out
of 2 Peter, though done a little bit differently
and certainly done with more punch in
the Book of Jude. I just want to read something
else to you before we jump through it and read it all. It's short. Again, I know we have,
like, 9 and 1/2 minutes. But in Galatians,
just so you know that Jude wasn't
having a bad day and that's why he wrote
these strong words. I want you to listen
to Paul the Apostle. This is Galatians chapter 1. He says, "I marvel that you are
turning away so soon from him who called you in
the grace of Christ to a different gospel,
which is not another. But there are some who trouble
you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ." Paul was writing against
a different group-- legalists, Judaizers--
adding to the gospel, changing the meaning
of truth, still compromising and
perverting the truth. But there is a principle
that's the same. Listen to what he continues
to write in Galatians. "But even if we, or
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to
you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." That's pretty strong. "As we have said before
so now I say again, if anyone preaches any
other gospel to you than what you have received,
let him be accursed." Now, with that background,
we get into Jude verse 1. Jude is servant of Jesus
Christ and brother of James. "To those who are called,
sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus
Christ, mercy, peace, and love be multiple
idea, beloved. While I was very diligent
to write to you concerning our common salvation, I
found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend
earnestly for the faith, which was once for all
delivered to the saints, for certain men have crept in
unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this
condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our
God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ." Notice the term "the faith." I want you to contend
for "the faith." What does that mean? The faith is a saying,
a phrase that means the body of Christian truth. Paul writes to the
Corinthians and says, "Examine yourselves, whether
you are in the faith or not." Paul writes and says to Timothy
that in the latter times will come people
who deny the faith. So the faith is a
couple words that mean the body of Christian
truth, what you and I know as New Testament doctrine,
what was called in Acts 242 the Apostles' doctrine. That's the faith,
the true faith, the true teaching of Christ. And notice he says,
I wanted to write about our common
salvation, but I felt it necessary to tell
you to load your ammo, basically, put up a good
fight for the faith. Contend earnestly,
that's what it means, put up a good fight
for the faith. Contend earnestly for the faith. And now notice this-- which was once-- what? What does it say after that? Once what? Say it loud. Once for all. Once for all. What that means is by AD 100-- because it's written in
the 90 AD something-- 94, 95 AD. By the first century, the
body of Christian truth in its totality was deposited. There was no more truth
to be added to that. So if somebody says,
well, you know, the church has always been wrong
in the last several hundred years, and God has given
us a new revelation, a revelation for today. It's called the Book of Mormon
or the Pearl of Great Price or the teachings of Rutherford
or whatever cult it is. They're denying with
this verse says, because according to Jude,
the faith, the truth, was deposited once for all. I remember having
this conversation with a couple Mormon
missionaries up in my office. They would come
every Sunday morning, and they'd sit in the
front row with their ties. You know, they're
only, like, 19, but they call themselves elder. And they're in the
front row their ties and their Book of Mormon. And I approach them, and I said,
what are you guys doing here? Said, oh, we've
come, because we just hear it's a good
Bible teaching church. We want to hear the word. I said, great. Sit in the front row. You're welcome. Come. But don't talk to anybody
about what you believe. OK, why? I said, well, I want
to talk to you first. So I had them come in and
had several hours with them and just tried to
drill this verse down. You're telling me that this
is a new revelation that God gave called the Book of Mormon. And yet, how do you
square that with once for all delivered to the saints. I had them exegete this
and come to the realization that I can't believe
what I believe if I believe that verse. Anyway, that was quite
an interesting meeting. So going on, he
gives three examples of those who turned from the
truth in the Old Testament. One, the nation of
Israel, verse 5. "I want to remind you that
though you once knew this, that the Lord, having
saved the people--" that is the people
of Israel-- "out of the land of Egypt
afterward destroyed those who did not believe." Those are that generation
in the wilderness. So that's illustration
number one. This is how God deals with
people who turn from the truth. This is what he did in ancient
Israel in the wilderness. Verse 6 is the second
example, and he refers to the fallen
angels of Genesis 6. "The angels who did not
keep their proper domain, but left their
own habitation, He has reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness for the
judgment of the great day." And now the third
example are the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who
had the testimony of Abraham in their lives because
of Lot, his nephew. "And Sodom and
Gomorrah," verse 7, "and the cities around them,
in similar manner to these, have given themselves
over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh
are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire. Likewise, also, these
dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and
speak evil of dignitaries." This is an interesting verse. "Yet, Michael, the Archangel,
in contending with the Devil, when he disputed about
the body of Moses, dared not bring a reviling
accusation but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these speak evil of
whatever they do not know and whatever they
know naturally, like brute beasts,
in these things, they corrupt themselves." I'm tempted to get
into that, but I can't. I have to move forward. "Woe to them." Verse 11, "Woe to them,
for they have run--" now here's more illustrations. "They have run in
the way of Cain." Right Cain departed from
the Lord by a false worship. And they have run greedily in
the air of Balaam for prophet. Balaam told King Balak how to
seduce the children of Israel and get God to go against
them by immorality. And perished in the
rebellion of Korah. Korah and those 250 men
that rebelled against Moses in the Old Testament. So example after example. He drills down. He poetically talks about
their fate and their falseness and their false doctrine
in the versus to come. Taking it down to verse 17. "But you, beloved--"
see the tender touch? I'm going to tell you how
bad these false prophets are, but you, beloved,
"remember the words which were spoken before by
the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, how they told
you that there would be mockers in the last time
who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons
who cause divisions, not having the spirit. But you, beloved--" there it is
again, "building yourselves up on the most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Spirit." Since these apostates come
in and tear down your faith, it's incumbent
upon you to always be building up your faith. "Keep yourselves," verse
21, "in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." That does not mean keep
yourselves in a place where God can love you. Because I hope you
know God loves you no matter what place you're at. You might be the worst person,
the most ungodly person, the most sinful person,
the most apostate person. God loves you. When it says keep yourselves
in the love of God, the idea is keep
herself in a place where you experience
the love of God. That's what the Living Bible
sort of translates it as. Keep yourselves in the
boundaries where you are enjoying the blessing of God. So the illustration I like
to use is an umbrella. You can be in bright
sunlight, and maybe you-- it's a spring day. It's high 60s, and the sun
feels so good on your face after a cold winter. But then you raise an
umbrella, and suddenly, you aren't feeling the
effects of the sun. You're not keeping the sun away. You're just keeping yourself
from enjoying the sun, right? So you can put up
an umbrella of sin. You can put up an
umbrella of something that causes you not
to really experience nor enjoy the love of God. That's the idea of keep
yourselves in the love of God. You're building yourself up. Verse 24, "Now to him who's
able to keep you from stumbling and present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." One of my favorites
in scripture. "To God, our Savior,
who alone is wise, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and forever, amen." So let's sum it up-- 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. 2 John is be careful with
your love to the wrong people. 3 John, . Be lavish with your love
to the right people. And the book of Jude-- love all people enough
to tell them the truth. Father, thank you for the truth
that is found in scripture. It has been deposited
to us once and for all. We have it. We can study it. We can apply it. We can instruct with it. We can warn with it. But Lord, I pray would always be
our appeal and our motivation, that just because a person
says, like in the video we saw before the
service, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. I follow God. That we would dig
under the surface a little more deeply and
not just take that word, but examine. Just like we are to
examine ourselves, we would have
discernment with our love to know how to best show it. And sometimes the
best way to show love is to rebuke, to reprove. At other times, it is to
embrace, to forgive, to accept. But we need your wisdom
to know the difference. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand. Let's worship. Great seeing you tonight. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining
us for this teaching from "The Bible
from 30,000 Feet."
