Antichrists, by Dr. Phil Johnson (GTY Sermon)

well this morning we are going to look together at one of the shortest books in the Bible second John second John we'll look at this in kind of overview fashion I don't necessarily want to dig into the grammar of every single verse but I want to cover the whole book this morning this is a passage of scripture that has always fascinated me its message is focused and emphatic it's also a very simple message even though I think lots of Christians seem to miss the message of this epistle but here is its central message we who love Christ who love his truth and love his people are not to lend aid or encouragement to people who pretend to follow Christ but opposed his teaching or despise the church for which he died and that includes false prophets deceitful teachers phony apostles or missionaries for any cult or denomination that twists the gospel of Christ John refers to such people as Antichrist not the Antichrist but anti-christian false prophets and teachers first John 2 first John chapter 2 verse 8 there are other 18 John writes children it is the last hour and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming even now many antichrists have appeared so he's warning us that there are many deceivers who call themselves Christians while they're actually promoting an agenda of Antichrist and we need to learn to discern who they are and and authentic love not the sentimental notion of love but true biblical love forbids us to take part with them in their wicked works that's the whole point of second John in other words Christian charity and the duties of unity and Brotherhood do not demand that we show honor or hospitality indiscriminately to everyone who claims fidelity to Christ when when someone comes peddling damnable heresies in Christ's name the only truly righteous and loving thing to do is to refuse them now the important the importance of this epistle is huge especially it compared to its small size it's only 13 verses total 3rd John has 14 verses but slightly fewer words and so if you went by the Greek text you'd see that 3rd John is the shortest book in the Bible 2nd John is only a few words longer as the so the 2nd and 3rd epistles of John are similar in both length and style both of them are personal epistles addressed evidently to specific individuals rather than being distributed to whole congregations of believers but they're like Paul's letter to Philemon short personal one-page single chapter letters acutely focused and straight to the point I love that kind of writing I myself like to write one-page letters mainly because I have my printer preloaded with letterhead page 1 and if there's a page 2 you have to go in the other room and change the paper in the printer and so I try to keep my letters brief and to the point but sometimes more complex issues do require longer letters and and and yet at times like here when a large issue may seem complex and confusing the best way to deal with it is just to be direct and clear and straight to the point and that's what John does here and in fact I think that's what intrigues me most about 2nd John the Apostle takes a complex but critical issue and deals with it in a concise compact and yet definitive way it's a profound piece of writing it gives us a very important epistle that is sadly sometimes neglected because it's so brief now in just a minute I'm going to read the whole epistle but before I do I want to point out several things to watch for while I read first there are two key words that stand out in the opening verses of this text love and truth both nouns he mentions love four times in the first six verses and he mentions truth five times in the first four verses so if you recognize those key expressions you have the key to understanding what this epistle is about but second pay attention to one other word that stands out because of its repeated use at the start of this epistle and I'm talking about the verb walk John uses various forms of the verb to walk three times in verses four through six and he links it with both love and truths you have the expression walking in the truth in the middle of verse four and then verse six talks about how we walk according to his commandments this is the commandment just as you've heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it what is the commandment verse five that we love one another and so walk in that commandment in other words walk in love and walk in the truth and those are not two different paths but those are two sets of parallel boundaries that mark the one narrow way every believer is supposed to stay on and the Apostle Paul says it like that or the Apostle John rather says it like this verse 4 to walk in truth is to walk in obedience to Christ and His commandments and verses five and six this is the commandment that we love one another well in other words all of Jesus Commandments are summarized and embodied in that one simple rule love one another when Jesus gave that to the disciples in John 13:34 he referred to it as a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you the new commandment then becomes a kind of running theme and everything the Apostle John writes he loves this idea he mentions it for example in 1st John chapter 2 and now he reiterates it here in 2nd John verse 5 and we'll look at those verses more closely before the end of the hour but for now just note the fact that this is the overarching commandment that he wants this woman to walk in that we love one another and all the other commandments of Christ are simply specific applications of the principle of love love for the truths sake now remember that Jesus himself said that the first and second Great Commandment are both about love love for God on the one hand and love for our neighbor on the other in other words to walk in love is to walk in to Commandments and because both are about love and and to walk in the commandments obviously is to walk in truth these are complementary not contradictory ideas love and truth go hand-in-hand they don't oppose one another and that fact alone is one of the greatest falsehoods of the current postmodern generation where people think love and truth are incompatible virtues far from being incompatible truth and love are essential partners in righteousness and the Apostle John clearly sees it as the duty of every Christian to walk in truth and to walk in love and throughout this epistle it's as if he is emphatically refusing to portray those as conflict in duties he purposely ties them together you can't fulfill one without the other you can't genuinely walk in love unless you're also walking in truth and you can't walk in the truth unless you're also walking in love love and truth although they are distinct virtues they are inextricably linked with such a symbiotic relationship that you can't neglect one without destroying the other and how that works out in practical terms is the whole theme of this short epistle so watch for those themes as I read here's the Holy pistol 13 verses start to finish the elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth and not only i but also all who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever grace mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the father's son in truth and love I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the father and now I ask you dear lady not as though I were writing you a new commandment but the one we've had from the beginning that we love one another and this is love that we walk according to his commandments this is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it now that's his address and introduction here you have the meat of the passage starting in verse seven for many deceivers have gone out into the world those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God whoever abides in the teaching has both the father and the son if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works though I have much to write to you I'd rather not use paper and ink instead I hope to come to you and talk face-to-face so that our joy may be complete the children of your elect sister greet you now several questions immediately come to mind who is this elect lady and what does John mean when he calls himself the elder what prompts him to deal with this topic a question that is important to every church in every age and yet he writes about it in a very short personal letter addressed to a singular individual and a woman there's no doubt who the author of the Epistle is even though he doesn't say his name one of the characteristics of John's writing is that outside of the book of Revelation he never mentions himself by name he was you know a personal eyewitness to the events he recorded in his gospel he was even a privileged member of Jesus inner circles so he was there in person at the Transfiguration in Gethsemane and other places where only a handful of Jesus closest disciples accompanied him and yet John chronicles the entire public ministry of Jesus without ever once mentioning himself by name and in fact when the flow of the gospel narrative in the Gospel of John made it necessary for John to include himself in the story he always referred him to himself as another disciple or as he does four times in John 20 and once in John 18 the other disciple and of course the name we best remember John 4 the one I think he loved to use for himself he used it four times in John 19 through 21 those chapters he scatters this four times calling himself the disciple whom Jesus loved so enthralled was John with the idea that Jesus loved him that's how he liked to refer to himself in order to keep his own name out of the narrative while he kept Jesus at the center of it the disciple whom Jesus loved and here he calls himself the elder the Greek word is press butor us and it functions exactly like the English word elder it can refer to an office in the church of course and it was often used in the Jewish culture as a title of respect and veneration for men in high positions of spiritual leadership members of the Sanhedrin for example were called elders several times in the Gospel accounts but the primary and fundamental meaning of this word of course is to simply one who is advanced in age and at the time of this epistle that word elder would apply in any or all of those senses to the Apostle John he was well advanced in age by the time he wrote his epistles he was the last surviving member of the twelve original apostles and although he was hounded and persecuted and imprisoned and ultimately sent into exile the record of early eyewitness testimony records that he alone of all the twelve original apostles he's the only one that wasn't martyred he lived well into his 90s and he died of old age most likely around 98 ad 98 just before the beginning of the second century after having lived a long life of faithful ministry and giving pastoral oversight to the church at Ephesus which Paul actually founded but they had John as their pastor and then he lived in exile on the island of Patmos at the end of his life I've been to Patmos and it's about thirteen square miles very small island less than a quarter mile wide at its narrowest point in the middle and it's far enough far enough off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea that you couldn't get to the mainland by swimming it's barren it's not the kind of place you'd want to be exiled maybe unless you had an internet connection but John lived in a cave there a hard life by any measure especially hard for an elderly man cut off from any means of help or fellowship but notice in this epistle he makes no mention of Patmos or its hardships so I think this letter was most likely written from Ephesus near the end of his ministry there just before he was sent into exile he was a very old man already as the name he gives himself implies elder of course it's also an office in the church press beuter Oz and if John is using it here as a title rather than merely a reference to his advanced age or even if he has both ideas in mind which is what I suspect this would suggest that he's writing from Ephesus while he is still serving in effect as that church's senior pastor their oldest elder he's the perfect apostle to write on this theme Jesus you know had nicknamed John and his brother Bo and her geez the sons of thunder James and John sons of thunder mark 3:17 is where Jesus says that doubtless that was because of their fiery zeal for the truth at first their passion wasn't always tempered by love and you see a glimpse of that in Luke 9 verse 54 when they remember they wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a village full of Samaritans who had rebuffed Christ and Jesus rebuked them for that and in later years John actually distinguished himself as the apostle of love because the theme of love looms so large in his gospel and all three of his epistles he was obviously obsessed with the idea love and the model of it it's not clear whom he is writing to here or where he is sending this letter some people think the elect lady and her children might be a cryptic reference to a congregation you know not an individual woman but an entire church collectively there's really no evidence of that others say no this this is her name she's a specific woman whose actual name is electa electa it would be a great name for a girl right I lobbied for that if we ever had a girl and mercifully the Lord just gave us three sons so we don't have an elector but some have suggested that was her name the most natural and I think least problematic view is that this is a prominent woman who was well known throughout the early church perhaps a woman who cared for orphans because that would explain the dual reference to her children he addresses the Epistle to the elect lady and her children as if her children are there at home with her but then he says in verse 4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in truth as if he had encountered some of her adult children in his travels so she had children also not living any longer under her roof she might have had a large family of her own or or she may have taken in orphans there's just no way to know absolutely but these references and the theme of the whole epistle makes perfect sense if you understand that this was a prominent woman with the gift of hospitality who used her home as a kind of hospitality center for the church and some populated crossroads of the Roman Empire somewhere in some key city there we don't even know where but that's that's what the epistle itself implies she's a generous woman who has the means and the desire to make her home and hospitality available to missionaries and church planters and itinerant preachers and teachers who came through in the early church hosting people like that was for her a tangible way she could fulfill the Lord's new commandment loving others sacrificially and this woman clearly knew John personally perhaps he had been a guest in her home and and she had no doubt read his first epistle where he warned that Antichrist is coming and and many antichrists have already come therefore we know he says this is the last hour that's first John 2 verse 18 he says it again in verse 22 and chapter 4 verse 3 he keeps warning that false prophets were going from church to church teachers who claim to be believers but they were subtly and systematically undermining the faith and in first John 4:1 the Apostle warns that many such deceivers had already gone out all over the known world now that would be frightening for someone whose ministry involved showing kindness to strangers those were unsettling words did he did that mean that she could no longer show hospitality indiscriminately what was the loving response to someone who claimed to be a brother in Christ but he taught the doctrines of Antichrist it seems that she had probably written to John to ask that question because he says this as if he's responding to a query the Epistle makes perfect sense if you read it as the Apostles reply to a question she had asked what do I do when a false teacher comes to my door now John doesn't identify the woman as I said by name or by city not only perhaps because she was sufficiently well-known in the church people knew she was she was a woman of some reputation but also I think naming her might subject her to Roman scrutiny or or extra persecution from those who were so evil so eat so eager rather to try to get the apostle himself out of the way but doesn't matter really because the ultimate audience of this epistle is not just this singular individual he clearly has more than her in mind as he writes because the second person pronouns all of them in this epistle are plural you see it in English in verse 8 watch yourselves plural he obviously wants her to share this epistle with other people possibly even to circulate it among multiple churches and that is certainly what happened with this epistle and that's what the Holy Spirit intended because that's how it found its way into our Canon and that means the message of this short epistle applies to you and to me as well as to this lady and at the end of the day the identity of this woman and other background details are really not what's important about this epistle what's important is the message it's a clear message with just two points first verses 1 through 5 he encourages her to walk in truth by manifesting the love of Christ then verses 6 through 13 he urges her to manifest the love of Christ by safeguarding the truth so walk in truth by loving love by guarding the truth a central point here is that love and truth are perfectly symbiotic and inseparable my former pastor was warned where's be and he used to say love without truth is hypocrisy truth without love is brutality I've often said that either one of these virtues without its mate is merely a pretense it's phony you can't have real love without truth and you can't have real truth without love love deprived of truth quickly deteriorates into a sinful self love and truth divorced from love always breeds sanctimonious self-righteousness truth without love has no power love without truth has no character try to separate truth from love or vice versa and you will destroy both virtues so let's look at the Apostles two points in the order he makes them first verses one through five walk in truth by manifesting the love of Christ walk in truth by manifesting the love of Christ I'm sure you're aware that there are people not many thankfully but there are some highly visible people out there who claim to be defending the truth by spewing hate you see them on the news from time to time people who plaster hate-filled messages on big placards and picket funerals otherwise they like to target people in distress in a way that is purposely hostile and they think they're doing God a favor by acting that way they are usually religious fanatics who are so enthralled with the themes of human guilt and divine wrath and the curse of the law and eternal punishment that they really never talk about anything else I went to the Rose Parade a few years ago and there was a noisy group of religious miscreants who were who marched before the parade started they marched along the parade route with signs that said God kills and God is angry and Jesus caused September 11th and and they were doing this in the name of Christ these were Christians making these claims I've challenged some of them and and I spoke with some of them at length directly and and they just are people who despise any mention of God's love and they hold their neighbors in high contempt they think the whole message of the Bible is about the wrath of God and his anger against sin and that's really all they ever talk about the attitude they embody is the polar opposite of loving your neighbor as yourself what they're doing has absolutely nothing to do with the truth except that it makes a mockery of the truth and it brings a reproach in the eyes of the world against anyone who genuinely does love the truth at best these people and their protest signs are proclaiming half-truths and Satan himself who is the father of lies is a master at using half-truths to declare a truth especially a partial truth in an unloving way and with unloving motives is frankly an assault on the truth you remember that scene in acts 16 Philippi and Luke's as Paul and his missionary team were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gained by fortune-telling and Luke says she followed Paul and us crying out these men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation and Luke says this she kept doing for many days Paul having become greatly annoyed turned and said to the spirit I command you in the name of Christ to come out of her and it silenced her why did Paul silence her because I'll tell you why in the mouth of a demon even the truth is a blasphemy and an embarrassment and it's never good when some wantonly evil person pretends to be a proclaimer of gospel truth it's even worse when the message is given in a spirit of hatred or arrogance or contempt for one's neighbors because those attitudes are are the fruits of falsehood and human pride they have nothing whatsoever to do with truth for them to speak for the truth to be spoken in that in that manner is a corruption of the truth indeed the singular distinctive fruit of real truth is love compassionate love brotherly love humble warm-hearted self giving love the kind of love that's embodied in the sacrifice of Christ John 15:13 greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends and sacrificial love is therefore this supreme test of whether we are really walking in the truth first John 2 verses 10 and 11 again say whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling stumbling but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks into darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes that's 1st John 3 verses 14 and 15 we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers whoever does not love abides in death every one who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him that's first John 4:8 if anyone says I love God and hates his brother he's a liar that's 1st John 4:20 so John keeps saying this that the truth isn't in you at all if there is no love in you so love is the fruit and the evidence that we are truly walking in the light and and John makes that very point in the opening verses of this second epistle he writes to the elect lady and her children whom I love in I read a few commentators who discussed whether this might have been a widow with whom the elder John actually had a kind of romantic relationship and I think it's obvious that's not the case there's nothing sensual about the love he expresses towards her and in fact he makes a point of saying that this woman and her children are beloved by everyone who knows the truth verses 1 and 2 to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth and not only i but also all who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us so his and everyone else's love for this woman is a love that is rooted in and flowing from truth specifically the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever what is that the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever that I think is a deliberately ambiguous expression that embodies both the truth of Scripture and the indwelling Spirit of Christ you know Christ Himself is the way and the truth and life he is truth incarnate in us and with us forever by the spirit which dwells in us but that expression the truth that abides in us also encompasses and it must the truth of Scripture God's Word in written form it's the word of Christ that dwells in us richly to borrow an expression from Colossians 3:16 and John is saying if the truth genuinely indwells you the primary fruit it produces will be love and anyone who genuinely loves the truth of God will also love the people of God because love itself is the very pinnacle of divine truth you casually hear people say well I like Jesus but I can't stand Christians that's someone who doesn't love Jesus he has his own idea of Jesus perhaps but anyone who does not love does not know God in first John 4:11 if God so loved us we also ought to love one another and so John says to this woman I and all who love the truth love you cause of the truth for the truths sake that's what makes us love you because we love the truth and repeatedly then deliberately in those opening verses he keeps purposely tying these concepts love and truth together far from seeing them as adversarial ideas John steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the existence of love apart from truth or truth apart from love they can't exist without each other love without truth is no love at all it's a sinful sentimentality it's that mushy mawkish idolatrous form of self exaltation that the world likes to refer to as love but it's not love and as we've seen truth divorced from love is a half-truth it's just a thinly disguised devilish lie the very notion of truth without love is frankly about as far from biblical truth as you could possibly get and John is encouraging this woman to keep that proper perspective esteem both of these virtues as absolutely essential the elect lady is as we said evidently someone given to hospitality we're going to see that here and John encourages the proper expression of that gift by reminding her that Jesus gave us this solemn new commandment that we love one another now you might ask how's that a new commandment it's really a restatement of the old second great commandment you shall love your neighbor as yourself and in fact it's a summary of the second table of the law which spells out our duty with regard to our neighbors honor your father and mother don't murder don't commit adultery don't steal don't bear false witness against your neighbor don't covet your neighbor's house or wife or anything that is your neighbors you can you can break this new commandment down into specifics like the Ten Commandments do or you can even break it down into 613 specific Commandments from Moses law but if you just take a simple bird's-eye view of the law of God in the words of Galatians 4:14 the whole law is fulfilled in one word you shall love your neighbor as yourself or Romans 13:8 the one who loves another has fulfilled the law love was the whole point of the law in the first place so again how is this a new commandment Jesus himself referred to it as a new commandment in John 13 I referred to that earlier a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I've loved you the commandment is new in the sense that Jesus is renewing it he's restating it he's releasing it now in a new fresh addition and teaching us to give it a new place of high prominence in our thinking this is a new covenant that we live under and this time the commandment to love one another comes to us complete with a new and perfect example to follow love one another Jesus says just as I have loved you you're also to love one another in other words here's what i en't ik love looks like it's Jesus that kind of stark clarity embodied in a living flesh-and-blood example is a new feature that's how it's a new covenant a new commandment but it's also an old commandment because it is the same one we've received from the beginning and John himself refers to this paradox of old and new in first John chapter 2 in 1st John chapter 2 verse 7 he writes beloved I am writing to you no new commandment but an old commandment that you've had from the beginning and then in the very next verse he says at the same time it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you so according to John it is both an old commandment and a new one and there in 1st John - after making that point the Apostle goes on to urge them to love the Brethren and guard the truth and walk in obedience that's in first John guard the guard the love the Brethren guard the truth walk in obedience and he seems to pick up on those very same threads of thought right here in 2nd John and this is why I think 2nd John probably was prompted by questions this lady asked him after she read the First Epistle she seems confused about how to apply both love and truth in proper balance you know which takes priority love or truth love for the Brethren devotion to the truth which is the more important specifically she's asking what would be the loving thing to do when someone professing to love Christ claiming the name of Christ comes actually teaching a doctrine that is at odds with the Apostolic message what do you do with someone like that what does love demand when we're dealing with false teachers and heretics what's the loving thing to do when an itinerant preacher seeks affirmation and hospitality but he has a different version of the gospel what do you do with that and John's answer to that question begins with an affirmation of the new commandment he's greeted her and her children verse one he's pronounced a blessing on her verse three he's encouraged her by reporting that when he met some of her children they were walking in the truth verse four and all of that is repeatedly purposefully keeping these twin virtues of love and truth linked inseparably together and now he addresses the main issue about which he is writing again most likely this is an answer to a question she had posed to him and his first point is a reminder that truth that is God's truth the unchanging eternal truth compels us to love that's what truth is all about and he makes that point by reminding her of the new commandment in fact he reminds her how the how old the new commandment is verse five and now I ask you dear lady not as though I'm writing you a new commandment but the one we've had from the beginning that we love one another to walk in truth is therefore to demonstrate the love of Christ love and truth are not competing or conflicting or contradictory virtues they are necessarily bound together because truth is the foundation of love and love is the fulfillment of the truth and he makes both of those points right there in those first four verses because when he says in verses 1 and 2 that the churches love for this lady is because of the truth that abides in us that's why we love her he's saying that truth is the ground and the foundation of love then when he points out as he does in verses 3 and through 5 that love is the very thing God's truth demands he's saying that love is the fruit and the fulfillment of truth now if love is the ground and the foundation of love it sorry if truth is the ground and foundation of love and love is the fruit and fulfillment of truth and there's just no way to prioritize love over truth or vice versa because they both define and comprise each other to walk in truth is to love to fulfil the duties of love is to advance the agenda of the enemies of truth so there there's just no how did I say that to fail let me be clear about this to fail in the duties of love is to advance the agenda of truths enemies there's no truth in you in other words if your heart is devoid of God's love truth is the flame of the indwelling Spirit of Christ it gives light to our mind love is the corresponding heat giving warmth to our hearts where the warmth of love is missing you can be sure that the light of truth is not functioning properly either and vice versa so that's John's starting point he affirms the essential duty of love by echoing the new commandment which is the same old commandment we've heard from the beginning that we love one another walk in truth by manifesting the love of Christ and now he moves quickly to his second point and here he gets intensely practical and this I believe is the specific answer to the question she had raised here's the proper balance between truth and love he's just urged her to walk in truth by manifesting the love of Christ now he says we also have a duty to manifest the love of Christ by safeguarding the truth and it turns out that the gist of this letter and the main point he wants to get across is the duty that falls on our shoulders as believers who embody Christ's love to hold fast to the truth and to defend the truth against every assault verse six and this is love in other words here's what love looks like that we walk according to his Commandments this is the commandment just as you've heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it now what the world refers to is love isn't necessarily love if it's true love John is saying then it comes with a built-in devotion to the truth in the words of first John 4:7 love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God so the person who truly loves is in the truth and this presupposes a biblical definition of love which always includes this unwavering love for the truth now this is a warm and affectionate letter' he has encouraged this woman he has commended her he has expressed his esteem for her and blessed her but he also has some stern words of caution not that he's expressing any disfavor or dissatisfaction with her personally his attitude towards her is nothing but warm and amiable but he has some urgent words of caution about an imminent threat to the church starting in verse 7 he shifts gears and he takes a more ominous tone and he gives her a very sharp warning about the danger he's saying fall Street teachers are infiltrating the church he said that in his First Epistle they come in the name of Christ but they bring a totally different doctrine and in fact specifically the movement John is concerned with here is a group that had denied the incarnation of Christ verse 7 they do not confess the coming of Christ in the flesh there so they were denying some aspect of the deity or pre existence or incarnation of Christ in fact church history suggests that these were early Gnostics these were the very earliest Gnostics people whose interest in Christianity was philosophical and mystical not biblical their central doctrine is known as docetism it's rooted in a false Gnostic dualism the the belief that the only thing that's good is spiritual reality and everything material and tangible is evil so they would set spirit against matter it was that kind of dualism they believed that spirit and matter are so inherently hostile to one another that God righteous God could never possibly take on human flesh and so they taught some of them that Christ was a phantasm or others taught that his body was actually composed of some celestial substance it wasn't real it wasn't truly human all of them taught that Jesus only appeared to be human but he wasn't really and therefore his sufferings weren't even real and that was a dastardly lie it undermined the biblical doctrine of the atonement had destroyed the gospel docetism was just beginning to gain popularity when John wrote this and from the second century on various strains of dough set agnosticism ravaged the church and thwarted the advance of the gospel and left multitudes in confusion and John here is just attacking the very beginnings of that movement he saw the danger from the outset and that explains the urgency of this warning it's a great lesson in how to deal with false teachers who fatally corrupt the truth about Christ or undermine the gospel or change the gospel into a different kind of message and John's counsel to this lady has two parts hold fast the truth verses six through nine and reject those who don't love the truth verses 10 through 12 now there are many false teachers out there John says verse 7 said the same thing as we saw in his earliest epistle first epistle he's saying the landscape is covered with phony religious leaders don't be fooled by them and don't naively accept them into your fellowship and if that was already true before the end of the apostolic era is a thousand times more true in our age he's talking about deceivers who profess faith in Christ but they twist Christian doctrine into something completely different this John says epitomizes the work of Antichrist and he wants this woman and all of us whoever read this epistle to be on guard and hold fast to the truth we have been taught by script verse eight watch yourselves plural so that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward he's saying a lot is at stake here and God will hold us accountable for how we respond to false teachers you'll be rewarded accordingly III ire of hearing from people who think that there's something Noble or or high-minded about treating false teachers with honor and undue respect or even with just simple indifference ignore them you know you're somebody said I'm just gonna preach what I believe and let God worry about the heretics if that's really what you believe that when false teachers come in Christ's name you have no duty to confront or expose or refute their error then you are partly culpable for the damage they do John says so in verse 11 the one who even gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds you'll often hear people say it's not our business to make judgments about who is in and who is outside the kingdom of God everybody who names the name of Christ I'm gonna regard as a brother and sister and in recent years there's been this parade of supposedly evangelical and emergent leaders who have tried to make the argument that practically anyone from almost any religion is a fellow believer as long as they're sincere and so they say we have a duty to embrace everyone as a brother who self-identifies as a Christian to question whether a professing Christian is an authentic believer or not is supposed to be the very height of arrogant incivility and the Apostle definitively says otherwise verse 9 anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God the one who abides in the teaching he has both the father and the son he puts a doctrinal test as the dividing line between true and false believers and that expression the teaching of Christ refers specifically to the gospel truth as it was received from Christ and declared by the Apostles in the words of John Gill the great Baptist commentator he says the teaching of Christ is the doctrine that is appointed to guide us to God it is that whereby God draws souls to salvation and to himself those who revolt from this doctrine revolt from God it's talking about the gospel and the boundaries of apostolic Authority were clearly and finally drawn in throughout the New Testament in Galatians 1 the Apostle Paul called down curses on false teachers who made circumcision the instrument of justification you know rather than proclaiming faith alone and and and he also cursed anyone who comes with a different gospel here John is expressly writing off people who want to be recognized as Christian leaders and yet they deny that deity or the pre-existence or the incarnation of Christ so you've got two categories of doctrine that the New Testament explicitly names as fundamental you've got the principle of justification by faith in Galatians and the incarnation of Christ right here and those two categories the right gospel and the right Christ those don't even constitute a complete and comprehensive list of Christian truths that are of first importance Paul also puts in that category the facts the historical facts about Christ's death and resurrection 1st Corinthians 15 so scripture is just giving us examples there that show us may give us a pretty clear rule of thumb that any false doctrine that sets forth a different gospel or a different Christ is a damnable heresy and don't have anything to do with it now to be clear not every error is a damnable heresy John isn't talking about you know minor matters of disagreement between brothers and sisters in Christ he is prescribing what to do when someone who seeks recognition as a valid teacher of Christian truth is actually on a mission to undermine the very foundations of the Christian faith whether he's doing it deliberately or he self-deceived if he's teaching doctrines that corrupt the teaching of Christ or change the gospel into something else he is a that is a diabolical lie of the worst stripe and what John is saying in verse 9 is that anyone who teaches that kind of damnable heresy is not to be embraced as a fellow Christian such a person he says does not have God now let me speak frankly visible Christianity in our generation including the broad movement we would label or that would at least label itself evangelical the visible church is chock full of people who have seriously transgressed the teaching of Christ some of them teach a completely different gospel including many of the key figures in the emergent movement of the past decade liberals mainstream Christians who've departed completely from the gospel some of them have denied the exclusivity of Christ or repudiated the authority of Scripture or questioned the deity and incarnation of Christ you have people who think the hope of redemption lies in some political or psychological or social or moral remedy they are preaching a different gospel so are those who insist that the church should be consumed with issues of earthly justice or the redistribution of wealth rather than proclaiming to spiritual captives that Christ has satisfied heaven's justice on behalf of sinners who repent and trust him that's the gospel and you're hearing a different gospel when people edit the themes of sin and righteousness and judgment out of the gospel and replace it with a therapeutic method or the promise of self-fulfillment and ditto when preachers tell you about their own dreams and visions or rather than teaching you the truth of God's Word and above all there are those narcissists in the pulpit who continually preached themselves rather than Christ Jesus as Lord they are guilty of Gambell error again the church is full the visible church is full of all of those varieties of false prophets and deceivers so what is the proper response here's a woman whose gift was apparently hospitality her home was evidently a guest house for itinerant preachers and evangelists and so how should she respond when Proclaimers of deviant Gospels show up and asked for hospitality in her home how should any Christian respond when someone who breaches the boundaries of Christian or Doxey seeks our partnership or honor or recognition or financial help in their their work I mean what if it's just a Mormon missionary or a Jehovah's Witness who just wants to sit down and show you what they believe John's answer is not ambiguous verses 10 and 11 do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds there's no mincing of words here he instructs this woman to withhold both hospitality and honor from anyone who denies any essential doctrines of the Christian faith she's not to open her home to them neither should she show them any kindness or bestow on them any tribute that might encourage them in their evil mission now let me say this is predominantly about partnership and fellowship in ministry and and the greeting he's talking about here is a formal way of showing honor he's not telling her to be rude or ungracious he's not saying when the JW's come to your door slammed the door in their face he's saying the best way to show love to a false teacher is to make it clear that his doctrine is deadly and you want no part of it lots of people in these post modern times claim that that's inherently rude you shouldn't be telling other people what they believe is wrong but it's it's no more rude than if I offered you a heavy dose of strychnine instead of cream for your coffee the loving thing for you to do would be not only to decline and recoil in horror but you should also urge me not to put that in my own coffee in other words this is what love demands careful discernment and and a clear warning against false teaching plus a firm refusal in any way to have fellowship with or be unequally yoked with or enter into spiritual partnership with the purveyors of soul-destroying error in the words of Ephesians 5:11 take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them that's what love demands of us if we love the truth we will oppose error if we really want to manifest the love of Christ in a christ-like way we will safeguard the truth that's what love demands to the postmodern mind that might seem like no love at all but it reflects the best deepest love for Christ and for his truth and for his people so this argues powerfully against formal partnerships of any kind with peddlers of false doctrine who come in the name of Christ you know I know it's been very popular and politically correct in recent years for ev angelica's to forge political alliances with Roman Catholics and and other religions to try to do away with abortion or use our collective clout in the voting booth they have not had any success in terms of influencing public policy but whatever Angelica leaders who forge those alliances have done is they've communicated to the world and even to the people under their leadership the idea that somehow moral and political policy is a more pressing need and a more urgent issue than the gospel these political coalition's have set aside the distinctives of gospel truth for the sake of moral and political values that aren't even distinctively Christian but let me remind you false religion is infinitely worse than bad politics or bad public policy today's evangelicals have reversed those priorities and the chief casualty has been discernment to have joint prayer meetings and public demonstrations while standing arm and arms arm in arm with Catholics and Mormons and and what not is to violate the simple principle John sets forth here but this is vital truth and drawing the line clearly between truth and falsehood is necessary as an expression of authentic love for people who don't know the truth love and truth as always can only exist side by side verse 12 he has more to say to her but he will wait until they meet face to face and that signifies that what he has to say in this epistle is urgent and highly important and it's important for us as well that's a simple truth of this epistle it's purposely short and to the point love and truth genuine love and unadulterated truth work together not opposition to one another we're not walking in the truth unless we're manifesting the love of Christ and we are not manifesting the love of Christ unless we are safeguarding the truth may we learn what it means to ground our love in the truth and may we not succumb to the pressure of our age to spurn or subjugate Christ's truth under a false and foggy notion of love let's pray and before I pray I want to mention our prayer room will be open here to my right your left if you have a spiritual need if you're not certain of your salvation if you want to be shown the gospel from Scripture or if you have any questions that can be answered from Scripture come down here there'll be a group of counselors I'll be there myself I'm on duty this morning any questions you have we will try to open the Word of God and answer for you now let's pray father in the words of Romans 5 verse 5 your love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us increase our love for you magnify our love for Christ enlarge our love for the truth give us a wise and loving sense of discernment and give us courage to stand for the truth in a culture that hates truth and may our love and our devotion to the truth of Christ honor him in the eyes of an unbelieving world we pray in his name amen

Channel: Jesus' Word

Views: 14,412

Rating: 4.8512397 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Calvinism, reprobation, freewill, John Calvin, Jacob Arminius, predestination, calling, sanctification, Holy Spirit, Holy Jesus, Holy Father, libertarianism, justification, glorification, double predestination, Jesus Christ, Gospel, Arminianism, Arturo G. Azurdia, Grace Baptist, Shepard’s Conference, albert Mohler, Dr. Steven J. Lawson, John MacArthur, Dr. Phil Johnson

Id: u2JkGS36tMw

Length: 54min 47sec (3287 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 03 2018