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The Primacy of Truth (2 John 14) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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Speaker 1: Well let's open our Bibles to a little book that
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Speaker 1: we need to look at, 2 John... 2 John. The New
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Speaker 1: Testament ends with 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
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Speaker 1: and Revelation... 2 John. This and 3 John are going to
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Speaker 1: be our points of study over the next several months.
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Speaker 1: It won't take a long time to go through these
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Speaker 1: wonderful epistles. although they do contain some great insight and
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Speaker 1: wonderful instruction. As I have often said, the most important thing,
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Speaker 1: the most important reality is divine truth, divine truth. It
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Speaker 1: is the one great essential. A few weeks ago we
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Speaker 1: were studying at the end of the 10th chapter of
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Speaker 1: Luke the story of Mary and Martha and how Martha
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Speaker 1: busied herself, you remember, with the preparations of the house
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Speaker 1: and Mary was seated at the feet of Jesus listening
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Speaker 1: to every word He said. And Jesus Himself said, Mary
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Speaker 1: has chosen the best part, it will not be taken
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Speaker 1: away from her. The best place that you can ever
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Speaker 1: be is under the hearing of the truth of God.
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Speaker 1: Truth is the priority. Let me give you just a
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Speaker 1: brief survey of what the Bible says about divine truth.
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Speaker 1: God is the God of truth, according to Deuteronomy 32.4,
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Speaker 1: meaning He is the source of it. Christ is the
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Speaker 1: truth and full of truth, John 14.6, John 1.14. The
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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth in John 14.17,
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Speaker 1: the Bible is called In Daniel 10.21, the Scripture of truth.
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Speaker 1: We are saved by the truth. We are sanctified by
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Speaker 1: the truth. We love the truth. We are judged by
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Speaker 1: the truth. We are set free by the truth. We
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Speaker 1: worship in the truth. We serve God in the truth.
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Speaker 1: We rejoice in the truth. We speak the truth. We
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Speaker 1: think on the truth. We desire the truth. We manifest
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Speaker 1: the truth. We hear the truth. We obey the truth.
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Speaker 1: Most comprehensively, we walk in the truth. That is to
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Speaker 1: say we conduct our lives in the realm of the truth.
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Speaker 1: It determines how we think and how we speak and
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Speaker 1: how we act. We walk. in the truth. With that
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Speaker 1: as a background, let me read the opening four verses
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Speaker 1: of 2 John. The elder to the chosen lady and
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Speaker 1: her children whom I love in truth, and not only
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Speaker 1: I but also all who know the truth, for the
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Speaker 1: sake of the truth which abides in us and will
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Speaker 1: be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace will be
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Speaker 1: with us from God the Father. and from Jesus Christ
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Speaker 1: the Son of the Father in truth and love. I
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Speaker 1: was very glad to find some of your children walking
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Speaker 1: in truth just as we received commandment to do from
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Speaker 1: the Father. Five times in those four verses you have
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Speaker 1: a Greek word aletheia meaning truth. Clearly then, John is
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Speaker 1: writing in the realm of the truth. He lives in
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Speaker 1: the truth. In every sense he is informed and controlled
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Speaker 1: and motivated by the truth. John has written this brief
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Speaker 1: letter to call us to that same truth in a
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Speaker 1: world of lies and liars. This is, by the way,
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Speaker 1: also the emphasis of his third letter, if you would
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Speaker 1: turn over to The third letter on the next page there,
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Speaker 1: you read this, the elder to the beloved Gaius whom
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Speaker 1: I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that in all
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Speaker 1: respects you may prosper and be in good health just
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Speaker 1: as your soul prospers for I was very glad when
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Speaker 1: brethren came and bore witness to your truth, that is
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Speaker 1: how you are walking in truth. I have no greater
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Speaker 1: joy than this to hear of my children walking in
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Speaker 1: the truth. Verse 8. Therefore we ought to support such
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Speaker 1: men that we may be fellow workers with the truth.
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Speaker 1: Verse 12, Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone
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Speaker 1: and from the truth itself, and we also bear witness
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Speaker 1: as you know that our witness is true. Both of
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Speaker 1: these letters are about the truth in a world of lies.
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Speaker 1: The first letter, 2 John, is written to a lady.
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Speaker 1: The second letter, 3 John, is written to a gentleman.
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Speaker 1: The lady to whom this first letter was written is
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Speaker 1: not named, the gentleman is Gaius, as we read. One
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Speaker 1: letter to a lady, the other to a man, both
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Speaker 1: clear exhortations to live in the truth. In contrast to that,
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Speaker 1: we exist in a realm of lies, presided over by
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Speaker 1: the arch liar, Satan, who is the father of lies.
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Speaker 1: He dominates His subjects so that they fail to understand
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Speaker 1: and to believe the truth. He so dominates the world
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Speaker 1: that men do not speak the truth. In fact, Jeremiah 9...5 says,
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Speaker 1: they are skilled at teaching their tongues to lie. Hosea 4...1,
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Speaker 1: the prophet says, there is no truth in them. Isaiah
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Speaker 1: 59 verse 4 says they do not plead for truth.
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Speaker 1: Jeremiah 9 verse 3 says they're not valiant for truth.
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Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 6 verse 5 says they're destitute of truth.
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Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 3 verse 8 says they resist the truth.
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Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 4 verse 4 says they turn their ears
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Speaker 1: from the truth. The unconverted then are called in Psalm
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Speaker 1: 58 verse 3 those who speak lies, they live in
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Speaker 1: a realm of lies. They live in a realm of
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Speaker 1: deception and falsehood. The divine indictment of all of the
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Speaker 1: lost rendered in Romans chapter 1 and verse 25 says,
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Speaker 1: they exchanged the truth of God for the lie. That's
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Speaker 1: how people live in the world. That's how all of
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Speaker 1: us lived in the world before God opened our hearts
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Speaker 1: to understand the truth. You heard it again, didn't you,
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Speaker 1: in the testimonies tonight? One deception after another people pursue,
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Speaker 1: one unfulfilling deception after another. Everybody in the world lives
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Speaker 1: in one of these two realms. You either live in
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Speaker 1: the realm of the truth or you live in the
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Speaker 1: realm of lies. The world then is divided into two groups,
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Speaker 1: those who live in the truth and those who live
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Speaker 1: in lies. Now the role of the church is clearly
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Speaker 1: defined in the Bible. One verse sums it up, 1
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Speaker 1: Timothy 3...15, the church exists in the world to be
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Speaker 1: the pillar and ground of the truth. The church exists
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Speaker 1: in the world to be the pillar and ground of
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Speaker 1: the truth. And if the church ever abandons the truth,
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Speaker 1: then it ceases to be the church of Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: What does it mean when the Apostle Paul writes to
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Speaker 1: Timothy who is pastoring a church in Ephesus? What does
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Speaker 1: it mean when he says that? The church is to
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Speaker 1: be the pillar and ground of the truth. They would
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Speaker 1: have understood that because in the city of Ephesus was
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Speaker 1: this massive edifice built to Diana, the god of the Ephesians.
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Speaker 1: Diana sounds like a lovely name and indeed it is,
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Speaker 1: but this particular god was the grossest kind of deity imaginable.
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Speaker 1: In fact, an animal and a very ugly one at that.
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Speaker 1: But the temple was massive. It was one of the
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Speaker 1: seven wonders of the ancient world, along with the hanging
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Speaker 1: gardens of Babylon and the pyramids and others. And the
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Speaker 1: great feature that struck you when you saw the temple
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Speaker 1: of Diana was the pillars. There were 127 of them,
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Speaker 1: massive pillars, solid marble carved and then overlaid with gold
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Speaker 1: and then studded with jewels. When you see the ruins
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Speaker 1: of an ancient temple today, you often see them all
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Speaker 1: as white. There was a time when many of them
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Speaker 1: were overlaid with gold and studded with jewels. This was one.
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Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty-seven pillars, every pillar was donated to
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Speaker 1: the building of the temple by a king and bore
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Speaker 1: the name of that king. And it was all of
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Speaker 1: those kings paying their homage to the goddess and sometimes God.
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Speaker 1: Now these pillars held up the roof which was an
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Speaker 1: immense structure made of stone. Underneath the pillar were the
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Speaker 1: Hedrioma which means the support. As I said, the ground
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Speaker 1: it's called. But this is the Hedrioma, the support. It
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Speaker 1: references the foundation. So you had this massive stone foundation.
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Speaker 1: supporting 127 solid marble pillars holding up this heavy roof.
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Speaker 1: That whole edifice, that whole massive structure with its foundation
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Speaker 1: and its pillars and its roof was a testimony. to Satan.
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Speaker 1: It was a testimony to lies like the Vatican. It
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Speaker 1: was a monument to deception. The church, on the other hand,
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Speaker 1: is to be a monument to the truth. We exist
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Speaker 1: to represent the truth. That is our mission and that
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Speaker 1: is our purpose. In failing to uphold and live the truth,
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Speaker 1: we cease to be the church. as Israel failed to
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Speaker 1: uphold and live the truth and ceased to be the
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Speaker 1: witness nation. If there's anything that should ever occur in
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Speaker 1: a church, it should be the centrality of the truth,
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Speaker 1: the revealed truth of God's Word. People treat the church
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Speaker 1: so flippantly today. They blithely come in and out of church,
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Speaker 1: never having a thought that they are interacting with a
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Speaker 1: God of truth who hates deception and lies. One writer says,
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Speaker 1: Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power
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Speaker 1: we so blithely invoke in our prayers? The churches are
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Speaker 1: children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing
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Speaker 1: up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.
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Speaker 1: It is madness to wear ladies' velvet hats to church.
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Speaker 1: We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should provide
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Speaker 1: life preservers and signal flares. They should lash us to
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Speaker 1: the pews for the sleeping God. we say we worship
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Speaker 1: might wake up and take offense. The true church is
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Speaker 1: the pillar and ground of the truth. It proclaims the
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Speaker 1: truth and the people who are there come to hear
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Speaker 1: the truth. And the truth, of course, is the revealed
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Speaker 1: truth of God. The only truth that we will know
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Speaker 1: is that which God has revealed to us and that,
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Speaker 1: of course, is revealed in the Scripture. It is the
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Speaker 1: solemn responsibility then of the church to solely without wavering,
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Speaker 1: without moving, unshakably uphold that truth. The church does not
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Speaker 1: author the message of truth and it alters it only
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Speaker 1: at its own risk. The church is called to be
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Speaker 1: the foundation and the support of the truth. Put it
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Speaker 1: another way, the church has the stewardship of the Scripture.
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Speaker 1: That is our stewardship. We read so much in the
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Speaker 1: paper about this church and that church. We read all
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Speaker 1: of the things that are going on in the Roman
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Speaker 1: Catholic Church, particularly with the preoccupation of the Pope, all
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Speaker 1: the things that are going on in the Anglican Church
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Speaker 1: as they ordain homosexual bishops and legitimize same-sex marriages, and
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Speaker 1: all the church leaders meet together. Those really are not
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Speaker 1: churches at all. They have really taken a name they're
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Speaker 1: not entitled to. That's the church of antichrist, not the
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Speaker 1: church of Christ. The church of Christ upholds the truth.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't tear the truth down. It doesn't destroy the truth.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't mock the Scripture, nor does it substitute something
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Speaker 1: else for it. It doesn't negotiate divine revelation. The true
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Speaker 1: church has always clung to the truth, always. In the
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Speaker 1: midst of every storm, in the midst of all persecution,
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Speaker 1: in the midst of rejection, its enemies attack from the
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Speaker 1: inside or attack from the outside, the true church has
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Speaker 1: always clung to the truth and thousands through its history
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Speaker 1: have paid the price for the truth rather than compromise
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Speaker 1: it or abandon it. I admit that our challenge is
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Speaker 1: not that we might be killed for the truth. In fact,
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Speaker 1: it would probably be better in terms of holding on
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Speaker 1: to the truth if that were the case. Because if
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Speaker 1: there were outright persecution against those who believed the truth,
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Speaker 1: all the hypocrites would disappear. And the only people who
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Speaker 1: would be left would be the people who really are
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Speaker 1: the people of the truth. Persecution would help us to
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Speaker 1: hold on to the truth because the true saints of
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Speaker 1: God would receive the grace to endure the persecution that
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Speaker 1: comes when the truth is attacked. We have something far
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Speaker 1: worse than being killed for the truth. We might be rejected.
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Speaker 1: by our society for the truth. We might be considered
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Speaker 1: as offensive and divisive. We might be looked at as alien.
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Speaker 1: We might be vilified or even at best treated with indifference.
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Speaker 1: We might be rejected by those around us. And so
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Speaker 1: in order to avoid that, we compromise or even set
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Speaker 1: the truth aside that offends. At this point, I told
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Speaker 1: you this morning I want to just say a personal word.
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Speaker 1: This is John MacArthur, not the Apostle John. But I... people
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Speaker 1: ask me often, do you ever worry about what people
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Speaker 1: think about what you say? And I can honestly say
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Speaker 1: I don't. Actually the thought doesn't enter my mind. I'm
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Speaker 1: not trying to be harsh. I'm not trying to be unloving.
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Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be unkind. I'm not trying to
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Speaker 1: ride roughshod over people. either their understanding or their feelings.
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Speaker 1: But you see, what men think bears very little weight
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Speaker 1: to me. It is not a heavy burden for me.
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Speaker 1: There is a far greater weight that I feel and
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Speaker 1: it's the weight of the revelation of God. That is
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Speaker 1: a heavy thing to me. The truth of God is
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Speaker 1: very heavy upon me. It is the greatest weight that
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Speaker 1: I feel in my life. by far. The glory of God,
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Speaker 1: the Old Testament word for glory is the word in Hebrew, weight.
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Speaker 1: I have a rather heavy view of God and His Word.
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Speaker 1: It weighs heavy on me and nothing equals the weight
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Speaker 1: of that. Human opinion, popularity, whatever, bears very little weight.
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Speaker 1: It is as a feather compared to the weight of
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Speaker 1: the revelation of God that I feel. God has exalted
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Speaker 1: His Word to the level of His name, Psalm 138.
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Speaker 1: It is as heavy as God is weighty. And I
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Speaker 1: feel the weight of that. And that is why for
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Speaker 1: me study and preaching is so intense because this is
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Speaker 1: my responsibility to feel the weight of the truth of
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Speaker 1: God and then to dispense it to you. This is
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Speaker 1: my calling. This is not unusual. I'm not alone in this.
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Speaker 1: This is the calling of every man of God, of
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Speaker 1: every teacher of the Bible, of every leader in the church,
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Speaker 1: every pastor or elder, at least this is what the
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Speaker 1: church is about. We are the pillar and foundation of
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Speaker 1: the truth. And it is a weighty matter to me.
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Speaker 1: Nothing is as important to me as divine truth for
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Speaker 1: it is in divine truth that I know God. It
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Speaker 1: is in divine truth that I know Christ, the Holy Spirit.
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Speaker 1: salvation that I understand everything I need to understand that matters.
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Speaker 1: So John also felt greatly the weight of truth, probably
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Speaker 1: much greater than I do. And he was inspired by
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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit to give us these two little letters
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Speaker 1: to remind us of the weightiness of the truth, to
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Speaker 1: call us to live in God's truth. And there's something
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Speaker 1: to be said for where this appears in the New Testament.
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Speaker 1: You have two letters, 2 John, 3 John, calling us
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Speaker 1: to live in the truth, followed by Jude which warns
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Speaker 1: us about the liars, followed by the book of Revelation
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Speaker 1: which promises us Jesus is coming back. Be ready. It's
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Speaker 1: as if the plan of God was remind them to
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Speaker 1: live in the truth, warn them about liars, and tell
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Speaker 1: them to hold on to the truth till Jesus gets here.
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Speaker 1: And that's how the New Testament ends. Pretty strategic placement,
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Speaker 1: I would say, of these two little letters. Before we
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Speaker 1: look at the actual words in these opening verses, a
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Speaker 1: few comments. These are the shortest epistles in the New Testament.
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Speaker 1: Both have less than 300 Greek words. This one has
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Speaker 1: about 200, I think 245 Greek words, very brief letter.
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Speaker 1: Each of these two letters could fit as they do
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Speaker 1: on your paper on one single papyrus sheet. And in
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Speaker 1: both letters John says, I have more to say but
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Speaker 1: I'm not going to write it, verse 12, have many
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Speaker 1: things to write to you, I do not want to
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Speaker 1: do it with paper and ink. In 3 John verse 13,
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Speaker 1: I had many things to write to you but I'm
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Speaker 1: not willing to write them to you in pen and ink.
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Speaker 1: He says, look, I'm just going to keep it brief
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Speaker 1: because I'm going to come and I'm going to tell
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Speaker 1: you the rest. A letter's good, a visit's better. Very
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Speaker 1: brief letters, both of them written to an individual, one
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Speaker 1: to a lady, one to a man. They are classic
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Speaker 1: in the sense that they are in the correspondence style
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Speaker 1: of the Roman Empire. They're classic examples of personal correspondence
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Speaker 1: in the way that they're laid out. The Apostle John
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Speaker 1: is not mentioned in either of these letters, but he
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Speaker 1: is widely held and has always been held to be
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Speaker 1: the author by long-standing universal tradition. The first people who
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Speaker 1: read the letters knew they came from John and they
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Speaker 1: told the next folks and the next folks and the
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Speaker 1: next folks and there's never been a variation from that
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Speaker 1: so that it is universally accepted that John is the author.
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Speaker 1: They would then likely have been written the same time
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Speaker 1: or soon after 1 John which was at the end
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Speaker 1: of his life, he was the last living Apostle, all
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Speaker 1: the rest were dead and it was about 90 to
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Speaker 1: 95 A.D. at the end of that first century while
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Speaker 1: he was in ministry at Ephesus that he wrote all
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Speaker 1: three of these and also received the Revelation just after that,
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Speaker 1: probably in the year 96. Now the reason for writing...
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Speaker 1: And calling people to live in the truth is because
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Speaker 1: of the ever-present threat of false teachers. Only the threat
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Speaker 1: here is unique. You might say, well if he was
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Speaker 1: worried about false teachers, why didn't he send the letter
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Speaker 1: to the church at Ephesus there or the church at
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Speaker 1: some other point in Asia Minor, Sardis, Pergamum, whatever? Or
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Speaker 1: why didn't he send it to the universal church? Why
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Speaker 1: does he write a letter to a lady and a
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Speaker 1: letter to a man? and warn them about false teachers
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Speaker 1: and call them to the truth. Well he already wrote
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Speaker 1: his letter to everybody and that was 1 John. And
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Speaker 1: you certainly haven't forgotten that 1 John basically was directed
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Speaker 1: at this same problem of false teachers. 1 John 2.18, children,
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Speaker 1: it is the last hour, just as you heard that
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Speaker 1: antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen, for
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Speaker 1: this we know it is the last hour. Verse 22,
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Speaker 1: who is the liar but the one who denies that
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Speaker 1: Jesus is the Christ? Verse 23, whoever denies the Son
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Speaker 1: doesn't have the Father. And again over in chapter 4
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Speaker 1: he says, try the spirits, don't believe everybody. See if
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Speaker 1: they're from God. Many false prophets have gone out into
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Speaker 1: the world. Verse 3, every spirit that doesn't confess Jesus
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Speaker 1: is not of God, this is the spirit of the Antichrist.
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Speaker 1: I mean at the heart of the whole writing of
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Speaker 1: 1 John was the issue that false teachers were present.
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Speaker 1: And they were giving a false standard of salvation. And
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Speaker 1: so John in 1 John provided doctrinal tests and behavioral
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Speaker 1: tests by which you could evaluate the truth. And so
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Speaker 1: having written the letter to all in general, it is
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Speaker 1: in that sense a general epistle, he now writes these
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Speaker 1: two letters to one lady and one man. Why so?
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Speaker 1: Because in ancient times preachers traveled. and stayed in homes.
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Speaker 1: Inns were brothels, places of disease, unacceptable unless one was
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Speaker 1: in desperate need. And those who preached the gospel along
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Speaker 1: with any other traveling teachers were itinerant, moving all over
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Speaker 1: everywhere and depending upon hospitality. You remember when Jesus sent
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Speaker 1: out the Twelve, you remember that two by two in Galilee?
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Speaker 1: He gave them some criteria by which to determine what
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Speaker 1: homes they were going to stay in and how to
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Speaker 1: deal with that. And then when He sent out the
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Speaker 1: 72 by 2, later on He gave them the same
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Speaker 1: kind of instruction about where they would stay and where
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Speaker 1: they wouldn't stay and to go to a place and
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Speaker 1: if you were received there to remain there and so forth.
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Speaker 1: That was pretty much how it worked. You traveled around
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Speaker 1: and you preached and somebody showed you hospitality. Well this
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Speaker 1: appealed greatly to the false teachers. They would claim to
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Speaker 1: be the true teachers of the true gospel, the true
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Speaker 1: representatives of God. They would engage in an itinerant ministry.
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Speaker 1: They would come into town and they'd say, we're the
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Speaker 1: true preachers of God. They would be strangers to the
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Speaker 1: people in the town. They would approach those who were
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Speaker 1: in the church. They would approach those who professed Christ.
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Speaker 1: They would say that they also were preachers of the gospel.
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Speaker 1: They would even come to the church. seek a place
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Speaker 1: to stay, they would stay there and once embedded there,
24:06
Speaker 1: they would begin to teach their lies and to seek
24:08
Speaker 1: their converts and subvert the church. No doubt they had
24:12
Speaker 1: done it in Corinth. No doubt those demonized false teachers
24:19
Speaker 1: who came in and were ripping and shredding the Corinthian
24:22
Speaker 1: church had found themselves a place to stay in the
24:25
Speaker 1: homes of the people there and from that embedded vantage
24:29
Speaker 1: point were sowing the seeds of lying deception. And so
24:35
Speaker 1: you have in 2 John, for example, verse 10, if
24:41
Speaker 1: anyone comes to you and doesn't bring this teaching, don't
24:43
Speaker 1: receive them into your house. Don't even give Him a greeting.
24:48
Speaker 1: You have to be very careful or you're going to
24:50
Speaker 1: wind up participating in His evil deed. On the other hand,
24:55
Speaker 1: look at 3 John verse 6, when the true preachers come,
25:00
Speaker 1: even though they are strangers, verse 5. When they come,
25:05
Speaker 1: you do well to send them on their way in
25:07
Speaker 1: a manner worthy of God, for they went out for
25:09
Speaker 1: the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles,
25:11
Speaker 1: therefore we ought to support such men that we may
25:14
Speaker 1: be fellow workers with the truth. So they're going to
25:16
Speaker 1: be itinerant preachers. Some of them you're going to open
25:19
Speaker 1: your home to and some of them you're not. Once
25:22
Speaker 1: they become embedded in a home and they can take
25:25
Speaker 1: advantage of someone's weakness or lack of understanding, and from
25:29
Speaker 1: that point they can begin to ply their lies and deception,
25:33
Speaker 1: They become dangerous and deadly. May well have been that
25:40
Speaker 1: this lady unwittingly, unintentionally had actually opened her house to
25:47
Speaker 1: some false teachers. And that is why he says, if
25:51
Speaker 1: someone comes to you again and doesn't bring the teaching,
25:54
Speaker 1: don't receive him into your house. And you know, this
26:00
Speaker 1: was not an easy thing. because Christians were called to hospitality, right?
26:07
Speaker 1: Philoxenos in the Greek, hospitality. It means loving strangers... loving strangers.
26:15
Speaker 1: But the church, remember now, is the pillar and ground
26:17
Speaker 1: of the truth. And it's not just that you have
26:21
Speaker 1: to be afraid of who gets in the pulpit, you
26:25
Speaker 1: also have to be afraid of who gets in the homes.
26:29
Speaker 1: The church has to be protected from deception. Not only
26:34
Speaker 1: by who it allows to preach in the pulpit, it's
26:36
Speaker 1: not likely that a church committed to the truth is
26:38
Speaker 1: all of a sudden going to invite a false teacher
26:39
Speaker 1: in and the leadership of the church is going to say, well,
26:41
Speaker 1: go ahead and have at it. The leadership of the
26:43
Speaker 1: church are fairly discerning. Hopefully if it's a Bible-teaching church,
26:46
Speaker 1: they're not going to let that happen. But unwitting people
26:49
Speaker 1: who want to be hospitable may allow false teachers to
26:53
Speaker 1: become embedded in their congregation with disastrous results. Romans 12,
27:01
Speaker 1: 13 says that we're to practice hospitality. We're to open
27:05
Speaker 1: our lives and our homes to strangers. Hebrews 13, 2
27:08
Speaker 1: even goes so far as to say, do not neglect
27:11
Speaker 1: to show hospitality to strangers for by this some have
27:14
Speaker 1: entertained angels without knowing it. And that, by the way,
27:17
Speaker 1: was written 25 to 30 years before 2 John. So
27:23
Speaker 1: it might have been that this lady was thinking to
27:25
Speaker 1: herself when these strangers came along, if in fact that
27:28
Speaker 1: was the case, wow, this is an opportunity for me
27:30
Speaker 1: to open my home to these who proclaim to represent
27:33
Speaker 1: the true God, who claim to be part of us
27:36
Speaker 1: and I'm going to let them in because who knows,
27:38
Speaker 1: I might be entertaining angels without knowing it, like Abraham
27:43
Speaker 1: and Sarah did, you remember, back in Genesis. And Peter
27:47
Speaker 1: had said... No less than Peter, the leader of the Apostles,
27:51
Speaker 1: be hospitable to one another without complaint, 1 Peter 4
27:54
Speaker 1: and 9. In other words, do it without complaining that
27:57
Speaker 1: you're having to do it. And in fact, 1 Timothy
28:01
Speaker 1: chapter 5, it was the Apostle Paul who wrote that
28:04
Speaker 1: a woman couldn't even be put on the list of
28:07
Speaker 1: widows in the church when her husband died if she
28:10
Speaker 1: hasn't shown hospitality to strangers. And also, by the way,
28:15
Speaker 1: First Timothy 3 says you can't even be an elder
28:17
Speaker 1: or a pastor in the church if you don't have hospitality.
28:21
Speaker 1: So you see, hospitality was raised to a pretty high level.
28:25
Speaker 1: It was a matter of spiritual virtue. It might be
28:28
Speaker 1: a matter even of entertaining angels without knowing it. You
28:32
Speaker 1: were to do it without complaining. You were to do
28:35
Speaker 1: it if you ever hoped to be on the list.
28:37
Speaker 1: And it is possible that this woman was even a
28:40
Speaker 1: widow because her husband isn't mentioned but her children are.
28:45
Speaker 1: So she might have felt, I'm absolutely doing the right thing.
28:49
Speaker 1: But there was always something and always will be something
28:51
Speaker 1: more important than hospitality. What is it? What is it? Truth.
28:58
Speaker 1: I'll say it again, truth is the most important thing
29:00
Speaker 1: there is. Even the Jews had a saying, there are
29:04
Speaker 1: six things, the first of which a man eats in
29:08
Speaker 1: this world and by which he is exalted in the
29:11
Speaker 1: world to come. There are six things. The first of
29:16
Speaker 1: which a man eats in this world and by which
29:18
Speaker 1: he's exalted in the world to come. And the first
29:20
Speaker 1: one on the list is this, hospitality to strangers. So
29:24
Speaker 1: it was not only in the fabric of their Christian experience,
29:28
Speaker 1: it was part of being Jewish. And so perhaps, well-intentioned,
29:35
Speaker 1: this woman had done this. And John had heard about
29:41
Speaker 1: it and gave her instruction inspired by the Holy Spirit
29:45
Speaker 1: which then became a personal letter with a very public impact.
29:49
Speaker 1: In the early church, this kind of caring for people
29:51
Speaker 1: was an essential service, a tangible way to share the
29:54
Speaker 1: love of Christ with strangers as they went from town
29:56
Speaker 1: to town with the gospel. And that was God's plan.
30:01
Speaker 1: God's timing was perfect and one of the things that
30:04
Speaker 1: existed in the world at the time of the New
30:06
Speaker 1: Testament was the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. Rome had
30:08
Speaker 1: basically knocked down all the walls between all the countries
30:12
Speaker 1: in the Mediterranean world so that people could cross the
30:14
Speaker 1: borders without having problems and that made the gospel spread faster.
30:19
Speaker 1: The Romans built roads everywhere. Roman roads, of course, are legendary.
30:23
Speaker 1: Rome developed tolerant laws. Rome erased the threat. of borders.
30:29
Speaker 1: Rome stationed soldiers all over the place to make travel
30:32
Speaker 1: safe everywhere in the empire. Well, the Romans all did
30:35
Speaker 1: that to advance their government, but God used it for
30:40
Speaker 1: the fast spread of the gospel. So the church would
30:44
Speaker 1: welcome the preachers like Paul who was given lodging by Lydia,
30:49
Speaker 1: like Jason in Thessalonica, like Gaius in Corinth, or Philip
30:53
Speaker 1: the Evangelist who was given a place Among the believers
30:56
Speaker 1: in Caesarea or a man named Nason in Jerusalem, it
30:59
Speaker 1: was pretty typical to do that. Now the false teachers
31:03
Speaker 1: soon figured that out. They could make a good living
31:08
Speaker 1: as an itinerant preacher, leeching off people everywhere they went
31:13
Speaker 1: and saying just enough to seduce people into thinking they
31:16
Speaker 1: preached the truth and then preying on the gullible Christians
31:20
Speaker 1: who were loving them in a kind way and getting
31:22
Speaker 1: a hearing for their lies. and bringing corruption and distress
31:26
Speaker 1: into the church. Even the pagans function like this. I
31:31
Speaker 1: found an old writing of Lucian, the Greek poet. In
31:35
Speaker 1: his writing, he drew a word picture in a peregrinus
31:40
Speaker 1: showing an itinerant charlatan who lived on the fat of
31:45
Speaker 1: the land by traveling to Christian communities and settling in
31:49
Speaker 1: to live comfortably at the expense of the Christians, perpetrating
31:53
Speaker 1: himself on them under the guise of being one of them.
31:57
Speaker 1: So in the context of this issue of hospitality, John writes,
32:06
Speaker 1: you have to be careful to maintain the truth. We
32:12
Speaker 1: live in the truth. We live in the truth. Sound
32:19
Speaker 1: doctrine is always the test of fellowship. always. The truth,
32:28
Speaker 1: listen carefully, is never served, the truth is never honored,
32:33
Speaker 1: the truth is never respected, the truth is never aided
32:36
Speaker 1: by those who deny it or those who attack it.
32:42
Speaker 1: Nothing is gained by being exposed to error. Don't let
32:46
Speaker 1: it in your church, obviously the church is the pillar
32:48
Speaker 1: and support of the truth. Don't let it in your house.
32:53
Speaker 1: You cannot hold up the truth and welcome in those
32:56
Speaker 1: who seek to destroy it. So if we get a
32:58
Speaker 1: little defensive around here about protecting the truth, you will
33:02
Speaker 1: understand our mandate. The truth matters more than anything else. People,
33:08
Speaker 1: if the church loses the truth, it isn't the church.
33:12
Speaker 1: Romans 16, greet one another with a holy kiss, verse 16.
33:18
Speaker 1: All the churches of Christ greet you, a great statement
33:20
Speaker 1: of love and affection. Immediately after, now I urge you, brethren,
33:24
Speaker 1: keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances
33:29
Speaker 1: contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away
33:33
Speaker 1: from them. For such men are slaves not of our
33:38
Speaker 1: Lord Christ but of their own appetites and by their
33:41
Speaker 1: smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
33:46
Speaker 1: If you're sitting in a church full of deceivers, get out.
33:50
Speaker 1: If you're hanging on to some denominational affiliation that has
33:53
Speaker 1: abandoned the truth of the gospel, get out. The truth
34:00
Speaker 1: and lies are not compatible. In Galatians chapter 1 and
34:07
Speaker 1: verses 8 and 9, even though we are an angel
34:09
Speaker 1: from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to
34:13
Speaker 1: that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
34:17
Speaker 1: Let him be accursed. Verse 9, as we said before,
34:20
Speaker 1: so I say again, just to make sure you get it,
34:21
Speaker 1: if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary
34:24
Speaker 1: to that which you received, let him be accursed. For
34:29
Speaker 1: am I now seeking the favor of men or of God?
34:32
Speaker 1: Am I striving to please men? If I were still
34:35
Speaker 1: trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant
34:37
Speaker 1: of Christ. Take your choice. What makes you feel the weight?
34:42
Speaker 1: Do you feel the weight of the Word or do
34:43
Speaker 1: you feel the weight of human opinions? Anybody preaching anything
34:48
Speaker 1: other than the truth is accursed. In 2 Thessalonians 3,
34:55
Speaker 1: verse 6, we command you, brother, in the name of
34:57
Speaker 1: our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every
35:01
Speaker 1: brother who leads an unruly life and not according to
35:06
Speaker 1: the tradition which you receive from us. For you yourselves
35:09
Speaker 1: know how you ought to follow our example because we
35:12
Speaker 1: didn't act in an undisciplined manner among you. Even if
35:16
Speaker 1: you find a person who deviates in their conduct, stay away.
35:22
Speaker 1: Down in verse 14, if anyone does not obey our
35:25
Speaker 1: instruction in this letter, that's the revelation of God, take
35:29
Speaker 1: special note of that man, do not associate with him
35:31
Speaker 1: so that he may be put to shame. Nothing is gained... nothing
35:36
Speaker 1: is gained by mixing error with the truth. It is
35:40
Speaker 1: always destructive. Titus 3.10 says,' Reject a factious man after
35:45
Speaker 1: a first and second warning, knowing that such a man
35:47
Speaker 1: is perverted and sinning, being self-condemned.' You find somebody who
35:51
Speaker 1: takes a position opposite the truth, you confront him, you
35:55
Speaker 1: go through the discipline process and you put him out
35:58
Speaker 1: because he's twisting, he's sinning, and built into that is
36:03
Speaker 1: its own condemnation. Another passage that addresses this, 2 Corinthians 6.
36:09
Speaker 1: Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership
36:13
Speaker 1: have righteousness and lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness?
36:17
Speaker 1: What harmony has Christ with Belial? What has a believer
36:20
Speaker 1: in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple
36:24
Speaker 1: of God with idols? Come out from the midst and
36:28
Speaker 1: be separate, says the Lord. Don't touch what is unclean.
36:32
Speaker 1: Everything in the Scripture calls us as the church to
36:37
Speaker 1: be separate from God. And this goes back to one
36:44
Speaker 1: of the passages that was quoted in our baptism, Psalm 1,
36:48
Speaker 1: how blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the
36:50
Speaker 1: counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners,
36:53
Speaker 1: nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight
36:56
Speaker 1: is in the law of the Lord and in His
36:57
Speaker 1: law he meditates day and night. The point is he
37:00
Speaker 1: hasn't got any room or any interest in meditating on
37:03
Speaker 1: anything else. That's why I wasn't interested in going to
37:07
Speaker 1: a liberal seminary. had been asked to go to a
37:12
Speaker 1: school of theology in Southern California, very liberal, to complete
37:15
Speaker 1: a doctorate degree. And I went there and they looked
37:19
Speaker 1: at all my transcripts and they said, you have too
37:21
Speaker 1: much Bible to get a doctorate in theology. So they said,
37:27
Speaker 1: you're going to have to be able to read, I
37:31
Speaker 1: think it was two or three hundred books in order
37:35
Speaker 1: to qualify for this degree. And at the time I thought, well,
37:37
Speaker 1: maybe I need to just go through this drill. And
37:39
Speaker 1: they told me that most of them were in French
37:41
Speaker 1: and German. So I trudged off to Glendale Community College,
37:46
Speaker 1: Patricia will remember this well, and learned German, thinking I
37:49
Speaker 1: would learn German and then do that. And after I
37:51
Speaker 1: did that, I'd learn French and do that and I'd
37:53
Speaker 1: read those books. After making this noble effort at German,
37:58
Speaker 1: I went down to get the first course assignments. The
38:02
Speaker 1: first course they wanted me to do was The Ethics
38:04
Speaker 1: of Jesus in the Cinema. which is a wacky title
38:09
Speaker 1: and I had no interest in that. And the second
38:11
Speaker 1: one had to do with trying to find the real Jesus.
38:15
Speaker 1: And I went into the dean and I said, you know,
38:17
Speaker 1: I'm not even going to... I' m going to start with... I' m going
38:19
Speaker 1: to end before I start. I already know the truth.
38:21
Speaker 1: I'm not about to spend the rest of my educational
38:24
Speaker 1: efforts learning lies. It would not have been helpful. It
38:30
Speaker 1: would have corrupted my conviction. It would have worn away
38:35
Speaker 1: my resolve. In fact, that's exactly what 2 Timothy 2 says,
38:43
Speaker 1: verse 15,' Be diligent to present yourself approved to God,
38:47
Speaker 1: a workman doesn't need to be ashamed, handling accurately the
38:50
Speaker 1: Word of truth.' Love that. How are you going to
38:53
Speaker 1: handle the Word of God accurately? Verse 16,' Avoid worldly
38:57
Speaker 1: empty chatter, it leads to further ungodliness and their talk
39:04
Speaker 1: spreads like gangrene.' Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men
39:10
Speaker 1: who have gone astray from the truth. Stay away from
39:15
Speaker 1: that stuff. Verse 21 sums it up, if you want
39:21
Speaker 1: to be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master,
39:24
Speaker 1: prepared for every good work, verse 21 says you have
39:27
Speaker 1: to cleanse yourself from these things. What things? The effect
39:32
Speaker 1: of worldly empty chatter, ungodliness and talk that spreads like
39:38
Speaker 1: gangrene eating away at the truth. Now all of that
39:43
Speaker 1: takes us back to 2 John. John says, Truth is everything.
39:51
Speaker 1: I love in the truth with all who know the
39:54
Speaker 1: truth for the sake of the truth. Grace and mercy
39:59
Speaker 1: and peace comes in truth and love. And I'm glad
40:05
Speaker 1: to find some of your children walking in truth. It's
40:12
Speaker 1: what it's all about, folks. It's about the truth. It's
40:15
Speaker 1: about the truth. We're going to look into this little epistle.
40:22
Speaker 1: I'm not going to have time tonight to develop this,
40:25
Speaker 1: but I'm going to give you five things in this
40:27
Speaker 1: little epistle that's all about the truth. First is I'm
40:31
Speaker 1: going to talk to you next time about living in
40:34
Speaker 1: the truth. What does that mean? Then I'm going to
40:38
Speaker 1: talk to you about loving in the truth. And then
40:42
Speaker 1: we're going to look at being loyal to the truth.
40:46
Speaker 1: And then we're going to look at looking for the truth.
40:50
Speaker 1: And we're going to close out this little letter learning
40:54
Speaker 1: more about the truth. Living, loving, loyal, looking and learning.
41:03
Speaker 1: This is a postcard, it really is. It's a postcard.
41:08
Speaker 1: Compared to Luke, it's a postcard. But it isn't a
41:14
Speaker 1: small message. It's a big message. And the dynamite here
41:18
Speaker 1: comes in a small package, but it is dynamite. This
41:24
Speaker 1: is not just a call to recognize the truth, this
41:27
Speaker 1: is an exhortation to live in it, love in it,
41:31
Speaker 1: be loyal to it, look for it and learn it.
41:35
Speaker 1: This is filled with warnings about what will happen if
41:39
Speaker 1: you don't. And this, my friends, is at the heart.
41:44
Speaker 1: of all the issues in the church. If we don't
41:48
Speaker 1: know the truth and we don't live for the truth
41:50
Speaker 1: and we aren't the pillar and ground of the truth,
41:52
Speaker 1: then the church has a deficient immune system. We lack discernment.
41:58
Speaker 1: And if we lack discernment, we'll die from a thousand illnesses.
42:02
Speaker 1: We can't have a low commitment to divine truth. We
42:05
Speaker 1: can't have an open door to those who deceive by
42:08
Speaker 1: misinterpreting and misrepresenting the Of all things to be protected,
42:13
Speaker 1: the truth is most important.
42:24
Speaker 1: We need to
42:26
Speaker 1: be soldiers for the truth, don't we? Guarding the truth
42:31
Speaker 1: is critical. We don't just preach the truth, we contend
42:35
Speaker 1: for it. We fight for it. Well, do you now
42:40
Speaker 1: get a little bit of a feel for what this
42:42
Speaker 1: letter is going to tell you? It'll be a while
42:45
Speaker 1: until we can get into it because Tom Pennington asked
42:48
Speaker 1: me to come down and install him down there in Dallas.
42:52
Speaker 1: And he, I decided that since he gave me 16 years,
42:56
Speaker 1: I'd give him a Sunday or so. Out of gratitude
43:01
Speaker 1: and love for him, I'm so thrilled to be able
43:03
Speaker 1: to do that. But Next time we meet on Sunday night,
43:06
Speaker 1: we'll get back into this epistle and we'll find out
43:08
Speaker 1: what it is to live in the truth. Father, thank
43:10
Speaker 1: You for just opening our eyes tonight to what is
43:14
Speaker 1: basic but so tragically gets lost. The church is the
43:21
Speaker 1: pillar and ground of the truth. I'm not interested in
43:25
Speaker 1: anybody's opinion, not even my own. I'm not interested in
43:30
Speaker 1: what a committee decides or a council. I'm not interested
43:35
Speaker 1: in coming to a compromise or conciliating. I'm not interested
43:40
Speaker 1: in making a truce with those who believe lies. We
43:45
Speaker 1: are the pillar and the foundation of the truth in
43:47
Speaker 1: the world. This is the one temple where people should
43:51
Speaker 1: be able to go and hear the truth, certainly not
43:56
Speaker 1: to have lies or even the truth depreciated and diminished
44:01
Speaker 1: and substituted with some man-centered psychology. Keep us faithful to
44:06
Speaker 1: the truth as a church and as individuals. Give us
44:09
Speaker 1: all discernment. Help us never to open our minds, open
44:14
Speaker 1: our homes, open our lives to those who come to deceive.
44:19
Speaker 1: Give us all discernment. Living in the truth is really
44:24
Speaker 1: living in the knowledge of you, the true knowledge of you.
44:27
Speaker 1: Living in the truth makes it possible for us to
44:29
Speaker 1: worship you for the God you are, worship you for
44:32
Speaker 1: the Lord Christ you are, worship you for the Holy
44:34
Speaker 1: Spirit that you are Living in the truth informs everything.
44:39
Speaker 1: We thank you that you've given us your truth. We
44:42
Speaker 1: thank you that we can hold it in our hands,
44:46
Speaker 1: that we have the mind of Christ and therefore the
44:49
Speaker 1: mind of God. We know what you think about everything
44:53
Speaker 1: you have revealed to us, and we live in that truth,
44:58
Speaker 1: and we will contend for that truth, and we will
45:00
Speaker 1: proclaim that truth. And those who do not but abandon
45:04
Speaker 1: that truth may call themselves the church, but they are
45:07
Speaker 1: no longer the pillar and ground of the church, and
45:09
Speaker 1: therefore they no longer fulfill that responsibility in the world,
45:12
Speaker 1: which is their responsibility and alone their responsibility to hold
45:20
Speaker 1: up your glorious truth. And we say what Jesus said,
45:24
Speaker 1: thy word is truth. We thank you for it. In
45:29
Speaker 1: your Son's name, amen. You've been listening to John MacArthur,
45:36
Speaker 1: Bible teacher with Grace to You. For free access to
45:39
Speaker 1: all of John's lessons and a listing of study Bibles
45:42
Speaker 1: and books available for sale, visit Grace to You's website
45:46
Speaker 1: at gty.org. John MacArthur and Grace to You reserve all
45:51
Speaker 1: copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available
45:56
Speaker 1: at gty.org, and it includes instructions for and limitations on
46:02
Speaker 1: duplicating this digital file.