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

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Speaker 1: Well we return in our study of the Word of
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Speaker 1: God tonight to 2 John... 2 John, just thirteen verses but
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Speaker 1: packed with wonderful truth and blessing. I've entitled this little
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Speaker 1: study of this brief epistle by John, Living in the Truth... Living
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Speaker 1: in the Truth. Anybody who knows me very well knows
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Speaker 1: that I am driven by the truth. compelled by the truth,
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Speaker 1: I am burdened with the truth, I am obligated to
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Speaker 1: the truth. The whole of my life and ministry is
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Speaker 1: bent in the direction of knowing the truth, guarding the truth,
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Speaker 1: proclaiming the truth. That really does define me top to bottom,
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Speaker 1: side to side in total. And that is essentially the
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Speaker 1: theme of this postcard epistle, just a brief letter. The
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Speaker 1: idea here is to call every reader to be faithful
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Speaker 1: to the truth, recognizing that we live in a world
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Speaker 1: of lies and a world of liars, deceivers and their
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Speaker 1: deceptions are everywhere. Five times the word for truth appears here,
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Speaker 1: the word aletheia. in the very first section. Let me
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Speaker 1: read verses 1 to 4, the elder to the chosen
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Speaker 1: lady and her children whom I love in truth, and
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Speaker 1: not only I but also all who know the truth
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Speaker 1: for the sake of the truth which abides in us
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Speaker 1: and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace
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Speaker 1: will be with us from God the Father and from
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in truth and love.
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Speaker 1: I was very glad to find some of your children
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Speaker 1: walking in truth. just as we have received commandment to
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Speaker 1: do from the Father. Five times in the very beginning
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Speaker 1: we are confronted with the Greek word aletheia which means truth. This,
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Speaker 1: of course, is true of 3 John as well. In
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Speaker 1: 3 John the emphasis is on the truth, verse 1,
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Speaker 1: Gaius whom I love in truth. Verse 3, I was
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Speaker 1: glad when brethren came and bore witness to your truth.
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Speaker 1: That is how you are walking in truth. Verse 4,
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Speaker 1: I have no greater joy than this to hear of
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Speaker 1: my children walking in the truth. Verse 8, therefore we
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Speaker 1: ought to support such men that we may be fellow
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Speaker 1: workers with the truth. And then verse 12, Demetrius has
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Speaker 1: received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth. itself.
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Speaker 1: John writes these two little letters emphasizing the priority of
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Speaker 1: living in the truth, two personal letters, one to a
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Speaker 1: lady unnamed called the Chosen Lady, one to a man
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Speaker 1: named Gaius, both of them clear calls to live in
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Speaker 1: the truth. The world is then divided between those who
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Speaker 1: know the truth and live the truth and those who
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Speaker 1: live in deception. That's how the world is split, the
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Speaker 1: deceived and those who know the truth. John, of course,
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Speaker 1: the Apostle John, the companion and intimate friend of the
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Speaker 1: truth incarnate, Jesus Christ, was inspired by the Holy Spirit
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Speaker 1: to provide these two letters to the point very focused,
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Speaker 1: very direct, unmistakably clear as calls to live in the truth.
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Speaker 1: I've said this so many times, I repeat it again
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Speaker 1: for the benefit of those who may hear only this message,
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Speaker 1: the most important thing in the world is the truth
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Speaker 1: of God and so John gives us here this call
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Speaker 1: to the truth. It is not a solitary call, it
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Speaker 1: is merely an echo of what is all through the Scripture.
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Speaker 1: But the specific prompting to write here was the ever-present
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Speaker 1: threat of deceivers, the ever-present threat of false teachers. And
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Speaker 1: as we noted in our opening message on this epistle,
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Speaker 1: false teachers would travel around as the true preachers of
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Speaker 1: the gospel did and they would seek to find a
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Speaker 1: home in the churches and to find hospitality from the
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Speaker 1: believers in those churches and to settle into a Christian home,
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Speaker 1: win the favor of the family, infiltrate the church. under
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Speaker 1: the support of that church teach their damning lies. And
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Speaker 1: as I told you last time, Christians were obligated to
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Speaker 1: show hospitality to other believers, to embrace strangers within the
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Speaker 1: family of God and to welcome them in in order
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Speaker 1: that they might be received by fellow brothers and sisters
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Speaker 1: in Christ, the true preachers and the true teachers and
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Speaker 1: the true saints took advantage of that, of course, but
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Speaker 1: so did the liars and deceivers and charlatans and frauds
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Speaker 1: and emissaries of Satan, the false apostles and the false
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Speaker 1: teachers who masquerading as true preachers of the gospel found
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Speaker 1: their way into homes set up embedded in the fellowship
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Speaker 1: taught their subtle but gangrenous lies, gained converts, twisted the gospel,
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Speaker 1: subverted the church, robbed it of its power and its witness.
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Speaker 1: Some of the believers in the name of hospitality, perhaps undiscerning,
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Speaker 1: opened their homes unwittingly to these false teachers. And it
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Speaker 1: is very likely that the lady addressed in this letter
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Speaker 1: did just that. The letter then being written to her
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Speaker 1: to warn her about such lack of discernment. As we
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Speaker 1: said last time, it is written to a lady and
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Speaker 1: her children who are loved in the truth. And this
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Speaker 1: lady is warned in verse 7. Many deceivers have gone
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Speaker 1: out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus
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Speaker 1: Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver
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Speaker 1: and the antichrist. Watch yourselves. In verse 10, if anyone
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Speaker 1: comes to you and doesn't bring this teaching, do not
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Speaker 1: receive him into your house and do not give him
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Speaker 1: a greeting for the one who gives him a greeting
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Speaker 1: participates in his evil deed, let alone gives him lodging.
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Speaker 1: mention of this lady's sister. The children of your chosen
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Speaker 1: sister greet you. Apparently he had met either the sister
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Speaker 1: or the children of the sister and maybe that's how
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Speaker 1: John heard of the lady having opened her home to
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Speaker 1: a deceiver. Whatever may be the particular incident, the letter
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Speaker 1: is written to instruct believers to make sure that they
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Speaker 1: live in the truth. and avoid any connection or association
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Speaker 1: with those who lie and deceive. Nothing threatens the church
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Speaker 1: more than false doctrine, nothing. Hospitality was a Christian duty,
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Speaker 1: but hospitality with discernment. We are to make sure that
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Speaker 1: we stay far away from false doctrine. Every time you
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Speaker 1: find such an injunction in Scripture, it is a warning
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Speaker 1: of the damaging influence of subtle deception. The issue behind
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Speaker 1: the letter is discernment to protect the truth, even down
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Speaker 1: to the personal level. It is an indication that God
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Speaker 1: does not want even one believer or one family exposed
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Speaker 1: to because the influence of error in that one family
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Speaker 1: can be spread like gangrene, as Paul says in 2
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Speaker 1: Timothy 2. It is very important that you protect your
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Speaker 1: mind and you protect your family from the invasion of
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Speaker 1: error right in your home. You say, well we wouldn't
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Speaker 1: let a false teacher in our home knowingly, that's right.
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Speaker 1: And false teachers don't need to stay in homes much nowadays,
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Speaker 1: they can stay at the hotel because they're so rich.
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Speaker 1: But you have to be careful even when you turn
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Speaker 1: on TBN. While there are certainly true teachers that broadcast
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Speaker 1: on that network, it is mostly a bed of false
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Speaker 1: teachers and you need to make sure you don't allow
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Speaker 1: them to teach their deceptions in your home. The truth
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Speaker 1: is never served, the truth is never honored, the truth
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Speaker 1: is never respected, the truth is never aided in any
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Speaker 1: way by those who either deny it or attack it
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Speaker 1: or misrepresent it. Sound doctrine is the test of fellowship.
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Speaker 1: That's essentially what the letter is saying. at the core
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Speaker 1: of the Christian gospel is the test of fellowship and
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Speaker 1: it is therefore the basis of separation. You join with
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Speaker 1: those who are in the truth, you separate from those
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Speaker 1: who are not. Now all that is behind these two,
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Speaker 1: as I call them, postcards. They are exhortations and warnings
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Speaker 1: that need to be heeded today as they needed to
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Speaker 1: be heeded at any day. And I think particularly today
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Speaker 1: because we're drowning in false doctrine. We don't even have
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Speaker 1: to have a false teacher there. They can come by
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Speaker 1: way of their writings, by way of their radio broadcasts,
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Speaker 1: by way of their tapes, CDs, television. The church today
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Speaker 1: has such a deficiency in discernment. The church is so
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Speaker 1: doctrinally ignorant today. the ability to sort out the truth
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Speaker 1: from error. It has a deficient immune system. It has
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Speaker 1: a case of spiritual aids. It is unprotected because it
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Speaker 1: has a low commitment to divine truth. It is an
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Speaker 1: open door to those who deceive by misrepresentation and misinterpretation.
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Speaker 1: There's an interesting new book out. I was reading a
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Speaker 1: review of it. It is written by a man named
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Speaker 1: Alan Wolfe. who is a secularist. He does not believe
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Speaker 1: in God and he has no faith. He has written
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Speaker 1: this book, Evaluating Contemporary Evangelicalism. And the book was written
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Speaker 1: for his friends, all of the sociologists and psychologists and
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Speaker 1: all of his cronies, he says, who are afraid of
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Speaker 1: the encroachment of evangelicalism. They feel the pressure from the
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Speaker 1: religious right, they're worried about evangelicals taking over the society,
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Speaker 1: having too great an influence. And here is a non-believer,
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Speaker 1: a secularist who writes a book and says you don't
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Speaker 1: have anything to worry about with the evangelicals, you have
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Speaker 1: nothing to fear because in an effort to be relevant
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Speaker 1: They are abandoning all their tradition and all their doctrine.
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Speaker 1: Pretty sad commentary from the world. Even they can see it.
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Speaker 1: We cease to be a threat. Os Guinness has written
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Speaker 1: a new book, very penetrating book in which he says
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Speaker 1: the church in its effort to become relevant has become irrelevant.
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Speaker 1: It has decided to redefine itself in such clearly cultural
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Speaker 1: terms to appeal to the culture that it can't confront
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Speaker 1: the culture. The church is in a very serious situation.
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Speaker 1: It is going downhill at a warp speed, abandoning its doctrine,
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Speaker 1: abandoning its traditions. It is cutting itself off. It is
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Speaker 1: disconnecting itself from essentially what Christian truth and theology is.
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Speaker 1: Evangelicalism has reinvented itself and is simply an island with
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Speaker 1: no connections in the middle of the flow of human life.
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Speaker 1: It is moving at the same pace the culture moves
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Speaker 1: in the wrong direction. It is adrift because it has
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Speaker 1: pulled up its anchor in the past. If there's ever
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Speaker 1: a time when we need to call for the truth,
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Speaker 1: it's now. Really the book I wrote, Hard to Believe,
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Speaker 1: is a call for a reaffirmation of gospel truth which
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Speaker 1: has largely been abandoned in the new evangelicalism. But we
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Speaker 1: have to call for a return to truth on every
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Speaker 1: front at every point because the church, as Os Guinness
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Speaker 1: puts it, in the passion for relevance has become absolutely irrelevant.
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Speaker 1: And even as the secular writer sees it, and he
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Speaker 1: makes this statement, We have abandoned all that defines religion
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Speaker 1: because what defines religion is tradition and doctrine. And the
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Speaker 1: evangelical church can't dump its traditions fast enough, nor can
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Speaker 1: it disconnect itself from doctrine fast enough. We're going to
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Speaker 1: be finding ourselves as the odd church in the days ahead.
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Speaker 1: But we are going to passionately continue to contend for
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Speaker 1: the truth. And John's going to help us in this
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Speaker 1: little epistle. As we go through these verses, we're going
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Speaker 1: to learn about living in the truth, loving in the truth,
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Speaker 1: loyalty to the truth, looking for the truth, and learning
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Speaker 1: the truth. That's packed, isn't it? A lot here. Let's
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Speaker 1: start with the first section, living. in the truth, verses
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Speaker 1: 1 through 4. And I mentioned a moment ago five
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Speaker 1: times the word aletheia, the word for truth is mentioned here.
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Speaker 1: Clearly that becomes the theme. It is the truth that prevails.
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Speaker 1: It is the truth that dominates. It is the truth
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Speaker 1: that compels. And the first thing we need to understand
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Speaker 1: about the truth is that we are called to live
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Speaker 1: in the truth. All our life as Christians is lived
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Speaker 1: in the realm of divine truth. All that we do,
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Speaker 1: all that we think, all that we live, all that
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Speaker 1: we say is about the truth. And John shows us
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Speaker 1: several features of this in his introduction. Let me show
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Speaker 1: you how it is that we live in the truth.
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Speaker 1: First of all, the truth unites us. It is the
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Speaker 1: truth that ties us together. Look at verse 1, the
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Speaker 1: elder to the chosen lady and her children whom I
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Speaker 1: love in truth and not only I but also all
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Speaker 1: who know the truth. What he is saying here is
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Speaker 1: that our connection is the truth. It's not a denomination.
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Speaker 1: It's not spirituality as if it was some nebulous, self-defined thing.
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Speaker 1: Our connection is in a body of truth, the truth,
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Speaker 1: the revealed truth. It is the truth that unites us.
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Speaker 1: That is to say, all believers are linked together by
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Speaker 1: a common knowledge of and belief in the truth. If
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Speaker 1: you do not believe in the true Christ and the
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Speaker 1: true God and the true gospel, you are not a Christian.
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Speaker 1: You may believe in God, you may have your Christ
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Speaker 1: and you may think you are saved by believing something
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Speaker 1: about His death and resurrection, but if it is not
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Speaker 1: the true God revealed in Scripture, the true Christ revealed
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Speaker 1: in Scripture, and if it is not believing in the
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Speaker 1: true gospel with all of its elements in the work
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Speaker 1: of Christ and including true faith in the one and
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Speaker 1: only Savior Jesus Christ who provides salvation by grace alone,
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Speaker 1: in other words, if all the components aren't there that
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Speaker 1: are biblical but does not involve true commitment and turning
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Speaker 1: from sin to Christ, And you have fallen short of
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Speaker 1: the standard of salvation. Believers are linked in the body
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Speaker 1: of Christ, we are linked together with a common eternal
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Speaker 1: life by common knowledge of and belief in gospel truth.
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Speaker 1: And we're talking about gospel truth, the true view of God,
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Speaker 1: the true view of Christ, the true view of salvation
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Speaker 1: and the means of that salvation, all that is inherent
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Speaker 1: in that, God as the sovereign of the universe, the Creator,
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Speaker 1: God as Trinity, Christ as God in human flesh, Christ
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Speaker 1: as the perfection of God and man in indivisible unity,
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Speaker 1: Christ who lives a sinless life, dies a substitutionary death,
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Speaker 1: is raised from the grave in a literal physical resurrection,
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Speaker 1: ascends to heaven and intercedes for us. to return to
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Speaker 1: take us to be with Himself and then establish His
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Speaker 1: glorious kingdom on earth. This is the drivetrain of gospel
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Speaker 1: truth and that is what ties us together. And at
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Speaker 1: any point where someone does not believe that truth, whatever
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Speaker 1: they may claim about Christianity, they're not Christians. When I
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Speaker 1: was recently asked about the Episcopalian church, as I mentioned
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Speaker 1: to you some time ago, ordaining of this homosexual bishop,
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Speaker 1: I reminded people that this isn't the church, this is
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Speaker 1: the unchurch. This isn't the church of Christ, this is
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Speaker 1: the unchurch of antichrist. They don't believe the Bible. They
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Speaker 1: don't believe Jesus is God. They don't believe the gospel
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Speaker 1: of grace. This is not a church. This is the
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Speaker 1: spirit of antichrist. True believers are linked. not by an organization,
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Speaker 1: not by some nebulous testimony to Christ or God, but
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Speaker 1: by a common knowledge of and belief in the actual
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Speaker 1: gospel truth. And so the letter begins, the elder, that's
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Speaker 1: how John refers to himself, also 3 John, the elder.
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Speaker 1: Some say it means that he's mentioning he's old. And
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Speaker 1: that would be true, this is written in the end
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Speaker 1: of the first century, 90 to 95. He would be
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Speaker 1: very old, all the rest of the Apostles are long gone,
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Speaker 1: having been marked He is an old man. But he
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Speaker 1: doesn't really use the term that you might use in
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Speaker 1: that situation, referring to himself in some more explicit language
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Speaker 1: as an old man or the aged one. He uses
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Speaker 1: the term elder, I think, not so much to speak
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Speaker 1: of his age, although it could imply that, as to
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Speaker 1: speak of his spiritual oversight. Yes, he is an Apostle.
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Speaker 1: But the Apostles have passed from the scene, the churches
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Speaker 1: have been established and elders now shepherd the church, elders, pastors, overseers.
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Speaker 1: And He is one of them. In fact, He is
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Speaker 1: the most elite of them. He would be the only
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Speaker 1: elder alive who was also an apostle. The only elder
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Speaker 1: alive who was personally chosen by Jesus Christ to be
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Speaker 1: an apostle. The only... the only elder in the world who
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Speaker 1: had walked with Jesus during His earthly life been there
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Speaker 1: at the foot of the cross and given the care
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Speaker 1: of His mother and been there when He was raised
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Speaker 1: from the dead and been there for the forty days
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Speaker 1: while He spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom and
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Speaker 1: been there when He ascended into heaven and been there
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Speaker 1: when the Spirit of God came down. So He would
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Speaker 1: be viewed as the elder of all elders. He is
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Speaker 1: that elder of the church. The term could be used
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Speaker 1: to refer to an old man. Paul calls himself, however,
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Speaker 1: in Philemon 9, Paul the aged, wanting to refer to
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Speaker 1: his age. This is the only time, by the way,
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Speaker 1: in the New Testament when the word elder appears in
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Speaker 1: the singular. Church has always had elders, always a plurality.
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Speaker 1: Only here do you see it in the singular because
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Speaker 1: it is one man referring to himself. He is no
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Speaker 1: doubt at this time in Ephesus, that's the sort of
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Speaker 1: mother church of the churches in Asia Minor, modern Turkey.
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Speaker 1: And there were other elders there in Ephesus. We know
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Speaker 1: that from the twentieth chapter of Acts where Paul met
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Speaker 1: with the elders from the church at Ephesus at the
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Speaker 1: place called Miletus. But he is one of those elders
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Speaker 1: and an apostle. He would be certainly viewed as the
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Speaker 1: patriarchal elder, the patriarchal pastor over all of Asia Minor
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Speaker 1: and beyond. There are, by the way, some ancient documents
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Speaker 1: that call the Apostles elders because that would be an
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Speaker 1: easy transition, they maintained this immense spiritual authority. because they
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Speaker 1: were with Jesus and because they were the writers of Scripture,
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Speaker 1: John writing the gospel, three epistles and receiving the book
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Speaker 1: of Revelation. He identifies Himself then as the elder because
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Speaker 1: it gives Him weight and authority in the church. As
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Speaker 1: he begins this letter, he writes,' To the chosen lady
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Speaker 1: and her children, to the elect kuria, it's the feminine
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Speaker 1: form of kurias. Kurias is the word for Lord, Lord
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Speaker 1: and Lady. Old terms we hear in England, in the
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Speaker 1: courts of England, the Lord had some kind of sovereign power,
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Speaker 1: the Lady was His feminine counterpart. The Lady was so
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Speaker 1: called the Lord of the house being the master of
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Speaker 1: the house of the men, the Lady of the house
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Speaker 1: being the kuria. mastery as well, a certain lordship over
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Speaker 1: the home. She was the lady of the house. He
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Speaker 1: was the Lord in the sense of ultimate responsibility and authority,
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Speaker 1: but she had her sovereignty. She was the oikodespites, the
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Speaker 1: ruler of the house as the Apostle Paul identifies her.
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Speaker 1: And so it is to this lady who is called
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Speaker 1: chosen and to her children that John writes. May I
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Speaker 1: just grasp a thought here, the elder to the chosen lady,
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Speaker 1: doesn't that strike you as an interesting adjective, eklekte, to
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Speaker 1: call somebody the elect lady? You know, the doctrine of election,
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Speaker 1: the doctrine of divine sovereign choosing has been so suppressed
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Speaker 1: and repressed and has received so much bad press. that
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Speaker 1: we are reluctant to use it in polite company as
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Speaker 1: if just the use of it demands some kind of
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Speaker 1: long and convoluted explanation because it is so hard for
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Speaker 1: people to swallow. And yet here you have in a
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Speaker 1: very simple greeting the use of the term elect without explanation.
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Speaker 1: John simply identifies this lady as elect. That was a
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Speaker 1: common way to identify a believer, a designation that belongs
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Speaker 1: to every one of us. And yet I don't know
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Speaker 1: that I have ever received a letter in my life
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Speaker 1: that began to the elect John. But I am elect
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Speaker 1: and I have every right to be designated as elect,
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Speaker 1: and I rejoice that I am elect. And I understand
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Speaker 1: that I'm elect and I'm not ashamed that I'm elect.
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Speaker 1: Why is it that we have undermined that great doctrine
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Speaker 1: so long and with such diligence that we're afraid to
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Speaker 1: use the Word? This refers to the fact that God
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Speaker 1: had chosen this lady for salvation and there's no hesitance
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Speaker 1: to use it and there's no explanation of this great reality.
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Speaker 1: No different than calling someone a child of God, saved,
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Speaker 1: born again, a believer, a Christian, the chosen lady... the chosen lady.
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Speaker 1: Now at this point I need to give you a
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Speaker 1: little bit of an explanation. Interpreters have known no bounds
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Speaker 1: in explaining who this lady was. Commentators love that. There's
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Speaker 1: not enough in the text to occupy them so they
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Speaker 1: invent what's not there. and write pages and pages and
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Speaker 1: paragraphs and paragraphs. I read it, the elder to the
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Speaker 1: chosen lady. That's really not too hard to understand, the
26:34
Speaker 1: elder being John to the chosen lady, being whatever lady
26:39
Speaker 1: in his mind was the object of the letter. But interpreters,
26:45
Speaker 1: some say, this means the whole church, the whole church.
26:51
Speaker 1: Others have said The elect lady is actually the church
26:54
Speaker 1: at Babylon. Don't ask me where that came from. Others
26:59
Speaker 1: say this is an unnamed local church. Others say it's Mary,
27:04
Speaker 1: the mother of Jesus. Others say it's Martha. Others say
27:08
Speaker 1: it's a lady named Elekta, to the Elekta lady. Others
27:18
Speaker 1: say it's a lady named Kuria. to the elect Curia.
27:25
Speaker 1: Where do they get all that? Nowhere. This is a
27:30
Speaker 1: personal letter parallel to 3 John which is written from
27:36
Speaker 1: the elder to the beloved Gaius. There the only difference
27:41
Speaker 1: is the name is given. And as I told you
27:45
Speaker 1: last time, This letter, 2 John as well as 3 John,
27:50
Speaker 1: is written in the classic Roman style for personal correspondence.
27:57
Speaker 1: And this lady had children. And this lady had a house,
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Speaker 1: verse 10. And this lady had a sister and some
28:08
Speaker 1: nephews and nieces, verse 13. It would be very unnatural
28:12
Speaker 1: to sustain Such a figure of speech, if this refers
28:18
Speaker 1: to a church or something like that, or the church,
28:21
Speaker 1: it would be very unnatural to sustain such a figure
28:24
Speaker 1: of speech through the whole letter all the way down
28:27
Speaker 1: to the final verse. And furthermore, the letter is too
28:32
Speaker 1: brief to have been written to a church. You wouldn't
28:35
Speaker 1: find a letter written to a church this brief. Letters
28:42
Speaker 1: that are written to people are brief. like Philemon. The
28:48
Speaker 1: only brief letter that you have that is addressed to
28:52
Speaker 1: more than one individual is Jude's letter and it's at
28:57
Speaker 1: least twice this long. To call her elect is simply
29:03
Speaker 1: to identify this lady as belonging to God. To call
29:08
Speaker 1: her elect was not to shock the sensibilities of other believers,
29:13
Speaker 1: very common, it wouldn't have shocked anybody. While the truth
29:17
Speaker 1: of election may offend some Christians with a weak view
29:20
Speaker 1: of God's sovereignty, it never offends the New Testament writers
29:25
Speaker 1: and it never offends the Holy Spirit who inspired them
29:28
Speaker 1: to write it. It is unmistakable in the New Testament
29:33
Speaker 1: that believers are elect. Ephesians 1, just as He chose us,
29:38
Speaker 1: verse 4, in Him before the foundation of the world.
29:43
Speaker 1: Verse 5, He predestined us to adoption as sons through
29:48
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of
29:51
Speaker 1: His will. 1 Thessalonians 1. knowing brethren beloved by God,
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Speaker 1: His election of you, Titus 1 1. Paul, a bond
30:09
Speaker 1: servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for
30:12
Speaker 1: the faith of those elect of God, 1 Peter 1 1. Peter,
30:18
Speaker 1: an apostle of Jesus Christ. to those who reside as
30:22
Speaker 1: aliens scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, who are chosen,
30:27
Speaker 1: who are elect. Jude 1, Jude, a bondservant of Jesus
30:34
Speaker 1: Christ and brother of James to those who are the called,
30:38
Speaker 1: beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.
30:43
Speaker 1: The called meaning the same as the elect, the called
30:47
Speaker 1: out ones. There's no hesitancy whatsoever to refer to believers
30:54
Speaker 1: as the elect. They are called the elect in all
30:57
Speaker 1: of those addresses in those various epistles without any hesitation,
31:04
Speaker 1: without any expectation of rebuttal. In fact, Jesus Himself in
31:09
Speaker 1: Matthew 24...22 said there would come a time. when no
31:14
Speaker 1: life would be saved in the Great Tribulation unless the
31:17
Speaker 1: days were cut short, but for the sake of the elect,
31:21
Speaker 1: those days shall be cut short. Jesus Himself affirming that
31:25
Speaker 1: believers should bear the designation or the title of the elect.
31:33
Speaker 1: In Luke 18, the Lord said,' Shall not God bring
31:37
Speaker 1: about justice for His elect?' So it is. that this
31:44
Speaker 1: is a glorious term. We have been chosen for salvation
31:48
Speaker 1: by God from before the foundation of the world individually.
31:55
Speaker 1: Some people think that the term elect refers only to
31:59
Speaker 1: the church, that those who believe God doesn't choose, everybody
32:02
Speaker 1: can pick for Himself. But for those who choose to
32:05
Speaker 1: be saved, they become a part of the collective group
32:09
Speaker 1: of believers that God has elected for heaven. that the
32:15
Speaker 1: election doctrine is only a corporate doctrine that you choose
32:19
Speaker 1: to be in on your own and then you become
32:22
Speaker 1: a part of those who having chosen to believe become
32:25
Speaker 1: elect for eternity. This demonstrates how wrong that view is.
32:31
Speaker 1: Here you have an elect lady, an elect lady and
32:38
Speaker 1: her children. Now it interests me that her husband is
32:42
Speaker 1: not mentioned here. I don't want to belabor the point
32:45
Speaker 1: because it's in the white spaces, but you can surmise
32:49
Speaker 1: like I can, she may have been a widow, that's
32:51
Speaker 1: not necessarily the case. But for certain she was responsible,
32:55
Speaker 1: and this points up what the Bible teaches elsewhere, she
32:58
Speaker 1: was responsible along with her children for the matters of
33:01
Speaker 1: hospitality in the home. The husband was the breadwinner, he
33:05
Speaker 1: was out there doing what husbands need to do. When
33:08
Speaker 1: it came to hospitality and in welcoming strangers and inviting
33:12
Speaker 1: people in and caring for them and feeding them and
33:14
Speaker 1: nourishing them and ministering to them and giving them a place,
33:19
Speaker 1: this was the lady's responsibility. May well be that she
33:23
Speaker 1: was a widow. She and her children, however, still would
33:27
Speaker 1: bear the responsibility for the care of one who stayed
33:33
Speaker 1: in the home. This was the woman's responsibility. This is
33:39
Speaker 1: indicated to us in 1 Timothy 5, 10, Titus 2,
33:42
Speaker 1: 4 and 5, women are to be those who wash
33:45
Speaker 1: strangers' feet, who care for the home and care for children.
33:52
Speaker 1: Now notice how John links himself to her, the elder
33:56
Speaker 1: to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love
33:58
Speaker 1: in truth, and not only I but also all who
34:03
Speaker 1: know the truth. There is a bond, there is a
34:07
Speaker 1: bond of love between those in the truth. Let me
34:13
Speaker 1: just kind of pull some words out of here. Whom I,
34:16
Speaker 1: that's emphatic, love, present tense, in truth that frames and
34:25
Speaker 1: controls love. The main lesson in this letter is that
34:30
Speaker 1: truth must always govern the exercise of love. in the
34:35
Speaker 1: truth is qualitative, that is in connection to the truth.
34:42
Speaker 1: I don't know whether John knew this lady very well
34:44
Speaker 1: or not, but there is a love that we share
34:48
Speaker 1: in the truth that goes beyond personal acquaintance, long friendship.
34:56
Speaker 1: You know it as well as I do. You go
34:57
Speaker 1: into another environment, you get together with other believers in
35:00
Speaker 1: Christ and there is a profound affection, there is a longing,
35:07
Speaker 1: there is a knitting together of hearts around the truth.
35:13
Speaker 1: It was the truth that bound John to her. It
35:16
Speaker 1: was the truth that bound John to her children. It
35:19
Speaker 1: was the truth that bound them all to each other.
35:23
Speaker 1: All who know the truth share the same spiritual life,
35:29
Speaker 1: our affections and our sympathies and our care and our
35:33
Speaker 1: compassion and our concern for each other is experienced because
35:37
Speaker 1: we are tied together in the truth. It is really
35:42
Speaker 1: the truth that produces this love. Go back to 1
35:47
Speaker 1: John 5...you remember when we studied it. 1 John 5...whoever
35:52
Speaker 1: believes that Jesus is the Christ. is born of God
35:57
Speaker 1: and whoever loves the Father loves the one born of Him.
36:03
Speaker 1: By this we know that we love the children of God.
36:06
Speaker 1: We love God and we love all who are His own.
36:10
Speaker 1: This is such a wonderful reality. All of our connections,
36:18
Speaker 1: all of our affections are because of our common belief
36:23
Speaker 1: in the truth. You can't even enter into this association.
36:28
Speaker 1: You can't be a part of this fellowship. You can't
36:30
Speaker 1: even possess this spiritual life apart from what Peter says,
36:35
Speaker 1: obedience to the truth. People who are outside the truth
36:41
Speaker 1: we can't embrace. That's why we have resisted, those who
36:46
Speaker 1: are true believers have always resisted ecumenism, linking up with
36:51
Speaker 1: those in apostate forms of Christianity. connecting with those who
36:55
Speaker 1: are liberal and who deny the veracity of Scripture, the Trinity,
37:00
Speaker 1: the deity of Christ, or whatever. They may talk about Jesus,
37:03
Speaker 1: but we have no real love for them. We have
37:06
Speaker 1: no real connection. We do not share a common life
37:09
Speaker 1: that belongs only to those who are obedient to the truth.
37:16
Speaker 1: We have been delivered out of one form of teaching
37:22
Speaker 1: into the truth. That's why you can't be saved unless
37:27
Speaker 1: you hear the Word of Christ, Romans 10 puts it.
37:32
Speaker 1: Salvation occurs when someone believes the truth. The right message
37:37
Speaker 1: is absolutely critical. This is something, as I said, that's
37:41
Speaker 1: so much on my heart because how are we ever
37:43
Speaker 1: going to get anywhere in this quote-unquote evangelical Christian world
37:48
Speaker 1: if we don't get the gospel right? because nobody can
37:54
Speaker 1: be saved without the truth. Let me put it to
37:59
Speaker 1: you this way, a poor presentation of the truth will save.
38:07
Speaker 1: An excellent presentation of error will not. A very unsophisticated, simple,
38:15
Speaker 1: plain presentation of the truth will enable the Spirit of
38:21
Speaker 1: God to do His miracle of transformation. A very carefully crafted, well-prepared,
38:30
Speaker 1: cleverly devised, high-tech multimedia presentation of something less than the
38:37
Speaker 1: gospel will not save. At the end of it all,
38:41
Speaker 1: you have to have the truth and that's all you
38:44
Speaker 1: have to have. But you have to have it. So
38:49
Speaker 1: we're united by the truth. bound to each other by
38:52
Speaker 1: sound doctrine. There's no real love possible without the truth.
38:59
Speaker 1: That's why we can't be unequally yoked together with people
39:02
Speaker 1: who have a substandard gospel. You can't compromise the truth
39:08
Speaker 1: and accomplish the purposes of God. You can't minimize the
39:12
Speaker 1: truth for the sake of love. You'll never have love
39:15
Speaker 1: because love demands the truth. You create some superficial, shallow, temporary, trivial,
39:25
Speaker 1: meaningless kind of connection, but it's not true love. it
39:30
Speaker 1: comes only from the truth. So the truth unites us.
39:34
Speaker 1: That's the first thing we see in verse 1. Secondly,
39:36
Speaker 1: the truth indwells us, verse 2. He goes on to say,'
39:39
Speaker 1: I love in truth and not only I but also
39:42
Speaker 1: all who know the truth for the sake of the
39:44
Speaker 1: truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.'
39:48
Speaker 1: We're not only united by the truth, we're indwelt by
39:51
Speaker 1: the truth. Here we see the depth of this great reality.
39:57
Speaker 1: John says, look, I love in the truth, we all
40:02
Speaker 1: love each other who know the truth and we do
40:05
Speaker 1: it for the sake of the truth. All of our
40:09
Speaker 1: Christian love, all of our Christian fellowship is to manifest
40:14
Speaker 1: the power of the truth. This is the benchmark of
40:19
Speaker 1: our Christian faith. It's by this that all men know
40:22
Speaker 1: that we are His disciples if we have love one
40:24
Speaker 1: for another. It is this remarkable common love because we
40:29
Speaker 1: share a common life in the truth that manifests the
40:33
Speaker 1: glory of the power of the gospel. John says, I'm
40:36
Speaker 1: writing for the sake of the truth. I'm writing for
40:41
Speaker 1: the sake of the truth because the truth is all
40:43
Speaker 1: we have. It's the truth that unites us. It's the
40:46
Speaker 1: truth that indwells us. And so to you, the chosen
40:51
Speaker 1: lady whom I love, comes this letter for the sake
40:55
Speaker 1: of the truth. Literally the phrase, because of the truth.
41:03
Speaker 1: I'm writing because of the truth. I want to defend
41:06
Speaker 1: the truth. I want to protect the truth. And really,
41:11
Speaker 1: that's the benchmark of all biblical books. All 66 books
41:14
Speaker 1: were written for the sake of the truth. Every preacher
41:17
Speaker 1: should preach for the sake of the truth. Every Christian
41:19
Speaker 1: should witness for the sake of the truth. We should
41:21
Speaker 1: live our lives in a godly way for the sake
41:23
Speaker 1: of the truth. We love each other for the sake
41:26
Speaker 1: of the truth. John wrote for the sake of the truth.
41:29
Speaker 1: He loved for the sake of the truth. He lived
41:31
Speaker 1: for the sake of the truth. It's all about the truth.
41:36
Speaker 1: And he adds that next feature, which abides in us.
41:39
Speaker 1: and will be with us forever. One thing about a
41:43
Speaker 1: true Christian, he or she knows the truth, right? Because
41:46
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be a Christian if you didn't know the truth.
41:49
Speaker 1: You can't be saved without the truth. That's why back
41:52
Speaker 1: in 1 John again, go back to chapter 2 of
41:54
Speaker 1: 1 John, you have an anointing, verse 20, you have
41:57
Speaker 1: an anointing from the Holy One and you all know.
42:01
Speaker 1: You know. Because the Holy Spirit has come upon you
42:05
Speaker 1: and you know the truth. Verse 21, I have not
42:08
Speaker 1: written to you because you don't know the truth, but
42:10
Speaker 1: because you do know it and because no lie is
42:14
Speaker 1: of the truth. One thing about a Christian, true Christian
42:16
Speaker 1: knows the truth from error. And if you meet somebody
42:19
Speaker 1: who doesn't, then you have every reason to assume they're
42:21
Speaker 1: not a Christian because Christians know the truth. We went
42:24
Speaker 1: through that in great detail in 1 John. If somebody's
42:28
Speaker 1: very confused about what the truth of the gospel is,
42:31
Speaker 1: then they can't be a Christian. because Christians have to
42:34
Speaker 1: know the truth. People ask me all the time, do
42:37
Speaker 1: you think people in the Catholic church are Christians? I
42:41
Speaker 1: suppose a person... I' m a Christian and I've been in a
42:44
Speaker 1: Catholic church, but one could not believe Catholic doctrine and
42:48
Speaker 1: be a Christian because they don't have the truth. And
42:51
Speaker 1: you can't be a Christian without the truth. But that's
42:55
Speaker 1: true of many quasi-Christian churches. But those who have the
43:03
Speaker 1: truth have the truth and know the truth and it
43:06
Speaker 1: stays forever. What a wonderful promise that is. Down in
43:14
Speaker 1: verse 27 of 1 John 2,' As for you, the
43:18
Speaker 1: anointing which you received from Him abides in you.' That's
43:20
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit who opened your mind, illuminated you to
43:24
Speaker 1: understand that truth. You have no need for anyone to
43:27
Speaker 1: teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all
43:29
Speaker 1: things and is true and is not a lie and
43:31
Speaker 1: just as it taught you, you abide in Him. I
43:33
Speaker 1: don't need some philosopher to come and teach me the
43:35
Speaker 1: truth of the universe. I don't need some elite academic
43:38
Speaker 1: committee to come and straighten me out on a world view.
43:41
Speaker 1: I know the truth. It was the knowledge of the
43:45
Speaker 1: truth given to me by the Spirit of God that
43:47
Speaker 1: saved me. How important is the truth? It is the
43:51
Speaker 1: source of our salvation. It is the source of our unity.
43:55
Speaker 1: And it is our abiding confidence, our abiding confidence. First
44:02
Speaker 1: Corinthians chapter 2, I don't have time to read all this,
44:06
Speaker 1: but chapter 2 verse 6, we do speak wisdom among
44:09
Speaker 1: those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this
44:11
Speaker 1: age nor of the rulers of this age who are
44:13
Speaker 1: passing away. We speak God's wisdom, the hidden wisdom, the
44:19
Speaker 1: wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood.
44:23
Speaker 1: We know what the world doesn't know. We know what
44:26
Speaker 1: the elite of the world don't know. Later on in
44:29
Speaker 1: that chapter he says, we have the mind of Christ. Wow,
44:33
Speaker 1: verse 16, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 16, one of the
44:35
Speaker 1: greatest verses in the Bible. We have the mind of Christ.
44:38
Speaker 1: We know how God thinks. We know the truth. The
44:43
Speaker 1: unchanging truth is with us. He says in that verse,
44:49
Speaker 1: it is with us forever. forever. You see, our very
44:55
Speaker 1: life is built on divine truth. It remains our possession forever.
45:04
Speaker 1: True love flows out of that truth. Listen, true love
45:09
Speaker 1: is never increased by decreasing truth. The hue and cry
45:14
Speaker 1: of all these people is doctrine divides, doctrine divides, doctrine divides.
45:19
Speaker 1: That is a lie. That is opposite the truth. Doctrine unites.
45:25
Speaker 1: Our love is built on a common belief in the truth.
45:29
Speaker 1: Remove the truth and you don't have true biblical Christian
45:34
Speaker 1: spiritual love. You have some artificial kind of thing. True
45:39
Speaker 1: love is never increased by decreasing truth. Any such unity
45:45
Speaker 1: is not of God. And the truth of God never changes,
45:51
Speaker 1: it never wavers, it is not subject to any alteration.
45:58
Speaker 1: Truth unites us, truth indwells us. Thirdly, John points out
46:05
Speaker 1: here that truth blesses us, verse 3, grace, mercy, peace,
46:12
Speaker 1: this is New Testament benediction, grace, mercy and peace will
46:20
Speaker 1: be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ,
46:24
Speaker 1: the Son of the Father in truth and love. You
46:29
Speaker 1: want grace, mercy, peace, the kind that comes from God
46:36
Speaker 1: the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father?
46:39
Speaker 1: You will receive it only in truth. and love that
46:45
Speaker 1: accompanies that truth. All salvation, grace, all salvation, mercy, all salvation, peace,
46:54
Speaker 1: all sanctification, grace, sanctification, mercy and sanctification, peace, all glorification provisions,
47:02
Speaker 1: all that God the Father and all that Jesus Christ,
47:04
Speaker 1: the Son of the Father give comes to us in truth... in truth.
47:12
Speaker 1: So many times the letters of the New Testament begin
47:16
Speaker 1: with these wonderful promises, pledging to us grace, mercy and peace.
47:26
Speaker 1: Listen to 1 Timothy, to Timothy, my true child in
47:28
Speaker 1: the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father
47:32
Speaker 1: and Christ Jesus our Lord. Listen to 2 Timothy. to Timothy,
47:37
Speaker 1: my beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God the
47:41
Speaker 1: Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. And all other letters
47:45
Speaker 1: by Paul have grace and peace. Those two have grace,
47:49
Speaker 1: mercy and peace. But always they come through Christ, from
47:55
Speaker 1: God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son of the Father.
48:02
Speaker 1: Whether it's Paul writing or whether it's Peter writing. or
48:05
Speaker 1: whether it's John writing, or whether it's Jude who writes,
48:11
Speaker 1: may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
48:17
Speaker 1: All the writers of the New Testament gather up these
48:20
Speaker 1: great spiritual blessings, grace, mercy, peace, the benefits of salvation,
48:28
Speaker 1: grace for our sins, mercy for our miserable condition. Peace
48:36
Speaker 1: for our separation from God, reconciliation, all come in truth
48:44
Speaker 1: and the love that accompanies that truth. Where divine truth
48:48
Speaker 1: dominates the mind and the heart, there will be grace
48:53
Speaker 1: and mercy and peace forever. Grace for our sin. Mercy
49:01
Speaker 1: for our misery. Peace for our turmoil. all come through
49:06
Speaker 1: the truth that is inseparably linked to the common love
49:12
Speaker 1: we share with those who believe that truth. When gospel
49:17
Speaker 1: truth comes, it brings love. and with it, grace, mercy
49:23
Speaker 1: and peace. Notice that phrasing there, from God the Father
49:29
Speaker 1: and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father. From
49:33
Speaker 1: is repeated. to place both on equal ground while not
49:39
Speaker 1: blurring them as unique persons, faithful to the Trinity. One
49:47
Speaker 1: last point. We said that truth unites us, indwells us
49:52
Speaker 1: and blesses us. Truth also controls us. Truth also controls us.
50:01
Speaker 1: Verse 4. After the introduction, he starts into the body
50:06
Speaker 1: of his letter, but I want to capture this verse
50:08
Speaker 1: in the first section because it is still introductory.' I
50:12
Speaker 1: was very glad to find some of your children walking
50:15
Speaker 1: in truth, just as we have received commandment to do
50:19
Speaker 1: from the Father.' He says,' I was very glad.' Literally,
50:28
Speaker 1: this is overjoyed. I was exuberant. rejoicing greatly to find, literally,
50:38
Speaker 1: I have found, it's the Greek word eureka, eureka, which
50:44
Speaker 1: gets transliterated into English for the same reason, I have found,
50:50
Speaker 1: same translation. I have found perhaps personal contact with some
50:57
Speaker 1: of these children, perhaps through the sister mentioned in verse 13.
51:02
Speaker 1: But what did John find? Some of your children walking
51:06
Speaker 1: in truth. They all may have been walking in the truth,
51:12
Speaker 1: that is to say they were all believers, but John
51:16
Speaker 1: can at least say, I found some of them personally
51:19
Speaker 1: that I know are walking in the truth. Maybe they
51:23
Speaker 1: all had come to know the truth. Maybe they were
51:25
Speaker 1: all walking in the truth, but for certain he had
51:28
Speaker 1: personal knowledge of some of them. walking peripateo, meaning to
51:34
Speaker 1: like peripatetic, to walk around, the idea is to move
51:37
Speaker 1: through life, to move through life, conducting themselves within the
51:42
Speaker 1: framework of the truth. They were literally controlled by the truth.
51:45
Speaker 1: They were moving around in the truth. Their life was
51:48
Speaker 1: defined by the truth. Truth is not just to be believed,
51:53
Speaker 1: it's a way of living. You don't just know the
51:56
Speaker 1: truth and believe the truth. If you're a Christian, you
52:00
Speaker 1: live the truth. It controls you. It defines you. It
52:08
Speaker 1: is the path you walk. It is the life you live.
52:16
Speaker 1: We who know Christ, we live in the truth in
52:21
Speaker 1: the sense that it's the boundaries for our It informs
52:25
Speaker 1: our thinking, our speaking, our acting. It is the grid
52:29
Speaker 1: through which everything that comes to us passes. We view
52:32
Speaker 1: the world through the truth. It defines everything. It's our
52:36
Speaker 1: world view. And so He says, I was very glad
52:42
Speaker 1: to find among your children some walking in truth, just
52:48
Speaker 1: as we have received commandment to do from the Father.
52:53
Speaker 1: We're certainly commanded to do it, aren't we? There are
52:57
Speaker 1: some specific commands in the Scripture to walk in the truth,
53:02
Speaker 1: to live in the truth. We are commanded to be holy,
53:08
Speaker 1: to conduct ourselves in a holy way. We are commanded
53:12
Speaker 1: to be obedient repeatedly in Scripture. We understand this. But
53:19
Speaker 1: this commandment here is not referring to one verse or another.
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Speaker 1: It's just referring to the general tenor of Scripture. We
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Speaker 1: have received commandment to do from the Father, and that
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Speaker 1: commandment stretches across the whole of Scripture, doesn't it? In fact,
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Speaker 1: in 1 Timothy 6.14, Paul refers to Scripture as the commandment,
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Speaker 1: the commandment. It is full of commandments, but collectively it
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Speaker 1: is the commandment. We live in the truth. It defines us.
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Speaker 1: Truth is everything to Christians, everything. It unites us, it
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Speaker 1: indwells us, it blesses us, and it controls us. Therefore
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Speaker 1: our relationship to divine truth is the priority, isn't it?
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Speaker 1: No wonder Jesus said, Martha, Martha, you're fussing with so
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Speaker 1: many things but Mary has chosen the best part. She's
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Speaker 1: sitting and listening to the truth. This is where we
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Speaker 1: live and move and have our being. And this is
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Speaker 1: where we love. And next week we'll find out about
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Speaker 1: loving in the truth. Thank You, O Lord, for this
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Speaker 1: wonderful insight that's provided for us through the pen of
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Speaker 1: the beloved Apostle John. Give us renewed passion for the truth,
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Speaker 1: this blessed, glorious truth that saves, that saves We're not
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Speaker 1: saved by works, we're not saved by what we do,
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Speaker 1: what we accomplish, religious ceremonies or traditions. We're saved by
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Speaker 1: belief in the truth and no one can be saved
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Speaker 1: apart from a message concerning Christ that is true. It
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Speaker 1: is the truth that is everything. May your church lift
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Speaker 1: up your truth before the culture. May it confront this
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Speaker 1: world with the truth that saves. We thank You, Lord,
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Speaker 1: that we know the truth, that we are united in
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Speaker 1: a common life and love by the truth, that we
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Speaker 1: are indwelt by the truth so that we view everything
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Speaker 1: in the world through the truth. We thank You that
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Speaker 1: we are so blessed by the truth for it pours
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Speaker 1: out for us all grace, mercy, We thank You that
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Speaker 1: as well we are controlled by the truth for we
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Speaker 1: walk according to Your Word and Your Word, said our Lord,
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Speaker 1: is truth. Make us a people of the truth who
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Speaker 1: know it and who love it, who celebrate it, who
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Speaker 1: obey it and who proclaim it, who live it out
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Speaker 1: before a watching world that they may see the power
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Speaker 1: of your transforming work in our lives. These things we
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Speaker 1: ask that you might be glorified through Christ. Amen. John
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Speaker 1: instructions for and limitations on duplicating this digital file.