“Do Not Receive” 2 John 9-13

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 2 John. We will be completing the letter of 2 John this evening. As we’ve been studying this book, we’ve noticed that John has a strong emphasis on the truth here. He’s emphasized the importance of the truth, but he’s not detached the truth from love. In fact, we’ve seen that we must have the truth if we’re going to be loving. But we both must be truthful and we must be loving. That is a central fact to our duty as Christians. If we are to be who God called us to be, we must have the truth. We are people of the truth. We worship a God of the truth. It’s central to the Great Commission, our commission as God’s people.

The Great Commission is to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth, teaching and baptizing all who believe. In fact, that is both the most loving thing we can do, and it is centered on the truth. We must bring the truth. We must bring God’s truth to those who need to hear it. And we know that apart from a knowledge of the true gospel, apart from knowledge of the true Jesus Christ of Scripture, that nobody can be saved. Sinners must hear the gospel, the truth, and they must embrace the gospel. And this is all a command, both that we are to take the gospel to the nations, but even the gospel itself is a command. We are to repent and believe in Christ. And that has been understood by all faithful biblical Christians. It’s who we are. Our message is a very specific message. It’s a very narrow message. But it’s the only effective message. It is the only message that brings people to repentance and faith in Christ.

Acts 4:12 says, there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It doesn’t get any clearer than that. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other way. Jesus said, I am the way. the truth and the life, the only one. No one comes to the Father except through Him. However, there are many who want to make other ways to be saved. Many, many people do not like the exclusivity of the gospel. Many will say that, yeah, they like Jesus, they even want Jesus, but they want to do life on their own terms. And wherever Jesus will fit in, that’s great. Others will just say that Jesus is good for you, but not for me. And as long as we come to our own truth, that’s what’s important. That can be your truth, but my truth is different, if there is such a thing as competing truths. You can follow Jesus, and I’ll follow God my own way. And this is not just those outside of what is called Christianity that claim this. But our message is an exclusive message. In fact, believe it or not, the Roman Catholic Church teaches these very things.

Now, that might sound surprising to you because you would think, well, yes, they do believe in Jesus and that you need to come to Jesus and those sorts of things. But this is what the Roman Catholic catechism says. It says, those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel of Christ or his church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and are moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it. through the dictates of their conscience, those too may attain eternal salvation.”

That’s what the Roman Catholic Church teaches. Again, I’ll read it again. Those who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and moved by grace try in their actions to do his will as they know it. through the dictates of their conscience, those too may achieve eternal salvation. So the very teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is that as long as you try hard to follow God in your own way, you too will achieve salvation. That is so heretical.

First, it’s that you can achieve salvation yourself. And second, it’s teaching that those who do not come to the gospel, who do not come to Christ, actually want to try to please God. That is a false gospel. It is a gospel without Christ, and it’s a gospel that will send you to hell. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. And that’s what John reiterates in our text here this evening. The exclusivity of the truth.

Our text for this evening is 2 John 9-13. And in this text, we will see two implications of what John’s been telling these people so far in this letter. It’s really the closing of the letter and his practical application for them, given all that he’s told them about the truth so far. And the first implication is to guard the truth. They need to guard the truth. And secondly, we’ll see they need to keep learning the truth. Continually grow in your knowledge of the truth. So number one, guard the truth, and number two, keep learning the truth.

So I’m going to read 2 John verses 9 through 13 for us this evening. This is the word of the Lord. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and to speak face to face so that your joy may be made complete and the children of your elect sister greet you.

That is the closing of John’s letter. We see here, the first implication is to guard the truth. Because he says, anyone who goes too far does not have God. When you value something, you will protect it. You will, by nature, want to protect it. This is true of your wife and children. You value them, so you want to protect them. You want to do everything you can to keep them safe. This is true of our valued possessions. We take steps to make sure our most treasured possessions stay safe. That’s a natural instinct of ours. We take steps to protect what we value.

Those who value the truth Those who value the truth of Scripture will seek to protect it, to guard it, to keep it unstained from what is not the truth. No matter what someone may claim, no matter how pure their motives may seem to be, anyone who goes too far does not have God. This phrase, goes too far, In different versions, it’s translated other things. In the New King James version, it’s whoever transgresses the teaching. It’s this word pro-ago, which means, in this context, to go beyond the established bounds of teaching or instruction. And the implication is failure to obey properly. To go beyond the established bounds of the teaching of Christ.

This is similar to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 6. He says, now these things, what he’s just taught them, he says, now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written, so that no one of you will become puffed up on behalf of one against the other. This is Paul’s solution to their infighting and division over, well, I like this teacher, but I like this teacher. And Paul says, don’t go beyond what’s written. Stick to the text. Let the text determine who you follow. Instead, as John says, we are to abide in the teaching. The one who abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. Or to remain. To abide is to remain. Whoever remains in the teaching of Christ.

A few weeks ago, we looked at Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to do this very thing. And what is the teaching that we are to remain in? Well, he says it at the beginning of verse 9, the teaching of Christ. We need to abide in the teaching of Christ. Well, what does that mean? What is the teaching of Christ? Is it the teaching about Christ? The things that we learn about who Jesus was as a man and what he did on the earth and all the different miracles he performed and those things? Is that what the teaching of Christ is? The teaching about Christ? Or is it the things Christ taught? The things that he taught to his disciples? Don’t go beyond what Jesus told those who were following Him. Well, both are true, but it extends beyond that.

All of Scripture is the teaching of Christ. If Jesus is God and God inspired all of Scripture, everything that Scripture teaches falls in line with what is the teaching of Christ. So another way to put it is we are to abide or remain in, stay within the bounds of Scripture. Anything that’s taught in Scripture. Jesus Christ is the Word of God in the flesh. And Scripture is the written Word of God. And it is the teaching of Christ. It’s not just the red letters in your Bible. Those are not what is considered the teaching of Christ. In fact, I don’t even like having red letters in my Bible, even though I have them. I wish they weren’t there. Because those, even though they’re the words of Christ, they are no more the Word of God than any other word in the Bible. Because that is used today to argue against what Paul said. Well, Jesus didn’t talk about homosexuality. He never even mentioned it. And I follow Jesus, not Paul. I’m telling you, you will hear that today. I have heard that. But that is not true.

Jesus is the author of what Paul wrote just as much as he is. What Paul wrote is the teaching of Christ. What Moses wrote is the teaching of Christ. So anything that is written in Scripture, that is taught from Scripture, falls under this command if anyone steps outside of the bounds of the teaching of Christ. If anyone comes to you with something that’s not in Scripture. Because false teachers are not content to remain within the confines of Scripture. I mentioned this morning in the adult Sunday school in the fellowship hall that we had an interaction with some Mormon missionaries at First Friday. And they stood and talked with us for almost 45 minutes. And it was a great conversation, and they really listened. They did not walk away seemingly changing their minds, but they listened. And when you learn about what it is the Mormons believe, they go outside the teaching of Scripture.

In fact, when Galatians 1:8 says, if anyone comes to you, a man or an angel, and teaches you any other gospel besides what you’ve heard from us, well, guess what happened to Joseph Smith? An angel came to him and taught him a different gospel other than what we’ve heard from Paul, and Paul says they should be accursed. That’s going outside the bounds of Scripture, and it’s not just the Mormons who do this. False teachers are not content to remain within the bounds of Scripture. They add twisted interpretations, or new revelations, or visions, or they add other words to Scripture in order to make it fit with what they want it to say.

What John Owen said about personal revelations from God. He said, if you receive a revelation from God, If it agrees with scripture, it’s unnecessary. If it disagrees with scripture, then it’s wrong. So why do we need personal revelations? We have scripture. And false teachers do this while claiming they have this new or advanced knowledge or truth, this hidden wisdom that only they and their followers can have. This is what false teachers do. from the false teachers in John’s day, to what we just read about the Catholic Church and their teaching, to the health, wealth, and prosperity teachers that are around today. They all step outside the bounds of Scripture in order to tell you what it is they have to teach. And John very clearly says, anyone who alters Scripture Anyone who adds to scripture, anyone who denies what scripture says, anyone who misrepresents scripture, anyone who goes too far, beyond the bounds of what scripture has to say, does not have God.

Jesus Christ is the central truth of Christianity. If you get him wrong, you are not a Christian, period. Jesus told us this, John 5:23. He says, he who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. And in John 15:23, he says, he who hates me hates my father also. This was to the Jews who didn’t believe that he was the son of God, that he was God himself. They believe they have the father. They’re children of Abraham. They’re the chosen ones. They have what they need. They don’t need Jesus. We have our religious system, it’s all in place, and we don’t need you, Jesus. And Jesus says, if you don’t honor the Son, you don’t honor the Father. And John here says, the one who abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son.

This is salvation language. Having the Father and the Son Means they have the indwelling Holy Spirit. They have. The sign and seal of what it is to be a Christian. Jesus told us in John 14 as he’s teaching about sending the Holy Spirit in John 14:23, he says. Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. And that’s when he begins to teach about sending the Holy Spirit. Making their dwelling, the Father and the Son’s dwelling within us, is receiving the Holy Spirit.

When we become a Christian, we receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, and here Jesus says, that’s the indwelling of the Father and the Son, too. It’s the indwelling of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. There is no way to know God apart from Christ. Apart from faith in Christ. And it’s the Christ of Scripture. John makes that clear in verse 9. And in verse 10, he brings a practical application for them. First he gives them the doctrine. That if anyone doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ, he doesn’t have God. But everyone who does remain in the teaching of Christ has the Father and the Son.

And then he comes to verse 10 and says, okay, let me give you an example here. Let me show you what this looks like. Verse 10, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting. It’s very specific. because this was happening. There were those who were coming to their houses who did not have the teaching of Christ, who did not remain within the bounds of Scripture, and they were being welcomed and greeted. And we know from other parts of Scripture that hospitality for traveling teachers, for missionaries, was common. We read the missionary journeys of Paul. and his companions. We read about John and his ministry after he wrote his gospel and as he’s writing these letters, these apostles and other teachers, missionaries, would go around to these different cities and bring the gospel and plant churches. And they would be welcomed in as they should be.

When we get to 3 John, we’ll see that. Traveling missionaries who have Christ, who have the gospel, we should extend hospitality to them. But there’s a qualifier there. If they have Christ, if they have the true gospel. And another thing this is not saying is not to welcome unbelievers in general. This is not saying turn away every unbeliever who doesn’t have Christ. It doesn’t mean turn away all those who belong to a false religion or a cult or who are deceived. Otherwise it would be almost impossible to share the truth with them. He’s saying, turn away those who are intentionally bringing a false gospel and teaching doctrines that disagree with Scripture. They are not to welcome and provide for these false teachers, those who seek to come and stay in their homes, because welcoming them would give the appearance of affirming what they’re doing and lending them credibility.

When you give greetings and extend hospitality to false teachers, you’re telling the world that you approve of them. Verse 11 says, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Participate with them. There’s a lot of applications of this today. It’s like when Billy Graham would share the stage with all sorts of heretics and false teachers. When Billy Graham was bringing his crusades around the world, and Billy Graham was a great preacher, but he welcomed Roman Catholics, all sorts of other false teachers to his crusades. And when he went to bring a crusade over to England and to Wales, he invited Martin Lloyd-Jones to be part of it with him. And he said, only if you remove the Roman Catholics from the stage will I be part of what you’re doing. And he wouldn’t. He refused to.

When you give him a greeting, you participate in his evil deeds. participate with those who don’t believe the gospel, who promote a false gospel, you are giving approval to what they’re doing. These false teachers back in John’s day would try to establish themselves in these homes. And they hoped eventually, by becoming friendly with the people of the church, to make their way into the church. and be welcomed in to teach. And really, this is no different today. We welcome all sorts of things into our homes, through the television, the radio, the internet, books. And John says, do not even offer them a greeting. And John practiced what he preached.

This is how John treated false teachers. I mentioned when we started First John, which is just about exactly a year ago now, that we have some record of men who knew John and the way that he conducted himself in ministry. And he was a very, very loving, very gracious man. He ministered in Ephesus most of the latter part of his life. And when he was in Ephesus, this story from Irenaeus was one of the first generations after the apostles. He records this story of the apostle John. And when John went to a public bathhouse in Ephesus, he encountered a man named Cirinthias. Cirinthias was a false teacher, one who promoted this Gnostic idea. And he was a notorious heretic. And when Cirinthias went to greet John, John did not return a greeting to him. Instead, John turned and ran out of the bathhouse, screaming at the top of his lungs, let us fly, let us even the bathhouse fall down because Cirinthias, the enemy of the truth is inside. That’s John. John didn’t suffer false teachers. He gave no time to these men.

Irenaeus also tells us about the church father Polycarp, who was a student of John’s. He was a first-generation student. He learned directly from John. And when Polycarp met the notorious heretic Marcion, which he believed that The God of the Old Testament was an evil deity, but Jesus was the good God, and he made a division there. He was a heretic. When Marcion came up to Polycarp and said, do you know who I am? Polycarp replied, I do know you. You’re the firstborn of Satan. That’s what John’s talking about. These men that send people to hell because they preach a gospel without Christ, do not even offer them a greeting. These messengers of Satan must be exposed and rejected, not affirmed and welcomed.

And these false teachers will complain that you’re harsh and intolerant and unloving But that’s not true. Because love forbids allowing this dangerous spiritual deception into the lives of believers. Love cannot be divorced from the truth. And John’s pastoral encouragement here, his pastoral instruction, is perfectly consistent with what Jesus taught. because Jesus had some choice words for false teachers as well. We read about the woes to the Pharisees. The pastor talked about what that means, the very strongest condemnation. He called false teachers ravenous wolves and whitewashed walls and thieves and robbers whose only purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy.

You see, the church cannot tolerate false teachers of any kind. doing anything that would acknowledge them as Christians. Even something as innocent as greeting them. Because when you do, John says, the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

An example of this today that will be very practical for us is in the music that we listen to. And I’m not talking about secular music. With secular music, we know that it’s not of God and it’s not intended to be worshiping God. So there’s a difference there. This is what is described or claimed as worship music. You ever heard of the radio station, K-Love? It’s a national Christian radio station. It’s the type of music that you’ll hear on radio stations like that. This is the music I’m talking about. So just listen to me for a moment as I explain some of where this type of music comes from.

Now I’m not saying everything you hear on the radio is like this. You gotta be discerning in what is and what isn’t here. But I’m gonna give a few examples. And I talked about the names of these bands a few weeks ago. I wanna develop that a little further so you know what I mean. And I’m gonna focus on three different bands because they’re some of the most popular music there is today in Christian music. worship music. And I mentioned the groups Hillsong, Bethel, and Elevation. They’ve been popular for decades now, or for at least a decade now. And again, they’re some of the most popular bands out there.

And I want to give you a few examples of the teachers that influence these bands, because each one of these bands started as a worship group in a church. They started on the stage of a church, and they would sing the worship for the the congregation, and they developed into producing music and selling that music on to radios and Christian music albums and things like that. And again, I’m not trying to be some stuffy fundamentalist that says you can’t listen to anything but hymns. You can’t listen to any new music because all the new music, no. We sang new songs tonight that are good, solid hymns that sing good doctrine. But you do need to know the truth about some of these bands that come across as Christian. And some of their music even sounds pretty Christian. Some of their songs have pretty good lyrics.

However, again, these groups came out of worship bands for these megachurches, and they’re some of the fastest growing churches in the world. And this is what the pastors of those churches teach. These are the leaders of those bands, who these bands listen to on a regular basis, and what their theology that they sing is influenced by.

So we’ll start with Bethel Church, Bethel Music. They’re very popular. They have a lot of music on the radio. Bethel Church is pastored by a man named Bill Johnson. And Bill Johnson teaches several things. But they have a school called the Bethel Institute of Miraculous Ministry, where they would teach you how to perform miracles. Number one, if you need to be taught how to perform a miracle, it’s not a legitimate miracle, because miracles are not done in the power of any man, or in the learning of any man. They’re done by the power of God. Because of this practice of ministry, Bill Johnson teaches that Jesus did not perform miracles as God or because he’s God. He teaches this so that he can justify the practice of teaching people how to do miracles. And he says this, this is a quote from him: “If Jesus performed miracles because he was God, then they wouldn’t be attainable for us.” Exactly.

But, he continues, “if he did them as a man, then I am responsible to pursue that lifestyle.” Not only is he teaching that you can learn how to do miracles, he is binding your conscience to say that you must pursue performing miracles like Jesus did. He also teaches that Jesus had to go to hell and be tortured for three days before he could be born again. And not surprisingly, this man, Bill Johnson, also encourages Christians to stop focusing on our need to protect ourselves from deception. Don’t worry about protecting yourself from lies and deception. That’s what he’s saying.

And he goes on to say, our hunger for God must be seen in our lustful pursuit of spiritual gifts. When should Christians ever be lustful in pursuit of anything? And to top it all off, Bill Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Music, says that music is the pathway to the hearts and minds of our young people. And that’s why they produce music. That’s his stated reason for why they have a band out of their church that produces records that people buy and listen to. His purpose is so that we can penetrate the minds and hearts of your young people.

And then there’s elevation. Elevation comes from Elevation Church. Elevation Church is one of, if not the fastest growing Christian church today. And that church is pastored by Stephen Furtick. And, I mean, I could go on a list of the things that he teaches. The way he teaches the Bible, he inserts himself into every single story in the Bible as though he’s the hero. It’s a very self-centered, self-focused way of reading the Bible, but more importantly than that even, Stephen Furtick has taught modalism, that God is not three persons. but he has appeared in three different modes throughout history. He was the father, then he became the son, and now he’s the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not so much a person as it is a force, the force of God that inspires and motivates Christian ministry. That’s not Trinitarianism. That’s not Orthodox Christianity. And that is the theology that informs the band who makes the music. He also runs in the circles with prosperity gospels like Kenneth Copeland and teaches those very things. That God wants you to be healthy and wealthy and wise and you need to pursue those things.

Another band that you probably have heard of because they’re probably the biggest Christian band in the world, or at least they were, they’ve started to fall off now that people are seeing what they really are, is Hillsong. And Hillsong was pastored by Brian Houston, who has been since disgraced and left ministry. But Brian Houston was a known prosperity gospel teacher. And he, along with other Hillsong leaders across the world, have been involved in various scandals from sexual abuse, to embezzlement of money, to all sorts of different things. And those are specific issues within those bands.

And if that’s not enough, each and every one of these bands, along with many others, sing theology that’s derived from a charismatic Pentecostal view of God. You may think that the issue with Pentecostal theology is their view of the spiritual gifts, and that’s what they need to get. Their view of the spiritual gifts is a symptom. It’s their view of God that’s the problem. It’s their view of the Holy Spirit. And this Pentecostal Holy Spirit theology is what is called territorial spirituality. And you’ll hear this often when you hear the need to cast out the spirit of envy, or cast out the spirit of pride, or you need to cast out the spirit of this disease or that disease, because everything is spiritual and it’s taken up your territory within you, and you need to cast that out And then you need to worship God in such a way that he will pour out his spirit on you and therefore fill you up so that these spirits that attack you can no longer do so. It’s this idea that you are a territory that needs to be occupied by one spirit or another, even though you’re a Christian.

That’s what informs all of this stuff. The view of the Holy Spirit teaches that we need to create a worship atmosphere. so that the Holy Spirit will come and fall upon us. I want you to think about this. Have you ever wondered why newer contemporary Christian music repeats the same line over and over and over and over and over while the music gets faster and faster and faster and faster? This is not because these bands don’t know how to write a good song. This is very intentional. They are working up a spiritual lather so that you can feel spirit-filled. And all that’s happening is the beat of the music is making your heart beat faster and faster and faster, and so your adrenaline rises and rises, and you might even be hyperventilating by that point. but it creates this feeling inside you. The same thing happens at rock concerts and different music concerts. There’s actually a science behind the tempo of music and how these, they do it in nightclubs. They start off with a certain beat so it doesn’t sound too off to you when it begins, but then as the night goes, they increase the beat so you get more and more worked up. feeling better and better, so then you have this great experience, so you’ll come back.

They’ve brought that over into worship in the church, so that you have these singing sessions of worship that last for hours, while the music gets faster and faster, and you get this great feeling, and you walk away feeling so Spirit-filled. But none of that’s in Scripture. None of that is how God actually works. We don’t worship God so that he’ll give us something. We don’t worship God so that he’ll give us more of his Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit would come and fill this place. If we’re Christians, this place is full of the Holy Spirit. If you’re a Christian, you’re full of the Holy Spirit. And you don’t need to coerce God by your worship in order to give you more. That’s not a biblical view of the Holy Spirit. But this is what underlies this type of music. I’ve gotten a lot into the details of all that just so you know why the music we listen to on the radio like that is like it is.

And again, it’s not because they’re not very good songwriters that their music is so repetitive. They are very good songwriters. and their music accomplishes a purpose. It is spiritually manipulative. It’s to make you feel a certain way and give you a certain expression or impression. But the truth is, we worship God in response to what he has already done, to who he is. We don’t worship God to bring anything about. We worship God as a response. And again, the music of Bethel and Hillsong and Elevation and many others like them, in fact, it’s more closely related to pagan idol worship in its theology and its practicality than it is to worshiping God in spirit and in truth. And when you buy their albums or sing their music, you’re financially supporting these bands. And they’re, at best, questionable theology, and at worst, heresy. And even though you can read the words on a piece of paper and there’s nothing that’s a lie here, there’s nothing that’s actually wrong, usually they’re very shallow. Again, they’re very repetitive. They seem harmless.

But you need to know what you’re supporting, because as John says, when you give them a greeting, you participate in their evil deeds. When you buy their albums, you’re supporting a false church, false teachers. And even when well-meaning churches sing their music, weaker Christians may look them up and listen to other songs that they’ve done that are not as solid or as sound theologically. So, what should we listen to for Christian music? Well, we need to be careful. We need to sing songs that are theologically edifying. We need to maybe be careful and research who it is that we’re listening to.

Because as John says, if anyone comes to you and does not bring the teaching of Christ. Do not receive him into your house. This is why we are very careful about music when it comes to Fellowship Baptist Church. The pastors choose the songs that we sing. We’re very intentional about that. We want our service to be all supporting the same themes and ideas, but we also want to be feeding the sheep. Because what we sing teaches. Songs are very educational, they’re very instructive.

And again, this doesn’t just mean we sing old songs, because there’s some bad old songs too. There’s some good new songs. We’re very careful in what we sing and what we choose to feed the sheep with on a Sunday morning. They’re songs that worship God in spirit and in truth, because that’s what the Bible says. That’s what we are to be doing. And it is so important that as a church, we guard the truth.

So the first implication of the truth here in this letter is that we need to guard it. We need to guard the truth. And secondly, as John closes here, he encourages them to keep learning the truth. He says in verses 12 and 13, Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink. But I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made complete. The children of your elect sister greet you.”

So again, the conclusion here shows us one last responsibility that we have to the truth. John had not told them everything he wanted to tell them yet. There was more truth that they needed to learn. And yet, they are told to guard the truth that they have. We must constantly be learning the truth. He said there are many things, there are many things that he wants to write, but he doesn’t want to write it with paper and ink. He wants to teach them face to face. And that reveals John’s pastoral heart once again. John cares about these people. He wants to see them. He wants them to know where he’s coming from as he tells them and teaches them the truth. He wants a personal conversation. And he wants the result of their learning the truth to be that their joy would be made full. That’s why John writes what he does.

He said in 1 John 1-4, these things we are writing so that our joy may be made complete. And here he writes that your joy may be made complete. The greater your knowledge of the truth, the greater your joy will be. The more you know Christ, the more joyful you will be. In Jeremiah 15, Jeremiah speaks of the truth that he’s heard from God. He says, your words, Jeremiah 15, 16, your words were found and I ate them and your words became for me joy and gladness in my heart. The words of God should bring joy and gladness to our heart. And Jesus in John 15 verse 11 says, these things I’ve spoken to you so that my joy might be in you and your joy may be complete or may be full.

You want more joy? You need to know God and his word more. The more truth you have from God, the more your joy will be full. We need to pursue a deeper knowledge of Christ. Pursue a knowledge of who He is and what He has done. Study God’s Word. That’s what brings us true and lasting joy. John closes with a warm greeting here. He says, the children of your elect sister greet you. Again, it’s debated whether this is an individual lady or a church. lean towards that it’s a church, just in the language that’s used, but it’s immaterial because John wrote this letter to call believers to the truth. To know the truth, to walk in the truth, to love according to the truth, to guard the truth, and to keep learning the truth.

This letter is all about the truth. The church must remain firmly anchored on the firm foundation of God’s truth. There’s no place for shallow and theologically inadequate preaching or singing in the church of God. We cannot have worship based on our emotions, on how we feel. We cannot have worship that’s devoid of the truth. We cannot tolerate false teaching. Dr. John MacArthur says it this way, he says, there is no virtue in ignorance, and there is no substitute for learning, loving, and guarding the truth. It’s not okay to remain ignorant of God’s truth. If you’re a Christian, you are instructed by scripture to learn more of scripture, to learn more of what God’s truth is, to continue to grow in the knowledge of Christ. It’s only by guarding the truth that this church will fulfill our calling to be the pillar and support of truth, the pillar and buttress of truth. Only then can we be a light shining in this dark world, revealing God’s truth to those living in deception.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. God, we thank you for this letter. This letter that John wrote to lovingly warn his people about associating with those who distort and disfigure your truth. I pray that this would stir us up to want to know the truth more. so that we can better keep a guard on what is true, that we can better discern the things that are true and the things that glorify you. I pray that we would know our Bibles better, that we would be able to filter what we hear through the truth of your word. We thank you for sharing your word with us. We pray that as we go from here, we would live as people who are submitted to the truth and people who are guarding the truth in our own lives, that we would seek to share the truth with others so that they too can be brought into the light. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for what you’ve done for us. And we pray that our lives would be a worshipful response to the God that you are. We pray all of this in Christ’s name. Amen.