The Warning

2 John and the Reading of God’s Holy and Infallible Word

Please remain standing for the reading of the word from 2nd John, 2nd epistle of John. This is God's holy and infallible word. The elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth and not only I but also all those who have known the truth.

Because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever, grace, mercy and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love.

I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth as we receive commandment from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which you have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

This is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment that as you heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. Now the section that we'll take up today. For many deceivers have gone into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we work for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.

He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the father and the son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him. For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink. But I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. The children of your elect sister greet you.

Amen.

Prayer for Illumination and the Aim of Preaching

May the Lord be pleased with our study and proclamation of his word. Please pray with me now. O Lord, we pray that the message today would be more than teaching, that it would rise to the level of preaching.

We ask for your Holy Spirit to supply illumination for the people, that the proclamation of the word would have both light and heat, and that your name would be glorified and exalted and that your people would be strengthened and encouraged.

And we ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

Please be seated. We conclude our very brief study in 2 John today. Lord willing, we'll take up 3 John for a few weeks beginning next week. And it's important to remember some of the themes that have been brought to our attention.

In the beginning, we learned a couple of weeks ago that the elect lady, though it's possible it was an individual, I believe it was a church and a church under some persecution. And John says, I love you in the truth and all those who love the truth also love you.

The truth is paramount to the church. Christ must be exalted as the only Savior. We have to understand that he is both God and man, that he is one person with two natures. We have to believe in God the Father.

We have to believe in the Holy Spirit. And we have to believe also that he is a God who blesses us with grace, mercy and peace. And that he keeps and holds us in his truth and love. And last week we went to that familiar refrain that we've been studying in John's letters that we would love one another, that we would walk according to his commandments, that we would be like Christ in our love, sacrificial in our service to one another for his glory and the good of his people.

The Warning in Verse Seven and the Outline of the Message

And today we have the third installment and the title of the message is The Warning. And that warning is found in verse seven. Let's look at it now. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is a deceiver and antichrist. For those of you who need an outline to organize your thoughts, the first is the title of the message, The Warning. The second is the danger and that's found in verse eight.

There is an imperative that must be considered a command in verse nine, abide in the doctrine of Christ. And fourth is the joy of Christian fellowship and a threat to it. The warning, the danger, the command, the joy of Christian fellowship.

What is a deceiver? They are those who lead God's people astray. It conveys the idea of a wanderer or one who causes others to wander from the truth. In the scripture, particularly in the New Testament, it refers to false teachers or prophets who mislead believers away from sound doctrine, who lead them away from Christ.

So we say, and maybe we think here, there is no one here who denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. So maybe 2 John doesn't have much application for us. That would be a mistake. There are other deceivers and other attacks on Christ and his gospel.

So the message is also for us. Now the consequence of this teaching could be a complete loss of the gospel. To deny that Jesus, the son of God, the second person of the Trinity came in the flesh to be our redeemer and mediator.

If you lose that, you lose salvation. It's interesting, the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was born and they believe that he was a perfect man. But they do not believe that he is God. So they may pass one of the elements of the test, but then they fail so miserably.

It's interesting.

They're the ones who say, we have the father like the Pharisees. If you don't have the son, you can't have the father. So the orthodoxy surrounding the person and work of Jesus is paramount in our text today.

What does it mean to confess? Look again at verse 7. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, and it seems that all of the writing apostles in the New Testament address them in some form or another.

We should not be surprised when false teachers attempt to worm their way into the church who try to come in and to lead the people of God astray. What does it mean to confess? What does it mean to confess Jesus Christ?

Confessing in this case is used in confessing Christ and acknowledging one's sins. In the early church, boldness accompanied the proclamation of their faith, often in the face of persecution. Remember this morning we talked about being a witness and it's tied to the word we get martyr from.

The Christian confesses his faith in Jesus Christ, even to the face, the place of persecution, even in the face of death. It is a very public testimony. To confess is to say, I promise, I agree, I publicly declare that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

I believe in him. I believe there's no salvation in any other but Christ alone. Just a moment. I'm going to explain the antidote to this in the Doctrine of Christ section in verse.

Eight.

Guarding the Reward and Examining Ourselves Against Error

But let's look at verse nine. Let's look at verse eight on the way there. John says something curious. He says, look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we worked for. What does it mean to lose those things we work for?

Our salvation is not a work of man. It's a work of God. But the truth about who Christ is, is a labor of love. The grace and peace and unity of the church is a labor of love on the part of God's people.

We have to labor to preserve the truth. We have to labor to preserve the peace. In the New Testament, this idea of losing stresses the importance of diligence and productivity. But most importantly, probably metaphorically, it's the spiritual and eternal gifts that can be lost.

False teachers denying that Jesus Christ comes in the flesh. They come in and they take and lead the people astray as deceivers. And they lead them to a place that robs them of their reward. So we have to take heed to ourselves and our doctrine.

If you spend 25 years following a false teacher leading you away from Christ, there are many fruits that will go unharvested in your own life. Have you done any self-examination recently? Have you made an honest assessment of your life and doctrine?

Well, I would urge you to do so because the error kind of wiggles its way in and it's quiet. It's insidious. You don't really know it's happening. And then it develops and takes root and begins to cause great consequences.

As we antidote to error, if we are focusing on God and listening to his word, praying in the power of the spirit, we are a long way to being protected from embracing doctrine that is contrary to our most holy, apostolic and glorious faith in Christ.

We don't want to lose those things. We fought for the truth, John says. We have this unity in Christ. The church is growing. We can't go backwards now. We can't fall into disrepair. We want to receive a full reward.

Now, my early Christian life, I was bothered by the principle of rewards and punishments. I thought that was kind of worldly. It's very unsophisticated view. I was fearful as a Christian of pursuing rewards.

But I'm here today to tell you, oh, people of God, that you should labor for the prize. Whatever blessings heaven has to offer, you should strive with all of your might to lay hold of those. You should cherish the reward.

If you're following along in our Bible reading, we realize that that Jacob was a little scoundrel, subverting his brother and tricking his dad. But we have to say Jacob prized the rewards of God, the blessing of his father.

And so there's some nobility in that he was willing to risk his life that he might get the blessing of his father and therefore the blessing of God. Are you laboring for a full reward? Do you want to lay many crowns at the feet of Jesus?

I think you should. Unreservedly, unashamedly, don't be even afraid to say it. You say, I want the blessings of God in my life and for my wife and my children. I want them. Oh, Lord, grant them to us.

Give it to us, please. We will not let go of the hem of your garment until you bless us. That's the kind of attitude we should have. You see, if you don't cherish the blessings of God and you don't want those rewards, you may be less inclined to be diligent to protect your faith from error.

Abiding in the Doctrine of Christ

Well, now we get to the centerpiece of the message. And the question has to be asked, how do we resist the deceivers? You would say here, no doubt. There's no way I could be deceived. And you don't understand the condition of the human heart.

And you don't understand your heart. You are capable of being deceived. Let's look at verse nine. It says here, whoever transgresses. And does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the father and the son.

What is transgresses? Now, I think we think about this primarily in connection with the idea of transgressions. Of sin. But it means something a little bit more specific here in context. It means to go forward, to proceed, to go further than is right or proper.

And in reality, it means to transgress the limits and boundaries of true doctrine. So there's a danger for us. We may be fairly orthodox, but there are apparently boundary lines of the faith that we cannot cross over.

And we need to be sober minded and circumspect about this. We can't transgress the boundary lines of orthodoxy. We cannot go into places that we're not supposed to go. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the father and the son.

We're going to do two things that are going to help us. Let's turn in the very back of the hymnal to page 846. I'd like us together. This is very unusual in the middle of the sermon. I'd like us to recite together the Nicene Creed.

Let's do it together now. We believe in one God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, begotten of his father before all worlds.

God of God, light of light, very God of very God. Begotten, not made, being of one substance with the father, by whom all things were made, who for us and our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

He suffered and was buried. And the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the father and the son, who with the father and the son together is worshiped and glorified, who is spoken by the prophets.

And we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Now you can see the glaring error of the false teachers in 2 John. It says and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. It also speaks to his identity as he himself being God, very God of very God.

I want to offer another one. You don't have it available to you as easily, and it's even a greater refinement of this doctrine. This is the Chalcedonian Creed. This comes in 451 when the version, the revised version we just read, happens in 381.

So nearly 70 years later, this creed appears with greater refinement because of the errors that have come into the church, even in that window of time. This is what it says. We then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood.

Truly God and truly man of a reasonable soul and body, consubstantial with the father, like, excuse me, according to the Godhead, consubstantial with the father, according to the Godhead and consubstantial with us, according to the manhood.

In all things like unto us without sin, begotten before all ages of the father, according to the Godhead. And in these latter days for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood.

One and the same Christ, son, Lord, only begotten to be acknowledged in two natures inconfusively, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably. The distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved.

And concurring in one person and one substance, not parted or divided into two persons, but one in the same son and only begotten God, the word, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us and the creed of the holy fathers has handed down to us.

These are this issue about who Christ is occupies the early creeds and councils of the church. The problem wasn't resolved here in 2 John. It persisted. It lingered. In fact, today, the three persons of the Trinity and their relation to one another and to us, no doubt, is still being assaulted by false teachers.

But it begs the question, and this is where it gets a little hard. Verse nine is one of the hardest passages in all of John's writings, because we have a question. And I'm going to explain this in a way I think that hopefully will be helpful and not confusing.

It is given to us in a genitive case. This is just a structure, let's say, for the children of the language, of the grammar, of the text. And there are probably three options for the way, based on the grammar, the structure, the suffixes on the word, all of those things that cause to ask the question, how do we interpret the doctrine of Christ?

I've given you one of them. The first genitive is the objective sense. This is the teaching about Christ, Nicene Creed, Chalcedonian Declaration, those wonderful statements about who Christ is, those objective facts about the reality of who Christ is.

But there is a second one, and it's known as the subjective genitive, and the doctrine of Christ is Christ's actual teaching. So the question for us in 2 John is, what is John communicating to us? Is the error one of the objective nature, or is it of the subjective?

Well, thankfully, there is a third view. The plenary genitive case embraces both the objective and subjective senses. So the Christological errors extend not only to the idea about his person and work, but also his teaching.

John warns us that we can get the doctrine of Christ wrong on both sides, on both ends. I'd like us to turn really quickly to the Sermon on the Mount. Turn to Matthew, chapter five. I appreciate your patience.

A little unorthodox today. Hopefully only in method, not in doctrine. Matthew, chapter five. I think Matthew five through seven, the Sermon on the Mount would be a good representative of Christ's teaching.

So we had Christ's person, who he is, and now we have his teaching. I'm going to begin reading in verse 31. Just a sample. Furthermore, it has been said, this is Matthew 5, 31. Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.

But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Now, what you may not know is the Jews, through some exegetical gymnastics, had found a way to divorce their wives for just any reason.

Let's say she burned the food, did something he didn't like, he could give her a certificate of divorce. So Jesus comes and says, essentially, you have lost the spirit of the law, and in the Sermon on the Mount, he corrects it.

He does this on multiple issues. Adultery is not only the physical act, it's a matter of the heart, the preceding section. Murder is not just the physical act, it is also the hatred of the heart, the section before that.

And so the church not only has to have orthodox views of the person of Christ, the work of Christ, we also have to lay hold of his teaching. We have to live by it. Now, let's go back to our text. And the reason this is a challenge for us is, how do we break fellowship?

Or when should we break fellowship with someone according to doctrine? It says, whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. And so it says we have to embrace the teaching.

Now, I believe that the controversies and differences about who the author of Hebrews was would not rise to this level. A difference of opinion and an interpretation of individual texts would not rise to this level.

So the early church, it seems, reverted back to the objective case that we break fellowship with those who deny the person of Christ. And I think that's right. So there's two sides to this. We can dispute and disagree about the application of the Christian faith, but we cannot about who Christ is.

The loftier things, the weightier things have a greater significance for us. And if you don't know the history, this text has been used to cause divisions in the body of Christ. So you and I must be careful not to transgress those orthodoxy boundary lines of the person and work of Christ and have a small measure of charity for those who disagree with us and what the teaching of Christ is.

So you and I have an obligation and a duty to abide in the doctrine of Christ. We have to remain there. We have to stay. We have to continue in it. We have to endure. The Christian is to have a continual abiding connection to Christ and his body.

And it seems that this is the great antidote to the deceiver and our enemy's devices. Let's look again at verse 10. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, if someone comes in here and says, hey, I'd like to be part of your church, but I don't believe in the Trinity, I'm sorry, you're not allowed to be a part of the church.

If they say, I don't believe that Jesus is really God, you're not going to be part of our church. You're not coming to the table. You understand? Those are the kinds of things that we break fellowship with.

It says, if anyone comes, and of course, he's speaking of teachers and leaders and the influence that they would have, he says, and they do not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him.

For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. Jesus sat with tax collectors and sinners. He talked with harlots. But he didn't give the pulpit to apostate false teachers. Do you understand the difference?

That's the line for us. We have to resolutely hold to the doctrine of Christ. We need to go the extra mile objectively to understand who Christ is. But it's also our desire and our purpose and our mission to live out the teachings that Christ has given to us.

And we can even take it more globally and understand that he is the very word of God. And he is the author of the entire word of the Bible.

Amen.

Christian Fellowship, Face-to-Face Communion, and the Threat of Online Life

We don't want to share in the evil deeds of those false teachers. And the reason this is so important. Think about the unity of the church. Let's say I receive a false teacher and I show him the same level of Christian hospitality and fellowship that I give to an Orthodox minister of the gospel.

In so doing, some of the young ones or the more immature ones in our body would follow his teaching and be led astray because I have given him the endorsement. I have given him the right hand of fellowship.

And John is very concerned to preserve the integrity and the dignity of this body. May we abide, relentlessly abide to the doctrine of Christ. Well, there is a farewell greeting that we have to consider to properly conclude the book.

So let's look at verse 12 and following. He says, having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink. But I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full.

Surprisingly, this is an idiomatic expression, this idea of face to face. And in scripture, the original, it's mouth to mouth and it's not kissing, but it's talking really closely together. And I was talking with some of the men yesterday who I got to see.

And I came across something. Maybe some of you saw this on online that is being circulated around about what occupied our time in times past. It used to be family, work, friends, church, and then a list of kind of recreational activities.

And over the passage of time, family dropped below friends and friends overtook family. And there is a cultural obsession with peer group friendships. And I'm going to tell you what your children need.

They don't need peer group friends. That's not the great thing they need. They need a family and they need the church. They learn all the bad stuff from their peers. I don't know if you know, that's how you learned it.

You didn't hear it from your mama. You heard it from some kid at school. What the people of God and their children need is the family and the church. We have to build those institutions. Oh, the friendships and the fellowship that we will enjoy together in the body of Christ.

Rich, deep friendships. We don't need friendship with the world. And in fact, friendship with the world is enmity with God. We need the family. We need the church. We also, what I didn't continue to say is, and this is horrifying to me.

Online, we spend more time online than we do with our family or our friends or our church. Not face-to-face fellowship through screens, through devices. We spend more time with them, with strangers, who may hate God or they may love God, who we have no real deep connection with.

We give more attention to them than we do to the people of God. It's having a devastating consequence upon us. Shallow, superficial, a lack of depth. We were created for communion with God and we were created for face-to-face communion with one another.

John is lamenting using paper and ink. It's a much better medium than the online world. But he longed to have face-to-face fellowship with his people. And you understand that I believe that this device of the enemy to distract us from face-to-face communication and fellowship with one another is intentional.

He wants to rip us away from the things that are really important. Exchange them for things that are. For how many times have I caught myself distracted and not paying attention to my child who's come to me to talk to me about something, but I'm looking at something stupid on the internet.

I'm not saying we should throw the technology away. There are many beautiful uses of it. But if John longs for more face-to-face intimacy in a culture, in a time of face-to-face intimacy, how much more should we be on guard of what we're losing?

Losing this speaking mouth-to-mouth, face-to-face. Maybe this is why culturally we have so little joy. We're looking at the world through filters and curated content when we're foregoing really the true riches of Christ and communion with his people.

This is a threat in John's day. It's certainly a threat in ours. Finally, the reason I believe, one of the main reasons I believe this is not written to just an individual, but to a church is found in verse 13.

Let's look at that really quickly. It says, the children of your elect sister greet you. You know, it's really awesome that the good emotes are visiting us today. And what's great about it is we're part of the same communion of churches.

Their pastor and I are part of the same presbytery. They live far away from us in Iowa, but think about the pleasure and the friendship and the fellowship we have with the people of God when we come together.

I encourage everyone in our body to go to presbytery in May and family camps. You can see the good emotes in all of our other churches. You get to have face to face communion with them. It's far better than these other mediums that we're so addicted to.

We say with back to and please take it back to Ray and the church there named Ascension as well in Iowa. The children of your elect sister greet you. The bride of Christ residing at Longwood, Florida.

We send our greetings back home with you to the church in Iowa. Please tell them we love them and we wish them nothing but the Lord's blessing. Amen. A couple of words of application and we'll close here.

Final Applications: Warning, Reward, Doctrine, and Christian Communion

We are engaged in an ever present spiritual battle. We need to be watchful and heed biblical warnings. Let's cry out to God and pray that our church would be protected. Second, when we treasure communion with God most, we cherish his blessings and then we fight for and protect them, not wanting to lose that full reward.

Oh, Lord, whatever blessings there be for us, your people and all of your true churches, we pray that you would pour it out on them and that we'd receive it and not lose any of it. Third, the fortress armor of the church is Christ and his teaching.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must pray that his truth would go forth here and that we would be wise and discerning about the boundary lines of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith and fight to the death to preserve them.

Finally, true Christian faith, real communion with God and his people is the true riches. Build your life upon the sure foundation of Christ. Grow in your love for the brethren that both your joy and your reward would be full.

Thank you, John, for this letter. Thank you, Lord, for writing it to us. Let's pray together. Lord, we are more aware of the warning of false teachers. We understand there's a danger and it may be generational.

Maybe our grandchildren would go apostate because false teaching would come into the church. Oh, Lord, we cry out to you and say, may it never be so. Oh, Lord, may we heed your warnings and and recognize the dangers that we might continue to persevere and abide in the doctrine of Christ.

That we would experience the full range of joy, the full joy of Christian fellowship, and that we would cultivate it, labor for it, fight for it and enjoy it. We ask all of this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.