The Value of Truth

Well, as many of you know, I've been talking about this for a while. We are beginning tonight to go through the little letters. This is our study of 2nd John, 3rd John, Jude, and Philemon. Now, two weeks ago, I gave a lesson on the authorship of those books, on the dating of those books, and the overall theme of those books, and I said my plan was to spend several weeks going through each book.

And now that Andy and I are rotating, it'll be a little bit longer, but it probably will be something that'll take us at least through Christmas and beyond, because it's going to take tonight at least one night to get through 2nd John, and depending on how tonight's lesson goes, it may take two weeks.

And then, of course, 3rd John Jude is going to take several weeks, and then Philemon at least a week or two. So tonight we're going to be, and also, I have screens that are going to go with these lessons.

I've been using these with the Academy, and they've been helpful in people taking notes, and also kind of just bringing the lesson together. And even though it's not a necessity that I do these, I think it's nice to have a visual aid.

Sometimes we hear things, and we remember. Sometimes if we have something to connect to what we see and hear, it's just more memory and more things that will stick with us. And so tonight the title of the lesson is The Little Book About Truth, because when you look at 2nd John, 2nd John, much like 1st John, focuses on the subject of truth.

What Is Truth?

And I want to begin with an important question, and this is not a question for you to necessarily answer out loud, but I do want you to, in your mind, think about the question, what is truth? What does it mean when I ask the question, or when you hear someone say, what is truth?

We're all familiar with the fact that that was a question that was asked to Jesus by Pilate when Jesus said, I came to bear witness to the truth. Pilate scoffed at him, and he said, truth, what is truth?

As if to indicate that even in the time of Pilate, even in the time of Christ, the very idea of truth was something that was considered to be either unknowable or irrelevant. Earlier this year, I was teaching through a series in the Academy on apologetics.

Apologetics is defending the faith, and Jackie was part of that class, and I think maybe you and Cindy were part of that class, and we did the apologetics class, and we did Dr. Frame's book. Dr. Frame's book was very heady, dealt with a lot of philosophical issues, and one of the things it talked about was the definition of truth.

How do you define truth? So I remember I was driving with Jennifer in the car. We had gone to Yulee for some reason, so we're coming down 200, and I remember right where we are. It's funny how your mind connects things.

I remember where I was in the car when I turned to my wife, and I was I was trying to get her to answer this question in a philosophical way, and I said, baby, if I said to you, what is truth? What would be your answer?

And she said, Jesus. And I, of course, was not going to argue with my wife, who at that moment was being a tremendous theologian, because she was right, but I did say, as true as that is, that's not the answer that I'm asking.

I'm asking, what is truth? And she said, Jesus. Like she wasn't having it. She wasn't gonna. So the conversation sort of broke down at that point, and I had to said, I'm asking you for a definition. I know Jesus is truth.

He said it. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. But when I asked the question, what is truth? I'm asking, what does the word mean? What is the concept? What is Jesus saying when he says, I am truth?

Right? Because that word has a meaning, and so that's really the question I was trying to dig down into, and that's what I was trying to get across to the class. The apologetics class was really the heart and soul of the question of, what do we mean when we say something is true?

What do we mean when we say something is the truth? And there's something that many of you may have heard of before. How many of you have ever heard of the correspondence theory of truth? Okay, this is a philosophical approach to the concept of truth, and it is this.

Truth, and it's on the thing here, truth is what corresponds to reality. So if I say Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is Lord in reality, then that statement is true. But if I say Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is not Lord, then what I've said is false.

That's the idea of the correspondence theory. It corresponds to what is true. It corresponds to what is real, and it's circular. I know what you're thinking, Michael, because you're a good, you know, student of philosophy.

You're thinking that's a circular argument. It is, and that was my point in the apologetics class, was that, in a sense, all arguments break down to a certain form of circularity, because when we say what is true, that what is truth, that which is true.

Well, how do you define truth? By what is true. It sort of becomes a circular argument at that point, but I think Paul makes a good point in this regard when he says in 1st Corinthians 15 this, and I want you to think of these words.

Listen to the Apostle Paul as I read this. 1st Corinthians 15, 14 says, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testify about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised.

You see what Paul's doing there? He's using the correspondence theory argument. He's saying if Christ didn't really rise, then resurrection is not true, but if He did really rise, then resurrection is true.

Truth is what corresponds to what is real. Paul says if it's not real, there's no reason to believe it. If Jesus didn't really rise, then our faith is in vain. Do you get that? That's the point. If it didn't really happen, if it's not true, then it's not worth believing.

If I said this, I think you would all agree with me. Much of what people say today does not correspond to reality. You agree? Much of what people say does not correspond to reality. In fact, we live in a world where people like to use the phrase, my truth.

You ever heard somebody say that? What does somebody mean when they say my truth? They mean it doesn't have to be true for you, Gary. It doesn't have to be true for you, Ron and Wilma. As long as it's my truth, that's all that matters.

As long as I'm living my truth, you don't have anything to say about it. It really is. It's just an exaggerated form of what we call relativism. My truth is true because it's true to me. And we live in a world where it is hard to know what is true because so much of what is said is based on fantasy, falsehood, and fakery.

And I didn't just... For some reason that came to me in an alliterated form. I'm not, you know, I wasn't trying to be necessarily creative. But it really is. Think about how many people live in a fantasy world.

Men think that they're women. Women think that they're men. People think that they're dogs and cats. There are people who believe that they're animals and they wear animal clothes and they go around eating out of dog bowls.

This is true stuff. These people live in a fantasy world or they live in a world of falsehood. How many people's lives are just all about deception? As I said on Sunday, I think it was this past Sunday when I mentioned that at one point in my life I was a car salesman.

My whole life was based around trying to get somebody to do something whether it was the best for them or not. Because what was most important is whether or not they bought that car. Now, I'm not saying every car salesman is living in deception, but there's a certain amount of deception that is almost inherent.

Yes, it's almost inherent in the job because they have to sell by whatever means really is necessary. And then the idea of fakery. I mean, don't we live in the world of fake news? We live in the world where you can't trust hardly anything.

And you know, what's funny is we still have a pretty high in America, we still have a pretty high population of people who trust what they see on the evening news or they trust what they see on the television news.

And my wife, you know, she worked with students from China for three years and one of the things that she learned while talking to the parents of those Chinese students was that when they heard that people over here watch the news and believe it, they thought that was funny.

Because all they get is propaganda and they know it. All they get and they and but they were like that's all you're getting too but you just don't realize it. You don't realize that it's all propaganda.

It's all fake. And yeah, so we live in a world of fantasy falsehood and fakery and John is going to tell us about the importance of the truth. That's what this little book is about. This little book, 13 verses, is about the importance of the truth.

And I want you to think about Paul's example. I have the picture of the belt here. What is the of the armor of God? What is the belt? It's the belt of truth. Why do you think when Paul talks about the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit?

Why do you think that he equates truth to a belt? Because a belt is what holds everything together. Truth is what holds everything together. Without the truth, everything falls apart. And again, I go back to Paul in 1st Corinthians 15.

If what we have believed is not true, we are of all people the most to be pitied. Because we've believed a lie. There is no virtue in believing a lie. Hear that again. There is no virtue in believing a lie.

If what we believe and what we teach is not grounded in the truth, if it is not the truth, then we are at best confused and we are at worst deceived. My podcast this week, I'm going to be talking about a recent worship service that happened.

Where Kanye West hosted a worship service where Justin Bieber sang and Marilyn Manson prayed. Now if you are familiar with those three people, they have something in common more than just bad music. That was a good joke, but okay.

What they have in common is they gather together to worship and none of them have any idea what it means to worship the true God, at least based on what they're doing. And that's sad. They are, as I said, they're at best confused or at worst deceived.

The Truth That Abides Forever

So tonight's outline, here's the outline of the book. It's only 13 verses, so it's a two-part lesson. And as I said, I may get, I think I'm going to probably be able to get through the whole thing since since I have your rapt attention.

We'll try to get through the whole thing at least. I like the idea of making it through one whole book in one lesson. Because we'll be able to see the idea that John's giving us in this book. If we start at verse 1 and go all the way to verse 13, and that's why I like the little letters.

Because there's a cohesion that we're going to find. And what we're going to do, it's really not going to be that hard. I'm going to put the verses on the screen so you can see them. You have your own Bible.

And we're just going to walk through the text and we're going to talk about the value of truth, which is verses 1 to 6. And then we're going to look at the danger of deception, verses 7 to 13. So let's look first at the value of truth.

Read with me, if you will. We're going to read verses 1 to 3. The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth. And not only I, but also all who know the truth. Because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.

Grace, mercy and peace be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father, Son and truth and love. I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.

Notice in five or four verses that we just read, the word truth is used five times. If you are in my hermeneutics class right now, I know Ron and Wilma are there. We talked about the importance of repetition.

When you see a word that repeats itself in the text, and especially in a short amount of space, that word should key to you that this is a theme or this is a focal point for the writer. And so when I say this little book is all about truth, it's not because I came up with that in any type of creative way.

It just so happens that the text says it so obviously to us that it's about the truth. And again, I don't have a marker. I could go up underline, but truth, truth, truth, truth, truth is the focus of the book.

It begins the elder. Now, we talked last class that the elder there would be John. But isn't it interesting that he identifies himself as the elder rather than the apostle? And I think that there is a reason for that.

And again, this this this will come down to somewhat of an opinion because it doesn't he doesn't tell us why. So therefore, I have to at least share with you why I think. And you can take that and and, you know, understand it is in whatever way, if you think it's just my opinion and I'm wrong, that's fine.

I'm not I'm not claiming this to be divine revelation. But I do believe that by this point in the church's history, we begin to see the apostles functioning as pastors. Because that's what the word presbyteros is, the Greek word here is presbyteros.

It's where the Presbyterian Church gets its name, because the Presbyterian Church has always been an elder governed church. And therefore, the idea of Presbyterian government or presbyteros, that idea is where that word comes from.

And you'll remember last Sunday or two Sundays ago, I talked about that elder is the same as pastor, but it's not the same word. There is a word for pastor. There is a word for elder and there's a there's a different word for bishop or overseer, and that is the word episkopos.

And that's where the word Episcopal Church comes from. But all three of those words are used interchangeably in the scripture for the same office. John is an apostle, but he's also a pastor and he has we're going to see at the end of the letter, he has the heart of a pastor.

He is. A pastor, a shepherd in the church, and so was Peter. Peter identifies himself in the same way in his letters. So it's interesting that the apostles not not. Claiming that title, but rather the title that they see is fitting in the church, the title of pastor, and he says the pastor to the elect lady.

Now, while we know with confidence who the elder is, we do not know with confidence who the elect lady is. And there is a lot of debate about who it is that John is referring to in this passage. And I'll give you a couple of options for you to consider.

The first option is that he could be referring to an actual woman that he does not want to name. And you say, well, why would he not want to name her? Well, he didn't name himself either. He calls himself the elder and he calls her the elect lady.

And if so, it could be that he is not using names for the sake of safety. This is a time in church history where the church is under persecution and therefore for the safety of this person, it could be that he is saying to the elect lady.

But there is also a very good chance that he is referring to the church when he says the elect lady, because the elect lady is the bride of Christ and he could be referring to a specific church. Now, again, where you end up on this will not change how you interpret the letter.

But let me give you a few thoughts about why you might think one way or another. Well, in this passage, he calls her the elect lady. And then just a few verses down in verse five, he calls her dear lady.

And then at the end of the book, he talks about her elect sister. And so that seems to me at least to indicate that it may be an individual. But as Brother Andy pointed out in his lesson last week, we certainly could see this as referring to the church as he talked about the lady.

He was in the Proverbs and he was talking about the mother being a symbol of the church and a picture of the church, you know, the church being the bride of Christ. And certainly the elect lady could refer to the church.

But then you have the question of, well, OK, the elect lady and her children, who are the children? And then later it talks about some of her children are walking in truth, which would mean what? What what's the what's the extrapolation from that?

If some of them are walking in truth, what does that mean? Some of them aren't. So is this referring to believers who some of them are in the faith or some are out of the faith? Or is this talking about a lady who literally some of her children are believers and some of her children are not?

So all of these are are things that I'm not going to be dogmatic on how we interpret it. But this is one of the questions that's raised. And because it is such a short letter and there's not a lot of context given, we were able to sort of come away and maybe disagree a little bit or differ a little bit.

And and yet still see that the the whoever this lady is, whoever is getting this letter, whether it's an individual lady, maybe she has a church in her house or maybe it is an actual church. And I've heard people dogmatic on both sides.

It's funny when I listen to people preach, they take one side or the other. And they're so dogmatic. One guy said it has to be the church. Another guy said it has to be an individual. And it's like, you know, at the end of the day, what we're going to see, what he writes to her does apply to all believers.

So in that sense, as I said, it certainly could be the general a general message to the whole church. But notice what he says. He says to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth. And not only I, but also who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.

I want to mention this. I'm going to show you a quote. This is David Guzik. He wrote a really good online commentary. I wanted to mention him by name so that you're able to see this. This is I think it's called the Enduring Word Commentary.

But if you if you are if you're like me and you tend to find yourself looking online for good resources, this is a this is a man. He's a pastor and he's written a lot of good things. And this is one of the things that he says.

He says the truth will be true forever. And, you know, I heard that and I was like, that's really an interesting thought. The truth is always going to be true. The truth is going to be true forever. And we will have the truth forever in eternity.

It's never going to stop being true. Many people today think that truth changes from age to age. Ever heard somebody say that? Well, it's this was that was true back then, but it's not true anymore. No, the truth is always true.

And from generation to generation, but the Bible knows that the truth will be with us forever. And what he's what he's talking about, he's talking about that verse that we just read. Going back the verse that we just read, it says the truth abides in us and will be with us forever.

I just love that. I think that's an important concept that we can draw out of that. And he goes on, verse three, grace, mercy and peace be with us from God, the father and from Jesus Christ, the father, son in truth and love.

Understand this truth is both a principle and a person. Earlier, we talked about Jesus is the truth, but then we said, well, how do we define truth? Truth is what is real. Well, truth is both principle and person.

Jesus said, I came to bear witness about the truth. John 18, 37. Later, he said, I am the truth. John 14, six. And if we know Jesus, we know the truth. That is a powerful statement. Andy has said this before, and I think it's true.

He says even the wisest man in the world who doesn't know Jesus is not as wise as a child who does. And I think I'm saying it not exactly how he said it, but basically that a child who knows Jesus Christ in that sense is wiser than the most intelligent man who doesn't.

Because Jesus is the truth, and that's a truth that you cannot dispense with knowing. He says, grace, mercy and peace be with us from God, the father and from Jesus Christ, the father, son in truth and love.

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the father. Now, I've already mentioned that I think that by him saying some of your children, I think there's an indication that some of them weren't.

But he says, I rejoice that I found some of your children walking in the truth. If you look through the Bible, you will notice that when it comes to our particular expression of faith, it's almost always referred to in some way as a walk, our walk of faith and a walk of faith is walking in the truth.

In fact, open your Bibles very quickly and just turn back to Psalm verse chapter one, verse one in the book of Psalms, it begins with the word blessed and it tells us about the blessed man and it talks about his walk.

Notice what it says, it says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. So we look at that verse and it's saying the walk of a man says something about that man, how that man behaves in his life, where he sits, where he stands, how he walks, says something about him.

And the writer of the Psalm is saying, blessed is the man who does not walk in the way of the wicked, who does not sit, who does not stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers. And then we go back to John here and in verse four, he says, I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth.

Now, if this is about a lady, if this is about a woman with children, if this is a personal correspondence, I can say from the perspective of a father and everyone here who is a parent will probably all of you relate.

There is no greater joy than knowing that your children are in the faith and there is no greater heartbreak than to know that your child is not in the faith. It's a blessing to see a child or a your child specifically come into the faith and be active in the faith.

But it's also a heartbreak to know that one of your children is not. And here's the thing that we have to understand. None of our children are in the faith just because we are. None of our children are birthed into the faith.

Now, we can raise them in the faith and there is a certain sense in which they are sanctified by being in our household. But in the same way that an unbelieving husband or wife wouldn't be saved apart from the regeneration work of the spirit, the same way with a child.

We cannot count on the fact that they were raised in our house as a absolute that they are going to be saved. I've heard people that have denied election because of that. They've said to me, I can't believe in election because I can't believe that one of my children may not be saved.

And I respond to that simply by saying this. How is election and predestination really the issue? Because are you thinking somehow if election is not true and predestination is not true, maybe you have the power to change their heart?

Because you don't believe God can or should, but you do. So I believe in election and predestination that gives me comfort for my children. Because I know this, they were born into my house for a reason.

They were born to sit under the word of God for a reason. They were born to sit and come to church every Sunday, all of their lives without a choice. Some weeks they don't want to come. I don't care because we're going to church.

Nothing else is more important than that. And if that's all they get from me for 18 years is that there's nothing else more important than the Lord's Day and being together with God's people on the Lord's Day.

Then that's what they're going to get. And they're going to learn. That's the way we walk in our house. That's the walk we walk. And at certain point, if if they stray from that walk. I'll know that I did all I could do because I'm not the one who elects and I'm not the one who predestines, I'm not the one who converts.

But I know this when I look at you and I see your children loving the Lord, I rejoice in that. When you look at me and you see my children rejoicing or loving the Lord, you rejoice in that. And that's what John is saying.

He said, I rejoice when I see some of your children walking in the truth, not not walking. Just in conversion, you know, like some people would say, well, little Jimmy, you know, he he got converted when he was eight, but he he's not really, you know, following the Lord.

No, they're walking in the truth. It's a it's a it's a it's a verb. It's active. It's happening. I see them walking in the faith. What a blessing. That is. All right. So we move on now to to verse five, continuing on the subject of the value of truth, he says, and now I ask you, dear lady again, if he is speaking to a lady, it certainly sounds as if he may be.

He says, not as though I am writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning that we love one another. And this is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Notice again, is there another word that's coming up more than once? What is it? What is it? Love and another word. Walk. It came up in verse four, I'm rejoicing to seeing your walk in the truth, and now they're walking not only in truth, but they're walking in love, right?

They're walking according to his commandments. And what we see in verses five and six is an indispensable truth that we need to understand. There is an absolute connection between God's law and God's love.

We often miss that connection because we think about God's law. We think about all of the restrictions. And I talked to the youth about this last Wednesday, and I I'm afraid I may have been a little confusing last Wednesday night because I said in some people's eyes, the devil is the hero.

And a lot of the little kids got really, wait a minute, what are you saying? The devil's here. No, I'm saying in some people's eyes he is, because in some people's eyes, they see the devil's a hero because the devil has no restrictions.

The devil wants you to go out and fulfill every desire. The devil wants you to go out and express yourself in every lustful, every sinful, every angry, every way that you can. And you think that the devil loves you, but he isn't.

He is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour because he does not love. And that's why there's no restrictions. If you met a parent who had no restrictions for their children, what would you say to that parent?

Well, but you would say you don't love your child. I've heard people say, I love my child too much to restrict them. No, it's you love yourself. If there's no restrictions on the children, it's because you love yourself more than you love them.

You don't want to because it hurts to it hurts to punish a child. I don't like I don't I don't get my my jollies by spanking my children. It's not a joy, but it's a necessity. And when I am bringing the law to bear on my children, I'm trying to help them to understand that the reason for in this.

And please understand what I'm about to say. The reason for daddy's law is because of daddy's love. But daddy's law is not based on daddy, it's based on God. Hopefully my laws are in keeping with God's laws.

And the reason for God's law is because of God's love. You see, understand this truth and love work together. Truth without love is brutality. But love without truth. It's hypocrisy. You say, why do you say hypocrisy?

It's pretend that's what the word hypocrisy means. Means pretend you cannot love without the truth. That's why all this nonsense that we see, love is love. And it's usually painted with a rainbow because, you know, what's being said, no matter how people love or who people love, it's love is love.

No, that's love without truth. And it's pretend love without truth is fake. And that's what we see in our world. We see people who say that they love, but they have a fake love. Let me tell you something, guys, there's no such thing as gay marriage.

It's two reprobates playing pretend. That's all it is. You get offended, but that's all it is. They're playing house. They're pretending, John says, this is love, that we walk according to his, that is God's commandments and this is the commandment, just as you've heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.

What is the commandment? Love one another. It's he's he's when he says this is the commandment, that word, this is the antecedent to that is that we love one another. And you know that that is all over the Bible.

I mean, it's in first John as well. First John says this. It says, and this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of the son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. That's first John three twenty three.

And John thirteen thirty four says it's a new commandment. I give to you that you love one another. Brother Andy, you're doing the one and others. Have you done? That was the first one, right? That you love one another.

That's the commandment that I give to you, that you love one another. Walking according to the commandments means that you love one another. A couple of weeks ago, our our homeschoolers were doing. Doing the Ten Commandments and what we showed and my wife, Jennifer, taught this to the little ones and I was with the olders.

But what Jennifer talked about and maybe you little guys, maybe you remember the upwards love and sideways love. You guys know, you older guys, we didn't talk about it that way, but the younger guys, maybe David, maybe you might remember if we jog your memory a little bit, but the upwards love and the sideways love.

What that what what that is, is in the first five commandments. If you go to the Ten Commandments level, what is it? Had another God before the Lord did not make any idols. Did I use Lord's name in vain?

Remember the Sabbath and honor your father and mother. Now, that last one you could point to sideways love. But but for a moment, just what we call the first table of the law, the first five, that's typically about God and our relationship with God.

God's the one who gave us our father and mother. Right. He's the one who put them in our life as our authority. And their authority represents his authority. All right. That's part of why we are given authority in our house so that we understand the authority of God.

So the first five commandments are about God's that upward love. And the last five do not commit murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie, do not covet. That's what's called sideways love.

That's how we love others. That's how we love the people around us is through those ways. And that's why he says that if we're walking according to his commandments, that's what love is. Can you love somebody while at the same time be abusing them, stealing from them, lying to them?

Now, you may say, I love them, but remember, love is not. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action. Love is a verb. It does. This is why Jesus said, love your enemies. I'm never going to feel emotionally attached to my enemies in the way of, you know, a positive feeling when the people who want to kill me are around me.

But I can still do good to them. What does Jesus say to do good to those who hate you? Pray for those who mistreat you. That is love. OK, so I have a choice to make right now. I have a choice to try to do the rest of the book.

We only got to verse six or two. How long have I been going? I'm going 40 minutes. I think I think I would like to stop because I even though I said I was going to try to do the whole book, I have so much to say about the latter half, because the latter half is about how we apply all this, because the latter half is about how we deal with deceivers, because what does a deceiver do?