3rd John is where we're turning today. 3rd John, you'll find it near the very end of the Word of God, Revelation obviously, the last book, the little book of Jude, and then 3rd John. So you'll find 3rd John, the third book from the end of the New Testament there. So 3rd John, we'll read this one chapter epistle together. And so let's hear the word of God. The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers, which are born witness of thy charity before the church, whom, if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing off the Gentiles, We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. I wrote on to the church, but they ought refuse. Who loveth to have their preeminence among them receiveth us not. Therefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, pratting against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church beloved. Follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius. Hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself, yea? And we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true. I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write on to thee. But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. Amen. Let's pray. We are before Thee as Thy children. Speak to our hearts, we pray. Fill me with Thy Spirit. Guide me in what I say this day. And presence Thyself with us. May Thy voice be heard. Lord, may we forget about the style of the preacher, his oratory, the vocabulary that he employs, or maybe he doesn't employ, the grammar that he uses. Oh God, may we get beyond that. May we hear the voice of God. May he speak right into our souls. And may we be the better for being here today, even though we're wounded by thy word. Oh God, may we take the wounding as it is from God, and not from some preacher, for he only but comes with the word of God, and therefore help us to submit ourselves. to thy word. May our hearts be open to the truth of thy word this day. Grant thy blessing now upon us and fill me with the spirit of God. I pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. I trust our studies together have not become tedious to you. Because while we are looking at our walk with God on a weekly basis, I am attempting to look at the subject matter in different ways. While the theme has remained the same, the matters that we have been thinking about have been quite different week on week. Just to remind you that we have already thought in this study with regard to our walk with God, that our walk with God is to be Christ-like. That's the very first thing that we thought about, the most important, the pivotal thought that we came to consider. Our walk with God must be a Christ-like walk. And then we thought about how we are to walk humbly, and honestly, and harmoniously. We are to walk worthily. We are to walk in the Spirit. We are to walk in faith, we are to walk in light, we are to walk as the children of light, we are to walk in love, we are to walk circumspectly, we are to walk in wisdom, and we are to walk in holiness. This afternoon we come to meditate upon Another way in which we are to walk. We come to meditate upon that statement that we find at the end of the verse number four of 3 John, where John writes, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Walk in truth. in truth. This isn't the first time that John has spoken about this desire that he has for those that he has come to minister among and those that he has saw brought to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you turn back to 2 John, it's probably there in the same page or just one page over to the left, you'll see that John has already written about this truth, about the joy that he has experienced as a Christian and as a minister. He expresses his overwhelming joy at the fact that these were people who were desiring to walk in the truth. Let's read the opening four verses, and I want you to notice as you read through those four verses the many times that John uses the word truth. Let's read. The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but also they that have known the truth. for the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us and shall be within us forever. Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. And here's the verse. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. And so twice in two separate letters written to two different groupings of people, the Apostle John writes of his delight on hearing that there were people who were walking in truth. And so today I want to give the rest of the meeting over to really what it means to walk in truth. A walk that, can I say first of all, pleases the Lord. And really that's why we ought to do anything in our Christian lives. It is simply to please the Lord. And so we have this thought that this walking in truth, it will please the Lord, but it also pleases God's servants to hear that the people that He ministers among are people who are walking in the truth and are walking in truth. And the two are slightly different. There is walking in truth and there is walking in the truth. There is a little difference between the two, walking in truth or walking in the truth. If we are to walk in the truth then we need to ask the questions, what is truth and where is it to be found? What is truth and where is it to be found? You'll remember the occasion whenever the Lord Jesus Christ stood before Pontius Pilate. He's about to be put to death by crucifixion. And when he stood before the Son of God on that occasion, the Lord Jesus Christ asked, or Pilate asked the Lord Jesus Christ the most profound question, I suppose, that many ask in this world today. Having asked the Son of God, Art thou a king then? The Lord Jesus Christ answered in John 18 verse 37 that question with these words. Thou sayest, I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is off the truth heareth my voice. Having heard the Savior mention this thought or this matter of the truth, Pilate then asks a second question, and here is the profound question that he asks. In verse 38, Pilate said unto him, what is truth? What is truth? The sad thing is that Pilate didn't wait for the Savior to answer that question. Because John in his gospel tells us, and when he had said this, he, speaking of Pilate, went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. This is a question that is asked today by many. What is truth? Where can I find truth? in our increasing postmodern society, many voices argue that there is no such thing as absolute truth. But for such people to make such a claim, that there is no such thing as absolute truth, is to make an absolute truth claim. They believe that they know in and of themselves that there is no such thing as absolute truth. And so they are making an absolute truth claim, if you can follow the reasoning. And so their argument is simply illogical. No such thing as absolute truth. Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. Are you absolutely sure? 100% sure. So they're making an absolute truth claim. And so there is an illogical reasoning in their minds. So what you find people saying today is something like this, well, what you say is truth, that's your opinion. You've got your truth, I have got my truth. And so there's really no such thing as absolute truth, because the two truths, the one that you hold to and the one that I hold to, are not compatible with each another, and therefore there is no such thing as absolute truth. People deem truth as being something that is subjective. What I mean by that is that we human beings, who are fallen and have finite minds, become the judges as to what truth is and what truth is not. What you find then is that the concept of absolute truth is rejected by the masses. You bring them truth statements and they reject it at large. That's your truth. But that's not what I believe is truth. And so they become judge and jury with regard to what truth actually is. John Owen, the Puritan, he highlighted the danger of living in a world without absolutes, including absolute truth. This is what he wrote. Without absolutes revealed from without by God himself. We are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about matters, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers. Now, that was written in the 17th century. That is buying up to date. with regard to what we have in our society. There are many, a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers who spout and tell and say that they have the truth. And what we have is a soup mixture, as it were, of people putting in their ideas and their thinking with regard to the moral issues of the day, and they have no source of absolute truth whereby they can bring the issues of the day to and see what God's mind is with regard to all of these matters. We have all kinds of opinions and ideas in our world that claim to be the truth, but they're as far from the truth as night is from day. I submit to you this afternoon, I submit to you that truth, absolute truth does exist, and that God is the source of it. God is the source of truth. The Word of God has much to say about the matter of truth. Let me give you a quick summary, a flyover, as it were, of what the Bible says about truth. God, God in the Trinity of His sacred persons, is revealed to us in Scripture as being the God of truth. God the Father is referred to as the God of truth in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4. God the Son is said to be full of grace and truth in John 1, 14, verse 17. He describes himself as being the truth in John chapter 14 and the verse number 6. And then we've got God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, and he is called and described and termed as the Spirit of truth, John 14, 17. John 15, 26. John 16, 13. 1 John 4, verse 6. On each occasion, He is referred to as the Spirit of truth. Not only is God the God of truth, but the Bible is called the Scripture of truth. In Daniel 10, verse 21, the Christian is encouraged to worship God in truth, according to John 4, verse 23 and 24. As Christians, we're set free by the truth. For if the Son therefore shall make you free, You shall be free indeed, John 8, verse 32. We're sanctified by the truth according to the high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. John 17, 17. Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. The Christian who's filled with God's love is said to rejoice in the truth because charity rejoiceth not in iniquity. but rejoiceth in the truth. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 6. The believer is exhorted by the apostle Paul to speak the truth in love according to Ephesians 4 verse 15. And we're exhorted to speak the truth to our neighbors in that same chapter in the verse number 25. You see, the Christian is a person who has been saved by the truth. They're sanctified by the truth. They love the truth. They judge by the truth. They're set free by the truth. They worship in the truth. They serve God in the truth. They rejoice in the truth. They speak the truth. They think the truth. They desire the truth. They manifest the truth. They hear the truth and they obey the truth. In other words, a Christian is one who walks in the truth, the truth of God. And so I trust it'll come as no shock or surprise to you to learn that God, who is truth, is the source then of absolute truth. He is the fountainhead of truth. You'll find truth in none other than in God himself. God, who is truth, is the very source, the fountain of truth. God then has been pleased to embody absolute truth in the person of Jesus Christ. That's why I said those words in John 14, verse 6, when Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the truth. Truth was embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. We read in John chapter 1, it was by through him that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of truth. And so God has embodied the truth in the person of Jesus Christ, but he's went a little further than that. He has also inscribed the truth in the pages of the scriptures of truth. And so there are, as it were, these two sources that we have. If we want to know what truth is, we find it not only in the person of Jesus Christ, but we find it embodied in the Scriptures of truth. And by the help of the Spirit of truth, we are led to Christ and we are led to the Word. Now, if we believe that God is the source of absolute truth, Can I say, brethren and sisters, that will set us on a collision course with this world, a world that is full of lies, a world that is full of falsehood. If we believe that God is the source of absolute truth and what He says is the truth, That is going to set us on a collision course with this world, this world of falsehood and this world of lies. Let me bring it down to a practical level. Let me say to the young people in this house today and those of an older generation, I speak to you all, but this is going to cause difficulty for you in your classroom, in your college, at your university. where evolution is taught as the truth. It'll not be taught as theory, but it will be taught as the truth. This is how the world came into existence. Billions of years ago, a premetal soup mixture appeared and just simply brought forth life. Through a big bang, as it were, all things came into existence. All things out of disorder, order came. And the children will be taught, and boys and girls, you'll be taught, that evolution is the truth. But the problem is that whenever you take the theory of evolution to the Word of God, you'll see that it's not the truth. Because you'll read in Genesis chapter 1 and Colossians chapter 1 and John chapter 1 and many other portions of God's Word, you'll read in God's Word that God created the world in six literal 24-hour days. And so you're going to be on a collision course between what is truth and what is error. And that's just simply how it's going to be. Take another issue. You'll maybe come across in your classroom or at university the thought of multiple genders, multiple genders. You'll be told that there are a variety of genders that there can be. Someone suggested up to a hundred different kinds of genders. But whenever, young people, you come to the Word of God, you'll open the Bible. And you'll read in Genesis chapter one, and you'll read in the verse 27 these words. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female, created he them. That was it. God in his wisdom created two genders, two sexes, male and female. And so you're gonna come, there's gonna be a collision, there's gonna be a battle. between truth and error. And John says that he had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth. And no greater joy would it give this preacher, the spiritual oversight of this congregation, and no greater joy would it bring to the heart of God primarily than to hear that God's children, young people, walk in the truth. I watched there. I saw it. I didn't watch it. I saw just a little. about it, about a young 16-year-old Canadian who was arrested by the police because he dared stand up in his classroom and say that there was only male and female. That's the society that we're now in. Truth is cast in the street, cast away, the truth of God. Not only that, but it'll cause tension in the workplace where moral issues are will be discussed, I'm sure, with your work colleagues. You see, the Christian is going to take a completely different stand on moral issues than many an unsaved person. I'm not saying about every unsaved person. Many an unsaved person, they abhor the wickedness of abortion and the wickedness of immorality. And so I'm not saying that every unbelieving person is in the sight of error. But I am saying that in the vast majority of cases, there will be a different stand with regard to the moral issues, because as the Christian considers the teachings of Jesus Christ and the teaching of Holy Scripture, they find that what they're confronted with on such moral issues is incompatible with the belief of modern society. And so, for example, marriage. Well, we believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. Society at large out there has all kinds of perversion when it comes to marriage. And so there's going to be a collision. It's going to be unavoidable, brethren and sisters. If we're going to walk in the truth, if we're going to abide by the truth, if we're going to live by the truth, it's also going to create problems in your home and in your marriage, especially If there is one in the marriage who is a lover of God, who is a lover of His truth, and the other person in the marriage cares little about the truth of God, there's going to be tension in that home. There's going to be difficulties in that home. And such people need to be prayed for by the church of Jesus Christ. People who are in a home where the husband is not a Christian and where the wife maybe isn't a Christian. We need to pray for such people and pray that God will intervene. But there's going to be a conflict when it comes to the reason of a family. How should this be done? Well, the married person who knows Christ, they'll want to bring up their children in the fear and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They'll want the children to be out of church on the Lord's day. But the unsaved person, they'll take them away to Portrush for an ice cream. So there's going to be a conflict there. What's going to happen? There's going to be a problem what to do with money. You see, the Christian, they'll believe that they should tithe their money. They should tithe it. But the unsaved person, they have no thought about tithing their money and what to do with their time and how to deal with problems. These are all going to become points of contention when a home is divided over the issue of the truth. The bottom line is this, the world lieth in wickedness. And the father of lies holds tremendous sway over the minds and the hearts of the ungodly. And so we have this conflict between the truth of God and the lies of the devil. And really, if you go back to Eden's garden and the fall of man, is that not what literally the battle lines, where the battle lines were drawn? Hath God said? Was God speaking the truth? Leave. Whenever he said thou mayest eat of every tree, was God speaking the truth? Or was he not? You see, the battle is always between truth and error. As Christians, we come to side with God. He is the source of absolute truth, and that's where we find truth. That's where truth is found. There is such a thing as truth, and it is found in God and God alone. But having laid that foundation very quickly, that God is the source of truth, we want to ask a second question. What is it to walk in truth? What is it to walk in truth? John is encouraged to learn that his spiritual children were now walking in the truth. These weren't his natural offspring. These were those that he had saw brought to the new birth. He preached and they got saved. And now he hears about them. I don't know how long it's been since he's been with them. It's obvious in 3 John that he's not with them at this present time, but news has come to hear that they're still walking in the truth. That's an encouragement I'm sure whenever The previous minister of this congregation, he comes back time and time again. We like to have him here. I like to have him here. I'm glad to have him here. But I'm sure as he looks down into the congregation, he just loves to see people, people that he had saw brought to Christ and they're still here, still going on. still holding fast, still walking in the truth. Young people that he saw and ministered only, there were only children, weans we would say around this part of the country, only weans and now they're brought up and now they've got their own families sitting with them in the pews. That throws the heart of God's servant. And so he's encouraged to hear that their lives are being governed by the truth. Now what I'm about to say, is vital. It's essential. Can I go a little bit stronger? It is non-negotiable. If you are to walk in the truth, then the truth must first be in you. Very basic premise, but a most important and essential matter. If you are to walk in truth, then the truth must first be in you. Look back there to our reading in 3 John. We see this played out in the life of a real person in the first century. His name is Gaius. Gaius was a sickly saint. I'm sure there were many reasons, and I'm sure that sickness was one whereby he could have said, well, I'm sickly. I'm inflicted with illness. And really this matter of walking in the truth really is a matter that I'll attend to whenever I become healthier. No, here's a man who's walking in the truth despite his illness, despite his sickness. And so writing to Gaius, he says in verse number three, For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. You see, it was those, and they came back with a glowing report with regard to this man Gaius, and they identified a number of things. First of all, they identified that the truth was in him. Truth is in him. Note what it says, of the truth that is in thee. It's in thee. And then, with the truth in him, he is one who is now walking in that truth, and as thou, even as thou walkest in the truth. You see, it wasn't just that the truth was in him, and then he decided to live any way he wanted as a Christian. No, that truth that was in him now started to work out in that man's life. And we have repeated this on a number of occasions, brethren and sisters. No point you sitting here and hearing all about these messages about how I am to walk and then just simply go out into the world and live just any way you want. It is that you would walk in these things, love and truth and honesty and harmoniously, that we would actually live it out. And here's a man. He's heard the truth, he's received the truth, and now this truth is being lived out in his life. You see, truth must first enter the life before it can be lived out in the life. The truth was in Gaius, and then Gaius walked in the truth. If the first hadn't been the case, then the second would have been impossible. You can't walk in the truth if the truth hasn't entered the soul. Now, you'll try. You'll try and maybe there's someone here today and that's what you've been trying to do. You've been trying to walk in the truth. You've been trying to live like a Christian. And it's all been a failure. The reason is that the truth of God hasn't entered the soul. You see, the truth of God must first enter. Christ must first enter in. And so let me ask you, has the truth of Christ, has the truth of God entered you? Has God's truth, as you find it in the gospel, has it so impacted your life that you now walk differently than you once walked? You'll never be able to live the Christian life until God's truth enters in. And so, if today finds you as one who has not yet believed the truth of God in the gospel, then believe it without a further moment's delay. Don't try walking in the truth before you embrace it. Do you know what will happen if you do that? You will become a legalistic Pharisee. You'll simply dot the I's and stroke the T's. You'll simply, as it were, put boxes on, do a tick box exercise every day, and you'll become a legalist. Listen, Christ liberated us. He demands and He requires that we live in the liberty wherein Christ has set us free. And so you'll simply become a Pharisee legalist. You must embrace the truth and then allow that truth to affect how you live. Now as a minister, my first objective is to bring men and women, boys and girls, to a knowledge of the truth. That is my first objective, to bring you to a knowledge of the truth. But my ministry doesn't end by bringing you to a knowledge of the truth. Having brought sinners to a knowledge of the truth and the Spirit of God, having taken that truth and applied it to your soul, and brought you up to a place where you have believed on it, to the saving of your soul, it is then my responsibility to make sure then that the new Christian, the Christian now walks in the truth. Because the servant of God knows that that is the most safest and the most satisfying way that a person can live life in this world. to come to a knowledge of the truth and then to walk in the truth. Therefore, a minister's work is to continually and to methodically present the truth as he finds it in the Word of God. Pastoral ministry, and that's what I'm involved in, is really exposing people to the truth in the hope that they will then live their lives by it. I'm exposing you to the truth in the hope that then you will live your life by that truth. You see, walking in the truth, brethren and sisters, it's not rocket science. And I'm not speaking in a manner, in a patronizing way, brethren and sisters. It isn't rocket science. Walking in the truth is simply living out the truth as you find it within the Scriptures of truth. It's just living out the Bible, the truth of God. So whatever issue you care to think of, salvation, sexuality, money, marriage, baptism, church membership, church government, abortion, a relationship with civil authority, the raising of a family, and many other issues I'm sure that come into your mind. Whatever issue it is, we are simply to align our lives with the Word of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ. The truth is not just something that we study or believe, but rather it becomes the motivating force in our lives that then ought to regulate our conduct and our behavior. One preacher, to find walking in the truth in this way. To walk in the truth imports a life of integrity, holiness, faithfulness, and simplicity. The natural product of those principles of truth which the gospel teaches, and which the Spirit of God enables us to receive. J.C. Ryle, his is a more simple definition. Listen to his definition. Walking in the truth means walking in the ways of true biblical religion. and not in the bad ways of this evil world. Now there's a simple definition. Walking in the truth means walking in the ways of true biblical religion and not in the bad ways of this evil world. Does today find you walking in truth? When we perceive the truth, listen, when we perceive the truth, when we believe the truth, when we receive the truth, We will then weave the truth into our day-to-day lives. Truth will govern our affairs, both within the church and outside the church. Now I doubt, I doubt that there is anyone here who could honestly stand and say that there is perfect alignment with my life. and the truth that I find, the truth of God as I find it in His Word. There are many, many issues that we battle with. There are practices that our flesh is reluctant to forfeit. There are beliefs that we have that we are hesitant to surrender despite them being unbiblical. And we need to have God's help and God's grace to help us if we are to submit ourselves to the truth of God's Word. I pray that every member and every non-member of this congregation are known as people who love the truth and people who live their lives by the truth. Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator, he said, the best evidence of our having the truth is walking in the truth. The best evidence of you having the truth, the having of the truth, the truth of God within, is by you then walking by the truth. Are we evidenting? Are we evidencing? Do we have the truth within by walking in it, or are we as crooked as a greyhound's back leg? Is that how we're known? Are we people of the truth? Let truth rule our judgment. Let truth rule our wells. Let truth rule our affections in all things from this day forth. There's a third concluding thought. Who is required to walk in the truth? Well, in 2 John, we notice that the apostle John, he writes first of all to the elect lady. Now, there's been debate who the elect lady is. Is this a specific woman? Or is this, as it were, an expression to express the church of Jesus Christ? Well, if you take the first suggestion, then we notice that every Christian woman is to walk in the truth. John indicates in the verse 2 of 2 John that the truth dwelt in her as much as it did in him and in her children. And so the truth within this woman was to manifest itself outwardly within her life. If we take the second suggestion that the elect lady refers to the church of Jesus Christ at large, then all those who belong to the invisible church by the new birth are required to walk in truth. Every Christian without exemption, without exemption, did you hear me? Did you hear me? Without exemption, every Christian is to walk in truth. Every Christian. Every single last one of us. John, he also, he writes to the children of the elect lady. John says of them in verse 4 of 2 John, that he greatly rejoiced that I found in thy children, that I found of thy children walking in the truth. And so we find that children can walk in the truth. Are you listening, boys and girls? You can walk in the truth. They walked in the truth. You can walk in the truth. In fact, such is expected of them if they have believed the truth of God. to the saving of their souls, the children are to walk in the truth. And that means, boys and girls, the truth is to guide you in your life as much as it is to guide your parents. And so, children, I'm speaking to you now, small children, teenagers, speaking to you, be truthful when you're asked about quarrels in the school playground. Be truthful. Whenever you've got fights at home and you're fighting with your brother and sister and your parents are trying to find out who started it, be truthful. If you're a child of truth, truth is to guide you. Be truthful. Don't tell lies. Speak the truth. Admit your wrongdoing. Own up to it whenever you've been caught on and caught out. Don't be making up stories to try and save face or to try and save embarrassment. Boys and girls, tell the truth. Tell the truth. And for us adults who are only, what are we? We're only grown-up children. It would do well for us to follow the same counsel in our lives. Nothing good ever came from a lie. Did you hear me? Nothing good ever came from telling a lie. Study it out in Scripture. Study it out in Scripture. Nothing good ever came out of telling a lie. We are to be people of truth. C. H. Spurgeon, I read it this morning. Little checkbook of faith. This is what he wrote. Truth wears well. It wears well. It's like good leather in a shoe. It wears well. Truth wears well. You see, whenever you tell the truth, you don't have to think about what you told. See, whenever you tell a lie, you have to try and remember what your lie was, but not the truth. If you tell the truth, you'll always speak the truth. One Reformed preacher said, if you are of the truth, if you've learned the truth, you see the sanctity of the truth, then speak the truth. We're not called to be deceivers or liars. God is a God of truth, and His people are called to have an enormously high standard of truth. Speak the truth. Let me add this word of admonition. No parent can say, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth, unless they themselves are walking in the truth. So if you're not a Christian parent here today, if you have never believed the truth, believe in it, start to walk in it, and make it your life's objection. Now, did you hear me? Make it your life's objection that your children walk in the truth, having themselves believed the truth as you have come to believe. Make it your life's objective that they would walk in truth. If this was a little family that John was writing to in 2 John, then we can say that families can walk in the truth. There's the mother of the home, the children of the home, they're all walking in the truth. I don't know where the father is. There's no mention of him. Maybe she's a widow. I don't know. But they're all walking in the truth. Here we have, they're walking in the truth. You see, a home that's full of grace will be a home full of truth. Because grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace and truth. When grace is in the home, truth will be in the home. Husband, be truthful to your wife and wife vice versa. Parents and children, children, be truthful with your parents. Parents, be truthful with your children. Let me ask father, mother, sons and daughters, just review your last seven days from the 19th of February to the 26th of February and ask the question, has truth guided my words and my works in the home? You're a child of truth. You're a child of truth. That's what you say. as it guided your words and your works. And then in 3 John we have this man Gaius. Because not only are women and children, but we find that Christian men are to walk in the truth too. Because Paul speaks about him walking in the truth. Even as thou walkest in the truth. The verse number 3. While the ungodly are marked by their lies and dishonesty, Christian men are to be marked by integrity. Honesty. Truthfulness, we are reminded by Solomon, Proverbs 22 or 12 verse 22, lying lips are an abomination unto the Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight. Just as sodomy is an abomination, so are lying lips. But notice what brings the light to the heart of God, truth, the speaking of truth. Having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, we're exhorted by Paul in Ephesians 4 verse 25, to put away lying, put it away, put it away. Speak every man the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one. I trust that as Mayan folk that we are doing that, that we're putting away our lying, and that we're speaking the truth, setting an example to our wives and to our children, as well as those that we come into contact within the communities in which we live. You see, the devil is a father of lies. That's who he is. But we are children no longer of wrath. We are no longer children of the devil. We are children of light. We are children of God. We are children of truth. Tell the truth, man. Tell the truth. And live by it, the truth of God. I close with this thought, and time is so much away. If those who walk in the truth are the source of joy to a minister, and that's what John is saying here, he says, I have no greater joy than to hear this. If that is his greatest joy, then what is his greatest grievance? It is to hear that there are God's people and they're not walking in the truth. That is the thing that grieves any minister, to hear that there would be those that he ministers among that are not walking in the truth. It is his greatest heartache. It is his greatest sorrow to hear that there are people not walking in the truth. Those who are walking disorderly, walking after the flesh. Those who haven't even received the truth, that is the greatest grief to the heart of any minister, to think that I will stand in the judgment and I will answer on behalf of my faithfulness to your soul that I present the truth to that young man, that I present the truth to that older woman, that I speak the truth, that I do it in love. To stand on the day of judgment and to see that you're cast in to hell will be to the greatest grief of this minister's heart. I say, child of God, live by the truth, read the truth, live by it, speak the truth, love the truth, defend the truth. May God help me. May God help me. Help me to be a truthful husband, a truthful father, a truthful pastor, a truthful Christian. May God help us all. And by walking in the truth, may we evidence to all that we have come, that we come into contact with, that we have believed the truth. May God bring us to that point for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's pray. Time is well gone, well gone. And so let's just pray. Take moments just as I pray. Ask God to help you. Maybe you've struggled in this matter. Maybe you haven't been walking in the truth. Listen, the Christian life is all about new beginnings. Let this be a new beginning for you. Get your sin under the blood of Christ. Confess your sin. Get it dealt with. from this moment say, by the grace of God and the help of the Spirit, I'm going to walk in truth and I'm going to walk in the truth. Our Father, our God, we come before Thee ever thankful that Thou art the God of truth, a God without iniquity. We rejoice, Lord, that we can find in Thee the very fountainhead of truth itself, absolute Lord, we pray that we'll search out this truth, and then we'll live it out in our lives. Help me to live it out. Lord, we're works in progress, we know that. Oh God, help us, Lord, we cry to Thee. May the truth of God impact our hearts as we come to the house of God week after week. May we feel, may we feel the truth coming up against Lord where we're wrong, and then may we submit gladly. Gladly to the truth. Help us, Lord, we pray. Glorify Thy Son. Help us as the truth of Thy word is preached for the remainder of today. Use it to the salvation of the lost. We pray this in our Savior's precious name. Amen.