Good evening. It's good to be with you this evening. Turn with me, if you would please, to the little book of 2 John. 2 John. It's one of the two briefest letters in the New Testament, the other being 3 John, containing only 245 words in the Greek language, so it fits very easily on a single page in your Bible. However, this little letter contains a very important message for us. John is writing to address a problem that was taking place in the early church, and that problem has continued throughout church history and is particularly prevalent in our day. It is the problem of false teachers spreading false doctrine, attempting to deceive believers to follow them. So John writes this little letter to address how we are to deal with such people. But before he gives the believers specific instructions on how to treat such deceivers, he first gives instruction on the mindset, the worldview, the thought pattern that is to characterize all true believers. And in doing so, he gives us the theme of this little letter. So let's read the first four verses and then we will consider that theme. John writes, the elder to the chosen lady and her children whom I love in truth And not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father." Now, as I read that, there is one word which should have jumped out at you. It is the word truth. Five times in those first four verses, the apostle uses the word truth. He lives in the truth. He's writing in the realm of the truth. In every sense, he is informed and controlled and motivated by the truth. John has written this brief letter to call us to that same truth even as we live in a world of lies and liars. When Pontius Pilate cynically asked Jesus the question, what is truth? He reflected the view of many today. Postmodernism views the concept of absolute truth with skepticism. Many people believe there's no such thing as absolute truth. Or if there is, that it cannot be known. Certainly they argue there is no religious truth, because to them religion is merely a personal preference, a personal philosophy, a personal belief about which no one can be certain. But truth, absolute truth, does exist. And it is the most important reality in the universe. Truth is a precious commodity, more valuable than any earthly riches. Once it is found, it is to be held on to at all costs. Proverbs 23, 23 exhorts us, buy truth and do not sell it. Truth is the priority. Let me just give you a brief survey of what the Bible says about divine truth. According to Psalm 31, 5, God is the God of truth, meaning He is the source of it. John 14, 6 tells us that Jesus is the truth. And John 1, 14 says He's full of truth. In John 14, 17, the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of truth. Daniel 10, 21 refers to the scriptures as the writing of truth. And in John 17, 17, Jesus said God's word is truth. John 17, 17 and 19 say that we are sanctified in the truth. John 8, 32 says the truth will make you free. In John 4, 24, Jesus said God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. So we worship in the truth. When Samuel was instructing the people of Israel about what they needed to do after they had rejected God as king and demanded a human king, he told them that they were to fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart. The same principle applies to us. We are to serve Him in truth. 1 Corinthians 13, 6 tells us that genuine love rejoices with the truth. Ephesians 4, 15 and 25 tell us we are to speak truth. Philippians 4, 8 tells us to think and dwell on whatever is true. 2 Corinthians 4, 2 says that we commend ourselves in the sight of God by the manifestation of truth. And most comprehensively, as we come to our text in 2 John, we see that we are to be walking in the truth. That is to say, we conduct our lives in the realm of truth. It determines how we think, and how we speak, and how we act. We walk in the truth. Flip over a page to 3 John, and you see there in verse 1 that he writes, The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth, Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth. That is how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this to hear of my children walking in the truth. Verse eight. Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. Verse 12. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself and we add our testimony and you know that our testimony is true. Both of these letters are about holding to the truth in a world of lies. We exist in a realm of lies presided over by the arch liar, Satan, who is the father of lies. He dominates his subjects so that they fail to understand and believe the truth. 1 Timothy 6.5 says they are deprived of the truth. 2 Timothy 3.8 says they oppose the truth. And chapter 4 verse 4 says they turn away their ears from the truth. So they live in a realm of deception and falsehood. In fact, everyone in the world lives in one of two realms. You either live in the realm of truth or you live in the realm of lies. And in the midst of that world of lies, Paul told Timothy the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. We exist to represent the truth. That is our mission and that is our purpose. The church should be the focal center of the revealed truth of God's Word. A true church proclaims the truth and the people who go there are to hear the truth. And the truth is, of course, the revealed truth of God. The only truth that we will know is that which God has revealed to us, and that is, of course, revealed in the Scripture. It is the solemn responsibility, then, of the Church to uphold that truth without wavering. The Church does not author the message of truth, and it must not alter it. It is called to be the foundation and support of the truth. We must proclaim the truth of the Word, the true Gospel, and the truth about God and His righteousness. Nothing should be as important to us as divine truth, because it is in divine truth that we know God. It is in divine truth that we know Christ. It's in divine truth that we know the Holy Spirit, salvation, and by which we understand everything that we need to understand spiritually. So the Apostle John felt the weight of truth probably to a much greater degree than any of us do. And so he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to give us this little letter along with 3 John in order to remind us of the weightiness of truth, to call us to live in God's truth. Now, why was it necessary to write this letter? Because the believers at that time were faced with a problem. You see, in ancient times, preachers traveled and stayed in homes. Inns were nothing more than bars and brothels filled with disease, completely unacceptable unless one was in desperate need. And those who preached the gospel were itinerant evangelists who were dependent upon hospitality. When Jesus sent out the twelve, two by two, in Matthew 10, and when He sent out the seventy in Luke 10, He gave them certain criteria by which to determine what villages and homes they were going to stay in and how to deal with that. And He told them what to do when they went to a place that received them, and what to do if they rejected them. That's how it worked in the first century. You traveled around and you preached and people showed you hospitality by letting you stay in their home. Now that kind of arrangement appealed greatly to the false teachers. They would claim to be the true teachers of the true gospel. the true representatives of God and they would come into town and claim to be true preachers of the gospel and they would approach those who were a part of the local church and they would say that they also believed in Christ and they would use that means to embed themselves in a church and then they would begin to teach their lives and try to gain a following and the entire time they would be benefiting from the hospitality of the people in the church by staying in their homes. And so John gives instructions on how to deal with them. In verse 10 of 2 John, he says, If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. On the other hand, look at 3 John, verses 6 to 8. When true preachers come, even though according to verse 5 they're strangers, John says, you will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. So they're going to be these itinerant preachers. Some of them you're going to open your home to, and some of them you're not. Once they become embedded in a home and a church, they can take advantage of someone's weakness or lack of understanding. And from that point, they can begin to ply their lies and deception. And they become dangerous and deadly. And it may well have been that some of the folks in this church had unwittingly, unintentionally opened their doors to some false teachers. And that's why, he says, if someone comes to you again and doesn't bring the teaching, Don't receive him into your house. Now this wasn't an easy thing for the believers because we're called to hospitality, right? But the church is the pillar and the support of the truth. And it is not simply that you have to be afraid of who gets into the pulpit. You also have to be afraid of who gets into the homes. The church has to be protected from deception, not only from who it allows to preach in the pulpit, but also from those who are spreading deception among the homes of its members. It's not likely that the leadership of a church which is committed to the truth is suddenly going to invite a false teacher to in and say, well, go ahead, teach us what you believe. No, the leadership of the church is discerning. And hopefully they're not going to let that happen. But unwitting people who want to be hospitable may allow false teachers to become embedded into their congregation with disastrous results. Sometimes that's what happens. Someone decides they want to hold a Bible study in their home to reach their neighbors, which is certainly a wonderful thing to do. But they don't have the discernment to recognize when someone who is a false teacher shows up and begins proclaiming false doctrine and misleading the people in the group. So that's what seems to have happened here in 2 John. This church probably met in a large home for its meeting, and the people in the church believed in hospitality, so they may have opened up their homes to traveling teachers and may have inadvertently allowed false teachers in to stay with them, and perhaps they used that opportunity to gain a foothold in the house church. So although well-intentioned, this local church had done this and John had heard about it and gave the church instruction inspired by the Holy Spirit, which then became a personal letter with a very public impact. In the context of this issue of hospitality, John writes that you have to be careful to maintain the truth because we live in the truth. Sound doctrine is always the test of fellowship. Always. Listen carefully. The truth is never served. It is never honored, never respected, never aided by those who deny it or those who attack it. Nothing is gained by being exposed to error. Obviously, you must not let it into your church, but don't let it into your house either. You cannot hold up the truth and welcome in those who seek to destroy it. And the same thing applies to the so-called pastors who come into your home via your television set. Most of them are false teachers and heretics. And you need to make sure that you don't allow them to teach their deceptions in your home. As I said, the truth is never served, the truth is never honored, it is never respected, if it is ever aided in any way by those who would either deny or attack or misrepresent it. In Galatians 1, 8 and 9, it says, But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. So take your choice. To whom do you owe your allegiance? To the Word? Or to human opinion? Anyone preaching anything other than the truth is accursed. Nothing is gained by mixing error with truth. It's always destructive. That's why Titus 3, 10 and 11 says, Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned. Now all of that is just an introduction to our text here in 2 John. John says, truth is everything. I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth for the sake of the truth. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us in truth and in love. And I'm very glad to find some of your children walking in the truth. That's what it's all about, folks. It's all about the truth. Now, this little postcard-sized letter is not just a call to recognize the truth. It's also filled with warnings about what will happen if you don't. And this, my friends, is the heart of all the issues in the church. If we don't know the truth, and we don't live for the truth, and we aren't the pillar and support for the truth, then the church lacks discernment. And if we lack discernment, we're going to be like someone with AIDS. You see, AIDS is a disease which destroys the body's immune system. so that the person cannot fight off any other disease that might come along. And a church without an immune system of the truth will die of a thousand illnesses. We can't have a low commitment to divine truth. We can't have an open door to those who deceive by misrepresenting and misinterpreting the truth. Of all the things to be protected, the truth is the most important. If you lose the truth, You lose the truth about Christ. You lose the truth about the Holy Spirit. The truth about man. The truth about sin. The truth about salvation. When you lose the truth, you lose it all. So we need to be soldiers for the truth, don't we? Guarding the truth is critical. We don't just preach the truth. We contend for it. We fight for it. Sound doctrine is the test of fellowship. That's essentially what this letter is saying. At the core of the Christian gospel, sound doctrine is the test of fellowship, and therefore, it is the basis for separation. You join with those who are in the truth, you separate from those who are not. And John's little letter is going to help us to understand these principles. As we go through these verses, we're going to learn about living in the truth, loving in the truth, loyalty to the truth, guarding the truth, and learning the truth. There's a lot here. Now these first four verses are about living in the truth. As Christians, all of our life is lived in the realm of divine truth. All that we do, all that we think, all that we live, all that we say is about the truth. And in these four verses, John reveals to us four features or four aspects of living in the truth. And the first one is that truth unites believers. Truth unites believers. Verse 1. In verse 1, John writes, The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth. The letter begins, the elder. That's how John refers to himself. If you wonder why we believe this is John writing, that's because we have writings from some of John's contemporaries who referred to him as Elder John. And the church has universally, and without exception, recognized him to be the author of this letter. He says the same thing in 3 John, the Elder. Some say it means that he's mentioning he's old, and that would be true. This letter was written in the end of the first century, sometime around 80, 90 to 95. John would have been very old. The rest of the apostles were long gone. Having been martyred, he's the only one left, and he's an old man. But he doesn't use the word that means old man that you might expect him to use to refer to his advanced age. Rather, John uses the term elder. Not so much to speak of his age, although it could imply that, but to speak of his spiritual oversight. Yes, he is an apostle, but all the other apostles have passed from the scene. The churches have been established, and elders now shepherd the church. Elders, pastors, overseers, all of those terms refer to the same office. And he is one of them. In fact, he is the most elite of them. He is the only elder alive who is also an apostle. The only elder alive who was personally chosen by Jesus Christ to be an apostle. The only elder in the world who had walked with Jesus during his earthly life and ministry. So he would be viewed as the elder among all elders. Just as Jesus is referred to as the King of Kings, so John was the elder of elders. At this time, he was in Ephesus. which was sort of the mother church of the churches in Asia Minor. There were other elders there, but John was the senior elder. Paul was long since dead, and sometime after his death, John had gone to Ephesus. In fact, according to tradition, Timothy was also serving as an elder in Ephesus at the same time until his death in A.D. 97. But a couple of years before that, around AD 95, John had been exiled to Patmos where he received the revelation. He was later released and returned to Ephesus where he died around AD 98 to 100. So John is viewed as the patriarchal elder over all of Asia Minor and beyond. So he identifies himself then as the elder because it spoke of his authority and place in the late first century church. Now as he begins this letter, he writes to the chosen lady and her children. Now, there's much discussion among Bible scholars about whether this is referring to an individual person, a prominent Christian woman in a local church, or whether it's referring to a church using female personification. I believe it's referring to a local church. Let me explain why. First, there's a strange absence of clear personal references in the letter, which is made all the more strange by the very marked contrast with 3 John, which is quite personal. Second, John continually bounces back and forth between singular and plural pronouns, you and your, throughout his letter. That's certainly in the case John may have been thinking about a complete congregation rather than just one individual. Third, there are expressions which seem more appropriate for the view that this is a church rather than an individual. Those are John's expressions of love for the chosen lady and her children as well as the revelation that some of her children abide in the truth while some apparently do not. And in the closing verse, where John conveys greetings from the chosen lady's sister and the children who are with her, that's very much like Peter's greeting in 1 Peter 5.13, where he is referring to one church sending greetings to another. Fourth, referring to the people of God with the imagery of a woman is common throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Isaiah 54.6 refers to God's people as a wife. Isaiah 62.5 refers to them as a bride, while the entire chapter of Ezekiel 23 is an allegorical parable-like story of Israel and Judah's history in which they're called women and sisters and harlots, all terms for women. In Ephesians 5, 22 to 31, there's that great passage about husbands and wives, how they're to treat one another. And then in verse 32, Paul says, this mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church. So the church is presented there as the wife. And in Revelation 19, 7, 21, 9, and 22, 17, believers are referred to as Christ's bride. So the imagery of a group of God's people as a woman is not uncommon in Scripture. So I believe that this is referring to a specific local church to which John is writing in her children that he refers to in verses 1 and 4 would be members of that church. Now having said all of that, let me just add here that I agree with pastor and Bible scholar Joel Beeky who says, quote, it is relatively unimportant which of these views is correct because the content of the letter is applicable to both Christian families and the church's Christ household. The Holy Spirit included this letter in the canon of scripture because it is relevant to the church and to believers of all times. So then setting aside all of that, let me just point out a far more significant aspect of this. John refers to this church as chosen or elect. The doctrine of election, the doctrine of God's sovereign choosing of those who would be saved has been so suppressed and repressed and has received so much bad press by so many pastors and Bible teachers that many are reluctant to teach on it. As if just the use of the term demands some kind of long, convoluted explanation because it's so hard for people to swallow. And yet, here you have John, giving a very simple greeting in which he uses the term chosen without explanation. This term was a common way to identify a believer, a designation which belongs to every one of us. It refers to the fact that God had chosen the people who made up this church for salvation, and John doesn't hesitate to use it. He doesn't give an explanation of this great reality. but he doesn't hesitate for a moment to refer to this body of believers as chosen. All John is doing is reflecting the truth that God sovereignly chooses believers for salvation. Unlike those who hold a weak view of divine sovereignty, the New Testament writers did not hesitate to refer to believers as elect or chosen. Paul asked the Romans, who will bring a charge against God's elect? He told the Ephesians that God chose us in Him, that is Christ, before the foundation of the world. He told Timothy, I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen. In Titus 1.1, Paul describes himself as a bondservant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of those chosen of God. Peter says that he was writing to those who were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And Jude said the same thing, that he was writing to those who are the chosen, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. So it was common for the New Testament writers to refer to God's sovereign election of His children. In fact, in Luke 18, 7, in his parable about constant prayer, Jesus Himself said, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night? So Jesus Himself affirmed that believers are designated as God's elect. It's a glorious term, which is no different than calling someone a child of God, or saved, or born again, or a believer, or a Christian. All true believers, all true Christians were chosen by God before the foundations of the world. And that's why God, why John uses this term to describe this church. He is emphasizing that they are a group of true believers. Now notice how John links himself to this church. The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth. There's a bond of love between those in the truth. The phrase, whom I love in truth, frames and controls love. The main lesson in this letter is that truth must always govern the exercise of love. In the truth is qualitative, that is, in connection to the truth. The verb translated love is a word that refers to self-sacrificing love, which gives of oneself, forfeiting one's own rights and privileges on the other's behalf. But that kind of love was governed by the bond of truth. It was the truth that bound John to this church and which bound them to him. All who know the truth share the same spiritual life. Our affections and our sympathies and our care and our compassion and our concern for each other are experienced because we are tied together in the truth. It is really the truth that produces this love. Look back a page for a moment at 1 John chapter 5 verse 1. It says, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments. All of our connections, all of our affections are because of our common belief in the truth. Peter says in 1 Peter 1.22, Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. So you can't even enter into this relationship, you can't even be a part of this fellowship, you can't even possess this spiritual life apart from obedience to the truth. Now what that means is that we can't embrace those who are outside the truth. That's why we as your church leaders resist doing such. Those who are true believers have always resisted linking up with those in apostate forms of Christianity or connecting with those who are liberal and who deny the veracity of Scripture, the Trinity, the deity of Christ, or whatever. They may talk about Jesus, But we have no real connection to them because we do not share the common life that belongs only to those who are obedient to the truth. The right message is absolutely critical. Because no one can be saved without the truth. Let me put it this way. A simple presentation of the truth will save. An outstanding presentation of error will not. An unsophisticated, simple, plain presentation of the truth is sufficient for the Spirit of God to do His miracle of transformation. But a very carefully crafted, well-prepared, cleverly devised, high-tech, multimedia presentation of something less than the gospel will not save. In the end, you have to have the truth, and that's all you have to have. It's not possible to have real love without the truth. And that's why we can't be unequally yoked together with people who have a false gospel. You can't compromise the truth and accomplish the purposes of God. You can't minimize the truth for the sake of love. You'll never have real love because love demands the truth. When you attempt to join together, love with a false gospel message, you create a superficial, shallow, temporary, trivial, meaningless kind of connection. And it's not genuine love because that only comes from the truth. Pastor and Bible teacher Derek Thomas had this to say about this matter, quote, Today in a time many refer to as the ecumenical age, unity is often forced upon professing Christians at the expense of truth. Any unity with others not based on the truth is not Christian unity. If we yield on this point, we will find ourselves on a shifting sea, not knowing where we are or where we are going. Ultimately, we will no longer know what truth is. So it's the truth which unites us. That's the first thing we see in verse 1. Secondly, we see in verse 2 that the truth indwells believers. The truth indwells believers. Verse 2 says, For the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. In keeping with his passionate commitment to the truth, John is saying that he wrote to this church for the sake of the truth. All of our Christian love, all of our Christian fellowship is to manifest the power of the truth. So John says, I'm writing for the sake of the truth because the truth is all that we have. It's the truth that unites us. It's the truth that indwells us. And that's what the phrase says in Greek, because of the truth which abides in us. Interestingly, the phrase can be translated, the abiding truth is in us. The word abide is a word which means to remain or to stay or to dwell in. But here it's a present active participle which functions as an adjective modifying the word truth. So it is abiding truth. It continually, constantly abides in us. Truth is characterized by abiding in those who truly possess it. There's one thing that we must understand about a true Christian. He or she knows the truth, right? Because you wouldn't be a Christian if you didn't know the truth. You can't be saved without the truth. And because he or she was saved by believing the true gospel, a true Christian recognizes truth from error. So when you meet someone who doesn't know the truth, then you have every reason to assume they're not a Christian, because Christians know the truth. So if someone is very confused about what the truth of the gospel is, then they can't be a Christian because Christians have to know the truth. I once worked with a man who attended a large church in our county, a church which does teach the true gospel. And if you asked him if he was a Christian, he would tell you yes. But I once had a conversation with him in which he insisted that you had to do good works in order to get to heaven. And when I told him that salvation was by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, his response was, but there's got to be some good works in there. Now, we weren't talking about the fruit of salvation, we were talking about the means of salvation. And every true believer will bear the fruit of good works in his or her life. after they're saved. But good works have nothing to do with gaining salvation. But that's what he was saying. And I knew right then that he was not a true believer. And there are many people just like him sitting in the pews of churches all over our country who think that doing good deeds is necessary in order to gain salvation. But you can't be a Christian without believing the truth. And those who have the truth continue to have the truth, and they know the truth, and when they run into error, they recognize it. And because they know the truth which abides, they will continually love others who possess the truth. And that's how John concludes verse 2, by affirming that the truth will be with us forever. Believers will always love one another because they are bound together by the truth. I like the way John Stott expressed this principle. He writes, Heretics may leave us and go out into the world, but in the Christian society, the truth shall remain secure. So long as the truth endures in us and with us, so long shall our reciprocal love also endure. If this is so, and Christian love is founded upon Christian truth, we shall never increase the love which exists between us by diminishing the truth which we hold in common. In the contemporary movement towards church unity, we must beware of compromising the very truth on which alone true love and unity depend. You see, our very life is built on divine truth. And it remains our possession forever. True love flows out of that truth. Listen carefully. True love is never increased by decreasing truth. The hue and cry of the liberals and heretics is, doctrine divides, doctrine divides. That's only true as it applies to the division between false believers and true believers. Otherwise, that's a lie. That is the opposite of the truth. Doctrine unites true believers. Our love is built on a common belief in the truth. Remove the truth and you don't have true biblical Christian spiritual love. You have some artificial kind of thing. True love is never increased by decreasing truth. And any such unity is not of God. And the truth of God never changes. It never wavers. It's not subject to any alteration. Notice also the eschatological implications here. It says the truth will be with us forever. Throughout all of eternity, God's children will be linked together in love by the truth. Once we're in glory, we'll never again have to fight another battle for the truth of the gospel, or the inerrancy of scripture, or the nature of Christ, or any of the other theological battles for which true believers have fought and died. Now that may seem like such a simple truth that you may be wondering, so what Bruce? But that is a wonderful promise which we should never forget. It's all part of our blessed hope. Heaven brings an end to all of the fighting for the truth. We will be bound together in love and truth for all of eternity. Back in 1 John 2.27, John said, As for you, the anointing which you receive from Him abides in you. That's the Holy Spirit who opened and illumined your minds to understand that truth. And you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and it's true, and it's not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. So you don't need some philosopher to come and teach you the truth of how the universe came to be. And you don't need some elite academic committee to come and straighten out your world view. You know the truth. It was the knowledge of the truth given to you by the Spirit of God who saved you. So then truth unites us and truth indwells us. Third, John points out, verse 3, that truth blesses believers. Truth blesses believers. He says, grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. You want the kind of grace, mercy, peace that comes from God the Father and from His Son, Jesus Christ? You will receive it only in truth and the love that accompanies that truth. All salvation, grace. All salvation, mercy. All salvation, peace. All sanctification grace, all sanctification mercy, all sanctification peace, all that God the Father and all that Jesus Christ the Son of the Father give to us, comes to us in truth. The benefits of salvation, namely grace for our sins, mercy for our miserable condition, peace for our separation from God, all come in truth and the love that accompanies that truth. where divine truth dominates the mind and the heart, there will be grace and mercy and peace forever. Grace for our sin, mercy for our misery, peace for our turmoil, all come through the truth that is inseparably linked to the common love that we share with those who believe that truth. When gospel truth comes, it brings love, and with it, grace, mercy, and peace. But notice those words, will be with us. That is the only time in Scripture that a future tense verb is part of the salutation in an epistle. Every other New Testament writer uses those words grace, mercy, and peace as part of a prayer wish or a desire for the readers. But John expresses the definite fact that those virtues will be with us. They will flourish in an environment where truth and love prevail. When we are united in truth and dwelt by truth and blessed by truth, we will experience God's grace, mercy, and peace. It's not a maybe thing, it's a definite thing. Notice the phrasing here, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father. The word from is repeated to place both the Father and the Son on equal ground while not blurring them as unique persons. John intentionally words it that way to identify Jesus as the Christ and the Son of the Father because the false teachers were denying that truth. He is standing for the truth that the Father and the Son are equal in every way. Finally, John concludes in verse 4 by explaining that the truth controls believers. The truth controls believers. He says in verse 4, I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. He says, I was very glad, literally, greatly rejoicing to find some of your children walking in the truth. The word some is not in the Greek text, but it's supplied because of the grammatical structure of the Greek language here. And thus, some interpreters have taken this to mean that John found that some of the chosen lady's children were living according to truth and some others were not. And that is certainly grammatically possible, but it may simply be that John has merely stated that he knows of some Christians in the church who were walking in the truth. He doesn't know for certain that all of them are, and his concern over this is probably part of his motivation for writing the letter. All of them may have been walking in the truth, but John isn't certain. So he simply says, I found some of them that I personally know that are walking in the truth. The word walking is a common New Testament metaphor for the Christian life. The idea is to move through life conducting themselves within the framework of the truth. They were controlled by the truth. Their life was defined by the truth. The truth is not just to be believed, it's a way of living. You don't just know the truth and believe the truth if you're a Christian. You live the truth. It controls you. It defines you. It is the path you walk. It is the life you live. We who know Christ live in the truth in the sense that it is the boundaries of our lives. It informs our thinking, our speaking, our acting. It's the grid through which everything that comes to us passes. We view the world through the truth. It defines everything. It's our world view. There are some specific commands in the Scripture concerning our walk. We are told to walk in newness of life, Romans 6.4. To walk by faith, not by sight, 2 Corinthians 5.7. Walk by the Spirit, Galatians 5, 16 and 25. Walk in good works, Ephesians 2.10. Walk in a manner worthy of our calling, Ephesians 4.1. Walk in love, Ephesians 5.2. Walk as children of light, Ephesians 5.8. Walk in wisdom, Ephesians 5.15. Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, Colossians 1.10. Walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls us, 1 Thessalonians 2.12. Walk in the same manner as Jesus walked, 1 John 2.6. Walk according to His commandments, 2 John 6. So those are all ways which we as believers are to conduct our lives. And here in our text, John sums them all up as walking in the truth. And at the end of verse four, he says, just as we received commandment to do from the Father. Now, if you go back and look, you won't find a single place in Scripture where it specifically says, walk in the truth. Nothing is recorded like that from Jesus or any Old Testament passage. So what commandment from the Father is John referring to? He is simply referring to the whole general tenor of Scripture. All of those areas and ways in which we are commanded to walk all are summarized in the idea of walking in the truth. We are to walk in the truth, to live in the truth. We are commanded to be holy, to conduct ourselves in a holy way. We are repeatedly commanded in Scripture to be obedient. We understand that. The great Bible scholar John Stott, in his excellent commentary on John's epistles, writes these words, God has not revealed His truth in such a way as to leave us free at our pleasure to believe or disbelieve it, to obey or disobey it. Revelation carries with it responsibility. And the clearer the revelation, the greater the responsibility to believe and obey it. So we live in the truth. It defines us. Obedience to God's truth is not optional. Truth is everything to Christians. It unites us. It indwells us. It blesses us. It controls us. Therefore, our relationship to divine truth is the priority, isn't it? No wonder Jesus told Martha in Luke 10, Martha, Martha, you're worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her. What was Mary doing? She was sitting at Jesus' feet, listening to the truth. That is where we are to be also. Because that's where we live and move and have our being. And so John gives us four features about living in the truth. Truth unites us. It indwells us. It blesses us. It controls us. And as John proceeds through this letter, he will next discuss loving others in the truth. But that's for another time. If you're here tonight and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're not walking in the truth. You're lost in darkness and you're desperately in need of the light of the truth to save your soul from God's eternal judgment. and all the good works you ever do will never satisfy God's righteous demands so that He allows you into heaven on that basis. So I appeal to you to repent of your sin and turn to Christ as the only one who can forgive your sin and offer you eternal life. He died to pay the price for sinners like you. Come to Him today. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, As we come to the end of another Lord's Day, we've seen in your word the importance of living in the truth, of being united in the truth, indwelt by the truth, blessed by the truth, and controlled by truth. Lord, I pray that each of us would live our lives in such a way that moment by moment we walk in such a way that our commitment to the truth would be evident to all around us. so that they would see in us a lifestyle which bears witness to your truth. Father, we live in a world in which there's almost no commitment to the truth. People claim they value it, but sadly they live their lives with a blatant disregard for it. They lie, they cheat, they mislead others, all for the intent of gaining some personal benefit for themselves. Lord, may others never, ever be able to justly accuse us of doing the same. I pray that our commitment and fidelity to the Word, our personal holiness, and the honesty and integrity by which we live our lives will be so evident that unbelievers will see it and be drawn to want to know why. And we can then tell them about salvation through your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.