"Anyone who goes too far and
does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who
abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. 12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full. 13 The children of your chosen sister greet you."
I am frequently asked why I confront doctrinal error in such harsh terms, it is because it is extremely painful for me to witness false teachers leading so-called Christians into damning deception, for the sake of money and self-promotion. It is personally painful to witness the corruption of the glorious message of the gospel. That is why I must confront such heresies. Let them be angry with me all they want. I believe that if you’re not loyal to the truth, the truth as revealed in God's Word, you’ll undo the work of God in your life. I don’t want anyone tampering with the work God has done in my life or sanctifying process. I want to continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I will not give that up!
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for calling us into a tender family, and loving family, while reminding us we are engaged in a spiritual battle, so we must fight to protect the love that we enjoy in the truth. Lord, thank You for making this so important and a passion to my own heart.
In Jesus' name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: The Importance Of Truth
All true believers, all authentic Christians, understand the Great Commission, as outlined by Jesus Himself in Matthew 28, that's pretty basic. We are to take the gospel to the ends of the earth and to preach it to every creature, to make disciples. The Great Commission is directly linked to God's Words to Abraham; that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
Sinners must hear the gospel, they must believe the gospel. And they must embrace the gospel. That is unmistakable, clear command as laid out in Scripture. That is what is behind all the witnessing, all the evangelizing and all the missionary work. That is the for call every Christian, it is both a privilege and a responsibility.
Paul tells us in Romans 10, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."
Every Christian know what we are to do, we are to preach Christ and Him crucified. And, so, here we are, unquestionably, we are at a time when we have the greatest means to do this in history. We have the capability and opportunity to reach the world like never before, to fulfill the great commission. It is just unimaginable to me, that as the church has reached its greatest opportunity, it has become confused about its message. When we have the capability to literally disseminate the gospel to the ends of the earth, we’re no longer sure just what the message is.
The church has become embarrassed by the gospel, so it has sought to redesign it to make it more acceptable, more tolerable to sinners, so they can feel better about themselves and their sin.
Romans 3 says us "There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one."
There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one."
All those people who have gone before us, who literally gave their lives for all these centuries, those
people who battled and fought in the most difficult periods of the church’s
history, they were fed to lions, used as human torches, beaten and jailed and now, at a time when we have it the easiest, we are afraid of what people might think of us when we give them the message of the gospel. It as though we’re embarrassed about the fact that it’s going to condemn them. Are you kidding me? You cannot call yourself a Christian while trying to take out anything that’s offensive out of the gospel.
It's as though we have discovered that sinners can get to heaven without the Bible and without the knowledge of the gospel. In our great, superior human wisdom, we have decided for ourselves that the Word of God is unreasonable and cruel. That is absolutely ludicrous! I must say, this is such a tragic moment for the church. Who do we think we are to come to such conclusions?
Allow me to remind you what Paul teaches us in Romans chapter 1, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and
exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man."
Paul goes on to say in verses 24 and 25, "Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."
We need to be very careful before we decide for ourselves what is relevant to teach in the Word of God. The bottom line is mans unrighteousness, his depravity, his wretchedness negates the possibility of reason. Natural revelation will only take you far enough to be inexcusable when God judges you. You can’t get there through human wisdom because God has determined that that’s how it would be. Whatever they’re doing, they’re not seeking the true God. We only have one message, that is why I am so passionate about it. Because any gospel that doesn’t come from God, is from the enemy of men’s souls.
That's why Paul says in I Corinthians 2 "When I came to you, brethren, I didn’t come with superiority
of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I
determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified."
I invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our
minds, as we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit is saying to each of
us. Listen for the voice of our Lord. II John 5:9-13.
"Anyone who goes too far and
does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who
abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you."
Here in verse 9 through 11, is a perspective of protection. Because Satan’s strategy is to deceive, we have to be looking for the truth. The false teachers have a warped Christology. So you have got to protect yourself. Because someone uses the term "Jesus Christ" doesn’t mean they represent Him. I believe that there are popular people who claim the name of Jesus Christ who actually belong to Satan’s kingdom rather than God’s.
So in verse 9, John says "Anyone who goes too far and
does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who
abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son."
In other words, if somebody comes along and offers teaching that goes beyond what Scripture teaches, you have a problem The truth about Christ is taught by Christ. Biblical revelation is about Jesus Christ.That's why I always say you cannot be saved without the gospel and you cannot be saved without believing in Jesus Christ. Scripture is teaching about Him which is consistent with His teaching. You see, the two are inseparable.
In Galatians 1, Paul 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!"
You can be any clearer, than anyone who doesn’t acknowledge the true Christ and the true gospel does not know God, no matter what they claim. There’s no possibility of knowing God apart from knowing Christ. Jesus made that very clear in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
And that brings us to verses 10-11, "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."
Today, these false teachers come into your house through the television and radio and social media or whatever. Sometimes, they are even knocking on the door. They're not coming to learn from you, rather this is someone coming to teach you lies, if they're not teaching the teachings of Christ. Look, we have a responsibility to answer those who want to know the truth, but we don’t give a platform to the deceivers.
The fastest, surest way to put them out of business is to make sure that you never receive them. Again, we are not talking about someone who is ignorant and wants to know the truth, we're talking about liars and deceivers. Qualified elders and pastors can handle the rebellious men, the deceivers and empty talkers. They have a desire to study and know sound doctrine, so that you do not become lead
astray and so that they can keep careful watch over the flock.
If a pastor does not know the Word, he will not be able to guard the flock from the many errors that Satan tries to introduce. That's why he says "do not receive him into your house." They want to make their way to those who are vulnerable. They rarely start out in the church, though they eventually end up there.
II Timothy 3, says "For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
Psalm 1:1, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!"
You are also responsible to be on guard for yourself against false teaching. You know, I am often amazed at the way Christian parents allow their children to be exposed
to all sorts of bad teaching, secular movies and television shows, without so much as a word of caution. While we cannot shelter our children from every error, we must, however, be diligent to teach them biblical discernment. That's why John says at the end of verse 10. "Do not give him a greeting." It's very dangerous, because nothing is as precious as truth, it would be impossible for me to overstate this.
Titus 1:10-11 says "For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain."
It is beyond disturbing to me that the church today is not willing to do this! Instead, we must welcome everyone to honor God. You think so, then, let's look at verse 11, where John goes well beyond that, "for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds." The one who welcome them in fellowships, shares, partakes literally in the evil works of him.
The point is, you must do not do anything to acknowledge them as Christians. You know, I have to wonder if the church really understands the destruction that these false teachers, liars and deceivers do to the flock spiritually.I believe that the church, especially leadership must never aid or abet these spiritual criminals!
So, in verse 12, John closes this brief letter with the powerful reminder, that no matter how much you know, you don’t know enough. "Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full." John is reminding us that there’s so much more to know.
If we're going to be guardians of the truth, we’ll never know enough. You know, I often feel this way, there is so much more I want you to know. Unfortunately, we run out of time, I always feel like I need to go further in teaching, so that you comprehend the importance of what I'm trying to say. There’s always so much more in the vast truth of Scripture to know. Though I've been preaching and teaching for years, I still don't know it all, I'm still learning and I just love it.
For as many years as I've been doing this, I'm as a man standing in front of the vast ocean, trying to empty it with a thimble! With every message I preach, I realize that I haven’t even begun to grasp it all.
In verse 13, John says "The children of your chosen sister greet you." This is the tender touch of John. This is a very common New Testament word which was a technical term used at the end of letters, it's the Greek verb "aspazomai," pay my respects to, to greet, it’s not the word greet that we saw back in verse 10. John embraces her in his heart personally, he hopes to come, and fill in what she
doesn’t know so that she can live in the truth, love in the truth.
In Closing..
I pray that I have been able to demonstrate to you that there is an inseparable connection between truth and love. That we are not acting in love if we do anything to encourage deceitful scoundrels in their evil deeds. And that the tolerance on which we pride ourselves’ is in reality an indifference to truth of God.
As church leaders, we must be especially cautious about any behavior that would endorse, encourage or welcome false teachers. This is exactly the sort of thing that John is explicitly forbidding.
As a pastor, I know the Bible well, and if you are seeking the truth, I’d be glad to talk with you. But if
you’re trying to convert me to some false religion, like Catholicism or Islam, I must be honest with you, you’re wasting your time and mine.
I know and have the truth of God in my hands, I'm not the least bit interested in trading it for deceptions and lies. I strongly encourage you to first, familiarize yourself with the Word of God to help immunize yourself against the destructive heresies that Satan still uses today against the church. And pray for discernment in all of these situations.
In James 1:5, he tells us "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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