WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.240 I will ask if you turn back to 2 John, and we will look at the first half of last Sunday 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:19.120 evening before we celebrate the Lord's Supper together. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:26.760 One of the important themes of the small letter is love and also truth, and John speaks about 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:32.960 both of them. We know that truth is very important, because knowing the facts that we have in 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:38.840 life affects our lives, doesn't it? Facts affect how we live. 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:46.840 Stupidly, I finished last week's sermon, crowing that Corrie would have the harder 00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:53.880 second half of this letter to preach on tonight, but I did not check the facts that Corrie 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:59.840 was going to be a way preaching in a la pool this weekend, and I didn't check her preaching 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:06.400 diary. I smugly got that wrong, and Corrie smugly sat thinking that he's got that wrong, 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:10.760 and he wasn't having to preach that sermon. 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:20.079 We are looking at a slightly different aspect to what we looked at last week, where we spoke 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:28.799 about the importance of love and loving one another in the truth. This comes to a slightly 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:34.159 more difficult section, because he's dealing with people who have come into the church 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:41.480 and who want to deny that truth. It is interesting, isn't it? The cry goes out today very much, 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:50.159 what is truth? We live in a society where truth is very pliable. It's up for grabs. 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:59.000 The world you live in and the world I live in is a world where more than ever we can't 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:04.120 speak about truth as being something that is exclusive and something that is revealed 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:11.080 and something that can be known. We need to address that as believers. How do we address 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:15.520 that as believers? How do we speak into our society? How do we speak into our community? 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:20.200 How do we deal with those who don't believe the truth of the Bible or who don't see the 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:25.120 truth of the Bible as being significant for them? 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:29.800 Because the great deception very much today is that there isn't such a thing as absolute 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:35.720 truth. You can't speak about absolute truth, at least not in moral terms, maybe in scientific 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:44.039 and biological terms, maybe not so. But even today, so today we find that at best what 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:50.879 we have is people declaring their own truth, my truth, being true to ourselves is what 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:57.000 might, that is the, if we can talk about absolute truth, that is the absolute truth, being true 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:03.240 to my own feelings to how I feel about myself. It's the ideology of expressive individualism 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:10.800 coming out where the self is very much the high priest of this ironically fundamentalist 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:20.360 religion. And no one can challenge anyone's personal right to self-identity in any kind 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:29.080 of way. Someone can say that they're a barn door and you can't challenge that truth that 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:33.880 they believe that they may be a barn door. And we do suspect when that's the case that 00:03:33.880 --> 00:03:41.040 the horse of truth has truly bolted from that particular situation. Yet we know also that 00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:47.320 self is important. It's not that we deny or decry the self. Self is very important. And 00:03:47.320 --> 00:03:52.120 we are created beings, created in the image of God. But the only true perspective that 00:03:52.120 --> 00:04:00.039 we can have of ourselves is through the lens of divine truth and through what John declares 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:05.439 as being of primary importance when he speaks here. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:10.400 But truth is something that is up for grabs today and we do ask the question, what is truth 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:19.199 in a digitally imaged AI conquering age? Now, you may think you're unaffected by that as 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:25.039 a Christian, but I suspect none of us are. I suspect it's a challenge we all face. Even 00:04:25.039 --> 00:04:29.279 when we come to the Bible, it's a challenge maybe we face. Maybe we look at the Bible 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:33.839 and we say, well, there's some really difficult parts in the Bible. I'm sure it was applicable 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:42.240 back in the day, but now not anymore. And we pull back from some of the truth that the 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:51.319 Bible itself doesn't say is interpreted in another way. Or we look at what science has 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:56.840 revealed to us today and the fact that there's a greater corpus of truth as it were today 00:04:56.840 --> 00:05:03.199 and it casts doubt on some of the truth of the Bible. Or maybe we're even tempted when 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:08.720 we share our faith to say, well, this is what's true for me. This is what I've found to be 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:20.880 true and it works for me, which is not false, but it maybe plays into that whole sense of 00:05:20.880 --> 00:05:26.640 self-expression and finding truth that fits and is convenient and works for me. It might 00:05:26.640 --> 00:05:33.160 not work for someone else, but it is true for me. Yet here, John is absolutely adamant, 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:41.560 the Apostle John, that there's one irrefutable truth for all people and it has massive implications. 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:48.000 And that's why this beloved Apostle, the Apostle of Love, the one who speaks more about love 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:54.720 than anyone who was closer to Jesus in that way than any other disciple, he speaks so 00:05:54.720 --> 00:06:02.960 strongly against those who deny the truth that has been revealed through the apostolic 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:10.839 foundation. And he obviously in verses one and two, he speaks a lot about truth. And 00:06:10.839 --> 00:06:16.560 then in verse seven, he declares what that fundamental truth is that he is so keen to 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:22.919 defend against false teaching that has come into these early churches that denies this 00:06:22.919 --> 00:06:29.919 truth. He said, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:39.160 the coming of Jesus in the flesh, such a one as the deceiver and the Antichrist. So God, 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:46.480 the Son, coming in the flesh, the incarnation of Jesus as God's Son is this irrefutable 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:55.879 truth that can't be denied and can't be soft-soaked and can't be changed. And there's multiple 00:06:55.879 --> 00:07:01.719 truths that cascade from that particular fact of Jesus coming in the flesh. 00:07:01.719 --> 00:07:10.360 And John is adamant as an apostolic witness that it's incontrovertible that if you lose 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:19.319 that fact of the Son of God, the divine second person coming in the flesh, living, dying, 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:25.159 being raised and ascended back to heaven, if we don't believe that God in Jesus Christ 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:32.560 walked on this earth as a person, then we have moved from the foundation of Christianity. 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:38.480 We can't call ourselves Christians if that is not something that is fundamental to our 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:44.480 understanding and our belief. It's what's declared in Scripture. It's what the focus 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:49.520 of Scripture is. It's what all the gospels point towards. It's what the Old Testament 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:56.399 prophesied. It's what the New Testament epistles look back to. It's evidence truth. It's 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:02.839 lived-out truth. And it's truth that can be denied. People can be deceived from it. 00:08:02.839 --> 00:08:12.479 People can disbelieve it, but it's revealed for us as historical objective truth that 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:19.840 is fundamental to our faith and to our understanding of ourselves, of God, of this world that we 00:08:19.840 --> 00:08:27.040 live in and of this salvation message. So in this truth that John is speaking about, 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:34.720 he realizes a couple of things. Well, there's a couple of them, unstated realities that lie 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:40.560 behind the statement that Jesus came in the flesh, and then he makes two statements about 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:46.799 why that's so important. And the two unstated realities, if Jesus comes in the flesh and 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:53.799 all the teaching that comes from that, it is the reality that sin is a personal and a 00:08:53.799 --> 00:09:01.000 universal disease that needed God the Son to come to deal with. That's the biblical diagnosis 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:08.439 that we have of the world in which we live and of our own hearts before God. It is, 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:15.360 don't remind us of this morning, and it's often what we repeat here. It's our distance 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:21.640 from God. It's our rebellion against God. It's our turning our backs on God, our Creator, 00:09:21.640 --> 00:09:27.040 recognizing that from the beginning of Scripture. That is what kills us. That is what is killing 00:09:27.040 --> 00:09:35.160 us. Ultimately, it's not global warming. Global warming may well be happening. There 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:42.439 may be many reasons behind that. But that is not the ultimate reality of what's destroying 00:09:42.439 --> 00:09:49.839 this world. Because death, according to the coming of Jesus Christ and the reason He came 00:09:49.839 --> 00:09:57.759 is a spiritual problem. And it's the reality that brings us into judgment from God, because 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:07.600 death is what ultimately separates us from God of life. And that is why Jesus comes. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:14.439 We have no answers to that. We have no answers to the... We have no ultimate answers to the 00:10:14.439 --> 00:10:21.759 atrophying of the created universe, nor do we have any ultimate answers to our own death. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:28.159 The world we live in has much beauty and much amazing reality and much relationship and 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:34.879 much love. But there's also deep, deep shadows, deep brutality, deep darkness, deep evil 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:41.840 that we are unable to deal with. Not only in society, but in our own hearts, we recognize 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:48.960 that. Now, we can be deceived to think otherwise. We can ignore that fact by just sticking our 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:58.800 head in the sand and getting on with it, or we can attempt to self-solve that problem. 00:10:58.800 --> 00:11:06.519 But Jesus coming is in response to what God has revealed is the problem for humanity and 00:11:06.519 --> 00:11:16.480 the problem for the universe. And so, this truth that God had to come on our behalf cannot 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:26.080 be denied. It can't be minimized and regarded as insignificant. It's this desire for God 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:33.360 to relate to these people who abandoned Him, who can't find a way back to Him because of 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:41.759 their sin, that drove Jesus Christ into the womb of Mary, into the stable to become flesh, 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:51.159 to live and experience a death like no other. And John knows that. John recognizes that 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:59.600 Jesus coming in the flesh was so significant because His death is substitutionary and He 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:09.519 experienced an infinitely dense punishment on that cross, on that three hours. He takes, 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:17.600 He subsumes, He takes all the sin of all His people and the wrath of God and the power 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:27.559 of darkness and hell on that cross in our place. He becomes, He becomes our substitute. 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:39.279 God becomes human in order to be a substitute on our behalf. And in His unique resurrection, 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:47.559 back to life and love, He shares with all who believe in Him that same life and love. 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:56.279 And the question is, how we understand that, how we live that and how we share that today 00:12:56.279 --> 00:13:07.039 in a world that doesn't have the foundational truths? How do we do that? That's an important 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:13.279 question that each of us need to ask ourselves. How do we take that truth and make that relevant 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:17.839 in a society which maybe doesn't even begin with the foundation of believing in God in 00:13:17.839 --> 00:13:25.159 the first place? How do we get them to that place? And how do we share that truth meaningfully? 00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:33.480 And we need to recognize that it would be a very strange message to make up. And that 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:42.439 might be our starting point. Why would anyone make up this message? 00:13:42.439 --> 00:13:51.879 So there's these two unspoken, as it were, fundamental realities that lie behind John 00:13:51.879 --> 00:13:59.879 saying that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and railing against those who denied that. 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:07.439 And so what He does, He says a couple of things. He says, in verse 8, watch yourselves so that 00:14:07.439 --> 00:14:11.679 you do acknowledge what we have worked for but win a full reward. And then He says in 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:15.639 verse 9, everyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the teachings of Christ doesn't 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:20.960 have God. Now we know that that was a message to that early church, family, house church 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:26.040 probably in Ephesus, around Ephesus at the beginning of the New Testament. But it remains 00:14:26.040 --> 00:14:31.519 because of the living word of God, an ongoing and significant message for ourselves. To 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:37.639 be vigilant, He says to us this evening, old Christians, young Christians, new Christians, 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:48.120 whoever we might be, we are to be those who watch yourselves spiritually, to be alert, 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:56.240 to be those who recognise the danger of drifting from that truth, slowly and perceptibly losing 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:00.799 sight of the significance and importance of what Jesus has done and why that matters. 00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:06.360 And maybe with the passing of time, you think it becomes less significant. Well, it happened 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:12.240 such a long time ago, how can it be just as relevant? And He warns against that. And we 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:18.279 know that the Bible in many places warns us not to grow cold, not to lose our attachment 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:26.159 to Jesus Christ, not to stop praying, not to move on to anything else, because He says 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:34.440 that to live in the light of that truth enables us to know our reward in heaven. Now, the 00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:40.560 whole concept of reward is very difficult because we immediately associate reward with 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:45.979 earning something that we deserve it. But really, biblically, I think the idea of reward 00:15:45.979 --> 00:15:53.799 in heaven means simply that as we stay close to Jesus, as we regard as important in our 00:15:53.799 --> 00:16:00.879 lives, what Jesus knows is important and what He values, what weight we put on following 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:06.839 Jesus and the truth of Jesus in our lives will be recognised to the degree we lived 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:17.920 it in heaven. Christ values that as important and it will be reflected in how we spend eternity. 00:16:17.920 --> 00:16:25.360 I don't know what that looks like, no idea whatsoever. But as we have depended on Jesus, 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:33.960 Jesus recognises and sees that that has eternal value. There's weight living that. There's 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:40.160 a weightiness about living close to Jesus Christ and keeping that truth in our hearts. 00:16:40.160 --> 00:16:48.639 There's a weightiness that brings with it its own reward because there's value in remaining 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:56.759 close to Christ. So there's this encouragement, this challenge to be vigilant or to watch 00:16:56.759 --> 00:17:05.039 yourselves. And also, the second challenge is not to run ahead. Everyone who goes ahead 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:09.799 and doesn't abide, so you've got two things going on there. We're told not to run away 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:17.599 and run ahead of that teaching and find something new or something flash or something more modern. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:23.799 But we're told to remain. We're told to stay in that truth. We can't move out. There's 00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:29.680 lots of ways in which we're to move forward. We move forward in the truth of Jesus Christ. 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:36.879 We're not to run ahead of it to maybe some sophisticated truth that leaves the gospel 00:17:36.879 --> 00:17:44.240 and the message of a crucified and risen Savior in the cupboard. We are to progress in our 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:50.440 knowledge of that, but we're not to run ahead away from it. We're to remain in that truth. 00:17:50.440 --> 00:17:56.960 And we will continue to encourage you to remain in that truth because we need to remain in 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:01.840 that truth, all of us. We need to be founded in it because it's what gives us life and 00:18:01.840 --> 00:18:17.360 hope and security and fruitfulness and direction and blessing. So John then is totally uncompromising 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:25.519 on this truth. And he calls those who move from that truth of the truth of the incarnation 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:31.279 of Jesus and all that goes with that. He calls them in verse 7, he calls them deceivers who 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:36.639 do not confess the coming of Jesus in the flesh. So there was this group in these early 00:18:36.639 --> 00:18:45.159 churches that moved away from the apostolic foundations of the truth and who maybe said 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:53.960 things like, well, the body's evil and flesh is not good. There's no way God, the Son, 00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:58.560 would have come in the flesh. Maybe someone like God came and lived in Jesus for a while 00:18:58.560 --> 00:19:05.160 but then left him before he died. You don't need someone to die and across to forgive 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:09.440 your sins because, well, the flesh is all going to be destroyed anyway. We need to look 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:15.640 for some kind of spiritual enlightenment ourselves, get into a higher spiritual soul plane that 00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:20.600 we can find ourselves. And it doesn't matter too much how we live because, well, the body's 00:19:20.600 --> 00:19:25.920 just going to be destroyed. And we're not going to care too much for other people. We 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:33.160 just need to find this higher level of spiritual enlightenment through intellect and through 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:39.519 knowledge and through insight. That is kind of the teaching that seemed to have become 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:45.960 prevalent. Jesus didn't really, God didn't come in the flesh and we can really look after 00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:55.880 ourselves and save ourselves. And John is damning of these deceivers, he calls them, 00:19:55.880 --> 00:20:02.720 because they've moved away from God's own diagnosis. And we might not find exactly 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:10.200 the same kind of heretical teaching in the church, but we do find similar kind of thinking 00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:15.160 among a lot of people today, isn't it? What is sin? You know, we're not really quite so 00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:24.559 bad. I'm sure we can earn God's favour, we can do our best and God will accept us. And 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:31.120 I do, I'm as good as the next person. All these kind of things are all related to that. 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:36.799 Now when that happens in the world, well, we can't expect anything else in many ways, 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:45.159 can we? But when it happens in the church, we need to be super strong in arguing against 00:20:45.159 --> 00:20:50.919 that, especially if that becomes a message that is preached from churches that Jesus 00:20:50.919 --> 00:20:56.719 Christ didn't really need to come in the flesh. And he certainly didn't need to die 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:07.120 in a cross. That is just cosmic child abuse. And we can move away from such old kind of 00:21:07.120 --> 00:21:15.400 thinking. And yet, it doesn't answer the primary questions of the reality of your hearts, the 00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:21.799 reality of sin, the reality of death, and a lack of assurance about being right with 00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:30.240 God and moving forward into eternity. If we don't need Jesus Christ, if we didn't 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:37.039 need the cross, then let's just take the wine and the bread and just let's just eat, 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:43.839 drink and be merry and enjoy it just as a slapstick meal together and not something 00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:50.359 sacramental and precious that reflects the person of Jesus Christ. So he calls them deceivers, 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:55.959 but it's worse than that. He calls them anti-Christ. Such a one as a deceiver and the anti-Christ. 00:21:55.959 --> 00:22:02.839 And it's strong, strong words. Because remember, this was the time before the New Testament 00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:08.399 canon had been complete. We've got great privilege and we've got great blessing from 00:22:08.399 --> 00:22:13.240 having a complete scripture, Old and New Testament, right to the end of Revelation. But this 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:19.479 is before the end of the New Testament canon. And the apostolic message, the apostolic teaching 00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:27.720 and authority was fundamental to these new churches. And it was so significant that 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:35.480 people held on to that teaching because it was what then became the inspiration for scripture, 00:22:35.480 --> 00:22:43.039 those who had been witnesses of Jesus and who had this message to declare and to preach. 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:48.079 But at this early stage in the church, lots of messengers came around with a different 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:57.960 message. Now, in the New Testament church, when teachers came to a house church or a 00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:03.279 new church, they were to generally be invited into people's homes. They were to be given 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:09.679 hospitality. They were to be listened to and their message was to be shared. But John 00:23:09.679 --> 00:23:16.119 Heavis saying, no, don't bring them into your home. Don't show them hospitality. Don't 00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:21.079 take them into your house. Don't receive their teaching. Don't even greet them because they 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:26.439 are anti Christ. They are bringing a message that will destroy, it will not heal and will 00:23:26.439 --> 00:23:33.839 not bring life. These were wolves. They were in competition to the apostolic message. They 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:42.159 were after power and control and they were engaging in spiritual abuse. Oh yeah, it's 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:47.040 not a new concept, spiritual abuse and church leadership goes right back to the New Testament. 00:23:47.040 --> 00:23:53.360 And he says, don't welcome them nor their message. Don't give them that respect that 00:23:53.360 --> 00:24:01.600 they seek. And we have a duty in our lives and in our understanding of the truth, not 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:14.039 to partner with those who preach a false message that moves away from the gospel of Jesus Christ 00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:21.719 and the incarnation of Jesus Christ as God the Son who died to atone for the sins of 00:24:21.719 --> 00:24:27.959 His people and who rose again to offer eternal life. It's why we can't partner with churches 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:35.319 who would openly teach and preach a liberal theology that moves away from the traditional 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:41.480 understanding of the apostolic fathers. And that has nothing to do with being separatist. 00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:47.519 I hope we can still love and understand and communicate warmly with such people. But it 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:54.200 is to do with our understanding of truth and its implications. And it's something that 00:24:54.200 --> 00:25:01.600 we need to recognize in our own individual lives. I think particularly when we have such 00:25:01.600 --> 00:25:07.920 access to online teaching, when maybe church isn't quite so significant to many people 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:14.759 and worship and learning under the word, maybe becoming less significant because there's 00:25:14.759 --> 00:25:22.319 much better guys that preach online. But there's a danger of putting yourself under teaching 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:29.399 that it moves away from the apostolic foundations and the confessional standards that we regard 00:25:29.399 --> 00:25:34.279 as so important and that are based on God's word. 00:25:34.279 --> 00:25:40.000 So in conclusion, very briefly, John's strong words are a reminder to us of the foundation 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:46.159 of the gospel. And just lastly, and I think this is very, very important because John 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:52.600 sees it as, and it makes sense, doesn't it, that it's so important, that when we accept 00:25:52.600 --> 00:25:57.759 this fundamental foundational truth that is revealed in Scripture about Jesus Christ and 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:04.080 about Him coming and about His substitutionary death on our behalf, it's the truth, it's 00:26:04.080 --> 00:26:13.480 the only truth that unlocks true love. It's the only truth that unlocks true love. Because 00:26:13.480 --> 00:26:17.360 what John is stating here as he's done, as we looked at last week when he talked about 00:26:17.360 --> 00:26:20.680 the commandment we've been given from the beginning to love one another, and it's based 00:26:20.680 --> 00:26:25.279 on the truth that's been revealed, the message they've had from the beginning. It is that 00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:36.759 to genuinely love one another is, has a doctrinal basis. It is a basis in doctrinal truth. Two 00:26:36.759 --> 00:26:43.879 true doctrine is always a walk into shared divine love. That's a really important point 00:26:43.879 --> 00:26:49.359 to finish with. The truth that we believe, the truth that we confess, the truth that 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:57.359 we hold to, never stays on the page. It never stays on the page of Scripture. And I think 00:26:57.359 --> 00:27:02.000 that comes across in John's closing words when he says, though I have much to write 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:06.279 to you, I would much rather not use paper ink instead I hope to come to you, talk to 00:27:06.279 --> 00:27:11.839 you face to face. Because he realizes that doctrinal truth is primarily, it's primarily 00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:19.480 relational. It always has been. Jesus Christ is revealed as the word, but is the word incarnate 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:23.240 to whom we relate and we have a relationship with through salvation. 00:27:23.240 --> 00:27:29.879 Doctrine, if you have a doctrine or a belief that allows you to be divisive, proud, power-seeking, 00:27:29.879 --> 00:27:34.480 superior or judgmental, it's not true doctrine, whatever it is. Whatever it is, it's not true 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:39.920 doctrine. You may assent and I may assent to the truth, but if it hasn't reached your 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:45.360 heart, it's not truth at all. Loveless, can I say something strong? Loveless doctrine 00:27:45.360 --> 00:27:51.920 is hellish because even Satan believes in shudders, even the demons believe in shudder. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:59.720 The written word can only ever go so far for us, even the Bible. We don't worship the Bible, 00:27:59.720 --> 00:28:05.559 it's bibliography. We need the Holy Spirit to take the truth and incarnate it into our 00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:13.400 lives, into our hearts so that we love other people the way Jesus Christ loves us. Doctrinal 00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:20.680 truth is always there to change our hearts towards God. It's never a bare instruction 00:28:20.680 --> 00:28:26.240 manual. The Bible's never that. If you think that's where the Bible is, you're way off 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:33.839 beam because it's relational truth that brings us into knowledge of Jesus Christ. Truth is 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:39.920 incarnational. It's the outworking of God's grace to us. John could see that. He could 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:45.920 see. That's why he was so, he spoke in such damnable terms of those deceivers because 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:50.400 they were divisive, they were separatist, they caused trouble in the church, they didn't 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:59.519 love their brothers and sisters, they just, they just caused havoc. For us, truth is 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:09.160 a face-to-face religion with the living God. And that's why we can talk about the pinnacle 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:15.519 of our relationship being in heaven when Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes. That 00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:20.879 just speaks of a face-to-face relationship. We have honesty and openness and courage and 00:29:20.879 --> 00:29:26.160 concerns that we share and that we live as people, not only before Jesus but also before 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:32.879 our brothers and sisters. That is what completes joy in our Christian lives. 00:29:32.879 --> 00:29:38.599 Mere intellectual understanding of doctrine will not make you joyful. It needs to soak 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:46.759 into your heart and transform your and my lives. The gospel is a community of Christ 00:29:46.759 --> 00:29:54.719 and His people around the campfire of truth. And that's the fullest, safest, strongest, 00:29:54.719 --> 00:30:01.159 toughest and best place to live our life in Jesus Christ. And you are called to do that 00:30:01.159 --> 00:30:05.319 in St. Columbus and I am called to do that. And if you're visiting with us tonight, you're 00:30:05.319 --> 00:30:10.240 called to do that in whatever gospel community you're part of. And if you're with us tonight 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:15.599 and you're not a Christian, you're called and then commanded to come and know this Christ, 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:22.240 who alone is the truth revealed, who alone can deal with your death and your separation 00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:25.960 from God and who alone can give you eternal life. It's the greatest message of all that 00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:29.039 we'll celebrate very shortly. Let's pray. 00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:38.720 Father God, help us to understand your truth, not as a flat doctrine, not as a way of separating 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:47.559 us in intellectual pride from other people or from other religions, but as an understanding 00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:55.319 of the universe, an understanding of God and of our need and of His solution, which is 00:30:55.319 --> 00:31:00.839 all of grace and all of goodness and love. And I haven't explained as much of that as 00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:06.480 I should have. He just comes in great love to provide that way back. He says, I am the 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:11.359 way, the truth in the life. May we celebrate that through the Lord's Supper. And it may 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:18.439 be a meaningful sacrament to us as it reminds us of this truth, is the broken body, the 00:31:18.439 --> 00:31:23.200 shed blood of Jesus as the sacrament He gives us because it's so critical and central to 00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:32.000 our lives. So Lord, help us to enjoy that truth and know it and experience it in our 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:53.960 lives more and more we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.