Come away with your spirits, come away. May his savings bow be clean. I will praise him, I will praise him. Praise the Lamb, the sinner's slave. Give him glory, holy people. For his blood can wash away each stain. 

Though the way seem straight and narrow, all I claim to swept away. My ambitions, plans, and wishes at my feet in ashes lay. I will praise him, I will praise him. Praise the Lamb, the sinner's slave. Give him glory, holy people. For the blood can wash away each stain. 

Blessed be the name of Jesus. I'm so glad he took me in. He's forgiven my transgressions. He has cleansed my heart from sin. I will praise him, I will praise him. Praise the Lamb, the sinner's slave. Give him glory, holy people. For his blood can wash away each stain. 

Glory, glory to the Father. Glory, glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit. Glory to the three in one. I will praise him, I will praise him. Praise the Lamb, the sinner's slave. Give him glory, holy people. For his blood can wash away each stain. 

I will praise him regardless of what's going on in our life today. That's the truth we need to hold on to. We're going to be talking this morning about truth, about discernment. The second epistle of John is all about a call to discernment in the church. He's writing to this elect lady, calling on her to have discernment in who she welcomes into her home and who she exercises hospitality toward, asserting that she needs to be careful. 

And that's really what 2 John is about for us, is to know the truth, to believe the truth, and then to trust Jesus like we were just singing about. So we're going to be looking at 2 John, particularly verses 4-6 this morning. I like to just read those verses as we begin. 

John writes, “I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth as we receive commandment from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have heard or had from the beginning, that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.” 

Well, in 2010, Idaho legislator Curtis Bowers made a documentary some of you may have heard of. It was called Agenda, The Grinding Down of America. I remember watching this documentary years ago, but I recently came across it again, and it's a disturbing look at the agenda of the Communist Party in America to destroy our country and take it over. 

That might sound a bit out there in the tinfoil hat realm at first, but it's interesting to read the 45 goals that the Communist Party USA set all the way back in 1919. And they've had notable meetings since then, 1938, 1964, and one in 1992 that Senator Bowers attended covertly. 

And I want to just read a few of those statements, the goals that they've listed. Number 17 says, “Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations and put the party line in the textbooks.” 

Number 20, “Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions. Gain control of key positions in radio, television, and motion pictures.” 

Number 24, “Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and television.” 

Number 26, “Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as normal, natural, and healthy.” 

27 says, “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch.” 

Number 28, “Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of separation of church and state.” 

1919, my friends. I wonder if you've seen any of those things. Number 27 struck me as I read these again. It says, “Replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible.” 

My friends, revealed religion means that which God has revealed in His Word. It means biblical Christianity. It's stunning in 2017 to see how incredibly successful those who have taken over in the public schools, the areas of arts and entertainment, the media, and the government have been at implementing this agenda. How they've been able to do this even in the church. 

When I look around at what's going on in the churches, I see these goals being verbalized from pulpits and on Facebook posts continually. Even some true believers that love the Lord have been molded, shaped, conformed by the world and by false teachers. The problem is not that the world does not know the truth. The problem is that much of the church no longer knows the truth. 

If the church is clear and solid concerning the truth, then the church can take that truth to the world. But if the church loses sight of the truth, exchanges revealed truth for social religion, then the truth can no longer be spoken in the world. The church will become ineffective and men will not be saved. 

And my friends, it's not the socialists and the communists that are ultimately behind this plan and program to discredit the Bible and bring immorality and a lack of absolute truth to the mainstream of culture. It is Satan himself that is behind this effort ultimately. 

And the answer, my brothers and sisters, is not politics. It's not in winning the presidency or the Congress or ruling on the local school board. The answer is for the church to stand as the pillar and the ground of the truth in this world. The answer is for believers to know and speak the truth and not be taken in by false teachers, worldly ideas, and social gospels. 

We have seen again and again in our studies that the authors of the New Testament were so very concerned about this very thing happening. Paul spoke of savage wolves coming in and not sparing the flock. Jesus called false teachers vipers, sons of Satan, the blind leading the blind. Jude calls them reefs just below the surface waiting to tear open the hull of a passing ship. He calls them clouds without water. Peter says they are brute beasts worthy of only destruction. 

And John, as we have seen, warns continually about these teachers drawing the disciples away. Jesus said, beware of those who come in My name in Matthew 24. Do you know who these dangerous, wretched beasts are, my friends? They're not the Satan worshipers. They're not the atheists and the apologists for humanism. These are the false teachers that claim the name of Christ, that sneak in unnoticed, that infiltrate the church and tear it apart from the inside. They are the Joel Osteens of our world, the Kenneth Copelands, the prosperity teachers, and they are the social gospel purveyors leading churches into curing the ills of the world and forsaking the gospel truth. 

Their influence reaches like tentacles into the deepest part of the church and has an adverse effect on how Christians think, what they believe, and therefore, how they act. I don't know if you caught much of the media buzz about Joel Osteen with this recent hurricane and whether or not he should open his doors and let people in, and the building holds 16,000 people. I saw article after article and post after post defending this man as a Christian. 

The issue for me was not whether he opened his doors. The issue is why are all these biblical Christians defending Joel Osteen as a Christian under attack? I'm not saying he wasn't treated unfairly or really didn't know he did what was right at the time. I don't really care about that. This guy is a false teacher, a charlatan, a prosperity preacher who should be openly condemned and rejected by every believer and every body of believers. Defending Joel Osteen as a Christian under attack is a gross misunderstanding and misrepresentation of who he is. And I'm not sure that much of the church is discerning enough to see that. 

Why? Why is there no discernment in the church? Because we have been slowly, surely conformed by this world. By the politically correct, never offending, compromising, cultural Marxism that is being patiently, subtly, continually thrust upon our culture through art, media, public education, entertainment, and even the church. 

Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch. That pretty well summarizes my 16 years of education. 

Satan has an agenda. And his agenda is to discredit God's Word. It has been from the beginning, from the garden, when he said to Eve, has God really said? His agenda is to tell big enough lies, long enough, that people will believe them. And my friends, the only answer to this agenda of error and lies is truth. 

When there is an error, we need to point it out. We need to go to a brother who has fallen into error and correct him, exhort him, rebuke him with the truth of God's Word. When there's a false teacher preying on the church, confusing the brethren, we need to note him, as Paul says in Romans 16-17, call him out publicly, name him, and warn the people about him. We are constantly being criticized for being critical. But God has made clear in His Word that He wants us to think critically. He wants us to discern error and He wants us to warn others of false teachers to protect the church, to guard the truth. 

Truth is our weapon. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. It is the light that dispels the darkness. It is the truth that beats back the error and the lies. And it's the only way that the individual believer and body can grow and become discerning and be equipped to go out into this danger zone of the world in which we live and do battle to wage war for the souls of men. 

The issue is truth. And what John wants this dear elect lady and her children and us, my brothers and sisters, to understand is that it is true love, agape love, that is always based in the truth. That's the message of our text today. That love cannot be divorced from the truth. That the love that the world and the false teachers and much of the church talks about where we never offend, we never criticize, we accept anyone who claims the name of Christ is a false love. 

It's a love that's devoid of truth, that leads to destruction. Rather, we should reject those who teach lies, who lead astray. Not even eating with them, he says. Not even welcoming them into our homes, but send them on their way and warn the brethren. Truth is the foundation of love, my friends. And that's what we see in John's words for us this morning. 

Look at verse 4. “I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth as we have received commandment from the Father. And I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.” 

What he says in verse 7. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we work for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, what is the doctrine, my friends? What is the doctrine? Jesus Christ became a man. God sent His only Son. He became a man. He took on flesh to die in our place for our sins, and He paid the full payment on that cross in His one-time righteous act to save us from our sins. And through faith, we can receive His righteousness and become children of God. 

If a man doesn't bring that doctrine, if he says we must do works, we must participate in sacraments, if he says we must join with those who teach a false gospel in order to cure the social ills of our world and lay aside our doctrinal differences, if he violates, does not bring, does not abide, does not remain in that gospel truth, then John says, don't even let him into your house. “For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” 

We're going to hone in on John's admonition in verses four to six this morning to love one another. But what I want you to see is how John links his primary theme of truth to his primary command of love. Love cannot be apart from truth. This is the message we need to understand. 

I've given you three points on your outline for these verses. First, we're going to see what it means to walk in truth. Second, to love one another. And third, believe Jesus. 

Well, first we see in our text that we must walk in the truth. Verse four, “I rejoice greatly that I've found some of your children walking in the truth.” The word “walks” means to tread all around, to walk about. It concerns how we live. In Ephesians 4.1, Paul said, “I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” 

To walk worthy literally means with equal weight. In other words, that we should walk in consistency with our calling, in consistency with who we are. Our outer actions should match the inner truth of who we are in Christ. All of these things, my friends, are based in truth, in doctrine. The truth of our salvation affects how we walk. 

Think about this. The gospel is the manifestation of the love of God in Christ. It is the truth of our sinfulness, our need, our condemnation in Adam. Our destiny in the lake of fire. These truths help us to understand the great grace of God given in the person and work of Jesus Christ. 

It is the truth that God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to die in our place for our sins, to pay the full atonement for my sins and yours that we might be saved. It's the truth, the profound truth, that because of His substitutionary death, because of His death in our place, we can by faith receive His righteousness. That we can be justified, that we can be made right with God, bought back at a price, that there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus by faith. 

It's the truth of our regeneration, the new birth of Christ living in us, of our death to sin, our death to the law, of our new life by the Holy Spirit living in us. It's all these doctrines, these truths, these mercies of God. These, my friends, are the basis for our walk, our worthy walk, our presenting of our bodies, our living sacrifice, which Paul says is our reasonable act of worship, our reasonable service. 

You see, my friends, in order to walk in truth, we must know the truth. And knowing the truth, we must believe the truth. We must reckon it to be so. We must affirm it in our minds. And we must look to Jesus and His life and power in us to produce fruit, the fruit of righteousness and the fruit of evangelism and the going forth of the gospel. 

John says, he greatly rejoices to see some of this lady's children walking in truth, believing the truth, living in truth. We cannot walk in the truth if we do not know the truth and believe the truth. If we have men in pulpits teaching false or misleading doctrines, drawing the believers away into all kinds of ideas and wisdoms of men, not preaching the truth, not respecting and exhorting or rebuking error, not calling for holy living or witnessing through the preaching of the gospel, then believers will not be built up. 

They will not be discerning. They will not be equipped to do the work of ministry. We have to have a great desire, a passion for truth in order for that foundational truth to translate into fruit in how we walk. 

I remember when I was in college, there was a guy who lived upstairs. The landlord had divided a house into two apartments and I lived downstairs and he lived upstairs. And one morning, early in the fall, he came beating on my door in a panic. I opened the door and he was covered in blood. I was a little taken back and I said, “What happened?” 

You see, this man was a very health-conscious guy. He was a bodybuilder, lifting weights all the time and was always looking for a source of protein. But he was a very poor college student and he really didn't have any money in any way to buy meat. So what he'd done was he'd gone out and shot a deer. He wasn't a hunter and he only had a .22 rifle so it really didn't go so well. 

And he was afraid of getting caught for violating but he'd managed to kill the deer and get it into the trunk of his car. And he wanted me to help him process it so that he could get it hidden in his freezer and then eat that lean protein that he was searching for. It was an interesting morning for sure. 

But here's my point. That young man knew that if he was going to grow, if he was going to put on muscle and get bigger and be stronger, he had to have solid food. He had to have lean meat, protein, and a steady diet of it. 

And he so wanted it. He so desired it. He so believed this truth that he was willing to go to great lengths to get it. Peter talks about this concerning how believers grow. He said, “Be like a newborn babe who longs for his mother's milk.” If you spend any time around an infant, you know the singular focus of that child when he gets hungry for his mother's milk and he's going to let you know how badly he wants it. 

So Peter says, you believers, you desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. This is what makes me wonder in the church today, my friends. Because it seems to me that those who call themselves evangelicals, not all of them, but many, are clamoring for all kinds of things. 

But solid expository preaching and teaching from the Word, truth teaching from the pulpit is not high on their list. It's not the primary emphasis and desire. And this is sad because it's the only way that we can grow, the only way we can keep from being tossed to and fro and rendered ineffective by false teachers. 

If we're going to walk in the truth, we must agonize. We must seek, long for the pure milk of the Word, the truth above all else. And we should, as John, greatly rejoice in those who walk according to the truth, who do seek it earnestly and go after it with effort and desire, making the fellowship of believers their first priority. The study of the Word, their great need and joy, and the hearing of the preaching and teaching of the Word, their sustenance. 

John said, “I greatly rejoice to see some of your children walking in the truth.” And what is the result of that foundation of truth? What is the result of this kind of passion and seeking and learning and growing? It is love for one another. 

Look at verse five. “And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.” This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. 

This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. John wants the truth of the condition of men, the state of this world, the reality of judgment and eternal death. He wants the truth of the gospel of grace through faith, of deliverance from sin and death and hell, salvation in Jesus Christ alone. 

He wants the truth to give rise to love. Jesus said in John 13, 34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” In John 15, 12, He said, “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.” 

Jesus manifests the love of God at the cross. Turn over to Romans five with me, please. Romans five at verse seven. Paul explains this beginning in verse seven. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” 

“For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Jesus has shown us, He has manifest for us the love of God, agape love, self-sacrificial love. 

In Philippians two, Paul instructs us. He says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” 

It is what Jesus did for us. The truth of how much God loved us when we were His enemies. Apart from anything that we are or that we have done, it is grace, my friends, that teaches us. Grace teaches us, teaches us the love of God, teaches us to deny ungodliness. 

And it is the truth that gives rise to our love for one another. Romans five tells us that God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. We love because He first loved us. 

It's the truth of the gospel and regeneration and His life in us that gives rise to agape love poured out through us. And we have a great desire to love, to help others, to minister to the lost, to give of ourselves, of our time, of our money, our resources, so that the gospel might increase. 

You see, this dear lady that John writes to was that kind of lady. She wanted to show the love of Christ. She wanted to assist ministers in Christ. And the primary way that she did this was to exercise hospitality in her home. 

You see, this was necessary in those days, even more so than now. The inns were not fit for Christians to lodge in, oftentimes being places of prostitution or corruption, even if a minister could afford to stay there. Ministers of the gospel were traveling and preaching. They needed assistance to support their ministries. And when they came to town, they needed a place to stay. They needed something to eat. 

So believers in the fellowship would house and feed and assist in the way of hospitality, these itinerant ministers. I think it's important for us to see the context in which John writes here and what was going on because this lady in her zeal to help and to give of herself, even her home and her food to the gospel, John says needed to be discerning because what had happened was that some false teachers had come pretending to be ministers of the gospel. 

And this lady had helped them, had lodged them, had furthered them. And the teaching was spread in the church. John is telling her that he wants her to love. He wants her to extend that agape, self-sacrificial love to the brethren, to be hospitable in this way. 

But he's telling her that this love must be in concert with truth. In verse six, it says, “This is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.” 

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we work for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” 

If anyone comes to you and he does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. John says you need to love one another. You need to obey the commandment of Christ, but this love needs to be according to truth. 

This love needs to be discerning. Because if you try to apply love apart from truth, then you will end up assisting false teachers, aiding Satan in his work to bring error into your life and into the church. This is such a practical section for us to study, my friends. So applicable to the church today. 

Believers, true Bible-believing Christians have a great desire to exercise love, to show the love of Christ, to minister to others and to love them. But I'm afraid that in many cases, this so-called love overshadows the truth. The truth is set aside. It's compromised in an effort to show love. 

We do not preach the gospel clearly because it is offensive. And we don't want to offend anyone. We do not preach and teach the Word of God verse by verse, book by book, because you know what? There's some really hard things in there. And men won't stand for hearing the truth. They want to be entertained. They want to have their ears tickled. 

We do not exercise church discipline because that's so unloving, so uncaring. We compromise so that we don't have to do the hard things. Rebuking, exhorting, restoring from sin, maintaining purity in the church, standing for the truth, dividing over error. 

My friends, the world has conformed our definition of love and it has divorced it from the truth. And the result of this is confusion, is a lack of growth and maturity and discernment in the church. Because in our zeal to show love, we have failed to speak the truth. And that love has gone from being agape love, the love of Christ demonstrated at the cross, to a worldly love, a love that seeks to make men feel good and be happy, rather than giving them what they really need to cure their sin-sick condition, the truth of the gospel. 

So John says, walk in the truth. Love one another. Divorce the two. Don't compromise one for the other. Let them exist in perfect balance. And for this lady in her ministry of hospitality, this meant not welcoming anyone into her home who did not bring the truth, who did not preach the truth, teach the truth about who Jesus is and what He has done. 

This calls for discernment on her part, my friends. She will have to judge those who claim the name of Christ. She will have to know the truth of God's word. She'll have to renew her mind to it continually. She'll have to abide in Christ and see the subtle, deceptive error of the false teachers who are coming to her church and to her home. 

And when there is a red flag, that which comes up against the word of truth, then she will have to reject that man, that teacher, and not welcome him into her home. And she will have to warn the brethren in the church concerning that man. 

I have to tell you, my friends, I'm not sure how well this is going to go over in the evangelical church. It's sometimes hard to stand for the truth. It's hard to do what's right. But it's imperative that we are discerning concerning false teaching and that we guard the truth in the church. John appeals to her to walk in the truth. He appeals to her to love in truth with discernment, because many false teachers have gone out into the world. 

And our last point this morning is that she can only do this by believing Jesus. We've talked at length in our recent studies about God's plan for growing His church, for building believers and preparing them to go out into the world and do the work of ministry, the preaching of the gospel. 

God's church growth plan does not rely on the methods and principles of Peter Drucker, the great business guru, like the purpose-driven movement of Rick Warren and Bill Hybels do. The furtherance of the gospel is not about slick marketing ideas or fancy packaging and appealing to the felt needs of carnal men. 

God's plan is for preachers and teachers in the local church to preach the Word, to build up and equip the saints to do the work of ministry, and for the individual believer to search the Scriptures daily, to involve himself in fellowship and prayer and abide in Jesus one day at a time, looking to Him, knowing His truth, and choosing to believe Him. 

This is the way that we can see fruit produced through our lives for the glory of God. This is the way that we can be equipped and useful for ministry, to be seeking and seizing opportunities to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to preach it clearly as we ought, as God gives us opportunity. 

This is God's will for us, His command to us as New Covenant believers, to believe His Son, to abide in Jesus, His words abiding in us. This means that we believe what He says. We believe what He says in His Word, that we trust Him and we depend on Him and apply the truth in every area of our lives. 

This means that if God says something is right, then it is right. And if He says something is wrong, then it is wrong. It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter how I feel or what seems right to me. It is a matter of believing Jesus. 

And if God says, “This is the way that I want you to build the church, this is what I want the local body of believers to be doing, and this is how I want them to do it,” then we must believe Jesus. We must obey what He says in His Word. He's not interested in the fancy ideas of men like Peter Drucker. He's not interested in my new way of reaching the lost or entertaining the church. 

He wants us to walk in truth. He wants us to love one another according to truth. These commands must not contradict one another, but they must work in perfect balance, and they do, my friends, because it is the truth that gives rise to love. True agape biblical love. And we walk in the truth. We love in truth when we believe Jesus. 

Be careful, my friends, not to listen to the voices that don't speak the truth clearly. That have some new way, some new idea to show the love of Christ to men. Beware of those who are willing to compromise the truth, to add to or take away from the Word of God, because many false teachers have gone out into the world. 

Let's not allow them to steal away our full reward. Reject that man. Don't entertain his thoughts and ideas, but warn others about him. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Prepare the pure milk of the Word and seek the truth. Agonize to love in the truth as God has commanded us. This is what John is telling us in our text. My friends, we need to believe him. We need to heed what he says, because this is God's way. It's the only way. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're thankful that you tell us the truth that you cannot lie. We're thankful that you have given us your Word that we can study every day. That we can go back to and renew our minds and set our thinking straight. Just help us to desire that truth. To desire you, to know about you, about Jesus, what he's done for us, who he is, and the promises that we have for the future. Help us to abide in him one day at a time. And to trust and believe and depend on your grace for your purpose and will in our lives. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.