First - I will confess my complete failure to upkeep my blog spot. Hopefully you will find it in your blog readers heart to forgive me. Thank you! Now with that being said, I want to update my blog with my notes from Sunday's Message on 2 John. This is a great book that we need to pay attention to. I hope to update every other day with another point for you to be re-learning. I Love You HBC Cambridge - lets grow in this together - Enjoy!
From My notes - Greatest Scripture Never Told - 2 John
Introduction
- History of the Book - Written by John to a church or personally to a lady, or to both. John is the last apostle alive He has been in prison once already; Rome had tried to burn him, but the fire wouldn’t go, so they tried to poison him but it didn’t work. They banished John to an Island called Patmos, but now he his back.
- The Reason - John is passionate about the Lord Jesus, about his people, (pastor of the church in Ephesus) and about the truth about his friend and savior, Jesus Christ. He now writes what we would call a letter, or better yet, a post card to 1) uplift, and encourage the readers; 2) to instruct them and 3) to warn them of the potential dangers that may come their way -
1A]
God’s people are FILLED UP with truth. (vv. 1-3)
Notice from the text:
“The elder
(John) to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I but
also all who know the truth, because of the truth that 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 Father’s Son, IN
TRUTH and love…” Did you see it there?
There was a key word said 4x’s - what was it - TRUTH! Right. Now key in v.2 “because of the Truth
that ABIDES in us and will be forever…” Abide = TO REMIAN, to PERSIST in. WOW, That sounds awesome, but one question -What is Truth?
Truth in this case equals “reality” or “ultimate reality”;
“it’s the basis of all we see, feel and know…”
In the scriptures it’s further described as: Jesus
- John 14:6, “I
am the Way, the TRUTH and the LIFE.”
What is reality here - Jesus.
John 17:7 - God’s word
is called Truth. “Sanctify them in the Truth, your word is Truth…”
John 14:17. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit
of Truth. “I will ask my Father to give you the Spirit of Truth…”
who will help us know what is the truth. “…He will guide you into all truth…” John 16:13
John MacArthur, in his commentary on 2 John said this, and I quote:
"The Bible, the Word of Truth, (Ps. 119:160; John 17:17; 2 Cor. 6:7; 2 Tim. 2:15; James 1:18), majors on the theme of truth. God is the "God of truth (2 Sam. 7:28; Num. 23:19; Titus 1:2), who abounds in truth (Exodus 34:6) and always speaks the truth (John 8:45-46). Christ is the truth (Jn. 14:6; Eph. 4:21), is full of truth (Jn. 1:14), revealed the truth (Jn 1:17), spoke the truth (Jn. 8:45-46), and testified to the truth (Jn. 18:37). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1Jn. 5:6). God's TRUTH is eternal (Ps. 117:2), infinite (Ps. 57:10; 86:15; 108:4 and saving (Ps. 69:13). Salvation comes from faith in the truth (2 Thes. 2:13); beleivers are sanctified by the truth (Jn. 17:17); love the truth (2 Thess. 2:10); are set free by the truth (Jn. 8:32); worship in the truth (John 4:23-24); rejoice in the truth (1 Cor. 13:6); speak the truth (Eph. 4:15, 25); meditate on the truth; manifest the truth; obey the truth; are guided by the truth and most comprehensively, walk in the truth (1 Kings 2:4; 3:6; 2 Kins 20:3; Pss 26:3; 86:11).
Believers must be committed to the truth, because we exist in the world which is the realm of Satan (1Jn. 5:19), the father of lies (Jn. 8:44). He (Satan) strives to keep sinners from understanding and believing the truth; he is "the god of this world who has blinded the minds of th unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4). As a result, "Everyone deceives his neighbor and does not speak the truth, they have taught their tongue to speak lies" (Jer. 9:5). Unbelievers are "men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth" (1 Tim. 6:5), who "oppose the truth" (2 Tim. 3:8) and "turn away their ears from the truth" (2 Tim. 4:4) because "they exchanged the truth of God for a lie" (Rm. 1:25)
You say,
“well, duh?!” (go ahead - well duh?!)-what else is there to trust in besides
truth? I’m glad you ask -
Top five answers on the board
- top deceiver that block the truth - here we go:
#5) Strength - that is to say - Larger is better so these folks
must be right, right? How can so many
people be so wrong? Well the Bible has a
lot to say about following the crowd vs. following the truth, namely - Broad is
the road that leads to destruction, but narrow is the gate that leads to
eternal life. Bigger isn’t always
better.
#4) Nothing- Trust Me, Nothing is something! Especially with People who are usually hurt
or angry or bitter. They hate you, they
hate everyone, and they trust nothing.
Usually they say something like: “well you believe what you believe and
I’ll believe what I believe…” But here’s
the rub…they don’t know what they believe.
#3) An Ideal: Something
like Reason or Science or the Goodness of Man.
They tend to believe grandiose ideas that only truly benefit them and
not the world as a whole.
#2) Someone/Something Else:
Modern Day Movements like the Mormons or Moonies, the Muslims or the
Hindu’s all trust in a man. They trust
the wisdom of a finite sinner or sunnie or dali-lama, vs the Truth of God and
his word. They are drawn in by their
senses - they can see this person, touch them, hear them and less faith is
needed. Everything seems so right and so
real - until it all goes wrong. History
is full of cult leaders who destroyed lives and ruined families all for their
own glory…more on that in a moment.
#1) Who do we trust more
than truth - Themselves! I am the captain of my own fate. I am the master of my soul. I exist for me and for my pleasure.
Here it is
- John is saying - Truth is what God has revealed about Himself - Creation, The
Law, the OT - Truth is in particular what He has revealed about the
ultimate reality of his plan - The
Gospel. And most importantly, Truth is found only in Jesus Christ.
Now quickly,
before we move on, notice the benefits of Truth: Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, IN TRUTH and love…” Grace =
Favor, undeserved favor; Mercy = is a combo of Love and pity that seeks the
best for its object; and Peace = Wholeness (Shalom) Wholeness physically,
mentally, and spiritually.
Where is it
from? 1) God the Father 2) Jesus Christ. But don’t miss “and
from”. Those two words will come
into play later, but are extremely important here for the sake of the deity of
Jesus. John is saying that this is from God and from one on the
same level, equal to God, worthy of worship and praise - Jesus. This is a statement of his Trinity.
God's People are FILLED UP with Truth - Are you?
Friday - "God's People Encourage others with LOVE"
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