Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

We often judge our lives by our successes and failures, our joys and sorrows. When someone impacts a lot of people we say they lived a full life. When someone seems to have a lot of success in life or in their career, we think, “They must be doing something right.” In today’s fast paced world, it seems you have to be a step ahead of everyone else in order to be the one who gets the prize. You need to be the first one to make the sale. You need to be the first one to think of the punchline. You need to have some great new idea that revolutionizes the world.

We often think of innovation and forward-thinking as good things. But we need to be careful not to run ahead of what the Bible teaches. We need to believe the Bible, not change its message. It is God’s Word to us, and who are we to change God’s perfect Word? To do so is an act of rebellion against God. Those who change, or add to, or take away from God’s Word are in danger of eternal separation from God. But those who cling to God’s Word, and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be rewarded with abundant, full, eternal life.

Read 2 John 1:7-11

There are basically two errors in this passage that we must be careful not to fall into: 1) We must not ourselves be deceived and become deceivers, and 2) We must not have fellowship with deceivers, and in doing so take part in their deception.

If we can avoid these to pitfalls, and instead cling to Christ in truth, the Bible says we will win a full reward: eternal life.

First, we must not ourselves be deceived and become deceivers (v. 7). There are lies all around us, trying to get us to believe them. And here’s a lie we tell a lot: “Remember, as far as anyone knows, we are a nice normal family.” We need to be careful not to believe lies, and not to be liars. Deception comes in many forms.

It’s easy to spot deception outside of the faith. When people say that Jesus wasn’t God in the flesh, or that He isn’t the Savior, we know that they aren’t speaking truth. They’re not even on the same page as us. But sometimes it’s more difficult to spot deception from within the realm of what is confessed to be Christianity. What do we do when we hear evangelical Christians claim that Hell is not eternal? Or even real? What do we do believe when mainline Christianity drifts toward believing that Jesus will not return in the flesh? How do we discern truth from error? We need to be familiar with God’s Word.

Second, we must not have fellowship with deceivers, and in doing so take part in their deception (v. 10-11). The idea isn’t that we should not greet them or be nice to them. There are certain words in this passage which point to more than the words as they’re translated. “Receive him into your house” points to more of a permanent stay, like if you were to house missionaries who needed a place to stay. “Greeting” is a greeting of rejoicing. “Take part in” is the same word that’s often translated “fellowship.” The idea is that we should not act as if we are on the same team. We shouldn’t rejoice in their ministry. We shouldn’t wish their ministry goes well. We shouldn’t even rejoice in their faith, because it’s not a true faith. Instead, we should think of them as unbelievers, and plead with them to embrace the true gospel. We should not have them to our houses to rejoice with them and have fellowship with them, but we should have them to our houses to love them and to invite them to trust in Christ and believe the Word of God. When Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses come to your door, don’t get rid of them as soon as possible. Invite them in! But not to have fellowship. Invite them in to share the love of Christ with them. Don’t be afraid of them. You have the truth, they have deception. Don’t get into an argument, just simply stand for truth.

We need to stand for truth, not error. But why is this so important? Can’t we each believe what we want to believe and just try to get along? There are eternal matters at stake (v. 8-9)

The greatest reward that any of us can receive is eternal life. And this is something we can all receive! But in order to receive it, we need to stay away from deception (v. 8). Every day, we’re tempted to give up. We’re tempted to embrace lies. So keep watch over your life. Watch your thoughts. Watch your lifestyle. Watch your purposes and prayers. Conform them all to Christ and His Word.

You’ve heard the expression, “That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But what if you can’t tell if something is killing you or making you stronger? Test it according to God’s Word. If it’s something God’s Word approves of, it’s making you stronger. If it’s something God’s Word warns you about, it’s killing you. Someone somewhere took a picture of this sign and put it online, which says, “Wash your hands and say your prayers, ’cause Jesus and germs are everywhere.”

But keeping watch over ourselves isn’t how we receive the reward. God isn’t a scorekeeper watching every move we make to see if we’ll mess up. Or to see if we’ll do more good than bad. If he were, we would expect the verse to read, “so that you may not lose what you have worked for.” But instead, it says, “so that you may not lose what we have worked for.” John, and the rest of the apostles, and evangelists, and missionaries, and pastors, and teachers in the church worked to spread the gospel and see souls saved. But our salvation isn’t dependent upon them either. Salvation is dependent only on what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. We can’t work for it, we must only believe it (v. 9). And when we trust in Christ, we cannot lose the reward. It may seem that way from our perspective. But once we are truly in Christ, abiding in His Word, we cannot lose salvation.

The good news is that Christ has already won this for all of us, if we would only trust in Him. And eternal life begins the moment you trust in Christ! It’s about the abundant life we have simply in knowing Him as Savior!