The Shortest Book

2 John

It’s looking better. My name is Duncan Rankin. It’s
good to be with you this morning. It’s good to gather around the
Word of God and the public worship of God. You know, this is a treat
for us, because down through the years, sometimes the worship
of God has not included much of His Word. But indeed, our
whole service has been built upon the example and the teaching
and principles of the Word of God. We have read and preached
and sung and prayed the Word, and we await to see it. as it
were, through the elements that our Lord has appointed, the elements
of the Lord’s Supper this morning. But there’s also another treat
because as the title in the bulletin says, this is the shortest book,
2 John, the shortest book in the New Testament and the shortest
book in all the Bible. This is a chapter of the Bible,
just 13 verses long. And you’re probably thinking,
thank goodness he didn’t pick one of the longer Psalms, Psalm
119. It’s not the longest chapter, it’s the shortest, but it’s one
of the richest and the most flavor-filled and tasteful and wonderful texts
that we have. It comes from very late in the
ministry of the apostle John, and he has written it in something
of a code language. It begins by talking about the
elder, and then it talks about the elect lady and her children,
and then our elect sister who greets us at the end. This familial
language is there because of the pressure and persecution
of the times. Verse 7 is the center of the
chapter, and it’s something of a pivot. It’s the key verse that
we will focus on. For many deceivers have gone
out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of
Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and
the antichrist. Second John is a part of what
we call the general epistles. James, 1st and 2nd Peter, 1st,
2nd, and 3rd John, and Jude. They’re tucked at the back of
your Bible just before the book of Revelation. The word John
is not given here in the text. But the title, Second John, is
very appropriate. Most likely what has happened
is this Johannine book with Johannine themes that has always been understood
by the church to have been written by the Apostle John, which uses
the title Elder, and because the higher office includes the
lower, of course, every Apostle is also an elder, even as Peter
greets us in his epistle and calls himself a fellow elder
to all the other elders in the church. This is doubtless written
by John, and he is the elder because, as we understand it
from church history and our patristic fathers, he was the last surviving
apostle as he penned this letter. It is a personal letter. But
yet it’s also a congregational letter. Because of that context
of persecution after Nero, he is writing in cryptic code. But every true believer understands
the heart of this particular message. Oh, even though it’s
part of the last words of the Bible, as it were, even though
it’s parallel in that sense to our Lord’s upper room discourse
with his apostles, disciples, before his crucifixion. Because
it’s verbally inspired, we know that it is not just John’s last
word to us in pastoral ministry, but it is also from our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so this morning, we come
to this short little book asking this simple question. What does
Christ through John say to his church. What does Christ say
here to his church? Well, the first thing our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ declares to us in this inspired text is
I am divine. Jesus insists that he is divine. Verse three says, grace, mercy,
and peace be with us. from God the Father and from
Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. Here John
declares that Christ is the Son of the Father. And that’s very
similar to the language of the Apostle Paul, who in his epistles
refers to Jesus as the Son of the Father’s love. He is the
second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the three persons
of the blessed Trinity. He is the second. And John had
repeatedly taught the church, for example, in his gospel, the
evidence, the bedrock truth and teaching of the divinity of Christ. John 1.1 declares it bluntly. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, we are told. In John 14, John records that
Jesus declared, he who has seen me has seen the Father, and so
his oneness with the Father is declared. He also says in the
next verse, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. And
this use of prepositions, this use of relationship is not just
some external matter, but it impinges down onto the level
of being who they are in themselves. They are not separated one from
another. They are always together in perfect
fellowship of light and life. In John 10 in verse 30, Jesus
is blunt. As recorded by John, he says,
I and the Father are one. And so there is a unity, three
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, together possessing in
numerical identity to the one undivided divinity. They, each
of them are God, and they possess divine nature. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus here is rightly
reminding us that he is very God of very God, as the Nicene
Fathers rightly put it. Jesus is divine. Now what difference
does that make, you say? Well, it makes a very big difference.
It makes a big difference for you right now, because we have
gathered to worship Jesus. Do you remember Pliny? That Roman
official who snidely said that Christians were people who sing
hymns to Christ as a God? He meant it as a great insult,
and we take it as a great invitation and opportunity and point of
honor that we sing not for ourselves and not for our own pleasure
and not for our own glory. We sing hymns to God, God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, that we sing
to Christ and about Christ, because He is our dear, divine Savior
and Lord. We worship him, and we worship
according to his word and his will and his way, not our own
fancy. The bulletin that you have in
your hand, this was not crafted to suit someone’s taste and culture
and style. It was drawn up in an attempt
to be faithful to the principles of God’s word, to go about the
worship of God in a way that is in keeping with the apostolic
pattern and command. And so we read the Bible, we
preach the Bible, we sing the Bible, we pray the Bible, and
we see it in the sacramental elements that he has appointed.
No more and no less. In the scriptures, we learn that
Jesus is our prophet, priest, and king. And so we follow him
in worship. He leads us in the worship of
his heavenly father. Christ is the beloved son of
his father. And so he is divine. And because
of that, he is the only source of life and truth and love to
us. Verse one says, the elect to
the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth, and not
only I, but also all who know the truth, because the truth
that abides in us will be with us forever. Because Jesus Christ
is God, he can reveal his heavenly father to us. He says in John
14, who has seen me has seen the father. And the author of
the epistle to the Hebrews begins his entire long epistle by saying,
God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets
in many portions, in many ways, in these last days has spoken
to us in his son. God speaks to us in Jesus Christ. And so now it makes more sense
that Jesus declares I am the way, I am the truth, I am the
life. No one comes to the Father but
by me. We don’t even know about God
in his great saving work except through our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Oh, we can look at the world,
we can see the mountains, and we can see the ocean deep, and
we can look at the clouds in the sky and the birds that fill
it. We can see the wonders of the
pastures and the trees, and we can grasp something of God’s
eternal nature. But to know of salvation, of
hope in life through Jesus Christ our Lord, that takes the revelation
of Jesus Christ. that the son of God comes. He
sends first his prophets and apostles to announce this special
revelation. And then he is the culmination
of it comes and lives and dies and rises again for his own.
Oh, he is our hope and our salvation. And Christ is the source of grace
and mercy and peace. Verse three says, grace, mercy,
and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus
Christ the Father’s Son in truth and love. Jesus Christ doesn’t just reveal
random facts. He reveals His Father to us.
He reveals the heart and life and eternal purposes of God,
and He reveals those with the agenda of bringing grace and
mercy and peace to our hearts and to our lives, announcing
the great plan of salvation, that He has come to live and
die for His people, that our sins might be washed away if
we but look and trust in Him. grace and mercy and peace, that
we who are sinners and deserve nothing less than the condemnation
of God, that He takes that condemnation on Himself, that we might live
at peace with God forevermore, peace with our heavenly Father
and His Son and the Holy Spirit, and peace inside in our hearts
and lives. You know, for some folks, one
of the most scary things in all of life is being alone. No one to talk to. Maybe they’re trapped in some
sort of solitary confinement of heart or life. It’s so frightening
for them because they have nothing but their own thoughts to live
and dwell with. And even their own heart Even
their own thoughts and mind speak of guilt and sin and misery and
despair. But for the believer, it’s a
completely different story. We’re never alone. We’re united
by faith and by the Spirit to Christ Jesus our Lord. Though
there not be another single solitary individual anywhere that we can
see around us, The Lord is with us by the presence of his Holy
Spirit, and we have fellowship with him forevermore. And that
is our calling in our Christian life, that we no longer are our
own, but we have been bought with a price, and we live in
fellowship with him forevermore. Grace, mercy, and peace are what
you and I both need in our lives, and he is the only source It’s
what your friends and family need. It’s what your neighbors
need, your coworkers need, those who are your best friends. They
need to know that Christ is the only source of grace and mercy
and peace. And that comes because he is
divine. But then there’s a second word
that Jesus gives us through his apostle in this epistle. Not
only does he say, I am divine, but he also announces to us,
I, am also incarnate. I am not only divine spirit,
I am not only one with my heavenly father, but I also am one with
you. I touch you in the flesh. We
are both human beings. Verse seven says, where many
deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess
the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, such is the deceiver
and the antichrist. This means that Jesus had a real
human body. You could touch him. You could
feel him. You could tickle him and scratch
his head, although I would advise a little more respect than that,
mind you. But he had a real human body. He had fingers and toes. He had lips and a tongue. He
had a life in the flesh, even as we have. And he had, as the
theologians say, a reasonable soul. Now my mother, who’s 81,
lives with us and we care for her in her old age. My mother’s
blind and we love her dearly and look after her each day.
But the one in the house that she is most affectionate for
is about this long and about this high. It’s a little miniature
Dachshund. That dog goes by various names,
German and English, but I just call her Little Dog. And my mother
swears that Little Dog is the happiest, nicest, most wonderful
member of the family. But, you know, I counter every
day by saying Little Dog’s brain is about the size of a walnut.
And that’s about how much sense she has sometimes. We have a
brain a little bigger than a walnut. We have what is called a reasonable
soul. Human beings, they have not just
a body, but they also have a soul. They have a corporal, visible
aspect, and then an incorporeal, invisible aspect. And that soul,
indeed, is real and human. And dogs and cats may have nice
personalities and tendencies, but they don’t live up to that
measure of a reasonable soul. And so in becoming flesh and
blood, even as the children have, he likewise partook of the same. The author of the epistle to
the Hebrews tells us, the eternal son of God, he came and took
on flesh. He took on body and soul. He’s
human inside and out in his incarnation. And it’s not just that he used
to be that way, he is that way right now. He is still and always
will be the eternal son of God, but he still has taken on flesh
and dwelt among us. Yes, he was killed on the cross,
but he also rose from the dead. He rose bodily and body and soul
together now again are part of him and always will be. That
old Scottish theologian, Robbie Duncan, as they called him, a
Hebrew professor, he said, the dust of the earth sits on the
throne of God. And indeed, that’s true. He has
a real human heart. He has a real human life. He
can sympathize with our weaknesses. He is incarnate, so he knows
you. better than you know yourself,
even in a human way. He was a fitting sacrifice for
sinners like us. His resurrection was in the flesh.
His return will be in the flesh, a bodily return in the second
coming, and we will live with him forever. My friend, you,
you will see him. You will speak to him, and he
will speak back to you. He is truly human. And this truth
is so important and at the heart of this epistle that it is referred
to as the truth of Christ. Watch yourselves, verse eight,
so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win
a full reward. Everyone who goes on and ahead
and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.
But whoever abides in the teaching has both the father and the son.
This is the teaching of Christ, that he is the eternal divine
son of God, and he has taken on flesh and dwelt among us. You see, it’s teaching about
Jesus. about his person and his work,
that he is a divine person, that he has taken a human nature in
the incarnation, that he has given his body as a sacrifice
on the tree of Calvary for the sins of his people. And it is
teaching from Christ, the subjective genitive. It’s his preaching
and his teaching. He affirms this fact, that his
flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. that he is the
bread of life to his people, and that he would both lay down
his life and that he had the right and power to take it up
again. Christ sharing in our flesh and
blood and Christ sharing a human heart means that he understands
what you’re going through. He understands it from the inside
out, not just from afar, but up close and personal. He relates
to you. And so he is able to be faithful
to you in your need. That means that there is no point
in your life that you can ever point a finger back up to heaven
and say, you just don’t understand. Oh, yes, he does. He understands exactly what suffering
and loneliness and death and burden and misery are all about. He understands all of the joyful
and happy and wonderful things in your life. And He understands
the burdensome and heavy things, too. He is a Savior fit for you
and me and our real and human need. And this truth, that Jesus
is the Son of God who’s come in the flesh for sinners like
us, is critical for all men. Because, you see, the apostle
says that there are deceivers and antichrists that deny this
truth and lead many astray. He says they don’t really have
God. They are against Christ rather than for him. They are
antichrists. And they have lost whatever goodness
of the gospel was held out to them. Do not receive them in
your homes, John tells us. Do not give them your greeting
or your support or encouragement because if you do, you will be
guilty for the people that they lead astray. Why is this so important? Because truth matters. Truth
is fundamental to the Christian faith. We must follow Christ. He is the way, the truth in the
life. We listen to the true truth that
he speaks about his heavenly father and we push away and we
seek to only follow him, casting aside those who teach so much
confusion and error. Oh. Deniers of the faith, Matthew
Henry said, are destroyers of souls. Attend not their services
with your prayers and good wishes. And so I counsel you, be careful
what you turn on the TV. There’s a lot of nonsense on
there, even that comes dressed up in Christian garb. Do not
be led astray. Truth twisters on television
or financial hucksters don’t need your attention. Much caution
is called for because we don’t want to be responsible for their
evil doing. Don’t be culpable by support
or silence or lack of concern. You know, we sometimes hear them
say, do you know where your kids are? But I would ask you, do
you know where your dollars are? Be careful, because that’s what
John is telling us. Don’t be involved with them.
You follow Christ and his word. And the incarnate Christ is also
crucial for professing Christians more generally. It’s by having
him in their heart and life and following his word that they
have God. They walk in His way, according
to verse 4. They love and obey, according
to verses 5 and 6, because of Christ and who He is. It’s our
union and communion and fellowship with Christ that gives us any
hope of giving Him glory back by some tokens of obedience. And we don’t want to lose a full
reward, referenced in verse 8. Not a reference to salvation
by works, but rather a reference to receiving a good and wholesome
blessing from God, an eternal reward that comes by good works
done by union and communion with him. Because you see, just like
there are levels to hell, so too there are levels of blessing
in the new heavens and new earth. And we want to show ourselves
approved and so be found faithful in that day. John tells us all
the truth of the matter, which is simply this, only the incarnate
Son of God can save and give you grace and mercy and peace. You trust in him today and he
will be faithful. Let us pray. Oh, our Father and
our God, we do ask that you might bless us because of Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who has taken on flesh and dwelt among us. May we indeed
find him faithful in our lives as we seek to be faithful to
him, and we’ll give you all the glory in Jesus’ name, amen. Our hymn of preparation is number
443, Come Unto Me, Ye Weary. Let’s stand and sing his praise. you