back to index2 John Bible Study 3.15.2023
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I don't think the screen is even working on the other side. 00:01:48.000 |
We're gonna go ahead and get started with Bible study. 00:02:15.720 |
Father, thank you for gathering us here this evening 00:02:21.000 |
We thank you, Lord, for your word that guides us 00:02:29.280 |
We just pray that we're reminded of our value, 00:02:40.880 |
but to be obedient, to walk in your commandments, 00:02:46.000 |
To be ones who are set apart from the world, Lord. 00:02:51.000 |
So we just pray and ask as we come before you 00:02:54.160 |
if there are sins that we've been wrestling through, 00:02:58.360 |
that we repent and surrender these things to you, 00:03:03.360 |
that we would come to you, not be ashamed, Lord, 00:03:08.480 |
but we know that you're a God who is loving and forgiving, 00:03:19.680 |
Would the songs that we sing be from our hearts 00:03:28.520 |
So we thank you, Lord, and pray all this in your name. 00:06:18.100 |
♪ The ocean filled and were the skies of parchment made ♪ 00:59:36.460 |
- We'll pray and we'll get into the teaching section. 00:59:49.460 |
after the Bible study, especially if you've parked far away. 01:00:17.460 |
I mean, realistically, there are a lot of shenanigans 01:00:25.460 |
And so just for the sake of peace of mind for our ladies, 01:00:29.460 |
if you guys do happen to come early or on time, 01:00:37.460 |
And then guys, if you guys can park at the farther away lots. 01:00:47.460 |
when you're having to walk far away by yourself. 01:01:07.460 |
and then we'll just go into our teaching section. 01:01:25.460 |
we can understand lots of it just intuitively. 01:01:43.460 |
and it would cause us to make the appropriate application. 01:01:54.460 |
your truth, your interpretation, and your way, 01:02:21.460 |
I'm sure you guys have already noticed, okay? 01:02:42.460 |
This is what I want you to do, and here's why. 01:02:46.460 |
Because the for actually can be translated because. 01:02:52.460 |
And if I just scan my eye through this thing, 01:03:06.460 |
It's interesting that one of them is commandments, plural. 01:03:11.460 |
Okay, so then naturally an inductive question 01:03:16.460 |
"What commandment or ss are, is he referring to?" 01:03:22.460 |
if there is something that's not really clear in our heads, 01:03:25.460 |
we're actually very reluctant to obey it, right? 01:03:35.460 |
And then the main exhortation here is not an imperative, 01:03:42.460 |
But as I'm looking at this, it's very logically strange 01:04:01.460 |
So I would actually ask that, like, "What does that mean?" 01:04:05.460 |
So I just do this so that I know with my eyeballs, 01:04:14.460 |
And I know that there's a relationship between love 01:04:23.460 |
And now I just have to piece those two together, 01:04:25.460 |
love and an obedience to God's commands, okay? 01:04:34.460 |
and I included verse seven in today's section 01:04:48.460 |
it's referring to just the life and the health 01:04:53.460 |
and the kinds of things that hurt the fellowship, okay? 01:05:04.460 |
What are the wheat supposed to be applying here? 01:05:08.460 |
And then the next week's passage, the middle part, 01:05:20.460 |
you need to love one another and be a healthy community, 01:05:26.460 |
So that's a weird juxtaposition logically, okay? 01:05:31.460 |
And then next week we're actually looking at the tares. 01:05:35.460 |
So I'm looking at the life of the Christian fellowship, 01:05:44.460 |
And I looked at this, and I'm gonna take a moment to, 01:05:55.460 |
But in my mind, I actually don't know what that is. 01:06:02.460 |
And if I don't know what exactly it looks like, 01:06:19.460 |
I mean, I'm not sure if it necessarily comes from Micah 6.8. 01:06:26.460 |
To love just, or to do justice, to love mercy, and what? 01:06:50.460 |
and you will not desire, or gratify the desires of the flesh. 01:06:56.460 |
walking in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. 01:07:09.460 |
So my mind is gonna come up with some very key inductive questions 01:07:17.460 |
What's the relationship between the presence of deceivers and the Antichrist 01:07:22.460 |
and the believer's need to walking in truth and love? 01:07:26.460 |
So, I mean, that's a mouthful, but that's an important question. 01:07:32.460 |
The second question is what is meant by the commandment, or commandments? 01:07:39.460 |
Because the word commandment is a very important word. 01:07:41.460 |
It's like, okay, it means there's an expectation that God wants me to obey something. 01:07:50.460 |
Okay, what is the biblical definition of love? 01:07:53.460 |
And you might have like four or five verses like rolling around in your head, 01:07:56.460 |
but what is this--and what is John talking about? 01:07:59.460 |
The apostle of love, that's what he's called. 01:08:07.460 |
Now, I just want to take a moment to do a little review. 01:08:12.460 |
Exegesis is the process of drawing out the meaning from Scripture 01:08:17.460 |
in accordance with the context and the discoverable meaning of its author. 01:08:21.460 |
So if the Bible is the word of God, my opinion of it doesn't matter. 01:08:26.460 |
If the Bible is indeed the word of God, there's only one interpretation. 01:08:33.460 |
Our job is to try to discern God's interpretation because that's the correct one. 01:08:38.460 |
Not Tim Keller, not John Piper, not John MacArthur, not Pastor Peter, 01:08:46.460 |
So we try to exegete the meaning from the Scriptures 01:08:53.460 |
And exegesis is the process by which we put meaning into the text. 01:09:02.460 |
So the questions that I had previously, I want to answer these biblically. 01:09:10.460 |
And 2 John in and of itself may not give me all my answers, and that's okay. 01:09:17.460 |
But I want to answer these exegetically and biblically 01:09:25.460 |
So what I want to do with this passage to those questions is, 01:09:29.460 |
okay, what does the whole of 2 John have to say? 01:09:33.460 |
We're looking at four verses today, but in total there's 13. 01:09:37.460 |
And then perhaps if I don't get enough of my answers, 01:09:40.460 |
what does the apostle John have to say in all of his writings, 01:09:49.460 |
I'm not going to knock on blue-collar fishermen, but his writing is simple. 01:09:53.460 |
So what does he have to say in the totality of his writings? 01:09:57.460 |
And then if I need additional information, what do the other epistles have to say? 01:10:01.460 |
And then what does the whole Bible have to say about things like truth and love, 01:10:09.460 |
If we eisegit, we're going to put our understanding and definition of love 01:10:16.460 |
For example, have you heard the statement, "Love is love"? 01:10:24.460 |
But if someone is coming from a paradigm where, oh, everything is all about love, 01:10:28.460 |
love is love, then you're going to put that into the text, 01:10:32.460 |
and you're going to come up with a definition that might not be exact 01:10:39.460 |
Also, if I'm eisegiting, I might think of commandments as a legalistic thing. 01:10:48.460 |
Like, why is he talking about commandments four times? 01:10:54.460 |
This is not like the heart of God because the heart of God wants us to be free. 01:11:03.460 |
Also, if you guys have done like end times stuff, 01:11:08.460 |
you're looking into like movies of like "The Rapture," 01:11:18.460 |
It was a movie in 1976 about like the Antichrist. 01:11:22.460 |
But if I'm reading this, I might already infuse my understanding of the Antichrist 01:11:33.460 |
So what I want to do is try to understand biblically, 01:11:36.460 |
because there is only one interpretation that's correct, and that's God's. 01:11:42.460 |
I'm going to look at all of what Apostle John has to say, 01:11:46.460 |
and then what does the whole Bible have to say. 01:11:48.460 |
And that's the process that I'm going to make observations by. 01:11:52.460 |
And you guys should be, for the most part, familiar with this. 01:11:56.460 |
So there are satanic deceivers, and I'm going to just refer to John. 01:12:01.460 |
And John is very black and white with everything, right? 01:12:03.460 |
But he goes, "If we say that we have fellowship in him and yet walk in darkness, 01:12:09.460 |
But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, 01:12:14.460 |
And the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 01:12:17.460 |
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, 01:12:23.460 |
I might take some time to look at this passage parallel to what I'm looking at today, 01:12:30.460 |
But John 8, 44, Jesus is saying this to the Pharisees, 01:12:35.460 |
people who are all about the commandments, okay? 01:12:40.460 |
"You are of the Father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. 01:12:46.460 |
He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth 01:12:53.460 |
Whenever Satan, the devil, speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, 01:13:06.460 |
And he has a lot of followers, a lot of minions, knowing and unknowing, 01:13:11.460 |
conscious and subconscious, that have been sent out into the world. 01:13:22.460 |
trying to understand John's theology of deceivers and liars 01:13:29.460 |
Okay? And then I'll look at other passages in the Scriptures. 01:13:34.460 |
"The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, 01:13:39.460 |
but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, 01:13:42.460 |
for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.'" 01:13:46.460 |
But just one chapter later, the serpent says to the woman, 01:13:58.460 |
"are false prophets, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 01:14:04.460 |
No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." 01:14:09.460 |
Now, what I'm looking at, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, 01:14:16.460 |
They deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. 01:14:21.460 |
And the way I look at this is like, okay, I have a formidable foe. 01:14:26.460 |
Okay? Who is the father of lies. He is a deceiver. 01:14:33.460 |
Okay? And I'm going to show you how easily you guys can be deceived. 01:14:37.460 |
All right? So, in your minds, I'm going to give you a riddle, 01:14:40.460 |
and just picture it with me. If you know the answer, you don't need to blurt it out. 01:14:49.460 |
Okay? And he starts at home, and he jogs a little bit. 01:14:56.460 |
And then at the corner, he decides to make a left. 01:15:02.460 |
And then at the next corner, he decides to make a left. 01:15:06.460 |
And then he turns the next corner, and he's jogging, 01:15:11.460 |
and he makes another left, and then he's looking at home. 01:15:19.460 |
But when he gets home, there are two men there waiting for him. 01:15:44.460 |
He jogs a little bit, makes a left, and upon his return home, 01:15:47.460 |
there are two men waiting for him, and they both have masks on. 01:15:54.460 |
I told you the exact same story, minus some details. 01:16:05.460 |
Okay, some of you guys are like, "Oh, I knew this one. Cheaters." 01:16:13.460 |
He also deceives by not explaining the whole truth. 01:16:35.460 |
And that's why it's so important for the Christian to be discerning, 01:16:45.460 |
But then when you're looking at this passage, you're like, 01:16:48.460 |
"Okay, deceiver and the Antichrist, and if I'm looking through the Scriptures, 01:16:53.460 |
But we're actually also called in the Scriptures not to be fearful. 01:17:16.460 |
and he will disclose to you what is to come." 01:17:21.460 |
"I do not ask you to take them out of the world, 01:17:25.460 |
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 01:17:34.460 |
So John, one of his favorite subjects to talk about is truth. 01:17:43.460 |
if you're a child of God and you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you, 01:17:48.460 |
So when I'm looking at these questions, I'm looking through, 01:17:51.460 |
like, "Okay, what does this passage have to say about this?" 01:17:56.460 |
I might have to dig a little bit more in other passages. 01:17:59.460 |
And that's what I just did when it comes to deceiver, etc., etc. 01:18:16.460 |
Is it like "the" commandment, or is it commandments, plural? 01:18:26.460 |
Is it to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, 01:18:32.460 |
So there is no way to actually discern what specific commandment John is talking about. 01:18:40.460 |
But generally speaking, he's referring to basically adherence to the Word of God 01:18:47.460 |
And you know in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, 01:18:50.460 |
"Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, 01:19:06.460 |
This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, 01:19:11.460 |
and love one another, just as he commanded us. 01:19:16.460 |
The one who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. 01:19:21.460 |
We know by this that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. 01:19:30.460 |
Romans 13, 9-10, this is what Paul's indirect definition is. 01:19:35.460 |
"For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. 01:19:39.460 |
And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, 01:19:45.460 |
Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." 01:19:51.460 |
But then, if I'm a progressive liberal, I'm looking at Romans 13, 10, 01:20:02.460 |
So, for us, love is the fulfillment of the law. 01:20:11.460 |
John, this is Jesus saying, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." 01:20:16.460 |
"Why do you call me Lord, Lord? Do not do what I say. 01:20:19.460 |
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them, I will show you what he is like." 01:20:26.460 |
And he's like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 01:20:34.460 |
Matthew 7, 15-16, "Beware the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, 01:20:45.460 |
Grapes are not gathered from the thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?" 01:20:49.460 |
So this is a related passage to today's study. 01:20:52.460 |
Titus 1-16, we looked at this a few terms ago. 01:20:56.460 |
"They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed." 01:21:03.460 |
So when I'm looking through this passage, and I'm trying to find clear definitions to vaguer terms, 01:21:14.460 |
Because in 2 John, it's hard to piece it all together just from 2 John. 01:21:22.460 |
There's deceivers, there's antichrists, and I need to love, and there's commandments, 01:21:32.460 |
But here is the relationship between fighting off bad doctrine to discernment. 01:21:44.460 |
"But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." 01:22:13.460 |
But the problem is, when we are dabbling in sins, and if we're entangled in stuff, 01:22:23.460 |
And then we're quicker to justify things, defend things, excuse things, and our thinking is compromised. 01:22:31.460 |
But holy living is something that we train ourselves for. 01:22:41.460 |
"I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. 01:22:50.460 |
Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, 01:23:02.460 |
John 13, 34, 35, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." 01:23:08.460 |
Verse 6, "And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments." 01:23:14.460 |
This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. 01:23:20.460 |
"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. 01:23:33.460 |
So basically, big picture, there is satanic opposition in your midst. 01:23:47.460 |
So, the Christian needs to walk in obedience to all of God's commands, have his senses trained to discern both good and evil, 01:24:09.460 |
These other questions, we can just go through different passages in John's letters and writings and come to conclusions like that. 01:24:19.460 |
If you're thinking, like, what is the anti-Christ? 01:24:24.460 |
In 1 John 2, 18, he uses the word anti-Christ in the plural as well. 01:24:31.460 |
So it's not necessarily like the man of lawlessness that we see in 2 Thessalonians. 01:24:36.460 |
So just know that that word just means opposition to Christ. 01:24:43.460 |
I mean, that was just a wrap-up, but for next week, we're looking at the latter part of 2 John. 01:24:51.460 |
And then, I mean, you want to mostly focus on 8 through 11, verses 12 and 13 is just, I don't want to write on paper and pen. 01:25:08.460 |
And for today, my encouragement is to really discuss these things. 01:25:12.460 |
Number one, in what ways does your areas -- do your areas -- that's so annoying -- do your areas of entanglements and/or disobedience obstruct you love for other people? 01:25:33.460 |
There's a correlation between my willingness to obey God and the love that I have for people. 01:25:39.460 |
My disobedience to the will of God makes me naturally selfish. 01:25:45.460 |
Secondly, in what practical ways can you grow in your knowledge of the commandments, plural, of God? 01:25:52.460 |
Third, what do you perceive to be the deceptions and the antichrists around you? 01:26:02.460 |
And then fourthly, how can your group members pray specifically for your spiritual growth? 01:26:11.460 |
And in these discussions, the more specific your answer is, the more beneficial for the whole. 01:26:20.460 |
So share and keep each other truly accountable rather than just sharing in vague terms. 01:26:26.460 |
So let me pray for us and then we'll go into our discussion. 01:26:34.460 |
Father, we trust you and we know that your word is powerful. 01:26:43.460 |
And as we feed off it, train us to help others to feed off it as well. 01:26:51.460 |
Allow them to be fruitful. I pray all this in Jesus' name.