[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have your Bible turned to the book of second John, I'm going to do something this morning that I've never done before, and I'm going to preach a whole book of the Bible on one Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: The good news is it is the shortest book of the Bible, and we're really going to spend most of our time on verses 10 and 11, and trying to make sense of
[SPEAKER_01]: What is a uniquely harsh command in Scripture, actually?
[SPEAKER_01]: So as you're turning there, my name is Jayman.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm one of the pastors here.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are visiting Citizen's Church, we are so honored that you're here, worshiping with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you, and we're grateful that you're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our family,
[SPEAKER_01]: lives in the heart of Plano.
[SPEAKER_01]: We live right off independence, just south of spring creek, and my kids go to school on independence.
[SPEAKER_01]: They live just 4.4 miles north of our house on independence.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so from our house to get to the school, you turn left on independence and the first intersection you come to is Spring Creek.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to your right is a large, beautiful, Catholic church.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they recently renovated it or maybe built it, but it's beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's right there at Spring Creek and Independence.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you keep going north on independence on your left,
[SPEAKER_01]: is one of the largest mosques in DFW.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not unusual for us to stop for people to cross the street, to go to the mosque.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you keep going north on independence on your left is a Saint Paul Lutheran church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then if you keep going on your right is for most in Christian church, which was founded by Taiwanese Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you keep going north far enough on independence and McDermott on your left
[SPEAKER_01]: So all that is just on the way to school.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a period where my daughter was super curious about all these different religious buildings and places, and so she would ask questions on the way to school.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do Catholics believe again?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do they call it a mosque?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can not a church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are Lutherans Christians?
[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of church is a foremost in church?
[SPEAKER_01]: What God do Hindus believe in?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why doesn't everyone just come to citizens?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll have these ongoing conversations, not as much anymore, but back then ongoing conversations about the difference between all of these different beliefs.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's difference between faith, like Islam and Hinduism are different religions than Christianity and the difference between Catholics and Protestants, both Christian, but significant theological differences that divide.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then the difference between denominations, like Lutheran and Presbyterian and Anglican,
[SPEAKER_01]: whatever we are and she has all these follow-up questions to this conversation and I feel a few things when we're having this conversation just in my own soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm first of all I'm surprised by how hard it is for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: to explain it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's my job to know how to explain it all and how to answer these questions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even still, I find myself searching for the right words.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, if I'll give an answer that isn't quite satisfying to her, she'll let me know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she'll be like, maybe you just need to Google it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pastor, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the other thing I feel is I feel this tension in trying to hold a few things together.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I don't say?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't say, you know, Islam has its view of God and we have our view of God and everyone is right about God in their own way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe that, that's not true.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe in the God revealed in Scripture who is Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, who is made most visible in the second person of the Trinity, Jesus who is God incarnate.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want her to know what's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I also don't say?
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't like those people.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't talk to those people.
[SPEAKER_01]: We avoid them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're a different religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're a different denomination.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because they're wrong, we have nothing to do with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The core ethic of being a Christ follower is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: The great command is neighbor love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the boundary around that command is enemy love, which means there is no person who does not fall in the category of person I should love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want her to know it's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want her to be a person of love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's growing up in a world, we don't have to make this about her.
[SPEAKER_01]: We live in a world where we're caught between two distortions in all this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This end of the distortion is to compromise truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are no absolute truths, all religions and belief systems are equally true, and it's arrogant to say one belief is right while the other is wrong, which is its own arrogant belief statement.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other end of the distortion is to withhold love, to hate people who are different than me.
[SPEAKER_01]: and to pass harsh judgment on all who disagree with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't just mean people of different faiths.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean Christians who withhold love and pass judgment on other Christians over disagreements.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think the average person is observing the public discourse that Christians have with one another in our thinking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow, Christians just really love each other all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I'm bringing this up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second John, many people believe that second John is a cover letter to first John, so John wrote or preached first John to his home church wrote or preached it in his local congregation and then he sent first John out to other churches that he loved and led.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he attached second John as a kind of introduction to first John.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this introduction is really all built around a very specific command that we find in verses 10 and 11.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll start in verse 7.
[SPEAKER_01]: Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: So these deceivers hold to a very specific, crystallological heresy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just means they don't believe Jesus was fully human.
[SPEAKER_01]: Such a one is the deceiver and the anti-Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Watch yourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that you may not lose what we've worked for, but may win a full reward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever abide in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here comes the command.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching,
[SPEAKER_01]: do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
[SPEAKER_01]: John spends the first several verses of this letter, talking about truth, and talking about love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he says, there are false teachers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Their intent is to deceive, they are anti-Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Literally means they are against Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: They believe this specific heresy that Jesus was actually human.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're traveling around, trying to enter churches and spread their teaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so here's the instruction.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they come to your door, don't let them in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't give them a hearing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't give them a greeting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine I'm in the car with my daughter, and after we talk about Hindu temple and after we talk about Muslim mosque and after we talk about Lutheran church, then we pass another kind of church called false teacher church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she says, Dad, what about them?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I say, if they ever come to talk to you, come and find me.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they ever came to our church, don't open the door, don't let them in, go find Michael Snetsor, he'll know what to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: That kind of response,
[SPEAKER_01]: On our road, all of these different religions, all of these different denominations, that kind of response would get her attention.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would alert her to something that is different about the nature of our disagreement, something dangerous even about the nature of our disagreement.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while that's not a perfect comparison, what John is instructing here, the warning that he gives, the close, the door command he gives, has that kind of feel to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And according to John, that close,
[SPEAKER_01]: meets the standard of both truth and love.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a unique instruction.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're reading this for the first time, like you probably didn't expect there to be a verse in the Bible that says don't let people into your church, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So the question I want to consider this morning is a big question.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll take us a minute to get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: How, in a world,
[SPEAKER_01]: full of all kinds of disagreement, I'm nearing the scope where the scripture narrows it, in a world full of theological disagreement.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we hold truth and love together?
[SPEAKER_01]: And when does truth and love demand a close the door kind of response?
[SPEAKER_01]: And when does it not?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not every truth and love response should be a close door response, but not every truth and love response is an agreed-it-is-agre response.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so how do we know the difference between them?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to walk to the first few verses, I want to establish some of the heart of the letter, define some of the terms in the letter, and then we'll return to that question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse one.
[SPEAKER_01]: to the elect lady in her church, whom I love in truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: 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.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son in truth and love.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you already have this repeated idea of truth and love being held together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then just in these three verses, you have the church, salvation, and the Trinity.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the elder, that's John,
[SPEAKER_01]: to the elect lady.
[SPEAKER_01]: That could be a female leader in the church, a prominent female leader who hosts the church in her home, think like Martha, who would host Jesus when he came to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Likely though, the elect lady is just a metaphor for the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the elect lady is the church and her children are the church's members.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the people of God throughout the Bible,
[SPEAKER_01]: are described with feminine images like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The church in Ephesians 5 is called the bride of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the point that John's making.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we become Christians, we are not just reconciled to God, but we are welcomed into a people.
[SPEAKER_01]: My friend, Kyle Worley, says it like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christianity is not me and Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christianity is we in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's bad grammar, that's good theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the church, the we is described as a family, the most common metaphor for the church is familial metaphors.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you see this in verse 3, Grace Mercy and Peace from God, the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's Son.
[SPEAKER_01]: The nature of God is God as a familial God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is one God, three persons, and those three persons have eternally existed always in a relationship of familial love.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, the Father has always loved.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, the Son, the Son has always loved God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Father, the Spirit is loved by and loves the Father and the Son.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we are born separated from that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You and I are born in sin, our sin separates us from the familial community of love among a trinitarian God that has always existed and what happens is is that we are welcomed in love through the gospel of Jesus into that familial love of a trinitarian God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 3 names, grace, mercy, and peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are the ingredients.
[SPEAKER_01]: of salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're saved by grace because of God's mercy into a relationship of peace with Father's Son and Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, John, in first John, is going to say, we're now children of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been adopted into that family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elder John, writing to the people of God, to the family of God, who received the gospel of Jesus and has been reconciled in a relationship with the trinitarian God.
[SPEAKER_01]: First four, I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be that John's being a little passive aggressive, some, but not all of your children walking in the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could also be that he's only met some of the people in this congregation, so choose your own adventure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just as we were commanded by the Father, and now I ask you dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we had from the beginning that we love one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is love that we walk according to His commandments.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the commandment just as you've heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truth and love, love and truth repeated over and again throughout these six verses.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's define it.
[SPEAKER_01]: John uses the phrase walking in the truth, and this is a phrase that John uses in all of his epistles, and it means to live in a way that is consistent with the revelation that Jesus Christ has brought into the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it encompasses the whole of the Christian message.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walking in the truth is not simply ascribing to a list of facts or affirming a list of facts, but to live in response to the truth that Jesus lived and died and rose and ascended and will one day return.
[SPEAKER_01]: and all of that should shape how we walk live in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: If this is the covert statement, if this is the cover letter, then they were going to go on to read, first John, and in first John they will read that loving one another means loving the way that we have been loved by Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the way we've been loved by Christ is actually the very heart of divine love because God is love, it's not a coddling kind of love or in a conditional kind of love, but it's a covenantal love, rooted in the very heart of God and the clearest expression of that love is the cross of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: First John 14 says that this way, this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation for our sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: So walk in love, the revelation of Jesus, love one another in a way that's consistent with the love of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truth and love, love and truth, and we need both to define one another and to complete one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: that theologian Karen Jobes said it in her commentary on 2nd John.
[SPEAKER_01]: In our modern way of thinking, truth is cognitive, while love is emotional.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the two are not necessarily related.
[SPEAKER_01]: For the elder and author of First John, they are so closely related that they are essentially concomitant.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they're inseparable to have one is to have the other.
[SPEAKER_01]: One cannot love genuinely apart from the truth, and one does not know truth truly until one loves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Read that again.
[SPEAKER_01]: One cannot love genuinely apart from the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one does not know truth truly until one loves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love is always true, truth is always loving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me say at the opposite, you can love in a way that's false and you can hold truth in a way that's unloving.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can love in a way that's false.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll use an innocent example.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have a five-year-old,
[SPEAKER_01]: in that five-year-old just once starbursts for breakfast lunch and dinner and only once starbursts for breakfast lunch and dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you feed them starbursts for breakfast lunch and dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: You even pick out the yellow ones because no one likes those and you just give them the good ones, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And someone observes that and says, hey, you can't feed your kid, candy every single meal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you say, oh, but I love them.
[SPEAKER_01]: By love, we mean the emotion here that makes me want them to be happy, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The feeling is real, but that is not to love in truth, that's a kind of love that's false.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because to love in truth is to love in a way that is for their good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what is true is the body needs less candy and more healthy food.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a love and truth is to contend for their good.
[SPEAKER_01]: A more serious example of your friend who's committed to a life of sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is habitual, unrepentant, moral compromise in their life, or maybe they believe things about God or Jesus or faith that are contrary to Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know that and somebody says, are you going to talk to them and you say, oh, I just love them for who they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: And by that, I mean, I don't ever intend to challenge or confront.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to tell them what the Bible teaches.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not love rooted in truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because to truly love is not simply to love someone right where they are, but to desire their good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And their good is to become like Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so to love and truth, hearing me, to love and truth means the form of my love is always shaped by the truth of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can hold truth in a way that's unloving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, Proverbs 26, 9?
[SPEAKER_01]: You read it this morning, I'm sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
[SPEAKER_01]: A proverb is truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: A proverb is wisdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord should be praised.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that true?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: What happens, though, when that truth comes out
[SPEAKER_01]: A guy goes to the bar one night, he drinks too much and he is walking home and walking home.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's so drunk he passes out and he falls into some brush and a thorn stabs his hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wakes up after a few hours and what does he learn?
[SPEAKER_01]: My hand hurts.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's hung over, he feels the pain in his hand, but that Thorn did not teach him anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was too drunk to learn anything from that experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't even remember what happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is how fools use truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do not use it to teach.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do not use it to bring change.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do not use it for good.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just use truth to hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can love in a way that's false.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, 1 Corinthians 13, 2, if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faiths that I can move mountains.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hold on.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the most influential Christian teacher or preacher of an entire generation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody can do those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody who has that on their resume, they speak prophetically, they understand all mysteries and all knowledge, they have faith, they can do things that other people can't do, that means they possess truth at a level that is elite.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would buy their books, we would listen to their sermons, we would leave this church to go to their church, we would share their podcasts.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I had the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faith that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Meaning if a person, if I'm a person of great knowledge, but I am not a person of great love, it doesn't matter what people say about that life, what God says is that life amounts to zero.
[SPEAKER_01]: For some, the goal is not to use truth to bring loving change, it's to use truth to simply be right.
[SPEAKER_01]: A monument,
[SPEAKER_01]: is the statue, it's something that people come and observe.
[SPEAKER_01]: An apple tree is something that people are fed by.
[SPEAKER_01]: People come to eat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some people acquire truth simply as a monument to their own intellect.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just want people to come and be impressed.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a choir truth to be a fruitful blessing in the lives of others.
[SPEAKER_01]: They want people to be nourished and changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hear it this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truth and love.
[SPEAKER_01]: means I have an others centered, Christ exulting agenda behind the truth that I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a way to say, well, this is what the Bible teaches, and I'm trying to put someone in their place, I'm trying to win the argument, I'm trying to exult myself, I'm trying to shut someone down, then there's a way to say, this is what the Bible teaches.
[SPEAKER_01]: and I'm trying to contend for freedom in the life of someone I love and beauty and more and more and more and more of Christ in someone's life because His commands are for our good and they bring joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can love in a way that's false.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can hold truth in a way that's unloving.
[SPEAKER_01]: The church John writes to seems to be holding truth and love together well.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're walking in the truth, the revelation of Jesus, they're loving one another, they're sharing the love of Christ and contending for Christ's likeness in each other's lives, and then you get this.
[SPEAKER_01]: For many deceivers have gone out into the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist watch yourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that you may not lose what we've worked for, but may win a full reward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive Him into your house or give Him any greeting for whoever greets Him to
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not let them in church.
[SPEAKER_01]: How does that meet the standard of love and truth and truth and love?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a short answer, and there's a long answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to let you vote, I'm just kidding.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give the long answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to take several steps back.
[SPEAKER_01]: and trying to establish just a broad framework for theological disagreement.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in doing it this way, here's my fear.
[SPEAKER_01]: My fears that this might feel a little classroom, and you might check out.
[SPEAKER_01]: My hope, though, in risking that, is that it offers clarity.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're living in a moment when people don't know what to disagree on.
[SPEAKER_01]: and people don't know how to disagree.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to step back and in stepping back by the time we get back to verse 10, I hope it falls into place in a helpful way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to show you a slide.
[SPEAKER_01]: The concept behind this slide is called theological triage.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard about this first from a few contributors to the gospel coalition.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were an article about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: A triage, some of you know this, is a medical term, and it comes from a French word that means to sort or order.
[SPEAKER_01]: someone's taking a picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: If a patient comes into the ER with a broken thumb at the same, let me start again, if a patient comes into the ER with a broken thumb, and at the same time another patient comes into the ER with a broken neck, you don't treat those injuries with equal urgency.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't tell broken neck patient, sorry, broken thumb got here first.
[SPEAKER_01]: You triage.
[SPEAKER_01]: You order importance based on severity, and to same with theological disagreements, you have to order them in terms of their importance.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that determines how you respond to the person.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to walk through this and at each level, unpack it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then at each level, I just want to ask the question, what does truth and love demand at each level of disagreement?
[SPEAKER_01]: So core doctrine, it's at the top because it's the most narrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are the essential tenets of the faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: If there are open-handed issues,
[SPEAKER_01]: and then close handed issues, these are the closed handed issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: There has to be, there has been in Christianity consensus for thousands of years since the time of the apostles around what the core beliefs of Christianity are and then what, if you disagree with these things, what puts you outside of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's an example, here's the Apostles Creed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son are Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: He suffered under Pontius Pilate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Was crucified, died, and was buried.
[SPEAKER_01]: He descended to the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the third day, he rose again.
[SPEAKER_01]: He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic universal unified church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, and all God's people said, and then all Christians believe this.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are more chord doctrines than what's stated here, but here's the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is in our faith, an agreed upon, defended, died for collection of beliefs that constitute orthodox Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if someone disagrees with chord doctrine, it means that they're a different faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: It means that the different religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone claims, oh, I believe in grace, well, you're asked, okay, what kind of God gives that grace?
[SPEAKER_01]: and they describe a God that's not a Trinity, eternal Father's Son's Spirit, not the God of the Old and New Testament, then they might believe in a concept of grace, but they don't believe in Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the denial of a core doctrine, and so it means they're a different faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: How should you relate to someone?
[SPEAKER_01]: who disagrees with you on core doctrines.
[SPEAKER_01]: How should you relate to someone of a different faith?
[SPEAKER_01]: Conviction and mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you see on the left, the higher the essential of the doctor, the belief, the greater the need for conviction, the greater need for clarity, and the greater need to not compromise.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so how should you relate to someone of a different faith?
[SPEAKER_01]: Conviction and mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone says, I know, I believe that God is everything
[SPEAKER_01]: Divine energy, karma, God is this nameless, faceless, immaterial life force that's some sort of version of pantheism or new age spirituality if a coworker tells you that that's what they believe about God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't simply say, oh, that's cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: We believe in the same God, we just use different words to describe that God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's unloving, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: What truth demands is truth demands that you
[SPEAKER_01]: Explain to them, offer in wisdom, in humility with the Bible teaches of our God.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it also won't do in that moment to simply say, oh, well, you're wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truth and love would demand mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would demand that there is a heart in you for their good that desires them to come to know God the way you know God, specifically to come to know Jesus in a saving relationship with the God of the universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't become someone that you hate because of your differences.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mission would demand love would demand that they become somebody that you are loving and truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: They become someone that you pray for at the end of our services because you want them to come to know the Lord
[SPEAKER_01]: Distinctives, should you baptize babies or baptize only confessing Christians?
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the biblical model of church leadership?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is the role of elders reserved for men?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have to speak in tongues to be a Christian?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is Christ physically present in the elements of communion?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does the church have ultimate authority?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does the church have ultimate authority over the life of believer?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or does the Bible have ultimate authority over the life of the believer?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, typically, how you answer those questions determines what kind of church you go to.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are the issues that divide denominations.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Catholic from Protestant and then Protestants from one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adi and I passed the Lutheran Church on the way to school, and she asked about them, and I say, they believe different things about baptism and about communion and about church leadership.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she says, wait, are they Christian?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then she says, should we go there?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I have a full-time job at a current church.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and no, we don't believe those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, typically, this category of disagreement, these are second, tier, second order theological issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you disagree here, it typically means you're a part of a different church from the person that you disagree with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you might even be a member here and you disagree with some of citizen's distinctives.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are elder-led,
[SPEAKER_01]: Credo Baptist, complimentary and church that observes communion every week in symbolic remembrance of the gospel, we emphasize the kingdom of God and believe that forming Christ likeness in people is the purpose of the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you may not agree with all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am not telling you that you have to leave.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want you to leave.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that you're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are just the points of disagreement that tend to separate churches and denominations.
[SPEAKER_01]: when we disagree on distinctives, on second or third order theological issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Conviction and humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Conviction because these things matter, someone's right and someone's wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone's right about baptism and someone's wrong about baptism.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's important to know what you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's important to study the scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's important to read how Christians have interpreted these things historically, to know what you believe, and to know why you believe what you believe.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then to know this, that there are, like some people look at all the denominations and say, wow, there is so much division in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I get that into a degree, it's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's also a way to look at all the denominations and say, wow, there is so much freedom in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can believe differently than other Christians who I still call my brother and my sister, and no one is going to around these second tier issues, no one's going to force me to violate my conscience around these things that I believe at conviction matters, and we need profound amounts of humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: These issues separate church from church.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do not separate Christian from non-Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know where the most denominationally diverse gathering is right now, heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus returns in one day, when Jesus returns and makes all things right, and dwells on earth with His people, no one will stand on that day and say, I am here because I was right about baptism.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one will stand and say, I am here because I'm a complimentarian.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: will stand and say, I am here because my bankrupt soul and my sin sick heart and my grace needy life was overwhelmed by the unconditional love and mercy found in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ my Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is in need of that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who?
[SPEAKER_01]: is going to give that testimony on that day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone, everyone, there's a shared need for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a shared essence to each of our testimonies that should humble us and unite us, especially in our disagreements.
[SPEAKER_01]: Disputed matters as this last one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I lifted that language straight from Romans 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 14 is Paul writing in response to a theological disagreement.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a non-essential theological argument.
[SPEAKER_01]: Should we eat foods or all foods clean?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he calls that a disputed matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who wrote the book of Hebrews?
[SPEAKER_01]: Was creation a literal seven days?
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you believe about the millennium?
[SPEAKER_01]: Should churches have online services?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it best to practice communion every week or should you do it once a quarter?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we could put a whole host of other questions that we're trying as Christians to answer through theological lenses, home school or public school for kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Should Christians drink alcohol?
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the most faithful way for Christians to engage in politics in our day?
[SPEAKER_01]: Assuming we agree on the essentials, the narrow parts,
[SPEAKER_01]: It is around this level of disagreement that we can agree to disagree.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is truth and love demand at the level of disputed matters?
[SPEAKER_01]: It demands unity and charity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unity meaning we're not going to lose sight of all that we agree on, all the essentials that we agree on, and then charity please hear me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Charity means I'm going to hold our disagreement with the proportionate amount of emotion it deserves.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am not going to have a broken neck response to a broken thumb.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to a sever a relationship over non-essential disagreements.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me pause for something.
[SPEAKER_01]: What this helps us see is that not all truth carries
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a way, it's a way to order the importance of these issues so that we have the proper level of emotional and relational intensity in our disagreement.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we don't want to do, we don't want to have a broken thumb response to a broken neck.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone denies the resurrection of Jesus, there is urgency needed in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to agree to disagree on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Their soul is at stake.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we also don't want to have a broken neck response to a broken thumb.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone disagrees with you on Calvinism or in times or what kind of schooling for our kids is the most Christian kind of schooling.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is unity and charity needed because their soul is not at stake.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have been in full-time pastoral ministry my entire adult life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be 13 years with this congregation next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have seen in churches, among Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of the conflict I have seen is Christians having a core doctrine response to non-essential disagreements.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you, they're having broken neck reactions to broken thumb disagreements.
[SPEAKER_01]: And usually, usually,
[SPEAKER_01]: It is because there is some outside political fight or some outside cultural flight fight that is handling the way they approach disagreements with brothers and sisters in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, core doctrine, different faith, conviction and mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: Disagreement around distinctives, different church, conviction and humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: disagreement on disputed matters, non-essential theological disagreements, agreed to disagree, unity and charity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, where on here do we see, don't let them in the church?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what John commands.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
[SPEAKER_01]: John is triaging the theological disagreement.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what you have here is you have a denial that Jesus came in the flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is a disagreement at core doctrine level, which means different faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: A religion where Christ was not human is a whole different religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you say, okay, well, then different faith means mission, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not something John says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not receive Him into your house or give Him any greeting if you do you participate in His wickedness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the false teacher is saying that this is true Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: The deceiver is John Coulson, is denying core doctrine while claiming theological unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: They come to the door.
[SPEAKER_01]: They say, I'm a Christian, you're a Christian, can I come in?
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a sermon to teach, some things I want to share.
[SPEAKER_01]: It appears as Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It claims to be Christianity, but the content is antichrist.
[SPEAKER_01]: And John says close the door.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the person who comes into the ER with a broken neck.
[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of seeking healing, claims that broken necks are actually healthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to be healthy, you should have a broken neck too.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't let that person start a neck-breaking clinic in the ER.
[SPEAKER_01]: You tell them that they can either get help or leave the hospital.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the response to the false teacher coming into the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: What truth and love demands is not mission, not humility, not charity, what truth and love demands is wise exclusion for the good of the church and the good of the false teacher.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't receive him into your house.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't give him a greeting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works because to welcome them and to give them a hearing would fail the standard of truth and fail the standard of love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think of it this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would not be true or loving for me to platform.
[SPEAKER_01]: a false teacher here in our church.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would not be true or loving for you, for me to put a stamp of approval on that teacher and invite you to believe what they're teaching, and it would not be true in loving towards them to pretend like they're a Christian if they're not.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not true in loving for the church or here's.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not true in loving for the false teacher because to treat them, like a Christian, to treat them like a fellow believer, is to affirm the lie that they're healthy when in fact they're sick.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a long answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: two things to consider.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two implications, applications I just want to offer as a pastor in light of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first is this, be careful who you listen to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay attention to who you listen to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay attention to not just the quality of who you listen to, but the quantity of what you listen to.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, something that humbles me, genuinely humbles me and unnerves me a bit is if I think about in our consumption economy,
[SPEAKER_01]: The amount of time you spend hearing from our teachers here, whether it's on a Sunday morning or whether it's one of our classes or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The amount of time you hear theological truth here compared to the amount of time you consume everything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just pales in comparison.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't, we as a church, we cannot compete with all of the other things vying for your ears.
[SPEAKER_01]: In all that, let me see this, prioritize theological alignment over political ideological and cultural alignment.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you think about who you're listening to, what you're listening to, what you're putting in your ears, and what you put in your ears goes down into your heart in your soul, who you listen to changes you and shapes you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of those things are morally neutral, some of those things are not morally neutral.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so as you evaluate your information diet, your voice diet, would you prioritize voices, where there is theological alignment, over voices,
[SPEAKER_01]: where there's political ideological and cultural alignment.
[SPEAKER_01]: The teaching and information and advice you consume should weigh heavier towards the voices that align with your theological beliefs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that means what you need is more explicitly Christian content.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe what that means is you need a lot less of other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you hear shapes you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your information, your voice, your consumption diet, is shaping you into someone that looks more like Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the second thing, just to consider the questions that we've asked.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you consider this morning, do I love in a way that is true?
[SPEAKER_01]: And to love in a way that is true means that my love will only be as rich as my theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will only be as strong as my view of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means identifying where do I need to grow, where do I need to learn?
[SPEAKER_01]: What I need to spend time understanding about what we believe about God and life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I love in a way that is true?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then do I hold truth in a way that is loving?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I have another centered, Christ-exalting agenda behind the truth I know and the way I share that truth in the lives of other people?
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you consider those things with me in prayer?
[SPEAKER_01]: for your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thank you that you have not left us to wonder what you're like, what you're doing, who you are, who we are, what you expect of us, where to turn in our failures, where to go with our questions, you, Lord God, have been so merciful to reveal yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your general revelation and all that you've made, your specific revelation and your word that you have given to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you help us, Lord, to be a people who love in truth and who hold truth and a way that's loving?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've got my own ideas and plans for how you might use your word this morning and then God you, as always, have your sovereign, good, beautiful plans.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just surrendered to your plans and maybe what that means is...
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my brothers or sisters here is convicted, convicted that they need to do an audit of their information, diet, and put more theologically rich, Christ-exalting voices in their Monday through Saturday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help us feel beaty.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe what you're doing is you're convicting one of my brothers or sisters to think about someone they have disagreed with in a way that failed truth or failed love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're calling them to go back to that person in truth and love with humility and charity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friend, would you just take a moment where you are?
[SPEAKER_01]: Consider how God might have you respond to His word, ask the Spirit to lead you towards conviction, towards encouragement, towards faithfulness and Christ, ask God to make you a person marked by truth and love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Spirit, we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.