2 John - Once Saved Always Saved?

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today, we are in the very last day of the week. It is Friday.

It is, it's kind of my weekend. Friday's normally my day of rest, my day off. And today, we are in Second John.

And Second John is a very, very short book. It's only 13 verses. So it's got one of the shortest books in the Bible.

Third John, which is right next to it, has the shortest book of the Bible as far as words are concerned. It's got the shortest amount of Greek words. And Second John has, I think, the least amount of English words, if I remember that count correctly.

This is a book that is written, it's very, very short, and it's written by the Apostle John. And John was one that him and his brother James, they were dynamic, amazing, volatile people.

As you look back at the story of Jesus and his disciples that he called, John was one that kind of wherever God had him to go, he was in.

And so you have at the very beginning, him and his brother James, they're the sons of a man named Zebedee, who was a fisherman, kind of in the Capernaum region. And so they helped out their dad with fishing.

But when we meet John, we see him journeying with John the Baptist, and he was one of his disciples, and he followed him around. He was hearing his teaching, and he was learning from him about the coming kingdom of the Messiah.

And then you can look at John chapter one, and when John sees, when John the Baptizer sees Jesus coming, he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And upon that proclamation, that hey, the one that I've been preaching about, the important one, God himself, once he's on the scene, then John the disciple went, Oh man, I've got to go with him.

So he goes, he begins following Jesus from that day on. And he brings in family, he brings in his brother James, and they were some of Jesus' closest friends between James, John, and Peter. They were kind of that inner circle, those three.

So when you look at the Mount of Transfiguration of when Jesus went up with those three disciples and they went up, they went to pray, the guys fall asleep, Jesus is there. He begins having a conversation with Elijah and with Moses.

All three of the disciples wake up, they go, wow, this is crazy. Peter goes, oh, this is so amazing. Let's build some tents, let's build some Tabernacles for all three of you guys.

This is so cool that we're here. And then God from heaven goes, hey, Jesus is the important one. This is my beloved son, hear him.

And Moses and Elijah go away. And so they get really this cool interaction that's there.

You can also read about some other times throughout the gospels where you have John and James and they went into some different cities like Jesus had told them to do. Hey, preach the gospel, make way for me, preach.

Preach the Messiah is here, kingdom of God is here. Like, let's get in line. Let's participate in what's happening.

And there was a city in Samaria that did not receive the message.

And James and John's reaction to it was, hey, Jesus, like, call down fire and brimstone like you did for Sodom and Gomorrah or like Elijah did with the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel.

And Jesus goes, all right, you guys have no idea what you're talking about. You're advocating for the same exact things that Satan is advocating for. The destruction of humanity.

You also have some other times where James and John and Peter, they're trying to see, hey, Jesus, when you get into your kingdom, when you're reigning as king, can we be like your right and left hand guys so that, you know, kind of everyone can see

how great we are and then Jesus gives those very countercultural things of, hey, if you want to be great, be a servant. If you want to be first place, like wash feet back in those days, you know, everyone's got sandals as they're walking through

roads where everyone would dump their refuse into. He says like clean poopy feet if you want to be great. It's not about where you sit.

He also tells him, hey, it's not my decision because obviously we know the father is the one that is on the throne and there's a whole bunch of things that go along with that that we don't have time to go into today. But that's John.

He had some sort of connection with someone at the temple that when Jesus was on trial, John was able to get in pretty close along with Peter who ended up denying Jesus several times while he was in kind of that temple court area.

And then on the cross, you have most of the disciples are not there, but John's there at the foot of the cross and Jesus tells Mary, hey, I want you to basically adopt John in my place since I'm gonna be dead.

And he tells John, I want you to adopt the care of my mother. So Jesus really loved John. And throughout John's gospel, he writes about himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

And that's what stuck out so clear to John that Jesus really loves me. And then when you look at the book of Acts, as we went through together on the podcast, you have John, he's preaching, he's healing, amazing things are happening.

But then we don't read a whole lot about him after some of those first chapters in Acts.

And you go forward throughout the Bible, you read through many of Paul's letters, and then you get to these books of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and then Revelation, all written by now this much, much older apostle.

He would be the only one that didn't die a violent death for the cause of Christ. 1st John, he writes to a church that had kind of been shell shocked by some false teachers that had come in, had preached some things that said Jesus isn't God.

You can work your way into a relationship with God, just all sorts of things. And to that church that had been so fragmented, John writes and he confirms for them, this is what real active living faith looks like.

If a person does not fit this criteria, they are not a real Christian. You guys don't have to worry about your faith. We know that these teachers came in and now there are people that once were with you guys and now they're not with you guys.

Don't worry, your faith is genuine. Your faith is real based on your belief in Jesus and your following of him. Then second and third John, he's writing to some churches.

And if you want some more info on third John, I just preached a message at Tabernacle about this a couple of weeks ago. I'll link that in the description.

If you'd like to listen to that sermon that goes through all of that, he writes to a man named Gaius. But we're gonna read through second John.

And I know I've already taken up probably half the time, but again, because this is such a short book, I think it'll all even out in the end. He says this in verse number one, the elder, an elder, a pastor, an overseer.

John would have been one of the pastors, one of the elders at the church in Jerusalem, obviously, as one of the apostles. But then history would tell us eventually he would make his way towards Ephesus and he would serve at that church there as well.

And having been one of the ones that had walked with the Lord, he would have had so much gravitas in when he spoke, people would want to listen. Because this isn't just someone that heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from Jesus.

This is like one of the guys, one of the big three. So he says the elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth. Here the elect lady, I've read a few different ideas of who this could be.

It could be a lady that housed a church in her home that was very, very common, especially in the first century. You didn't have church buildings, you didn't have churches building these structures to meet in.

Often it would be, you would have people meeting in the homes of wealthy widows or maybe wealthy women that their husbands were serving in Rome's military, many different cases in which that could take place. So it could be that.

It could be speaking somewhat metaphorically, saying like to this church, it's an elect lady, it's the bride of Christ, as Paul would say in Ephesians 5.

So to this church and to the people in the church, it could be legitimately a lady that is in a church and her children. But whatever it is, as you read through, you might form a particular opinion and I would encourage you with that.

The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.

It's one of John's big things that he writes about a lot in his epistles, is that real lasting faith is real and it lasts.

And that's how you know who perhaps just went through some of the motions and who genuinely accepted Christ and the Holy Spirit really did change them from the inside is because it lasts and it remains in us.

Verse number three, grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love. He gives this greeting, grace, mercy, and peace.

I just read something the other day, actually, that my wife had mentioned. Grace was normally the greeting that was given in kind of Greek culture. It's caris, grace to you, favor to you, blessing to you.

And then peace would be shalom. It's the Hebrew greeting.

And so he says from cross culture, every good thing that I can send your way, grace, blessing, mercy, peace, favor, shalom, all of it, I wanna send to you from God the Father and from Jesus Christ. It says in truth and in love.

Verse number four, he says this, I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth in keeping with the command we have received from the Father.

Here, walking in truth, it's the way that they're living their life is in step with the Spirit of God and with the Word of God.

He says, so now I ask you, dear lady, not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning that we love one another. This is one of the big things that always stood out to John.

In 1 John chapter four, it's here in we know love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the perfect atonement, the propitiation for our sins. He's the one that writes this in his gospel. He writes it in 1 John.

He writes it in 2 John. The big important thing is loving one another. And then he describes what love is.

Is it just happy feelings? Is it giving gifts? What is love?

Verse number 6. This is love that we walk according to his commands. This is the command, as you have heard it from the beginning, that you walk in love.

So there's that general statement everyone pretty much agrees with. But now John deals with, here's why I'm giving this command. Verse number 7.

Many deceivers have gone out into the world. They do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Here he says that those that do not hold to Jesus, he says Christ the Messiah, Jesus the Messiah having come in the flesh. Those that would say, oh no, Jesus maybe, like he spiritually came, but he didn't have a real body.

So those that deny the incarnation, here Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that they would say Jesus, yeah, Jesus came in the flesh, but he wasn't the Messiah. He wasn't God.

He wasn't the Holy One, that rock, that cornerstone, that son of man from Daniel 7 that was prophesied. Anyone that would deny Jesus' physical nature or his divine nature, either of those are antichrist. They are deceiving.

They are spreading lies. That is not loving to say that. You can be very nice, but if you deny who Jesus is, you are a deceiver.

You are antichrist. He says, watch yourselves so you don't lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward. Here, John's saying, as we have partnered with you, it's the same thing that Paul would say often.

He says, I'm praying for you that you continue, that you finish the race so that I won't have basically spent all this time with you and given you everything that I knew about Jesus.

And then it ended up basically being worth nothing because you threw it all away. And here, John's communicating that same truth. He says, watch yourselves so you don't lose what we together have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.

John's heart is not strictly, hey, I want props for all of the work that I put in.

He says, I want you to watch out for yourselves, to look, to pay attention to the way you're living and hear what you teach about Jesus and who he is and what he did so that you may receive a full reward.

He says, I want you to receive everything that God has for you in your life. I don't want you to miss out on any of it. Verse number nine, anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching but goes beyond it does not have God.

The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. Verse number nine is really important. There's occasionally a phrase that's stated that says, once saved, always saved.

And that statement is true in as much as it follows what is said here. Anyone that has genuinely accepted Christ as Savior, that the Holy Spirit has moved in, they will never lose that salvation.

But just because a person prayed a prayer, just because a person was baptized, just because, as we can read about in Paul's Epistles, just because a person becomes a missionary and travels and goes through hardship for the sake of the gospel, does

not mean that they are saved. How do you know who is saved? There's an old doctrine called perseverance of the saints, that those that are genuinely saved will continue in their faith.

Maybe at times they might wander away, even like Peter in denying Christ, but that he came back. It might be like John Mark that abandons the ministry, but eventually comes back.

And Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, hey, take John Mark with you because he is profitable for the ministry. And that you have him linking up with Peter, and he's mentioned in 1 Peter chapter 5, and he wrote the gospel of Mark.

Like, it's not that we can't ever make mistakes or we can't ever have possibly times in which we have really struggled with our faith and we might have walked away for a time, but those that are truly Christ will never permanently walk away from him

on this earth. And we would believe that because of many verses throughout scripture, but this one in 2 John 9 teaches it very explicitly. Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching but goes beyond it does not have God.

The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. This is why it's important to not give people false assurance of faith.

That we would say, not what the Bible says, of true confession and belief in our heart, that when that happens and the Holy Spirit moves into us and we're genuinely saved, then we have that promise of God that we are His forever, that Philippians

1.6, that the one that began a good work and you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So that we don't give people a false assurance that if you pray a prayer, if you say these words, if you dip into the water, if you serve in this

way, then you are always saved. No matter if you turn your back on Jesus forever and you're an avowed atheist and you don't believe in God anymore, as long as you prayed the prayer, now you're set forever. That's not how the Bible talks about it.

The Bible says it's not by works of righteousness that we've done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

That the Holy Spirit is the one that saves us and His active presence, that still small voice that is speaking into our lives, the one that keeps us in God's teaching is not us. It's not if you can maintain good works for long enough.

But God has said if we abandon the teaching, if we leave God entirely, that we should absolutely question whether or not we are genuinely saved.

And we should not rely on a prayer that perhaps we once prayed once upon a time that the Bible doesn't talk about as proof.

Okay, I know that my loved one has been a Nevada atheist and denied Jesus for 50 years, but when they were seven years old, they prayed a prayer. And so I believe that they are once saved, always saved. No, no, time tells us who is genuinely saved.

And that's what 1 John and 2 John talk much about. Verse number 10, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home and don't greet him for the one who greets him shares in his evil works.

John says, if there's someone that doesn't believe what I just said about Jesus, if there's someone that doesn't believe what I said about him being the Messiah, about him genuinely coming in the flesh, of him being God, of him being man, of him

saving us, of one remaining in Christ teaching, he says, if someone doesn't teach that, he says, don't bring him into your home, don't host them as, if you will, don't host them as an evangelist, and don't greet him, don't have a buddy-buddy

relationship with someone that is here genuinely a heretic, because if you are embracing him, bringing him in, you are sharing in his evil works. Verse number 12, though I have many things to write to you, I don't want to use paper and ink. I instead

hope to come to you and want to talk face-to-face so that our joy may be complete. And then he says, the children of your elect sister send you greetings. He says, I could write a lot more. I don't want to do that.

I'd rather just talk with you. And it's a great thing to talk face-to-face with people. So that's the Book of 2 John.

We have completed it in one whole setting. I'm just getting faster and faster at going through books of the Bible. But I hope that this book would be an encouragement and a challenge to you.

What does God want from your life? He wants you to love. He wants you to love other people just like he loved us.

He wants you to remain true to the message of Jesus, that you wouldn't sacrifice any part of that for a superficial unity and the realization that God, if you genuinely saved me, then I know that I'm going to be yours forever.

And I don't have to necessarily fret and worry about keeping my own salvation. It's reliance on you.

And the ones that abandon reliance on God, those are ones that often end up showing at the end of their life or, frankly, sometimes in the middle of their life going on towards the end, that they were never truly saved because they're not relying on

God. They were relying on good works. They were relying on God doing specific things in their life. And that's the reason why they were a Christian or why they were saved.

So I want to encourage you today, have a heart to love people, to tell people the gospel, to not sacrifice any part of the gospel, but to be clear in what we teach and what we communicate. Thanks for being here today.

Monday, we are jumping into the book of Leviticus. You might go, Brian, why are you doing that? Here's why.

Many people feel very comfortable reading an epistle. They feel very comfortable reading the gospels. Maybe they feel very comfortable reading some of the books of history, like Genesis or Joshua or First Kings.

Not as many people feel comfortable reading through portions of the law, like Leviticus or Deuteronomy. And so, I want to be a help, however I can, of maybe you might be scared to go through Leviticus on your own, but I can encourage you.

Read through it with me, and Lord willing, we will get some great truths from the Word of God together, and hopefully you'll see Leviticus in a whole new light that you have never seen before. Thanks for tuning in. See you Monday.