A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: We need to speak the truth in love. If I see something in a fellow Christian's life that is harmful to them or dragging them down, the Bible tells me I should speak the truth in love.

Guest (Male): The truth is always the best medicine, but Pastor Greg Laurie points out it needs to be dispensed in a compassionate way. Truth anchors us, but love moves us. Truth gives us the message; love gives us the method.

Guest (Male): How do you pass along the cold, hard truth in a warm and loving way? Is it in the words we choose, the body language we present, the context in which it's expressed? Yes, yes, and yes. But more than that, today Pastor Greg Laurie points out it comes from a heart of genuine compassion and concern, energized by God's love. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg begins the final message in his series in First, Second, and Third John.

Greg Laurie: Have you ever sent an email in anger? Maybe you were upset with a coworker or even your boss. So you wrote them this email and you were so angry you were pounding the keys. Then you hit send. You felt really good about it for about five minutes and then the adrenaline wore off and you thought, what have I done? You found yourself Googling, how do I get my email back?

That is not a good thing. Or maybe you wrote a card or a note to someone, and then you thought of something that you forgot to say, so on the bottom you wrote, "P.S., postscript." Well, that's really what we're looking at here in Second and Third John. These are short little epistles. Each one is one chapter long. They're about the length of an email or a note, if you will.

So really John is concluding this beautiful book of First John with these extra letters, and he's effectively saying, "P.S., I love you." It reminds me of a story of a young man whose father had died, and he was going through his dad's belongings, and he came across an envelope addressed to him that his dad had never sent with a letter in it. At the end of it, it said from his father, "P.S., I love you."

The son carried this around with him because when he would get discouraged and down, he would pull out that letter from his dad that said, "P.S., I love you." Well, here we're being reminded of God's love for us in the epistles of Second and Third John. Now John was writing to refute something called Gnosticism that had gained traction.

The Gnostics believed that they had this secret knowledge about God, and they were saying, "Don't listen to these apostles, listen to us." They didn't believe that Jesus was an actual physical person walking the earth. They thought he was more like a phantom. In fact, they even said when he would walk along the sand, you would not see any footprints.

John is saying that is so lame. This is what you need to believe if you're really a believer. He says in First John 4:2, "If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the spirit of God." In other words, John is saying, no, you have to believe that Jesus was actually God walking among us. God became a man.

Man cannot become God, but God in this instance became a man. Fully God and fully man, dying on a cross and bodily rising again from the dead and born of the Virgin Mary. You need to believe all of these things to be a real Christian. So now we come to Second John starting in verse one. He writes, "The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I but also all those who have known the truth because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love."

I want you to underline those words, "in truth and love." God wants us to walk in truth and love. You really can't have one without the other. In fact, in the first four verses of this short letter, John uses the word "truth" five times. Sometimes you meet people who walk in truth but not in love. I'm going to use the word truth loosely there.

I'm going to say they walk in their version of the truth. There are people that tend to be nitpicky. They cross their T's, they dot their I's, they can often be legalistic. They call it truth, but they use it sort of like a sledgehammer. You need to walk in love as well. These are the kind of people where if you're having a great burger, they'll come and quote a Bible verse to ruin it.

You're taking your first bite and they'll say, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world." Or you say, "Hey, I'm redecorating my front room." It's all going to burn. Really? But they call that the truth. It's not truth; it's just their weird way of trying to live by truth.

But then we want to live in love. Now sometimes people who say they live in love might be—I don't want to say you can be too loving—but you can become too tolerant of everything. In the name of being inclusive and kind and never wanting to appear judgmental, they'll never tell the truth to someone else. Let's take a doctor as an example.

Let's say you went to your doctor for an exam and he found something that concerned him. Now he wants to tell you the truth, he wants to be loving about it. So in the best way he can think of, he has to tell you what your problem is so he can tell you what the solution is. And if that doctor told you you're perfectly fine when you had a problem, that doctor's not doing his job.

So if I see something in a fellow Christian's life that is harmful to them or dragging them down, the Bible tells me I should speak the truth in love. So it comes down to this: truth anchors us, but love moves us. Truth gives us the message; love gives us the method. We need to speak the truth in love. And the perfect example of this is Jesus.

He was the personification of truth. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Remember that woman caught in the act of adultery, thrown at his feet? Her accusers said the law says she should be stoned, what do you say? It was a trap, of course. And Jesus looked around at them and the Bible says he stooped down and wrote in the sand.

Then he stood up and said, "Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone." And they left, the Bible says, from the oldest to the youngest. Then he turns to the woman and says, "Lady, where are your accusers?" She said, "I have none, Lord." He says, "Neither do I accuse you. Go and sin no more."

I love the fact that he called her lady. I think she'd been called a lot of things but probably never lady. He used a proper term to address a woman, a woman of respect, almost like saying ma'am. Ma'am, lady, where are your accusers? Why did he say that? Because he didn't just see her for what she was; he saw her for what she could become.

You see, he saw a lady down the road, but then he says this, "Go and sin no more." So the love was engaging her and welcoming her, but the truth was in telling her to go and sin no more. Love is obeying the Lord. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." A husband can say to his wife all day long, "I love you."

And by the way, husbands, do you tell your wife you love them? Oh, let's make you do it in church. I love to do stuff like this. Husbands, turn to your wife and repeat this after me: Greg is an amazing preacher. No, turn to your wife and say "I love you." Go ahead, turn to your wife and say I love you. That wasn't that hard, was it?

Now women, you turn to your husband and say, "I know." But it's a good thing to verbalize your love, both the husband to the wife and the wife to the husband. It's a nice thing to bring her gifts, it's a great thing to compliment them, but guys, you need to do your job too. You need to provide for her, you need to protect her.

You need to be a spiritual leader in the home, and most importantly, you need to be faithful to her. And she needs to be faithful to you. So you could have all the compliments and you could be telling the person you love them over and over, but if you're unfaithful to them, it kind of undermines it. So in the same way, if we love God, we should be faithful to him.

Point number two, when we walk in the truth and love people, the devil will be opposing us. Look at verse seven. "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and antichrist. Look to yourselves that you don't lose the things we work for, but that we may receive a full reward."

The Bible tells us that in the end times, someone will emerge on the scene called the antichrist. That person has not yet appeared. We don't know who he is, nor do I think we should sit around and try to figure out who he is. Because in fact, the Bible does not tell us to look for antichrist; it tells us to look for Jesus Christ.

And to the point, I don't even think antichrist can be revealed until the church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air in what we call the rapture of the church. The Bible says, "He who now restrains will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way, and then that wicked one," speaking of antichrist, "will be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy with the brightness of his coming."

So what he's saying is the restraining force in the world today is the Holy Spirit working through the church, and when that work is done and we're caught up to meet the Lord, then antichrist will be revealed. So yes, an antichrist is coming. But then he talks about antichrists, and this is plural. And don't forget the prefix anti doesn't just mean against; it also means instead of.

So he's saying in the end times there's going to be imitations of Christ, or things that will take the place of Christ, or people pretending to be followers of Christ who are not indeed followers of Christ. Now we shift gears to Third John, and John addresses this to a guy named Gaius. It's assumed that he probably led Gaius to the Lord, so he was like a spiritual son in the faith.

So now in Third John chapter one, verse two: "I'm writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers." That's a great verse, isn't it? Great thing to pray for someone. Now there is a theology in the church today that's sometimes called prosperity theology or word-faith theology, as it's sometimes described.

And the basic premise of it is that we can claim things for ourselves. You claim things by faith. They say that faith is like a force that must be harnessed and you speak things into existence, and you only want to have a positive confession, never a negative one. And God wants you to be in perfect health, and if you find yourself sick, it's because you lack faith.

And God wants you to always be financially prosperous, and if you aren't, it's because you lack faith. So you name it and you claim it, or you gab it and you grab it. Word-faith theology, of course, I think is contrary to scripture. But they'll often cite this verse, verse two: "I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health as your soul prospers."

Now look, God does want to give us prosperity. We don't have to be afraid of the word prosperity just because some have misinterpreted it. Because it is used in the Bible in a positive way. In Psalm one, it says, "Blessed is the man that doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. His delight is in the word of the Lord, and in it does he meditate day and night."

"He'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. His leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he does shall prosper." So God can and will prosper a believer, but we have to ask the question: what is prosperity? Could you prosper with good health and abundant finances? Absolutely. Could your version of prosperity be a little different and it might include some sickness that God allows for some reason to keep you dependent upon him?

And maybe a financial challenge that will cause you to call upon him? Again, the answer is yes. To prosper is to become more like Jesus. So there are people who were wealthy and blessed by God in both the Old and New Testament. Abraham is described as being very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. Job was blessed with great wealth; he was the greatest of all the people in the East.

The list goes on: Solomon, Boaz, Joseph of Arimathea in the New Testament, Lydia, also in the New Testament. So God can bless you with wealth. So there's nothing wrong with being wealthy. It's a blessing to have wealth, but with that wealth comes responsibility. Paul tells us in First Timothy 6:17, "Tell those who are rich: don't be proud, don't trust in their money. Instead, trust God, thank him for his provision, and use what they have, use their money for good to help those in need."

Paul didn't say condemn those who are wealthy. How dare you be wealthy? He says no, commend them, exhort them, encourage them, and tell them that there is a stewardship that comes with that. Coming back to Job, he had all this great wealth, but God allowed a series of calamities to come into his life, and ultimately he said the result was he came forth as gold.

So it all comes down to how we define prosperity. But then there's good health. Verse two: "Pray that you may prosper and be in good health as your soul prospers." God wants you to be in good health. God can bless you with good health. You should do everything to live a healthy life. I think sometimes some Christians like to quote the passage that says bodily exercise profits little but godliness is good for all things as they eat their 20th doughnut.

Godly exercise may profit little, but it does profit some. So we shouldn't use that to justify laziness or letting our body go because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So does God always want us to be in good health? Well, sometimes yes, and there are times he'll allow sickness in our life. It's a great thing to ask God to heal you.

And if you're sick, do pray for healing. And the Bible even says, "If there's any sick among you, call for the elders of the church to come and pray for you and anoint you with oil, and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man will accomplish much." And I can tell you, we have prayed over people in this church and we've seen them miraculously healed by God.

But does God heal everybody? The answer is no, he doesn't. I wish he did, but he doesn't. We should ask. We can even ask repeatedly, but sometimes he allows sicknesses for a greater purpose. The apostle Paul had what he called a thorn in the flesh. Three times he asked the Lord to take it away, and God said, "My grace is sufficient for you."

And this is the apostle Paul, who prayed for people to be healed and even raised some guy from the dead. So if God wanted everyone healed, certainly Paul could have prayed for himself and been healed. And some will say, "Well, it's your lack of faith if you're not healed." Well, God does use faith in our healing, but sometimes we are deficient in our faith. Like, how much faith did Lazarus have when Jesus raised him from the dead?

Not a lot because he was dead. But then we have the instance where there was a woman with a medical condition and she said, "If I can touch the hem of his garment, I'll be healed," and she did and she was healed. But then there's a story of Jairus whose daughter was sick, and he had the faith for his daughter. So sometimes it's the faith of the person praying, sometimes it's a person praying for that person, and other times it's just the Lord stepping in.

I like the prayer of that one guy who said, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." But we should pray for his prosperity in our life as he defines prosperity.

Guest (Male): Good clarification from Pastor Greg Laurie today from our studies in Second and Third John here on A New Beginning. And there's more to come in this message. You know, there's nothing that could bring more richness to our lives than to have a personal relationship with Christ. To know your sins have been forgiven, that you're a child of God, and you'll live forever in the presence of the Lord. Do you have that reassurance? You can. Pastor Greg, what would you say to the person who'd like to make that change right now?

Greg Laurie: What I would say is he's only a prayer away, which means if you will call upon the name of the Lord right now through prayer, he will hear your prayer and answer your prayer. Listen, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, just pray this prayer right now after me. Just pray, "Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and my friend. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."

Guest (Male): Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed along with Pastor Greg and meant those words sincerely, we want to welcome you into God's family. And we want to help you get started in your new faith. Pastor Greg wants to send you his New Believer's Bible free of charge, along with some other helpful resources. Just let us know you've prayed with Pastor Greg and that you want the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words "Know God."

Dave: Pastor Greg, we hear from people all the time who tell us how these daily studies have impacted their lives. So many have found the Lord and been encouraged through this teaching.

Greg Laurie: That's right.

Dave: And we hope our listeners might pray about making an investment so these studies can continue.

Greg Laurie: Yes, it's really true, Dave. You know, and even a little bit helps. You know, people need to hear the gospel so badly. They need to hear the teaching of the Word of God. It changes everything because it changes us. And I'm so passionate about it, and I'm called to do it, and I'm thankful for it. But I can't do it alone. So I'm going to ask folks that are listening, if you think more people need to hear the gospel, if you believe more people need to hear the teaching of the Word of God, then prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries and maybe even become a Harvest partner, which means you're someone who stands with us every month in your faithful giving. And that opens up a lot of new opportunities for us. So thanks for that.

Dave: Yeah, that's right. And we really are thankful for your partnership. You can reach us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or just go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, more insights from Pastor Greg's unshakable series as we dig into the short epistles of Second and Third John. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.