About Second John
FIRST, John was concerned for Cyria, that her hospitality was in danger of becoming the unwitting cause of blessing and endorsement for the message of these pretenders.
SECOND, He was concerned that she would lose all that she had accomplished for the Lord, and her reward would be diminished.
I ask the question: How do we learn to walk in the truth. How do we learn to follow God’s prescriptions for our life? How do we keep our reward from being diminished?
1. The easy answer is through prayer and reading God’s word.
2. But the key is seen in Hebrews 4:12
Hebrews 4:12 (12) For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We will not learn to walk in the truth, to follow God’s Prescriptives for Living;
We will continue to walk a course of compromise; we will continue to be swayed by false teachers, unless we learn to become mighty in Spirit! God’s impact upon our lives is Spiritually discerned. God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth. We must learn to be impacted by the Spirit of God!
First, We need to let God’s word divide our soul from our spirit.
What does that mean. It means that we read the Bible not with our mind, but with our spirit. The Word of God will reveal to our spirit what He wants, without the influences of our corrupted soul. The soul is where the influence of the pride of life, lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes have their influence. The soul is the seat of our mind, our will and our emotions. God desires that these be under the influence of His Holy Spirit.
But too often our spirit is on a starvation diet from God’s Word, and there is nothing to influence our soul. We let the world have full sway over our thoughts, will and emotions. God’s Word is quick and powerful, and can divide the soul from our spirit, that we might become mighty in Spirit.
But there is a secret to doing so. There is a secret revealed by Peter that reveals the way we can abide in the truth and become mighty in Spirit.
We must allow God’ Power and Presence to IMPACT our lives.
2 Peter 1:12-19 KJV (12) Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. (13) Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; (14) Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. (15) Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. (16) For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming (presence) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (17) For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (18) And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. (19) We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Peter indicates in verse 14 that it is almost time for him to die. But before he goes, he wants his readers to always remember something. Verse 16 Peter reminds them that they do not follow cunningly devised stories, but the truth as witnessed by Peter himself. He wants them to learn of the power and the coming of Jesus Christ. The coming could be better translated presencing, because it refers to physical presence.
We must learn the POWER and the PRESENCING of the Lord, both of which Peter learned when he became an eyewitness of the majesty of Jesus Christ.
We must learn to be impacted with the Power of Christ which is above all, and to be impacted by the presence of Christ, which is in the life of every believer.
Now I wish we could each have been with Peter and James and John and seen Christ transfigured into his Heavenly Glory and Majesty, but we are 2000 years too late. But there is a way you can see His power and David shows us how.
To Learn the Power of God, of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must learn to do something that David learned.
PS 57 (1) <To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.> Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.(2) I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.(3) He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.(4) My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. (5) Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth. (6) They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.(7) My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.(8) Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.(9) I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.(10) For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.(11) Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.
1. David found himself in the darkest of moments, the lowest of low, when he had to flee from the wrath of King Saul. As he hid in a cold dank dark cave, with his back to the wall and no way out, with all of Saul’s troops outside sworn to kill him on sight, with all the authority of King Saul, David did something that you or I would have never thought to do.
2. David, trained by the Holy Spirit, put God between him and the soldiers.
3. David looked up out of the darkness of his life, his situation, and saw God exalted, and glorified.
4. David did not cry out to God to honor his promise to make him King, to vanquish these soldiers under his feet, to make him the King. God could have done that, but O what a price it would have cost David. All those lessons that God wanted David to go through, all the character that God wanted to build in David, would have been lost.
5. David was fixed on God’s Glory, God’s Majesty. He was saying, O God, do unto me as you please, but whatever you do, May it be for your glory. David had been trained by the Spirit f God. David had learned to divide his soul and what his mind will and emotions wanted, and to see with His spirit what God wanted.
6. David placed God between himself and his circumstances. David was touched by and beheld the glory of God. His Heart was fixed on the glory of God.
a. Was it up to David to exalt God? Was it David who gave glory to God? No! No! No!
b. God is already exalted. God is already in Glory!
Isaiah 40:25-28 NASB “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. (26) Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing. (27) Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”? (28) Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
The problem with Christians in John’s day and in our day as well, is that when it comes to making a choice, we don’t put God’s glory first and above all.
The ones who were a danger to Cyria (I John 2) and her household had come out of the church. They may have been friends. But somehow, some way, the message of Christ had become corrupted in their thinking and in their lives.
The truth is, we all walk a treacherous road, we all face temptations, troubling circumstances, that can affect the way we view things. A young person may start out as a believer, believing in the word of God, in the reality of Jeus Christ. However, that person is confronted with choices as they grow older.
Choices as to Money, Ambition, Career, Pleasures, Certain Behaviors, Dating, Physical Activities, Music, Marriage are made. When we make those choices with no vision of God’s glory in mind, our behavior is impacted. And when our behavior changes, our Morality changes and we have to re-think our theology.
To justify our choice, our behavior, our view of God, God’s word, Jesus Christ is impacted, weakened, watered down and changed.
Who do you think wins when we choose between God and Money? God and Ambition? God and Comfort? God and Career? God and Dating? God and Marriage?
The people John is warning Cyria (In 2 John) about have made their choice, and it was not with God in view. They chose comfort, pleasure, fame, standing and now are out to gather believers to their cause.
Wrong choices are never isolated. They always affect others.
· A choice to light a simple firecracker or pyrotechnic display can result in the injury or even death to others.
· The choice to pursue a career to the neglect of your children effects your heritage.
· The choice to seek personal pleasure will affect your marriage and your love for God as well as your service.
· The choice to love and seek after money will be seen by your loved ones.
· Your choice to put business before faithfulness to God’s church God’s word will result in your children and even neighbors excusing the same attitude in themselves.
After such a change in your thinking, after the continual neglect of God, is it any wonder when a Earth-shattering crisis comes into your life, you look up hoping to find God and you wonder why He doesn’t seem to care.
You never wanted to see His glory in any other circumstance, why should he think you want to see it now? He is not your little lucky charm that you can wave whenever you need it. He is not a genie in a bible sitting on your cofe table that you rub whenever things get really hard.
That is why John warned Cyria not to lose that which she had worked so hard for. When we lose sight of God’s majesty over our daily life, we have lost God’s prescence within us.
But more than seeing God exalted in Power, we need to be impacted by His Presence.
The Transfiguration was not only something BEFORE THE EYES of Peter, it was something that happened TO him, and afterward came INTO him. True, there was the event, the happening, in time, at a certain place.
But that Vision of the Lord’s Power and Majesty was not enough to keep Peter from denying Jesus and running away from the cross. Just as the Hebrews in the wilderness a mere three days after seeing the mightiest working of God returned to their complaining and ungrateful ways.
But, to bring that vision home, something happened IN Peter.
It took the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to make Christ live within him to transform him into the Priest of the new church.
Paul was stricken on the Damascus road by a heavenly vision of the risen and exalted all powerful Jesus Christ. While we cannot deny the impact of that vision upon the Apostle Paul, that is not what kept him preaching and serving after shipwrecks, stonings, imprisonments.
Paul’s life and living was impacted by the Presencing of Christ within him. “IT pleased God… to reveal His Son IN me” (Galatians 1:15-16). Christ was not only a vision TO him; He was IN him.
The Apostle Paul’s whole life and ministry was based upon and sprang out of that double event, TO and IN.
As the Majesty of the Lord Jesus became an INWARD thing with him, It became a mighty IMPACT upon his life.
Paul declared in Galatians 2:20 KJV “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
It is one thing to be impacted with the Power of God.
David was impacted with the Power of God, but just a vision of Him lifted up could not sustain his faith for the 17 year he was on the run.
When David was forced out of the Philistine army, he and his men returned to Ziklag, only to see all their homes burning and the wives and children taken away. His men cried out in anguish, then took up rocks to throw at David, to kill him.
The Bible doesn’t say that David looked up to see the power of God. NO, that is not what took David through the lowest point in his life. Yes this was lower than when he hid in the cave from Saul.
1Sa 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
David did not look outside of himself to see a powerful God. David looked within himself because he knew the reality of God’s Presence. He immediately encourage himself with this truth and then inquired of God!
How is your life impacted by God?
WE NEED TO SEE the King in His glory; WE NEED TO catch a fresh glimpse of the glorified Lord. There will never be an impact until we have seen Him as the glorified Lord. He is the answer to every need, and a vision of Him as exalted and attested by Heaven will bring new impact into our lives, into our ministries, into our churches, upon situations. Does not your heart cry, as mine does, “Oh for a recovery of the Church’s impact upon this world!”
We NEED THE IMPACT OF the majesty of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will you desire to abide in the truth, Will you desire a reward of the Lord, Will you desire your children to walk in the truth? We must continually be on guard to bring the majesty of the Lord into every situation of our lives; We must allow Him to put His power upon it. Do you not agree with me that that secret is what we need? And for that, I repeat, we need a new, mighty mastery, in our inner being, of the greatness of the Lord Jesus. We all agree that He is great; we sing ‘How great Thou art!’; we will not reserve or trim our words about the Lord Jesus in glory: but there is a gap between his Glory and our situations. That is the tragedy and that is the problem and the perplexity of it. HE is like THAT, and yet THIS is like THIS, and the two things are not brought together.
Now, we need more than words, to get us through. Our Christian lives ought to be based upon something like this: ‘I have seen the Lord’. By the operation and activity of the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven we must have an inward vision of the Exalted Lord. Life that has to go on without that is just a drag; it is an existence. Work or service without that INWARD VISION has nothing in it to lift us, to carry us on.
The choice is yours: As 2 John verse 2 says, You can abide in the truth, you can exalt God over your life and over every situation you encounter, you can focus on Christ within you, allowing Him to abide in you,
Or you can do like verse 7… And go your own way, and make choices that lead you away from the vision of God, cloaking the inner Christ within you.
Then one day you will look for the presence of God in your life, and you will find yourself alone. You will look for the presence of God in the life of your children, and you will find they have become just like you, living their own way, in the absence of God.
We need a fresh, living vision of Power of Christ, Him who is exalted, at the right hand of God, ever living to make intercession for us, ever waiting to come and judge the world.
We need to learn the secret of placing Jesus between us and our problems, to learn that He is alive and living within us, abiding in us, desiring to live through us. He has not left us alone, but has applied all power to every need of our life.
Loving the Word with the MudPreacher 