Well, it would be our prayer
that the Lord might move upon us in such a way that we might walk before him in ardent love, remembering his death until he
comes again. We're looking in 3 John. 3 John. I'm going to, we're going
to begin looking in verse 9. I'm going to read the whole chapter
to bring us to that place. This is 3 John. The Elder unto the well-beloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things
that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul
prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the
brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even
as thou walkest. in the truth. I have no greater
joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth or walk in
truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully
whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers. which
have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom if thou
bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt
do well. Because that for his name's sake
they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore
ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the
truth. I wrote unto the church, but
Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth
us not. Wherefore, if I come, I'll remember
his deeds, which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words,
and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive
the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth
them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which
is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God,
but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius hath good
report of all men, and of the truth itself. Yea, and we also
hear record, and ye know that our record is true. I had not
many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto
thee. But I trust I shall shortly see
thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet
the friends by name. Now, of course, this letter was
written to Gaius, and there's quite a contrast in this book
as we read about these individuals that are mentioned here. By name,
we have Gaius, to whom it's written, and then, of course, there's
Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence. Now, how would
you like to have that description be that which you're remembered
by? That's what we know about diatrophies. And then, of course, he speaks
about Demetrius, who hath a good report of all men. Now, the Lord is pleased to call his
people together out of the world. The scripture says that he knows
his sheep, that he calls his sheep, that he seeks his sheep. Scripture says he came to seek
and to save that which was lost. Now it is a common thing for
men, for religious men in the present day to attach the term
the lost to all of mankind. All of mankind is lost. Now,
if you go to the scripture, I know what people mean when they say
that. And it's not totally wrong to
say that. But specifically, when the scripture
speaks about the lost, it's talking about something that is a possession
that is put aside, it's in the wilderness or something. Now
you can't lose something that didn't belong to you in the first
place. And that's what the whole gospel
is about. Because the Lord said he came
to seek and to save that which was lost. And the parables that
he gave, they are indicative of that which was lost that was
found. And the shepherd is seeking his
sheep. Now he's not out here trying
to gather up sheep that belong to other people,
is he? I mean, the shepherd is seeking his sheep. I mean, when
David went out into the field to tend to his father's sheep,
that's who he was tending to, was it not? because that was
his flock. They belonged to him. And as
David, when a bear came to attack the sheep and eat the sheep,
David fought with him with his hands and he slew the bear. The same thing with a lion. He
slew the lion. He laid down his life for them.
He was not fearful. of that bear or that lion because
his desire was to protect his father's sheep. What a glorious savior we have.
Because he has indeed laid down his life for the sheep. He sought the sheep, he seeks
the sheep, and he will have the sheep. He said, my sheep hear
my voice. I know them. He says, I know my sheep. And
he says, I know that when I call my sheep, they will hear my voice. What a glorious savior he is.
And so, as we look at the scripture and we see that the Lord calls
his sheep. And in the calling of the sheep,
As we see in the parable of the multitude that came in that were
initially not invited to the feast, but because nobody came,
the master of the feast said, well, go out into the highways
and the byways and gather up people so that there'd be people.
And so they did that, and then whenever they had gathered those
people in, the Lord came among them, the
Lord of the feast, he came among them, and he saw one there, though
he was there amongst the waiting guests, he had not on the waiting
garment. And so it is a true thing that
among the people of God, there are some that are gathered in
like a net goes out and gathers in a boatload of fish, but not
all the fish in there are the fish that are the ones who are
kept. Now that's not up to me to decide
who that is. but it is the way of the Lord. And so we see, and you see a
lot, I mean, you see this illustrated in the present day, and you see
it illustrated in scripture, that there are some that come
among the people of God, and they have, in many ways, The
Lord said that the tares were growing among the wheat. And
rather than disrupting the wheat, He let the tares grow until the
day of the harvest. But the tares are not the wheat.
And so we see, I believe, in some measure, with this man Diotrephes. Now I'm not saying, I don't know
about Diotrephes. Diotrephes might have been brought
to repentance, I don't know. But I know at the time in which
John is writing to Gaius about Diotrephes, Diotrephes is not
giving any example or any evidence that he is a child of God. Now he may indeed, like I say,
we've all come from darkness to light. And it's never too
late for the Lord to bring a man out of darkness and into light. There's nothing a man can do
about it. I mean, just like the thief on the cross. You know,
people always point to the thief on the cross as though, well,
you know, you can wait right up to the end and then you can
seek the Lord. Cause see, the thief on the cross
did. The thief on the cross was snatched
as a brand from the burning. I mean, there wasn't anything
made the thief on the cross different from the other one. except the
grace of God, the mercy of God that met him on that day, and
on that very day, before he breathed out his last breath, the Lord
called his sheep, and his sheep heard his voice, and he followed
him. And he said, Lord, have mercy
on me. Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. How
did he know? How did he know that? Now, why'd
he do that? Because of God's grace and the
mercy of God to call him out of darkness and into the light.
And so we see this one whom John writes about, I wrote unto the
church, but diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among
them receiveth not. Now, what's wrong with that?
Is anything wrong with a guy liking to take, you know, glory unto himself?
I mean, you know, if somebody's got a skill or a talent or something
like that, don't they have a reason to boast in it? I can run faster
than you can, or, you know, I got more money than you got, or,
you know, any multitude of things. I'm smarter than you are. You're
a dummy. If you're as smart as I am, you
wouldn't be doing that. You know, I mean, if you, just
think of any kind of thing you want. Anything that gives a man
a place and a ground to boast in himself or to exalt himself comes from the sinful flesh of
man. It does not come from the Lord.
The Lord hasn't taught us that. Paul said we don't know anything
as we ought to know. The Lord said, without me ye
can do nothing. So where would be the ground
for a man to ever seek the preeminence? You know, I believe this is a
true thing, that those who are called to be the under shepherds of God's flock,
which evidently, Diotrephes was in such a position, they're reluctant. They're not clamoring. See, there's
some men that clamor for a position. They want to get that position.
They want to have that position. But Paul said, you know, necessity
is laid upon me and I can't do anything else. He said, it's
not something I really would choose to do. You remember, I
think it was Ezekiel when he, or not Ezekiel, it was Jeremiah. And the Lord kept putting a burden
on his heart for the people, and they wouldn't listen to him.
And he said, I just determined that I wasn't gonna say anything
else. I'm tired of it. But he said, the Lord caused
the word of God to burn in my heart. And he says, I could not
be silent. And so, you know, Diocletes,
he loved to have the preeminence. He wanted to have a place of
honor. See, men that seek places of honor, or doing so in contrast
to Christ. Christ never saw the place of
honor. Even when he had the, even when Pilate was interviewing
him, or whatever you wanna call it, and he said, are you a king? Now wouldn't that have been the
exact spot the Lord could have said, you're right, I am a king. Because he was the king. What
did he say? He said, you say I'm the king. He said, that's your determination. He said, for this purpose came
I into the world and that was to bring glory to my father and
to do his will. Now, dear brethren, that is what
the Lord has called us to do, not to aggrandize ourself or
set ourselves apart and look at ourselves and say, oh yeah,
we're faithful. but to the Lord and we're walking
with the Lord. And just look at those people
over there. They're just lower than we are because they're not
doing that. Well, the only reason that we
might be in such a position, if that be the case, is because
of the mercy of God. Deuteronomy didn't seem to understand
that. from what I gather, from what
John has said about him. He loves to have the preeminence
and receiveth us not. He said, don't you listen to
John. Don't listen to him. Now I believe
this is a true thing. Dear brethren, I'm not, would
never have somebody to imbibe or to go out and seek false counsel
from anybody. But there is nothing that anybody
can say to the people of God who are seeking the Lord Jesus
Christ with all their heart. It's not gonna hurt them if they
hear somebody that says something wrong. That's not gonna bring them into
condemnation. Now I know of a lot of guys that
seem to think that if somebody hears somebody saying the wrong
thing, that it's just the most terrible thing in the world.
Listen, I don't... I mean, sound doctrine is sound
doctrine. There's one gospel, and that
gospel is centered in Jesus Christ. But I'm not fearful to hear out
any man and what he's got to say. I may not agree with it. And I may say, that's a load
of malarkey. I'm not gonna cut him off because
he's different than I am. I may reject what he has to say,
and I may point out the error of what he says. And I may not
embrace everything that he says and does. But we must not be
as diatrophies, seeking a place of preeminence, receiving not. We need to be careful about that.
We need to be mindful that we're led by the Spirit of Christ.
And the Spirit of Christ, he went amongst the the prostitutes
and the drunkards and all of that, and he went amongst the
religious men of the world as well. I mean, he was there, ministering. Dot Fee seems to have forgotten
that and thought that his place of honor. as perhaps a leader
of a congregation. I don't know what his position
was. Evidently, he had some position because it says he wouldn't receive
John. John came preaching and he said,
don't listen to John. His deeds, which he do, he said,
I remember his deeds, prating against us with malicious words. He said some bad things about
us. and not content with that, he
doesn't receive the brethren. Now, who are our brethren? Somebody have to dot their I's
and cross their T's in order to be our brethren? Our brethren are those who seek
Christ. who desire to honor Christ, who
want to uphold the name of Christ. And in some cases, they may not
actually have the same understanding that we do. Do we lord ourself
over them? No. We understand that God is
able to show men exactly what he wants them to see. That doesn't mean that we bid
them Godspeed and say, go on in your error. But we do desire
to receive the brethren. If a man, if a man has cast himself
on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and he does not have
any idea that He is worthy of salvation or that he's done anything
to gain it. Is he not my brother in Christ? Neither doth he himself receive
the brethren. Now he said, doesn't receive
the brethren. John's speaking about diatrophies. And forbiddeth them that would. I knew a fellow one time, he
got so straight laced in everything that he thought he knew that
he came up with a formula that, buddy, if you didn't believe
what he believed, and you didn't believe this exactly to the T,
that you couldn't possibly be a child of God. And not only
that, but if you thought somebody else that didn't agree with what
he had to say was right, then you couldn't be one of the children
of God, even if you believed everything he said. Now, brother,
such things as that's foolishness. We don't know nothing as we ought
to know. How can we set the standard?
The Word of God sets it. The Word of God exalts Christ.
That's what we seek to do. Magnify His name. Not be worried
about other people and what... Didn't the Lord say that to Peter? ask him, Lord, what's gonna happen
to him? He said, it doesn't matter what
I'm gonna do with him. I mean, Lord has his people.
And it doesn't matter what he's gonna do with them. Doesn't matter
where he's got them at. You know, I think about my own
self, my ignorance and whatnot. And what little I knew, and yet
I had a hunger in my heart to know the Lord. And yet, if somebody
to come along, one of these guys that knows everything, and knows
how you ought to know everything, if you know the Lord, and he'd
have said, he don't know anything, he ain't one of the brethren.
And maybe I wasn't, I don't know. I know I wanted to be. And I
believe this, that when you find a man that wants to be, that
he probably is. See, Diocrates, he wasn't caring
whether he was or not. He figured he was. Man that knows
he knows is a man that you need to be leery of. Because we know
nothing, as we ought to know. And I'm with John Newton, I don't
know but two things. What a great sinner I am, and
what a great savior Christ is. That's what I do know. That's
all I really wanna know. Because if a man really knows
that, doesn't he know everything? I mean, that's the glorious truth
of God. And he would cast them out of
the church. Says, you can't come in among
us. Beloved, follow not that which
is evil. That's what he described. That's
evil. Because it's not like Christ.
Anything that's not like Christ is evil. Is that not true? That's
why we know ourselves to be filled with evil. Because we're not
like Christ. I'm talking about 100% like Christ. We want to be. We desire to be. We say, Lord, make us more like
him every day. Work in us. Draw us unto him. But we're not like him in so
many ways. How quickly we forget how we
should be. And we revert back to how we
are. Follow not that which is evil,
but that which is good. What's that which is good, Christ? There's none good but one. The
Lord alone, good. If you're gonna follow that which
is good, what are you gonna do? You're gonna follow Christ. That's
all there is. He that doeth good is of God. He that doeth evil hath not seen
God. What that means is the man who
is desiring the way of God is of God. Because how else could
he? Well, how else could you desire
to walk in the way of the Lord except the Lord worked that in
you? You can't. He that doeth evil hath not seen
God. That is, the man who persists
in going the wrong way, that he's going away from Christ,
he hath not seen God. Now, he may not know that. He
may be like Diotrephes. Diotrephes, I believe, is who
he's describing. And Diotrephes, you know, was
full of Diotrephes. I mean, that's what he wanted.
He wanted you to know who he was. See, I'm personally not interested
if you ever know who I am or anything about me. I would with
all my heart desire that you might know Christ. Because to
know Christ is to know eternal life. Beloved, follow not that which
is evil. Demetrius, on the other hand,
hath a good report of all men. Now what a glorious testimony
that would be to have written about you. by the grace of God,
Demetrius hath a good report of all men, and of the truth itself. See,
because when you find a man who's a good man, he's gonna be speaking
about the one who's good. He's gonna be speaking about
Christ. I mean, that's what his goal is. That's what his desire
is. It's not anything that's peripheral. And he has a good report of the
truth itself. What is the truth? We know what
it is. The Lord said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. So there is no place of truth that is outside of Jesus
Christ. You cannot find truth anywhere
else. Now, there's a lot of things
out here that may be true factually that you can discover, but you'll
never know the truth. I'm talking about the essence
of that which is true. You'll never know that apart
from knowing Christ. And he said, Demetrius hath good
report of all men and of the truth itself. He said the truth
bears witness to Demetrius, because Demetrius does not seek the preeminence. Demetrius seeks the glory of
Christ, I believe is in essence what he's saying. Yea, and we
also bear record, because I know him, he says, and ye know that
our record is true. He says I'm not gonna tell you
something that's a lie. I had many things to write, but
I will not with ink and pen write unto thee." Isn't that interesting
that somebody would write with ink and pen. When was the last
time you sat down and wrote something with ink and pen? Especially not in the way he's
talking about doing it. You know, having to dip a quill
in a bottle of ink and write something down. You know, we
wouldn't have time to do stuff like that. But yet, you know,
I think about this often. Most all of the grand works of
theology and concordances and all of these things that we use,
commentaries, think of John Gill and his study. And it's reported that John Gill
was in his study about 14 hours a day. And in fact, there was a saying
that was in the community there that they would say that's as
sure if something was certain to occur, they say that's as
sure as John Gill is in his study. And just think of the hours that
he spent with a quill pen and a bottle of ink, writing a commentary
on every verse in the Bible. He's the only man that ever lived.
to comment on every verse in the Bible. Now there are other
commentaries, Matthew Henry and Matthew Poole, but they all died
before they finished their works and other men finished them for
them by using their notes and whatnot. But John Gill lived
to comment on every verse in the Bible. Now I would venture
to say that would be a monumental task for a person in this age
with computers, word processors, and all the different things
that we have to do it, let alone to sit there and do it with a
quill pen and a bottle of ink. And if you've ever read John
Gill's commentary, it's not just a few words, it'll put you to
sleep. He'll be on these verses here. He would have wrote, you know,
a week's worth of writing on these verses here in this book,
in this book of John. And so I find it, you know, when
I read that, he said, I will not with ink and pen write unto
thee. He could have sent him another note, but he said, I
won't come to you. I want to see you face to face.
I want to talk to you. The Lord says, I love you in
Christ. And that was Paul's desire when he wrote these letters.
He didn't write the letters just to write the letters, but he
wrote the letters to prep them for the fact that he wanted to
come and be with them. But though he couldn't be with
them, he would write them a letter. And John says, I hope that I
shall shortly come to see thee, and we shall speak face to face.
Peace be to thee, our friends salute thee. Greet the friends
by name. Who are the friends? They're
those whom he's speaking about, that he says, I have Demetrius. Those whom he says, whom I love
in the truth. Those of whom he says, I rejoice
to see my children walking in the truth. Brethren, walking in the truth does not
necessarily mean that you have every doctrine in the scripture
right in your mind, because you probably don't. I probably don't. I don't know anybody that does.
But walking in the truth is walking in what we do know about Jesus
Christ that he has taught us. So you don't need to worry about
what you don't yet know, because you already know what he wants
you to know. And he calls you to walk according
to what you know. Now, when you have come to the
place where you say, well, Lord, I walk exactly in obedience to
everything I know, won't you teach me some more? How foolish
would that be to come to the Lord with such a thing as that?
No, you haven't walked into what you do know, let alone what you
don't know. But may the Lord teach us and
lead us in the truth, because I believe this is a true thing.
The sheep of the Lord will be led in the truth. Another shepherd,
he said, they will not follow. God's people follow Christ. They
want to follow Christ. They desire to see others follow
Christ. Those especially that they love,
their families. And what would they not do if
they could do one thing to enhance their family? For instance, coming
to Christ. Now you can't do it. But scripture
does say train up a child in the way that he shall go, and
when he is old he'll not depart from it. And how's he gonna be
trained up? I believe the primary way he's
gonna be trained up is by seeing his parents walk in the truth. Because your children may forget
what it is you told them, but they won't ever forget what you
set before them as an example. And that's good and that's bad,
because they'll bring it up to you, oh yeah, but what about
this? See, they won't forget, but they can't at the same time,
they may never believe what you want them to believe. But they'll
always know that you believed it. And they'll say, even though I didn't follow those
things, yet I know what my daddy believed. I know what my mama
believed. I know what they walked in. You
see, when you train up a child in the way he should go, he's
being trained up as walk in those things. May the Lord help us
and may he ever give us a heart and mind to walk in the truth
and not to seek the preeminence in any way or in any wise to
seek out a place of honor and glory. See, you know, and I've
talked about this before, and I'm not meaning to say that everybody's
got tombstones doing this, but the whole idea of the graduation
of sizes of tombstones has to do with exactly what diatrophies.
You know, you go out in the graveyard and you'll see a little old marker
over here And you'll figure, well, that guy there, he was
just a common, everyday guy. But then you see this big old
monument over here, it's high and everything, and his name's
blazoned on it. Maybe what he did and all this
kind of stuff, and people think, oh man, he was a great man. And we can't do a thing in the
world about what people do when we die. But we can testify that
we don't want any sort of place of preeminence, either in this
world or when we're put in the ground. I'm telling you right
now, I don't want any monument that says anything that would
bring praise to me, but only to Christ, because He's only
one worthy, and He's worthy of all praise, so that we might
walk in the truth.