That's how we live our lives,
isn't it? The just shall live by faith
day by day. Believe God day by day. No one's promised me that I'll
be here tomorrow, but I'm here right now, and right now is day
by day. So I'm back to 3 John. Gaius, an example of grace. That's what I thought when I
read this, an example of grace. That's what we ought to be known
for, isn't it? We ought to be examples of God's grace. Now this is a short epistle written to a beloved brother
In Christ, it's an important letter because it's in the Word
of God, though it be short. Spurgeon one time, I heard Henry
tell this a long time ago, and I heard Paul tell it again. Charles Spurgeon called on one
of his young men in the preacher school he had. I mean, called
on him right on the spot. to come up and preach. He wanted
him to learn something about being ready, you know, in season,
out of season. So he asked him to come up and
preach. And the man came up and he said, well, he said, like Zacchaeus, I'm short of
stature. And like Zacchaeus, I'm up a
tree. And like Zacchaeus, I'm going
to come down. And he went and sat down. Spurgeon
gave him an A. He said that's one of the best
outlines he'd ever heard. And so that's what this epistle
is. It's short. It's got a lot in it. I said one time years ago, and
somebody reminded me that I said this. I didn't remember saying
it, but I was reminded of saying it. I said, when we preach, we
ought to stand up, speak up, shut up, and sit down. And I'm
going to try to do that this morning. Now, it's evident here that Gaius
was converted under John's ministry because he says in verse 4, I
have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. You know Paul called Timothy
his son in the faith over in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 2.
One time Henry was preaching and he referred to me as his
son in the faith. I had never even thought about
that. But we know that God is our Father, we know that. But
when God uses a man to preach the gospel and those who are
converted under that man's ministry, there's a special place there.
I mean, Henry will always have a special place to me because
God used him, God used him to preach the gospel to me. And
I heard the gospel and I believed it. And here I stand almost 50
years later by God's grace. You know, the second epistle
written that John wrote was written to the elect lady and her children. And John emphasized this, truth
and love. In the second epistle, he kept
bringing up truth and love, truth and love, mentioned them over
and over in the first six verses. But in this epistle, John stresses
truth and works, truth and deeds. He's writing to Gaius about his
taking care of the missionaries, the traveling evangelists, and
how he's heard about it. And he exhorts him to continue
doing it because they need it. They're not looking for support
from the unbelieving world. But faith, listen, where there's
real faith, where there's real faith, there'll be works. It is called Faith, well, the
Scripture says, Faith WORKETH by LOVE, but it does WORK, it
does WORK. James said this, Faith without
WORKS is DEAD, is DEAD! And James 2.20, listen, But wilt
thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? And he
says in verse 26, For as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also. Paul said this to Titus,
to be careful to maintain good works. I'm not afraid to use
that word, WORKS, not in reference to being saved. We are saved,
listen, we are saved by WORK. the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are saved by His work. Now you and I know, we've been
taught over the years from the Word of God, through the preaching
of the gospel, that we are not saved by anything we do. But
boy, when God saves you, you do something. You do something. It's said in Ephesians 2.10,
for we are His workmanship. We are God's workmanship. A believer
is the workmanship of God. A believer is not the workmanship
of a decision. It's not the workmanship of pressure
put on by some high-pressure preacher. We are God's workmanship. He
created us in Christ Jesus, see? For we are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. You are a new creation. You're
not a renovation. God did not renovate you. He
created you. You who believe, He created you
a new creature in Jesus Christ. You're not the same. You didn't
just turn over a new leaf. You didn't quit bad habits, sinful
habits. Because there's enough sin in what we do today to put
us in hell, right? That's the truth. Paul said,
when I would do good, he was present with me. That which I would do,
I don't. That which I would not do, I do. What a wretched man
that I am. We are saved by the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. We are saved by the work of Jesus
Christ. But those whom God saves, they
do work. You know why? Let me finish that
sentence in Ephesians 2.10 or that scripture. We are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. God has ordained our
path. He's ordained our life. We're not just willy-nilly going
away or going through this life. Our path is ordained of God. The Scripture says, Thou hast
wrought all our works in us. God has wrought all our works
in us. It is God who worketh in you,
Paul said in Philippians, it is God who worketh in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. The very ROOT of any
good work is the Spirit of God WORKING IN YOU, USING YOU. God has ordained that. He's ordained
it. Now he says here in verse 1,
The elder unto the well-beloved, Gaius was well-beloved, well-spoken
of by all who knew him, whom I love in the truth, or we can
say it like this, whom I love in Christ and whom I truly love. I truly love. I truly love you
in Christ. Gaius was beloved of the Lord.
You know, all of God's children are beloved of God and they are
beloved of God, not some more, some less. God can't love anyone less and
be God. Can God do less and be God? He loves every one of His children
fervently. He loves every one of His children
completely. He cannot love one more than
the other. He loves, listen, He loves us
as much as He loves His Son, Jesus Christ. He does. With that same love, He loves
us just as much. And that's why John calls Him
beloved of the Lord. You're beloved of God. Paul said
in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, but we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. God's chosen you
from the beginning through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, but God's chosen you. And God loves you. And John says,
I love you. There's a genuine love for one
another in Christ. It's not the love that the world
knows. It's not this fleshly love. It's a real genuine love
that comes from the love of God she had brought in the heart.
That's where the love comes from, for one another. It's the bond
that ties us together, this love of one another. And the church where he attended
loved him. And they spoke so highly of him.
You do speak highly of someone you love, don't you? When you're
speaking negatively of someone, it's evident you don't love them. We hide the faults of our children,
don't we? More than we hide the faults of anyone else or anyone
else's children. But we do our own. Why? Because
love hideth the matter. It hideth a matter. And this is something we ought
to be known for. We ought to be known for our love to Christ
and to one another. You know why we preach Christ
here every week? You know why He's the subject
of every message? You know why? Because we love
Him. We love Him. If we really didn't
love Him, we'd find something else to talk about, wouldn't
we? You give somebody a half a minute to talk about their
children, they'll talk to you all day as long as you listen.
Your grandchildren, how much time you got? That's because
you love them. And the church loved them, John
loved them, and they loved them in Christ. It's a genuine love. A love in Christ is a genuine
love. I tell you this, it's good to be sound in doctrine,
but it's terrible to be sound in doctrine and weak in love
and grace. Terrible. There are those, Demetrius,
or not Demetrius, but what's his name here? I've got to find
third John for all diatrophies you think diatrophies didn't
know didn't know wasn't have the doctrine down you think diatrophies
didn't have the doctrine down it's what guys was going to it's
probably where he was attending but you know what he didn't have
he didn't have love he did not have love or grace it wasn't
any But it was in Gaius. Now when
you put doctrine and love together, now you got the full package. You got the full package. Oh
God, don't let me be weak in love and grace. Be gracious.
When I say grace, I'm talking about being gracious and kind. Now John prays for Gaius' success
both physically, financially, and spiritually. We ought to do that. We ought
to do that. Beloved, I wish, and that word
there over in the margins, I pray. I pray above all things that
thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. Now many believe, because of
the way this is written in some of the words in Greek, believe
that Gaius was in bad health. That's why John said, I pray
that you'd be in health as your soul was in health. John had
no doubt about his soul. He said the spiritual well-being
of his soul, it was evident by what he did. The way he took
care of the missionaries, it was evident. And some believe
he was in bad health and some think that he may have fallen
on hard times. And some think that maybe it was because of
his support, the way he gave. I don't know. I don't know. But we do know this, and we need
to understand this. John is not putting the temporal
blessings above the spiritual blessings. He's not doing that.
But he does pray that he will be successful. And I pray this
for you. I pray this for you, that in
every area of your life, God will bless you. I do. I pray God will bless you. Here's
another translation of this, Beloved, I pray that in all things
thou mightest succeed and be in good health even as thy soul
prospers. We know this, if we are successful
in anything, It's because the Lord has blessed us. You know
what Satan said to God concerning Job? You have blessed the work
of his hands. Job worked. God's not blessed
in laziness. Job worked and God blessed. That's
how it happened. Success depends on the Lord blessing
us, blessing the work of our hands. I quoted this earlier
but Hannah prayed the Lord kill us and make us alive He bring
it down to the grave and bring us up the Lord make us poor and
make us rich He does that it's his it's his world isn't it?
The earth is the Lord's the fullness thereof and they who dwell therein
in Psalm 24 1 it's his He bringeth low and he lifteth
up John is written in John 3 27
and John answered and said a Man is John the Baptist answered
and said a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven
You can't receive anything except God give it to you Paul said in one place. What
do you have that you didn't receive? What do you have that you didn't
receive? Now if you received it, then why would you brag about
it as though you didn't? Everything we have, God, our
intelligence, God's given to us. The ability to make a living,
God's given it to us. He's given us everything. Success
and prosperity, listen, we shouldn't be, and I was trying to explain
this to someone some time ago, It's not that we should be afraid
of prosperity and success, but here's what we need. And I told
this person this, pray that God give you a heart and the wisdom
to use it. Because the ministry doesn't
run on air. It doesn't run on air. The ministry that was at 13th
Street, it was a big ministry there, worldwide ministry. And God brought some men in there,
some families in there that was well-to-do. And they've spent
the money on missionaries, supportive. Sometimes some of that support
was like probably 90% of their support. God blesses that we might use
it and give to those who are in need and to be a blessing
and to be a part of the gospel going throughout the world. That's
why He gives it to us. No, don't be afraid of it as
much as being afraid of not having the heart. That's the problem.
It's not the material thing. It's the heart. Give me a heart
to use this. Give me wisdom to use this. And He prays that he may be in
health. This is why some think he was sick. You know, I do pray that the
Lord give me health and give you health. And He's given us health. And
sometimes He takes it away, doesn't He? And that's all right. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh. But He prays here that it be in health because we are
made up of body, soul, and spirit. And when any one of them is sick,
it affects the whole person. It affects you completely. We ought to pray the best for
one another. And John prays that Gaius, his
career and his condition would be as bright as his spiritual
condition. Now to me, here is the kernel
of it. Here is what John is saying.
Here is what he is praying. And this really jumped out at
me when I was, and I went over this time and time again, and
about the last time I finally got it. I'm a little slow, but
I finally got it. But John wishes his temporal
prosperity be in the same proportion as his soul prosperity. This
is what he's saying. I pray that your material prosperity,
your physical, your health prosperity will be in the same proportion
as your soul prosperity And here's why, here's why. Because that way he would be
able to wisely handle the temporal and the health prosperity. If
it's in proportion to his soul prosperity, he'll be able to
handle what God's given him. That's why. As God prospers your
soul, I pray he prosper your health and your wealth as he
prospers your soul. But if your soul is not prospering,
if your soul is not growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ,
you're going to spend that money on yourself. It's going to be
all about self. It's going to be all about self
and your family. And less about God's family. But boy, if He
prospers your soul, then prospers you. That's what I was trying
to tell this person. It'll be all right. It'll be
all right. And here's the evidence of His
SOUL PROSPERITY in verse 33, For I rejoiced greatly when the
brethren, those traveling evangelists, came and testified of the truth
that is in thee, that Christ is formed in you, that the truth
is in you. Even as thou walkest in the truth,
you know, if truth is in you, it's going to guide you. If Christ
is in you, you're going to walk and follow Christ. You're going
to get in these words and you're going to search the scriptures
and you're going to seek the Lord. And through doing that,
He's going to guide you by His Spirit in your walk. And you're
going to walk in truth. You're not going to walk in pretense.
It's not going to be a show. It's not going to be hypocritical.
It's going to be true. It's going to be true. The brethren, He says here, came
to Me from where you attend service. And they testified of the truth
and of the gospel that's in you and such a gracious spirit about
you. Isn't that the testimony you
want when people come here and leave? You know, I have to say that,
and I've told you this before, but you know, we've had these
conferences and have these men come in, everyone, everyone,
every time, everyone has said, you've given me too much. That's a whole lot better than
saying, man, this won't even take care of the trip. I'd much rather them say, you've
given me too much. One of them said, stop. One of
them told me, he said, stop, you've given us enough. Well, that made me feel so humble and yet so good. if I can use that word. They
told John that Gaius was truly a believer, that he not only
believed the truth, he walked in it. Our walk really defines
who we are. We can say whatever we want to
say, you know. It's easy to say these things, but it's that day-to-day
walk That defines who we are. That defines what we believe
and who we believe. It's our daily walk. And he says in verse 4, I have
no greater joy than to hear that my children, these are the ones
converted under John's ministry, walk in the truth. My children walk in the truth,
they walk in the gospel, they walk in Christ, and they walk
sincerely. Sincerely. Nothing makes me happier than
to hear those whom I've preached the gospel to and they've believed
that they've continued in the gospel. They're continuing in
it. Beloved, thou doest faithfully. He said, what you do, you do
faithfully. You do it every time. Whatsoever thou does to the brethren
and to strangers, not only favored ones, not only favorite preachers,
but to all of them. You do the same to every one
of them, not just a handful or just favorite ones. We have to
be careful that we don't fall in favoritism because it's in
us by nature. John says to him, he said, whatever
you do to one, you do to others that are even strangers, ones
you don't even know. You take care of them the same way. You
take care of them the same way. And John commends guys here for
his hospitality and charity. I thought about this this morning,
wrote this down. Where God opens the heart, he
opens the home. God's people are hospitable.
They open their homes to these evangelists like you have these
other preachers, other believers. You open your home to them. An open home reveals an open
heart. That's what God's given these
things to us for. Take care of one another. And he says here in verse 6,
well, let me go back to verse 5, Beloved, thou doest faithfully. They testify of your faithfulness
in whatever you do, you do to the brethren and you do it to
strangers, you make no difference, which have borne witness of thy
love, thy charity before the church. They've told the church
this. whom if thou bring forward on
their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. These traveling
preachers spoke so highly of Gaius, taking care of them, taking
care. They were greatly moved by his
spirit of grace and kindness and generosity. And that's exactly
how God's children ought to be defined. Grace, generosity, love,
hospitality, that should define us. in verse 78, because that for
his name's sake, for Christ's sake, these missionaries, these
evangelists, they went forth, they left family and home. And
believe me, when they left family and home and they went among
the Gentiles, they went among real heathens. They went among,
you know, Paul goes into town, they had all these altars, they
have one made to the unknown God, God of Diana. I mean, they were steeped in
it, steeped in it, and their lives were always on the line.
But he said, they went forth, they left family and home, and
they took nothing of the Gentiles. They didn't beg for support.
They relied on God, and God motivates His people. He puts it in the
heart of His children to support these men, just like Gaius. And
He blessed Gaius, and Gaius used it in that manner. He blessed
him. But they didn't take money. You
know, we don't beg. You know, I was on the radio
here for a while, then I was on the radio for a number of years
in Ashland. I never one time asked anyone
to send support. God's people supported it. I'm
not going to ask people who don't believe the gospel. I'm not going
to ask people who believe another gospel to support the gospel. I'm not going to do that. God's
people will support the gospel. God's people did it. They didn't
go out and ask these heathens to do that. God's people did
it. And listen, it's a blessing,
it's a real blessing, it's an honor to be able to be a part
of the ministry. You know, when you support, as
you support me, you know what, I've told you this before, you're
supporting the gospel. You help these other preachers,
you're supporting the gospel. That's what you're doing. Spreading
the truth. But in closing, in closing, in
all this, this beautiful letter John's writing, he says, but
there's trouble, there's trouble. I rode into the church, it is
where Gaius attended, but diatrophies. I don't know whether he was a
pastor, but he was definitely a leader in that congregation.
I'm supposing he'd probably be the pastor since he tried to
kick people out. And this is sad. This is sad. But Diotrephes, who loveth to
have the preeminence among them, received us not. Total opposite of Gaius. You
see what? You can believe true doctrine. You can get it right and miss
Christ. And have not the love of God
in you. Paul said, if I have not love
over 1 Corinthians 13, I'm nothing but a soundy brass and a tinkling
cymbal. That's all I am. If I have not the love, and that's
the love of God in Christ. It should have brought him my
heart. Diotrephes, he loves to have the preeminence. You know, the Lord's church is
never without her trouble or troublemakers. There's always
somebody. There's always going to be a
terror among the wheat. That's what the Lord said. There's always
going to be wolves among the sheep. He loves to have the preeminent. He's a glory hog. You know why
he didn't receive these missionaries? And why he wouldn't give them
support? He wanted it. He wanted it. He wanted that
ching ching to go in his pocket. He didn't want to give them a
dime. Not a dime. Wherefore, he says,
if I come, I'll remember his deeds, which he doth pratting
against us with malicious words. Words are powerful. Sticks and
stones might break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
Why can't you get over the last insult? That last insult that you heard,
why can't you get over it? If they don't hurt, if words
don't hurt, because they do, they hurt more than sticks and
stones. You can get over a stick and a stone, that bruise will
heal up. But a wounded spirit, the brother or friend that it
says is harder to be one than a walled city. All those prattling against us
with malicious words and not content therewith, neither doth
he himself receive the brethren, the missionaries. He runs them
off. And forbiddeth them that would
take care of them, he forbids them. And he's going to excommunicate
them out of the church if they don't do what he says. Hmm. That's mean, isn't it? But wolves
are among the sheep. Beloved, follow not that which
is evil. He said, don't imitate this man. You see, be careful
if a man has a position and he has some authority and be careful
imitating him because if he's doing evil, don't imitate that.
Don't imitate that. Imitate that which is good because
he that doeth goods of God and he that does evil, he has not
seen God. Now Demetrius, he brings up another
man, doesn't say much about him, but he does say this, he has
a good report. John said he has a good report. And he said, I
can testify for that man too. He's a good, he's a fine man
in Christ. He's a fine man in Christ. He's
a man of the truth. Those little letters are powerful,
aren't they? There's a lot in them. You cannot
exhaust the Word of God. You can't do it. I don't care
if it's a small epistle. You cannot exhaust it. It just gets
deeper and deeper and deeper. Gaius, an example of grace. That's what I want us to be.