Now, let's open our Bibles back
to the book of 3 John. 3 John. The subject of this short epistle,
as we've seen in the last two messages, is the subject of unity
in the faith, unity and love to the brethren. I've entitled
these messages, Together in Truth and Love. This is the third part
of that. together in truth and love, that
we who know Christ, we who are sinners saved by the grace of
God, are to be together, together not without truth, but in truth,
together in truth and love. And let me just read this portion
here of 3 John. Look at verse 9. Here he's speaking of a man named
Diotrephes. He says, I wrote unto the church.
That is, the called-out ones, the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But Diotrephes, this man named Diotrephes, who was
a minister or leader, elder in the Church, and it says, "...who
loveth to have the preeminence among them," among the Church,
among the members, the people of the Church. He said, "...he
receiveth us not." Diotrephes would not receive John. He would
not receive other ministers of the truth. He wouldn't receive
brethren. We're saying that him, Christ, receiveth sinful men. But Diotrephes would not. And
that's strange. And Diotrephes claimed to be
a follower of Christ. Well, we do receive sinful men.
We receive those who come trusting in Christ and him crucified.
So John writes in verse 10, Wherefore, if I come, if I come there, I
will remember his deeds. I'll call them to mind. I'll
bring them up. I won't ignore them. which he
doeth, prating against us with malicious words," that is, bringing
empty accusations, that's what he's doing, not content therewith,
but that doesn't stop him. He's not just content with bringing
his empty accusations, but neither does he himself receive the brethren,
and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
He's not content with just doing that. He won't let others receive
brethren, have fellowship with them. and he casts them out of
the church. Now, dealing with this man who
loved preeminence, I wanted to turn to a lot of scripture here,
and I want you to be ready to turn. But I asked these questions. I want to deal with three questions
this morning. I started one last week, and I'm going to finish
that one today and hopefully get to the other two today. But
the first one was this. Who is to have the preeminence? Well, obviously, the answer to
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. No man is to have the preeminence
in the Church. That psalm that Brother Ron read,
that's what that psalm is about. The mighty God. It says in verse
2 of that psalm, Psalm 50, out of Zion. Now, Zion is a symbolic
word. There was a particular Mount
Zion, but it was a symbolic word in the Old Testament of the Church. the dwelling place of God, the
place of Christ, the people of God whom he redeemed. And it
says, out of Zion, the perfection of beauty. Zion is the perfection
of beauty. That's what he says. That's the
church, the true church, which is the pillar and ground of truth.
Now, that's not just talking about any denomination or any
local building or body of people that meet together for religious
purposes. But that's talking about those who are together
in truth and love, those who believe the gospel of God's grace,
the people of grace. And it says, out of Zion, the
perfection of beauty, and then it defines that. It doesn't leave
us to define that ourselves. What is our beauty? What is our
perfection? And it says, God hath shined. Our beauty and our perfection
is Christ, not ourselves. It's not my eloquence. It's not my leadership abilities. It's not your abilities and gifts. That's not our perfection and
our beauty. God has shine. Christ has the
preeminence. He is our righteousness, our
wisdom, our holiness, our redemption. And he has the preeminence. Not any man, not the pastor,
not the elder, not the deacon, not the charter members, Not
the ones who have been here the longest. Christ, Christ is our
duty and our perfection. And the psalmist goes on there
in the last verse, he says in verse 23, whosoever offereth
praise glorifies me. Now people all the time talk
about praise the Lord, praise the Lord, or we're going to praise
the Lord, or we're going to have a prayer of praise, sir. Not
unless you glorify God. Not unless you remember Him and
think of Him and trust in Him aright as He reveals Himself
in Christ. That's the only way. He said,
Whosoever offereth praise glorifies Me, and to him that ordereth
his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.
What is it to order your conversation aright? Christ has the preeminence
in all things in what you think, what you say, and what you do.
You want to order your conversation, give him the preeminence in what
you think, what you say, and what you do. Now, that's what
Diotrephes wouldn't do. He claimed to be a minister of
Christ. He claimed to be a leader of the church, a leader of people.
I'm sure he claimed to love brethren. But Christ didn't have the preeminence
in his heart. He wanted the preeminence. Well,
we read about that in Colossians chapter 1 last week, how Christ
has the preeminence in creation. He has the preeminence in Providence,
and He certainly has the preeminence in the Church. He is the Redeemer. He's the rock of the Church.
He's the foundation of the Church. He's the heart of the Church,
and everything that the Church is and aims toward is to glorify
Him. Everything about Christianity,
true Christianity, everything about salvation, everything about
godliness is to exalt Christ. and Him crucified, the crucified,
the resurrected, the ascended Lord Jesus Christ in the glory
of His person and in the power of His finished work. And it's
to put us in our proper place as sinners saved by the grace
of God, saved by His power and His grace, which we didn't deserve
and couldn't earn. It's Christ and Him crucified.
It's not me, myself, and I. Now, if Diotrephes had the gift
of grace, what would he have with it? Well, turn to Philippians
chapter 2 with me. Now, here he speaks of the grace
of humility. You cannot desire the preeminence
and be humble at the same time. They're opposite. And, of course,
pride, self-righteousness, and the desire for the preeminence,
those are works of the flesh. That's the sinful flesh. That's
what that is coming out. Humility is the grace of God
in Christ. And this is what Paul is speaking
of here in Philippians 2. Look at verse 1. He says, If
there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if you take any comfort
of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, if any comfort of love,
His love for us, remember what John wrote in 1 John 4.10. here
in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. He says, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, that's what the Holy Spirit does, he
doesn't divide brethren, he brings us together. If any bowels and
mercy, that word bowels there speaks of the physical makeup
that is from which they at that time thought that came compassion,
and that was That was just, they worked and wrote and understood
things by the way they feel. You know, if you get real upset,
sometimes you'll get a stomachache. And once that stress or that
anger is gone, you'll feel better. And that's the way they looked
at this. But what they're just simply saying here is if there's
any compassion here, if there's any mercies, if God has shown
mercy to you and you desire to show mercy to others, Paul writes
in verse 2, fulfill you my joy. Make me happy, that's what he's
saying. That you be like-minded, one mind in grace. That doesn't
mean we're going to agree on everything. You see, it's not
just a church, it's not a group of people that agree on every
little detail. And we may not even agree on
every detail of doctrine. I may come to a verse of scripture
here and I may say, now this is what I believe this verse
means, and you say, well, I don't see that. Well, I don't agree
with that. But I'm going to tell you what
we do agree on. We agree on the gospel, the good news of how
God saves sinners by Jesus Christ. We agree on who Christ is, his
person. That's the doctrine of Christ,
who he is and what he did and why he did it and where he is
now. These are the fundamentals of the faith. You see, that's
like if you're in a math class and you walk in one day and you
say, well, I've just had a revelation. And the teacher says, well, what
did you have a revelation of? I had a revelation that 2 plus
2 equals 5. Well, your revelation is wrong. And everything you do in math
from then on is going to be wrong. I don't care if you go to the
highest echelons of linear algebra, whatever that is. It's going
to be wrong because 2 plus 2 does not equal 5. It equals 4. It's just a fact, you say. But
now, you see, that's the way the gospel is. It's a fact. It's
more than just a fact to God's people. It's a living truth in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we do agree on the gospel.
And so he says, be like-minded. Now, be like-minded, what he's
talking about here, he's talking about in humility and love. He
says, "...having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind,
let nothing be done through strife or vainglory." Now, usually strife
is caused by vainglory. Do you know what vainglory is?
Well, we just read about it in 3 John. It's a guy like Diostrates
seeking the preeminence. He's got to be first. He's got
to be the one to have the say. He's got to have his way. He
knows better than everybody else what's good for the church. I
tell you, I've seen guys like that. You have too. They think
they know best what's better for everybody. They've got a
hotline to heaven. They think they're God's little
secretary. That's what they are. And that's
what diatrophies was. And they got to have the vain
glory, and that's going to cause strife. And he says, but in...
Listen to this now. He says, but in lowliness of
mind, Let each esteem other better than themselves. In other words,
I'm to look upon you as better than me. You say, well, how can
you do that? Because we're just so full of
pride. And I'm going to show you that
even as safe centers, we still have that pride to deal with.
We still have it. But I'll tell you, I believe
the only way that we can look upon each other better than ourselves
is this. I'm going to tell you something.
And I've said this before. I know me. better than you do. I know my thoughts. I know my
ways. I know my struggle. I know my
weaknesses better than you do. You see some of them. You might
say, well, he's weak in this part of leadership or pastoring
or whatever. But I'm going to tell you, you
don't know the half of it. Just like there was an old fella,
somebody come by and was just railing on him, talking about
how bad he was. And he just looked at the man.
He said, well, you really don't know the half of it. And you
don't. And let me tell you something.
You know yourself better than all of us put together know.
Now let me say this. God knows us all better than
we even know ourselves. Did you know that? But I know me. And if you're
no better, if you're not better than me, you've got a problem.
Same way. And what he's saying is this.
I believe this is the essence of what Paul's saying. I'm to
look upon myself, I'm no more deserving of the least of God's
favors and blessings than anybody in this building today. I am
no closer to earning any of it than any of you. I'm a sinner
saved by the grace of God. And let me tell you something.
I know I'm the pastor of the church. I'm a public figure.
I'm on television. I was sitting in Bob Evans the
other day and a fellow looked at me and said, I watch you on
TV every Sunday. You know, that's kind of intimidating. Because
they look around and I say, I might want to wear a disguise or something. But I'm going to tell you something.
This is the honest truth. And I want to be a good example.
I so want to be. And I pray that God will make
me a good example. But if you're sitting there today
looking at me as being better than you, you have got a problem. Now, I don't have the problem.
I'm a sinner. But if that's the way you're
looking at me, saying, well, he's a preacher, he ought to be better
than the rest of us, that's wrong. You've got a problem. And I believe
that's the essence of what Paul's saying. I'm not saying that to
excuse my responsibility or anything like that. But I'm just saying,
look, folks, We're all in this thing together. What is there
to be found among men? There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. I am just
as much in need of Christ and his blood for the forgiveness
of my sins and his righteousness for my justification as you are,
as the worst sinner. Christ receiveth sinful men,
and I'm one of them. And let that sink in. You know,
we have this, you know, the big guy and the little you, the preacher
up there. See, that's what Diocrates wanted. He wanted people to think
of him that way. That's what most preachers do.
I'm telling you the truth. I grew up under him. You've been
with him. They want you to think, if I
jump over that rail, I'd still be walking on air. And I just
don't do it. I get right down in the trenches
with you every day. Somebody said, you know, that
one of the greatest tests that the Lord puts us through, and
I believe it's the greatest, is just simply being a church
member. Think about it. Getting along with your family.
Well, that's what Paul's talking about here. And you can't do
that as you desire the preeminence. The only way we're going to get
along and stay together and be of one accord and one mind is
this, if we all want Christ to have the preeminence. And that's
it. He says in verse 4, or verse
3 rather, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory,
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than
themselves. Look not every man on his own things. We're all
so concerned with self. But don't be so concerned with
self, but every man also on the things of others. Let's be concerned
with one another. And here's the key, verse 5.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. You
want to be a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ. You want
to be Christ-like. Well, here's his mind. Verse
6, "...who being in the form of God," that means he was and
is God, "...thought it not robbery to be equal with God." When he
said, I am, it wasn't stealing God's glory. It was just recognizing
the truth. When you seek the preeminence,
or I seek the preeminence, that's robbery. Do you know that? That's
robbery. When diatrophy seeks the preeminence,
that's robbery. Because, you know, that's robbing
God of His glory. And listen, here's the sad thing. If you get anybody to follow
you, what have you got? Huh? You've just led them astray. If anybody follows you in your
desire for the preeminence, they may give it to you. There are
some men who may not actively seek it, but just allow other
people to seek it for them. You ever heard of that? They
sure do. And he says, verse 7, "...but
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross." Now, you know his humility
there? His condescension there is our
salvation. The death of the cross. He came
to this earth and took into union with himself a human nature without
sin, and walked this earth with all the weaknesses of the flesh
without sin." All the infirmities, the Scripture says, without sin.
And he allowed, and I say it this way, he allowed. It was
determined by God. It was an active work of God.
Don't get me wrong, but I'm talking about the Lamb of God who opened
not his mouth. He allowed Pontius Pilate to
put him on trial. He allowed the Jews to do it,
to scourge him, to slap him, to spit on him, to put a crown
of thorns on him, to nail him to a cross. And you know what
he said in the book of John? He said, no man's taking my life
away from me. You know, he told Peter, he said,
you know, they're going to come and they're going to take you
where you don't want to go. They're going to force you to go somewhere
you don't want to go. They can do that to us. We couldn't
do it to him. He said, no man takes my life
from me. He said, I give it up freely
of my own will. He said, in fact, the Bible says
he said his face like a flint to go to that cross. And his
humility is our salvation. He deserves the preeminence.
That's what Paul's saying here. So he says in verse nine, wherefore
God hath also also hath highly exalted him and given him a name
which is above every name. We're not here trying to make
a name for ourselves. Somebody said, well, I hope they
remember my name. Why? Because I'm going to tell
you something, remembering my name can do you no good. But remembering the name which
is above every name. Whosoever shall call us upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. His name, that means something. His name is Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. His name is Immanuel, God with
us. His name is the Lord, our righteousness. Let's pray, Lord, give us your
name. So what good is it going to do
you to remember these men? It's not. We don't want the preeminence. That's what he's saying. Now,
you know, look over at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now, if Diotrephes
had the gift of grace, he'd have had the gift of humility. And
I'm telling you now, it's a struggle. It doesn't come automatically.
That doesn't mean that once you're born again, God just zaps you
and then all of a sudden you're humble and you don't have any
pride and self-righteousness and desire for the preeminence.
No, you've still got the flesh to deal with. It's a warfare. I'm going to tell you something.
This is one of the main battlegrounds right here, this pride. Versus humility. That's why Paul
wrote wrote here. Look at verse verse 5 Talking
about the true preacher the true minister of Christ. He says for
we 2nd Corinthians 4 or 5 for we preach not ourselves We're
not preaching ourselves But Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves
your servants for Jesus sake you realize what that verse says
So we're not preaching ourselves. We're preaching Christ and I'm
just a servant of the house. I You know, in the household of
the Master, they don't sit around bragging on the servants. It's
the Master who has the preeminence. And Christ is the Master and
we're servants. And then he says in verse 6,
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give unto us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The glory is
in His face, not in ours. The glory is in his power and
his work. Glory is in his grace. And so
he says in verse 7, for we have this treasure, this glory of
God, this gospel in earthen vessels. That's another way of saying
a clay pot that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. So look at the minister as a
clay pot. Now, he's breakable. He's weak. Weak vessels. That's all. That's
what God uses. He doesn't use. He doesn't come
down here and say, well, now let's look around this congregation
and let's see who is the most righteous that I can use, or
who is the most powerful, or who's the best looking, or who
has the most abilities. No, he takes the weak vessels,
the weak vessels. Human beings, sinful human beings,
men who have their problems. And then he uses them for his
glory. Why does he do it that way? Well,
Paul answered that in 1 Corinthians 1, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. Christ is to have the preeminence. Look over 1 Corinthians 4. You know, the Corinthian church,
it seems like, as a whole, had a problem with this thing of
pride, people seeking the preeminence, or people seeking the preeminence
for others. And it says that they were a
very gifted church, a very thriving church. But Paul had to remind
them. Verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 4, listen
to this. There's three points here that
you need to understand. He says, he asked them three
questions. And these are three questions we all should consider.
Verse 7, he says, for who maketh thee to differ from another?
Who distinguishes you? All right, let's say you have
the ability to preach. And somebody else doesn't. I
know a man in Albany who had as much scriptural knowledge
as any person that I've ever seen or known. But he did not
have the ability to communicate it. To sit down and preach it
or to tell it to others, it was just, I mean, he'd trip over
his words all the time. But boy, he was such a joy to
be around. He was a faithful member of the
church. He was a support to the pastor. And he knew the gospel. And all he cared about was not,
he wasn't, well, can I get up there and have my supper? He
just wanted to hear Christ preached. That's all he wanted. Well, listen,
if you have the ability to preach it, who distinguished you? Who gave you that ability? God
did. And if you have other abilities,
other graces, other gifts, who gave them to you? That's what
Paul's saying. Who makes you to differ? God does. It's grace. You didn't earn it. You didn't
deserve it. You weren't the lottery pick that day. God did it for
his purposes. And then here's the next question.
Look at verse 7. He says, And what hast thou that thou didst
not receive? What do you have in any way?
Listen, what do you have in any way that's good that you didn't
receive it? What he means there, you didn't
work for it. You didn't earn it. You didn't deserve it. And
so then he asks the third question. Now, if thou didst receive it,
if you didn't work for it and didn't earn it, but you have
it anyway, why do you glory as though you had not received it?
Why are you going around here acting like you earned it? Or
acting like you deserved it? You see, if it's a true gift
of grace, it's not going to pump you up, or it's not going to
puff you up, that's the scriptural term here. It's not going to
cause you to seek the preeminence, it's going to cause Christ to
get the preeminence in your life. You see, God's grace brings submission,
not preeminence. Turn to Romans chapter 10. This
is the problem with self-righteous sinners who won't trust Christ.
Who won't trust Christ. I've been thinking about that
quite a bit. Especially in light of tonight's message out of Isaiah
45, where he says, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth. There is absolutely no good reason
for any sinner not to look to Christ. And I'll tell you, I made this
statement last week. Whatever it is that you've got
in your mind that's keeping you from looking to Christ for all
of salvation, whatever any person has in their mind, on their reasoning
that keeps them from looking to Christ for salvation. I'm
going to tell you something. It is wicked and it is evil.
Now, no matter what it is, there's absolutely no good reason for
a sin. Somebody says, well, I'm not
good enough. That's wicked. You see, the reason you need
to look to Christ is because you're not good enough. You understand
what I'm saying? If you were good enough, you
wouldn't need Christ. Somebody says, well, I'm just too sinful.
That's the problem. And you see, when you say you're
too sinful to look to Christ, you're either saying this, that
salvation's got to be based on your goodness, or you're saying
that he's not powerful enough to save you. Either way, it's
evil, isn't it? It's unbelief. It's wicked. You
see, this thing, and really, here's the thing. The person
who thinks like that is really seeking preeminence and doesn't
even know it. I mean, you can wallow in the
mire all night long and be proud of it. I've heard people have bragging
sessions on how sinful they are. And you don't even touch the
surface. My friend, look to Christ. What keeps a sinner from looking?
His desire for the preeminence in some way, it may be a perverted
way, it may be a twisted way, but in some way. Let me show
you, look at Romans 10 and verse 1. He says, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge. Verse 3, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own
righteousness. Desiring to have the preeminence
is the same thing as going about trying to establish your own
righteousness. And he says, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Now, what is the righteousness
of God? Look at verse 4. For Christ is the end, the fulfillment,
the finishing of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believes it, everyone that looks to him. Submission. That's what he's talking about.
Submit to Christ. That's what it's all about. Submit
to Christ. You know, the Bible and history
are full of examples of proud men who sought to make a name
for themselves, gain their own following, build memorials to
themselves. You know where all that began,
don't you? It began with Satan. Lucifer, who was unwilling to
be what God created him to be, who desired to be like the Most
High, began with us in Adam. when Adam took sides with Satan
against God in seeking to be as God. Filters right on down
through the human race. You see examples of it in Cain.
Cain wanted the preeminence, so he brought the works of his
hand. Nimrod spurred him on to build the Tower of Babel. You
can look at the Pharisees. They desired the chief seats
in the synagogue. They wanted to have the preeminence. Look over at Matthew chapter
18 with me. And let me tell you something, when God saves us,
it doesn't stop. We have to fight it with every
fiber of our being by the power and grace of God. When we're
saved by grace, it's still a huge problem in our lives. Listen
to this in Matthew 18 and verse 1. He says, at the same time
came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven? And you might think this, and
you say, well, how in the world could a Christian even ask such
a question? Well, Christians do. You may
not say it like this, but it comes in different forms, different
fashions. Well, I can answer the question,
who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Christ is. Always
has, always will be. But he said, Jesus called a little
child unto him, set him in the midst of them. Verse 3 said,
Verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as
little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Somebody
said, well, how can that be? Well, those who humble themselves
as that little child, that's the person who gives Christ the
preeminence. And that's the greatest thing
you can do. That's the greatest thing I can do. You see, our
greatness is not in ourselves, it's in Him. It's of Him. It's by Him, and we have nothing,
we are nothing, without Him. And that means everything. Somebody
says, well, salvation's part grace and part works. No, no,
it cannot be. It's all grace. Salvation's part
my righteousness and part His. No, it's all His righteousness.
You see what I mean? That's submission. And we have
to fight that all of our lives. The Corinthian church were dividing
over preachers. They wanted to give preachers
the preeminence. Paul said, listen, he said, some of them we can
separate. Some said, I'm of Paul. Some of them said, I'm of Apollos.
That's people today, isn't it? And Paul said this to them. He
said, did Paul save you? Did Paul baptize? He said, I
thank God I didn't baptize any of you except a few. They were
proud of these things, you see. It's pride, pride, pride. And
God hates a proud look. Well, look at 1 Corinthians chapter
2. Now, here's the second question. What is the message of a true
minister of Christ? Well, here it is. And this is
what diatrophies lost sight of. This is what all men who desire
the preeminence lose sight of. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2
and verse 1, he said, And I, brethren, when I came to you,
came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now
that's our message. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The true minister points away
from himself and points sinners to Christ. He's like that signpost
that's leading you to the place. Tells you you're this many miles
from there. You don't stop and worship the sign, the road sign.
You go on to your destination. And your destination is Christ.
John the Baptist, he knew that. He said, I'm not the light. Christ
is the light. Let him shine forth in the glory
and the beauty of his person and his finished work. He said,
I'm not the Messiah. Christ is the Messiah. He's the
Savior. I can baptize you in water, John
said, but He can baptize you with the Holy Spirit. He can
give life. He can bring the dead to life. John said, don't look to me.
Look unto Him. His disciples got a little jealous.
They wanted John to have the preeminence because they followed
John. And they said, those people are following Him. And John said,
That's what I've been trying to tell you all along. That's
the way it should be. Don't follow me. Follow him.
And when they heard John preach, they followed Christ. If they
heard what John was saying. Isn't that right? John said,
I'm not even worthy to stoop down and untie his shoes. That's
who I am. He said, I must decrease. He must increase. The gospel. The gospel of Christ. Some preachers
who want the preeminence are more subtle than others. They'll
say, I'm not Christ, but you can't follow Christ unless you
follow me. That's just another way of deceiving people. Here's the third question. What's
the task of a true minister? Now go back to 3 John. Look at
verse 10. Now, he says, wherefore, in 3
John 10, he's talking about the atrophies, who wants the preeminence.
John said, if I come, I'll remember his deeds, I'll call them to
mind, which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words,
not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive
the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth
them out of the church. John said, I'm going to call
to mind his evil works, his perverted attitudes and goals always lead
to perverted works. These empty, unproven, harmful,
hateful charges. Obviously, Diotrephes had ignored
the scriptural mandate of how to accuse somebody. If you've
got an accusation, you go to that person first, and if that
doesn't work, you bring the two witnesses. All of that. But Diotrephes wasn't content
just to do that. He didn't want anybody else to
receive them. Well, what is the commission?
What is the mission of a true minister? Number one, preach
Christ and Him crucified. Point sinners to Christ. Put
us in the dust where we belong. That's right. And point us to
Christ for all salvation. Point to Christ on the cross
and His finished work. Secondly, evangelize the world
with the gospel. Don't discriminate. Don't pick
and choose. Go into the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Thirdly, feed the sheep. Don't divide them. Don't segment
them. Don't socialize them. Don't entertain
them. Don't get them each in a circle,
this circle here and that circle there. Feed the sheep with the
Word of God. Preach Christ to them in the
Word of God. Fourth, endeavor to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If anything, that any
person who claims to be a minister, elder, or whatever, a leader
in the church, says to you that is divisive or sowing discord,
don't listen to them, get away from them. That's right. The
minister is to endeavor. That means to work hard to keep
the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And number five,
encourage and edify in truth, love, and obedience. That means
to build up, not to tear down. That's it. And when any minister
seeks the preeminence, all five of those things suffer. All five
of them. Look at verse 11. John writes,
he says, Beloved, follow not that which is evil. Don't follow
Diotrephes in his endeavor to seek the preeminence. But follow
that which is good. He that doeth good is of God.
Those who seek to give Christ the preeminence, those who seek
the unity and bond of the Spirit and peace and the love of the
brethren in the truth now. They're of God. That's what he's
talking about. But he that doeth evil hath not
seen God. And that, you know, people argue,
well, was Diotrephes just a child of God who led astray? I believe
that John's saying right here, this man is an unbeliever. Now, I know, as I said, even
believers can get caught up in these things, as did the disciples. But here he's saying, he that
doeth evil hath not seen. In other words, in Diotrephes,
this was his way of life. This was his purpose, plan of
action, to seek the preeminence. Now, in verse 12, he mentions,
and I'm glad this little letter closes on a positive note with
all this. But he mentions here a man of
good report, Demetrius. Verse 12, he said, Demetrius
hath a good report of all men. What that means is he has a good
testimony. That word good report, you know
what, we get our English word martyr from it. You know what
a martyr is? It's someone who dies for the
faith. Their death for the faith didn't
save them. So this good report was not based
on Demetrius' works or his earning salvation. No way. It was just
a testimony of God's grace. This man Demetrius was a living,
walking testimony to the grace of God and the preeminence of
Christ. The opposite of diatrophies. He mentioned Gaius at the first
of this letter. He was the same way. He was a
man who was a walking example of God's grace in Christ. And he says he's a man, he has
good report of all men, of the truth itself. He walks in the
truth. He walks in love. Yea, and we also bear record,
we know it too, he's saying. And you know that our record
is true. You know this to be true, too. You know the difference
between Diotrephes and Demetrius. And he said in verse 13, I have
many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto
thee. John wanted to meet with him
face to face, but he says in verse 14, but I trust I shall
shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face, person to
person, mouth to mouth. And he says, peace be to thee,
our friends salute thee, and greet the friends by name. So
you see John's desire there for the spirit of unity, the spirit
of love and truth and peace and all things in Christ.