John, 3rd John, 3rd John. Finish up this 1st,
2nd, 3rd John tonight. I don't know where I'll go next
thinking about Peter or Exodus, 1st and 2nd Peter or Exodus.
I'll pray about it and maybe I'll know about it next week. But 3 John, we'll read the whole
14 verses again and start in verse 9 for this evening. The
elder unto the well-beloved Gaius whom I love in the truth, Beloved,
I wish about 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 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 diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence
among them receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will
remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious
words, and not content therewith, neither do he himself receive
the brethren, and forbideth 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, and of the truth itself. Yea, and we also bear
record, and ye know that our record is true. I had 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 look back here with me in
3rd John, and I'm going to start in verse 9. Start in verse 9. But you remember that he wrote
to a man, and how that this man, well beloved, so beloved of John,
And John loved him and wished and prayed a lot of things for
him, commended him very highly, told what things he did for Christ's
sake and how he supported the brethren, encouraged the brethren,
did things for the brethren. Walked in the truth, not just
professed the truth, but walked in the truth. But here he says,
I wrote under the church, but diatrophies who loved to have
at the preeminence among us, Among them receiveth us not.
Now here's John, that disciple whom Jesus loved. He wrote this
epistle to Gaius, the church where he was. And he gives counsel
and he gives some orders as an apostle. And the first thing
he says, now over here, he says, I wrote, I'm writing to you,
Gaius. Then he says, I wrote. So this is evidently what he
wrote to Gaius. And he wrote another letter to
the church. And the fellow that was running
that church, evidently, was a fellow named Diotrephes. And he said,
I wrote under the church, local assembly, people whom he loved. But he put a butt in there. He
put a butt in there. Diotrephes, Diotrephes. Maybe he was an elder, maybe
he was a pastor, maybe he was an officer in the church. And
those large churches in those days, there are often more elders
and pastors than one. I know when Paul was fixing to
leave, he called all the elders and the preachers from Ephesus
to come and meet with him, just from the church in Ephesus. And
I think this is where this is at, the church of Ephesus. And
also, when he wrote to the Philippians, he said, under the bishops, elders,
and deacons. So there was lots of officers
in the church in those days in big churches. And Diotrephes
refused to accept John's instructions or counsel. He just refused to
do it. And what was his problem? And
that's the title of my message this evening, Loving the Preeminence. Or don't be a Diotrephes. And
look what it says, deatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence
among them. Here was a man that he wanted
to be recognized, regardless of what he had to do and how
he had to treat people, he's going to be recognized. He was
going to have all the power and all the say in the congregation. And he coveted more than what
he was due was. He exercised more power than
God would give him. And his pride, pride led him
to seek preeminence, led him to seek recognition, led him
to seek to lord it over God's people. And he wouldn't, and
then look what he says, and then among them, preeminent among
them, he won't even receive us. He don't want me there. He don't
want me there. He don't want the apostle there.
He said, I'm the disciple whom Jesus loves. And he said, He
don't want me there. John's up in his 90's and he
don't want me there. That's what he said. And oh my,
he wouldn't even receive the apostle or those whom he sent
who loved to have the preeminence among them and won't receive
us. Won't receive us. Don't want us to come. Won't
recognize us. Won't acknowledge us. And there's
an honor, now listen beloved, there's an honor and authority
which belongs to men that God and officers that God's placed
in the church. And God puts them in the church. We don't put them in the church,
God does. And He calls men to preside over, to govern and lead
the congregations and lead the assemblies according to the word
of God. But this even may be carried
too far as it was by this man. by this man. Anybody can carry
their so-called authority or ability to govern and that. He
can carry it too far, too far. And you know Hebrews 13, look
at Hebrews 13. I believe this is where I want
to look. Just thought of it here. In Hebrews 13. Yes, here we go. And there's an honor and authority
that God gives to men, the officers of the church. like he gave it
to the deacons. You know, the church at Jerusalem
got so big that the preachers was going to have to wait and
serve the tables. That means they was going to
have to take all their time to give them the bread and the wine
when they had communion and fellowship together. And so they got together
and they called seven deacons and the deacons was the ones
going to take care of all the cares of the church while the
apostle says, we'll give ourselves to prayer and preaching of the
word. Now when we get that big, then that's what we'll do. But
we're not hardly that big yet. We're not got that big yet. If
we get that big, oh, there's, God'll raise up somebody to take
care of those kind of things. But anyway, look what it says
here in Hebrews 13, 17. Obey them that have the rule
over you. And that word have means or guide. Those that have the guide over
you. And submit yourselves. Not to them. but to the authority,
to the position that God has given them, the office, for they
watch for your souls. That's what John's doing here.
He's watching for the souls of this church, which watch for
your souls. Watch for your souls, preach
to your souls, preach for the good of your souls, and pray
that God would bless your souls, and encourage your souls, and
cause your souls to grow, and be prosperous, and grow in the
grace and knowledge of Christ. And listen to this, it says,
they must give an account. I have to give an account of
my message? First, do you know who the first person I have to
give an account to it for? It's the Lord. That's the first
person I must give an account. And that's the first person John
had to give an account for. And Deuteronomy, that's the first
person he's going to have to give an account for. So the first
person we have to give an account to is to the Lord. And the second
person we must give an account to is our own conscience. We've
got to answer our own conscience. Am I telling the truth? Am I
speaking it in love? Am I kind? Am I loving? Am I
not overbearing? Am I mean? Am I cruel? Am I trying
to straighten people out instead of feed them the gospel and feed
them with the word of God? Am I like that? And then thirdly,
I have to give an account to every one of you all. I have
to give an account to you. You're the ones that will decide,
ultimately decide whether I preach the gospel or not. whether I
dealt with the Word of God correctly, truly, and honestly or not. I have to give an account to
you. And every time I preach, I'm giving an account to three
people. I'm giving an account. And look what it goes on to say.
that they may do it with joy. You know, watch for your souls,
give an account, that they may give an account of you before
the Lord and give an account of the gospel with joy when I
preach to you and joy when we have to give an account. And
not with grief. Don't be aggrieved. Don't be
aggrieved. Don't be a burden. Don't be a
heaviness to the preacher and to the congregation and the man
that's trying to be profitable to you and watch for your souls.
That's unprofitable, not for me. It'll be unprofitable for
you. And that's what he's saying here.
And so back over here in 3 John, look what he says. You know,
God gives men, and I don't wanna, God help me never to carry it
too far, and if I do, please, please, rebuke me, talk to me,
take me aside. But everything in a congregation,
You know, ought to be done by the pastor and the people, ought
to be done first and foremost in love. Ought to be done, that
ought to be our motive, love. I'm here because I love. I love
Christ, I love His gospel, I love His word, and I love you. That's
the first thing. When a church and a pastor meet
together, they ought to have meekness. Submit to one another. That's what meekness means. Submissive.
Submissive. Not like Dr. Feast who's going
to stiffen his neck and say, I'm just not going to hear. And
they ought to have a mutual consent over the things of the gospel.
But look over here in Philippians 3. Keep John and look in Philippians
3. And each of us, all of us, ought to be seeking the glory
of Christ and the good of everybody in the congregation. Not just
ourselves. And that's what the Apostle says
here in chapter 2 and verse 3. Oh, you know where contention
comes of? Contention comes of pride. Contention
comes of pride. And that's why he says, you know,
I'm not, he talked about, he said, I'm not going to say more
about Apollos and myself or anybody else. You know, lest you think
above us what you ought to think. He says, you know what we are?
He said, we're seed sowers. God blesses one to sow the seed
and God blesses another to come along and water it. And he says,
so who? When it comes to Paul or Apollos
or Simon Peter, he says, you, who is it that makes them to
differ? Who makes the preachers to differ?
God makes them to differ. And you know that preachers are
different. Some are better than others. Some are gifted more
than others, but God's the one makes the difference. But look
what he said here in Ephesians, I mean, excuse me, Philippians
2, 3. Let nothing, nothing be done through strife. or vainglory,
that's what Drostrophes is doing. Well, I'm not gonna receive them.
I'm running this outfit, I've got all the power, I've got all
the authority, and y'all gonna do what I say. I don't care if
it's the Apostle John, I don't want him here. That's what he
was saying. And look what he goes on to say
now. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem utter better
than themselves. Bruce Crabtree, me and him and
I was talking today, and he said, Brother Don, He said, Don, he
said, we got to keep ourselves low. We got to keep ourselves
low. God keep us low. Oh, don't never
let us get up. Keep ourselves low, stay low.
That's what he and I was talking about today, stay low. But let
this, look not every man on his own things, but every man also
on the things of others. What's going on with other people
and the needs of other people? Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. What kind of mind, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God? Because he did not rob God, but
made himself of no reputation. If Christ made himself of no
reputation, why would we go about trying to make ourselves of a
reputation? Huh? If Christ, and took upon
him the form of a servant, if he became a servant, how much
more should we be a servant? And oh, listen, and was made
in the likeness of men, and being fashioned as a man, listen to
what he did, he humbled himself. If Christ humbled himself, do
you expect we ought to humble ourselves? That's what he taught
about the mind of Christ in us. The mind of Christ in us. Oh
my. So you see, beloved, back over
here. So he wrote to, he says, I wrote out of the church, but
Dr. Feast, oh my, he don't want the church to hear from anybody
but him. Don't want nobody there but him.
Don't want anybody there to call the shots but him. And then he
says in verse 10, he says, wherefore, if I come, I will remember his
deeds, which he does. prating against us with malicious
words, and then not being content with prating against us and having
malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doeth he himself
receive the brethren, the brethren, and listen to this, and forbids
them that would receive the brethren. And he said, if you do, I'll
cast you out of the church. That's a pretty mean man, ain't
it? That's a pretty tough fella.
Does that sound like grace to you? Does it sound like God's
with a man like that? Do you think that God would bless
a man that would be that way? Oh, Deuteronomy, he had nothing
complimentary to say to nobody or about anybody. He had malicious
words and malicious is having intent to hurt and hurt bad.
And so he had these malicious words against the apostles and
those that were with him. And that's not unusual. It's
not unusual for true ministers of the gospel who are praided
against not only by men of the world but those who profess religion. I remember one time I went to
a place to preach and a fellow told me we stopped to get lunch
and getting ready to go in and see the preacher and visit with
him a little while. And we ate lunch and somebody
said, did you know what's going on here? I said, what? And he
told me, I said, that's a lie. I said, I know there's nothing
to that. Right on the spot. I said, there's nothing to that.
Stop it right now. Because first of all, who's saying
it and who they saying it against. They had malicious words trying
to destroy a preacher's character, his name, his reputation. And
that's happened to everybody. Everybody. It's been a long,
long time since that's happened, you know. But I tell you, and
usually, usually what's said against them is silly. It's just
silly. It's idle. It's empty stuff. Stuff that won't amount to anything.
That's what the word pretty means. It means empty, idle, silly. And oh my, men are made sometimes
offender for a word. For Walton, this is what people
say. You've all seen this for years. Some of y'all that's been
in churches, you know some of y'all's up at Scott's for years
and up at Todd's for years. I mean, you know, you've all
seen this stuff. For one of real charges, no real charge against
the pastor, no real charge against the preacher, they tuck up any
little old bitty matter that they can come up with, any little
old bitty matter, and they rail against them and talk about them
in order to hurt their character. Spoil their usefulness. That's
what Deiotrophes was doing, to spoil their usefulness. And why
did they do that? All to make themselves exalted
in their own eyes. Make their light shine above
and brighter than anybody else's. But oh my! You know what? Look what Paul
said over here in Ephesians, I mean, excuse me, Acts 20. Look
what he says in Acts 20. Just thought of this one. Just
thought of this one. This is what he said in Acts
20. Look what he says in verse 28.
Now he's leaving the Ephesian church. He's leaving the Ephesian
people. The church at Ephesus. He's going to leave. He's going
to go on. somewhere else and start ministering. And the first
thing he says to him, verse 27, I'm not shunned to declare unto
you all the counsel of God. All that I knew about the will
of God, the purpose of God, the word of God, I've not shunned
to tell you all that I understood about God's will and God's purpose
and God's counsel. And then he says, now listen,
you elders here, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over which the Holy Ghost, you see what he says, which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. And look here, to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood, for I know
this. that after my departing shall
grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also
of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things
to draw away disciples after themselves. Oh, that'd be an
awful thing, wouldn't it? It's an awful thing. And so what,
we go back over here in 3 John, not satisfied with speaking against
John. Not satisfied speak against his
ministry. Not satisfied with refusing to
see John and the preachers and the missionaries sent by John.
But he threatened to cast out of the church anybody that did
receive him. If I find out that it's your
house, I'm putting you out of the church. If I find out they
come over and you gave them food and you fed them and you made
them welcome in your house, I'm going to put you out. That's
what this is saying. Can you imagine? But that's what
he said. He says here, he said, he forbid
them that would and cast them out of the church. Oh my, that
fella's taking a lot of authority, ain't it? How do you cast somebody
out of the church? How do you do it? I don't know. I don't have a clue how you do
it. Do you, Brad? You ever thought about it? Gary,
you ever thought about it? Gary Williams, you ever figured
out how to throw somebody out of the church? I don't know how
you do it. Just say, well, Out of here! I just don't know. But look what
he says here in verse 11. He said, 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. And what
he's saying here, Beloved, do not imitate evil of any kind. Don't imitate evil of any kind.
But especially don't imitate this particular evil of Diotrephes. Don't imitate Diotrephes and
his particular evil, such as pride and ambition and love of
eminence, preeminence and lack of hospitality and preachers
and other believers don't want him around here. Oh my. And don't imitate, don't imitate
the evil of a critical spirit. Careless criticism of those who
preach the Word of God. And then follow and imitate. Look what he says. Follow not
that which is evil, but that which is good. Don't imitate
evil. Nothing kind of evil. But he
said, but that which is good. Follow, imitate that which is
good. You know what's good? Love is
good. Mercy is good. Forgiveness is
good. Kindness is good. Humility is
good. Faith is good. Meekness is good. Oh, those things are good. But
all this, and he goes on to say, here's the thing, and I've heard
this, and I hope, hope, hope that God would work this in me,
put it so deep in my heart and soul. It's not only important,
and it is important, that we learn the grace of God the doctrine
of the grace of God in Christ. It's important that we learn
grace, the grace of God in doctrine. But I tell you what, it's not
only important that we learn it in doctrine, but that we learn
grace of the heart, grace of the spirit, show grace, manifest
grace. Oh my, that's good. Those are
things that is good. And look what John goes on to
say in verse 11. He that doeth good is of God.
He who imitates good, He who manifests the grace of God and
the Spirit of Christ in his attitude and in his action, John's saying
he's of God. That person's of God. But he
that doeth evil hath not seen God. And that somebody, and he
says if he does evil, he evidently has not experienced the grace
of God and doesn't know God at all. That's what John's saying.
And then look what he says, and we're gonna wind it up here.
Now he goes back to positive things, commending people. Here
he exposes this man. So I'm going to come. When I
get there, I'm going to expose this man. I'm going to expose
him. I'm going to bring him out before
the church. I'm going to tell everybody what he's done and
how he's treated us. That's what he said he's going
to do. When I come, I'm going to make everybody know. But look
what he goes on to say. But Demetrius hath good report
of all. Everybody talks about Demetrius. Oh my, oh God's got his hand
on him. God's so blessed him. What a
saint of God, what a man of God, what a kind, generous man. He
was as different as day and night from Diotrephes. And John's telling
Gaius here, said, Demetrius, Demetrius gonna come. And oh,
he mentions him. He hath good report of all. Oh
my, here's examples to be followed. Demetrius was the opposite of
Diotrephes. He was kind and considerate and
gracious. And he had this good reputation,
this good report among the brethren. The brethren spoke so highly
of him. So highly of him. And this is what they said about
him. They bore record that he had
the truth itself, that his man knows the truth. loves the truth,
tells the truth, preaches the truth. That's what he says. Oh
my. And oh, look what he goes on
to say here. Yea, and we also, I John, bear record. We also
bear record. We go record, we go on record
here as to what, how Dimitrius is. And look what he goes on
to say. You know that I'm bearing record
to the character of Dimitrius, And you know my word is true
and my record is true. You know that what I'm saying
is so. And then he goes on to say, I had lots of things to
write. I had many things to write, but I will not sit down with
my ink and pen and write unto thee. I'm not going to do that.
I'm not going to get my pen out. I'm not going to get my ink out.
I'm not going to do that anymore. And all mine. But he goes on
to say, but I trust. I trust that the Lord would be
pleased to shortly see you. And he says, Gaius, I hope it's
very, very shortly I'll be able to come and I'll be able to see
you. Oh, I want to see you. I want to see you soon. And oh,
listen, you know what we'll do? We'll sit down and we'll talk.
We'll sit down and we'll visit. We'll sit down and we'll enjoy
one another's company and we'll talk about the things. And I'll
tell you about Christ and I'll tell you about what I know about
Him and all I've seen about Him. And we'll talk about love and
we'll talk about grace and we'll talk about the power of Christ
and the humility of Christ and the glory of Christ. We'll talk
face to face. But He says, until then, peace
be unto you. Oh God. And then he said, all our friends,
every time I go somewhere, people say, be sure and tell them we
said hi. And then when you come back, everybody says, they said,
tell you hi, Brother Don. That's the way we do. The friends,
all our friends here, they salute you. They want to know how you're
doing. And then he says, not only that, but everybody up there
that I know and love, greet the friends by their names and tell
them old John said hi. Oh, John loves him. John cares
for him. And John's going to come see
him soon. Huh? Oh, my. What a what a man that
God had his hand on. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
gracious God in heaven, how we thank you for the day. Thank
you for the gospel. Thank you for the truth as it
is in Christ. And oh, Lord, oh, to be a believer,
not just in word, but in heart and soul and spirit. Oh, to manifest
the spirit and grace of Christ. Oh, Lord Jesus, help us all. Oh, Lord, none of us, none of
us would ever stand up and say we've arrived. Oh, Lord, we long,
long to manifest Christ, the grace of Christ, the love of
Christ. Be kind and gentle and generous
to one another. Pray for one another. Love one
another. Oh Lord, make it to be so among
us. Bring glory to yourself through
this body of believers, and we thank you for them. And those
who are traveling this weekend, please preserve them and keep
them. Bless the preachers that'll be there preaching. Use them
for your glory and the good of the hearers. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.