Let's look back there at 3 John. And the title of the message
is Fellow Workers in the Truth. And that title comes from verse
8 of 3 John. Fellow helpers, that's the literal
translation would be fellow workers, but helpers is a good word too.
And what we're going to be talking about is the the love and unity
of brethren and how important that is. I want to read again
Psalm 133 that I read at the opening of our service where
the psalmist, David I believe is the one who wrote this, He
says in verse one, behold how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren. That's brothers and sisters in
Christ. That's what he's talking about.
Brothers and sisters because we have the same Father, spiritual
Father, who is God Almighty, the God who saves us by His grace
The God who receives us into his fellowship and into his family
by the election of grace, by the adoption of grace, all of
these things are biblical, you know that's true. God who receives
us into his family, into his kingdom, by virtue of the merits
of his beloved son, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, based
upon his righteousness imputed, That's how we stand before God
justified. That's how we stand before God
worthy. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. We're washed from our sins in
the blood of Christ. That means our sins have been
paid for. Justice has been satisfied. That's the brethren now. We cling
to Christ. We believe in Christ. And he
says, brethren, how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together. together in unity, arm in arm,
one family. He said it's like the precious
ointment upon the head. Now the historical reference
here is to the high priest of Israel, to the priest of Israel. The ointment upon the head that
ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, the high priest,
and went down to the skirts of his garments. Now that ointment,
that was that anointing oil. And that anointing oil was a
type, a symbol, a picture of the powerful work of the Spirit
who brings us together in unity, to dwell together in unity under
the gospel message. wherein he brings us, and he
makes it the power of God unto salvation, and brings us all
equally to saving faith in Christ, to be submitted to Christ as
the Lord our righteousness. You see, one thing I can tell
you about all the brethren here today who are dwelling in unity,
we all will proclaim loudly that we have no other righteousness
but Christ. We won't talk about righteousness
in ourselves. That breaks the unity, doesn't
it? We're in fellowship. Our fellowship is first with
the Father and the Son, John said over in 1 John 1. And the
Spirit brings us into fellowship with the Father through the Son,
based upon the merits of the Son, Jesus Christ. And then He
brings us to see the glory of Christ. Then our fellowship is
with one another in the same family. Verse 3 says, as the
dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of Zion, Zion's a picture of the church, and that dew is the
water, the water of the word, for there the Lord commanded
the blessing, even life forevermore. Our life in Christ. Now that
Psalm speaks of the anointing that keeps the brethren sinners
saved by grace, justified based on His righteousness imputed,
washed in His blood, regenerated, called by the Spirit under the
gospel. That's the anointing of the Spirit that number one,
keeps us clinging to Christ by His preserving power, and number
two, in the unity and fellowship of faith and love. Look at 1
John 2. Remember in verse 18 where it
talks about the spirit of Antichrist? And then it deals with those
who had left the brethren, those who had left the fellowship and
turned on Christ, fell away, apostatized from the faith. And it says in verse 19, they
went out from us, but they were not of us. They had a claim now
of being a Christian, of being in fellowship. But they left. They broke that fellowship. Now,
here's something that you need to remember about the fellowship
of faith, the fellowship of grace, the fellowship that true believers
have with the Father and the Son. That fellowship, that unity
cannot be broken. That doesn't mean that true believers
can't mess up and part company for a while and not get along. That's sad when that happens.
But what I'm talking about is this fellowship of faith and
unity and love. And he says, They went out from
us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, he
says. that they might be made manifest that they were not all
of us. They left and that leaving exposed what they always were,
false professors. But look at verse 20, but you
have an unction, an anointing from the Holy One, from Christ,
and you know all things, you know better. And that anointing
is what the psalmist was writing about, that oil. that oil that
keeps us together. Well, one of the greatest evidences
of our election, one of the greatest evidences of our justification,
of our redemption, and especially of our new birth, and one of
the most important matters in the lives of believers is our
love and our unity in the fellowship of faith. Remember John over
in 1 John 3 made this statement. He says in verse 14, we know
that we have passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. And he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Now there's too many people who
claim to be Christians and even who claim to believe the true
gospel. Who take that for granted and too many who are too ready
to forsake it. We've experienced that. Third
John here, this little old book, is about believers in the fellowship
of love and truth, receiving and supporting one another. It's
about true Christian brotherly love. Look at verse one. He says,
the elder, that's John himself, the apostle. Unto the well-beloved
Gaius, or Gaius, this Gaius, or Gaius, he was an elder in
this church. in this local fellowship of believers
to whom John is writing. So he wrote it to Gaius. Whom
I love in the truth. There's your key. It's not just
love. It's not feeling or romanticism.
It's a divine love given of God by the Spirit that is grounded
in the truth. Now in your concordance you may
have something like this. Whom I love truly. But the translation
is right. It's love in the truth. And that
is true love. It's a divine love. It's the
love that God the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in the hearts of
God's people as He shows us our sins, our depravity, our inabilities
to save ourselves, to keep ourselves, to bring forth righteousness,
which we cannot do, and shows us the glory of God in Christ
Jesus, who is the power and the wisdom of God, the power of God
unto salvation, the Lord our righteousness. It's love in the
truth. And so there's the foundation
of our unity. There's the foundation of our
fellowship. He goes on, he says in verse
2, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. Our souls prosper
in Christ. And there's no failure there.
There's no sickness there as far as we stand in Christ. The
righteousness that we have in Christ cannot be contaminated. It's His, imputed to us. It cannot
be removed. It can't be taken away. But in this life, because of
sin and the consequences of sin, this body is dying, isn't it?
We have to face the issues of our failing health. But there's
nothing wrong with us praying for each other's health. And
that's what he's doing here. He says, I pray that you may
prosper in health even as your soul prospers. I want you to
be healthy. Now we know none of us are going
to get out of this world alive. That's basically true. So at
some point in time, it's going to fail. It may be sudden. It
may be a long-term illness. We don't know. God has appointed
the day and the time of our death. But here's one thing that John
makes clear here, is our failing health and even our death in
this life will not sever our fellowship, will not sever our
unity and love in the truth. That'll last forever and ever
and ever. We're in a family that'll never be parted. And so he says
in verse three, for I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came
and testified of the truth that is in thee. This man, Gaius,
was a sinner saved by grace who had been brought to faith in
Christ, even as thou walkest in the truth. That's the life
of a believer, walking in the truth. Walking in Christ. We talked about it this morning,
the justified shall live by faith, looking to Christ as the author
and finisher of our faith, following Christ, feeding on his word,
fighting the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. That's what this
growing in grace and in knowledge of Christ, that's what this life
is all about. And it's all by the grace of God, isn't it? It's
never left up to us or conditioned on us. If it were, we would flee
just like those in 1 John 2, 19. We'd leave. Verse 4, he says,
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in
truth. Now the children of God are God's children. They're not
any man's child, but he's referring to the fact that he was the first
one who preached the gospel to them. Paul did that. He called
Timothy, for example, his son. Well, Timothy was a son of God.
But Paul said, you're my son in the faith. In other words,
you heard the gospel and then you grew up under Paul's teaching.
Heard the gospel first from his mother and his grandmother, didn't
he? Timothy did. But Paul looked at him as a son. And what it
is, it's an expression of love. That's what John is showing here.
He's not the one who saved them. He's not the one who gave them
life. He's not their righteousness before God. But he loved them
as he would his own children. John is the elder. He's the older
man. Coming close to death. He said,
I love you like my own children. Verse 5, he says, Beloved, thou
doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and the
strangers. That may sound like he's making
a distinction here, but he's really not. What he's saying
here is to the brethren and brethren who are strangers. Now the word
stranger a lot of times means a foreigner. Somebody you don't
know. But he calls them brethren here.
And here's the key. Now look at verse 6. He says,
Which have borne witness of thy charity, thy love before the
church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly
sort, underscore that, thou shalt do well." What he's talking about
is believers, maybe evangelists, who were passing through that
area going to spread the gospel of Christ, and you help them.
You received them as brethren. You supported them. And the key
is, after a godly sort. Worthy of God. That's what that
means. In other words, you did it in a way that's worthy of
God. Now, he's not talking about just general charity here. He's
not talking about just helping somebody who's in need. Somebody
shows up at your door and they need some food. Or they need
a bus ticket or something like that. That's not what he's talking
about. Remember back over in 2 John, for some of you just
up the page there. Remember what he says here in
verse 9 of 2 John. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. You see, John,
in 3 John, he's talking about receiving brethren based upon
truth, the doctrine of Christ. He said, He that abideth in the
doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. And if
there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive
him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. You don't receive
that person into your fellowship. Why? Because they're preaching
a false gospel. As I said, he's not talking about
just general charity here. Over here in 3 John, he's talking
about supporting the ministry, supporting preachers and evangelists
who are promoting the truth. After a godly sort, whatever
they're preaching, it's got to honor God. Whatever they're preaching,
it's got to exalt Christ. Whatever they're preaching, it's
got to put sinners in the dust where we belong. You see what
I'm saying? It's got to be the revelation
of the righteousness of God, which we talked about this morning.
It's got to be the gospel. It's got to talk about God's
electing grace before the foundation of the world, where he chose
a people before the foundation of the world and gave them to
Christ. You know why it's got to talk about? Because that's
what the Bible says. Chosen of God in Christ. Justified. Based on what? How did you become
right with God? How do I become right with God?
On what basis are my sins forgiven? Are your sins forgiven? It's
the blood of Jesus Christ. It's His righteousness imputed. Now if they come preaching any
other gospel, Paul said, let them be anathema. Now that doesn't
mean you have to be mean to them. Doesn't mean you have to beat
them up, go after them or torture them. No. but you don't receive
them into the fellowship and promote their false message.
John in 2 John 11 said, For he that biddeth in God's speed is
a partaker of his evil deeds. I'll tell you what, when we preach
Christ, Who he is, and what he did, and why he did it, and where
he is now, is God in human flesh, who is the very righteousness
of God. That's not evil, is it? That's not evil deeds. But when
we preach salvation conditioned on sinners, that's evil deeds. You say, well, you're being too
hard, not any harder than what the scripture is. That's evil
deeds. We say, well, we can't promote
that. We may be able to give you something to eat, give you
a coat to wear, but we can't promote your gospel. You're not
our brother, you're not our sister in Christ. That's the point.
Verse 8 he says, or verse 7 he says, because for His namesake,
there's your key again, underline that. Whatever you're promoting
here, whatever you're doing, it's for His namesake. That means
it's for His glory. That's the glory of God revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how God saves sinners,
by His grace, through Christ and Him alone. That's what brings
a sinner to state with the Apostle Paul, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me. The world's cursed. I'm not in
fellowship with the world, but I'm cursed by the world. They
look at me as being cursed. Because for his namesake, they
went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. What he's talking
to about Gentiles there, I believe, is unbelievers. In other words,
they weren't seeking help from unbelievers. It's kind of like
this, the idea is they weren't, you know, you've heard, when
in Rome, do as the Romans do. I remember years ago, we had
a missionary come to Ashland, who when he was in Ashland, He
preached the gospel that the people of Ashland wanted to hear.
But when he'd go to other churches where the gospel wasn't preached,
he'd preach what they wanted to hear. And so we dropped the
support of him. You see, that's being double-minded. That's an unbeliever. John writes
here, verse 8, we therefore ought to receive such. that we might be what? Fellow
helpers, fellow workers in what? In truth. There's your key. Our fellowship, our unity is
founded and grounded in the truth of the doctrine of Christ. And
this has to do with those who profess to be Christians and
profess to believe the one true gospel. who have the same ground
of salvation, the same ground of justification before God,
Christ and His righteousness, those who've been given the revelation
of God as both a just God and a Savior, those who've been convinced
of their sin and depravity, those who've been given spiritual life
evidenced by their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance
of dead works. It's not just anyone who claims
to be a Christian. That won't do. And in order to
do this rightly, we have to be discerners. Now, as I said, we're
commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, even our lost neighbors,
but we're not commanded to have religious fellowship with those
who are either ignorant of or not submitted to the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel to Christ. And then, it's a very, very serious
matter. to refuse to receive those who
abide in the doctrine of Christ. Did you know that? Look at verse
nine. He mentions a man here named
Diotrephes. I've heard a lot of messages
about Diotrephes. And basically, a lot of preachers,
they look at Diotrephes as anybody who disagrees with them, or anybody
who won't bow to them. But look here, he says in verse
9, I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies. John the apostle
wrote to the church, but this man diatrophies, who loveth to
have the preeminence. There's your key there. He doesn't
want anybody to overshadow him. He loved to have the preeminence,
among them receiveth us not. Don't listen to John. He says
in verse 10, wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which
he doeth. What does he do? Prating against us with malicious
words, slander. And not content therewith, neither
doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would,
and casteth them out of the church. He wouldn't receive the brethren,
and if you would, he'd cast you out. You see that? Now we've experienced that in
our day. I've had preachers who claim
to believe the gospel get up in their pulpits and call me
a false preacher. And anybody who associates with
me, they don't want... You've had it too. Slander, lies. Well, he says in verse 11, Beloved,
follow not that which is evil. It's evil, he says. Somebody
says, well, I've got a new twist on the Scripture. I've got a
new way of looking at things. And if you don't follow me and
you don't agree with me, I'm going to break fellowship with
you. That's evil. If they're brethren, now you
understand they may not be. He says, follow not that which
is evil, but follow that which is good. That is receiving brethren
in the truth. in the doctrine of Christ, in
the gospel, in the righteousness of the Lord. He that doeth good
is of God. That's a work of God. He says,
but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Just like those who
do not abide in the doctrine of Christ hath not God, he that
does evil, that is in not receiving brethren and endeavoring to keep
the unity, they've not seen God. Now this is serious business,
isn't it? I've known men who've broken
fellowship with us over issues that they've come to see. The Bible says it's evil. And then
he mentions others. He mentions a man named Demetrius.
Hath good report of all men, of the truth itself. There's
again the key, the truth itself. Yea, and we also bear record,
and you know that our record is true. I have many things to
write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee, but
I trust I will shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face.
You see, John, he's desirous of this fellowship and this unity.
Peace be to thee. Speaking peace. Who do we speak
peace to? To those who abide in the doctrine
of Christ. To those who have the same ground
of salvation as we do according to the scripture. And he says,
our friends salute thee, greet the friends by name. Turn in your Bibles to Proverbs
chapter six. I've been thinking about this
here for about the past month, given some things that have happened. You know, this is, and I can't
emphasize enough how serious this is. Look at verse 16 of
Proverbs 6. It is a very serious matter to
refuse to receive those who do believe the gospel, who do abide
in the doctrine of Christ. Look here in Proverbs 6.16, it
says, These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an
abomination unto them. Somebody asked one time, said,
well, why didn't he just say seven to begin with? This is
a Hebrew way of emphasizing. That's what it is, emphasizing
this message. Here's seven things that God
hates. God hates, verse 17, a proud look. That's self-righteousness. Those who are not submitted to
the righteousness of Christ. That's a proud look. Did you
know that? God hates a lying tongue. That's a false preacher. And hands that shed innocent
blood. That's what happens when a false
message is preached. Now, of course, we could apply
those to anything like that. You see, what it's talking about
is preaching a false gospel that leads to death. In verse 18,
and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift
in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and
he that soweth discord among brethren. God hates it. Turn to Ephesians
chapter four. Our commission from the Lord
is to stand together in the unity of the faith and in the ministry
of the gospel of Christ. And look here at Ephesians chapter
4. We'll conclude with this. I just want to read through this
passage. Ephesians 4 and verse 1. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord, Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter to the church
at Ephesus. Beseech that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called. Seek to bring your walk into
line with your calling. And obviously that doesn't mean
working hard to gain your salvation or to make yourself right because
that would be against our calling. Our calling is to Christ by the
grace of God. With all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, that means
putting up with a lot, And we have to. Endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavoring. That
means making an effort. That means putting everything
into it. There's one body. That's the church. What is the
church? The Lord Church means called
out ones. The church is the elect of God.
The church They are those who are justified before God. On
what ground? Again, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Isn't that right? That's the
church. Redeemed by the blood of Christ. The church which He
redeemed with His own blood. But the word church means those
who have been called out of the world and into the fellowship
of faith. There's one body. There's one spirit. That's the
Holy Spirit. And He calls His people the same
way. He convinces us of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. He brings us to Christ. He shows
us our depravity, our inability, and drives us to Christ. So there's one body, one spirit,
even as you're called, and one hope of your calling. What is
our hope? Our hope is the sovereign grace and mercy of God in Christ.
One God and Father of all, a just God and a Savior. who is above
all and through all and in you all. If that's true, then the
fellowship can't be broken. He says in verse seven, but unto
every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the
gift of Christ. We all have different gifts. God's the one who makes us to
differ in those areas, just like the one who makes us to differ
in salvation, God's grace. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gifts of Christ. Verse
8, wherefore he saith, when he ascendeth upon high, he led captivity
captive and gave gifts unto men. That's what Christ did. You see,
this is all based upon what Christ accomplished. In His death on
the cross, not only to save us, but to give us gifts, it's all
Him. He says now, verse 9, that He
ascended, what is it, but that He also descended first into
the lower parts of the earth. That doesn't mean He went to
hell, some of these false preachers are saying. You know what, the
lower parts of the earth, we're standing right in the lower parts.
That's where sin and depravity rule the world. He also, verse 10, he that descended
is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that
he might fill all things. Christ conquered the world. He
conquered sin. He conquered death. He conquered
the grave. He arose from the dead. He seated
at the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession
for us, pleading the merits of his blood and righteousness on
our behalf. And he gave some apostles. He
gave some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for
the perfecting, the completing of the saints for the work of
the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ till we
all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man under the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. That's not talking about bringing
denominations together. That's not talking about, well,
let's forget our differences and we worship the same God. No, it's not talking about the
ecumenical movement. It's talking about how the Holy
Spirit brings us in complete as sinners saved by grace on
the same ground, by the same grace and the same mercy that
God has for all of his people. And that's what keeps us together.
And then he says in verse 14, now look here, this is what John
is saying, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. We can't
be moved off this doctrine, this teaching of who Christ is and
what he did and why he did it and where he is now. By the slight
of men and cunning, crafting us whereby they lie and wait
to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into
him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." You see that? And those who would seek to break
this or to leave it or to foster disunity, the Bible doesn't say
much good about it, does it? It's serious business. It's evil.