if you would, to 3rd John. 3rd
John. The name of the message is a
great contrast. Great contrast. Seem to be seeing
this more and more as we study the scriptures too. Great contrast. Tonight we're back in 3rd John
where Lord Willen finished the epistle tonight. And we'll see
tonight a great contrast brought forth before us in the text of
a false professor within the church and a true and faithful
believer. Let's read the whole epistle
again. The elder unto the well-beloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things
that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul
prospers. 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 dost 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 thou for his name's sake,
they went forward 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 doth he receive
the brethren, and forbid them that would, and cast them out
of the church. Beloved, fall not that which
is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God,
but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius hath good
report of all men, and of the truth itself, yea, and we also
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. What a very endearing letter,
personal letter written by the Apostle John to a dear brother
in Christ named Gaius. And now remember, we know that
amongst the weed in the church, the elect of God, there are terrorists
planted also. We are told in 1 Corinthians
chapter 11 that God has allowed Satan to plant tares amongst
his wheats. We're actually told that in Matthew
13, if you were to turn there, but we're told in 1 Corinthians
chapter 11, for there must be also heresies among you, that
they which are approved may be made manifest of you. There be heresies among the church
that they which are approved may be made manifest to you." Those heresies, beloved, manifest
the truth. Because the believer in Christ
is taught by the Holy Spirit of God the difference between
truth and error. And so Paul over there again
in In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19, he writes this, for there
must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved,
God's elect, and the heretics, they don't know Christ. They're
professors, but they don't know him, that they may be made manifest
among you. Now there will always be divisions
and fractions and heresies in the church because Satan is always
busy sowing tares, sowing tares, which are false professors and
teachers, and they're plentiful. And human nature being weak and
wicked is very easily led astray, very easily led astray. And these
two things do not come forth by chance because Paul wrote,
for there must be heresies among you. Well, as I said over there
in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19, the providence of God, by the
providence of God, he allows Satan to sow tares amongst the
wheat. He allows that to happen. And these tares allow men to discover the evil
of our own hearts, the evil of our own hearts. Because the only
one who's made us to differ as God's people is God himself. Turn, if you would, to Matthew.
Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter
13. We'll start in verse 24, and
we'll read to verse 30. Another parable put he forth
unto them, saying, and again, this is the words of our master,
the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which soweth good
seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy
came, and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was spung
up and bought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the
servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field from whence then hath it
tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath
done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? gather up the tares?
But he said, Nay, lest, well, ye gather up the tares, ye root
up also the wheat with them. Let us both grow together, let
both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest,
I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into
my barn. So these things do not happen
by chance, but through the providence of God, beloved, that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. Look a little further down in
this chapter, and we'll read verses 36 to 43. 36 to 43. Then Jesus sent the multitude
away and went into the house, and his disciples came unto him
saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He
answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed
is the son of man. The field is the world, the good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the
children of the wicked one. The enemy that soweth them is
the devil. The harvest is the end of the
world, and the reapers are the angels. As, therefore, the tares
are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end
of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and then and them which do iniquity, and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Who hath ears
to hear, let him hear." We will see tonight in the close
of this letter in verses 9 to 12 a great contrast brought forth. a contrast of two men within
the church. And of course, it's the Holy
Spirit bringing this forth by inspiration, by inspiring John
to pen these words. And he will bring this contrast
before us in John's letter. And it illuminates the truth
about the difference between those who confess, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who are tares sown amongst the
wheat. And we see that this contrast
before us brings forth two men here before us. Both members
of the same church, probably a local assembly in Asia Minor. And again, this is a good reminder
of the fact that the Lord has allowed Satan to sow bad seeds
among the wheat in his field, as we looked at earlier in Matthew
chapter 13. And we are to be careful, though,
we are to be careful of what Paul called judgment before time,
which was the Spirit's way of saying that at any given time
a true believer may go off the rails. It happens, it happens. We must be quick not to judge
that such a one is not a believer. No, we just wait. And beloved
of God, the fact is that we cannot tell the difference between the
wheat and the tares. God can, but we cannot. And this is what the Lord was
bringing forth in Matthew 13. And the wheat and chaff both
appear the same together until the great harvest at the Lord's
command, when the chaff, who are void of substance, they're
not born again, they're void of the Spirit. Right? They're
void of the Spirit. when they are gathered together
and bound up and cast into fire. We saw that in Matthew 13. Very
sobering portion of scripture. But think upon this as John was
one who, now think upon this too, John was one who had heard
that teaching. He heard it, like you hear me speaking. He heard
that teaching. He was there when Christ taught
on this. He was right there. He was an ear witness and an
eyewitness. He heard it all, and he saw Christ speak about
this. So let's not forget that too. This isn't someone with
second-hand knowledge. He heard him proclaim this parable. And take note, he does not instruct
Gaius to take action against Diocletes, no. And this indicates
that he understood the principle taught by Christ in Matthew 29
and 30, or verse 29 and 30 of Matthew 13, which says, but he
said, nay, while you gather up the tares, you root up also the
wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the
reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles
to burn, but gather the wheat into my barn. Let's read about this man, Diotrephes. Let's read verses nine and 10
here, 3 John. I wrote unto the church, but
Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, received
us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will
remember his deeds which he doeth, prodding against us with malicious
words. and not content therewith. He
wasn't just content with pratting against them or speaking malicious
words against John. No, look what he says further
on. Neither doth he receive the brethren. He didn't even receive
those who the Lord had sent as missionaries and John approved
of. He wouldn't even receive them. He himself, neither doth
he himself receive the brethren and forbid them that would, even
forbidding other brothers and sisters in Christ who would receive
those preachers and teachers. He's saying, no, you don't have
to have nothing to do with them. My, oh my. And casteth them out of the church.
We see here in verse nine that John had written The church was
some instruction, but we see that Diotrephes would not accept
the apostle John's instruction. Look at the first part of that
verse, I wrote unto the church. He wrote a letter, evidently
we don't have that letter, but he wrote to them. He wrote to
them, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preamble among them,
receiveth us not. He would not receive the instruction
that John the apostle had sent. He didn't want nothing to do
with it. He would not accept the Apostle
John's instructions because why? He loved to be first. That's what the Greek says. He
loved to be first. He loved to be preeminent. He
loved the spotlight. So we see here that Diopolis
liked to take the lead and put himself first and would not accept
John's authority and would not listen to them. Didn't want to
listen to him at all. Because he desired, the scripture's
very clear here, he desired the preeminence. He desired the notoriety. He wanted to do the opposite
of what the scriptures say. He wanted the Lord over the flock. He wanted to be the one everybody
came to. Kind of like a mini Pope, right?
We don't need no Pope, beloved. Do we? We have one head, and
that's Christ. And Christ alone. So we see here that the atrophies,
he had an ego problem, didn't he? It's very clear. He had an ego problem. He refused to receive certain
preachers and certain missionaries which came And note that Gaius
entertained them though in the face of opposition. That's why
John's commanding Gaius because he received these brethren. He
received these brethren. And his charity, his love was
spoken of throughout the land. Several of you open your homes
up to folks when we have a conference. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. I know some of us can't, but
some of us do. But people do. And that's spoken of. I hear
back from the people who stayed. And it's wonderful, beloved. It's absolutely wonderful. So Gaius, he entertained them
in the face of opposition, and that opposition would have come
from Diotrephes for sure, but it came from him and from those
who agreed with him. And we can tell from what is
written here that the opposition came from Diotrephes, and this
again was the occasion for this letter. Now the letter that John
wrote to the church, again it's not being preserved, we don't
know what it said. We don't know what it said, but
it must have contained a request for the church to give favorable
reception to those John sent to them. And if that's what was in that
letter, that would be a reasonable request, wouldn't it? To receive
them as your brother in Christ and show them hospitality. Show
them hospitality. But the request, again, we would
look at it and say, well, that's very reasonable, but obviously,
Theotrophes had a problem. He had a problem with John, and
he had a heart problem, beloved. He had a heart problem. He wished to assert his personal
authority within the body. And he belonged to a class of
those who loved to have the preeminence in the church, loves to be the
first in the church, even if it's at the expense of the peace
and prosperity of the body. He didn't care. He was all about
himself. And we see then that this ambitious
member or office bearer of the church, he succeeded for a time. He tasted the sweets of so-called
power that he was after. He got a majority of people to
agree with him against the apostle, therefore the reason of this
letter to Gaius. The reason of this letter to
Gaius before us. We who are the people of God
are exhorted by our dear brother Paul to do nothing out of selfish
ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more
important than yourselves. Philippians chapter two, verse
three. Each of you should not only look, should not only to
your own, should look not only to your own interests, but also
to the interests of others. We are always to esteem our brothers
and sisters in Christ better than ourselves. Better than ourselves. But Diopolis, or, boy, I mess
his name up. I had to put it in my notes just
so I wouldn't mess it up. It's a tough name for me to say
for some reason. Diocrates, he wasn't of that
spirit. It was all about him. Now, he
may have looked like a believer and acted like a believer, but
deep down inside, it was all about him. All about him. Notice the characteristics of
Diotrephes, bought forth in verse 10. Wherefore, if I come, I will
remember his deeds, which he doeth praten against us with
malicious words, and not content therewith. Neither doth he receive
the brethren, and forbiddeth them that word, and casteth them
out of the church. So we see right off the bat here
that John the Apostle brings forth the conduct of diatrophies,
and he condemns it. He condemns it. John brings forth
that he will, if the Lord allows, come and vindicate his own authority,
and the commission of the missionaries that he sent, and that were sent
by God. Look at that. And we see here
that one masterful, power-loving man in a church may work incalculable
mischief and injury to the body of Christ. And we see in verse 10 that Diotrephes
is praying against us, John says, with malicious words. Not only
did he deframe the apostle John, but also all those who were sent
by him. And all those who agreed with
the Apostle John, boy, he didn't treat them very good, did he?
No. Now here are two evils before
us. Prattan, which means running on with speech. running on with
speech. The reproaches he heaped on John
and others were silly, idle, and empty stuff, Weiss brings
out. He's a Greek scholar. He said
they were just silly, idle, and empty stuff. There was no substance,
no substance to that which, which Diotrephes was prattling against
John about. And this is not unusual for true
ministers of the gospel to be praided against. Not only by
men of the world, but also by professors of religion. It's
not unusual. It's not unusual. And all of
this railing and prattling is only to what? Exalt themselves.
It's only to exalt themselves. Only to exalt themselves in the
eyes of the people. Listen to what Paul pens in First
Timothy chapter 5 verse 19, do not entertain an accusation against
an elder except on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Do
not entertain an accusation against an elder except on testimony
of two or three witnesses. And that should be so for anyone,
right? That's so for anyone, anybody
in the body of Christ, I believe. We're not to accept an accusation
against a dear brother or sister in Christ without two or three
witnesses. If a man bridled not his tongue,
this man's religion is in vain. And beware of the slavery of
the tongue in the sins of gossip and slander. Remember our Lord. What did they say about our King,
beloved? They said he was a gluttonous man in a wine beaver, didn't
they? That wasn't true. He's the sinless, spotless lamb
of God. They had no idea that that was
who he was. He's God incarnate in the flesh.
And they said, he's God incarnate in the flesh. And they went so
far as to say, he has Bezisabab. By the prince of demons, he casts
out Out devils, they said he doesn't do this by the power
of God, he does this by the power of the devil. And it's God himself
doing the miracles in the flesh, beloved. A few years back, you all saw
people who loved the preeminence, didn't you? But praise be to God, he kept
this work here, kept it going. Praise be to our great God, beloved.
It's wonderful. It's wonderful. And then malicious words here
in our text means hurtful and evil words. Hurtful and evil
words. So we see that this man speaks
slanderous words about the Apostle John. And he's not satisfied
with just prating and throwing malicious words out. No, he's
not just satisfied with that. No. No, this man wants more. No, he casts out all who disagree
with him. You don't agree with me? Well, you must not be saved. Out you go. It is awful. It is awful when
someone accuses a man of God or a woman who's in Christ that
they don't believe the gospel because they don't agree with
them. That's horrible. I've heard preachers maligned
because they didn't agree with people on certain things, and
they preach the gospel so clearly. My, it's awful. Let that spirit
never be here. We pray, right? We pray, Lord,
don't ever let that spirit be in here. Don't let that spirit
be in here, Lord, please. We're just going to enjoy the
preaching of the gospel and serving the Lord together, and when things
come up, we'll deal with it. We'll deal with it. But oh, what
a blessing for us to be able to gather together, beloved,
and sit and hear the gospel preached and proclaimed, me to study and
to be able to proclaim it to you all. What a blessing! It's
wonderful, isn't it? It's absolutely wonderful. And
we have fellowship here, and praise God, we're going to have
fellowship and glory together, beloved. Look at verse 10 again. Wherefore,
if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating
against us with malicious words, throwing things out there in
accusations that aren't even true. Aren't even true. And not content therewith. No,
no, he's not content with that. Neither doth he receive the brethren.
You can't fellowship with that brethren. He's not even a brother. Well, I'll make that decision
myself. Because I'll go talk to that brother. I'll go talk
to that brother. Go to the cause. Go right to
the person, beloved. Always do that. Always do that. Go right to the person who's
being accused of something and talk to them. Talk to them. Don't take secondhand words.
Talk to them. Talk to them. And then he forbiddeth them that
would. So those who would receive the brother in Christ that come
to preach, he said, no, I'm not going to receive him, and we're
not going to receive you either. That's a horrible spirit, isn't
it? Oh, my. Neither doth he receive the brethren,
and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church,
it says there at the latter part of verse 10. So again, he's not
just satisfied with speaking against the ministry of John,
or of the missionaries and preachers who come through to preach that
obviously were sent by God, but that John had probably sent to
them to preach the gospel too. Because it was all part of God's
plan, but no, he wasn't happy with that. He threatened to cast
them out of the church, those who agreed or disagreed with
him, which was an abuse of church discipline. That's a total abuse
of church discipline. He basically said, if you don't
listen to me, you're out the door. He's lording over the sheep. There should never be lording
over the sheep, beloved. Not from the pastor and not from
the body. Never. Never. There's no hierarchy in the body
of Christ except one head we have, beloved. One head. Oh my. He's not satisfied again with
speaking against him. He's gonna toss everybody out
who disagrees with him. Look at verse 11. Look at John's
exhortation here in verse 11. Beloved, follow not that which
is evil. Do not follow that man. Do not
follow him. Not at all. No matter what smooth
things he says, do not follow him. But that which is good,
He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not
seen God. So he tells Gaius here not to
imitate the spirit that Diotrephes has. Don't imitate that. Don't imitate any kind of evil,
he says here. And again, he's warning Gaius
not to follow the ways of Diotrephes. Don't imitate his pride. Don't
imitate his ambition. Don't imitate his love of preeminence.
Don't imitate that. Don't imitate his inhospitality
to preachers and believers. Don't imitate those things. Don't
imitate those things. Don't be of a critical spirit. in careless criticism of those
who minister the word of God. And John exhorts this, speak
not evil of another brother. Don't speak evil of your brothers
and sisters. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judges
the brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. But
if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law but a judge.
Oh my. So we're to follow and imitate
That which is good, such as love, forgiveness, kindness, and humility. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 5. Look at this, Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter
5. Galatians chapter 5. Look at
verses 22 to 26. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live
in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Very clear. So let us never forget
that it's not only important that we learn grace in doctrine,
but that we learn grace in heart and in spirit. May God give us
more grace. More grace in dealing with people,
in our attitude, in our actions. And it's very evident that Diotrephes has not experienced the grace
of God. He's not experienced the grace
of God. How can we know that? Well, we're in 3rd John here.
Turn to 1st John chapter 4. 1st John chapter 4. And look at verses 6 to 8, and
then we'll read verses 20 to 21. 6 to 8. We are of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Diotrephes didn't want to hear
John, didn't want to hear anyone who was sent by him. Look at
that. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Now look at a few verses down,
look at verses 20 and 21. If a man say, if you say this,
if a man say I love God and hated his brother, he is a liar. Look at that. Clearly stated,
isn't it? For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment hath we
from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. Very clear, isn't it? Very clear. This is why I can't understand
when When someone brings an accusation
against a preacher, who I've listened to and you've listened
to, and know that they're preaching the gospel, and they absolutely
despise him. My. Let scripture say what scripture
says. Look at verse 12. Now here's
a contrast. Here's a great contrast being
brought forth now by the Apostle John between Diotrephes and a
dear brother called Demetrius. And look at the contrast here. Demetrius hath good report of
all men. and of the truth itself. Oh,
he loves the truth. He has a good report from his
brothers and sisters in Christ about his faithfulness, and he
also has a good report about his love for the truth. His love
for the truth. Yay! And we also bear record,
and you know that our record is truth. So think of the contrast that
here is brought forth before us. Think of the contrast that
we saw in the first epistle between light and darkness. He said, one says he has fellowship
with God and walks in darkness and knows not the truth. That's
Diotrephes. And one walks in the truth and
knows the truth and loves the truth. That's Demetrius. Very clear, isn't it? Very clear. So what a contrast we have here
between a true believer and a false believer. And John's conclusion
of the matter of light and darkness with belief and unbelief is found
in the effect of the gospel. There's no doubt that Diotrephes
and Demetrius both openly confessed Christ. There's no doubt that
they did that. They're both members of a church. They both confessed probably
that Christ had come in the flesh, but for diatrophies, though,
it was a false confession. It was the confession of one
who says he has fellowship with God, but walks in darkness. Walks
in darkness. Titus says this, Paul writing
to His dear brother Titus, he writes him this, unto the pure
all things are pure. But unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They profess that they know God.
They profess that, Deuteronomy professes that he knew God, right?
Listen to this. But in works they deny him. He
denied him. and how he treated, he denied.
His profession was a sham. And it came through in how he
treated John and the other preachers that were sent to preach. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and
under every good work, reprobate. Left to themselves. So we see here, too, that diatrophies
had position and influence. But it was manifest in self. For he was self-seeking, it says
in the scriptures here. He loved the preeminence. He
loved to be number one. And the opposite of love is not
hate. As Brother Tim James says, it's
self. Self-love. And we see then that the Apostle
John's assessment of diatrophies is twofold. First, we see that
he loves to have the preeminence in the assembly of the saints,
which is spoken of here. And this is a glaring evidence
that his profession is false, because again, there's no hierarchy
in the body of Christ. And we have but one head, beloved.
We have one head. We have one potentate, don't
we? And it's not that man in Rome. That's just a sinner like
you and I. That man. Our potentate is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's our commander-in-chief.
He's the captain of our salvation. He's the captain of the Lord's
house. It's Him. It's Him. And think of this, we are members
of the body of Christ, serving with particular functions, right?
Each of us have different giftings. Each of us have different giftings,
beloved. It's evident in the body, isn't it? There's things
that others do I can't do. My, it's evident, there's different
giftings within the body. But we're all codependent and
interdependent with emphasis on the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We are all dependent upon Christ,
every one of us. Every single member of the body
of Christ is wholly dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the head of the church, the head of the church. Let's read verses 13 and 14 here.
It says, I have many things to write, but I will not, with ink
and pen, write these right unto thee. But I trust I shall shortly
see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Oh, peace be. You can just hear the love that
he, you can read the love that he has for Gaius. He really loves
it. And this is true. Brothers and
sisters in Christ, we love each other, don't we? In Christ. It's
amazing. It's amazing. We love to hear
the gospel preached. We love to gather together with
the saints. We love it. And look how he says, peace be
to thee, our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. Oh,
greet the brethren by name. Your brothers and sisters in
Christ salute you. Greet the friends by name. Greet
them by name. Tell them we love them. So we
see he closes, John closes his epistle with love, saying, there's
more I'd like to say in your presence. There's more I'd like
to say to you, but I'd like to say it in your presence. What? That the joy may be full. Oh
my, what a blessing it is when we gather together with our brothers
and sisters in Christ. When we see one another in the
flesh. Hence the importance of public
worship. Gathering together. That's why this scripture says,
don't forsake the assembly on yourself together. Because you're
a blessing to other people. Within the body. That's how it
is. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. And think of this too. We see
that the atrophies, he desired the pre-eminence. We saw that
in the text tonight. And that's a killer. Pre-eminence
is a killer. I remember when I, before the
Lord called me here, Jean-Claude, about two years before, we had
no idea that I'd be coming here, but he told me, he pulled me
aside and he said, beware of pre-eminence, Brother Wayne.
It's a killer. It's a killer amongst preachers.
Always remember that Christ is to get all the preeminence. All
of it. He gets the glory. He gets the
glory. And I forgot that. Those were
very wise words from him. Very wise words. Preem's a killer. And we know that our Lord will
not share His glory with anyone, don't we? We know that from Scripture.
He said, I won't share my glory with anyone. No one. No one. He'll not have anyone lord over
His sheep. No. No. They're His people. They're
His people. And it's Christ who shed His
blood for them. They're His people by purchase. It's He who was
the substitute on Calvary's cross for them. It's He who rose from the grave
for their justification. And God will only accept us,
beloved, in Christ. He's the head. We're the body. What's the body do? Whatever
the head tells it to do. Right? Think of that. Your head
tells your arm to do something. Your head tells your feet to
walk. So isn't it? And God has declared
in Colossians chapter 1, God has declared so clearly that
Christ is to have all the preeminence. He says this, and he, being Christ,
is the head of the body, the church. Local ekklesia, the called
out ones in the Greek, it's called ekklesia, it means the called
out ones, called out from the world, gathered together. Church
is not a building, it's a body. The head of the body, the church,
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence, that he might be first. That's what that means. He might
be first. So we're here, gathered together
each week, and we declare the preeminence of Christ, don't
we? He gets all the glory. You ask a believer, who gets
all the glory? Well, God gets it all. I got nothing to boast
in. He gets all the glory. He gets it all. He did everything
for me. He saved my soul. He did everything for me. He
watched over me even before I was saved. He watches over me now
and He'll watch over me until I breathe my last breath. And
then I'll have the honor to be in His presence forever. Oh my. What a Savior. What a Savior. In true believers, practices
go unnoticed in their duties. But we see here that Diotrephes,
he's all about Diotrephes. True believers just go about
what they have to do, what they're called to do, and we just go
about serving the Lord, don't we? But Diotrephes here, he's all
about Diotrephes. And we see that he acted directly
opposite to Gaius. He operated directly opposite
to Gaius. We've seen tonight that the opposite
of diatrophies is Demetrius, too. Demetrius. He spoke no prattling or malicious
words against John the Apostle or against those who were sent
by him. No, he received them, didn't
he? He received them. Also, rather than excommunicate
those in the church, which is a Roman term, not a... He didn't toss out those who
loved the gospel. Demetrius didn't do that. But
Diotrephes, boy, if they were against him and they didn't agree
with him, off they went. But Demetrius did the opposite.
He received those who loved the gospel. He received those who
loved him. He didn't have a little clique. No. He received those who preached
the gospel. He didn't speak priding words
or malicious words. No. And he had a good report
of all of the church. And that can be said of all the
brethren, can't it? Now, what is the good report
founded upon? What's the good report of Demetrius founded upon?
Oh, we know, don't we? You know, sister, we know. Christ.
It's Christ. Belief of the truth. Love of
the gospel. Love of He who is the truth.
And a manifestation of that is that we love the brethren. I
remember Donny Bell saying to me, one thing that Satan cannot
counterfeit, he can counterfeit a lot of things. But one thing
he cannot counterfeit is the love of God in Christ that's
in our hearts, beloved. He cannot counterfeit that love
for the brethren. He says that's the only thing he can't counterfeit.
I agree with him. A lot of other things can be
counterfeited, but not that. Oh, not that love we have for
one another. No. No. So that good report was founded
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth. The one who Demetrius
trusts his eternal soul to. He trusts his eternal soul to.
The one whom he loves, right? The one whom he also loves all
those who are loved by him. Demetrius loves all those who
are loved by Christ, right? That's how it should be. You
might not agree with him all the time, but you love him, don't
you? Yeah, you love him. You love your brothers and sisters
in Christ. We love all those who love the truth. So we see
then that an enemy has been disclosed by John. And notice he names
them too, doesn't he? But he encourages Gaius to align
with those who confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and
that He's come in the flesh. Oh my. To God be the glory. Heavenly Father, Lord we thank
you for allowing us again the privilege of gathering together
tonight and looking into your word and rejoicing at what you've
done for us. We know that the scriptures are
full of exhortation and warnings for us, and they can bring us
great joy, peace. Well, we're going through various
things, oh Lord. Again, we pray you'd be with
our dear sister Irene tonight. Give her strength, Lord. Give
her grace. And be with Richard and Dan and
Kathy and the family. Strengthen our dear brother,
Richard. Oh, give him grace, Lord, in his time of need. And we lift up our fellow church
members to you. We pray that, Lord, there's many
needs within the body, many, many needs. And, Lord, we pray
that if it be your will, you meet those needs, and that you
give grace and strength in our time of need. We love you because
you first loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.