Last week, we looked there in
3 John, looked at a man named Gaius. We saw he was a man of
faith. He's described as a man of hospitality,
generosity, and a faithful servant. He was a faithful man who wasn't
seeking recognition. He was just being a faithful
servant. I got an illustration of this
last week. We went to Savannah's volleyball
banquet at the end of the season. And the coach introduced the
players, class by class. And he got to the seniors, and
the seniors last. And he introduced a senior. She's playing her very
first year of volleyball. A lot of these girls start in
sixth or seventh grade, you know, and they've been playing a long
time before they get to be a senior. This is her very first year.
She went through the conditioning period and so forth, and, you
know, they got done with that. And the coach went to her and
said, I don't know what you want, you know, out of this year. You're
a senior. You can be on the varsity if
you want, but you'll never play. Or you could be on the JV and
probably get to play some. It's up to you. And she told
him, she said, Coach, I don't care. I just want to be on the
team. She didn't have to be a star.
She didn't have to have special treatment because she's a senior.
She just wanted to be part of the team. She played on the JV
team, just like all the other players. A person like that is special. Shawn, you'd love to coach a
person like that, William. That's great. I mean, you want to have
somebody loads of talent and they help you win. But I tell
you this, that girl got a more emotional introduction than his
girls that were stars as seniors because that is just such a wonderful
attitude. That's the kind of man Gaius
was. A man is faithful. He's easy to be around. He's
easy to be his friend. It's easy to be his pastor. He's
faithful. Now, in the next verses, beginning
in verse 9, unfortunately, there's the opposite end of the spectrum.
In verse 9, John says, I wrote unto the church, but Diocletes,
who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
Apparently, John had written a letter to the church that Gaius
was a member of. He probably had in that letter
some of the same instruction he had to, and counsel he had
to Gaius in the first part of this letter, talking about hospitality,
supportive missionaries, faithfulness. But Diocrates, who was the pastor,
certainly was at least a man in a position of authority in
this church that Gaius was a member of, he refused to receive the
instruction in this letter. He refused to receive the authority
of it that came from the Apostle John. And John knew why he did
it. It's pride. He says, Diocrates
loveth to have the preeminence among them. Pride is a sin that
God hates. Now look over in Proverbs chapter
6. You know this, but let's read it because this is interesting. Proverbs 6 verse 16. These six things that the Lord
hate, yea seven, are an abomination unto him. A proud look. The first thing on the list is
a proud look. But look at the other things
that follow. A lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
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 the brethren. The first thing
on that list is a proud look. But I'm telling you the truth
where you see pride these other six. almost always follow. Very frequently, they follow.
And in the family of God, there's simply no room for pride. Now I know pride is something
that we fight every day. It rears its ugly head much more
often than any of us want it to. But there's no room for pride
in the family of God. Pride puts one above another. Well, there's no room for that
in this family. We're all equal. We're all born equally sinful,
aren't we? All God's children are equally
righteous in Christ, equally loved by God, equally washed
in the blood. We're equal. There's no room
for pride that one would be above another. Look at 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5, verse 5. Here's a good reason for us not
to have pride. Peter says, Likewise ye younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the
proud, but giveth grace to the humble. There is no room for
pride in a believer. David says in Psalm 34, The Lord
is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saith it
such as be of a contrite spirit. He resisteth the proud. And the
right attitude is what David said in Psalm 84. He said, I'd
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness. I'd rather just be an unnoticed
servant that opens the door for people and closes it behind them,
and they just pass me by and go on in. I'd rather be just
an unnoticed servant in God's house, in God's family, than
have the place of preeminence and applause and recognition
in the house of wickedness that's outside of God's grace. I'd rather
have that. That's true by God's grace. There's
no room for pride in God's family, and there's especially no room
for pride in the pulpit. None whatsoever. Everything a
pastor does is supposed to be for the glory of God and the
good of the sheep. Sometimes that even comes at
his own expense. The pastor, Scripture tells us,
is not to lord it over God's sheep. He's to lead the sheep,
to feed the sheep. That's what the Lord told Peter.
Peter, feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. And the reason
Diotrephes wouldn't let John's letter be read, we'll see this
here in the next verse, he wouldn't even let it be read. He wouldn't
give fellowship to people who came from John who had fellowship
with the Apostle John. He wouldn't have fellowship with
John's friends. Because he felt like he was in competition with
John. He's afraid that John was going
to outshine him. Well, duh. Of course he is. I mean, of course he is. He's
an apostle. He's been at this a long time. His preaching has been refined
a long time. Of course he is. And that's fine,
because who cares? We're not in competition. We
all have the same goal. To glorify the Savior. to feed
the sheep, to publish the name of our Savior abroad. That's
our goal. We don't care who the people hear it from, because
they're going to forget the man they heard it from. We want to
remember the Lord. We're not in competition. Who
cares if the Lord uses one man above another? But the way Dr. Thies is conducting himself is
the way a person will act when they're controlled by pride and
ambition. And ambition in the pulpit will
pave the way, make an easy road for Satan to get a foothold in
the church. And it will always lead to disaster. Always. And diographies of men
like him, they love to have the power. They love to have the
recognition, the preeminence that comes with being the pastor.
And there is a love for the pastor. The pastor
has authority in the church. But these men, they don't care
about, the problem is they don't care about the responsibility
that goes with being the leader. They don't care that in order
to be a good leader, there's a lot of self-sacrifices involved.
Well, they don't want self-sacrifice, they want the preeminence. They
want everybody serving them and saying how wonderful they are.
And they don't care about the effect of bad leadership. The
effect on people's lives that bad leadership has. And here's
the difference. The shepherd views the sheep
with love as people that are to be fed, people that are to
be led. The wolf views the sheep as a
meal ticket. Somebody they can make a profit
off of, they can fleece and sell the fleece, and when they're
done with that, they can kill them for a free meal. That's the way the
wolf sees the sheep. Different from the way the shepherd
sees them. And the pastor absolutely does have real authority in the
church. He has a lot of love and respect
for the people who love my pastor. But that authority can't be abused
the way Diocretes is abusing it. Scripture tells us to follow
our pastor as he follows Christ. Now, as soon as he quits following
Christ, you quit following him. You don't just blindly follow
a man. Well, I've got to support him
because he's a pastor. Well, only as he's following
Christ. That's what Scripture says. And Diocretes, unfortunately,
was not doing that. So John says in verse 10, in
3 John, he says, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds
which he doeth, priding against us with malicious words, and
not contempt therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren,
and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
Now John says, I can't get a letter to the church. He won't allow
it to be read. But if I come, I'll remember him, and I'll expose
him to the church. One of the writers said, John
didn't call a big edict and tell Diocrates to come to him and
he's going to have this apostolic court. No, he's going to go to
the local church and he's going to expose him there because that's
where the problem is. He's going to gather the people
together and say, brethren, you've all got a problem here. This
is not right. And Diocrates prided against
John with malicious words, and priding simply means to use empty
Silly words. Things that just absolutely make
no sense whatsoever. He goes around telling people
things about John that they took two seconds to think about. That
doesn't match the man I've known for years. That's just empty,
silly words. And it's shocking how easily
people will be duped and just believe it. He used malicious
words. He wasn't talking about John
like a loving brother. Even if John had made a mistake,
He's supposed to cover that up. Not broadcast it all over the
whole world. He's not being a loving brother.
He's trying to tear John down. And he doesn't care to use a
lie to do it. And the reason he's trying to tear John down
is to make himself look better. He's not praying that the Lord
make him a better pastor, that the Lord give him more power
and more understanding in the world. He just wants to tear
John down so he can look better by comparison. And when someone
does those things, I wish we'd take a minute and find out if
those things are true. Don't just take them at face
value. Would you find out if they're true? That's good advice.
And that's what Scripture tells us to do. Look over 1 Timothy
chapter 5. You know, we're not to receive
the witness of anyone. In the Old Testament it said,
you know, you're not going to condemn somebody but by the mouth
of two or three witnesses. Look in 1 Timothy chapter 5.
Verse 19, against an elder, a pastor, received not an accusation, but
before two or three witnesses. Don't just take this at face
value. Would you go find out if it's true? And if you can't
find two or three witnesses, don't believe it. Simply don't
believe it. And apparently, no one was doing
this here in the town that Gaius lived. People were just believing
it. But the atrophies is not happening. with that. He's not
going to stop there. He's not going to just be satisfied
talking evil against John. He won't allow John's letter
to be read to the church. And he won't receive the brethren
that John sent. He won't have fellowship with
these missionaries that came from John. And worse yet, he
tells everybody else, don't you have fellowship with these fellows
that have fellowship with John. If you have fellowship with them,
you're going to be cast out of this church. You cannot be a
member here and have fellowship with Apostle John are people
who come from him, people who have fellowship with him. You
see what's going on here? John is the beloved apostle. Think of what his personality
is that we know from Scripture. He's a loving man, a kind man,
a tender man. And John's an old man. He's over
90 years old. And his biography is picking
on this old man who ought to be loved and respected for his
years of service. And he's going around telling
people John's used up. He's all used up. He's gone soft
on the gospel. After all these years, he's gone
soft. He's using his loving attitude
against him, saying, well, he's gone soft. And the reason he's
doing it is he thinks there'll be more love for him if there's
less love for John. He's in competition with him.
He wants the place that John has in the hearts of the believers.
That's the issue. That's the whole problem. And
that don't just happen overnight. It takes a long time. And why
is he so hateful? Why does he feel it necessary
to be so hateful? It's ambition. Ambition breeds
contempt for the person you're in competition with. I'm a UK
basketball fan. I want championships for the
University of Kentucky basketball team and I don't feel real friendly
towards those people that get them instead of us. Florida,
North Carolina, and Duke, I just don't feel real friendly towards
them because ambition breeds contempt. I graduated from Ohio
State University. My favorite two teams are the
Buckeyes and who's ever played Michigan. Ambition breeds contempt
for those that you're in competition with. God forbid that we'd ever feel
that way about our brethren. What a horrible, horrible thing
to be guilty of. Well, verse 11, John says, Now
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. Now here, again, we see John's
personality. I'm confident when John started
writing biographies His blood pressure went up. But here he
says, beloved, he goes back to his personal, beloved, don't
follow that which is evil. This is an evil example that
Dr. Fease is setting, and don't fall into this trap of following
that example of pride and ambition, wanting to have the place of
preeminence. Don't fall into this trap of having competition
amongst preachers, amongst God's servants. The master is supposed
to be the one with the glory, not the servant. Don't fall into
this critical attitude that's constantly criticizing preachers
all the time. That's evil. And we have to be
warned about this. We have to be careful about this
because we're born with the nature that's drawn to this attitude
now. That's the nature we're born with. So guard against that.
Look at Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians 4, verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. Don't follow that which is evil,
but be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Look
in Titus chapter 3. Don't follow that which is evil,
follow that which is good. Titus 3 verse 1. Put them in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers. Don't be always looking for a
fight. I mean, we'll defend the gospel when need be, but don't
go out looking for a fight all the time. Don't be a brawler.
Be gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves
also are sometimes foolish. Disobedient, deceived, serving
diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. And the only reason that changed
is the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.
That's the only reason it changed. Otherwise, we'd be just like
Him. So don't follow that which is evil. Follow that which is
good. Follow Christ. Follow the example He set for
us. Walk in His steps. Follow love. And we know something about love. Because God loved you and me.
The unlovable. Follow grace daily. And we know
about grace because God's been gracious to us who are undeserving. Follow kindness. Be kind to people. And we ought to know above all
people what kindness is because of the great kindness our Lord
shown to us. He's been so kind. Follow patience. That's a tough one for me. Be
patient. I'm telling you, we ought to appreciate patience.
How patient is the Lord with us every single day? My soul, how patient He is with
me. We ought to know something about
patience and follow after that. Follow after goodness. We know
something about the goodness of the Lord. The Lord is being
good to us. Follow after meekness. No one that ever walked on the
face of this planet was as meek as our Lord Jesus. He's God Almighty,
and He was the meekest man. Sinners were afraid to go to
the Pharisees, but sinners were comfortable coming to the Lord
Jesus, a meek man, forgiving, kind. That's who a sinner needs.
That's the way we ought to be, to follow after. And it's very
important. that we learn sound doctrine,
the truth of the Scripture. But it's about equally as important
that we learn grace in doctrine and grace in the heart. Grace
in our daily walk, kindness and love. And a person who shows
love and kindness and grace and mercy in their daily lives is
giving evidence that they're a child of God. A person who
does those things knows the Lord. But a person who lives in evil
like this, like Dr. Fees is doing, who walks in sin,
doesn't know the Lord. It's as simple as that. And that's
not just my opinion, that's what Scripture says. And I'm not talking
about a one-time act. Any of us. If you take a snapshot
of any of us, you're going to see a prideful person. I'd hate
to think, go back to a picture album of my life, just this week,
and see snapshots of pride and just, ah. Now, I one time act. It's a walk. My brother and I
were talking on the phone last night about this very verse.
And I told him about the illustration y'all know that Brother Henry
gave about the Mississippi River flows south. Now, there are times
it flows east, times it flows west. There's a few times it
flows north. But the Mississippi River flows south. And a person
who knows the Lord walks in these things. There are times we go
east, times we go west, and times we go north, but a believer follows
Christ. But someone who lives in a practice
of sinning against God, against His will, does not have fellowship
with God, does not know Him. He cannot be a partaker of God's
grace or else God's grace would constrain him, would constrain
his actions. John says he has not seen God. How does he know that? How is
he so sure? I mean, is that just apostolic insight, knowledge,
something I can't know? No. He's so sure because a person
who's seen God would not be so full of pride and ambition and
self. Not if he's seen the Lord with
eyes of faith. And I'll show you that. Two scriptures.
First, Job chapter 40. Job 40, verse 3. Then Job answered the Lord, and
said, Behold, I am Baal. What shall I answer thee? I am
going to lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but
I will not answer. Yea, twice But I will proceed
no further. I'm shutting up. And I'm putting
my hand over my mouth to make sure it don't open back up. I'm
shutting up. I'm shutting my mouth. And I'll
show you why I said that over another page in chapter 42, verse
1. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought
can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hieth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered That
I understood not. I talked about things I didn't
understand. I talked about things that were too wonderful for me,
which I knew not. Here I beseech thee, and I will
speak. I will demand of thee, and declare
thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. And what happened
after mine eye seeth the Lord? Verse 6 Wherefore, because I
have seen thee, I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. That's the man who's seen the
Lord. Another, in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah 6, verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
And his train filled the temple. Now, if you're going to see the
Lord, this is the way you're going to sing. High and lifted up. Above it
stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face. With twain he covered his feet.
And with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with
smoke. said I, after I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Then
said I, Woe is me, for I am undone." No more is Isaiah going around
woeing everybody else, talking about how sinful everybody else
is. Yeah, they are, but right here is the problem. Woe is me. I am undone. I am a man of unclean
lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. How do you know that, Isaiah?
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. John knew
this man had not seen the Lord, because if you've seen Him, you're
like Job and Isaiah. All the starch is taken out of
you. All the pride is taken out of you, and you're at His feet
in the dust, repenting in sackcloth and ashes. That's how John knew
he hadn't seen the Lord. And it's unfortunate how many
people there are, men like Diocrates, And it's unfortunate how many
people, how easily people will follow men like Diocletes. And they follow him because,
I'll tell you what they've got in common, the flesh. It's easy to fall
into that trap. But all's not lost. Now, all's
not lost. The Lord has a remnant. Look
at verse 12, 3 John. Demetrius hath good report of
all men, and of the truth itself. Yea, we also bear record, and
you know our record's true. Yeah, there are men like Diocletes,
but there are men like Gaius and Demetrius, too. Men of faith,
men of integrity, men of generosity, hospitality. These men set an
example that we can follow and we should follow. Everyone who
knew Demetrius, if they were going to tell the truth, had
to say, this man has a good report. He's a kind, gracious, honest
man. He's faithful. People in the
church and people without. If they're going to tell the
truth, all had to say that. And John says, I'll add to that.
And you know what I'm saying is true. And you know, as bad
as the world is today, honesty and a gracious attitude is still
appreciated, even in business today. I know a lot of people
in business, you know, they just seem to end up being respected.
They lie, they cheat, they dishonest, they do everything they can do
to get ahead. And they become successful and somehow they become
respected by people. But there's still, you find someone
in business that's honest. He's still appreciated in business
today. Where I work, we've got a customer, a big customer. He's
known to be a man that's dishonest, who's hateful, who's mean-spirited. And we will not give him our
best price just because we don't like him. He does a lot of business
with us. I'm telling you, he's dishonest
and we will not give him our best price because we know he's
going to cheat us if he ever can. So we're going to protect
her. So we don't give him the best price. We won't give him the
best deal. We won't do anything for him without a contract signed. Most of our customers, we go
out and do all kinds of stuff with our store just for free
because they're our customer, not this guy, because he's dishonest. On the other side, on the other
end of that spectrum, our buyer just told me this a couple weeks
ago. He said, I like to give as much business as I can, buy
as much stuff as I can from Chuck Moore. He said, he's a good man.
He's honest. He tells me he's going to do
something, he does it. He follows through, and I appreciate that.
Chuck, I don't know how many of you know this, he sold in
this area all through eastern Kentucky and all through West
Virginia, he sold Slim Jims for a year, meat snacks. And they
had a stranglehold on this market. His competitors, I mean, they
had to get a crowbar to ever get a competing product in one
of their stores, the Slim Jims. Well, Slim Jim decided they made
a bad business decision. They decided to take away their
business from brokers, men like Chuck. Overnight, the business
of his competitors went up fivefold with us. We couldn't catch up
with the demand and order it fast enough. And we have a weekly
manager's meeting. We're talking about this. Man,
all this stuff is out of stock. We never had to order this much
of it before. And our owner said, I'll tell you why. He said, people
like to do business, Chuck Moore. And they wouldn't let his competitor
in. But when he's not selling anymore, Katie bar the doors.
Everything in this world's come in those stores in that category.
Because people still appreciate honesty. And that's both within
and without. has a good report, just like
Demetrius, well spoken of. And that's the example we should
follow, and the reputation every one of us ought to strive to
have. Because John says, now you follow this. In verse 13,
he said, I had many things to write, but I'll not write, well,
not with ink and pen, writing to thee. But I trust I shall
shortly see thee, and shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee, greet
the friends by name. When John started this letter,
he said, I had many things in mind to say. He may have intended
to write a long letter, but he got right and said, no, I'll
just quit here. I'm not writing the letter. He said, I trust
I'll see you soon face to face. John, he said, it would be more
enjoyable face to face. He's an old man. I don't know
how they all say he's over 90. He still plans on taking a trip.
He's still going to go off. And as long as the Lord gives
him strength, he's going to go off. And he's going to see his friends
and they'll enjoy fellowshipping together. There's just nothing
like fellowshipping face to face. It's just, it's good for, we
need each other, we need that. Thursday night, we all got together
to go overlook that building. Jan and I are driving home. And
she said, I enjoyed that so much. Just seeing everybody again,
it's just, it's enjoyable sitting and talking to your brothers,
to your sisters. It's enjoyable. And John says,
I'm looking forward to that. And he says, peace, Peter B. That's just a good way, I suppose,
to close the letter. But that's a good prayer for
his brother. Peace be to thee. It's good to
have peace and quiet. It probably won't always be that
way, but when there's peace, we can appreciate it. Give thanks
for it. And just greet all the friends by name. Not just send
a general greeting, but greet them all by name. They're all
special. They're all important to me. I love them all. So greet
them. We'll end there, and Lord willing,
I think we'll begin a study in the book of Romans next Sunday.