Okay, if you have a Bible with you, please open it up to 3 John. Way in the back, right in front of Jude, right in front of Revelation. The title of this message is, An Elder's Joy When Christians Walk in the Truth. 3 John, verses 1-4. The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Before we even get into this, I know that there's been plenty written in the last nineteen hundred plus years about verses one and two, trying to answer two questions concerning who is the elder and who is Gaius. I'm going to leave all the discussions out of our time together here now. I'm going to be operating under two assumptions. The first assumption is that the Apostle John wrote this. My second assumption is that Gaius is mentioned several times in the Bible. There's a Gaius mentioned in Acts 19, there's a Gaius mentioned in Acts 20, there's a Gaius mentioned in Romans 16, and there's a Gaius mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1. I'm going to operate under the assumption that I don't know if any of those men named Gaius are the Gaius of 3 John 1, and it matters not for the purpose of our discussion. I think this is a matter where we can sometimes get too caught up in not seeing the forest for the trees and get caught up in not getting the principle of what's going on here. Whether it's the Gaius of Acts 19, Acts 20, Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 1, it doesn't matter. All we know is that this man was beloved by John and I'm going to assume that John wrote this, the Apostle John. Now when we read the passage, there's one thing that might stand out, and that's there's a word, actually there are a couple words which are repeated several times in this passage. One word is beloved. The beloved Gaius, verse 1. Beloved, I pray, verse 2. Verse 5. Beloved, 11. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. But I want to discuss this morning the other word which is repeated four times in the first four verses, and that word is truth. He uses it four times in the first four verses, he uses it two more times in this little short letter in verses 8 and 12, and it would not be out of line then to use that principle that repetition in the scripture means emphasis. What our Lord is trying to tell us here is that truth matters. Truth is important. Truth was important to John as he wrote this. Our society is not one that really cares for truth until it does care for truth. Anybody here ever done any study of logic, by the way? You ever studied logic? It'd be worth your while. It's amazing that when you look at Jesus' interaction with people in the scriptures, they always tried to out-think him. How many times did anybody ever out-think Jesus? Never. They always tried to catch him in some sort of logical or doctrinal trap and they never could. We live in a society that only believes in truth situationally. We will hear, I know that you've heard this, we will hear people say, there's no such thing as absolute truth. What is wrong with that statement? It is a statement of absolute truth. It is self-refuting. You can't say there's no such thing as absolute truth and expect everybody to believe your statement. There's another guy who said something along the lines of, we shouldn't believe anything unless it can be proven. What's wrong with that statement? We can then ask him to, okay, prove your statement that we shouldn't believe anything unless it should be proven. He can't prove his own statement. He can't back up his own premise. People don't think logically. People don't think critically anymore. And for the purpose of our discussion, they don't want to believe in truth unless it's their truth, unless they get to define truth. And we're going to discuss truth at length here during this message. If we were to examine 2 John, coming right before this, and maybe the way your Bible is laid out, they're on opposing pages, so you can look at both of them at the same time. If you compare 2 John and 3 John, we're going to see that there's some similarities in the two, and he uses the same phrasing in both of them. If you have the opportunity with your Bible on facing pages to have 2 John on the left side and 3 John on the right side, look at how he starts 2 John. He says, the elder to the elect lady and her children. He starts off 3 John by saying, the elder to the beloved Gaius. So he's got the elder to, an audience, the elder to, an audience. 2 John goes on to say, whom I love in truth. What does 3 John say? Whom I love in truth. Exactly the same phrasing. In 2 John, he mentions the word truth repeatedly. He mentions it twice in verse 1, once in verse 2, once in verse 3, and once in verse 4 in 2 John. Look at verse 4 in 2 John. John rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth. We're not going to discuss what the elect lady and her children means. It's not important to our discussion here. The point is, is that in 2 John, he rejoiced greatly to find some children walking in the truth. In 3 John, he has no greater joy than to hear that children are walking in the truth. His children are walking in the truth. I think we can assume then that truth matters to John. and looking at the teachings of Jesus, truth matters to Jesus. Truth mattered to everyone who wrote scripture. Why did Jesus keep getting people mad at him? Because he spoke matters of truth. Paul got arrested for matters of truth. Many of the apostles were killed over matters of truth. So truth does matter in the scriptures. Before we get to truth though, let's look at something that John does in 3rd John that he does not do in 2nd John. That's his reference to Gaius as beloved. We know scripture uses repetition for emphasis. Four times he refers to this man as beloved. Can we draw the conclusion then from this that it is possible to love brethren with different degrees. I think it is. Now, I know somebody will say, I love every single person with the same degree of love. Is that really true, though? If we really examine it, it probably isn't. Even in John's Gospel, we have implication that Jesus loved one disciple in a way that he did not love the rest, don't we? There's a reference in John's gospel to a disciple whom Jesus loved. Did Jesus love all the disciples? Yes. But it appears though he loved one differently. Does John's gospel specifically tell us who that man is? No. Church history, church tradition tells us that that was John himself. Is that possible? Yes, it's possible. Again, let's not get lost in the forest for the trees here. The point is that four times when Jesus is talking about a disciple whom he loved in the Gospel of John, it appears as though that he loved one man with a degree of love that he did not love the rest. And we know that is true in our lives. Not everyone in this room loves everyone else in this room with the same degree of love. If this is the first time you've ever seen me, it's probably not the same love that you might have for your spouse or your children or somebody else like that. that Michelle loves Tawfiq in a way that she does not necessarily love somebody who sits in the 16th row at Grace Community Church in San Antonio. There's love there for both, but it's probably a different degree of love. And is that OK? I guess, let me ask you this. Is that OK to love people with different degrees of love? Now, are we commanded to love everybody? Sure we are. We're commanded to love our neighbor as ourself. Who's our neighbor? Our neighbor is everyone except us. But in reality, I will bet, if I were a betting guy, that you love your spouse if you're married more than you love me. That you love your children more than you love me. Why do I say that? That, for instance, If I were to die, maybe somebody in here would cry. Maybe somebody would mourn. But if one of your children dies, you are probably going to cry and mourn in a different degree, in a different manner than if I do. That if one of my children dies, and one of them did in 2002, We mourned differently because we loved him with a different level of love than others did. Others mourned, but they mourned with a different level because there was a different degree of love. Do I say that we have to be careful with this? Yes, because I don't want it to be taken that, well, it's okay if I don't love him very much at all. Well, yeah, we're commanded to love. We're not given license to say, well, I just love that guy a little, and I don't have to do anything more to increase my love for that guy over there. I'm not saying that. But I'm just saying that the way we are built and wired by God right now, a man loves his spouse, a woman loves her spouse, differently than, say, some guy that you run into doing evangelism. There's just a different love there, but be careful with that different love. That's all I want to say about that. But regardless, my point is here is that this guy is special to John. He didn't call the elect lady and her children and John and second John beloved. He did call her dear. but he did not call her beloved. Four times here he calls Gaius beloved. So it's clear that this guy is something special. When we read the personal pronouns in verses two through four, when we see the you and the your, those are all singular. he's not writing about and to one person I mean more than one person being beloved he's got one person in mind in these pronouns you and your and the you and your refers to Gaius there and this love this special love that he has for Gaius has something special about it it is in truth he just doesn't say the elder to the beloved Gaius whom I love. Could he have? Yes. Would that have been wrong? No. But he says there's a basis for this love. And the basis for this love is truth. Now we might think that's unnecessary because who would you ever love on the basis of falsehood? I don't know, probably some people do. But I believe John's point here goes to the matter of doctrine. There is a doctrinal basis for their unity, for their love for each other here. And that's where we're going to go with this issue of truth. This is not merely an emotional bond between two guys who become close because of repeated time with each other. Could that be the case? Yes, but there's a foundation for this love. And the foundation for this love in this passage is based around truth. And that one little word is why the world does not like us. Because we believe there is truth. We believe that truth exists. We believe that spiritual truth exists. We believe that moral truth exists. And we believe it is binding upon every single person. The world doesn't like that, do they? They don't like the fact that we say that there is a moral standard which exists outside men to which they are accountable. They don't like the fact that we say there is one way, one truth, one life, One God, and it is the God described in the scriptures. It is the living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel. We don't say that there are other true gods. We say that there is one true God. And that world out there doesn't like that. We say that there is truth which binds a man's conscience, and that truth existed before any man did. We say that there is truth which binds societies. Societies don't like that. They don't believe that there are truths which are applicable to all of a society until they want a particular truth believed in, which they have defined themselves. John uses a Greek word here 28 times in his Gospel and his three short epistles when he talks about truth. Truth matters to John. The two writers who use this word most in the New Testament are John and Paul. Paul uses that word 33 times when he writes. Truth matters. And it's not merely two guys who think that truth matters, it matters to our Lord. I want us to turn to John chapter 18 in his gospel. and look at this matter of truth. And in John chapter 18, I want to start at verse 33. This is Jesus and his encounter with Pilate. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from this world. Then Pilate said to him, So you are a king. Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? Jesus says, Why has he come into the world? He has come into the world to bear witness of the truth, and everyone who is of the truth listens to his voice. He puts a limit upon those who listen to him. those people who are, quote, of the truth. Jesus already told us earlier in John who would hear his voice. We have a song about the Good Shepherd, John chapter 10. If we were to read back to John chapter 10, who hears the voice of the Good Shepherd in John chapter 10? The sheep. And only the sheep. Why didn't Jesus' opponents hear his voice? Jesus says they are not his sheep. Goats don't become sheep. The Bible talks about two types of sheep. There are sheep that are lost and there are sheep that are found. How are sheep found? Sheep are found by hearing his voice. Now, not necessarily the actual voice of Jesus, but we hear Paul in Romans 10 telling us that how can people call on Him in whom they have not heard? Well, how do they hear? They hear by preaching. Who preaches? The people who are sent. Paul goes on to cite Isaiah about how lovely the feet are of those who preach the good news. And faith comes by hearing, Paul continues, and hearing by the word of Christ. Who hears the voice of the shepherd? The sheep hear. Who are the sheep? The sheep are the people who are of the truth in John chapter 18. Now when we look at this, well, if we were to look at John chapter 10, The way I cited it is the way that John chapter 10 says it. Hears. The sheep hear my voice. In John chapter 18, Jesus says, the people of the truth listen to his voice. Is there a difference? No. The original is the same word in both. And the King James and the New American Standard don't make that distinction. They both say hear in John 10 and John 18. Now let's think about what Jesus is saying in John chapter 10. Did people hear Jesus preach in John chapter 10? Even the people who don't believe? Yeah, they heard him. They physically heard him. That's not his point in John chapter 10. That's not his point in John chapter 18. The hearing has to do with an acceptance and an obedience and a submission to it. We do that with our kids. you ask your kids to do something. Didn't you hear me? Well yeah, they heard us, they just chose not to obey us. So they physically heard us, but they didn't obey us. That's the implication here, is that the sheep hear, they respond. Jesus tells his opponents in John chapter 18 that you don't respond, therefore because you don't respond, you don't hear. That's the kind of hearing he's talking about there. So the sheep respond to what they hear. Did Pilate respond to what Jesus said in John chapter 18? He did give a response. He speaks about there being truth and then Pilate asks the question of the ages, what is truth? And how did Jesus answer the question? If you have a red letter Bible, there aren't any red letters after that. Don't we want him to have answered the question? If he would have answered the question, now we've got an inspired answer to, what is truth? And then Jesus would have said, this is truth. Therefore, when you're evangelizing, we're trying to defend your faith. Somebody asks you, what is truth? You could just cite John chapter 18, what comes right after, what is truth? But he didn't. Well, he didn't there. But didn't he elsewhere tell us what truth is? He did. We can respond and tell people what truth is. We would like a much more definitive, specific response to the question, but we don't have it in John chapter 18. Is it not interesting, though, that when Pilate says, what is truth, he's sort of asking the wrong question? Because the correct question would have been, who is truth? Truth is not a what. Truth is a who. John 14 tells us that truth is a person, and entailed in that person there is doctrinal truth. But truth, according to the Bible, is a person. He had truth looking him in the eye, and he didn't know it. Why? Because he didn't hear the voice. Why? Because he was not one of the sheep. Therefore, he didn't understand truth. hear the truth as Jesus wants to explain it here. We have a person who is the truth. Jesus tells us he is the way, the truth, the life. And when I say that from John 14, 6, there's one more little word which the world does not like and that word is T-H-E, the. It's a definite article. It is saying that there is an exclusiveness. There is one way one truth, one life, that out there wants to believe, if it wants to believe in such life at all, that there are many ways, many truths, many lives, that there are many roads to the top of the same mountain, or there are many roads to the top of many mountains. We proclaim an exclusivity. We proclaim something that people don't get to vote on. We proclaim something that popular opinion does not dictate. We proclaim something which each individual does not get to make up their own mind about. We proclaim that there is truth that exists outside of us that existed before any of us existed. It was true then, it's still true now, and it's binding on all men. And all men don't like that. but proclaim that we must because our Lord tells us to. T-H-E, it's a word which the world hates, the truth. I read something a little while ago that said, whether it's right or wrong, it's at least food for thought. The most bothersome verse in the entirety of scripture to an unbeliever is Genesis 1.1. Now why do you think Genesis 1.1 would be the most bothersome verse in the Bible to an unbeliever? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. It might seem rather innocuous or not that big of a deal. but in that the point that the author was trying to make i think is a valid one whether or not everyone will agree with it's another point but what is so offensive about genesis one one the offense in genesis one one is that there is a creator and that there is a creator who existed before the beginning and that there is a creator who existed before the beginning and in the subsequent verses this creator created everything else and a creator has rights and authority over his creation and everything that was created. Therefore, the creator has rights over the created and man is one of the created. That's the offense. Man does not want to be responsible usually not even to each other, to another fellow man, but more so to a creator. He does not want to admit or submit to a creator. That's one of the appeals of the evolutionary mindset, is that if we have just evolved from some one-celled protoplasm in the ocean or protozoa or whatever you want to say, and all of a sudden here we are four billion years later as men, Well, there's no standard, there's no transcendent moral being to whom we are accountable. We're just in essence a bunch of random chemical reactions and over time we have mutated and changed and morphed into this and here we are today and who knows what we'll be in another four billion years. But the appeal of that is that man can do what he wants to. He's not answerable to a higher authority. He's not answerable to any other authority. He gets to determine what is right and what is wrong. That's why men hate Genesis 1.1, because it starts off the whole story of man is created and he is responsible to a creator. And that is a truth which that out there does not like to hear. Men want to do what men want to do. And men want to make up their own minds. Men want to worship what they want. Men want the freedom not to have to worship anything. And men want to determine what moral truth is based upon time's popular opinion and societal preferences. And we see that going on now, don't we? Look at where our society has evolved in the last 20 years. Almost all of you are a lot younger than I am. Things are a lot different now than when I was your age. And it's happened real fast, hasn't it? There is such a thing as truth. The world wants to determine what truth is. They want to say that what is true in 2017 is not dependent upon what was true in 2016, especially with regard to moral matters. Let's think about how this whole agenda with the push for the, quote, tolerance of things such as homosexuality began. What did we hear 15 years ago? We heard, what does it matter what two people do in the privacy of their own home? It doesn't affect anyone else. It's victimless. It doesn't affect anyone. What do you care what these two people do over there behind a closed door? I think we see the results of that, though, now. These people who wanted tolerance, who wanted the freedom and liberty to do what they want and have no consequences for it, now that they have got society to accept it, it's not just another view. They want to impose their view upon others as absolute truth. You want to teach in a university? You can't say they're wrong. You want to do this or that. You can't say they're wrong. Tolerance used to mean that people could have differing opinions. Not that they're all right, but they could have differing opinions. Tolerance now means not only can people have differing opinions, all opinions are right. Well, it's funny. What they want to say is that all opinions are right, except our opinion as Christians can't be right. They want to impose absolute truth upon us in a way that they will not let anybody impose absolute truth on them. So this whole matter of truth matters greatly in the scripture. And it matters not just in the scripture, it matters how society functions. Don't be surprised. I'm not the guy who's first thought of this. All of the arguments that the homosexual agenda has made for acceptance and has been accepted by our society as true, apply whatever other sin you want, substitute it for homosexuality, and they can use the same arguments and nobody can object. You can't. Polygamy. multiple spouses. You can fill in the blank with polygamy, with every single argument that the homosexual agenda has made, and the people who have accepted the homosexual agenda must accept the polygamous argument. Let's take it further. And this goes right to where people are, and this grates people, the pedophiles. If you've accepted the homosexual argument, you can fill in the blank with pedophilia. And you can't object to the pedophiliac's argument if you've accepted the homosexual's argument. You can't do it. Why? Because they say there's nothing which is always wrong. We say that some things are always wrong. They want to say, well, you can't tell me that that's always wrong. Okay, apply that to whatever other behavior you want. Apply it to polygamy. Apply it to pedophilia. Apply it to being a meth addict. Apply that to theft. Apply that to arson. Apply that to being a drug dealer. If you're going to be consistent, you've got to accept all that. And at that point, when you have redefined truth, there really is no truth anymore. Scripture says there is truth. And there is truth which is eternal. There is truth which is binding upon all men. And John loved Gaius in this truth. John said Gaius was walking in truth. John not only said he was walking in truth, he rejoiced as an elder at Gaius walking in this truth. The truth. The truth of Christ. The truth of justification by faith alone, through Christ alone. The truth of striving after the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. The truth of the command to love your neighbor as yourself. The truth of the command to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The truth of the charge that we have to love the brethren. Gaius was doing all this. And he was doing it well enough. God thought it was important enough for us to know it 2,000 years later. And as the Lord tarries, he thought it was important enough for every believer to know this. That there was a guy who was walking in the truth. And because he was walking in the truth, He inspired joy in an elder. He doesn't say that the truth in which they were walking was the meaning which is behind the co-exist bumper stickers, the many roads to the top of the mountain, that when you've got people out there saying that, well, you know, Muslims worship the same God the Christians do. I think the Koran is quite clear in differentiating Allah from the God that Christians worship. Islamic doctrine says if you believe in a triune God, you have committed the unforgivable sin known as shirk. Well, they're not the same God. The Koran goes to great lengths to differentiate who Allah is as opposed to the God that Christians would believe in. There's truth. The truth is we don't worship the same God as the Muslims do. And scripture even goes so far as to say that Jews don't either. We heard it earlier. If you don't have a son, you don't have the father. They don't believe in the triune God as shown in scripture. They don't believe in the second person of the Trinity. That's truth. And it is truth which divides. Doctrinal truth, by definition, divides. John wasn't worried about Gaius having a wonderful relationship with the unbelievers. John was concerned with Gaius walking in truth. And I think that is what your elder is concerned with, is you walking in truth. We'll get to Tawfiq in a minute here. But walking in truth matters. If we were just to skip ahead a few pages past 3 John and go to Jude, we would see that there are people who came into the church, Jude says they crept in, they snuck in. And he says those people snuck in but they were ungodly people. They were not walking in truth. Jude does not command the guys of which he calls ungodly and their ungodly behavior multiple times in his letter. They were not walking in truth. Jude had to contend for the truth. Verse 3 in his letter. Truth matters. Now, I want to go on to verse 2 and 3, John. And this is really not related to the title of the sermon, but I think I've got to say it. I'm going to quote from the New King James in 3rd John, verse 2. The New King James says, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. ESV says, Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. Why am I going to say what I'm going to say? Is the New King James a bad translation? No, it's not. It says, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. The New American Standard says, Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health. The New Holman Christian Standard for 2017 says, Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically, just as you are spiritually. So if the New King James doesn't get it wrong, why am I bringing it up? I'm bringing it up because of one word in the New King James translation, and that word is prosper. Okay, he's going to talk about prosper. Well, why? The issue is that we have, and I know, professing Christians who use 3 John verse 2 as definitive justification for their statement that God wants every Christian to be financially rich because of that word prosper. I know a lot of people, I'm from Michigan, I know a lot of people in Michigan who hold to that truth That is not a truth, but it's their truth that 3 John 2 in the New King James where it says, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, that is definitive that God wants every Christian to be rich. Is that the intent of the verse though? It's not. What else does the scripture say throughout the New Testament? our riches are not here. Does the New Testament say you can't be rich if you're a Christian? No, it doesn't say that. But what it does say is it's clear that the Christian may not become rich because of their faith. Their faith may cause them to become poor financially. Well, these people will say, it says right there, they're going to jab 3 John verse 2, and they're going to say that God wants every believer to be well off financially, and they're going to say, that's because God wants us to have more money to give to missions, and if we're all rich, we've got more money to give to missions. How many people are commended in the Bible for their giving? What people are commended? There's a widow who's commended. How rich was she? Not very. What did she have? Not much. But what did she do with her not much? She gave it. How about the churches in Macedonia? 2 Corinthians 8. Were these people well off? They were not. 2 Corinthians 8 says they are commended for doing what? Giving beyond their means in the midst of extreme poverty. Well, how does that work, though, if these people are poor and they're commended for their good? Well, wouldn't 3 John 2 be correct then, because God would want us to have more money, therefore we could give more money to missions? Well, no, God's ways are not our ways. He takes what is small, and he can make it large. He can multiply it. He can turn $1 into $1 billion. or a dollar into a billion dollars worth of results. That to use 3 John 2 as rationalization for the prosperity gospel I think is misguided at best. So what does it mean if it doesn't mean that? I think the ESV gets it right. He wants all to go well with Gaius. Don't we pray for that for our brethren? We want things to go well for you. We want things to go well for Tawfiq in Houston. We want things to go well for the people in Lebanon laboring. We want things to go well for the people laboring in Nepal. We want things to go well for the church in Temple. We want things to go well for the church in Corpus, the church in Saltillo, the church in Monterey, the church in Las Cruces. We want things to go well for God's people. Now we know that things won't always go well. The scripture tells us that too. But it's not a bad prayer to pray that all go well with you and that you may be in good health. We pray for people to have good health, don't we? We pray for people to recover from affliction. So praying for people to have what is well, to have things go well with you, is not a bad prayer. John did it here. We have an inspired prayer. for us to see 2,000 years later. Now, I haven't even gotten here yet, but what about the title of the sermon? An Elder's Joy When Christians Walk in the Truth. Verse 3 tells us that brothers came and testified to John to Gaius' truth as indeed he was walking in the truth. Then he says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Let's look at what walking in the truth means. We know that we walk physically. We all walked in here today. But that's a metaphor here for what John wants us to know is the Christian life. It's how we proceed through life. We know that John uses this here, walking through life. We know that the writer of the Hebrews talks about life not as a walk, but as a race in which we run. We understand it. We're supposed to run the race with endurance. We're not supposed to run the race and die at the last corner. We're supposed to run the race with endurance. So we've got that metaphor. Well, here we've got a metaphor of walking through life. Scripture does that all over the place. Galatians 5.16 tells us we're supposed to walk by the Spirit. Ephesians 5, 2 tells us we're to walk in the way of love. Colossians 3, 7, Paul writes about the way that the Colossians used to live where he says, you used to walk in such things. You used to proceed through life in such a manner. That brings us to our walking in the truth. Are we walking in the truth? Or are we just saying we believe, but our lives are not a walk in truth? Well, I believe that Jesus Christ has saved me. Yes, great, praise God, but there's more to it than that. What does our life look like from standards of holiness? What does our life look like from standards of love for our neighbor and love for the brethren? It just, it really bothers me when I see these Facebook experts who have separated themselves from the church and all they do is speak negatively about every single person in the church and they pontificate from their mountaintop about what experts they are and what's wrong with the church but they don't have anything to do with it. You see them all the time. What they've done is they've, in essence, amputated Christ's head from his body. You can't do that. Does the church have flaws? Yes. Look at the church at Corinth. If we're going to pick a church, look at Corinth. Paul told those guys to get out of there how many times? Zero. Do we love the brethren in the midst of the differences and trials we have within the faith? That's walking in truth. It's really easy to be an expert from afar. It's like the guy, all your talking heads on every news channel and on every sports channel. It's really easy to be an expert sitting behind a desk. But it's a lot harder to be in a three-point stance on the goal line. Walking in truth, proceeding through life, loving God, loving our neighbor, loving the brethren, obeying the law of Christ, striving after holiness. That's what Gaius was doing. And that made an elder happy. Let's think about the converse to that though. When one of an elder's children doesn't do that, or even worse, doesn't walk in the truth, they walk away from the truth. Think about the sadness in what Paul writes about Demas. Demas deserted Paul. Demas was a ministry partner of Paul, mentioned two other times, but we see him writing to Timothy that Demas has deserted me. Why? Because he's in love with the world. Think about the sorrow of the elder in that case. Think about Paul's sorrow at Hymenaeus and Alexander making shipwreck of their faith. Think about the sorrow we have when we see somebody walking away or walking in sin instead of walking in the truth. Somebody who professes to be a Christian but they walk in their sin, they're not willing to give up their sin, they still love their sin, they still may have one thing that they're not willing to give up. Think of our sorrow when we see that. But think of a spiritual leader, an elder, and that is one of their children. Relate it to our children. How much does it hurt when our children do such things? They walk away from what we've taught them. There's a lot of little short people in here. Pray for them. Pray that they never walk away. It will tear you up if they do. So it is with a spiritual father. Paul described himself as Timothy's father by saying, Timothy, my son. 1 Timothy 1. How about an elder here? The guy who's married to her. You are, in this context, His children. What joy is it to Him when you all walk in the truth, when you obey, when you are loving your neighbor, when you are loving the brethren, when you are loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, when you are striving after the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Think of the joy it will bring him. Think of the joy it will bring him when that happens up in temple. You have an elder just like Gaius did. Think of the love he has for you. The love he has for you that he does not have for other Christians. He may love them, but he's gonna love you in a different manner and a different degree, that he wants to be able to call you beloved, just like John does with Gaius here. When you grow in the truth, when you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and when that knowledge is reflected in mature living and obedience, what joy that will bring this elder here. And the flip side is when you disobey, or don't walk in the truth but walk away from the truth, the sorrow it will bring him. I know that Tawfiq is the waterer here. He's not the one who gives the increase. We know that the farmer waters the crops, but when the crops don't grow, the farmer is still in sorrow. When you look at your field and there's nothing growing there. Think of that sorrow. Much greater here. The sorrow at a demis, who's walked away... to a future in hell. I talked about Hebrews in the first hour. Hebrews has real scary passages about people who have been exposed to the truth, who have lived in the truth, who have experienced the Spirit of God, and then turn around and walk away. Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 are terrifying when you get down to it. And how much more sadness for the elder in that cases or elders who oversaw those people, those who do turn and walk away. But here we see, we see apostolic joy in John chapter 3 because of one man walking in the truth. Just one guy walks in the truth here. Think of the greater apostolic joy when people walk in the truth. Paul said in Philippians 2 that he wanted to see fruit on the last day so that his labor was not in vain. Any elder wants to see that their labor is not in vain. They want to see people grow. They want to see people walk in the truth. One guy, one guy walks in the truth. And it's important enough for God to have a man write it down for our benefit. And so it is for your elder. The joy he will have when you walk in the truth, and the sorrow when you don't. Which one do you want him to have? You don't do it just to make the elder happy. You do it to glorify God. You do it out of obedience and love for God. But the fruit of that is the joy of an elder. And it's real joy. Let's pray. O Lord, we need much help in doing the things that are entailed in walking in the truth. We need wisdom. We need discernment. We need encouragement. And Lord, we need your spirit and we also need each other. Lord, you use means to accomplish your ends. And Lord, we just need help in submitting. You have empowered us though to submit. We know that we have your spirit. We know that we have your word. And we know that we have a great God. Lord, I pray for this body. I pray that they would walk in the truth. I pray that our brother Tawfiq would teach them truth. I pray that they would teach each other truth. And I pray that we would be all people who walk in the truth for every day of our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you very much.