Welcome to the preaching ministry of Tri-City Baptist Church in Chandler, Arizona. Our desire is that God would be magnified through the preaching of His Word, and that Christians would be challenged, strengthened, and edified in their personal walk with Christ. Well, it's always great to have the opportunity to open God's Word, and I appreciate Pastor inviting me to preach this morning. I wanna take just a moment to do an advertisement for Sunday evenings. This marriage, I don't wanna call it seminar, but there's five messages from five, maybe six, key passages on marriage. I'm not going to answer every question you have ever had about marriage. I don't guarantee that all your problems in your marriage will be solved if you come on Sunday evenings. I wish I could say that. But I am interested, and I think it's important for us, especially in the world in which we live, where there is so much false teaching, many false ideas about marriage, for us to be able to understand what is God's purpose, what are some of the basic principles of marriage. And even if you are not married, There's going to be some things for you here. If you've been married for ages and you know it all, that's great. This will hopefully be a refresher. If you are not married, if you're single, I'm hopefully going to have some things in there for everyone. So that you can, even if the problems are not yours, you can answer questions and you can help people who are struggling in the area of their marriage. So I encourage you to be here for that. That was just a shameless plug to have you come. One of the wonderful things about a new year is the opportunity to have a fresh beginning. the chance to evaluate, consider, pray about the future. both for your personal goals and especially for your spiritual goals. Now I know last week we had Resolution Sunday and we're into now the second Sunday in the new year. So while you're kind of preaching a new year's message or about a new year's resolution, you're kind of running behind. Well, think of it as for Chinese New Year, okay? So we're in between. So whether you're late for our new year or early for Chinese New Year, it is good at this time of year to to stop and just to think about our life and the direction that we are going. The text we're gonna see this morning is a command of scripture, but also a challenge as to how we address ourselves as we face a new year and the challenges and trials. 3 John verse 11. says, beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. We're gonna talk about that this morning, the importance, and I think a great resolution, if you will, I know you hate to use the word resolution, but a great determination, commitment on our part as we face a new year is to focus and seek to imitate that which is good and not that which is evil. Pretty simple, really. I'd like us to read the passage beginning in, I guess I need to turn this on. There, there it goes. Beginning in verse nine, John writes, I wrote the church, but Theotrophes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does, pratting against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil, has not seen God. Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true. He says, I have many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen, and then he closes by giving the greeting to his friends. Let's pray and ask God's blessing as we look at this passage of scripture this morning. Heavenly Father, I pray that as we begin a new year, we will be focused, Lord, on that which is good and that which is holy and that which is just and right. Thank you, Lord, for the ministry. Thank you for this work that you have raised up here. Thank you for your church here. And I pray, Father, that we will be reminded of the need to have our focus upon thee as we've sung about this morning. That our eyes would be upon you, Lord. That we would turn our eyes upon Jesus and not upon the things of this world. So many churches today, so many Christians today are distracted by the things of this world. Lord, I pray that we will not be, we will not follow that example. But Lord, that we as thy people will put our focus upon you. And that we might look to imitate what is good. and not what is evil. I ask for your blessing this morning. Help me as I communicate your word today. Pray that you'll give me clarity of thought. Pray that the word of God will go forth in the power of thy spirit. And I pray you will accomplish in each of our hearts today what you would have to accomplish from your word. For we ask in Jesus' name, amen. The apostle John wrote the third epistle to John. And he's called the apostle of love because John's writings contain so many references to love. So it's really interesting that some of the sternest rebukes come from John, who is the apostle of love. And here he is addressing Gaius, who he refers to as his beloved son, his beloved in the truth. Now, we do not know everything about Gaius. There are a number of people in the scripture, a number of times the word Gaius appears. Some don't believe it's always the same person, others do. I tend to believe it is the same individual. because there's nothing distinguishing him from anyone else, I think people knew who Gaius was. If that's the case, we know that he is one of the two people Paul baptized. We know that Paul stayed with him when he was writing the letter to the Romans. He also talks about him and stayed with him while he was in Rome. He is referred to as the host of the church, which indicates he probably used his home as a place for the church to meet. Gaius is not called an elder. Doesn't mean he wasn't, but he seems to be in some place of spiritual leadership. John, however, opens this book in verse one by referring to himself as the elder. Not a elder, but the elder. The term elder is a term used for pastors. It's a term sometimes used to acknowledge a person's age or spiritual wisdom. John also, of course, is an apostle. So in addition to the term of elder, which he has apostolic authority, which no one alive has today, and only 12 people had in the early church. The role of elder, is a special role in scripture. It's synonymous with the term of pastor, shepherd, bishop, or overseer. The elder has the role of teaching, feeding, shepherding the flock of God, the local church. And so because of that, God gives a number of warnings as well as protections concerning this office. The elder is warned in Peter not to lord it over God's heritage. He is not to be greedy of filthy lucre, but rather he is to feed the flock of God. His words as they present God's truth have weight and authority. We are told to remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you. Hebrews says we are to obey your leaders and submit to them for they watch over your souls as those who will give account. Let them do it with joy not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you. Those are pretty solemn words. That's why Paul told Timothy in first Timothy chapter 5 verses 19 and 20 not to receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. He says, those who continue in sin rebuke before all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. Now I know it's not the church, but in the Old Testament, David refused to lift his hand against Saul, even after Saul attempted on several occasions to kill him. Because he said, he is God's anointed. God will take care of him, and God did. The reference for the God-called position of pastors does not give infallibility to a pastor. It does not mean that they're perfect, but it does mean that we should give deference and respectful submission in areas that do not involve false doctrine or morality or legal issues. You can't break the law or overlook moral failures or doctrinal errors because one who is in the position of a shepherd. But on the other hand, you better be very careful how you respond otherwise to pastoral authority. That's why it is a shock when you come to verse nine of 3 John to read this small epistle after reading of John's praise of Gaius and for the generosity and graciousness in which they had received missionaries who had been traveling through the area, that he has to confront this issue of diatrophies. A leader in the church who had defied the apostles' teaching regarding hospitality and was literally driving people away from the church who did not take his side or agree with him. Now don't lose sight of the fact that this church is being used of God. support missionaries and the spread of the gospel. I preach in mission conferences and I've preached really this from Third John all over the world for missions conferences, mission Sundays, from the first verses of this where he is praising what they have done for missions. He talks in verse eight, he talks about how they have done faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers. Who are these strangers? Well, these are strangers who he says have gone forth for his namesake, taking nothing of the Gentiles. These were early missionaries traveling through. And Gaius and members of the church had been very generous in helping them and taking care of them and supplying for them, sending them out. And they're praised for that in the way that they did that. We don't know exactly what church Gaius is representing. Probably if John is writing this from Ephesus towards the end of his ministry before he went into exile, he's probably writing this from Ephesus. Gaius is probably in one of the churches somewhere in Asia Minor. We don't know that for sure. But it was a church that was being used mightily of God. Therefore, what was happening with theatrophies was very important and very critical. That's why John has to confront it. Let me just say, make a point here. I'll get on a soapbox. I'll pontificate. That's a word you don't hear from Baptist circles too often, right? Hopefully not too often, pontificate. But Tri-City is in a very envious and a very dangerous position as we come to a new year. We've talked about the fact that we've paid off the mortgage. That's amazing on this building. The time that I've been here, the church has paid it off. In my 17 years here, we have never had over 40 evangelistic Bible studies going on at one time. That's amazing. We have never had the number of churches being planted and built simultaneously around the world as we do at this moment. You've seen the Christmas offering or heard pastor mentioned the Christmas offering over $50,000. Well, we have had checks going through the IBM office of over $100,000 on a couple of occasions, $50,000 checks, $40,000, $30,000, $20,000, $10,000. amazing the amount of money that has been going through International Baptist Missions to missions. Building churches, supporting mission projects, just an amazing assortment of things. Satan is not happy with Tri-City Baptist Church. We are rattling the cage, if you will. So I say that, and I'm preaching this message as as a sense of precaution. We have to be aware that Satan will be doing what he can from within and without to hurt this ministry, to damage the testimony of this ministry. And we as God's people need to understand that. But we need to rejoice because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And we are on the winning side. It's just, I realize all of us, sometimes if a problem comes up, tend to panic. We need to understand and realize that our trust is in the Lord. That is what John is dealing with here, with Gaius, and it's an admonition for the church today. It leads John to issue this statement in verse 11, where he says, beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. And he sandwiches this truth between two illustrations. A man by the name of Diotrephes and a man by the name of Demetrius. But this is the meat of the sandwich. Don't imitate what is evil, but rather what is good. And he's gonna go on to illustrate for us what is evil, and he's going to go on to illustrate for us what is good. He begins in verse nine to deal with deatrophies. He says, I wrote to the church, but deatrophies, who love to have a preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does, prating against us with malicious words, and not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. There are five things we know about Demetrius from this passage of scripture. First of all, it says he loved to have the preeminence. The word there means he wanted to be first among them. It's a word that means to be selfish, self-centered, self-promoting. Probably, and maybe I'm reading into this a little bit, but probably totally unaware or socially unaware of how his actions would affect others, or at least unconcerned about that. He was a leader of some kind within the church. He's not called an elder. But when it talks about him putting those out of the church, you would kind of assume he must be in some position of leadership. Probably a nice family, probably good reputation. And John had written to this church, he says, I had wrote to the church, I had written a letter to the church, but for whatever reason, his instructions had been ignored by theatrophies. Now, some suggest that perhaps he had torn up the letter. At the very least, he had ignored it or made it an issue so that anyone who tried to agree with John would be chased away. We don't know how John was going to deal with this exactly other than he says, I will bring up his words. In other words, he was going to have to come and expose this to the church. and reveal to the entire congregation, apparently not everyone was aware of what was happening. It was not going to be a pleasant experience for deatrophies, and it probably was not going to be a pleasant experience for the church. But love without truth is not love. And truth without love is not truth. We're not told really why other than theatrophies love to have the preeminence. Why he did this? Maybe he felt threatened by John's authority. Maybe he did not like the idea of supporting these missionaries. I mean, I'm a missions director. I know missionaries sometimes get treated like kings when they go through into churches. And maybe he resented that. Maybe he resented giving money. or being exhorted to give money. I mean, you touch someone's pocketbook, you know, they get pretty upset. We don't know. But you know what, I have long tried to give, long since given up trying to understand why people do what they do. Basically, we're all sinners. That's why, and if we're not controlled by the spirit of God, our flesh will prevail. And Satan will prevail in leading them down the long dangerous path of sin. So he loved to have the preeminence. Secondly, he did not accept biblical counsel. He says, he does not receive us. Now that phrase receive us, in the New American Standard is translated, does not accept what we say. The ESV says he does not accept our authority. The idea that John was telling them what they needed to do and giving them guidance and the apostle John, the elder, is ignored or intentionally disobeyed. I've dealt with, in 40 plus years of ministry, I have dealt with this from time to time where you can talk with someone as much I mean, till you're blue in the face. And no matter what counsel is given, unless you agree with me, I'm not gonna accept it. And scripture addresses this. It really does, in numerous places. I could spend the rest of the message just quoting you passage of scripture that addresses issues like this. Proverbs two, verse two, he says, make your ear attentive to wisdom. incline your heart to understanding. Proverbs 12.1, he who hates reproof is stupid. Proverbs 18.2, a fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. Scripture is full of warnings regarding the rejection of wisdom and ignoring God's command. I mean, I've sat in counseling sessions with people and The man says, you know, I'm going to divorce my wife. And you show him scriptures, here's why you shouldn't do it. I don't care what it says, I'm going to do it. I'm going to sue this believer. I'm going to take them, you know, I'm going to take them for everything they've got. You show him a scripture that says you shouldn't do that. No, I'm going to do that. And I don't care what it is. You go on and on, give it illustration, after illustration, after illustration. Diotrephes wasn't willing to listen to the counsel, the direction, the teaching of the Apostle John that is the elder here, perhaps maybe the only living apostle left. I don't know that for sure at this point. The fact that he says that he is the elder maybe kind of infers that, that he's like the one left. I don't know, that's maybe reading again more into that. but he would not accept biblical counsel. Thirdly, he made false accusations. It says that he used pratting words against us, unjustly accusing us, some translations would read, false accusations. Understand that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And people who make false accusations are not the solution to the problems, they usually are the problem. The Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, 16, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Proverbs 19, 5, a false witness will not go unpunished. You know, when you think about that, you compare what Paul told the church in First Corinthians 13 and describing how we should live in a love that ought to characterize children of God. He talks about how love suffers long, it is kind, does not parade itself, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, does not provoke, thinks no evil, but rejoices, does not rejoice in iniquity, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believe all things, hope all things, endures all things, Love is demonstrated in the life of a believer is willing to bear a lot. And without retaliation. Is willing to think well of people. To think right. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Rather than take something to the furthest, most evil extreme. He made false accusations. And he did so using malicious words. Now this does not mean that he was cussing them out, give them a good tongue lashing. It really is talking about calling them names that were evil names. Liar, thief, we don't know what else he was calling him. Maybe accusing them of immorality, maybe accusing them of who knows what. But using a term that had serious spiritual implications. You know, we need to be very careful in throwing around terms. I could talk to you about a situation, and I won't because it's, I know people are involved in this, but there's a situation I know where a ministry was destroyed, almost destroyed. It's on its last legs, let's put it that way, at least severely injured, because of a careless statement that was made against someone in that organization. I don't remember if this was, I'm using just an illustration. It's not the exact scenario, but I think they used something like the word, you know, molesting. And someone just in passing say, well, they just molested me. Well, we know what the word molest means, right? That was taken and used and the charge was brought against these individuals in this ministry that they had molested these people. But when that began to come out, the person who said that said, oh no, that's not what I meant. I misused the word. And they were talking about how they had somehow, they felt mistreated them. And just rather than saying they mistreated me, they said they molested me. Well, that has a whole different significance, right? And that ministry today is on life support. because of that careless use of a derogatory or very dangerous term. Now, the Bible talks about how in the book of James, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members and defies the whole body. It sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. Well, we've heard this week a lot about fire, haven't we? A little spark, a little down power line or whatever, you know, careless campfire left burning can destroy, do great devastation. We need to be very careful and not use malicious words. And then it says, he did not receive the brethren. These were likely the missionaries that were traveling through. He wasn't content just to ignore them, but he would chase away anyone who helped them. Try to chase them away from the church. We don't know exactly how he did this. But he wasn't concerned with how his actions were gonna impact other people. You know, one of the things that bothers me in ministry, and I say this after some 40 years now in ministry, no one is an island. And when we are discontent or we begin to criticize or tear down other people, we almost always impact other people. new believers, or young believers who are growing, or someone who is just trying to do, or someone who's just gullible. Jude talks about that, how he wanted to preach to them the gospel, but he had to warn them, and then at the end, he talks about these people that he had to help, and he refers to the simple and others that he had to try to pull out, try to pull out of the fire, because they were getting damaged by these false teachings. Our actions always impact other people. And I think it's important for us to be reminded how the Lord told us in the book of Proverbs that there are six things the Lord hates. Seven are an abomination to him. Think about this, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are running swift to evil. Then he says a false witness who speaks lies and one who sows discord among brethren. Now we might get, okay, hands that shed innocent blood. We might get even a lying tongue or a heart that devises evil plans or is running to evil. Okay, I understand Lord. But a false witness who speaks lies and who sows discord among the brethren is included there in a list including murder. pretty serious stuff. We need to understand the danger and we need to be careful that we by our actions and by our behavior are never in a position where we can be accused of sowing discord. It's interesting that Deutrophy's anger was not just at the missionaries that they were identified with, perhaps identified with John, but he was angry with those who welcomed them as well. And they received the harshest treatment because they had extended hospitality to the brethren. Then we come to verse 11. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, and he who does evil has not seen God. We know the bad example of Diotrephes. What about good? We mentioned Demetrius. Again, we don't know much about this man as well. Some suggest perhaps he was the one carrying the letter to Gaius. We don't know that. But he stands in contrast to what is said about Diotrephes. He gives us this example, this contrast. And what he says about Demetrius is first of all that he has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself and we also bear witness and you know that our testimony is true. He had a good testimony from everyone. No controversy here. He's just a man who loved the Lord, loved people, quietly went about the job of serving his Lord. Everyone knew him and thought highly of him. I've used this illustration before in a message. I remember going into a church Sometimes you go into a church and you leave, Les and I leave, and it's like, oh, pray for that church. Boy, they need help. This was a church we left and we were just radiating. We loved it. This is great. I met a man who, almost as soon as we came to the church, he just came up and greeted me and just started talking about the Lord. I said, sometimes people do that and you kind of, It impresses you as fake, but there was nothing fake about this guy. He just, he loved God. He loved the Lord. He was telling me about what he'd been reading in his Bible, and he was asking me spiritual questions, and we just had a great conversation. I ended up staying, and they had a dinner after the service, and I ended up meeting several people, found out they were his children, adult children, and I didn't know it at first, But after talking to them, I began to see the connection, because they all talked the same way. Love the Lord, serving God. It was wonderful, but it was sad. It was wonderful because it was a blessed experience. It was sad because it was not the norm. That it stands out as a unique memory is a sad statement. Demetrius had a testimony that he loved God, he loved people, everybody knew him. Now he probably didn't have a good testimony before Diotrephes. Because if he, again, if he was helping, doing what John said, that that was not gonna be, he was not gonna be on his good side, but we assume he would have received the brethren and he would have done what he could to advance the cause of the gospel. Secondly, he had a good testimony from the truth itself. In other words, he wasn't just a jolly, friendly, get along with everybody kind of guy. But he was known for his faithfulness to scripture. He was a friend of the truth. He accepted wisdom and he heeded the word of God. Now there are people who are friendly, they get along with everybody, but sometimes they violate scripture while doing it. It's a challenge to obey God's word with the right spirit so that there is no offense because of our attitude, but because of the truth of God's word. In James 3, it describes what wisdom looks like. This is what I think Demetrius' life looked like. If you could talk to Demetrius. It says, wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. That's biblical wisdom. That's biblical character. That's what is good. A person whose life is characterized by unrest, By strife, by not giving mercy, by harsh language, by accusation like deatrophies, it's contrary to what is good. You can't have it any more plain. He knew, he had a good testimony from everyone, he had good testimony from the truth itself, and finally he had the confidence and testimony of godly leadership. John says here that we also bear witness and you know that our testimony is true. John could say from everything we know about Demetrius and serving with now again we you know man cannot see another man's heart but John says from what I know of Demetrius He says, I put the weight and the opinion of my apostolic office behind this, that what these people say is true. He's a good man. That's a valuable testimony, to have the testimony of godly leadership behind you. To know that godly people speak highly of you. What would godly leadership say about you? What would people who know you in the church say about you? What would your family say about you? So you know, as you face a new year with new challenges, new problems, new opportunities, we can keep things really simple. Do not imitate what is evil. but rather what is good. Obey God's word, follow those who are obeying God's word, follow those whose testimony is clear, who are following godly leadership. We are blessed at Tri-City Baptist Church to have a history of godly leadership here, from Pastor Singleton, to Pastor Mike, to Pastor Ending, and then a number of Pastors who have served in various capacities here, pastors, their wives, our deacons, godly deacons and their wives, college professors who've given up a lot to be able to teach here in the college and seminary and their families. People who serve in various other aspects of the ministry here, who are giving themselves to serve Christ, that's their heart's desire is just to serve the Lord. You know, Pastor Dave, usually at Christmas time, usually mentions when he puts on a big production, especially if there are unsaved people here, you know, when they see the quality of the music and the quality of what is being done, they think, man, they must have some, you know, a big music budget here. You know, they must hire all these professionals to come in. No, everything's volunteer. by people who want to serve God and give their talents and abilities to serve God. You have a lot of godly examples to follow. So don't be a Diotrephes, be a Demetrius. Don't follow, imitate what is evil, but rather what is good. Let's bow our heads for prayer.