We shouldn't be surprised that a culture that rejects the God of truth will not recognize the concept of absolute truth. But for us as Christians, those of us who accept the Bible as our only authority for faith and practice, we must not only accept the truth, but we must also live the truth. The Bible calls God the God of truth. the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth. And of course, Jesus himself said, I am the truth. Please open your Bibles with me this morning to 3rd John. 3rd John, this morning we'll be finishing up our study of John's epistles. In a sane world, Truth is defined as that which conforms to reality. The 1828 Webster's Dictionary defines truth as conformity to fact or reality, exact accordance with that which is or has been or shall be. Unfortunately, we no longer live in a sane world. Several years ago, Answers in Genesis published an article about living in a post-truth culture. The article pointed out that each year Oxford Dictionary chooses a word or expression to reflect the passing year in language. For their word of the year for 2016, they chose post-truth. Oxford defines post-truth as relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. In other words, a post-truth culture is one where truth is no longer objective reality. It's become subjective. It's what's true for me, my beliefs, My opinions, that's what determines the truth. So you think about it. If my truth is different from your truth, then you can't tell me what to do any more than I can tell you what to do. If I believe homosexuality is wrong, who are you to tell me it isn't? I have my opinion and you have yours. For that matter, If stealing your wallet is right for me, you can't tell me it's wrong. Because in this view, it's not wrong. It's just not right for you. But inevitably, as we see this playing out in the news today, right? I mean, it's taken over the culture. We see it playing out every day. Someone ends up deciding what truth is and usually it's those with the most power and the most money. As the old adage goes, might makes right. Well we really shouldn't be surprised by a culture that rejects the creator God that rejects his son, Jesus Christ, that rejects the Bible, the scriptures, which the Holy Spirit breathed out, we shouldn't be surprised that a culture that rejects the God of truth will not recognize the concept of absolute truth. But for us as Christians, those of us who accept the Bible as our only authority for faith and practice, We must not only accept the truth but we must also live the truth. The Bible calls God the God of truth, the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth, and of course Jesus himself said, I am the truth. And as we conclude our study here in 3 John this morning, we're introduced to a man who is connected by John as one whose life witnesses to the truth. And he set forth an example for all of us as believers to imitate. If you'll remember when we began 3 John I outlined it this way, walking in the truth, working for the truth, wrangling against the truth, and witnessing to the truth. And I'd like us as we begin this morning to just go ahead and read the second half of this letter beginning in verse 9, the two verses we dealt with last week, and then the rest of the chapter that we'll be dealing with this morning. So 3 John 9. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends each by name." So here in verse 11, this is the fourth time in this short letter that John addresses Gaius, his dear friend, as beloved. And he's approaching the end of this letter and he gives Gaius a command. He says, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. We get our word mimic from the word translated imitate. He tells Gaius to mimic good rather than mimic evil. And of course, in context, John is encouraging him to continue the good work that he's been doing, and in no way to imitate the evil practice of diatrophies. He then gives Gaius a positive example, an example of good to imitate. He mentions this man named Demetrius, and it is probable that Demetrius was actually the one who delivered the letter to Gaius. We don't know for sure, it's very likely. And Demetrius is a good example of a faithful witness to the truth. So this morning, let's look at his testimony, which is an example to all of us. And the first thing we see here is a faithful witness to the truth gives evidence of good works. He gives evidence of good works. We see here that a faithful witness, to the truth is from God. He says, Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. In other words, a faithful witness to the truth, he knows God. He knows God intimately as his child. He says he's from him. That's the source of the truth. That's the source of this faithful witness. He's from God. He says that he has seen God. And of course, after studying 1 and 2 John and coming to the conclusion of 3 John here, we understand what John's talking about. Over and over again, he's spoken of those who are born of God, those who know God, those who have seen God. He's speaking of someone who has come to God through Christ, been forgiven of their sin, And they've seen God in the sense that they have a spiritual understanding and acceptance of who he is as he has revealed himself in the scriptures. And so a faithful witness to the truth is from God and a faithful witness to the truth practices good. He imitates good, not evil. He practices what is good. And again, you go back to 1 John and we see this over and over again. So Demetrius is an example of a man who models the truth. He not only says he believes it, but he practices it. He's willing to selflessly sacrifice his own desires and comforts for the sake of others and for the sake of the gospel. And he's presented here in contrast to Diotrephes, a man who did not model truth, a man whose motives and words and actions were selfish and evil. See, the way one lives gives evidence to their spiritual condition. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. This is that moral test that we saw repeated over and over again in our study of 1 John. The genuine believer has been born of God, he has seen God, and his relationship with God profoundly affects the way he lives. To do evil is to prove that one does not know God, and that he's not seen God. It appears that John here is perhaps even questioning the salvation of this man, Diotrephes. saying that he's evil. So we must not imitate people like Diotrephes who practice evil. Rather, we must imitate people like Demetrius who practices good. And there are really two applications here. First, we must be careful who we are imitating, right? We must be careful who we are imitating because we are all imitators. And we need to be careful upon whom we're fixing our eyes and listening to because the people we focus on are going to influence us either for good or for evil. And we can really make a broad application of this truth because our day is much different than the first century. We have many more people in our lives to choose from to imitate. Why do they call certain people who prolifically and effectively post on social media platforms influencers? Why do they call them influencers? Well, it's a rhetorical question, right? Because they influence people. They actually influence other people. Other people mimic them. In our day and age, it's not just the people in your home. It's not just the people that you work with. It's not just the people you go to school with or go to church with or those in your neighborhood who influence you. It's the post you see on social media. It's the influencers that are out there. It's the actors and the characters that they represent that you watch on your TV or on your movies. It's the music you listen to. All these and more are potential influencers in our lives. And we all need to be careful who we are allowing to influence us. Whether it be someone on social media, which is a very dangerous place, or whether it be somebody who attends your own church, a place that should be much safer. Because not all professing Christians are good examples for us to imitate, right? Even Paul, the Apostle Paul, he had to qualify his statement when he said, be imitators of me. And he had to add, as I imitate Christ. And that's the criteria. Whoever is influencing you and becoming one whom you imitate, you need to ask yourself the question, is this person imitating Christ? Is he like diatrophies? This self-centered, controlling person who wants to be the greatest influence of all and who is actually leading people away from Christ? Or is he a person that I should be imitating, like Demetrius, someone who is inspiring me to be more like Christ. Because who we allow to influence us, who we choose to be imitators of, will greatly affect our spiritual lives. Of course, the other application is, what kind of example are we setting for others to imitate? Because there are people imitating you, There are people that are watching you. You are influencing other people. When I was a young father, one of my children, I won't tell you which one, since I was young it was one of my older children, I'll tell you that much, but they began telling me how much I was acting like my dad. Now I wish that she had been telling me these things because she really liked what she was seeing, but that wasn't the case. Now my dad was a good Christian man, but far from perfect like all of us. And without even realizing it, because I didn't listen to her at first, but she was very persistent. And without realizing it, I understood that I was imitating him in some ways that were not commendable. And I thank God by His grace, I realized that some of those things I was doing weren't good. I was not imitating good without even knowing it. I was imitating an evil example that I had learned as a child. And don't misunderstand, my dad wasn't an evil man, okay? I hope you understand that he's in heaven today. I'll see him again one day. But he had taught me by his example some ways that were not good as far as being a husband, as far as being a father. And I didn't even know it, that I was imitating him. And by the grace of God, you know, I focused on those things and sought to change those things and do what was right and become, you know, to be a good example for others. And really it comes down to that. I mean, your parents influenced you as well. You probably still have things in your life because you were influenced by your parents, whether good or evil. And now, if you have children, you influence your children. And some of us are influencing our grandchildren. And we're also influencing one another. And we have influence in the lives of many, many people in our lives, and we don't even really think about it that often. But each of us should be striving to be where Paul was when he wrote to the Corinthians and said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. You know, this is what we need to be doing. We need to be watching who's influencing us, who we're imitating, whether we even know it or not. We should take note of it and figure that out. And we should also understand that everything we do as we live our lives, we are influencing other people. So John presents Demetrius here as an example of someone who should be imitated. And he gives a threefold testimony on Demetrius behalf. You see a faithful witness to the truth is recognized by others. And it's interesting what he says here in verse 12. He says, Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone. Now, Demetrius was a good Christian man. He was a faithful servant of Christ. So much that everyone, which is probably a reference to all genuine believers who knew Demetrius, I'm sure those who oppose Christianity didn't look up to Demetrius, but all genuine Christians that knew him knew him to be a man of character and integrity. He had a good testimony. The verb translated here received a good testimony and it's noun form, testimony, which occurs at the end of this verse. It's a common word. It's used over a hundred times in the New Testament. And it's more often than not translated witness, testify, or testimony. And depending on the context, The word can have a neutral meaning of bearing witness or testifying, but it can also be used in a specific sense of bearing witness favorably of somebody or speaking well about a person. And this is the sense here in 3 John 12. Now you're familiar with this. I mean, I'll read some verses here that you would know and, you know, where he's using, the author of scripture is using this word. It's in Acts 6.3 where they're choosing the first deacons. Therefore brothers pick out from among you seven men of good repute. Same word. Acts 10.22, Cornelius is one who is said to be an upright and God fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation. Well spoken of, same word. It's used also of Timothy in Acts 16. Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer. His father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra. In 1st Timothy 5, 9, and 10, it's spoken of a widow. If a widow is going to qualify to get help from the church, then she needs to be one who is having a reputation for good works. Same word, having a reputation. And then it's used repeatedly in Hebrews 11, in verse 1 and 2. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation." And then it goes on to say that Abel was commended, Enoch was commended. And then finally at the end of the chapter he says, all these though commended through their faith did not receive what was promised. So you get the picture of what John is saying here about Demetrius. He has a good testimony. He has a good reputation. He's well spoken of by everyone. Everyone knew that Demetrius, as a Christian, was one that they could recommend. He was commended. His good works gave evidence that he was from God. His good works gave evidence that he knew God, that he had seen God. So other believers who knew Demetrius, they bore witness that he was a Christian man whose life witnessed to the truth. And that's, you know, that should be something we should all want as believers. We should want other Christians to be able to say, He, she has a good testimony. I can speak well of this person because this person's life witnesses to the truth. This person not only believes the truth, but this person lives the truth. But note also the next witness. Very interesting here, John says, He has received a good testimony from everyone, and he's also received a good testimony from the truth itself. So John personifies truth here, and he says Demetrius' devotion to the truth is self-evident because of the way he lives. Truth is embodied in him, and his life conforms to the truth. So it wasn't only that other believers who knew him testified that his life was aligned with the truth, but John says here that the truth itself testifies to Demetrius' commitment to live in alignment with the truth. Even if there was no other human being that testified that Demetrius was committed to the truth, the truth itself would testify to this fact. In other words, you could take Demetrius' life and you could evaluate his faith and his practice and compare it to the revealed truth of God and they would line up. It's not that Demetrius was sinlessly perfect, but the trajectory of his life, the way he lived, lined up with the truth. He lived out the truths that John had wrote in his three epistles. His profession to the truth and his obedience to the truth are synonymous. So there's a witness to his faithfulness to the truth by other believers. There's a witness to his faithfulness to the truth by the truth itself. But note also that there's a witness to the truth that's recognized by Church leadership. Know what John says here. We also add our testimony and you know that our testimony is true. Demetrius had the testimony of John the elder and the church where he pastored. They were able to testify that Demetrius was genuine in his faith. He was one who could be mimicked in the Christian life. He was walking in the truth, and everyone who knew him testified to this, even the leadership of the church. There was no doubt that Gaius would welcome Demetrius, because John and the other leaders in the church testified that his life exemplified truth. They spoke highly of his life's testimony to the truth. And really we think about this, we think about these three witnesses that bore witness to the fact that Demetrius was a faithful witness to the truth. We should think about that and really honestly evaluate our own testimony. What do others say about you? Can others sincerely testify that your life is a testimony to the truth? What would your spouse say about you? What would your children say about you? What would your fellow church members say about you? How about other Christians you know? The question isn't how much Bible knowledge do you have? The question is, does your life testify to others that you not only say you believe the truth, but you actually live the truth? Your testimony is important to other people. Can you say to other people, imitate me as I imitate Christ? Is your testimony such that others can imitate you? Because that's the standard. I mean, Paul sets the standard and John establishes it here as well for us through this life of Demetrius. What about the truth itself? How do you stack up against God's revealed truth? Does the truth itself speak well of you? Is the fruit of the Spirit evident in your life? Are you walking in light of Scripture that God has opened your mind to? Are you loving other Christians? Are you denying yourself and taking up your cross daily and following Christ? Are you speaking the truth in love? There are so many questions that we can ask ourselves from Scripture in evaluation of ourselves. And then to the best of our ability, discern whether the truth itself testifies that our life is bearing witness to and aligns with God's revealed truth. That's the standard that John sets forth. And what are the spiritual leaders, those whom God has ordained to lead in your local church, what do they say about your testimony to the truth? What do the attitudes, words, and actions that you manifest communicate to the church leadership? Can they say that you are a Christian whose life testifies to the truth? Of course, ultimately, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. We spent three weeks studying that, right? The judgment seat of Christ. But I hope you understand that God has given us, by his grace, he has given us the means by which to prepare ourselves for that day when we will stand before Christ and give an account of ourselves. God has placed you in a local church where you have other believers who know you. They know your strengths and weaknesses. They know your struggles. And as fellow believers, we're here to help one another. We should be able to speak encouraging words to one another and build one another up in the faith. We should also be able to go to one another and reprove one another and correct one another when it's necessary. God has given us his word whereby we can evaluate ourselves to see where we are in comparison to what God says, where God says we should be. Are we consistently maturing in Christ's likeness? Are you personally maturing in Christ's likeness? That's what we all need to be doing. We shouldn't be excusing ourselves because we're selfish or spiritually lazy and don't want to do what it takes to grow in our Christian lives. On the other hand, don't misunderstand. We shouldn't be just beating ourselves up because we haven't arrived yet, because none of us have arrived or will arrive this side of heaven. But we should be evaluating our lives in light of the scripture, the truth itself, so that as we grow in Christ, the truth itself to a greater and greater degree bears witness that our lives testify to the truth. And I hope you understand the role of the church leadership in this area of your life and this area of Christian growth. The pastors, the elders, the leaders of a local church, they're not the police force. They're not the local sheriff's department that's there to make sure you're keeping all the rules. Now, the primary purpose of church leadership involves shepherding. It involves taking the truth of the word of God and preaching and teaching and admonishing and correcting and helping those in the congregation to mature in Christ so that they can help others to mature in Christ. So if the leadership of the church comes to you and says to you, hey, your life isn't testifying to the truth. If the leadership of the church comes to you and says, you really need to be a better example and testify to the truth because others are imitating you. You should work on this. Then what you need to do is repent. You need to repent and submit yourself to scripture. If that's the case you should listen to the spiritual leadership that God has placed in your life because it's for your own good. It's for your own good even as a writer of Hebrews points out in chapter 13. It's to help you to prepare for that day of reckoning when you will stand before Christ and give an account of yourself to God. Do you see that? Other Christians in your life and the truth itself, and the leadership, the spiritual leadership that God has placed you under in a local church, all of that is to help you in your growth in Christ, to live a life that testifies to the truth so that it will prepare you for when you stand before Christ and give an account of yourself, you will have been helped. because you listened to the other believers, because you didn't just read the word and be like one who looked in the mirror and saw something on your face that needed to be cleaned up and just walked away and left it that way. So when your church leadership came to you and said, listen, you really need to work on this, you really need to change here, you didn't say, forget them, they don't know what they're talking about anyway. That's what God uses. That's his grace that he uses to bring us to spiritual maturity. That's why when you look at Ephesians 4 and it's talking about the spiritual maturity of the local body, it's in the context of a local church. Of course, we're dealing with all of this in our discipleship group study right now. So I hope you can understand that. You know, and I'm thankful that Some of you here this morning are like Demetrius, and you're walking in the truth, and your life is a testimony to the truth. And every Christian who knows you would speak well of you. The truth would speak well of you. The leadership would speak well of you. But undoubtedly, there are some here this morning who are not testifying to the truth with their life. People are really good at hiding things, right? I mean, somebody can make other people think well of themselves, and even church leadership, and yet be someone who is not really testifying to the truth. And the truth itself would not testify that that person is walking in the truth. And of course, if that describes you, the only answer is to repent. To turn away from your sin and turn to Christ. It all starts with the gospel, right? It all starts with the gospel. You can't testify to the truth if you don't know Christ. If you've never turned from your sin, If you've never said to God, I know I'm a sinner. I know I deserve your wrath because I have offended you, a holy God. If you've never acknowledged that Jesus, the son of God came to this earth, that he shed his blood on the cross, that he died in your place. If you've never received him as your savior from sin, then you can't testify to the truth. You can fake it. You can pretend to be a Christian. You can pretend to know God. You can pretend to do what pleases Him. But if you've never been born again, if you've never trusted Christ, then you're outside of Christ. You're alienated from God. You have no hope on this earth or in the life to come. So if you've never trusted Christ, the gospel message is always there. Repent of your sin and believe on Christ and be saved. Be forgiven of your sin and have eternal life and have the Holy Spirit to indwell you, to be able to empower you to grow in Christ and become more like Christ. And if you've never received Christ, we would exhort you to do so today. And if you're a Christian who would have to admit, my life doesn't testify to the truth, Again, it's confession, it's repentance, it's faith in Christ, it's getting rid of your pride and saying I haven't been living like I should, I need to change, I need to live a life that gives testimony to the truth of God. Well let's briefly look here at the conclusion of John's letter. Probably could be another sermon but don't worry it's not that long, we'll finish up third John here. He concludes his letter here in verses 13 through 15 much the same way he did in second John. He says he'd rather not use paper and ink, he longed for face-to-face fellowship with Gaius, he had much to communicate to him, he has a great desire to be with him. And as he did in 2 John, he writes of visiting. It's interesting that here he adds the word soon, which isn't in 2 John. He wants to visit soon. And that probably is because he wants to get there as soon as he can to deal with this urgent situation with diatrophies. Also, unlike 2 John, he adds this expression of peace be to you. Of course that's the common Jewish greeting and benediction that communicates his personal wish and prayer for Gaius to experience wholeness and blessing in life. But I want you to note that John ends this letter on a positive note. Yes, diatrophies is a huge problem that has to be dealt with. His self-centered evil ways are hindering the work of the gospel but no man, No diatrophies, no church. In fact, no king, no army can stop the gospel. And it's Jesus who said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. And so he ends on a positive note here. And just one observation that will finish up with here. Note what he says in verse 15, after he says, peace be to you, he says, the friends greet you. Greet the friends each by name. He uses this word friends, and it's the only place in the New Testament that calls believers friends. Jesus did tell his disciples that he called them friends, but this is the only place where believers are called friends. It's the word philos, which you probably recognize. That's the word translated friends. It's related to the word phileo, which means to love. We get the name of the city, Philadelphia, right? love of the brothers, just go there and visit, I'm sure you'll experience it. Phileo, it comes from that word. A Greek lexicon defines this word friend as a person with whom one has a close bond or friendship or to whom one is under a basic obligation. We can learn a lot about this word to see how it is used in the New Testament. Jesus' opponents criticized him for being a friend of tax collectors and sinners. In other words, he was someone who had a close bond of friendship or was under a basic obligation to them. That's how Jesus approached them. It's interesting that Herod and Pilate became friends after their common individual questionings of Jesus. As I mentioned in John 15, 13, Jesus calls his disciples friends rather than servants because he'd shown them what the Father had revealed to them. And then actually in verse 13 he connects the agape love with self-sacrifice for one's friends. It's a passage about one laying down his life for his friends. So the use of this word conveys a closeness between people that goes deeper than mere association or acquaintance. Christians who are part of the same local church should have a close bond of love with other Christians in their church. And we're not necessarily talking about being best buddies. with everybody in the church, but rather we should seek to have friendships with other believers in our church that are characterized by certain things that this word communicates. For example, compassion for others, like Jesus had for the tax collectors and the sinners who had great spiritual needs. That should characterize our relationships in the church, friendship. compassion for others. That there should be a unity that brings us together about what's important to us. Like that unity that Herod and Pilate had that caused them to be friends. We should have that agape love that makes us willing to sacrifice for one another, for the good of the body. and we should have a closeness that has a willingness to share our lives with one another for mutual benefit like Jesus shared his life with his disciples. So as we conclude here in third John I hope you'll pray with me that the Lord by the power of His Spirit and the outpouring of His grace will enable us to give witness to the truth through our own lives, living in obedience to the truth and loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. And as we walk in light and love, we will experience joyful fellowship with God and with other believers. That's what John's epistles communicate, walking in light and love, or you could say truth and love. Light is a synonym for truth. I hope that these messages on John's epistles have been a help to you. There's so much there. There is so much there. And it all starts off with having fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. May God help us to put these truths into practice in our church and I know many in our church are and may God help us to increase more and more. in our love for one another and in our growth in our Christian lives. Father, thank you for the truth, thank you that you have called us to walk in the truth. Lord, may our lives as individuals and may our testimony as a church be such that others would look and say this person gives testimony to the truth. That the truth itself would bear witness that Our lives testify to the truth. Father use the word of God in our lives today to convict us, to encourage us, help us to be the help to one another that you desire us to be. In Jesus name, Amen.