Living In The Truth

Well, the preaching this afternoon will be from 3rd John, and I will read the entire letter.

We won't go through every verse, but we'll get the upshot of this short letter, this book of the Bible, 3rd

John. Please, when you have that, please stand with me for the reading of God's Word.

3rd John. 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. Beloved, it is a faithful thing that you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church.

You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, for they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the

Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

I've 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 have 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. God bless the reading. Now the proclamation of his holy word.

Please be seated. You know, when we read this short letter, what we come away with very often, what we hear

John telling us, is something like the command to show hospitality to traveling evangelists, to send them away in a manner worthy of the

God, the Jesus, who they represent. Now it's true that we should be hospitable, but you know there's an underlying principle in play here in 3

John. Now we should be hospitable, we should send away legitimate traveling evangelists in a manner worthy of God himself, who they proclaim, but still the letter has this underlying ethos, something behind it that is more than that.

So what causes the apostle John to rejoice is more than just Gaius's care for the traveling missionaries.

What he rejoices in is what is behind that care. What led Gaius to provide that care, to act in this way that gives

John this great rejoicing? Well John rejoices that Gaius has found walking in the truth.

Gaius's entire life, you see, when he says walking in the truth, it means his entire life was structured on God's word, on the truth, the singular truth of God given in such a multifaceted way in his scripture.

He's walking, he's ordered his life, he's arranged himself around that word, he's walking in the truth, and this is the cause for the apostle

John's great rejoicing. Hospitality and acknowledgement of the apostolic authority were the outworking of this walking in the truth, but the truth by which he lived was more than a single action, more than providing hospitality to the evangelists.

It was his guiding principle, and in this John the evangelist rejoiced greatly.

He said everyone has a truth by which they live, everyone has a guiding principle, a worldview that informs all of life, the truth.

We have a truth, we have God's truth, we have more than a set of rules, we have an ethos, we have a worldview through which all decisions can be filtered.

In 3 John, there's four characters. There's John, our author, the disciple whom Jesus loved as he describes himself in his gospel.

There's Gaius, of whom we have just enough detail to make some informed speculation. And then there's

Demetrius, and he's probably one of the missionaries who benefited from Gaius' faithfulness.

And finally, there's Diotrephes, of whom, like the others, we have very little to go on, just a little bit enough to give us informed speculation.

We do know that Gaius obeyed the principle of God's truth by hosting the apostolically commended

Demetrius, despite the wrath of the domineering gotta -be -first Diotrephes.

Let me say that one more time. This is something we know, that Gaius obeyed the principle of God's truth, walking in the truth.

He obeyed the principles of God's truth by hosting the apostolically commended

Demetrius, despite the wrath, the possible wrath, of the domineering want -to -be -first

Diotrephes. As we go through this message, when

I speak of apostolic authority being acknowledged by Gaius, how does that relate to us today?

Well, apostolic authority is what we have in the Scripture. This is the apostolic authority from Genesis to Revelation.

This is the truth in which we walk. And so much of it, as was known by Gaius at the time that this letter was written, during John's life, and what he knew, probably as a student, a disciple of John, was the truth around which he arranged his life.

A man named Robert Morrison, I don't quite know when he wrote this, but he kind of summed it up this way.

He said, by the indwelling of God's truth, living principles are implanted in the soul.

They are a fountain spring, whence well forth love, benevolence, active well -doing, and the end is eternal life and glory.

A guiding principle that controls our life, implanted by God in the soul, upon conversion, the

Holy Spirit witnessing to us of the truth of God. By the indwelling of that truth, principles are implanted within the

Christian. The fountain spring, as Morrison says, whence well forth love, benevolence, active well -doing, and the end is eternal life and glory.

Let's see what it means to us about this living in the truth, and what it means to each other, to find one another doing this, living in the truth of God, living according to God's word, growing and growing evermore into the image of the

Lord Jesus Christ. See, John encourages Gaius to continue this, and we need to understand that when we walk in the truth, when you walk in the truth, you bring joy to others.

Your walking in the truth brings joy to others. 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 your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.

John rejoiced to hear that Gaius's guiding principle and the actions that that principle resulted in were from the truth.

Obviously, John means the truth of God, not just some general truth, the truth as it is in Jesus.

You see, the benefits that come from faithful living in God's truth extend further than we often think.

The apostle Paul writes often about how we encourage one another, how we build one another up, how we are an organism as it were.

We're a body that grows in strength and health and spiritual vitality, and how so?

By the encouragement that we have in seeing one another grow, seeing the holiness in us expand and inform more and more of what we do.

You see, when you live that way, we don't often think how far that might extend, how it would bless your pastor, all three of your pastors who stand up here and, as it were, plead with you to hear this word of God, plead with you to grow in the

Lord Jesus Christ, or if you don't know him, to come to him. What greater joy could we have as Christ's under -shepherd than to see you growing and walking and living in that truth that we proclaim to the best of our ability, and then that truth in which you live is an encouragement to everyone else around you.

Now, this doesn't make it like some dreadful responsibility to provide guilt upon you. See, you're not encouraging others because you're not living in the truth.

That's not at all where we're going. Just so you know that living in the truth, when

John saw this from one of his children, clearly he was the one who was active, the agent of converting

Gaius, the one that Christ sent to Gaius to convert him. It gives great joy.

It encourages me to grow more and more myself into the image of Christ Jesus.

Oh, I know I'm a pastor, so I know it all. I'm there, right? No, not even close. I'm with everybody else, just called in humility to this position with Brian and with Conley.

No greater joy than a word that we proclaim that gets through and changes you and gives you that increment, if you will, closer to Christ, walking more and more in the truth.

Christians rejoice in the truth. As 1 Corinthians 13 says, we don't rejoice in wrongdoing, but we rejoice in truth.

Not truth as an esoteric idea, not rejoicing as a mere affirmation. John rejoiced greatly to see

God's truth being lived out. From 1 and 2 John, the truth that ordered Gaius's life was a truth of God as it is in Jesus Christ.

The Lord came in the flesh, that God became flesh. God the Son, not God the

Father. God the Son, a distinct person from the Father and Spirit. He became flesh. That's the truth that John worked so hard to infuse into his church and to solidify them in.

Christ took on human flesh. Christ lived as we do. This truth is historical. Christ really lived.

Christ really died on the cross. This truth is regulative. It tells us how to live. It tells us how to worship.

God's Word tells us what must be our necessary response to this truth as it is in Christ.

Now, what did John actually do when he rejoiced greatly? I mean, did he dance like David before the ark?

Did he sing a hymn? Did he weep for joy? We just don't know. But we can surmise that deep in his spirit,

John had this overwhelming experience of joy that continued when he thought of Gaius.

He felt joyful. Again, he didn't spring up and sing hymns or go into a rapture of prayer, though that's possible.

He just felt a deep -seated joy within that God used him to do good for another sinner, for Gaius.

You ever consider how your life, when arranged according to God's truth, benefits others? I gotta tell you.

I'll tell you again. It does. It benefits me to see the implanted Word of God having its way with you.

It brings joy to all three of your pastors to hear that our preached Word, our counsel, our friendship has any part of you walking more and more the truth.

And what does that benefit? It's just rejoicing with joy inexpressible, 1 Peter 1 .8. Rapturous joy, a joy that is the sole possession of a

Christian, a joy that is the sole possession of one who loves Jesus Christ and therefore rejoices to see

Jesus Christ growing in you and me and others around you.

A joy you must feel when you see a brother or sister in the Lord walking in that truth and growing more and more into Christ.

You see, we need encouragement to stay on track, don't we? We know the truth. Most of us can read very, very well.

We've been to school, been to universities, went through high school. We can open this up. We can read these letters. We can read these books and understand what's being brought to us.

But we still need encouragement from each other to stay on track. Beloved, verse 5, it's a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testify to your love before the church.

You do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. They have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the

Gentiles. Therefore, we have to support people like these that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

Jesus said, the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few.

Guys can be sure he was on the right path. Now, how could he be sure? The same way that we can be sure.

How do you know it's the right path? Well, here's just one test. One of I'm just going to focus on this one thing.

It's a hard path. It costs you something. It's a narrow and hard path to stay on.

In Pilgrim's Progress, Christian and faithful had a hard time even seeing the path, much less staying on it. So one piece of evidence that Gaius was walking in the truth is that it cost him something.

Here in this case, he had to face down Diotrephes' anger, his wrath. We don't know much about this domineering man who put himself first, but maybe some of Gaius' friends remained loyal to Diotrephes.

Maybe he was going to lose friendship because he was hosting missionaries who Diotrephes says, no, you can't.

And Diotrephes would put him out of the church and he would lose friends. It costs something.

But Gaius walking in the truth, the catalyst for great joy in John the Apostle, it was hard.

It was hard to stay on the truth. Brethren, it's hard to stay on the truth. It's hard to resist temptation, is it not?

It's hard to not fall back on besetting sins. It's difficult. It's a tough path. It's as we've preached this morning, a suffering path.

It's just tough. And one of the things that helps us along is that we have each other.

And as you walk more and more in the truth, and as I see holiness growing in you, and you see

Christ being formed more and more in me, it encourages all of us that we're on the right path and that we can continue on that path.

It's Christ who works in you to will and to do for God's good pleasure. So it's

Christ working in you. It's God who's working in you. It's the Holy Spirit's power within you. And it's you doing.

It's both and. And when I see you doing, it encourages me that I can do it too.

I mean, if this one can do it, I can. And if I can do it, then you'll see it in another. And it just grows and grows and grows.

It gave John great joy to see this in that one man. And it's an encouragement. This walking in the truth, though.

It exposes the opposite number. You know, Billy Budd Saylor, if you've ever read that story, you have

Claggart, the master at arms, a very stern disciplinarian to the point of cruelty, who would have men flogged, awful punishment for the slightest crime.

And then along comes Billy Budd, a sailor who was pressed onto there. And he has, in the story, he's kind of a messianic,

Christ -like figure by analogy, but he's just so pure and so good, and he refuses to think bad of anyone, including

Claggart. And the more Claggart tries to get him to hate him, the more Billy Budd refuses to hate him.

And that makes Claggart madder and angrier and more cruel. There's nothing that exposes sin quite like one who's walking in the truth, one who follows

Christ, and those around will be exposed. He says here in verse 9,

I've written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So in our day, a pastor who wants to be first and does not acknowledge the authority of the scripture, who says it's a really good word, you know, we like this word, we're going to kind of follow this word, and we'll take it as it pleases us.

And most of those men who would say something like that would say, and you'll take it as it pleases me for you to understand it.

Run. Battle cry in this case is run away, run away, get out of there.

Diotrephes will soon find out why Jesus gave John the name Son of Thunder. We think of John as the disciple who's leaning on Jesus' bosom in John 13 23, such a soft, gentle man, the disciple who wrote so much about love.

Oh, he's like the love apostle. We forget that Jesus gave him a name that denotes power and strength and courage.

He's a son of thunder because Jesus said so. Like Paul, he was gentle in his demeanor.

He learned from his master what it means to keep power and authority under control. And Diotrephes is going to learn that you don't run around spreading lies about a man of God chosen by name to be an apostle of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He says he's talking wicked nonsense.

You know, nonsense gets back to a Greek word that has at its core the idea of bubbles, like the soap bubbles the kids use, the wands, you know, where they get the soap on there and they blow it out or they wave the wand and those pretty little bubbles come out.

And what happens when they hit a little bit of wind or brush against something solid like a tree or a leaf or a tiny little twig?

What happens? They're gone. They're gone. No substance.

Doesn't mean anything. A little bit of soap on the sidewalk and how long does that take to dry up? Seconds. Well, that's nonsense.

That's the kind of thing John says Diotrephes is speaking. Bubbles. No substance.

And when the son of thunder comes, when he got there, he would be exposed. Diotrephes would be exposed as the lightweight that all domineering bullies are.

One of the great advantages of plurality of elders is that it prevents exactly this. It prevents one man from standing and saying,

I'm right and you will believe everything the way I say. I'm reading it a little bit.

I admit that. And I said, it's all informed speculation, but it's a little speculative about Diotrephes. This seems to match the tone and tenor of what

John says of him. See, everyone lives according to a truth. Everyone lives according to a truth.

And for most of the world, that truth is a self -made truth. It's like the idols that Jeremiah and Isaiah condemned so certainly.

Made by man to serve man. Idols that tell us just what we want them to tell us. We tell you, this idol, here's what you can tell us.

Here's your code of ethics that I will choose to follow. The gods of religions, like the

Hindus, are really just visible manifestations of men's creation. But everyone lives according to some truth.

Like Diotrephes, the majority today follow a self -made, self -serving truth. And we hear this all the time.

Something like this, well, my truth works for me and your truth seems to work for you. And I'm glad that you have a truth that works for you, but you know, let's not let the two conflict.

I'm going to do my thing, you do yours. But I have a truth and you have a truth and aren't we all so happy together?

And the problem is that their truth doesn't really work, the worldly truth.

And we find that if they have a truth that is diametrically opposed to another truth, well, can we say, just with the simplest of logic, they can't both be right.

If they conflict with one another, one of them has to be, and this is an awful word in the world, and here it's being recorded, and I'm going to become an anathema, and that's okay.

They're wrong. It's incorrect. It makes no sense. One of them has to be wrong and one of them has to be right.

Or, as we as Christians understand it, you know what? Logically, one's right and one's wrong, but really you're both wrong because the truth that you follow is a worldly, not a biblical,

Christ -centered truth. I ask you, have you fallen victim to any worldly truth?

Have you followed adiatrophies? There's an easy test. Who comes out first when the truth you live in is applied to a circumstance, a circumstance involving others?

Who comes out first? Is it others who come out ahead? Philippians 2, 2 through 4 said, think of others' needs as more important than your own.

That's biblical truth. That's the truth that Gaius walked in and John rejoiced to see.

How often does our truth lead us to really truly believe and act as if that brother or sister is more important than me?

Those needs need to be met now by me. Does your conclusion, when you follow your understanding of truth, follow the other -serving mind of Christ?

Philippians 2, 5 through 8 have this mind in you also, which was in Christ Jesus. Thinking of others is more important than yourself, and it goes on through the cross, and we humble themselves to the point of death, even death on the cross.

Does that truth inform your decisions? Because if it doesn't, we need to look and say,

I've allowed an incursion. There's some worldliness here. I've got some diatrophies in me, and I need to repent of that and follow the truth, the truth that gave

John such rejoicing. See, our truth is not subjective. The world attributes absolute truth to your own truth, particular truth to your worldview, to whatever works for you and makes you happy.

Another worldling's truth is opposed and opposite to yours, and that's okay, and they lead to different decisions, and that's all okay because we'll accept it all.

In this mode of thinking, the worldview truth of the mass shooter cannot be judged as inferior to the majority truth.

It really can't. In this mode of thinking, with the individual custom -made truth, they would agree that murder is wrong, but on what basis?

We would say murder is wrong first because God said so, and why does God say it's wrong? Well, you can go back to Genesis because man is made in the image of God, and so shedding blood is an offense against God, and so we can objectively say we know why murder is wrong, but if truth is subjective, they really have no basis to deny the moral rightness of the murderer, pedophilia, any number of perversions.

It's only wrong because of the force and majority and law. They cannot judge it wrong by their ethos that says that your truth is as good as any others, and they sort of pick and choose.

We don't do that. We have a truth given to us in the scripture, 66 inspired books.

You see, the point here is that God's word applies to your circumstance. God's word applies to every circumstance, but it doesn't bend.

It doesn't yield to circumstance. Psalm 119, 89, forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.

God's unchanging, unerring truth provides a solid framework for all of life so we can walk in that truth, a worldview that's based on the life and death and resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ. That informs everything. So finally,

Christian, stay on course. Walk in the truth.

Give me, give Conley, give the brother or sister next to you, your husband, wife, cause for great rejoicing and cause to look at a sinner like me and see you or her growing in the truth and saying, well, if she can, if he can,

I can. I'm going to follow those ways and rejoice greatly and grow in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Stay on course. He says in verse 11, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God.

Whoever does evil has not seen God. Again to Demetrius, he has received a good testimony from everyone.

He was probably the traveling evangelist that brought the good report and from the truth itself.

We also add our testimony and you know that our testimony is true. He's not telling

Gaius to stop following an evil example, rather he's affirming Gaius' faith that he is doing what is right.

As dominant, as persuasive as Diotrephes probably was, Gaius was right to resist, even to ignore him.

Demetrius, probably that traveling missionary, he risked the wrath of Cain, the wrath of Cain if you will, the wrath of Diotrephes.

He was a good man. He was well attested by others who saw his endurance in the Lord. Stay on course.

It's hard. It's meant to be hard. As Conley preached this morning, it's a suffering and yet it's a good suffering because as we suffer, as we see our sin, as we repent, as we go to God, we confess our sins.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We grow that much more and I rejoice to see it and you rejoice to see it and we all rejoice together and grow together.

I have much to write to you to close this out but I'd rather not write with pen and ink.

I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face. Now I'm less than two years away from 70 years old so this one really spoke to me and so I'm resisting.

Well, I'm not resisting. Texting is not face to face. Distance is not face to face.

I want to see you. I want to look in your eyes. I want to hold your hand when we shake hands and greet one another.

John wanted to see them and we would say well all they had was expensive papyrus and being able to talk in person.

That was the technology of the day. Fine, but I'm old. I'm old -fashioned. I like what he says face to face but the idea is that we have a tightness together.

We are a close -knit group into the body of Christ. We need to have a fellowship that is personal, that is intimate so that I know that you're walking in the truth and you know that I'm walking in the truth so I can tell you.

You know there's part of this truth you seem to be missing here. Let me tell you as a brother or sister who rejoices to see you grow a better way in one aspect in this or that manner of your life.

Everyone lives in a truth. Christian, your truth is the truth.

God's truth as it is in Jesus Christ. A living word that applies to all of life but does not bend to life.

It informs our life. The truth that answers your circumstance but never yields to it.

Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends each by name.