Let's see, I did want to mention also that next Sunday evening, okay, next Sunday evening is always on the Sunday before, the Sunday night before Thanksgiving, we have our annual Thanksgiving and praise service. and we'll be singing Thanksgiving and praise songs, and we'll be giving testimonies, and we'll give, and then we're gonna wind up with the Lord's table before we dismiss that night. So that's next Sunday evening, just to let you know what's going on, okay? All right. Take your Bibles, turn to the epistle of 3 John. 3 John, this began this last week. We saw how this little epistle was written to a faithful member of a church. He was a layman, and his name was Gaius. He was a beloved man who is said to have been a man that was full of hospitality. He was a man who helped servants of the Lord. And he's described as walking in truth and love and being a fellow helper to the truth. And what a blessing. There are, when there are people like Gaius in churches, and every church I've been a part of, there's always been some that had the character of Gaius. They would go out of their ways to be a help, and we love folks that are such as Gaius. But next we find that the Apostle Paul, Apostle John, excuse me, warns Gaius of a man who was on the opposite end of the spectrum as church members come, and he was a man by the name of Diotrephes, and I've heard some call him a church boss. I've heard some call him a church bully. Let's read about him here. 3 John, look at verse number nine. He says, in the Apostle John writes here, he says, I wrote unto the church, but the atrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth. prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. And so we see here diatrophies, and I like to call, I like to describe them as a church bully. I've seen Gaius in most churches I've been a part of, but I've also seen some folks who had some of the same characteristics as Diotrephes, sad to say. A.T. Robertson was a Southern Baptist preacher back in the early 20th century, and he once wrote an article on Diotrephes, the church boss. which was published in a Christian magazine, and as a result, he said there were 20 deacons who wrote the editor of that magazine and canceled their subscriptions because of what they viewed as a personal attack that he had made on them. Now, he didn't know them. but they took it as a personal attack, and that somebody had told them, I guess, but unfortunately, diatrophies in his kind are to be found in many churches also, and not everyone, understand, not everybody loves God's servants. Not every church member wants to invest in the ministries of the local church, and not every church member is willing to receive the ministry of those whom God has called. And, you know, this is the only reference that we have in the scriptures to this man. The only thing we know about him is what's written here in 3 John. So what do we know about him and what was his problem? Well, number one, I want you to see there in verse number nine that Diotrephes loved to have the preeminence. He loved to have the preeminence. Look at verse number 9. He said, I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth thus not. Now, this idea of wanting to have the preeminence in the church is taking a position that the Apostle Paul says belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. In fact, Paul wrote in Colossians 118 about the Lord Jesus Christ, saying that he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. The preeminence in the church belongs to Christ and to Christ alone. Preeminence means there to be first in rank and to be first in influence. And here's the truth that we must make clear. Churches belong to God. particularly to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are His body. They are His bride. And when someone hurts the church, what they do to the church, they actually are doing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, how do you come away with saying that? Well, if you remember when the Apostle Paul was lost and his name was Saul, remember how he met up with the Lord after he had begun persecuting churches and believers that make them up? And when he was confronted by Jesus on the Damascus road, the Lord Jesus said to him in Acts 9 and verse number 5, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? So he was persecuting the church. Jesus said it was a direct attack on him. When you do something to the Lord's church, you are doing it to Christ himself. His persecution of the churches, Saul's persecution of the churches was seen by the Lord Jesus Christ as a persecution of himself. And also Paul wrote this in his first epistle to the young preacher Timothy. In 1 Timothy 3.15, he said these words, he says, but if I tell you long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It's the house of God, and we are the church of the living God, us as a congregation. And we know that's what the Lord wants us to be, amen? We're His. And we show forth that in our lives. Now I heard a story about a man that came into a particular town where unfortunately the churches of that town were known for having people like diatrophies in them who controlled the churches. And the man saw a fellow working in the ditch. He was asking for directions. He said, hey, could you tell me where the church of God is at? And the man stopped his work, he scratched his head, he said, well, I know there's a church on the north side that's run by the Jones family. I know there's a church on the south side that's run by the Johnsons. There's a church on the east side that's run by the Thomases. And there's one on the west side that's run by the Smiths. If God has a church around here, I don't know anything about it. Now, unfortunately, you could find towns that are like that, where they're family controlled, and you have someone that is trying to be preeminent in a congregation. And unfortunately, there are churches that are not only run by folks like Diotrephes, but also are ruined by folks like him. And sadly, sometimes This particular likeness of diatrophies can even be found in some pastors. I'm not going to exempt those that are in the pulpit from that because they can be church bullies just as much as some people in the church can. It's not a good attribute to have. God doesn't want us to have the preeminence. He doesn't want us to be bullies. He wants us to be Christ-like. And, you know, listen, Central Baptist Church here, it's not about me. It's not about your pastor. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to keep that in mind. Again, those who love the preeminence, whether they be laymen or pastors, are taking that which belongs to Christ and Christ alone. And that is what Diotrephes was all about. Second thing I want you to see is we see that Diotrephes was not hospitable to the Apostle John or the missionaries that ministered with him. There in verse number 9, the very last phrase there, verse number 9, the Apostle John said, he receiveth us not, receiveth us not. And in the middle part of verse 10, he says, neither doth he himself receive the brethren. And the brethren I believe that he's talking about are the ones that he had talked to Gaius about, or he wrote to Gaius about, of how he was so great with helping these folks that were coming through town. They were ministering along the way, and just like the Apostle John, They were really missionaries is what they were. They were missionaries that were ministering and said, you know, Gaius, if you're able to take and get them on their way and provide for their needs while they're in your area, you're doing well. You're doing well to do that. And that was a good thing on Gaius' part. Well, this fellow wasn't going to have any part of that. He would not receive, not even the apostle John. I want you to think about that. John was an apostle. We don't have any apostles today. There were just 12 of them. But he would not receive the apostle John, and he would not receive the brethren. Receiveth there, and the receive in those two verses means to admit as a guest or teacher. I guess if they came in, that he wouldn't even acknowledge that they were even there. Unfortunately, I've seen that happen before in churches. Somebody that had a problem with somebody wouldn't even acknowledge a particular individual was there that was a man of God. It even appears here that Diotrephes may have destroyed a letter that John sent to a church. Diotrephes, it appears, refused to submit to the Apostle John's authority. There in verse number nine, he said, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, he receiveth us not. So the idea is he wasn't gonna let the message through. Now, when one who would take the position that belongs to Christ alone, it's easy to see how they might refuse to submit to other authority. If they're not gonna submit to God, If they're not going to submit to God's authority, and the apostles were the authority of God. They were the ones that were laying the foundation of the churches that were being planted early on in this age that we live in, the church age. And they had a special place, and they were given special powers, and they were given special authority. But there's folks such as Diotrephes that would not recognize that particular authority. Now, which quite frankly for him could be a dangerous and deadly place to be if John had not been gracious as he was. I mean, you think about how Peter handled Ananias and Sapphira. You know, they both were, they both struck dead. Now, you know, that's not, you know, I'm not saying that he should do that with diatrophies, but I'm saying that this fellow was, he was, should have been thankful that John was so gracious to him because he was really, in playing around with an apostle, he was messing with a dangerous and deadly thing. The Apostle John said there in the first part of verse 10, he says, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth. John wasn't going to let this pass by. He wasn't going to let it slide through. There wasn't much he could do from a distance. But when he visited the church, he was going to have, I think, a talk. with Diotrephes about what he had been doing. And again, Diotrephes was the opposite end of the spectrum as Gaius was as it relates to hospitality. We saw last week where Gaius was full of hospitality, but Diotrephes was about as inhospitable as they come. Now, a third thing I want us to see here in verse number 10 is Deuteronomy was a spitefully treated those who did receive John and the missionaries that ministered with them. Look there in verse number 10. He says, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them, there it is, forbiddeth them that would and cast them out of the church. There were folks that were in this church that were like Gaius and wanted to be hospitable to the men of God and wanted to show hospitality, but he not only forbade them to show hospitality to John, but they were in danger of being, at least being tried to be cast out of the church by such a man as this. and we see that he was a slanderer also. There in verse number 10 he says he was prating against us with malicious words. The idea there, the phrase there prating against, he was He would just, you know, you heard some people that would just kind of babble bad stuff about, kind of under their breath. You would know they were saying something, and sometimes they would talk a little bit louder than they ought to with something they should have kept in themselves, but they were wanting to be heard. Well, this was the kind of fellow that he was. He was berating the Apostle Paul. He was berating these folks that ministered with him. He was malicious. He was using malicious words, which means that they were very hurtful and very evil words. You know, we need to be careful about our words, don't we? We really do. Our words can be hurtful. Our words can be evil. And we know that Paul wrote to the Ephesus church in Ephesians 4 31 and he said, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And he goes on to say in the next verse, be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. We ought not to have the hurtful words pass our lips. Diotrephes had a spiteful, malicious tongue that he used to prate against the Apostle Paul. And that was not a Christ-like attribute to have. And quite frankly, it could cause damage to the church and cause damage to those who love the Apostle Paul. You ever had somebody trying to bring somebody down that you love, try to bring them down in your sight? That's kind of the idea here. His speech was not helpful, Diocretes wasn't, but rather hurtful. Our speech, we ought to try to speak helpful words, not hurtful. And not only to those whom he was speaking against, but to those also he was speaking to. So he was bringing down these men of God in the sight of the people of the church. And quite frankly, some folks are not mature enough to recognize what's going on and say, you know, that's wrong. You ought not to be doing that. And they think, well, Well maybe I don't need to be thinking as well of the Apostle Paul or these other men of God as what I ought to be. Sometimes it brings them down in the eyes of those that are around. And so his speech was not helpful but rather hurtful both to those whom he was speaking against as well as to those that he was speaking to. And now we need to be careful when someone comes to us with slandering words against others. especially those who are in authority. Amen? If they got a problem, if they have a problem with someone in authority, they'll go to that person. That's the way things ought to be handled in the church anyway. You got a problem with somebody, first go to them. Don't go yapping around the church. Don't go broadcasting your problem without having had spoken to someone. Take it one-on-one. with the individual, and follow the biblical way of taking care of a problem that you might have with another individual. Then we see, Diotrephes, and I can say anyone like him, was not to be followed. Verse number 11 is right after he talks about Diotrephes, and he was telling Gaius here, he said, Follow not that which is evil. Now all that he just said about Diotrephes is that Diotrephes, he was involved in evil with his mouth and with his actions. So beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. So, listen, you know, that kind of behavior is evil, it's ungodly, while we as the children of God are, what are we supposed to be? We're supposed to be Christ-like, aren't we? We're to be just like Christ. And, you know, there are several passages that tell us to depart from evil and to seek that which is good. Let me share a couple of them with you. Psalm 34, 14 says depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Paul said to the Romans in Romans 12, 9, he said, abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good. I like that word cleave there. It's like stick like glue to that which is good, amen. Push off that, abhor that which is evil. It don't have anything to do with it. But cleave to that which is good. And then Proverbs 8, 13 says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. You know, Diotrephes here, he was full of evil, full of pride, full of arrogancy, full of the evil way, and he had a froward mouth if anyone ever had one. And you know, that kind of stuff the Lord hates. He doesn't hate the individual, but he hates the actions of the individual. And that kind of behavior is not to be followed. Don't think to their ungodly behavior, but continue to do good. I like the way the apostle Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians 5, 15. He said, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Amen, we're to follow that which is good. So, what should we take away from this tonight? Well, we need to be as Gaius was in the church. He was beloved. He was walking in truth and charity. He was faithfully serving God by showing hospitality. He was a fellow helper of the truth. Be a Gaius. Amen. Can you imagine what a church full of Gaiuses would be like? It would be wonderful, wouldn't it? Don't be like diatrophies was. I'm glad we don't have any diatrophies right now. We had some early on, but they're no longer around. Don't seek the preeminence. Don't be inhospitable, having a wrong spirit. Don't spitefully treat God's servants and those who are helping them. And don't be a slanderer. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good because that's what God would have for us as His people individually and have for His church as His people collectively. Amen? We are His people. his sheep, amen, and we are to show forth a character that shows that we belong to God. Do you belong to God tonight? I hope that you do. If you do belong to God, let's make sure that we put forth the right thing. As folks come and visit and as we are dealing between each other, amen, keep a good disposition. Handle things in the right way. Amen. And I appreciate folks that see and try to do that. Amen. If you don't know the Lord tonight, come let us show you how you can be saved. How you can come to know the Lord. and how you can be a Gaius, amen, and how you can be a blessing to those in the church. Let's pray. Father, we thank you tonight for the great example of Gaius. Lord, we also thank you for giving us those examples of what not to be. We know that the Bible is given to us. We can see examples of what we should be as children of God. what we should be as Christians, how to shine our lights, how to be the salt of the earth, and Lord, help us to follow those things. But Lord, the Bible is also full of things not to be. There are all kinds of examples of what not to be in Scripture, and Diotrephes is just one of many examples in Scripture. We could think of other names that were given. I think of Alexander the coppersmith that did to the Apostle Paul much evil. And Lord, people such as this, such as Alexander the Coppersmith and Diocretes, we ought to look at it and look at the characteristics that are in their life and make sure that none of those characteristics are in our life. And ever seek, Lord, to follow that which is good and cleave to that which is good and behold that which is evil. Lord, have your will in the way in this invitation time, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.