All right, let's move over to 3 John, and we'll work through it, 3 John. Now, this is the shortest book. If you go and look at all the books in the Bible under a thousand words, 3 John will be the shortest. We have the Old Testament, Obadiah is 669 words. Then when you come to the New Testament, you have Titus, 896 words. You have Jude, 608 words. Philemon, 430 words. 2 John is 298 words. 3 John is 294 words. Now 3 John has 14 verses, and 2 John only has 13, but it still has fewer words. So it's the shortest book in the Bible. And it's got some admonition for us. And this one is a little bit different than 2 John, because in 2 John, he doesn't give a name of the lady that he's writing to. But in 3 John, he actually gives some names. He gives three names, as a matter of fact. And he's writing to a fellow named Gaius in verse number one. And like I told you before, 1, 2, and 3 John were probably written before Revelation, probably 89, 90 AD, something like that. Revelation would have been written later, 95, 96 AD, after his exile on the Isle of Patmos. And so John's writing this, and here it's addressed to Gaius. Third John, verse number one, the elder unto the well-beloved Gaius. So he's addressing it straight to Gaius. And let's turn over to the book of Acts and we'll see this guy, Acts chapter 19. Now tradition says that John was the pastor in Ephesus. Can't really collaborate it with a lot of scripture. You can read some postscripts with some of the endings of the Bible and see some things regarding the church at Ephesus. And of course we read and ask about the church of Ephesus. We have the book that Paul wrote to the Ephesians and then John himself wrote to seven churches. And one of those churches he wrote to was the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2. But Gaius seems to have been there, and I look in Acts chapter 19, come down to, you'll notice the uproar that takes place, 23. They're in Ephesus, and there's a problem going because of the gospel. And the gospel will always stir up the people that hate Jesus Christ. Look in verse 23, at the same time there arose no small stir about that way. In other words, it was a big, big stir. It was a big issue. For a certain man named Demetrius, now this isn't the same Demetrius we're gonna read about later on, not to our knowledge. This is a bad guy. The guy we're gonna read later on in 3 John is a good guy. Verse 24, and a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsman. whom He called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, you see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that there be no gods which are made with hands. So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when they heard these sayings they were full of wrath and cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater. And then you know the rest of the story, how God delivers them from that whole debacle. But notice Gaius is mentioned here. And then look over in chapter 20, you'll see it again. After the uproar ceased, verse number 1, Paul called the disciples, embraced them, departed for to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts he had given them much exhortation. He came into Greece and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to settle in Assyria he purposed to return through Macedonia. There accompanied him into Asia, Sopater of Berea and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus and of Asia. Tychicus and Trophimus. So there's Gaius mentioned again, and he's also mentioned by Paul in Romans and in 1 Corinthians. And so here we have this mention of Gaius, so we can assume this is probably the same guy. Now notice what John calls him in 3 John 1. He calls him the well-beloved Gaius. So evidently he was well-liked, that's all we know about him. You get little snippets of some of these Bible characters, you don't think a lot, you just kinda read through your Bible and you'll read some things about him. But evidently he was the kind of person that he was well-liked, he was well-beloved by people. Not just him, but also others. But he says, well-beloved the gay as whom I love in the truth. That's that thing I mentioned last week, the common denominator that we have as we fellowship around the truth. I mean, you might have some friends and acquaintances, maybe, that you work with, as far as you can go with that, that you have an acquaintance with, but there's not that common tie. But if you're saved, you have Jesus Christ as that common tie. The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth, verse two, beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. Now verse number two is one of those verses people like to use to prove that prosperity gospel type of thing. You know, I want you to prosper. You know, live long and prosper. I'm sorry, I just gave you a movie reference, that's a no-no. But the idea is that these charismatics, what they'll do is use verses like this to try to prove this prosperity thing. Notice John's just, he's casually saying the same thing I think that anybody would say. Nobody, if you care about somebody and you, And you care about their well-being. You don't want them to be sick. You don't want them to not have any money. You don't want them not to have any food, not to be healthy. So you say, I would wish that you would be prosperous. I don't think this is an endorsement of the prosperity gospel at all. I think that's kind of really twisted scripture to try to endorse that. Now here's a problem with the whole prosperity deal. What they do is they take verses from the Old Testament and other places where you can see like the Jews for instance. You know he said you know to Solomon over there you know because you have you know sought after my wisdom and you've sought after the things that really matter I'm going to bless you I'm going to give you these things you didn't ask for I'm going to give you the wealth and all these things and they had that during Solomon's reign. They had prosperity back then. And under that Old Testament, for instance, in the book of Job, way back before the laws ever even introduced, Job probably lived around 1800 BC, around the time of Abraham. And Job and all of his friends there, as they sat around the examining table, if you want to call it that, and here he is with his clay pot scraping off his boils in agony, and they're having their dialogue back and forth about why did this happen to you? You're supposed to be a good man. The whole problem was, hey, if you do right and you serve God, then good things happen. If you don't do right and you get away from God, bad things happen. That's really the underlying tone of the whole book of Job. And they didn't understand that. None of them did. As a matter of fact, even the disciples didn't fully understand this. I mean, Jesus made a comment. He says, it's hard. How hardly should they have riches enter the kingdom of God? And they said, well, who then can be saved? Because they're thinking, hey, if you're If you're well off, that means you must be in favor with God and God's blessing you. And so there's there's some misunderstanding that a lot of it comes from concept of the Old Testament blessing on the natural people of God, which is the nation of Israel. You see, they're the people of God by natural generation. None of them are born again. They're the people of God because they're circumcised into that covenant promise. And God said, I'll bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse of thee. And so he gave them a physical, literal blessing. That whole passage a lot of people try to use to bring America back to God type of thing from 2 Chronicles 7, 14 is an Old Testament Jewish passage. If my people, us Jews, which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. That's an Old Testament promise of blessing if they get right with God. But you know, when you go through the New Testament after the cross, you know what you'll find? You'll find Christians who are right with God, serving God, who get it in the neck. One of them is Stephen, the first martyr, Acts chapter 7. Another one is James, the brother of John. Him and Peter are both in jail. Peter gets out. James gets killed. What about that? What about the apostle Paul who had the gifts of healing? And he had a thorn in his flesh that he couldn't get rid of, which was probably some type of physical malady. And so you see that and you have to understand and put all of this stuff into perspective. And yes, we want you to be well. I hope all of you go home and you got a clean bill of health and you're never sick again a day in your life. I mean, I think we could say that we wish that for each other, but to try to twist the Bible and say, if this is what God wants for your life, that's really stretching things. You say, well, there's healing in the atonement. Well, yeah, there's healing in the atonement, but when you study the atonement, Christ also wore the crown of thorns. That crown of thorns deals with the curse on the ground. The curse on the ground hasn't been lifted yet. That curse on the ground will be lifted in the millennium because the wolf will lay down with the lamb. The lion will eat ox, not ox. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Lions like to eat oxen now, you know. So you want to understand even though there's healing in the atonement, all the benefits of the atonement are not manifest now. We're still waiting for the rest of those benefits of the atonement. And so that prosperity gospel is really dangerous because what happens is there's a lot of manipulation that takes place and there's a lot of charlatans that play on people's desperation is really what it is. And it's sad. And a lot of times they you know, it's just just really, it's just really the what you see in the modern what we call healing movements. And even when you go back and read the history of when it really got popular in America, the early 1900s. 1906 and so forth around Los Angeles, it really gets started up really big and in Kansas and different places. And when that thing really gets going, it from the beginning, it's there's manipulation and there's scandal from the beginning. And misuse of funds, there's always money, there's always money and sexual problems with these leaders of these movements. You always see it. And so it's a dangerous thing. And unfortunately, people twist the scriptures and try to prove that stuff. Now, we can obviously pray for our brothers and sisters that you have prosper. You prosper physically and prosper as far as your health goes. There's nothing wrong in praying that. And we should pray for one another. But you don't want to lose the context. Look what he says in verse number two, even as thy soul prosper. So your soul first, your body next. How's your spiritual welfare? You know, how's your spirit? How's your fellowship with God? That's the most important thing. If you can have your fellowship with God, right, the other stuff will take care of itself. And so that should be the emphasis. And so I think that if you keep that thing in proper context, it'll help us as we pray for one another. Yes, we want to pray for people's sicknesses and so forth. And we do. But you want to pray for people's spiritual well being. All right, verse number three, for I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in the even as they'll walk us in the truth. That's what John's concerned about. It's like, man, you we heard that you're serving God. You're walking in the truth. That emphasis, just like in second John, he's rejoicing. Look back in second John four. I rejoice greatly that I found of my children walking in truth as we have received commandment. You parents in here, aren't you? You know, there's nothing wrong being proud of your kids when they do good. It's not a bad pride, like we talk about, you know, better be humble or you'll stumble. The pride of hearing that your children, maybe they were well-disciplined, maybe they were respectful, maybe they did well in their Sunday school, maybe they memorized the verses, you know? Or something like that, there's nothing wrong in being excited about that, and you should, you know? Even you older parents, when you hear of your adult children and you know they're making some right decisions, man, that's a blessing. As a pastor, when I see church people that are consistently just trying to serve the Lord and maybe they fell down and now they're getting back up and they're trying, man, that's a blessing. That ought to encourage you. And Paul's like, man, I rejoice when I hear that you're walking in the truth, man, that is a blessing. And that ought to encourage you to see your brothers and sisters and those that you're trying to mentor and you're praying for them and you see them walking in the truth. And John's excited about this thing. And notice how that thing spreads. Bad news spreads bad enough, but good news ought to spread as well. And Gaius has a great reputation. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that's in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." Real similar to 2 John there. Verse number five. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers, which are born witness of thy charity before the church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. Because that for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles, we therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. So he's commending him for his faithfulness in how he treated the brethren and strangers. You see that in verse number five. So you need to have a good testimony toward those that are in the assembly and those that are outside. And notice in verse number six, they bear witness of thy charity before the church. And verse number seven, for his namesake, they went forth. And so you see that testimony. And he says, we ought to receive such that we may be fellow helpers to the truth. And so five to seven and five through eight really is a commendation of, you know, just doing some of those common things, maybe being hospitable, maybe being encouraging to someone. I think of missionaries and so forth as they come through, you know, and you try to be a blessing to them, you try to help them along the way. Maybe if it's a stranger, and I'm not trying to tell you to go out and every guy that's holding a cardboard sign, you know, give him some money. But you can offer to buy the guy a hamburger. Most of the time, they don't want food. They want money so they can go buy drugs or whatever with it. But you try to be a blessing as much as you can. Don't let people take advantage of you. I don't recommend that you pick up hitchhikers. Amen. I will tell you a quick story. You ever heard of Percy Ray? He was an old-time Southern Baptist preacher back in, I don't know, he died in the maybe early 90s, early 2000s. But if you read some of the testimonies that took place in his life, it's almost like out of the book of Acts or something. But I read a testimony about the last hitchhiker he picked up. And he picked up a hitchhiker and he picked up this hitchhiker and got him in the car and he began to witness to him and everything. And he led the guy to the Lord. And the guy got saved, and before he got ready to drop him off, he said, I sure appreciate you picking me up. He goes, let me just go ahead and be honest with you. And he pulls out a gun. He says, I got in this car because I was about to shoot you and take everything you have. But I'm saved now. And he handed the gun over to the preacher. The preacher said, praise the Lord. He let him off. He put the gun down on the side of his, you know, how you have the little side thing. Like some of you probably have your guns. Amen. I know where I'm at. He put his gun down there, and he goes down the road, and lo and behold, there's another hitchhiker. And he stops, picks, he's thinking, man, I might catch two fish today. He picks that guy up. That guy gets in the car, and he's acting real, he gets him in the car, and real early, he's acting real squirrely. And that guy starts reaching in his coat, and so Perseret grabs his gun. But that guy just left him, and lo and behold, that guy pulled out a gun, and he had to draw on him. He says, you get out of this car, you know. And so, hey, and he said that's the last one he ever picked up. But try to be hospitable, try to help people out as much as you can, but you know, don't risk you and your family's life over it, amen? But I like these verses here, they're real practical as you think about them. Verse number nine, I wrote unto the church, but diophetrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among the brethren receiveth us not. So now he's going to get negative here. Verse number nine. And so he's talking about this fellow named Day off day off trophies. It's hard to pronounce his name. And this guy I notice in the text, he loves to have preeminence over the brethren. And he likes to the idea of having preeminence is to be a big shot to kind of be a leader. There's leaders of the church and there's leaders in the church. And this guy, he likes to walk around and just kind of push people around. And evidently this fella is being called out by John because John has stood up against this guy. Notice in verse number nine, he loves to have the preeminence. Now that word only occurs a couple of times. Go to Colossians. Colossians chapter one. Diotrephes, Diotrephes, it's hard to pronounce that name. So don't name your little boys Dio. Come here, Dio. Theoptrephes. Look in Colossians chapter number one. Here's this word preeminence. Speaking of Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, verse 15. The firstborn of every creature, by him were all things made. Verse 17, he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. So Jesus is supposed to have the preeminence. That's why we lift up the Lord Jesus Christ in church. That's why we sing songs about Jesus. That's why we preach out of the Bible, to magnify Jesus Christ. And so he is the one that should have the preeminence Let me see this other reference. Ecclesiastes, I think, is the other reference to preeminence. I think, or maybe I just have a cross-reference. Ecclesiastes 3. Ecclesiastes 3, 19. Yeah, here it is. So it would be three times in the scriptures. Ecclesiastes 3, 19. This is Solomon's philosophical musings as he writes as a man under the sun. Ecclesiastes 3.19, he says, Now that'll kind of recalibrate your thinking a little bit. You get to think in your big shot, read Ecclesiastes 3.19. You're not much better than a beast. Look, I'm not saying you've evolved from an animal. Don't get me wrong. We are not animals. God created us as in his image originally. You're not an animal. However, there's a lot of animal instincts that we have. And so you start getting the high and mighty, thinking you are somebody, you know, just remind yourself that you're just kind of, you're just right above the animals there. And Jesus Christ is way above us. So this fella, Diatrophes, he loved to have the preeminence among the brethren. He didn't receive John. Now, if he's not receiving John, these people better look out. And he's giving a warning here to Gaius and these guys. All right, come back to the third John. So he wants to have the preeminence. Now, what that means is someone that's trying to get all the attention, someone that's trying to run things, someone that's trying to gain a following. And you find that sometime in Christian circles. And it's, you have to have leaders, obviously, but sometimes that stuff can go to people's heads. Some of you guys, you see it with the jobs that you have, you know, that kind of stuff goes to people's head, they get a title, and I think because they have a title, they are somebody. But when you're given a position, you're just given an opportunity to fill that position. Doesn't mean you've earned the respect of those under you yet. And so this preeminent thing is a pride issue. That thing is satanic. It comes from the devil. The devil, he exalted himself. That was his whole problem. Lucifer, he exalted himself and said, I will be like the Most High. And this fellow wants to have the preeminence, and that's what you want to watch. All right, come back to 3 John, and notice as he reproves this idea. 3 John 9, I wrote unto the church by diatrophies, 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 forbid of them that would, and casteth them out of the church. He was kicking people out of the church. This guy was basically saying, we don't need to listen to John and those other apostles. You need to listen to me. And he's throwing people out. And he's saying malicious words against John. That word prating is used a few times in the Old Testament. Go to Proverbs. It's not a word we use a whole lot. I don't ever use the word, actually. But notice Proverbs chapter 10. A lot of times you'll see these words defined right in the text. Proverbs chapter number 10, come down to verse 8. You can kind of pick up on what it means if you just kind of read the context a little bit. Proverbs chapter 10, verse number 8, the wise in heart will receive commandments, but a prating fool shall fall. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely, but he that perverteth his ways shall be known. He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow, but a prating fool shall fall. And so this has to do with someone that's a foolish person. and they're not listening to the commandments and they're going to fall eventually as a result of it. So he's he's saying that he's not saying a he's making the connection and back in third John about these this fella and how he has malicious words toward John and he says he's prating against us. So he's his he's foolish in his attacks against John and it actually When you look up the definition of it, it has to do with idle chatter without purpose, vanity, foolishness, just like you see in Proverbs chapter 10, a fool. Now John says he's gonna remember this fellow's deeds. Come back to 2 Corinthians 13. This is real similar to Paul. You know, Paul told the Ephesian elders, he says, you better watch over the flock. Because there's going to be some wolves that come from the outside, and there's going to be some wolves from the inside. And sometimes you're going to have to throw rocks at them. And so John says, I'm going to throw a rock at this guy. I'm going to run this guy off. Looking sick at Corinthians 13. Notice Paul's words. And so the apostles, they knew when to be stern. They knew when to be the kind of parent in the sense of sometimes you parents in here, sometimes you have to lay down the law and say, okay, that's it. And as a pastor over a flock, you have to guard the flock. Look at 2 Corinthians 13, 1. This is the third time I'm coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word should be established. I told you before and foretold you, foretell you as if I were present. The second time and being absent now, I write to them which hithertofore have sinned and to all other that if I come again, I will not spare. Paul's like, I'm coming and I'm not coming, you know, nice. I'm coming, I'm gonna lay down the law. Look over in 2 Thessalonians 3. So this has to do with that negative doctrine we don't like to talk about a lot of times when you have to withdraw from somebody. Now, the best way to deal with this kind of stuff is just to walk close to God to where if they're not walking with God, and they're not doing right, then they're just not going to hang around you. But the idea is, or sometimes you have to say, look, you're not doing right until you're doing right. You're not coming in here. I mean, we had somebody staggering here every service drunk as Cooter Brown. We would have to, Brother Kevin would take care of it back there, as you know. But hey, we want you coming in here, but hey, you just can't be doing that. There's certain things. If you've got somebody coming into assembly and they start, you know, they're passing out little pamphlets, advertising their Bible study. We have Bible study on Wednesday nights and on Sunday school and on Sunday nights. What are you trying to do here? You know, so it's that type of thing that's going on in this church. And you have to realize these are small assemblies. And the smaller the church, the stronger the church has to be. So you have to watch that stuff. Notice the warnings here. Second Thessalonians chapter three. Second Thessalonians three. Notice Paul's warning here in verse number six. Second Thessalonians three, six. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourself from every brother that walk of disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us. for yourselves know how you ought to follow us for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Then he talks about every man working and so forth. So you had people that would come into the early church and they wouldn't work and they would want the church to take care of them. We know the early church, they took care of the widows and things, especially the ones that didn't have nephews and meet the qualifications of a widow that didn't have anybody to take care of them and people would try to take advantage of the charity of the church. And people do that. Some of you don't know, some of you know, sometimes we'll have people come up here and they're homeless and things and they'll come and they all have the same story. It's a little different, different scenario, but it's always the same story. And then you try to work through with them. And you say, Well, can I help you do this help you do that? No, no, if you can just give me give me some money, give me all I needs $50 or all I needs this that I can And that's where the problem comes in, because all they want your money when you say, Hey, can I do such and such? Now, if there's a case, and there has been, you know, and it's freezing cold, even here, there's been cases, I have gotten people on my own dollar, I've put people in a motel room, just so they don't freeze to death. I mean, you have to have a little charity toward people. And you know, the guys on drugs or whatever, but you got to have some mercy on them. But if you if you just get in this mindset that we've got to help everybody that comes down the road, pretty much what will happen is you'll just have a soup kitchen, that's all you'll have. And then you realize, oh, these people are going out, they're buying all this other stuff, and they're coming in and getting all their groceries here. And so there's a balance to that type of thing. And I know we're not in first century, we're not in first world conditions. So we're in a different type of deal. But nonetheless, we have a situation to where this guy is doing things in the church that john's got to step in and say, When I'm there, you're not doing this. All right, come back to 3 John. So he's been preying against them with malicious words, and he's forbidding them to come. He's keeping people out. And that's a messed up deal. All right, come back to 3 John, verse 10. He cast them out of the church. Verse 11. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil have not seen God. Here we go. It's practical for the church age. You need to do right. overcome evil with good and all those passages on good works. I mean we can we can definitely go to Paul's epistles and get a lot of a lot of great stuff you know from that follow that which is good. You know the idea is that real simple practical things you can tell right off the bat if this thing is going in a good direction or a bad direction. You know, so when you're going in that direction, just say, okay, this thing, there's something that ain't right here, I better break away from it. Follow that which is good instead of that which is evil. Real simple, easy advice, we just need to listen to the Holy Spirit on those kind of things. But then look at the last part of the verse, he that doeth good is of God. Okay, how far do you take that? The Shriners? St. Jude's Children Hospital, I mean, How far do we take that? I mean, I'm sure there's some really good Mormons. I'm sure there's some good Muslims in America. There's some American Muslims that aren't terrorists at all. They really believe that they have a peaceful type of American Islamic religion. They might even help you change a flat tire and not worry about you. I mean, I don't know. He that does good is of God. You have to be real careful doctrinally when you start taking these verses and just plaster them over the church age. This stuff matches some of the stuff we saw in 1 John. He that doeth evil hath not seen God. That goes hand in hand with some of that stuff we saw back in 1 John. Take a left turn and look at it real quick. Let's think about seeing God. Look in chapter 2. Let's see, I think it's, let me see if I can find it. What do I want us to see? Yeah, look in 229. This all matches this. 1 John 2.29. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. Okay, there are lost people that do some righteous things. You say, well, they're saved just because they did a good deed. I don't know about that. You want to watch the flavor of this thing. Look in 3.6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Look in verse 10. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. What do you think about those Ephesians that might have got drunk? He got on to them and said, be not drunk with wine. What about the Corinthians that were involved in fornication? They were saved. That's not righteous. So would you say they're not saved? I mean, there are some Christians right now I'm talking about saved people that aren't living right, that are not in church, and they're not doing right. You say they're not saved? They trusted Christ as their personal Savior. So you have to make sure you delineate between church aid and church aid salvation between discipleship and fellowship and salvation. If you don't, you come to passages like this and you have to do one or two things. You're going to have to take it and you're either going to have to say, alright I'm going to tell you what the Bible means here. It means if you're really saved you won't do these things. Okay, I guess the Corinthians weren't really saved and I guess the Ephesians weren't really saved and I mean, Where are you going to go with that? Or you're going to say, whosoever bideth in him does not habitually sin, you're going to have to add to the Bible. OK, like in verse. Verse number nine, whosoever born of God doth not habitually sin. I think maybe even Schofield has practice. That's how people try to get around it. In other words, if you're really saved, you won't stay in it. You'll just backslide a little bit, then you always come back. Well, that's really Calvinism. The last point in Calvinism is the perseverance of the saints. You say, I believe in perseverance of the saints. That's eternal security. No, it's not. Not according to Orthodox Reformed theology. where the idea comes from. Perseverance of the Saints, according to Calvinism, is if you're really saved, you will have good works and prove it in the end. Calvinism eventually goes full circle and turns into Arminianism. That's John MacArthur on stairwards, if you know anything about John MacArthur. You prove that you're saved by, you prove you're one of the elect by doing good works. You really don't know if you're truly saved until you wind up going through your whole life. And so you really get messed up if you start taking these verses and trying to push them into church age doctrine. Look at the same text, keep reading. Verse number, we looked at 10. In this the children of God are manifest, the children of the devil. Look in verse, we'll notice in, well it's all through here. Look in five. Five one, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. You ask a Roman Catholic if they believe Jesus is the Christ, they'll say, yeah, okay, well, you're born again. That has to do with those things I was telling you about, the incarnation and the deity of Christ, one of those confessions, 1 John 4, 2 and 3, that'll have overlay into the tribulation. Everyone that loveth him that begotteth loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know we're the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. Okay, you don't keep his commandments, you're not the children of God. You better watch that stuff. Whosoever is born of God overcome of the world Man, first Corinthians 11 Paul made this statement about those Corinthians Some of them have gotten backslid and he said for this cause many are weak and sickly and many sleep God judged them and killed them. They didn't overcome the world the world overcame them There's a lot of saved people that have gotten hooked on things and gotten tied up with the world and they their life Eventually ended in death. They did not overcome the world. I So you can't just push all these verses in the church age. Notice another thing here that's very interesting to me. He mentions this thing about seeing God. He keeps using this phrase, seeing God. He hath not seen him. We read that in third John, you know, he that does, if you don't do good, you haven't seen God. But then notice back in chapter four, look in 4.12, 1 John 4.12, he admits nobody's ever seen God. I say, I'm going to hit these verses straight on. I'm not, you know, just going to preach the ones I can understand. I'm just going to lay it out for you. He's talking. He's a hey, if you love God, you've seen God. If you don't love God and don't serve your brother, you've never seen God. Then looking for 12, no man have seen God at any time. OK. Looking verse 20, if a man say I love God and hated his brother, he is a liar for he that love of not his brother whom he have seen, how can he love God whom he have not seen? He turns around and talks about people seeing God. So what do you think about that? I don't know. Brothers and sisters, I do not understand everything about this book. I believe the whole book, but I don't have it all figured out. I'll just give you my best guess on some of this stuff. I do know this, there's a lot of emphasis in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, especially 1st John there, about the last time. And he keeps saying, it is the last time. where is that verse at? 1 John 2.18, "'Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists.' Jesus said, "'Many will come in My name and say, I am Christ, and deceive many.'" That's why I think this thing has prophecy overlays. And you deal with a situation where someone is abiding in God, they're abiding by keeping His commandments, by overcoming, by enduring to the end. They are a believer in Jesus Christ, but that Jewish remnant, the Bible tells us three times in the book of Revelation. They have the, here's the faith and patience of the saints, here are those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. faith and works that things all through the book of Revelation all through Hebrews all through the general epistles. So you know I think that doctrinally you've got to see it like that. Practically we can say OK here's this guy he's living like the devil. That's not a Christian life. So I'm just going to make the assumption like Paul does. Here's these unrighteous people and it's not wrong to look at somebody if they if they look like a heathen they're acting like a heathen to say that guy's a heathen. Then you get to talking to him and you realize, OK, he trusts the Christ as his savior and he's out of church and he's out of his Bible and he's living like the devil. And you realize, oh, this is a backslidden Christian that's in trouble. I need to pray for this guy. And then you have to deal with it. But there's nothing wrong in calling a spade a spade. Christians, you ought to look different. You ought to act different. You ought to talk different. You ought to live differently. And there's a practical application with all of this. And we need to follow that which is good, not that which is evil. And you see somebody living a wicked life, that's not indicative of a Christian testimony at all. And so that's the practical deal. We want to get that and glean that from it. But when you start trying to push this thing doctrinally, it will not go. All right, back in 3 John, let's finish it up. Now he mentions the next fellow, this is Demetrius. So he's mentioned Gaius, he's a good guy, everybody knows about him, they all love him, he's got a great reputation. Then you have Diotrephes, he's a bad guy, he tries to get the preeminence, he kicked people out, he's got a following, he's trying to subvert the people in the church. Then you have this guy, Demetrius, he's a good guy. He's another good guy. Demetrius hath a good report. of all men and of the truth itself. Yea, and we also bear record and you know that our record is true. So Demetrius is another one of those like Gaius that's got a good testimony and John says you know it. Verse 13, I had many things to write, but I will not, with ink and pen, write unto thee, but I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face, peace be to thee, our friends salute thee, greet the friends by name. Notice he mentions this face to face again, which is opposite of pen and ink. And so you see that in 1 Corinthians 13. And then notice he mentions this thing about our friends, and that kinda is, reminiscent of Christ's words when he told the disciples he said hey I don't just call you my servants I call you my friends because a servant knoweth not what his master doeth in John chapter number 15 so obviously he's not on the isle of Patmos yet he hadn't been exiled and he writes these letters to try to give some encouragement to these church very practical just real simple simple things there tonight let's go ahead and pray we'll be dismissed