Friends and Foes in the Church, Part 2

Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Today John continues a series of influential sermons from five decades of ministry. It's a compelling study that includes one sermon from each New Testament book. We've titled the series The New Testament, Beginning to End. The lesson you're about to hear is from 3 John.

It may be a book you're unfamiliar with. John MacArthur is going to help you identify genuine followers of Christ and phonies who are actually enemies of the gospel. So how do you know who your friends are in the church and who your foes are? Find out as John begins today's lesson. Third John, and we're going to be looking at the final half of this book, verses 9 through 14. Well the main character in this section of this little epistle is a man named Diotrephes, followed at the end by another man named Demetrius. But for the most part, Diotrephes occupies our attention and you might even title this section, The Man Who Loved the Preeminence.

There have always been such people who love the preeminence, who are proud and selfish and self-centered, who seek the places of power and the places of fame and the places of prestige. In fact, the Scriptures literally abound with such characters in this category. And I thought it might be instructive for us to just go back and meet some of this hall of infamy, people who would never show up in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, that's for sure.

These are the anti-heroes. Genesis chapter 4 introduces us to such a man by the name of Lamech. In Genesis chapter 4, we meet him in verse 23 in regard to this particular perspective. And Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zilla, he had already broken God's commandment by being a polygamist, but he said to his wives, Ada and Zilla, listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech, give heed to my speech for I have killed a man for wounding me and a boy for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold. This is the first bully in the Bible.

Lamech composed his own song here, it is Hebrew poetry. I have slain a young man who merely wounded me, a young man who merely hurt me. God may take care of Cain sevenfold, but I'll take care of myself seventy-sevenfold. Well here is an illustration of blasphemous arrogance. The first murderer, Cain, had produced a grandson who was also a murderer. The first murder was the result of envy.

This one was the result of pride. And what you have there is a picture of Lamech strutting before his two wives and pontificating about his bloody deed and how able he is to defend himself even to the seventy-seven seventh limit. Interestingly enough, Lamech was the seventh in the line from Adam and God calls Lamech's cousin Enoch the seventh.

In the book of Jude, verse 14, it says, Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds which they've done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. Well we must conclude then that Lamech was an object of Enoch's testimony since Enoch lived in the same generation. Lamech was one of those ungodly people who did ungodly deeds in an ungodly way and spoke harsh things against God. Lamech was a hard sinner and he flaunted his sin against God. He viewed himself as above God. And as long as we're thinking about these people, we would be remiss if we didn't make a comment or two about one other very famous man who sought the preeminence by the name of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar sought to exalt himself and because he sought to exalt himself, you remember God turned him into a maniac and left him out grazing like an animal for years, seven years, in fact, until he finally came to his senses.

He is a model of self-centered, proud, power, mad love for preeminence. And then, of course, if you come to the New Testament, there is Herod. And we find that story in the twelfth chapter of Acts.

Herod declared it Herod Day in all modesty and he on appointed day, Acts 12 21, put on his royal apparel, came out before the people, took his seat there in Caesarea, sat in his throne and began delivering an address to them. And the people kept saying, the voice of a God and not a man, and that's what he wanted. And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he didn't give God the glory, he was eaten by worms and died. And so ended Herod Day.

Not exactly the way he had planned it. And then you could also throw into the little list that we've been putting together, Matthew 23, because in Matthew 23 you have not one, but a whole collection of people who love to have the preeminence. Jesus identified them as whited sepulchres, as tombs full of dead men's bones. Jesus identified them repeatedly as hypocrites. He identified them as snakes and vipers.

And who were they? They were the scribes and the Pharisees who seated themselves in the chair of Moses, Matthew 23, 1. They loved to be noticed by men. They broadened their phylacteries, the little leather boxes that held slips on which were written passages of the Mosaic Law. They carried them around, they made theirs very, very big so that people would know how devoted to Scripture they were. They lengthened the tassels of their garments.

Tassels were supposed to be evidences of their devotion and they made theirs as long as possible, extending them down so that they were dragging on the ground so people would exalt them for their piety. There always have been these kinds of people...always. And even among the people of God, we've given you an illustration of it and it's a temptation even for good people. You go to Matthew chapter 20 in your mind and you will remember that James and John had the audacity to get their mother to go to Jesus and plead with Jesus to give them the preeminent place in His Kingdom because they thought they were worthy of it.

Can you imagine that? Matthew 20, 20 to 28, Jesus said, you know, that's something for the Father to give but it goes to those who have suffered the most, not those who have sought the preeminence. If you want to be first, you should seek to be last. You should be like the Son of Man who didn't come to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many.

And that ended that conversation. Well all of that leads us to 3 John, let's go back. And here in 3 John we meet a man who belongs in the hall of infamy with all the rest of those people, I've just kind of rehearsed for you. This is a man named Diotrephes and he loved to have the power, the preeminence, the prestige, the prominence, the chief seat, the chief place. It says it in verse 9, Diotrephes who loves to be first, Phileo who has a strong affection, protuo, to be first, to be first. That term protuo is used only one other place in Colossians 1 18 and there it talks about the preeminence of Christ. So here is a man who is competing with Christ.

Here is one who doesn't believe that Jesus alone is first but seeks to supplant Christ and to rule the church in the place of Christ. He's like a New Testament Absalom, so power hungry that he would murder his own father to take the throne. Diotrephes was a very proud man. He was so proud that in seeking his place of preeminence, he was actually busy supplanting Christ, busy replacing Christ in the church.

How did he do it? By rejecting those who were serving Christ. In the opening eight verses, we saw Gaius, the man who gave hospitality. I want you to look in verses 9 and 10 at Diotrephes, the man who refused to give hospitality. As graciously hospitable as Gaius was, so ungracious and unhospitable was Diotrephes.

They are pulls apart, they are absolute opposites. Gaius is seen knowing truth, walking in truth, loving the brethren, entertaining strangers who are faithful ministers of the gospel. Diotrephes is seen loving himself, refusing to allow anyone to come in who might somehow receive the accolades, the love, the affection, the response of the congregation which he wants for himself.

The conflict is not doctrinal, it's not theological, it's not a spiritual issue, it is a personal issue of loving oneself. And so does John address this issue, so frequently arising in the church. Look at verse 9, I wrote something to the church but Diotrephes who loves to be first among them doesn't accept what we say. John wrote a letter to this church and Diotrephes had managed to put himself in a position to filter everything.

And so, Diotrephes who loves to be first among them doesn't accept what we say. We do not know about this letter written earlier to this church. It was not written to Diotrephes, it was written to the church.

It is lost, perhaps because Diotrephes destroyed it, probably never even read it to the church and that's why John tells Gaius who's in that church that he wrote that letter. Diotrephes had managed to move himself into the position of power and became the screener for anything and everything that came to the church and literally rejected a letter from the Apostle John. John says, Diotrephes does not accept what we say.

Another way to translate that will have nothing to do with us. He is his own authority, even to the point where he rejects one with apostolic authority. These kind of people who are proud and self-righteous, these kind of people who love spiritual preeminence and seek power and control, they know no bounds on who they will reject.

They will reject the most faithful, profound, respected, revered authorities of Scripture. In fact, the more influence a person has because of faithful ministry, the more likely they are to reject that person. And you will notice he loves is in the present tense. This is a pattern for him. This is habitual for him. He is driven by personal ambition. This is so hard to deal with in the church.

Not only was he perverted by ambition, but it led to perverted action, verse 10. I will call attention, he says, if I come, to his deeds which he does. It's not just an attitude. You can't contain an attitude anyway.

Whatever an attitude is becomes an action. John says, For this reason, because of the fact that in his self-love and in his longing to be preeminent, he doesn't even accept what I, an apostle of Jesus Christ, have to say, because of this, for this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does. I'm going to expose the man if I come. I will not forget, John is saying, I will not forget.

I will bring up the subject of diatrophes, conduct, and I will make it an issue in the church because it is an issue for discipline. Now he basically indicts him on four counts. Look at them in verse 10, four counts. Number one, unjustly accusing us with wicked words. This is characteristic in every occasion of these people who rise to preeminence. They falsely accuse other people. This is how they gain trust. They don't gain trust by the virtue of their life. They don't gain trust by their character. They don't gain trust the long, slow, true way by exposing all that they are to people and letting people make a judgment on their righteousness and on their integrity.

They get the trust of the people by destroying the people's trust in everybody else. They are malicious and destructive. Accusing, the word accusing here is actually a word that occurs only here in the entire New Testament, but a cognate form of it occurs in 1 Timothy 5, 13 where it can be translated tattlers. They are tattlers. They go around telling malicious, gossiping tales.

By the way, the root word in the Greek comes from boiling up, or bubbling over. And there's a reason for that. Bubbles are hollow. This is hollow talk, foolish talk. But they foment, foolish nothing, bubble talk that bursts when it's poked, false, unfounded, foolish, contrived, manipulated accusations to cause people to distrust those in leadership and then the people are left with them as the only one they can trust. They get good at this, very adept. They bring up malicious charges.

They don't make them minimal, superficial. They use evil words. There's a certain viciousness here. By the way, this term wicked words is used of Cain's wickedness in 1 John 3, 12 and it's used of the devil in 1 John 5, 18 and 19. They accuse these people that they want to replace these people that they want to rise above of devilish things, horrible things, and including us.

Notice it there? Unjustly accusing us. You mean to tell me Diotrephes was even falsely accusing the Apostle John?

Yes. If anybody was a threat, John was a threat. And if you're a threat, you'll get it.

Oh, you may not know it at first, they may give you that silky hypocritical facade, but underneath the surface, they'd like to slit your throat. Everybody's a threat. Everybody's a threat to the position of power. And then he adds, as if it's not enough to destroy all those around you with malicious destructive gossip, it says, and not satisfied with this.

It's not enough to do that. Neither does he receive the brethren. Whoever is already respected, they seek to destroy. And anybody who comes in, they begin to undermine as well.

In fact, they will not even receive them. They will not treat them with humble love. They not only slandered the Apostle John himself, Diotrephes not only slandered John, but he deliberately defied John by refusing to welcome the faithful brethren who came to preach for the sake of the name cause everybody's a threat. If you're on the inside, you get undermined so they can get into the prominent place. If you're on the outside and you're coming along, they shut you out.

And, of course, they don't want anybody too close because somebody might discover what's really going on. How does he get into that position in the church of Jesus Christ? Well, all of that simply to say the Bible warns us here about those people who are power hungry in the church. Arrogance is where it all starts. It starts with arrogance. Arrogance produces ambition. Ambition produces accusations and accusation leads to annihilation. You start out driven by pride. Your pride produces the desire to be preeminent.

Preeminent then leads you to falsely accuse everybody else so you can clear the field of all other claimants and then eventually you have to annihilate and put them out if they don't roll over. So sad when this happens in the church. And many churches aren't willing to deal with it.

They aren't willing to face it. They aren't willing to overturn such a man because many of them have been deceived, others in the name of love and church unity allow this to be perpetuated. There's a third character in this book by the name of Demetrius. And if Gaius showed hospitality and need to continue to do it, no matter what pressure might be coming, and if Diotrephes was the man who refused to give hospitality, Demetrius is one who is to receive hospitality.

So here to the beloved Gaius, John introduces a man that he wants Gaius to receive. Beloved, verse 11, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. The one who does good is of God. The one who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself and we also bear witness and you know that our witness is true.

He's introducing him to this man Demetrius and then saying, receive him. You need to do that. He said that to faithful men who go out for the sake of the name back in verses 7 and 8. You need to do that to be a fellow worker of the truth. In spite of the fact that there's Diotrephes in the church, you need to do that and here's one in particular that I want you to receive and his name is Demetrius. And if you will receive him, you will not be imitating what is evil but what is good. You will then give evidence that you are of God. Look back at verse 11, we'll pick it up right there. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil.

How does that fit in? Well it simply means don't follow the pattern of Diotrephes. Don't follow the pattern of Diotrephes. He's saying to Gaius, don't be like Diotrephes, he may be the leading influence in your church, don't be like him. Demetrius is coming, he is to be commended. Maybe he was a member of the Ephesian church coming to whatever church this was. He doesn't want Gaius to be influenced by Diotrephes if he's still in the church and thus not to receive Demetrius.

It may have been that he was thrown out of the church and maybe he's back in. We don't know those details. But the bottom line is, he says, do not imitate what is evil. Do not mime-o-mi, do not become a mimic of what is evil. Don't follow that model.

Just do what is good. Everybody follows somebody, don't they? You choose whether you're going to follow those who do good or those who do evil. And he goes right back to the basic principle, verse 11, the one who does good is of God, the one who does evil has not seen God.

It's that simple. That sounds like 1 John, doesn't it? Back to the distinction between the true Christian and the false Christian, the moral test. The person who does good is of God. The person who does evil is not of God. The person who does righteousness is of God. The person who sins is not of God. To do good is evidence of divine birth for you're ordained unto good works.

So imitate those who do good. If something was to be affirmed as true, how many witnesses were needed? Two or three, right? Everything had to be confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses, Deuteronomy 17, 6, Deuteronomy 19, 15. Notice three witnesses to Demetrius in verse 12. He's received a good testimony, first from everyone.

Do you know very many people like that? From everyone, hupa pantone, all. The testimony of everyone to Demetrius in the past remains valid in the present, perfect passive. He has received an ongoing and continually good testimony from everyone. Second witness and from the truth itself, that is to say you can measure him by his doctrine. You can measure him by the truth. He is loyal to the truth.

And again, it's an ongoing thing. The truth he professes and the truth he preaches is the truth he embodies and lives. It is self-evident and always has been. And thirdly, verse 12, he says, and we also bear witness. John says we bear witness.

We continue to bear witness. Gaius, if you have any question about this man, everybody will testify to his character and his faithfulness. The truth will testify to his character and faithfulness. He can be measured against it. And we also, as an apostle, bear witness and you know that our witness is true.

You know you can trust me. How do you know a man's worth? What does everybody say about him? How does his life match up with Scripture?

And what do Christian leaders say about him? And when you get a man who passes muster on all three of those, open your arms, notwithstanding diatrophes or anybody else, and embrace the man. You're listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Our current series on Grace To You is looking at the New Testament beginning to end.

Now, today's lesson was all about helping you identify those who are friends of the church and those who are foes. And one man we heard from recently seems to have identified himself as a friend of the church, and Grace To You has played a part in strengthening his church ministry. And John, you have his letter right there in front of you.

Share it with us. Yeah, I'd love to, Phil. He writes, I was raised in church and I've been a believer for 23 years and a pastor for 14 years. I had always heard of John MacArthur, but I did not have access to Grace To You on local radio. However, your stand for the church in the midst of COVID-19 situation and the resulting media scrutiny garnered my attention. I watched a video of John preaching in the early days of the pandemic, and I was hooked. Since then, I have benefited greatly from your ministry. I've learned more about God's Word in the past two years than in the previous 20 years combined. Your influence has borne fruit in my life as well as in the life of our church.

Over the past year and a half, we have gone verse by verse through the Gospel of Mark, and we are currently working our way through Acts. I have no doubt that during this pandemic, there have been some trying times for you personally, as well as for Grace Church and Grace To You. But it is important to me that you know that a 40-year-old pastor and a small group of faithful Christ followers in rural Alabama have benefited greatly from your steadfastness.

I would also like to thank you for all the free resources that are made available through your website. The massive library of content that is freely available through Grace To You is a testament to the desire of your ministry to reach as many people as possible with the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ. And he goes on to say, Though we may never meet this side of heaven, please know that we do not cease to pray for you and your ministry.

And he signs his name, Kevin. Really amazing, encouraging. I would rather influence pastors than anybody else, because then they are the influences of many others. Grace To You is reaching people right where they are, right where they need us, through a variety of means. Radio is still vital for us. It's the front door through which many people find our ministry and a regular resource of Bible teaching for millions every day. We're also reaching people through the internet. Kevin and his church are among those who benefit regularly from the thousands of free resources available at gty.org.

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That's right. Thank you from all of us, friends, millions around the world. Even people in rural areas like Kevin's can hear this verse-by-verse teaching because of your faithful support. So thank you for praying with us. And if you're able to make a donation to help us keep reaching people like Kevin, you can do that when you contact us today. Address your gift to Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. You can also make a one-time donation or set up a convenient recurring donation when you visit the website GTY.org or when you call us at 800-55-GRACE.

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Again, that's 3,500 total messages, and you can take it with you wherever you go with your mobile device. All of that and more is available free of charge at GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Keep in mind Grace To You television airs this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378, or check our website to see if it airs in your area. And then be here tomorrow when John continues his study, The New Testament, beginning to end, with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.