Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
Let's go ahead and start our Bible study here this evening.
If you have your Bibles, we're in Third John, the third Epistle
of John, and we're wrapping up the study that we've had in First,
Second, and Third John.
And if you haven't been with us the whole time, I encourage you
to either one.
You can check back on the videos that we have on our YouTube
or Facebook or study it yourself.
I know that it has been a blessing for me to walk through First,
Second, and Third John as a complete thought, because we really
do see each one of these building on top of each other.
With First John, it speaks of that relationship that we find in
Christ through faith.
And in that relationship, we find fellowship.
And what that looks like.
Fellowship with God is manifested through fellowship with
others.
So if we say we love God, we love our brother.
And so that's the idea of First John.
And First John is also a great passage of scripture to take someone
to that has been struggling with the assurance of their salvation.
Many people that you might come across in your life or maybe
yourself at some point have struggled with that idea of security,
of salvation.
And First John is one place that we can take someone to show
them, hey, this is what it means to be a believer.
This is what it looks like.
And.
And so what we can see through that passage is that it's not about
what I do, and it's not about how I feel, but it's about what I
know Christ has done for me and what I am believing in.
And so sometimes the lack of assurance and the doubts come through
a break of fellowship with God.
Then we saw Two John, which Two John was dealing with speaking
the truth in love and specifically dealing with false teaching
within the church.
And John was writing to the elect lady there and warning her
against the false teaching that could seep in and warning her
what that looks like, and then how to deal with that false teaching,
to speak the truth in love.
And we look at every relationship that we deal with in
our lives, whether it be with an unsaved person.
It's a relationship of evangelism.
And then if it's a saved person, it's A relationship of edification,
of building and encouraging that Christian up in the faith.
And then we are looking at Third John, which Third John essentially
is dealing with how we should live practically in our lives.
And he gives us an example, actually, he gives us two examples
of good people, and then he gives us an example of someone that
we should not live like.
And that's what we talked about last time we were here.
So I wanted to catch you up with all of that.
And so just by way of review, we're going to go back to Third John
and we're going to go to verse number nine, because this is where
we left off last time.
We looked at a good example of Gaius.
And Gaius is mentioned really verse one, all the way through verse
eight.
And Gaius was an individual who was humble, and because of his
humility, that brought about hospitality.
And he spoke of the blessing that it is to be hospitable to other
believers.
And in this case, in this context, it was the apostles that
were coming in, and Gaius was hospitable to them.
And so I want you to think about that.
When, when we are believers walking in the truth of God and understanding
the power of God and understanding the grace of God, we
walk humbly.
And in our humility is manifested hospitality or grace.
And.
And then we look at a new guy that comes on the scene, verse 9.
His name is Diotrephes.
Diotrephes was the opposite of Gaius.
Diotrephes was steeped in pride.
And so it was his pride that led to a sense of preeminence.
And so humility bringing hospitality, pride bringing the spirit
of preeminence, meaning he believed that he was better than
everybody else.
And because he believed his way was better than everyone else,
he treated everybody else in a.
In a way that was destructive.
It said in verse 10, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember
his deeds which he doeth, praying against us with malicious
words.
And so how it started was he was speaking evil against other believers,
specifically the leaders of the church.
And then it says, and not content therewith.
And so we see what, what was the source of his praying words.
It was his discontentment with his own life.
And that's really what pride ultimately brings, is discontentment.
When it's all about us, we'll never get enough.
When it's all about getting our.
Our share and turning other people away, we'll always go back
to that place where there's a sense of discontentment.
So inwardly he has pride, which brought discontent, which brought
malicious words.
And then it went further.
Neither doth he himself receive the brethren.
So he actually rejects the true teaching.
He rejects those that have a heart for God.
And that's often what we see with someone who has pride.
They are angry with other people who are living for the Lord.
Like, if I'm not living for God, I don't want anyone to live
for God.
Right?
If you have the joy of the Lord, I don't want you to have the
joy of the Lord.
And that's essentially what we see with the Atrophies.
And he says that he himself didn't receive the brethren.
And then he went even further.
And so he.
He rejected the people that were living for the Lord.
And then he got mad at everybody else who supported them.
And so it says there that he forbid them that would help and cast
them out of the church.
And so you see that progression happening.
It was inwardly he was discontent with his pride.
That led to rejecting other Christians around him.
That led to getting mad at other people and then eventually
cutting them off.
That's what happens in verse 10.
He was actually casting, trying to cast people out of the
church that were being kind to other people of the Lord.
And so he says in verse number 11, beloved Christians follow not
that which is evil.
He says, that way is evil.
Don't follow that example.
Don't go down that path.
Pride leads to destruction.
He says, what you should follow is that which is good.
He that doeth good is of God.
Meaning, when we do the things that God tells us to do, we are showing
that we are following God.
But on the other side of things, he that doeth evil has not
experienced God.
He does not see God.
It doesn't mean that Christians will never do evil.
What it says here is that if we're living in the truth of God
and we're experiencing that fellowship with God, we won't act
in the way that Diotrepes did.
But when we focus on ourselves, when we focus on our best
wishes and our best outcome, then, yes, there will be pride.
Yes, there will be destruction.
There's a few passages of Scripture that I'd like to point
you to when it comes to that area of pride.
And then obviously, in the contrast of the positive side and
humility, what it should look like.
Most of you know Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 18.
It's a proverb.
And obviously the proverbs are there to give us wisdom and how we
should live our lives for God.
And I encourage you to do a study in the book of Proverbs.
At some point.
Actually, what's really interesting is that in the book of
Proverbs, there's 31 chapters, and in the longest month, there's
31 days.
And so I encourage some people to go through and do a proverb a
day for a month.
And that would be a really interesting study that you could
do.
But here in Proverbs 16:18, it said, Pride goeth before destruction
and a hottie spirit before a fall.
Now if you rewind just a little bit more in that passage,
he says, how much better is it to get wisdom than gold?
Verse 16, and to get understanding rather than to be chosen
than silver the highway or the path of the upright is to depart
from evil.
He that keepeth his way, preserveth his soul.
And then he speaks to what that looks like.
Well, when you're walking that path of pride, it's going to lead
to destruction, it's going to lead to a fall.
But then verse 19, he says, better it is to be of a humble spirit
with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.
He says, you don't want to walk with the prideful crowd.
So what that is teaching us is that even if we aren't initially
walking in pride, those that we spend time with will eventually
rub off on us.
And if we're around a group of people who are prideful, we eventually
will fall into that trap of being prideful.
And that leads to destruction, that leads to a fall.
And he says, it's better to have a humble spirit be around those
that are humble.
He that handles a matter wisely shall find good.
And whosoever trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.
So we could go longer in that passage.
But essentially the teaching there is the warning of a lifestyle
of pride.
The lifestyle of pride will always lead to a moral failure, whether
we have good intentions or not.
That pride will eventually say this, I'm going to put my way before
God's way.
Humility says, no, I'm going to give it over to the Lord.
It's his path.
He's better than me.
He has given me things that I don't deserve.
And therefore I'm going to trust in him and I'm going to walk
his way.
Another passage in the New Testament that speaks to this.
We could go to many that use this principle.
But in 1st Peter chapter 5, the Bible speaks of this understanding
that we must submit ourselves.
And in verse five of First Peter chapter five, he.
He's speaking to younger people within the church.
So he says, hey, younger people submit yourselves to the elder.
But then he goes further and he says, yay, all of you.
So he's, he's telling the younger people in the church to,
to be humble.
Why?
Because a lot of times in youth comes pride.
And so he says, hey, young people, respect your elders.
Don't have pride.
But then he says, hey, all of you.
So, so lest we think that once we get to a certain age we have victory
over pride, naturally he says, all of you be subject one to another.
And then he uses this phrase that, that I love because I think
it's so picturesque to what it looks like to be humble.
He says, be clothed with humility.
So it's not just a matter of, of having a humble moment, but literally
be clothed with humility.
Wrap humility around yourself.
And the picture really here in the original Greek is taking the
form of a servant.
Back then they would have long tunics and a servant, when he was
about to do his work, would roll his tunic up into his belt and
tuck it in so that he could get down to work.
That's the exact same thing that Jesus literally did when he
washed the disciples feet.
Back in John 13 it says Jesus took the form of a serpent.
He humbled himself.
And I can't help but think that Peter, when he's teaching about
this issue of pride and humility, that he's not thinking
about Jesus doing that and saying, hey, be clothed with humility
for God.
Why?
Why does he say to be clothed with humility?
For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
If we want grace, what does it say to do humble ourselves?
Well, we, if we're proud, what, what happens?
God resists that.
And there's other passages in the book of James that speak to the
same principle.
And you can see that over and over again as a theme that when we
are harboring pride like Diotrephies did, we're never going
to be able to be completely used by God.
Sometimes our pride makes us appear to be more spiritual because.
Because why do we want people to think that we're spiritual?
So that people will think that we're something, that we're good.
And a lot of times what happens is, is that we try to formulate
an environment around us that causes people to think that we're
spiritual on the outside, but in the inside, what did Jesus say
about the Pharisees?
He says, you're like whited sepulchers on the outside looking
beautiful, but on the inside you're rotting flesh.
And oftentimes that's how we are as Christians is we think, hey,
as long as everybody thinks I'm spiritual, I'm okay.
But the only person that actually matters is the one who can
see the heart.
I really shouldn't be as concerned about those around me as
I am concerned about how God sees me.
Because at the end of the day, the, the fear of man.
What does the Bible say in the book of Proverbs?
The fear of man is a snare, it's a trap.
Because if I, if I'm living my life to fear people more than I'm
fearing God.
And by the way, when I'm talking about fear, I'm talking about
that awe and respect.
Not fear of judgment, but fear of, hey, I want to make sure I'm
making that person appeased.
If I try to appease a person more than I'm trying to appease God,
guess what?
It's always going to turn back to my ego, my pride.
And that's what he's warning against here with the attributes.
He says, don't fall into that trap of pride, because it is a trap,
because eventually it's going to become fear of man.
You know, a lot of times for me in my own life, I can speak by
way of example when I'm wanting people to think a certain
way, I'm trying to think about what they want me to do, what would
so and so want me to do.
Okay, now I'm going to try to fit their mold.
And that's, that's a never ending struggle.
Because guess what?
If I have, even If I have 10 people in front of me and I have
this person over here and I try to do everything that I think
that person wants me to do, that's probably going to conflict
with these other nine people.
And then I turn around and go, I need to go help person number four.
And I want to be who I should be for them.
And then all of a sudden, number one is upset with us again.
And that ultimately is a, is a trap.
Now, I'm not saying we should neglect people around us, but we
must think about the Lord first as pleasing him.
If I'm pleasing Him, I'm going to be okay with everybody else.
And the reality is, is that we're not going to please everybody.
I remember as a pastor, one of my prayers that I had as a young
pastor and you know, as, as I got into the ministry longer, I realized
that this is an impossible thing to ask is I was like, lord,
help everyone to be happy with me.
I want everyone to approve Me, I want everyone.
And then I stopped that prayer because I realized that's a prayer
that's not God's will.
Because sometimes when you're following God's will, there will
be people that will not approve of you.
It's just the reality of it.
And so I say, lord, let me please you and let everything else
come as it will.
And that's what he's saying here.
He's saying Diotrephy fell into that trap and we don't know
what Diotrephy's reasoning behind it, but we ultimately see
that it was a prideful failure that he had.
So nevertheless we see what the Bible says there in First Peter.
He says, be clothed with humility.
God gives grace to, to those that are humble.
God resists the, the prideful.
So we go back to third John.
We, we see a new fellow that comes onto the scene here.
His name is Demetrius.
There's not much to be said about Demetrius other than that he's
a good example.
Demetrius, as it says here in verse 12, Demetrius hath good report
of all men and of the truth itself.
And so we see that Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone
that he comes across in his life.
And so John recommends.
Him as a good example and he says, hey look, we don't know a lot
about Demetrius here.
All we know is that he's of good report.
And it says the reason why he's of good report is because he's
walking in the truth itself.
So basically the truth reveals that Demetrius is a good man.
Demetrius doesn't have to come tell us that he's a good man.
You know, like so for example, if someone's going around the church
telling everybody, hey, I'm the, I'm the most humble person at
the church, okay, that's in and of itself a disclaimer for the
fact that he is not the most humble person at the church.
And so it's not Demetrius coming and saying, hey, I'm a good
man.
Trust me, I'm a good man.
It's the truth itself is revealing that Demetrius is a good
man.
And that's what we have to do as Christians.
We have to allow the truth to be seen in our life.
So that.
What's the test?
The test is not my opinion of myself.
Because everybody to some degree has a probably, unless you're
just a self deprecating person.
Most of us have a better view of ourself than maybe even the truth
is.
You know, a lot of times I always know my intention, but sometimes
I'm come across to someone really wrong.
And I didn't mean for it to be that way, but that's just the reality
I came across wrong.
So Demetrius here is not petitioning for himself.
What it, what it really essentially says here is that it's
the truth that reveals his faithfulness to God.
So Demetrius was so faithful to the truth that even as it says
here, the truth was a witness on his behalf.
So the test is this.
Does he follow the word of God?
Does his life reflect the love that God has shown him?
And that's really what our testimony should be.
Now, I know that sometimes we get up and give testimonies.
That's.
That's not what we're talking about here.
We're talking about our reputation.
When we're not talking about giving a testimony of God working
in our life.
That's something completely appropriate.
The Bible says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
We should proclaim the goodness of God in our life, not
in a prideful way, but in a way that gives glory to God.
By the way of our testimonies are glorifying ourselves more than
God.
It's not a testimony for God.
It's a testimony for me.
Look how good I am.
Look how much I have done.
It should be.
Look what God has been able to do in my life.
Look what God has done in my life.
Look what he's continuing to do in my life.
God should be the one who is the.
Is the source and the sustainer of all the good things
that we have in our life.
And so that's what he's saying here is he says, Demetrius, his testimony,
his reputation is that he's in the truth, that he walks in the truth.
And so that's a good thing.
And that's something that we all should strive for our but again,
not for praise, but so that God could be glorified.
And most of you know a verse that I quote quite frequently, Matthew
5:16.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
Meaning I do these things that are accordance to the word of God,
not so that people will recognize me and not so people will
praise me, but so that people will see the goodness of God in my
life and glorify Him.
Our life should always reflect him.
And so the more the church, the more the individual reflects
the Lord, the more we're following the will of God in our
lives.
Instead of if church is all about an individual or a celebrity
or a movement or whatever it is.
That's where we, that's where pride starts.
And unfortunately we see that a lot with our society today.
The, the cult of personality, so to speak, where there's an individual
or a group of people that are likable, that do have a lot of talents
from God, but the focus becomes a person instead of the Lord.
And it starts with maybe good intentions, but it ultimately becomes
a show and an exaltation of an individual, a human that is not needing
that type of worship.
And again, that's what First Peter says.
First Peter says that he will exalt you, let God exalt you, don't
exalt yourself, don't allow others to exalt you, let the Lord
exalt you.
And that's what the Bible says will happen.
If not on this side of heaven, eventually we will be exalted with
him.
And that's exciting.
That's something that we should look forward to.
So that's ultimately a good example is Demetrius.
Demetrius was faithful to the truth.
And that's how, that's what our testimony should be.
You know, a lot of times we think about our testimonies in the
way of gifting, like, well, he is so gifted here or she is so gifted
there.
And that's good to notice.
I believe all of us as Christians should identify the gifts
that God has given us, specifically the spiritual gifts
that God has given us.
And if, and by the way, side note, if that is not a study that
you have gone through and identified the areas that God has
gifted you specifically with the spiritual gifts, I would encourage
you to do so because that should be the goal of all Christians,
is to find or identify the gift that God has given you and use
that within in the church.
That's, that's really what our purpose is to do.
And so I know, I've heard some people say, well, I'm not gifted
in anything.
Well, that's not true.
The Bible says that every single believer is given a spiritual
gift.
Now it doesn't mean that every single person has the exact same
spiritual gift at the same level.
And a lot of times I'll hear people say, well, my spiritual gift
is, you know, cooking.
Well, again, you can use cooking for one, so he gives us talents.
But someone can be an atheist and be a good cook.
You understand what I mean by that?
So, so, so there's a difference between a God given talent
and a spiritual gift.
God gives talents to many people and then he gives us a spiritual
gift to use our talents in.
And so I would encourage you to think about that.
But what I, what I'm saying here is this.
When people are hearing our testimony, we really don't want them
personally.
We, we shouldn't say, well, that person's such a talented person.
Really, what our goal should be is that people should say, that
person is sticking to the truth of God.
They're faithful.
He or she is faithful to the truth of God.
And by the way, that's what the Bible says is a mark of a true
steward, is that we be found faithful because our talents can
come and go.
I mean, the truth is, is that we could be physically talented in
an area or mentally talented in an area, but that can be taken
away from us very quickly.
But the beauty is, is that God will never take away our spiritual
blessings.
And so just take note of that.
Just take note of, like, if someone.
I thought about this a lot, and again, not in a prideful way,
but in a way of checking myself if someone was to talk about
me, maybe even, you know, I have the privilege and sometimes
the difficulty of officiating funerals.
And I'm always interested to hear what the family and friends
say about an individual, because that's like, that's summing
up everything.
And I often think, you know, what would people say at my funeral?
Well, he, you know, he liked this sports team.
I mean, I'm not saying that's bad, but if that's what my whole
life is summed up by, maybe I, I didn't do what I needed to do for
the cause of the gospel.
And so I, I think about that a lot.
And, and I think that all of us should, as Christians, think about
the bigger picture of what, how we're being perceived in the
world around us.
And every.
The people that are closest to us know our flaws.
That's the reality of things.
We're all flawed.
And that's not what that's saying here.
It doesn't say that he's perfect.
It just says that he's.
He's faithful to the truth.
So we move forward here.
In the conclusion, John explains what this is all about.
He said, I had many things to write.
So he says, I have a lot to talk to you about.
And every, every good preacher understands that.
It's like, I've got a lot to say, but I will not with ink and
pen write unto thee.
So he basically says, I. I have a lot to tell you, but I don't
want to spend.
I don't want to do it over.
Over writing.
It's kind of like Today, like, if I have a real big thing, I need
to tell somebody.
I don't want to do that over a text message or an email, rather
just meet.
What he's saying is, I want to meet you face to face.
And so, so we can sometimes sympathize with John's preference
for a personal face to face face conversation.
Instead of writing the letter.
We're thankful that he wrote down the words that he wrote down,
but certainly we know that there's an importance to face to
face communication with other believers, and I encourage you to
think about that.
We live in a world today that has.
Given us a lot of connection pieces with communication on devices
and Internet, which is good.
I think we should utilize those things.
But at the end of the day, that is never a replacement for face
to face communication.
The Bible says that that is vital for the Christian to follow
and to live in.
And I think that if we were all honest with ourselves, unless
there is a physical, medical reason why we can't be together,
I think that we all understand the importance of getting together.
And we, I think we saw that even a lot with, with COVID Right.
I'm just going to be honest and frank about that.
There's a lot of, there was a lot of conversation about, well,
even coming.
I heard people even questioning.
Is even coming together really?
Like, is that really necessary?
Like, can't you be with God wherever you are, at your home, out.
Of course God's with us no matter where we go.
All right, that's, that's the reality of things.
But coming to church is not about finding God.
You can find God in, in your house and out in the wilderness,
wherever it is.
But coming to church is more than just worshiping.
It's fellowshipping.
That's the, that's the reality of it.
Christians need to be around other Christians.
And if a Christian is isolated on an island, there is not full potential
that can be reached.
You, you must be around other Christians.
And so that's what he says.
I want to talk to you in person.
I want to be with you in person.
And I know that sometimes we're limited.
I know that sometimes we can't be in person, but the desire should
at least be to that I want to be with other Christians.
So he goes on further.
He says, verse 14, but I trust I shall shortly see thee and we shall
speak face to face.
Again.
We see his heart here.
He wants to be with Gaius here.
John the Apostle, he says, peace be to thee.
Now sometimes we can just skim over that phrase.
Peace be unto thee.
John Paul starts most of his letters with peace, grace and peace.
And sometimes we can skip over that.
But again, remember that John is writing to individuals who are
dealing with conflict, who are dealing with, in some cases, contention.
And so John's prayer for the church, this church is for peace.
And that's really God's prayer for everybody, is for peace.
And.
And I know that that kind of seems like.
Of course, but a lot of times we're not pursuing peace within the
church.
We're kind of just hoping that it happens naturally.
And the only way that we can have peace in our midst is through
walking in line, step with, step with other Christians in Jesus
Christ.
Remember, at Christmas, we're getting into the Christmas season.
He's the prince of peace.
He's coming to be the prince of peace.
And so therefore, we can't walk in step with one another outside
of Jesus Christ because eventually we're going to have a
conflict.
And no one wants to talk about conflict.
Some people enjoy conflict, but the average person doesn't look
for conflict or expect conflict.
But the reality is that there always will be conflict.
And so how do we do that?
Well, we walk in peace in Jesus Christ.
We walk with the common bond of knowing that we're serving him,
knowing that we are walking in the same salvation, knowing that
we are on the same team.
I think that's one of the things that, you know, we struggle
with within the church.
Instead of fighting the enemy that's outside that is really wanting
our demise, we fight with people that we should be on the same
team.
I'll give you guys an analogy of this.
We were playing a football team.
I played football in high school, and we were playing this
really, really good team.
And they were really.
They were dirty.
They were.
They.
When they would tackle you every time they would get you on
the ground.
Some of you don't know what I'm talking about.
Some of you do.
But every time they would get you on the ground, they would try
to, like, twist you or punch you where the refs couldn't see you.
And it was really bad.
So we're out there playing, and there was a guy in our team.
He says, you know what?
I'm tired of them doing that to us.
He says, and I.
We were at a Christian school, but, you know, not everyone was walking
with Christ at that time.
He says, I'm giving it back to them.
He told me that on defense, and he said, I'm giving it back to
him next time I get in the pile here I'm going to give him.
I'm going to give him something, I said or whatever.
And so we, you know, we jumped on the pile, and we're all in the
pile, and I hear one of our guys yelling, ow, Ow.
And I'm like, oh, man, the other team's at it again.
And no one.
No one talked at the end of the game.
And the guy that was really complaining, he hurt his ankle, and
he was talking to me, he's like, man, they were twisting my
ankle.
They were twisting my ankle.
And the other guy that talked to me, he came up to me and said,
yeah, that was actually me.
He was.
He was thinking that he was trying to hurt the other team, and
he was hurting his own team.
And I'm like, that's silly.
That's crazy.
And that's sometimes what we do.
We.
We think that we're fighting evil around us, but we're actually
fighting our own people that are on our side.
Now, they might be against us, and.
But again, First Corinthians 13 tells us, if we love our brother,
we don't assume evil in them.
They might be trying to be evil against us, but our first reaction
should not be combative against other Christians, whether
they're combative or not.
And so that's what we can see here.
He says, peace, Peace be unto thee.
And he's not just saying that because sometimes we have Christian
cliches.
God bless you, Peace be to you.
But that's really a prayer that he's asking the Lord to have
peace in the midst of the church.
And I think that should be our prayer today.
I mean, obviously we can see examples of a lack of peace in our
world, and we should actually expect that.
We should expect the world who is unsaved to.
To live in a state of destruction, to live in a state of
contention.
But we within the church have to be different.
If, if the church looks exactly like every other organization
outside of the church, we're not accomplishing the task that God
has called us to accomplish.
We're supposed to be different.
We are the pillar and ground of truth.
And so we want people, okay, this, this should be the case that
people should see the inner workings of a church, meet the people
that are Christians and say there's something different about
the way that they respond to one another.
Doesn't mean that they're supernatural.
It doesn't mean that they're perfect people.
It doesn't mean that they're going to be right in every single
decision that they make.
But at the end of the day, there should be peace.
And so he says, our friends salute thee.
And so as Christians, we can have a sense of peace even in difficult
times.
And we can call people friends that are separated from us, from,
in this case, they're separated by, by a distance, miles.
But in general, people that are different than us by distance
are people different than us by looks, Are people different than
us by background?
We can still call them friends.
And that's, that's a hard thing to do sometimes to see someone
that's different than us as a friend because.
We'Re, we've just always been taught and as humans, we are somewhat
to some degree tribal.
And so like, we usually are attracted to people that are physically
or culturally similar to us.
And again, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.
But at the end of the day, if you are a brother in Christ and you
believe the same thing I believe about Jesus, we should be
able to call each other friends and brothers.
And that's something that we should strive to do.
Now, am I friends with every Christian in the world?
No, that's not, that's not possible for me to be friends with
every Christian.
But if I have an interaction with a fellow brother in Christ who
was walking in fellowship with God and not in open, unrepentant
sin, because by the way, the Bible clearly teaches of what we
do with a fellow brother or sister in Christ who is walking in
complete rebellion to God.
And that's a study for another day.
But there are actual things that we should do.
And in some cases it is to step away and to separate ourselves
from somebody.
So this isn't talking about someone who's living in open rebellion
to God.
This is talking about someone who is hopefully clinging at, searching
the Lord, clinging to the Lord, searching after him.
So he says, our friends salute thee, greet friends, greet the friends
by name.
So even if we're separated by distance, even if we're separated
by culture, we can still be brothers and sisters and friends
in Christ and we should greet one another that way.
And there's a lot of things that we could talk about in that
regard, but there is a, and we'll see a little bit more about
this in the Book of Romans when we're, during our study in the
Book of Romans.
But there is a proper way to deal with other Christians, specifically
with the area of hospitality, specifically in the area of service.
And it's hard for us to understand because we don't come
from this culture.
Most of us are not living in first century Jewish or Roman culture.
None of us are.
Okay.
Most of us are living in the American culture.
Some of you have a broader scope of understanding to a different
country.
But most of us live in a society, in a culture that is very
individualistic.
Like we, we promote individualism.
And I, as an American, understand that and actually can
sympathize and actually get excited about that, like independence
and individualism.
And we've got this, and I've got it all under control, and I don't
need anybody else.
But really, if you look at the Bible, I'm not saying that those
principles in, in other realms are, are good or bad.
I'm not speaking to that.
What I am speaking is what the Bible says.
And the Bible does speak of the collective unit of the body of
Christ together, right?
Read.
Read First Corinthians.
Read First Corinthians 11:12.
All that you'll see that there is a specific need for the body of
Christ to come together.
The whole hand's not the arm.
The whole hand, I mean, the whole church is not the arm.
It's not the hand.
The whole church is the body and Christ is the head.
And so when we think about third John and we think about second
John and even one John, there is a huge emphasis on how we treat
other Christians.
And so the expectation would be this, okay, the, the, like, it's
not even spoken to here, but the expectation is that we be around
other Christians and we live in a society today that says, you
know what?
You, you can be a Christian and never be around other Christians.
You.
You can be a Christian and just.
That's a private thing for you.
And don't let anybody else know.
That's your individual thing.
But at the end of the day, yes, it is individual faith in God.
But at the same time, we are called to be around and to grow and
to edify.
When we look at Hebrews chapter 10, the passage that says,
don't forsake the assembly of yourselves together, it's not saying
that so that we can have good church attendance.
It's saying that if you read the rest of that verse, it talks
about exhorting one another to provoke one another to love and to
good works.
That's why we come to church.
And so I want you to understand that.
And, and I need to understand that, that the every element of the
church is important.
It's not just.
And I'm speaking to the crowd who's here on a Wednesday night,
so fantastic.
But it's not just coming to church once a week and going Home.
That's, that's not biblical church.
It's partly biblical church, but a lot of times what people see
church as is, it's when we get together on Sunday mornings, we sing
songs, we read the Bible, the preacher gets up and talks and we
go home.
That's one element, that's corporate worship.
But the church is so much more and that's what he's talking about
here.
Friends and friends would be someone that we want to spend time
around.
It's people that we want to encourage.
You know, my friends, my, my personal friends outside of the church,
I'm invested in their life.
I want to know how they're doing.
I want to know how I can help them.
I want to know how I can spend time with them.
My friends that live far away distances, we, we talk all year about
when we get to see each other again, you know, next time, next,
next time I'm back where I'm, we're, we're going to get together.
And so, so often we forget about the need to do that with those
folks around us.
And so that's first, second and third John and, and one word
that I want you to think about with, with first John, but specifically
all of the, the first, second, third John is fellowship.
Fellowship with God, fellowship with others.
The word is coin.
And that's why we put it up on the screen and that's why we have
special days for it because fellowship is so, so important and
we live busy schedules.
I know that I, I can speak to way of example on that.
My, if I was to show you my calendar, I keep my calendar on my
phone.
Some of you keep it the old school way in your, in your notebook,
which is fine, that's good.
However, it works for you.
But if you looked at my calendar, I've got everything color
coded and it looks like a rainbow every single day.
I've got like 17 things that I have to do.
And so I, I completely understand the busyness.
And if I'm not careful, the busyness can supersede the need to
pause and be with fellow Christians and just commune with
fellow Christians.
And just to be completely honest with the Lord, we can be so
busy trying to do the things that we know are or we believe are
right that we can forget about pausing and just being still and
knowing that God is God and spending time with Him.
And so again, we live in a busy society.
We don't get so busy that you overlook your time with God and your
time with other Christians.
And that's something that we can all pray about in our lives to
maybe grow in that area of our Christian walk.
So, first, second of three, John.
That's the conclusion of the study.
I had some people asking me, where are we going next?
We're going to do a small series just up to the end of the
year on Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ's birth.
We're coming to a Christmas season, and there's a lot of people
that are interested in Christmas things.
But obviously the reason why we do anything about Christmas is
because of the birth of Jesus Christ.
That's what we're celebrating.
We're unapologetic about that.
Like, I don't care about all the other.
I mean, I like Christmas lights.
I love that kind of stuff.
I love all the other things.
But it's all, for me, a conduit to get to Jesus.
Right?
And that's what we're doing.
And so I want to talk to you.
Many of you know these things about the Old Testament prophecies
fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ.
I mean, where Jesus was going to be born, how he was going to be
born, who, who would, you know, how you know, where he would
be, who would give birth to him.
All those things are there in scripture, in the Old Testament.
And it's an amazing thing if you can go through the study on a
larger scale to see all the fulfillment of Jesus Christ there
in the Old Testament.
It's an amazing thing.
It's one of those things that brings me back to a place of confirmation
and confidence in the word of God.
This could not be a mistake.
This is not a coincidence, could not be a forgery.
And so we look into that.
And I want to just scratch the surface with you on that and look
at some of those Old Testament prophecies and really how they are
fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Because that's, again, another.
Another confusing point is like, okay, so he was born in Bethlehem.
What's the big point?
Or it says that he's the Prince of Peace, but what does that
mean?
And so we'll talk more about that in the study.
It'll only be a few weeks, obviously through the month of December.
And then when we get to January, we'll start another book
of the Bible.
And I hope that'll be a blessing for you.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
You would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
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You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.