I thank you for tonight, dear God, and I thank you for your house, Lord, and for your people.
Please be with Brother Snucky, dear God, just give him boldness, fill him with your spirit,
Lord, and help us to apply this message to our life.
God, we love you and we thank you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, we're here in 3 John this evening, and tonight's sermon is not really a verse
by verse study of 3 John.
We're going to be looking at the life of this man here mentioned in the very first verse
where it says, the well-beloved Gaius, the well-beloved Gaius.
Now, I think sometimes we look at 1 John in the Bible, and it's a really, really important
doctrinal book.
We have a lot of verses memorized from there, like, you may know that you have eternal life.
And then we look at the book of Revelation, and we say, wow, what a fascinating book.
And in between there's these three books that are one chapter, we kind of just skim
over them when we're doing our Bible reading.
But I think what we're going to see tonight is that 3 John is actually a very interesting
book and we can learn a lot about the Christian life just from this book.
Now like I said, we're going to be looking at the life of Gaius.
Now I don't think I've really heard a full-length sermon on this character, Gaius, before.
And so just in case you don't have much of a background on him, if you were to look up
the name Gaius in the Bible, in a Bible search engine, you would see that name pop up in
five different places.
It would pop up in Acts 19, Acts 20, Romans chapter 16, and 1 Corinthians chapter 1, as
well as the first verse in 3 John.
Your natural assumption might be to assume this is the same person.
Because you might look at names like John in the Bible or Mary or Simon, and those names
appear a lot in the Bible, but you think the name Gaius, surely Gaius is not that common
of a name.
But I believe there are at least four different people named Gaius in the Bible.
I believe the vast majority, if not all of these people, are different people.
Now it actually makes a lot of sense that there's a lot of people named Gaius in the
Bible, historically and logically.
You know, if you were to look at the hundred years before Jesus Christ was born, the most
famous celebrity in the entire world was Julius Caesar.
Julius Caesar was the man who was just about to conquer the entire world.
You know, Rome did not want to have a king, but he almost got to the point where he was
so popular and so well liked that they wanted to crown him king.
He was born in 100 BC, and he was murdered by Brutus and several different people in
44 BC.
But did you know the first name of Julius Caesar was actually Gaius Julius Caesar?
That was his actual name.
So that shows you a few things.
One, that Gaius was a name that was around back then.
But not only that, when you're the biggest celebrity in the world, there are probably
a lot of people that are going to name their kids after you.
Now after Julius Caesar was killed, the Roman Senate wanted to gain back power, but when
they killed him, it did not help them, because people really liked Julius Caesar.
He was a very popular person.
When he conquered Gaul, which is basically present-day France and Belgium, he was pretty
much a celebrity in the world at that time.
And so once they killed him, there was chaos in the kingdom.
You had Mark, Antony, and Cleopatra, who wanted to take the throne, and he was the guy who
was the right-hand man of Gaius Julius Caesar.
He kind of figured he'd be the one.
But then in Luke chapter 2 verse 1, there's a name mentioned called Caesar Augustus.
This is the nephew of Gaius Julius Caesar.
It says in Luke chapter 2 verse 1 that he made a decree that all the world should be
taxed.
So this was the biggest, most prominent guy when Jesus Christ was born.
And did you know he was born Gaius Octavius?
So the two biggest celebrities in the time period of Jesus Christ were both named Gaius.
And if you were to do a search on the most prominent people during that time period,
you would see the name Gaius as a very, very common name.
So it really is not that shocking to us that there's a lot of people named Gaius during
the times of the Bible.
But if you were to look at all those places in Acts 19, Acts 20, Romans 16, and 1 Corinthians
1, you can tell that we're talking about different people.
Because in Acts 19, it says that Gaius is a man of Macedonia.
Now present day, we have a country called Macedonia, which came when Yugoslavia broke
up as a country.
But the Macedonia there is basically talking about Greece.
It is not talking about in this Yugoslavian country that broke apart.
In Acts chapter 20, it says that Gaius is a man of Derby, which is around the area of
Galatia.
Those are different areas.
Macedonia and Galatia.
So we're talking about Macedonia and Derby.
So we're talking about two different people.
Now if you remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul makes a statement that he did not
come to baptize but to preach the gospel.
It's a great verse that shows us baptism has nothing to do with the gospel.
But he mentions a few people he baptized.
He says, I baptized Crispus and Gaius.
He said, I also baptized the household of Stephanus.
Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
So the Gaius mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 is talking about a man who was actually
at the church of Corinth.
Once again, that is a different Gaius.
Now the one in Romans 16 could be talking about one of these people, and the reason
why is Paul writes a letter to the Romans.
He says to all that be in Rome.
And when he's writing that letter, he's actually in the house of a guy named Gaius, because
in Romans chapter 16, he calls Gaius mine host.
So while he's writing that letter, he's actually at this man's house.
But we don't know if that is talking about the guy in 1 Corinthians 1 or Acts 19 or Acts
20.
It could be.
And if you look online, a lot of people say it's the same guy from 1 Corinthians 1, but
I didn't really see anything to prove or disprove that.
Now here's the thing, though.
All four of those people I mentioned, they have a very common link to Paul the Apostle.
But in 3 John, this guy does not have a link to Paul the Apostle, he has a link to John.
So I believe this Gaius in 3 John, I believe this is the only reference that we have of
him unless he went by some other name, which I don't see any indication of that.
So I believe this is talking about a completely different person.
Now I also was kind of curious, well, where is this area in 3 John, because it doesn't
really tell you.
Now you could look up those other names in the Bible, Demetrius and Diotrophes.
Diotrophes does not appear in the rest of the Bible.
Now Demetrius, that name appears twice in Acts 19, but that is a different Demetrius.
Because the Demetrius in Acts 19 is a very bad guy, the Demetrius in 3 John is a very
good guy.
So I don't think there's any indication where this is talking about.
So you might ask right off hand, well, who is this guy named Gaius then?
To me, all indications are he's just a really great church member.
It doesn't say he's a pastor.
It doesn't say he's a deacon.
I'm sure there's people online that probably say that.
But there's no indication in the Bible that this man is a pastor or a deacon.
And I'm going to look at, we're going to look at five points tonight.
And the five points we look at would apply both to men and women.
So everybody in this room should really take heed to these things because Gaius was a man
worthy of having a whole book of the Bible written to him.
Obviously, he's a significant person, but there is no indication that he's a pastor.
And I've talked about this recently during church growth, and I honestly truly believe
this.
I don't think you have to be a pastor to be a great Christian.
I don't think that you have to be a pastor and behind the pulpit preaching three times
a week to do something big for God.
Some of the greatest people, some of the greatest Christians in the world were not pastors,
are not deacons.
You can be a great Christian, and if we follow the pattern of Gaius from 3 John, you are
going to be a great Christian.
So let's look here at 3 John chapter 1.
Let's look at the first verse here.
The Bible says in 3 John chapter 1 verse 1, it says, the elder unto the well-beloved
Gaius whom I love in the truth.
Now we see a lot of information just in that first verse.
The Bible refers to Gaius as the well-beloved Gaius.
That means exactly what it sounds like.
Everybody loved him.
Everybody loves this guy.
They don't think he's a jerk.
They don't dislike this guy.
They don't think, well, he's just another guy at church.
No, this guy is well-beloved.
Now one character that came to my mind when I was writing this sermon was the character
of David.
David in the Bible was well-loved.
The Bible says that all Israel and Judah loved David in 1 Samuel chapter 18 verse 16.
And it makes sense why people love David, because David was a man who was not arrogant.
He never tried to lift himself up to being the king above Saul.
He was always very respectful to Saul, but you notice in David's life, he also hung out
with the lowly, with the meek, with the poor, with the destitute.
He hung out with the people that could do nothing for him at all, and he turned those
people into a mighty army.
Well, he is one guy the Bible mentions as being well-loved.
Gaius is a guy we see in 3 John.
Now turn to Mark chapter 6.
There are really two things that you're going to need if you want to be well-beloved, because
this is a strong statement.
You know, there's a lot of people at this church that there's probably not too many
people that dislike them.
You know, people that show up maybe just Sunday morning, they just show up once a week or
every once in a while.
And you know, I might even mention their name, and you might not recognize their name.
But when I describe them, you'd be like, oh, yeah, that person, they're a nice person.
But they're not really well-loved.
Do you see the difference there?
You can be someone who nobody dislikes, but it doesn't mean that you're well-loved.
And here's the thing.
If you're going to be well-loved, it's going to take effort.
People aren't just going to naturally love you if you're not around at all.
In Mark chapter 16, look at verse number 31.
The Bible reads,
So Jesus is talking to his head people, the people that have been doing so much work for
God.
They are exhausted.
They've done so much great stuff.
And he's telling them, you know what, it's time to relax.
You know, pastor preaching this a few months ago, and I never really caught this before.
I thought it was really great point.
They're coming there to relax, basically have a vacation, get some time off.
And look in verse number 33.
So basically, they outrun.
They go to the other side, and when they're there, there's already a bunch of people they
need to help out spiritually.
Probably a bunch of people that need to get saved, a bunch of people that need to get
healed, a bunch of people that need to hear the word of God.
So they basically want to have a vacation.
And when they get there, instead of just getting to hang out with their favorite people, their
best friends, all of a sudden, there's tons of people already there.
Now I could understand from a fleshly standpoint that that could be a little bit frustrating
if you're trying to hang out with your best friends.
And then all of a sudden, there's just multitude with you.
Well, look at what it says in verse 34.
So basically, Jesus says, you know, we need to have compassion on these people.
We're not here to live for ourselves.
We're here to help other people out.
But his disciples, on the other hand, they basically say, get rid of those people.
We're here to just hang out together, have a good time, relax, fellowship.
We've already been working so hard, we just want to get a chance to relax.
Now honestly, this is the way it can be at church sometimes, you know, if you're here
and you're coming soul winning every week, and you're coming to service Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night, you know, you're working Monday morning, you're working Thursday
morning, it is tempting in your flesh to just be like, you know what, I'm gonna leave right
after the service, just go home and not fellowship with anybody.
I can understand, you know, why it would be tempting to say, you know what, I just
want to come here for the service and leave, I just want to hear the preaching, I'll show
up for soul winning, but I don't want to be around everybody.
But you know, if you have that sort of attitude, do you really think that you're gonna be well
loved by the congregation here if you're never around, hanging out or talking to anybody?
You're not gonna be.
If you're never around to talk to people, they won't love you.
They won't even know you.
They won't know anything about you.
And sadly, some people look at church as just a place for hearing the Word of God preached,
but they don't understand the importance of having great fellowship.
You see it all the time that when people are at a church, and they don't get involved with
the fellowship, they usually fade out of church.
And it doesn't matter how much they know the Bible.
It doesn't matter how zealous they are, or how often they go soul winning, but if they're
not involved in actually fellowshipping and getting to know people, they're probably going
to end up fading out of church.
When times get tough, they don't really have a close friend to go to and talk to about
things.
And if you want to be well loved, you know what, you're going to have to put in effort.
Now, this might come naturally to some people here, and it might not to other people.
You might say, well, you know what, this is easy for me.
I'm an outgoing person, you know, I love to just talk to people and get to know them.
You know, honestly, that's not really my personality.
My natural personality would be, you know, work my job 40 hours a week, come home right
after work and just, you know, stay away from everybody and just show up for church and
leave right after.
That's my natural personality.
My natural personality is not to just get to know everybody.
But here's the thing you'll find out.
Once you do get to know people at a church, once you do start praying for people, once
you start going soul winning with them and hearing their stories of how they got saved
and how they came to a church like this, you'll find that you start to love those people.
You'll find that you start to care about those people.
And honestly, if you're around fellowshipping with people, other people will start to love
you.
Other people will start to care about you.
But you know, it's going to take effort.
And here's the thing, you say, well, my natural personality is to be shy, then change.
Because that's what the Christian life is about.
It doesn't matter what your natural personality is like.
You know, many of us that go soul winning, we never thought we would ever knock a door.
We never thought we had the personality or the confidence to do that.
I remember telling the guy who led me to the Lord that I'm still friends with today.
I told him, that's never going to be me.
I said, that's a great goal you have.
Go out there, knock the doors.
I was like, that is not my personality.
But you know what, the Word of God will change you beyond your belief.
Once you start hearing the Word of God, once you start reading the Bible, once you start
getting involved with the things of God.
But you know what, you need to change if you're one of those people that says, I don't want
to have any friends.
You need to get to know people.
And I'm not trying to re-preach what I preached on Sunday night about talking to everybody
at church.
But you know, if you just leave and don't talk to anybody, there's no way anybody's
going to love you.
You've got to actually be here if you want to be well loved.
You've actually got to be here at church and be around people if you want them to love
you.
The Bible says, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly.
If you really want to have friends that stick with you closer than a brother, as the Bible
says, you've got to show yourself friendly.
You've got to put in the effort.
And you know, some people will come to a church like this, and they don't really get involved
with a fellowship.
And then they kind of wonder why, man, nobody loves me, nobody's inviting me to things.
It's because you've got to show yourself friendly.
Now we should, like I talked about, we should make an effort to get to know new people that
are here.
We want them to feel comfortable.
We don't want to just hang out with our cliques.
But you know, if you're new to a church, you've got to actually put the initiative out there.
And if there's people you don't know here, you've got to put that initiative out to get
to know them.
You cannot expect them to come to you.
You need to show yourself friendly.
And the people that have the most friends here, I guarantee you, are the people that
show themselves the most friendly.
It's not a coincidence, it's the people that show themselves the most friendly.
Now I do want to say this, though, there definitely is a time where you need to just get alone.
You see Jesus in the Bible going to a mountain apart.
I definitely believe there's certain times where you need to get alone with God and get
away from everything.
I love going out in the woods or something like that.
You just have your Bible, you're just praying, you're relaxing, you're just out in nature.
I love that.
And we definitely need a time to refresh ourselves.
We can't just always wear ourselves out, but we can't just always leave right after
service either.
We've got to actually get to know people if we want to be well-loved.
Now the first thing it's going to take is effort if you want to be well-beloved like
Gaius was.
Gaius was a man who got to know people.
But the other thing it's going to take is the right attitude.
Turn to Romans chapter 12.
You say, Brother Stuckey, you know, I do hang out after church, but nobody likes me.
There's probably a reason why they don't like you.
If you're always hanging out and talking to people and you're getting in fights all the
time, you're getting in fights out soul-winning, everybody's mad at you, everybody's gossiping
about you, there might, there just might be something that you're doing wrong.
I could be wrong, but you're probably doing something wrong.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 12 verse 9, Let love be without dissimulation.
Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.
Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor of preferring one another.
See, the Bible says let love be without dissimulation.
Basically, that means don't be fake.
Don't just pretend to care about people.
You should actually care about, don't pretend to care about people so that way they'll like
you.
Actually learn to care about people.
Don't just tell people, well, I'm going to pray for you.
Actually pray for them, if you're going to say that.
Don't be a liar.
Don't be fake.
Don't let your love be without dissimulation.
And the Bible says be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love.
We should actually look at people as brothers and sisters in Christ that we actually care
about.
That we actually want to get to know them and their stories and their background and
their jobs and their families.
And you'll find out when you get to know people, a lot of people have the similar stories as
you.
It's funny when you'll hear people talk about their story about how their family basically
rejected them and they don't want to have anything to do with them now because they're
part of this evil church, Verity Baptist Church.
And then once they end up finding out, everybody has the same story.
That's pretty much everybody.
Most people, their family rejects them.
Their old friends reject them.
And if you've got family and friends that don't reject you from your old life, hey,
praise the Lord.
But most people, once you get on fire for God, you're going to have enmity with your
family, with your old friends, with everybody you used to know.
And here's the thing.
If you're not making friends with the new church you're at, your tendency is going to
quit church so you can have some friends outside this church because you're not getting
around long with people here.
And that's the thing.
If you're at this church, you need to make sure you make it a point to have friends because
you've got to replace your old friends that have probably rejected you.
You've got to make sure that you have friends.
But we need to be kind towards one another with brotherly love.
We need to put in effort and have the right attitude.
Turn back to 3 John.
Now, in 3 John chapter 1, you know, when we see this idea of Gaius being well-beloved,
look at what John thought about Gaius.
He says in 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.
You can see that John is confident he's going to see Gaius again.
He wants to see Gaius again.
He's excited to see Gaius again.
You know, I think of people from my old life that are great soul winners, people that live
in West Virginia.
One of my friends is in Mindanao now, got a great friend in Ohio, people I still talk
to on a regular basis, and I haven't seen any of those guys in a long time.
I'm excited to see them again, and I trust I will see them.
And that is the way John is looking at Gaius.
He is excited to see him.
He wants to stay in contact with Gaius.
He wants to be friends.
Why?
Because Gaius was just a really, really great guy.
Gaius was well beloved because he put in effort to actually care about people, and he had
the right attitude.
If you remember when Paul, I can't remember what chapter it is, but when he's departing
from these people, they started to sorrow most of all because they wouldn't see Paul
anymore, because they really loved Paul.
Paul was not just a soul-winning machine.
He also got involved in the fellowship as well.
Now in 3 John, look at verse number 2.
The first thing we saw is this tonight, that Gaius was a man who was well beloved.
People loved him.
Verse number 2.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as
thy soul prospereth.
So what he says there in verse 2 is, I want you to prosper and be in health.
Now we understand what being in health is.
He wants him to have good health, not be in bad physical condition, but he also says he
wants him to prosper.
Now I believe this is talking about financially.
I don't believe he's saying, I want you to be rich, and if you're living for God, you're
going to be rich, but I think what he's saying is, I want you to be doing financially okay.
I want you to prosper and be in health, but look at what he says, even as thy soul prospereth.
Now what is the proof of somebody prospering in this world?
It's if they have a lot of money, they have a great job, they have a lot of great possessions.
So what does it mean for your soul to prosper?
I think that means that Gaius had a lot of treasures up in heaven.
I believe Gaius was a soul-winning machine, and his soul was prospering.
On a weekly basis, he was out there knocking doors, getting people saved.
And I believe that's confirmed when you look at verse three, because it says, for I rejoice
greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou
walkest in the truth.
See, a lot of people talk the talk, but a lot of people do not walk the walk.
But see, Gaius was a man who walked the walk.
Gaius was a man whose soul was prospering, because he was dedicated to the things of
God.
He wasn't just a really nice guy that cared about people, he was also a soul-winning machine.
That is what we see.
It says that he walked in the truth.
And here's the thing.
At a church like this, there are a lot of people that are soul-winners.
Lots of people go soul-winning.
But see, Gaius wasn't just going soul-winning every week like everybody else.
He was going above and beyond.
And the proof of that is because people actually talked about how zealous Gaius was.
And when I think of various churches that are out there, there are certain people at
those churches that I would say, man, that guy walks in the truth.
That guy is a soul-winning machine.
I think anybody who knows Brother Garrett Kirschway would say, man, that guy walks in
the truth.
That guy is a soul-winning machine.
You know, there's certain people that would say, hey, that guy, he walks in the truth.
He is a great and a mighty soul-winner.
He's not just going and just putting in some time, no, he's putting in a lot of time.
He's doing it to the point that people would actually tell stories and talk about it.
And John is excited.
He's like, man, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
He is excited for the fact that Gaius is actually out there knocking doors, getting
people saved, bringing people to church, training them up, getting them baptized, taking them
out soul-winning.
He is excited about that.
Now, the Bible says in Psalms chapter 90 verse 9, it says, we spend our years as a tale that
is told.
We spend our years as a tale that is told.
A tale is basically like a story, and you think of like a fairy tale.
The Bible says we live our lives as we spend our years as a tale that is told.
And here's what we need to understand, that the way we live our lives, it's as if somebody's
going to tell a story about it.
And you've got to ask yourself this question, what kind of story do you want people to tell
about your life?
Because here's the thing, you don't get to tell your own story.
I mean, if you're going around telling people, man, I am a great soul-winner, they're going
to think you're an arrogant, pompous person, because you are, if you're going around saying
that.
But you know, the Bible says we spend our years as a tale that is told.
What kind of story do you want people to tell about your lives?
I used to quote, you know, this about a tale that is told when I would see somebody in
public that I wanted to try to give the gospel to, and I was really nervous.
And I just started to think in my mind, what kind of story do I want people to tell about
my life?
And I was just thinking, I want them to tell a crazy story.
Like man, this guy, he just like jogged after this guy that took like five minutes to get
to and asked him if he knew he was going to heaven.
Think about Acts chapter 8.
Is that one of the most exciting stories in the Bible with the Ethiopian eunuch?
That's a pretty extreme story.
But what a great tale that we still tell today.
You read that story in Acts 8, and it motivates you today.
Hey, we spend our years as a tale that is told.
You think about people in the Bible, the fame of Jesus spread abroad to everybody.
Why?
Because he was a man who walked in the truth.
You know, you think about certain churches the Bible mentions as being great churches
where their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Man, wouldn't it God that people would say that about Verity Baptist Church, that that
is a church that walks in the truth.
That is a church that is doing big things for God.
But you know, there's also another part to this.
The Bible says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
So what we see here is that John got Gaius saved, right?
And he's very happy that he's walking in the truth.
He's very happy that Gaius is zealous, but not just that he's zealous, but he's zealous
for the truth.
Now, let's say, for example, you had a convert, okay, that got saved.
They started coming soul winning.
They got really zealous for the things of God.
And a few years down the road, they were so zealous that they wrote a book about the
pre-trib rapture.
Now, they'd be very zealous, but would that make you happy if they're writing a book that's
for the pre-trib rapture?
Obviously, here at Verity Baptist Church, we don't believe in the pre-trib rapture.
We believe the Bible says immediately after the tribulation.
We believe the word after means after.
You know, I don't know what pre-trib people think, but the word after means after.
But it would be kind of disappointing to see somebody that you had gotten saved or someone
you had helped train end up going off on some weird doctrine, right?
Well, here's what you have to understand.
Gaius was a man who stood up for the truth, and John was very excited about that.
Now, here's what you have to understand at a church, though.
You go to a church like this, and you hear great preaching, and you naturally assume,
oh, I would never change my views.
I would never get sucked into false doctrines.
And you know, obviously, everybody here at church loves the Bible.
Nobody's going to try to suck me into a false doctrine.
I remember last year, myself and Brother David Nellatescu was right beside me.
This guy who came to church for a little while at our old building and pretended to be like
us, and he started coming soul winning a little bit.
He tried to get us to believe the King James Bible was not the word of God, pretty much
from the first week he was here.
And it's like massive red flags if you come into a church and try to spread your false
doctrine, right?
If you come in from day one, obviously, we believe different things, but the King James
Bible is not a gray area issue.
And I was just thinking in my mind, like, I don't know why he came to us.
You know, I would have thought he would have come to someone who didn't go out soul winning.
I would have thought that would be smarter, but I don't think that guy was that smart.
He's kind of dumb.
But anyways, you know, people come to you with a doctrine, but let's say somebody did
come to you about the King James Bible.
And let's say they tried to persuade your thoughts about the King James Bible.
Can you really defend what you believe?
Think about that.
Do you have verses that pop out in your mind?
Or did you just watch New World Order Bible versions, and you're going to lean on that
and say, well, our pastor said it, so I believe it.
What about when some smooth, you know, talking person, some charlatan comes in and teaches
you something false?
Are you going to stand for the truth?
Or would you not know the truth well enough to stand for it?
What if they start coming into you and say, well, you know what, the Bible never tells
you you're supposed to go soul winning.
Can you defend that?
Obviously, we do believe the Bible says go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature.
But what I'm saying is this, the things you believe, you better be able to defend.
You say, well, yes, Brother Stuckey, I agreed with everything in that movie after the Tribulation.
But can you defend that belief?
And if you can't defend that belief, shame on you and learn what the Bible says so you
can.
When somebody comes and tries to change your mind about what the Bible says, you can actually
stand up and say, hey, thus saith the Lord, this is what the Bible says.
Because if you don't learn the doctrines and why you believe them, you will end up changing
your beliefs when somebody comes in because you do not know the Bible well enough.
And you say that doesn't happen at churches.
It happens at all the time, all the time.
And it for sure is going to happen at churches that are really living for the Lord because
the devil wants nothing more than to destroy a church like this, a church that is walking
in the truth, a church that is going out there preaching the gospel, but also standing
for the truth.
And honestly, I'm preaching against myself right now.
If I say I want to be a pastor one day, I better make sure I know how to defend every
single thing that I believe.
Everything that I'm willing to preach from the pulpit, I better be ready to defend every
single thing.
Because I guarantee you, people are going to come in all the time and bring new topics.
And some people aren't bad people.
They just don't know what the Bible says.
And they don't read the Bible.
So they go on YouTube, and they get all these cool doctrines, and they say, well, here talks
about the sons of God.
And you're going to have those sorts of things come in all the time.
And if you do not know how to defend the core beliefs that you have, you're going to end
up being turned aside by false doctrine.
It happens all the time.
And that is why Paul always warns people about that.
But see, John did not have to worry about Gaius doing this.
And honestly, Gaius was a mighty soul winner.
There's people that are mighty soul winners that end up getting led into false doctrine.
And honestly, all of us have believed false things before.
We hear something that sounds really smooth.
It sounds like it makes sense.
We don't know the Bible well enough as we should.
And we end up believing something false.
It happens to all of us.
But you know, we should strive to know the Bible really well.
So we don't get led away with new doctrines that are out there.
You know, people come in and say, well, you know what, you don't need the Bible to get
saved.
You can get saved from any old version.
Well, the Bible says you're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the Word of God.
That is one of the core beliefs of being King James only.
And you know what?
We need to be able to know what we believe and defend every single thing we believe from
the Bible.
Or when somebody comes in with a smooth presentation, they're going to turn us aside on false doctrine.
We better make sure we know we believe like Gaius knew what he believed.
Going back to 3 John.
So the first thing we saw tonight is this, that Gaius was a man who was well beloved.
He was a man whose soul prospered, but he was also a successful convert.
Okay, now I already alluded to this, how he was John's convert, but look at verse number
four.
He says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
You know, we go out soul winning all the time, and we get people saved, but sadly rarely
do people end up coming to church.
And when people do come to church, rarely do they end up doing something big for God.
See, Gaius was a man, he was John's convert.
John got him saved.
And you know what?
He was a convert that was actually very successful.
And you know, here's the thing about this.
Every one of us in this room, you were led to the Lord by somebody else.
Nobody got saved just by reading this on their own.
See, we can't get saved apart from the King James Bible, but we can't get saved only with
the King James Bible.
We need somebody to show us what the Bible says, because the natural man receiveth not
the things of God, for they are foolishness unto him.
We cannot get saved by reading this on our own.
Somebody has to actually give us the gospel for us to get saved.
And so you have to understand that every single one of you in this room, you have a spiritual
parent, somebody who led you to the Lord.
Now for some people, it might not be as clear as other people.
Me, I know very precisely who got me saved.
I know very clearly, once he was done talking to me that, man, I was going to burn in hell,
and I just got saved.
For some people, they hear a lot of preaching online, or they hear the gospel over and over.
They're not sure the exact moment they got saved, but they just know they believe the
right thing about the gospel now, that it's a free gift, it's eternal life, it's only
in Jesus, salvation's, you know, only by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so you obviously are saved because you have the right understanding of salvation.
But here's the thing about this.
No matter who you are in this room, somebody got you saved.
And you ought to strive to live your life, to make your spiritual father or mother proud.
I mean, think about your own parents in your life, you know, I hope that you, I hope that
you respect your parents, you know, especially if you're young.
The Bible promises that if you respect your parents, that you'll have a long life.
I know a lot of us were leaning on that with this non-GMO world that we live in.
We need to make sure we were respectful to our parents, especially you that are young.
Make sure you respect your parents.
I would hope that you want to make your parents proud about the life you live.
I hope you don't say, well, you know what, I could just become a drunkard one day and
no big deal.
I hope that, that even if you had a desire to do that, you would say, you know what,
I don't want to make my parents cry about the life I ended up living.
And I look at my parents and my parents did a good job raising me.
And honestly, even if I had been led to the wrong crowd, I believe just the thought of
my parents looking at me as living a foolish life, I would have just not done it.
I believe that about myself.
I could be wrong because I never ended up going down that road.
But no matter who you are, I hope you want to make your parents proud.
And I hope you want to make your spiritual parents proud.
Whoever got you saved.
I can think of certain people in my life that I've gotten saved, they came to church.
And maybe they did fade out of church, but I can think of people that I got saved, they
got baptized.
And even today, I still think about those people.
I'm excited about that they got saved, they came to church, they came soul winning a little
bit.
Even though they faded out, it's exciting.
Or people that you help teach the things of God.
I've mentioned before in sermons, but one of my good friends, Richie Simes in Mindanao,
I'm very proud of the things he's doing.
I did not get him saved.
I gave him the gospel several times, but unfortunately, I'm not the one who finally finished the job
for him to get saved.
He was raised in a Baptist, repent of your sins, kind of like your background, Luke.
So it was really real stubborn to get him saved.
But he eventually got saved.
But I look at what he's doing now, and I'm thinking, man, if I hadn't started talking
to him that one day, and just sat down and talked to him, he wouldn't be doing the great
things he's doing.
He wouldn't get all the souls he gets saved.
That makes me excited as having helped train him and teach him, taken out soul winning.
And all of us, we have somebody who got us saved.
I hope you want to live your life in a way that you're going to make them proud.
But you know, let's look at Galatians chapter four.
Probably the person we see in the Bible most who has a lot of spiritual kids, people that
he's led to the Lord is Paul the Apostle.
And you can see the way he writes to them in these places, like in Galatians four.
In the book of Galatians, they got led away with strange doctrines on salvation.
And it grieved Paul.
And he says in Galatians chapter four, verse 16, Am I therefore become your enemy because
I tell you the truth?
They zealously affect you, but not well, yea, they would exclude you that you might affect
them.
But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present
with you.
My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire
to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you.
So we see here that Paul really cared about his converts.
And Paul even wondered if some of the people he led to the Lord weren't even saved.
And he was really grieving.
He said, I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
He's basically saying you're either not saved, you're still a spiritual baby, spiritual baby.
And he said that they haven't started to grow in the Christian life and become great soul
winners and standing up for the truth.
He said that they've been led away with false doctrine, like circumcision and things like
that.
He said that the Judaizers have come in and taught false things.
And he said, look at verse 13, am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
You think that Paul led so many of these people to the Lord, and he's like, now they don't
even like him.
And he's like, am I your enemy because I'm speaking to you the truth?
And he looked at them and he really cared about his spiritual converts.
Listen to Philemon chapter one, Titus, Philemon, Philemon chapter one, I guess there's only
one chapter in Philemon, but in Philemon, look at what it says in verse nine, yet for
love's sake, I rather beseech thee, being such in one as Paul the aged and now also
a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.
So we see that Onesimus is the spiritual convert of Paul.
And he said, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and
to me.
See, Onesimus had kind of screwed up his life a little bit, and Paul was willing to step
in.
You'll see this later on in the book of Philemon.
We're not going to turn there for the sake of time.
But he's willing to step in and said, you know what, if he owes you anything, I'll end
up paying it.
I'll cover him.
You know, he really cared about his spiritual convert.
Maybe Onesimus had really screwed up his life before.
But Paul really did care about the people he got saved.
And honestly, this is kind of twofold.
You ought to live your life in a way that the person who led you to the Lord will be
proud of you.
But you ought to really care about the people you do lead to the Lord.
When you get people saved, you ought to try to pray for those people.
You ought to really care about trying to get them in church.
You ought to care about trying to get them in church and getting them to fix their lives
and become soul winners and do big things for God.
You ought to really care about the people that God has given you in your life to get
saved.
And here's the thing, I understand we go soul winning and we go through different phases
where we're really trying to get people to come to church and you just keep week after
week nobody's coming.
And then you're just like, man, I just I don't want to do this anymore.
You know, I just want to take a break, you know, from from trying to get people to come
to church.
They never come.
But, you know, honestly, they do come.
It just takes a lot of effort.
You know, if it was easy, then every church would be packed.
That was a godly Bible preaching church.
It's not easy to get people to come to church and become soul winners.
And it's going to take a lot of effort.
But, you know, it'd be like if you have a kid, you can't expect that baby just to grow
on its own.
You have to try to help out that baby.
And it's the same thing with spiritually.
If you get somebody saved, you cannot expect them.
And here's here's what you have to understand.
When you get somebody saved door to door, you have to understand that they're not going
to be like, man, I can't wait to go to Verity Baptist Church because it's post trip.
They don't care about that.
They don't know anything about the preacher post trip argument.
They don't care about the King James Bible.
They don't even know.
They don't they aren't like, oh, man, I got to go to this church because this one is King
James only.
You know, here's the thing.
When people first start coming to church, they're going to and a lot of people in our
movement don't realize this because you already listening to a lot of sermons online.
It's a different situation.
But the average person we get out there saved door to door has never heard a sermon from
Pastor Menes or Pastor Anderson.
This is completely new to them.
And they're going to come to this church if they realize people actually care about them,
not because of what we believe, but because people actually care about them.
When people are spiritual babies, they can be led aside into all kinds of false doctrine.
You know, when I got saved, I didn't realize I was an independent, fundamental Baptist.
I arrived at that conclusion because that's that's what you see in the Bible.
You know, obviously, it makes sense to all of us that are here.
But you know, we didn't immediately understand that.
Now, if you listen to a lot of preaching online, you might think it's just a given.
Everyone's going to understand that.
But people don't really care about the poster rapture when they first get saved.
Now, here's the thing.
Our goal is to get people to come to church and then actually really do care about the
doctrines and be like, I would never leave Verity Baptist Church because I want to go
to a King James only church.
I want to go to a church that goes soul winning, that preaches the right things.
But when people first start coming here, they probably don't care that much whether it's
King James only or whether or not it's post-trib.
Even about 10 months after I got saved, I started going to Baptist Church that was not
King James only, that was more contemporary.
And I thought, man, this church teaches eternal security, so this is a great church.
Because to me, as long as a church was once saved, always saved, it was a great church.
Because I didn't have a discernment.
You know, I was spiritually less than a year old.
And so that's what we have to understand, that not only should we be a convert that
will make our spiritual parent proud, but you should actually, as a parent, the people
that you've led to the Lord, you should actually really care for those people.
Gaius was a man who was a very successful convert.
Turn back to 3 John.
Now, the first point we saw tonight was this, that Gaius was well beloved.
The second thing was Gaius was a man whose soul prospered.
The third thing is that he was a very successful convert.
But the fourth thing I want you to see is that he was extremely hospitable.
Look at verse number 5.
See, the Bible says John knew that Gaius was very charitable because people at the church
had borne witness of it.
They had seen this guy being very giving and actually really caring about other people.
He was very charitable.
He was an extremely hospitable person.
And it said in verse 5,
Whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers.
So this is kind of twofold.
We ought to be really charitable and hospitable to the people that are at this church.
But also when people come to visit our church, maybe for the Red Op Preaching Conference,
or they come in because they've heard sermons online, or they get saved out door to door,
we ought to be very hospitable and caring and very nice and kind to those people.
Turn to James chapter 2.
It says in James chapter 2, verses 1 through 4,
It says,
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect
of persons.
For there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly peril,
and there come also a poor man in a vial raiment,
and yet respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him,
Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor,
Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool.
Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
So he's warning them basically not to care more about rich people than poor people.
And honestly this is twofold because we shouldn't be someone who goes the other way either.
We shouldn't be like, Oh, so-and-so's got a lot of money, you know, you know how rich
people are, they're jerks, you know, they don't care about the Lord.
We shouldn't have that attitude.
We shouldn't be like, Oh man, so-and-so lives in North Natomas, you know, we shouldn't talk
to him.
But we also shouldn't have the other attitude.
We shouldn't say, Well, someone lives in a poor area.
We shouldn't talk to him either.
We should actually care about them.
And here it's talking about being charitable towards strangers.
You see, when somebody comes in to visit this church, whether or not they're wearing fancy
clothing or whether or not they're not, we shouldn't be a respecter of persons.
You know, when I started coming to church, I started coming in shorts and a t-shirt.
And I did that for a decently long time.
I was one of those people that did not like to dress up.
You know, I dress up now because I think it's appropriate.
But you know, there's a few things.
One, when I was first saved, that wasn't really that big of an issue to me.
And two, quite honestly, I didn't own a suit, you know, and you got to realize a lot of
people probably don't own suits, they don't own nice clothes.
Most of us probably do have some nice clothes because we want to dress up for church, but
not everybody does.
And so just because somebody comes in here who's poor, or who has clothing that isn't
up to our standards, that doesn't mean that they don't care about the Lord, that doesn't
mean they're a bad person.
You know, if this is their first time in church, then I wouldn't expect them to come with a
suit and a tie and nice fancy dress shoes.
They probably won't.
And here's the thing, the big thing the Bible always teaches is that if you fix the inside,
the outside will be fixed, right?
People focus so much on the outside and the route to people how they're dressed.
But you know, we got to focus and here's the thing that shows kind of your heart if you're
complaining about how people are dressed.
That is between them and the Lord.
And it's one thing if the pastor gets behind here and preaches something from the pulpit,
but it's another thing for you to go up to people and be rude to them about how they're
dressed or how they should be dressed more properly.
That's ridiculous.
But it's in the Bible because this is something that does happen.
And quite honestly, even if there's someone, you know, on the streets that let's say, for
example, from time to time, we do have homeless people that come here.
And I don't think all homeless people are bad.
You know, we've had homeless people that have been coming to our church.
I think of someone, you guys probably know who I'm talking about, who was on the streets
for a while that we really helped out and started working a full-time job.
He came soul-winning.
He was coming soul-winning all the time.
He read through almost the entire Bible in like four or five months.
And as far as I know, he's still working full-time.
He has a car now.
His life really has gotten fixed.
But do you really think that we would have been able to help fix it?
And honestly, a lot of people, I'm not just saying myself, a lot of people really stepped
in and gave him clothing, gave him food, tried to give him instruction to really help this
guy out.
And hopefully he'll be in our midst again.
But here's the thing.
Do you really think that we would have been able to help him out if we looked down on
him?
When he first started coming here, he wanted to find people that actually cared about him.
And he did find people that cared about him.
Everybody showed that they cared about this young man.
And it did help fix his life.
We got to make sure that when people come here, whether or not they're rich or whether
or not they're poor, that we're very nice to them.
I mean, if somebody comes to the Red Hot Preaching Conference and they tell you that they're
going to move out to Tampa, Arizona, don't be rude to them since they're not going to
be here.
Well, I'm done talking to you because so-and-so said he might come to Verity, so I'm done
talking to you.
I'll try to talk to this guy.
Don't have that attitude.
You know, God's going to build the church.
We just got to make sure we do our part of what the Bible says.
And what we see is that Gaius was very hospitable.
But, you know, even more so than just being charitable to people that come into our midst
that are strangers, we ought to really have great charity and be very hospitable to the
people that are at this church.
We ought to really care about the people that are in this church.
And I know we already talked about this, but, you know, this prayer list that we have
on Wednesday nights, you ought to take that home and actually pray for those people.
And I'm not just saying vain words up here.
On my prayer list tomorrow morning, I will be praying for the people on that list.
And we ought to pray for, when you know somebody has a need at this church, you ought to really
care for them.
You ought to really pray for them and think about them.
And not just, well, I'm only going to pray and pretend like I care.
If you have to actually help step in in terms of whether give them a little bit of clothing
or food, we ought to be the sort of people that are saying, yeah, we'll be hospitable
to the people that are our family in this church, our brothers and sisters in Christ
that we go sowing with all the time.
Hey, people fall on hard times.
And we ought to really care for the people at this church.
Because if people start getting the impression at this church that nobody cares about them,
they're going to end up believing probably.
They're going to end up becoming very bitter against that.
They're not going to be happy.
Now turn back to 3 John.
We're going to look at one last place.
One last thing.
So the first point we saw tonight was this, that Gaius was well beloved.
The second thing is his soul prospered.
The third thing is that he was a very successful convert.
The fourth thing, he was very hospitable.
But the fifth thing that we can understand or can glean from 3 John is that this was
a very humble man.
He was not a prideful man.
It says in verse 3 in 3 John, he says, For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came
and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
You see, John heard that Gaius was a great soul winner because other people told John
that Gaius was a great soul winner.
It's not that Gaius wrote letters to him and said, hey, man, I really tore it up this week.
I got more people saved than anybody at church.
No, it's other people knew Gaius was, people liked Gaius, and he was a zealous soul winner.
So people told John how zealous Gaius actually was.
John had heard of it.
He didn't hear it from Gaius.
Gaius didn't lift himself up.
If there was anybody in that church that could have lifted themselves up as being a great
Christian, it was probably Gaius.
He was probably, if not the best Christian at that church, one of the best.
But he didn't tell John how great of a Christian he was.
He allowed other people.
The Bible says, let me find it real quickly, Proverbs 27, 2, Let another man praise thee
and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips.
We ought to look at that verse in Proverbs 27, 2, and apply that to our lives.
Don't go around telling people how great of a Christian you are or how many times you've
read the Bible or how many people you get saved or how great of a preacher you are.
Don't have that sort of attitude.
Don't go around saying, hey, man, I'm the most humble person in the world or something
like that.
Now, we ought to allow other people to talk about us instead of praising yourself.
Let other people praise you.
Don't get puffed up.
Don't get arrogant.
In verse five and third, John, he says, Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest
to the brethren and to strangers which have borne witness of thy charity before the church.
So basically, John had also heard about the great charity that Gaius had.
It wasn't that Gaius was telling John about how great he was or how much money he gave
or anything like that.
No, I mean, John heard about it from other people.
Look at James 4, 10.
This will be the last place we look.
In James chapter 4, verse 10, the Bible says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord,
and he shall lift you up.
You see, we don't have to worry about trying to promote ourselves or make ourselves be
something great.
And here's the truth.
If you are doing big and mighty works for God, guess what?
Then people are going to probably talk about it, unless you're a jerk and they don't want
to say anything nice about you.
I mean, if you're doing big works for God, if you're really good at something, chances
are someone will eventually will praise you in that area to other people.
You don't have to praise yourself.
And the Bible says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Even if nobody ever talks about how great of a Christian you are, God's the one who's
going to lift you up.
He's going to give you those great rewards in heaven if you are a great Christian, if
you are doing big things.
So we saw five things here tonight.
Gaius was a man who was well beloved.
He was a man who was so prospered.
He was a successful convert.
He was hospitable, and he was also very humble.
Now as I said at the beginning, all indications to me are that Gaius was just a church member.
I don't see an indication that he is a pastor.
It's possible, but I don't see anything that says he was a pastor or a deacon.
Now we know he was a great Christian because we saw everything tonight.
I mean, he was a very great Christian.
But there's no indication that he was a pastor.
And here's what you have to understand.
No matter who you are in this room, all five of those points apply to you.
All five of those things of how great of a Christian Gaius was, that could be you whether
you're a male or a female in this room, anybody in this room.
And here's what we really need to do if you want to reach the world.
If you remember in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 when it says that, actually turn to Acts chapter
1 verse 8.
We're going to look at one last spot.
Let me make sure I'm quoting this right too.
It says in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, it says,
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall
be witnesses on me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and on the uttermost
part of the earth.
Now you can quickly look over this verse and just say, yeah, man, we need to go soul winning
to everybody.
But there's more to it than that.
You know, I can't remember which pastor, I can't remember his name, but the pastor in
North Carolina that's come out recently as being like-minded, I think his name might
be Michael Johnson.
But I saw in a video on YouTube recently where he had a map on the wall that said, Our Jerusalem.
You see, here's the thing, in Acts 1-8, it's not just that we reach the whole world with
the gospel.
There's a pattern that you first reach your local area with the gospel.
You're not going to reach the world with the gospel unless you reach your local Jerusalem.
Now we live in Sacramento.
Obviously Acts 1-8 is not saying we need to just make some mission trip over to Jerusalem
and try to get people saved.
No.
Obviously Sacramento is the area that we're at.
But here's the thing.
If we do want to reach the world with the gospel, we've got to strengthen our local
churches.
We've got to make sure our churches are very, very strong, that they're great churches that
are walking in truth, they know the Bible, they're mighty soul winning churches, or we're
never going to reach the world with the gospel.
And there are places where people are very receptive to the gospel.
I've done soul winning in a few countries that are extremely receptive to the gospel.
But the sad thing is this, that we're not going to be able to really reach those countries
that successfully until we start strengthening our local churches.
So once this church becomes very powerful and mighty, it can start other churches.
And then eventually we can reach the world with the gospel.
But here's the thing.
Whether you ever become a missionary or not, you are helping the missionary work when you
become a very great church member at Verity Baptist Church.
Because we cannot reach the world with the gospel until we reach our local Jerusalem,
the sacramental area with the gospel.
We need this church.
We've talked about it on Sunday nights.
We need this church to grow.
We need people that are going to be like Gaius in the Bible, who are mighty soul winners,
humble people, hospitable, that just have the total package, living for the Lord.
That should be all of us.
We should all strive for that.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here this evening and just this great
character in the Bible, the well beloved Gaius God.
I just pray that all of us can use him as an example and we can see how great of a Christian
he was and just the things in our life that we need to fix, God.
And obviously all of us are working on this, including myself.
But I just pray that we'll apply these things to our lives, God, from the book of 3 John.
We pray all these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.