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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester Podcast.
I am your host, Brian Kenyon.
oh
And we are in the middle of a interesting bumper sowed.
We're calling these bumper sows and they get this name from bumper music on a radio
program between segments.
And the word sowed sounds like episode, except we are spelling it S-O-W-E-D past tense of
sow because you sow seed to get a harvest.
And we are storing these in silos.
And so we are grouping
these themes in silos, these bumper sow themes into silos, and the theme for this series
of bumper sows is about doctrinal unity, doctrinal unity.
And we have been discussing things that interfere with doctrinal unity and that should
not, uh that should not, like differences of opinion, promoting that as if it were
doctrine, uh understanding cultural
doctrines that do not belong to the doctrine of Christ, but yet are defended as if they
were and things like that.
And so in this fifth bumper-soad in this silo, this is a long title and it's in the form
of a question.
And the question is, what if diatrophes wrote a letter withdrawing fellowship from Gaius?
Now, diatrophes and gauss come from 3rd John.
And Third John is one those little epistles that John wrote.
And these character studies will come across in this episode.
you can, of course, if you're driving down the car, do not turn your Bible anywhere.
Keep your eyes on the road.
But if you are sitting somewhere where you can have a Bible before you, it might be good
to have Third John uh turned and that we will be making references to Third John.
as well as other places in Scripture.
But several years ago, the eldership of a local congregation of whom I was aware fired
their preacher for being a false teacher.
And they wrote letters to brethren in the area indicating this.
Now, I personally knew the preacher, and I could not imagine him teaching false doctrine.
And after talking with the preacher, I then further...
uh
And then, talking further with his former eldership, I learned that it was the eldership
who actually was promoting false doctrine, and they did not like the preacher who was
countering their claims with biblical evidence.
And so, you know, it's this kind of like with uh the episode, bumper-soad we had a few
bumper-soads ago about Apollos.
You know, Apollos was teaching false doctrine, but yet instead of writing him up in the
journals and writing him off as a false teacher, Aquiline Priscilla took him aside and
taught him more accurately the way of truth.
And so by the same principle, I wanted to find out firsthand, is he really teaching error?
And so after talking with the elders, I found that it was actually them who were promoting
false doctrine.
And so an eldership certainly has a right to change preachers.
You know, Acts 20 verse 28, they oversee the congregation.
In 1 Timothy 3, 5, they have that right to take care of the church of God.
In 1 Peter 5, 1 through 4, Peter who also was an elder, which incidentally means he had to
have a wife and faithful children,
So he could not have been the first pope, that's just incidental.
But he says that shepherds are to shepherd the flock as they must give an account to the
great shepherd.
And so an eldership does have a right to change preachers, but not at the expense of the
preacher's sound reputation by claiming that he taught false doctrine.
And so Romans 12, 17, you know, that would
be a violation of that, that we must treat one another respectfully and so forth.
Now John's third epistle was addressed to Gaius in verse 1.
John writes, the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Now the Holy Spirit described Gaius as one who walked in the truth.
He faithfully helped brethren and strangers.
He loved and supported missionaries, and he was a fellow worker for the truth.
Let me read the verses here.
Verse 3, John writes, "'For I rejoice greatly when brethren came and testified of the
truth that is in you,' talking to Gaius, "'just as you walk in truth.'" And then in verse
5,
Beloved, you do faithfully," and he's addressing Gaius as beloved, you do faithfully
whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love
before the church.
If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well
because they went forth, they went forth for His namesake, taking nothing of the Gentiles.
We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers of the truth." Again,
3 John, verse 3, and then verse 5 through 8.
And so he was a very faithful Christian, very wonderful Christian.
Now, Diotrephes, on the other hand, was described as one who loved to have the preeminence
over the local church.
He did not receive faithful brethren.
He unjustly accused faithful brethren.
with wicked words, he forbade faithful brethren from participating, and he drove brethren
out of the church." And verse 9, let me just read the text.
John writes to Gaius, wrote to the church, but diatrophes who love to have the preeminence
among them does not receive us.
Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does.
So he was not a very good Christian, not a very good church member.
And so what if Diatrophes wrote a on official stationary
saying the local church of whom he was a member has withdrawn fellowship from Gaius.
Now perhaps if you did not know Gaius, or for that matter did not know diatrophes, you
would simply honor the letter
and have no fellowship with Gaius.
And that would be the right thing to do.
what if you actually, and actually I should say that would seem like the right thing to
do, but what if you actually knew Gaius and knew him to be a faithful Christian?
Well now do you automatically take Diatrophes' word that Gaius has suddenly turned
to walking disorderly and must be withdrawn from as per second thesilonians three verse
six or do you investigate further
And so in this episode, want to discuss some truth to consider in ascertaining whether
Brother's accusation of false teacher is true.
And so, number one, in order to ascertain this, we must know and appreciate the importance
of truth.
We must know and appreciate the importance of truth.
Now, God, we know, places a premium on truth.
Jesus said of the gospel, you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free." John 8.32.
Now God's love for truth, however, is not limited to the truth that frees us from sin.
It is just the gospel.
Any truth.
Now of course, all truth in the New Testament
either directly or indirectly is going apply to the gospel.
But truth flows from God's nature.
For He is the Lord of truth, Psalm 31 verse 5.
God's counsels of old are faithfulness and truth, says Isaiah 25.1.
Further, God wants us to meditate on truth.
Philippians 4 verse 8, meditate on these things and
Included in that is things that are honorable and truthful and trustworthy, etc God wants
us to meditate on or to love the truth to love in truth 1st John 3 verse 8 2nd John 1 3rd
1 and God wants us to acquire truth By the truth and sell it not he says in Proverbs 23 23
Now being a false teacher is a serious matter with serious implications and consequences.
know, Jesus taught a lot about that in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 15 through 20 about
sheep that come to you and wolves that come to you in sheep's clothing.
in Romans 16 verses 17 and 18.
Remember Paul there just after he, you know, greeted one another with a holy kiss, the
churches of Christ salute you.
In Romans 16,
uh And verse 17, right after that, he says, Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause
divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them.
For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ with their own belly, and by
smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple." In Galatians 1
verses 6 through 9,
Paul said, I marvel that you are so soon removed from the gospel.
by which you were called." And then he goes on to talk about, though we are an angel from
heaven bring any other gospel unto you than that which you have heard, let him be
accursed.
In verse 9, so say I now again, if any man bring any other gospel than that which you have
received, let him be accursed.
And then in Philippians chapter 3,
And verse 18, Paul writes, "'For many walk of whom I have told you often, and I now tell
you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is
destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who set their mind
on earthly things.'" And so, yes, false teacher is a serious thing.
Second John 9 through 11.
For if we do not continue in the doctrine of Christ, we do not have God.
If we continue in the doctrine of Christ, we have both the Father and the Son.
And so it's a serious thing to be a false teacher.
And so faithful brethren should not flippantly or casually label somebody a false teacher.
Such charges must be verified by adequate evidence.
Again, prove all things.
test all things and hold on to that which is good.
And so we must see the evidence of someone who is a false teacher.
And again, Romans 12, 17, provide things honest in the sight of all men, including truly
identifying false teachers.
But sometimes, as in the illustration I gave at the beginning of this episode,
Sometimes brethren do not want to see that their position is wrong, and because of pride,
maybe because of position, an eldership does not want to change.
In fact, we made this observation when we talked about Apollos in the first episode of
this silo, so to speak, that it was very honorable and sometimes unusual for a man, for a
preacher, as powerful
and mighty in the Scriptures and eloquent as Apollos was, Acts 18, 24-28, to receive
correction from a man and a woman equivalent to Priscilla.
Many people in Apollos' type position would be arrogant, would not think that he could be
taught by a woman, especially in that culture, although as we mentioned there, Priscilla
would have followed the principles of 1 Timothy, chapter 2.
8 through 15 in teaching alongside her husband Aquila, but nonetheless she was involved in
that teaching as the Bible clearly states.
And so we must provide things honest to make sure somebody is truly teaching false.
And just like we talked about with Apollos, a person may teach falsely, but that doesn't
make him a false teacher as per Romans 16, 17, and 18, Galatians 1, Philippians 3, 19,
etc.
Alright, so number one, we must know the truth and we must appreciate the truth when
handling or ascertaining whether a certain brother is truly in sin.
And then, secondly, we must ascertain whether the accusation is true.
Now, and this is where I think we get in a lot of trouble.
It is much easier to take someone's word for it that someone
is a false teacher, especially if that's someone that we agree with on most biblical
subjects, the people we hang around with maybe.
It's a lot easier just to agree with them, and sometimes church politics might be
involved.
It's much easier to agree with somebody who said something than to go face to face, if
possible, to the actual person about whom the accusation is being made.
and i remember a long time ago long time ago when i first started out preaching i kept
hearing people talk about an instructor i had that was a false teacher he's a false
teacher he's a false teacher and finally i said well what what is the evidence of a false
teacher well he said so and so on this tape that tells you how long goes cassette tapes
which those of you my age i want that long ago but it is to younger people but anyway
So I said one time, you well, I'd like to hear that.
I can't imagine him saying something like that.
And so the next time I saw the guy about a month later, he brought me cassette tape and I
took that cassette tape and listened to it.
And I'm here to tell you that tape, I heard nothing on that tape that even came close to
what they were accusing him of.
Now I could see a statement that he made.
I could see where that could get blown up.
But in the context, he wasn't promoting what they said he was promoting at all.
In fact, I recently heard a sermon, this time a download on YouTube, where they accused
someone teaching the false doctrine, which if you listen to that sermon, maybe there's one
sentence in that whole sermon that they could get that idea.
But if they listen to the whole sermon before that point, and it's about a 35, 40 minute
sermon, the whole sermon before that point, there's no way you would get that idea.
And if you listen to the whole rest of the sermon after he said that...
that statement, there's no way you'd get that idea either.
And so I learned way back that you can't always go about what your brethren say.
Listen to the evidence.
Look at the evidence yourself to ascertain whether that accusation is true.
Now, some false teachers are so obvious that the principles of Matthew 18, 15 through 17
would not apply.
And you remember that verse says, your brother sins against you, go to him first.
And if he hears you, then you've gained your brother.
But if he doesn't hear you, get two or three witnesses and go to the brother.
Now those two or three witnesses are not witnessing the accusation, but they were
witnesses of the sin.
And that's how witnesses is used in the Bible.
All right?
And if that doesn't work, if he doesn't repent then, then you bring it before the church.
And so we understand that.
But false teachers who are so obvious that those principles would not apply, however, if
we know or at least think we know Gaius, for example, and we received a letter from
Diotrophy saying that Gaius was a false teacher, would not our love and concern for Gaius
demand that we contact him directly to see if the accusations were true?
Again, we're talking about somebody we know.
And last time we talked to that person, like a month ago or maybe a week ago, that person,
there was no indication that he was a false teacher.
Now all of a sudden he's being accused of a false teacher.
And, you know, it might be the least amount of time in between there, the more you might
know something's up.
But would not love our love for Gaius because we know Gaius.
And we don't never heard anything false come out of his mouth.
Now that doesn't mean, you know, a person can't be speaking truth all the time you know
him, then all of teach false doctrine.
mean, that does happen.
But wouldn't it be better for us to go to Gaius first to see if he were actually a false
teacher to see if these accusations were true?
And furthermore, I know brethren that have weaponized disfellowshipping.
Not because someone was truly walking disorderly, but to put him out of the church as it
says of diatrophies.
And of course, diatrophies would be one if we received a letter
because it did say explicitly that he wanted to put them out of the church.
And so we do know that Gaius did not want truth being involved in that local congregation.
And if we knew diatrophies, now if we knew diatrophies and didn't know Gaius, but we knew
diatrophies and what kind of person he was, wouldn't that?
cause us to want to go talk to Gaius because we knew who Dr.
Fees was.
All right?
But anyway, uh you know, those who walk disorderly should be disfellowshipped, but a
faithful brother who is countering false teaching with the truth should not be
disfellowshipped.
And that example that I gave in the beginning of this episode, that's exactly what was
happening.
And I would not have known that had I not taken the time to talk to the accused.
And even in that situation, I talked to that eldership three times.
But anyway, everything's good now that uh congregation has been restored to fellowship and
everything is good.
All right, but anyway, sometimes when we hear a snippet of what someone has said, we jump
quickly to false teacher conclusions.
And that's what happened.
with the two illustrations I gave of an instructor of mine one time.
And when I listened to the tape, that little snippet, I mean, maybe if you took that
little snippet out and add a bunch of stuff to it, but in the context of that snippet,
nothing there at all that he was teaching falsely in both cases.
But some people, now again, I'd wish they wouldn't do this, but some people will use
denominational lingo.
when they make statements from the pulpit or from public teaching.
Now, again, I wish they wouldn't do that.
Sometimes they don't even realize it's denominational lingo, maybe.
But they'll do that sometimes.
But when we hear that denominational lingo, do not automatically assume that what that
person means by that lingo is what denominations teach.
In fact, this happens a lot with students.
In fact, I was just grading a paper the other day where the student made the statement
that mankind, and he's kind of a new Christian, and he's a young fellow, but he says that
mankind is born with a propensity to sin.
And of course, that's just pure Calvinism.
and that's denominational lingo.
But I know he doesn't believe in that, and if he does, he's a new Christian, I want to
correct him so that he doesn't.
So I put some red marks on that paper, and when we have the class where we go over all
that stuff, we'll talk about it in class.
I won't mention the names at that point because I don't want to embarrass him, but, you
know, people use, and unfortunately, they'll use denominational lingo, but do not assume
that because a person uses a
denominational term that he means denominationalism by that.
And I will tell you right now, the fall, you hear people talk about the fall, Adam, the
fall of this, the fall of that.
Well, that's denominational lingo.
And what denominations mean by the fall is not what brother so-and-so I'm sure means by
the fall.
And if I'm not sure, I'll ask him.
And so I would much rather use the term the first sin instead of the fall.
even though you might find war when you might find one word in there and i think the first
sin better describes it than the fall or when adam and eve got kicked out of the garden of
expelled from the garden i mean that's a better way to explain it than the fall because
denominationalism the fall is a dimmick sin the fall is you inherit the sin the fall is
total hereditary depravity and that's just not true and so just because someone uses
denominational lingo
I do not assume that he means by that with the denominations teach.
Now again, I wish people wouldn't use denominational lingo, and I like it when people used
to point it out at me, don't use that term, and there's a lot of Calvinistic
denominational lingo that preachers use sometimes.
Even the word parsonage.
Parsonage.
Why do we call the preacher's house a parsonage?
Who's a parson?
That's denominational lingo.
so would it not be much better just to say the preacher's house indeed it would be but
just because someone says i live in the personage i'm not going to assume that he's all
wrapped up in denominationalism and thinks of himself as a person no sir no ma'am wouldn't
be better go talk to that person
But don't assume, because he uses that term, he's all denominational.
And then, as we discussed in the last episode, sometimes a false teacher is not really
false, but the accusation merely amounts to a difference of opinion in an optional matter
or an expediency, as we sometimes say.
And then there's times when people like Apollos
they are indeed teaching untruths, but they do not know that they're teaching that and
they're easily taught or they easily accept the truth when they are taught the truth.
And we find this in Acts 18, 24 through 26.
In fact, I just thought about this as I said that, that I'm probably mentioning Apollos in
every single episode of this silo of bumper shows because
To me, he's a great example of all these things we're talking about.
All right, so we must not judge and convict somebody of believing false teaching without
having the sufficient evidence.
And because somebody said so, just hearsay, that doesn't qualify as evidence.
Now, well, you know, I mean, sometimes, well, yeah, sometimes it is, but sometimes it
isn't.
Sometimes, you know, we know brethren, we know them really well.
And if they say someone's a false teacher, it carries a lot more weight.
But even then, even if it's a brother we respect, a brother we know, still would it not be
best to see the, yeah, you gotta have the evidence, not just someone's word.
I mean, you know, lot of mistakes can be made if you just take what someone says.
All right, but anyway.
But the God-breathed wise man in Proverbs 18-13, he said, who answers a matter before he
hears it.
it is folly and shame to him.
And the term here translated before he hears it has to do with a failure to examine all
sides of an issue before making a judgment.
We must be willing to dig deeper than the mere accusation.
Now when we only hear one side of an issue, it may seem to be the clincher, but that one
side may not be the whole picture.
And I say, you know, there's always at least two sides to the story, sometimes more.
And so we have to get all angles of that, all sides of the story, as it were, to be able
to make a good judgment.
Okay, so we have to take the whole picture again.
Then in Proverbs 18, 17, the God-breathed wise man, said, the first one to plead his cause
seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him.
And so we cannot go wrong by heeding James' instruction, so then, my beloved brethren, let
every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath." James 1.19.
And so when we hear the accusation that someone is a false teacher, we must first know and
appreciate the importance of truth.
Secondly, we must ascertain whether the accusation is true.
And then thirdly, we must value each faithful soul
who builds up the kingdom.
We must value souls.
Now notice every church member is important and the church needs every faithful member of
the body of Christ in order to build up and expand the borders of God's kingdom.
and every member matters.
You know, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 through 27, compare that with Ephesians 4, 11 through 15,
there's all kinds of different functions in the church, different body members that make
up the one body.
And every single one of those is important.
Now, given the description of diatrophies in 3 John 9 through 10,
we can see why he would not want Gaius, a faithful brother, in 3 John 5-8.
We could see why the diatrophes would not want Gaius in the local church.
But why would some brethren today, who claim to be followers of Christ, want to
unnecessarily lessen the number of faithful church members by crying wolf that he's a
false teacher?
and putting them out of the church, when indeed the evidence does not show he's a false
teacher.
Like diatrophies, it seems that brethren who do this, they too, they also want to have the
preeminence among the brotherhood.
Look at what a liberal slayer I am.
In fact, several years ago, I came home from a lectureship and uh
came home on a monday and that tuesday night a brother texted me and said so-and-so's
talking about you on his facebook page and i look at the facebook page and it said you
know we have given up on uh...
brian kenyon in the florida school of preaching because of this then the other thing and
then another brother responds to him well we gave up on brian kenyon in the fsop a long
time before that because of this thing
And that other guy said, you guys got to drop that thing.
That's all you talk about the last five years.
And then they went back and forth at each other and started off about me and FSOP.
But then they went back and forth at each other as to who the biggest liberal slayer is.
And then to make matters even more interesting, the one who started that on his Facebook,
I was within six feet of him on Sunday.
for about an hour and an hour and a half.
through the end of the sermon, talking to him in the foyer, waiting in line with him
through the fellowship meal, and sitting next to him during the fellowship meal.
And he never said a word to me about it on Sunday that whole time, and unloaded on me with
his Facebook page on Tuesday.
Now, isn't that weird, huh?
That's what I'm talking about.
ah If I did all those things, he said I did and he gave up on me, why didn't he talk to me
about that on Sunday when I was within six feet of him for an hour to an hour and a half?
Because he wanted to put me out of the church.
He wanted to be a diatrophes.
That's exactly why.
And of course, that's unfortunate, but that's way it is sometimes.
And so they want to be preeminent in the brotherhood.
And so rather than...
diminishing the number of faithful brethren, so he wrote me off as being faithful, and the
whole school of preaching, and I suppose anybody involved with that, but rather than
diminishing the number of faithful brethren, should we not be encouraging the faithful,
along with reaching out to the lost in order to strengthen and expand the local church?
Indeed, we should.
Ephesians 4, 2.
425, 432, Hebrews 313, Hebrews 24, 25.
We want to build one another up.
Yes, now, don't get me wrong, when there is truly evidence of false teachers, that same
love that would give gayists the benefit of the doubt as love demands, 1 Corinthians 13, 4
through 5, and verse 7, that same love that would give gayists the benefit of the doubt
demands
that the false teacher, the true false teacher, be dealt with according to Scripture.
Again, that's one of the qualities of love.
1 Corinthians 13, 6, it rejoices in truth, not in error.
All right?
Even this, though, even this includes this withdrawal of fellowship, it includes the
building up and expanding the borders of the kingdom.
That is, when all efforts of teaching fail to move a false teacher from his or her
erroneous positions, like we read about in Acts 18, 26, Galatians 6, 1, then we are to
withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which
he received of us, 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 6.
Now keep in mind, tradition here simply means that which is handed down
And that which is handed down, Paul says, from us.
So he's talking about the instruction they received from Paul and fellow apostles who
taught them, whether that instruction, that tradition was written or oral instruction, it
came from God.
In fact, that word tradition is also used in 2 Thessalonians 2.15 to talk about what Paul
taught.
And so,
One reason for this withdrawal is so that the brother or sister may be ashamed in 2
Thessalonians 3 14, which will hopefully lead to repentance and salvation restored.
And of course, Corinthians 5, 4 and 5 address this as well, turn him over to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh that his soul may be saved.
And so even when the local church has withdrawn fellowship from the member,
Paul would say in 2 Thessalonians 3.15, do not count that withdrawn from soul as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother.
And so even if he's withdrawn from, our love for him should continue to encourage and to
admonish him to repent and be restored.
And when he is, we have gained a brother.
And so just because someone is accused of being a false teacher,
We should not automatically assume that that is true.
And in order to correctly handle it, we must know and appreciate the importance of truth,
we must ascertain whether the accusation is true, and we must value each faithful soul who
builds up the kingdom.
Now again, sometimes it's so obvious that a person is true, we don't need to go to that
person.
But in my experience,
in the church, especially over these last five or ten years and even beyond that, many,
many times when people are accused of being false teachers, it's all about church
politics, it's all about preeminence, and a lot of things are involved in that.
But we must ascertain whether that is true.
And so accusations of false teacher are serious and should not be given or taken lightly.
And if we knew Gaius, yet we received a letter from Deutrophes stating Gaius was now
withdrawn for false teaching, how would we react?
May the Lord help us to be guided by love, the love of the brotherhood, 1 Peter 2, 17, and
may the Lord help us to test or prove all things and hold fast to that which is good.
and to abstain from all forms of evil and to act accordingly to those principles.
And so again, we want to make sure the brotherhood is pure, we want to make sure there's
no evil, leavening influences in the brotherhood, and false teachers can do that.
But let's make sure that someone is truly a false teacher before we withdraw from him,
before we label him, before we mark him, before we put him out of the church.
because that attitude is following not Christ or not those who follow Christ like Gaius,
but that attitude follows diatrophies, and we don't want to be like that.
Well, we appreciate your listening here today, and stay tuned for one or two more
bumper-sodes, and then we'll get into our next season, season five that has to do with the
minor prophets.
Again, we'd appreciate your feedback, whether positive or negative, we take all criticism.
And if the shoe fits, wear it.
We'll wear it.
And if it doesn't, we won't.
But it'll help us to be better.
And so we do appreciate your feedback.
We have gotten a lot of positive feedback, but we would also welcome your constructive
criticism as well.
But until next time, we are glad that you joined us, and we look forward to being with you
on the next episode.