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Intimidation, Manipulation and Repentance

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• Title of the message today is actually intimidation, manipulation, and repentance. I'm going to explain those momentarily. But notice if you would in Mark 1 in verse 15, our Lord begins His ministry and the Bible says, "And He came saying, 'The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the Gospel.'" Note if you would, He said, "The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the Gospel."

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• We are certainly living in a day of confusion. We are living in a day of actually turmoil, and sometimes even just outright tyranny. So my question would be to begin with, do you actually know the difference between intimidation, manipulation, and repentance? Let me just say that intimidation and manipulation are the acts of men that seek to control your thoughts, your positions, and your actions. Repentance is that which is demanded by God, owed to God, and it is our responsibility to give to God and to man whenever it is necessary.

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• I went to the Oxford Dictionary and I looked up the words intimidate and manipulate. And here is the definition for intimidate. It says, "to frighten or overawe someone, especially in order to make them do what one wants." In fact, it went on to say that our English word is derived from a 17th century Latin word, which means "to make timid." So if I intimidate Steve, then I am browbeating him or doing something in such a way that makes him timid and more malleable to what I want him to do and how I want him to act. The word manipulate actually means "the action of manipulating someone in a clever or unscrupulous way." So manipulation can be something as simple as controlling what one hears and what one sees, or it can be something even more devious and more unscrupulous. But it doesn't matter whether you use the word intimidate or manipulate. Both of those are actions of men where they try to force you into a mold and try to get you to think and to act the way they want you to think and to act as well.

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• The word repent or repentance is from the Greek word metanoia, which literally means "to change one's mind." And when the mind is changed, the course of direction is changed, which means, therefore, there is a change in one's conduct. So if I'm heading north and I repent, I turn 180 degrees and I go south. So I've changed directions. Of course, when you come south you are supposed to change your conduct too, Ron. You are not supposed to stay in bed and be sick all the time, but anyhow. Repentance is nothing more than simply a change in one's thinking which results in a change of conduct. The word repent occurs 34 times in the New Testament and it is used both generally and specifically.

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• And the text that I just read from Mark 1 and verse 15 is a general call to repentance because our Lord came preaching and He was saying, "The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the Gospel." So what He is doing is saying this: Messiah is present. And since the Messiah is present, the Kingdom is present. And so therefore, in light of these facts, you must repent and you must believe the Gospel. So repentance then, like I pointed out, involves a change of mind toward God, toward Jesus Christ, toward sin, toward salvation, and a host of other truths. Repentance is actually two parts.

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• It is a turning from and turning to. It is kind of like the passage in 1 Thessalonians 1 in verse 9 where the Bible says those Thessalonians "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God." So, here is a negative in the sense that they turned from their idols. And here is the positive in the sense that they turned to God. Now, what I want you to understand is this: repentance is made up of those two aspects, the negative and the positive, turning from and turning to. Someone may turn from that which is wicked and wrong and ungodly, and yet never turn to God. And in that sense of the word, that is not true repentance. It may be self-reformation, but it is not true repentance. You have to have both parts to have true repentance. And if you look in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 12, our Lord kind of talks about this self-reformation and He gives a very vivid illustration beginning there with verse 43. So in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 43, our Lord says it like this: "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none.

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• Then he saith, 'I will return into my house, for whence I am come out.' And when he is come, he findeth it empty, and swept, and garnished." The man just simply reformed himself. "Then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."

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• So self-reformation is not repentance. Repentance may be general or it may be specific. It was a general call to repentance that was given to us in Mark 1 in verse 15 when our Lord says, "Repent ye and believe the Gospel," because He the Messiah was at hand and the Kingdom of God therefore was at hand. If you would look in your Bibles Luke chapter 13, you will also find there is a general call to repentance in light of certain death. Now death can come either suddenly, quickly, or it can come slowly, but yet our Lord talks about repentance in view of death. Notice verse 1, Luke 13: "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

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• So he had murdered them while they were sacrificing. And Jesus answering said to them, 'Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'" In other words, you are going to perish. It may be suddenly, it may be quickly, it may be slowly, but you are going to perish. And so therefore He says you must repent.

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• So repentance in one sense of the word can be very general. In another sense of the word, it can be very specific. Let me just try to give you a good biblical illustration. Do you realize that every individual has his own peculiar and particular sins? I'm sure you realize that fact. But do you also realize that there are certain sins peculiar to certain groups, and to certain organizations, and to certain occupations? For instance, if you look in Luke chapter 3, John the Baptist has come preaching the doctrine of the baptism of repentance. So if you look in Luke chapter 3 and verse 3, Luke 3 verse 3, "And he"—that is John the Baptist, He is mentioned there in verse 2, "John the son of Zacharias"—"and he came into the country of Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." So John is now preaching repentance. Now the interesting thing is I'll show you this in just a moment in this verse. But back in Matthew 3, 7, and 8, don't turn back there because you are going to see basically the same thing right here in Luke chapter 3.

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• But the Bible says in Matthew, when he saw that many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to his baptism, He said unto them, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." But note particularly he saw the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

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• Now if you will look in Luke chapter 3, he says the same thing basically in verse 7. "Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, 'O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. And begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.'"

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• Now you have to ask yourself this question: why in the world did John the Baptist single out the Pharisees and the Sadducees particularly and call them a generation of vipers? Why did he do so? And the answer would have to be not only because of their pride and their arrogance, but also because of their intimidation and their manipulation. I don't have time to take you through the Bible, but may I just point this out? The Pharisees always sought to control the populace. The Sadducees controlled the Temple.

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• And I'll be preaching on this in the not too distant future. But many times the Bible tells us that certain people did not confess Christ for fear of the Jews, that they would be cast out of the synagogue. So, here is intimidation. Here is manipulation. And unhappily, things really have not changed in Christendom today in that sense of the word, because there are still people who are trying to manipulate and intimidate and force you into thinking the way they think and thus to get you to act the way they want you to act. The same exact methods are used: intimidation and manipulation.

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• Now let me just point out John is going to be dealing with specific sins. In his day, specific sins of the general populace, that is just people in general, happen to be the sins of covetousness and selfishness. So, if you will look in your Bibles to Luke chapter 3 and look at verses 10 and 11.

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• Now, remember he is preaching repentance. In fact, let's go back and read verse 9. He said, "And now also the axe is laid into the root of the trees. Every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast in the fire." And the people asked him, saying, "What shall we do then?" That is, what shall we do then in light of the fact that you're demanding repentance? How do we bring forth the fruits of repentance?

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• How do we show that we're genuinely repentant? Look in verse 11. "He answered and saith unto them, 'He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.'" In other words, selfishness and covetousness were the two main particular sins of the general populace in that day. So he says, if you really are repentant, then you're going to turn and you'll no longer be selfish, you'll no longer be covetous. You will be willing to share, you will be willing to sacrifice, you will be willing to do that which is right and biblical. So, to the people He said, "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." Overcome your covetousness and your selfishness. But look in verse 12, there was another group and that is the publicans or the tax collectors. The Bible says, "Then came also the publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, 'Master, what shall we do?'" Now, I want you to note he does not give the same answer to the publicans that he gave to the people.

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• He said in verse 13, "Exact no more than that which is appointed unto you." In other words, their particular sin was theft. They were thieves. So these publicans were people who worked for the Roman government. So if the Roman government said, okay, James owes 50 denarii. If I'm a publican, I come to James and I say, you owe 60 denarii. So I'm getting paid now, not only by the Roman government to collect the taxes, but now I'm stealing an extra 10 from him.

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• So he says, all right, if you want to prove that you have genuinely repented, you turn into an honest individual. You quit your stealing. It's just that simple. Okay. Now notice something else. He goes on, he's dealing with specific sins. And now he deals with the soldiers. Look at it in verse 14. "And the soldiers likewise demanded of him saying, 'And what shall we do?'" Wow. How are we going to evidence repentance?

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• He does not give the same answer that he gave to the publicans or to the people. Verse 14. "And he said unto them, 'Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages.'" So the specific sins of the soldiers were violence, false accusation, usually through fraud and extortion. In other words, if we don't get what we want, we are going to rebel, we are going to cause problems. So he says if you are going to demonstrate that you have genuinely repented, you are going to be content with your wages, you are not going to be doing violence unnecessarily, and you are certainly not going to be accusing any individual falsely. There are specific sins that have to be dealt with and repented of just like there are sins in general. I usually tell people as Christians you have to understand that our lives are actually a life of repentance and faith. We may repent of sins in general when we are converted and maybe one or two sins specifically. But the truth of the matter is the more you study the Scripture, the more you read the Word, the more you realize you have far more sins to turn from than you ever thought you did when you just simply first got converted.

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• So our lives are actually a life filled with repentance as well. Our responsibility to repent comes from God's absolute sovereignty. God has the absolute right to tell us how to live, how to act, what to do, and what not to do. The Scripture tells us that He is our Judge, He is our Lawgiver, and He is our King. In Isaiah 33 and verse 22, the Bible says, "For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us." So, obviously, as Lawgiver, He makes the law. As Judge, He judges whether or not that law has been violated. As King, He rules over people, and He rules over His domain, and He makes sure that His law is there, and His judgeship is intact.

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• Now, I do want you to turn to the book of Acts chapter 17. I want you to look at this passage, Acts chapter 17, and look if you would please at verses 30 and 31. Let me just say this, our responsibility to repent is based upon God's absolute sovereignty. He also gives us other reasons why we must repent. Notice in Acts chapter 17 verse 30 the Bible says, "In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Why does God command us to repent?

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• Well, first of all He is sovereign, He can do what He pleases. But He gives us another reason here. He says, "...because He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He raised Him from the dead." Now God says, I am commanding you to repent because I have appointed a day in which I am going to judge the world in righteousness. I am going to judge the world in righteousness by my Son Jesus Christ. Now I want you to note this, "whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." So just as surely as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, just that surely there is going to be a judgment day. So He says in that light we must repent because God is sovereign. God commands it and God has set a judgment day and we will be judged. We have a responsibility to repent.

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• Moreover, as His creatures, we owe Him and we are accountable to Him and we're responsible to Him. And as sinners, we owe Him repentance because of our sins and our rebellion against our Creator and our Lord.

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• Now, I've established one fact so far, and that is that we are responsible to repent. OK, listen carefully. There is a difference between responsibility and ability. While we have the responsibility to repent, we do not have the ability to repent in and of ourselves. Repentance is the gift of God. Repentance cannot be worked up. It does not arise on demand. And it is not in the power of man to initiate or originate repentance. Repentance is demanded, that is true. We are responsible to repent, but responsibility does not equate with ability.

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• So if I owed Gary $10,000, I borrowed 10,000 Federal Reserve notes from him and said, I'm going to give them back to you in 30 days. And 30 days comes up and I only have a thousand. Well, I have a responsibility to pay him what I owe him, but I don't have the ability. You follow me? So there's a difference between responsibility and ability.

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• Now, I may be responsible for that debt, but I may not be able to pay that debt. So God holds us responsible to repent, but we don't have that ability in and of ourselves. So I want you to look back in Acts chapter five, and let me show you the ability or the gift of repentance. In Acts chapter five, verses 30 and 31. Acts five, verses 30 and 31. The Bible is here speaking of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Bible says, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Note if you would that God has exalted Him. God has raised Him up to be a Prince and a Savior to give repentance. Now the word give is the Greek word didomi which literally means to give, to grant, or to bestow a gift. So the Bible tells us that God specifically exalted Jesus Christ at His right hand, made Him a Prince and a Savior that He might give the gift of repentance.

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• Now, if you will turn to Acts chapter 11, remember in Acts chapter 10 Peter is preached to the house of Cornelius. They have been converted. He baptized them. And when you get to Acts chapter 11 when the brethren in Jerusalem hear about this, they accuse Peter of going into one who is unclean and doing what he should not do. And so he related the entire incident unto them and showed how God saved them exactly the way that He had saved them. And if you will look in verse 18, Acts 11 verse 18, "When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God saying, 'Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.'" Now the word granted there is not only, it is exactly the same as it is in Acts chapter 5. Here is what they say, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles given the gift of repentance unto life." Now, if you would turn right over to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2, and let's begin reading with verse 24, and we'll read through verse 26.

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• 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 24. Just trying to demonstrate that repentance is the gift of God. It's not something that you can work up on your own. 2 Timothy 2 verse 24, "And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of

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• the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." So, when do men recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil? And the answer is according to verse 25 when they acknowledge the truth. Well, when do men acknowledge the truth? Well, according to verse 25 it is when God gives them repentance.

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• Now, I don't know if you've guessed it yet or not, but when you look at verse 25, "in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give," guess what? It is the exact same word you find in Acts 11 and verse 18. In Acts 5 and verse 31 it is the word didomi, which means to bestow a gift. Then is God bestowed this gift of repentance. Wow! Repentance is a gift. God must give it.

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• It cannot be worked up. It cannot be something that you do spontaneously or on your own. You have a responsibility, but you do not have the ability in and of yourself.

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• Now, I want you to follow this thought with me. Repentance involves sin. So here's my question. What is sin? We could come up with some type of fancy definition or some kind of confessional statement, and we could say something like, sin is doing that which is contrary to the will of God, the Word of God. And we could go a whole paragraph on this. We could go several paragraphs.

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• But 1 John 3:4 pretty well sums it up very plainly when the Bible says this: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law." So repentance then revolves and involves sin. And sin is a transgression of the law. It is not the transgression of anything else. It's a transgression of the law. So if Bob and I disagree on something and I say, well, you're wrong. And he says, you've got to believe what I believe. No, I don't have to believe what he believes. If I transgress God's law, it's a sin. But if I do not believe quite what you believe, that does not mean that I am a sinner. If I do not hold your position, that does not mean that I am a sinner. If I do not act the way you want me to act, that does not mean that I am a sinner and must repent. If I do not see what you see, that does not mean that I'm a sinner and I need to repent. Why? Because repentance deals with sin and sin specifically is a violation of the law of God. And I have no obligation to repent unless I violate God's law. You follow

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• that? I have no obligation to repent unless I violate God's law. There is such confusion and such turmoil today in Christianity, and it seems like Christian liberty, charity, and common sense is totally lost. There are people, there are Christians, there are pastors that are absolutely demanding that you see what they see and you believe what they believe. And if you do not, then you're going to be ostracized. You're going to be defamed. You're going to be excoriated. You're going to be verbally chastised. Well, you're either going to be called upon to repent, to be rebuked, and even to be referred to as heretical.

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• Let me tell you something. There is such a thing in the Bible as Christian liberty. Christian liberty does not involve the right to sin. No one has the right to sin. Sin is not a right. Sin is rebellion. I showed Alice an article that I was reading the other day and this guy said that adultery is a personal choice. No, it's not a personal choice. It's a violation of God's law. I mean you may do it, but you're still violating God's law. So, obviously when we talk about Christian liberty, Christian liberty does not involve the right to sin. Christian liberty involves things that are indifferent. You know the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, "I have a right to lead around a wife, a sister as others do." He didn't, but he said I have a right to do so. Is it a sin to marry? No. Is it a sin to remain single? No. It is not. That is what you and I would call something indifferent.

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• You have to understand God does not give the same light to the same people, or the same amount of light to different people at the same time. God is just as sovereign in illumination as God is in salvation. And consequently there is going to be differing opinions upon certain passages and different interpretations. For instance, while I'm a Baptist, I am not forever arguing with Presbyterians over paedo-baptism.

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• I believe that they are wrong in their position. They believe that I'm wrong in my position. Yet we don't argue. We don't fight. We don't fuss. We don't tear each other apart. I'm quite willing to wait to eternity to find out I'm right. Of course they are quite willing to wait to eternity to find out they're right and I'm wrong. I mean you understand that. I'm just simply saying I'm not going to call upon someone and rebuke him because he believes in paedo-baptism and I don't. I think he's wrong and he thinks I'm wrong.

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• There was a camaraderie and an understanding of Christian liberty and Christian charity during the War of Northern Aggression that we have totally, completely lost today. Chaplain Beverly Tucker Lacy was a Presbyterian. Chaplain Webb was a Baptist preacher. Beverly Tucker Lacy is one of the well known chaplains during the war. In fact he is closely associated with Stonewall Jackson. In fact he was the man who went in and prayed with Jackson before Jackson's arm was amputated.

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• But here is this incident that is revealed, listen to it as I read. When Presbyterian pastor Dr. Beverly Tucker Lacy had some converts who insisted upon immersion as the correct form of baptism, he never hesitated for a moment, but contacted a Baptist chaplain, Brother Webb, who eagerly baptized the new converts. As Brother Webb finished baptizing the converts, he said to Dr. Lacy, "Brother Lacy, you remind me of a hen setting on duck eggs. She carefully nurses the eggs until the little ducks appear and diligently watches over and cares for them. But someday she goes near the water and the whole group of little ducks plunge in while she has to stand clucking on the bank." "Yes," said Brother Lacy, "I cannot follow them in, but I go with them to the water's edge.

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• I receive them with open arms when they come out and I'm ever ready to hail them as my spiritual children and to do all in my power to help them serve our common Master and to reach the home of our common Father above." You talk about men who work together, who disagreed, who held different positions. And here's what these men did. And today all we can do is fuss and fight.

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• We have forgotten Augustine's dictum, which is simply: in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. We have forgotten that dictum. There has to be liberty. There has to be charity in those areas where good men differ. We cannot use our Christian liberty as a cloak of sin. We cannot use our Christian liberty to cause a weaker brother to stumble. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 9, "But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to the weak." And then in Galatians 5 and verse 13 he says, "For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another."

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• I want to show you something. I want you to look in Galatians chapter 5 verses 14 and 15. I've threatened for years to do this, I've never done it. But I've threatened for years to preach a message which I'm going to entitle, "Cannibal Christians." Cannibal Christians. Look what he says. Galatians chapter 5 verses 14 and 15. The Apostle Paul says, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." So if I start nipping at Gary and biting at Francis and saying things and doing things, pretty soon it is going to be an all out fuss and an all out fight. And he said, you better take heed that you be not consumed one of another.

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• I've made this statement and I really believe it's true. It amazes me that as many enemies that we have to resist and fight against, most Christians end up fighting each other. And preachers often times are preeminent in all of this grappling with each other. I have known preachers who would not even speak to other preachers because they held a different eschatological view. It's insane. You know, I don't care if you are a historic pre-mill, a dispensational pre-mill, an amill, or a post-mill, and those are the four main positions. But every one of those positions believes that Jesus Christ is returning literally, visibly, and bodily.

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• They just disagree on when and how. Isn't that amazing? And yet I'm not going to speak to James because he doesn't believe what I believe about that. I'll ostracize him and say, well he's got to be a heretic, he doesn't believe this. That's absolutely insane. That's ridiculous. I mean I think Arthur W. Pink was right. He wrote years ago, one reason we don't like the Pope is because we want to be the Pope ourselves. We want to be the one that says, this is it, you do it.

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• We are speaking ex cathedra, we are infallible. You've got to believe the way I believe. You've got to see things the way I see things. Well, go back to repentance just for a moment. Repentance is a turning from sin to unto obedience to God and God's law. It is not a turning from the tyrannical demands of others. I may have a responsibility to repent, but unless God gives me the gift of repentance, I cannot repent. Moreover, listen carefully, unless God opens my eyes and allows me to see light, I will never see my sin. You will never see your sin.

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• I thought about this coming down here. What about professional thieves? There are people who make a living stealing. They are professional thieves. And I was thinking, I wonder how they get around "thou shalt not steal." And I said to myself, it's probably they say to themselves, I'm just making a living. I'm just existing. And so you excuse your sins when you do not see those sins as sins and you don't see the enormity of those particular sins. So, I have to be given light to see my sin. And God is just as sovereign in illumination as He is in salvation. And if He does not open my eyes, if He does not instruct me, I will never see my sin. That's why the psalmist said in Psalm 36 and verse 9, "With thee is the fountain of life, in thy light we shall see light." But unless we are in God's light, we are not going to see light. Now, let me just point this out, because these two are connected.

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• The same truth that involves repentance also involves rebukes. There are so many Christians that are so quick to condemn and rebuke their brother in Christ. Well, I believe in serious error, just rebuke him. Really? Well, let me ask you a question. What if it's you that's wrong? I never will forget I had a good pastor friend, he's now dead, and he would always tease me and I would tease him back.

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• He was older than I was and I heard him preaching one time and he used the word "he apostatized." And I thought, mm-hmm, I'm gonna nail him. The word is "apostatized." So I got to thinking, you know, that brother's pretty smart and pretty intelligent. Before I go jump on him, I'm gonna look that word up. And when I looked it up, guess what? He was right. I was wrong. It is "apostatized" with a T, not with a C. Wow. So, I'm just saying there is the possibility when you start to rebuke someone you could be the one that's wrong.

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• So, let me show you about rebukes. I want you to look in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 20. And I'm going to show you this is vitally connected to the doctrine of repentance. Notice in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 20. Look what the Apostle says, 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 20. Here it is. First Timothy chapter 5 verse 20: "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear." Now let me read that again. Look at it: "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear." One more time: "Them that sin rebuke before all." Rebuke is connected with sin. What is sin?

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• I quoted 1 John 3:4 earlier. "Whosoever transgresseth also the law commits sin, for sin is the transgression of the law." So, who is it that deserves a rebuke? Those that sin, those that violate God's law. Not just because I disagree with brother Bob or I disagree with Ron. I don't come up and say, Ron, or look at Steve. Steve, you got on a multicolored shirt, man. You ought to have a solid shirt on like me. Oh, you're wrong. You're wicked. Yeah, I'm gonna rebuke you next Sunday. You come and wear a plain shirt. How ridiculous. I have no right to rebuke him unless there is sin involved. "Them that sin, rebuke before all that others may fear." So I have no right to rebuke someone who does not see things the way I see things, or believe the way I believe particularly, and things especially that are indifferent. No. I have the authority to rebuke someone who has sinned, who has violated God's Law.

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• Now, let me go further. Look in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter 4 and let's read verses 1 and 2. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2, look what he says: "I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing in His Kingdom, preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." Now notice he tells us here that we are to preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, but notice "with all longsuffering and doctrine." So if we're going to rebuke someone, listen carefully, it has to be first attended with long-suffering. Now, the word for long-suffering is the word makrothumia. It literally means to suffer long or to be patient with.

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• It includes forbearance and slowness in avenging something that you believe is wrong. So notice what he said. It's interesting now.

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• Second Timothy, chapter four, verse two. "Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering." Now, wait a minute. Why am I to rebuke with all longsuffering? Why cannot I just come up and say, Gary, straighten up. Do this right now. Why can I not do that? Because God may not give him light instantly. God may not open his eyes to his sin. Do you follow that? So a rebuke does not necessarily just mean a once-time incident.

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• It has to be something that you are patient in and long-suffering in and maybe a continuation. Now, wait a minute. Let's go farther. Because rebuking not only has to be associated with long-suffering, it also has to be associated with doctrine. Ah.

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• Now what am I going to do? It's not that I can come to Gary and again say, Gary, I demand you do this and I demand you do it right now. You're wrong. You're wicked. Do it right now. No, no. I have to be long suffering. And then what I have to do is this: Gary, let me show you from the scripture. Here's what God says. And then I still have to be patient because he still may not see it. He may not understand it. How long did it take you to come to the positions that you have come to? You did not see truth instantaneously. You did not see things immediately. You did not see things right away. And aren't you thankful the Holy Spirit was patient with you and taught you? And aren't you thankful other men were patient with you and showed you and taught you?

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• This is what he's talking about. We're to rebuke, yes, but with all long-suffering and doctrine. So there should be no rebuking anyone, first of all, unless there's sin. And if there is sin, there has to be also longsuffering and doctrine. Let me show you. Go back in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 2, you are almost there. 2 Timothy chapter 2 just look over again to verses 24 and 25.

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• I read these earlier, I'll read them again. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 24, "And the servant of the Lord must not strive," that is he is not to be a brawler, a fighter. He must not strive, "but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient."

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• Now watch this, "in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves." In meekness. So, let's suppose, to follow my illustration through, that Gary has sinned. And let's suppose I'm going to rebuke him. I have to show long-suffering. I have to show doctrine. But, what if I came to him and said, "You dumb bunny, why can't you see this? Let me, I'm so tired of putting up with this."

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• How am I gonna teach him anything? And what if I say, well, I just know this is right and I know more than you do and so you just gonna have to take my word for it. Is there any meekness there? No, there's pride. Arrogance. There is a domineering spirit. What God is saying is this, if we are going to help each other, if we are going to teach each other, it has to be with patience.

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• It has to be with doctrine. And it has to be with meekness. It has to be with humility. Obviously we cannot live in the light that God gives someone else. We have to live in the light that God gives us. We have in our church a retired OBGYN doctor, and I ask our ladies, and I'll ask you today too, suppose one of you ladies came up and you were going to have a baby.

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• Wow, you say, that's not possible. Well, we had a good friend, I thought about it while I was preaching earlier, she started having stomach problems, she was 44, and she was sick as she could be, and she went to the doctor and wanted to know if she had the flu, what was wrong with her, and he checked her, and he said, you know, you don't have the flu, and you don't have stomach problems, you're just pregnant. She said, what?

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• I'm 44 years old, my baby's 21. He said, I don't care, you're still pregnant. I mean, it's that simple. Suppose you're gonna have a baby and here you have Dr. Bowen who's a retired OBGYN who's delivered hundreds of babies and done so successfully, and you have a choice: you can either have Dr. Bowen attend your delivery or you can have me, and I've never delivered a baby in my life. I've never been around a baby being delivered. Now would you choose me or would you choose Dr. Bowen? Obviously, you should choose Dr. Bowen. Why?

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• Because I can't walk in his light. I can't walk in his knowledge. I can't do what he does. You follow that? I can only do what I know and live in the light that I have. And it's the same thing if your dog or your horse needed surgery. Well, Dr. Holmes is a trained veterinarian and he's been practicing successfully for 40 years. Had you rather have him do the surgery or me? And I've never done surgery on a dog or a horse, but you know, obviously I can't walk in his light. I can't perform the way he performs. I can't do what he does. And if you were to ask him, well, had you rather do surgery or preach a sermon, he'd probably say I'd rather do surgery because he could do surgery.

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• Now, so you understand this. I don't care how much you know. I don't care how intelligent you are. I don't care how brilliant you are. I don't care if you are 100% right on every subject. I still can't walk in your light. I still can't do what you are demanding that I do because I do not have the knowledge that you have. I can only see that which God allows me to see. And I'm responsible for the light that God has given me. I'm not responsible for the light that God has given you. Now, when you understand this, it should make us patient with each other.

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• Why can I not say, Steve, I think you're wrong. And let me just sit down with you and take the Bible and show you where I believe that you're wrong. And if you don't understand it and if you don't see it the first time, I'll do it a second time or third time or fourth time. Until God is pleased, open your eyes. So the problem is we don't want to do this. What we want to do is demand that people see what we see and understand what we understand immediately and instantly. And if they don't, we want to just simply wash our hands of them and have nothing else to do with them.

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• Let me tell you something. I'll tell you this about myself, and I can probably tell you this about yourself. And the reason I know this is because each of us happens to be a sinner. And each of us happen to be depraved. Okay, we may be saved, but we're still sinners. And we still have depravity existing in us. But here it is, you may teach me, you may lead me, you may guide me, you may love me in the truth, but I am depraved just enough that if you try to intimidate me and manipulate me and force me to see what you see and believe what you believe, you're going to

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• push me the opposite way. Because I'm going to show you that you're not going to do that to me. You're not going to make me. We've never come to this realization that you can't force feed truth to people. You cannot make people see it. And when you are acting domineeringly, when you're acting tyrannically, when you're acting demandingly, the only thing I can assume is the reason you're trying to be so forceful and intimidate me and manipulate me is because you're wrong and you don't have truth on your side and therefore you're trying to just subdue me and make me do what you want me to do. You understand that? Now, listen to this. I have never in my entire life been able to win a man to Jesus Christ by cussing him, excoriating him, ridiculing him, and mocking him. Never. I've never. And moreover, I've never been able to teach any Christian whom I would come to with the attitude, this is it, you just do what I say or else. No, you can't do that.

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• That's not teaching. That is tyranny. If you're going to teach, you have to understand that we cannot take the place of God, nor can we do the work of the Holy Spirit. And so we have to learn to be loving and kind and gentle and patient and meekly teaching and helping each other. OK.

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• Now, let me make a couple of applications. Here's the first one. It is possible to win the battle and lose the war. You may be able to out-shout me. That'd be hard, I think, but you may be able to out-shout me. You may be able to out-wit me. You may be able to out-debate me and argue me. You may win the debate. However, if you have not patiently and kindly and lovingly sought to teach me and implore the Father to open my eyes, you may win the argument, but you will lose the disciple. Because no one wants to be intimidated or manipulated. Now, let me show you something else.

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• I want you to understand that tyranny in the church is just as wicked as tyranny in the state. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 3 John. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. And I want you to look at verses 9 and 10. Here is what we do not want to be. 3 John, look in verse 9. 3 John, verse 9. John the beloved, John the apostle, the apostle of love. He says, "I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not." Would not receive the Apostle John and his associates? He says, "Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church."

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• So here's a man who is saying, I'm running this show. No, John, you're not coming here. Neither are any of the people that you send coming here. No, I'm not going to receive you. I'm not going to count you as a brother. And moreover, if anybody in this church receives you, I'm going to cast you out as well. I'm going to ostracize you. I'm going to excommunicate you. You're not going to be around. This is my church, you understand? That's Diotrephes. What we have done is developed a Diotrephes complex, a Diotrephes syndrome. We want to excoriate people. We want to manipulate people. We want to intimidate people.

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• And if they don't do what we think they should and believe what we think they should believe, we'll just write them off. That's what Diotrephes did. I want to show you something. Look back in verse nine. He says, "I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence." I would like you to check this out. Did you know the word preeminence only occurs three times in the Bible? Only twice in the New Testament. Would you like to know the other place in the New Testament where the word preeminence occurs? It happens to be Colossians 1 and verse 18. Let me quote it. "And He," that is Jesus Christ, "is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence." What? Now, Diotrephes would love to have the preeminence. So, Diotrephes, if he could, would take the honor, and the glory, and the praise, and the power, and the place that belongs to Jesus Christ alone. Who is it that adds to the church?

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• Jesus Christ. Who is it that takes from the church? Jesus Christ. So here's a man who's trying to rule and run things according to his understanding and not according to the Word of God. I don't want to be a Diotrephes. I don't want you to be a Diotrephes. I don't want to be associated with a Diotrephes. I'm willing to be taught. No one has all truth. No one understands everything.

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• There are no perfect pastors. There are no perfect preachers. There are no perfect Christians. All of us are students and all of us need to be taught and we should be taught. And I'm willing to be taught. But I'm not willing to be manipulated and I'm not willing to be intimidated. And when you try to drive someone into truth, usually you're going to find out they're going the opposite way. Trying to drive someone into truth is like herding cats. It's just impossible.

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• And if God is not pleased to give the gift of repentance and the gift of illumination, we're wasting our time. There's a difference between intimidation, manipulation, and repentance. We need to learn what true repentance is and what true rebukes are and how to help each other and love each other and teach each other without being a Diotrephes. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day.

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• We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We ask, Father, that You would be pleased to teach us and that You would be pleased, Father, to build us up in the most holy faith. And give us, Father, Your grace and Your mercy and Your love. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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• ♪

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T22:34:52Z