Have Not Repented

Why Repentance Is Being Avoided in Modern Evangelicalism

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're going to begin today in verse 19, and we're going to read into chapter 13 all the way down to verse 10.

There's one single thought that moves through this entire pericope, and we want to follow that thought throughout today's lesson. And while you're turning there, I just want to give a few preliminary thoughts.

It seems evident that in modern evangelicalism, there is a shifting away from the preaching of repentance. In fact, it was just this past week that as I often do on my drive to and from the church, oftentimes I'll call and talk to Mike a little bit about what I'm going to be preaching, and we'll banter about what we're discussing, and I mentioned to him that I was preaching this text and that I was preaching on the subject of repentance, and he mentioned to me about two television commercials that he had recently seen, and those commercials were from very well-known ministries.

I won't mention the names of the ministries, but two, if I mentioned them by name, you'd know exactly who they were, and these ministries have a relatively good reputation among evangelicals and even conservatives.

But Mike pointed out to me that both of these ministries have removed any words of repentance from their commercials and their gospel presentations, and instead they use other words. Ask Jesus into your heart, and pray this prayer after me, and that's how you get saved.

And there's no call to repentance of sin. There's no call to repentance to turn from sin, and this has become so common in our modern evangelical world. I was thinking about this, and I thought, why is it that repentance is avoided?

And I came to four conclusions. I think the four reasons why repentance is often avoided in gospel presentations is, number one, is there has been a shift in gospel presentations towards a therapeutic gospel.

A therapeutic gospel is not about calling for change, but rather for calling for comfort. We want to make you feel good about where you are, not call you to change, and that has become very common. In fact, a few years ago, a study was done, and it simply said that most people who call themselves Christians don't really believe in the God of Christianity.

They believe in what the people who did the study, they called it moralistic therapeutic deism. Moralistic therapeutic deism. This is what that means. Do good, right?

Feel good.

That's moralistic. Do good. Therapeutic, be good, and God, who is essentially not really involved, may be happy with you.

That's deism.

So moralistic therapeutic deism, and just think about when you're sharing the gospel with people, a lot of times, what do they say? Oh, you know, the man upstairs, he's happy with me, right? Or my life's good.

I know God's happy with me. I'm doing good things, therefore God's happy with me. That's moralistic therapeutic deism. That's the way the gospel is presented in so many ways, and any reference to sin is often downplayed as, you know, well, it merely separates you from God.

That's what you'll often hear. Sin separates you from God. Well, sin does separate you from God. The Bible says those words, so that's not wrong, but sin is actually something that brings you under the condemnation of God.

When was the last time you heard that? When was the last time you heard that sin actually causes the judge of the universe to be your enemy? But doesn't the Bible say that because of sin, we are at enmity with God?

Does not the very words of scripture tell us these things, but we won't say it, because.

It doesn't feel good.

It's not therapeutic at all. And so one of the reasons why repentance is abandoned is because of this therapeutic gospel. The second thing is a fear of offense, a fear of offending people. Now I have found that a lot of ministries don't mind offending people with worldly.

Things.

They'll drive Harley Davidsons onto the stage, they'll zipline into the—oh, yeah, don't look surprised. I can show you the videos. They have Harley Davidsons on the stage, ziplines, ziplining the pastor, and they don't mind offending according to worldly standards, but they won't say repentance because, by goodness, repentance offends people.

If there's a call to change, that's offensive, and we can't have that. The third thing is the prosperity or self-improvement gospel, that what the gospel has intended to do and the purpose of the gospel is not to change you toward God, it is not to change your heart and cause you to turn from your sin, but rather it is to give you all the things that you've ever wanted.

It's about prospering you. I heard somebody say this the other day. I think it's very thoughtful. It said if the pastor that's preaching is promising to you the very things that the devil promised to Jesus when he was tempting him in the desert, you might want to think about getting a different pastor.

What did he promise him? All the kingdoms of the world, all these things, all—this is the blessing. If that's the command, if that's the promise, rather, then maybe it's not the promise of the gospel.

And finally, and I think this one very recently has become huge, and that is this emphasis on inclusion and tolerance. And someone said, well, what's wrong with inclusion and tolerance? Well, what do we mean by those words?

Who belongs to the church? Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are glad you're here, but you're not part of the church. I mean, we are very glad you're here, and we hope by God's grace he will open your heart, you will turn from your sin, you will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

But you're not included if you're not in Christ. We make this very clear when we come around the table, right? When we come around the table, it's even printed in your bulletin, please don't participate in this table if you're not in Christ, because the Bible says it's a danger to you.

It actually threatens.

It says, don't do this. There have been people who've gotten sick, and some have even died. There's a church just up in Atlanta, one of the largest churches in the United States, who is proud to indicate that they accept anyone into membership, even atheists.

We're happy if atheists would be happy to join with us, and we welcome them in and we allow them to serve. Hopefully, they're not teaching Bible studies, but who knows? But this pressure for inclusion and tolerance.

Now, should we be tolerant? Well, let's at least for a moment say, we all are called to bear with one another's issues and failures and those things. We are called to be, as Mike said this morning, we're not called to be the president of the Sin Sniffers Association, walking around behind everyone, trying to find their errors, trying to be the ones who are the Holy Spirit in that person's life.

That's true, but we cannot, must not, and will not ever say that sin is right. And if that's what toleration is, that's wrong. To say yes, we're going to simply say, we're not going to call for repentance because sin doesn't need to be repented of.

What a shame that would be. Or we're never going to mention sin, then we don't have to deal with it. Beloved, this has been on my heart all week as I've been preparing this message, because Paul is going to say in this message, he says, I'm coming to you, I'm coming.

And when I come, there are those of you who have not repented. And you're not going to like it when I get there. There are some of you who have not repented. And I'm calling you to repent. That way when I get there, I don't do what I should do and must do.

In fact, I would rather that I not have to do it. It'd be great if I showed up and you were already repented and I didn't have to go through with what I'm going to have to go through with, and that is actually calling you out and maybe possibly even removing you from the church.

You understand these are actually biblical things? You understand that it is only within the last generation or two that churches have stopped doing that? If you read the history of the Baptist church, you will find that the willingness to confront sin and even excommunicate people was very common up until the last few generations.

Particularly within the last hundred years as the church became more concerned with bringing people in than the people who were in being concerned with their sin. And now it's all about how many people can we get here?

How many people? We don't want to, we don't want anyone to leave ever because it's all about inclusion and toleration, not holiness. So again, we're going to talk about some serious stuff today. And number two does come into the mind sometimes.

Is this going to offend? Well, if it offends, let God be the one who offends. And not be me and my offensive nature, but let it be God's word that offends us. And if we are offended, to know that we should take it up with him.

Paul’s Warning in 2 Corinthians 12:19–13:10

Let's stand together and read. Beginning again at verse 19, Paul writes,. Have you been thinking all along that we've been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding, beloved.

For I fear that perhaps when I come, I may find you not as I wish and that you may find me not as you wish. That perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder.

I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they have practiced.

This is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warn those who sinned before and all the others and I warn them now while absent as I did when present on my second visit that if I come again, I will not spare them.

Since you seek peace or since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God.

For we also are weak in him but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. And then verse five, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves or do you not realize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test.

I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. But we pray to God that you may not do wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test but that you may do what is right though we may seem to have failed.

For we cannot do anything against the truth but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason I write these things while I'm away from you that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. God as we now seek to understand this text and I know Lord that it is a lot of text. Lord I pray that you would help us to see the symmetry of it, the continuing nature of the argument and how Paul begins and ends with this idea that he is doing this for their.

Up building.

Not to tear them down but to build them up. Lord I pray that you would keep me from error as I preach as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error. I pray that you would keep me from that for the sake of your name, for the sake of my conscience and Lord for the sake of your people.

And Lord now as we consider the subject of repentance I do pray Lord that no one here would misunderstand me, that no one would think that I am preaching that there is a necessity call for perfection before turning themselves to Christ but Lord that every man should recognize where they are and should turn to Christ that he might give them the grace of sanctification.

Lord let us not confuse that order that we must clean ourselves up before Christ can.

Save us.

For Lord no one can be saved in that order but Lord I pray that when we come to Christ that we would come to him willing that he should turn our hearts from our sin, that he would give us the grace of sanctification and that he would grow us in this holy faith and he who began a good work in us will complete it in the day of Jesus Christ.

Lord give us mercy now as we consider these things and Lord where repentance is needed especially among those who claim the name brother or sister. Lord may it be that today be the day of repentance in Jesus name, amen.

The Letter to Corinth and the Coming of Titus

Well if you've been among us you know that we have been now in 2nd Corinthians for about a year or so and we're finding our place here on the off ramp of the epistle, finding our.

Landing point.

We'll be closing this book here in a few weeks and then moving into the gospel of John which I'm excited to preach and looking forward to preach. And for those who haven't been among us for maybe your visitor today or the first time here I want to just kind of give you a very quick overview of this epistle and for those who have been here just a quick reminder as I know it's a week to week thing and it's easy to forget the things that we've learned from week to week.

Paul is writing this letter, the second letter to the church at Corinth and he's writing to them because he is about to be going to them. He is sending Titus before him with some other men to do a collection or to oversee a collection that's being taken for the church in Jerusalem that was suffering persecution and famine and was in desperate need.

And Paul is also addressing those in Corinth who would call into question his ministry. Throughout this book he has addressed those who have called into question his integrity, who have called into question his truthfulness, who have called into question his spirituality and his faithfulness, his commitment to the truth and the gospel, even the very message that he preached.

And this is what happened in the life of the apostle Paul. He would go to a church like the churches in Galatia. He would plant churches there and then he would leave and after he leaves fierce wolves would come in after him seeking to lead the people astray and we see this over and over and over in his life.

And I'm sure it was not unique to him, I'm sure this happened to the other apostles, but we have mostly the writings of the apostle Paul to outline these things that happened and to give us a picture of what first century Christianity was like.

First century Christianity was not a group of churches that were all lily white and perfect as the freshly driven snow. No, they were churches filled with false teachers and men who wanted to bring corruption and destruction into the church.

False teaching is not new. So, I've been so overwhelmed as I have been preparing my lectures for the academy and each week talking about some new division in the church. Divisions arose immediately in the church and there was all these battles going on in the church, whether it was the Gnostics or the Ebionites or whether it was the Marcionites or later dealing with the Arians and the Pelagians and all of these different groups that rose up in the church to try to bring destruction.

And they did. Many of them dividing the church and leading men and women astray to their own peril. It's a serious time of terrible tragedy. It's a terrible tragedy to see a soul led astray.

Amen?

Isn't it a terrible thing to see somebody led into false teaching and darkness? And woe unto that man who leads them. And that's where we've gotten to in the letter. The first seven chapters, as I've mentioned before, of this letter is Paul defending his ministry.

The second section is chapters 8 and 9 where he talks about that gift, the offering given to the church of Jerusalem. But then in chapters 10 through 13, Paul is laser focused against the men that he calls the super apostles.

And that's not a good thing. The super apostles were the men who had raised themselves up against Paul, who had raised themselves up to positions of prominence in the Corinthian body, who had declared to be men of education, who had declared to be men of great oratory skills, who were declared to be men with letters of commendation that they had brought with them.

Who knows where they got them? But they came in with a sense of authority and they sought to undermine what Paul had.

Done.

Paul calls them agents of the devil, ministers of Satan, ministers of unrighteousness. And so now we come to this section where Paul is bringing all of his thoughts to a conclusion. And he's telling them what is about to happen.

I'm coming.

I'm coming to you.

He's already said he's going to be sending Titus and two other men before to do the work of ensuring that the offering is properly handled so that when Paul gets there, he doesn't have to do that. But Paul is coming in one sense to bring correction against those who are questioning the truth of the gospel and are bringing in false heresies.

Paul is coming to bring in a very serious correction. And so we're going to read about that and we're going to walk through this text. If you'll notice in verse 19, he mentions that this is for your up building.

And then in chapter 10, I'm sorry, chapter 13, verse 10, he says, this is for your building up and not for your tearing down. This is how I see this as a, as a, as a group. This is all one idea within the broader scope of the letter.

You may think me trying to preach 14 verses of text is a fool's errand. I know, but I am going to make mention right away that verse five and verse six, particularly verse five, I'm going to redo next week because verse five standouts can stand on its own.

It says in verse five, examine yourselves and see whether you're in the faith. I'm going to spend an entire sermon on just that, but I want to show today how that fits into the broader context, even though it can stand on its own.

I want to show how it fits within this context of these 14 verses, what we call a pericope or a section of the letter that stands on its own and has a purpose. So let's begin by looking at verse 19. Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you?

Now I must stop right there and immediately say, well, I've said that throughout the book. I've said Paul has been defending his ministry and that he has been defending the integrity.

Of it.

I even said it again today. So I had to think about it as I was reading verse 19. Well, am I contradicting myself or is Paul contradicting this? No, and it's not a contradiction because he has in fact been making a point about the truthfulness of his ministry, making a defense, but his defense has not been to them for himself, but it's for them.

That's the point. Read it again. Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ all for your upbuilding. I'm not doing this for my sake.

I'm not doing this for the sake of my reputation. I'm not doing this for the sake of myself. I'm not doing this because I want to ensure that the name of Paul is raised up and exalted, but I'm doing this for you because you're the ones who heard the gospel from me and now have departed from that.

I'm doing this on your behalf, not on my behalf. Ultimately, what Paul is saying is I don't have a selfish motive here. I'm not doing this for myself. I like this commentary. This is trying to, in this commentary, it's a public commentary, it's the name of it.

At this point, they tried to give a paraphrase of what Paul is saying, so I want to read.

This to you.

He says, You perhaps imagine all this time I've been pleading with you by way of self-defense. Do not think that. You are no judges of mine. My only object is to speak before God in Christ, not to defend myself since I have no need to defend so far as you're concerned, but to help in building you up by removing the falsehoods that alienate you from me.

Paul's saying I'm not doing this to defend myself, and even if I was going to do that, why would I need to defend myself from you? You're not my judge. I'm speaking this before God in Christ, and ultimately, I'm doing this to build you up.

There's no selfish motivation here. This isn't Paul attempting in some way, shape, or form to make himself the object. Paul is not the object of 2 Corinthians, Christ is the object of 2 Corinthians. That's the point.

But Paul defends himself because he is a representative of Christ, and if they have rejected what Paul has said, they've actually rejected Christ. So this is for their benefit. This is for them. Paul said this isn't about me defending myself.

This is not self-motivation. This is about your misunderstanding of the gospel. So let's put it in maybe an illustrative way. Let us just in our mind think that someone came into your life and began to preach and teach you a false gospel.

Let's say you met a friend, and that friend was part of a cult, and they began to come to you and have coffee with you, and tell you all about their cult, often how it's done, one-on-one, and began to call into question all the things that you have been taught, and to begin to call into question all the things that you have learned.

And then one of our elders reaches out to you and says, hey, I understand you're getting this person is teaching you these things. Here's where the errors are. Here's where the dangers lie. Here's where the pits are, and be careful.

And don't you know that over the years we have taught you this about Jesus, and we've taught you this about the gospel, and we've taught you this about grace. Don't you remember these things? Would we be doing that to build ourselves up, or would we be doing that to protect you.

From the wolves?

That's exactly what it would be for. But I've seen so many times, I've seen that scenario work out in the life of people, and you know what the false teacher says? Oh, they just want to keep you for themselves.

Oh, they just want you to believe what they believe. Oh, they just want you to be under their thumb. You see, Paul says, it's not about me. It's not about defending myself to you. It's about you. It's about your heart.

Do you understand that a false teacher is more dangerous than a bad doctor, a bad lawyer, a bad judge, a bad first responder, a bad law enforcement officer? All those can be bad, but a bad preacher's worse.

Because where all of those can affect your body and your liberty, the false teacher is affecting your soul. That's Paul's concern. I'm doing this because of your soul. Then he says in verse 20, for I fear, and by the way, he says the word fear twice.

He says in verse 20 and in verse 21, for I fear that perhaps when I come, I may not find you, or I may find you not as I wish, and you may find me not as you wish, that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

Paul says, when I come, I'm afraid. I have a fear. Here's my fear. By the way, this is where sometimes I'll say fear's not always the opposite of faith. Paul has faith, but he also knows people, and he knows these people, and he says I fear that when I come to you, I may not find you as I wish.

How does Paul wish they would be? Repented. He wishes they would repent. He's going to say this in a moment. I wish that when I come, I don't have to do anything about this because it'll already be done, but I'm afraid that when I come, I'm going to find you not as I wish.

Then the next line seems kind of weird. He says, and you'll find me not as you wish. What does he mean? I read different translations through the week. I try to study the original language as well, but I often look at other translations, and I really like the New Living Translation here because this is really what he's saying.

He said, I'm afraid that when I come, I won't like what I find, and you won't like my response. That's what he's saying. When I come, I'm afraid I'm going to find you unrepented, and then you're not going to like my response to that because if I come, and I find you, and you're not repented, you're not going to like my call to repentance.

You're not going to like the way I'm going to respond because I'm not going to respond by going, oh, it's okay. I'm not going to respond by saying, yeah, no problem. You guys decided to keep doing that, and that's cool.

No.

When I come, and I've called you to repentance, and you refuse to repent, there's going to be some response, and what the response is going to cause, he gives eight specific things he's concerned about.

In just this short verse, he gives eight specific things he's concerned about. Number one is quarreling, contention, strife, wrangling, maybe translated that way in your.

Bible.

It's going to be a fight because I'm going to come, and you are still doing the things that I've called you to repent of, and if you're still doing them when I get there,.

It's going to be a battle.

There is nothing more difficult than the battle that ensues with the unrepentant sinner because the unrepentant sinner will be unrepentant in one of two ways. Either they don't believe what they're doing is sinful, and that's bad.

That one you have to kind of prove it, right? The person, oh, this isn't sinful. Oh, no, we've got to walk through the proof, and that's part of the quarrel, part of the.

Battle.

We've got to show you what it is, but then the person who knows it's a sin and doesn't care. Sometimes I'll watch, I have friends who go and preach the gospel at abortion clinics, and they're trying to save babies, and they're trying to give the gospel.

They're trying to do good things. I've gone before. I'm thankful for ministries that do that, but I will tell you the thing that's most heartbreaking because it's on video. You see these women who will say, I know it's murder, and I don't care, and you think I'm exaggerating.

I'm not exaggerating. They will say, I know I'm killing my baby, but I don't care. That's harder because that's a hard heart. It's one thing to say, I don't believe this is sin. Now we've got to debate what does the Bible really say about it, but if you know it's a sin and you're still choosing it, well, that's a quarrel and a half because that person often has that heart that has no intention of softening.

Paul says, when I come, one of my concerns, there's going to be quarreling, and the next word is translated in many Bibles as jealousy. I'm not sure that's the best way because modern day jealousy, we have a sort of a kind of a modern way that we connect jealousy to things.

The word here is actually the same word. We get the word zeal comes out, zeal is the word, and it means literally to be hot, and it's almost the exact same as the next word, which is the word thumos, which means angry.

So imagine how it kind of falls. It's like they're going to be quarreling. They're going to be heat. They're going to be anger. You guys are going to be mad if I get there and I've called you to repent.

You haven't repented, and I say something to you about it.

You all are going to be mad.

He's telling, this is what's going to happen.

It's going to be hot.

It's going to be angry. In fact, the one translation of anger is outburst of passion. Boy, you want to find somebody passionate about somebody, find somebody who's dead caught in a sin and don't want to give it up.

They are passionate about it. Passionate about either it not being wrong or they don't care if it's wrong. Like the person who says, who's committed adultery and now they're living with their mistress.

Well, hey man, if God didn't want me to be happy, why would he put this woman in my life? She's still Jezebel, man, like what you talking about? Heard somebody the other day defending Jezebel, a woman preacher.

And she said, well, Jezebel is really the hero of the story. Well, she's the hero because she's the feminine hero. And all of these, this is again where the Bible talks about calling evil good and good.

Evil.

When you're going through the Bible and you're celebrating the evil woman and saying she's a celebration of feminine strength, you a knucklehead. That's a proper term, knucklehead. So you say quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, again, this is just ramping it up.

Hostility is also translated rivalry, factions or disputes, literally dividing people. That's what that means. It means to divide people up. So this is going to cause a fight. Those fights are going to be heated and passionate and it's going to end up dividing people over.

It.

I've never once seen a church exercise church discipline where there wasn't some division that followed. If you don't know what church discipline is, we're going to talk about it here in a minute. But ultimately, church discipline is when someone is in the church, they have refused to repent, they refuse the counsel of the church, and they are continuing in their sin and the church has to respond to them and say to them, they are no longer part of the covenant community.

That's hard to do, but almost every case I've ever seen, that person who leaves takes people with them because it creates division. And then, slander and gossip, what's the difference? Slander is evil words spoken, gossip is evil words spoken in secret.

That's the difference. If I slander you, that's something I say publicly. If I gossip about you, I might say the very same thing, but I say it by saying, hey, come into my office real quick. I want to tell you about Brother Gary.

Brother Gary is smiling right now. He don't need to be. I just saw you smiling. No, this is how it is. Slander is open, gossip is closed. That's really the distinction and that's how it happens. Sin brings all these things in.

Unrepentant sin brings all these things in. And then, conceit, translated in some Bibles as arrogance, puffing up. It literally means to swell. Because what happens to the sinner who refuses to repent?

He often stands on that unrepentance and holds up his fist and commands, yes, I'm going to.

Live.

I'm going to do my thing.

And how dare you question me? I'm going to tell you a story. I wasn't there, but it happened in this church before I came. I've been in this church for 40 years, so it was a long time ago. This church wasn't always Sovereign Grace.

There was a time when we were back on Trout River Boulevard. Pat's told me this and I've heard other people tell the same story. There was a lady in the church. She was living with a man. They weren't married.

They were living as husband and wife. She stood up in church, said, I don't care if y 'all think it's a sin, I'm going to keep.

Doing it.

That's arrogance. That's conceit. And that's what sin does to the heart. I can do this and you can't say a word to me. By the way, if that happened today, it'd be a different story. We believe in church discipline.

We believe in calling out sin and being honest about it and even following through with church.

Discipline.

And that is not a threat. That is a truth and a reality.

We have to.

The reformers believed that the church had three distinct markings because the big question during the reformation was, how do you know what is the true church? And the reformers said, well, it's about being a true church, not necessarily the true church.