2. God told Ezekiel that if he failed to warn sinners, then their blood would be required at his hands. Hear the charge: “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; and thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezek. 3:17-21). These texts are sufficient to show that we are bound by the law of God to give active opposition to the things which we believe to be sinful and harmful to the spiritual welfare of men.
3. That gentleness and longsuffering should characterize this work has been clearly revealed. “Brethren, if a man among you be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,” [not in the spirit of braggadocio or sarcasm; not with ridicule, abuse, or persecution; not with physical or political force, but in the spirit of meekness] “considering thyself lest thou also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). Paul said to Timothy, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word; be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:1-2). Hence, in the light of God’s Holy Word, it is my duty to do everything I can, in meekness and with persuasion, to correct those whom I believe to be in error.
4. If you believe that I am saying something today which ought not be said, it is your duty to come to me after the service is over, or even to speak up now, and tell me wherein I am wrong. This is the work of a friend. If you go away and tell somebody else that you think I made a mistake and never let me know it, then you are playing the part of an enemy. But if you come to me and endeavor to show me where you believe I made a mistake then you will be proving yourself to be a friend.
VI
Standard of Authority Necessary
Before these things which I have been advocating can be successfully applied we must first of all have a common standard. It was brought out in the panel discussion last Tuesday night that the three men on the panel each had a different standard. Assumedly, the Protestant speaker accepted the entire Bible as the inspired word of God. The Jew did not. He did not accept the New Testament or the Christ of the New Testament; he accepted only the Old Testament. The Catholic speaker plainly stated that he accepted neither as his authority, but that he placed his confidence in the mind of man; of course, that meant the mind of one particular man whom they are pleased to call their pope. The word “pope” means father. The man whom they call pope is not married, never has been married. He is an old bachelor, yet he is called father by more people than anybody else on the earth. The Bible says “call no man your father upon the earth” (Matt. 23:9).
The Catholic speaker was addressed in the panel discussion as “Father So and So.” If I had been on that discussion I would have called him Mr. Cleary. I suppose during a meeting advocating tolerance he would have meekly tolerated my doing so. For me to call him father would be a violation of my conscience and of the word of God. I couldn’t have called Mr. Julius Mark “Rabbi Mark,” because my Bible says, “But be not ye called Rabbi” (Matt. 23:8). I know Mr. Mark doesn’t agree with me on that because he doesn’t accept the New Testament as his Bible. I know the Catholic wouldn’t agree with that, because he says the Bible is not the standard, that this man whom he calls father is the standard.
Just think how ridiculous it is for three men to pretend that they are brethren when two of them propose to believe in Christ and the other one doesn’t; one believes the New Testament and neither of the others do; and one believes that the man whom he calls pope has all the authority and neither of the others do. They haven’t yet agreed upon the authority or standard to which we should make appeal in order to settle our differences.
VII
Impractical “Tolerance”
During the few remaining minutes I want to talk about a different sort of intolerance—or rather a different sort of so-called tolerance—the kind that is being advocated generally by such meetings as we had last Tuesday night, and by a great many folk whom I meet from day to day. This particular type of tolerance simply means that we ought to agree with everybody on everything and oppose nobody on anything. That is what it amounts to. Its advocates pretend to endorse everything and everybody and oppose nobody and nothing.
Let me make it clear that this is only a theory. Even the people who advocate it do not practice it. Nobody practices it. If you are going to take the attitude of opposing nothing and endorsing everything and everybody, then you have to endorse intolerance. Such so-called tolerance would cut off all evangelism. You couldn’t try to convert anybody to anything if you put that into practice. You’d just have to agree with everybody on everything. So you see it is mostly a theory.