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I AM ANGRY WITH DR. CHAN!by Dr. Christopher L. Cagan A sermon preached at the Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess” (Matthew 23:25; p. 1032 Scofield). |
I am angry with Dr. Kreighton Chan! Yes, I am angry with him! Some people think it’s always wrong to be angry. But Jesus was angry sometimes. He was angry at the sin of the religious people of His day. He called the scribes and Pharisees “hypocrites.” In verse 33 He called them snakes. He said, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33). He drove hypocrites out of the Temple twice. There He threw down the tables of the moneychangers. He said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). The Bible says Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He did not sin. He was not wrong when He got angry. He was right. It’s right to be angry against sin!
That’s why I’m angry with Dr. Chan! You may ask, “Why are you angry with him?” I’m angry with him for his sin.
Dr. Chan is a hypocrite, like the Pharisees. Like the Pharisees, he looks clean on the outside. But inside he is full of “robbery and self-indulgence” (NASB). That’s Dr. Chan. He’s full of robbery! He steals people! He steals anyone he can. And he’s full of self-indulgence. He cares only about himself. He wants to be a preacher when he isn’t. He steals people so he can “preach” to them. Dr. Chan can’t win souls from the world. He can’t help the people who follow him. He doesn’t care how many people he hurts. He just wants to be a preacher when he isn’t. He cares only about himself.
Yes, I am angry with Dr. Chan. Here are some good reasons why I’m angry with Dr. Chan.
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I. First, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is not called to preach.
Make no mistake about it. Dr. Chan is not called to preach. He was given the opportunity to preach. I listened to him speak. He couldn’t preach. That was the problem – he couldn’t preach. It wasn’t a question of maybe. I heard him speak many times. It was boring. He couldn’t hold people’s attention. He couldn’t get people saved. He couldn’t help the Christians. His preaching did no good. Why? Because God didn’t call him to preach, that’s why!
A true preacher is called and sent by God. The Bible says, “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God” (Hebrews 5:4). Again, the Bible says, “How shall they preach, except they be sent?” (Romans 10:15). The true preacher does not preach because he wants to. The true preacher does it because God calls him to. When God calls a man to preach, He gives him the ability to preach. Dr. Chan wants to preach. But he can’t preach because he is not called to preach.
Dr. Hymers’ pastor at the Chinese church was Dr. Timothy Lin. In his book, The Secret of Church Growth, Dr. Lin said this:
A pastor has to be sent by God and be gifted in preaching before a church can have any growth. Otherwise, that pastor may need to consider another livelihood, so as to avoid deceiving himself, misleading others and, later, being judged by God.
Dr. Lin was absolutely right! Preachers who are not sent by God cannot build a church. They can only steal people from other churches. But Dr. Lin was right in another way. He said that people who are not called should quit the ministry and get another job. That’s what Dr. Chan should do. I say to him, “Stop preaching and go back to being a full-time medical doctor.” That would be honest!
Dr. Chan is sneaky. He set up a phony “sending.” Chan and his stolen people parachuted into John Waldrip’s church for a few short days so they could be “sent” out from there. That’s not a sending by God. That’s a trick. I say to Dr. Chan, “You can trick yourself, but you can’t trick God!” God knows who He has called, and you’re not one of them! I’m angry with you, Dr. Chan!
II. Second, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he does not disciple people.
I knew Dr. Chan for forty years. He couldn’t disciple people. He couldn’t train people to be good Christians. He couldn’t do them any good. He had plenty of time to do it. For years he was the leader of two Oriental groups in our church. After all those years, he didn’t bring in anyone from the world. And he couldn’t train the people who were already here.
You ask, “How can Dr. Chan be a pastor?” He can’t. But he can be a thief! He can’t disciple anyone. He can’t train anyone. Instead, he steals people who are already trained! Chan’s people were trained by Dr. Hymers in our church. Chan doesn’t have to do anything for them. That’s good for him, because he can’t do anything for them. And it’s easy for him. He doesn’t have to do anything. They’ve already been taught.
The people Dr. Chan stole know to come to church. They know how to dress. They know to read the Bible and pray. And they have been taught to tithe! Dr. Chan can’t disciple anyone. All he can do is steal ready-made people and their tithes! I’m angry with Dr. Chan. I’m angry with him because he can’t help anyone. He can only be a thief and a robber, and that’s what he is!
III. Third, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is blinded by pride.
God-called men preach because God told them to. Many of them, like Moses, didn’t want to preach, but they obeyed God. The Apostle Paul said, “Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry” (I Timothy1:12). Paul didn’t put himself into the ministry. Jesus put him there.
But God didn’t put Dr. Chan into the ministry. He put himself there. He wants to show off as he preaches in front of an audience. In our church, he was given the opportunity to preach, but he couldn’t do it. He didn’t have the gift. He wasn’t called by God.
In 2017 he confessed his sin of wanting to preach even though God hadn’t called him. I heard that confession. I told him personally that Christ would never condemn him for not doing something that He hadn’t called him to do. At the time, Chan agreed. He confessed his sin and cried.
But it was a false confession. Soon afterwards he left our church and stole people so he could “preach” to them. He destroyed many souls and almost killed our church to build up his own pride. The Bible says he is “lifted up with pride” and has fallen “into the condemnation of the devil” (I Timothy 3:6). For that I am angry with Dr. Chan!
IV. Fourth, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he attacks Dr. Hymers.
Thieves like Dr. Chan attack godly pastors in order to pull people away from their churches. To find something wrong with the pastor, they look hard and twist the truth. Dr. Chan had to do a lot of twisting before he finally found something to say.
Chan says that he and all his people trusted Christ under the preaching of Dr. Hymers. He and all his people were trained by Dr. Hymers. But Dr. Chan turned his back on him. How can he be so ungrateful? What’s his excuse? He says that Dr. Hymers is an evangelist, not a pastor, and so he can leave him. He despises the gift of evangelist!
The gift of evangelist is absolutely necessary to build a church. Every pastor is called to “do the work of an evangelist” (II Timothy 4:5). If a pastor can’t do that work, he can’t build a church! And every preacher who has “the gift of evangelist” can win souls and build a church. The Bible gives a list of spiritual gifts to the churches. It says,
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11).
The gift of evangelist is listed before the gift of pastor. Since there are no apostles and prophets now, the gift of evangelist is the first and highest gift in the churches today! As Dr. John R. Rice said, “Evangelists are more important than pastors and teachers” (The Evangelist and His Work, Sword of the Lord, 1968, p. 17).
Of all the things to say about a godly man! To blame him for being an evangelist and winning souls! We need more evangelists, and more pastors who do the work of an evangelist! By the way, Dr. Hymers is also a pastor, for he taught Chan’s people everything they know about the Christian life. Too bad they didn’t listen!
Dr. Chan attacks Dr. Hymers with no good reason. He wants to tear Dr. Hymers down to build up himself. That’s why I’m angry with him. I am angry with Dr. Chan!
V. Fifth, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is not what he appears to be at first.
Dr. Chan wasn’t the first rebellious thief. The first one was Satan, the Devil himself. He was a great and powerful angel. He looked good. And one-third of the angels followed him. Then Satan spoke to our first mother Eve through the serpent. The serpent was not the repulsive snake that we know today. It was a beautiful animal. Eve listened to the serpent. Then Adam listened to Eve. The Devil stole the whole human race.
Satan is not what he appears to be. The Bible says that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (II Corinthians 11:14). He looks good, but he isn’t. The Bible says that Satan’s servants are “transformed as the ministers of righteousness” (v. 15). They look good, but they’re not.
Dr. Chan is like that. He looks like a good little man. He looks harmless. He looks like someone you could believe. But really he’s a bitter man who destroys people. Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). Look at his fruit. Some who left in the split he led don’t go to church at all. And he hurt many people here, including me. He almost destroyed our church. He ruined people’s lives. I am angry with Dr. Chan. Yes, I am angry with him!
Jesus warned about false preachers like Chan who “come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). They look like sheep, but they want to eat you up! The Bible warns about preachers who “through covetousness… with feigned [faked] words make merchandise of you” (II Peter 2:3). Chan treats you like merchandise, like something that is sold in a store. He doesn’t care if your life is ruined. He just wants to get merchandise! I’m angry with him!
The Bible warns you about people like Chan, who “by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:18). Chan and his followers come “with good words and fair speeches.” Dr. Chan looked nice and reasonable. But inwardly he is a wolf who comes to eat up sheep like you. I’m angry with that wolf! I’m angry with Dr. Chan!
VI. Sixth, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he hides his rebellion.
The Bible says, “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (I Samuel 15:23). Dr. Chan rebelled, and hid his witchy rebellion. Mr. Griffith didn’t hide his rebellion. Griffith tried to start a fistfight with Dr. Hymers. But Chan did worse than Griffith. Chan was tricky, just as the Devil was tricky. Chan hid his rebellion. He never told Dr. Hymers any of the complaints he had. He never said anything. Instead, he secretly planned to leave and set up his own church. He talked secretly with John Waldrip. And he talked secretly with his friends in his own clique.
Judas was like Dr. Chan. Judas planned to leave Jesus. He met secretly with the Pharisees and took their money to betray the Saviour. When the time came, that’s what Judas did. How is that different from Dr. Chan? There’s no difference. Yes, I’m angry with Dr. Chan!
VII. Seventh, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is a sheep stealer.
John Chapter 10 speaks of the Shepherd, the sheep, and the thief. Who is the Shepherd? Jesus is the Shepherd. He said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Again, He said, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:14). Who are the sheep? Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life” (John 10:27, 28). The sheep are the Christians. They trust Jesus. They follow Him. He gives them eternal life.
What about the thief? Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). Who is the thief? Why, someone who comes “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). Ellicott’s Commentary says, “When he comes it is but for his own selfish purposes, and for the ruin of the flock.” The flock of sheep is the church. The thief comes to kill, destroy and ruin the church. That’s Dr. Chan! He’s a thief! He comes for his own selfish purposes. He comes to steal the sheep. He comes to ruin the church. He comes “to steal, to kill, and to destroy.”
Am I wrong to call Dr. Chan a thief? No, I am not! A thief steals. That’s what Dr. Chan does. Dr. Chan is a sheep stealer. That’s exactly what he is! And he almost destroyed our church. He comes “to steal, to kill, and to destroy.” I’m angry with Dr. Chan! I’m angry with what he did! And I say to you, that you be angry with him too!
Don’t just say, “I didn’t go with him.” It’s right to be angry with him. I am. You be angry with him too!
Some of you have not trusted Jesus. Your soul is still in the power of sin and Satan. Your only hope is in Christ. Jesus died on the Cross to pay for your sin. He shed His Blood to wash your sin away. He rose from the dead to give you life. Trust Him and be saved! If you would like to speak with us about trusting Jesus, please come to the front of the room now. Amen.
THE OUTLINE OF I AM ANGRY WITH DR. CHAN! by Dr. Christopher L. Cagan “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess” (Matthew 23:25; p. 1032 Scofield). (Matthew 23:33, 13; Hebrews 4:15) I. First, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is not called to preach, II. Second, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he does not disciple III. Third, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is blinded by pride, IV. Fourth, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he attacks Dr. Hymers, V. Fifth, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is not what he appears VI. Sixth, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he hides his rebellion, VII. Seventh, I am angry with Dr. Chan because he is a sheep stealer, |