Focus on the Church Part 3

people kindly open to second
Timothy Paul’s second epistle to Timothy. If you have not been
here for the past couple of weeks we’ve taken we’ve extended rather
our hiatus out of the book of Romans and. Into a number of
passages that really focus us in that is our goal of focus
on the church and the. These passages individually and
collectively focus on to some of the key doctrines to which
we hold as a church some of the key elements and some of those
key marching orders for the body as a church. This morning I want
to look at revelation. Not the book of Revelation but
the concept of revelation and that being insight provided to
God’s people. And for that, I wanted to take
us to the epistle that Paul wrote to Timothy, one of the last things
that Paul wrote, if not the last. And in Second Timothy, Paul addresses
a young pastor in the midst of a very difficult season in the
life of the church, the church fledgling body, a fledgling work
already beginning to feel the fires of persecution already
beginning to feel the indifference even of God’s people. And Paul
says it will only get worse if you would look at the first four
verses of Chapter four. where Paul writes, I solemnly
charge you. In the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and
by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in
season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, But wanting to have their ears
tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance
with their own desires and will turn aside. Pardon me. They will
turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to
myths. Now, I don’t want to lose anybody,
but we’re really going to zero in on just two words today and
then we’ll expand our horizon and look at a greater portion
of that as we wrap up this morning and then we’ll delve into the
depth of the passage next Lord’s Day. God willing, what I want
to look at is just those two little words, the word. But was
to be Timothy’s content that was to be what Timothy was to
preach. It was God’s revelation to humanity
and there was a desperate need for that. What Paul is addressing
here is the subject of our great need of revelation addressing
that same subject. One excellent theologian wrote
in the study of all other sciences, men place themselves above the
object of investigation. That’s not the case in theology. Man, he goes on to say, can only
know insofar as God has made himself known. Without revelation,
man would never have been able to acquire any knowledge of God. And even after God has revealed
himself objectively, it is not human reason that discovers God,
but it is God who discloses himself to the eye of faith. We’ll talk
more about that in a moment. But it’s revelation here that
Paul is pointing to. It is the word as the revelation
of God, information about God that we never could have acquired
on our own. We couldn’t have mined it out
by any means, in any area of learning, unless God had first
uncovered it to us. Now, we know that God has uncovered
a great deal of revelation to us. He has done it in nature.
And repeatedly throughout the scriptures, there is spoken of
this general revelation. Revelation, though, is communication
about God by himself, about things about himself that we could not
have otherwise come to know. And we do have those testimonies
in scripture. Listen to Job, and then I’ll
have you turn to one in a moment. Job just briefly says, Job chapter
12, verse 7 through 10. But now ask the beasts. He says, go watch nature, go
watch animals in nature and let them teach you, if we would only
pause and slow down, we do have a clear testimony about God from
the animal world. He goes on to say in the birds
of the heavens, let them tell you or speak to the earth and
let it teach you. that nature itself is an instructor. Nature itself is revelation by
God about himself. Speak to the earth, let it teach
you, let the fish of the sea declared to you who among all
these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this
in whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath
of all mankind. He says, go be instructed by
the earth, by the birds, by the animals, even by the fish. Turn,
if you would, to Psalm 19. Some of you could quote this
in your sleep. But I want to pause and I want
to look. There’s really one illustration that he ultimately points to
in this passage. A revelation, a general revelation
in nature that is clear and perceptible if only we would pause and look. Psalm 19. The heavens are telling
of the glory of God and you might even surmise that he’s talking
about the stars and maybe as some have crassly suggested that
that’s all the magic we’re doing was astrology that led them to
Christ. The heavens are telling of the
glory of God as you look up the heavens are testifying of the
incredible nature of the God who made them. The heavens are
telling of the glory of God, their expanse is declaring the
work of his hands. Day to day pours forth speech. We have a constant stream of
information coming to us about God from the creation that he’s
made. Their expanse is declaring the
work of his hands. Day to day pours forth speech.
Night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there
words. You’re having information, but
it’s not as if it’s on a teleprompter. Their voice is not heard, their
line has gone out through all the earth and their utterance
to the end of the world. It’s absolutely unmistakable.
You cannot help but hear the testimony about God, about himself
based on what God has made. But he uses one illustration
and in essence is as if this one illustration would be enough
if that was the only testimony that we had about God, about
how incredible he is, how powerful, how loving he is, how caring. Listen to this one illustration. In them, he has placed a tent
for the sun. Now, this is poetic language. There is no storehouse, if you
will, for the sun. There is no garage in which it
parts. It’s poetic to say that the sun
disappears for a period of time each day. In them, he has placed
a tent for the sun. The sun is the illustration.
He says, pause and glance up. Don’t stare at it, mind you.
Take a look at the sun, consider the sun. Which is as a bridegroom
coming out from the chamber. This is just incredible language.
It’s the wedding day, right? It’s the wedding day for the
bridegroom. Was there ever a day when you looked better than your
wedding day, men? Was there ever a day when you were more excited?
Ever a day when you were more shined up like a new penny? It
is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It rejoices as
a strong man to run his course. It’s rising. The sun is from
one end of the heavens. and its circuit to the other
end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat. And we’ll
come back to the sun in a moment. We’ll come back to the process
that the sun gives. It not only warms the earth,
which is what is indicated here, but it provides light and it
does so much more, as you know. That is the force that really
generates plant life and feeds the world. Well, speaking of lunch and food,
Paul, in pointing to those who did not know Christ. Paul pointed
to the same truth. We’ve been there before. Just
listen. Acts chapter 14 Paul is testifying of God and he says
look at the general revelation that you have readily available
to you in nature. He said in the generations gone
by he that is God permitted all the nations to go their own ways.
Yet he did not leave himself without a witness. What was the
witness. What was the evidence. in that He did good. And He gave
you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons. You have a testimony
from God every bite of food that you take, He tells them. Every
time that you look to the fields and they are ripe. Every time
that you see a loaf of bread. Every time that you see an animal
that has been provided for your food. He did not leave Himself without
a witness. and that he gave you good. He gave you rains from
heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food
and gladness. No wonder, as I’ve said before,
in our study of Romans at the outset, no wonder Paul says you’re
without excuse. When we go to share the gospel
with people, we don’t have to start with a proof of God. We
don’t have to start with a three day advanced seminar on a proof
of God in that he exists because God has already proven himself.
God is his own proof. God has already laid out a case
for himself based on what he’s done. Listen to how Paul put
it in Romans 118 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
against all in godliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress
the truth in unrighteousness. They don’t want to know the truth
and the way that they go about suppressing it is in their unrighteous
living. They live fast and loose so that
they don’t have to consider the truth of God. They don’t have
to look at the objective data that is revealed to them every
single day. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that which is known about
God is evident within them. They know in their heart that
there’s a God. They know absolutely without a doubt. You don’t have
to prove it to them. Start at that place. There is a God and
he demands worship and he deserves worship. God has made it evident
to them, you say, how exactly? I know that he has, Pastor, but
can you explain it again? How exactly has he done that? Paul does not, and he says, since
the creation of the world. His invisible attributes, his
eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being
understood through what has been made so that they are without
excuse. Nobody, nobody can justly say
I don’t believe in God. I was never taken to Sunday school.
I never had access to a church. I couldn’t get a ride. Nobody
ever gave me a Bible. I don’t believe in God. Nobody
can say that. Nobody can justify that position
before God. Nobody. Because God has made
himself evident to every single person ever made just through
the testimony of general revelation. Now, the problem. And I think
Burkhoff does such an excellent job of laying out exactly what
the problem is. How come if we have this clear
testimony of God, how come more people don’t seek out God himself? How come more people don’t long
for a relationship with him? How come more people don’t ultimately
come to know his son, the Lord Jesus? How come more people don’t
yearn for his standards and his commands? How come? Burkoff says,
as a result of the entrance of sin into the world, the handwriting
of God in nature is greatly obscured. It’s there. The testimony is
there clear as day. And yet they look and they can’t
even read the truth. It goes on to discuss spiritual
blindness. That’s what it is. They’re blinded. They become so enamored with
themselves and their life that they’ve obscured their view of
God. And then he says this in his
supernatural revelation. God republished the truths of
natural revelation, that general revelation about which we spoke.
He cleared them of misconception, he interpreted them with a view
to the present needs of man, and he thus incorporated them
in his supernatural revelation of redemption. And in addition
to that, he provided a cure for the spiritual blindness of man
in the work of regeneration and sanctification. Let me unpack
some of that. What he says is you had this
problem, you had this spiritual blindness, people couldn’t see. And so God came and he sent his
own son and it began to elucidate some of that truth, the power
of God. The almighty nature of God. The
love of God. The redemptive nature of God.
A God who longed for relationship with humanity and wanted to communicate
Himself to them. And wanted them to know Him and
love Him and worship Him. God didn’t leave things the way
they were. God saw the problem and God remedied the problem.
Let me take you to one other passage. Turn to the book of Hebrews,
if you would. Very first chapter of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews at the very
outset tells us that God has revealed himself to humanity,
not only through general revelation. That’s enough. God could have
justly stopped right there, but God does the extra mile. Not
only has he revealed himself in general revelation, the things
that he created, but he’s also done it through what we call
special revelation. That is his written word, which
is the subject that we’re considering at the moment anyway. It is his
written word, but ultimately it was through his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you would, I want you to glance
down at verses one and two of chapter one and just note that
whereas, at least in the New American Standard, the sentence
begins and I mean the simple sentence, the sentence begins
in verse one and it isn’t even completed until verse two. The
simple sentence is this, God has spoken. That’s it. God has spoken. And you could
even leave it just with those three words and God would be
justified. God has spoken. God has given
us everything that we need to know about him. But the writer
of Hebrews masterfully paints this picture of exactly how God
has spoken and by what means. God, after he spoke long ago
to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many
ways. You see, that’s what he’s pointing
to is not only through general revelation, but he also began
to give this special revelation by way of his prophets, by way
of his written word and through centuries and eons of teaching. But in these last days, not only
After he spoke long ago, but even in these last days he has
spoken. But it was through a completely
different means. It was through a completely different messenger.
It was through a completely different message. Look at it again, God,
after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many
portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to
us in his son. whom he appointed heir of all
things, through whom also he made the world. God had given
a general revelation to humanity, but now God was zeroing in and
giving us a special revelation. And it was addressed to a very
special class of sinners, sinners, God’s elect. And God would make
known this message of salvation to them. God would make it absolutely
clear that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and that He is the Savior
and that we must place our faith in Him. That God is almighty,
that God is a God of redemption, a God of forgiveness. No wonder it’s called special
revelation. MacArthur said it this way one
time, he said, special revelation takes up where creation and conscience
leaves off. I love that special revelation
tells us all we need to know about God information that was
never before understood. And that’s why it’s so often
referred to as a mystery. It was a mystery. But now, you
know, It tells us about God’s mercy, about his grace, about
how sin can be forgiven. It tells us about the sacrifice
of Christ, about salvation, about the church. Special revelation,
it was a new kind of revelation, and it came primarily through
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it opened up a whole new measure
of God revealing himself. That’s why one pointed to the
fact that it’s rooted in the redemptive plan of God. It’s
all about redemption. It always has been. It is addressed
to man as a sinner, he said, and can be properly understood
and approached only by faith. And you know this, I had another
dose of this this past week, so I’m a little exercised about
it. This is what makes this tendency towards extra biblical revelation,
so nauseating to those of faith, to those who hold the scriptures
to be the revelation of God and Jesus Christ is God’s final word
to mankind. It turns our stomach. It must
to hear somebody touting some new revelation of God. My particular episode was over
a book called Heaven is for Real. Revelation given to a three year
old, allegedly, who went to heaven and came back and told his father
all about his experience. Well, not only has it become
a bestseller, New York Times, and you would imagine that, you
know, a world with with nothing to hope for would grasp at something,
anything that tells them. About the afterlife. about which
they are so vexed. But the sad thing is, the church
has gobbled up this book. So much in the church has just
clamored for this book. It has made this poor pastor
a rich man. And it has made the kid the superstar. All of this is the result, essentially,
of dissatisfaction with what God has already revealed. You
haven’t given us enough We need to know exactly how it’s going
to unfold. We need to know what heaven’s like, what my room will
be like. We need to know what this so-called battle that the
kid tells about. We’ve got to know all this other
stuff. We’re dissatisfied with God’s word. It can’t be just
about Christ and faith in him. It’s dissatisfaction with God.
It’s dissatisfaction with what he’s revealed, coupled with a
childish and blinded clamoring for something new and different.
We’ve got to have it. God has given us the Lord Jesus
Christ. That’s his final word. That’s
his final revelation. We don’t need anything else.
There is nothing greater that can ever be uncovered to us short
of heaven itself. And that’s God’s timing, not
ours. Jesus Christ is God’s final word, a revelation to a sinful
humanity, and the scriptures are a compilation of God’s written
word, the account of man’s redemption through Jesus Christ. That’s
God’s special revelation. And that’s the extent of it.
Just as God’s revelation to the prophets resulted in the Old
Testament, so also his revelation of Jesus Christ, the messenger,
the means and the message of the new and final revelation
resulted in the New Testament. And the New Testament is the
full and final revelation of God, the good news of Jesus Christ,
that’s it. That’s all we need. That’s all
we’ll ever need. Jonathan Edwards said it this
way. You all have by you a large treasure of divine knowledge
in that you have the Bible in your hands. Do you treat it that
way? Do you consider it that way? Pure gold beyond your very
life itself. No wonder he issues this exhortation
in the course of that comment, you have a large treasure of
divine knowledge, and he says, let it be very much your business
to search for it with the same diligence and labor with which
men are want to dig in mines for silver and gold. When was
the last time you attacked God’s word that way? That this is as
gold to a natural man. See, this revelation that we’ve
given, this isn’t just words of men, this is the inspiration
of God. That’s exactly what the verse
just leading up to the verses we’re considering this morning.
Second, Timothy four. Leading up to that, Paul basically
articulates a view of God’s word that is almost passe in our day
and age. Second Timothy 316 says all Scripture
is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for training in righteousness. It’s inspired by God. Well, now, sometimes that little
word trips us up because I’ve written some inspired things
in my day. I got married one time. I wrote a poem to get married
to my wife, the most Inspired I’ve ever been, I’ve never been
that inspired since. Is that all that he’s talking
about here? Just men that were just so struck
so passionately with what God is and was was doing. That they
were inspired to write. A piece of Scripture. It was
inspired by God because it was conveyed by means of the Holy
Spirit, even though it was written by men, it doesn’t mean here
that God merely provided the intellectual stimulus, the emotional
motivation for mere men to take up the task of writing Holy Scripture. It’s pointing to the fact that
it’s literally God-breathed. It is of God. God breathed it
out. That’s exactly what’s being pointed
to in 2nd Peter 1. Know this, first of all, that
no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,
for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. It didn’t
come from us in the first place. But men moved by the Holy Spirit
spoke from God. It’s literally God breathed the
Scripture. Scriptures are a direct result
of the breathing out of God, it has nothing to say about inspiration
as we understand it. But that it was breathed out
by God, the scriptures are literally a product of divine operation
that no wonder we call it revelation. And as we shared a couple of
weeks ago, as we were considering our Bible study, no wonder when
you read the scriptures, implore the Holy Spirit to come alongside
you. It’s revelation. It’s God’s word. Pause and bow
before Him and ask Him to open your eyes. Ask Him to be your
instructor. We lean too much on men, on people. You probably heard and sung that
great hymn, Rock of Ages, right? Augustus Toplety wrote those
great words. He also wrote this. regarding
Scripture and the need of inspiration. He said to unconverted persons,
a great part of the Bible resembles a letter written in ciphers.
Haven’t you ever handed a Bible or a portion of Scripture to
somebody and they have no idea what that’s talking about? Of
course, they don’t. The Blessed Spirit’s office is
to act as God’s decipherer by letting his people into the secret
of celestial experience. as the key and clue to those
sweet mysteries of grace which were before as a garden shut
up or as a fountain sealed or as a book written in an unknown
character. See, spiritual things are spiritually
discerned. And because sin had so adulterated
God’s creation and the people in it, it left us with a darkened
understanding. And because general revelation
was insufficient to lead sinners to salvation. We need, as natural
men, what John Calvin referred to as the spectacles of faith,
not a neat thing. The spectacles of most of us
now need spectacles of some sort. Right. But a natural man someone
first coming to God needs what he referred to as the spectacles
of faith. What he needs is regeneration. He needs a movement on God to
open his eyes. To be able to read and see the
scriptures as they never had appeared before. Paul wrote about
it and that’s what essentially led to the commentary on those
truths. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12.
Now, we have received not a spirit of the world, but the spirit
who is from God so that we may know the things freely given
to us by God. It’s revelation. It’s all revelation. But we understand it now. Well,
what happened? Are we just so smart? Are the
lot of us just better than the rest of them? That we’ve figured
some things out. So what Paul says. The things
freely given to us by God, which things also we speak, not in
words taught by human wisdom, but those taught by the spirit,
combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural
man. A natural man does not accept
the things of the spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him,
and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually
appraised. We need God. We need God’s illumination
on the scriptures. And scripture ultimately imparts
that truth, leading to salvation and illumination. What the spirit
provides is absolutely necessary for a right interpretation and
a saving understanding of God’s word. It’s an act of God. It’s
an act of God. That’s what led A.W. Pink to
say that Christ, Christ is the key that unlocks the golden doors
into the temple of divine truth. It’s Christ. It’s faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the two blend together in the great process
of regeneration, the Holy Spirit applying the word of God, leading
the child to faith and repentance. And so, as God’s inspired revelation,
Scripture is absolutely trustworthy. When we come to Scripture, we
come to it as truth, not as some man’s theory, some man’s opinion.
That’s what leads the world to label Paul as a sexist and to
label God as some uncouth, harsh being. We come to the word as
truth. And because it was God who determined
the extent and the content of this revelation, it is sufficient. It is enough. We don’t need another
paperback. We don’t need another kid who
says he went to heaven. We don’t need any of that. And since it’s the very word
of God, it’s authoritative, we submit ourselves to the word,
not the other way around. We don’t become the critics of
God’s word. We know we don’t sit in judgment
of God and of his word. As a result, whatever scripture,
whatever scripture forbids is forbidden, whatever it commends
is good, whatever it commands is to be obeyed. And as a result,
we desire God’s word, we long for God’s word. As Job said,
more than my necessary food, as Peter says, like newborn babies
quivering in anticipation of the bottle. Scripture is more
than the air that we breathe, it’s more than the blood that
courses through our veins. Scripture is life to us. And
as we pointed out last year at our annual meeting. That is the
great source of the sound doctrine which the church is the steward. That sound doctrine is to be
biblically derived. It is to be carefully detailed
to the saints. It is supposed to be historically
rich. Be careful of anyone that comes
to you with some new or novel doctrine. It is to be clearly
articulated. It is something that can be understood
even by the youngest in our midst is the gospel, and it must be
vigorously defended. We should be absolutely offended
when somebody suggests to us a book like heaven is for real,
as if there’s some need, something extra that God missed the first
time around. That word, as we saw last year,
woven through the pastoral epistles is the word didosco, which means
to teach, and that the word is used about an equal number of
time to refer to either teaching or doctrine, and only in the
pastoral epistles is it referred to as sound doctrine. That’s
what we want. That’s what the church is supposed
to be about is securing and maintaining an advancing sound doctrine. The church is supposed to foster
good, accurate, well-prepared teaching, teaching that establishes
us, protects us, comforts us, equips us for battle, matures
us and strengthens us. There’s another, and for this
portion, I would have you turn back to Second Timothy. There’s
another responsibility of the church. That as we look beyond just those
two little words, the word We notice that there is a great
deal of context here in this passage, Second Timothy four,
and it’s the context really that provides the motivation, that
little word in verse three, four. That’s the motivation. That’s
the cause, the reason that Paul has. To put this command upon
young Timothy, preach the word, not just anything, The word is
to be the source of life and help and truth. Paul’s perhaps
his last words to Timothy, his last chapter, as far as we know,
were written from prison. Paul, likely soon to be executed,
martyred, wrote in verse one of chapter one to his beloved
son. It was his son in the faith.
And that faith for young Timothy was flagging. It was beginning
to falter, perhaps. Maybe he was getting overwhelmed
with all the difficulties of ministry. Maybe he was becoming
tired of retaining the standard of God’s word, guarding the faith,
guarding the sound doctrine. Paul himself had faced many heartbreaking
departures in ministry. And Paul looks to young Timothy
and urges him to suffer hardship as a soldier, as an athlete,
as a farmer. Paul calls on young Timothy.
To flee certain things and refuse others. And then he comes to
this passage. And he essentially tells Timothy
what to do, and then he tells him why I want to look at the
why briefly this morning. Because here was the problem.
The society that Timothy was in was already degenerating and
not just not just the heathen society around him, but even
the church was beginning to feel the effects of it. One pastor
said, when the carnal heart is not broken and renewed by the
gospel, it will become hardened against it. Forms of religious
worship will still be retained. The unconverted will crave types
and modes of teaching more in harmony with their natural tastes. And they will gather teachers
prepared to minister doctrines diverging from the principles
of the gospel, and since the mind must have something to feed
upon such fickle hearers. will swallow all manner of fanciful
representations of sacred things, however far removed they may
be from the teaching of scripture. That’s almost a paraphrase of
verses three and four, the first thing that’s going to happen.
Even sometimes within the church is that people become intolerant
of doctrine. Look at verse three, the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine of the
most frightening thing about that passage to me. Is that they who is they? And they can only be professing
Christians, churchgoers. There is going to be a time when
they those who profess faith in your church will not endure
sound doctrine will come to that part of the moment, let’s look
at the way. This is pastor to pastor. This is Paul, the pastor,
writing to Timothy, the pastor, and appealing to him and telling
him that church people will grow intolerant of what the Bible
teaches. Sometimes some people. In some
degree. They will not endure, they will
not tolerate, you know, our society is all about toleration, right?
But there will be a time when the very thing that’s intolerated
This is sound doctrine itself. It doesn’t say if you look down
and it doesn’t say that they cannot endure it. This is just
too much. I’ve had enough. I can’t take
it anymore. It says they will not. It’s a
willful disobedience. It’s willful avoidance. It’s
neglect. It’s willful ignorance. It’s
a general impatience for theology for God himself. Because God
is revelation. They will not endure, look at
it again, sound doctrine, it’s the Bible’s teaching on any given
issue. Now, I have always been a mind and I’ve heard this attributed
to John Calvin, I’ve looked for 20 years, I haven’t found it
in his writing, but the truth is appropriate. Whoever said
it, where the Bible speaks, we speak. If the Bible addresses
the subject, stand on it. Have the courage to stand on
the truth as God has delivered it. But the passage or the saying
goes on to say where the Bible speaks, we speak where the Bible
is silent. We too are silent. We don’t want
to be legalistic. We don’t want to go beyond what God is. We
don’t want to take away freedoms and liberties of others when
God hasn’t done it himself. And if we only did the first.
If we were only standing on what God, if we were only endorsing
what God has said, we wouldn’t be so inclined to go looking
for other things that God hasn’t. Where the Bible speaks, we speak.
We must. And that word sound doctrine,
I didn’t talk about it when we talked, we talked about it last
year and I left it alone earlier. It just means healthy, healthful,
wholesome. It’s biblically accurate and
it’s it’s promotes health within the body. If it’s not true and
if it’s unwholesome, it will be damaging to the saints and
you’ll see it. But Paul’s pointing to. So young
Timothy. Who had already warned of false
teachers here, he basically looks down the annals of The church
in the not too distant distant future, and he says, if you don’t
address this now, if you don’t get a hold of the doctrine of
the church now, it will produce positive damage in your church.
The question should always be in the church isn’t was it well
said wasn’t that great oratory. The question is, was it biblically
accurate? Was it true? Did it ring with
truth? Was it a biblical position? with
a sound words. But there’s a second step downwards. Not only are they going to become
intolerant of doctrine they will become impudent toward teachers. Anybody who’s ever taught has
felt this. But the more you teach the more you feel it. Listen
to this, look at verse three, but wanting to have their ears
tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance
to their own desires. Look at first their motivation,
wanting to have their ears tickled. It’s a sensual pleasure that
they want. That’s their motive, their eager, their they they
almost have an insatiable desire for something that is sensational.
Something new, something popular, something that nobody has ever
heard or thought of. They’re motivated only by their
own desire. They don’t love those who deal
with them, as one Puritan said, plainly and faithfully. They
don’t like that. They don’t like people getting
in their business. They don’t like people telling them, criticizing them.
Take the log out of your own eye. Leave me alone. They must
have, he says, those who please their humors, tickle their fancies
with novelties and curiosities, but they must not touch their
vices. Today, there’s that itch, isn’t
there? If you’ve talked to anybody about
spiritual things, anybody who does not know God, you’ll know.
You’ll know when you touch a Christian who’s struggling. And they want their ears to be
tickled instead. They want things to indulge them.
The only thing they want from a teacher is somebody who’s going
to address some platitudes. Whether it’s true or not matters
very little to them. Glance at the passage again,
note what it says, they will accumulate, they will literally
heap up. They’re going to gather them
in and in this day and age, you can do it all week long. 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, you can do it on the Internet, on
TV, on radio. You can heap up teachers. You
don’t have to listen to anyone anymore. There’s nothing wrong
with doing some of that, nothing wrong with it at all. What are
your motives? Are you just going to listen
until you find one that agrees with you or one that expresses? And soothes your conscience. Column church tramps we often
refer to them that we’re in this day and age you just kind of
go from place to place to place until you find somebody who says
what you want to hear. It doesn’t say if you look down
at the passage it doesn’t say that they don’t want teachers
they want teachers they just want teachers that are going
to tell them what they want to hear. Not only are they intolerant
of doctrine, impudent towards teachers, they are insolent toward
the truth. It isn’t the teacher that’s in
the crosshairs, it’s the truth they don’t like. Look at verse
four, they will turn away their ears from the truth. At first,
there was this intolerance toward the truth, this sound doctrine
stuff, intolerant. Here, it’s outright rejection.
It’s like children, remember, on the playground with their
fingers in theirs. La la la la la la. I can’t hear what you’re
saying. That’s what that’s exactly the image that comes to my mind.
The truth that they’re sinful, that they are desperate in need
of a savior. You see, the truth, as one pastor
said, strips them of all their vices. It sacrifices all their
idols. It darts its lightnings against
their easily besetting sins. And absolutely requires a conformity
to a crucified Christ. And therefore, they turn away
their ears from it. The fourth step. Is that they will become intimate
with the fanciful. Not only the intolerant of doctrine,
impudent towards teachers, insolent towards the truth, they are intimate
with the fanciful. They will turn aside to myths,
just goofy ideas, goofy interpretations, goofy thoughts, so-called thoughts
about God. This word turn aside was a medical
term. And I the most painful injury
I’ve ever had. Now, I have a friend who’s had
it with me to dislocate your shoulder. That’s the word. To
take your shoulder out of a joint, the most painful injury I’ve
ever had. And that’s what this word means to dislocate, they
dislocated themselves out of the way. It’s never used in a
good way in scripture. As one pastor said, when the
scriptures were neglected in the worship and preaching of
the church, the people received instead fabulous stories of the
life and exploits of the saints. The number of these miraculous
legends grew to the great historical facts of Christianity were thrust
into the background. He’s talking about the Roman
Catholic Church and the absolute insatiable desire for saints
and stories and idols, really. We’re not safe in our day and
age, some people in our day. The first to become intolerant
of the truth, then they turn away from the truth and then
they turn aside instead to myths. Silly stories, untrue stories,
stories that aren’t biblically derived. To close with what one pastor
said, and we’ll take it up next week to see what the good news
is and what the command is, the command is to preach the word,
preach the scriptures. That’s the only hope. The word
of God is the only hope for our society, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which the word articulates. That’s exactly what
Paul’s talking about. Patrick Fairbairn said it this
way, painting a very solemn scene, we can scarcely believe. That
this indicates, as a result, a complete turning away from
every doctrine of Christian truth. For, if such were the result,
there would necessarily be abandonment of the Christian profession,
a going over to the ranks of unbelief. It is rather a deprivation
within the professing church, a deprivation as would disincline
the minds of men to sound doctrine. What he’s talking about, again,
is the church. The church ought to be most inclined
to the truth. The sad thing is the church so
often is most inclined to be tripped up and to fall into myths,
stories. Man is basically good. Psychology
is the way out. There’s no hell. There’s no purgatory,
there’s purgatory, you can pray your way out if you need to. Myth after myth after myth. has
tripped up even a portion of God’s professing church. May
it not be with us. We’ll come back next week and
we’ll focus in on the preaching of God’s Word as the remedy for
that. Let’s pray. O merciful God, we humble ourselves
before you and thank you for your goodness and grace in opening
our blinded eyes, our eyes that were so inclined to the things of this world and
so focused on them, so focused on our own hopelessness that
we could not and would not turn to the truth. Lord, we pray,
thanking you for bringing us to repentance, that if there
are any in our midst that are still in this state, that you
would open by an act of your divine power, that you would
open the eyes of the blind in our midst that they would see
themselves as sinners in need of a Savior. And that having
their eyes open, they would see the Lord Jesus Christ as the
one who has already paid the full penalty for sinners. Father,
we humble ourselves before you. And we rejoice in your goodness
and grace in Jesus name.