Itching Ears — 09/18/2021

foreign [Music] [Music] the kind of teaching we look for from a local church pastor actually says a lot about us are we people who only want to hear what we want to hear or are we longing to know what god's word says today on truth for life weekend aleister begg examines why it's crucial for believers to submit to sound biblical teaching [Music] 2 timothy 4 and verse 3 and 4 read for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths father we pray that as we turn to the bible that you will open our eyes and grant to us understanding in our minds and faith and trust accomplish your purpose as we pray for jesus sake amen a couple of uh months ago now i received a call from my doctor's office informing me in a kindly manner that my doctor would no longer prescribe for me what i use as a daily medication if i failed for the third year in a row to show up for my annual physical so i decided i'll get a different doctor one who will let me come when i want and enjoy any kind of diet i choose and pretty well just please myself well of course i didn't do that i very quickly made an appointment and my physical will come up towards the end of february i realized that he had my best interest in heart it would be absolute foolishness on my part perhaps even life-threatening on my part to take the sound advice that was represented in that call in that word and set it aside i think all of us would concur with that and to the extent that we understand that on a physical level then it ought not to be difficult for us to realize just how far more significant that reality is when it comes to the spiritual realm when paul writes to timothy in his first letter he encourages him in relationship not only to his own physical well-being but also to his spiritual health and in the seventh verse of chapter four paraphrased by j.b phillips he says to timothy physical fitness has a certain value but spiritual fitness is essential both for this life and for the life to come and therefore if one were to uh be prepared to play fast and loose with our own physical frames surely we would recognize the solemnity that is involved in thinking about the fact that we have a soul that is eternal in fact the only part of our existence that will pass into eternity is the very essence of who we are our souls and that's why the charge that paul gave to timothy which we noted last time came across with such solemnity i charge you in the presence of god and of christ jesus the one who's going to judge the living and the dead in relationship to the fight that he's going to appear and he's going to consummate his kingdom it's all of that that is wrapped up because as we saw the minister of god looks over the lives entrusted to his care as caring for their souls as someone who must give an account i don't think we really give very much thought to our souls do we i think we tend to think of it the wrong way around don't we believing somehow or another that the things that are seen are real and the things that are unseen are somehow unreal when in point of fight the bible reverses it and says the things that we can see are transient they're ephemeral and the things that we can see are the things that are eternal now it was in light of those verities that he had given him this charge a solemn charge and a simple charge just a phrase preach the word preach the word regular expository preaching of the bible is the staple diet of a healthy church it's a staple diet of a healthy church i i guarantee you i can take you anywhere in the world and if we find health in the church whatever nation whatever city in the world i guarantee you you will find the faithful teaching of the bible now why is this charge then so important well he tells us in verses three and four i have i i've given you a charge that you need to heed and now let me tell you he says of a challenge that you're going to face this is not some remote future for timothy this is something that he has already identified in his first letter and now in his second and he's making timothy aware of what he has previously taught him there have been those he says in chapter two whose influence in the church was absolutely useless they were involved in irreverent babble their babble led people into ungodliness uh their teachings spread like sepsis from a wound it was like gangrene going through a body absolutely dreadful and and at its very basis was the fact that these individuals had swerved from the truth they'd swear from the truth they're no longer uh holding the line in relationship to orthodoxy and now he's warning timothy and preparing timothy for the fact that when he preaches as he's going to do now because paul is going to leave him he reads to realize that he's not simply going to be faced with those whose minds may wander while he's teaching but they will actually physically depart from him he should anticipate that they will give up his theology in search of mythology you have the text in front of you you can look at it and see whether that's an apt summary of what he's saying they will depart from the truth and they will embrace error now here's the thing to notice this is not a diatribe about the surrounding culture he's talking about the church he's talking about the people in the church the people who are sitting in a congregation such as this this morning who may find within themselves the seeds of declension and of departure who find themselves so pressed upon by the thought forms and worldviews that are essentially secular that if one is not careful one may find ourselves completely undermined as a result of that unless holding firmly to the truth we've been taught now it's straightforward i it hardly needs any kind of outline does it the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching there's nothing hard to understand about that is it they just won't put up with it now we've noticed this word sound in the past if you turn back just one page you'll see that in verse 13 of chapter one he had urged timothy to follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me it simply means healthy as opposed to unhealthy now here these these are the words that will find the body growing in its health and in its usefulness he he had mentioned if you turn back one other page to chapter six of of first timothy 1 he had said to him there teach and urge these things first timothy 6 3 if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the here's the adjective again with the sound words of our lord jesus christ and the teaching that accords with godliness he's puffed up with conceit he understands nothing he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy dissension slander evil suspicions constant friction among people who are depraved in their minds deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a means of gain that's quite a sentence isn't it and what does it all stem from it stems from the fact that they do not agree with the sound words of our lord jesus christ in other words they have deviated you see the people to whom timothy is ministering were confused at least on two fronts they were morally confused and they were doctrinally confused they were confused about what they really ought to believe and therefore they were confused about how they really ought to behave because our belief and our behavior are interwoven paul makes that point for timothy doesn't he first timothy again four says watch your life and your doctrine closely in this his final letter he's able to say that to me and you know about my life you know not only what i said but you also know my life there is a direct relationship between a deviation from the truth and that's impact then in the moral consensus of a church or of individual lives people are not going to be tuning in says paul to timothy to the kind of teaching which makes them healthy and useful instead you will discover that they have itchy ears and their ears are tuned not to serious but to curious some of you have the sirius on your on your car as well uh well this is this is they wouldn't be tuned into serious radio they'd be tuned into curious radio because these are the kind of people who are always looking for something that's fascinating intriguing a speculative spicy you know all these kind of things there's sort of some spicy theological insights they're just a rich aroma coming out from wherever it is and what do they do well they just try and find as many of these people to teach them as much of this as they possibly can that's the significance of this picture they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and the greek is actually they will heap up for themselves teachers they'll get they'll just get more and more and more of them it's not that they just go for one new teacher they say no this one's good and that one's good and so on and these people just heat this stuff up it fits with the notion that we saw earlier of weak-willed women who are burdened down by all kinds of sins and led astray by various passions that's in chapter three actually the verbal root is the same between the two sections in the greek new testament so you see what the picture is see when people stop believing in the truth of god's word they usually don't believe nothing they just start to believe everything so they start to accommodate all kinds of notions and you notice the correlation here they will accumulate for themselves teachers who will accommodate their passions this is what i want to be oh well we can help you with that as opposed to well actually this is what the bible says now paul says to timothy here's your problem these people that you're going to be preaching to they're not going to hold the line they're going to accumulate for themselves teachers who will consider it a privilege to let them have whatever it is they want now timothy was in the first century we're in the 21st century isaiah was what six or seven centuries bc and what do you discover when you read the bible when you read church history that this is not a peculiar phenomenon at least not peculiar to first century ephesus let me give you an illustration from the old testament from the prophecy of isaiah if you'd like to turn to it is isaiah chapter 30 and the context is that the people of god have rejected the instruction of the prophet of god namely isaiah and the reason that they have rejected his word is not because of any lack of clarity on his part but actually he's just been a little bit too clear it's too it's too easy to understand what he has to say and too difficult to accept what he has to say they didn't actually want him to stop preaching they just wanted him to preach according to their passions they just wanted him to preach in a manner that they would be able to live with wouldn't alter anything at all so i look at it as it's recorded for us verse 9 isaiah 30. they are a rebellious people lying children children unwilling to hear the instruction of the lord so they can't understand is that they don't want to hear they say to the seers do not see and to the prophets do not prophesy to us what is right speak to us smooth things prophesy illusions leave the way turn aside from the path let us hear no more about the holy one of israel well that's pretty straightforward isn't it tell us smooth things i would not like that as an adjective to describe myself or any one of my pastoral team we may be smooth in terms of uh the absence of facial hair but that's as smooth as i think we would like to be but now the terminology between the centuries before jesus and now here in the first century is the same isn't it in isaiah they turn aside from the path and in timothy they turn away from listening to the truth so in other words he's describing a certain kind of group of people that he's going to encounter as he operates now remember when he took his leave from the ephesian elders acts chapter 20 he said to them from among your own group we'll come people who draw away people after them they'll they'll teach all kinds of things they'll be like they're like wolves and marriaging in the in the middle of uh sheep and now here's timothy and he's confronted by this very thing the congregations then selecting their pastors provided their pastors will accommodate their passions tell them what they want to hear they're far more interested in novelty than they're interested in orthodoxy you say well this all seems so very far away really i don't think so i think it seems very very close now i don't know where you are this morning and you're thinking but i'm standing with martin luther what more can he say than to you he has said to you unto jesus for refuge of fled in other words he has given to us his final statement in the word we don't worship the word we don't worship the bible but every deviation from his book is either one that takes us above the line or below the line turning people away from biblical revelation and turning them in to speculation see these people are in search of a spirituality that is disconnected from biblical truth that's really the issue of it every time there's hardly a week passes if you move in the community at all if you let it be known that you have any interest in in spiritual or religious things you will find somebody who will say to you well i'm a very spiritual person but of course i have no time for the bible at all and then we have to talk with that we've got to unpack that why is that what does that mean and so on so here comes the prophet he speaks the word of god so we don't want to have the word of god tell us smooth things here is the word of god that has been left by the apostles in his doctrine that is now inscriptionated in the new testament this is what it says about the nature of man this is what it says about the doctrine of creation i mean it's this is where it is you you have to work it out somehow spiritual engagement disconnected from biblical truth jeremiah says the same thing listen to this an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land whoa what's that the prophets prophesy falsely the priests rule at their discretion listen and my people love to have it so that's the problem that's the problem you see the problem ultimately is not the prophets or the priests it's the people that's why i'm working so hard to teach you these things so that after my departure you will also be able to hold to these things so that the children that are in our nursery this morning will rise up and they will hold to these things because i always tell you you're only a few years away from this place becoming a carpet sale room and it would become that as a result of a declension from the truth either going above it or going below it you say well that's a that's a little there's a little extreme is it not i don't think it is because if you think about it the biblical assessment of man what the bible says about us as men and women is not naturally appealing you know if you want to appeal to people in the sugar and valley you probably shouldn't tell them what the bible says about them because what the bible says about us all is this one i'm sinful two i'm guilty three i'm responsible and four i'm lost have a great day see it doesn't work it doesn't work you can't do that you can't do that if you wanted to have a great day you're gonna have to say we are not really sinful you just you know a few things happen to you and you're after all you're a combination of you know molecular structural and psychological immunological imbalance no no you're sinful you're sinful and you're guilty and you can't fix it and you're responsible for it you can't blame it on your grandmother and you're lost you want to make it really clear bring to mind now your favorite grandchild your newest one the tiny one with the big eyes and the wriggling and everything that goes along with it think of all of their potential think of all of their capacity bring them before your mind's eye sit them on a stool in front of you and say to yourself this little girl is sinful guilty responsible and lost and she needs a savior she needs a savior more than she needs swimming lessons she needs a savior more than she's in track she needs a savior more than she goes to the best university in america all those things may be coming and going but the fact is she needs a savior that's at the very heart of things that's why i say to you that the biblical statement of the nature of man the view of the world broken that's why it's so crucially important to heed the charge and to take out the challenge see when we come back next time we realize that what what paul's going to say to timothy is not so throw in the towel timothy you know you try and accommodate yourself no he's going to say the harder it gets the tougher it is the harder you've got to go at it that's why i told them earlier when you feel like it when you don't feel like it when the response is strong when the response is pure you've got to keep going do you realize how important it is to pray for young seminarians to pray for uh pastors to to to pray for each other to pray that that in the that in the teaching to our children that there's a fastidious commitment to orthodoxy that there's no fudging and blurring of the lines so that these little ones may grow up in the nurture and admonition of the lord general booth of the salvation army remember they asked him at the end of the 19th century what are your concerns for the church going into the 20th century what are the chief dangers confronting the church and he said the chief dangers which will confront the church in the coming 20th century will be religion without the holy spirit christianity without christ forgiveness without repentance salvation without regeneration politics without god and heaven without hell how prescient was that dick lucas uh dick was uh working there in london and living there in london right in the very heart of london in the shadow of um lloyds of london which the ira tried to blow up on a number of occasions and in one of the occasions the bomb made a significant impact on sin helen's bishop's gate and actually almost killed the rev himself he was he was very pleased about it he said because he had wanted to do some changes in the church for a long time and because it was a historically listed building he wasn't allowed to and the ira did them a tremendous favor and uh so he was able to tear all the pews out and make all these kinds of changes but he as he took me around he said and i want you to see this and he showed me the entryway at one point into the building and he said this part of the building was left completely untouched and and chiseled into the the lintel the stone lintel above the uh the doorway it said heaven and earth will pass away but my word will never pass away and and dick said so so we continue and so we continue to [Music] you're listening to truth for life weekend with aleister begg we're in a series called guard the truth today's message is a powerful reminder of the importance of solid biblical teaching and if you're a regular listener to this program you know that the faithful teaching of god's word is our passion a truth for life we believe the bible is the true word of god and our goal is to teach it in a way that is clear and relevant so that listeners like you can be assured of its truth and can be changed by god's spirit we also want to encourage you to make god's word a priority in your homes with your children and your grandchildren today's book recommendation is designed to help you do just that the book is called bible stories every child should know and it's perfect for passing on god's truth to the next generation this is a beautifully illustrated book that contains more than 120 stories from both the old and new testaments the stories are told in simple language that young children even preschoolers can easily understand and each story is two to four pages long just the right length for those attention spans there are even questions you can ask to help keep children engaged find out more about the book bible stories every child should know when you visit our website truthforlife.org i'm bob lepen persevering is always a challenge especially if we're experiencing headwinds but the task of ministry has unique challenges associated with it so what does it take for us to press on in ministry find out as you join us next weekend the bible teaching of aleister begg is furnished by truth for life where the learning is for living [Music]

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 6,999

Rating: 4.9669423 out of 5

Keywords: Backsliding, Church Leadership, False Teachers, Gospel, Jesus Christ, Preaching

Id: to3_KaIvE3Y

Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021