ITCHING EARS
2 Tim. 3:1-4:4
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. David Carver was in a movie theater trying to watch a movie, but he couldn't hear the dialogue because the two women in front of him were talking so loudly to each other.
2. Unable to bear it any longer, he tapped one of them on the shoulder. "Excuse me," he said. "I can't hear." The lady snapped back to him, "I should hope not. This is a private conversation!"
3. It’s amazing how many people have private conversations in public!
B. TEXT: 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:2-4
3:1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive....3without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.4:3...They will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” 2 Tim. 4:3-4.
C. THESIS
1. Paul talks about people having “itching ears;” used only here in the New Testament, meaning, they demand to be told what they WANT TO HEAR, NOT THE TRUTH.
2. They "turn away their ears from the truth." It’s a sad phrase describing their rejection of truth.
3. The teaching of the Word of God -- teaching self-discipline, humility, and purity of heart and life, will be incomprehensible and revolting to them. To some people, the Gospel has become the object of disgust. There’s a culture war going on in America and around the world. The pagan worldview is trying to push out the Christian worldview that used to dominate the Western World.
4. Now TRUTH IS RELATIVE to the person: what's true for you isn’t necessarily true for me. Truth is evolving with society. But they are wrong.
5. There is a Living God, Who created the universe. He is the Author of truth. That’s why truth can’t change, because truth is consistent with God’s holy nature. The Bible is the depository of God’s wisdom and Word – THE ONLY WORD FROM GOD TO MAN.
6. This message is entitled, “ITCHING EARS.”
I. CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR TIMES (3:1-5)
A. WE ARE IN THE “LAST DAYS”
1. We’re in the “Last Days” now, a period Paul described as marked by so much evil. II Timothy 3:1-5 offers a sobering catalogue of corruption. The surprise is that many expositors believe these terrible descriptions are spoken about THE CHURCH! Many materialistic Christians are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” and have “a form of godliness but deny its power.”
2. People often claim to know Christ, but don’t ever let Jesus revolutionize their lives or behavior. Where there’s no change, no repentance, no tears, & no conviction – the power of the Christ is not at work.
3. It’s a dangerous thing to think you can play with sin; it’s like thinking you can play on the edge of hell and not be in danger of falling in. Moses said, “In due time their foot will slip…” Deut. 32:35. It’s just a matter of time.
4. It’s frightening that we can be so close to the Second Coming of Jesus and people be oblivious that at any moment judgment may fall. God is real and hell is real. This is no time for half commitments. We need to sell out to Christ, throw away our idols, repent of our sins and turn to the Lord while there’s still time!
B. THIS GENERATION WILL END IN DECEPTION
1. Paul described the coming of the AntiChrist; “9 He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders 10...They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness” 2 Thess. 2:9-12.
2. You see, if we don’t “love the truth,” we become open to deception. This’s also why WE shouldn’t follow signs. THE PEOPLE WHO WILL FOLLOW THE ANTICHRIST WILL BE SIGN-CHASERS. Jesus refused to give them signs, Mt. 12:38. “Believers don’t follow signs, but signs follow believers.” Make your own signs, don’t follow someone else’s!
3. The Apostle John said, 1 John 2:18 says, "Dear children…the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrist's have come. This is how we know it is the last hour....This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." 1 John 2:18; 4:3.
4. So there is a spirit of deception at work right now!
II. 6 TYPES OF PEOPLE GOD SAYS ARE DECEIVED
A. THOSE THINKING, “I HAVE NO SIN”
1 Jn. 1:8 says that “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves...”
1. It’s universal now that we want to believe that everyone is good. Drunkenness/ drug use, is not a sin. Living together is not a sin. Most people think that everyone is going to heaven except child molesters or serial murderers, but that's not the truth.
2. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” Rom. 3:23. We all are sinners! “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom. 6:23. We need to get our sins under the Blood!
B. THE SEXUALLY IMMORAL 1 COR. 6:9; Eph. 5:6
1. A few years ago the topic of the day on an Oprah Winfrey show was "Having Affairs With Married Men." She had brought together several people who were having affairs to get their comments on how they felt about it.
2. One lady responded very positively, saying that her affair with a married man had been a long-standing affair, & she was very happy in it.
3. Then someone raised the question of morality. Instantly, the woman took offense. "Wait a minute," she said. "I’m a Christian, but I want everyone to know that my personal life & my religion don’t interfere with one another." [I guess they won’t interfere with each other when she’s dying, either!]
4. Then she went on to say, "I believe in a God who wants me to be happy. And if this man makes me happy, then God approves of the relationship." Just because you believe in it doesn’t mean it’s so.
5. Nothing could be further from the truth. God demands sexual purity of his people, and only blesses the Male/ Female marital union.
6. The reason that Homosexuals and lesbians have been accepted into membership in some churches, or even been ordained clergy, is BECAUSE THOSE CHURCHES HAVE REJECTED THE BIBLE AS THE WORD OF GOD. The church has been invaded by the pagan culture, instead of the other way around!
C. THE BACKSLIDDEN 2 Cor. 11:3
1. Deception is what causes us to lose our “sincere and pure devotion to Christ” 2 Cor. 11:3.
2. So if we backslide, we are being deceived.
D. THOSE WHO MOCK GOD
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” Gal. 6:7. All those supposedly intelligent people who are atheists are deceived.
E. THOSE WHO THINK THE RAPTURE IS PAST
1. “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction” 2 Thess. 2:3.
2. We have a future hope, don’t let anyone rob you!
F. THOSE NOT ‘DOING’ THE WORD
1. “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James says in 1:22.
2. The most effective deception is 95% truth and 5% error! Did you know that rat poison is 99% good food?
III. KEY TO SALVATION? STICK TO THE WORD!
A. PUT YOUR FAITH IN THE WORD/BIBLE
1. The words of this Book are ALIVE! Heb. 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
2. The word “alive” is in Greek “Zoe,” alive, active, moving, accomplishing. They are living words with spiritual power.
3. The Bible is not the words of a man, a king, or a president, but of God. The voice that speaks to us from the Bible is the voice of God.
4. “All scripture is given by inspiration [theopneustes; God-breathed] of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” 2 Tim. 3:16, KJV.
5. As Mark Twain said, “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I don't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do.”
B. PUTTING THE WORD INTO PRACTICE
1. In 1:23-25, James describes the hearer & the doer by different words. One "beholds" and the other "looks."
a. The Mere Hearer – “katanoew” – gives “only a passing, cursory, careless glance of the eye."
b. The Wise Hearer – “parakupto” -- is a "serious, eager, anxious gaze of the soul.” Both see their defects, but the second one takes them into serious consideration.
2. One man "goes away;" the other "continues" to look.
a. Mere Hearer -- glances hastily, but uninterestedly. Sermons are dull, let's get it over.
b. The Wise Hearer -- listens intently to discover the solutions to the spots of sin, and finds the blood of Jesus Christ.
3. One man "immediately forgets;" the other becomes "a doer of the Word."
4. The other thing we must do is develop a relationship with Jesus. We must be grafted into the Vine!
C. SATAN IS HUNTING YOUR WEAKNESS
1. Baboons are inquisitive creatures. In order to catch one in the Kalahari Desert, the bushman digs a hole in solid rock large enough for a baboon's hand to pass through while extended. He does this while making sure the baboon is watching. Then he drops in some nuts.
2. The baboon is so curious that after the man has gone, he goes to the rock to investigate and puts his hand in the hole to get the nuts. Once his hand is in the hole, the bushman runs to catch him, because the baboon will not let go of what's in his hand, and he cannot get his clenched fist back through the hole. (like materialism)
3. The bushman then feeds the baboon salt, making him extra thirsty. As soon as the baboon is released, he leads the bushman to water. The bushman thus controls the baboon. Beware lest Satan control you! Instead, let Jesus control you!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. An old gardener had an excellent garden, which was the talk of his neighborhood.
2. One neighbor said to him, "I hear that you always pray and ask the Lord to give you a good garden. Is that true?"
3. He responded, "Yes, it's true; but I never pray for good garden unless I have a hoe in my hand. I say, ‘Lord, You send the sunshine and the showers, and I'll keep the weeds down!’”
4. That’s true of our soul’s spiritual condition. What is the condition of your soul’s spiritual garden?
B. THE CALL
1. Call for repentance
2. Call for dedication
