Jump Start # 658

2 Timothy 4:3 “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 to their own desires,”

Our passage today is the apostolic advice Paul gives to the younger Timothy. It is a reality check. It reminds him of his purpose and commitment to the Lord. Paul tells Timothy to stick with preaching the word. The people won’t. Timothy won’t be viewed as a rock star among the people. In fact, the time will come when they will want another message and that includes another messenger. Notices the expressions Paul uses:

• They will not endure sound doctrine. It’s not that sound doctrine is hard to endure, it’s the heart of these listeners. The sound doctrine is the doctrine of Christ. It’s what we cut our teeth on and it’s what we build our faith upon. The sound doctrine of Christ is what cuts the path through the fog of confusion, doubt and uncertainty. It defines what is right and what is not right. Some don’t want sound doctrine. Sound doctrine can be narrow. It can oppose what some want. We must stay with sound doctrine to be right with God. There are some who start with it but later tire of it and want to leave it. Timothy would face such people.
• Wanting to have their ears tickled. This expression is meant to imply that they longed to hear what was pleasant and to their liking. Ears tickled brings the idea of fun, laughter and joy. Kids tickling one another is a time of giggles, smiles and fun. Long before this, Solomon said that it was better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting because the living take it to heart. We shouldn’t read into this that sound doctrine is boring, long, stuffy, hard, painful or dull. Ugh! Not at all. Sound doctrine is deep. It challenges a person to think, apply and become. Ear tickling preaching is soft, shallow and doesn’t do much. It’s like eating cotton candy. You see them selling cotton candy at the ballgames. It’s colorful and the kids want it. The thing about cotton candy is that you don’t even have to chew it, it just melts away in your mouth. It’s sticky, tasty, and fun, but there’s nothing to it. After a long, hard day of helping someone move boxes or working out or hiking, the thoughts of a plateful of cotton candy just doesn’t appeal to you. You want some substance. Potatoes, meat, veggies—solid food. You never see the guys at a ball game walking up and down the isles selling baked potatoes. Cotton candy, yes. Bake potatoes, no. Some want a gospel that is lite, soft, and easy to digest. Cotton candy theology sells in churches. People love it. But when the storm clouds move in, that cotton candy teaching doesn’t help. It’s the sound doctrine that gets us through the funeral. It’s the sound doctrine that helps us with our teenagers. It’s the sound doctrine that makes Satan turn and flee. Some folks just want their ears tickled.

• They will accumulate teachers in accordance with their own desires. The ear ticklers will win out. They will ditch the sound doctrine preachers and find the ear tickling preachers. There will be preachers who sell out to become ear ticklers. They will present a message that is pleasant, joyful and empty. They will be praised, loved and popular in the ear tickling circles. Ear ticklers thrive on popularity and money. The more popular they are the more money they make and the larger their crowds. Ear ticklers stay away from certain topics. In fact they stay away from a lot of topics. That’s how they became ear ticklers. It’d be wonderful if the ear ticklers couldn’t find anyone to satisfy them. But they do. Cotton candy theology and happy-clappy times seem to be the hit of the month for many folks.

What’s the solution? First, sound doctrine still needs to be taught. We need to know it, believe it, preach it and stand with it. Secondly, sound doctrine can be presented in fresh, interesting and challenging ways. It doesn’t have to come across like dry toast. Put some jelly on it and show while sound doctrine makes a difference in our lives. Make application. Make it plain. Show why Christ works. Show why He is the answer.

Ear tickling preaching builds ear tickling churches. Sound doctrine preaching builds sound doctrine churches. That’s how it works. What happens when a person dies? Does it matter how we worship God? Is Jesus coming? Don’t tell me a story, give me Bible! Show me. Teach me.

What Timothy was facing was congregations that did not want sound doctrine. We have a responsibility in that. We encourage sound doctrine or we drive it away. It is our duty to seek sound doctrine. This is not the preachers problems, it’s the congregation’s. Those that became ear ticklers did so because that’s what the congregations wanted. They did it to survive and to thrive.

Our verse began, “the time will come…” It’s come. It’s now. It’s before us. Cotton candy or solid teaching? Ear tickling or sound doctrine? Shallow or depth? Stories or truth?

There is an old hymn that says, “Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word…”

Roger

Jump Start # 655

2 Timothy 3:13 “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

Paul paints a realistic picture of what Timothy and other brethren would encounter. The verse before tells us that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” It’s the “will be” of that sentence that is disturbing. They will be, we will be, persecuted. Then follows our verse today. Things are not getting better with some. We are trying to swim upstream in a downstream world. The evil are getting more evil. Proceeding from bad to worse is not good news.

Society tends to have a three step approach to things that are wrong. First, there is the denial that something is wrong stage. This is where people question whether things are really wrong. They deny the harm that can come about. They deny warnings. It is a softening of things that ought to alarm folks.

Next, there is the acceptance stage. Things that are wrong are tolerated and accepted. No longer are there consideration, discussion and questions. Wrong is approved. Wrong is seen as right. Wrong moves out of the alley into the mainstream.  Wrong becomes normal

The final stage is the proclamation of wrong. Supporters of wrong become vocal. They promote wrong. They challenge those who disagree. They are loud, obnoxious and unwilling to discuss. They have moved from bad to worse. Their constant diet of deception have led them to become deceivers of others.

Most of us can see these three steps in our lifetimes. Divorce was once a bad stigma. A person was embarrassed to admit that they had a divorce. Anymore it is a badge that folks where proudly. Some have defined and even catalogued the various marriages many go through. The first marriage is now called the “starter” marriage. It happens when a couple is young. The next is the “child rearing” marriage. This is a different relationship with a different person. This is the time when the kids are born and raised. Finally, there is the “finisher” marriage. This takes place after the kids have moved out and this is the last marriage a person has. Three marriages. Cute names. Amazing analysis. Denial to acceptance to promotion.

We see the same thing with how society views adultery—denial to acceptance to promotion. We see this with crude language and curse words. Things that are allowed on TV today would never have been accepted a few years ago. What people say in public places would not have been tolerated a generation ago. Language has proceeded from bad to worse. Offensive language is seen on billboards, t-shirts, and on facebook. Denial to acceptance to promotion. We are seeing this taking shape with the homosexual movement—denial to acceptance to promotion. Proceeding from bad to worse.  We see this with the violent behavior of some. Shootings and mass killings once were rare and shocked us. Now we can name them off: Aurora, Columbine, Oklahoma City, Ft. Hood, Tucson…Proceeding from bad to worse.

The departure from God is not a journey to nothingness. Leaving God leads one to bad  and then to worse. No standards. No sacredness of life. No value. Selfish ambition. Denial of a soul. Denial of God. Filling hearts with hatred, selfishness and meanness only leads from bad to worse. Deeper in the pit a person goes, accepting things that they never would before. Shifting the standard of what is wrong and engaging in more evil, more darkness and more godlessness. I think some brethren have their heads in the sand when it comes to these things. They don’t want to see that some are this way. They don’t want to accept that some have gone from bad to worse. It scares them to think that there are many evil people out there. So they live in a fantasy world that things aren’t so bad. They are. Romans tells us that all have sinned. What happens when that sinner keeps sinning? He goes from bad to worse.  When evil speaks out or raises it’s head, these folks are shocked. Without God the light has turned out on the soul. This is the world we live in. There are people who have no moral guilt about lying to you. They have no conscience about taking advantage of you, ripping you off, making fun of you or using you to their advantage. Some delight in cursing the holy name of God. Some flaunt their sinfulness. They are not ashamed, embarrassed nor apologetic. Some of us don’t like to hear these words. Let’s not talk about that. Let’s just talk about good things and the good people. Evil is around us. Let’s be real.

Those old enough to remember, want to put the brakes on all of this and go back to an earlier time. We miss the days of innocence, simplicity and general goodness. What can be done to turn it around? It can’t as a whole. It’s gotten worse. It has already past bad and is the realm of worse. Bad would be an improvement from worse. It will continue to get worse. The only hope is teaching Jesus one by one to each person. Laws won’t change things. Rules are ignored. It’s hearts turning toward God that will make a difference.

The following verse is Paul’s advice to Timothy. “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of…” Don’t give up. Don’t throw in the towel. Don’t join them. Don’t accept their deception that what they are is normal. It is not. It’s bad. It’s worse. Keeping walking with Jesus. Don’t look around. Don’t take your eyes off of Him. In one way we might get discouraged and depressed because things are going from bad to worse. But in other ways we see those who are stepping out of this mess and coming to Christ. Everyday people are deciding that they have believed the world’s lies long enough. They are tired of living in the gutter of life. They want hope. They want forgiveness. They want Christ. We know from Revelation that the victory belongs to Jesus. Christ will win. Some may get loud and rude with their evil choices. They are no match for the powerful Christ.

Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word.

Roger

Jump Start # 654

2 Timothy 2:14 “Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless, and leads to the ruin of the hearers.”

Words are important to God. It was through the avenue of words that God communicated His will, law and wishes to mankind. God didn’t send videos. God didn’t use feelings. He didn’t use interpretative art. God used words. Words have meanings. Words can be copied, memorized and translated. John begins his gospel by referring to Jesus as “the Word.”

Here are few things I’ve discovered about God’s word. These come from the New American Standard version.

The N.T. contains 181,252 words (I didn’t count those myself but read that).

• The word “Heaven” is used 222 times in the N.T.
• The word “Hell” is used 13 times.
• The word “judgment” is found 71 times.
• The word “grace” is listed 122 times. (“Mercy” is found 59 times).
• The word “Christian” is used 3 times.
• The word “Jesus” is used 919 times.
• The word “love” is used 219 times.
• The word “joy” is found 60 times. (“Rejoice” is found 43 times).

Every word is important to God. Because a word is only used a few times does not mean that it is not important. But there is something to be said about what the N.T. writers wrote about. Words like heaven, grace, joy, love and Jesus fill their writings. I expect what they wrote about they also talked about. Their message was a message of good news. Hope and salvation had come into the world. The way some folks talk, you’d get the impression that the word “Hell” is the most used word in the Bible. It’s hard to get folks excited about bad news. Judgment, punishment and hell are part of the message, but they are not the theme of the message. We need to tell people about Jesus—that’s the message of the N.T. Those early writers talked more about Jesus than they did themselves. That’s something to think about, isn’t it? Could it be that we’ve gotten away from God’s word and got our own agendas about things?

Our passage today is not discrediting words. It’s about the spirit of fussing and arguing about words, especially concerning the law, that are not helpful. I’ve been in Bible classes like that. What a waste of time! It’s a battle of stubborn titans who are long on talk and short on doing. The atmosphere is discouraging. The time spent is not helpful. And we wonder why some don’t come? The study of words is amazing. Learning how the original words were used is a great study. More than all of these is grasping the concept that man shall live on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Living on God’s word—that’s where it’s at. Letting the word of Christ richly dwell within your heart, now that’s something.

Have you noticed that when Jesus was tempted by Satan that He answered each temptation with the word of God? I doubt that Jesus had a Bible in His hand when He did that. The word was in His heart. A Bible in the hand is a great thing, but the Bible in the heart is where it’s at. Living by hope. Living as forgiven people. Rejoicing because Christ is our Lord and Savior. Knowing the will of God and what you can do to please God is amazing. Knowing that you are on the path that leads to Heaven is truly amazing. No guessing. No hoping. Knowing that the way of the cross leads home builds confidence and helps us to see what is really important.

Words—God’s words. Have you spent much time looking at God’s words? They are specific. They are given is a specific order. They can change your life. They are powerful. They are comforting and assuring.

Do you have a favorite verse? There are so many to choose from. There are so many good ones. The words of the Bible are God’s words. In time, they become our words as we live by them, trust them, use them, and stand upon them. His message becomes our message and in so doing, we become like His Son, Jesus.

Roger