Gospel Prism

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, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2 Timothy 4:3-4

Introduction
In introducing his book Bible Doctrine, Wayne Grudem writes: “I am convinced that there is an urgent need in the church today for much greater understanding of Christian doctrine…One day by God’s grace we may have churches full of Christians who can discuss, apply, and live [his italics] the doctrinal teaching of the Bible as readily as they can discuss the details of their own jobs or hobbies—or the fortunes of their favorite sports team or television program.” (Wayne Grudem, Bible Doctrine, 14). At this year’s Together for the Gospel Conference, Ligon Duncan, in a talk entitled, “Sound Doctrine,” made this poignant statement: “Doctrine is for assurance. Doctrine is for marriage…The NT will point to the atoning work of Christ and it will draw ethical obligations for us from it.” Doctrine matters. What is doctrine? Doctrine is the belief system and worldview that you hold. And you apply doctrine by the outworking of those standards by which you live. Every person has a doctrine by which they live by, whether they want to call it by that name or not.

The reality is my friends, whether you like the sound of the word or not, you live, breathe, and apply doctrine to your lives daily. When you watch the news and hear about the gay marriages now endorsed by the state of California, you are processing doctrine in your minds. When you are considering staying or leaving your current job, you are applying doctrine. When you decide how you will parent your children, whether you will or will not use corporeal discipline, you are applying doctrine. When you feel guilty about missing your ‘quiet time,’ you are applying doctrine. When you are a newcomer thinking about whether you want to be a part of this church or any church, you are applying doctrine. When you are ‘stuck’ in a dry and stale marriage and do not want to yield an inch to your spouse, you are applying doctrine. The question is not whether you will use doctrine in your life. No, my dear friends, the question is, “Which doctrine will you use in your life?”

So which doctrine will you use? In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he tells Timothy to teach people to use sound doctrine rather than false doctrine. And sound doctrine will be the anchor that can stabilize our lives through the storms of cultural fog and the topsy-turvy circumstances that we undergo each day. So let’s answer three questions regarding doctrine from this text: 1) “What is sound doctrine?”, 2) “Why won’t people endure sound doctrine?”, and 3) “How can we endure sound doctrine?”

What Is Sound Doctrine?

First, what is sound doctrine? Paul says in verse 3 that there will come a time when people will not “endure sound teaching” (sound doctrine). But what is this doctrine? To find the answer, we need only go to the immediate context in 2 Timothy 3. Paul warns Timothy this is a time when people will have no love for truth. But since Timothy has been raised “with the sacred writings” (Scripture) in v. 14, he has firmly believed and has not fallen to such false teachings. He then goes on to add verses in 16-17, that ALL SCRIPTURE is God’s breathed out words and useful for every aspect of life. Then, Paul continues in 4:1-2 by saying: “I 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, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” It is the preaching and teaching of God’s breathed words that give us the sound doctrine of verse 3.

Thus, Paul states that there is nothing more foundational to the Christian’s life than the Bible. The Psalmist describes the person who lives in accordance with God’s Word this way: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:3) This person is transformed by the Holy Spirit through God’s powerful Word (Romans 12:1-2). And so sound doctrine is rooted on the truth of God’s Word. Sound doctrine believes that God’s Word is truth because it is God-breathed, inerrant and sufficient for every twist and turn of life. Sound doctrine believes that this truth is for all people, for all cultures, and for all time. Sound doctrine filters every aspect of life through the lens of the Bible. As author/theologian David Wells puts it, Scripture “is not partial truth, or incomplete truth. It is the full, accurate, and complete revelation of all that God wants the church to have. This written truth is fully sufficient for the church’s life in this fallen world.” (David Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant, 84)

Paul’s charge to Timothy was to preach the Word in season and out of season because as he had just told him in 3:16-17, the Bible is sufficient for every aspect of life. This is why he warns in verse 3 that leaving this sound doctrine behind is not only intellectually dangerous, but it will lead to troubles in one’s life. So if this is the case, then why would anyone want to do anything else than listen to God’s sufficient Word. Or, “Why won’t people endure sound doctrine?”

Why Won’t People Endure Sound Doctrine?

Paul gives a few reasons in verse 3. First, they will have ‘itching ears.’ This phrase in verse 3 is in the passive voice and can be literally translated as they will “feel an itching.” Something will influence believers to want to leave behind the sound doctrine of Scripture to something that tickles their fancies. And that something is the multiple layers of voices that you encounter each day influencing your worldview that counters the worldview of the Bible. What you watch on TV, listen to on the radio, the counsel you receive from friends, family members, what you read in magazines such as Parenting or The Economist, what you have learned in school, and what you hear in churches (doctrinally sound and doctrinally errant ones), all shape your worldview. And since in the end, there are only two worldviews, a biblical worldview and a non-biblical worldview, a non-biblical worldview will attempt to pull you away from a biblical one. As Paul Tripp puts it, you are being counseled all day long. So, all of us are being influenced and affected by both worldviews, the biblical and non-biblical one. Your regular intake or lack of intake of God’s Word will determine whether you will endure sound doctrine or have itching ears.

Thus, we cannot underestimate the critical importance God’s Word has in the lives of believers. And yet, there is nothing that is more under attack and devalued in evangelicalism today than the validity and power of God’s absolute truth, the Bible. According to the Barna Group in polls from 2003-2006 of those aged 23-41, only 3 out 10 believed in absolute truth. But what is even more telling is that Christians who are in this age range are virtually no different than their non-Christian peers. Barna adds:

Born again Busters were somewhat less likely to illegally download music, to smoke, to view pornography, to purchase a lottery ticket, or to use profanity. However, young believers were actually more likely than non-believers to try to get back at someone and to have stolen something. Moreover, on eight of the 16 behaviors, the profile of born again Busters was virtually identical to that of non-born again Busters.

In other words, the label ‘born again Christian’ is not making any real difference in the way one lives. Another way to put it is that such a person is living by a different doctrine than the doctrine of the Bible.

Essentially what this means is that professing Christians are itching for something other than the Bible because other influences draw people away from sound doctrine and Christ Himself. We have seen this in the book of Judges. The problem with the people throughout this book is named in the very last sentence of the book, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) But this is not just Israel’s problem. It has been the problem of every person who has ever lived (with the exception of Jesus). Veering away from sound doctrine is determining that you are right because you deem yourself to be right. You have the doctrine of self-truth. And this truth continually itches, until you can’t stand it anymore.

I have had poison ivy 7 times in my life. Those experiences are still nightmares to me. I remember my mom telling me, “Don’t itch after I put on the cream.” But as each second passed by, the more itchy it became. Finally, I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I started itching and I simply didn’t care and oh how good and relieving it felt. There is something incredibly pleasurable about itching something that you simply were not supposed to itch. I itched and itched and itched. About 30 minutes later, what were merely a few rash patches, suddenly burst out into tiny to medium sized bubble-blisters all over my body, between my fingers and my toes, on my face, etc. I had one gigantic purple bubble grow in between my fingers. It was horrible. I was the bubble man, in terrible pain, and with even more itches. Only by not itching would I ever be free of that dreadful condition.

You will feel the incredible temptation to scratch the itches of the various voices that lead you away from the Lord. And the more God’s Word is not a filter for your mind, heart, and soul, the more you will find greater pleasure scratching those many itches. You will leave behind sound doctrine and say, “The heck with it, I’m just going to live the way I want to live. I don’t need to go to church. I don’t need to read God’s Word. I don’t need to remain pure in my dating relationship. I don’t need to stop at a couple of glasses of wine.” You will scratch those many itches. But you will find those momentary pleasurable decisions will eventually lead you to loneliness, anxiety, frustration, depression, and even misery.

The second reason why people won’t endure sound doctrine is because of the accumulation of false teachers who scratch where we itch. Paul tells Timothy in verse 3: “People will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” Isn’t it interesting how Paul describes those with itching ears, that they “accumulate for themselves teachers”? There are myriads of voices out there who give us fine-sounding arguments. And we do the work of surrounding ourselves with such voices rather than listening to Scripture. Some teach that God will offer you the best things this world has to offer and all you need to do is to be a Christian. After I spoke in a church in South Africa, one of the friends who took us to the church told me that rarely have the people heard the Gospel message in Africa. Usually people are learning from televangelists who are teaching that when they believe in Jesus they will have riches and nice cars and big bank accounts. And so these poor widows will literally send their last pennies to these charlatans because they itch to rid themselves of poverty and thus, accumulate teachers that scratch where they itch. But my friends, we have these same voices and same scratchers who suit our passions. Many young Christians who are preparing for marriage in dating relationships have such a difficult time maintaining a sexually pure relationship. Sex is one area where many Christians itch and the world has many teachers that want to scratch that itch to suit our own passions.

And how many other teachers are we accumulating? Well, there is also the teacher called, “My own time.” John Dart in an LA Times article, quoted one churchgoer in saying: “If you go to Sunday school at 9:00am, then to the 11am service and leave about 1pm, your day is pretty well shot.” (Quoted in John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, 46). Far too often, the itch of wanting our day to ourselves, assumes that spending time with God’s people on the Lord’s Day, is a blown day.

The itch is essentially anything we like, regardless of whether it is rooted on the truth of God’s Word. The itch was what suits our own passions rather than what honors God. And we accumulate anyone who preaches the messages that make us feel good, any messages that makes us feel soothed, and any messages that allows us to give in to what we deem to be right in our own eyes, apart from Scripture. Once our desires become the foundation to what we believe, rather than the Truth being the foundation, we are no different than cultists. Gene Veith comments:

Talk to a member of any cult, and notice how the person describes and evaluates its teachings in completely subjective and pleasure-oriented terms: ‘The Maharishi is really cool.’ ‘Transcendental Meditation gives me a natural high.’ ‘The Reverend Moon makes me feel good about myself.’ Liking something and wanting it to be true are the only criteria for their beliefs. (Gene Edward Veith, Postmodern Times, 195)

We can replace those with anything really. Why do you go to ___ church? Is your answer, “Because it is really cool”? Why did choose Wellspring Church to be your church? Because its programs ‘met your needs,’ ‘made you feel good about yourself’? Do you see how easy it is to itch and to accumulate teachers to suit our passions, our desires, when they are not rooted in God’s Word?

The third reason why people won’t endure sound doctrine is because we will prefer myth over truth. Paul writes in verse 4 that people “will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” Truth is often times much more difficult to bear. If we have a terminal disease such as cancer, it is easier on our ears and hearts to hear, “Everything is just fine.” In fact, that’s what we want to hear. But it isn’t true. And not knowing the truth can hurt us far more than we realize. Women strive after the myth of the perfect husband and so they fantasize over the husband who would be perfectly enamored with his wife. Or the husband after the myth of the perfect sex-life and so fantasizes with the women laid bare on a computer screen. Or there is the myth of the perfect children who always listen, always say please, never whine. Or there is the myth of the perfect job, that once we find that we will be forever happy. The myths are endless because TV shows, movies, and our own sinfulness create such myths constantly.

Myths are terrible because they do the thinking and processing for us. They provide the storylines and the characters and the endings. And they make us settle for far less joy than we realize. The myth makes a dating person feel as though marriage isn’t that important because dating feels so good. Myths lead the single person to feel self-pity over their marital status, believing that once they get married, everything in their lives will be fulfilled. And so when the first person comes along, who happens to be a non-Christian, who shows real interest in such a person, the myth of the beautiful marriage to an itching person leads to marriage she will later describe as a ‘grave mistake.’ By nature, we’re all mythic believers. We love a good story with what we believe to be a ‘happy ending.’ We want our lives to turn out in what we believe is right in our own eyes: good health, good job, sinless marriage, well-behaved children, etc. These are our end goals and when anything disrupts our myths, only then do we turn to God, either to cry out to Him for help or to blame Him in anger.

But truth forces us to deal with the realities of living in a sinful world. Truth forces us to deal with sin and suffering as that which we must take along with the bad. When Job was confronted by his wife who egged Job on to curse God and die, Job retorted, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10) What would lead Job to make such a profession? Certainly this was no myth he was facing. He understood the truth of God’s Word that God was always true to His promises regardless of the circumstances. Truth firmly believes in God’s promises through His Word, that God will save His people, which is a biblically recurrent theme. Truth trusts God and His Word IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES and that is the basis for sound doctrine.

The fact is, truth tells us that God redeems this world through His Son. His Word reminds us that salvation is no myth. And just to make sure that we never forget this, according to Ephesians 1:13, His Holy Spirit is the guarantor of this saving truth: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

How Can We Endure Sound Doctrine?

So how can we endure sound doctrine?

1. Discern and listen to the preaching of the Word

You must do this in this order. Please be discerners of God’s Word. Listen to what Luke records in Acts 17:10-11: “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” My friends, everything that is said on this pulpit, everything you read in books, everything you hear from friends, everything you listen to when you visit another church, must pass through the refining fire of Scripture. Please take the time to discern what is right. Do not just take something in because you ‘like it’ or you think it ‘sounded good.’ Do not even take it in merely on the basis of the speaker. Just because I said, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily biblical. Just because your dad gave you a book to read, doesn’t mean it comes with a biblical worldview. God gave you your brain and your heart to process and discern through His Word. Please open your Bibles to read books, magazines, newspapers, sermons. When you listen to me preach on Sunday, feel free to cross-reference. May we hear the beautiful sound of turning pages in this church during sermons. Ask questions to one another about something that puzzled you. Discuss together what you hear.

But after discernment, if it is biblically sound, then receive such a word with eagerness and joy. Don’t just let it pass by. Don’t become cynical or overly critical. If you hear something biblically sound and something that impacts you, go home and write it down, blog about it, journal, discuss with a friend or your spouse. Relish what the Lord wants to teach you through His Word. Proverbs 16:24 says: “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” If they are biblical words, then please receive them humbly. Be voracious in your appetite for God’s Word spoken through His instruments. Notice the Bereans in Acts 17, because of their eagerness after discernment, according to verse 12: “Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.” Do you see how connected the proclaiming of God’s Word, the examining of God’s Word, and the listening of God’s Word, can lead to believing God and honoring Him?

2. Surround yourself with sound doctrine influences

Psalm 1 states: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” There are two people mentioned here, the blessed man and the evil man. The evil man walks in the counsel of the wicked, then stands in the way of sinners, and sits in the seat of mockers. This person is so influenced by the world around him that he acts no differently than his world. In fact, the act of sitting means that he is now a person of influence, but leading people to be the greatest of sinners. But what distinguishes the evil man from the blessed man is not his behavior per se, but what each loves. One loves the world around him and the other loves the Word of the Lord. The blessed man bases His life on his meditations of the Word. Jerry Bridges describes such meditations this way:

We should not think of the concept of ‘continually’ as meaning every moment. Rather we should think in terms of consistently and habitually. What does your mind turn to when it is free to turn to anything? Do you meditate on Scripture?…Meditation on Scripture is a discipline. We must commit ourselves to be proactive.” (Jerry Bridges, Disciplines of Grace, 166)

We need to read Scripture, memorize Scripture, discuss Scripture, read books that reflect on Scripture. Take classes when offered on sound doctrine, such as Christianity Explored or Bible Doctrine. Give praise to God that our Homegroups do not merely sit around talking about how we feel, and what are we thinking, but instead we are processing such thoughts and feelings through the sound doctrine of God’s Word. Anything less would lead us to be nothing more that Christian-sounding self-help groups. Form reading groups that read good books of sound doctrine, and Bible accountability and memorization partnerships that spur one another to love God’s Word and teach sound doctrine. Don’t just sit in small groups, but ask questions. Be a pursuer and lover of sound doctrine humbly and you will see your love for God grow.

3. Be a sound doctrine processer

We need to process all things through the lens of the Bible. Romans 12:2 teaches: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Without actively viewing and testing all things through the lens of Scripture, we will be conformed to the patterns and ways of the world. We’ll begin to use words and phrase such as, “Well, if it’s ok for you, it’s ok for me.” We’ll select churches not on the basis of what they believe, but rather on the basis of camaraderie, church programs, or convenience (more to come on this next week). We will view issues such as homosexuality and abortion will become a political issue rather than a biblical one.

You are all constantly processing your lives through the lens of doctrine. Most people in our world today, and many in the church today, simply have the doctrine of indifference, ‘it doesn’t matter to me,’ or the doctrine of relativism, ‘what’s good for you is good for you, what’s good for me is good for me,’ or the doctrine of feelings, ‘I don’t like…/I like…” How many of our key decisions on issues of great importance are ruled by these three doctrines? God offers an alternative doctrine, sound doctrine based on God’s Word that led to Paul give this statement: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (v.

4. Live by the sound doctrine of the Gospel

In 1 Timothy 1:10-11, Paul describes sound doctrine as “sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” Sound doctrine apart from the humility of the Gospel of Christ is nothing more than a sledgehammer on the heads of unwilling participants. People have been scared off by the word doctrine simply because their perception has been that sound doctrine equates heady theological intellectualism. But Paul makes it so clear in 1 Tim 1:10-11, that sound doctrine is to be in accordance with the Gospel. And just what is this Gospel? Jesus Christ paid the ransom that freed us from the bondage of our own sin through His sacrifice on the cross. He paid our unpayable debts with His own life simply because God is a gracious God. And so, our response is to love sound doctrine, our love to live by sound doctrine, our love to process the world we live in through sound doctrine, and our desire to lead others to love sound doctrine. And all of this, because of the Gospel, we do it with humility and grace.

5. Love and live sound doctrine

There is a direct correlation between those who love sound doctrine and those who actually live out sound doctrine. The Bible points this out in texts like 2 John 1:9: “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son,” and John 8:32, “…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” If you believe that sound doctrine is THE truth, and that it will set you free and give you a joy that far exceeds any of the promises of this world, then you will actually live by this doctrine. It will impact your worldview, your behavior, your concern for others. It will be the vehicle upon which you will use to stave off the temptation to look at porn. It will aid you in your fight against post-partum depression. It will protect you when you feel the temptation to envy your neighbor’s newest and shiniest car. If you think this conclusion, that doctrine influences behavior is mere hypothesis, you need to listen to Ron Sider who has been examining and studying evangelicalism for a long time. He notes that evangelicals who love doctrine:

They are 9 times more likely than all the others to avoid ‘adult-only’ material on the Internet. They are 4 times more likely than other Christians to boycott objectionable companies and products and twice as likely to choose not to watch a movie specifically because of its bad content. They are 3 times more likely than other adults not to use tobacco products and twice as likely to volunteer time to help needy people. Forty-nine percent of all born-again Christians with a biblical world view have volunteered more than an hour in the previous week to an organization serving the poor, whereas only 29 percent of born-again Christians without a biblical world view and only 22 percent of non-born-again Christians had done so.

Love sound doctrine by pursuing as the parched and desperate deer pants hard after water. But sound doctrine that is mere intellectualism is not sound at all. Sound doctrine is only sound when it is loved passionately and lived humbly. This equation will lead to inexpressible joy.

Conclusion

Doctrine matters. You are always making decisions based on your doctrine. Now it’s just a matter of which doctrine you will use to live your life by, the doctrine of the world or the doctrine of the Word. And because of the Gospel, may you live by sound doctrine humbly because you did not buy your own freedom, but instead you were purchased with the price of God’s precious Son’s blood. This should always guard us from puffy doctrine, but humble and sound doctrine. May you choose that which will make all that you do prosper (Psalm 1:3). Not only does doctrine matter, but so does the church you choose to attend which we’ll cover next week in “Church Matters.”