For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts,For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts;
3 sermons cite this verse
We thank you that we can earnestly ask that you will give to us grace and strength and help as we come to this final session with so many words, so many opportunities to think and ponder your truth, to be led in praise, and at the same time to be reminded of all that we've left behind and the things to which we have to return. And so we pray that in your great goodness you will bless these moments to us, bring home to our hearts things that we have known for a long time and about which we need the reminder, and other areas of our lives that all might be brought under the sovereign, protective hand of your gracious love for us in Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Well, I think that, although we didn't plan it this way, that the verses here that we have follow along just quite wonderfully in terms of theme and emphasis from all that we enjoyed from Herschel this morning. The focus that we have for this final session is essentially on these first five verses. And as you know, although the pastoral epistles were written to persons, Titus and Timothy, they were written in such a way that the letters, although they were personal by the nomenclature, they were going to be read in the hearing of the entire congregation. …
… 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. 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. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. just a brief prayer, an old Anglican prayer. Father, what we know not, teach us. What we have not, give us. What we are not, make us. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen. Well, to come to an opportunity like this is to recognize that my responsibility, as with others who've had the privilege of this pulpit, is not so much to come and try and introduce one another to things we have never known, but rather to exercise a ministry of reminder, so that we remind one another of things that we must never, ever forget. And there is a sense in which these first five verses that I've just read encapsulate Paul's concern for the ongoing ministry of the gospel. He has, as you know, urged Timothy in chapter 2, as we heard yesterday, to make sure that the baton of faith and gospel ministry is being passed safely and securely into the hands of others. He's reminded Timothy of the …
discharge all the duties of your ministry. The goal for us is sound doctrine. And to understand what we're talking about. And today we're looking at the doctrine of salvation. And that's why we're calling this collection Jesus Saves. We took our graphic from Big Bethel AME Church. Does anybody know about it? This is an Atlanta landmark. If you didn't know, when you're going downtown on the connector, if you're going southbound, look to the right. If you're coming northbound, look to the left, and you'll see Jesus saves right in the heart of downtown Atlanta. And that's where we're kicking off today to talk about the doctrine of salvation. More specifically, and you're going to want to take some photos along the way because a bunch of information is coming really fast. Going to have a great heart in it, but head and heart today as we talk about soteriology. I just thought I would pull one back out from the old seminary days. Soteriology, let's just say it together. Soteriology. What is that? Ology, we know, is in theology, is the study of something, and sotere here is salvation. So soteriology is the official word, if you're in seminary, for the study of salvation. So welcome to grad school, everyone. You're getting a little extra today. It is theology dealing with salvation, especially as affected by Jesus Christ. That's according to Merriam-Webster. That's what soteriology is. And I want us to be excited about the doctrine of salvation. Now, I know today that I'm speaking to people …