Having Itching Ears

“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.” (2 Timothy 4:1-4 ESV)

This is where we are in America today, not in every congregation, and not in every individual, but overall, based on the evidence in the things that are spoken and written and lived out in people’s lives. We are living in this time when so many people professing faith in Jesus Christ are not enduring and are not accepting sound teaching, but they are rejecting it, and they are casting it aside as though it is the lie while they are accepting the lie as the truth. And they are following after teachers to suit their own passions.

Now Paul was speaking to Timothy here in instructing him that he should be ready in season and out of season to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. But this is not limited to just men. Us women are to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light, and we are to exhort one another so that we are not led astray by sin’s deceitfulness, and we are to prophesy (proclaim the truths of God’s word in ways which are applicable and practical to today).

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]  

“I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:1-4 ESV)

This is another picture of where the church (overall) is today in America. For, when we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given faith, we enter into a marriage covenant with Jesus Christ. And just like the Jewish marriages of the Scriptures, our groom is now preparing a place for his bride and one day he will return and he will take us to be with him for eternity, which is when our marriage to him and our salvation will be complete, and not until then. For our salvation from sin is progressive sanctification, and that is why we are told in the Scriptures that we must walk in obedience to our Lord and not in sin.

So, as the Lord’s bride, we are to walk in purity of devotion to him. Now this is not saying that we must be absolutely perfect in every way (1 John 2:1-2) but that we are to make righteousness and holiness and obedience to our Lord our practice, and that sin and disobedience to our Lord are not to be what we practice, or we do not have eternal life with God. Yet so many professing Christians are accepting another Jesus and a different gospel than the one Jesus and Paul and the other apostles taught, because so many charlatans are altering the character of God/Christ and of his gospel.

[Matt 24:9-14; Rom 8:24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 11:17-24; 1 Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6,14-15; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 2 Pet 2:20-22; 1 Jn 2:24-25] 

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39 ESV)

Now when we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given faith in Jesus Christ, if our faith is genuine, we are crucified and buried with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer living as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And now we don’t live like we did before we believed in Jesus, for now we are walking in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord and not in sin. And so we will be rejected even by our family members and even by other professing Christians who are still walking in sin and not in godliness.

And there may be a temptation, not of God, to return to our old way of living in order to not stand out as odd (different), and in order to be accepted and not rejected by our family members and by others who profess faith in Jesus Christ. But we are to resist that temptation, for if we choose other humans and their acceptance of us over following our Lord in obedience to his commands, then we are not worthy of him. And we will not have eternal life in him. For if we hold on to our old lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity. But if we die with Christ to sin and we obey him, we have eternal life in him.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Having Itching Ears

Video Talk

April 29, 2023

https://youtu.be/C7fZNZcUh7Q

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For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

http://youtu.be/_XQkomPFz4Y

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