It was not too long ago that I sat through a message where the speaker opened up to Matthew 25:14-30, the familiar parable of the talents. As he went along, I pretty soon knew where he was going with it. It was the familiar prosperity gospel – “God means you to be wealthy” – gospel. As the minutes dragged by, I sank deeper and deeper into my chair as he mangled Matthew 25 into saying that you will be rich because you think rich, and poor people are poor because they ‘think’ poor. Well, mercifully the message came to an end after a while but I left greatly disturbed for a reason other than his message. It was not so much his message that disturbed me, though I’d rather sit through someone scraping their nails down a blackboard than listen to false teaching for 20 minutes. No, there is more than enough of that today to be sufficiently ready for it when you hear it. What was more disturbing to me was the nodding heads, the ‘Amen’s’ and the grunts of approval and agreement as this topic was forced into Matthew 25. See, the one who speaks for God in expounding the Word will have a greater condemnation, so my issue is not so much with him, as it was with the sheep who listened. We have entered an era where people are suffering at large with what I call ‘Itchy –Ear’ syndrome.

Itchy-Ear syndrome is described in our text. Paul told Timothy when he wrote his epistle that a time is coming, yet future when Paul wrote, that Itchy Ear syndrome would appear. I believe we are there. I believe the time has come. I believe in general Itchy Ear syndrome is upon us.

What is Itchy ear syndrome? Itchy ear syndrome is a spiritual condition. It’s a condition that does have a remedy, but if not treated, its consequences are disastrous.

What are the signs and symptoms of Itchy Ear syndrome?

There’s firstly an Irritation.

Paul is busy exhorting young Timothy to preach the Word at all times. He then gives him the reason in the verses we’re looking at. A time is coming, Timothy that people are not going to endure sound doctrine. The word for sound doctrine literally means healthy.

Same as in Titus 1:9: “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayer” or 2 Timothy 1:13, Titus 1:13; 2:1-2. Paul says, Timothy a time is coming where people are not going to be able to endure sound, healthy teaching. It will irritate them. It will seem boring, impractical and too heavenly minded to them. They will feel like it is old-fashioned, theoretical and negative. They will not want sound doctrine anymore. The verb in the Greek suggests they do this in their own interest, it is not that they are ignorant or weak, or unlearned. They are like children who simply refuse to eat their vegetables. As we look around us, do we see that? Absolutely. If there is one thing that is dissolving rapidly from the church, it’s a devotion to doctrine. It’s a love of sound teaching. You often hear professing Christians saying, “We don’t want anymore of that negative preaching. We need to build people up – increase their self-esteem – show them how attractive Christianity is”. And so with that thinking, Christian bookstores are filled with books on how to have passion in your Christian marriage, how to enjoy your job, how to cut your grass like a Christian, how to enjoy your Bible for 2 minutes a day, seven steps to happiness, how to feel fulfilled. Not all of these are wrong, but my point is that the emphasis is shifting from God-centred teaching, from Christ-centred teaching, to man-centred, help yourself kind of Christianity. You know, learning about God is great for Sunday School, but I want to know how to run my business like a Christian. Well, there’s the problem. In fact, it’s looking at God and learning about Him in the Word that is the answer to our every problem. A right view of God will find application into the minutest details of our lives. It’s why Paul could say, “Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God’. 2 Corinthians 3:18. But there is a growing irritation with preaching and teaching that seeks to exalt God, that calls black black and white white, that exposes false teaching as lies and exalts the truth. The irritation is rising in people.

I think there is a deeper issues here, and I believe the text bears me out. It’s the problem of authority and submission. Submitting to authority is not a popular theme in our culture and time. 21st century thinking is the free-spirit, the right of an individual, our self-governance. No one has the right to tell me to do anything. I am the captain of my own fate. And it’s this kind of thinking that hates sound doctrine. For if I see myself as a law unto myself, I hate nothing more than to be told that there is an absolute truth, a law of God which I must obey. I don’t want to hear about my sin, about repentance, about obedience to God, about submission to the Lordship of Christ. I’d rather hear how Christ can meet my every need. Tell me which Gospel is more popular today, the one which says you must bow the knee to Christ, or the one that says you can have a blank cheque of health and wealth with God? It’s obvious. In the one, I retain my independence, God is my slave, while in the other, I submit to God.

Really, sound doctrine is the teaching that comes out of submitting to the Bible’s authority. We don’t tell the Bible what it’s supposed to say, we go to the texts and with the Holy Spirit illuminating, we understand. An attitude of rebellion, of arrogant self-wisdom goes to the text and forces ideas into it. Humility says, “Help me God! Teach me from your Word!” There is submission, a hunger to hear. So beneath Itchy Ear syndrome I believe is rebellion – a layer of hardness like the second soil which grew up quickly but had no root. The hardness is a rockbed of rebellion that does not want to be told what to do, but would rather bargain the Christian life out into a deal that’s acceptable to my selfish nature. But itchy ear syndrome goes a little deeper.

The next stage after irritation is Invitation.

The individual grows increasingly irritated with the unyielding demands of sound doctrine and so begins to look elsewhere. They are not content to just be hard to the truth, for that would expose them as rebels. Instead, they seek to find an alternative. They still want to be seen a church-goers, as people who are being instructed so the only alternative is to change the source of the teaching. And that, according to the text is exactly what they do. They heap up teachers to themselves. The words are very strong. They are looking for teachers in large quantities from every corner, every source. It is a mass-invitation. What are they looking for in such teachers? The verse tells us: having itchy ears. They want to be scratched where it itches. They want a teacher to tell them what they want to hear. It really is self-deception isn’t it? We go to a teacher to be instructed, to hear what we don’t know, to learn, be educated and hear what we need. Such people find teachers to confirm what they already believe. Tell me that I’m wonderful. Tell me that God accepts me no matter what I do. Tell me that sin is an old-fashioned term. Tell me rather about my self-esteem and how to build it. Tell me how the wealth of this world is mine if I’ll just think and speak right. Tell me that whatever I do in the name of Jesus is acceptable. No more of that ‘God’s sovereignty’. No more of that repentance and sanctification and holy living. No more of that doctrine. Tell me good stuff that is easy to swallow.

Paul tells us that the motive for this inviting of teachers on such a scale is rooted in pure selfishness: “according to their own lusts.” What is governing this selection of teachers? A pursuit of personal pleasure. A god called Self.

It’s interesting to note that there is no shortage of teachers willing to scratch itchy ears. What a sad thing it has been to see over the years men stand up in the name of Christ only later to be revealed as charlatans, chasing after money, sex, fame and power. How the unbelieving world has laughed, and claimed a blanket condemnation on Christianity because of the actions of a few. There always have been and always will be, until Christ’s return, a long line of men and women willing to step into the role of professional ear-scratchers. It’s an almost guaranteed method to have a large following, a great TV or radio ministry, and to sell a lot of books. Peter said of false teachers “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2:3

The sad thing is the final result of Itchy ear-syndrome and that is Inducement.

Inducement really means to convince. The person with Itchy Ear syndrome grew weary and irritated with sound doctrine, they turn to alternatives by inviting false teachers, and the end result in inducement. It’s kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? You invite those who teach what you want to hear, and then say you agree with such teaching. Well that’s what happens, according to Paul, but there’s a sad occurrence here. Paul says, they will turn from the truth, and be turned unto fables. The verb is active; they are not fooled, or being ignorant; they purposefully, actively turn from the truth. This is not a new theme in Scripture. In Romans 1, Paul describes how the unbelieving Gentile world did this with the knowledge they had of the true God. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.” Romans 1:25. There is an active choice here to reject the knowledge of the truth. The flip side is that they are then turned unto fables, literally lies. If you turn from truth, it only follows that you are turning to non-truth. God’s universe is made of absolutes: life, death, sin, righteousness, heaven, hell, love, hate, truth and lies. When you get saved, you turn from sin, to Christ. The person with itchy ear syndrome turns from truth to lies.

There is an extremely high price to pay for this. A person who rejects God’s truth enters an almost unimaginable place, where God helps them to believe their lies. Romans 1 again: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:” “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” (v28). God gives them over to what they want to believe. It’s almost like God says, “Since you know the truth, and are pretending that it is not the truth, let me help you believe your lies’. The same thing occurs in the future, where Paul predicts in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12: “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” What a tragic fate! To have God helping you believe your lies. Yet it is just, for God shows himself pure to the pure and shrewd to the perverse. Psalm 18:26. It is not like God is hiding the truth. These are people who have seen, handled and considered the truth, but have dug a hole, covered it up and gone looking elsewhere.

How scary then to be on a downhill path to absolute deception. Anything and everything will be believed from then on, and will have the apparent supernatural stamp of approval from God.

Clearly itchy ear syndrome is no joke; it’s deadly serious, and it’s affecting millions. How do we overcome it? How can we avoid ‘catching it’ so to speak? I think the answer is in the text.

Paul’s remedy to Timothy is not cater to them. It’s not, “Timothy, their ears are itchy, so scratch them and then slip the Gospel in.” No, he says, preach the Word at all times. Preach the Word with reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all longsuffering and – there’s that word again – doctrine. The Word of God is the only remedy for Itchy Ear syndrome. But at the same time, false teachers are also using the Bible! So how do we tell the difference?

The first thing is you need to settle on one authority. It’s either the Word or nothing. It cannot be the Word, supplemented by worldly wisdom, philosophy, psychology and so on. It must be the Bible as our final authority. When you settle on the Bible as your only means of authority, you avoid the first stage of itchy ear syndrome, and that is an irritation with sound doctrine and a desire for something different. If you settle on one authority, then you do not have room to move. You cannot look to the left or the right; what the Bible says goes. Experience, new revelation, tradition, philosophy is not used to supplement or add to the Bible; the Bible evaluates and checks them. When we put on our glasses, the lenses are God’s Word and they colour absolutely everything. We view life and interpret it solely through Scripture. That’s what it means to settle on one authority. Can I remind you of something Solomon taught us in the counter-wisdom of Ecclesiastes?

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.” Solomon says, be careful of claims of new teaching. This is truth which the church never knew before! We’ve just heard it. Solomon disagrees. He says – truth is truth – it is not new. Likewise, Satan’s lies are just recycled, rehashed lies that he’s used before. Jude told his readers that they were to contend for the faith ‘once delivered’ unto the saints. In other words, the faith, the body of doctrine we believe in was once for all given to us in the Bible. A stern warning is given in Proverbs 30:5-6, and again in Revelation 22:18-19. We need to settle on one authority that cannot be tampered with and added to, the Word of God. Settling on the authority of the Word is what Paul had in mind when he said to the Ephesians in chapter 4:14 “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” Don’t be gullible children swallowing everything. Settle on one authority. Don’t be double-minded anymore. Choose the Word, the Word alone and don’t waver.

However the second thing we need to do once we settle on the Bible as our authority is Submit to its authority. See, it’s one thing to say, “The Bible is my final authority” It’s another to live it. Submission speaks of humbling and coming under. It means you do not stand with a proud heart, treating Scripture as a reference book. It means you allow it to speak to you and even hit where it hurts. It’s for that reason that James told us that when the Word is being taught we must be “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20). James predicted that the Word would cause anger in us. Why? When it is rightly divided, it traps your flesh like cornering a caged animal. You get indignant, resentful and threatened. Well, James says, don’t do that, because selfish anger is not conducive to growth. Submission to the Word is when I am willing to let it speak to what I am most uncomfortable with. Submission is obedience, even if I don’t like it. Submission is bringing that flesh to death, and humbly receiving wisdom and instruction. ‘Not my will, but thine be done’ is the attitude of submission. That’s why instead of saying, “We don’t want negative preaching”, realize that the negative is necessary for the positive. There must be repentance before there can be obedience. There must be death before there can be resurrection, a breaking down before there can be a building up, a putting off of the old man before there is a putting on of the new. We must have both, negative and positive in our Christian lives. To settle on the Bible as your final authority is like choosing a particular vehicle to get you to your destination. Well, submission is when you lock the doors and strap on your seatbelt. There’s no arguing with the driver or jumping out halfway. I settle on the Word, even when it doesn’t make sense, seems to hurt or goes against my grain. Paul said of the Word in 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine (teaching) reproof (stop doing that!) for correction (start doing this instead) and instruction in righteousness: the principles and guides for Christlike living. Scripture will tell you stop this, and do this instead. There’s negative and positive in true doctrine. Only obeying it, as James says will bring true blessing and growth.

And here’s the truth: whereas turning from the truth causes God to aid us in our self-deception, a love of the truth shown by our obedience to it will bring more truth. God gives more truth to those who are good stewards of what He gives them. You wouldn’t give more to someone who ignores, wastes or tramples it under foot now would you? Neither does God. He opens the spiritual eyes and understanding of His obedient children. Hebrews 5:14 says those who by reason of use have the sense exercised to discern between good and evil. It’s obedience that brings more discernment. John 7:17 Jesus said to his antagonists “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Not knowledgeable, but obedient. Knowledge not applied becomes a curse, a puffed up heart that becomes hard. As you resist the Spirit conviction you in one area and continue to accumulate knowledge, you truly are developing a seared conscience, a hard heart that learns more, but is not changing into the image of Christ.

So itchy ear syndrome starts with an irritation at the directness and convicting power of sound doctrine. It moves on to inviting teachers to tell you what you want to hear. Eventually you are induced, convinced of the lies you wanted to believe. The remedy is simple. Settle on the Word as your final authority. Get into that car, say “this is the vehicle that leads to wisdom and the knowledge of God”. Submit to it, strap the seatbelt on and lock the doors, whether you chafe against it or not. When it makes you angry, when it makes you happy, submit to it. Listen to teachers who rightly divide the Word of truth, not for their own glory, but as servants, as messengers of a great King. To Him be glory, now and forever, world without end.