April 16, 2025 - 2 Timothy 4:3 - "Sound Doctrine"

2 Timothy 4:3

"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;"

The apostle Paul, writing his final epistle before his martyrdom, addresses Timothy under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He warns of a time when professing Christians “will not endure sound doctrine.” This has not only come, but it is continually with us. In every generation, fallen man has resisted the truth of God’s sovereign grace. The Gospel of Christ crucified has ever been “unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23). This rejection of the truth is not mere ignorance—it is the carnal enmity of the heart against God (Romans 8:7).

Paul, anticipating his imminent death, writes of his Hope founded in the sound doctrine of which he speaks: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:6–8).

What, then, is sound doctrine? The term means healthy, wholesome teaching—truth that nourishes the soul unto eternal life. Sound doctrine, according to Scripture, is the message that aligns with “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). It is “the doctrine of God our Saviour” (Titus 2:10), not by the will or works of man, but in the eternal purpose of God “who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11).

There is only one Sound Doctrine—the Doctrine of Christ (2 John 1:9-11). This is the Gospel that proclaims how the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to earn and establish righteousness as God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). He fulfilled the righteousness that no other flesh could ever attain. He took on sinless human flesh (John 1:14), perfectly obeyed God’s holy law and justice, and willingly laid down His life to fully satisfy the justice of His Father on behalf of those whom the Father had given Him to save, from before the foundation of the world (John 17:2)

Sound doctrine declares the total ruin of man in Adam: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). It reveals that man, in his natural state, is spiritually dead—“dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), unwilling and unable to come to Christ: “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40). It magnifies God’s sovereign grace in election, whereby He chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Furthermore, it exalts the Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, Who “by one offering... hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). It also proclaims the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, Who quickens whom He will, drawing them irresistibly to Christ. And it assures the perseverance of the saints—not by their strength, but because they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:5). This is the doctrine that gives all the glory to God. It strips man of every reason for boasting. It is humbling, yet life-giving. The world despises it, yet it is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16).

Why then do men not endure it? Because they are natural, carnal, and depraved—“born of the flesh” (John 3:6). Paul declares: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him” (1 Corinthians 2:14). The doctrine of sovereign grace is offensive to the pride of man. He would rather be told that he is spiritually sick than spiritually dead. He wants to be assured that he merely needs assistance, not resurrection. Furthermore, he prefers a god who waits upon the sinner’s will rather than the true and living God Who “hath mercy on whom he will have mercy” (Romans 9:15). So, according to their lusts, men “heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” They crave a message that caters to their flesh—one that flatters their sense of self-worth, affirms their supposed "free will," and promises earthly success. This is not the Gospel of Christ. It is humanism cloaked in religious language—man-centered, man-exalting, and God-dishonoring.

These are teachers who speak smooth things—pleasing to the ear, void of the power of the Spirit. They feed the hunger for novelty, emotion, and affirmation, but not the Truth as it is in Christ alone. They cry, “Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). But such a "gospel" cannot save. It may gather crowds and stir emotions, but it cannot bring dead sinners to life. Only sound doctrine—Truth rooted in the Person and finished work of Christ—can do that. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). And that Word is Christ Himself, the Word made flesh (John 1:14).

Those who are taught by the Spirit, who are born from above and given ears to hear, are not ashamed of sound doctrine. What every sinner needs is for the Holy Spirit to make Christ known—to reveal Him in the heart, crucified, risen, and reigning. Only then will the sinner gladly receive Him and rest in His finished work, just as He is revealed in the Scriptures. Let us, then, preach Christ crucified—boldly, faithfully, and without compromise. In a world that loves darkness rather than light, we bear witness to Him Who is the Light of the world. And we do so with confidence, knowing that “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Many will not endure sound doctrine. But Christ’s sheep will. They will not only endure it, but rejoice in it, having been sanctified by the work of the LORD Jesus Christ on their behalf (John 17:17).