ITCHING EARS
DR. JIM DIXON
2 TIMOTHY 4:1
APRIL 25, 1993
This past Monday, David Koresh died in Waco, Texas, after a 51-day standoff with the FBI. He died with eighty-five of his followers, many of them little children. He died in a fiery inferno. He died, some say, in a mass suicide. The authorities are still examining the details of his death. They are also beginning to examine the details of his life. According to the mother of David Koresh, he had been a deeply spiritual child and he had memorized the entire New Testament by the age of twelve. He spent hours every day in prayer, one to three hours daily on his knees, tears in his eyes. But, of course, Bible memorization and daily prayer vigils are no guarantee of spirituality and no guarantee of sanity.
Only God really knows what was in his heart and what was in his mind. We do know that in the year 1987, David Koresh sought to take over the leadership of the Branch Davidians. At that time, the cult was led by a man named George Roden and, if possible, George Roden was a bigger flake than David Koresh. In their struggle to decide who would lead the Branch Davidian, George Roden went out and dug up a body in the cemetery and challenged David Koresh to a kind of duel. The first one to raise the body from the dead would lead the cult. It was a tie. Obviously, neither one of them could do it. Perhaps David Koresh never really tried. He just wanted to get George Roden in trouble. He went to the authorities and accused Roden of desecrating the dead. The effort of David Koresh to remove Roden failed, but it did not matter because a month or two later Roden did get in trouble with the law and the authorities and he was sent to prison. As he went to prison, he shouted that he had placed a curse on the Texas Supreme Court and that every one of them were going to come down with AIDS and genital herpes.
So it was that David Koresh came to head the cult called the Branch Davidian. Perhaps the followers, the people, thought that they were getting a relatively sane leader. They liked his teaching. He combined Judaism and Christianity in a bizarre apocalyptic mix. It seemed exciting. He kept talking about the end of the world and he promised them a very special place in the end time scheme of things. Of course, at the core of all of his teaching was a kind of messianic paranoia.
David Koresh’s real name was Vernon Howell. In 1990, he took the name David Koresh. “David” because he believed that he was the fulfillment of the Davidic promises and the Davidic line. He believed he was the messiah. “Koresh,” he said, because Koresh was the Hebrew for Cyrus, the Medo-Persian king who allowed the Jews to return from captivity to the holy city.
According to those who came out of the compound at Branch Davidian, Koresh began to bring explicit sexual content to his teachings. Koresh claimed that all of the women of the world belonged to him—a ludicrous statement, but inside the compound, it did appear that most of the women belonged to him and reputedly he had as many as 19 wives and he fathered at least 10 children. Koresh claimed that in the sight of God, he was the only one allowed to procreate that all the other people of the world were producing illegitimate children. Only he could produce children of God.
According to people who came out of the compound, they said that Koresh was addicted to MTV, that he would watch MTV hours upon end, and he had a fixation on Madonna. He told his followers that God had sent Madonna into the world to be his wife. The authorities, when they questioned these people who had come out of the Branch Davidian compound, they said, “How could you follow this guy? How could you follow a guy who’s such an obvious flake? How could you follow a guy who’s such an obvious sinner?”
They said, “Well, he told us that he needed to be a sinful Jesus because one day he would sit on a throne and he would judge all of the people of the world for their sin and he could not do that unless he had experienced that sin.” What a bizarre tragedy.
According to Ronald Inroff and J. Gordon Melton, two imminent sociologists who specialize in cultic phenomena in America, according to them, cults are growing in the United States. There are more than seven hundred cults in the United States today. Hundreds of them are very similar to the Branch Davidian. That’s a scary reality.
I am reminded of a story that is true. It concerns something that happened to a man named Paul Letan. Paul Letan was a man who took a trip over to Syria. He was just going as a tourist. He was taking a walk through the Syrian hills. As he came over one hill, he looked down and he saw three shepherds. They had their flocks all blend into one big group, and they were drinking from a creek there. Suddenly one of the shepherds stood up. The shepherd said “minaw, minaw” which in Arabic means “follow me, follow me.” His sheep came out of the greater flock, and they followed him. They just left with him.
As Paul Letan watched, just a few minutes later, another shepherd stood up. The second shepherd said “minaw, minaw” and his sheep left the creek, and they followed him. So, there was left one shepherd with his flock. Paul Letan went down, and he talked to the shepherd. He said, “You know, how do these sheep know who to follow?” The shepherd said, “They recognize the voice of their master.” Paul Letan said, “If I put on your robe and I shouted ‘Minaw, minaw’, would your sheep follow me?” He said, “No, they would not follow you. Definitely not.” So, he put on the shepherd’s robe, and he shouted “minaw, minaw” and the sheep did not do anything. They just stayed there. In his conversation with that shepherd, he said, “Do any of the sheep ever follow a stranger?” The shepherd said, “Only when they are sick. When the sheep are really sick, they’ll follow anyone.”
That reminds me of the situation we have in the world in which we live. There is a lot of sick sheep. It seems as though they are ready to follow anyone. We’re reminded of a verse in the Bible in 1 Timothy, chapter 4, where the apostle prophecies by the spirit of God and he writes, “In the last days, many will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons through the pretentions of liars whose consciouses are seared.” It is kind of a scary verse.
It occurs to me this morning that there really is a more scary verse. There is a verse that is particularly alarming for our time, and it describes a reality in our time that concerns us all. This verse is found in 2 Timothy and it’s in our passage of scripture for today. For the Apostle Paul says, “In the last days, there will come a time when people will no longer endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking and they’ll turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myth.”
Now that verse, it seems to me, is describing a massive reality in our day. Millions of people will no longer endure sound teaching but, having itching ears, accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking. This phrase “sound teaching” in the Bible refers to scripture. Sound teaching is that teaching which is based, founded, on holy scripture. Just before the Apostle Paul makes this statement about those who in the last days will not endure sound teaching, just before he has spoken of the sacred writings, he has spoken of holy scripture and he has said, “All scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man or woman of God might be complete, equipped for every good work.” Sound teaching is teaching which is built squarely on God’s Word.
But the Bible says in the last days, people will no longer endure sound teaching, and the Greek word that is translated “endure” is the word “anecko” and it literally means “grow bored with.” In the last days, people are going to grow bored with sound teaching. In the last days, people are going to grow bored with teaching that is built and founded on the Word of God. They’re going to accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking. That’s kind of an unfortunate rendering of the Greek because the word that is translated “liking” is the word “epithumia,” and that word literally means “lust.” They’re going to accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own lusts, their own desires.
The Bible speaks of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life—materialism, hedonism, ascensionism. The Bible says, “In the last days, many people are going to seek out teachers that basically condone or even encourage their materialism, their hedonism, their ascensionism.” That’s what people are going to be looking for—teachers that facilitate their own lusts.
It is a marvel to see what is happening in our time. It is incredible to see the popularity of televangelism. I want to say I don’t normally watch evangelists on television. Or maybe evangelist is not the right word. I do not normally watch preachers on television. I am sure there are some good ones. I’m sure there are some men and women that God has raised up, but I’m also equally certain that there are some real flakes on television, and I’ve heard a few of them. It’s hard for me to believe how they twist the scriptures and how they distort the Word of God. And yet thousands, perhaps millions of people are really are hooked. So much of what many televangelists say feeds right into materialism. So often you hear them promising people that they are going to be rich if they just give big to that particular ministry. They are going to be rich! And people want to hear that!
Have you ever heard of Reverend Ike? Reverend Ike is a well-known preacher who is very blatant about his materialism. I mean he has actually stood in front of his massive audiences, and he has said, “I want to be rich.” He says, “I want to be rich. I want to drive a Rolls Royce. I want to live in a big house.” Then he looks at his congregation and he says, “You know what? You’re the people who can make it happen.”
The camera zeroes in on faces and people are nodding their heads, “Yes, we want to make you rich.” Why are they doing that? They’re doing that because he has promised them if they make him rich, God will make them rich. You see, they’re accumulating teachers to suit their own lust. This characterizes the time in which we live. You see, some people are not following flakes like David Koresh. What they are really following is their own desires. We live in a world where people are just following their own desires, following their own lust and that’s scary. In effect, the Bible tells us, many people are really following the prince of darkness because they have bought his philosophy. They have swallowed his lies. I think the question God would ask each one of us this morning as we come to this table is, “Who are you following? Who are you following and who is your shepherd?”
I think in this congregation perhaps many people do not like to think of themselves as followers. A lot of us like to think of ourselves as leaders. I think in our congregation we have a significant segment of Denver’s leadership. There are a lot of men and women here in this sanctuary who are gifted leaders. Perhaps some of you don’t like to think of yourselves as followers. Maybe you don’t like to think of yourself as a follower because you like to think of yourself as independent. It seems kind of dependent to have a shepherd. But, you see, the Bible is absolutely clear. Before God, we are all like sheep and we desperately need a shepherd. The Bible says there is one Good Shepherd, and that one Good Shepherd is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, “I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus said “I know My sheep. They hear My voice. They follow Me. I give them eternal life.”
Are you really following Christ today? Is it reflected in the way that you view money and the way that you view sex and the way that you view power? Are you really following Christ? As we come to this communion table, we’re mindful of the fact that on that evening in the upper room when Jesus shared that first communion with His disciples, it was on that very night that Jesus said to His disciples, He said, “You call Me Master and Lord and you are right for so I am.” As we come to this table this morning, it’s an opportunity for us to recommit ourselves to Jesus Christ as Master and Lord, that we would truly be the sheep of His pasture, that truly we would follow Him. Let us pray together.