Page 9 - SABBATH

wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in
accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and
will turn aside to myths.

When should one expect this time to come when men will not endure sound doctrine?
Paul already has informed us that he is speaking of the last days, the days in which we now
live. If men are not heeding sound doctrine, what are they listening to? They are listening
to great accumulations of teachers that are speaking the things their wayward hearts want
to hear. They are turning aside unto myths and fables.
It should be obvious that the days we live in are the subject of Paul’s discourse to
Timothy, for we are in the last days, yet what preacher will admit that it is his congregation
that has hired him to tell them the things they want to hear? What preacher would confess
that he is simply tickling the ears of those listening to him, that he is teaching falsehood and
myth?
We live in very difficult days, for the masses of Christendom have departed from truth
and they prefer to hear things that agree with their own lusts. Paul said that in the last days
men would be “lovers of self, lovers of money... lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of
God.” What sort of things do you suppose that such men would like to hear?
Perhaps they would like to hear a message of financial prosperity. Perhaps they would
like to hear a message that says that God wants to pour out blessing after blessing of
material goods upon those who are His children. Is this not what is being proclaimed today
from so many pulpits? Yet men do not realize that Paul was warning Timothy about those
who are within Christianity in this very day, people who have accumulated teachers unto
themselves to tell them the things they want to hear.
In contrast, sound doctrine has no home among such saints who are lovers of self, of
money, and pleasure. It is with difficulty that Yahshua’s words are shared with them.

Luke 16:13
"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other,
or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon."

Mammon is the system of world materialism and it is identified with the love of money
and all that money can purchase. Myriads of saints today are in that tragic condition of
trying to straddle the fence. They want to serve God and mammon at the same time. To
accomplish this feat they have developed false doctrines that proclaim that it is the will of
Yahweh that every saint should be running over with the goods of this world. Yahshua,
however, said that His kingdom followers should not concern themselves with issues of
what they would eat and drink, or what they would clothe themselves with, but they should
seek first His righteousness and His kingdom.
The Pharisees who heard these words scoffed at Yahshua, for we are told that they
loved money. Multitudes also scoff today for they share the same affliction.

Luke 16:14-15
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and
they were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, "You are those who justify
yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly