1 Good morning! It is very good to be here today! This church very graciously gives me some time during the summer for ongoing education and we just finished that marathon of a journey yesterday and are certainly all very glad to be back. Last week we started 2 Peter chapter 2 where Peter talks about heresy. This week we our text focuses more on those bring in destructive heresy: false teachers. There is a particularly bleak and heavy tone as we read this passage. What Peter stated positively in chapter one, he is now stating negatively in chapter two. But the goal is the same: to build us up and secure us in our faith. So let s dive in. 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 10-17. and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. Sermon Intro: So what do you really think Peter? Living in the culture I live in, it s hard for me to even imagine someone talking like this. If I m honest, it feels too harsh to me. It reminds me of something those people who yell in the Grove would say. But this is the Apostle Peter and this is the word of God. So why is this so harsh? Let s think about it this way. Imagine you have a son or a daughter who you obviously care about dearly and someone comes into their life and begins to tell them things about you that aren t true. Begins to undermine the influence you have in their life. Begins to create a division between you and your child. And you can see this person carrying your child off away from you. How would you feel? What would you say? Honestly, are there words that are too harsh for that person? Probably not. Not because we are hateful people, but because we are loving people. We love our children so much we will say anything needed to protect them.
2 This is what is going on in this passage. In one sense, these are Peter s spiritual children being carried away by these false teachers. But in a bigger and more important sense, these are God s children being carried away by false teachers. God s children whom He loves and is committed to protecting. These strong words are written because you are loved. Now do they sound too harsh? Not only are they appropriate in tone though, they are appropriate in time as well. It s easy to skim over passages like this because you come and listen to JD each week. He s a great teacher. And I hope you have a similar confidence in anyone the leaders of our church would put up here to teach. So why do we need to learn about false teachers? Because we are surrounded by them. Surrounded by false teachers who are working daily whether you realize it or not to carry you off. There are false teachers on tv, false teachers at the university, false teachers at school, false teachers in your fraternities and sororities and maybe even some in the seats of this church. Jesus calls them wolves in sheep s clothing because they look like us. They are disguised like us, but they are not of us. They have a very different understanding of the Christian life than we do and any one of us is capable of being carried off by them if we are not on guard. This is what Peter is telling his churches and what God is telling us. And this text answers three questions for us who are surrounded by false teachers. 1) How we can know them, 2) Where they will lead us and 3) very practically How we can protect ourselves. I. How we can know them. Verse 10a says that we will know them by their sensuality and their arrogance. and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion (that s sensuality) and despise authority (that s arrogance). Arrogance and sensuality. And Peter breaks them down in the following verses. He starts with arrogance. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. Now we don t know exactly what is going on with the blaspheming of the glorious ones which I take to be some kind of angel. It might mean that they mock the existence of angles or demonic beings. It might mean that they mock the power of such beings over them. We don t know exactly what is going on, but we know these false teachers have become extremely arrogant.
3 They shake their fists at anyone or anything that tells them what they ought to be doing because they think they know better. This has been the main attribute of all of God s enemies since Genesis 3: Pride. There is no greater sin and no deadlier sin than thinking too much of yourself. This is why we have boundaries in scripture for who can be in church leadership. Paul says it like this: He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:6) To the Corinthians, Paul says this: Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Cor. 10:12) I remember as a boy, my grandfather, who didn t even go to church, quoting Psalm 16 saying, Boy, pride comes before the fall. Cut that out. So does this mean if you ever sense any arrogance in JD or me or any other elder that we are false teachers? Hopefully not. If that s the case you might never find a pastor. All of us are prone to arrogance, but the difference, hopefully, is that if you confront us on our arrogance we will repent. We are all sinners, but we as Christians are this unique subset of sinners called repentant sinners. The false teachers would not repent. Arrogance is the first mark of a false teacher because the gospel is fundamentally opposed to pride. It pains me so much to see the way Christians are perceived as arrogant and prideful (and I admit that it is not all undeserved). But we are a people who are supposed to marked by admitting we are wrong. We know we can t ever stand before a Holy and Perfect God so we hide behind Jesus. We actually hide in His blood. In one of my favorite hymns we sing, Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. We admit that we are so bad off that a perfect person had to die so that we could trade places with Him and be made righteous. Through His blood, we are washed clean. The only requirement is to admit that you need it. That is the polar opposite of pride. So, if you look at the life of someone who claims to be a Christian with a slightly different message and you see pride, beware. It has been a very sad couple years for the church as we have seen some meteoric falls by some hugely famous pastors. And I remember a wiser older man, well before any of them had fallen name these people and say to me that unless something changes, they won t be pastoring in 10 years. And he was right. He saw the signs of arrogance and knew to steer clear. Arrogance is the first mark of a false teacher. Secondly, and actually very logically, Peter says that their second mark is sensuality. I struggled to find a good word to categorize this second part. I thought of fleshly or
4 worldly or lustful, but I think sensual captures it the best. To be sensual means that you are a creature of instinct. You don t follow your conscience, but your lusts and greed. Look at verse 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, Irrational animals. First comes arrogance: thinking we know better than God. Then comes sensuality. We do what we want because we think we are the highest authority. But Peter says that when this happens, when we try and elevate ourselves, we are reduced to the likeness of irrational animals. And like irrational animals, these false teachers are marked in two specific sensual ways: They have eyes for adultery and hearts for greed. I spent hours of our never ending drive from Orlando with all the kids, the dog and a huge boogy board by my face wondering why does Peter focus on the behavior of these false teachers and not just tell us what the false teaching was? Peter could have said, The are off on the Trinity. They don t understand the deity of Christ. They are a bunch of hyper-calvinists. Why does he spend all this time on the behavior of the false teacher instead of just telling us what the false teaching is? Well, I can t speak for Peter, but I think God knew what He was doing. There would be countless false teachers over the years and because Peter wrote the way he did, his teaching applies to false teachers of all stripes. Jesus predicted this and Peter was with him listening when He did. Peter, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, now remembers Jesus words. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. (and here it is) You will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:16) We know them not by their flawed systematic theologies, but by their fruits. The gospel produces good fruit. False teachers will not. So we have these false teachers who are marked by arrogance and greed and I want to divide them up into two groups. First, you have the really famous ones. I won t call out their names because every time I have done that, I think it has caused more harm than good, but I actually don t think those are the ones most of us in this room need to worry about. We need to worry about the second group: not the famous ones, but the hidden ones. These are people all around us who claim to be Christians, but live like they are controlled more by instincts than the Spirit. People who are unashamed of their materialism, consumed by greed and marked by sexual promiscuity. Peter is warning us not to underestimate their influence on you.
5 And lest we become arrogant ourselves, we need to see that Peter isn t saying this to vilify people outside the church, but to protect those of us inside it. Look at what Peter says at the end of this letter: You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. (3:17) Take care that you are not carried away. Carried away where? Second point. II. Where they will lead us Peter again, doesn t mince words. He says these false teachers and all who follow them will be caught and destroyed in their destruction..suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. (for them), the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved This is one of those texts where we can agree or disagree, but there isn t really any room to debate what Peter thinks is going to happen to these false teachers and those who follow them. Can you imagine someone on tv these days talking like this? Not only is it generally seen as antiquated and backward, but now truly hateful. Who am I to say that people can t decide to live however they want? To have sex with whomever they please? To practice underhanded business? And do all this in the daylight. And who am I to say that this will lead to an eternal destruction? Well, I am a nobody, but I m getting this from a pretty reliable Somebody. If this sounds harsh to you though, I want to speak to you for a moment. Think about the Nice attack recently where a man drove a truck over men women and children for over a mile permanently carrying them away from from their loved ones. Or think about the Orlando attack. Angela went to Pulse last week and and you can still see the overwhelming grief in the flowers and signs left there because someone has forever taken their loved ones away. I can only imagine the feelings harbored towards the attackers who permanently carried away their loved ones. However these men and women feel toward those attackers is a picture of how God feels toward anyone who might threaten to carry off you. The words are harsh because the love is extreme! So how is it that they threaten to carry us off? Verse 17: These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. They threaten to carry us off by offering empty promises. Imagine walking through a desert, out of water, and seeing spring. The hope of nourishment rises and you walk to
6 it only to find that there is no water. Or imagine you are a farmer whose only hope of food is if rain comes to water his crops. You see the dark clouds coming and the promise of a harvest brings life to your soul only to see the cloud pass over you giving no more than a slight mist. Not even enough to pass through the surface of the soil. False teachers give these kind of promises. They offer something that will not nourish. They assure life, but deliver death. They promise freedom, but bring slavey. The promises of these teachers are much like drugs. They offer you freedom through a genuinely enjoyable high, but that perceived freedom is quickly the bondage of an addiction. Through hundreds of different types of false teachings over 2000 years, false teachers have infiltrated the church and carried its people away. Today, I think in our context, we are surrounded by a similar false teaching to that Peter is dealing with. We are surrounded by people who take on the name of Christ, but live unchanged lives. You see this at every stage of life in our culture. You see it in the high school, you see it at the university and you see it in the working world. The false promise of living for Christ and continuing to satisfy instincts that won t satisfy your soul. And I m not saying whether they are Christians or not, but I am saying don t be enticed to think you can do the same. The promise is not freedom, but slavery. You will either end up living a miserable life as the Holy Spirit convicts you or you will find yourself one day in the gloom of utter darkness. So, how can we protect ourselves? III. How we protect ourselves. I m pretty sure these false teachers aren t recruiting people saying, Hey, do you want to be a blot and blemish with us? Would you like to join us and be destroyed in our destruction? They are much more shrewd than this and they are much better marketers. They also know their target audience. So who is that? Verse 14 says They entice unsteady souls. Those most susceptible to false teachers are unsteady souls. So to prevent being carried away, we need to be steady souls. And we see three ways in this text that we can become steady, stable and immovable souls. The first is to know the Bible. And not just the New Testament, but all of it. Most of the Bible is Old Testament and we can treat it s like some old document that really isn t valid anymore. When I lived in Italy, I asked a sweet old lady friend what the different was in her opinion of Catholics and Protestants. She responded by saying, Well, you just believe in the New Testament, we believe in the whole Bible. I was stunned and said, Where would you get an idea like that? She said, Well, I see y all handing out New Testaments with no Old Testaments. Where did we get the idea that the Old Testament isn t as important?
7 That clearly isn t Peter s view. Look at verses 15 and 16: Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. Peter is using an Old Testament story to prove his point and he just assumes that his readers know this story. This story is found in Numbers and elaborated on actually all over the Bible, but the short version is that Balaam was a prophet sought out by kings because he was known to give them favorable prophecies for the right price. The Israelites are moving through, conquering the promised land and the next group of people to conquer are the Moabites. So the Moabite King, Balak, calls for Balaam to prophecy against the Israelites. Balaam doesn t end up doing it, but the only reason he doesn t is because God speaks to him through a donkey. Later in Deuteronomy, Balaam is also faulted with being the reason the Israelites intermarried with the Moabites. You can read the whole story in Numbers 22. But Peter s point is this: here is an example of a prophet controlled by greed and lust. Don t go down the path of Balaam, the prototype false prophet. Look almost anywhere in the New Testament and you will see the authors using the Old Testament to explain and prove what they are teaching. If we want to be steady souls, we must know the Bible. Even the Old Testament. Secondly, and this comes from the first, we must be known. We must be in community. An isolated soul is an unsteady soul. Balaam didn t have anyone around him to speak sense into him so God used a donkey. You may think your friend is a dumb. donkey, but God uses even dumb donkeys to speak sense into us. We weren t made to be alone. We were made to be in Christian community that prays for each other, encourages each other and where needed, challenges each other. Do you have people in your life who do this? In the upcoming weeks our community groups are going to be starting up and this would be a great way to find this kind of community. So keep your ears open or just pull me aside and I would love to plug you in. So to be steady, we must know the Bible, we must be known and lastly, we must know the True Teacher. If you want to see false teachers clearly for what they are, you must know the True Teacher. I know this illustration is going to be familiar to those involved in the women s Bible study, but do you know how experts learn to identify a counterfeit bill? They don t waste their time studying all the counterfeit bills out there. Instead they spend their time simply studying the real thing. The more they know a genuine bill, the more easily and quickly they will know a false one. In the same way, the more we know Jesus, the Perfect Teacher, the more we will be able to identify counterfeits.
8 So how do you get to know the True Teacher better? Well, know the Bible and get into Christian community! If you spend just 15 minutes a day reading your Bible (I know that doesn t sound like much to some of you, but to others, it sounds like a lot) and have just one conversation about Jesus with another person each day, I promise you that if things seem fuzzy in any way, they will become clearer. As the True Teacher becomes more clear, so do the false ones and we become steady souls. If you have eyes, God can use almost anything to point to him, even a corrupt, greedy prophet like Balaam in the Old Testament. In Numbers 24, after God speaks to him through the donkey, Balaam is prophesying to Balak, the King of Moab and says this, I see him, but not now; (you see he is talking about Jesus) I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab (Numbers 24:17) What could turn a greedy false prophet into a bold witness in front of an enemy king? He began to see the True Teacher clearly. Conclusion: Do you know who the false teachers are around you? Not so you can look down on them and feel better about yourself, but so that you can remain firm in the truth and not be carried away. Do you know who they are? If you don t, they might already have influence on you that you aren t even aware of. This is Peter s hope: that none would be carried away. The whole point of this letter is that we would confirm our calling and be secure in our faith. The harsh language he uses shows us all how loved we are and how serious our God is about protecting His sheep. And if you re here today and you don t know this kind of love. You are being carried away. You might be one of these false teachers. You might be headed down the way of Balaam. You don t have to end up in destruction, suffering and the gloom of utter darkness. There is a light and His name is Jesus Christ. A True Teacher who is patient and loving. And instead of waterless springs offers springs of living water that will fulfill. That will give you life. If you believe in Him and turn to Him. I m going to pray and after that we will have a time of reflection and response where we ask the Lord to tell us what He has for us this morning. If you haven t responded to Jesus call in your life, come find JD or me after the service and we would love to pray with you and do anything we can to make you a stable soul sure of your calling in Jesus Christ. Let s pray.
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