Sermon: False Teaching and Its Fruit

As we come now to God's word, I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles or grab the Pew Bible in front of you to the book of two Peter on page 1018 if you're using the Bible in your pew. So we continue tonight, our evening series through this book. Before we look at our passage for tonight, would you join me again as we pray and ask God for help and understanding?

Father, tonight as we come to hear your word, would you open our ears? Would you open the eyes of our hearts that we might see rightly, that we might hear rightly what it is that you have for us? Would you encourage us and nourish us and convict us? Would you help to guard us by your word as we hear from you tonight? Ask these things in the name of your son Christ. Amen. Tonight we are going to look at the first three verses

of second Peter chapter two Here now from God's word, but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction and many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.

So if you have been here this fall, you know that we are working our way through Second Peter during the evening services and in chapter one, Peter has laid out God's provision for Christians everything they need in order to know God and live fruitful lives before him. He has pointed to the precious and very great promises which God has given and particularly to the trustworthiness of the testimony of the prophets and the apostles as the foundation

of the Christian's hope, knowledge and godly living. Chapter one is a delightfully encouraging chapter one that the Christian will return to again and again.

As we come now to chapter two, these opening verses are not likely to be sought out frequently for comfort or encouragement. We come to a passage of somber warning and yet it is very important because it guards the Christian from walking away from the beautiful truths of chapter one. So following on the glories that he has laid out in chapter one, he wants his readers, he wants you to not be led astray from those wonderful truths

and he knows that there will be those who try to do just that. He wants you to be equipped to deal with false teachers. As we consider these verses tonight, we're going to look at three ways that Peter seeks to equip Christians to face the realities of false teachers. He wants you to first expect the presence of false teachers. Second to identify the character of false teachers so that you may finally, third, avoid the perils

of false teachers. Expect the presence of false teachers. Identify the character of false teachers, avoid the perils of false teachers. That will be our outline for tonight. First, let's consider what it means that Peter wants us to be equipped by expecting false teachers within the church.

Peter wants you to know that false teachers will be present.

He uses a historical argument to drive home. This point having just made at the end of chapter one the declaration that prophecy was not produced by men but by God who carried along the prophets by the Holy Spirit. Peter now points out that among those prophets of God there always arose false prophets as well.

This week as I was reading through the book of Jeremiah, I came across these verses in chapter 14 and the Lord said to me, the prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination and the deceit of their own minds. Ezekiel echoes a similar sentiment as he records God telling him to prophesy against the prophets of Israel

who are prophesying and say to to those who prophesy from their own hearts. Hear the word of the Lord, thus says the Lord God. Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins O Israel. They have seen false visions and lying divinations they say, declares the Lord when the Lord has not sent them

prophets claiming to speak for God when he had not spoken was a constant problem among the people of Israel in the Old Testament and Peter here warns you Christian. The same will be true in the church as there have always been false prophets rising up amongst the true prophets and the people of God. So there will be false teachers who rise up amongst your teachers.

Peter here is simply reiterating what is found all over the New Testament. Jesus in Matthew 24 says, for false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders as to lead astray if possible. Even the elect, both Paul and John will give similar warnings in one Timothy four and one John two. So over and over and again the the testimony of the people of God through the centuries, the warnings of Jesus,

of Peter, of Paul, of John, all point to the same reality. Among God's people there will be those who falsely claim to be servants of God and who teach false things.

Consider for a minute why this would be such a repeated refrain. Think about what happens if this warning is absent or is ignored. If you do not expect there to be false teachers, if you do not have your guard up, if you do not have an eye out for that which is untrue, you will be likely to give ear to their teaching to find falsehood compelling and to be swept along with its current. If you expect all teachers to be dependable,

your trusting disposition will leave you exposed to those who would teach falsely. If you are naive to the fact that false teachers will be present, then you will be vulnerable to these false teachers. So Peter warns you to be aware of the reality of false teachers.

'cause here is another reality that we have to face. Generally, people will not announce themselves as false like the prophets who were prophesying in the name of the Lord even though he had not sent them. The false teachers who are arise among you will not put up a disclaimer that what they are teaching is contrary to the word of God. They're unlikely to advertise themselves as false teachers. No they, they will, as you can see here in verse one,

secretly bring in their destructive heresies. These false teachers will do everything they can to cover or minimize the degree to which their teaching differs from the truth of the Bible, from the foundation laid by the prophets and the apostles. So Peter wants you to be protected from being led astray by expecting false teachers just as there were false prophets throughout the history of the people of God.

It is not enough, however, simply to anticipate false teachers, you also must be able to recognize them when they come. How do you know who they are? This brings us to the second thing Peter wants to equip you for. He wants you to be equipped to identify the character of false teachers. They may not advertise themselves, but there are many signs that are given throughout the scriptures and here Peter gives three ways that you can identify

a teacher who is false. First, they will use false words. This is perhaps what comes to mind most immediately when you think of a false teacher, people who speak and teach things that are false. You can see in verse one, they bring in heresies a doctrine that is contrary to and undermines true faith. These false teachers will bring in false doctrines and these false doctrines will be destructive. Peter expands this by noting that they will even go so far

as to deny the master. Again, we we need to remember that this denial will often be brought in secretly. So while it may not be an outright denial of God, false teachers will often give lip service to the truth while denying it by what they teach and by how they live. Often they will deny God by letting go of him, not by letting go of him entirely, but by elevating something else above him as primary or by altering his words to mean something else

as they functionally set aside God and his revealed truth.

One example that I see all over the place today is those who clinging to the truth that God is love, which he is. But these false teachers claim the theological and moral high ground by redefining love to mean some sort of benevolent permissiveness and reorienting the world to be centered around God, around man rather than God. Any sense of God's right as creator over and above his creation, any sense of his holiness and justice, even his love for himself

and his own glory are swallowed up under the claiming the true meaning of what it God is love is. And and from this muddied spring of redefined love in a man-centered world flow, all sorts of poisoned streams, adamant articulations of what it means to be a true Christian in this world that totally miss the mark. This is a false teaching.

I was trying to brainstorm this week some of the heresies that we may encounter in our world today. Seems to me there's almost no limit to the ways that these false teachers can enter the church in our current day. False teaching can be seen in the beginning of all things. When creation and God's forming of this world, out of nothing is made subject to theories of men. We see false teaching at the end of all things in return in relation to the return of Jesus

and his renewing of the world. We see false teaching around the basis of our salvation, the need for holiness and godly obedience, therapeutic treatments of sin, God's political ambitions for the United States, God's material and physical ambitions for you in this life, the character of God, the person of Jesus, the nature of the Holy Spirit, and we could go on using false words. False teachers preach a false gospel and Peter is telling you to be ready for such teachers

you must test the words of teachers against the infallible word of God.

In addition to false words, Peter says that these teachers will bring with them false morals. These false morals can certainly fall under the category of false teachings, but will also manifest themselves in false living. There are a couple different ways that people can bring false morals into the church. It can be done through legalism, by adding rules of obedience beyond what God reveals and requires in his word. This is what Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees for

during his ministry on earth. The other way that false morals can find their way into the church is by license claiming liberty to act outside the bounds of what God has forbidden. This is what Peter is warning about here. Look at verse two where Peter warns that people will follow these teachers into their sensuality.

Christianity is a religion of freedom and liberty. However, as one commentator put it, these men have made liberty, one of their war cries and they do not recognize the obligation of holy living imposed by Jesus. These false teachers are ones who will readily acknowledge the first half of Galatians five, one. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free while handing themselves and their hearers over to be enslaved by sin in exactly the manner that Paul warns about

in the second half of the same verse. We don't know exactly what it is that these false teachers were leading people into, but it was some sort of sensual immorality reality

and people were following them. They were following their example as they went into this sensuality. So people followed them.

As I have worked with college students now over many years, I have seen an example of this occur with a a fairly common pattern, almost always amongst college men. Someone starts teaching that Christian freedom means you are free to use whatever vulgar language you want and a few young men will grasp onto this idea and in seeking to prove that they are not legalistic, they decide to express and demonstrate their liberty by adding swear words

to their vocabulary all in the name of faithful Christianity. Maybe that seems ridiculous to you. Hopefully seems ridiculous to most of you as though Christ bled and died on the cross so that you and I could indulge ourselves. But for some reason this false teaching seems to resonate with young men and often gathers others who join in for a little while before thankfully it dies out. That is just one example. There are instances big

and small all around our culture today where those who claim to be teachers of God claiming the authority of God declare to be good things, which God has condemned or claim as evil. Those things which God has established according to his will, many will even go so far as to pronounce that those who seek to be obedient to God's word are acting un-Christian or ungodly or rist. Like False teachers will not only use false words, but they will live falsely

and encourage others to do the same. Watch out for those who come with false morals, you must test not just the doctrine of teachers against the word of God, but test their lives as well.

Finally, Peter says that you can identify false teachers by their false motivations. And here he mentions that false teachers will exploit you with false words in order to satisfy their greed.

There are any number of reasons that someone might be greedy. They may be greedy for the praise of man and a certain reputation. They may be greedy for a certain social status or standing. They may be greedy for financial gain, but whatever the case may be, they are acting out of their own pride and self-interest. Christian, this is the exact opposite of what you as a church should expect. Jesus was the good shepherd who laid down his life

for his sheep, who calls his under shepherds to serve the flock in a like manner. Greed and gospel don't fit together. Do not listen to someone who seems to be in it for himself.

False words, false morality, false motivations, some of the ways that Peter wants to help you be able to identify false teachers.

I wanna pause here briefly and I wanna just acknowledge that this is a hard thing. It, it is hard to want to say that, that somebody is a false teacher or is teaching falsely. It's hard to know what is in the heart of a man and to judge motivations can feel very critical to point out a false teacher. I, I feel this particularly and regularly when I am on campus and I'm, I'm interacting with a student who is very young in their faith, maybe just

thinking about Christianity and faith for the first time and they tell me about a book they're reading or a church they attended or someone they have been listening to online. And I can struggle to know how to warn them about false teachers that they may be exposing themselves to. I don't want their sense of the Christian faith to be one of criticism divisiveness or some sort of tribalism. Are guy good, other guy bad?

And you do need to be wise. You need to discern not simply as individuals but in community with other Christians. It is certainly possible to be heresy witch hunters who see every disagreement or imprecise wording as a denial of the master.

And yet with all those caveats in place, you need to be discerning and to be able to identify false teachers,

you need to be willing to call a spade a spade 'cause it really does matter.

That leads us to our third point. Peter wants you Christian to be able to identify false teachers because he wants you to avoid the perils of false teachers.

The author of the book of Hebrews encourages the people of God to remember your leaders, those who taught you the word of God, consider the outcome of their faith.

Here Peter wants you to consider the outcome of false teachers

and that outcome should be crystal clear to you as you look at these verses. Destruction, destruction, destruction three times. Peter uses this word twice in verse one and once in verse three, with condemnation thrown in there for good measure. These false teachers will bring upon themselves swift destruction with their destructive heresies.

And even if it may seem for a season that they are getting away with it or they're going to be spared or their destruction is not asleep,

their teaching is destructive and their end is destruction and condemnation.

Paul will say something similar in in the book of Ephesians, where with tears in his eyes he will, he will remember the enemies of the cross of Christ and he will say their God is their stomach and their destiny is destruction. We, we don't delight in this fact that that people would be destined for destruction, but we do need to recognize that God will vindicate his truth. You need to be on guard against false teachers,

but you need not live in fear. As we will sing in a few minutes, the church will never perish her. Dear Lord, to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish is with her to the end. Though there are those who hate her and false sons in her pale against a foe or traitor, she ever shall prevail.

God will not suffer false teachers forever. The man who attempts to serve God and self is on the path of destruction. God will defend and uphold his truth. Temporary success in the eyes of the world, the appearance of escaping judgment. These are illusions. Delay should not be interpreted as indifference on God's part. Don't be tempted to imitate or to be jealous of false teachers when they seem to be able to draw a crowd or gain a hearing.

They will not escape punishment. It is coming, it will be swift and total. The rest of this chapter will elaborate on this judgment and on God's deliverance of his people. So encourage you to come back in a couple weeks to hear more about that. But rest assured they are headed towards condemnation and destruction Here. I wanna, I wanna step aside for a minute. I wanna take a quick, a quick, uh, sidebar to address a question that is raised

by the phrase in verse one. They are denying their master who bought them. So we're, we're reading about these false teachers who are destined for destruction and we're we hear that they deny the master who bought them. Does this mean that Jesus purchased these men with his blood and they are now somehow walking away from him and destined for destruction? No, it does not. This is simply stating what Jesus says in Matthew 17,

that there will be some on the last day who claim to have taught and acted in Jesus' name to whom Jesus will respond away from me. I never knew you. John will write in his letter that their going out proved that they never really belonged to us. There is clear teaching throughout the Bible that there are those who claim to be followers of God who do not really belong. They will be wolves in sheep's clothing and that is what these false teachers are.

They claim to be teaching and living as servants of God, but they deny the very one that they claim to belong to. In two Timothy, Paul will describe such people as having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. And then he goes on to say, avoid such people.

All right, that's the end of our little aside. So back to avoiding the perils of these false teachers having laid out the clear destiny of these teachers. Peter continues to articulate the dangers by pointing out that not only are they on the path to destruction, but they will also have an impact on others. Many will follow after them on this path of destruction. They will be led astray out of the narrow way that leads to life.

As both Jesus and Paul warn. A little leaven of false teaching can easily spread throughout the rest of the dough. Watch out for yourself that you are not led astray and watch out for one another. Finally, Peter says that not only are the false teachers themselves and their followers in danger, but these false teachers in danger. The very gospel witness of the church. See? See here he writes, the way of truth will be blasphemed.

Outsiders will look at false teachers and those who follow them and disdain the name of the God whom these false teachers claim to follow. Not able to distinguish between what is false and true. They will throw out the baby with the bathwater. The true church will be cast off by association with false teachers.

Most of you will know or have interacted with someone for whom this is true. Church hurt is a badge of honor in parts of our culture right now. There are people all around us who dismiss the church based on their experience with Christians and maybe particularly with Christian teachers. Some of that is certainly a skewed perspective. There are faithful churches and leaders who are maligned by enemies of God. But surely some of it is

because people have come in with false words and false morals and false motivations and have rightly left a terrible taste in the mouth of those around them because of them. The way of truth is blasphemed Christianity and its claims are dismissed.

I want you to to think for just a minute about how you respond when someone you love is in danger. Read stories about parents who will fight wild animals to protect their children. Uh, history is full of instances where sons will flock to sign up for a war effort when there is a threat to their home and their family.

Brothers and sisters, you ought to have the same impulse for the spiritual danger of false teachers For yourself, for your family, for your church. Think of what is at stake. The souls of these false teachers are at stake. The souls of those who would listen to them and be led astray are at stake. The very honor of the gospel witness in the world is at stake.

Peter is warning you about false teachers in these verses. He's telling you to expect the presence of false teachers to identify the character of false teachers so that you can you and those around you avoid the perils of false teachers

As we, as we come now to a conclusion, I want to take a minute to compare what Peter is saying here with what he has said in chapter one. Because the false teachers are the exact opposite of everything. True that came before. Peter calls those who have faith in God to stand on the sure word of God. These false teachers proclaim false words. Peter calls those who have faith in God to press into the godly qualities of virtue

and self-control, steadfastness love and godliness. The false teachers lead people into sensuality and self-indulgence. Peter points to the hope of entrance into the eternal kingdom for the Christian. The false teachers rather than eternal life, are destined and lead others to destruction. They contradict and seek to undermine what is true at every turn. Peter wants you to know that false teachers have always been present

among God's people and that they always will be present so that you are not led astray by their heresy, greed, and immorality. He wants you to know what is true so that you can recognize the false. The best way to be protected against the false is to know and check everything against the true so that you can know life and not destruction.

Uh, most of you have have heard from, uh, Dr. Joel Beke this morning or at some point over these past few days. It seems fitting to end this magnify weekend by giving him the last word. This is the exhortation that he writes in his family worship guard regarding second Peter chapter two.

In this age of so-called tolerance, Christians are often afraid to exercise discernment and to speak against heresy. Our silence is wrong because all error corrupts and errors against the foundations of the faith destroy our souls forever. We must remind ourselves of the danger into which we put ourselves if we listen to them, regardless of the popularity of a preacher or a teacher, do not give him a voice in your life, family, or church

unless he speaks the truth of the word of God and lives that truth with integrity.

Would You pray with me, please,

father, would you give us humble wise discernment that we would not give voice in our hearts, in our families, in our church,

Unless it is one who speaks the truth of the Word of God and who lives that truth with integrity? Would you help us to live joyfully and yet wise as serpents? Would you guard our hearts and minds from that which is false keeping and protecting us for that which is true? Thank you that in your goodness, you have revealed to us what is true. Thank you that you have granted your spirit to continue to guide us into all truth.

Oh Lord, would you do that for us as a body? Ask these things in the name of your son Christ. Amen.