From our Sunday service on September 15, 2024, 2 Peter 2. Watch the full message: Standing Against Falsehood on YouTube.
We’re in 2 Peter 2, the second message in our series, and we’re talking about the dangers of false teachers. It’s always a little uncomfortable to talk about false preachers if you happen to be one, so hopefully you don’t see anything in common with the topic we’re covering. Last time, in 2 Peter 1, we talked about how the Scriptures are crucial for understanding what a false teacher looks like and for telling a false teacher from a genuine one. If we’re going to discern between those who teach the truth and those who do not, we have to be in the word. Peter was writing at a time when false teachers were going around claiming to have secret teachings. These were the early Gnostics. They taught that there were secret sayings of Jesus that weren’t put in the Gospels. God wants you to avoid false teachers.
False Teachers Will Sneak In
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 Peter 2:1
At the very beginning we have a pretty big outline of everything we’re going to talk about. Peter starts by saying there were false prophets. He’s referring back to Old Testament times, when there were true prophets of God, and there were also false ones. Peter says, “Don’t lose focus. If you look at the past you’ll see there were false prophets, but don’t be deceived. That’s not over.” “Privily shall bring in damnable heresies” means they will sneak in. “Damnable” just means destructive, something that causes destruction, and “heresy” means a schism, a split. So they are going to create new denominations and sects that are destructive. They’ll go pretty far, “even denying the Lord that bought them.” Christ died for everyone. He didn’t just die for the saved. Salvation is available for everyone, and Christ had already paid for their sins. These people are not just mistaken. They are denying the Lord who bought them, and they bring upon themselves swift destruction.
The first sign of a false teacher is that the way they do their religion will bring slander on God’s name. “Pernicious ways” is a pathway to destruction, and many will follow it. “By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.” Think of the megachurch pastors who bring in millions of dollars, with a private jet and the Gucci bags and the fancy shoes. The world looks at that and speaks evil of the way of truth. Verse 3 says “through covetousness,” or greed, “shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” “Feigned” means empty words. With their greed and empty words they will financially exploit their followers. These pastors will always be asking for money. Every message, they’ll say something like, “If God wants to bless you, you just need to give to the church a little bit more.” Peter reminds us, “whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” Don’t think God is ignoring it. God isn’t snoozing up there. This was common in the Old Testament, as you’ll remember with Baal and Elijah on the mountain, when Elijah asked if their god was sleeping.
God Does Not Delay Judgment
Every message I teach, I try to translate from the Greek, and verses 4 through 9 are the biggest run-on sentence I’ve found so far in the Bible. It’s one sentence. “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” This is not a well-known topic, and it’s referenced in only a few places, but there is a group of angels, other than the fallen angels who followed Satan, who sinned. A lot of times people put Satan on a pedestal and say it’s God versus Satan, but they’re not even close to the same level. Satan isn’t even the worst of the angels. These angels were worse than Satan, and when they crossed the limit, God put them in the darkest depths of hell, chained them up, and held them there for thousands of years. Then He “spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” Eight people: Noah and his family. Did God blink? Did He delay? He also turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. A fun fact: we have scientific evidence that Sodom and Gomorrah happened. The Bible says God rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and some years back, about ten years ago, excavations found that a meteor blew up right over that region. What was their sin? A lot of people like to mention homosexuality, and that was one of them, but the Bible also says they were abusive to everyone around them. They weren’t hospitable. They were antagonistic to anyone who came through.
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
2 Peter 2:9
Peter is summarizing. If God chained up the angels who weren’t following Him, if He flooded the world to protect Noah and his family, and if He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah to remove their influence, then we know God can deliver the godly and reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment. “Reserve” means to keep or to guard. God isn’t protecting the unjust until the day of judgment. He’s keeping them back from causing ultimate destruction. He’s put them in a box and said, “If you cross this line, you’re gone.”
Red Flags in How They Live
But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
2 Peter 2:10
Peter says “chiefly,” or especially, these ones: false teachers. I might step on a few toes here, so get ready. The first is that they “walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.” These are the people saying it’s okay to commit sins, it’s okay to be immoral, it’s okay to be sexually unclean. Second, they “despise government.” This one can be hard. When Peter was writing this, he was only two to three years from being sentenced to death by Emperor Nero. Nero was Peter’s government, the one about to sentence him to death, and Peter still says not to despise government. I think a lot of us struggle with that. When the person in office is someone we don’t like, we start to complain and grumble and despise our government, and we get rebellious attitudes. Third, they are “presumptuous,” overconfident in themselves. You’ll see this on TV with the famous preachers who have to have a private jet. They think, “God has blessed me with a private jet because He knows my needs.” They are also “self-willed,” self-motivated and self-pleasing, living in luxury while people around them are suffering.
Lastly, they “are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” In the Greek that is literally “the glorious ones.” It’s possibly talking about angelic forces, either angels or fallen angels, demons. We have an account of this in Jude. When Moses died, the devil wanted to take his body and use it as a form of idolatry in Israel. Yet Michael the archangel durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” If another angel doesn’t go to war with a demon in his own power, then a human being who claims to have power over demons in his own name is in a dangerous place. Peter calls them “natural brute beasts,” like wild animals. A deer crossing the road, when it hits the middle, half the time it just freezes in place, not sure what to do. They also “count it pleasure to riot in the daytime.” They consume the fanciest meals all day to their own pleasure. Verse 14 says they have “eyes full of adultery.” Time after time they say, “God forgave me. I’ve confessed,” and they go out and do it again. They have gone astray following the way of Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, and was rebuked by the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice. These false teachers will lead you down an adulterous path and tell you it’s okay.
Peter says they are wells without water, clouds carried with a tempest. False teachers are useless. What good is a well with no water in it? They speak “great swelling words of vanity,” big, impressive words that at the end of the day are empty. “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.” They preach that you can find freedom through Christ, but in their personal lives they’re still enslaved to sin. And if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord, they are again entangled and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
The most important takeaway is that we need to be able to discern false teachers from true ones. There are plenty of false teachers online. When I’m doing research for messages, I come across some crazy stuff. There are also false teachers in our surrounding towns and cities. I can say confidently that there are denominations in our area, damnable denominations, that have given up on the morality God has set forth. Have you been surrounding yourself with good biblical teachers? Have you looked at what you’re reading? I know there’s a Bible translation that’s really popular, even with popular Christian musicians, that you need to examine carefully. When I was in college, a guy came to me who had heard about the Black Hebrew movement, which says the Israelites today aren’t the real Israelites and that the slaves who came to America were the real Israelites. He needed someone who knew the word to help him see it clearly. So maybe you should evaluate some of the people you’ve been asking for advice. God wants you to avoid false teachers. What are you doing to protect yourself today?
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