Transcript & Slides: False Teachers (1 Peter 2:1-10)

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False Teachers (1 Peter 2:1-10)
By David Feddes

We’re continuing our study of II Peter, and the overall theme of Second Peter is to know and grow—to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the first chapter of II Peter, he talks about the wonder of who God is, and that God has given us all things we need for life and godliness. He shows us how to grow in his grace and how he’s given us the Scriptures—the writings of the prophets and the apostles—so that we have a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and Jesus returns and the morning star rises in our hearts. That first chapter is such a beautiful chapter, with all the wonders of God and the guidance on growing in him.

Then Peter turns to a grimmer theme, one that’s not so much fun, but it again shows the importance of knowing and of growing. Because if we don’t know who God is, and if we don’t keep growing in his truth, then we fall prey to false teachers. This chapter deals with that.

We’re going to look at the first half of Second Peter chapter 2: “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you” (2 Peter 2:1). He’s just talked about the real prophets and the apostles who are the light shining in a dark place, and he says you must pay more attention to them. At the same time, you must beware of false prophets.

 ¹ 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. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³ 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. 

 

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. (2 Peter 2:1-10)

When Peter warns against false teachers, he is echoing the warning of his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matthew 7:15). He went on to say in the Sermon on the Mount, “Many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you’” (Matthew 7:22-23).

So there will be people who teach, do things, and claim to be something, and yet Jesus will say of them that he never knew them and they never knew him. He warns us that there will be such people—wolves in sheep’s clothing. The apostle Paul also says that Satan himself comes as an angel of light, so we shouldn’t be surprised if his servants come as servants of righteousness. They’re going to look good, at least at first glance. They’re going to sound good until you listen more carefully. They’ll be able to fool many people.

Jesus spoke of people who are like seed planted in the world, but then said that the devil will plant weeds. In his parable of the wheat and weeds, he says they’ll look a lot alike in the early stages of growth. It’s not always easy to tell them apart. Wherever God plants a Christian, Satan is probably going to plant a counterfeit. You can count on it that when God is up to something, Satan is up to something too. You even see that in times of revival, when tremendous things are happening and truth is being proclaimed. Almost immediately, certain strange things start happening and certain weird doctrines arise, because wherever God does something great, Satan will try to produce a counterfeit.

When you think about false prophets, some of you know more Greek than you realize. Pseudo prophētai—can you guess what that means? It’s “pseudo-prophets,” false prophets. Pseudo-didaskaloi—false teachers. We still use the word “pseudo” for many things. It simply means fake, phony, false. A false prophet has a false identity. He comes saying, “I bear a message from God.” A false teacher claims to be called by God and to bring truth from God, but they’ve not been called by God, and their message is not derived from the truth of God or the Scriptures.

So they have a phony identity that they claim, and some of them will have fancy titles. They may be ordained, they may be a lot of things, but it’s a cover for what they really are. They bring a false message—it’s not the true message of the gospel. The apostle Paul says there are going to be false apostles who bring another Jesus and another gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4). They don’t get rid of the word apostle; they just say, “I’m an apostle.” They don’t get rid of the name Jesus; they give you a tweaked, changed Jesus. They say, “We’re bringing a gospel,” but it’s a phony gospel.

Along with that false identity and false message comes a lifestyle that is not true to the way of truth, the way of righteousness, the way that leads to life. There’s a narrow way that leads to life and a broad road, said Jesus, that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). Those who teach a false lifestyle—where you can do whatever you please and it’s fine because everyone ends up in glory anyway—are bringing you a false gospel. They have a fake identity, a fake message, and a fake lifestyle that is not true to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you look at what the apostle Peter says, it’s almost perfectly summarized in just a couple of sentences at the beginning of this chapter: “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1). They’re going to be among you, operating like secret agents. They’re sneaky. We’ve already seen Jesus’ picture of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

When you’re trying to figure out who the wolves in sheep’s clothing are, there can be wrong tests. You may take comfort in the fact that someone has an advanced degree—but an advanced degree can be sheep’s clothing. You may take comfort in the fact that somebody high up in a church hierarchy says or teaches something, but there have been people very high in church hierarchies who are false prophets. You may take comfort that somebody is in a pulpit and using God’s name quite a bit, but that’s no guarantee, because many preachers preach a false gospel.

You may take comfort that your children’s college has “Christian” somewhere in its name. Yet there is no place more effective at spreading false teaching than colleges that carry the name Christian. You cannot assume that if you’re in a church calling itself Christian, or listening to someone with an advanced degree from a seminary, or reading a supposedly Christian publication, or watching or listening to a Christian program in the media, that it’s really Christian. That doesn’t mean all preachers are false, or all churches are false, or all colleges are bad, or all media programs are wrong. But it does mean you can’t assume they’re from God, because false prophets will be among you.

Their way of operating is not to say, “Yahoo, me big wolf!” Satan doesn’t go around saying, “I am the prince of darkness looking to devour you.” He comes as an angel of light. So you have to look beneath the surface, beneath the labels. Don’t think that just because an institution carries the name “Christian,” that you’re institutionally protected from false prophets. False teachers sneak right in among God’s people, and they do so secretly.

They’re going to be among you, not just out there—not just in other religions, not just among atheists. In fact, I’ll hazard this: I would rather send my kid to a college run by atheists than one run by people calling themselves Christian who are teaching anti-Christian ideas. At least when you go to one that’s secular or atheist, you know what you’re getting into and your radar is on. But when you go to one that has the name Christian and it’s feeding you, “Yeah, we’re Christian, but did God really create the heavens and the earth? Are you sure about this? Are you sure about that? We know there are errors in the Bible,” you’ll get that at so-called Christian colleges—and your guard is down because you thought you were in a place that would teach you the way of God.

So be aware that they sneak in among God’s people, and they bring in destructive heresies.

The next thing Peter says about them is that not only are they among you and working secretly, but they bring in heresies that are destructive. One of those heresies, very active in the last couple of hundred years, is higher criticism of the Bible—claiming that the Bible has many errors, that much of it is simply ancient documents we can debunk. Attacks on the Bible are destructive heresies.

There’s also the idea that in those early chapters of Genesis, God didn’t really make things in a miraculous way—that it all just happened by chance and turned into what we have now. Many Christians have tried to merge randomness with Genesis, and you end up with a mess. People who read the first chapters of Genesis and teach them as they are—where do they get the strongest opposition from? It’s not mainly from atheists, though they mock, but from theistic evolutionists who teach in Christian institutions. Those are often the people who say the harshest things and call you a fool.

There are destructive heresies about sin as well. The Bible teaches that we are fallen and need a Savior, but some say, “Oh no, our real problem is that we’re just psychologically maladjusted, and we’ll get that fixed with some of the latest techniques of therapy.” That doesn’t mean all therapy is bad, but when people have an entirely therapeutic mindset that denies the reality of human sin and fallenness, that is a destructive heresy. If you think you’re going to be saved from the depth of human sin by a few therapy sessions, that will not do it. It’s the cross of Christ and nothing less that can save.

One of the most common teachings nowadays is universalism—the notion that God will not judge, that ultimately all will be saved because all paths lead to God. That directly contradicts the Bible’s teaching about the second coming of Christ and the judgment that comes upon unbelievers and the wicked.

Another destructive heresy, and sometimes Satan sends these in pairs, is legalism and its opposite—license, or antinomianism, which says you can do whatever you feel like. You find both heresies identified and refuted in Scripture. Legalism says that if you just work hard and perform the correct rituals, that will make you right with God. Galatians and other epistles attack that strongly. The opposite idea—license—is attacked by Peter, Jude, James, Paul, and Jesus himself.

License says you can do whatever you please because it’s all good in the end. I gave you the example recently of Rosie Ruiz, who won the Boston Marathon by taking a subway to half a mile from the finish line and then jogging across ahead of everybody else. Some people who call themselves Christians think that’s how it works—God saves you at the beginning, zaps you into heaven at the end, but there’s no path or road of righteousness to walk in between. That is a destructive heresy.

So there are a variety of destructive heresies brought in by people with impressive credentials, and Peter says you need to be alert to them. Again, to repeat what I said before, you need the lamp shining in a dark place. The way to figure out what’s a destructive heresy is not by whether somebody has an advanced degree or the prestige of the institution they speak from, but whether it’s in accord with the Scriptures. If it is, it’s God’s truth. If it’s not, it’s not—no matter who says it. We need that lamp shining in a dark place to identify those destructive heresies and drive back the darkness.

Peter says the heresies can get so serious that they even deny “the sovereign Lord who bought them” (2 Peter 2:1). They deny the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his redemption. That’s how serious heresy can become, and we see that even today. Some who promote psychological adaptations to theology say that to claim Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood to make us right with God is to portray God the Father as a “cosmic child abuser.” They say such a view doesn’t fit with modern notions of psychology or proper behavior—and that’s taken seriously.

There are some who deny the cross, deny Jesus as the substitute and Savior of the world, deny his lordship and deity—that he is God who came to live among us. One of the most successful ways of doing that came through Islam, six hundred years after Christ. Islam says Jesus is a great prophet but not the Son of God, and that he never really died on the cross—someone else, probably Judas, was made to look like him and died in his place. So, he’s not God and didn’t die for the sins of the world.

Islam didn’t begin as just another religion—it started as a heresy, a spin-off from Christianity and Judaism. It’s been very successful, partly because it still says something about Jesus—he’s a great prophet, maybe among the top three. That sounds respectful. But he’s not “God with us,” not the second person of the Trinity, and didn’t die for your sins. If Satan can sell you a Jesus who gives a few nice teachings and ranks among other great religious leaders, he’s done a superb job of fooling you.

Jesus is God and Savior, Lord and Redeemer. If you deny the Master, who else will run your life? If you deny the Redeemer, who else will save you? If Satan can get you to buy into a Jesus who is something less than God and less than Savior, he has accomplished his purposes.

Another popular form of denial throughout history has been deism—the belief that God set the universe in motion and then backed out. He’s not involved, doesn’t listen to prayers, doesn’t bother saving people. He got it started, and now we’re on our own. That was common among some of America’s founding fathers and remains a functional way of thinking for many people today: that God isn’t directly and personally engaged with his world.

There are many ways of denying the Master and Redeemer. Another way, unfortunately, is not by directly denying the faith, but by acting as though something else is more central.

I remember a friend of mine talking to me and just weeping. She had gone back to her old church after several years away. That day, the pastor was preaching on Romans 8—one of the most glorious passages in the Bible—and the whole sermon was about how to prevent climate change. Romans 8 begins, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” and moves on to say, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” It speaks of creation groaning for the day when the sons of God are revealed, when we are raised again, when Jesus is raised from the dead, and when nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of Christ. Yet the sermon was about how the temperature of the planet has changed one degree, and how we must all do whatever we can to keep it from changing another degree. That was the gist of a sermon based on Romans 8.

Now, again, God created the heavens and the earth and gave us stewardship responsibilities. You can preach about the importance of taking good care of God’s creation. But please don’t do that with a passage declaring that there’s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, that the Spirit of God dwells in you, that nothing can separate you from his love, and that he’s redeeming all creation when he comes again. You see what I mean? You can turn something else into your “thing,” your gospel. No matter how clear the text is about Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, it becomes about your topic—the one you think your people need to focus on. In doing so, you deny your Master and Redeemer. Someone comes to church longing for Jesus and to hear about the Holy Spirit, and instead, they get a stone instead of bread that day.

Denying the Master and Redeemer is one of the worst things any false teacher can do. But along with false doctrine and heresy—another gospel or a different gospel—comes a wrong way of life. False teachers appeal to immoral urges. Peter speaks of many following their sensuality. In Greek, the word is aselgeia, which means lewdness, crudeness, filth, or especially sexual immorality. False teachers have a way of telling you that your urges are fine just as they are.

The biblical doctrine is that we’re born in sin, with many urges that are not good and will take us down the wrong path if we follow them. But false teachers say, “This is who you are. Don’t let anybody say otherwise. Follow your heart. Follow your urges wherever they lead.”

The patron saints of that attitude would be Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, who ministered at God’s tabernacle. They looked at God’s sacrifices and said, “Oh, goody—steak! I want my cut, and I’ll take it even before you burn your sacrifice to God.” A sacrifice to God became delicious steak for them. And the women who served at the entrance to the tabernacle—they took them to bed. They were within feet of the Holy of Holies, just yards from the ark of God’s covenant, and yet they were bedding women and gobbling the sacrifices. That’s the ultimate picture of false teachers—using religion to satisfy their own appetites.

We live in a time when one of the marks of false prophets is how they handle the sexual revolution. Do they say serial divorce is fine—trade one spouse for another whenever it seems good to you? Do they say sex outside of marriage is fine, that it’s just good red-blooded desire, a fun recreational activity? If you desire someone of the same sex or multiple people, that’s fine—just never say no to your urges.

You can understand the appeal of this. When people are told, “Do as you please, and God is smiling the whole time,” they’re going to like that. When they’re told that partying, drunkenness, and getting high are fine, that venting your anger is just “being authentic,” that following your impulses is healthy—it’s appealing.

A minister named Nadia Bolz-Weber says that porn is fine as long as it’s “ethically sourced porn,” meaning if the actors and actresses were consenting, it’s acceptable. Keep in mind, before the government ever talked about same-sex marriage, there were preachers already blessing same-sex unions. Before Roe v. Wade was passed in the United States, making abortion the law of the land, there was an organization lobbying for it called Clergy for Reproductive Rights.

So keep in mind, when we say, “I wish the church had more influence, I wish pastors had more influence”—they do. As Jesus said, “You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are” (Matthew 23:15). False teachers have influence.

Those of us who are preachers may bemoan our lack of influence, but we have influence. We’d better make absolutely sure it’s the right kind, because we live in a time when many will say whatever they think people want to hear. I hear again and again, “If you don’t approve of same-sex marriage, or if you don’t say evolution is absolute truth, we’ll lose our young people. They already know what they want in sexuality and what’s true in science—we’ll lose them all!” No, you won’t lose the ones in whose hearts God is working.

I’ll tell you how to empty your church in a hurry—have no message whatsoever. People will soon know you’re phony. As Peter says, “Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute” (2 Peter 2:2). It seems to work for a while, but in the end, people say, “Yeah, the Christians are no different from anybody else. Their message has nothing to say that we couldn’t hear just from watching TV or doing whatever we want.”

Recently, the Christian college I graduated from had one-third of its faculty sign a petition saying, “Don’t make the church hold to the traditional position on marriage.” One-third of the faculty doesn’t want that anymore—and they would still like my donations. No, I don’t think so.

That’s an example of what Peter calls “many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed” (2 Peter 2:2). Another common aspect of false teachers—something that sounds as if Peter were reading today’s headlines—is that they prize prosperity over truth. They say that what really matters is how well you do financially. Peter says, “In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up” (2 Peter 2:3).

In their greed they exploit with false words. The patron saint of that is Judas, ripping off the treasury and selling his Master for thirty pieces of silver because he was a prosperity guy—money mattered more than the Master. But you see it in many forms. The “gospel of positive thinking” is no gospel at all.

Norman Vincent Peale in the United States was the great champion of positive thinking, and many preachers followed. Now, thinking positive thoughts and hoping for the best can be fine in its place; I’m not against thinking positive once in a while. But that’s not the gospel. The gospel is not “look on the bright side” or “believe something good is going to happen to you today.” I like the theologian who said, “I find Paul appealing and Peale appalling.” When you start turning positive thinking into the gospel, you’ve missed the boat entirely.

What was the motto of the ancient false prophets? “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace (Jeremiah 6:14). That’s what Jeremiah said, and many other prophets warned the same. Today it’s “prosperity, prosperity,” when there is none.

You find it in modern ideologies too. You can get preachers who preach as though capitalism is the gospel—“If only we maintain our capitalist system, we’ll make America great again”—and that becomes the gospel. Others preach socialism as if that’s the gospel—“Our collective love and equality will bring peace and plenty.” But either way, it’s the prosperity gospel—it’s just a question of which system will get you to the money that’s been put first.

When preachers proclaim capitalism, socialism, or any other system for lining pockets as the key to salvation, you’ve got a false gospel. They put material success above devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean the Bible says nothing about money or stewardship; it does. But when prosperity becomes the message—when wealth or comfort become the mark of God’s favor—you’re dealing with false teaching. And, of course, there’s the blatant “health and wealth” gospel—the preachers who fly about in their private jets. Enough said about them.

Peter says so much in just three sentences. If we took those few verses to heart, we could clear away a mountain of nonsense. If we learned to detect the spirit of greed and self-glory in the false teachers of our day, we’d save ourselves a great deal of grief.

Then Peter adds one more reality about false teachers—they get condemned and destroyed. “Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping” (2 Peter 2:3). False teachers sometimes think God must be asleep or indifferent. If he’s really a judge, he seems to be taking his time. But Peter says their destruction is not sleeping—they are bringing swift destruction on themselves.

To illustrate, Peter gives three examples that warn us: God cast sinful angels into hell, he flooded the earth and rescued Noah, and he burned Sodom and Gomorrah but rescued Lot. Then comes Peter’s conclusion: “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9).

The Lord knows how. He knows how to rescue, and he knows how to punish.

Peter says, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). There were angels who sinned. Peter could be referring to the original rebellion led by Satan against God, when God cast them down. But more likely he’s referring to another rebellion—the one described in Genesis 6, when fallen angels went into the daughters of men and had children with them. Jude also refers to this same event.

Whichever fall Peter means—whether the original angelic rebellion or the sin of angels with human women before the flood—the point stands: God cast them into hell.

If God didn’t spare the great and magnificent Lucifer, the mighty and glorious angels, will he spare false teachers who now do the work of demons? That’s Peter’s reasoning.

He continues: “If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others” (2 Peter 2:5). God flooded the whole world.

Today, what are the foundational teachings some people doubt? That God created the heavens and the earth as Genesis describes, and that he flooded the world as Genesis describes. They deny both, because if they admit that God actually judged the whole world, they’d have to face that truth—and maybe change their theology.

God judged the world and saved only eight people. So if you’re placing your confidence in “important institutions,” in the prevailing opinions, in what the polls say, think again. When Noah was building a big boat out in the desert and everyone was laughing at him, where would you have stood then?

Noah and seven other people entered that boat, and suddenly something shut the door—boom. Once that door was shut, there was no more preaching of righteousness, no more opportunity to repent. The waters erupted from below, gushed down from above, and the world—except for eight people—was wiped out.

Peter says that if you think Christ isn’t coming again, and that when he comes there will be no judgment, you are dreaming. In his first letter, he already said that the ark is a picture of being saved through water (1 Peter 3:20-21). In this second letter, he says that God brought judgment on the world of the ungodly. In the next chapter, he adds that scoffers deliberately forget that the earth was formed out of water and through water, and that God deluged that earth with a flood (2 Peter 3:5-6).

So God did not spare the ancient world, but he did know how to save Noah. It must have been hard, year after year, for Noah to preach and see no converts—nobody listening, nobody changing. But he knew. That’s why you have to grow in knowledge. Noah knew, and the Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8). He knew and had received grace. And when you have received grace and you know what God has said, then you stick with that ark and you keep working on the path God gave you.

The Bible literally says, “Noah, number eight”—a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). It’s often translated “Noah and seven others,” but the Greek text just says “Noah, number eight.” When there are only seven people in the world who believe, and you’re number eight—the preacher who’s been ministering to them—it can feel lonely. But it’s a lot better than being out there in the water when the flood comes.

Peter goes on: “If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6). That story of Sodom and Gomorrah—fire and brimstone raining down from heaven, turning those cities to ashes and obliterating them—is meant as a warning.

Peter says to remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, he’s simply echoing his Master. Jesus said that when he comes again, it will be like the days of Noah—they were marrying, giving in marriage, carrying on with business as usual, until the flood came and swept them all away. Or like the days of Lot—they were buying and selling, eating and drinking, and then fire came from heaven and destroyed them all. “Remember Lot’s wife,” said Jesus (Luke 17:26-32).

So Peter is just talking like Jesus. He talks about the flood, about Sodom and Gomorrah, about the destruction of the ungodly—and about God’s ability to rescue his people. Jude, a very similar letter to Peter’s, elaborates on Sodom and Gomorrah: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7).

Think about that while living in the middle of today’s sexual revolution. Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Don’t walk in the way of Sodom and expect a different outcome.

Peter says God also knows how to rescue, and he points to Lot. He calls Lot “that righteous man.” You read Genesis and think, “Lot? Righteous?” He chose to live near Sodom, then moved into Sodom, and when the time came to leave, the angels almost had to drag him out. All that’s true, and yet the Bible says Lot was a righteous man who lived among them day after day, tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds (2 Peter 2:7-8).

Lot was in Sodom, but he never got comfortable there. He was different from the people of Sodom, and it troubled him deeply that they were the way they were and did what they did. Finally, it all came to a head. Two angels, looking like men, came to Lot’s house, and a crowd surrounded it, demanding to rape those visitors.

But the Bible says the Lord knows how to deliver. God delivered Lot—first by not letting him become like those around him, and then by rescuing him from danger. The angels struck the attackers blind, so they wandered off and couldn’t assault Lot or those in his house. Then they pulled Lot out of the city before the fire and brimstone fell. He was reluctant to leave, but they dragged him out before destruction came.

In light of Noah and Lot, we need to ask ourselves some questions. I’ve preached sermons on how foolish Lot was for choosing that life—how he harmed his family, how his wife turned to salt, and how his daughters were corrupted by Sodom’s ways and by Lot’s own failures. A lot of bad came from Lot’s choices. And yet, God got Lot out of Sodom.

Before you judge Lot too harshly, ask yourself: are you tormented in your righteous soul day after day by the society you’re living in? Are you grieved in your righteous soul by the mess that surrounds you? If that doesn’t trouble you much, don’t look at Lot and say, “What a silly guy,” and then turn on your TV to watch everything that troubled Lot’s righteous soul. Are you tormented by godless immorality? Are you any different?

Or, like Noah, are you a herald of righteousness in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation? Do you make the way of righteousness known? Those are the questions we need to ask ourselves in light of what Peter’s been saying.

Peter says, “The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment” (2 Peter 2:9). He rescued Noah. He rescued Lot. He knows how to rescue the godly from trials. And he knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

Part of that punishment is happening even now. As Romans 1 says, God gives them over to their sin, and it grows worse and worse, messier and messier (Romans 1:24-28). He also knows how to hold those who have died in a state of punishment—a kind of jail that foreshadows hell. The same is true for the fallen angels; they are already held in torment and await even worse at the final judgment.

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

This is one reason it’s so important to preach through whole books of the Bible. Who in their right mind would pick 2 Peter 2 as their favorite passage to chat about this week? You just wouldn’t. But you have to recognize that this isn’t an exception. If you keep preaching through any book of the Bible, you will find warnings of judgment in every one of them.

If you cherry-pick your favorite sentences, you can avoid these warnings in every sermon you preach. But if you preach the whole counsel of God, you can’t skip over them. That’s why—though it’s a strong statement—I’ll say this: a pastor who never warns of false teachers is one. A pastor who never warns of false teachers is, by that very omission, acting as one. A pastor who never warns of hell is headed there.

Someone who has been given a trust from God to proclaim his Word and never sounds like the Son of God—never warning of the broad road to destruction or of false prophets—that person is not a spokesman for Jesus Christ. Such a person will be judged with double strictness because he claimed to speak for God.

There’s no nice way to say that. So, as a minister, my prayer in light of what Peter says is simple: Lord, help me to know you better. Help me to grow more like you. Help me to boldly speak your truth. Never let me be a false teacher swept away in the fire of your judgment.

At the same time, help me not to judge godly teachers or condemn every mistake as heresy. That’s the danger of a sermon like this—to think every error anyone ever makes is a damnable heresy. It’s not so. All of us who teach the Word of God will err in this or that area, often without even realizing it.

The question is: are the great truths of the faith being taught? The realities of sin and judgment, salvation, Christ’s deity, his blood shed on the cross, his Spirit’s indwelling, and the new birth—are these being proclaimed? If so, then help me not to judge a godly teacher who differs with me on lesser points, or to label as heresy every mistake I think they’ve made.

Lord, help me to discern the difference between disagreements among true believers and those fatal errors that corrupt and destroy. Then give me the courage to stand against false teachers and defend your flock from them.

Your rod and your staff comfort us. We walk through dark valleys and eat in the presence of our enemies, but part of the Lord’s love for his church is that he warns against false prophets. It is one of the great expressions of his love that he defends his flock from the wolves and warns us ahead of time about them.

So don’t think it’s cruel, nasty, intolerant, or mean. It is the love of the Savior that teaches us to look out for those who would destroy us, who would deceive us, who would rob us of the eternal glory God has prepared for those who love him.

Receive the warnings of Jesus Christ himself as expressions of his love. As Jude said, “Build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 20-21).

Prayer

 Father, keep us alert and wise. Help us, Lord, first of all, to know you better, to grow more like you, to speak your truth, and in doing so, to become more immune to the appeal of false teachers. Keep us, Lord—whether pastors, elders, or parents—from being false prophets who mislead others.

At the same time, give us wisdom to recognize the unity we share with those of like precious faith—those who love the same Lord and believe the same gospel—and not to be divided over matters that are not at the core of the gospel or godly living.

Lord, give us courage, discernment, and wisdom to take to heart these words you’ve given us today, and to live by your truth. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

False Teachers (1 Peter 2:1-10)
By David Feddes
Slide Contents

¹ 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. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³ 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. ⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Wooly Wolves

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves… Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matt 7:15, 22-23)

Pseudo = false
ψευδοπροφῆται [pseudoprophetai]
ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι [pseudodidaskaloi]

• False identity
• False message
• False lifestyle

 
False teachers

1. Sneak among God’s people
2. Bring in destructive heresies
3. Deny Master and Redeemer
4. Appeal to immoral urges
5. Prize prosperity over truth
6. Get condemned and destroyed

 
Punish and rescue

• Cast sinful angels into hell
• Flooded Earth, rescued Noah,
• Burned Sodom, rescued Lot

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. (2:9)

 Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.  (Jude 1:7)

• A pastor who never warns of false teachers is one.
• A pastor who never warns of hell is headed there.

 My prayer

• Help me know you better, grow more like you, and boldly speak your truth. Never let me be a false teacher.
• Help me not to judge godly teachers or condemn every mistake as heresy.
• Help me stand against false teachers and defend your flock from them.