False Teachers From Within

And we're in 2 Peter chapter 2 this evening, but I'm going to begin to read in 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1 verse 16. And the reason is because chapter 2 is a continuation of chapter 1. And so I'm going to start reading in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 16 through chapter 2 verse 3. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, which such a voice came to him from heaven, from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard his voice, this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. And so one of the things that we have to remember, and obviously we're taking a long time to get through Peter, and we've had this three or four months break, is that it is all part of one whole. And so again, I'm going to encourage you to read through the book regularly, at least once a week if you can't do it every day. It's not that long a book, I would imagine, it'd probably take you 10 minutes to read it. And that helps us to get an overall understanding of where different things fit in, because what we're going to deal with tonight, these first three verses, are directly connected with the previous chapter, and are connected with the rest of the book. So again, we have that word but, and we've emphasized that word, but this evening I want to just emphasize the fact that the word but obviously makes the connection with what has just been said. And yet we have this problem that we often speak about, and I want to remind you again, when we read one chapter at a time, you lose the continuity, you lose the context. So verse one does not stand on its own. Verse one is in a context of what he has just said. What he has just said is that he has said that the prophecy that we have, and he's using word prophecy in two ways, in the sense of the inspired word, and particularly concerning the second coming. Because you'll see references in chapter one to the second coming, and in chapter two again he's going to speak and he's going to say the Lord is not slack concerning his promises. And so we have a prophetic word which is sure. Then he said, and we dealt with that not last week, the four months before, that that the, no it was last week, that that holy men spoke as they were moved along by the Holy Spirit. So these were the prophets who spoke the word of God, or wrote the word of God for us. So in the light of the fact that we have a more sure word of prophecy, that holy men were moved by the Holy Spirit to write, here is the downside, here is the negative warning, but there were also false prophets among the people. So in the Old Testament then there were true prophets, he is saying. And those true prophets prophesied, they wrote the Old Testament, they prophesied about the first coming of Jesus, they also prophesied about the second coming of the Lord Jesus. And they were true prophets of God, but they were also at the same time false prophets. And so what he is saying is that there are going to be false prophets among us, because that's how it was, that's the way it's still going to be. It's not going to change. And so prophecy is true, but there is also false prophecy, and there is false prophets, and that's the warning. So there were also false prophets among the people. And in fact, there were probably more false prophets than there were true prophets in the Old Testament. And yet God had his people. And so there were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you. Now, two important things in that phrase. Notice there were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you. So some of the other letters, of Paul's letters and also Peter, warns about false prophets speaking from outside. But false prophecy or false teaching, and I'm going to speak about the difference between those two in a moment, but these things do not just come from outside. They also come from inside the church. So the false prophets, when he says there were false prophets among the people, he's meaning among the people of God, amongst the Israelites. There were false prophets. There were false prophets outside, amongst the Philistines and all of those other nations, and the Amalekites. They all had their false prophets, but there were also false prophets among the people. And that's the problem. Our threat comes from two sides. There's a threat from outside, and there's a threat from inside. In the Spanish Civil War, I don't remember the name of the general, but he coined the phrase, the fifth column. Now in military terms, a column is a column of soldiers that are attacking on a particular direction, and on a particular front. And so they asked him, how many columns do you have? In other words, on how many fronts are you going to attack? And he says, on five. And they said, but we can only see four columns. And he said, yes, there are four columns here, but there's another column inside the city. There are people of mine inside the city who will defend us and who will attack from the inside. And so that's become part of our language today. We speak about the fifth column. The fifth column is always those on the inside who will work with the enemy. And so in the Second World War, we had what they called the resistance in France. And so when France was captured by Germany, there was the resistance. There were the French people inside of France who were working for the Allies, even though they were under German occupation. These are old tactics, and the devil uses the tactics of war to attack the people of God. And that's why Paul uses the picture in Ephesians of war and of putting on the whole armor of God. And so the devil has a fifth column of those inside the church who work on his side. Remember, the sower sows the seed, and the enemy comes, and he puts the tares in amongst the wheat. And so there were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you. Paul in Acts, when he meets with the Ephesian elders, with Ephesian church for the last time—well, not with the church, just with the elders—he warns, and he says, from your own selves—now he's speaking to the elders, he's speaking to the leaders of the church—and he says, from your own selves, perverse men will rise up, not sparing the flock. And we know that that is true, because later on Paul writes to Timothy while Timothy is in Ephesus, and at least two of those elders, Alexander the coppersmith and Hymenaeus, had in a sense defected from the faith, had got into false teaching, and were producing or propagating that false teaching from inside of the church. So it's no good just looking out on the outside and saying, we want to be careful about the false teachers on television and on the magazines and the books and wherever they come from. But the potential is real that there can be false prophets among us. Now, we don't want to get into a witch hunt and say, well, is it you? Is it you? Is it you? There may not be, but there is that potential. And particularly as churches grow and become bigger, the potential of false prophets amongst the people of false teachers becomes bigger and bigger. So, there were false prophets then among the people, there will be false teachers among you. Now, notice the change. There were false prophets, but there will be false teachers. Interesting. We know there's a difference between teachers and prophets. Prophets in one sense speak prophetically. They speak about the future, but that's not most of what they do. They speak inspired speech. They preach powerfully under the anointing of the Spirit. They are powerful preachers. They're not necessarily teachers, but they are powerful preachers. Teachers are different. I am a teacher. I teach word by word, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. There's a difference between preaching and teaching. There's a difference between prophecy and teaching. So, why does he change the language then? Why does he say there were false prophets, now there will be false teachers among you? Well, because he's for two reasons. The first is because the focus is not necessarily on prophets, but on those who teach and who teach heresy. We'll see that in a moment. He's going to get to that. We've seen a lot of false prophets in America recently. Not just recently, they've always been here, but they really came to the surface during the election. Even since then, they have no shame. They've been proven to be wrong, and yet they continue to prophesy their false prophecies, and people continue to follow them. But that is one danger, is those false prophets. The other danger is those who teach, and who teach incorrectly, who teach heresy, who teach wrong doctrine. So, we dealt with that a few weeks ago when we spoke about the two-gospel heresy. So, there will be false teachers. The second reason this is here is because there is, for those who can remember when we dealt with this, what we call a chiasm. A chiasm is a pattern, and I'm not going to go into it in more detail. It's simply a pattern in the way the guy writes. And the pattern is this, that if you go back to chapter 1 and verse 16, we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Who is the we he is speaking about? The apostles. Who were the eyewitnesses? The apostles who declared the resurrection. Who declared the Lord Jesus? The apostles. So, he begins with the apostles, then he moves, and these are true apostles, obviously, then he moves at the end of chapter 1 to the prophets. And then, because he says in verse 20, knowing this, no prophecy of scripture is private interpretation. Prophecy never came by the will, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. These were the prophets. So, he begins with the apostles, then he moves to the apostles, true apostles, true prophets. Now, he's going in the other direction. He now begins with prophets at the beginning of verse 1, but these are false prophets. Then he moves to teachers. These are false teachers. So, can you see the pattern? He begins with apostles, true apostles were teachers, true apostles, true prophets, false prophets, false teachers. That's the pattern. And so, obviously, this covers prophets and teachers, but he's specifically going to speak about teachers. What are these teachers teaching? Well, from the context of the book, when you read the book, they are teaching something, a number of things we'll see this evening, but at the end of the day, the doctrine came down to a denial of the second coming of Jesus. Now, there are many people who are teaching that today. Jesus is not going to come back, or Jesus is going to come back once we've established his kingdom here on earth. All sorts of wrong teachings about the second coming of the Lord, but particularly many saying, no, he's in fact never going to come back again. So, it's the same teaching, and we still have it today. So, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, they will secretly... You see, here's the problem with false teachers. No false teacher has a board around his neck, a card around his neck, or a lapel pin that says false teacher. Well, I've never seen one like that, or false prophet. No, they come in secretly. They act as though they are the real thing, and we've had them amongst us. People have come in from outside and have not been kosher, have left, and some have had to be asked to leave because they came in as though they were one of us, and yet what they were doing is producing false teaching. And so, they will secretly. And so, if it's going to be secretly, then we need to be alert. We need to be watching. And when someone comes in amongst us, or someone teaches, and we're not wanting to be hypercritical. So, every time someone shares a testimony, or someone shares an encouragement from the word, we scrutinize every detail and say, well, is this true? Is this true? Is this the word? Is he bringing in some... It'll become evident. We will pick up on it. But when we do get those signs, and the telltale signs are there for false teaching. And a lot of my time is spent analyzing preachers, and analyzing churches for other people, who will write to me and say, we have this church in our town, and we're trying to find a good church, and this church looks good, but can you have a look at them for me? And so, I'd go on their websites, and I'd look at their statement of faith, and what they teach, and what their goal, and their mission is, and I'll listen to the preachers, and I'll come to a conclusion. And you learn, you develop a skill, and part of it comes with maturity. Remember that in Hebrews chapter 6, that part of maturity is to discern good and evil, but some of it is just natural skills. You learn what to look for. You learn to look for key words, and you pick it up, and you're able to look at the church, you're able to look at the preacher, and pretty quickly, you have an idea, is this man a false teacher, or is he not? And in fact, the sad thing is, in most cases, they were not. They are false. I was really blessed. A few weeks ago, someone asked me to have a look. They'd moved to another town, and they were looking for a church, and they'd come across this church, and I spent quite a long time looking at what the church teaches, looking at their website, listening to the preacher, and I couldn't find anything wrong, and I was amazed, because you don't find that often. The church, as far as I can see, is a good, healthy, sound church. I listened last night to another one. Someone sent me from another state, and said, please, you know, I've been in this church, but I'm worried about the direction in the church. Can you listen to my pastor? And I listened for two minutes, and I knew exactly where he was going. So, these things are not hidden. They are visible, but they are secret, and they attempt to hide them. And when you question these guys, oftentimes, what they will say is, no, I believe the truth. I'm orthodox. I'm kosher. I believe everything that you believe. But then, when you start digging a little bit deeper, you discover, no, in fact, they don't believe what we believe. They don't believe what the scriptures say, so they will bring it in secretly. Now, remember, he is saying that there will be false teachers among you. The false teachers will be amongst in the church. But look what they're doing. They will secretly bring in So, if you're bringing it in, where are you getting it from? Outside. And you've done some takeout. You know, gone online and listened to this false teacher, and brought it in. And we've seen that many, many times. People come in amongst us, and it's very possible for any of us to fall into that trap. We read a book, and we say, well, this is a wonderful book. You know, it's a blessing. Hey, brother, you need to read the book. Or we listen to a preacher, and we say, well, this is great. You know, and we start passing the name around. We say, you know, but we're bringing in stuff that is false. So, they will bring in destructive heresies. Now, this word, destructive, appears three times, I think, in these few verses. So, the heresy is destructive. It destroys. What does it destroy? It destroys faith. It destroys pure doctrine. And it destroys relationships. Those are the things that are always the result of false teaching. False teaching will always attack the truth, will always attack relationships. And so, they will bring in destructive heresies. They don't build up the church. They destroy the church. We all know about churches, and I've seen many, many, many churches over the years destroyed, completely destroyed by these things that are brought in from outside. And so, they will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Now, remember, in the book of Titus, the word heresies appears there. Paul says there that a heretic must be rejected after the first and second admonition. It's the same word. The way it's used, though, is different. In Titus, when it is used there, it is used of a schismatic, of a divisive person. In other words, he has a different idea on something, probably on doctrine, but it could be on anything. It could be on the order of the service. It could be on the hymns that we sing. But that's not the problem. The problem is the division that they bring. Here, the emphasis is not so much on the division. Well, the destructive is the division. But the emphasis here is on teaching that is not correct. And that's the way we use the word generally today when we speak about heresy, we speak about wrong doctrine. Remember that heresy is a word we overuse many times. When someone just has a different idea to us about some minor issue, we say, oh, no, he's a heretic. When someone says, well, you know, we like hymns, but he doesn't like hymns. He likes contemporary music. Oh, well, they're heretics. Now, this may be an extreme example, but there are many other examples. In fact, I was speaking with another brother during the week. There are churches we have, when we have communion, we have little cups, and it is communion Sunday coming up this week, by the way. We have little cups. There are churches here in America, and I'm not going to mention their name, but they are all over. They're in every city, who say that if you use little cups, individual little cups, that is heresy. We must only use one big cup. And for those who've been in my office, I have such a cup there from a long time ago. And they build it on the fact that when supper was ended, Jesus took the cup. So it's got to be one cup. If you don't have one cup for the whole church, it's heresy. No, it is not heresy. It is just a difference on a not essential, non-essential, not important thing. So we've got to be careful who we call heretics, what we define as heresy. Heresy contradicts the essentials of the faith, the issues around the Trinity, the issues around the deity of the Lord Jesus, that Jesus is God, the issues around the infallibility and the inspiration of scripture. If someone says that, that we've spoken about last week, if someone says, well, you know, only some of the books are inspired, that is heresy, because it is attacking the fundamentals of the faith, the foundations of the faith. If someone says that Jesus is not coming again, that is heresy. If someone says Jesus didn't rise from the dead, that is heresy. These are the major issues. But if someone says you've got to wear a suit on Sunday, or you've got to wear a t-shirt on Sunday, or you've got to have long hair or short hair, or any of a thousand things that people will divide on, those things are not heresy. They are just different opinions, different approaches on less important things. So these people will bring in destructive heresies. And obviously when we come to people like that, when that comes into the church, those who are elders have no choice but to put someone like that out of the church. Obviously there is warnings, and if they will not repent, they have to be put out of the church, because it is a leaven that will leaven the whole lump. It is a very, very dangerous thing. And so they will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them. Now this is where we've got to just understand what he is saying. When it says they're denying the Lord, they're not saying Jesus didn't exist. They're not saying Jesus didn't even, they're not even saying he didn't die or rise again. But he's using a particular word for Lord here. And the word is the word of a master, a despot. Now remember when we use that word despot today, it has a different meaning. The Greek word is despotis, from which we get despot. Today a despot is a tyrant, someone who rules unfairly, unjustly, who abuses his people. And we have examples of those in the world today, in different countries, North Korea, China, to some extent, these are despots. They are ruling with power, and they do not care and do not help and protect their people. So that's the word. Now the Lord is not a despot in the modern sense. But the word despot means that he is sovereign. He is beyond question. You don't get to question and excuse the term because I can never remember his name, but we all know who Rocket Man is. Forgive me, I can't pronounce his name. Yeah, you don't question him about anything. You just don't do that if you want to see the rise of the sun the next day. Now that's not the sense in which he is, but the Lord is supreme. The Lord is sovereign. The Lord is our master. And why is he? Because he has bought us, denying the Lord who bought them. The slave, and that's the picture, the slave has no choice. The master has bought him, and the master can do with him, and obviously we're not condoning that, but the master can do with him what he wills. Jesus has bought us. He doesn't abuse us, we understand that. But he is still the master. He is still the Lord. He is still the despotis. He is still the supreme ruler in our lives. So what are they doing? They're denying his lordship. They're saying, what do the toddlers say? You are not the boss of me. They're saying to God, you are not the boss of me. I can do what I want to do. Does that sound familiar? Are there Christians that do that today? Yes, it's a very, very popular teaching today. You just do whatever you want to do. You live your life the way you want to live your life. It doesn't matter. The Lord does not get to tell you what to do. All right, so they will bring in destructive heresies, even so the most extreme of the heresies is denying the Lord who bought them. Now another thing about this phrase, and I'm only going to get through this first verse tonight. Were these people saved or not? Now the commentaries argue about this, and depending on whether you're a Calvinist or not a Calvinist, some say they were, some say they weren't. But notice that first of all, they were among the church. They were recognized as part of the church. That was the basis on which they had influence to bring in their teaching. So they were not outsiders. They were not people who were in the church, but there are people in every church who attach themselves to the church, and so they'll come from time to time, but they're really not part of us. They're visitors, and they can be visitors for years and years and years, but they really never become part of the fabric of the church. Now these guys were part of the fabric. They were accepted to be believers, but then he says they were denying the Lord who bought them. Is the unbeliever, was the unbeliever bought by the Lord? Well we understand that he died for all, but if he didn't take possession of them, in the sense that they'd never became heres, how could he have bought them? He paid the price, but he didn't get them. So there was no transaction. Nothing happened. But he paid the price for the believer, and he took possession of the believer. The believer became his, and so I believe that these people are believers. So they are denying the Lord who bought them. Now let me just jump ahead, because we're not going to get that far this evening and we'll pick up on this again next week. I'm going to come back and finish verse one. But in verse three, by covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words, with covetousness. So part of their motivation is money, and they're exploiting people through deceptive words. And then in verse two, many will follow their sensuality. I'll deal with that word next week, Lord willing. Sensuality. So two things, covetousness and sensuality. That is the basis of the, that is what makes these, this false teaching attractive. Sensuality. You can live as you will. Can you see the problem? When I don't acknowledge the lordship of the Lord Jesus, I say, well, I can sleep around. I can have girlfriends. I can do this. I can, you know, sensuality. Covetousness, driven by money. And I'm dealing with that word in more detail, because it's not just greed for money, it's greed for power. And these things are very real in churches. They're very real amongst Christians and amongst preachers today. And so this is, this is the consequence of not acknowledging the lordship of the Lord Jesus. I'm not going to get into the whole thing about lordship, salvation. I reject that. You cannot accept Jesus as Savior and not accept Him as Lord. But you can ultimately then come to a place where you reject Him as Lord. And you say, well, I'm saved. He's my Savior. But you're not living under His authority in your life. And that, that's the, that's the problem here. All right. So they're denying the Lord who bought them. And they bring on themselves swift destruction. Now, here's where the context becomes important again. If you read through the rest of the chapter, you'll remember, he says, the Lord is not slack concerning His coming. As many, as men count slackness. But He is delaying His coming because He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Here's, here's the, here's the heart of what Peter is dealing with here. And we're going to emphasize this again next week. But the problem is that many Christians and many false teachers are living the way they do, because they say, well, the Lord is not coming. Remember, Jesus told a parable of a man who was, of men who were put in charge of this, of, of, of other servants and of their, of the, of the rich man's goods. And the man goes away into another country to receive a kingdom. And while he's away, the servants say, well, where's, where's, where's the master? He's not coming back. And what do they do? They begin to eat and drink with the drunkards, and they begin to beat their fellow servants. This is exactly what Jesus had prophesied in that parable. This is exactly what's happening. They're saying, He's not coming. And even if He does, it's not going to be in my lifetime. They don't really believe in the judgment of Christ. And folks, here's, here's the, here's the heart of the problem, is that when I look at what some preachers do, just last night I discovered a, a ministry that, that we were associated with at one time, had stolen the website of another ministry. Just last night, I saw it, was using their, the corporation, the corporate name incorporated of a ministry that they do not own. This is fraud. And I say to myself, Lord, what's going on? What is going on is people are saying, mañana, the Lord's tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, but maybe never. They're living because they've rejected and denied the lordship of Jesus Christ. And together with the lordship of Jesus Christ is this concept of giving an account. And in Jesus's parable, he says that when the master comes, he calls his servants and he says, give an account of what you've done with what I've entrusted to you. But they deny that in their minds. And that's the only way you can act that way. That's the only way you can, Christians can do the things that they do. Pastors can do the things that they do. And I'm speaking about doing bad stuff. Just this week, the leading pastor, preacher of evangelicalism in the United Kingdom was exposed as abusing young boys. 30 years, he was the leading name amongst evangelicals in England. You say, how can they do that? They're denying the lordship of Jesus. And they're saying, it'll never happen. He'll never call me to give an account. No, what Peter is saying, and we can see him repeat this over and over, they bring on themselves swift destruction. Now, swift destruction doesn't mean, and here's where the thinking goes wrong, because all of us do things we shouldn't do. And we say, well, the lord didn't strike me dead. So I'm cool. I can do it again. It doesn't mean that the moment you sin, he's immediately going to destroy you. He's going to immediately judge you. But what it deals with here is the word imminence, and I don't want to get into that, but the idea that he will come at an unexpected time, but he will come. And so this is the same idea of the second coming of the lord Jesus. We don't know when he's going to come. It may be tonight. It may be in five years' time. But he will come, and his coming is sure. And that's the idea here. The destruction will come. The judgment will come, and it is sure, and it comes at a time when you don't expect. And so this obviously is a warning to concerning false teachers, but it's a warning to us individually as well, that we don't find ourselves in this place where we are denying the lord, but that we recognize that we are not our own. We've been bought with a price. We belong to him. He owns us, and therefore we are his slaves to do his will. We thank God that he is not abusive, that he doesn't beat us up, that he loves us and cares for us and protects us. And yet at the same time, because we love him, we need to bow before him and do his will, not just grudgingly, but willingly obeying him and doing his will. Father, we thank you for the lord Jesus who bought us, and lord, that he indeed is not just Jesus the savior, but he is the lord Jesus Christ. And so lord, I pray that you would help us to get our thinking right, because lord, all of us get to a place where we somehow think, well, maybe the lord's not looking, and maybe I can get away with something. But lord, I pray that you would help us to be those who are ever living, aware of the fact that you are watching, that you know that there is nothing hidden from your sight. And lord, not because we want to be afraid of you, but lord, we don't want to displease you. We don't want to in any way bring dishonor to you and to your name and to the name of the gospel. And so lord, I pray that you would help us to be aware of those who are false teachers, but lord, particularly that we may be careful about falseness in our own lives and in our own behavior, in our own deeds. And so lord, we pray that you'd help us with these things in Jesus' name. Amen.