Sermon Tone Analysis

2 Peter 2:1-22

Nigeria: 3,462 Christians killed, 3,000 abducted, 300 churches attacked so far this year

Skip Heitzig tells about going on a tour of some of the places the Apostle Paul traveled on his missionary journeys.

In order to get to Ephesus, you must first travel through the city of Kusadasi.

Skip says that walking though Kusadasi he saw a sign that read, “Fake Watches.”

The tour guide assured him that they were the best fake watches he would ever see.

How do you pass up on that?

A guy that was with Skip had the very expensive real version of one of the watches.

After examining the watch with a magnifying glass and comparing the weight of the watch with his own watch, the guy couldn’t tell the two apart.

So, Skip bought one.

Three years later the watch was still working great.

Sometime later, another friend who really knows watches recognized Skip’s watch.

When Skip told him it was a fake he couldn’t believe it.

But then he said if they pried the back off and looked inside then you’d be able to tell it was a fake.

Turn with me to the second chapter of 2 Peter.

Peter is going to talk about fakes, not fake watches but fake teachers.

If you don’t know the real thing it’s easy to get fooled by the fake.

Peter spends this entire chapter addressing false teachers.

That’s because he wants his readers to be able to recognize false teachers and to understand how they work.

Peter also wants his readers to understand that God knows who the false teachers are and that they will be punished for the harm they inflict.

Additionally, God knows who are the true believers and true teachers and knows how to deliver them.

Let’s read the chapter and then go back and take a deeper.

2 Peter 2:1-22 1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.

They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.

Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; 5 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; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;” 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; 11 yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord.

12 But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand.

They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.”

13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.

Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight.

They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”

17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.

Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.

19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Peter begins by describing the false teachers.

He explains that false prophets and false teachers have been around for a long time.

There have always been false prophets and teachers and sadly, Peter says we will always have them.

We are warned about them from Moses to the Book of Revelation.

That means we should not be surprised when we see or hear about them today.

Jesus warned:

Matthew 7:15-17 15 Watch out for false prophets.

They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

16 By their fruit you will recognize them.

Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Jesus says the false teachers will look harmless, but that ye will be able to recognize them by their fruit.

What are the results of their teaching?

We recognize the fruit of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

These are the qualities a life guided by the Holy Spirit will produce.

Likewise, a good teacher will produce good fruit, but a bad teacher will produce bad fruit.

If something is wrong with the fruit in the life of the teacher or the teacher’s students, something is wrong.

The difficult part is that the false teachers often originate from within a congregation, rather than from without.

In verse 13 Peter talks about how the false teacher take delight in deceiving you even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals.

Paul warned the elders from Ephesus to be on the watch for false teachers even from their own members.

Acts 20:28-31 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

31 So be on your guard!

Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

Peter notes that false teachers often begin in secrecy so that no one will notice.

Alisa Childers, who has a regular podcast on issues of defending the faith, talks about, have a profound period of doubt when she was in the mid-thirties.

She says that she and her husband were invited to join a small group led by the preacher.

He told them how in this small group they would be able to discuss some deeper issues of faith that were difficult to cover in large group settings.

It would be like attending a college Bible class.

However, once they started attending the preacher freely admitted his own doubts about the Bible.

He started with that small group.

After cultivating a solid core, he began sharing his teachings openly with the congregation, eventually leading the church away from traditional Christian beliefs.

Alisa says that she is thankful she had other teachers good teachers, in her life that helped keep her grounded in her faith.

That’s the way false teacher will start, subtly and behind the scenes.

Not wanting anyone to notice their activity, they usually aren’t very open or obvious about their doctrine.

They will attempt to make their teachings look a lot like the true teachings so that no one notices the subtle difference.

That’s why they will often target new Christians who may not know any better.

The most destructive of all their false teaching is when they deny the truth about Jesus.

Amazingly, Peter points out that they are “even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them.”

In other words, they are denying that Jesus died for their sins.

The arguments were a little different when Peter wrote, but the logic today is that just as a loving father would not require his child to die for someone else, God the Father would never require Jesus to die on the cross for us.

They will admit the possibility that Jesus was crucified, but that it wasn’t because it was the Father’s plan in order to bring forgiveness.

Instead, God’s love is big enough to forgive our sins without the death of his son.

They thereby nullify the crucifixion of Jesus.

Others deny that we need God’s grace.

They teach that certain behaviors, especially sexual ones, are not sinful.

Therefore, there is nothing to repent of.

You wouldn’t be too surprised to hear that taught in secular movies or secular colleges, but you don’t expect it to be taught from pulpits.

I’m sure you’re familiar with this scene.

After a couple of months without rain, you wake up one morning and the skies are overcast.

Finally, you think, some rain, and then nothing.

The clouds help make it a little cooler, but it never rains.

What good were all those clouds if there’s no rain?