False Teachers June 3 2007
False Teachers
Have you noticed the intense pressure from the world to deceive people today? Sexual relationships outside of marriage are almost encouraged, homosexuality is presented as normal, and truth is relative instead of being absolute; yet Christianity is either archaic or judgmental depending on the group speaking. This type of teaching is not new; it existed in Peter’s time. False religions abound both with false gods and false teaching about Christ.
Read vv 1-3
When Peter wrote his letter there were false prophets among the people. This is still true today. When we look around and see the deceivers today they appear to be everywhere. Look at some of the movies this sumer, Knocked Up – about a one-night stand where the woman ends up pregnant, Evan Almighty – a movie that will make fun of God and His judgments of sin. The wrong ideas pervading our culture are pumped into our homes, cars, computers, and from the people we know who don’t know the truth of Christ.
There are over 6 million followers of Mormonism. The vast majority of these people are fooled, believing themselves to be Christians. When the JWs have a communion service over 15 million reportedly attend. The fact that false teachers are in the world and are attracting followers is undeniable. These people who follow someone or something other than the Jesus presented in the Bible are destined to Hell. 2 Timothy 2:3 says “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” People don’t want to hear the truth.
Tell story of Melissa watching Joel Osteen. (word faith movement/ prosperity gospel)
- "You can cancel out God's best plan by speaking negative words." -"Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004
- "Many of you today know this, you believe it down here in your heart. But the reason that you're not experiencing as much as you should is because you’re not declaring it. You've got to give life to your faith by speaking it out. Your words have creative power. When you go around saying, 'I have favor, people want to be good to me and supernatural doors are opening.' When you make those declarations of faith, you are charging the atmosphere. And your own words can help to bring it to pass. That is why we should get into the habit of every day consistently speaking God's favor over our lives." -"Experiencing More Of God's Favor," Tape # 212, Daystar, July 10, 2004
- "I believe one of the main ways that we grow in favor is by declaring. It's not enough to just read it. It's not enough to just believe it. You've got to speak it out. Your words have creative power. One of the primary ways we release our faith is through our words. There is a divine connection between you declaring God's favor and seeing God's favor manifested in your life. And some of you are doing your best to please the Lord. You are living a holy consecrated life, but you're not really experiencing God's supernatural favor. And it's simply because you're not declaring it. You've got to give life to your faith by speaking it out." -Audio Clip, Hank Hanegraaff, Bible Answer-Man Broadcast, April 26, 2004
People will be exploited by the false teachers in their midst.
False teachers bring:
1. destructive errors – the errors taught by false teachers lead their followers to destruction.
2. damnable heresies – by following heretical teachings the people who follow false prophets are damned unless they repent of their sins.
3. rejection of Christ – one of the things false teachers do is to deny the divinity of Christ or deny the Trinity. One way they deny the trinity is called modalism. Modalism says that during the incarnation, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode. Thus, God never exists as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time; he can only manifest himself as one person at any specific time. Modalism thus denies the basic distinctiveness and coexistence of the three persons of the Trinity.
4. destruction upon themselves – By deceiving people and leading them away from Christ false prophets and teachers are inviting God’s wrath on themselves.
Jim Jones
In Nov. 1978, US Rep. Leo J. Ryan of California visited the People’s Temple (a California-based cult) in Guyana. His group went to investigate reports that some of the people there were being held against their will. The congressman and his party were ambushed and killed.
Few days later, at Jonestown, Guyana, soldiers were horrified to find hundreds of bodies of cult members who had been shot or committed suicide by drinking cyanide-based Kool Aid. Rev. Jones, 47, lay near the altar with a bullet wound in his head.
The death count was 780.
A brief report of what happened during those final moments:
“As Jones talked over the loudspeaker on the beauty of death and the certainty that everyone would meet again, several hundred cult members gathered around the pavilion. They were surrounded by armed guards, and a vat of Kool Aid mixed with cyanide was brought out. Most cult members drank it willingly—others were forced to.
“They started with the babies. At least 80 infants and children were fed the deadly potion, and then the adults took it. Everything was calm for a few minutes, and then, as the cyanide-induced convulsions began, it got all out of order. Children were screaming and there was mass confusion. Shortly afterward, everyone was dead.”
Failures
Corrupt leaders fail, but their followers continue to follow. This is because the followers are content with the false teachings. The way of truth is hurt by these false teachers. True Christians are painted with the same brush as the people who abuse the name of Christ.
Tell how Jim Jones story affected Dad. Christianity was painted with the same brush.
False words are used to trick people. Bibles are rewritten to prove what they want them to say. The leaders use their followers to serve themselves. They desire their own glory and worldly gain.
How do we recognize false religions, prophets, and teachers?
1. Changing Doctrines – They change what they believe to entice people to join or keep people in the organization. The JWs have done this with many of their beliefs on who Christ is and regulations on organ transplants and vaccinations.
2. Bible not true authority – Other writings or people have authority over the Bible. Not everyone can correctly understand scripture. In this church the Bible is held up as our authority, what we do and teach must be measured by the Bible. In many cults the leaders convince their followers that only the leaders have direct contact with God and speak on His behalf. James Walker from the Watchman Fellowship (not Watchtower) says no one ever joined a cult by reading the Bible. The JWs have said internally that if someone were to study the Bible without also reading the Watchtower for two months that they will revert back to the incorrect teachings of the Bible taught 150 years ago. Could that be because truth does not change?
3. Deny Christian doctrine – Traditional doctrines are denied or twisted. There are groups who believe Eve’s sin was not eating from a forbidden tree, but a sexual sin with Satan. Many deny the Trinity or the divinity of Christ (He was a good person or teacher, but not God)
4. Membership in the organization is required for salvation – Mormons and JWs believe you cannot be saved unless you are baptized into their church.
5. Discourage independent thinking – Followers are discouraged from reading or listening to people who are not in the group. Mormons will not even read a New International Version of the Bible because they are taught it is apostate literature.
Note the end of the third verse, “their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep”. The Message paraphrase says, “They won't, of course, get by with it. They'll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on.” Many of these false teachers believe that since they have not been punished they are ok.
But this is not really true. Verse 4 points out how God did not spare the angels when they rebelled against Him.
Read vv 4-6
Why are people arrogant enough to believe He will save us no matter what we do or do not do. There are so many people today who believe they are “good people” and because they are more good than bad they will get into heaven.
From the punishment of the angels we see:
1. No Excellency will keep a sinner from being punished. Rebellion against God through sin condemns mankind to Hell.
2. Sin debases and degrades the sinner. The angels were glorified and dignified. This did not stop them from being punished for their rebellion against their creator.
3. Sin is the work of darkness and darkness is the wages of sin. The darkness of misery and torment in Hell follows the darkness of sin.
After showing how God dealt with the angels, we are reminded of how He dealt with mankind with the earthly flood and how He punished Sodom and Gomorrah. When God destroyed the earth by flood, the number of people who were punished was not a factor that would have changed God’s mind. Other than Jesus every person who has walked on the earth has sinned. If sin is universal then its punishment must be universal too. But because of the sinless life lived by Christ we have the ability to have our sins forgiven. By repenting of our sins, our rebellion against God we can be forgiven and have eternal life with God.