False vs. True Teachers
Steadfast: 1 and 2 Peter • Sermon • Submitted
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What is the possible lesson we are to learn from talking about false teachers?
Peter has moved from speaking about prophets, some of what their role is and has been to speaking about false prophets and false teachers.
Prophets: Truth-tellers (Add examples) Forth-tellers (Add Examples)
Truths from this passage:
There are false teachers and they are dangerous to the body of Christ and individuals
The teaching that we learn and adhere to is very important, as is the conduct of those teaching us
Peter’s description of the false teachers in this passage and the consequences of their actions are informative for all those of the faith community
2 Peter 2
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
False Prophet - one who speaks something from God that does not come true, he is
22 “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
14 Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.
How are we to tell a false prophet? (1) Says that Jesus has not come in the flesh *arguments discrediting his divinity
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1-3
2 Peter 2:1
2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
Sensuality = “aselgeia” self-abandonment, license, lack of self-control over one self usually shown in excess
God and his way of life is maligned/slandered/reviled because of how people follow these poor teachings
3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
greed here is not necessarily just for monetary gain but could be ambition, notoriety, or fame
18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
Example of this is Paul saying that he seeks to remove himself from the equation voluntarily so that there will be no confusion. Example is
1 Cor 2:1-
1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Examples of God’s judgement as warning to those who deceive and encouragement for those who could be
2 peter 2:4-
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
Examples:
Judged Angels who sinned, not others
Judged Ancient World in time of Noah and preserved Noah
Judged Sodom and Gomorrah and preserved Lot
What we learn from those 3 examples
God can rescue the “godly” from temptation
God can keep judge the unrighteous
Why does this truth matter?
a. Because sometimes we forget that both of these are true!
there are some that level the charge that God is unjust because he punishes at all, and here we are reminded that he rescues the righteous. The only thing God is “guilty” of is being impartial. He is for righteousness and he is against unrighteousness and wouldn’t you know it that God provided a way for any person to move from one unrighteous to righteous.
There is also the charge that how is the charlatan or the person who preys on people get by not having any consequences or little by our sense of justice. The answer is God will judge them by the same standard and if they are truly unrighteous then God is “able” to give them justice.
More explanation for the type of people who are judged
2 Peter 2:10-
10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, 11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, 13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; 15 forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. 17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. 18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
What does the audience (WE) gain by understanding the “psychology” of the false teacher’s corruption?
For us to recognize these behaviors in people who seek to teach us and be able to better recognize these tendencies in ourselves if we have them or if we were to become tempted by them in the future
Lordship Issues
“Great descriptive phrase for us “indulge the flesh in its corrupt desire” - there are wrong desires to have. There are things that God has appointed to be impermissible in His wisdom and design. When we indulge our flesh in such instances, we are deciding to act on these wrong desires and this is despite the knowledge that the Lord has deemed things wrong for our and others own good. We despise authority when we disobey it. In this scenario they are despising God’s Lordship.”
Add random thoughts to other phrases for color/ maybe underline certain things to make comments on
This last phrase in v. 19 is of special note as it is a good summary statement of what has happened, “They have been enticed, overcome and enslaved” to their own sensibilities, and are teaching people the same.
Strong Word Against Apostasy
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
Matthew 12:45 (NASB95)
45 “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
45 “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
Last comment about something that should come up when talking about false teachers and false teaching? Is there primary knowledge that is most important to not get wrong or be sure of?
Questions:
What are the areas that are primary that we get them right?
God’s Character*
Jesus’ Humanity and Deity*
Grace by Faith*
Expectation of Holiness*
What is the Kingdom of God?*
