Heresy and Why it Matters

Introduction

Today we are going to switch directions. For the last 6 weeks we have talked about the Resurrection and its’ effects.

On Easter we celebrated the Resurrection, the moment that changed everything.

Then we remembered how the Resurrection gives our lives Meaning.

Then we looked at how the Resurrection catalyzed and modeled relationships for us to live in.

Then we studied how the Resurrection showed us the beauty of a selfless life.

Then we drank in the message of hope brought by the Resurrection.

Finally we listened to the mission given to us by Jesus following His Resurrection.

These life changing principles are as relevant to us today during the Pandemic as they were for Christians throughout history. We need to remember all the Resurrection means for us.

The new direction and why it matters.

Starting today we dive right back into the letter of 2 Peter. More specifically we will take a look at the problem of Heresy.

Let me ask you a question, why does it matter what we believe about the Coronavirus?

Why does it matter whether wearing masks in the grocery store helps or not?

Why does it matter that we know the truth about how we can catch COVID-19

—We can save the lives of loved ones.

—We can live our lives in a way that don’t harm others.

Heresy is defined as this:

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Heresy

HERESY Opinion or doctrine not in line with the accepted teaching of a church; the opposite of orthodoxy.

Why does this matter?

We have hundreds of churches and dozens of denominations in the Wabash valley. Which one is the Orthodox church?

Orthodox means “True to the historical teachings of the church—right teaching.”

Why don’t we just live and let people teach and believe what they want?

Why does it matter that other churches believe a little differently than we do?

Why does it matter that we call groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons cults?

Aren’t they just trying to live good lives like us?

If you were to tell a friend you are learning about the dangers of heresies would they be interested or more likely to roll their eyes?

Why does it matter that we talk about Heresy and define what is the truth about faith?

Put simply, Heresies promise freedom and become slavery.

The reason you leave what you believe to try something new is that you believe it will change your situation for the better.

--It will free you from your struggle with sin.

—It will free you to live the life you want.

—It will give you financial prosperity.

—It will give you the family and community support that you want.

In short we change when we believe the future we are moving towards will be better than where we currently are.

Heresies often offer a quicker route to what we want and we can forget that a heresy is abandoning crucial truths.

Holman New Testament Commentary: I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude I. Introduction: No One Expected It

No One Expected It

No one ever expected it would happen, especially with this model congregation. They provided a heated swimming pool for underprivileged kids, horses for inner-city children to ride, gave scholarships for deserving students, and provided housing for senior citizens. They even had an animal shelter, medical facility, an out-patient care facility, and a drug rehabilitation program.

Walter Mondale wrote that the pastor was “an inspiration to us all.” The secretary of health, education, and welfare cited the pastor’s outstanding contributions: “He knew how to inspire hope. He was committed to people in need; he counseled prisoners and juvenile delinquents. He started a job placement center; he opened rest homes and homes for the retarded; he had a health clinic; he organized a vocational training center; he provided free legal aid; he founded a community center; he preached about God. He even claimed to cast out demons, do miracles, and heal.”

Lofty words. A lengthy resume for what appeared to be a mighty spiritual leader and his church. Where is that congregation today? What is it doing now? The church is dead … literally.

Death occurred the day the pastor called the members to the pavilion. They heard his hypnotic voice over the speaker system, and from all corners of the farm they came. He sat in his large chair and spoke into a hand-held microphone about the beauty of death and the certainty that they would meet again. The people were surrounded by armed guards. A vat of cyanide-laced Kool-Aid was brought out. Most of the members drank the poison with no resistance. Those who did resist were forced to drink.

First, the babies and children, about eighty in number, were given the fatal drink. Then the adults, women and men, leaders and followers, and finally the pastor. Everything was calm for a few minutes. Then the convulsions began; screams filled the sky; mass confusion broke out. In a few minutes, it was over. The members of the Peoples Temple Christian Church were all dead. All 780 of them. So was their leader, Jim Jones.

Mark it down, and be on your guard: religious hucksters inhabit God’s house. Don’t be fooled by their looks or dazzled by their words. They are phonies, and they are poisonous. That was as true in 1978 with Jonestown as it was in the first century for Peter and his readers.

Peter devoted more than a full chapter to this problem because within three decades after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the early church was being rocked by false teachers. Peter wrote to disarm them and to alert his Christian friends to their insidious presence.

We must understand that the church will always have smooth-talking people using their abilities to gain and following in the church by promising quick results to common problems.

The Early Church and Heresy

The early church faced a problem kind of like the Pandemic we faced today. No one had done it before.

What Jesus started in the church carried forward prophecy from the Old Testament for sure. But we must remember that the church was a new entity in the world that Jesus brought through the Holy Spirit.

Obviously the message of the Gospel of Jesus spread like wildfire. And if you read the book of Acts you see supernatural acts and crazy ways that God provided for the early church. This gave it all sorts of momentum to keep reaching more people.

The problem was no one had a user guide or even a New Testament to guide them. The gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were being written as were many of Paul’s letters.

So the church leaders had to work very hard to figure out what we true and what wasn’t. They had to come up with answers to questions no one had asked before.

Into this scene people showed up in the church who were looking to advance themselves. Honestly growing and improving yourself isn’t a bad thing.

In fact, one of the problems in our culture today is that cultural institutions and clubs are dying out. This means many people are finding less and less opportunities to learn to become leaders and advance. People are becoming disconnected.

So back to the early church. People gravitated to Jesus’ message of hope, love, and forgiveness. People also gravitated towards an organization that was going places.

It’s been said one of the hardest things about planting a church isn’t actually getting people to attend. Many times the hardest thing is actually leading the church in a direction. Church plants often attract opinionated, self-starting people. Getting a church plant healthy means working to get strong willed people to go in one direction.

So the early church had lots of new people coming in and Peter writes here to warn the church.

The impact of false teachers on the church.

We receive a never ending flow of information about the Coronavirus and what we need to do about it. Honestly, the numbers don’t actually motivate me to change that much. And statistically, they don’t change you either.

But when I think of individual stories, I’m motivated to action. When I think of the impact of the Coronavirus on families, marriages, and communities, then I am motivated to take action and make changes in my life.

Let’s take a look at the passage

2 Peter 2:1 ESV

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.

Throughout the history of the Jews they have struggled with false prophets. Men and women claimed to speak on behalf of God and yet were not actually doing this.

False teachers and prophets have always been especially dangerous to believers for a couple reasons.

1: Most heresies aren’t neutral or harmless, they are destructive to true faith.

2: Most false teachers are usually pretty sharp people and able to convince people of their beliefs.

If both of the above statements are true then most people should be asking a very important question.

How do I tell the difference between a heresy and the truth version of Christianity?

Honestly many people teach a lot of things these days. And many of the teachings, books, talk shoes and more contain stuff that we agree with as Christians. Sorting out the truth from lies can be hard.

So let’s keep it simple with one question.

What does this teaching or teacher teach about Jesus?

The answer to that question will tell you whether you are dealing with faith or a fake.

Oprah Winfrey believes there are many faiths. Many ways to God.

The Jehovah’s witnesses believe that Jesus is not God but entirely separate from God. Salvation for them comes from being faithful to Jesus’ (and the church’s teaching) not just from what Jesus did on the cross.

The Mormons as well don’t believe that Jesus is God but that God worked through Him to bring salvation.

There are a million other beliefs and practices in the world. Many of them overlap with the teachings of Christianity in many ways. The way you can always tell a teaching that isn’t Christianity is by finding out for yourself what they believe about Jesus. The answer to this question changes everything.

2 Peter 2:2 ESV

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

The Bible teaches that Jesus is the very Son of God. He is the One who provided a sacrifice and solution for our sin.

When we start to reject who Jesus is and what the Bible teaches about Him, we always slide into immorality.

Why does heresy leads to immorality?

Think about the greatest commandment for a moment:

Matthew 22:37–38 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

Matthew 22:39 ESV

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

When we love God with all we are we allow Him to direct our lives. When we do this we are choosing to live for God and His moral standards. When you read through the Bible God sets some pretty high standards. When someone invents a different version of Christianity it almost always has moral changes that serve the one who made the change.

People find it really hard to look past a sinning Christian to the Gospel.

How many times have you tried to talk spiritual matters with someone and they brought up a story about Christians they knew who sinned either against them or someone else?

We need to remember that for many people today truth is personal, not absolute.

If you are trying to make an argument about the truth for example of

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Some people may read that verse and be able to apply it specifically to themselves. Many people, however, will only believe that verse to the extant the trust the kind of person sharing it.

When we live in sin or when people accept heretical beliefs and end up in sin it bring blasphemy to the name of Jesus.

Holman New Testament Commentary: I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude A. Exposing the Error (vv. 1–10a)

Bring … into disrepute translates the Greek verb blasphemeo, literally, “to injure the reputation of someone.”

It makes sense, one of the best ways to get people to buy into what you are teaching is to teach something that appeals to your hearer’s senses, you want to appeal to their sense of desire. You want them to want to believe what you are teaching.

During Peter’s day these teachers had come to believe that sexual activity out of marriage was ok.

Today wrong teaching also centers around sex. Whether it is teaching about gender, marriage, or reproduction (abortion) great theological battles are fought. Too often men and women import what we want Christianity to feel like into what it is.

2 Peter 2:3 ESV

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.

These teachers were interested in making their religion into something that served them.

I love the term of phrase translation in the ESV “They will exploit you with false words.” Isn’t that such a vivid picture?!

People who twist the direction of faith away from Jesus to anyone or thing else are exploiting you or I. Faith that shows care for another is faith that points them to Jesus. Faith that exploits another takes advantage of religious feeling to get something out of someone else.

God has a sharp warning for those who use their faith to exploit. Peter describes the judgement of God as something that is active and moving, it is pursuing and acting on those who disobey.

Evidence of the judgement of God as a warning.

2 Peter 2:4 ESV

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;

No one is immune from the judgement of God.

Delayed judgement is still certain and impending judgement.

If God is willing to bide His time and bring judgement against creatures as powerful as angels, how much more is He willing to judge those who teach a false faith?

2 Peter 2:5 ESV

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;

God is one who is both willing to judge the sins of men on large scale while still preserving a remnant of those who serve and follow him.

This stands to give hope to every generation. God is willing to judge sinful nations but He has limitless capacity to preserve those who are faithful to Him.

2 Peter 2:6 ESV

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;

Whenever we read of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah throughout the Bible it is a story of God judging them for their sin. And their sin was sin of a sexual nature. In fact the term Soddomy refers even to this day to inappropriate sexual relations.

Sin that is unconfessed and unforsaken will lead to destruction.

2 Peter 2:7 ESV

7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked

2 Peter 2:8 ESV

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);

Even in the middle of a culture gone to hell in a hand basket we find God always willing to show grace and rescue the righteous.

2 Peter 2:9 ESV

9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

God knows and is willing to rescue godly men and women from trials and judge sinners.

2 Peter 2:10a ESV

10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,

These false teachers are those who despise the authority of Scripture and lead people to follow their own teaching. This almost always leads to sinful actions.

God is persistently willing to judge sinful men and women who lead people astray.

Conclusion

Christianity is about Jesus.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus is our Savior.

If you want to hold onto the truth, hold dearly onto the truth about Jesus.

Everything else will make sense and sort itself out after Jesus.

People who reject the truth end up in sin.

God judges sin. He always has and always will.

The problem of Carpenter ants in the backyard.

A strong tree is weakened by tiny creatures making lots of tiny tunnels.

Heresy weakens and destroys strong faith from the inside.

God wants us to be like trees strong and drinking in His word.

Psalm 1:1 ESV

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

Psalm 1:2 ESV

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1:3 ESV

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Psalm 1:4 ESV

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Psalm 1:5 ESV

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

Psalm 1:6 ESV

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Watch out for heretical teachings.

Spend time getting to know the real thing.

Read and study your Bible.

Spend time talking and walking with God.

If you want to figure out whether your are dealing with faith or a fake, figure out what the religion you are encountering does with Jesus.

Know that God is and has always been in the business of judging sin in the world. Sin certainly includes those who take what He teaches and twists it.

False teachers and their effect on the church

False prophets and teachers are present

They deny Jesus’ claim as Savior and Lord

They secretly bring in destructive heresies.

These heresies lead many to follow sensuality.

Because of this the way of truth is blasphemed.

They exploit you with their words.

They stand already condemned to destruction.

God’s judgment of sin in the past proving how He will judge false teachers.

Look at the past—God judged

Angels when they sinned—hell, chains, waiting judgement

The Ancient world—sparing Noah.

Sodom and Gomorrah—turning them to ashes

God made them an example of what will happen to the ungodly.

God rescued righteous Lot—

God knows how to rescued the godly from trials

God knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of Judgment