The sinful characteristics of false teachers.

Opening Comments:

Please meet me in your copy of God’s Word in 2 Peter 2:10-22 as we continue in our Stand Firm series going through the book of 1 and second Peter. The book of 1 Peter was all about enduring persecution and attacks that come from outside the church. 2 Peter is all about when the attacks come from inside the church. 2 Peter 2 is specifically dealing with those who come into the church to spread destructive heresies. Today, we are going to see the character and conduct of a false teacher.

2 Peter 2:10–22 NKJV

10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, 13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. 15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. 17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Introduction:

In order to understand the passage we’ve just read in its’ proper context, we need to reflect just a moment on Peters writing style and the way people thought and communicated in the region of the world he was writing too. If we do not do this, we can become guilty of viewing all of scripture through a lens of western thinking.

Western thinking is linear. We move from point A to point B to Point C in a very didactic way. This is why the writing of Paul appeal to us so much. His point is clear and his direction is easy to follow. Paul was uniquely to reach the west because of his roman upbringing.

Peter though was very different. He was not roman at all. He was Jewish and thought and wrote in an entirely different way. Peter, does not move didactically like Paul did. His thought process and way of expressing himself was not linear, but circular. He’d begin a thought, go off on a tangent related to the though but a different aspect of it and then circle back to his original thought.

The book of 2 Peter is written this way. The whole crux of the book is to remind believers of what they already know about Christ. Then he goes off on a tangent about God’s Word and how it came to be and how there are false teachers who pervert God’s Word and will be judged for it, then in Chapter three he circles back to his point about reminding them of what they already know about Christ If we don’t understand that, we will get lost in the weeds.

Our text before us this morning in chapter 2 is in the middle of Peters tangent, but, we can see his circular thinking even here. Chapter 2 began with Peter by describing false teachers to us by their conduct. He then went off on a tangent about how they would be destroyed. Now, in the text we’ve just read he circles back to describe these false teachers so that we may be able to spot them and root them out of our church.

With all of that in mind, lets view the sinful characteristics of false teachers.

1. The sin of evil speaking. ( v.10-12,18a)

v.10 “…they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.”

v.12 “…speak evil of things they do not understand...”

Peter is telling us that false teachers have no respect for authority and publicly and proudly defame others, especially those who hold positions of authority.

This is a direct violation of scripture for Romans 13 tells us that God himself has established all authority. So when we resist authority, we are in fact resisting God.

False teachers can be seen here despising authorities and speaking evil of dignitaries when God’s word declares we are supposed to pray for them.

This could be broadly applied too many areas from parents, to government leaders etc. But, remember, Peter is discussing the damage done when a false teacher worms his way into the church of God. In other words, false teachers speak out and defame those who are in positions of spiritual authority. Namely Christ and those who lead the church under the authority of Christ and the scripture.

why do they do this?

A. They walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleaness.

Sinful flesh only wants to indulge and gratify itself. It seeks only for personal gain. A false teacher, who walks in the flesh, is not seeking your welfare or the welfare of the church body but is seeking to build himself up and gain recognition so people will follow them instead of following Christ.

This is a direct assault on the Lordship of Christ. Christ says, follow me and walk as I walked. A false teacher doesnt want to this, they want to live however they want to live and take as many people down the path of following the flesh as they can.

B. They are presumptuous and self-willed.

Audacious, arrogant or daring.

They boldly and audaciously speak evil of dignitaries. They may say they are serving Christ but they are only serving themselves by feeding their own ego. They are hard hearted and obstinate toward the truth of God’s word and solely focused on furthering their own agenda.

To illustrate just how arrogant false teachers are, in v.11 Peer makes a contrast between the arrogance of false teachers and the angels of God. He says, even the angels with all of their power and might do not speak evil against the fallen angels but have left the judgment up to God. (Jude 8-9).

Application: The sin of evil speaking is great and yet it is one that is too commonly practiced even among believers. This is a sin that the people of God must abandon and avoid at all cost.

Titus 3:2 NKJV

2 to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

Ephesians 4:31 NKJV

31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

C. Their words are empty. (v.17-18a)

They may sound great but their words are void of truth. Peter calls them “wells without water” and “clouds witout rain”

They promote opinion and their own ideas above God’s word and in doing so offer no hope to their hearers.

Instead of strengthening you in your walk with Christ, their teaching makes you unstable and leads to corruption.

D.) They are “brute beasts” who will perish. (v.12)

This is vivid language. Peter says they are like animals who do not have the ability to understand or reason but only follow instinct and are headed to the slaughterhouse.

In other words, in following their own delusions of grandeur, they lead themselves to their own destruction.

2. The sin of sensual living. (v.13-14a, 18b-19)

Peter is painting a picture telling us that false teachers use ministry as a cover for fulfilling their own lusts.

A. They carouse with the world openly. (v.13)

They join into the pleasure filled indulgence of the flesh with the worldly. They reject the idea of living a life separated and sanctified unto Christ. Peter tells us that their open sin is nothing more than a “spot and blemish” upon the church.

They may profess to be teachers and preachers of God’s word, but their sinful carousing blemishes the name of Christ.

B. They have eyes full of adultery. (v.14)

They live immoral lives wholly given over to sexual desire. They use and abuse the opposite sex for their sick and twisted means.

C. They entice unstable souls. (v.14,18-19)

They trap people who are not grounded in the faith and lure them over to their opinions. False teachers don’t pray on people who know their Bibles, they come along those who don’t because they are easily led astray. This is why we as believers must be constant in studying God’s word for ourselves. Knowing what God says is the only way to escape the trap of a false teacher.

If you do not know what the Bible says, the doctrine of a false teacher will enslave you to this world.

3. The sin of selfishness. (v.14b-16)

Peter paints a third picture of a false teacher as being a person being an expert in greed who seeks to exploit people for personal gain.

A. They are covetous. (v.14b)

They are only minded to gain the pleasures and possessions the world has to offer.

Popularity

Attention

recognition

a larger crowd

money

leadership, etc.

They truth of Christ and his word no longer matter to them as much as pursuing their own covetousness. All that matters to them is what they are seeking after in the moment so they will persistently hammer their false doctrine home until it afford them all that their flesh longs for.

B. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray. (v.15)

The false teacher has forsaken the way that leads to life (Jesus), following the way that leads to death.

Peter uses the example of Baalim from the Old testament book of Numbers 22-25. The king of Moab began to fear the strength of Israel as they marched toward the promised land. So he hire Baalam (a prophet) to come and put a curse on Israel. At first, Baalam refused to go and even discuss it with the king of Moab. But after several attempts and the king offering more and more money to Baalam, he gave in because he coveted the things of the world. But, along the way, God caused Balaam’s donkey to speak and rebuke Baalam for going against God. Then, in Numbers 31, Baalam is the person who later would lead Israel to turning away from God and into sin.

Balaam is an example of a false teacher who was focused on worldly possessions and led the people of God into sin.

Conclusion:

Evil speaking, sensual living and selfishness are all hallmark characteristics of a false teacher and all three of them or directly opposite of what a true servant of God displays in a church.

v.20-22 closes with a warning of coming judgement for the false teacher.

Peter is not saying here that these false teachers were once believers who lost their salvation. NO, they never were genuine believers. They know the way of righteousness but have decided to reject Christ entirely. They may profess Christ but they do not possess Christ. The have become apostate. That is to say they have inoculated themselves against the gospel and may never be able to be saved.

They are all together become unclean, like a dog who eats it’s own vomit or a pig wallowing in the mud.

1 John 2:19 NKJV

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

Application:

What can we take away from today?

We need to make sure we possess genuine faith and not the false faith of a false teacher.

We must seek satisfaction in life from the only well that has water, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must identify and avoid false teachers before they lead others astray.

We must seek to grow and be grounded in the Bible so we are not vulnerable to the lure of false teachers.