7 CHARACTERISTICS OF FALSE TEACHERS (2 PETER 10B-14)

Introduction

It was the Puritan pastor John Owen who once wrote, “It is incumbent on them (referring to pastors) to preserve the truth or doctrine of the gospel received and professed in the church, and to defend it against all opposition.”

Pastors who are faithful to their calling will lead, they will intercede, they will feed and are willing to bleed to love, to cherish and to protect their people. This means that they must be willing to take a hard line against those who would slip in error over truth in the name of love , nor can they stick their head in the proverbial sand and ignore it. Why? Because an unwillingness to speak the truth of God’s Word will always lead to the destruction of society.

Peter will continue his devastating diatribe against the false teachers that he began in verse nine (read 9-10a). In so doing, he will describe to us seven characteristics of false teachers peddling a false narrative and doctrine.

They Are Full of Arrogance (2:10b-11)

This arrogance is seen in the phrase “bold and willful.” The foundation of the sin of these false prophets is sin. Bold (tolmetai) literally means “darers” or “reckless ones.” They are also described as willful (authadeis) which carries the idea of “self-pleasing conceit and obsinancy. These are determined to have their own way at any cost. Peter illustrates this arrogance by their attitude toward the “glorious ones.” This is simply another name for angels. These despise human authority but it goes far beyond that. They also despise supernatural authority. They are basically shaking their fists in the face of God. This attitude is not seen among the angels of heaven even toward these phony self-willed pretenders. Rather, they commitment such judgment where it belongs-into the hands of the Sovereign God.

They Behave Like Wild Animals (2:12a).

These people operate by instinct and not reason. They are guided by their emotions and how they feel about something. Truth to them is something that comes from within themselves. The have ceased to be human. Just turn on the Conceited Non-News Network (CNN) and you will see that such people have ceased to be human. I blame the school system of this nation. They threw God out of school and told Him to go home. So He did. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. They stopped affirming the truth of a loving Creator and began indoctrinating precious children that they are animals. Why are we so shocked when they behave like animals. Friend, if you don’t know your origination, you are not going to care about your destination. On the other hand, if you have been taught the truth, the fact that you have been created in God’s image for God’s glory, that changes everything.

They Are Purposefully Ignorant (2:12b)

There are many people like that today. They come to understand they have been sold a bill of goods. However, they like the lie and the false narrative that goes with it because the truth will expose the culture for what it really is. When false teachers give a false narrative, there will be those vulnerable enough to believe it because they like the chaos that ensues. That is why you have television preaching speaking “another gospel” and are leading people to hell while such people continue to give these phonies their money. The Bible says these people know the truth but suppress the truth. That is why Romans 1:18 declares, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” They speak of things they do not understand. Have you ever tried to have a conversation about spiritual matters with someonewho is arrogant, animalistic and ignorant? You know, liberals on Twitter.

Are you familiar with the Darwin Awards? These are given to people who have done something so crazy that it has actually taken their life or almost took their life. The 1999 award went to a man named Ronald Demuth. He was in Africa on a safari. There were also some Russians on this safari. This guy from America said, “I am going to demonstrate to these Russians the wonderful invention of America called “Krazy Glue.” Enter Sally, a two ton rhinoceros that came walking by. Demuth poured three ounces of Krazy Glue on his hands. He placed his hands on the backside of the brute beast. It gets worse. Demuth states, “Look! I can’t get my hands of this rhinoceros!” At first Sally was okay because she was pretty docile. However, when this guy’s hands still were on her, Sally started getting nervous. She began to trot. Then the human appendage began to dangle from her backside. Then she broke into a gallop. At this point, this is not funny anymore. Everyone began to chase Sally with this guy bouncing behind her. What no one knew was that Sally was suffering from severe constipation. Earlier that morning one of the animal attendants had given Sally some medicine to help things get going (if you know what I mean). When she got nervous, she unloaded thirty gallons of rhinoceros diarrhea. It took three zookeepers with three large shovels just to remove the “stuff” off of Demuth so he could breath. The officials had to tranquilize Sally to temporarily put her down., After much work, they could remove this man’s hands off of poor Sally.

Just like Ronald Demuth, a growing number of people are willingly ignorant and false teachers just like them will try to influence you away from Christ.

They Will Reap What They Sow (2:12c-13a).

God, my friend, is not mocked. To us God may appear silent, but He is taking notice of every evil deed these guys are doing. They are not getting away with anything. They are going to suffer wrong as the wage for their wrong doing. This wage will be eventual eternal darkness. That is why Philippians 3:19 says, “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” They will one day reap what they are sowing in this day.

They Infiltrate the Church (2:13b).

People would meet in others’ homes and they would bring food. They would eat a meal and then have a time of fellowship. They would then conclude the evening with the Lord’s Supper. It was a time of wonderful worship and sweet fellowship. The false teachers would come in and began to ruin this spirit of worship and fellowship. They turned the agape feast into basically a drinking party.

People will try to sneak under the radar of the church and seek to seduce people to themselves and way from Christ. This was done by physical means such as money, influence, power and their deceptive tongues to accomplish this end. Their goal is deception by any means possible. They do this because they themselves have been deceived. They try to convince you how spiritual they are. All the while they as crooked as my dog’s hind leg. They are lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon track. If you are not sure what they means, that is pretty low.

I need to take a moment and speak in a more pastoral tone at this point. You need to hear me because this happens all the time. God is using Judson Baptist Church in mighty ways. If you do not see it, it is because you choose not to be involved. That is your decision. Yet, that does not change the fact of what God desires to accomplish and is through so many of us. This means that we are in the best of situations because of obedience. However, we are also very vulnerable. Whenever God sets up a work, Satan is sure to set up shpt on the other side of the street. He will attempt to sow the seeds of discord and division by planting his people among God’s people. So be forewarned and be alert.

Here is the contemporary mindset in most of our churches. Just hold on to everybody at all costs. Why? That was not the position of Jesus. Yet, that is the position of the current church growth movement and I am afraid is quickly becoming the position of the SBC. Hear me again on this point. We will not dummy down or butter up the gospel to get people to feel better about the foolishness they live in. If that is the church you are looking for, we are not that church. We will not allow the devil and his crowd to come into this church and cause disunity. Again, there are two fundamentals upon which we must unite. We must unite under the lordship of Jesus Christ and we must unite under the authority of His Word.

The false teachers were trying to infiltrate the church of God. Peter says, “Call them out for what they are.” I am with Peter on this one.

They are Continuously Inclined towards Evil (2:14a).

They are addicted to the disobedience to God’s Word and to fulfilling their own insatiable appetites to wickedness. Notice what the text says. “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.” The actual word is “adulteress.” These would come into the fellowship and look around trying to see how many of the women they could turn into an adulteress. Since they had denied the power of Christ that could have been theirs, they became captive to their sin. Rather than receiving the grace of Christ, their hearts continually turned to evil.

These are like so many in our own day as they scream, “I want my rights! I want my rights!” This, of course means, “I want my way!” What this culture needs is a long overdue good old fashioned butt whupping. This culture is full of ungrateful spoiled brats. They believe in free speech and tolerance as long as it is them doing the talking. However they have no tolerance for us. I believe that is very intolerant of them.

The truth is that true biblical Christianity and this godless culture are on a collision course. There is no way to avert it, so get ready. Yes, we will love the people caught in the culture with Jesus. However, we are not going to compromise the Word of God to appease the culture.

They are Intentionally Destructive (14b).

The Bible states, They entice unsteady souls. To entice means “to allure.” It carries the idea of luring someone as a fisherman’s bait lures a fish. These false teachers were baiting the hook as they were on the lookout for weak and broken people. Just like universities today, these were breaking down people morally so that they might be able to control them philosophically and even theologically. Further, their hearts have been trained to greed. Underline that word trained. It is the word “gymnazo” from which we get our word “gymnasium.” It means to exercise or discipline oneself. These false teachers practiced and researched their craft so that they might discover how to better seduce and seize people into their destructive web.

Conclusion

These are seven characteristics of false teachers to be alert to. They are full of arrogance. They behave like animals. They are purposefully ignorant. They will reap what they sow for eternity. They infiltrate the church. They are inclined towards evil and they are intentionally destructive.

Over against these are the true preachers and teachers of God’s Word. I believe that God has his faithful preachers who long to protect the spiritual sheep from falsehood and deception. For these, cowardice is not a consideration and neither is compromise.

Once a lady came up to Billy Graham and told him that she wanted to be next to him in heaven because she knew that God was going to lavish all these rewards upon him. All those millions of souls that have come to Christ all because of you. Won’t that be great! Billy Graham responded, “No, let me correct you for just a minute. I want to tell you about the people who are really going to receive the rewards, and it is not me. It is those faithful men and women of God that nobody knows and that nobody sees. Everyday they honor God in righteousness. They raise their families and proclaim the Word of God without fanfare. They are God’s faithful soldiers, faithful men and women of God on the mission field and in our great country. They will receive a far greater reward than I will.”

The false prophets’ teaching was new and cool. The problem was that it had no real spiritual vitality. It was shallow and empty. Eventually, these false teachers died out and with them their teaching. Do not forsake the truth for that which is shallow, empty and dead. Stay faithful to the Word of God because it contains the very words of life.