Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Mark Landis knows fakes because he creates them.

Landis is an art forger who could pull the wool over the eyes of the sharpest art critics in the finest museums.

Thirty museums fell under his spell.

Since he never asked for money, he never went to jail.

It looks like those who know reality best can be fooled by fakes as well as the neophyte.

And it happens to Christians.

Most Christians boast, “I would never fall for a false teacher.

I know the Bible.”

And we indeed know the Bible.

But why, if we know the Bible so well, all are susceptible to the spell of the spiritual spellbinder?

If the truth was so prevalent, why is error so readily available?

It is something that Peter has to address.

In our last lesson, he emphasized the inspiration of Scripture, and it is a valuable source of truth.

But where the truth goes, error tags along.

Teachers can present enough truth to sound reasonable but change enough truth to become dangerous.

For Peter, the world is and will be full of charlatans claiming to have “the true message from God.”

To keep his audience from falling under the influence of those peddling fake teaching, he has to describe the teaching and the teacher because it sounds so much like it might be true.

Discussion

A Red Sky Warning

In coastal areas, weather can turn.

When it becomes mean, it can kill.

When it looks like hurricanes will blow in, forecasters raise a red flag warning.

It is the signal to watch out.

Danger is coming.

That’s what Peter does, raise the red flag and wave it in front of Christians.

“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.”

(2 Peter 2:1)

History’s annals are littered with peddlers of falsehood.

From the prophets of Baal on Mt.

Carmel to Simon the Magician, to the gnostics with their strange philosophy of dualism, the church and truth remain under assault.

What can you see about false prophets?

They come from within.

In the history of Christianity, false teachers started out as Christian.

They were faithful church members who were trusted.

That is what makes them so deadly.

As Paul would say they come as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

You can’t tell simply by their claim of Christian fellowship.

My grandparents went to a church in California that was “stolen” from the members.

One day, a couple of nice, well-dressed young men came to church.

They were graduates of a Christian college.

They knew preachers we knew.

Yet, they were parasites to drain the lifeblood from that church.

We don’t trust outsiders but those like us, who use the language, know the facts…we will trust them.

They bring novel ideas.

Peter says they “secretly bring destructive heresies.”

They are like termites, working within, quietly sowing seeds of discontent with what is done.

Peter uses the word “heresies.”

It comes from a word that means “chosen.”

They have chosen to believe something and are promoting what they have chosen as truth.

It is a clever sleight of hand.

False teachers use enough truth to sound truthful but introduce their own ideas, interpretations, and methods.

By doing so, they smuggle in new ideas that, once accepted, lead in the wrong direction.

The problem is that it is hard to spot because it is so subtle.

Common words are used in new ways.

Phrases like, “we need to appeal to the current times if we hope to win people to the Lord,” pop up in their talk.

They don’t want change, simply growth.

In this way, the dangerous teachings creep until it chokes out the truth.

Christ takes a back seat

In the time in which Peter wrote, the creeping issue was gnostic philosophy.

It viewed the body as evil and the spirit as good.

Out of that, a complete idea of the nature of Jesus developed.

Jesus as a man could not be the Son of God since God did not touch evil flesh.

This caused all kinds of mental contortions.

Jesus was a man who seemed to be God.

Or Jesus was a man adopted as the vessel, but at the point of his death, his divinity left, and it was just a man on a cross.

It doesn’t take much thinking to see where that leads.

Jesus, the one who was born of Mary, raised in Nazareth, baptized by John, could not be God’s son.

Hence, Peter says that they “deny the Master who bought them.”

When Jesus is reduced to a mere mortal, the atoning nature of his death vanishes.

Sadly, at some point, the person of the prophet replaces the power of Christ.

When clever explanations stand as “interpretations” of the plain sense of Scripture, the counterfeit gospel gets accepted.

And all of this happens so slowly and without rancor that no one notices someone stole the church.

The Teachers

Are these teachers coming with horns on their heads?

Do they breathe fire or change shapes?

No, all false teaching comes in a human form as normal as you and I. But, Peter says that if you pay attention, you can see their traits.

Jesus said, “by their fruits you shall know them.”

Look carefully at the bud as it emerges.

What are they like?

They are Sensual.

Peter starts describing the characteristics of these teachers.

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

(2 Peter 2:2)

He describes them as sensual.

Their lives display unbridled living without boundaries or thresholds.

Personal lives are a sham.

They may appear pure in pulpits, but their lives are “no holds barred.”

We’ve seen it happen.

Preachers who preached on Sunday conducted affairs with widows or others.

Their children suffered from their abuse, both physical and mental.

When challenged, they react with anger and a cool dismissiveness to destroy the reputation of another.

Church members take their cue.

Whatever he does, they feel emboldened to do.

Then, immorality cycles through the body.

The world is watching.

Peter says this lifestyle brings the “way of truth” into utter contempt in a community.

Blasphemy is nothing less than destroying the reputation of someone or something.

In one town, the church preacher stole all the money from the treasury and took off with his lady friend to parts unknown.

For several years, the church shrank until it finally closed its doors.