2 Peter 2:1
Just as there were holy men of God writing scripture and prophecy by the Holy Spirit moving them and using them, so there have always been those who fight against it. In the days of the prophets in the land of Israel there were many false prophets. In the days of teachers in the church there are false teachers. The effect of their work is dark but it's not always real obvious. These guys don't announce their presence. They look and sound very religious, maybe even godly. They look and sound sincere and caring as they slip an arm around you and turn you off the straight path.
The basis of all false prophets and false teachers is to cast doubt on God's word. It started in the garden when Satan said, "Did God really say that? Didn't he really mean something else?" If we hold fast to the authority of scripture the false teacher has no sway over us. If we doubt or waiver; if we tear out this page or that page; the authority of scripture is gone. How can we have salvation by faith if we don't trust scripture? How can we say, "My faith is assured to me on page 100 when we've essentially torn out pages 101 to 150 because we didn't like what they said? The bible isn't a buffet where you take what sounds good to you. Its truth, it's God's word and it stands together.
These false teachers operate openly, yet, they secretly sneak in destructive heresies. A heresy is a thought that is in opposition to the gospel. If the gospel leads people to salvation by grace, a destructive heresy leads the other way. A destructive heresy isn't dark and ugly and something that gets jammed down your throat. It's subtle, it's sweet, it will appeal to the flesh. It's that quiet little redirection that leads people another way. It says, "come with me, I have a better way, a way that is more fun, one where you don't have to give up your pride or your sin."
- False teachers preach the goodness of man ….
- …….while the bible teaches we all have a deceitful heart.
- They teach you must love yourself ………
- …….while the bible says you must die to self and love Jesus.
- They preach love …..
- ……but not judgment.
- They teach salvation
- ….. but without repentance.
False teachers create a false god that is nothing more than an idol. And if those who chase these idols looked closely, they would find the idol looks very much like them. They made for themselves a god that thinks just like them and agrees with them on all points and winks at their shortcomings and quickly looks away.
Some of the false teachers of Peter's time were even denying the Lord who bought them. This denial brings on them swift destruction. This same thing goes on today. There are many churches and they are still called churches. The leaders are still called pastors and they still meet on Sunday. But they deny Jesus Christ. They deny the word. They pursue their own agenda in the name of tolerance and acceptance and love. They've invited the world in and then changed the message so as not to offend the world. While this may sound loving and compassionate it is in fact destructive and it leads people to hell.
2 Peter 2:2
There are many buildings full of many people every Sunday. Even today, many follow destructive ways because they blaspheme the way of truth. This blasphemy is subtle and takes many forms but I believe the primary blasphemy of the way of truth is when people take the name of the Lord but deny him by their actions. Many name Jesus. Many say they are saved. Many call him Lord. But only a few live their lives that way. To call Him Lord but treat him like a servant is denying His ownership and authority over your life. This is just having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Our first thought and response might be, I'd never do that. Peter thought that at one time also. "Oh Lord I would never deny you.......I'd follow you all the way to death." Don't be deceived. We each deny him daily when we sin. Sin is rebellion against God. If we are ever convinced that we can't be deceived and led away by a false teacher we are ripe for the picking. Deception will sneak in unaware and lead you away without you knowing. Many will follow these false teachers and bring the way of truth into disrepute.
2 Peter 2:3
Even though the false teachers and prophets seem to be getting by very well their destruction is coming. They profit by exploiting on covetousness, both their own and others. In Peter's day they made up stories to give people what they wanted to hear, to make more money from them. The name it and claim it teachers feed on this. In the name of Jesus, they exploit the covetous nature of mankind to offer a false hope to draw you away from contentment and ultimately part you and your money. They may get by with it today, tomorrow, maybe a lifetime but God's wrath is being stored up and they won't escape.
2 Peter 2:4-10
God didn't spare the angels that rebelled against him and sinned. Apparently, some were cast down to hell and into chains of darkness. They are held there for a day of judgment. This is likely a reference to the angels that left their place and came and took wives from the daughters of men, procreating an offspring of hybrids.
Similarly, God didn't spare the people of Noah's time either. He saved 8 people out of the world in which everyone did what they thought was right in their own heart.
Likewise, God also turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. He condemned them and made them an example. Although he saved Lot and his family.
What can we learn from these 3 examples? First, God is sovereign and all powerful. He is righteous and He will judge the world. His judgment is on His timeline and His timing is perfect. No one will fly under the radar and evade God's judgment. Every sin will be paid for.
The second thing we can learn is that God is working right in the middle of a dark world. In Noah's time, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. In Sodom and Gomorrah Lot was a righteous man right in the middle of that godless place. And Abraham looked over the cities and interceded for the righteous. God is sovereign and powerful enough to even use the evil and dark things of this world to do His work.
The 3rd thing we can learn from these examples of judgment, and maybe the most important for us, God knows how to deliver us through that time. God brought Noah and his family through the judgment by hiding them in a flood. And Lot was rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah by the angel of the Lord. And He can rescue us from the darkness of our day. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly. And He knows how to reserve the ungodly for punishment. And we'll leave those things up to Him.
Peter said God especially knows how to deal with those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. These guys pretended to be men of God. In fact, they just straight up chased the lust of uncleanness and despised the authority of God.
God didn't spare the angels, and he didn't spare the ungodly people of Noah's time. God will judge these false teachers. The false teachers speak of a God that loves us so much he just wants to give us all our hearts desire. They don't teach a sinful nature. They don't teach that we must come broken and contrite. The false teacher has believed their own lies. Somehow, they think they will escape judgment? Jesus said it would be more tolerable in the day of Sodom than for people who reject God.
2 Peter 2:10b-11
Jump over to See Jude. The book of Jude is very similar to this chapter we're studying. Starting at verse 8:
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.
The false teachers slandered celestial beings. The archangel Michael refused to speak evil against Satan. Even though there was some disagreement between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses. Even at that, Michael left the rebuking of Satan to the Lord. We are apparently expected to respect the greater power. Many deny the supernatural while others go the other way and disrespect it. Satan and his demons are powerful in this world and we are no match for them. However, they are no match for the power within us that comes through Jesus Christ.
It does seem that many of the false teachers have this bravado. They teach that they are going to stand toe to toe with Satan and they are going to say this and do that. "You need to just punch those demons in the nose and take what you have coming to you. Bind that evil that is keeping you from your best life now." And so on. It's just goes on an on.
Remember the seven sons of Sceva from Acts 19:11.
11 Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We[a] exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?"
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
These guys got cocky and brazen and got stripped naked and whooped on. We have no business messing around with these things. False teachers are brazen, presumptuous and self-willed; messing around in spiritual things instead of being humble and obedient with the heart of a servant.
2 Peter 2:12-13
Natural brute beasts is like a person just operating like a wild dog. It's not a human acting upon wisdom, education and thoughtfulness, but more like an animal acting on instinct, pursuing base desires. He has no rules and he only has a couple things on his mind. He is driven by the desires of the flesh.
These guys carouse in broad daylight. They are slick talkers that have no shame. They take pride in their greed and success in selling their ways to others. They have left the straight way. They are like animals with no purpose but their own well being. Peter says they will perish in their corruption. While these false teachers would say they loved and served Jesus Christ in reality they did neither. The teachings and their actions gave them away.
2 Peter 2:13b-16
This is literally dirty spots and scabs. While Christianity speaks of purity and being washed clean these guys represent filth. The gathering of God's people around a table is a beautiful sight to Him. The false teacher was like a gravy stain on the table clothe of a perfect setting or a wilted and dead flower among the fragrant bouquet of the center piece. When these false teachers were among them, they pretended to be part of the body when in fact they were pedaling a deception. Their works and heart revealed their true nature. The eyes of the false teachers were constantly filled with adultery. This means they literally looked at every woman as their next adulterous conquest. They never stopped looking. These guys talked and taught as if they were about God. Among God's people they stood and taught. They enticed others to join them in their sin, all the while they had their eye on some lady. They were lusting and planning on acting on it. These guys had a reputation of carrying on in adulterous affairs while claiming to be prophets and teachers.
Peter said their hearts were trained in covetous practices. Just as an Olympic athlete trained in their sport, these guys were trained in their deceit. They were trained up in the arts of seduction and every kind of fraud. They had given up on the right way and gone astray like Balaam. Balaam was guilty of a great sin. He was a prophet for sale to the highest bidder.
The false teachers of our day come in many shapes and sizes but they all have a few things in common. All they do is rooted in greed, pride and lust.
Here is what they are:
2 Peter 2:17
Wells have water. A well has only one purpose, to provide water. If a well can't deliver water, it is nothing more than a useless hole in the ground. These guys were like wells without water. They held the promise of a cool fresh drink but had no ability to deliver it. They were preachers with no good news, no gospel.
Peter also said they are clouds carried by a tempest. These are dark clouds that look like they are bringing a storm but nothing happens. Just a little flash and a little noise that delivers nothing. Nothing is what they delivered. Strangely enough, people fell for it then and they fall for it today.
God has a place specifically designed for those who are so full of evil. Because of the damnable heresy they teach, the blackness of darkness is reserved for them forever.
2 Peter 2:18
These guys can't deliver any real truth with their message. It's charisma over content. The words are openly conceited and void of anything worthwhile or valuable. They allure (bait) you to draw you into the lasciviousness, debauchery and wanton abandon of moral boundaries. They have nothing to offer but temptations to those have already escaped those things. It's shameful dangling before the eyes of those who once stumbled over such things.
2 Peter 2:19
They offered liberty when in fact they drew men into sin and bondage. To throw off the warnings and prior teachings in order to pursue the lust of the flesh seemed like freedom on the surface. The words of the false teacher appeal to the sinful nature and lustful desires of man. However, they are slaves to the depravity which has become their master. They chase after power, money and experience and when they get it, they can only lust after more. These lusts become a judgment in itself as the false teacher becomes a slave to his own lusts and cannot escape it.
2 Peter 2:20
The term 'pollutions of the world' has some graphic definitions and uses. It is the profane and foul by-products of humanity. When one comes to the knowledge of the Lord, they are saved out of those pollutions of which we were all immersed. In following these false teachers, they are voluntarily immersing themselves in the profane and foul things of life they were once rescued from. These people will be worse off because they knew the truth and turned away from it to preach a perversion of the truth. This is frightening. These men knew Jesus but had been led away. This should frighten each of us because if it could happen to them it can happen to you.
2 Peter 2:21-22
This is my Illinois pig farmer analogy of coming to Jesus. We were all once wallowing (wallering) in the mud (or what Peter might have called the Pollutions of the world). The Holy Spirit one day opened your eyes. Suddenly you saw what you are lying in; suddenly you got downwind from yourself. You saw your self as God sees you and you called out to Jesus to save you. He took you out of the mud, cleaned you up and gave you a royal robe to wear. He set you on a path and that path is right through the pigsty from which you were just saved. Our job is to walk through that sty; staying away from the pollutions of that world, doing our best not to get any on us.
Even though we are cleaned up and wearing a royal robe, we are still pigs. And some turn their back on Jesus and return to wallow in the mud. Peter said it would have been better if they had just stayed in the mud than to have come out, experienced being clean and then returned.
Please hear this; it sounds a lot like people being deceived so much that they willingly gave up their salvation.
The one thing we can't lose sight of is that these false teachers were convincing enough that many followed them. They led very intelligent people astray. We've seen some extreme examples of this in our lifetime. Think of the Jim Jones cult; they all drank poison Kool aid together. Think of Waco Texas with David Koresh. Remember the Heaven's gate cult. They followed a man named David Applewhite. They committed suicide together by applesauce or pudding laced with drugs and washed down with vodka. We look at these stories and think, what was wrong with these people? Yet, you can turn on "Christian" TV, day and night and see all kinds of people being deceived. People fill stadiums to listen to them. They throw their money at them trying to buy a miracle or a better life. In their shame and sin and pain, they cry out for relief but the false teachers offer nothing because they have nothing.
As a Christian we are called to be discerning. We are to recognize the false teachers. We can't be lured by their slick words and big promises. They are experts and using religion to manipulate you for the sake of their own pleasure or money or both. They offer nothing of value. They are in bondage and bring others in also. They are destructive to the body of Christ and will leave in damaged and broken and lifeless if allowed to operate freely. We are not just to reject their teaching but also their evil ways.
© 2012 Doug Ford
Updated & revised 2020
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