Jim Shaddix - Recognizing False Teachers - 2 Peter 2:1-3

thank you dr whitfield would you uh join me in worshiping the lord through the study of his word now second peter chapter two in your bible if you have a bible i want you to help me preach tonight i have a hard copy open it to that place electronic turn it on and you will keep it uh where you can see it so we can look and hear what god has to say to us uh this evening let me just tell you up front as we come to second peter chapter 2 in our study and what a blessing to work through this book together i love this approach and just honored to be a part of it but um chapter two is not one of those that uh for anybody that deals with this text you're going to be able to come up to him after the service and say you really enjoyed that message uh this is heavy stuff it is weighty stuff but stuff that is certainly part of the gospel and that which we need for our sanctification and unbelievers need for their their salvation this is what the word of the lord says the apostle peter the human author writing under the inspiration of the holy spirit beginning in verse 1 says this there were indeed false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers among you they will bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them and will bring swift destruction on themselves many will follow their depraved ways and the way of truth will be maligned because of them they will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories one of the most discouraging things that ever happened to me as a pastor happened in a very brief conversation with a sweet senior adult lady in our church who who was trying to encourage me that time our church was broadcasting our worship services on television we were on a one-week delay and consequently our services were broadcast on a sunday morning a couple of hours before we actually gathered for that week's service i remember walking into the auditorium one sunday she met me at the door with a big smile on her face and she excitedly exclaimed i watched my two favorite preachers on tv this morning you and joel osteen i had enough about me not to respond in the moment but i can tell you as clear as i'm standing here as i walked away from that conversation what i was thinking was thinking and you you think we're saying the same thing beloved let me tell you something there is a thin line between the evangelical orthodoxy that we embrace and expound and the heretical teaching that many of our people will ultimately buy into that thin line is represented in this passage of scripture at the very beginning of what i read a moment ago in fact in most english translations it translates the first word is but peter is making a contrast between what has been said before and if you just kind of reflect back if you've been here our first two chapel services uh two brothers wonderfully exp expounded this chapter for us our president dr aiken talked to us in uh verses 1 through 15 about the the growth in the father and the godly character and nature and conduct that we're compelled to and then jd greer a couple of weeks ago helped us work through verses 16 and following in which peter talks about the inspired scriptures the prophetic word but that prophetic word was was given as part of an eyewitness testimony to something incredibly important that was being undermined in the church during this time by false teachers it's reflected in peter's words in chapter 1 verse 16 when he said for we do not follow cleverly derived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our lord jesus christ there was a lot of heresy being taught in the church among the people of god that day but one of the most dangerous was that which undermined the second coming of christ and just as a side note let me tell you your doctrine of the second coming will have a lot to do with how you act in this world practically and that essentially was the problem so peter comes back and he says listen we we we didn't get what we believe about to the coming of our lord just just randomly we were eyewitnesses and and god in his sovereignty and his grace chose to use our eyewitness testimony to pin the inspired scripture that's become the authority for faith and practice of the new testament church and then peter says at the beginning of verse 1 and chapter 2 but but there is a very real problem and that is that these kinds of teachers that are going to be teaching these kinds of doctrines these kinds of heresies are among you in fact he says they've always been among the people of god you see it in verse 1 there were indeed false prophets among the people no doubt peter had in mind that which was a reality in deuteronomy chapter 13 when god told the people through moses when a prophet arises that works miracles and does supernatural stuff don't follow them when they're trying to take you away from me no doubt he had in mind jeremiah 23 where god spoke through the prophet jeremiah and said there are prophets among you and in samaria i i saw a disgusting thing but in jerusalem i saw a horrible thing he says with regard to what the prophets were trying to do in luring you away from me could have had in mind what jesus said in matthew chapter 7 verse 15 about about wolves coming in sheep's clothing or what he had to say in matthew 24 when he said in the last days there's going to be false christs that are coming and and and they will seek if possible to lure even the elect away i could have had in mind what paul said to the ephesian elders in acts chapter 20 and that is brothers when i when i leave there's going to be savage wolves that rise up among you seeking to lure you away and cause your sh your faith to be shipwrecked he would say in second corinthians chapter 11 about those who were in the church those super apostles as they professed and said these are false christs and and and they are the satanic they're they're the devil coming as an angel of light later on paul would tell young timothy in second timothy chapter four the people are actually going to foster some of this they're going to be looking for people that will scratch the itch in their ears they want somebody to tell them that the way they're living their lives is okay this has always been the case among the people of god and then peter says in verse 2 just as there will be i think most bible scholars would say to us he is speaking in terms of what is not just in the future but what is present what is a reality in you now and beloved listen to me come in here with close we've got to take this to heart okay this we've got to personalize this the common denominator in all of those passages old testament and new that that talk about false prophets the common denominator is they are among you we're not talking about the heretics out there we're not talking about uh people that hate christians that are throwing stones at the church we are talking about people in here if you will maybe some of us maybe some of you i'll pray not i hope not but certainly some that will be and are in every one of our churches this is what the word of the lord says and the apostle peter is saying you know this this reality this reality is present among us and it stands in contrast in great contrast to the convictions that we have about the second coming of our lord the convictions that we have about the other doctrines we hold dear the the faith that is reflected on the pages of holy scripture and all of that listen impacts the way we live our daily lives it impacts whether we're living like as in the first section of chapter one whether we're living godly lives or whether we're blowing this off and we're just we're just going through the christian life and for us christian ministry in a very flippant way with really no consideration of the seriousness of our conduct and so peter begins to talk to these believers about those false prophets saying this you need to be able to recognize you need to be able to recognize them because they are here to deceive and destroy you and influence the way that you live your life and so he calls attention to three characteristics we might call them three motives in these first two and a half verses here that that are listen to me are that they sound eerily like what we know to be true in our present day about false teachers listen to this this is what i want you to listen for he says they smuggle destruction he says they scandalize the gospel and he says that they swindle believers let me show these two they smuggle destruction a number of years ago i was traveling a lot internationally i was kind of tired of coming back into the country and some of you've experienced this and standing in a long lines and and so i i heard about this this expedited global entry service so that you could you could get get approved for and and then you could you know get through quickly through customs coming back in so you had to fill out an application online pay a fee and then set up an interview and they would just do a quick interview and then you know hopefully you would get applied so i did all of that it worked out great the closest place to do the interview for me was the atlanta airport i was traveling in and out of there flying through there a lot that him so i lined up a time to go there have a longer layover i made an appointment everything worked great flights were on time i i got in there and and the guy set me down in a cubicle he had his back to me he was looking at a computer screen he said mr shadows this won't take very long just got a couple of questions for you and then you'll be on your way he said the first question is this have you ever been have you ever been guilty of a customs violation well i just kind of laughed you know i said no that's ridiculous of course not and then he said well it says right here that in 2002 you tried to bring some switchblades back into the country from the philippines my palms started sweating and i began to remember exactly what he was and he was exactly right i had been in a market in the philippines my boys were young they collected knives i i saw these cool switch blades i thought this would be great for their con their collection so i bought them and and and then i i took them home or so i thought but you see what i didn't know was that it's illegal to bring switchblades into the united states and i could prove that because you see i i actually declared them i made it easy on these guys i i you know i put them on the sheet there because i just i didn't know but the united states government wasn't impressed with my ignorance and they confiscated my switchblades and uh and they denied my application for global entry let me tell you something peter tells us that when false teachers come into the church they do not declare their goods at the door they don't tell us what they have and so he says in the middle of verse 1 they will bring in destructive heresies i think peter tells us how these guys work i think he tells us what they teach and and where they're headed he tells us how how they work in this word translated in my english translated translated bring in they will bring in this is a word that means to to to bring secretly to do it by stealth they don't come in announcing hey i've got some baggage here some some stuff that's just totally ridiculous that i want you to believe but this is something that is done under the radar and this is one of the reasons beloved listen to me it's one of the reasons that so many of us don't give attention to this inside the church we we might give attention to what we hear in the voices out there but we're not looking for it inside the church but peter says they they they work by stealth and you see what they're what they're sneaking in or not like a switchblade which i'm assuming the reason you can't bring those things in it's because they can be harmful they can cut you and they could even possibly kill somebody physically but here in this text he says they're bringing in destructive heresies there it's a word used here that reflects eternal destruction eternal destruction he says this is what they are they they're bringing in and they're they're bringing in under the radar stuff that is far worse than any knife far worse than any gun can do this is something that can damn somebody to separation from god in hell for all of eternity and they're trying to bring it in under the radar this is how they work i want you to notice what they teach peter unpacks it a little bit there again toward the end of verse 2 notice he says even denying the master who bought them the word master is the word despotis from which we get our word despot it's not used very many times in the new testament but it is used several times including one here to refer to our lord the disciples in in acts chapter 4 when they were praying after peter and john were you know were let go from their inquisition they they cried out sovereign lord and they used this word right here as an interesting meaning the word means uh a a a a slave owner with with complete authority now we would think right here that you know in the phrase that peter uses even denying the master who bought them that he's speaking of that redemption the atonement specifically that our lord bought for us on calvary's cross but attached to this this this idea of a despot here he he seems to be talking about the practice of a slave owner going to a market and purchasing some slaves and then assigning various tasks to uh to you know to them in his household and peter uses this word to describe that which listen to me these guys are denying that which they deny which is destructive from the standpoint of leading people to eternal separation from god now you understand that i can't just throw this out there and tell you that our lord here is being described as a slave owner and just move past it not in the day in which we live and so i want to take a moment i want to take a moment to try to put this in perspective and i hope i hope put something on the table that will be helpful to us even in in navigating the day in in which we're we're in you know as a pastor oftentimes um more times than i i wish i would run across someone who struggled uh in in their their relationship with god in referring to him as father uh and that was because though this is where they are wrestling with a relationship with god or in a relationship with god but just not being able to get their eyes around arms around the idea of him being father and and that happened because at some point in their past they they had a an earthly father who was abusive who who who perverted what it meant to be a father and and here they are at this point in the timeline of their life and this is all that they they have to go on is is that experience well what i did as a pastor is like what many of you do is is not just settle with with trying to fix this because you can't fix this nor throwing it out the whole concept of god being a father but instead move farther back in the timeline this is what we have to do and go back to the one who invented fatherhood the one who is a good father the one who is never abusive the one who is loving and patient the one who came looking for us when we weren't looking for him and and what i want to do because it's so important in this person's life and their relationship with god is to get them beyond this which is hard to do i get that but do everything i can by the grace of god to get them back to what fatherhood is supposed to be because i don't want them navigating the christian life without the understanding of a good father that they have well guess what we got the same situation when it comes to slavery here we are in a contemporary context and it's hard for us to even mention the word without thinking about that which we know to be an utter compromise of the gospel that which we know to be that was horrible and sinful that which treated people like they were lesser than individuals that that were were slave owners and and and all of that and more that we reject and we push back on and as we should and we preach against and we champion to to overcome in our country comes back to to something that happened certainly still happens in many parts of the world and even under the radar in in our own country abuses but particularly a time in our country when the idea of slavery was made to be something that that compromised the image of god in which to which people were created but here we are here we are navigating all of that and if we're not careful if we're not careful we we simply will we'll stop here if we're not careful christians listen to me we we will succumb to a canceled culture that will say to us if that's what the bible says and that's what god is i don't want any part of it but you see what we have to do is we have to help shepherd people and it takes time and it's difficult back over on the timeline to the cosmic divine despot who is never abusive who is is never perverts a relationship in fact is the good god one who has purchased us yes with his blood and one who is a good god and a good slave owner you understand that the ethic of slavery is going to be in relation to the slave owner the rightness or wrong if you and i if you and i today throw out the idea of slavery just as a word and we throw it out in relation to the christian life and who god is and who we are then we are going to throw out a huge part of what it means to be in relationship to god because we are called what monsters we're called slaves of this despot and you understand that's what that's what is being called false and and heretical is the idea of rejecting that and throwing that this part yes we need to throw it out we need to to to overcome it yes the abuses that are still there and the perversion we've got to do that but in our christian faith we we cannot afford to throw out the concept that someone has bought us and consequently we are in loving and willing submission because no one no one has ever done for us what he has done and beloved this is part of the gospel this is part of the gospel and one in which peter is saying these individuals are throwing that concept out they're canceling it they're pushing it aside and the reason they wanted to do that is because it's a concept that speaks loudly of the lordship of jesus christ and our submission to him and they didn't want any part of that this is what they were doing that they were denying the reality that jesus has bought us and therefore owns us and because he owns us we live our lives in a way that brings pleasure to him and we do it gladly because he's not an abusive egotistical slave owner he is everything that is right and good about someone who purchases someone else to make their life better and to give them hope for all of eternity this is what they were denying where would it lead [Music] where is it leading these guys well he mentions it at the end of verse 2 of verse 1 excuse me and will bring swift destruction on themselves peter's very clear he uses the same word destruction here as he uses about those destructive heresies here but here he's using it in reference to the false teachers themselves and that is they are destined for eternity separated from god in hell this is going to be a a clear theme running through this chapter at the end of verse 3. you'll look down and notice that he talks about their destruction doesn't sleep in verse 9 he says god keeps the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment in verse 12 he says these like irrational animals creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed slander what they do not understand and in their destruction they too will be destroyed very clear about where this is headed but understand this there will be those among us who don't declare their goods at the door but this is their egypt they are seeking to bring destructive heresies that damn people to hell into the body of christ so as to lure those away who may not be there yet in the family of god but on a journey there but also to create shipwrecked faith for those of us who are in the body and there's two applications here you understand one is to us as christians we have to understand this but a second one is to us as leaders who are responsible for shepherding people in the grace of god and the glory of the gospel we watch over these people not only do they smuggle destruction but they scandalize the gospel a number of years ago i heard an interview with a very well-known a professional athlete he's retired now if i mentioned his name you would know him he was still playing at that time and in an interview one reporter asked him why you know this was a guy that was known for you know just really boisterous he was boisterous a riotous living sexual promiscuity everybody knew this and the reporter asked him how he felt about his influence on young people that that that looked up to him his response was interesting he basically said i didn't sign up to be a role model and i don't want to be anybody's role model well sometime later they were interviewing another athlete who commented on this athlete's response and he said this and i quote that's not his call it comes with the territory and you know what he's exactly right it does come with the territory of anybody that is visible it is seen certainly people in prominent positions but listen it's true it's true with those who represent the gospel as well notice in verse two many hear it many hear it many this is among us in the flock many will follow their depraved ways and the way of truth will be maligned because of them the word translated depraved in my english translated is actually a word that carries sexual connotations it's used a number of times in the treatment here of these false prophets it's used at other places in the new testament to carry this idea of a looseness with regard to to sexuality and sexual uh parameters and and here the the holy spirit through peter is is saying that there's there's many that doesn't surprise you doesn't you know how easy it is in our flesh for us to chase after sexual perversion it manifest itself in so many ways not just in sex before marriage or adultery families broken apart it manifests itself in pornography and we know this temptation that's being spoken about here uh to to godly conduct in the area of sexual relationships and so peter puts it on the table and says many are going to go after that no surprise in our day but notice he says as they do the way of truth will be maligned because of this is his larger concern listen to me it's the reputation of the gospel all the way through the new testament we see this emphasis and that ours is that our concern cannot just be for uh the nature of the gospel our concern cannot just be that we have the gospel and our concern certainly cannot be just that well our life is is our life and it doesn't relate to anyone else's it relates to everybody else's with regard to the way that we represent the gospel he says here calling the gospel the way of truth because it's not a just a set of propositions to be empraced but it's a lifestyle to be followed this way of truth is going to be blasphemed it's going to be criticized it it's going to be reviled people are going to make fun of it because of them because of these false teachers and the many the many that follow you know this to be true every time every time a preacher compromises sexually and and and forfeits his ministry oh sooner or later we forget about the name we forget about the situation but let me tell you what people don't forget about they don't forget about the impression that has left in their minds about the gospel beloved you and i are representatives of the gospel and everything we do everything we say every place we go everything we take into our bodies the way we present ourselves our conduct 24 7 is an ongoing representation of the glorious gospel of jesus christ who lived a life that we can't live die to death we should have died rose from the dead to put the life of god back inside of us who has every right to be the divine despot to which we are yielded and we are bond slaves to that good lord we represent this gospel beloved in everything that we do and and and peter says here that one of the agendas of these guys is going to be to to scandalize that so they smuggle destruction they scandalize the gospel and finally they swindle believers once again this is one of those will duh moments you might have figured it out in verse 3 they will exploit in the language of the new testament the word translated exploit in in my translation as a commerce term it was a term of it was a financial term peter says it specifically they will exploit you in their greed with just made up stuff miss it doesn't take us but just a split second to think about the parallels with this as well as the the the sexual temptation and the sexual perversion verse to know that what we're looking at here are the primary two things that get ministers of the gospel in in trouble sexual temptation and greed the pursuit of of money and we we know we see it blatantly we see it blatantly and we could call names and identify those that would be characterized by both of these things but let me just remind you peter is saying here these are these are among you they are where you are and the pursuit of greed and the lust for money just like lust for sexual perversion and and crossing the lines are are things that that that there are going to be those who are always putting those things in front of us in order to lure us away and also lure the ones that we shepherd away it's been said and all of us are familiar with this that federal agents who work with counterfeit money are not are not taught to recognize counterfeit money by by by studying counterfeits primarily the primary thing that they study is the real thing they get a feel for it they know the look of it and and consequently when anything compromises that they immediately detect it and certainly that's true but could i just point out to you here that when we make the parallel to just knowing the truth and just knowing the scriptures and just studying our bibles it seems in this text that peter would say that's not enough you need to be aware of how false teachers work he's talked about the scripture in verse one and now he comes to this brothers and sisters and he says he says you need to be aware of how these guys operate and so maybe our best exhortation and application is what peter says at the end of his first episode be sober might be alert your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can devour resistant firm in the faith god we pray for grace to do just that we pray that you would our lives to be permeated by the truth of your word give us a hunger for it and let it be lord the primary thing that we give attention to but lord don't let us don't let us get lazy don't let me get lazy along the way and fail and fail to discern wolves in sheep's clothes angel of light who really is an angel of darkness god give us discerning eyes and discerning ears and use us lord we pray we pray to shepherd your people to godliness in jesus name amen

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Id: JnjhocpRG_s

Length: 35min 11sec (2111 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 18 2020