“False Teachers, Among You”

Jeremiah 23:30-34; 2 Peter 2:1-22 (text)
July 13, 2014 • Download this sermon (PDF)

Pastor Nollie’s last sermon preached before his return to the United States

Introduction

Congregation of Christ: Today, I want to focus on a problem that has beset God’s people from the Garden of Eden, and will be a problem until the last day of this age. And this is the problem of false teachers.

Our text today comes from 2 Peter Chapter 2. Most scholars believe that Peter wrote this letter while he was waiting for his martyrdom in Rome during the time of Nero’s persecution of Christians in the mid-60s A.D., saying, “I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me” (2 Pet 1:14). So he was giving instructions to the churches in Asia (present-day Turkey) before his departure.

Back in Chapter 1, he encourages believers to live godly and holy lives in the grace of Christ. But in Chapter 2, he switches to warning Christians about false teachers who will come and deceive them with false doctrines, and seduce them into ungodly and unholy lives. They will teach doctrines that are contrary to the true knowledge of Christ that the apostles have taught them, leading them to corruption.

Peter says that these false teachers will come from “among you,” which means that they will arise from within the church. They will secretly sow division and destruction in the church. Peter has some harsh words to describe them. Those who will be deceived will become corrupt. But he has a word of encouragement: in the end, false teachers will meet their gloomy judgment.

So our text this afternoon is “False Teachers, Among You,” under four headings: first, Their Influence: Secret Destruction Among the People; second, Their Traits: Irrational Animals and Waterless Springs; third, Their Fruit: Slavery to Corruption; and fourth, Their Judgment: Gloomy Darkness.

Their Influence: Secret Destruction Among the People

Peter compares and contrasts Old Testament prophets and faithful apostles against Old Testament false prophets and New Testament false teachers. He warns Christians that there will be false teachers “among you,” in the church, as there were false prophets in Israel.

Obviously, the world is full of wicked people. There are non-Christian false religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. And there are also sub-Christian cults such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Iglesia ni Cristo, Quiboloy’s cult, and hundreds of others But the ones who have sown the most destruction in evangelical Christianity are those inside the church. They have deceived millions of people in the churches as “wolves in sheep’s clothing” and demons as “angels of light.”

How did they secretly creep inside evangelical churches? They use Biblical language, pious words, help the needy, and promise health and wealth, but all of these for shameful gain. They pretend to be full of knowledge with their pompous and pretentious words. They associate themselves with celebrity theologians and pastors, and boast of their approbation. So they gather many disciples, even whole stadiums, with their pretensions, yet they are unschooled and empty.

Peter says they bring in “destructive heresies.” “Heresy” literally means “religious party,” “sect,” “faction,” or “division.” They deny the truth about Christ as the Divine Lord and Savior, even if they claim to have been redeemed (“bought”) by him. They make shipwreck of their faith, destroying their spiritual lives. Not only that, their teachings bring divisions and factions in the church. Even among the Reformed believers, they teach views that are different from historic teachings, resulting in different opinions and factions within doctrinally-sound churches. “Heresy” also implies being independent of authoritative, sound doctrine, saying, “My view is the right view, and I don’t care what all other sound theologians and pastors have taught throughout church history.” This, after deluding themselves that reading books and Facebook discussions are enough to denounce seminary professors and theologians as errant.

Paul warns against such people, who will destroy the church with enticing words called “philosophy,” “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col 2:8). He also warns Timothy to avoid being engulfed in useless discussions and debates that claim to increase knowledge, but instead leads to unbelief, “Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge,’ for by professing it some have swerved from the faith” (1 Tim 6:20-21).

The apostle Jude also exhorts us to watch for these deceivers, “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4; cf Gal 2:4).

Their Traits: Irrational Animals and Waterless Springs

Because they bring destruction in the church, Peter does not mince words in harshly condemning false teachers. They follow their “sensuality,” meaning sexual sin, and “lust of defiling passion.” They “blaspheme” the truth. They exploit with “false words.”

They are “like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant” (2 Pet 2:12). They are like animals who follow their “instinct,” not reason of the mind. They think they have knowledge about deep theological matters, but they are actually “ignorant blasphemers” of God’s holy name. Since they act like “brute beasts,” their end will be the same as animals: on Judgment Day, they will be caught and destroyed in eternal hell.

They are “revelers,” indulging in worldly pleasures even during the daytime, “They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. Even when they partake the Lord’s Supper with the congregation, they are deceivers. The church in Corinth did similar things. They were so sexually immoral and greedy that they desecrated even the Lord’s Table. Their Christian witness to the pagan world around them was blemished because their behavior was like dark blots in the religion that teaches purity.

“They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!” (verses 13-14). They are so greedy that Peter compares them to the false prophet Balaam, who “loved gain for wrongdoing,” so that he seduced men who do not have firm convictions to commit sexual immorality with pagan women, ending up worshiping pagan gods. So their end will be the end of all the accursed: hell!

“These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm” (verse 17). Since their teachings are lies, they are “waterless springs,” bringing words that seem refreshing and wise, but are actually empty. They are “mists driven by a storm,” so that they are driven by whatever wind of doctrine will gather them followers and make them popular. Just like all of us who will post all kinds of things on Facebook or in our blogs, hoping that they will become “trending.” These false teachers are focused on “me, my, and mine!” Imagine walking in the desert for days without water, and then seeing an oasis or well from afar, only to find out that it is dry!

They speak “loud boasts of folly” with their false teachings masquerading as true knowledge to those who are Biblically-illiterate. They “entice by sensual passions of the flesh,” promising health and prosperity to greedy and ignorant people.

Finally, Peter likens them to the proverbial bestially gross dog and pig, “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire” (verse 22; Prv 26:11).

Their Fruit: Slavery to Corruption

Since they secretly bring in deceptions, sensuality, greed and heresies from within the church, what are their fruits?

Peter says their heresies are destructive—bringing what Paul describes as some of the fruits of the flesh—“enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy.” Because they are sensual, their fruits are sexual immorality in the church: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality” (Gal 5:19-21). They encourage brothers and sisters in the church to drinking binges that leads to “drunkenness and orgies.” And since their knowledge puffs up and is false teaching, they become idolaters, worshiping the gods of their own sensual, worldly, passionate selves.

Peter summarizes all these evil fruits of false teachers as slavery to corruption. Before they became Christians, they were pagans, enslaved to their own false teachings and worldly pleasures, “they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” But after being freed by Christ, they go back to their pagan ways, and they become “slaves of corruption” once again (verses 19-20).

How are they slaves of corruption? Before we became believers, we were “slaves of sin,” Jesus having said so, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). And Paul as well said, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death?” (Rom 6:16). Since false teachers are unbelievers, they are still slaves of corruption.

Beware that false teachers do not entice you with promises of “freedom” from the “law,” since we are under “grace.” Beware of promises of “Christian liberty” from legalism, that you don’t become slaves of lustful passions and desires that are common to all humankind.

Their Judgment: Gloomy Darkness

But take heart, congregation! False teachers have an end, whether in this world or in the world to come. Peter says their condemnation and destruction are “from long ago” in the Old Testament, or even before the foundation of the world. Their end is “swift destruction.”

Peter’s illustrations of what will happen to false teachers who secretly bring in division in the church are from the Old Testament The rebellious angels were doomed to “gloomy darkness” reserved until Judgment Day. The unbelieving world in Noah’s days and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah all perished under God’s wrath.

False teachers “will also be destroyed in their destruction” (verse 12). Since they destroy the church, God will also destroy them. Since they were delivered from their sinful ways by sound doctrine in the church, when they go back to their ungodly ways, their condemnation is worse, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first” (verses 19-20). Jesus also says it would have been better for them if they were not even born.

So Paul warns us too about those who turn away after hearing the gospel truth to follow false teachers, “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Phil 3:19).

Dear Congregation of Christ: Jesus also warns us against false prophets and false teachers, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15). They do not present themselves as false teachers, but as sheep or angels of light to deceive you with pious, enticing words, pretending to have wisdom and knowledge. But in the end, they will bring you back into slavery to sin and corruption, in their quest to destroy the church.

Paul warned the Ephesian elders as well that after he leaves, “fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30).

But like the false prophet in the Book of Revelation, their end will be “gloomy darkness” in the lake of fire and sulphur for eternity (Rev 20:10).

The Scriptures tell us that Christ has redeemed you, set you free from slavery to sin and Satan. While the fallen angels, the rebellious world in Noah’s days, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah perished under God’s judgment, Christ promises, “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials” (2 Pet 2:9). He knows how to deliver you from all kinds of temptations (1 Cor 10:13). Christ “will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world” (Rev 3:10).

He is able to keep you in his grace and mercy and peace because of his finished work on the cross to redeem you from sin. He will guard you from the influence of false teachers. You will never be as sensual, rebellious and fruitless unbelievers again. You are freed from slavery to corruption by his own body broken and blood shed for you. Finally, you are guarded from false teachers until Christ returns to bring you into everlasting glory.

So let us partake of the Lord’s Table in joy and reverence.