Tactics of False Teachers (Part A)

Scripture is replete with warning against this nonsense. A sleeping church, it's been said, is the devil's playground. That is the truth.

And you say, well, how is that so? Why are the people sleeping? They're not excited about the gospel. They're not excited about the truth.

Purity does not move them. What moves them is a thrill. It reduced the church into an entertainment center, a social cavity in the community. And now here's Pastor Rick in 2 Peter chapter 2 with a brand new message called Tactics of False Teachers. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome.

By him also, he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter ends. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them, according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow happens.

But it has happened to them, according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire. Peter's been clobbering every time we stand and read. It's just no punches pulled. And if you've been following our study through 2 Peter and you say, boy, this is just a lot of stuff about false teachers, don't worry, we're coming up to 1 John, we'll get five chapters more. Because it is that serious and it needs to be dealt with. And if you don't like it, I respectfully say there's something wrong with you, not the Bible. We have to face these things, we have to uphold them. I've entitled this consideration, Tactics of False Teachers, because that's what Peter is going to bring out a little bit for us. Many Christians stand firm against what is not in harmony with God's word. Peter knew, as we do too, that some believers fail to recognize the tactics of false teachers. Well, they do and they don't stand firm against them. Some don't care when a false teacher is exposed. They shrug it off. And then they continue to attend or buy their materials.

They continue to enable them and to encourage them. And how this happens is beyond me because the Bible is so clear about these things. Judaizers, merchandisers, Gnostics, antinomians, that's those who just feel there's no sin.

You can just do whatever you want. We've got grace. Sin doesn't really matter. These are all quick to join and infect and clobber the church because they're allowed to. That's why they get away with it. The merchandisers, they're here with us today, not in this church, but in other assemblies. They preach to get rich off of God by putting more in the offering box. They have no shame about asking for more money, more and more of the time.

While they get rich off their dupes, there is a judgment waiting for both. Jesus said it this way. He says, to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise. God's house is not here for you to enrich yourselves. Of course, that doesn't have anything to do with salaries that must be paid to faithful servants. In the third verse of this chapter, Peter said, by covetousness they will exploit you.

Do you think maybe he had in mind what Jesus said? My house is not a house of merchandise for exploiting. It's not a bazaar.

That's that Greek word. It's not a bazaar to sell things. You want to do that, go establish a shopping mall or go to the marketplace, not God's house. Imagine people coming to your house so they can sell things for themselves.

They don't even give you a commission. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. Now, the Gnostics, who will get in 1 John, that was a group of people that claimed to have extra information. They solved mysteries unavailable without them. You couldn't solve mysteries without them. Paul writes of the church at Colosse, dealing with these type of folks, the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to the saints.

But there's no mystery. We understand enough to be Christians, to be righteous. 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter said, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. They don't corner the market on Bible exposition. Then there are the legalists.

These insist that Christ's death is really not enough. They're very subtle with this sometimes. They won't come out and say that, but that's what they mean. You have to live as they say, not as they do. Usually the legalists are Old Testament driven and not New Testament led. No slight on the Old Testament. We believe in the Old Testament. It's the Word of God. Every bit is the New Testament. But we understand. We understand the Old Testament from the New Testament, not the other way around.

We are ministers of the New Covenant, Paul said. Ephesians chapter 2, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not by works lest anyone should boast. You'll never be able to stand before God. Look how I did my hair. Look how I wore these clothes. Look how I did this. God doesn't tell me to look.

I see everything. 2 Peter chapter 1 again, but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false prophets among you, who will secretly bring indestructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. Peter keeps getting back to that swift destruction, judgment, wrath of God, because this is serious business.

You ever meet the kind of Christian that just has to have weird things in their life? They just cannot be content with what the Bible says. They're always looking for something arcane, something mysterious, something more, something that will thrill them, instead of just being obedient, because this Bible has enough in it to keep us all busy for the rest of our lives, just the way it is.

It doesn't need to be painted or improved, as the first two verses of our discussion clearly state. Verse 18. I'll read verse 19 later for time's sake.

We'll just take verse 18 now. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. Now Peter, as I said, he's keeping up his counter-offensive. He's constantly hammering them, bombarding these lies, because he cares about the church and the people in the churches, and he's trying to alert them. He's trying to scramble them, as fighter pilots would scramble on a mission, to hurry up and get in their jets and engage the enemy.

That's the purpose. I should have named it, scrambling against false teachers or something. So when logically examined, what do these false teachers have to say? And they're very convincing, they're very passionate, oftentimes very creative and skillful, but when you logically examine the words of these false teachers, you begin to see that actually what they're saying is stupid, still effective, takes two, takes two to dance like that. With all of them, words are their weapons against those with lower urges. I believe that those who follow false teachers, they want something. Now granted, in the early stages of one's conversion, they are very susceptible, and yet have not yet oftentimes developed a sense of discernment. And later, hopefully, they'll figure it out. But others never seem to get it because they always want their ears tickled.

They always want to be told there's something more. You know, just, well anyway, how unlike Paul, the apostle, and Peter and all of the apostles, but just taking Paul's word to the Corinthians, because of course there were those in the Corinthian church that tried to badmouth Paul, the one that started the church there, and accuse him of things he was not guilty of. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. He was not trying to show off, look how articulate I am, look how eloquent I can be.

He wasn't trying to embrace, it was himself. He wasn't trying to present this polished preacher that is carefully weighing every word so it doesn't create controversy or anything like that, he's just going to be himself. And he says, well I determined to know, not to know, anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I didn't come there to be a show-off, to act like I know everything. I came to preach the gospel and the gospel of Christ with His cross, that's what I preached. He said, I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I mean, it's just so simple.

Any adult can understand this. There is a definite danger of false teachers harming true believers to death. And I'm going to hit this for a little bit, because that's where we are. I would hit any other topic that the Scripture is emphasizing, and it is emphasizing it in this paragraph. If it weren't true, there would be no need to have the Holy Spirit warn us and tell us and scramble us to use the apostles to engage these lies. So there is a danger, otherwise don't worry about it. You're fine, they're going to teach their false stuff, but you've confessed Christ, you're fine.

They never do that. And nor should we. Scripture is replete with warning against this nonsense. A sleeping church, it's been said, is the devil's playground. That is the truth.

And you say, well, how is that so? Why are the people sleeping? They're not excited about the gospel. They're not excited about the truth. Purity does not move them.

What moves them is a thrill. It reduced the church into an entertainment center, a social cavity in the community. I mean, you know, the community church. When you preach the gospel, that covers it. Everything, the community, somebody else's community, wherever you go. You don't have to say, oh, look, I'm community conscious. You preach Christ.

It has everything within that. You have all your fortified vitamins or vitamins just there alone. If you say that I am saved and have no need to fear these false teachers, then you've abandoned your watchtower. Because you should, if not for yourself, be very concerned for others. We are being engulfed by false churches. And then you would, if you're not concerned about this, you would share. And they're allowing these false teachers to creep into churches.

It's a good time to read Jude, verse 4. For certain men have crept in unnoticed. That's why you creep.

You don't get noticed. They're deceptive from the beginning. Even in the Calvary movement, there are those that are Calvinists and they don't want to tell anybody.

How deceptive is that? You have to question a person's Christianity. On the level of the pastorate, when they want, well, I don't want to tell anybody I'm a Calvinist. I just want to spread it.

Who does these kind of things? Is there no integrity? And then if I, you know, you rail on them too hard, you feel like you're going overboard. And that certainly is convenient for Satan. Satan loves to shut people. Oh, now who are you to point a finger at anybody else? Well, I think that the smoking pistol is still in their hand. I think I can point the finger.

Otherwise, the cycle just continues. He says, crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. Ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So lewd, he had their number too.

He's totally aware of what they were doing. Their lewdness, these were the lawless ones in the church. You come to church to break free from lawlessness, not to have it promoted. They allure through the flesh of the lust of the flesh. That means they are appealing to the sinful nature of their victims.

Their victims are helping. Yeah, I kind of like that. You mean I don't have to, you mean I can?

Okay, sign me up. That's seduction. 1 Thessalonians 3, for this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain. Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica that he and Silas showed up to, again still wounded from the beat down they took in Philippi. They get there. They make converts. Nonetheless, they establish a church.

They get chased out of Thessalonica. Paul says, man, what is happening to them? Have they gone backwards into paganism?

Has someone creeped into their lives and taken them out of the faith? He was worried that he and Silas preached to them, saved their souls, and then they renounced the faith. So he writes the two letters. Well, the first one, 1 Thessalonians, to address that.

He writes the second one to deal with other questions. So where I'm going with that, if there was such a thing as one saved always saved, then why would the apostle be concerned? This is a popular man-made teaching, and it has just taken over Christianity, so much so if you say anything against it, people are insulted. I've been hitting it since we've been in this section of Peter because he hits it. Not a pet doctrine or anti-doctrine of mine. I like all of the word.

I like any section that I happen to be in, except the ones that hurt my feelings. It starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation. Through lewdness. Now we'll come back to that once saved always saved teaching because I believe in the abiding security of the believer. You abide with Christ and nothing can touch your soul. There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

We have an advocate with the Father. His name is Jesus Christ. He loves me.

He loves you. And as long as I want him to be my Lord, he will be my Lord. I do not believe when you come to Christianity that he strips you of your free will.

That would reduce us to being robots. What love exists without free will? You better love me. Just when you put it like that, I won't love you. Well, I mean, you know, I hope you know. Anyway, not talking about me. Let's talk about you.

What do you think wonderfully about me? Through lewdness. Yeah, that's a time release. False Christianity ignores sin or excuses it or condones it or looks the other way when it sees it. That's false Christianity. Forgiving sin of those who hate their sin, that's Christianity. Christ will certainly be there for the sinner that repents.

But the sinner that could care less about repentance, well, you know, I've confessed Christ. It's just got to be forgiven. I'm owed this. I'm entitled to this.

We have a serious breakdown there. Ignoring sin is for those who trample the blood of Christ, not love the Lord Jesus Christ. And we all know this. He died a violent death because of sin, my sin. I have no right to dismiss it as something as being trivial. Now, you can't overdo it because then we'll be so beaten by guilt that we won't be able to function. So we strike that balance, which grace is, and we understand there are things about me that I struggle with, but I do struggle in Christ, and He is quick to forgive and to restore and to move forward. But if I just dismiss sin in my life or anybody else's life or condone it, then I am disrespecting the Lord Jesus Christ, and the New Testament is all over this. And so what He says here is that they deceive people through lewdness.

Who's? Both. The false teachers are lewd, and so are those who are attracted to them. The ones, He says here, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. Unfortunately, some of your Bibles may... I prefer the New King James, especially for the New Testament. Most of the other translations are academically pushed forward, but in the New Testament, their source material is wrong. The Alexandrian texts, the Vaticanus texts, they are flawed, I should say, and not wrong, but they are flawed and therefore susceptible to all sorts of changes, interpolations are put upon them. So, for example, when you come to Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, it ends this way in those source materials, and the apostles or the followers of Christ were all afraid, and that's how it ends. And then they tell you, well, we're older manuscripts, so we're right, and the newer manuscripts are wrong, but that's not the case at all. The source material for the NIV, the NASB, and almost every other translation, they use the older manuscripts that are in the minority as far as how many fragments and whole books exist, whereas the King James Version, for example, goes with the Syrian text, which has over 24,000 whole scriptures, the New Testament we're talking about, and fragments, and they're younger because they were kept in circulation.

That's why they're younger. That's why there are so many of them, whereas the other texts, they fell out of use, and that's why there's only about 100 of them. And so those documents will take a verse like this and make it say what it does not mean. Also, there was a heavy Gnostic influence in Egypt where those corrupted verses or fragments and documents come from. So anyway, I'm trying to condense into just a few minutes.

I just mean to go down this rabbit trail, condense into a few minutes that there's a way to determine what is trustworthy and what is not. And actually, even with their own materials, if you continue to read what is being said, you find it as self-correcting as we're going to come to in a moment. And so when he says that the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in terror, that's exactly what it means, not those who were escaping, who weren't quite saved yet. He is talking about people who have come out of the world, have confessed Christ, born again, and then follow the false teachers. I named a string of them last session.

I'm not going to do it again this session. And so these false teachers go after believers. They hunt believers. That makes perfect sense from hell's standpoint. Hell wants to take believers back. Hell, Satan believes that you don't belong to God. You belong to him.

It's part of his derangement. And so those, again, who believe the ones saved are always saved have yet another verse to tell us it doesn't mean what it clearly says, as I read from Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 5 above. So verse 19, we'll develop this a little bit more. And I have to pause here. I have never felt fear of losing my salvation since I've been a Christian. Not once. Not once.

Oh, I wonder if I messed it up. I heard the voice of Jesus Christ when I was born again. I knew he said he loved me and he saved me. I happen to believe that. Yes, there are many areas I fall short in.

Well, there's one. But I know my salvation is not a fragile thing. Hell cannot overthrow it. As long as I want him to be my Lord, he will be my Lord and hell can do nothing about it and neither can anybody else. I don't need to cook up doctrines to make me feel safer.

It's good the way it is. That's all we have time for on today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. You've been listening to Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia as he teaches through the book of 2 Peter. If you'd like to listen to more messages from this series or if you'd like more information about this program, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never have to miss a program. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music or your favorite podcast app. What a great way to keep God's word with you wherever you go. We hope you'll tune in again next time as Pastor Rick continues studying through the Scriptures right here on Cross Reference Radio.