An Exposé of Counterfeit Communicators, Part 2

We've all encountered people who've tried to sell us something that wasn't true. Perhaps it was a car salesman attempting to convince you that his outlandish price was a good deal.

Or maybe it was blatant heresy from someone representing a false religion. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues to present what he calls an exposé of counterfeit communicators. From time to time, we're bound to encounter false teachers that twist the truth. So how do we spot a phony, and how do we respond to one? Chuck is teaching from 2 Peter Chapter 2.

People who lead others astray are characterized by one or more of these four characteristics that Peter presents in the first three verses of his second chapter. First, they deceitfully present heresy. They secretly introduce destructive heresies. I remind you, the counterfeit doesn't look counterfeit. It looks real.

It sounds great. But the fact is, it is destructive. They shape their words in cunning fashion, and they are great at redefining, rethinking the truth. Second, they openly deny the truth.

Last part of verse 1. Even denying the master who bought them and bringing swift destruction upon themselves. False teachers are better known for what they deny than for what they embrace.

You will hear a great deal of negatives from false teachers. It will be said with a slant, or maybe with a slur, or maybe out and out sneering at the time-honored truths of scripture. They deny, listen to these, the inspiration, the verbal inspiration of the scriptures. They deny the sinfulness of humanity. They deny the blood atonement of Christ on the cross. They deny salvation by grace through faith apart from works. They deny the deity of Jesus Christ, and that certainly includes his virgin birth. They deny the presence and activity of a literal devil. They deny the coming, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of course, they deny his resurrection from the dead.

Are such people saved? According to what Peter writes in this chapter, we can clearly say they are not. Notice they deny the master who bought them. They, verse 1, face swift destruction. Verse 19, they are slaves of corruption.

This chapter is a severe chapter on false teaching. The important point back in verse 1 is that they deny the master who bought them. This is one of the verses that keeps me from being a five-point Calvinist. And I know that some of you are strong in the position of Calvinism.

I appreciate that. I have trouble buying into limited atonement, meaning that Christ only died for the elect. Therefore I read here that these people who are unsaved deny the master who indeed bought them. When it comes to application, our Lord's death is limited to those who believe. Those who believe are indeed born again.

When it comes to efficacy, his death is sufficient for the whole world, not just the elect. Look not only at verse 1 of chapter 2 of 2 Peter, but look at chapter 2 of 1 John, the very next book in the Bible. 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2.

My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation, that is, the one who has satisfied the Father's righteous demands on sins.

He is our propitiation and not ours only, but for those of the whole world. Once again, I believe that's teaching an unlimited redemption. In my opinion, that makes the unbelief of the false teachers, their condemnation, even greater.

For they are denying the one that in fact bought them. Back to 2 Peter chapter 2. False teachers, first, deceitfully present heresy.

Second, false teachers openly deny the truth. Third, verse 2, they unashamedly model sensuality. They unashamedly model sensuality.

Many will follow their sensuality and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned. Extremely vivid term that is used here for sensuality. It is a Greek word that represents blatant immorality. It describes the attitude of one who is lost to shame. Past the stage of concealing his sin and of being ashamed of it.

In fact, he's rather proud of it. Now we can understand the reasoning behind their commitment to heresy. In order for you to be free of shame, you must redefine purity. You must change the standard of holiness.

And if you fuss around with the term long enough, you can bring the standard down to the level of your lifestyle and you're free to live as you please. By the way, this is a good time to add that one of the characteristics of teachers who are false is a very cheap teaching of grace. To them, grace means not freedom to obey, but freedom to do as you please when you wish with whomever you wish.

It is an age-old philosophy. Because grace abounds, we are free to sin. Paul stamps on that in Romans chapter 6 very, very firmly. However, that's not among their favorite passages. By the way, they have a big following. Verse 2 says many will follow.

You want to have a big following as a teacher? Get real sloppy with grace and people will come out of the woodwork to follow your teaching. People will love to be told that their sin is okay.

That's called having your ears tickled. People love to be made to feel good. To be confronted with our wrong is an uncomfortable experience and we would much rather be around someone not nearly so cranky. It's much easier to listen to someone who's telling us how great we are, how good we are, and how we shouldn't worry at all about our lifestyle of sinfulness. In fact, that's why we have grace. God understands. Grace is that marvelous truth that I stand on and believe in and write about. With all my heart, I'm committed to a lifestyle of grace and to a ministry of grace. No people give me more difficulty among the church people than legalists, people who give me their list to live by. You don't need to hear anymore.

You've heard about that for all these years. I don't need to go into that again. The point is I'm strong on grace, but it doesn't mean that I can live as I please and call it righteous. It means I live free to obey Jesus Christ, not you. My calling is not to make you happy. My calling is to please and honor God in my life and grace frees me from the trap that legalists can put me into. But it doesn't mean I'm free to do as I well please.

It means I am now free from the clutches of sin to honor Christ as I understand the teaching of his word. Not only will you be popular as a false teacher, you will also bring reproach to the name of Christ. See the way verse two states it? Because of them, the teacher and the followers, the way of truth will be maligned. Number one, false teachers deceitfully present heresy. They call into question the long standing truths of the Bible. Second, they openly deny the truth. Now in order for you to know that, you must be informed of the truth and so must our children. It's terribly important that we continue to raise our young under the sound teaching of the scriptures. They won't learn it on their own. It must be instructed by people who have information.

It's reliable and trustworthy. Three, they unashamedly model sensuality. Isn't it interesting in some of the more notorious cases of false teachers, I'm thinking of the now deceased Jim Jones and his ilk, that when the truth finally became known, they had many women. They handled very loosely their moral lifestyle. When the truth was known, they were even proud of their freedom to live as they please. It's all part of what second Peter two two is teaching. They unashamedly model sensuality.

No way could you bring them to a place of conviction. Now number four, they selfishly represent greed. They selfishly represent greed.

Did you catch the word Peter uses in verse three? It's the word exploit. False teachers are masters at exploitation.

It means to make merchandise of, to take unfair advantage of others, to turn to economic gain. Most false teachers have an audience that is committed to him or to her. The easiest thing in the world, if you write books as a teacher, is to promote your information on people that are under your teaching.

If you write songs, the easiest place in the world to sell your songs is to the people that follow your teaching and follow your singing. If you have booklets, if you have study guides, if you have promotional things that are all part of your output or your publications, the easiest place to exploit that is with the people that are hanging on your every word. False teachers are great at that.

Our antennas ought to buzz loudly when those who teach us regularly promote their stuff in hopes that we buy it and we line their pockets. It's the idea of taking advantage of. The word is exploit and that's the word greed. William Barclay writes about this word.

We see here the cause of false teaching. The cause is evil ambition. The word is pleonexia.

Pleon means more and exia comes from a verb which means to have. Pleonexia is the desire to possess more. It can mean covetous desire for money, for other people's goods, lustful desire for the person of someone, unholy ambition for honor, prestige or power. If you are a communicator of the truth and if God has used you to write songs or works that have found their way into bookshelves, don't exploit your people, your followers. Don't bring them to a place of feeling the need to purchase something that has come from your hand or from your voice. The true minister of the gospel doesn't do what he does for the money. If money comes, it has not come because it is his or her motive to get rich or to exploit others.

A person who has integrity, has nothing to hide, doesn't flatter, doesn't cater to the wealthy, doesn't play around with lust, doesn't require unquestioned loyalty. All of these are characteristics of a greedy style of teaching. Well, that's plenty to think about, isn't it? We've said a lot in a little bit of time. Let me do a little recapping, okay? Let's keep in mind the word counterfeit. Let me give you these four points in other words. Number one, false teachers appear to embrace orthodoxy and encourage you to think, but in reality, that's counterfeit. They are deceitfully presenting heresy. Number two, false teachers appear to stand firm on truth, trustworthy truth, but in reality, that's counterfeit. He or she denies biblical truth. Three, false teachers appear to be those who love the doctrine of grace and our life of freedom for the glory of Christ, but that's counterfeit grace. In reality, sensuality is being modeled and unashamed lust is at work behind the scenes, if not publicly. Fourth, false teachers appear to have our good at heart, but that's counterfeit.

In reality, they are greedy and their motivation is to get something from you for their own good. Okay, okay. How can we know that what we're hearing is truth? How can I be sure when I turn on my radio or turn on the television or attend a new church or listen to someone who comes to my door or get involved in a Bible study that meets in my neighborhood, how can I know that what is being presented is truth? Well, when I was a kid, I remember being taught in elementary school that when you came to the railroad crossing, you did three things. You stop, you look, and you listen before you went across the tracks.

So those are my three points as I conclude this message. First of all, stop. Deliberately refuse to plunge into anyone's teachings just because it seems okay or because so many people have, quote, been blessed.

Stop long enough to make a serious study with your Bible open and your head in gear comparing what is being presented to the truth of scripture. Stop. Don't leap. Don't go because there's a lot of excitement.

Don't attend because the teacher has a lot of charisma. Don't be wowed because an overhead projector is being used and because someone is just thinking this guy has got it together. Look at those charts. Listen to how great that sounds. Overhead projectors don't make true ministers of the gospel.

Nothing tangible does that. Listen to what is being presented on the basis of the scriptures. That is your guide. Don't even go by your feelings. Stop your feelings.

Force yourself to put on emotional breaks rather than being sucked into it because half of your family is following a certain teacher. Listen. I'm getting ahead of myself. After stop, look. Okay?

We'll get to listen in a minute. Look. Take a careful look at the life of the one who is the main spokesperson. Are the things that person is teaching the things you want to be like? Are those qualities that are so admirable you'd give anything to have them or do you see unaccountability?

Does your better judgment say to you at this point, you better watch out? How about true humility? Is the teacher truly a humble vessel? Authenticity?

Love? Does that individual desire to be under the same authority of the word of God as you do? And don't just go by sincerity. Many false teachers have taught it so long that they're blind to just how far off they are. All of them, most of them are sincere. Perhaps among the most sincere have been the most hideous murderers of all times.

But they were insane. Yet sincere. Stop. Look. Now listen. God has given us two ears, nice big flaps on both sides of our brains.

So wonderful of God to do that. One mouth, two ears. That ought to tell us something right there. Think. Pay attention to terms and how they're being defined. Listen to what isn't said. Listen to what is being shot at and made fun of.

Don't just entertain nice feelings. I say again, hear the truth and compare it with what is stated in the time honored scriptures. Came across an interesting statement recently. The American Banking Association once sponsored a two week training program to help tellers detect counterfeit bills.

The program was unique. Never during the two week training did the tellers even look at a counterfeit bill. Nor did they listen to any lectures concerning the characteristics of counterfeit bills. Or denouncing the manufacture of counterfeit bills.

All they did for two weeks was handle authentic currency. Hour after hour, day after day, until they were so familiar with the true they could not possibly be fooled by the false. That is great counsel for Christians today. Traffic in the realm of the truth. Stay on the safe side of orthodoxy. Consider your Bible.

Continue to refer to it. Yes, there will be many questions you will have. You will die with questions on your mind.

And if you're the perfectionist type it will drive you mad because you can't get all of those answers solved. You will have good teachers who will disagree in some of the gray areas, some of the minor points, but the fact is they will not disagree in the foundational realm of truth. The person of Christ, the authority and inspiration of scripture, the fact of our sinfulness, the reality of Christ's virgin birth, death on our behalf, his atoning blood that washes away sin, his resurrection, bodily resurrection from the grave, and his soon coming. Those of truths that are absolutely unbendable and untwistable.

Listen for what that teacher is saying about those things. You will be saved from an enormous amount of headache and heartache and in days to come you will look back with great delight that you stayed by what was reliable rather than getting sucked into what was spurious. May we bow together having had this time in the scriptures.

Let's thank our Lord for this. It's just possible that you're hearing some of these things for the very first time. You're hearing enough to know that you have followed the wrong direction, but thankfully you've listened and you've come to that conclusion on your own. Let me encourage you to talk to the Lord about it right now. Step away from that which is leading you astray. Come back to that which brings peace and reality, fulfillment and happiness, deep longing, satisfaction with God. Come to the cross, that's the place to begin, the place of cleansing, the place of forgiveness, the place of intense hope and reassurance. And forever set aside the things that will hurt, no matter how good they may make you feel today, they will one day rise up and curse you. Our Father, I acknowledge this moment that without your word and apart from your spirit, there would be no way we could have a standard of understanding.

There would be no way that we could grasp truth and compare it to error. We need you. We need your inspiring illumination. We need instruction. We need reproof. We need correction.

I need it. We need it. We need to have our guard up without becoming suspicious in nature. We need to be discerning and conduct ourselves on the basis of what you have written, not on the basis of how we feel. Assist us, our Lord, in these days when counterfeits are so many and so successful. Give us not only discernment, but the discipline to say no, to turn away from that which seems right, but is simply telling us what we want to hear. And bring us again to the simplicity and purity of devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his wonderful name.

Amen. Well, there's still much more to discover in Peter's dynamic letter, so we urge you to keep listening. In addition, let me draw your attention to one of Chuck's popular books because it will stimulate your love for God. I'm referring to his book called What If God Has Other Plans. Let's face it, sometimes we're disappointed when our personal plans are thwarted. When an illness comes our way, when an accident happens, when our future appears to be threatened, we're caught off guard.

In fact, sometimes we grow disillusioned. In his book, Chuck explains how to cope with the unexpected surprises that life has thrown your way. You can purchase a copy by going to insight.org slash store or ask for the book when you call us.

If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. Again, Chuck's book is called What If God Has Other Plans? Well, we're deeply grateful for those who've stepped forward during the summer months to support Insight for Living. You might have no idea how your gift truly makes an impact, but we sure do. Every single day we hear from grateful listeners who listen from all points on the globe, and they tell us how God is using Insight for Living to stimulate their love for God and their walk with Him. Because of your support, Chuck's teaching is translated into eight languages besides English, helping others grasp the enormity of God's love for them.

So thank you for joining us in an all-out effort to make disciples of Jesus Christ in all 195 countries of the world. To give a donation right now, go to insight.org. You can also call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888, or again, go online to insight.org.

I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us next time when Chuck Swindoll describes what he calls the God of wrath and rescue on Insight for Living. The preceding message, an expose of counterfeit communicators, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 2006, and 2011. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2011 by Charles R. Swindoll, Jr. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.