Back in 2009, my wife Nisha and I, we made our first trip to the Smoky Mountains. Now it's hard to imagine, this was the day, these were the days when we did not have the sophisticated Google Maps or smartphones. So we brought ourselves a Garmin GPS, downloaded the latest map that we could get and set out to enjoy our first vacation in the United States. The owners of the cabin, from which we were renting the cabin, they gave us a physical paper. These were the directions to the cabin, and in that paper, in the middle of it, in bold warnings in red, it said, do not follow GPS, follow the instructions on the paper.
The smart ID guy that I was decided to completely ignore the warning. It had already become dark on our way and the GPS took us through the turns and the twists and finally up on a particular mountain for several miles and brought us to a dead end in the middle of nowhere and said, you have arrived, your destination is on the right. And we looked out, it was a very steep drop-off.
Had we continued to drive, we would have fallen off a cliff or something. Some warnings must never be ignored. We are on a spiritual journey. In that journey, there are many dangers along the way. One such danger, a serious one that is, is that of false teachers. The apostle Peter gave the first century church three strong warnings in 2 Peter chapter 2. Today, we will do well to pay attention to these warnings as well. So please turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 2.
As you are turning in there, let me give you a brief recap. In chapter 1, Peter reminded us that believers were rescued from the corruption, the decay, the filth of the world, so that they can grow in holiness and into spiritual maturity. To accomplish this, believers must pay attention, serious attention to the word of God, which is the sure foundation for believers in Jesus Christ. Why should they take seriously the word of God?
Ah, because there is the danger of false teachers. So let's read 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 1 to 22. But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who barred them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.
Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah a herald of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, if he condemned them to extinction making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly and if he rescued righteous lot greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked for as that righteous man lived among them day after day he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones whereas angels though greater in might and power do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. Ah, but these like irrational animals, creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed blaspheming the matters of which they are ignorant will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage of their wrongdoing. They counted pleasure to revel in the daytime, they are blots and blemishes reveling in their deception while they feast with you, they have eyes full of adultery insatiable for sin, they entice unsteady souls, they have hearts trained in greed accursed children. Forsaking the right way they have gone astray, they have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor who loved gain from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for speaking loud boasts of folly. They entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
They promise them freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of a Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last aid has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the Holy Commandment delivered to them what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wall in the mire.
Wow! Peter is not too happy about false teachers. So must we. Now there is a lot going on in this passage.
We will not be able to deal with all of them. But we will look at the passage and look at three major themes that we find in the passage. To understand this passage a little bit better, see this passage as having three sections. Verses 1 to 4 we read about the perversion of the false teachers. Verses 4 to 10 we see the punishment of the false teachers. And 10 to the rest of the chapter we see the practice of the false teachers. The perversion of the false teachers, the punishment of the false teachers and the practice of the false teachers. For our purposes this morning we will look at the perversion, we will skip down to look at the practice of the false teachers and then we will get back to the punishment and finish of the chapter.
And our three warnings for this morning comes from these broad sections. Number one, do not believe the perversions of the false teachers. Number two, do not follow the practice of the false teachers. And number three, do not fall into the punishment due for false teachers. Make sense?
Why? Let's look at these one by one. First, do not believe the perversion of false teachers. Look at what Apostle Peter says. But false prophets will also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them. How are these false teachers coming?
They are coming unannounced. They are bringing these teachings secretly. Isn't it the case that most false teachers, they don't come wearing a t-shirt that says straight out of context. They don't come with the title so and so pastor of false teaching sensuality and destructive heresies. That is not how false teachers come. These teachers and their false teachings is often hidden behind the facade of their charisma, motivational speaking styles and skills and their mindless emotionalism.
Isn't it true? What are they bringing in? They are bringing in destructive heresies. What does that mean? The word heresies here is a transliteration of a Greek word that means a sect or a faction or a different school of thought. This is referring to a teaching that did not originate from the apostles, the holy apostles. And this teaching is described by Apostle Peter as being destructive in nature.
Let me explain that a little bit. Turn with me back to chapter one. Second Peter chapter one and let's read verses three and four. Second Peter chapter one verses three and four.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. Notice this, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. What Apostle Peter is teaching is that believers were rescued from the filth, the corruption, the decay of the world for the purpose of partaking of the divine nature of God, to be holy, to remain holy, to grow in our holiness. What sound biblical teaching is designed to do is to help us walk in that holiness, indwelt and empowered by the holy spirit as we walk in obedience to the sound doctrines of scripture, we grow spiritually mature and become more and more like Christ. But these teachers, they will pervert the sound doctrine, the sound teaching of Bible and these perverted teachings will only lead people back into decay, the filth and the corruption from which believers were saved. Turn with me back to 2 Peter chapter 2 and let's read verse 20. 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. That's what the false teachers want to do, not to go forward into spiritual maturity and holiness but go backward into the filth, into the corruption, into the decay and in that way they have denied the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jesus says, no, this way to a holy God, this way of path of holiness, spiritual maturity, false teacher says, ah, no, no, no, no, no, let's go this way, let's go back into the decay. But see true believers in Jesus Christ must pay close attention to the word of God.
Turn with me again back to 2 Peter chapter 1 and let's read verse 19. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which we will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in the dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. The word of God is a lamp unto our feet moving us toward the true light, the Lord Jesus Christ but these perverted teachings of the false teachers, they are still darkness taking us back into the darkness.
They would say things like darkness is good, you can enjoy, you can have freedom, you can do whatever you want, just go back in that direction. See how destructive these teachings are? But true believers in Jesus Christ must pay close attention to the word of God and the sound teaching that we find in the whole counsel of God. Let me ask you this, have you been listening to false teachers recently? I praise the Lord for the strong expository preaching of Dr Monroe and commitment of Calvary for the word of God and the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thank the Lord for many other churches who are strongly standing on the word of God and teaching sound doctrine but isn't it the case that there are many false teachers here locally?
On TikTok, on YouTube, on TV, on radio, they are increasing in number day by day. Isn't it true that there are many who are out there? Have you started to be swayed by these teachings? How would you know, listening to somebody, if they are teaching sound doctrine or not?
The answer is in 2 Peter. It will do well if we pay close attention to the word of God. We should be in the word of God on a daily basis and that is the solution. That's how we will know and recognize false teachers. Now we might sound like a broken record here. Dr Monroe gave us a challenge early this year to be in the word 15 minutes a day. Let's ask that question to ourselves again.
How are we doing? Be in the word daily. If you are not already doing, let me encourage you to get Calvary's reading plan that will challenge you to be in the word on a daily basis. Would you also commit to be a Berean like we find in the book of Acts 17 verse 11? Would you examine everything that you hear and see under the lens of scriptures? If you don't have a Bible, get one today. If you are not reading the Bible, start today. That is how we can protect ourselves, guard ourselves from all these secretly coming in false teachers bringing in perverted teachings. Don't believe me? Go back to scripture.
Check it out for yourself if that is so. That's the first warning. Don't believe the provision of the false teachers but be in the word. Second warning, don't follow the practice of the false teachers. Now let's skip down to verse 10 and look at what they were doing.
The way it is written, it seems as if Apostle Peter went on a rant painting an ugly picture yet accurate picture of these false teachers. What are they doing? They are making practice of sin and persuading people to do the same in the name of grace and freedom.
Second warning, do not follow the practice of false teachers. What are they doing? Making a practice of sin. Look at verse 10, the second half of it. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones. Look down at verse 12, but these like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant.
What does all that mean? With the little information that we have in this chapter and also in the book of Jude, it seems like these false teachers are so reckless, meaning they have no fear of spiritual authorities. So much so that they are compared to irrational animals, instinctive animals. What comes to their mind? They speak. What they feel like doing? They do. They have no care for the impact they will make.
They have no care for the consequences of their actions of the words. How do we see this today? Think of the wildly irresponsible, careless, rash things said and done by so-called self-proclaimed preachers and teachers. I'm familiar with a preacher back in India, a very popular faith healer. I know him particularly because he was all on God TV back in India. And every single time you pop on God TV, he comes on screen. And he has this habit of waving his jacket and blowing on people and crying out, shouting out, fire and take it. And he claims to be able to impart the power of the Holy Spirit upon people. Blasphemy.
And there were times when my brother and I, we looked at that and said, who do you think you are? Irrational animals making bold claims. But there's more. They are openly greedy and lustful.
Look at verse 13, second half of 13. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you.
The word revel here can also mean luxury. Now, these are teachers who are openly living in an unrestrained, indulgent lifestyle. It is their greed that drives them. Peter calls them blots and blemishes. They are stains to Christianity. Think of the celebrated preachers today who squeezed money out of gullible people to shamelessly buy for themselves multi, multi-million dollar homes and private jets and afford themselves such indulgent lifestyle that they would put King Solomon to shame.
There's more. They are full of lust. Look at verse 14. They have eyes full of adultery insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls, their hearts trained in greed.
How many times have we become heartbroken to hear another news of a religious leader using their authority to entice and to abuse those who are entrusted to their pastoral care? Now see, these false teachers are not people who struggle with their temptations, so to speak. But these are men and women who openly and proudly reject the authority of scriptures and the lordship of Jesus Christ and persuade others to do the same. It seems like in their lifestyle they were sleeping around, driven by their insatiable sexual appetites. And they live that lifestyle and persuade others to follow in their lifestyle.
There's more. They make empty promises. Look at verse 17.
These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. Look at verse 18. For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption for whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. These will make promises to you. They will promise peace.
They will promise prosperity. They'll promise healing and false freedom if you would just believe and follow their lifestyle and follow what they're doing. They will say things like, oh, you can be free from all those difficult and old school teachings of the Old Testament.
Just unhitch the Old Testament. There's a very popular preacher who's preaching and teaching that one. And they might also say, all you need to think about is love. Love God and love one another. But their definition of love is very different than how God in his Bible defines love. They would say love is love is love, isn't it? Oh, don't bother about sex out of marriage. Don't be legalistic about living in with someone. Don't worry about your same sex relationship or the deceptive and the destructive gender that you have chosen for yourself. As long as you are sincere and faithful and have faith, God doesn't care about these things.
What rubbish. These are clouds without water. Waterless springs and mists under the disguise of grace, of encouragement and motivation. They will promise you freedom by saying, oh, you can come as you are and you can stay as you are.
They are well capable of motivating people and people can be motivated as they walk with them on the broad road of destruction. And all the way you can be motivated having and believing these false promises. True believers in Jesus Christ cannot and will not make a practice of sin. True believers in Jesus Christ cannot and will not make a practice of sin. Turn with me back to 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 14 and 15.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But he who called you is holy. You also be holy in all your conduct. Verse 16, since it is written, you shall be holy as I am holy. It is true the Bible does encourage us to come as we are with repentance. But God commands us to repent, decisively reject ungodliness and train ourselves for godliness. And be transformed to live holy lives as the one who called us is holy. We are commanded to be holy. It is true, true believers will have temptations. And at times they might succumb to temptations and fight in their fight in their flesh. But they will never make it a practice and a lifestyle.
They will never celebrate their sins nor promote it. We have to ask this question to ourselves now. Have we, have you, gotten entangled in sins? You've become so entangled in your chasing after your dreams that you are too busy for the Lord. And you consider Jesus to be a scaffolding to build your kingdom. Or you consider Jesus to be a genie in a bottle.
Pop him open when you want him to do something for you, pop him back into the bottle, put it back on the shelf. Or do we surrender our lives completely to the Lord Jesus Christ? Or maybe some here have become so entangled with pornography that it has become a practice. Or maybe that adulterous relationship.
Or maybe some sleeping around or at least trying to do that. And this is destroying your life, don't you see it? The word of God says stop, repent.
Don't go back into the filth, repent of your sins and live holy lives going forward toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't believe the proportion of the false teachers. Don't follow the practice of the false teachers. And third and last, don't fall into the punishment due for false teachers. Now, a cursory reading of the passage makes it abundantly clear that these false teachers will be punished.
There's no doubt about it. And three examples are given to us this morning from this passage. We won't have time to go through all of these examples, but three examples. This is in verse four, if God did not spare the angels. Verse five, second example, if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness. Verse six, third example, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction. And then verse seven, he talks about the salvation of Lot and if he rescued righteous Lot. God will definitely bring punishment over the false teachers. He'll do it.
He'll take care of it. Now, the angels cast to hell, what is he talking about? These are probably the fallen angels who are locked up in hell for final destruction, final judgment. What did they do? They, following Satan, tried to corrupt the world.
Verse five, the ancient world that was destroyed, people living during the days of Noah were completely destroyed by the flood. What did they do? In Genesis six, we read that they corrupted the world with their unrestrained sexual practices. Sodom and Gomorrah, verse six, an entire city burned down to ashes.
What did they do? We read in Genesis 18 and 19 that they corrupted the entire city with their unrestrained homosexual practices and other sexual indulgences. False teachers who will bring corruption into the church, like these three examples, will also be punished for sure.
At certain. Now see, these are not people, like I said, are not people who are struggling with their sins, but these are people who are driven by their sensuality, their lust, their greed to reject the clear teaching of scripture. They not only approve these ungodly and corrupting practices, but they applaud it and they promote it. They are but peddlers of God's word who would use the Bible only to satisfy their own deceitful, corrupting appetite. They bring corruption into the church. The punishment of these teachers is certain. These punishments also serve as an example to the ungodly. Look at verse six, toward the end of it, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.
Those who believe in the perversion of the false teachers, those who follow their practice, will become corrupted and ungodly as the false teachers and will fall into the same punishment reserved for the ungodly if they will not repent and surrender completely to the Lord Jesus Christ. But did you catch the glimpse of the hope of salvation? Noah and Lot? If God is able to reach down into the filth of human depravity and save Noah and Lot, if God is able to save me from the miry clay that I was stuck in and put me, placed me on the solid rock of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, He is able to save you in whatever, from whatever or wherever you are stuck. This is the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ pursues you, comes behind you to save you. We read that, we see that picture in the book of Hosea.
A God who pursues, a God who weeps for us, a God who would bleed for us to save us from our sins. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe the true gospel. Now what is the true gospel? Let's turn to Titus chapter two verses eleven to fourteen and I have that on the screen.
This is Titus two verses eleven to fourteen. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all people. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. God saved us for what? To continue in our sins?
No. Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled upright and godly lives in the present age. Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. What did the Lord Jesus do? He gave himself up for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. The Lord Jesus Christ although existed in the very form of God did not consider something to be grasped but he came down to this filthy earth. He lived among filthy people like me and you and he took all that filth onto himself and he died on the cross for our sins.
How can we go back into the filth from which we were saved? He didn't die. He didn't stay dead. He died but he rose on the third day. Victoriously over death. That he has completely defeated the power of death and the power of sin and through the Holy Spirit he is able to strengthen us, help us live holy lives into his glory, for his glory.
If we would surrender our life to Christ. Don't believe the perversion of the false teachers. Don't follow the practice of the false teachers.
Don't fall into the punishment due for false teachers. If there is anyone here who has not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, today if you hear his voice don't harden your hearts. Come to Christ. I mentioned at the beginning that we are on a spiritual journey. This phase of our journey will end when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back for his church. But when he comes back, will he find you carried away because you ignored the warnings? Or will you be found being all the more diligent, without spot, without blemish, at peace, completely assured of our salvation?
We cannot do that on our own, but Christ will do that for us if we would completely surrender our life to Christ. Don't believe the perversion of false teachers. Don't follow the practice of false teachers.
Don't fall into the punishment due for false teachers. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your love, for your care. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. Thank you for that beautiful sacrifice that saved a wretch like me, like us. Father, we confess that we are prone to wonder.
We are not strong in ourselves. Won't you please help us even today that we will keep our eyes on the word of God. Walk in obedience and as we do that, Father, help us to be holy as the one who called us is holy and grow into spiritual maturity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
