A Portrait of False Teachers
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2011 · 23 January 2011
I have great anticipation in my heart as we come to this text of Scripture that God has set before us tonight. Please open your Bible to 2 Peter 2:1-3 as we're going to return to our study of, "the portrait of false teachers."
2 Peter 2 :1-3, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 And many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be maligned. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep."
There has always been in the history of the church a major danger to God's people, by those who would lead the church to its destruction as agents of the enemy. And consequently the Scripture has much to say about how God views those who are false, those who pretend to be friends but really are the enemy.
And such false leaders are Peter's concern as he writes to the Christians scattered around the Gentile world in this epistle. This letter serves not only as a warning to them, but a warning to us. Remember, Satan's most subtle operation is to falsify God's truth from inside the church, to pose as one of us, a friend, a sheep like us, only to deceive and thus to destroy.
As Peter pens this second chapter, he unmasks the traitors. But as Peter pens the words of this chapter, he carefully paints the portrait of the false teacher so you can recognize him. He doesn't want any false teachers to be able to carry out their work within the church and us not recognizing them.
Let's just look again at the sketch of these false teachers. Verse 1, "But false prophets also arose among the people," I told you that that refers to the Jewish people, "just as there will also be false teachers among you," that's the church. Satan sent his false emissaries to deceive and confuse and destroy and he will continue his ploy among you until he is defeated.
In fact, in 2 Peter 1:16 he contrasts himself with false teachers already at work in the church when he says, "We did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The implication is there are some now who are telling you cleverly devised fables.
Paul said it in Galatians 1:6-8, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. 7 There are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 Even though we were an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached you, let him be accursed."
Now let me remind you of what we noted last week as we looked at the operation of these false teachers. First we saw where they worked and we noted that they worked among God’s people and they now will work among us. So these false teachers that Peter is talking about work inside our church.
There are also many false teachers outside the church, of course, in all the false religions of the world. But the most potent, the most destructive do the work of the church on the inside. They are honored, they are trusted and they work among the believers.
They are accepted because they say the right thing and they make the right claims and they identify with the right people. They belong to the right associations. They may have even gone to the right schools and institutions. And their sphere of operation is inside the church.
Secondly, the subtlety of their operation. It says in verse 1 that they secretly introduce destructive heresies. Their operation is deceitful, it is subtle, it is under cover, they smuggle in their demon doctrine, they smuggle in their spiritual ideas that are not from God. What they teach is obviously opposite the truth of God.
Satan is trying to collect people for hell and he wants to work inside the church, not that he can steal the salvation of true believers, but because he can confuse and deceive those who are coming into the church pursuing the truth. And because, also, he can derail and confuse true believers and make them useless.
Now Peter says their heresies are of destruction. Now remember, they cannot damn the regenerate soul but they can damn those who come to the church in pursuit of the truth. By the way, it assumes there are also unsaved people in the church.
And if you have problems with that assumption, go back to Matthew 13 and remember that there are some temporary converts, soil that is rocky, soil that is full of weeds. There are also some tares sown among the wheat. And there are some who become part of the Kingdom when the final judgment comes only at the end can they be sorted out like the true believers and the unbelievers.
So let us tonight look at thirdly, the sacrilege of their operation. It is unthinkable, and I suppose that's why Peter throws in the word "even" in the middle of verse 1. “Their heresies are destructive even denying the Master who bought them.”
Now follow me carefully because denying means to say no to. It means to refuse. Hebrews 11:24 says, “By faith Moses when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.” He said no to that. That's what the word means. These false teachers, can be recognized because they always say no to the Master who bought them.
What does that mean? The word "Master" here is the word in the Greek that means sovereign Lord, it means ruler, it means Master. The word “despotes”, appears ten times in the New Testament and it always refers to one who has supreme authority.
Peter is saying the supreme sacrilege of false teachers is that they deny the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ. Now there are heresies that could include denying Christ's perfection that could include denying the virgin birth, denying the deity of Christ, denying His bodily resurrection, denying His ascension, denying His Second Coming or denying His future Kingdom.
They claim Him as the one who bought them and they claim Him as their redeemer, testifying that He indeed has bought them and their word then is taken at face value. No matter what they say, though they say they are Christ's, they refuse to say yes to His sovereign lordship and thus they are false teachers.
That means they will not submit their lives to His rule. The issue here is primarily not theologically, it is an ethical issue. It is not their theology that unmasks them; it is their morality that unmasks them. And he says they even deny the Master who bought them.
True Christians gladly affirm they are bought. We gladly affirm that we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We also gladly affirm that having been purchased means we are under His sovereign lordship, we are His slaves, we are His servants and we obey His Word.
Listen to me, when we deny the lordship of Jesus Christ, this does not mean we are a second class Christian, no, it means we are damned. Why do you say that? Because this is what it says in verse 1, "denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift damnation upon themselves." It is self-inflicted by a process of persistent rebellion.
They're not interested in following Jesus Christ. They're not interested in submitting their life to Him. They're not interested in virtue and holiness and righteousness and obedience and godliness. Their sacrilege is that they name Him with their lips but refuse His lordship in their lives.
Fourth point, the success of their operation. We've seen the sphere of it, the subtlety of it, the sacrilege of it, now let’s look at the success of it. Would you please notice verse 2, "And many will follow," stop right there.
Discouraging, isn't it? Many will follow. You know, there are not many who go on the narrow way, are there? Many follow the deceivers. Back in Matthew 24:10-11 Jesus predicts that “in the time of the end, many will fall away, deliver up one another, hate one another; 11 many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.”
Why will so many follow them? Because they think they can have Christ and they can have sin too. This is the fifth point, it's how they operate. Where they operate, their subtlety, sacrilege, success and now how they operate.
Look again to verse 2, "Many will follow their sensuality." That is a very strong term, aselgeia, it means sexually, immoral, depraved, debauched conduct without restraint and sexual immorality. They preach a Savior but they don't want a lord. Why? Because they want to continue to feed their own lust.
By the way, sensuality here is plural. It is talking about their sensualities, their debaucheries and their sexual immoralities. They are what theology calls the antinomians, against any rules or standards. They don't want to accept any restraint in their fleshly desires and their sexual indulgences.
Jude 1:7 says, "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh." This is talking about homosexuality, as well as gross immorality.
Peter also describes them in 2 Peter 2:6, “and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.” Now remember, he's talking about teachers in the church.
In 2 Peter 2:13, "They are stains and blemishes reveling in their deceptions, carousing...verse 14, “their eyes are filled with adultery, they never cease from sin, they entice unstable souls." 2 Peter 2:18, "They are using the enticing of fleshly desires by sensuality to draw people to themselves."
People who are trying to get out of the error and perhaps moving toward the truth are enticed away into sensuality and told you can have Christ and still live anyway you like. Verse 19, they promise freedom. Just take Jesus and don't worry about how you live. And they're slaves of corruption. Verse 22 says they're dogs that go back to their vomit and sows that return to the mire.
Whenever you see a person who appears to say all the right things and all of a sudden his life is exposed and you see that he's a sensual, corrupt, lustful and immoral person, you know you've just seen the unveiling of a false teacher who on the surface says yes to the truth, but underneath says always no to the lordship of Christ in his life.
Let’s look at the rest of verse 2, "Because of them the way of truth will be maligned." Do you know why the world mocks Christianity today? Because it has been maligned by these people who claim to represent Christ but who have been unmasked as lecherous, lewd, lascivious, licentious and immoral people.
Because of them there is a stigma, a blot, a reproach on the way of truth. The way of truth is simply an expression of the true teaching, the true gospel and the real Christian message. It is maligned. Maligned means to ruin the reputation of and to defame.
People scoff at the integrity of the church, it is maligned because of the terrible immorality of these false teachers. And it's not just the ones we know on a national scandal level, it's all over the place in smaller churches as well.
We have to live a certain kind of life to make our gospel believable, don't we? "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven," Matthew 5:16. And if you don't live life that way, they're going to mock God.
In Philippians 2:15 Paul says, "You are to prove yourselves blameless and innocent children of God, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast to the Word of life."
We have got to live a pure life. The church has to be pure. We all are examples to people on the outside. I remember reading an article in a magazine recently and it was written by a critic of Christianity. He said, "Having read about Jesus Christ, I believe that He has much more class than His followers."
God has called for a pure people to bring honor to His name. We are to walk worthy of the One who redeemed us. We are to manifest good works. We're to love one another. We're to live pure, godly, virtuous lives so that Christianity is not maligned. We're to walk as children of light. We're to be like Jesus Christ.
I love what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:12, "Walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own Kingdom and glory." We're to be consistent. We're to live the life that God has called us to live so that our faith is not maligned.
Peter has two more elements for us to consider. Number seven in my little list is the motive of their operation. Verse 3, "And in greed they will exploit you with false words." Here's another motive that you need to know about.
They're not driven by immorality. You can do that by yourself. But there's another reason, which is greed. What they want is money. 2 Peter 2:14 says, "Their eyes are full of adultery, they never cease from sin, they never submit to lordship, they entice unstable souls because their hearts are trained in greed." They want to get rich off you. They're driven by money and greed.
And so, what do they do? Verse 3, "And in their greed they will exploit you with false words." Phony arguments, they pervert the Scripture, they twist it to get your money. It isn't really God's truth. It isn't really what the Bible says. It's molded to deceive you.
Peter's got one more point, their punishment. Verse 3, "Their judgment from long ago is not idle." You say, "What do you mean established long ago?" Remember, the principle that God is going to damn false teachers was set in place since the beginning.
That is a permanent principle by which God has always dealt with false teachers. It's always been so in the Old Testament, New Testament, today and in the future. And this punishment hasn't been weakened by time. It is still valid, it is still potent. And their destruction, he says, their eternal damnation is not asleep.
How alert are you to them? It is sad that so many people are deceived. Satan's goal is to deceive as many as possible. And God's goal is to destroy all those false teachers. They've been around us from the beginning. We need to be discerning. And before we're done, in this chapter, you'll have all the tools of discernment. Praise God.