Sermon Tone Analysis

Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

David Pierce

2 Peter / 2 Peter 2:10-16

Intro

Turn to 2 Peter 2.

• A few weeks ago I mentioned that there was a sense of heaviness as we approach 2 Peter 2.

• Much of that heaviness is because it deals with the character and judgment of false teachers.

• While it is good that God judges sin, it is not a pleasant and joyful topic.

• Whenever we talk about God's judgment of the wicked, we ought to have a bit of sobriety at such a heavy topic.

• This will not be a pleasant and happy message, but rather a cautionary message.

• Because this chapter is a grim warning to believers, we must take it seriously and recognize the threats and those who threaten.

• Wrong doctrine leads to wrong living

• False teaching can lead to false conversion; false profession; false identity

• The reason I've titled this 'Wolves In Sheep's Clothing' is because we are going to look at some of the specific characteristics of the false teachers.

• As we continue in 2 Peter 2 we need to be reminded that there are threats against the truth from every angle:

• outside the church: false teachings and false teachers that are clearly outside of the biblical boundaries of orthodox theology and practice.

• paganism in all it's varieties and forms: secularism, new-age/mysticism, spiritism, animism, rationalism, moral-therapeutic deism - all of these at their root are following the pattern of Romans 1, suppressing the truth of God and worshipping the creation, rather than the Creator.

• within the church: false teachings and false teachers that are just orthodox enough to check off on a survey, but their teaching is dangerous, deceptive, indulging the flesh, and contrary to sound teaching.

• prosperity gospel/health-wealth/name-it, claim-it; Jesus-only Pentecostalism/Jesus-only Holiness movement; strict cultural fundamentalism/legalism/performative Christianity; Liberation Theology; Theistic Evolution; the inherent goodness of Man (Pelagius); baptism for the dead; receiving revelation from Jesus in prayer and writing it down in a journal, misleading millions;

• within ourselves - we all have a tendency to believe ourselves, let ourselves off the hook, bend the rules to fit our desired behavior.

'well it's just this once, it couldn't be that bad' - 'as long as I'm doing this in my home it won't affect others' - 'how could it be wrong if it feels so right?' - 'It's ok, I'm only human after all'

• a note on pride - "Let he who stands pay attention, or else he will fall"

Review

• Previous:

• Identifying false teaching:

• Constraints on the Prophets - Deut 13 (alignment with revelation); Deut 18 (only that which God had instructed them to speak)

• True for the Apostles as well ("we have the reliable prophetic word" - aligned with revelation; men carried along by the Spirit spoke from God.

• Any teaching contrary to God's revelation

• Identifying false teachers:

• Jesus - "know them by their fruit" = speech, content, teaching

• Peter/Jude - their character is revealed, exposed

• vv.1-3 Warning of presence, practice, pending judgment of false teachers

• vv.4-10 Certainty of judgment; God's faithfulness Then ->Now

• vv.10-16 Character of false teachers, why they will be judged

• vv.17-22 Character and judgment of false teachers [PPT - outline of ch.2]

Today: Character of False Teachers, and why they will be judged

HomProp/Big Idea: Guard yourselves against the content and character of false teachers whom God will judge.

[PPT - statement]

Read 2 Peter 2:4-16.

God will judge the false teachers for their reviling (v.10-13a)

2 Peter 2:10-13 (NASB95)

10bDaring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, 11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, 13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong.

[PPT - heading, vv10-13 below]

1. Define

a. blasphemy, slander, defame, to speak in a disrespectful way that demeans or maligns others

2. Repetition/pattern in the text

a.

This word shows up three times in vv.10, 11, 12, making for a tight compact little argument about the pattern and attitude of these false teachers.

b.

These three verses encapsulate the slanderous boastful and bold attitude of the false teachers.

c.

If you look up at v.10, Peter describes the false teachers as those who indulge the flesh and despise authority

i.

It is that attitude of despising that is expanded here - looking down upon, treating with contempt, scorn, to be unafraid of something, to not have a care about something, to disregard.

3. The way that this is presented here among the false teachers is in their internal attitudes

a. Daring - bold, arrogant,

b. self-willed - self-centered, stubborn, driven by themselves and their appetites

c. do not tremble - quiver, fear.

d.

Combining these three words, we can assemble a picture of how these false teachers respond to authority or any power higher than themselves.

There is a defiant resistance, puffed up arrogance, and a foolish boldness.

4.

This shows up very clearly in their external actions

a. reviling angelic majesties - "glories" - angels/demons.

No recognition of the current stature of mankind in the created order.

At this present time mankind is under the angelic majesties in power and authority.

5. Correlation with Jude 8-10 "8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.

9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed."

a. similar issues, similar warnings.

b.

Continuity rather than competition.

6.

Peter compares the false teachers to animals - a very specific argument related to the way they navigate through the world.

a. unreasoning, without knowledge - in the same way that the animals do not reason with one another, or have knowledge in the sense that people do -

b. Animals are created with instinct - they do not process things rationally, but instinctually.

You can talk to your dog, but your dog can't talk back.

c.

So too the false teachers navigate through the world without reasoning or knowledge - if they would stop and think, they would not be going down the road they are on.

They would stop their blaspheming, reviling, and their arrogance.

But instead they continue onward and downward.

d.

Their ruin/destruction is coming.

As animals come to the end of their lives and are captured or killed, so too the false teachers will find ruin and destruction awaits them at the end of their lives.

7. Suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong

a.

This is the negative way of saying the eternal principle of reaping and sowing

b.

Galatians 6:7-9 "7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."

c.

These false teachers are willfully in a pattern of doing wrong, and it is only natural that the wages, payment, result of their wrongdoing is suffering.

i.

This does not mean that all suffering is a result of doing wrong

ii.

This is a principle, that those who do wrong ought to expect that they will suffer.

God is not mocked, and no one gets away with wrongdoing.

8. Warning!

Caution!

a. Guard yourselves against these attitudes/actions in others

i. you may need to put some appropriate distance - boundaries - between yourself and others who display this total disregard for authority and are marked by blasphemy, slander, constantly doing wrong and suffering for it