The Danger of False Teachers

William D. Hardy

Watch for Wolves • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago

2 Peter 2:1–3

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Explore the traits of false teachers and how they can deceive through their smooth words and destructive teachings.

Notes

Transcript

Good morning everyone…It is so good to see you all this morning. I am thrilled to have you join us, whether you're here in person or joining us online. Parents, we've got exciting classes for your little ones where they can grow in faith and have a blast while doing it. Kids, as you leave the sanctuary today, don't forget to give someone a warm high-five and share a big, welcoming smile! To all our wonderful online family, we extend a virtual embrace and are so grateful that you're worshiping with us from afar – you're an important part of our church extended family today!

Hey everyone…I have something SUPER EXCITING to tell you about. In a few weeks on September 30th we are having a Beast Feast! This is our first annual massive mens cookout…We will have a variety of meats as well as side and deserts and all kinds of stuff like that. I will give you more details later on, but for now, I want to see every sing man out there pull out there phone and text BEASTFEAST to +18883090482 in order to register for this first annual free mens event. Guys this is gonna be amazing and you WILL NOT want to miss this, so you need to text that number right now and get registered so that we make sure we have enough of what we want to have there. Like seriously…what are you waiting for!

Now moving on, I read a story this past week. It is a story that is sad, but is also very common. You see, there was a woman named Barbara. Well Barbara is a long time Best Buy Geek Squad user and always has the service protection plan that they offer. Well, she got an invoice from “Geek Squad” and that invoice was for three years worth of this program. Well, Barbara didn’t want to pay for three years up front, she only wanted to pay for 1 year at a time. So she called the number on the invoice to clear up this misunderstanding. Well, as a part of this conversation it was revealed that Best Buy had apparently accidentally taken $4,000 from her account and they needed to get that refunded to Barbara. However, in order to get this refunded to Barbara they would need her bank account information…You know, to make sure they refunded it correctly. Well, during a phone call that lasted over two hours and multiple people within “Best Buy” they worked to clear out Barbara’s bank account. Then, for some reason, they convinced Barbara that they needed her to go and purchase some Best Buy gift cards from CVS. They needed her to purchase 4 guft cards for $500 each and scratch off the code on the back and tell them these numbers. This was all done in an effort to refund her the $4,000 that they accidentally withdrew from her account. It wasn’t until this person was sent to Target to purchase more gift cards that she finally realized this was ridiculous and this was not a legitimate conversation. Of course by that time her bank account has been pretty much cleared out. This type of thing happens all the time. I know of another person who received a phone call and spent two days on the phone with some company and that company took close to $20,000 from her.

You see, that is actually a pretty common type of scam that is used on the elderly. Recently I’ve talked about how parents need to protect their kids, well, now Im talking to those kids…Listen, you need to protect your parents from falling victim to these types of scams that are out there seeking to wipe out the finances of your parents. You don’t want your folks having to live in state funded housing somewhere becuase someone has victimized them and taken their retirement funds that they worked their whole lives for. You see, there are actually people out there that will purposefully lie to you in order to get what they want and in order to actively hurt you.

That is actually what we are talking about in this brand new series called, Watch out for Wolves. We are looking at various passages where we are warned about false teachers and false prophets. We are warned about these things because they are actually damaging and are actually taking people and leading them in ways that are not only not biblical, but they are actively leading people away from the Gospel.

Let me introduce you to a man named Brandon Robertson (photo). Brandon is a part of a brand new genre of pastors called, TikTok Pastors. This is a genre of people that have gained a following becuase they call themselves a pastor or a theologian and they are speaking on of the fastest growing social media platforms out there. Most of the popular TikTok pastors would fall into the false teacher category becuase they are teaching the Bible in a way that encourages allegiance to the social and cultural pressures that are out there. Well, Brandon here goes further. You see, he is widely popular for his teachings on Queer Theology. Namely teaching that queerness, or LGBT is actually closer to the real god that listening to the outdated Scriptures. You see, Brandon has stated that Jesus was racist and had to repent of his racism. He has taught that when Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, he was actually calling him out of the closet in his queerness. He would be one that would teach that David and Jonathan are actually gay lovers. This is the type of preaching that Brandon does. However, he does this in a winsome way and he has people actually following his perversion of God’s Word. This is the pinnacle of false teaching…Actually, what gives Brandon credibility to many of his followers is that he grew up in a conservative Christian home, a youth pastor at a Southern Baptist Church. He graduated from Moody in 2014 and then started working to convince the SBC to allow for the inclusion of LGBT and “marriage equality”. You see, Brandon knows the truth…however, he perverts the truth in order to cover his own sin and debauchery as an practicing homosexual.

Why did I tell you about Brandon, because he is a wolf in sheep's clothing and he should be called out publically as a false teacher. Brandon is an example of why we need to have spiritual discernment so that we are not led astray they way that Brandon is leading millions of people away from the Gospel. We recently finished our series on doctrine because we wanted to see what we, as a church, believed about various issues. Well, when you don’t know what you believe, it becomes easy to listen to someone who sounds like they know what they are talking about or someone who claims to be an authority on a particular subject. Brandon calls himself a theologian, so it sounds like he is someone who should know what he is talking about…and he does, he simply chooses to lead people away from that truth for some unknown evil reason. Frankly it amazes me the amount of people who call themselves Christians all while claiming the Bible is all a fake story…it makes no sense at a

Anyway, this is the type of person that Jesus warned us about last week and this is the type of person that Peter tells us about today. Go ahead and turn your Bibles to 2 Peter 2

Now, there are Bibles in the back if you don’t have a Bible yourself. There is also a Bible in the chair in front of you, and you also have your phone that you can download a Bible app onto in order to read the Scriptures along with me, and I highly encourage that you read the Scripture for yourself and you do not simply take my word for it…But lets go ahead and read together,

2 Peter 2:1–3 (ESV)

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 bought 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.

Let’s Pray

Ok, so what do we see from this passage in 2 Peter this morning? Well first of all let’s understand the context of why Peter wrote this letter. You see, Peter recognized he did not have alot of time left on Earth and he felt it was really important to make sure that people knew about the dangers of false teachers and he wanted to point out some of these false teachers by the actions as well as their dangerous false theologies…So…that is what we are going to look at today,

The Danger of False Teachers

It’s interesting to think about a teacher being dangerous, but we have to know that it’s true. I mean, look at what was being taught in Nazi ruled Germany. They were teaching that people of Jewish heritage weren’t real people and that they were spreading their jewish disease all over. When people heard that enough it became no big deal to simply exterminate that group of people much like we have removed the mice from the church building here. You see, a false teacher will slowly chip away at what you know to be right and true to the point of you no longer knowing what is right or true…That is the danger of a false teacher.

Well, that is what Peter wanted to make sure people were aware of, and that is still going on today, so we still need to be aware that there are false teachers all around us, and frankly I would argue that there are more false teachers today than at any other time in history because of the rise of social media. So over the course of this series my hope is that we will all become more aware of the false teachers that are out there and that we will all become more and more discerning about who we will listen to, or what authors we will read.

Now, I want to address a question that I have heard.Can I listen to, or read from false teachers so that I know how to best talk ot my friends or family who may believe some of these false teachings. Well, here is what I would say…there is a small category of Christian that I would recommend to pay attention to these false teachers. You see, Peter calls these doctrines they are teaching as destructive…that is because they can and do turn people who desire to follow Christ onto a path that leads them away from Christ. So, should you listen to these false doctrines…probably not because you do not want yourself to be deceived into softening or turning around your conviction about the Scripture. However, if you do feel led to follow these false teachers, or read from these authors, you better make sure you are spending more time in good doctrine than you are with bad doctrine. Make sure you are reading more Scripture than you are reading false teaching.

However, we do need to be able to see what these false teachers are, so let’s see if Peter helps us to understand these false teachers.

I.Understanding False Teachers (2 Peter 2:1)

From this passage there are some things we can learn. First of all though, I don’t think we have defined what a false teacher is, so let’s use this pasage to define a false teacher. A false teacher teaches heresies that deny the Lord, or exchange the Lord with someone or something else. A false teacher frequently comes from within the church. Think of Brandon Robertson who was a youth pastor for a conservative church. A false teacher works in secret, or in a very small group working to undermine the truth of Scripture. There was a man I knew many years ago that secretly was working with a family that I was working with and counseling and showing Scripture and how Scripture applies to their life. Well this man worked in secret to convince this family that the Biblical truths I was presenting to them were not applicable to them and they should continue to live the immoral lives they were living.

You see, the heresies that these false teachers are teaching here in 2 Peter seem to have something to do ignoring or worse yet, teaching that there is not eternal judgement that will be levied against every single man woman and child. You see, throughout Scripture we are shown that ultimatly there is a judgement. You and I will face judgement for the actions that we participate in, or that we ignore. There is only one way to survive that judgement and that is through surrendering your life to Jesus and allowing him to mediate between you with your sin and God who is sinless…You see, without Jesus you are accountable for every single thing that you have done. With Jesus, then those things are already paid through Jesus’ sacrifice and you have been offered forgiveness. This is what these false teachers will teach. This is the exact type of thing that Rev. Brandon is teaching to his millions of views…He is teaching that sexual degeneracy is not actually sinful, and that Jesus even promotes this level of sin. This is a destructive heresy that that has and continues to wreak havoc on the church. We have people who have claimed Christ who are not jumping on the bandwagon of deconstructing their own faith..or in other words, denouncing God. This is the type of damage that is done when these heresies are allowed into the church under the guise of just “being loving”…There is a place for love, and that place is telling the truth of Scripture and calling people to repentance so that they do not face the judgement and eternal punishment of their sin.

That thought really does lead us to the idea that there are consequences for this false teaching. Let’s take a look at those.

II. The Consequences of False Teaching (2 Peter 2:2)

What are the consequences of false teaching? Well there is a couple of consequences that we have already talked about, but there is more than that. You see, before the eternal punishment that will await those who teach these things, they are leading people to an immoral life. When the church allows false teaching into the church, the way that we have, adn I do not mean we as in LRBC, I mean we as in the big C church. We have allowed the culture to teach us that there are certain behaviors that are ok. For instance, the divorce rate within the church is no better than the divorce rate outside of the church…why is that? Because when we listen to false teaching of culture, we will eventually look like the culture. That is why you have mainstream pastors that at one time would have held to conservative theological views, but now find themselves saying things like, I don’t mind if a guy who is the middle of divorcing his wife is living with his new boyfriend. We can go ahead and place them in leadership of various ministries because we want to show them love. You see, when you begin to allow the destructive heresies of the culture into your church, then you will eventually follow those destructive heresies to their logical end…which is to reject Scripture as a whole.

So False teaching causes sinful living. That’s not all though…False teaching causes Christ to be defamed. See, if you are living your life under a false teacher and others see you living a degenerate life, then they will come to believe that Christ must not be that important, and his followers are all either frauds or stupid. When false teachers are allowed into the church either be design, or because of their craftiness, then those who follow them will loose their footing, because False teaching causes Christians to stumble.

Praise the Lord though because we have been warned to watch out for these false teachers. You see, in this passage Peter reminds them that there were false prophets in the past and that there are and will be false teachers moving forward. I wouldn’t want to be one of those false teachers on the day of judgement though. You see, people like Brandon Robertson will have to face God one day on that great and terrible day when the Lord returns. Take a look at

III. The Judgment of False Teachers (2 Peter 2:3)

So what is it that will happen either with or to these false teachers? Well we have already seen what the false teachers can do to the church. They allow these doctrines that are actually harmful to people. Imagine a doctrine that instead of helping you navigate the twists and turns of life, causes you to fly off the cliff at that turn that life brought to you. Imagine having doctrine that led you down a path that was all self-centric so that you no longer cared about God or holiness. Imagine having a doctrine that led you to believe that sexual immorality is simply a right of passage and that if you are a man who feels like a woman then you should be allowed to shower with little girls. Well there is a very specific path that doctrine will lead you to.

First of all we need to recognize that those who lead are held to a higher standard and a higher accountability than others. In other words, as your pastor, God will hold me accountable for what you do and say. That is simply the cost of leadership. Well, the same is true for those who are leading falsely, we see in

Matthew 18:6 ESV

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Now, I should describe a millstone. I actually finally got to see a small one personally not to terribly long ago. I saw it at a yard sale and part of my wanted to get that…Anyway, the millstone that I saw was about 3 feet in diameter. However, when I tried to lift it, I could not…This small piece of stone weighed hundreds of pounds. Actually I looked up how much a 36in millstone actually weighs…it’s around 1100 pounds…Now, think about that. Jesus just said that if anyone leads a believer into sin, it would be better for them to have an 1100 pound stone attached to their neck and drowned…that is brutal yet Jesus says that would be easier than what will happen to those who are false teachers. Here is the bottom line, God will judge every false teacher!

That judgement will be righteous and perfect. Here Peter tells us that the judgement that has been promised is still happening, but that this all happens in God’s timing…not ours. However, what we can know for sure is that Their judgement is final!

Here’s the thing though…we don’t have to worry about false teachers, not because they are not out there, their may even be a false teacher in this room right now…However, we can be assured that if we are focused on the Lord and on his word, we will avoid the trap of the false teacher. The false teacher will make the focus of life more and more on yourself and what you need or what you are entitled to. The false teacher will draw your focus away from the Lord more and more and onto what the Lord owes you. When self is the focus…that is false teaching!

So what do you do with all of this information…Well, first of all, don’t be a false teacher! If you are ever in a position to lead anyone, which you should seek to do, you need to make sure that what you are sharing is 100% from Scripture and you are not misrepresenting Scripture. Listen, frankly that is why I fought God for so long about me being a lead pastor because I am terrified of saying the wrong thing from the pulpit…I mean, you guys know me, I say dumb stuff all the time…But from the pulpit, when its about Scripture, there is an extra weight placed on that, and I didn’t want that. However, God doesn’t typically take my suggestions when it comes to his desire.

So…how do I avoid all of that? Well, Make sure you are only teaching Scripture. Of course the only way you can ensure that you are only teaching Scripture is if you Make a commitment to read Scripture daily, and then test everything you read or hear against what Scripture says. In other words, stand firm in the faith!…Listen real quick teachers, specifically adult teachers, if you are not reading the Bible daily…please step down from teaching today! It’s that import.

Finally, when you encounter someone who may be deceived and maybe even someone who is unknowingly sharing false teaching…Extend grace and love towards those who might have been deceived. Help them see the truths os Scripture and guide them to repentance. Listen, the reality is that we were all deceived at one time. We were lost in our own deception and may have even led others in that deception. The beauty is that we serve a God who is compassionate and has already provided a way to experience forgiveness. We need to repent of any false ideologies that we may have held to at one point, including all of our sin. We need to believe that Jesus actually came down and lived a sinless life, but died a sinners death. We need to believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that he is coming back again some day on that great and terrible day of the Lord. Then you need to commit your life to Christ. You need to surrender your life to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords…Listen, its real easy…Ill even give you an example right now. If you feel that you need to repent, simply follow this example...

Lord, I don’t deserve to even talk to you. I have believed some things that are unbiblical and I have so much to learn still. But Lord, I believe that you have provided forgiveness in my life. Thank you for that God…Thank you for your son Jesus who came down and died in my place so that I will spend an eternity with you and not away from you in eternal torment. Lord today, I commit my life to you, to use however you see fit. I am available to you and I am willing to do the things that you are calling me to do. That includes being a parent, being an employee, being a neighbor, and of course being a part of your church, this community of believers. Amen

Listen, there are no special magic words that are needed to commit your life to God, but there are some pieces that must be there…There must be repentance, that means you are no longer going to live for yourself. There must be belief, and there must be some sort of commitment to Christ above yourself. That is what it means to give your life to Christ. Listen, if you are here or joining us online and you would like to talk about this decision to submit to the Lord with someone then please reach out and let’s have a conversation. Listen, this forgiveness is not a one time deal…You are going to mess up and so believer, if you are here and you realize you have not been living your life for the Lord the way you should…then repent and recommit your life to the Lord today...

Let’s Pray

The devil has more to do with some men’s pitiless theology than they imagine.

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