Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Well, good morning. My name is Eric Bowling, and I'm part of the teaching team, and I'm excited to be able to bring God's word to you today.
[00:00:15] Today we're back in our series on traps. And if you've been following along with us, we've been going through these really orchestrated and created traps that are designed to keep us from following Jesus, and they're designed to keep us from experiencing the fullness that Jesus has for us. Maybe they're designed for us to not follow Jesus at all. And so the reason we're going through this is we want to be trained as a church, as a body of believers in discernment. And discernment is this. It is the ability to determine what's happening beneath the surface. Another way to say this is the thing beneath the thing. To be able to understand what's happening, what's going on, what's going on inside of us, what's going on around us, all of those things. So discernment is the ability to determine that, to be able to say, this is what's happening. So why do we need discernment? I think the first thing is, like we said, to determine the who and why behind the scenes. Whenever we are looking at what's going on, there's usually three kind of culprits. And Michael has touched on this several times. The first one is the self or the flesh us. That's usually something that's involved in this process. Sometimes it's the demonic.
[00:01:50] We have a spiritual enemy out there. We have an unseen world that we battle against. And the last thing is it's the Holy spirit, the kingdom of God, those things. And so whenever we look at what's happening, we're dealing with some type of blend of these things. And really, if we are trapped, like we said before, our witness is ineffective.
[00:02:16] If we get caught up in these things, our witness doesn't have the effectiveness that it could. I think probably, as I've thought through this idea of discernment, it's proverbs, chapter 22, verse three, that says this. The prudent sees danger and hides himself. The wise person sees what's coming and says, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to take precaution. I'm going to move away from that. I can see this being a potential problem, notice the end of it, the simple, go on and suffer for it. We don't want to be a people that suffer. We want to be a people of wisdom that can discern what's going on just to kind of give us our place where we're at. The past couple sermons we've talked about were demonic delusions, demonic doctrines, national global empires and demonic traps you cannot see. And today we're going to talk about the trap of false teachers, the trap of teachers that are trying to lead people astray. As I've been prepping and thinking about this and praying about this, there were really two verses that came to mind for me that sort of serve as an overarching kind of theme. Before we look at two, Peter, chapter two. And the first one is, this is Colossians two eight says, see that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition. I've been praying that God will protect us from the false ideologies and philosophies and isms that are out there that might seek to lead us astray. And the second verse that really was kind of over guarding over my prayers was ecclesiastes one, verse nine. It says, what has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun.
[00:04:15] I found a lot of comfort in that because I don't know about you, but I look at what's happening and I'm like, this could be the worst thing that's ever happened in the history of mankind.
[00:04:25] Not true. There's nothing new. And we're going to see as we get into second Peter, that some of the issues they were dealing with are similar to issues we deal with today.
[00:04:38] To be labeled as a false teacher is sort of a common, it's a common attack today, especially in evangelicalism, where people are quickly labeled as false teachers. I think some of that happens because now everybody's on all the time. Everywhere I went through yesterday, I got on Twitter, or x, as it's now called, and I just typed in false teachers. I was curious what's out there?
[00:05:08] And you can imagine different people's names popped up and someone tweeted, oh, that's a false teacher. This is a false teacher. That person is. This person is. I'm not going to give you a list, okay? But you can imagine the one that stuck out to me was someone tweeted, if you believe in Calvinism, you're a false teacher. I thought, wow. And I guess if Calvinism is on the table, arminianism is on the table. Probably being a Baptist, probably being a picket, right? So I was thinking, okay, either everyone's a false teacher or no one is a false teacher. Like, how do we make sense of this in a world where that's a quick accusation. Now, are there false teachers out there? Absolutely, 100%.
[00:05:57] Would I get that list from what people are tweeting? Probably not. So today what we're going to do is we're going to look at God's word and we're going to come away with there are some things that you can apply when you hear and see things to say. All right, where are we at in terms of true versus false? Well, let's talk about what a false teacher is not. A false teacher is not someone who disagrees with you.
[00:06:23] I think that's important to say at the front end.
[00:06:26] It's not somebody who disagrees with you. It's easy to be like, well, that's a false teacher. He disagreed with me. It's false teacher. Okay. Second thing, a false teacher is not someone who may have a different doctrinal perspective. And I put a little asterisk by that because it kind of depends, depends on what we're talking about. I wish we had more time. We could get into first tier doctrine, second tier doctrine, et cetera. If you're curious what village church believes, you can go on our website. It's right there. They've got a bunch of documents. But there is a lot of things that are open to interpretation between christians.
[00:07:10] And so just because someone says, I have this view doesn't mean that they're necessarily a false teacher. Otherwise you get into strong denominationalism and you get into all these issues where we're just battling each other and we're fighting. But there are certain things we got to get right. There are certain things that we have to be correct on. So a false teacher is not someone who disagrees with you and is not somebody with a different doctrinal perspective. Well, what is a false teacher? A false teacher is someone who preaches Christ in word but denies him in their lifestyle, somebody who will tell you something and their life doesn't match up.
[00:07:53] And in today's world, it's really easy to do that, isn't it?
[00:07:58] You can create these things about yourself and you can say things to people, but what's your life say? Second thing, a false teacher deliberately distorts the gospel.
[00:08:08] They deliberately change it. And most of the time, to be honest with you, they deliberately extort it because they're looking for money, power.
[00:08:17] There's a reason that they do it. They distort the gospel. Third thing, they're motivated by evil.
[00:08:24] They're driven by the demonic spirit of evilness and the last thing is they engage in a sinful lifestyle with a refusal to repent.
[00:08:36] And so when we talk about what a false teacher is, that's going to give us some background. But let's look at God's word and what it says. If you have your bible turn to second Peter. We're primarily going to be in chapter two. We're really going to focus on the first three verses, but we're going to work through the entire passage as we go and look at false teachers. A little background here on second Peter. Second Peter is written by the apostle Peter, and he's writing to a newly established church. And this church is primarily made up of jewish believers who are, now, they've gone through the jewish tradition, now they're following Christ. And so as Peter's writing to them in chapter two especially, he's warning them about false teachers and he's saying to them, hey, there are people who are out there who are oppressing you and who are taking advantage of you, who are lying to you, and here's how to deal with them. Here's how you know what's going on.
[00:09:38] And what he wants the church to do is to follow the true knowledge of Christ and not anything else. Well, let's look at the scripture together. Let's go to second Peter, chapter two, verse one. Peter starts off this section and he says this, but false prophets arose from among the people.
[00:09:59] Let's pause there. What he's doing is he's referencing back all that these jewish believers would have experienced and known about, about prophets through the Old Testament.
[00:10:11] It's fascinating if you go through and you read the Old Testament, because there are true prophets of God. Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah.
[00:10:20] There are also a bunch of false prophets.
[00:10:24] Give you a quick example, the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is called by God and he's got to deliver the message to the nation. We're going to be judged. We're going to be taken over. That's not a popular message.
[00:10:38] And what happened was a bunch of false prophets started. No, he's wrong. We're fine. God told me, and they led the people astray. And the Old Testament is litter with those examples. So the first thing Peter wants his church to know is he wants them to know, hey, there were problems in the past. There were false prophets. But look at the next verse. He says, just as there will be false teachers among you, he's warning the church. He said, look, that's not just a problem back there, it's a problem now.
[00:11:13] And you can imagine if you're in this church and they're reading this letter to you, you might start glancing around that. I wonder who it is, right? Because they're hearing, look, there's false teach prophets back there. There's false teachers today.
[00:11:29] And so what were these false teachers doing? Like, how did they know? Look at the next part here. It says they secretly bring in destructive heresies. That word secretly is an interesting word here, because it wasn't like these false teachers were standing up and just boldly declaring heresy. Let's do a little thought experiment. So if I stood up here today and I said, hey, guys, last night I was praying and the Lord gave me a special knowledge that Jesus is not God's son, I'm assuming that wouldn't land well with you.
[00:12:09] Some of you might just get up and walk out. Some of you might challenge me from your seat. It'd be in a memorable service, let's be honest. Okay.
[00:12:18] But you would at least go, man, that's not right. That's pretty overt. What these people were doing was very secret. It was very much covert, very much undercover, and they were introducing heretical teachings that were probably done without the. Well, I'm sure they were done without the authority of the apostles who were leading the church. And let's talk about what heresy is so we can recognize this. A heresy is a doctrine, philosophy, ideas that blatantly contradict essential christian orthodoxy. These are things that directly go against what God has said.
[00:12:58] It was interesting. In 2022, there was a state of theology survey done by Ligoner ministries and lifeway research where they wanted to identify what were heresies that were believed amongst evangelical christians.
[00:13:12] They started it was, are there heresies? Here's what they found. There were five of them. I'm going to give you three. The first thing that they found was that evangelical people said, jesus is not the only way to God.
[00:13:24] He is a way, but he's not the only way. 56% of the people that they surveyed said that is true.
[00:13:31] The second thing they found was humans are not sinful by nature.
[00:13:36] 57% of the people said, yeah, we believe with that. The last thing they found was Jesus is not God. 43% of the people agreed with that. And these are people who are theoretically sitting in churches, part of evangelicalism, being taught God's word, that are getting these essential things wrong.
[00:13:59] One of the findings of this study was they found that people do not know their bibles.
[00:14:06] And they said, this is probably leads to the greatest amount of being taken by false teaching than anything else. That people aren't aware of what God says.
[00:14:19] Let's go back to two. Peter, chapter two, verse one. There was a specific heresy that was happening at this time in the church. It says this even denying the master who bought them.
[00:14:32] So what these false teachers were teaching was they were denying Jesus.
[00:14:38] Nothing new under the sun, right?
[00:14:41] It's happening today. And so these false teachers were teaching, you don't really need to follow Jesus. You don't really need to be about Jesus. And that was going on. And so as Peter is writing this letter to this church, you can imagine again, people are hearing this and they're like, what's going on? What's happening?
[00:15:01] Well, let's look at the impact of these false teachers. If we look at verses two and three, Peter says, because of these false teachers, many will follow their sensuality.
[00:15:13] People were being led into blatant immorality.
[00:15:18] They were being led into probably the worship of false gods, these demon gods, which involved immoral practices.
[00:15:28] And he says, look, they are following these false teachers into these things.
[00:15:34] He goes on to say, because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. Because of these false teachers, the truth of the gospel was being, it's not even that it was being watered down. It's being looked at as it's not true. People were turning from the gospel because of these false teachers.
[00:15:57] Another impact, it says this, in their greed, they will exploit you.
[00:16:04] What they're doing it for was for greed. Maybe it was money, maybe it was power. Maybe it's done by greed. And they're actively exploiting people.
[00:16:15] They're actively taking advantage of people.
[00:16:19] And how are they doing this? They will exploit you with false words.
[00:16:27] And so what these teachers are doing is they were following a pattern to get people to follow them and their teachings, which was leading to really bad outcomes for the church.
[00:16:42] And as I read passages like this, I try to again imagine back to if I didn't have the full canon of scripture, if I didn't have access to so many resources and good teaching, if I only had the word of what I was being read, I probably would be pretty upset at this point to be told, hey, you're being exploited. You're being taken advantage of.
[00:17:07] It would be disturbing.
[00:17:09] And Peter's going to go on and he's going to really drive this point home.
[00:17:15] If we look at, again, the end of verse two and three says this, their condemnation from long ago. The false teacher's condemnation is not idle. Their destruction is not asleep. I bet the people were hoping that Peter would write that right? Like, hey, these people are taking advantage of us. Get them, take care of them. And Peter says, God's got you. What we're going to do is we're going to do a quick run through of basically verse four all the way to 22. And we're going to look at how Peter describes these false teachers. Now, I'm going to tell you it's not good.
[00:17:56] He is going to come with some very sharp pointed attacks against these people and he's going to do that because honestly, sometimes shepherding people, teaching people, preaching the word, means you have to come strong. You've got to confront and you've got to call things what they are. And that's hard.
[00:18:19] That's difficult. But as we're reading this, I want you to imagine Peter as he's writing this. He's probably getting more and more intense. Voice level is going up, writing is becoming, and there's intensity here and it's on purpose. Here we go. Let's dive in. First thing he says is that the false teachers are already judged as guilty. He goes on and he uses some examples that they would have been really familiar with as jewish christians. He talked about God has already judged angels. At some point there was a rebellion in heaven where God judged angels who are now known as demons. And Peter says, that's already happened. Look, God has already judged these, just like he's going to judge these false teachers.
[00:19:09] The second thing is Peter references the flood of Noah and he says, look, you remember that story? They were judged, the world was judged for their sinfulness. That's coming. For the false teachers. Last thing he says is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which again, would have been a very strong image for these jewish believers. And he says, that's what's coming.
[00:19:33] And he goes on verse twelve, he says this. They're like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters which they're ignorant. Verse 13, they count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. It's interesting, most people do their reveling when night they don't want to be seen. Peter said, look, they're doing it right out in the open.
[00:20:00] They're not trying to hide it. He goes on and he says, they're blots and blemishes.
[00:20:06] Think that's an interesting attack here on these false teachers. We've been going through Leviticus, right? We know blots and blemishes on sacrifices mean they're not pure.
[00:20:17] And he's saying look, these are not pure people reveling in their deception. Verse 14. Their eyes are full of adultery. They're insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Look at this one. Accursed children.
[00:20:37] Whoo, that's strong.
[00:20:39] Accursed children, he calls them. Verse 15. He says they've forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. And he tells the story of Balam, who was a prophet who went on to. He was paid to curse Israel. And if you remember the story, it's a strange story, but he's basically going, and a donkey has a supernatural ability to tell him he's wrong.
[00:21:01] Again, people would have been like, yeah, Balam was dumb. These people are dumb, right?
[00:21:07] Goes on in verse 17, he calls them waterless springs.
[00:21:12] Verse 19. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. Verse 22.
[00:21:18] Again, as Peter's building, he says this. What the true proverb says has happened to them.
[00:21:24] What the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.
[00:21:36] Dogs and pigs were considered to be unclean animals in that culture.
[00:21:44] That's a big insult.
[00:21:46] When he calls them dogs and pigs.
[00:21:50] I can just imagine this was a modern context. Peter's speaking, and again, he's ramping up. He's talking through, and he just gets to that line, and he just drops the mic, walks away strong.
[00:22:02] Again, what Peter is doing is he's coming strong because he wants the people to know, look, these false teachers are not going to get away with it.
[00:22:13] They are not going to be able to stand under God's judgment.
[00:22:19] God's taking care of this. Even though it looks like right now they've got a lot of power, they're leading people astray. At some point, they are going to be judged for what they do.
[00:22:33] But let's go back to what he says in verse one. He says, there will be false teachers among you, because what he really wants to land home is he's saying, look, there are false teachers here.
[00:22:50] Now, I don't mean, like, here. Some of you were looking around, and you were like, that's probably right, but there are false teachers here. Peter says, they'll be here. They're here today. They'll probably be here long after we're gone until the Lord brings us all back home like they're a problem. And he says, here we go. And so, a question. As I was prepping, I was like, okay, well, why do we have to deal with false teachers?
[00:23:17] Right? Why are we still sometimes taken by these people? Because, again, we have the full council of scripture. We have podcasts. We have worship songs. We have Bible. I mean, what happens? Why do we have to deal with them? Warren Weirsby said this about Satan and why we have false teachers. He says, number one, we have false teachers because Satan is a counterfeiter. See, Satan can't create, Satan can't make. Only God can do that. But what Satan can do is he can rip off and he can counterfeit and he can change. He can make a cheap alternative.
[00:23:58] I'm going to tell you, he's pretty good at it. There are things that look like they're correct, but if you look carefully, you will realize that they are not.
[00:24:10] Second thing, if Satan is a counterfeiter, he creates a false gospel.
[00:24:16] There's a false message. And if we're not careful, we might be tempted to fall into that message. See, Satan, being an angelic being, knows more than we know. Again, he's not God. Don't want to give him that kind of power. But he knows more than we know. He knows how to create gospels that you and I, if we're not paying attention to, might be tempted to believe.
[00:24:43] I'll give you one. I'll be vulnerable here. Sometimes a false gospel for me is I'm pretty good. And I bet God is glad I'm on his team.
[00:24:55] Some of you are like, I knew it, false teacher.
[00:24:58] But this one, it's a false gospel. And it happens and it hits me. And I'm like, man, I'm believing a lie. I got to repent. I got to confess. I got to reorientate my heart.
[00:25:11] If there's false gospels, there's false teachers. And if there's false teachers, there's false disciples.
[00:25:17] Not everything that is labeled Christian is Christian.
[00:25:23] I think if that's one thing when I think about american evangelicalism at this point, is that there's a lot of things that get labeled Christian that really are not.
[00:25:34] And so the idea is, how do we deal with that before we get to our. So what's, I want to mention one other thing. It's challenging for us because of really three reasons. And Michael touched on these a couple weeks ago. Number one, everyone has a platform in today's world in which to be heard.
[00:25:56] Everybody, everybody now has a voice.
[00:26:03] I don't care if it's via YouTube, Facebook. I mean, everybody's got a voice.
[00:26:09] Which means, number two, that there's an overwhelming volume of content to sift through. It's been called a digital tsunami, a giant wave that is coming and maybe already here. It's hard to go through everything.
[00:26:30] It's just we're bombarded all the time with so much.
[00:26:35] I really appreciate what Michael talked about, not last week, but the week before. We talked about those digital discipleship tools in our pockets, our phones.
[00:26:46] That was one. I was like, yeah, I needed to hear that because there's so much. And then the last thing, along with this idea of false teaching, there are so many heretical ideas coming at all at once, it's hard to wait to sift through. Okay, what is this? Why do we have this?
[00:27:07] Our? So whats are going to give us a couple of tools to walk out of here with from God's word, to be able to apply to what we read, what we hear, what we see, in order to determine, am I being told truth or am I being told falsehood? So what, number one is this?
[00:27:26] To be sober and be vigilant.
[00:27:30] One Peter five eight says this, be sober minded, be watchful. Why? Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. When it says to be sober, it means to clear eyes, pay attention, look around, have a mind that's following what's going on. Be vigilant, pay attention, monitor.
[00:27:58] We don't have the ability to just mindly scroll and mindlessly watch and be able to. We have to be vigilant. Who are we listening to?
[00:28:09] What is their authority?
[00:28:12] Where did they get it from? How does it measure up? And we're going to talk some more about these tests in a second.
[00:28:19] Be sober. Be vigilant. Colossians two eight that we led with, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition and not according to Christ.
[00:28:33] This idea that we are to be active participants in looking at what's going on around us, that's why discernment is so important.
[00:28:43] You can't just get it from coming to church for an hour and having it downloaded into your brain. You got to be actively pursuing that. Number two.
[00:28:53] So what? Number two, be a part of a church that teaches truth from the whole council of scripture.
[00:29:00] I'm going to tell you, if you are a regular attender, a member of village church of Bartlett, you're in that church.
[00:29:06] If you're looking for a church, we are that church.
[00:29:10] Case in point, we're going through Leviticus.
[00:29:15] I remember Michael told me about that, and he was like, hey, we're going to go through Leviticus. And I was like, I was like, really?
[00:29:22] Really? And he goes, it's in God's word.
[00:29:26] Teach the whole council of scripture. Be in a church that does that. You're here. You're here. Second thing, personally, be saturated with prayer and Bible study.
[00:29:38] Take the Bible and study it for yourself.
[00:29:42] Take the Bible and apply it to what you're seeing and hearing.
[00:29:46] I would encourage you, at the end of the day, go back through and listen to this. Apply these tests to what I'm telling you.
[00:29:55] The Bible has to be that guy, but you got to know it. Remember, the study said, people just don't know their bibles. Learn your Bible. If you need help learning your Bible, see anybody here, go online. There's so many resources for us. We need to be saturated with prayer in the Bible. And the last. So what is this? We're to test the teachers.
[00:30:18] Dr. John Piper gives us four tests that we can use when we hear something or read something or see something about. Are they false teachers? Test number one is called the fruit test.
[00:30:30] Matthew, chapter seven, verses 15 to 20. Jesus says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. See, Jesus tells us, look, there are going to be people that are going to come and they're going to look like you, and they're going to seem like they're like you, but they are ravenous wolves. And what do ravenous wolves want to do? Steal, kill, destroy. Just like Satan, who is their master. He says, be pay attention to that. Number two. Our second part that he says here is, he says, you will recognize them by their fruits, these false prophets and sheep's clothing. Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the disease tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. So one of the first tests is, what is a true or false teacher can be identified by the fruit of their lives. What is being produced? Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, perseverance, self good. Like are the fruits of the spirit. Evidence test number two is the doctrine. Test one. Timothy, chapter six, verses three and four. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.
[00:31:49] A true or false teacher can be recognized by the doctrine they teach.
[00:31:54] And again, if you're curious what the Doctrine of village church believes, go online. It's there. If you need to learn more about doctrine, there's again, many resources, but you will know a true or false teacher by their doctrine. What do they believe about God and Jesus and the Bible and eternity, et cetera, et cetera. Test number three is the scripture test. All scripture is breathed out by God. This is from two timothy 316 17. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. A true or false teacher can be recognized by where their authority is found. And I will tell you, if anybody is basing authority on anything else than God's word, be skeptical.
[00:32:46] Be skeptical because authority has to come from the counsel of God's word. Test number four. Is this the gospel test?
[00:32:57] Galatians one, eight and nine. Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed, as we have said before. So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. A true or false teacher can be recognized by their commitment to the gospel.
[00:33:20] As a wrap up today, I want to share just one final thought.
[00:33:26] One of the greatest counterfeiters in us history was a guy named Frank Abignail. It was the movie, I think it was catch me if you can. This guy ripped off millions of dollars. And they asked him one time, they said, how did you know to do, like, what do you do if you want to recognize truth? And he had a really profound statement. And he said, you study the real thing because if you know the real thing, you can spot the fake.
[00:33:55] We have the real thing. It's God's word. It's the council of the Holy Spirit. It's a church body that lifts us up and supports us in that.
[00:34:06] Let's pray together.
[00:34:09] Heavenly Father, we come to you and we are thankful to you that you have given us your word. We thank you that you have given us your Holy Spirit. We thank you that we have the witness of Jesus. Lord, thank you for giving us truth and the ability to know truth and understand truth and apply truth. Lord, we ask that you would provide and protect us as we deal with our world, as we deal with false teachers, as we deal with these demonic traps that are designed to disrupt and distort us from following you.
[00:34:45] Thank you for your word. Prayers in your name. Amen.
