Deceptions of False Teachers
Notes
Transcript
Last week we left off at v.17 lets pick up there and continue on through to v.22.
“Deceptions of False Teachers”
What are they? What we are going to see in today's text is the following.
Speak Great Arrogant words of emptiness
Promises of freedom yet are themselves in bondage
They have known the way of righteousness but have turned away from it.
This morning the approach I am going to take is one of expositor and exegesis of the text. Simply put verse by verse, word by word if necessary.
Looking closer into these three deceptive traits of false teachers and those who follow them.
These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
These = false teachers
2:17 waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane Like a billowing but vaporous cloud, these people are led along by false doctrine which means false teachings. Jude also expresses this by saying the following.
These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;
raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
The gloom of darkness has been reserved - These are reserved for the final lasting judgment that is to come.
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
An everlasting judgement of separation of pain and darkness. The false teachers have brought this fate upon themselves if left unrepentant (v. 1).
2 Peter 2:1 “they bring on themselves swift destruction.”
Let us continue with v. 18
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
When Peter describes their speech he says “they speak with great swelling words of emptiness” These false teacher speak with haughty, pompous, prideful words and these words are futile, producing no lasting results, their words may sound good, but they lack any basis in truth. The church is being led astray by the charisma of these false leaders and how enticing their message sounds.
What is truly sad is that their speech has a lure to it. It is pleasing to the ears. Their words entice and entrap the listener like bait on a hook when you go fishing.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
and what do these teachers within the church do...
and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
So these false teachers lure through the lusts of the flesh, Peter says, through lewdness which means filthiness or filthy lusts...
The bait of choose is through the lust of the flesh and lewdness. What is that exactly?
Their shameless immoral appeals play tricks on some immature souls the same way a fish is tricked into biting a fake plastic bait cast by a skilled fisherman.
Many people fall victim to these who teach a false gospel.
Peter describes those who fall victim as “the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error” in the latter part of verse 18.
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
In other words, it hadn’t been long since these people who had escaped the clutches of their pagan counterparts, that is “those who live in error” as citizens of the wicked Roman culture.
So the false teachers were luring some relatively new “Christians” into their immorality. These new believers were jumping out of the frying pan of paganism and into the fire of heretical religion.
Before we go to the next text, let me just answer a question that is often asked in regard to all this so far. How do we know who is a teacher of truth and a teacher of half truth or just out right lies?
The answer is rather a simple one. How does one know the truth? By reading the truth of God’s holy word. Know the Word of God dear one. Again you need to read it study it. Many of you don’t need to start with a devotional you just need to pick up the Word and read it and let the Holy Spirit guide your devotion to the Lord. That is the only way you will recognize truth from a lie.
Now as we move further into the text look with me at v.19
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
Here Peter states that the false teachers empty doctrine (teaching) was giving people a false sense of freedom.
On one occasion Jesus told his disciples to let the Pharisees alone because they were blind guides who led people to share in their fate.
He said, “And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a ditch or a pit”
Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
On this point the Pharisees were precursors to the false teachers of Peter’s day.
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
These heretics are slaves leading people into the very pit of slavery. “They promise them liberty/freedom,” Peter writes, “but they themselves are slaves of corruption.”
They have been overcome by their own evil conduct and have become slaves to it.
Now they’re compelling others into that same bondage but passing it off as freedom. They “were prisoners talking to others prisoners of a freedom that they didn’t have”
Exalting Jesus in 2 Peter, Jude The Promise of False Freedom (2:19)
Not much has changed. Today Christianity often is viewed as a restricted life confined to following a bunch of rules. Believers are seen as being enslaved to someone else’s bidding. The banner cry of modern individualists is, “Live your life the way you want to live it!” But all the time these false freedom fighters are luring people into a life of slavery to sin and bondage to corruption.
Now lets look at v.20
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
Jesus has offered these people the opportunity to escape sin—which came at the price of His own life—and they have chosen to go back to sin and indulge in it, and then encouraged others to do the same.
Having known the truth and denied it, their current spiritual situation is worse than before: Evil has gained a stronger footing in their lives because it is now using them to lead others astray (compare Luke 11:24–26).
“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’
And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order.
Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
In addition, these false teachers will experience an especially harsh judgment from God; they will not only bear their own punishment, but also the punishment for those they led astray.
The full consequences of their sin will visit them. In full knowledge of the truth, the false teachers chose this path instead of the freedom of Christ.
Now v.21
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
Peter’s remark shows how serious the situation is. The false teachers have seen enough of Christ’s work to know the basic rules of following Him, but they refuse to repent. Letting these false teachers go their own way—which will end up in their destruction, if they do not change their minds—does not make up for the damage they do by turning others away from Christ and blocking God’s work in the community.
Instead of turning to God, the false teachers have turned back to their own ways. The idea here is that the initial knowledge of Jesus offered these leaders a chance to repent, but they used it to lead others astray.
Based on the broader context of setting aside these false leaders for judgment, it seems Peter acknowledges that in some cases individuals must be cut off from their Christian community. In this situation, the only advantage in keeping the teachers in the church is their possible restoration to relationship with Christ—a possibility that Peter seems to disregard, given their negative impact on others. What this text seems to suggest is that, Peter thinks these teachers are unchangeable.
The earlier comparison of Lot’s escape from Sodom may also be relevant here, since Lot’s wife turned back to Sodom (the city full of wickedness) and was destroyed as a result. The false teachers have similarly turned back to their former ways, and like Lot’s wife, they have brought destruction upon themselves (2 Pet 2:1, 6–8).
Now lets look at the last verse in today's selected text v. 22
But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
Peter ends this chapter of harsh condemnation and fierce criticism with two proverbs that fit the situation of the false teachers well.
Their fate is that they will be handed over to the destiny they have chosen. The horror and finality of hell is just this; God confirms a man’s willful choice. In the end we all go ‘to our own place’.
The dog that has thrown up the corruption inside it cannot keep away; it goes back to sniff the vomit.
The pig that has washed off the corruption outside it by a scrubbing cannot avoid rolling in the mud.
The gospel is a basin that washes us from all our filth and spots, but there are many pigs who, right after they have washed, roll again in the mud.
Therefore, the godly are cautioned to watch out for both dangers if they do not want to be counted among the dogs and pigs’
That’s why we need a Savior.
Against the tide of false teaching that leads to damnation, we need to hear Jesus pronounce over us, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.… So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free” (John 8:32, 36).
And he has set us free indeed through his life, death, and resurrection. He’s broken the chains of sin and corruption, and he’s put his life back inside of us!
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.