False Teachers Make Bogus Promises

Transcript

GR 1966
10/16/2016
False Teachers make Bogus Promises
II Peter 2:17-22
Gil Rugh

We are in 2 Peter in your Bibles. A great privilege that God has given to us as His people is to be entrusted with His Word and have His Spirit dwell within us Who enables us to understand His Word, grasp what God has said and put it into practice. It is sad that too often we as believers can settle into a pattern where we take for granted the riches of God’s blessing in having His Word entrusted to us. When it ceases to be that precious to us we can become careless or indifferent to it.

I just noted some statements from Psalm 119. We won’t go there but just let me read you some of these statements and the Psalmist just impresses the depth of his love for the Word of God and its importance to him. “Therefore I love Your commandments above gold, yes above fine gold. How sweet are Your Words to my taste. Yes sweeter than honey to my mouth. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep Your Word. Your Word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against You,” and then the recognition and warning. “You have rejected all those who wander from your statues for their deceitfulness is useless. My eyes shed streams of water because they do not keep Your Law. I behold the treacherous and loathe them because they do not keep Your Word.” And just some of the sampling.

You are familiar with Psalm 119 and the extensiveness of that Psalm. You see just the division there is in these verses I read between the child of God who loves with a deep abiding love the Word of God. It is more precious to him than his food, than the wealth of his possessions but it causes him also to stand against those who oppose God’s Word.

This is the balance we see in Peter as he writes. There is not an indifference. There is not an acceptance of those who were opposed to the Word of God. It is a serious matter when people, especially of the world, don’t like the negative things of Scripture. Even some professing Christians say, “Well I don’t like the negative and the emphasis on the negative.” But the child of God recognizes the positive but he also recognizes the negative. There are those who are opposed to God’s Word, who corrupt God’s Word and they are God’s enemies and God’s enemies are our enemies so you have the lines drawn.

In chapter 2 of Peter he has been talking about false teachers and this is a serious matter because these are individuals who come in. We are not talking here about Christians who may have a disagreement on a passage or a particular area but we are talking about Christians who may stumble and sin as we all do but he is addressing those who are unbelievers, godless at heart who have put on a veneer of godliness but they have infiltrated among believers to bring corruption, to lead them away from the truth and they must be warned. That is what he is doing in chapter 2. He has described something of their character in a variety of ways. He has given examples from the Old Testament. This is not just an attack on the unbeliever but it is a reminder and an encouragement to believers.

We noted in verse 9 of 2 Peter 2, “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from testing and to keep the unrighteous under judgment for the Day of Judgment,” under punishment for the Day of Judgment. So we are safe and secure in Christ but we cannot be careless so Peter is warning them. It is not a matter if this will happen. It will happen! There will be false teachers among us as there were false prophets in Israel. We can’t close our eyes to that and as lovers of the truth we maintain an unshakeable commitment to that truth.

The last example he gave here was that of Balaam in the Old Testament and these false teachers, that character, all the false prophets in the Old Testament and the false teachers that come down to our day, that character, they are the same individuals. They are servants of the devil, slaves of sin and in constant opposition to God. What makes it difficult at times is the disguise they put on. And we noted about Balaam. He was used as a mouthpiece of God to speak much truth but at heart he was a godless man who loved the wealth of the world more than he loved the God of Israel.

So in verse 16 even an unreasoning animal is used to speak to him. That tells you something of Balaam’s character. The unbeliever has been compared to unreasoning animals not in a way that would be improper but when it comes to spiritual things they have no more ability to think and understand than an animal does. It sounds like, well, boy, that is a terrible thing to say about them. It depicts their true spiritual condition. The unbeliever has no ability to grapple with spiritual truth. Now that doesn’t mean they can’t learn a lot of facts about the Bible. There are unbelievers who write commentaries on portions of Scripture and have assembled quite a bit of knowledge but at heart they have no genuine understanding of it.

I have used the example of a man who has been dead for 30 years or so now who wrote commentaries covering the New Testament but you read his biography, he was an unbeliever. He was a Universalist. He believed everybody was going to be saved. It is amazing!

So Peter is warning. Now he is ready to give two pictures, two metaphors of these teachers and we want to make clear they can’t deliver what they promise. Now keep in mind he is not talking about openly pagan people who would lead in idol worship and so on. He is talking about those who are appealing to believers as they themselves are believers.

So he picks up in verse 17: “These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.” They are unable to truly give what they promise. They are springs without water. Of course in the land of Israel, that part of the world we are familiar, it is desert like and you come upon a spring that had dried up and you look and you are thinking you are going to arrive here there will be refreshing water and it is nothing. They are springs without water. They are promising something they can’t deliver. Jesus used this connection of water remember with the woman at the well in Samaria. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” out of John chapter 4. This is the Living Water that the believer has. “Out of their innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” referring to the Spirit of God who comes to dwell in believers in John chapter 7.

They don’t have what they promised. They can’t satisfy the spiritual need and thirst of the unbeliever nor of the believer. They come offering as teachers something that believers should have and should know but they are dry springs there is no water. They can’t give what they promised. They are “mists driven by a storm.” And that violent storm tossing things around but it is just a mist.

Jude put it in verse 12: “They are clouds without water,” same kind of picture. All the promise is there but nothing happens. You know sort of like a day and you see the clouds and it seems dark. You say, “Looks like it is going to rain.” The clouds go by and nothing happens. That is the picture. You see the picture here, they seem to be promising something whether it is a spring where you should get water but there is no water, clouds or the mists they’re driven around by the storm but they produce nothing. They provide nothing.

Back up to 2 Timothy. 2 Peter is Peter’s last letter, 2 Timothy is Paul’s last letter as you are aware. Both men writing these last letters, 2 Timothy by Paul, 2 Peter by Peter facing impending death and they write about these false teachers. 2 Timothy, chapter 3 and talking about these men and these kinds. He describes the character, similarly like Peter is doing but you will note in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 5: “They are holding to a form of godliness.” That is the deceptiveness. They are holding on to a form of godliness. There is something about them and their appearance that gives the idea that these are godly people but they have denied its power. You see a similar kind of picture that Peter is using. They promise something. They look like you would get something from them but you won’t. These then have denied the power of God. They have denied the truth of the Gospel. They have corrupted the Gospel as Peter is going to go on to make clear. They deny its power in a variety of ways, a mixture of works and faith. Well it seems like they promise so much and they have the appearance, they are godly people but they deny its power by what? Well salvation by faith is necessary but it is not enough kind of teaching and yet it is considered under the umbrella of Christianity as the word is broadly used.

I was watching a Roman Catholic being interviewed and he was talking about himself in the same language, “We Evangelicals and Catholics.” You know the gulf couldn’t be any bigger. There are things in the dress of the one that may look like godliness but it is not and various forms and situations like this.

Peter couldn’t get any more harsh. You know we look and say, “Well at least they believe this. At least they do that.” I used Roman Catholic but that is not all there is, obviously. Churches get infiltrated by a variety of teachers.

What Peter had to say about them back in 2 Peter? “For whom the black darkness” or literally the blackness of darkness is reserved forever. It has been reserved. Scripture makes clear that is eternal. He has talked about their doom in chapter 2 here. Go back to verse 1, the end of the verse for these false teachers. “They are bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” Down in verse 3, the middle of the verse. “Their judgment for long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.” Down in verse 9 as we read earlier, the end of the verse says “How to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment.” Down in verse 12: “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.” Destruction is their goal. “For them is reserved the blackness of darkness.” That is another way to refer to hell.

I have shared with you a number of years ago I was watching a program on TV and they had a person who tested fire equipment and stuff like that. He said the surprising thing; they put this equipment on him and put him into this fire. He said I thought it would be bright but when I get in the center surrounded by that, it was darkness. I don’t know. I have never tried to validate that but the Bible compares the fires of hell with the blackness of darkness.

Come over to Matthew chapter 8, just a couple of verses, Matthew chapter 8. Jesus is speaking. Verse 12: “The sons of the kingdom (talking about unbelieving Jews) will be cast into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Come over to Matthew chapter 22 and verse 13: “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot. Throw him into the outer darkness’ there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Chapter 25, verse 30: “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness in that place. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Down in verse 41, the same destiny. “Depart from Me, cursed ones into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” We are talking about the eternal hell, the eternal fire. So they are cast into outer darkness, cut off from the God who is light into the fires of an eternal hell.

Back in Peter. This black darkness has been reserved for them. Perfect tense, something that happened in the past and the results continue. You note something of the permanence of the condition. It has been established for them. It continues to be reserved for them. People don’t want to hear about hell, don’t want to talk about it and I don’t believe a loving God would sentence anybody to hell. Well you can believe a lie if you want. Like jumping off the top of a high building won’t hurt me, but it won’t change reality if I jump off the building. Amazing how people think that because they believe it and of course that fits with the Eastern mystical ideas that you are god, you have powers by your thinking to alter and change things. It doesn’t really happen. All unbelievers have that futile kind of thinking. “It has been reserved for you.”

Come back to I Peter chapter 1. What a contrast. I Peter chapter 1, verse 4: “For those who have been born again through faith in Christ (verse 3) they have been destined to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.” And here is our word, perfect tense again, “reserved in heaven for you.” For the believer they have something reserved for them in heaven; the reward that God has promised, an inheritance settled and sure. For the unbeliever they have something reserved for them, outer darkness, eternal fire. What a contrast and these that Peter is talking about are not those who have not been exposed to the truth, not those who don’t have a veneer even of professing to be believers but that doesn’t change their destiny, outer darkness, eternal fire.

Back in 2 Peter and you might look at chapter 2, verse 4, “God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell, committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment.” That is their destiny. Remember we read in Matthew 25, “Depart from Me cursed ones into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” When an angel sinned against God their destiny was settled to be outer darkness, pits of darkness, hell. “They have for themselves judgment reserved” as unbelievers do, judgment and punishment.

Come back to chapter 2, verse 18. What are these individuals doing, these false teachers, these ones who have infiltrated among believers, “Speaking out arrogance words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.” These false teachers are good with words. We talked about this, about false prophets in the Old Testament. What allures people, the way they can talk, they can talk about spiritual things, they have promises but their words are arrogant. When you are not speaking the truth but yet you claim to be speaking for God you are arrogant. “They are speaking arrogant words of emptiness.” By these arrogant words of vanity, of emptiness, they entice by fleshly desires.

Jude 16 says “They speak arrogantly, flattering people.” Basically these people are saying what people want to hear and telling them they will be fine and this is what God has provided and this is God’s plan and people are lured into it.

I keep using Roman Catholicism because that is such a clear example but somehow down through time people begin to view the differences as not so great. We have been through those kinds of conflicts from time to time in church history right down to our time but it is a clear manifestation. In so many ways they can give appearance of godliness but they are promising something they can’t deliver.

We have had people move from evangelicalism to Catholicism. Something is wrong as well as the other kind of corruption. We have the “health and wealth” teachers and all those variations within evangelicalism that you know, one of the most popular says what? I won’t speak about hell. People have enough negative things in their life so I am not going to talk about sin. They want to hear something to lift them up. What is he doing? He is flattering them. When you do listen to him he doesn’t tell them some of you sitting here are lost. You are on your way to an eternal hell. You have no hope. What does he want to say? God has good things for you. He has blessings for you. Well wait a minute, wait a minute. That is not true for everybody there. For some of them and reserved for them is outer darkness in the flames of hell. That would be discouraging. That is reality!

So here, they “speak out arrogant words of vanity. They entice by fleshly desires.” This doesn’t surprise you. Turn over a few pages to I John chapter 2, verses 15 and 16. We come to this but it is close. We have been to it several times. “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world.” And “the world is passing away but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

So it is not surprising when you come back to 2 Peter 2 “speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires.” They are luring people away from God by things that the flesh would desire and that is all that is in the world and they really represent the world but they have put on a costume of being Christians, believers. So they end up appealing to the flesh and you just go through these things. You will be fine. Just get baptized, partake of these sacraments, believe that God has blessings in your future, good things are going to come to you. Well the flesh likes to hear that. They like to be told that. You are fine. You are good. You are going to heaven. They are successful. “They entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.”

This word ‘entice’ we should mention that. That is a word you would use for bait for catching an animal whether it is on a fish hook or put out a trap and they put bait in the trap. It is to entice and to draw someone in. That is the picture here. They are enticing. They have put some things out here that there is a connection to, people like to hear, even believers. If we open ourselves up, yes that sounds good. Many years ago I would use an example of a man who has since died. I would point out the errors of that man, Robert Schuller and anytime I would do that there was a man who attended here regularly for many years he would come up after and say, “Gil, I wish you wouldn’t say that about him because I am helped by him.” What do you mean? Where are you? You know, what do you say? Yes, God has good things for me. You are in trial now but your blessing is coming. It is already on the way. That is good to hear. They are flattering and they appeal to those who barely escape from the error.

So they are appealing to certain people and the ones that Peter is concerned about and it is not a put down on those he is reading to because he said back in chapter 1 of this letter, verse 12: “I will always be ready to remind you of these things. You already know them and have been established in the truth.” So he compliments them but that doesn’t mean that we can’t become susceptible to error and it is even more appealing to those who are less mature.

You know when a person gets saved, the devil wants to draw them back to where they were and you know some even after they have been believers for a while like to walk on the edge and it seems like it is always a danger the devil is going to pull them but you don’t know whether you are dealing with a believer or an unbeliever because you don’t see the heart. “Those who barely escape.”

Part of the corruption that New Testament writers had to deal with were those who came in and took this concept of grace the Biblical concept “we’re no longer under the Mosaic Law,” that frees us. So now you have a freedom to live your life more without restraint and we have looked at passages on this. Paul had to deal with it. Peter had to deal with it because it has a connection, grace. That means we are free from the law. We are no longer under the Mosaic Law. Good. That is true. We live by grace. It is true but grace doesn’t mean now I am free to indulge in sin. We looked in Romans chapter 6, verse 1: “Shall we now continue in sin because we are under grace? God forbid. May it never be!” Why would you even raise such a question? Because it can get confusing and those people were confused.

So these people that came out of Judaism, many of them, it is amazing but they really didn’t come to salvation in Christ. They became a mixture of now declaring themselves followers of Christ no longer connected to Judaism and teachers of grace but twisting that grace to licentiousness so Jude says “They turned the grace of God into licentiousness.” So the variations go on.

We saw the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. There were some who professed to become followers of Christ, Jews but said “It is necessary to keep keeping the Mosaic Law.” There were those who would come out of Judaism and profess faith in Christ who said, “No, we don’t have to keep the Mosaic Law. In fact we don’t have to keep any laws. We are under grace now so enjoy and indulge yourself.” So the variations and for those who have barely escaped these false teachers, the more immature the more vulnerable.

Remember the analogy of Paul in Ephesians 4? We are to be grounded in God’s truth and be stabilized so we are “not like children tossed and carried about by every wind of teaching” that comes along.

So Peter is writing to a church and he says “they have believed the truth, they have been established in the truth and you know it but I am going to keep telling you.” Because like we were talking about earlier today when you take your eyes off the truth, when you fail to keep your commitment to the truth, pretty soon you are out here in your feelings, what I would like, what I think. I always have to come back and say, “What does He say?” That is what Peter is dealing with here.

Come back to chapter 2. “They promised them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by what a man is overcome by this he is enslaved.” In other words these false teachers are telling you I can teach you about grace and the freedom grace brings but they themselves are still enslaved to their sin. They have never come to understand God’s liberating grace which is a grace that sets us free to slavery.

You have to come back to Romans 6 again and verse 18 for example. Verse 17 says: “Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin (you believed the truth of the Gospel to summarize it and verse 18) “Having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness;” two kinds of slavery. So this concept of grace that is unrestrained liberty is a distortion of grace. When people aren’t grounded, it sounds grace means you are free from law. True, we are no longer under the Mosaic Law but there are commands. There is a law of Christ. Our New Testament is filled with commands given to believers. So to say we are no longer under the Mosaic Law is not to say we are free from all commands of God. This is misunderstood by many who are reformed. They would say, “Well dispensationalists as we are say you are free from the Mosaic Law. They are anti-nomian from the Greek word for law, nomos so you are anti-law. We don’t believe you have any law. No you just say you are not under the Mosaic Law and its 613 commandments, whatever. Some of the commandments that were in the Mosaic Law are carried over for us now under the law of Christ. Well we have things we are obligated to do. We have been enslaved to God. We have been enslaved to righteousness. That is not saying I am free to indulge myself however I please. I say “well how could anybody be confused on this? How do people get confused on false teaching and false doctrine?” It catches us at an unsuspecting time, unprepared, careless. Peter is concerned enough he is writing. This is what he wants to write about; my last letter. You’d think it might be on a different tone but this is a big concern.

Come back to Peter. What does it do? Verse 19: “They are promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by what a man is overcome by this he is enslaved.” They are still living in the flesh, pursuing the desires of the flesh. That is all that is in the world. “The lust of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” as we just read in John. They are still enslaved. They can talk Christian talk in some ways but they have never been set free. He had some strong things to say here as he closes this out.

They are in a condition that is worse than even people who have never heard. “For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome. The last state has become worse than the first.” Now it says, “They have escaped.” But he has just said that ”they are slaves of corruption” in verse 19 and those corruptions of the flesh still enslave them but now he says “They have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge.” In other words they have come into the knowledge of the facts of the Gospel. They have even professed to believe it yet they haven’t come to the liberty that comes with true faith. So they have been exposed to the light even to the point of making a claim to have entered into the light be believing the light of the Gospel but they have never been set free in their heart. “They are again entangled in the old ways.” They find their way back. They are overcome by it. This is what John is talking about.

You can turn over there. We just read verses 15 and 16 in I John chapter 2, verse 19: “They went out from us but they were really not of us. For if they had been of us they would have remained with us but they went out so that it would be shown they were not really of us.” Don’t get confused. I am not talking about people who leave Indian Hills to go to another church necessarily. We are talking about people whose true character is revealed. They have come out basically against God’s truth. Now they don’t necessarily stand up and say, “I don’t believe in Jesus Christ anymore.” But by their teaching they reveal where they are.

A standing example of a man who converted (quote) to Christianity, became an evangelical Christian, did further training in evangelical schools, became the leader of an evangelical organization and then one day submitted his resignation “because I am going back to Catholicism.”

I was reading the testimony of a man who attended an evangelical seminary and converted to Catholicism and he said, “I didn’t realize what I was missing without Mother Mary. Now my life is rich. I have Mary as my mother, Mary to go to.” He is worse than a person who has never heard. You can watch the Catholic channel and see him interviewed and he conducts programs trying to convert evangelicals. Again I use that as an example. And they can talk the truth. They can talk the Gospel. They know about it but it is not a complete Gospel now they teach because you need these other things. I thought I had what I needed. I didn’t. I was incomplete in Christ. Their state is worse than those who have never heard. Better that they had never heard the Gospel. There is a hardening effect.

God in His grace saves some. Paul is an example. He came out of Judaism. He knew the truth that he should have believed and been saved and he persecuted those who preached the truth but God saved him and Paul said, “He saved me to be an example. He can save the worst of sinners.”

So just not saying, every one of them is un-savable but by and large those who become the teachers and promoters of false doctrine and corrupt teaching very rarely are restored. I don’t know that I know of anyone on that level. That doesn’t mean that some believers or professing believers haven’t gone out into the world and realized and come to know Christ later but those who develop this commitment like the person I mentioned, very hard to get them back. They know things as well as any of us know those facts and they have rejected them. It is not adequate, not sufficient. Their state is worse than the first. They have become hardened in their sin.

Back in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 16 and “we are giving off the knowledge of Christ and we are an aroma from death to death and life to life” and there is a hardening effect about truth and these who have come into such a knowledge of the truth and are able to present it and yet have never been transformed by it turn away from it, hard to reach them.

I don’t watch the Catholic channel often but I have on occasion and I have read some of the writings of some of these individuals; very difficult to reach them. You know it doesn’t mean that somewhere along the line their eyes may be opened and they understand and say, “I never understood the truth as I understand it now” but it is hard because they have become hardened and settled in that commitment and now they are promoters of error, very effective. I was invited to debate one of these men in a Catholic situation here in town a number of years ago but I saw no point in that. It wasn’t an openness, you know to truth. I wouldn’t join this man who was committed to corrupt the truth.

Verse 21: “It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed down to them.” The way of righteousness. I saw back at the beginning of this chapter in verse 2 he talked about the way of truth will be maligned. That is not enough. It is good to believe that like the Judaizers in Acts 15, yes, we are not arguing that Christ didn’t die on the cross to pay the penalty, we are not arguing that He wasn’t raised from the dead we are saying it is not enough. You must also keep the law or in other variation like Peter and Jude have to talk about, yes, we believe it and that is the beautiful thing, we live under grace and now we are free from obligations and responsibilities and it is alright to indulge in fleshly things. One corruption is not better or worse than the other. They both are denials of the truth. Better not to have known the truth than to turn away from it. That is a serious matter to say, “no, I am turning away from it” and these false teachers have. They wouldn’t be able to come in so effectively and mimic believers if they didn’t know the facts of the Gospel and Biblical facts.

It is amazing what the unbeliever can know about Christ, about the Word of God without really knowing in a saving way the salvation in Christ. Some of what you read, yes, they have to be believers and then you read something else. He doesn’t believe in the deity of Christ. I thought he did. He doesn’t believe you have to trust Christ to be saved. I thought he did because you read some things and it seems like yes that is what he is saying. You read other and he is not. The devil is the greatest of counterfeiters. That is the concern. Better not to have known the way of truth.

Come back to Matthew 11, verse 20 Jesus said, “He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done because they did not repent. Woe to you Corazin, Bethsaida for if the miracle which had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you they would have repented. It will be more tolerable in Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judgment than for you and you Capernaum you will descend to Hades for if the miracles that have taken place in Capernaum had happened in Sodom they would have repented. Nevertheless it will be more tolerable in the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for you.” What would it be like now? We have the full completed revelation of God, the truth of the Gospel presented, people reject it. The light of the Gospel shines.

Now again we want to be careful. A person says “No, I don’t believe that,” turn away from it, whatever. That doesn’t mean they are un-savable. Many or most of us wouldn’t be saved if that were the truth. We didn’t necessarily respond in faith to the Gospel. Some of us fought against it and went for years and then finally came to salvation but the warning is there. Oh, I will believe it down the road and for these teachers committed to the corruption of it, well what Jesus said, “The door gets pretty much closed.”

I used to attend a meeting in the early years of my ministry here with a number of other ministers. I was invited to join them and I did. There were only half a dozen and I would present the Gospel there. I was the only believer among those ministers. Finally after attending a number of meetings over time I decided to stop. We are not going anywhere. Every meeting we have comes to the same thing. I present the Gospel to you and you refuse to believe it. There is just nowhere to go with this. They are closed to it. Yes, we will listen to what you have to say but you listen to what we have to say and then we can go on our way and be friends. No, it is more serious than that.

The picture here, to wrap it up for something for you to think about, ugly picture. Well we think the prophets in the Old Testament they were maybe a little harsher than we would want to be today. Dealing with false teachers and false prophets Scripture is pretty strong. Verse 22: “It has happened to them according to the true proverb. A dog returns to its own vomit.” Now that is a pretty disgusting picture. I am not a dog lover. It doesn’t mean I don’t love your dog but I wouldn’t love having a dog but you’ve seen this happen and you say “Oh, my goodness that is disgusting.” That is the picture. He draws it from Proverbs here; “A dog return to his own vomit.

Remember they are “like unreasoning animals” and that’s because these teachers have been exposed to the truth, have had an opportunity to believe it, have even made a profession of believing it now they are committed to corrupting the church. They are like the dog that returns to its own vomit. They are like the pig that gets all washed up and he goes and jumps in the mud. People talk about this as the dog and the hog. That is the picture. The dog gets cleaned out, the pig gets cleaned up but they go back. That is what these false teachers do. What a tragedy!

I watch a person who was supposedly converted to Christ, served with a campus organization for years and now he is there sitting telling people “Isn’t it wonderful to have Mary that we can go to. Doesn’t it make your life and bring you much closer to God that you can go to Mary.” And I think of a dog returns to its own vomit, the pig to the mire. Disgusting pictures but what the Spirit of God wants us to do is there is no fellowship with false teachers. That doesn’t mean that we are not happy to have unbelievers come and attend our services and that but those who would promote false teaching we have to stand against. They are enemies of the truth and believers who give ear to that are in danger of getting deluded by that.

You never can think, “I am above being deceived.” Even Peter got off track. Remember Galatians 2? This Judaizing thing and the relationship of the law and what you could eat and not eat; even Peter got caught up and Paul said I had to rebuke him because when certain men came from Jerusalem and their ideas on what Christians ought to do and not do Peter moved over to the side he had left. It is not acceptable. Better rebuke Peter because what? He had been lured over to something that is a denial of the truth.

There is liberty. There is freedom. Paul said, “I can keep the law if I want. I don’t have to eat pork if I don’t want.” But when I make that a doctrine then I have crossed the line. There is room for personal conviction but there is not room for preaching as truth that which is error and we want to be on guard so that we are faithful to the truth.

How does the church move from where it was like as from the reformers as we talked about to where it is today? We were Methodists. How did the Methodist church get from where John Wesley was to where it is today? My family had to leave the Methodist church because we had to go find someplace where they taught the Word of God. Somewhere along the line error comes in, gets mixed with truth. Pretty soon the truth is corrupted, washed away and you are left with error.

So we want to be faithful. That is part of Peter’s last words. He is not done but he is going to put it into the context of what we are talking about in Revelation. We have to keep in mind what is ahead and that will help give us stability and strength to stand.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your truth. In some ways it is not pleasant to consider the false teachers, the corruption they bring as You pull back the disguise and reveal their true character that they have been planted by the devil, deluded and deceived. They have rejected the beauty and simplicity of the truth of the Gospel and now they take the facts they have learned and corrupted all to confuse your people, to hinder the work of the Spirit in lives, to lead people away from the truth. Lord may we consider Your truth so precious, more precious than our treasures, more precious than our food. It is so important that we would stand against family and friend if necessary to defend the truth. Yet Lord we would love those who are yet lost and without hope. We would oppose those who teach and corrupt the truth. Lord we want to reach out to those who have yet to hear the truth and encourage them to respond to the truth. Use us to that end in the week before us we pray in Christ’s name amen.