2 Peter chapter 2 is one of the great chapters in the New Testament on the matter of false teachers and false doctrine. Very similar in content to the book of Jude, along with Matthew chapter 23, where Jesus gives his scathing denunciation of the religious leaders of his day. 2 Peter 2 and Jude become probably the three strongest chapters on the subject of false doctrine and false teachers that we have in the New Testament. One thing becomes clear as we look at the scripture, both Old and New Testament alike, is that the world is on a deteriorating course. Things are not getting better. They are not improving. They are deteriorating and they will deteriorate, getting worse and worse until we enter into the seven year period leading up to the return of Christ to Earth, known as the tribulation. That will be the worst time the world has ever seen. in a variety of ways. So we have not to be surprised about a deteriorating situation in the world around us. Romans chapter one says that the world is under the judgment of God because it has rejected God. Because God has been rejected by his creation, God has turned mankind over to his sin. So three times, you remember, in Romans chapter 1, verse 24, verse 26, and verse 28, we have that repeated statement. Therefore, God turned them over. God gave them over to their sinful passions, to their lustful desires. He didn't cause them to sin. But because in sin they rejected Him, then they were turned over to their darkened heart, to the pursuit of their sinful passions, to be enslaved and destroyed by that which they so lusted after." Now, in this context of a fallen world, God's people are to stand out as lights in the darkness. There is a warfare going on, a warfare between Satan and his forces and God and his people. And it is a relentless, ongoing battle and conflict. This means hardship and difficulty and trial for the people of God. We have to be sure that we have a biblical perspective on life and on what it means to be a child of God in this world. Jesus prepared his disciples on the last night before his crucifixion with a discourse in John's Gospel beginning in chapter 13. And as that discourse winds down at the end of chapter 16 and verse 33, Jesus says to them, These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation. In the world, you have tribulation. In me, you have peace. Take courage, I have overcome the world. So it will be characteristic of believers, God's people living in this world, that life will be filled with tribulation. But in Jesus Christ, they will have the peace of heart and mind that only their sovereign Lord can give. But we sometimes get blurred in our thinking as God's people and think that the peace that God promises to our hearts and minds should be the characteristics of our life. And we ought not to have tribulation and conflict and difficulty. Then we begin to make adjustments that move us away from God and his plan for us. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a sermon priest in 1946, said this. The New Testament picture of life is that it is the scene of a mighty, terrible, spiritual struggle and conflict. Everywhere you are given a sense of crisis, a sense of judgment. Life in this world, according to this book, is the scene of a mighty, terrible conflict between two vast powers. And they are both spiritual powers. God and all his forces on the one hand, and Satan, the devil, and all his forces on the other. The result is that there is never any easy optimism to be found in the New Testament. There is no vague general superficiality. All along, its message is one of preparing us for this conflict, of enabling us to realize the nature of the conflict. Now Peter, in his letter, is going to turn the attention of his readers to the conflict and opposition that they can expect as God's people. And he's going to make clear that the greatest danger to the people of God, the greatest danger to the church of Jesus Christ is not from the outside, it's from the inside. And a failure to take the repeated emphasis of Scripture to heart on this very subject has resulted in the continual corruption of the church down through history. And we go through cycles in God and His grace blesses the church grows and prospers. And then the church moves away from its moorings and foundation in the word of God and becomes corrupted. Then we have a cycle begin and often in a different part of the world. In 2 Peter 2, we're going to be talking about false teachers, false doctrine, the corruption of God's people. This is sometimes a difficult subject because we're back again talking about what we disagree with, those that we disagree with. It becomes especially difficult because we're going to be talking about in-house conflict, disagreements among those who profess to belong to Jesus Christ. That's Peter's subject. False teachers among you, within the fellowship of the professing church. We have to be careful that what we're doing is not intended as reflecting any kind of bitterness or personal animosity against others. But rather, we must be carefully examining the scripture and applying the scripture to be sure that we are on a biblical track. I think we are seeing in our day a serious corruption of the church, but that is not anything new. The devil's plan has always been to counterfeit what God does, and then to offer his counterfeit as an alternative to God's work, and thus corrupt God's people by getting them lured aside after a good counterfeit, rather than holding the line and following what Peter will call, in verse 2 of chapter 2, the way of the truth. Again, Martin Lloyd-Jones from 1946. Just to remind you, in 50 years we have the same issues. For I think you will agree that the prevailing tendency is not to talk about and write about the truth itself. The whole emphasis at the moment is that we should all be getting together and forming great organizations. The concern is not so much as to the truth of the message, but to gather ourselves together into one great community. The tendency today is to minimize truth in favor of organization. And men are telling us with unwearied reiteration that the greatest tragedy of the world is the disunited church. But the tragedy, the greatest tragedy, as I understand the New Testament, is not the disunity of the church, is not the fact that the church is divided into groups and denominations, is not that we are not all in one organization. but that all the sections are preaching a false message. And there has been a departure from the truth of God as it is in Jesus Christ. That was said 50 years ago. And today we see a relentless emphasis being brought to the church that we ought to overcome our differences. We ought to overcome any denominational distinctions and differences. And we ought to unite together for one unified testimony. before the world. What is lost in all of this is any real emphasis on biblical truth. Sound doctrine. We are drifting further and further away. There was an article that appeared as a full-page ad in Christianity Today in the current issue for a new book. You can see it's a full-page ad. It's called Ecumenical Jihad. It's written by a Roman Catholic writer. Juxtaposing ecumenism and jihad, two words that many would consider at odds with each other, Peter Kreft, the author, argues that we need to change our current alignments. We need to realize that we are at war and that the sides have changed radically. Many of our former enemies, in other words, Muslims, are now our friends. And some of our former friends, in other words, humanists, are now our enemies. Creft issues a wake-up call to all God-fearing Christians, Jews, and Muslims to unite together in a religious war against the common enemy of godless secular humanism and materialism and immorality. Aware of the deep theological differences between these monotheistic faiths, He calls for a moratorium on our polemics against each other so that we can form an alliance to fight together to save Western civilization. God is calling for this unity, Kreft says, and if we respond, God will do something wonderful. You say, well, why is that so? He's probably not a believer. That's not what is really striking. What is striking is J.I. Packer writes a recommendation for the book. Chuck Colson writes a recommendation for the book. Now, are we really ready to say is the Church of Jesus Christ that we want to set aside our differences? Any polemics speaking against the heirs and heresy of Islam are differences with what the Jews would teach, because it is more important that we unite as monotheistic faiths. We all agree in one God so we can save Western civilization. As we talked about this, a staff, none of us could figure out why the Muslims had any interest in saving Western civilization. See what happens. Let's break down the differences. We start out small between these denominations here that are a lot alike. Well, let's move out now and break down any differences between Catholics and Protestants. Well, now let's move out. We are just our monotheistic faith. Well, he should say here we ought to bring together Christian Jews and demons. Because James tells us the devils believe there is one God. So much they tremble. So maybe they would like to unite and help save Western civilization. What kind of thinking brings this to a prominent place to where two respected, quote, evangelical leaders would promote this? Let me read you what J.I. Packer says. This racy little book opens up a far reaching theme with entertaining insight. Kreft looks into the attitudes, alliances and strategies that today's state of affairs requires of believers. Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox alike need to ponder Kreft's vision of things. What if he is right? What is happening to the people of God that this even has a full page ad in a magazine that at least was supposed to be a Well, it's supposed to be evangelical. It is ecumenical, obviously. The warnings of Peter have been ignored. We find ourselves uncomfortable being on the outside, being those who are always against something. So we begin to look for points of common ground so that we can agree, so that we can get along, so that we don't have to emphasize differences. We can emphasize sameness. And in that we begin the corruption of the church. You know, chapter two, verse one, a second Peter begins, but false prophets also arose among the people, false prophets also arose. This flows exactly out of what he's been saying or directly out of what he's been saying at the end of chapter one, verse 19. He talked about the prophetic word, the word that had been revealed by the prophets. Then in verses 20 and 21, he talked about how the prophets received that prophetic word. The Holy Spirit moved upon them, moved them to speak forth the word of God, moved them to write the word of God. And that's where we received our Old Testament scriptures. But we ought to understand, not only were there true and genuine prophets down through Israel's history, But false prophets also arose among the people. The people refers to Israel. And then just a little further down, there will be also false teachers among you. Peter will not be concerned about the false prophets that were practicing in the pagan nations down through history. He's concerned about the false prophets that arose in Israel. He's not going to be addressing false teachers and their doctrine of those who were pagan priests in Rome. He is concerned about the false teachers who are coming as members of the body of Christ in their profession and claiming to represent Jesus Christ in their teaching. False prophets also arose among the people. just as there will also be false teachers among you." False prophets, false teachers. Maybe you ought to go back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 13. At the very beginning of Israel's history as an independent nation, they've been delivered from Egypt. Now the Mosaic Law is given. to shape and direct them as a nation. In Deuteronomy 13, God gives strong, clear warning about the danger of false prophets who will arise among the people. Chapter 13, verse 1, and you know how chapter 12, it ended, whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do, you shall not add to nor take away from it. That's the context we're talking about here. The absolute finality. of the revelation God gives. You don't add anything, you don't take away anything. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, now that's impressive. He does a miracle. He gives a prophecy and that prophecy comes true. But in his teaching, he encourages you to depart from the living God. Then, verse 3, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet. The Lord your God is testing you. You see, if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, you shall follow the Lord your God and fear him. You shall keep his commandments, listen to his voice, serve him, cling to him. But that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death. So wait a minute. How did he do that miracle? Wait a minute. How could he give that prophecy? Doesn't matter. He's false. And we are to have nothing to do with him. He's to die. And I see this emphasis repeated. We say in the church, we don't practice capital punishment. Most people in the church don't have the stomach for church discipline, let alone literal stoning. But God's attitude toward false teachers and false doctrine is the same. The church is not a nation, so it doesn't exercise the prerogatives of an earthly nation, such as capital punishment. But the emphasis will be the same in that God's people in the New Testament are to cut themselves off from any involvement or association with false teachers, cut false teachers off from any involvement or association with the people of God. So you see God's attitude clearly presented here. What does it test? Is your love for the Lord your God? In verse three, God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart. with all your soul, you follow him, you fear him, you keep his word. He goes on to elaborate this even beyond false prophets and just take note of it. Verse six, if your brother, your mother's son or your son's daughter or the wife you cherish or your friend who is as your own soul entice you secretly saying, let us go and serve other gods. Down to verse 8, you shall not yield to him or listen to him. Your eye shall not pity him. You shall not spare or conceal him. You shall surely kill him. Verse 10, you shall stone him to death. That is being said here. You cannot love your wife. You cannot love your children. You cannot love your best friend more than the Lord. And the test of that love will be your obedience. Jesus said basically the same thing when he said, he who loves father or mother, brother or sister, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Oh, you see how firmly and clearly presented the truth of the finality of God's revelation is even at the beginning of Israel's history. And it supersedes even my human relationships over in chapter 18 of Deuteronomy, verse 20. Similar things said, the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, which he shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. The context here, if he prophesied something and it doesn't come true, you know, he's not true. He prophesied something, chapter 13, and it does come true. But his teaching leads you away from God. He's false. There are different tests. People of God, though, are responsible before God to adhere to his word. And the faithful back to second Peter chapter two. There were false prophets that continually through Israel's history tried to lure the people away with their doctrine and their teaching. Well, just as sure as there were false prophets, there will also be false teachers among you. The false teachers we're concerned about are the ones that will be among us. that will present themselves as followers of Jesus Christ, claim to be His faithful servants, and will really be leading us away from the truth of God. Understand that the devil, at the foundation of it all, is basically a counterfeiter. Remember with his fall into sin, what happened? I will be like God. I will be like the Most High. I will exalt my throne." What's he saying? I'll counterfeit God. I'll replace God. So the people will follow me instead of God. So down through history, his work in deluding and deceiving has been the same. One writer put it, wherever God's people build a house of prayer, the devil establishes a chapel there. And that's a picture of what he does. He is always counterfeiting what God is doing. Now, turn back to 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. The amazing thing about this is not that Satan does it. The amazing thing is that the people of God continue to fall for it time after time after time. So in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, the Apostle Paul writes, verse 2, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I betroth you to one husband, so that to Christ I may present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. You know what happens? Counterfeiting is going on. There is a corruption of truth taking place. And the Corinthians are just so tolerant. You bear it beautifully. You're so understanding. You find reasons to accept these people and fellowship with them. But they're not commended for it. He goes on to defend himself. Because what happens when you make fellowship with false teachers and false doctrine? Then, quote, you break fellowship with God's people. So what happens to maintain fellowship with these who are teaching falsehood? They had to take a stand against Paul. So Paul now is defending himself now to verse 13. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. You know, they don't come and say, you know, we want you to worship Buddha. They come and say we too are servants of Christ. We love him and have a passion to honor him. And with that, they bring teaching and doctrine that's contrary to apostolic and prophetic revealed truth. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness whose end will be according to their deeds. The seriousness of false teaching. is stressed repeatedly by a reminder of their destiny. We're not dealing with a variation, just differences of opinion. Much more serious matter before God when his word is at stake, because with his word is his character. Now, these false teachers, back to 2 Peter, who come up among the people of God, they will secretly introduce destructive heresies. Secretly introduce destructive heresies. Important here because God is telling us how the false teachers work. They come up among believers, present themselves as genuine, and they secretly introduce. Secretly introduce, the translation of a Greek word is the compound word. It basically means to bring something in alongside something else. And then it takes on a flavor of doing something underhanded or secretive, covertly. The basic meaning of this compound word is to bring something in alongside something else. What they do is they bring something in alongside something else. They bring their teaching and their doctrine in alongside the word of God, and they do it in a subtle, not obvious way. The goal is to corrupt the truth of God and lure the people of God away from God's word and thus faithfulness to their God. Now, you know, in a counterfeit, if it's going to be a good and effective counterfeit, it must be as much like the real thing as possible. And the better the counterfeit, the more discerning you have to be to recognize it. And so we get into trouble right off. If somebody says the city of Lincoln is being blanketed with counterfeit twenty dollar bills. And they are some of the best counterfeit twenties that we have ever seen. And I stand up and say, look, don't be a nitpicker about your 20s. I have about $20,000 worth of them here. I'd like to exchange for your 10s, but don't get into the details of examining them very closely. Wait a minute. That's a stupid thing to say. These are good counterfeits. You have to examine them carefully. Well, you see where the church begins to get into trouble. Let's not nitpick about doctrine. Let's not try to dot our I's and cross our T's just so. All of a sudden now, we've opened the door to a counterfeit at a certain level. Because if it's a counterfeit that looks good in the basics, then it's in the door. And the less the people of God know about the Word of God, the less they are able to be discerning and examining counterfeits. These are secretly introduced heresies. They are brought in alongside. These teachers don't walk in and say, you know, we ought to discard the Word of God. No. They bring something that is going to help us be more effective. They are going to present it in a way that has a certain rationale to it. I want to use an example, and I don't want you to take this example farther than I intend you to. I'm not saying everyone on the other side of this is a false teacher. Anyone on the other side of this is clearly wrong, but they may be true believers who are just deluded. We had a battle with psychology a few years back. I use that as an example because it's a clear example of one many of you are familiar with. How did psychology make its inroads into the church? It had a theme as it was brought to the church. All truth is God's truth. Therefore, we want to take the truth that God has made known in the world and revealed through the studies of the minds that he has given to men. concerning the human heart and the human thought process, and take that and bring those insights, truths from God, but not part of the Word of God, and wed it to the Word of God so that we can be more effective in the ministry God's called us to, more effective in helping God's people be what God wants them to be. I receive a theological magazine from a seminary. And in the last week or two, I received their recent edition. The cover story is on how this seminary was a leader in integrating psychology and theology for the ministry of the church. And they are proud of it. They're recording their history in doing this. And how now they have one of the major psychological departments at their seminary, as well as theological departments, and they have joined theology and psychology. Well, they don't bring that and say, you know, we want you to know we're corrupting the truth. We want you to know we are helping the church and the people of God do the work that God's called them to do. And all truth is God's truth. Don't you believe that God is the source of every good thing? Isn't he the source of all truth? Then why would you oppose? We only want to minister with truth, the truth of the word of God and the truth that God has made known in other ways. And the church is bought into a hook. line and sinker. There's a biography written of Sigmund Freud several years ago by a professor at Yale University. The title of the biography is A Godless Jew. It comes from a statement that Sigmund Freud made in a letter, Why did it fall to me, a godless Jew, to develop psychoanalysis or psychotherapy? Now you stop and think. Is it not amazing that the doctrine and the teaching of a man who, by his own profession, is a godless Jew, should now have totally infiltrated the church of Jesus Christ and become a major part of how it carries out its ministry? Would you have thought, in the days when Sigmund Freud was developing his ideas, that the teaching of this godless Jew would sometimes be promoted from the pulpits of our evangelical churches? No way. What happened to the church? What happened with Deuteronomy 12, that last verse leading into chapter 13, don't add to, don't take away from what I say. But this was with good intention, Lord. We're helping you out. These are complicated days with complicated problems. Sin wasn't complicated when you gave the scripture. Sin is complicated today. Jesus Christ was enough for Paul, enough for the Romans. We say, well, nobody says it that way. No, what happened? We brought something in alongside the revelation of God. I was watching a program on animals and showing how this one animal got up to this other animal, it was a worm, and laid an egg on the back of that worm. They said the death sentence for that worm has been given. Because now that egg, the larva in it, will feed on that worm until it's dead. That's what the devil does. He brings in something alongside it, attaches it to the truth of the word of God. But when you bring anything to the word of God, you suck the life out of the word of God and it becomes a powerless, empty shell. We see this with the cults. The Jehovah Witnesses come to your door and what? They hammer you with scripture. But the life has been sucked out of it by the error that's attached to it. The people of God must be discerning. This is a matter of eternal consequence, as Peter is going to make clear. It's not just we're nitpickers. It's that what God says is truth. We decide, try to pick and choose. Well, I don't think everything God says is true. But you have a five year old and you give him some instructions and he turns around and says, you know, I don't think what you said there is that important that I should have to pay attention to it. I hope that you would apply some corrective discipline. Why? It's not that five year old's responsibility to decide on the importance of what you say that five year old is responsible what to do what you say. Now, somehow we think and have the audacity to have the living God who is sovereign over all speak his mind to us. And we turn around and say, you know, God, I don't think what you said there is all that important. I don't think it's something that we really need to pay that much attention to. Where in the word of God did God tell me to sit down and tear out this page and mark out this verse? Because we just don't think it's that important. There's an arrogance that's manifested in this that does necessitate the discipline of God. Now, what is introduced is destructive heresies. In chapter two, verse one, the word heresy started out as basically a neutral word, it meant an opinion. a school of thought, then it came to mean something negative, something that was contrary to truth. It's a word that's often translated factions or divisions in the New Testament, because when you bring a different school of thought or a different opinion into the church than what God has said, you create a division, a faction, a conflict. In fact, this is the word that used in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 19, where Paul said there must be divisions among you, factions among you in order that those who are approved might be made manifest. In other words, what does happen when false teaching, when different views are brought in than what the scripture presents? It's an opportunity for the church to be cleansed. Because those who adhere to the Word are manifest, and those who don't are manifest. So, there is a good dimension, a good thing that does come of this, and that is the people of God are driven to the Word of God. And those who love family or friends, father or mother more than the Lord become evident. When this gets down to be at home, because now I have to decide not only on a doctrinal issue, but my friends, family members are on the other side of this doctrinal issue. Remember Deuteronomy 13? If your cherished wife, if your closest friend, if one of your children get involved in this, you have to maintain your allegiance to the Lord and be done with them. We didn't be doctrinal battles all of a sudden. Now I say, well, you know, you may be right and you may have the correct view of Scripture, but I just don't think that I want to part friendship over this. Well, now we've started a road and you realize when we're getting off track, you don't start out out here. You start out going like this, but you know what? Over time, when you have started just a little bit off. What happens, they start out, they're doing the brick on your house. Well, you know, they started out just going right to get down that whole wall pretty soon. You say that I can't live with that. Why not? We just started out back here a little ways off. Yeah, but look where you ended up. Oh, no. Look where we started. No, look where we ended. Do you think that the Presbyterians under John Calvin started out to end up where they are, the Methodists under John and Charles Wesley, the Lutherans under Martin Luther. What happened? They started out a little bit off, tolerant, don't want to do battle over these things. The people of God get weary in the conflict. That's why we started out where we did. You know, I don't want to do battle anymore. I don't want any more fights. I really don't want to lose any more friends. None of us want to. For every friend you lose, every time your family is divided over these things, it hurts. And pretty soon the devil wins by what? Just wearing us down. I just don't want any more conflict. Hmm. You know what happens when the enemy hears you say that? I guess that's a surrender, isn't it? Then we can begin to widen the gap. Now we have the Episcopal Church decide they couldn't discipline a bishop because the fact he would ordain practicing homosexuals, there's nothing contrary to church in that. Do you ever get to this miserable, wretched place in little increments? Because this little piece of truth wasn't worth standing for. And that little piece of truth wasn't, that little piece of truth wasn't, and that little piece of truth wasn't, and that little piece of truth. Pretty soon we've built a whole building out of those little things. And now the word of God has no place. We suck the life out of it. And any references to it are in passing. You know, there's just so many ways the devil works. But all we have to do is stay with the truth. The word of God will be our absolute guide. But now it comes up. How many churches in this city are not involved in promise keepers? But what's at the heart of what the promise keepers do? We are overcoming denominational barriers. That's another way of saying we are overcoming doctrinal differences, which is another way of saying doctrinal differences don't mean anything to us. Where are the people of God rising up and saying, wait, you're correct, we have to sort through this doctrinally. Oh, no doctrine would divide us. But you see, we can't bring anything to the word of God or take anything away from the word of God. The only way we know what is truth, the only way we know the way that we should be on is to be on the way of the truth, as verse two will say. How can you talk about let's just jump over all this? How will I know what's wrong and what's right? Don't worry about it. Then how do I know when I'm dealing with counterfeit and when I'm dealing with what's genuine? I don't. If it impresses me, It's OK if that false prophets prophecy really comes true, that's good enough for me. If he really does a miracle, that's good enough for me, if I see somebody's life that was changed, that's good enough for me. Well, I'd be fine if that was the standard, but God said it has to be good enough for me, and that means it has to conform to his word in detail. They secretly introduced destructive heresies, bringing alongside different opinions. And these heresies, opinions, are destructive. They lead to destruction. Is this a serious matter? As soon as you depart from the Word of God, you are on a road to destruction. It's not just some minor issue. Eternity is at stake here. You mean in every verse? I mean, you depart in one area, you depart in another. And soon. And the teachers themselves are leaders in this road to destruction. Where does it go to? Even denying the Master who bought them. I mean, how would you get to this point? Even denying the Master who bought them. Say, whoa! Now, I would draw the line someplace. And that would be for sure, when they deny Jesus Christ. And don't these movements you've made reference to all claim to belong to Jesus Christ? Sure, don't you think these false teachers did? They came up among the church? You think the churches of Asia that Peter is writing to? would have accepted these teachers if they stood up and denied Jesus Christ. What is he saying? Saying even though they claim allegiance to him, even though they claim to believe in him by their doctrine and by their life, they are denying him. The word for master here is an important one, it's one that's used ten times in the New Testament. It's not the common word that's used many, many times in the scripture. Kourios, that means Lord or master. The word despotis. We get the English word despot from it. Now, our English word has taken on some coloring that wasn't in the original word. The original word basically means an absolute ruler, someone who is totally sovereign, someone who has the supreme authority. And what they do is deny the supreme authority of Jesus Christ. And so their life and doctrine moves away from conformity to the character of Christ and its beauty, to a lifestyle that is characterized by the world. So you see, even in these doctrines, well, we disagree on certain things, but it's not major. It comes to be very major. They're denying the sovereign master who bought them, paid the price for their salvation, And they deny him as the sovereign ruler. We say there is a doctrine infiltrating the church. And I'm not saying that all those who teach this doctrine are on their way to hell. Some are just, I believe, misguided Christians. But we have a teaching in the church now that says what? You can have Christ as your savior, but not as your Lord. You can believe the facts of the gospel, his death, burial and resurrection, so be cleansed from your sin. and live like hell and end up in heaven. I say, where does that come from? Well, you have him as your savior, but you don't have him as your Lord. You're just a carnal Christian, but you're on your way to heaven. You know what that is? That's a destructive heresy. So we end up with people who think, yeah, I'm a Christian. I trusted Christ when I was six. Yeah, I remember praying with my mother or father when I was 12. Their life has no evidence. The power of God. There's no evidence that their heart is in love with the living Lord. But, oh yes, they're going to heaven. They believe the facts of the gospel. I want to tell you, the devil believes the facts of the gospel. Remember, it was the demons who declared when Jesus came and walked the earth, we know who you are, the Holy One of God. That's good theology. From the mouth of those who are doomed to an eternal hell. And we have this destructive heresy that's taken hold in the church. We have people who are not in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. The passion of their heart is not their God and the desire to be like him. But they're sure they're going to heaven, yes, because, yes, I believe that Christ died for my sins and was raised the third day. Well, good. The devils believe it, too. They know it's true. But they're not in love with the God who provided that salvation and have not been truly changed by it. So we have people who what? Believe a destructive heresy that, yes, you can believe these facts and be sure you're going to heaven no matter how you live. One of these teachers has put into print that even if you blaspheme and deny Jesus Christ and God, you're still on your way to heaven because you made that decision. And the church accepts this and people are deluded by it. And remember, in Matthew seven, many, many people are going to come and stand in the presence of Jesus Christ. at their judgment and say, Lord, Lord, we did all these wonderful things in your name. And he'll say, depart from me, cursed one. I never knew you. Deluded, deceived. But on the way to hell, just the same parents let her be careful about this, you know, I'm concerned the evangelical church has come to be like the Roman Catholic Church. As long as you're baptized into the church, you're sure you're going to heaven. And others, like Lutherans, have grabbed on to some of that as well. Lutheran parents are more concerned their kids are baptized in the church than they are about anything else. And we get more concerned, along with our kids, made that decision. Boy, if we can get them to make that decision, get that settled, at least we'll know they're going to heaven now. Praise God. They live like the devil. But I know the Lord will bring them back. And I know even if they die, they're going to heaven because, you know, they made that decision. Where in the scriptures does it say they're going to heaven because they made a decision? Salvation, the scripture talks about, transforms a person. They are brought into a love relationship with the living God. Life is never the same. They are never what they used to be. And so we need to be careful. We find ourselves guilty of teaching destructive heresy because it makes us feel good. We as parents wouldn't want to confront the reality that maybe our son or daughter is on their way to an eternal hell. Oh, no, no. You think when they stand before Jesus Christ, say, Lord, Lord, we did these wonderful things. Lord, Lord, I prayed with my mother. They'll say, oh, OK, that makes it OK. You know why destructive heresies take hold? False teaching finds a responsive course. It says something we want to hear, says peace, peace when there is no peace. And there's a part of us as fallen beings, we want to be deluded. And that happens even in the church. I had to back up and say, wait a minute, secretly introduced destructive heresies. And we take hold of it and claim it. This is the master who bought them. He paid the price. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 20, chapter 7, verse 23, says, You are not your own. You were bought with a price. I don't believe that those he's talking to here are truly saved, and I don't think you would either, in light of the context. He bought them in that he paid the necessary price, but they have not experienced the redemption. They are making a claim, but it's not a reality, because in their doctrine and in their life, they deny him. They reject him as sovereign Lord, and they cannot belong to him in that condition. They are bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Judgment is imminent. It's coming soon. You see the constant reminder to take us back to reality. This is not a game to play. This is too serious to allow ourselves to be deluded over. Let's say, do you think these false teachers really know they're teaching falsehood? In light of Matthew 7, I think a lot of them don't. A lot of them are truly deluded and expect to stand before. Jesus Christ someday and say, Lord, Lord, we did all these wonderful things in your name. Doesn't change reality. So the church begins to drift from truth when it begins to think good intentions are enough. Or good intentions are an acceptable explanation. Everything must be brought to the light, the light of the Word of God. Appalling! The people of God don't even want to come down and grapple with the issues today. They are offended. When you want to bring it to the light of Scripture and grapple with it there, somehow you are a divisive, factious person. But keep in mind, those guilty of the heresies, the factions, are those who bring in the unbiblical opinions. But we must never lose our discernment to bring everything under the searchlight of the Word of God. to know what is truth. We need to be careful. Oh, we pride ourselves. We are a doctrinal church. We will stand for the truth when no one else does. Like Peter, not me, Lord, if everyone else forsakes you, not me. Well, it was a short night, wasn't it? We need to be careful. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Because we were on track yesterday. Because we were on track today doesn't mean we will be tomorrow. One time, the Methodists, Presbyterians, the Lutherans, those other assemblies of churches were on track. What happened? Somewhere along the line, they stepped off track and then one step followed another step. And now the word of God plays no significant role at all for them. Men's opinions shape all they do. And it becomes a vehicle of the broad way and the broad gate leading people to an eternal hell. May we be nitpickers for the Lord. May we be concerned with every jot and every tittle because not one jot or tittle will pass away unfulfilled. May we be concerned that we add nothing or we take nothing away. The book of Revelation ends with a curse on anyone who does. But may we be faithful. Is there any excuse for us to get off track when you put it down in black and white for your kids before you walk out the door and say, do exactly what's on this paper? Don't do one thing more. Don't do one thing less. And you come home and they didn't get around to reading the paper or they read half of it or they read it all and decided two thirds of it wasn't really applicable to what was going on. And yet God gives us in black and white, here it is, read it. Do exactly what it says, don't add to it, don't take away from it. Lord, we're busy, we didn't get around to reading it. Lord, we did get around to reading it, but a lot of it we just didn't think was pertinent, relevant. And Lord, quite frankly, for a good bit of it, if we had implemented it, we would have lost friends, we'd have lost family. We'd have been in battles all the time, we'd have been just like Paul, we'd have been just like Jeremiah. Lord, you know, you just can't live in constant conflict. I know we're soldiers, but we were semi-retired soldiers. Thank you, Lord. One of the marks of a true believer is faithfulness. I believe we see a sifting out in the Church of Jesus Christ today. We are thrilled to have great crowds come in. We have come up with some means that we are able to fill auditoriums again and again and again. But I fear it's at the expense of truth. Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for truth. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for what you've done in our lives. Lord, may we be a people who are in love with your truth because we are a people who are in love with you. That you are the passion of our hearts and mind. That we are thrilled with you as our God. Lord, may this church be a church that is not just doctrinally rigid and harsh and unkind. Lord, may this be a church that reflects the beauty of the character of Jesus Christ, that reflects your love and mercy and kindness. Lord, never at the expense of truth. May we be unwilling and unable by your grace to veer from the left to the right. May we be faithful. Lord, may we individually examine ourselves To consider carefully whether we have deluded ourselves, but deluded into thinking that, oh, yes, we made a decision. Oh, yes, we accepted certain facts. Lord, you know us as we are. We know our own hearts and minds if we are honest and open before you. To consider, Lord, are we really in love with you? Are you really the passion of our hearts? Are we really thrilled and have a deep and growing hunger for more of you. Lord, if indeed we have been self-deluded and self-deceived, by your grace may the Spirit open the eyes of our understanding that we might turn from our sin, bow before you, your son, as the sovereign Lord, receive as the free gift of life his salvation. We pray in his name. Amen.