Our text today is from 2nd Peter chapter 2 15 to 22 and I'm reading from the New American Standard Forsaking the right way They have gone astray Having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor Who loved the wages of unrighteousness? But he received a purbuk for his own transgression, for a dumb donkey speaking with the voice of a man restrained the madness of a prophet. These are springs without water and mist driven by a storm for whom the black darkness has been reserved. for speaking out of arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For after 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 for them than the first For 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 delivered to them. It has happened to them. According to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit. And a sow, after washing, returns to wallow in the mire. Pray with me. Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth that it speaks. And oh, Father, that that truth might so envelop and capture our hearts. that we would walk in your truth, that we would recognize the lies of the enemy and speak truth into our hearts and follow you and not Balaam, the son of Beor. Father, help us to see your truth. Help us to understand who the false teachers are, and who the true teacher is. For it's in Christ's name we ask this. Amen. You may be seated. Well, my daughter gave me a lozenge because my throat's kind of acting up all of a sudden. But I can't keep it in my mouth, or I'll probably choke to death. Right up here in front of everyone, and that would not be good. This morning, we complete chapter two of 2 Peter, which is focused on exposing and identifying false teachers, elders, preachers, pastors. Have you ever listened to a TV evangelist or preacher? Like those ones that are so popular? And wonder why so many people listen to them? And when you listen, you don't really hear anything overtly heretical, sometimes. Yet there's something that doesn't seem quite right. They certainly use scripture, But maybe the context isn't quite right, and they might twist it just a little. Well, some of them are certainly false teachers. And the Apostle Peter, under direct influence and inspiration of God, saw this as a dangerous issue for Christians and spent a whole chapter helping us identify these false teachers. This has been an issue for a long time because this wasn't written yesterday. First Peter wrote this in the first century, and he wrote it to the people of the first century. So they were dealing with those false teachers at that time, and we're still dealing with them today. Last week, Pastor Jason preached the first 14 verses of Chapter 2, and we saw some characteristics and descriptions of false teachers. We saw that they're secret and deceptive, they're fleshly, they're autonomous, they're bold in their hypocrisy, and they're sensual. And we are warned from Chapter 3 not to follow these teachers. Today we're going to continue in that same vein. So I'm going to address the obvious. My title is almost identical to Jason's title from last week's sermon, but the reason is that the whole of chapter 2 is one thought. He's addressing one thing. He's addressing how to identify these false teachers. Now Peter's not redundant. He's looking at different aspects of false teachers to give us various things to watch for so that we are not deceived. Peter does this to help us to discern right from wrong when it comes to these teachers. So the title of this message is How to Identify False Teachers. Our text is 2 Peter 2, 15-22. But I'm going to read the whole chapter to keep in context with Peter's construct here. So please stand as I read God's word. Beginning in verse one. But there are also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. their spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children. And now for our text, verse 15. They have forsaken the way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he is rebuked for his iniquity. A dumb donkey, speaking with a man's voice, restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. But when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promised them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 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. 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. 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." You may be seated. This morning we're going to look at how to identify false teachers. We'll see from this text how false teachers can be identified by their hearts, by their speech, and by their lives. And then we'll look at what are we supposed to do with that information. Let's get started. First, we can identify false teachers by their hearts, verses 15 through 17. they have forsaken the way and gone astray following the way of baal on the son of beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness but he was rebuked for his iniquity a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet these are wells without water clouds carried by a tempest for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever letter a their hearts are full of covetousness Verse 15, they have forsaken the way and gone astray. False teachers have forsaken the right way and they have gone astray. There is a right way and there is a wrong way. Unlike our current beliefs and teachers in our current culture, these teachers have forsaken that right way and they have chosen to go the wrong way. To forsake something or someone is to turn your back on them and to walk away, leaving them behind. It's to abandon or desert them. It contains the idea of abandonment in a time of their need. In the fire service, we frequently say, never leave your wingmen. Comes from the military, of course. What we mean is that we don't let someone go alone into any situation. It's used when someone just wants to quick jump out of the truck and run into QT to get a soda. Someone goes with them. They rarely go alone. Why? Well, because you never know what's going to happen, especially at a convenience store in South Glendale. But it sets the stage and the culture for the critical situations that we get into. We never allow one crew member to go into a fire alone. And we never allow one crew member to go into a house on a medical hall alone. If we're in a firefight and your crew member gets injured or trapped, you stay and help him get out. If it's a situation where you physically can't help, you still don't abandon him, you direct others to come help you get him out. The false teachers in the fire service, excuse me, and in the military, they work in context of teamwork in a team. We don't fight alone and we don't leave anyone alone. These false teachers know the right way. but they have purposely left it, abandoned it, to follow a different path. So the path is this way, this is the right way, and they have chosen instead to go this way. Like a dog who's left off his leash runs off or goes astray following the ideas of his own head or maybe his nose, these teachers run after their own desires. Notice the order here is important, both for these false teachers and for us, right? Because we also can do these things and do. We don't first go astray. We first forsake the way, right? So after we forsake the way, after we've chosen not to walk this way, then we walk the other way. This is critical on how we can protect ourselves from going astray in our faith. We must watch for signs in our own heart that we are beginning to leave the truth of scripture. Read your Bible so you will know the truth and so you can recognize error in your own thoughts and in others. Verse 14, which was addressed last week, says that their hearts are trained in covetous practices. Their heart is trained in covetousness, and it isn't just hidden in their heart. They're actually practicing that covetousness. You can see this clearly in the false teachers of the health and wealth gospel movement, like Benny Hinn. I watched him one time. I couldn't believe what I saw or heard. I was at home. My wife was out for something, and I was just flipping through the channels. This was years ago before Heritage even started, and I flipped past channel 21. It was Benny Hinn. I'm like, oh, I've never heard him talk, but I hear all these bad things about him. I'm going to listen to him. I listened to him for a half an hour, and I was actually blown away by what was said and done. He was actually taking money, taking deeds of old ladies' houses, promising them that they'll get many more houses if they just give them to him. It was horrible. I couldn't believe that any human being would actually do that, but they do. Continuing in verse 15, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he's rebuked in his iniquity, a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet. Balaam, the story of Balaam, one of my favorites when our kids were younger. Numbers 22 to 24. If you want to read it, I'm going to summarize it really briefly and hopefully correctly enough because of that timer back there. I keep running out of time when I get up here. I think that thing's trying to train me, but it's not doing a very good job, because all I got to do is not look at it. But I'm going to try. So the Israelites traveled to an area, and they set up camp just outside of Moab. This makes the king, King Balak, nervous, because there's so many Israelites, and he knows that if they attack him, they will win. So he gathers some men to find a man named Balaam. Balaams are a really interesting character, for sure. Well, Balak wants Balaam to come and curse the Israelites, and he sent a lot of money to pay him to do so. Well, Balaam tells the messengers to wait while he asks God. So God tells him clearly, no, do not go with him. The Israelites are my people. They are blessed. You may not curse them. So Balaam gets up, and he sends them away. He says, I don't care what Balak's going to give me. He can give me all the money in the world. I'm not going to follow him, because God said not to. Well, Balak didn't like that answer, so he sends more messengers with more money to bribe Balaam to curse the Jews. Balaam tells them to wait, and he asks God again, as if God didn't know about the answer he gave him the last time, or if he wasn't sure if God was sure about that, because now he's getting more money. Well, this time God says to go, but the text says God was angry. Then Balaam rides his donkey, and the donkey disobeys him and keeps going the wrong way. So finally he's trapped in this little narrow, like, gulch or whatever, and the donkey just sits down. He won't go any further. Well, Balaam gets mad. He grabs his staff and he starts beating the donkey on the head. The donkey starts talking to him. It's pretty crazy. The donkey starts talking to Balaam. And you know what's even crazier? Balaam argues with the donkey. I think Balaam's more crazy than the donkey, right? So the donkey is saying, hey, what are you doing to me? What have I ever done to you? You've ridden me for many years. I've never disobeyed you. I've never done anything wrong against you. And now you're beating me with a stick. And then God reveals to Balaam that there's an angel there that would have killed Balaam if that donkey didn't sit down and not go further, that the donkey actually saved Balaam's life. So ultimately now, God says, okay, continue your journey, but when you get there, you must bless Israel, not curse them. And Balaam does that, probably not out of love of God, but out of complete fear of what just happened. It's a good motivator. So what are the sins of Balaam, as we refer to here? First is covetousness. Our text says that Balaam loved the money that he could get from doing unrighteous things. He was covetous. That's why he didn't tell them the second time they came, no, I told you last time, I'm not going. That's why he went and asked God again. Second, he didn't submit to God's leading. He should not have asked the second time. If you know the clear teaching of God's word and his word gives you an answer, you should not be asking God for a different answer, period. You should not say, oh, let me pray about it and see what God wants me to do. No, he already told you what to do. Your job is to follow it. For example, if you're married and are no longer in love with your spouse, you do not need to pray and ask God if you can divorce her. The Bible says that marriage is for life. And there's only one reason God allows divorce, and that's adultery, clear-cut adultery. And if your spouse hasn't done that, then God's will is clear in Scripture. You may not divorce your wife. You must love her. If you pray about it and come to Jason or I that God told you to divorce your wife or husband, for any reason other than that, you have been deceived by your own desires. God will never contradict his eternal inspired word. You may have heard from someone in your prayers, but that someone wasn't God. This is just like Balaam. My kids, they remember this, I'm sure, when they're younger. Sometimes they'd ask me something and I would give them an answer. Well, they didn't like the answer, so they'd come back later and ask again the same thing, and again, and again, and again. And I would tell them, stop being like Balaam. And they knew what that meant because we had gone over that a few times. It seems that, yeah, don't be like Balaam. And then the third thing is, based on other scriptures and some of this, it seems like Balaam had advised Balak on how to cause the Israelites to fall into sexual temptation through the women of Moab. So although Balaam did obey God by not curing or cursing the Israelites, but by blessing them, which I'm sure he did out of fear, like I said, not loyalty, he also did some bad things that God judged him for. So their hearts are full of covetousness. And next, the hearts of the false teachers are shallow and empty. Verse 17, these are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. ESV says there are waterless springs and mists driven by the storm. The idea is that when you need refreshment of the spring rain in the heat of summer, they don't provide it. When you live in the desert, water is the difference between life and death. And when the trials of difficulties of life surround you, and you should be able to go to church and hear the life-giving water of the word of God, instead, these false teachers deliver cute messages that are designed to impress you with their speaking and make them feel good about themselves, which sometimes, it's good to hear something that makes you feel good, isn't it? It certainly feels good. The problem is that in the midst of difficulty and trial, we need to know the truth of God's Word. It's God's Word that refreshes the soul and shows us the path forward. It's God's Word that gives ultimate encouragement as we look to the eternal. It's God's Word that gives us the answers to the most difficult and troubling questions that haunt people. When we look to God's word and see the depth of our sin and that perfections of our holy God, we can become bummed out and depressed, can't we? And maybe it'd feel good to hear some preacher say, it's okay, everyone does it. You're still a good person. You're better than that guy. God will surely let you into heaven. But is that what the lost person needs to hear? Absolutely not. They need to hear that, yes, you're a sinner, and yes, God is holy, and no, He will not let any sin into heaven, and yes, that's a huge problem for you. However, God did something about this, didn't He? He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for your sin, to pay the price you owe for your sin. There's nothing you can do to earn your forgiveness, but God offers complete forgiveness to everyone who humbles themselves. and goes and puts their trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. And Jesus promises that no matter who you are or what you have done, he will accept you if you do that. That's what they need to hear. Not, you're okay. Then and only then can you stand before a holy God and be accepted into heaven for all eternity. That is the good news. The cheap stuff being delivered by the false teachers that may feel good in the moment, when you die, it will not help you. It does nothing to meet your real need of forgiveness. The gospel is a spring flowing with life-giving water. And for a believer, the gospel is a cool rain in the heat of battle that refreshes our soul. The false teachers do not offer this. They offer a dried-up spring. They offer a humid mist in the middle of a hot summer, which only teases you, but it doesn't actually provide. And because of this, there's reserved for them the blackness and darkness forever. They are reserved for judgment. They have a place reserved in hell. Now as we look to actual people, our prayer should be that they would be saved, that these false teachers would be saved. And we can have that hope as long as they're alive. So just because we identify a false teacher, we don't know the mind of God. God saves people. God saves them out of that stuff, even false teachers, if they repent and turn to Jesus. But if they don't repent, then they have a ticket reserved for them in hell. In Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul gives a warning about false teachers and speaks of the emptiness in what they offer. Colossians 2.8, Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. Paul says that they cheat us through their empty beliefs because they're teaching worldly principles and traditions of men and not according to Christ. And they're not teaching us about Jesus and his word. And we are complete in Jesus. We don't need that other stuff. We don't need anything else, right? We are complete in Jesus. We don't need empty flower-sounding philosophies. We need Christ. We must beware. We must be on our guard to avoid being robbed of the glories of Jesus and the truth of his word. So we can identify false teachers by their hearts. Their hearts are full of covetousness and their hearts are shallow and empty. And next, we can identify false teachers by their speech. Verses 18 to 19. Their speech is empty and alluring. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. Excuse me. Great swelling words of emptiness. Wow. What a description, right? How do you want to be the guy who speaks great swelling words of emptiness? No, thanks. I'd rather get up here and stumble over my words. Have you ever heard people speak like that? They love to hear themselves talk. They love to impress others with their many words. They love to use big words that no one around them understands. I've had scientists, science-type people talk, and I've heard them talk about things and use big words, and people are like, wow, they're so smart. And I'm like, no, they're not. They can't even explain that big word they just used. They used the words to cover up the truth, which is they don't understand it to the level to be able to explain it to you. But as they pontificate on whatever subject's at hand, if you listen to them, they're not really saying anything. They're using flowery speech to impress, and it's full of nothing. It's vain speech. It's not helpful. It's not encouraging. It's not truthful. It's just chatter. In Luke 20, 46, Jesus says, The Israelite leaders were like this. They used big words. They used lots of flowery talk to impress everyone around them and to hide the fact that they have nothing to offer. Peter says in verse 18 that these false teachers lure people away from the faith through sensuality and even lure them back to the very life they escaped. Their speech is empty and alluring. And next, their speech is full of empty promises. Some of these guys are quite popular. They promise the world, but they deliver nothing. Benny Hinn promises to help the helpless lady if she just signs over the deed of her house to his ministry, and that God will give her many more things, much more riches. But what she gets is an eviction notice. These guys are corrupt, wicked men who use the pseudo gospel for their own personal gain. Remember, they're full of emptiness, full of nothing, because they have nothing to offer. So when they offer freedom from poverty or freedom from the bondage of sin, they can't deliver because they are in bondage. And people listen to them. Why? Because they deliver what people want to hear. 2 Timothy 4, Paul talks to Timothy and says, For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, enduring suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. This passage is instructive in that it tells us why these false teachers are so popular. I mean, have you ever seen the churches? They're beautiful, they're massive, they're expensive, and they're full of a lot of people. They're popular because people like to feel good about themselves, and they care more about comfort than they do about truth. But if you are to break out of jail, you need someone from the outside to break you out. These teachers are there in jail with you. They can't help. What people need are faithful teachers and pastors that will lead people to Jesus, not grow a personal following. What people need is Jesus, not false teachers. Their speech is empty and alluring, and their speech is full of empty promises. We can identify teachers by their hearts and by their speech, and we can identify teachers by their lives. The end of verse 19 through verse 22. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. They are slaves of corruption. We are in bondage to things that overcome us. Whatever that may be. These things are our idols. These things are our chains. These are the things that we need Jesus to overcome in our lives. not the comfy lies of the false teachers. The first step to becoming free is to recognize that you aren't free. The first step to helping someone else become free is to help them to see that they are not free, but they're a slave of their sin. Once they see this, once we see this, we can then fall before Jesus and beg for mercy and ask for his forgiveness, and Jesus will set us free. If you're overcome with covetousness or greed, you become a slave to things and money. If you're overcome with bitterness, you're a slave to that bitterness. You can be a slave to money, to fame, to power, to sex, to houses, to cars, to your job, or you can be a slave to Jesus. If you're overcome by Jesus, you're His slave. So the question is, who or what is your master? Who are you a slave to? Because you are a slave, just like I am. When we look at the lives of the false teachers, we see that they're slaves of corruption. And next, we see that they reject Christ and they return to the world. These next verses can get a little dicey. I don't believe we can lose our salvation. There's simply too many texts and scripture that are very clear on this subject. However, with our limited vision, it does seem like some people are saved and then aren't. God knows the heart. God is the one who saves. God always keeps his promises. And he promises to save to the uttermost, completely, all who put their faith in Jesus. But just because someone says they trust in Jesus does not mean they do. But we can be confused by a couple things. One is we look at the externals, but God's the one who knows their heart. We look at their fruit, which we're told to do. but it needs to be looked at long term, right? And we only see a piece of it, right? God really knows the motives behind that fruit. Second, we must remember that knowledge never saves. The Bible is clear that Satan knows, but he is doomed for hell. In fact, Satan is why hell exists. God created hell for Satan. But Satan knows the scripture better than you and I. Our text says that these false teachers had the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But knowledge does not save anybody. Knowledge is important. We can't be saved without knowledge. But knowledge is the starting point. There needs to be action. We need to add faith to that knowledge to gain salvation. There are skeptics who know God's Word better than you and I, but they are not saved because they have not placed their faith and hope in Jesus and only Jesus for their salvation. Peter says here, it will be worse for these people in the end. Why? Because to whom much is given, much is required. With more knowledge, we have more responsibility. With greater authority, we have greater responsibility. It does no good to know the truth and not follow it. It actually makes things worse. I keep getting my words mixed up between sewing and a pig. Sorry, it's a sow, not a sow. Have you seen this? I have. When I was growing up, we had a Boston Terrier, little dog, named Spunky. He was a cool dog until he wasn't anymore, until he got old, and he got sick. He was a mess. He would vomit on the floor of our house, and it was disgusting. And it was our job as kids to clean up after him. Well, it was nasty, and it smelled gross, and we had to clean up after him every single time until Until we realized, and this was a great day for us, that if we just waited about a minute, he would run back over and slurp it all back up. And when we took him outside, so if he did it again, it was outside. So, we never had to clean up his vomit again. Pretty gross, huh? I knew I wouldn't be able to tell that, seriously. Well, that's the point. That's exactly what Solomon was talking about. We laugh because it's funny, because it's really disgusting. But it's disgusting when people walk away from the salvation that God has given them, from the freedom from those chains, and they go right back there and slurp it back up again because they think it tasted delicious. The point is, when you've been set free from the sin and bondage of the world, don't run back and eat vomit. Then Peter refers to a pig that's washed and runs back to wallow or roll around in the mud. Jesus referred to the Pharisees as whitewashed tombs. In Matthew 23 verses 27, Jesus said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. They were clean on the outside, but inside they're full of death. How many of you have had your little kids get all cleaned up and ready to go to church in the morning, only to walk out and get in the mud or slop and fall down in the dirt? So that's what's going on here. These false teachers, they look good on the outside, which is all we can really see, isn't it? But inside, they're dead. They're full of death. There's no life. There's no light. There's no righteousness. Inside, they're dead. So they put on a show for a while, and then they run back to wallow in the pig poop and in the mud. They look good for a while, then they run back to slurp up more vomit. They're slaves of corruption, and they reject Christ in the return to the world. So we've seen that we can identify false teachers by their hearts, by their speech, and by their lives. And now that we have the tools to identify false teachers, what do we do? What now? We're gonna look at 2 Peter 3, verses 14-18, which is what Jason looked at last week as well. Chapter 2 is a good expose on identifying false teachers. But in chapter 2, there are no imperatives or commands for us to follow with that, right? So just remember that when we read these chapter breaks in our Bibles, that's not how they are written. Those were put in by interpreters. Chapters and verses, they're there to make it easy for us to find places, which is great because we can say, hey, turn to chapter this and this. It's perfect. It's great for us. But we have to remember that those divisions and breakdowns, they didn't exist, right? That's not in the original. So we need to know what we're going to do with chapter 2. So we're going to go to chapter 3. We're going to go to verses 14 to 18. And I would like us to take away two things we can do with the information given. These two things are, first, we must identify and avoid the false teachers, and second, we must follow the truth. 2 Peter 3, beginning in verse 14, for context, Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless, and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. So Peter acknowledges that there are some things in scripture that are difficult to understand, doesn't he? He also says that some people, because of being either unable to understand it or unstable themselves, they twist it to their own destruction. This brings up a point. There's two different types of false teachers. There's false teachers that are deceived, but they're teaching what they believe is right. Even though they're wrong, they can still lead you down the path. They're still a false teacher. And that there are false teachers who know the truth, absolutely know the truth, and are deceiving people as fast as they can. Either way, we are not to follow them. For the last two weeks, we've looked at how to identify these false teachers. The information was given for us to use, to do something with it. We must be diligent to watch out for false teachers. And to do this, we must know Scripture. If we don't know the truth of the Bible, we will not be able to identify the false teachings of false teachers. Scripture is the tool we have to identify false teachers. Jesus also gives us some ways to identify false teachers. Listen to his parable of the good shepherd in John chapter 10, beginning in verse one. I'm going to skip around here. Verse one, most assuredly I say, this is Jesus speaking this whole time, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known by my own. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. In this parable, Jesus taught us how to discern the true shepherd, Jesus, from all the false shepherds. Although the passage is ultimately referring to Jesus as the true shepherd, the perfect shepherd, all under shepherds, right? Under meaning under him or elders will also follow this pattern, although imperfectly. So we can see three things that are true of the good shepherd Jesus and true of good shepherds, lowercase, who truly want what is best for the people they lead and work earnestly to teach the truths of God's word so people can be blessed. First, true shepherds will enter through the gate of Jesus. They don't get there any other way. They're saved. They know the gospel, and they're saved. Second, true shepherds know their sheep, and their sheep know them. Third, true shepherds give their lives for the sheep. They don't run away when things get difficult or when the wolves come in. These are things we should look for in the teachers, leaders, pastors, and elders that we follow. Paul also addresses false teachers in Romans 16, verse 17. He says, So Paul gives us two things to do with false teachers. First, we are to note or to identify them, and second, we are to avoid them, just like Peter talks about. And next, B, we must follow the truth. Verse 17, you therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. Since we know that there are false teachers and Peter has shown us how to identify them, we must beware. We must be on our guard. We are in danger. And to him who is prideful, take heed lest he fall, right? We are all in danger of being deceived. We are to grow instead to combat this danger. We are to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus. And scripture is how we do that. There are liars. There are deceivers. There are wicked men who are used by Satan to draw us away from the faith and back into the world. They deceive us and make us think that that vomit is a steak dinner. They make us see the vomit as tiramisu. We are not to believe anything, everything, excuse me, that someone says. We are commanded this. 1 John 4, verse 1 says, We are not called to be naive Christians, believing anything some smooth-tongued preacher tells us. We're to test the spirits. We will know the spirit or the teaching is of God, because if it is, they will confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and that he is God. So when that Mormon or JW comes to your door, and claims to be a Christian, and he sounds like a Christian, and maybe even looks more like a Christian than you do, but he denies the deity of Jesus. And they do, even if they change their words to deny that. When they say, yes, we believe Jesus was a God. Well, he believed that he was a God, like you are a God or can be a God. It's nonsense. They deny the deity of Christ. He's a false teacher. and he's following a false prophet. So don't be deceived by their image they project or the words that they speak. We must follow the truth, not lies. In John 14, verse 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is truth. We must follow him. In Luke 9, 26, then Jesus said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. To follow Jesus, we first must deny ourselves, then we can take up our cross, or specific burden that he has for us, and then we can follow him. Brothers, sisters, let's avoid the false teachers and follow Jesus. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word that gives such clear direction to us, your word that gives us things to watch out for, to beware of, to be on our guard against so that we are not deceived. Lord, I pray that each of us would take that seriously, that we would be in your word daily so that we could know and recognize truth from error. And that we'd beware of false teachers and false philosophies. And that we would not turn from you, the one true living God, to go back to the world. That we would not give up the riches of heaven, the riches of Christ. for the tin pennies of this world. Lord, help us to recognize, help us to call out false teachers. Help us never to follow them. Help us to follow Jesus. That you would be glorified, that your kingdom would be grown on this earth. We pray in Christ's name.