you. You look great today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. th th th So, All right, if you would, get your Bibles and turn to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2, as we continue in our study of the book of 2 Peter, looking at how we will prepare for persecution. Last week, we talked about the truth that endures. And this week, we're going to start chapter 2, which will focus a lot on false teaching. There was a reason why we laid the foundation with the truth of the Word of God that endures forever. That is because we will use that to combat the false teaching that is in 2 Peter 2. So if you would go ahead and stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God, and we will read for tonight the first six verses of 2 Peter 2. Verse number one says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false prophets among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And though covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah and eight a person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that are after should live ungodly. Let's pray and we'll study this passage. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you would empower me with the Holy Spirit to preach these words truthfully and clearly. And God, I pray that you would be with the people, that their hearts would be open and receptive, not to my words, but God, unto your words, the words of the truth of the Word of God. So be with us in our study of your Word here tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You can be seated. I want to start by telling you this evening that doctrine matters. that the church today puts very little stock in sound doctrine. R.C. Sproul said this, I doubt if there has ever been a time in church history when professing Christians have been less concerned about doctrine than they are today. There are very few Christians, there are very few churches who are concerned about sound doctrine. Today, the church is more concerned with how you feel rather than what you know. They want relationships and not religion. They want worship and not warnings. They want entertainment and not exhortation. Now, perhaps you're asking the question, what's so wrong with some of those things? What's so wrong with worship? What's so wrong with relationships? What's so wrong with feelings? And my answer to you is nothing. There's nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves. But, if that's all there is to your Christianity, if that's all there is to your faith, It is a very shallow faith. And I am afraid that that type of faith will not stand up well to false teaching. Because false teachers are looking to prey on those people with shallow faith. If your faith is not grounded in some type of doctrine, in some type of doctrinal framework, how will you even know if it's false or not? If it's all about the relationships and the feelings and the worship, how can you tell right from wrong if you don't know anything? I think that's what Paul was getting at in Ephesians 4 when he was talking about them being tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. that if you are not firmly established in the enduring truth of the Word of God that we talked about last week, you'll be tossed to and fro. And that's what we're going to look at here tonight. We're going to look more specifically, not at the enduring truth of the Word of God, we looked at that last week, but this week we're going to look more at the false teachers. And we're going to be warned of these false teachers. God is telling us to beware of false teachers. They will be present. When persecution comes, the persecution doesn't always come from the outside. From the government. From the authorities banging at our door to arrest us. Sometimes, and Peter really gets at that in 2 Peter, the persecution comes from within. From within the church. That it rises up from within the church through false teaching and through false teachers. So that's what we're going to look at here tonight, a passage that really just, it's going to introduce us to false teaching. We'll be talking about false teaching for the entirety of chapter two. But here it's a little bit of just our introduction just to make us aware of these false teachers. Maybe just to open our eyes a little bit to the false teachers that we'll be talking about. So I have three points for you tonight. They're three Ds. So you can look for that. Again, I'm much more loving than to have six points for you. So we will stick. with 3.3 D's as we look at this warning against false teachers. So point number one, we're going to look at the definitiveness of false teachers. And we're going to see that at the very onset. In verse number one, it says, but there were false teachers. So we are warned of these false teachers. And the first thing that is mentioned to us is that there is a guarantee that there will be false teachers. In verse number one, it starts with but, so it's referring back to what we were talking about last week. Again, the enduring truth of the Word of God. The truth that we said that will stand when the world is on fire. So in contrast to the truth of the Word of God, there will be false teachers. In contrast to those who spoke from God, there will be these people who are not speaking from God. In contrast to the light that is the Word of God, there is darkness. Where there is light, there will always be darkness, at least until Jesus returns. And I think it's fair to say if we look at the Bible, I think there's almost more darkness than there is light. I think anytime that there's depicted this light in the world, that if we are the lights of the world, it seems like we are overwhelmed and outnumbered by that darkness. And these two things that we're contrasting here, they are very different. Truth is the complete opposite of falsehood. Light is the complete opposite of darkness. False teachers are the complete opposite of the Word of God. And this false teaching, this is not something that is new. You know, last week we talked about the old truths of the Word of God, and how we were just bringing them into remembrance, that Peter was constantly calling us to remember those old truths of the Word of God. Well, he's also going to call us to beware of an old foe. Because he says, here in verse number one, but there were false prophets also among the people. The people there, that's a unique phrase that's used in the New Testament and is always used to refer to the nation of Israel. So he is talking about there were false prophets also among Israel. So false prophets have been present throughout Israel's history. And they've been present throughout the history of the world. Genesis chapter 3, we see the false teacher of all false teachers, Satan, in the garden. And what is he doing? He's teaching false things. He's saying to Eve, did God really say? And from Genesis chapter 3 onward, the false teachers, Satan included, are coming after, are in contrast to, the Word of God. And we see this throughout the Bible. It happens throughout the Bible. It happens throughout church history. There is just false teaching, false teaching, false teaching. It is a certainty. It is definitive that there will be false teaching in the world. But more than just there has been false teaching or there was false teaching among the people, there is false teaching today. There is a present reality of false teaching for us today. He says, but there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you. So the people here that Peter's writing to, they were not exempt from false teachers. And we today are not exempt from false teachers. Josh and I were talking before the morning service about, you know, all the things that we see happening in our area, whether it be a critical race theory, or the transgender movement, and how it seems like for a few years now, people have always been saying, oh, that won't happen here. That won't happen here. Well, it has happened here, and we gotta get the picture here. Don't think that false teaching won't happen in the Bible Belt. Do not get the mindset that you say, oh, well, we won't have false teachers here in the Bible. We got churches on every single corner. No, no, no, no, no, no. The Bible says that even as there shall be, not there might be false teachers among you, but there will be. Definitive statement, there will be false teachers among you. False teachers will continue and be present until the return of Christ. Jesus knew this, right? He says that to us in Matthew 24, and we might get there one day if we return to our study of Matthew. But Jesus says in Matthew 24, He says, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, I am the Christ. and shall deceive many. The same thing was true of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4. He says, For the time will come when they shall not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and they shall be turned unto fables. False teachers. And I think that in our day, as we have seen the technological revolution, that it is so easy for false teachers to be heard today. That they can get their message out to hundreds, thousands, millions with the click of a button, with a post, with a tweet. And we can be exposed to their false teaching at our fingertips. That I can turn on the TV on a Sunday morning and have false teaching in my living room. That I can have false teaching on my phone as I'm scrolling Facebook. That it can be right there in the palm of my hand. False teaching on demand. So we have to be careful here. There is a definitiveness here in this first verse here that there will be false teachers. Do not be lulled into thinking, oh, that won't happen here, or that won't happen to me, or I will never encounter false teaching. Because you will. It is definitive. So what are we supposed to do, right? If false teaching is always going to be around, if it is definitive, what do we do? We have to be on guard against false teaching. We have to be aware of what false teaching looks like. And that's going to lead us into our second point here, still in verse number one. But let's look at the deception of false teachers. Not just the definitiveness of false teachers, but let's look at the deception. Because the characterizing mark of all false teachers is deception. That's their game. They are really one-trick ponies. And that was true of Satan. Satan is the father of lies, so we shouldn't be surprised that false teachers share so many attributes with Satan. But Satan, in his deception, he's really a one-trick pony. He's always, did God really say that? He's just trying to deceive, to deceive, deceive. And false teachers are the same way. So let's look at it here. It says, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies. So false teachers will deviate from the truth. In order to be a false teacher, this may sound pretty basic to you, but in order to be a false teacher, you must abandon the truth in some way, shape, or form. You must deviate from the truth. And I want to tell you, false teachers come in all shapes and sizes. Teaching all manner of different things. False teachers are in every denomination. False teachers are teaching many different false things. It's not like they all teach the same false thing. But they deviate from the truth. Most of the time, it's a slippery slope type of deviation. That they start with something that maybe seems small. Maybe they start with something like, well, I'm not really sure that creation was a real literal seven days. I don't know if that's really true. They start with something like that, and before you know it, they're denying who Christ is. It's a slippery slope when you start talking about heresy. So I want to go through some of these, and I want to name names to you, or at least groups of people, to who falls in these. Because I don't think we should skirt around the truth of the Word of God. Because this is awful. What these false teachers are doing is... We're going to see here in a little bit how God feels about these false teachers, what He's going to do to them. Me naming names is... That shouldn't look that bad for what God will do to these false teachers. So an example of somebody who has deviated from the truth. I wrote down Oneness Pentecostals who deny the Trinity. The Trinity, which is a glorious truth from the Bible, an established doctrine within Christianity for thousands of years, and they deny the Trinity. The deviation from the truth. There are others who maybe are a little more subtle about it. Maybe they just misrepresent the truth. Maybe they just overemphasize one attribute of God. Maybe they only preach on God's love. We had two sermons on God's love. That's not all only preaching on God's love. That's a joke. But there are some preachers who they preach on God's love every single Sunday, and that's all they preach on. And they never preach on the other attributes of God. Right? They never preach on God's wrath. Maybe I should do a thing that says, you might be a false teacher if, or your church might be full of false teachers if, they never preach on sin. Or you might be a false teacher if, you never talk about holiness. Or you might be a false teacher if, you never speak of God's judgment. An example here is smiley face Joel Osteen. All of his sermons are just positive and encouraging and uplifting, and he would never talk about sin. He would never talk about holiness or God's judgment. It's all about your best life now. That's false teaching. That is not preaching the full counsel of the word of God, like we are called to do. And it says here that these are not just heresies, they're damnable heresies. These are lies that destroy. These lies are leading people away from the truth and toward destruction. And we can laugh about smiley face Joel Osteen, but this is serious. This is a serious matter to lead people away from the truth and toward destruction. And it says here, it's not just damnable heresies, but it says here they do it privily. And privily here, it means secretly. And this is pretty similar to what we talked about last week. Last week we were talking about the cunningly devised fables, how the apostles were in contrast to the cunningly devised fables. These false teachers, they have a hidden agenda. You know, false teaching is not something that people openly embrace. I've never met anyone that just came out and said, you know what? Being an independent Baptist isn't for me. I'm going to the church of false teaching. That's not how it works. There is no church of false teaching. I mean, there is, but they don't put it on the door. It's a more secret matter. False teaching fools people into believing that what they believe and what they teach is actually true. False teachers are attending church, they're carrying Bibles, and they're standing behind pulpits. They have a nice smile, they have charisma, and they can attract a large crowd. Isn't that, aren't those things, that's what churches want today, isn't it? They're saying, some of you might be saying, well, let's get Josh out of here and let's get one of these guys in here. I'm kidding, we would never think that. But they have this hidden agenda. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. This is what Jesus said in Matthew 7. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Or Jude 4, they're creeping in unaware, for there are certain men that crept in unaware. I think of the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, right? They have great dedication. They're going door to door. They've got the nice, you know, get up, the white shirt and the tie. And they come in with a message from the Bible. But they've got a hidden agenda. They're deceptive in what they're trying to talk to you about. They are trying to trick you. And they know that. They learn that in their training, that they have to be sneaky in how they talk to you. It goes on here. It says that these false teachers even go as far as denying the Lord that bought them. So they're proclaiming to be Christians while denying the atoning and the saving death of Christ. If you deny what Jesus did on the cross, how can you be a Christian? Is that not the foundation of Christianity? This is why we don't partner with here with people who don't share our beliefs. We have to be very careful with other churches that we come in hand in hand with because they might be like these false prophets who deny even some of the basic truths of Christianity. And this likely boils down to a refusal to submit to the sovereignty of God, to the lordship of Christ. Here it says, even denying the Lord that bought them. Refusal to bow the knee and kiss the ring. It's a refusal to submit to Christ's authority. You know, these are people who perhaps they know some things about Christianity. They can tell you some facts about Jesus. Perhaps their end times theology is perfect. But they're wrong on the main thing, right? They're wrong on the core things of Christianity. And I think that this is the basis of all false teaching. A refusal to submit to Christ. Because if you say, I submit to Christ for everything, you can't be a false teacher. If you're saying, I fully and completely just submit to Christ and his word on everything, well, you're not going to be a false teacher. But if you don't, that's when you get yourself into trouble. Now, I'll say, I think you can be a member of many churches in America today and be just like these people, be just like these false teachers. This is why false teachers are so prevalent in our world today. It's because they are welcomed with open arms. And this is why doctrine matters. It matters what you believe. You cannot be a Christian without acknowledging what Christ did on the cross. You cannot be a Christian without submitting to who Christ is. You cannot be a Christian without being obedient to Christ. So they denied the Master that bought them. And it goes on here in verse number 2. It says, they follow in pernicious ways, sensual ways, lustful ways. This is a sexual term. These false teachers fall into lustful ways. A life that is an unrestrained life. I think the term is a sexual term. But I think it expands broader. In all aspects of their life, they are living an unrestrained life. I think that we see that in our world today. As many Christians, so-called Christians, have embraced the sexual and the homosexual revolutions. They're saying they're just opening the doors, opening the floodgates and saying live, live however you want to live, live an unrestrained life. To the point where. As moving on here in verse two. by reason of whom, or because of who, because of the way they are just living a loose life, living however they want to live, living completely unrestrained, the Bible says that the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Because of the way that they live, because they have a very low view of holiness, they're bringing about shame. to God in His Gospel. You see, this is why we have strict requirements on those who would teach and those who would preach. We must guard our pulpits because otherwise they will bring about shame that the way of truth would be evil spoken of. I think because there are so many Christians who live worldly, who claim to be Christians, But they live just however the world is that the testimony of the church and the testimony of Christianity is tainted because of that. Are you here? How often do you hear all Christians are hypocrites? Oh, this is not true. You don't know all Christians. So how can you say all Christians are hypocrites? Are a lot of people who call themselves Christians hypocrites? Yeah, I can't deny that. I'm not going to argue that. I'll make the argument that they're probably not Christians. But it's a true statement. Or how many times have you seen scandals come in and just decimate a church, ruin that church's reputation? Purity within the church is of utmost importance. Philippians 2 tells us that. That ye would be blameless and harmless sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and a perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. That's what we're supposed to be, shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation. But here, it's saying these false teachers who are just living however they want to live, that they are causing the way of truth, the gospel, to be spoken evil of. They are not practicing what they preach. They are not living out their profession. And it goes on. I mean, we've got a long list of kind of detailing who these false teachers are and what their false teachings look like here. In verse number three it says, "...and through covetousness or through greed." False teachers aren't out for God and His glory. They're seeking after what's in it for them. They are out to take advantage of others. That's what false teachers do. And they do so primarily here as we go on. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you or exploit you. I heard a phenomenal quote this week. It's short, but it's great. Kevin DeYoung said in response to this, the truth is not for sale. Right, and that has to be where we are as a church, that we're not like these false teachers who are just acting out of greed and covetousness, that they're just trying to exploit people. We need to say, the truth is not for sale. If you find a teacher who is in it for the money, run as far away from them as you possibly can. These TV preachers whose only desire is to get money out of you. What is it, a few years back, that's five or ten years back, Criflo Dollar needed to raise $200 million to buy a new jet. And he did! That's crazy! I mean, that's all about the money. There is not a single preacher in this world that needs a private jet. They can fly coach. It's fine. It costs a couple hundred dollars, not a couple hundred million dollars. I mean, but there's other examples here. You know, Benny Hinn taking your money so he can fake heal you. Other prosperity preachers. All of this nonsense. And, you know, I often think about, you know, how much should preachers be paid? Because I kind of think about this, right? I don't know why, but I do. And, you know, on one hand, the Bible says that preachers are worthy of double honor, and then on the other hand, you know, we have to make sure that they're not like the false teachers, and then they're not motivated by money. So it's a fine line there to consider and to think about here. But I think the truth, the key here is we have to get to the point where the truth is not for sale. That the motivation of preaching and of teaching the Word of God is not money. And it says here they do that by using false words. Here, feigned words here. With feigned words, they make merchandise of you. False words is what that means. It's an interesting word. It's the Greek word for, we get the word plastic. At Eastman, we make lots of plastics, so I know more than I ever thought I would ever know about plastic. We can make plastics that look like wood. We can make plastics that look like glass. We can make plastics that feel like cotton. And we can make plastics that feel like wool. We can make all kinds of different plastics. We can even get to the point where we're deceiving you. We can get to the point where people question, is this the real stuff? That's what false teachers do. They are very deceptive. And we aren't always sure if they're right or not. I think that's a good thing. I think if you ever get to the point where you're listening to a preacher and your ears perk up a little bit and you say, I don't know if that's right or not, that's a very good thing. That's where you need to get to. That is not where a lot of people are getting to. See, that's how false teachers are like plastic. There you go, there's your sermon in a sentence. False teachers are like plastic. But they are, right? You don't know if it's real or not. False teachers, sometimes you don't know if they're the real deal or not. I want to tell you something, it's okay. to go and confirm what your pastor is preaching. It's okay. That's why we here, we want you to open your Bibles. We're not making this stuff up. Read it for yourselves. I mean, you're probably taking my word for the whole plastic thing, but go home and look that up. You can do that. Get a Greek lexicon and you can look that up too. Look up anything that we say. We're not trying to lie to you or to deceive you. We are just revealing to you the truth of the Word of God. But not everyone's like that. There are some people who use false words. I think an example of this, and many people, I mean, it's a best-selling book, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I mean, she claimed to have, like, hear from God and speak from God and all kinds of this nonsense, false words. It's what it is, false words. There's more false teaching. Like I said before, it comes in every shape, form, and size. Lots of false teaching. Now, maybe you're starting to ask the question, well, why is all of this deception so bad? Well, in verse number two, it says, because people will follow them. Verse number two, and many shall follow them. People will follow them. This type of teaching appeals to the sinful heart of men. They don't take hard stances on the Word of God, and some people like that. The sinful heart, the sinful flesh likes that. They open their doors and their pulpits to anyone and everything, and people say, oh, well, they're just so inclusive. They pander to the sinful desires of fallen creation. It's not only dangerous because people will follow them, but it's also dangerous because that's going to bring about swift destruction. In the end of verse number one, It says, you know, these false teachers, they may be popular. They may tickle your ears a little bit, but you better watch out. Being deceived by a false teacher has consequences. It's not just harmful to your soul, it's damning to your soul. They will be destroyed in the end by God, judged by God for their false teaching. And be careful that you don't go with them. Their followers will be right next to them. There's a big warning here. And you say, well, how far does this deception go? Well, verse two, again, says many will follow them. Not just, hey, they'll have a handful of followers, but it says many, most, will follow them. False teachers are successful. They have some of the biggest churches in America. This shouldn't be a shock to us. Jesus told us that would be true, right? Matthew 7. Broad is the way, wide is the gate that leads to destruction. Think about that. Do you listen to what is right and true or do you listen to what is popular? Makes you think, right? This is why we must know the truth. so that we too will not fall into this deception. We must be a people of discernment. Being able to pick out what is the enduring truth of the Word of God that we talked about last week? What is the deception that these false teachers are trying to sell me? You need to be a people of discernment. I heard this week Richard Phillips, he's a preacher in South Carolina, he said that our discernment should be like the U.S. Customs. That we are inspecting, U.S. Customs, they inspect everything that comes into the country. That should be like us. We should be inspecting every teaching that comes into the church. Every teaching that comes into our ear, we need to be like U.S. Customs. Flag it! I think it's contraband. I think it's drugs. I think it's bad for something that might be bad for me. Throw up a red flag, right? You should be, right? I hope that, because you're going to hear many people. We're not naive. We don't think that you only listen to our church's preaching. That's just not true. You listen to other people. You hear other people. You're influenced by other people. How often do you throw up red flags at some of the things that you hear? You should be, right? If you're discerning, you should say every once in a while, I don't know about that. Or are you somebody who says, just takes it all in. Doesn't matter what it is. Could be right, could be wrong. And just taking it all in, taking it all in. Ooh, I like that share. I like that share. We have to be a people of discernment. This is especially important as we get to our final point here, the doom of false teaching. Their deception is not going to last forever. We have to ask the question, how long is God going to tolerate this false teaching? Not forever. Their downfall is coming. They will be doomed. Starting here at the end of verse 3. It says, And through the covenants shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not." So there is a sureness to their doom. That God will judge. God is just. It is a part of his character. It is who he is. God is a just God. And because of that, he will render judgment against all those who teach and follow falsehood. That's a certainty. You can take that to the bank. God will judge the unrighteous and those who teach and follow falsehood. And it goes as far to say here that his judgment now of a long time. So just as judgment was pronounced on the serpent in the garden, so is judgment pronounced on all false teachers. Any and every false teacher will be punished. It's a promise of God. And he says that that judgment will not, it will lingereth not. It's an interesting expression. This is an expression that would be used for people who would stop doing something because it was ineffective. So if you tried and tried to do something and it just never worked out, this is the expression that they would use. But I want to tell you something. God's punishment for false teachers is still effective. It is not ineffective. God's punishment of these false teachers has not grown ineffective, and it has not gone to sleep. Again, He says, "...lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." God is not sleeping. He has marked out every false teacher. They are not overlooked. They are not missed. He will judge them. Certainly. Do not mistake God's long suffering for carelessness. God hasn't gotten careless on judging these false teachers. He's not forgotten that these false teachers are out there and they're doing evil things. No, he's not. God's not asleep on his throne. But he is long suffering. He is showing grace and mercy by not bringing judgment now. And then we're given three examples of God's judgment. And this is to assure us that God will not overlook these false teachers. God will not let these false teachers go. So he gives us three examples here. And verse number four is our first example. He says, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. So the first example here we're given is fallen angels. Now, theologians and commentaries debate over what this means. Does this mean the third of the angels that rebelled with Lucifer out of heaven? Or does this mean the angels that had unnatural relations with women in Genesis chapter 6? Of the people that I read and listened to, they're about divided halfway down the middle on what this is specifically talking about. So it could be one of those two. I don't think it's all that important as to which one it is, because the specifics here are not the key to the message. What's key is God judges those who oppose them no matter who they are. If you oppose God, if you stand in opposition to His truth and to His gospel, He will judge you. I don't care if you are a holy angel in heaven. God will judge you. The angels, they get to live with God in heaven. You say, God's not going to judge them, is He? Yeah, He did. I think this example is given for those who think God wouldn't punish those whom he created. Those who say, oh, God's our father. He would never judge us. He only loves us. Even the angels are not exempt from God's judgment. Next example. A familiar one to you. Verse number five. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood unto the world of the ungodly. So here we have the example of the flood. This is Genesis chapter 6. You can turn there if you like. Genesis 6, God tells us about the flood. Genesis 6 verse 5 says, And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. As you all know the story, God saves Noah, he builds an ark, there's a flood. What happens in the flood? On over, chapter 7, verse 21, we see the outcome of the flood, which is really what we want to get to. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of the fowl and of the cattle and of the beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man. all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the creeping thing and the fowl of the heaven, they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark. It's an eye-opening example of God's judgment. Of what happens when you deviate from God's ways. When you have a lack of fear and a lack of reverence for who God is. He will judge them. He will judge the false teachers like he judged the old world here with the flood. This is for those who think that God wouldn't punish everyone. God certainly wouldn't punish everyone. I'm better than those people. In Genesis chapter 6, he wiped out the whole world. This was not a local flood, like some would lead you to believe. This was, I don't know how you read those verses. Again, chapter 7, 21, you read those, all, all, all, everything. I mean, it was, he wiped out the whole world. I don't know how you read into that some sort of local flood. And then he gives us a third example here. in Sodom and Gomorrah, verse number six. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly. So I think you all know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Angels show up to warn a lot. of God's coming judgment on these cities, and the men in the cities try to rape the angels, and Lot really goes to great lengths to try to save these angels, but really, I mean, the angels get Lot out, and then judgment comes upon the city. We can read that as well, Genesis 19, is where we find the S. Genesis 19, verse 13 is before Lot gets out, the angels are talking to him, and it says, For we will destroy this place, because the cry on them is waxing great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. And then on down in verse 24 is when they actually destroy it, or the Lord does, God does. In verse 24 it says, Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew these cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of these cities and that which grew upon the ground. This is for those who think God's punishment won't be severe. The doom of Sodom and Gomorrah was final. It was sudden and it was final. We're going to talk about this next week. In Sodom and Gomorrah, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Lot, not so much. They didn't have necessarily a preacher of righteousness like they would have in the old world in the days of Noah. But still yet, they sinned against God, they rebelled against God, and they were judged. Same thing of false teachers. They have rebelled against God and the truth of the word of God, and they will be judged. It goes on to say here, back in 2 Peter, Sodom and Gomorrah is an example. It points to future judgment. We are to see and to hear and to learn about Sodom and Gomorrah thinking that is how God will judge unrighteousness. Billy Graham, I read this this week, Billy Graham said this of America. He said, if God does not punish America, He is going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. How eye-opening is that for the country that we live in today? And then Jesus, we'll quote Billy Graham and Jesus and then move on here. Jesus and Luke, Luke 17. It's interesting, Jesus uses these same examples, the example of Noah, the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, to talk about when he returns. Luke 17 verse 26 says, And as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, and they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, also, it was the days of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." Another eye-opening warning here that these examples... I mean, you wonder where Peter got it from. He's just getting it from Jesus here, the master teacher here of these examples of judgment. He's saying, this is what's going to happen. This is the doom of false teachers. And what does that doom look like? Well, verse 4 says it's hell. And that's in talking about the angels. That's actually the lower level of hell. A word here is specifically used for the lower level of hell, reserved for the worst of the worst. That's where false teachers are going. They're not just going to hell. They're going to the lower realms of hell, reserved for the worst of the worst. Reserved for the fallen angels. Verse 4 also says there at the end, talking about the angels were reserved unto judgment. So false teachers today, even if they're alive, it's like they're sitting on death row, just waiting their judgment. We see the flood there, it gives an example. So part of their doom, it'll be death. We see the ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah, it'll be judgment. And it says there also when talking about Sodom and Gomorrah, they'll be condemned. There's a finality to this doom. This is not a temporal judgment that God is going to bring upon these false teachers. It is a final judgment that He will condemn them to hell and to the lake of fire forever. That's a somber warning. against false teaching. I don't think if we're having a sign-up sheet in the back, who wants to sign up and be a false teacher? I hope after hearing this, the doom that God will bring on false teachers, everybody says, man, may that not be me. May I not fall for this deception of false teachers. It does not end well for them. So I hope you've seen through our study here tonight that we are to beware of false teachers. We're not going to end here. We'll be in chapter two for probably four weeks talking about false teachers. Next week I'm really excited. I'm going to focus in on verse number nine. that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations. So we'll talk about the other side of Lot and of Noah and of God rescuing the righteous out of that. But for tonight, let us beware of false teachers. Let us be warned of false teachers. Let us have our eyes opened to false teachers. The definitiveness of false teachers, the deception of false teachers, the doom of false teachers. And I'll ask you a few questions by way of closing. You know, perhaps you've fallen victim to false teaching. Is that you? Maybe you've been following falsehood. It's easy to do. I don't look down upon someone who has fallen victim to false teaching. It is an awful form of deception. If not by the grace of God, there goes I. I would be right there as well if not for the grace of God. So have you fallen victim to that? Fallen victim to false teachers? Have the gospel message distorted? Clouded? Maybe your eyes are open. I would encourage you, repent. Turn from the falsehood that you've been following and turn to the enduring truth of the word of God. The truth that holds God's precious gospel message. That Jesus died for sinners. That salvation is made available for you today. And then, how well are you on guard today against false teachers? We said in the very first point, they will come. There are false teachers in and around us today, and there will be more that come in the future. They will rise up. As Jesus said, there will be many false teachers in the day of his return. Not just one or two spread out, many false teachers. Are you on guard today? How well have you prepared yourself to stand up against false teachers? That was at the heart of what Paul was talking about in Acts chapter 20. He says, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves or false teachers enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. We have to be on guard. We have to be prepared for when these wolves come. We must be ready for the slithering snakes that are the false teachers that will creep in unaware. And I can't help but think, you know, as a father and as a husband, I see the need in preparing and protecting my family. We must be on guard. I must be on guard. You must be on guard personally. Our families must be on guard. Our church must be on guard against false teaching. I'll leave you with one final thing, one final quote that I read this week. It's by Ambrose of Milan in 300 AD. But it's a phenomenal quote that I want to leave you with that I think summarizes what we're trying to get at quite well. Ambrose said, and really this is a song, said, confirm our will to do the right and keep our hearts from envy's blight. Let faith its eager fires renew. and hate the false and love the true. May that be what we are, a people who hate the false and love the true. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this eye-opening passage on false teachers. And God, I pray, it is my utmost desire and sincerest prayer that we, that you would protect us, this church, this people, me, my family, from false teaching. God, I pray that we would not fall victim to this falsehood. And God, I pray that we would be a people that hate the false and love the true. So do that in us. Empower us with the Holy Spirit to live a life of truth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.