Northern Presbyterian churches and eventually coming to the PCA. But when you, the slippery slope is denying those essentials, the trustworthiness of scripture, the miracles, the virgin birth, the atonement, the efficacious atonement of Jesus Christ and Calvary and his divinity. You're denying the heart of the gospel. And these are the false teachers and false prophets that are being spoken about here. And some of these happen. We look at like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. And we see them as, not as churches, but we may say cults or sects. But they all started with somebody saying, I don't believe. you know, these things. I have this new teaching, and look how they have deceived millions of people, and look how so many millions are deceived, even in the PCUSA and in other denominations like the Episcopal Church, all because they've stepped away from the authority of Scripture. Look at the text here. Let me bring out three things here. I say all that to make you aware that these false prophets and false teachers are as busy today as they were at the time of Peter. He says, false prophets, he says, but false prophets also arose. Now, let me back that up a little bit. The word but means in reference to what just preceded, which is that no prophecy was ever produced, verse 21 of chapter 1, by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Their words The words of scripture were written by men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. That's why when you go back to 2 Timothy 3.16, it says, all scripture is breathed out by God. Theophanistos, breathed out by God. It's not actually, the King James says all scripture is inspired by God, which means God breathed his truth into the words of men. But the Greek text says it is all breathed out by God. It's all his inspired and inerrant word. And this is what Peter's saying in verse 21. Men spoke from God, that is the men spoke or wrote the scriptures as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. But false prophets also arose among the people. The devil, Satan, is always busy. Nothing's changed since the time of Christ. He's still busy distorting the truth of God's Word any way he possibly can to lead people astray. He says, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, Here's the first thing I want you to see from this text. What Peter is saying, pardon me, is that there will always be, there will always be in the church, in God's church, I'm using that as the visible church, okay, not people truly redeemed, but these are false teachers who will always be people who are greedy, self-serving, Shameless, and I use that word in the sense of sensual or morally undisciplined or unprincipled. False prophets, those are people who proclaim to have a word from God, a prophecy from God. And false teachers, people who take the word of God and distort it. I think these are people who truly know, they know, they understand the gospel, but they reject God's word. They reject his truth. They reject the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. They reject his salvation. Instead, they slyly spread damnable heresies or lies to exploit and lead many astray. That's what Peter is telling us in his text. And these deceivers, And those who follow them, who adhere to their teachings in denying the scriptures as being the word of God, who deny the essential miracles, the miraculous teachings of scripture, who deny the Lord Jesus Christ and his salvation, these deceivers and their followers will face a sure destruction. I refer to hell. And what Peter is saying here in this text to these people, and God has given these words that the Holy Spirit gave Peter, and he has preserved them for us through the about 2,000 years long, is that we should beware of all who turn from God's word, who spread heresies, who blaspheme the way of truth, as you despise and ridicule, blaspheme the way of truth, biblical Christianity as we know it from the word, and cause it to be blasphemed by their words and by their life. We should be aware of, on guard against this. And guard the church, if you hear it from myself or somebody else or any leader in the church or teacher, do not be afraid to go to that person and say, what did you mean by this? So what were you saying here? And if you see it as something that strikes the heart of the gospel, to go to the session and say, I've got a problem with this. And if you don't get vindication there, to take it as following the PCA procedures in the book of church government before the second level of the court. I remember a case, even in my first pastor, not, how was that? It was not in my church, but it was an elder in the church who said his father Years ago was put out of the church because, not a PCA church, because he defended the gospel message. And at that time, it went up to the second level, at the Presbyterian level. I think it was at the higher level before he was vindicated. And the person who was teaching whatever falsity it was, was disciplined to put out of the church or whatever. But I'm saying, it's so critical to beware and to guard the church against false teachings. I look at the Episcopal Church. My brothers in the Anglican church, the side of the church that stayed faithful, but the Episcopal church as a whole Not the part he's in that broke away, but the other part has gone away from scriptures. I just read about the Methodist Church just recently and their acceptance of unbiblical behavior and ordaining homosexuals. It's a slide. You see the same thing, of course, in the Parisian church going the same way. It's very sad. But it shows you how busy the devil is and why we need to guard our own hearts and guard the church against false teachers. Now, let me give you eight characteristics of false teachers. I'll give them to you quickly. Eight characteristics. And these eight characteristics are not I'm gonna, these are on the outline of me, just a few outlines out there in the mail slot. But these are also on the outline. And these are eight given by... Harold Fickett, a pastor in California, who does a lot of Greek references in his little book on 2 Peter, but they're interesting. Now, he's not taking just these 10 verses. He goes all the way through the whole chapter in bringing these eight, but they're this. Subtleness or slyness. You'll notice that in verse 1, it says they secretly, where is it? Oh, they secretly bring in destructive heresy. The idea is that they slyly bring in little things that, if you're not on your guard, say, you know, that doesn't sound like he believes that text about Christ's resurrection or... I remember... I better not digress, but I remember reading a text of encouragement to preach a sermon. They had a copy of sermons. I never preached a copy of somebody's sermon, but he used to say, why don't you preach a sermon and subscribe to this? And it was about the resurrection of Christ. He didn't really rise again, but he gave everybody a warm feeling like he was risen from the dead. I still remember reading that. Oh man, but that's how people pick these up and preach these kind of sermons and slyly, secretly bringing in destructive heresies. The second is, they're often sensual. These characters aren't true of all apostates and false teachers, but many of them. There's a moral lawlessness. in what they teach or what they promote. How does it say it there? And many will follow their, verse 2, sensuality. This word is sometimes translated licentiousness, lasciviousness, but these are words we don't use too much, but it means there's a lustful, uh oftentimes sexual or immoral promotion in what they teach and how true that is today with the morality so spread amongst the church the immorality so common today there's a greediness in their teaching, in their, verse three, in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. It's either money or things or power or fame they desire. So they distort the scriptures to gain their following. I think this is often true of people who seem to make a focus on the gospel as being a, you know, you know, a, you know, Look to God, put money in an offering plate, and God will do things for you. He'll give you money. He'll give you your $10. God will multiply that seed. Unfortunately, even though it's an error itself, it becomes the whole focus of the gospel. of their gospel as apart from the gospel of salvation through Christ. There's a greed in many of these people. There's a despisement or disregard for biblical authority. Look with me at verse 1 again. I think you'll see it there. It says, even denying the master who bought them. They reject the authority of Christ. And there are other texts about denying authority. Verse 4 is the same way, has the same emphasis in reference to the angels that they rejected the authority of God. And this is a characteristic, oftentimes, of false teachers. Self-willed. Verse 10 speaks to them. It says, especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. They're self-willed. and despise those who would try to say, that's not true. You need to conform to the scriptures. When I say selfhood, I think I get the idea of self-pleasing. They're daring or brazen. They blaspheme the way of truth. I love those words, the way of truth. Paul speaks about persecuting those who followed the way. He says this in Acts 9.2, Acts 22.4, Acts 24.14. He calls it the way. And I take from that word that Christianity isn't only salvation to Christ, but it's a whole way of life of giving glory to God instead of glory to self. But these people reject and in their teaching blaspheme the way of truth. Another characteristic is that they're, Harold Fickett speaks about there's a meaningless to their teaching, but I would say their teaching is of valueless words or heresies that do no good. Verses 17 and 18, which we'll get to, speak about that. And lastly, the characteristic I think is they're dishonest. They are people who are, they're false teachers. They proclaim truth, but their truth is a lie. They are dishonest in what they're promoting. Verse 3 says, in their greed they will exploit you with false words. They deny the truth of the Bible. And just as Jehovah's Witnesses, who denied the divinity of Christ. I remember talking to Jehovah's Witness. They came to talk to me about Christ, and I said, I said, you deny Christ as the Savior. You don't believe that he's the Savior. You say, look to God and trust God. And Jesus points you to God, the Father, but you deny his saving work. And they said, no, no, they don't do that. They don't do that. And I said, do you have one hymn that speaks of Christ as the Savior? And I remember the lady said to me, this is over in, when I lived in Church of His Highness Heights, she said, yeah, she said, for example, we have a hymn called Christ the Great Exemplar. And I thought, goodness, I think I tore this. I said, the word exemplar means example, right? It doesn't mean savior. It means example of how you should submit to the Father, but not the atoning work of Jesus Christ, a false message. A false gospel is what these people promote. Beware of all who turn from the word and spread heresies and blaspheme the way of truth and cause it to be blasphemed by others. Here's the second thing I want to see from this text. And I'll, well, let me give you these other two points. I'm just going to read these two points. There's scripture with them. The holiness, well, I'll read this and then we'll deal with it next time. The holiness and justice of God never changes. This is verses 4 through 10. Never changes. As he cast the fallen angels into hell, This is verses 4 to 10. Tartarus, which is a word that means a pit, which is a reference to hell. As he cast the fallen angels into hell, chained in darkness awaiting the final judgment, as he flooded the ancient world, drowning all the ungodly, as he totally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and all their wicked inhabitants with fire and brimstone, covering it all over in ashes, So these events, verses 4 to 10 that Peter's referencing, so these events are a warning of God's certain wrath to come upon all the ungodly and wicked of every age. Often that judgment falls here certainly in chains awaiting damnation, if not already in damnation after death, certainly always in the last judgment, as they are resurrected, as Revelation 20 says, and before the great white throne judgment, they shall be cast into hell because they have spread terrible heresy. As God judged those in the past, the fallen angels, the flood, Solomon Gamor, so he will also judge the false teachers. Well, I'll stop right there. And let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us. to so love your word and to so know the truth of scripture that we are able to spot heresy wherever we hear it or see it in the preaching or teaching of anyone, be it in television, be it in a book, video. God forbid that everybody should come to this church or this denomination. But Father, help us to beware of these things. and to take a stand for the truth just as Floyd Grace did the church in Newcastle. Not afraid to confront those who may distort your word and attack the core truths of scripture that we hold so dear and that are so precious to us and are so essential to emphasizing your redemptive grace in the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory that awaits those who have put their faith in him alone. as their Savior and their Lord. Thank you for these scriptures. Help us to appreciate them and to take their warning to heart for us to be on guard in what we believe and in what we hear that we might ever be faithful to you and to defend the faith as we ought. And we pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen.