Plastic Words And Play-Doh Jesus' - [2 Peter 2:1-3]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

The Need for Warnings and the Danger of False Teachers

Well, when I was a kid growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, once a month on a Saturday, the siren that was in our backyard up on a big utility pole would go off, and it was a test for tornadoes. In case a tornado was coming, you needed to get down in your basement to protect yourself, the siren would go off.

We hated that every month, that that siren would go off. I mean, who wants the warning sign? Warning, warning, warning. How bothersome that sound was. Not that long ago, we had some stuff done at our home, some construction, and therefore we had to update all the smoke alarms, and they had to go from the regular 9-volt ones that you can just put anywhere to be hardwired into your house.

And we were rudely awakened at about 3 o 'clock in the morning. Warning, warning, warning. And I know how to shut off a smoke alarm with a 9-volt. You just take a sledgehammer and just it�s easy. But these are hardwired.

How do you shut these things off? And you�re discombobulated, you�re trying to figure it out. Warning, warning, warning. Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate. No one likes warnings. They�re not fun in and of themselves.

But they do serve a purpose, do they not? What�s worse than a test warning siren? Actually, the tornado coming, and you have no siren to warn you of those very things. Today, we�re going to look at a passage in the Bible that�s really a warning.

And it�s not really that fun. Matter of fact, Lloyd-Jones said of this chapter, of all the chapters which are to be found in the entire Bible, this chapter is among the most terrible. For threatening, for warning, for the idea of doom and disaster and destruction, there is nowhere in Holy Writ itself anything which surpasses this particular chapter.

He goes on to say, �Anyone who enjoys reading a chapter like this must surely be abnormal. It is a chapter which has much in it that is unsavory and unpleasant. And I say, left to one�s own choice and one�s own likes and dislikes, this is the kind of chapter that one would avoid.

Please turn your Bibles to that very chapter, 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. This is the second book that the Apostle Peter wrote, not by his own will, but as he was speaking from God, carried along by the Holy Spirit, wrote down this important book.

By the way, that�s why I love expository preaching. Verse by verse, what does God say? And we accept both things that are maybe wonderful to us, and you think, �Oh, Romans 8, that�s my favorite chapter.

No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Psalm 23, I love the chapter about Yahweh is my shepherd. Oh, I love John 10, where it talks about the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Those are some of my favorite chapters.

But we at this church know that everything in the Bible is God-breathed and therefore important for us. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3 that it is profitable. It is profitable for all of us to be warned in Scripture, exhorted in Scripture, to be encouraged and convicted.

It should not surprise us at all that in the midst of a world where the most important truth that ever existed, that the Eternal Son adds humanity and He�s born of a virgin, He lives under the law a perfect life of righteous living, and then dies on the cross for not His own sins but for all those who would ever believe, and is raised from the dead, if that is the most important truth in the Bible, and Paul says it is, it should not surprise us that the enemy, Satan, wants to attack that truth, wants to lie about that truth, wants to demean the truth, wants to silence the truth.

And so there�s a war going on, there�s an invisible battle going on between God and Satan, not of equal power, of course, but Satan is the enemy and he disguises himself as an angel of light and he hates the truth of the Gospel.

I mean, if this chapter strikes you as pessimistic or a downer, I just want you to know in the big picture, God cares for His children and He wants you not to be duped by false teachers. All of us have the propensity to fall in with a bad crowd and we don�t want to do that theologically.

So today we�re going to look at a portrait of a false teacher, how to spot them. Of course, God has equipped us, He�s given us everything we need for the battle, and now we�ve been trained, we�re ready to be discharged, we�re ready to go overseas, and now we need to know who to shoot at, who to be careful of, who�s the enemy, and Peter paints that picture for us today in the first three verses of chapter 2.

If you go back a little bit, in chapter 1, it�s important because the first word in chapter 2 is �but� in English. There�s a tie-in, there�s some kind of contrast, and so to remind ourselves of what Peter has done and the foundation as he�s written, if you look at chapter 1, verse 1, �to those who have obtained a faith� that�s sovereign language, obtained by lot, by divine decree, of equal standing with ours, with the apostles, by the righteousness of God and our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

What Peter wants to do is he wants to make sure you realize before you go out into battle, before you see the enemy, you�re safe, you�re secure, God has you, you can never be snatched out of the Father�s hand, and why, while it makes us some kind of, we think sometimes to ourselves, �Well, how could this ever be

He uses language that I call the hardest language in the world to understand, and that�s the language of the gospel. I think it was Spurgeon who said, �Salvation by Christ is so disagreeable to our carnal mind, so inconsistent with our love of human merit, that we never would take Christ to be our all in all, if the Spirit did not convince us that we were nothing at all, and did not so compel us to lay hold of Christ.

And so this language that�s difficult to learn, if you think Navajo is difficult, or Chinese is difficult, the gospel language is difficult, and therefore he says right at the very beginning, before he warns about false teachers, �You�re safe, you�re secure, when God sees you, dear Christian, He sees you in the righteous robes of Christ Jesus, He couldn�t love you more, He couldn�t love you less, because He loves you like He loves the Son.

And it doesn�t stop there, verse 3, remember in chapter 1, not only does God have the pentalty of our sin wiped away, He gives us power, we not only have justification, but sanctification, there�s a double benefit of Christ�s work.

Not just right standing before God, righteousness, but also, look what verse 3 says, �His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

This great double benefit, this two-fold blessing of God, He saves us from the penalty of sin, we never have to pay for any of our sin. And also then, He doesn�t just say, �Well, you�re declared righteous but also, �He�s given us the Spirit, and He graciously, powerfully sanctifies us.

We have both benefits, both graces, both freely given to us by God to His elect, not only salvation that is justification, but sanctification. And when you think about sanctification you ought to be thinking, this is a work of God, and this work of God in us does two things, it helps us kill the flesh, mortification, dead to sin, and it helps us to say, �I want to be alive to righteousness.

And the theologians would call that not mortification, but what? Vivication, right? To live like life, and so you say, �Well, I�ve been saved from the penalty of sin, but also now God is sanctifying me.

And you say, �Well, is there any response to God�s monergistic sanctification Answer, yes, verse 5, �For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. We exert ourselves, that�s certain, but it is in response to God�s action as He sanctifies us.

So all that to say, the writer is telling us, �You�re equipped for battle, you�re ready, you�re safe, here�s what�s going on. Matter of fact, we have God�s Word in chapter 1, verses 16 through 17, and down into 21, and now we come to the false teachers.

So let me give you four descriptions of a false teacher so that you might not only see them in the Bible, but you�ll see them in our day and age. I have the Baptist version, all alliteration, or I have the regular version.

Which one do you want? All right, I�ll give you both. We�re going to look at four things about false teachers so that you�re not naive and you don�t fall prey to them, and they�re going to be described by Peter as secretive, sinister, sensual, and selfish.

Secret, sinister, sensual, and selfish, because I don�t want you, dear congregation, to fall prey to false teachers. So let�s take a look at chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, and our first description of a false teacher so you can easily spot them is that they�re sneaky or they�re secretive.

Verse 1, �But false prophets also arose among the people. This is nothing new, they were around in Israel�s day where they�re not. �Just as there will be false teachers among you, not only Israel, but you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies.

Here�s the thing about false teachers, they�re sneaky, they�re secretive, and they do things in a cunning, underhanded way. For instance, how many people watch channel 244 on your cable TV news network called the Satanic Broadcasting Network, SBN?

How many people watch that? Well, nobody watches it because it�s not there. You don�t promote yourself as Satanic, you don�t say, �Well, you know what? Would you all like to go to hell? Please follow us.

They sneak in among people. They�re among the Israelites, they�re among people in evangelicalism. Satan has always decided to go after believers, to go after the church with folks who teach the opposite of what God says.

It says, if you recognize in the text, �who secretly bring in destructive heresies. Now, that could be all kinds of things, but remember big picture in 2 Peter? They were saying, �Jesus isn�t going to come back, so live like you want.

Right? If you have theology that says, �Jesus is coming back, it should lead to my right living right? �Orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and therefore I want to understand Jesus is going to keep his word, he�s faithful, he�s true, he�s going to come back, we can trust him, he�s delaying in our mind, but he�s working everything for good, he�s bringing in the elect, and therefore I want to live a life commensurate to my calling, orthopraxy.

But if it�s heterodoxy, something that�s different, something that�s a sect or a heresy or another thing, well that�s going to lead to not holy living, it�s going to lead to unholy living, heteropraxy.

They�re saying, �You know what? Jesus isn�t going to come back. One writer said, �There is nothing quite so sad and pathetic as the way in which certain church members seem to think that whatever is preached in the denomination to which they belong must be right.

This is among the people, among the Israelites and among you people that Peter was writing to. You, dear Christian, need to pay attention and to be discerning and to be Bereans. And underlying all this, we have to be careful, many people have a morbid fear, a terrible fear of any kind of controversy.

Controversy isn�t pleasant, but what�s the option? While it might be unpleasant for Arius to say, �You know what? Jesus really isn�t the eternal God. It would have been worse if Athanasius didn�t say, �That�s air and we�re going to call you out and that�s not true.

I mean, it�s bad that there was a controversy where Tetzel is saying, �Hey, just give me some money and we�ll let Grandpa out of purgatory. But it would have been worse if Luther didn�t come along and say, �This is going to stop.

We�re not going to do this. I�m afraid that in Evangelicalism, not in our church necessarily, but in Evangelicalism, there�s such an infatuation with unity that we just say, �Well, you know what? Charity, unity, bring everyone in.

That�s not what Peter is saying here at all. J .C. Ryle was talking about many people in Christianity want to be, �honorary members of all schools of thought. And he said they have a creed and that creed is nothing Arianism.

I just don�t believe really in anything because I don�t really want to fight. I don�t want to stand up for the truth. I mean, I know many of you men, if your wives were slandered and people were talking poorly about her and wrongfully about her and sinfully about her, wouldn�t you stand up for her?

And all of a sudden, now Satan is attacking the church, the bride of Christ, Jesus himself. Where are the people that will stand up and say, �I�m not going to do that anymore, not under my watch. Peter�s one of those men.

Ryle talks about boneless, nerveless, jellyfish condition of the soul. We don�t want to do that. That�s not Peter there. He has a shepherd heart. He wants you to know true and false. This is true about Jesus.

This is false about Jesus. He wants you to discriminate. He wants you to be intolerant of false teaching, the false teachers, peace, security, everything�s fine. Jesus is coming back to judge the unbeliever.

Jude is similar to this for certain people crept in unnoticed who were long ago designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

I just want you to know there are people who act secretly who want to try to bring in heresies. Heresy means to split, to divide. This is true, this is false, I don�t want to do that. I�ve got this destructive heresy and they�re bringing it into the people.

It�s been written. Whenever God erects a house of prayer, the devil always builds a chapel there. Satan is real and he�s a counterfeiter. We have to be careful of that very issue. You say, �Well, isn�t Satan in the liberal mainline dead churches

I don�t really think so because he�s already won them over. He has no reason to be there. So he puts his people in real churches, live churches and evangelicalism. Listen to what Paul says, �Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

How does satanic, demonic doctrine come into the church? Through men who proclaim what they say is truth, but the Bible says it�s a lie. Wolves go where the sheep are. True or false? It�s a command to test things to see if they�re true or not and from God.

I hope you say true. Even the beloved John, the apostle of love said, 1 John 4, �Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. So that�s why we want to be people of the book.

We have the Bible, we understand truth and we can say that is true, that is error. I remember when my kids were little, I�d say, �We�re going to watch the Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille, and every time you can spot something that�s not found in the Bible, I�ll give you a dollar.

Man, they were paying attention. These people aren�t saying, �This is heresy. We�re denying the Apostles� Creed, the Nicene Creed. We deny that. No, no, they�re secretly bringing it in. Sometimes using words, Jesus, with different meanings.

I want you to know, dear congregation, that you must discern even what I say or whoever dares to step into the pulpit. It�s not that you just say, �Well, Mike said it, therefore it�s true. Celebrity, kind of, you know, whatever he says is true, whatever the top dog says is true.

We have a statement of faith for a reason. And that statement of faith guides what we teach. And therefore, if you say, �You know what, Mike? Our statement of faith says this, but you seem to say that.

I mean, I would ask you if you�d give me a benefit of the doubt, maybe, but you can still ask me the question, �Does this line up One writer said, �Your minister may be a man of God indeed and worthy of all honor for his preaching and practice, but do not make a pope out of your pastor.

Do not place his words side by side with the Word of God. Do not spoil him by flattery. Do not let him suppose he can make no mistakes. Do not lean your whole weight on your pastor�s opinion or you may find to your cost that he may err.

Be not content with saying, �I have hope because my minister told me such and such. Seek to be able instead to say, �I have hope because I find thus and thus written in the Word of God. Esteem your pastor highly and love for his works sake, but never forget that infallibility is not to be found in godly ministers, but in the Bible.

Isn�t that good? We�re to be Bereans and to study and to check and to make sure things are right because, after all, there are false teachers even in the church. If you ever move from here and you say, �Well, we found another church and that church�s statement of faith is kind of ten bullet points.

That ought not to be a good church for you to go to, unless it�s ten bullet points and saying, �This is an overview and then here�s our main document. Or unless the pastor�s new and he says, �I�m trying to have everybody move from these ten points that we wrote to some 1689 or Westminster Confession of Faith or Belgic or something else.

But there�s a reason why our statement of faith is the way it is because error can slip into broad general statements. You can ask the question of any elder, �What do we believe? Why do we believe it?

What about that sermon? Help me understand. And I�m so thankful as a pastor you love the Bible and that�s exactly what you do. Paul said, �Be careful and pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained with His own blood.

I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that for three years Paul said, �I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. So the first thing you have to do is go, �You know what? I can�t look at their smiles.

I can�t look at the size of their congregation. I can�t look at all the books that they�ve written. I can�t look at all the followers. What are they saying? And does it line up to the Word of God? Secondly, false teachers can be seen not just because they�re secret and sneaky but also because they�re sinister.

They�re attacking the work of Jesus, His person and work. That�s what makes them sinister. They�re attacking the work of Jesus. So don�t buy into it. Verse 1 goes on to say, �Even denying the Master who bought them.

Now, everybody wants to go to this passage and immediately talk about, �Did Jesus die for the elect? Did He die for everybody in the entire world? Is it limited atonement? Unlimited? Is it definite atonement?

Particular redemption? Is it unlimited atonement? Does Jesus die for false? You mean to tell me Jesus is dying for false teachers? Well, then He must have died for everybody and therefore Jesus died for everybody in the world?

People default to that. I think it�s a fair question to ask and I�ll address it in just a second. But there�s a bigger picture. The bigger picture is these people are denying who Jesus is and that He�s going to come back.

It�s such a blatant, it�s such a fragrant foul. You see the basketball teams, there�s a foul and there�s a flagrant foul. It�s one thing to just say, �Well, you know, something about Jesus and whatever.

But here it�s on purpose because you don�t want Jesus to come back because you love to live a sinful life. These false teachers, that�s their M .O., that�s what they say. They�re like, �Where�s the promise of His coming?

Chapter 3, �Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue from the beginning of creation. And then Peter says in 2 Peter 3, 5, �For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water through water by the word of God.

And by that means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Denying the Master who bought them. Does that mean you could lose your salvation? Jesus dies for you, you�re redeemed, and all of a sudden you go to hell? These false teachers weren�t going to heaven.

Is that what that means? If you look at the text again, �denying the Master who bought them. Some people say, �Well, they just were saying that they were bought. They weren�t really bought. But the text says, �They were bought, denying the Master who bought them or redeemed them.

Maybe they were bought but they just didn�t believe yet. I don�t think any of those are satisfactory. If I had to figure out what this text was going to say and mean, one of the first things I would do is I would say, �Hmm, how does a Jewish person read this?

What would a person informed by the Old Testament think? Can you think any big picture of people being bought in the Old Testament? And you ought to be thinking right away, �Hey, there were people temporarily bought or redeemed out of Egypt into Israel.

True. That�s exactly what�s going on here, Deuteronomy 32. �Is He not your Father who bought you Here�s what He�s saying. God in the Exodus has redeemed His people and some of those people then were false prophets, right?

They weren�t spiritually saved but they�re temporally saved from Egypt. And now those Jewish false prophets said bad things to Israel. And guess what? There are Jewish false teachers saying bad things in churches now, denying the Master who bought them.

You thought they�d be grateful to God with their ancestors being brought out of Egypt into Israel. One writer said, �These men were undoubtedly Jewish men. Peter�s heresies that he refers to here have a great deal to do with the Old Testament teaching.

Probably the individuals were men who were Jewish and who claimed to be a part of Israel, the true believing Israel of the Old Testament. And the great deliverance of Israel was the purchase of them when God had made them His own as He brought them out of the land of Egypt and wielded them into a covenant nation.

That�s exactly how I take it. They were bought temporally. They should know better. The Sovereign Lord, I mean think about it, even denying the Master. If you have a Master, if you have a despot, if you have a Lord, shouldn�t you do what He says?

Or should you deny Him? That�s the bigger picture here, not for whom did Jesus die. Peter knew a little bit about denying, did he not? But it was a temporal denial. It was short-term denial. It was he denied Jesus three times, that�s true, and it was awful, and he doesn�t want to deny Jesus again.

The tense here in the Greek, even denying, it means they kept denying, over and over denying. It was a continual denying. That�s just what they do. They have to deny who Jesus is. That�s why they�re so sinister.

Peter can�t stand that. He knows who the Lord and Savior is, and he doesn�t want anyone, especially Jewish people, who have been, as a nation, delivered from Egypt, and now they begin to run their mouths denying the Lord.

If I talk to you about people in church history that have denied something about Jesus, the list is so long. These people here are specifically saying, you know what, Jesus isn�t going to come back, He�s not faithful.

But since Jesus is the eternal Son, and He adds humanity, He is truly and perfectly God, truly and perfectly man. You know how many errors you can get from just that? I�ll just give you a few, if I can even pronounce them, some I can.

Adoptionism, the belief that Jesus is not eternally God, but He becomes God after His birth. Is that true? No, that�s not true. Arianism, that somehow Jesus is a created lesser being. Docetism, a kind of just, docetic means to kind of seem, He�s God, but He only seems human, He�s not really human.

Abionites, they were Jewish people that said, you know what, Jesus didn�t exist before He was born, and at baptism, God adopted Him. Modalism, you�ll hear this from people like T .D. Jakes, God came, you know, He was the Father, then came as the Son, and then now He�s the Spirit, not showing distinct persons in the Trinity.

That�s heresy. And the list goes on and on and on. I have list after list after list of people who deny the Master. So, Sinianism, Jesus isn�t God, He�s some kind of deified man. Subordinationism, that Jesus is lesser than the Father in essence and in attributes.

The list goes on and on and on. And it�s not even any better when you think, people can say they have the right Jesus, sinless, truly man, truly God, dies a substitutionary death, is raised from the dead, but the way you get those benefits is through faith plus circumcision, faith plus baptism, faith plus being good, denying Jesus.

It�s not even a matter of denying Jesus by just leaving Him out, but redefining Jesus. If you study church history, you�ll see these things. And by the way, if you go to most evangelical churches, I�m probably going to get in trouble if I say most, or so I�ll say many.

Many evangelical churches, well, I don�t think their pastors are false prophets and false teachers. I think they deny functionally who Jesus is, because He�s just like an add-on, He�s just like a tack, tacked on.

It was the liberals, friends, who said, you know what? Supernatural Jesus walking on water, coming back soon, raising people from the dead, casting out demons, feeding 10 ,000 people with manna, you know, we don�t buy any of that.

But we like Jesus for morality, for ethics, He was a good teacher, He�s a good example, so let�s gut the supernatural and deny that and then talk about morality. And that�s what we have in churches today.

Ten easy steps, 15 more rules, forget the supernatural Jesus, are we added on at the very end, that wouldn�t do for Peter, that wouldn�t do for Paul, wouldn�t do for John the Baptist. Now, when I was a kid, I used to play with something called Play-Doh.

Remember Play-Doh? Can�t you smell it? Can�t you taste it? Did you know Play-Doh was a modeling compound? And before we had natural gas to heat homes, we used coal, like World War I, and coal would do a number on wallpaper.

And so we needed to have some kind of cleaner for wallpaper. And so these folks in Cincinnati manufactured something that was like putty-like, and it was used to clean coal from wallpaper. There was a residue and you could clean it off.

Well, now natural gas comes up, we don�t need to clean it anymore, but we still need to sell putty. And so, instead of filing bankruptcy, they thought, well, you know, maybe you can make art projects with this.

And they were going to call it Rainbow Modeling Compound, but instead they said, let�s call it Play-Doh. And I want you to know that these days it�s a little different than what it used to be. It�s got water and salt and flour, and it�s got a little petroleum so it�s smooth and borax so you don�t have any mold.

And it says here on my list on the internet, it says, �It is not intended to be eaten. And you know what maybe the best part about Play-Doh is? Quote, �To mark Play-Doh�s 50th anniversary, Demeter Fragrance Library created a limited edition fragrance inspired by Play-Doh�s distinctive odor for highly creative people who seek a whimsical scent reminiscent of their childhood.

If ever any one of you buys me Play-Doh fragrance, the elders will see you soon. But that�s what people do with Jesus. My Jesus, and here comes the Play-Doh, he�s just all love. Well, my Jesus, he never judges.

Well, I�m going to just make this Jesus where, you know what, I don�t know about the deity side, but at least he�s human. My Jesus is going to be, you know what, he was an excellent teacher. But if that�s all he was, he�s not the Savior.

My Jesus, he�s just a good example of moral living. And by the way, if that�s your belief, are you living up to that example? The answer is no. So you need him for more than an example. You need him as a substitute for your sin.

We don�t want any of the rough edges of Jesus. You know, Jesus talked about hell more than heaven. He�s known as the theology or the theologian of hell itself. We want a shaped, mutilated, manipulated Jesus, just like Play-Doh.

But Peter wouldn�t have any of that. If that�s the way you want to go, and if that�s the way you want to be, verse 1 goes on to say, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. The very thing these people said wasn�t going to happen, judgment from Jesus, it�s going to happen to them.

And it�s going to be fast, sudden, swift, kamikazes when they hit the side of the boat, the ship, it�s over. They say, oh yeah, you get peace, you get security. The Old Testament prophets are wrong. And then, like Korah and his family, sucked into the earth.

Remember Korah saying awful things about God himself? And Moses said, hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord. If these men, Korah and his ilk, and as all men die, or if they�re visited by the fate of mankind, then the Lord has not sent me.

But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens up, and swallows them up with all that belongs with them, and they go down alive in the shield, then you shall know these men have despised the Lord.

Numbers 16 says, as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart, and the earth opened up its mouth, and swallowed them up with their households, and all the people who belonged to Korah, and all their goods.

And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up. And fire came out from heaven, and consumed the 250 men offering the incense. Number three, how do we recognize a false teacher?

Is there a way they look? Is it by their words? They�re sneaky, they�re sinister, and now number three, they�re sensual. You notice in 2 Peter chapter 2, and many will follow their sensuality because of them, the way of truth.

That�s the gospel, that�s the teaching. It�s the way, remember, often it was called the way, Christianity is called the way, even Jesus said, I�m the way, the truth, and the life. The way of truth will be blasphemed, it will be mocked.

False teachers, here the text says they�re sensual, they�re sexually immoral. And to live like that underneath some kind of, you know, Damocles sword would be no fun if you knew Jesus was going to come back, but since we�re going to say Jesus is going to come back, then you can live whatever way you want to live.

What you believe about God determines the way you live. Many will follow their licentious living. If you�d like for me to put a word on this theologically, antinomianism against the law is very, very attractive to a carnal person, to an unbelieving person.

And so you say, antinomian, what do you mean by that? Well, if I said to you that God has attributes, and God is his attributes, and God is holy, and God is righteous, and God�s law reflects that, and we go to an unbeliever and we say, this is the law of God, and have you committed sins?

And they say, yes I have, the law has shown me my sins, it�s like a mirror, therefore I need relief, here�s who Jesus is, and it�s the gospel. And now that you�re a Christian, instead of living underneath the law as God, the judge, gives you the law, you have a new relationship to the lawgiver, he�s your father, and while I still am holy and righteous, I�d like you to be guided by my law and live in light of my law, not to keep your salvation, not to earn your sonship, but because you�re my son, or you�re my daughter.

So for us to then say, the law of God that should direct us and guide us, means nothing, that�s called anti-law or antinomian. And so they appeal to people that want to live crazy lives, they want to live sensual lives.

How could we be antinomian when chapter 1, verse 3, his divine power has granted to us all things pertaining to life and godliness, when God the sanctifier is sanctifying us, and we go, no, we�re not going to do that.

But if we�re not careful, we�ll pick teachers that will say things that we want. That�s why when many of you would say, well, you know, yeah, we listen to Mike and everything on Sunday, but I love to listen to all these other people on TV and on the internet and everything else, if that�s a supplement, fine, there�s lots of godly teachers, but if there�s sin dwelling in you that you say, you know what, I like those kind of teachers that say, you�re great, you�re wonderful, give your money to me, you have to be careful.

This is just built in us. There�s something in us that wants to be attracted to that, so we have to be careful. Sexual license isn�t good. Sensuality isn�t good. Many follow their way. We have to remember what Augustine said, �Without you, God, what am I to myself but a guide to my own destruction.

No wonder in chapter 1 he�s saying, we�re not following cleverly devised myths, we�re not going to do that, we�re going to pay attention to what God says, so we don�t act laxly and unrestrainedly. And then lastly, number 4, false teachers are secretive, they�re sinister, they�re sensual, and now lastly, they�re selfish.

False Words, Greed, and the Power of the Gospel to Expose Them

Number 4, they�re selfish, verse 3, �And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Now, I don�t know if you�ve ever studied con artists, confident artists, where they�re trying to scam you, they�re going to try to bring you in a little bit, get your confidence some, so they can take your money.