WWUTT 353 Exploiting You With False Words?

Watch out for those teachers who, in their greed and in their sensuality, will exploit you with false words. The Bible says that they will be destroyed, and so will everyone who followed their heretical teaching.

The Danger of False Teachers and the Need to Read the Text Carefully

When we understand the text. Thank you, Becky. We're in 2 Peter chapter 2, again today, verses 1 through 3. If you would open your Bible and follow along. If not, if you're driving in the car and you listen to these devotionals during your commute, I would just encourage you at some point during your day to open your Bible up and set your eyes upon the words that we read.

Underline, make some notes as we study these things together. We'll finish up this opening paragraph, and then next week we'll be looking at verses 4 through 10 and the premises that Peter presents there.

But first, let's come back to verse 1 as he says, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

So yesterday we talked about why God allows there to be false teachers. And it's so he would bring to destruction those whose hearts are far from God. Why are there false teachers in the world? Why are there men who are allowed to speak such blasphemies and mislead with such lies?

Because the Bible says there are going to be. And these teachers are a judgment against those whose hearts were already far from God. As we read about in 2 Timothy chapter 4, the apostle Paul says to Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Now even though false teachers are a judgment against those whose hearts are already against God, don't think of following false teaching as some sort of unforgivable sin.

For everyone who has been brought into the light of Christ Jesus had previously been wandering in darkness of false teaching. This is what the apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians chapter two. When we read, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.

Because remember, they're accumulating for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. So we were once dead in our sins and our transgressions and we were chasing after the passions of the flesh and we were listening to teachers that suited our passions.

So everybody before they came to Christ were this way. We were all listening to false teaching. And even in my years that I've been following Christ, I've been duped by false teachers. I believed orthodox Christianity, but I was listening to men like Rob Bell.

And so I was taking what I knew as orthodox and applying that to what Bell was saying. So what I thought I heard him say was true, but then the lies and the false things that he was saying was seeping in there as well.

And I began to believe false things. I'm thankful for sound men of God who came alongside me and showed me this man's errors and why what he was saying was not in line with the Bible at all. And I'm thankful for the spirit of truth that was upon me to be able to see the difference between the truth and the lie.

I am only able to recognize that because of the spirit of God that was upon me, not because of my own ability to reason the right way, but because the Lord opened my eyes up to see the difference between the truth and the lie.

And this is the way it is with all of us that God has drawn us from walking in darkness into the light of Christ Jesus, illuminating for us the truth of his word. And so this is why we need to understand the charge that Paul gave to Timothy to preach the word.

And he does so with fear and trembling because of the way that Paul sets this up. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And so it is because the Lord has drawn me from the allure of false teachers into the truth of his word, drawn me from darkness to his light, that I have such a passion for the word of God and that it would be taught soundly.

And I do so with fear and trembling because of the reverence that I have for the Lord and the submission to the authority of his word, that a desire for this to be taught the right way. And actually, just about an hour before I sat down to record this devotional, my wife and I were praying together.

And one of the things that I prayed for was that I would teach the word of God rightly and that I wouldn't check out, like my mind and my brain wouldn't just check out and I'm just kind of, you know, I'm just mailing it in.

You know what I mean by the expression that I'm just sitting down here and I'm just reading the words. I'm just kind of explaining what they say because I know it's what I'm supposed to do and not because it's my passion or my desire for you to hear true and sound teaching.

But just doing this because, you know, and somebody, you know, is going to miss the podcast tomorrow morning. So I got to sit down and I got to do this. I'm doing this because I love to do it and because I want the people of God to rightly be equipped with sound teaching, with the true words of Christ.

And it is what the Lord has shown to me by his spirit, according to his word. And so faithfully and responsibly teaching the word of God to those who have ears to hear it. And the motivation behind this is simply love.

I am not out to personally gain from any of this, but that the people of God would hear, receive and believe and grow all the more in the faith. Paul says this to Timothy also, 1st Timothy, chapter one, verse three, as I charged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

Sound Doctrine Versus Destructive Heresies

Now, before I go on, I want to point out a distinction here. The difference between what Paul is instructing Timothy to do and what Peter is warning about in 2nd Peter, chapter two, Peter is warning about destructive heresies.

He's warning about teaching that is completely contrary to the foundational saving truths of the word of Christ. So what is being taught is damnable. Like it like it is. It is just downright the opposite of the saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's what Peter is warning about. What Paul is warning Timothy about is the stuff that's just kind of off, but it's not necessarily heretical. And yet we have the important charge that's given here to not go beyond what is written.

That's that's what Paul says to that's how he words it with the Corinthians anyway. With Timothy, he says, don't teach any different doctrine. Teach only what flows from the sound words of Jesus Christ.

Don't even let the teachers in Ephesus devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. Don't even be speculative with the word.

Teach what it says. The aim of our charge. Now here's the whole reason why I came to this, okay, but going along with what I was saying just a few minutes ago, verse five, the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make their confident assertions.

Contrast that now, those teachers who teach genuinely out of love, not to personally benefit or at least not to personally benefit in this world. I mean, there is a benefit to sound teaching. There is a personal benefit to sound teaching.

And that is the crown of life that we have been promised in God's glorious kingdom. So there is a reward. It's just not going to be in this world. And that is the true exercise of faith, knowing that the treasure that you are ultimately storing up for yourself is not on planet earth, but is in the kingdom of God.

And so follow such teachers that believe that way, instead of trying to personally gain for themselves. Contrast that. What Paul is urging Timothy in, in first Timothy chapter one, that the aim of our charge is love from a pure heart.

Contrast that with what Peter says in second Peter chapter two about these false teachers in their greed. They will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.

So the reason why they teach what they teach is to get something from you out of it. You know, there are even teachers out there who teach soundly. Their doctrine might even be sound. But they are out to benefit themselves instead of preaching with love and selflessness.

One of those men that I think of is Mark Driscoll. Now, now, Mark Driscoll has never been sound to me. From the very first time I heard Mark Driscoll, I had my problems with Driscoll. But there were a lot of people that loved Driscoll because he was a Calvinist.

And so therefore, hey, he's a sound teacher. And and he had a lot of fans, a lot of support from the Reformed camp, the Young Restless and Reformed in particular, that were following Mark Driscoll. But we can now look back over his ministry and see that none of that was ever genuine.

He was never doing that out of love or selflessness, out of a pure heart. For now, he has not only abandoned his ministry, he has abandoned sound teaching altogether and has aligned himself with men like Robert Morris, Brian, Brian Houston, who is the pastor of Hillsong Church and a prosperity teacher himself, and Stephen Furtick, who is a borderline heretic, Elevation Church in in Charlotte, North Carolina.

These are the men that Driscoll is now aligned with because he knows that that's how he can maintain his popularity. He can no longer go back to being a Calvinist and still have the credibility that he had before.

And so we see now, looking back over his ministry, that none of that was ever genuine. So there are men out there who are even sound teachers who are not preaching Christ with a good heart. The apostle Paul actually kind of talks about him in Philippians chapter one.

He says, hey, I rejoice that the gospel of Christ is being proclaimed, even though there are some men out there who will proclaim Christ out of out of rivalry and vanity. But I am rejoicing that the gospel of Christ is at least being proclaimed.

He doesn't necessarily let them off the hook because then in chapter two, he tells the Philippians to do nothing out of rivalry or vain conceit, but consider others needs ahead of your own. So don't be like those teachers that you would like for me to respond to.

Instead, you yourself need to concentrate on putting the needs of others ahead of your own needs of being empathetic toward one another, especially those that are in the household of faith. So we need to need to pursue sound doctrine with a pure heart.

And those who are false teachers will exploit you with false words so they can store up in their greed. And sometimes that greed may not necessarily be money. It may just be popularity. It may just be because they want to feel popular.

And so that's why that's how they exploit you to make them feel good about themselves, because hey, a lot of people are paying attention to me. In verse two, where Peter says, many will follow their sensuality and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed.

One of the men that I think of related to this is Tullian Chevigian, nephew of Billy Graham. Some of you probably know Tullian's story, a Presbyterian minister. Few years ago, he came out with this book called One Way Love, Inexhaustible Grace.

And because of some of the theological concepts he was presenting there and in some of the interviews that he did, people began to accuse him of antinomianism. Do you understand what antinomianism is?

It's basically the idea that you can sin and God's going to forgive you for it anyway. His grace is bigger than your sin. So don't be afraid of any sin that you will commit. But the Apostle Paul directly confronted this idea in Romans chapter six by saying, how can we who died to sin still live in it?

No longer submit your members to sin as instruments of lawlessness, but submit your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Now, Tullian completely denied this accusation of antinomianism. He said, no, I'm not an antinomian.

But the Apostle Paul was accused of being an antinomian, which is exactly why he wrote what he wrote in Romans chapter six. So I know I'm in good company. At least this was from Tullian's perspective.

But little by little, the realities of the doctrine that he followed started to play out in his life when it was revealed that Tullian had been having an affair, but he had blamed his wife on having an affair and threw her under the bus first, said, hey, she doesn't want to reconcile with me, so we're going to get divorced.

He stepped down from his position as a pastor, submitted himself to discipline from his eldership. But then they started finding out things about Tullian that were dishonest, that he had not been honest about.

And so then he left that eldership and went to another eldership. I don't know if I'm following the timeline of events exactly right, but I know that he would not submit to their discipline and instead decided to be disciplined by another group of elders.

And even they said, no, Tullian's not being honest with us. The man has since become completely disqualified from fulfilling the role as a pastor. He's even since gotten remarried. And all of this has just happened in the last three years or so.

I think it was 2013 when the book One Way Love came out. So all of this has happened under a very short period of time. And he is no longer qualified to fill the role as pastor. But I can tell you, I don't know if he is a pastor right now, but he will be.

There will come a day when Tullian will again fill that role. Yet we have the qualifications for an overseer given to us in 1 Timothy chapter 3, where it says that the first quality, first qualification is that he must be above reproach.

And Tullian is no longer above reproach. Many are following his sensuality. And because of him, the way of truth is being blasphemed. People are mocking the gospel because of men like this. And these things that they so carelessly do, chasing after their own passions instead of setting their own desires aside or understanding the truth of God to know that this kind of behavior is sinfulness, and instead submit to God and his truth and submit to others who need to hear the sound words of the gospel of Christ.

Now Tullian is probably a Christian, but he is no longer qualified to fill that role as pastor. And so we see these people who in their greed are exploiting others with false words and the passions of the flesh that they are pursuing, misleading others to follow in their sensuality.

People will follow the examples that are set before them by pastors. I remember an article coming out by the Gospel Coalition, I think it was back in November, where they released an article talking about the rise of suicides among pastors.

And they started with a story of a church in South Carolina where the music pastor committed suicide. And then a few months later, there was another man in that community that committed suicide and was likely influenced by the suicide of that worship pastor at that church.

The things that pastors do, do affect people. And this is why the apostle Paul says that not only is a pastor supposed to have a good reputation among his church, but he also must have a good reputation with outsiders.

When you read the qualifications for overseers as given in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and also in Titus chapter 1, that he cannot have a kind of a reputation that is even poor among those who are outside the church or anything that he says is not going to be listened to.

The gospel that he tries to preach is not going to be received by those who think poorly of this man's conduct. And so we must have teachers that are above reproach, who desire to teach the word of God from a pure heart and not from selfish ambition, that are not greedy for selfish gain, but they make sacrifice.

They make sacrifices for others. They are empathetic. They are sympathetic toward the needs of others so that their actions reflect the Christ that we follow. Jesus Christ, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, made himself nothing, took on a human likeness, God in the flesh, and became even a servant, the form of a servant, obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This is the God that we worship. This is the example that we follow. And none of us will ever attain the kind of humility that Christ displayed for us by leaving his throne in heaven and dying on a thief's cross, naked and bleeding, allowing himself to be put to death by the very creatures that he created in his own image.

None of us will ever attain to that kind of humility. But that is the example that has been set for us. And so we must set aside our own ambitions for the cause of Christ, who for the joy of the Lord that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This should be the desire of every sound teacher in Christ Jesus, setting their own ambitions aside for the sake of the faith of God's elect and the growth of his kingdom. Watch out for those who are out to benefit themselves.

And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. But we have this promise that is given to us in the scriptures.

Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. And so we must do our best, by the power of the Spirit of God within us, to resist following any false teaching, and also to teach the sound words of Christ to those who are following false teaching, so that they would repent of that, and come to follow the, and come to, let me put it this way, come to submit to the authority of the true word of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.