Why False Teachers Tell You What You Want to Hear | Pastor Carey McPherson | II Peter

Hey, welcome to Grace City Church Online.

This is our new podcast channel for all sermon content from Gray City Church in Wenatchee, Washington.

We exist to help more people meet, love, and follow Jesus.

Now I hope this message encourages you and strengthens your relationship with Jesus Christ.

I wanted to bring you a word of encouragement.

So come back next week.

Because today, Pastor Peter isn't going to give us exactly a warm pastoral hug, but he's going to give us a warning, and it's a warning against false teachers.

We've come to yet again a passage where culture wants to cancel this text.

What some would argue should not belong in the Bible or should be taken out or should be deconstructed or reinterpreted.

But as I kept reading 2 Peter 2 over and over and over again, I came to see, I think the Word of God and the Spirit was speaking to me, saying that the fact that God judges and deals with all things that are false, including those who promote them, is one of the greatest comfort that a Christian can have.

It means that he won't let evil against his people go unpunished.

It means that he cares about truth.

It means he confronts lies.

It means he loves those who stand on the side of truth.

It means that he will purify his church, and it means that he will protect his people.

And that is good news.

If you have someone, know someone, a close relative, a friend, a brother, a sister, a cousin, a niece, a nephew who is listening to the lies of false teachers, it is comforting to know that God will silence the voice of the false teacher and he will protect and preserve those that belong to him.

Amen?

And that's exactly why he wrote it to you.

The church living in dark days to remind you that God has a faithful track record.

We know what God has done.

We know the character of God.

That he will punish the wicked and preserve the righteous.

So Peter just got done speaking about the certainty of God's word, that we didn't follow cleverly invented stories, if you remember that sermon.

That we should pay careful attention to it as a light shining in a dark place because we need to pay attention that the days are getting darker.

False teachers will come from among us and they will distort the word of God.

So let's read it, and then we will get into it.

2 Peter chapter 2.

2 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Do you think you can stand?

All of chapter 2?

First service did it.

Let's go.

I just like to stand because when we stand, we're just we're posturing ourselves to remind ourselves that this is the words of God.

So let's read it together.

I'll go through it quickly.

No commentary, I promise, until after.

Second Peter chapter 2.

2 Peter 2 · chapter mention

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.

They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.

Many will follow their sensual ways, and will bring on the way bring the way of truth into disrepute.

In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories that have they've made up.

Their condemnation has long been having hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them into hell, putting them in gloomy dunges to be held for judgment, if he didn't spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by put bur burning them to ashes and making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, I don't have time to talk about that, who was distressed, apparently he was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men.

For that righteous man living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard.

If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment while continuing their punishment.

This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desires of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings.

Yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.

But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand.

They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts, they too will perish.

He's talking about these false teachers.

They will be paid back harm for the harm they have done.

Their idea of pleasure is to crouse in broad daylight.

If you're thinking of doing that after church, I'm not sure what that is, but don't do it.

They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

With their eyes full full of adultery, they never stop sinning.

They seduce the unstable, they are experts in greed, a cursed brood, they have left the straight and narrow and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam, son of Baor, who loved the wages of wickedness, but he was rebuked by his wrongdoing by a donkey, a beast without speech, who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

These men, these false teachers, are springs without water, mist driven by the storm, blackest darkness is reserved for them, for they mouth empty, boastful words, and by appearing to this lustful des appealing to the lustful desires of the sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping those who live in error.

They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity.

For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it, and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

Of them the Proverbs is true.

This is the word of the Lord.

Now, would you pray with me?

Father, as we uh open your word, as we listen to your word, we ask you to speak.

We are listening.

We want to hear from you today.

So we posture our hearts to listen for whatever you would want to say.

We want to believe what you have said, and we want to do what you've commanded.

We tremble at your word, Lord.

We reverence your word in Jesus' name.

And everyone said together.

Amen.

You may be seated.

False teachers act like your friend, but they work for the enemy.

They look like a sheep, but they talk like a snake.

Of the 27 books of the New Testament, 15 of them explicitly speak of teachers, false teachers, false prophets, false doctrines, deceivers, or people Christians should flat out avoid.

Which means out of the 52 weeks in the year, if we were to be biblical, over half of those Sundays would be sermons on false teaching.

Now, a note on heresy, it's important that we call heresy what the Bible calls heresy.

It's important we call heretics who the Bible calls heretics.

We don't throw the word heretic around lightly.

Well, he's a heretic.

I don't agree with him.

He's a heretic.

I don't like him, he's a heretic.

It's the same thing we don't throw the word rape around lightly.

Just because someone is her just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're heretic.

They're a heretic if they disagree with God.

Heretics never start with the sentence, well, the Bible is false.

They start with, let's redefine what God said.

You're not a heretic if you have a different view on baptism or a different style of worship or whether or not you believe speaking in tongues or healing and prophecy is a gift still active in the church today.

You're a heretic when you take what God has clearly said, you question it, you distort it, and teach others to believe something contrary to the truth, he is revealed in his holy word.

Heresy isn't simply simply being wrong about something, it is persistently rejecting, corrupting, and twisting the truth that is essential to the Christian faith and calling others to follow you in that error.

And the Bible's not shy about calling out false teachers and prophets by name.

There's Hymeneus, Alexander, Philetus, Damas, Diatrophes, Janus and Jambres, Simon the Magician, Lamus, Bargesus, Alexander the Coppersmith, Phigellus and Hermogenes.

Jesus spoke of false Christs, false prophets.

Paul spoke about fierce wolves rising up within the church.

He spoke about false prophets and false brothers, false teachers, false prophets, apostles, and Jude spoke of ungodly people who crept in unnoticed.

God has warned his church that just as there were false prophets under the old covenant, there will be false prophets and teachers who will rise and trouble the new covenant church.

Not all churches are safe, not all preachers are honest, not all sermons are true.

Here's the tactic of the enemy.

Two things.

They come from among you and they work secretly against you.

False teaching looks like Christianity, but it denies God's authority.

It's important to note that Peter isn't talking about teaching or philosophies that are coming from non-believers.

He's not saying you need to beware of Taylor Swift.

Although someone might have warned Travis Kelsey about that, and he probably wouldn't have appreciated it.

This is people inside the church.

They look like you, they had your experience, they read your Bible, they grew up a Christian.

They went to the same church you went to, they heard the sermons you heard, but they came to a different conclusion about everything.

They work for the enemy, but they talk like your friend.

Every generation has its false teachers.

The generation of my parents, and some of you, if you remember this, this will reveal your age.

I still remember these.

Remembers names like Jimmy Swaggard, Jim and Kat and uh Kathy, Jim and Kathy Baker, Tammy, Tammy, oh my.

Jim Tammy Baker.

Uh Benny Hinn.

We all roll our eyes at the sexual immorality and perversion and the financial fraud that they all got into and led other peoples into, all in the name of Christ.

Or names of my generation like Rob Bell or Brian McLaren or Carl Lentz.

And it's important that we understand the shift that has taken place when it comes to false teachers who were in one generation before us to the false teachers who are currently among us.

Because I think that's actually a tactic of the enemy, to have a past image of a false teacher in your mind so that you can't see the current false teacher standing in front of you.

The false teachers that I instantly think of when I think of false teaching is it maybe it comes to your mind, it's big hair, big money, big planes, big bling, right?

And while those are certainly false teachers, and while they are prevalent today, I don't think that Gray City Church is in any danger of falling for that kind of teaching.

False teachers don't always look like false teachers.

They don't always arrive with a giant Bible in a private jet and the promises of God wanting you to drive a Bentley.

Now, if the Lord wants me to drive a Bentley, I am here to do your will.

Hear my Lord, send me in a Bentley.

We have a list of really stupid things that we have been accused of at Gray City Church.

And we have some of our favorites.

One of our favorites was that Gray City Church has a private jet.

And you know what I say to that?

Wouldn't that be cool?

I mean, you don't think I want to skip TSA and CTAC in Seattle?

I mean, if you see, I mean, I mean, think about that.

Like a str a big, big jet plane, stronger man nation on the wing.

Like that would be kind of cool.

It's like, and if you see that ever, you let me know because I got some flights that I want to book.

Because I'm ready to roll.

And it's like, hey, yeah, I drive a 2001 Sequoia to work and I fly a jet plane to vacation.

Yeah.

Great city, don't fall for that.

Now I'm gonna pick on men and women because we believe in equality, and I call these the false females.

And here's the reason of the two sexes, of the two sexes that are out there in the world, who is predominantly leading the false charge and teaching today.

I'll just imply it, you think it.

That doesn't mean that the men aren't.

It doesn't mean that men are, there are more.

It doesn't mean that there aren't men false teachers are out there, okay?

What it means is that from what I'm seeing, and I could be totally wrong, the dominant voice in media and podcasts promoting spiritual alternatives to the church, is promoted by women.

Now, this would make sense when for the past two decades that we've told men that they are useless, they're toxic, we don't need you anymore, so sit down, shut up because the future is feminine.

Now, I'm not sure why, but somewhere along the way of the waves of feminism, the first wave, the twelfth wave, the twentieth wave, however many waves there were, it was one wave too much.

Somewhere along the way, we were told that it is culturally unacceptable to correct a woman.

Now, for all the women out on YouTube, if that landed as an offense, that's my point.

But that's not what God's word says.

God's word is against false teaching, whatever mouth it comes out.

Think of this.

Who is coming out in droves to defend that woman in the news this week who did the that atrocious and heinous act to her three children?

I won't mention because we got kids in here, but you've probably heard it.

Who's coming out to defend her?

Women.

It's gross.

Not saying that all women are doing that.

Not saying, but like men are looking at that and like going.

This is horrible.

You you can you can still be sympathetic for a person while still demanding that they pay the penalty for their crime.

We naturally assume that false teachers stand behind pulpits, and they most certain certainly do.

But I wouldn't want you to think that the church down the street on Sunny Slope over there with the gay flags, with 20 people in attendance, is the only thing that Peter is mentioning about, or Peter's concerned about.

Peter's saying to watch out for anyone, anyone who claims to speak on behalf of God, but is secretly introducing destructive heresies.

The 21st century false teacher doesn't necessarily stand behind a pulpit.

He or she could stand behind a camera.

And this is how they secretly introduce destructive heresies to you.

Because we look at them and think, that guy must be fine.

He doesn't he doesn't have a pulpit.

Yeah, but he has a podcast.

Well, she must be fine.

She doesn't have a church building.

But she has a YouTube channel where she gathers and stores all of her teaching where everyone gathers to listen to those teachings.

Well, he he he he doesn't have a congregation, yeah, but he has 2.7 million followers, and that's the biggest church in anywhere.

A compelling communicator can communicate false messages.

Charisma does not equal Christianity.

Confidence does not equal truth.

Popularity isn't biblical authority.

A million followers doesn't make that person right.

You might say, but Carrie, Peter clearly says that these people are greedy and they exploit you with their fabricated stories.

These people aren't asking any money for him.

I'm just watching.

Yes, they are.

They are requesting your views, your likes, your subscriptions.

Do you know how much money a person is making who has a million followers per view?

They are getting paid an astronomical amount of money.

Don't ever think that these people's hearts aren't full of greed.

And the more that the more content they make, the more that you watch, the more that you're susceptible to it, the more money they make.

In verse 14 and 15, it says that they are experts in greed.

They followed the way of Balaam, who loved the wages of wickedness.

False teachers are hard to spot because they aren't necessarily antagonistic against you.

They find you when you're vulnerable.

Today, false teachers don't necessarily walk into your church, but they'll walk into your phone.

A teenager can go from a Christian TikTok clip to a lengthy deconstruction video to following their Instagram page to listening to a full-length podcast to now believing in alternative spirituality without ever having talked to a pastor.

How do they secretly introduce destructive heresies?

They don't come to you saying, hey, hey, come here.

I have a destructive heresy to tell you.

That if you follow, it will ruin your life.

That's not what they say.

What they do is they prey upon your past hurt.

They appeal to your past offense.

They appeal to the sensual desires that you have, and then they'll question whether the Bible actually said to not do that or not.

What they offer is they offer salvation out of your current oppressive view of God.

They'll quote just enough of the Bible for you to trust them, but then quietly remove the parts that confront their destructive lives that they want you to live.

Now, this is especially coming from women.

Whenever you hear a woman offer you their cure for your misogynistic, patriarchal, antiquated, oppressive, fundamental view of God, here's what they mean by that.

I want to help you out of your traditional view of God that talks about women, men, marriage, Jesus, humanity, sin, repentance, and hell.

Yes, the Bible is oh so oppressive whenever they contradicts what our culture wants to affirm.

They will offer you healing from your hurt and your pain that Christians may have caused you.

It was done to me too.

I know how you feel.

The language sounds compassionate, it sounds liberating, it sounds like freedom, but it's slavery.

The teacher may extend extremely compelling because here she speaks from personal experience.

I was raised a Christian.

I studied the Bible.

I experienced religious trauma.

I discovered truth.

I finally became free.

I'll help you.

I'll tell you what Jesus really said.

I'll tell you the truth that no one told me.

That testimony can be incredibly persuasive.

But Peter's question is not, does their story sound compelling?

His question is, what does God's word say?

I don't care about your experience unless it aligns with the revelation of God.

Someone can genuinely have been harmed by an abusive church and still misunderstand scripture or come to a false conclusion about God.

Someone can correctly identify hypocrisy in Christianity and then incorrectly conclude that Christianity itself is false.

And someone can leave one form of spiritual bondage only to become convinced that they have found spiritual freedom.

While Peter says in verse 19, they promise you freedom while they themselves are slaves to depravity.

It's the oldest play in the playbook.

It's the very thing that Satan said to Eve.

They want to get you to question God's word, and then they claim they will help you reinterpret it to understand it for your good.

All the while, holding your hand, applauding you down the road of destruction that leads to death.

And then a godly man or woman tries to get in their path and say, no, wait, hold up.

And then they tell you, you're being controversial.

I'm being controversial, I'm the one trying to stand in your way of destruction.

So how do you recognize a false teacher?

You recognize them by comparing what they say with what God has said.

Because the greatest danger is not that you will encounter someone who looks obviously evil.

The greatest danger is that you will encounter someone who looks trustworthy, sounds compassionate, quotes scripture, tells you a compelling story, and then little by little leads you away from the authority of God's word.

The goal of false teachers produce corruption and destruction.

Here's what false teachers have in common.

They are all deconstructionists of the Christian faith.

Meaning their goal is to tear down evangelicalism limb by limb.

They criticize biblical authority and institutional Christianity.

They all hate any Christian influence and culture, which is Christian nationalism.

By the way, they never tell you what they want to replace that with.

All they want is deconstruction.

They take parts of the Bible, never the whole.

Their personal spiritual experience is their source of authority.

False teachers change doctrine precisely because they want to change morality.

False teachers will tell people what they want to hear so they can keep living the life that they want to live.

And here's the main thing that all of them have in common that I have found.

And it is proven to be true with every false teacher that I have seen, or eventually that exposes themselves as a false teacher.

They all have this in common: sexual immorality.

Look at verse 2.

It says, Men will follow them in their sensuality.

This could be male or female, right?

Do men lead other men into sensuality?

Do women lead men into sensuality?

Do women lead women into sensuality?

He says, and by doing so, they will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

Look at verse 14.

It says, with eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning, and they seduce the unstable.

They are experts in greed, in a cursed brood.

The literal translation is with eyes full of an adulteress.

They are looking for the adulteress.

They are looking for someone to take advantage of.

Listen to them.

Oh, he's gay.

Oh, she's a lesbian.

Oh, he he divorced his wife and now he's dating a 20-year-old.

Oh, uh, it's clear from her thousands of Instagram pictures she's a seductive temptress.

She's purposeful about her sensuality, and she's trying to allure men from the path of righteousness, all the while exclaiming, men are just perverts and shouldn't lust.

False teachers will tolerate sin.

Christians teach repentance of sin.

Because false teachers don't merely give bad people bad information, they give people permission to remain in their sin.

False teachers will say, Come as you are and stay that way.

Jesus says, Come as you are, and I will make you who you were truly meant to be, because I will change you.

When are you most vulnerable to false teachers?

One, when you're in sin.

Here's the pattern.

You find yourself confronted with your sin, and instead of taking it to Jesus and turning from your sin to be healed, you begin to excuse your sin.

And when you excuse your sin, what you do is you change the Bible so that it submits to your lifestyle rather than changing your lifestyle to submit to God's word.

And heretics will hold your hand the entire way applauding your bravery.

When you're unstable, when you're new in your faith, when you're poorly grounded in scripture, when you're going through a crisis, when you're questioning everything, when you're isolated from community and you've stopped going to church, when you're spiritually discouraged, when you are desperate for answers, the less rooted you are, the easier you are to move.

So when you're unstable, you have to tether yourself to something that is.

When you want permission, not the truth.

A false teacher will provide justification for their sin, your sin.

The Bible says, don't do this.

A false teacher says, does God actually care about that?

Actually, he does.

A false teacher will say, God wants you to be happy.

Actually, God wants your happiness through your holiness.

A false teacher will say, God wouldn't want you to stay in that marriage.

Actually, maybe God does want you to stay in that marriage.

Actually, I think he does.

You will be tempted to believe them, not because their argument is better, but because you desperately want permission to do something God said not to do.

The danger isn't always someone telling you to abandon Christianity.

Sometimes the danger is someone offering you a version of Christianity that allows you to keep the name of Jesus while rejecting the authority of Jesus in your life.

False teachers twist what God says in order to permit what the Bible forbids.

What you're actually looking for is freedom from accountability.

False teachers will constantly tell you that you are your own authority.

False teachers will promise you freedom by loosening the commands of God.

But real freedom is not found in freedom from God's word.

Real freedom is found in submission to what God has clearly spoken.

And we should stop spending all of our time trying to figure out all the hard passages of scripture and start spending our time on clearly obeying the ones that are very obvious.

And don't be so impressed by someone's charisma that you forget to ask the most important question: is this what God really said?

Because at the end of the day, the safest Christian is not the Christian who knows every false teacher's name.

The safest Christian is the Christian who knows the voice of the shepherd.

Peter moves next to the verses to answer the question that we're asking.

Is God going to do something about the false teachers?

And this is his response.

As Christians, we inevitably look around and we think, will God do something about what is happening?

Will God silence that voice that is taking my child away?

Taking my friend away, taking my sibling away?

Peter's answers, assuredly, don't worry.

God has a perfect record.

He begins in verse 4, for God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment.

The first thing, God judges angels, and in that he's showing that God is judging the spiritual realm.

Why does Peter let us know that God is judging angels?

Have you ever wondered that?

Have you ever read this passage and think, like, what is going on here?

I feel like there's something in something that I missed in the Old Testament.

I'm not sure where God was judging the angels in the Old Testament.

But here's two things that I think that Peter is doing.

Peter wants to assure us that God is judging the spiritual realm.

He deals with the spiritual first, because I believe that behind every false teaching is demonic preaching.

Behind the false teacher, there is a demonic force working to distort God's truth and deceive God's people.

So how else can you account for such relentless opposition to God's word, where people call good evil and evil good?

Peter, in a sense, he's pulling back the curtain to reveal the real war that is happening in the heavenlies all around us in another dimension that we can't see, but whose effects are unmistakably visible.

How else can you possibly account or arrive at the conclusion that murdering and mutilating children is the right of every mother unless that was had the force of a demonic preacher behind it?

God must deal with the principalities and forces of darkness that have taken his people captive and deceived them with lies.

So Peter is telling us that God must first deal with the liar behind the lies.

Peter wants to assure us that he has judged them before and he will do it again.

And secondly, I think this is a shot over the bow for false teachers.

Angels had extraordinary knowledge of God and yet some of them rebelled.

The point is that spiritual privilege does not make someone immune from judgment.

If God judges angels who sinned, false teachers should not assume that their position inside a religious community protects them from God's judgment.

If God didn't spare angels, why would anyone think he will overlook human rebellion?

Number two, the second story that Peter points out from the Old Testament is that God judges widespread corruption in the flood.

Peter now moves from the heavenlies to the earth.

God's judgment is not just spiritual, it's physical.

When Peter recalls the story of the flood, he's assuming familiarity.

He's assuming, you remember, that the world had become so corrupt and every inclination of the heart of man was towards evil that God had to judge it.

So several truths Peter's drawing on from the story of the flood.

When you read Genesis 6 and you read through this and you see this, you see that God sees wickedness.

He sees the violence.

He sees the corruption.

He saw the rebellion.

And then he did something about it.

He didn't ignore it.

He didn't excuse it.

He didn't diminish it.

He judged it.

God's judgments are not arbitrary.

They're not irrational.

They're not random.

They're righteous.

They're deliberate, and they're deserving.

God's judgments aren't careless.

He knows exactly who he's judging and who he's preserving.

And he also reminds us that the patience of God towards sinners, think about it, for 120 years, Noah pounded nails, and with each blow of the hammer, he was preaching, repent, for the judgment of God is coming.

And every day Noah worked on the ark was an act of divine mercy.

They watched as Noah built a massive boat in a place where it hadn't rained.

And then they saw all the animals come.

And then they saw God close the door.

And then it began to rain.

Judgment delayed is not judgment canceled.

But notice what Peter says in verse 5.

God protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others.

Noah didn't get lost in the crowd.

And if God knows how to save Noah, he knows how to save you.

The flood proves that God sees evil, he judges evil, and he can distinguish between the righteous and the wicked when he does so.

And then Peter moves to his last example of God's judgment with Sodom and Gomorrah, with God judges sexual immorality and moral wickedness.

It's very common today for false teachers to twist the reason why God judged Sodom and Gomorrah.

The story in Genesis 19 tells of men of men who came to the house of Lot and demanded that he bring out his visitors, his guests, who were men, in order to violate them.

It's obvious that they want to have sex with him.

Maybe you've heard it said before that God torched Sodom and Gomorrah because they were violating hospitality laws of that time.

That's right.

God rained down burning coals of fire because they were showing bad manners.

The problem with that is that's not what the story of Genesis 19 says.

Genesis 19 describes a scene very specifically, and it is very sexual.

When a society reaches a point of perverse sexuality and moral wickedness, God will not indefinitely tolerate rebellion against his created order.

Homosexuality will destroy a city.

And you can be sure of this: wherever there is the celebration of homosexuality, there will be the judgment of God also.

Certainly Sodom and Gomorrah weren't judged for just one isolated sin.

Sodom represents a society whose pride injustice and rebellion against God devolved into sexual wickedness as the culmination of their rebellion to such an extent that God had to judge it.

But notice again.

Notice again, the main point Peter emphasized in the story is verse 7.

It says, but he rescued Lot.

God doesn't need to choose between judging evil and saving his people.

Look at the pattern.

God judged the angels who rebelled, he judged the ancient world through the flood, he judged Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, and in every case, God knew how to preserve those who belong to him.

Because God knows how to judge and God knows how to save.

If you ever wondered that evil, if evil is going to win, or if God sees what's happening, or false teachers will get away with what they're doing, you can know that God will, which brings us to our next point, He will expose and judge false teachers.

This is their fate.

Peter says in verse 13, they will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.

And in verse 22, of them the proverbs are true.

A dog returns to its vomit, and a sow that is washed goes back to wallowing in the mud.

You can dress up a pig, you can put lipstick on it, you can wash it, you can bring it inside, you can put perfume on it, you can make it look presentable, but in the end, when you let it be what it wants to be, you realize, oh, I guess this was always a pig.

False teachers can sound compelling, they can look trustworthy, they can sound sympathetic to your situation, they can be compassionate, tell compelling stories, use Christian language, talk about Jesus, talk about grace, and even quote scripture and convince you that they alone have finally understood Christianity.

They get a platform, they get a microphone, they get a podcast, they get millions of followers, but if their conclusion does not rest on the full counsel of God's word, if their lifestyle does not submit to the clear teaching of God's word, underneath all that charm, all that charisma, all that Christian language, at the core, nothing has changed, they are still just a pig, a dog, a false teacher.

Finally, Peter's exhortation to us, which I think is the entire book, taking in chapter one and three, is know the word and trust the judge.

Peter said that the word of God is a light shining in a dark place, and you would do well to pay attention to it.

You can trust it.

His main concern is not that you know the word of God, his main concern is that you will know the word of God and trust the judge who will meet out all those who are distorting his truth.

All of life should be lived with an eye toward the last day.

So know the word of God well enough so that when someone says, that's not what Jesus said, you can open your Bible and say, actually, he did say that.

Know the word well enough so that when someone someone distorts it, you can correct it.

Know it well enough that when people quote it out of context, you know what came before and what came after.

Know it well enough that when someone promises you freedom from God's commands, you recognize what it is.

It's slavery.

I was uh the privilege to go to a party last night of a young man, he was turning 18, and his dad wanted to put something together for his son to welcome him into manhood.

So he invited eight different men, and we sat around a campfire overlooking the valley because the smoke had finally cleared, and the dad had asked each man to come with something prepared.

Now, this is a dad who three years ago said, I had no community in my life.

I didn't know anyone.

Actually, he moved from California up to here to be around Great City Church.

And now, last night, he had eight men standing up, speaking life into his son and calling his son into manhood.

And every man there, fire uh police officers, we had uh teachers, uh uh construction workers, all men's all types of all talks of types of walks of life, stood up with a Bible that had been well-worn and a journal that they had written out, and they exhorted into this young man truth from God's word.

They were drawing manhood out of him from a well-worn Bible.

I was just so proud of the men of Gray City Church who know the word and who are who take time to get into God's word and get it into the bones to such an extent that they can stand up and call manhood out of a young man.

It just blessed me so much.

So know the word well enough that you can spot those who are false in their teaching.

And we don't have to fear.

We don't have to fear who the next wolf is because we know the shepherd, and the shepherd knows his sheep, and he knows your name, and he knows how to protect you.

So this passage should be both a warning and a comfort to us.

It's a warning to the false teacher and to those who are listening to them.

False teachers may deceive people, but they will never deceive God.

They may hide behind a microphone or a Bible or a podcast, but they cannot hide behind God, from God.

They may convince millions of people that they are right, but they will never convince God.

Because God sees, God knows, God's judges, but this should also be a comfort to you.

Because when you look around at a world that seems increasingly hostile to the truth, you don't have to wonder whether God has lost control of it.

In a world of total anarchy, you don't have to wonder whether Christ has lost his authority.

The world will align truth.

And when it does, you don't have to wonder if truth will prevail, because it will.

False teachers will have their moment.

They will have their platform, they will have their followers, they will have their influence, but guess what?

They will not have the final word, God will.

So don't be discouraged when you see evil prosper or when you see lies gain a following.

Don't abandon truth just because truth happens to be unpopular at the moment.

Truth will outlast, truth will stand, lies will fall, false teachers will be judged, and God's people will be preserved.

Because the shepherd knows his sheep.

He knows the difference between the wolves and the sheep.

He knows the difference between those who belong to him and those who merely claim his name.

So when you see false teaching spread, know the word.

When you see evil prosper, trust the judge.

And this is the message of 2 Peter.

Because every day, one day, every false teacher, every false prophet, every deceiver, every lie, every rebellion against God will stand before him.

And on that day, every podcast and platform will be brought low.

There will be no reinterpretation of Scripture that will be able to excuse them, because God gets the final word.

And as Christians, that should not terrify you, that should comfort you.

Because the same God that delivered Noah, the same God that delivered Lot is the same God that knows how to deliver you.

Peter would say, know his word.

Grow in godliness.

Make your calling and election sure.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus because false teachers will come and go, movements will rise and fall, influence will gain followers, but they will eventually disappear.

But the word of the Lord stands forever.

Let's pray.

Father, I pray that we will be a people that grow in the clarity of your voice.

Lord, give us patience when we see the wickedness around us and as we wait for your redemption.

Your timing is perfect, Lord.

Your record is perfect.

I pray that your voice would become easier to hear.

Not because you got louder, but because we paid more attention.

Lord, I just pray that there is a person here who is listening to the voice of someone they thought was a friend, but was working for the enemy.

I pray that you would silence that voice.

I pray that you would judge that voice.

I pray that you would remove that voice.

And I pray that they would begin hearing the voice of their father, the gentle shepherd, whispering in their ear, leading them home.

I pray that you bring them back to the truth, Lord.

Call them home.

Bring them back.

Thank you for hearing the prayers of your children.

It's your name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening.

I hope this message blessed you.

And if you want to learn more about Gray City Church, visit our website listed below.

And check out the Stronger Man Nation podcast with Pastor Doc McPherson to become a better husband, father, and stronger man.