Five Reasons for the Condemnation of False Teachers (Part 1)

[0:00] We begin this evening, the remaining 13 verses of 2 Peter chapter 2.

[0:22] ! I use the word very advisedly, we begin this evening.! I'm not going to get through 13 verses tonight. I'm sure we'll finish it up next Monday. The last chapter in 2 Peter is actually chapter 3 and he talks about the return of Christ, which is kind of on the headlines in our day.

[0:45] But until then, we're going to talk a little bit more about false prophets and false teachers. Let me read to you the verses we're going to study until the last chapter. This will be tonight and next week. Peter has a habit of starting in mid-verse. Of course, he didn't put the chapters and verses in.

[1:03] That came in about 300 or 400 A.D. It was a long time. But these are the verses we'll study. And he starts out, and especially those who go after the flesh and its corrupt lusts and despise authority, they are daring, self-willed.

[1:28] They do not tremble when they blaspheme glorious ones. Whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

[1:47] But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct, to be captured and killed, blaspheming where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering unrighteousness as the wages of their unrighteousness, considering it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.

[2:17] They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed.

[2:36] They are accursed children. Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he received a rebuke for his own lawlessness, for a mute doking, speaking out with the voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

[3:04] And I'll read the other half next week. Suffice it to say, if you'll camp out in the short little book of Jude, you'll discover a lot of similarities.

[3:15] I think Jude and Paul used to sit down together by the campfire and talk. And why not? Jude was the half-brother of Jesus. Didn't get saved until after the resurrection.

[3:29] It's no accident that the Holy Spirit, the divine author of Scripture, uses the imagery of sheep and shepherds.

[3:41] In the Bible, there are stories about faithful shepherds. There are also stories about failed and even false shepherds that skedaddle.

[3:55] That's a good Bible word. They skedaddle when the wolves attack the flock. There are great examples of shepherds in God's Word.

[4:09] These include David, who later became king of Israel. And then we know that a greater shepherd came later than that even at the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:27] He is the great shepherd of the sheep of his pasture. We could talk about shepherds until the great shepherd returns.

[4:41] Instead, let me point out some things that we already know. One thing we know is that it is the duty of godly, faithful shepherds to protect the flock that was physical shepherds out in the field, but that was also shepherds of the church.

[5:04] They are to protect the flock of God. When the apostle Paul was leaving for Jerusalem, his chief concern was that he was convinced he was going to be killed, murdered.

[5:20] And he summoned the Ephesian elders to come to where he was at. And they did come. He gave them a charge, marching orders, if you will, from God concerning their duties, the duties of an elder.

[5:42] Dr. Luke is the one that actually preserved the words of Paul by being the author of the book of Acts. And in chapter 20, just a few verses I'll read to you.

[5:57] Three. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

[6:16] I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.

[6:40] We can learn much about the duties of shepherds in the church of the Lord Jesus. We can learn much of shepherds and elders and pastors and overseers and their other Bible words.

[6:57] We can inject here. They have many duties. Duties to the Lord, duties to the church. We can read about those mostly in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus.

[7:15] Now this is just personal, but I'm convicted and convinced that the primary duty of an elder or a shepherd is to protect the sheep.

[7:31] And what I mean by that is the flock of God under the care of those elders. Normally we have an under-shepherd, our pastor.

[7:45] He's under the Lord Jesus Christ who's the head of the church. So how do these men do this? How do they protect the sheep, protect the flock of God under their care?

[8:00] Well, they do it with a proper understanding and application of the Word of God. They've got to know the Word of God.

[8:12] And 2 Timothy itself, chapter 3, many of you probably have this memorized. All Scripture is God-breathed.

[8:23] I read once that Paul had to invent a Greek word for that. Theoponoustos, breathed out. All Scripture is God-breathed. It's the only time it shows up.

[8:37] And profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

[8:56] The men that take on this role are leaders of truth. And they are to take seriously the Word of God. One verse that should speak to all of us is Psalm 119, 105.

[9:12] Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And indeed it is.

[9:27] Been nice to have lamps and lights back in those days. I always remembered this story. I thought of it when I was writing all this, but at one point Dr. Billy Graham, living in North Carolina, was summoned to the hospital.

[9:45] His mother was a patient there and she had taken a turn in the middle of the night and one of the family members that was sitting with her called Dr. Graham.

[10:00] When he arrived, she had lapsed into unconsciousness. As other family members gathered and sons and grandchildren and whatever, Dr. Graham took out his Bible and began reading the 119th Psalm starting in verse 1.

[10:27] It goes a while. Longest chapter in the Bible. So he starts reading Psalm 119 in verse 1 and he'd only gotten a few words when his mother lying on her deathbed actually took over and began to recite from memory Psalm 119.

[10:56] All 176 verses. Every word. And in the English translation when I say every word that's 2,445 words.

[11:14] Still with her eyes closed when she came to the end of that wonderful chapter she said, Billy, have you forgotten that when you were very young I had you memorize every word of Psalm 119 as you sit on my knee.

[11:37] So Dr. Graham had also memorized it. He just forgot that he had memorized it. I'd best get back to the apostle Peter. Peter had received a divine commission from the Lord Jesus himself concerning his role in shepherding the flock of God.

[11:58] and we looked at this when we were studying the first book, 1 Peter in chapter 5 verses 2 and 4 and this was the charge he was given by the Spirit.

[12:15] Shepherd the flock of God among you overseeing not under compulsion but willingly according to God and not for dishonest gain.

[12:29] Boy, there's some guys that need to read that. But with eagerness nor yet as lording it over those allotted to you but being examples to the flock and when the chief shepherd appears you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

[12:57] A true shepherd of God's flock has neither cowardice or compromise in themselves. But we also know there are false shepherds.

[13:12] We've looked at some of them. We're going to look at them again. And Jesus knew this truth quite well didn't He? Here's some great words in John chapter 10.

[13:28] The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. This is Jesus talking. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

[13:46] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand is not a shepherd who is not the owner of the sheep.

[14:01] He sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. and the wolf snatches and scatters them because he's a hired hand.

[14:13] These are Bible words and he is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.

[14:30] Later in that same chapter, Jesus is going to say, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And no one could snatch them out of my hand.

[14:44] And he also said, you do not believe, addressing the unbelievers, you do not believe because you're not one of my sheep.

[14:57] He didn't say you're not one of my sheep, therefore you don't believe. He says, you're not one of mine. You're not one of my sheep. So here we have the Lord Jesus speaking.

[15:13] If the shepherd or the elder is doing what the Lord has called them to do, they are concerned with false teachers that are in the church because they know something.

[15:28] A false teacher in a church is being guided by Satan. Or demons. And they'd like nothing better than to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ.

[15:38] But you know what? They can't. They'd love to. If they could, it would already have been accomplished. But they can't. So they go after something else that's very, very close to Him.

[15:54] and that's the Lord's people. And that's why shepherds and elders, they're there to expose error.

[16:06] There is too much at stake to fail here, guys. We don't want the shepherds to fail. The elders, it's too much at stake. I was introduced to Dr. John Owen a few years ago.

[16:21] I didn't meet him physically because he died in 1683. I met him through his books. And, boy, is he a hard read.

[16:34] Let me tell you. I'll loan you some of his books sometime. I've got a bunch of books. And like I say, the great theologian died in 1683. His greatest book, in my opinion, is The Mortification of Sin.

[16:51] I've read it more than once, but I have to read the abridged version, where guys have sat down using modern language and modern examples, kind of updated English, but the greatest sentence in that book is, be killing sin or it'll be killing you.

[17:12] That's where that came from, John Owen. The following is a statement from Dr. Owen in volume 16 of his complete works, and the whole set is 16 volumes, later quoted by Dr.

[17:31] J.I. Packer in a book he wrote, A Quest for Godliness. Here's what Dr. Owen said, It is incumbent on pastors to preserve the truth or doctrine of the gospel received and professed in the church and to defend it against all opposition.

[17:57] We've got to defend the doctrine that's been received through the gospel. gospel. This is one principal end of ministry. The sinful neglect of this duty is that which was the cause of most of the, I'm going to try this, pernicious, But don't panic, that means destructive.

[18:22] It's something that's destructive. heresies and errors that have infested and ruined churches. Those whose duty it was to preserve the doctrine of the gospel in its entirety in the public profession, religion, and yet now we have many of them speaking perverse things and trying to draw away the disciples, try to draw away bishops and presbyters and teachers.

[18:57] Sometimes those guys, supposed to be leaders, they've been the ringleaders in the heresy. Wherefore this duty, especially at this time, when the fundamental truths of the gospel are on all sides impugned from all sorts of adversaries as a matter especially to be attended to.

[19:23] That was written 300 years ago. Can you imagine what he would write about it today? With television? And Kenneth Copeland and all those guys? So what does all this mean?

[19:37] It means that those in leadership roles in the church must stand against false teachers and the doctrines that they want to use to pollute the church of God.

[19:51] This is major. This is big time. I can tell you from experience that the first charge that will be leveled at you if you take a stand against this kind of stuff, depending on the church of course, but if you take a stand first charge, you're unloving.

[20:15] You need to be more loving and more tolerant. The greater love is to protect the flock.

[20:27] The greater love is to protect the people of God and the church of Jesus Christ. He died for the church. There's a passage from which I have taken great comfort and strength.

[20:44] This goes back a long time. Not surprisingly, it's found in the words of the Apostle Paul, specifically in the book of Titus. Titus chapter 1 verses 7 9, for the overseer must be beyond reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of dishonest gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with this teaching.

[21:47] I love this ending. So that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine, and listen to this, and reprove those who contradict it.

[22:02] I read that once in a church setting, almost got thrown out. They didn't like that. What did Paul feel led to single out such men that were wreaking havoc on the church?

[22:19] Well, he's going to provide the answers in the next few verses of Titus. for there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain.

[22:51] I wish I had brought this tonight. I saw a printout of the worth of the major charismatic pastors. The highest was around $400 million.

[23:03] And the lowest that I read on that list was about $100 million. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said this.

[23:14] I'm back to Paul. Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and they're lazy gluttons.

[23:29] This testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

[23:49] To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.

[24:03] But both their mind and their conscience is defiled. They profess to know God, but by their works they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for any good work.

[24:21] That's Titus 10 to 16. Peter uses strong words in this portion of Scripture, but remember ultimately these words are not from Peter per se, they are from God.

[24:36] They're God-breathed, originated with the Spirit of God. Those who hold to deceiving doctrines and try and infect the church with such will receive the highest condemnation.

[24:52] The very highest. And you can read about this condemnation by the way, we won't tonight, in Revelation chapter 20 verse 11 to 15.

[25:08] There's a subtitle for that section of Scripture it's called The Great White Throne Judgment of the Unsaved. We know the false prophets and false teachers deserve condemnation.

[25:23] God's been very clear about that with Peter, He was with Paul, with John, with Jude, others, and even we have the words of the Lord Jesus Himself.

[25:39] Why specifically though do they deserve the highest level of condemnation? We know for the following five reasons.

[25:54] We know because of their presumption. We know based on their practices. We know from their premiums, their prophecies, and their perversions.

[26:09] All P's. I already qualify for a master's degree. Bible. Now you all know me in here.

[26:21] Some know me too well. Some of you have known me for just a few years short of a half a century. So I was wanting to summarize tonight, and I fled where all good refugees flee to the writings of now the late Dr.

[26:42] John MacArthur. By the way, John's very much alive tonight, I can assure you. And so next time, five reasons for the condemnation of false teachers.

[26:57] It will be vintage MacArthur. let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, what a privilege it is to see you in your word.

[27:10] A word that has been around for thousands of years. And Lord, we need to know it, and we need to teach it. We need to teach it to our families. We need to teach it to our children and our grandchildren.

[27:21] we need to teach it in the church. We need to teach it to anybody to listen.

[27:34] Believers and unbelievers. Lord, I ask you to be with each man in here. Keep them and their families safe.

[27:48] Bring us Wednesday night next Sunday. And Lord, we give all this time to you in that perfect name above every name, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

[28:06] I thank you in his name. Amen.