Fake News Series

Fake News

Jeffery Anselmi / General

Grow In Grace / Grace / 2 Peter 2:1–10

When false teachers whisper sweet words into the ears of immature Christians, the body of Christ begins to break apart and lose what makes it distinctive—that is, the faith in the unique person and work of Jesus Christ.

INTRODUCTION

• In our world today, information comes at us at an unprecedented speed.

• We have more sources of information available to us than ever in history.

• I saw an article that said there are over 300 million cell phones in the United States.

• With nearly 300 million cell phones in use in the United States, that puts the country third overall in the world when it comes to total mobile phones in use.

• Based on recent estimates, China has approximately 841 million, and India has 729 million phones; however, both countries have substantially larger populations than the United States.

• The percent of their respective populations with cell phones is lower than the 93 percent wireless penetration in the United States. (https://cellphones.lovetoknow.com)

• The point is, each one of these phones with cameras makes every owner a potential reporter.

• I cannot even tell you how many new channels there are out there.

• It seems like a good time to know what is going on around the world, doesn’t it?

• With all these sources, what could go wrong?

• One of the problems with so many sources is that one must seek to determine if what is being reported is truth or what has been termed fake news.

• Bad information has many undesirable effects on those who adhere to the bad information.

• Just watch the news, and you know what I am talking about!

• Gone are the days when we could trust the news sources we used to trust.

• You cannot take much anything at face value any longer.

• However, this phenomenon is nothing new.

• As we examine our text today, we will see that fake news hit the early church, and it still hits Christians today.

• All of chapter 1 prepared for Peter’s primary purpose of exposing and condemning the group of false teachers who had so corrupted the churches to which he was writing.

• We have to be aware that all “news” is not the “GOOD NEWS,” nor is all “news” truth.

• Just because someone has a pulpit or position does not mean what they are teaching is the truth!

• When we do not recognize the truth from fake news, it will have a negative impact on our lives.

• When you look at our political leaders, they are willing to spend trillions of dollars on things they have no real grasp on whether the money spent will make a difference or if what they believe is truth or fake news!

• In our society, we are being feed a great deal of fake news in religious circles, and we have to know what is truth and what is fake news.

› The Big Idea of the Message today is: When false teachers whisper sweet words into the ears of immature Christians, the body of Christ begins to break apart and lose what makes it distinctive—that is, the faith in the unique person and work of Jesus Christ.

• Let’s open our bibles to 2 Peter 2:1:10; we will begin our journey with verses 1-3!

2 Peter 2:1–3 (CSB)

1 There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

2 Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them.

3 They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

SERMON

I. Be alert!

• Once again, Peter warns his readers of the fact that there WILL be false teachers among them.

• We cannot be naive enough to think that there are not false teachers within the church in general.

• We see SOME of them with large ministries and large television ministries.

• These false teachers write books that people soak up, and folks follow their teachings to their personal detriment.

• So what is the problem with false teachers? Does it really matter what you believe as long as you believe?

• I mean, you believe something is true; don’t you get a pass when you eventually realize it is not true?

• False prophets or teachers have been around as long as people have been around.

• Of course, Satan was the first false teacher as he lied and enticed Eve to do what God told her not to do.