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.
• In chapter two, Peter will expose the teaching of the false teachers, their methods, along their motives.
• In Old Testament times, we see false prophets all of the time.
• When God’s prophets warned the people of impending doom, the false teachers were telling everyone what they wanted to hear, that all would be alright, nothing to worry about.
• In verse one, we see we are called to be alert to these false teachers because they will bring destructive heresies.
› Heresies: in Greek thought, the term “heresy” was used to refer to a particular school of thought or the teachings of such a group. This positive sense was later lost, and the negative sense of “faction” (as in 1 Cor 11:19) or “false teaching” became its primary meaning. (UBS Handbook: 2 Peter)
• The early church defined heresies as “only those doctrines or teachings that change the nature of the faith so fundamentally that it no longer can be trusted to be saving faith.”
• In the present context, heresies refer to teachings or doctrines that are false and against accepted Christian teaching (as in TEV “untrue doctrines”).
• These heresies taught by false teachers are also described as destructive. Arichea, D. C., & Hatton, H. (1993). A handbook on the letter from Jude and the second letter from Peter (p. 104). New York: United Bible Societies.
• The word BRING can mean to SMUGGLE in or to INTRODUCE.
• These teachers will smuggle these false teaching into the church.
• Most of the time, they will not come right out and say what they mean; they hide it in some truth.
• Politicians can be masters of this!
• Why are these heresies destructive?
• The word DESTRUCTIVE denotes the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists.
• Peter gives an example of the false teaching!
• Any teaching that denies Jesus, who He is, and where He came from is a false teacher!
• These false teachings are destructive because they will bring swift destruction upon the teachers.
• There is no more certain way to ultimate condemnation than to deny the Lord and teach others to sin! (Gareth Reese, 2 Peter Commentary).
• False teachers are dangerous because, for whatever reason, many will get sucked into following them.
• Unfortunately, false teachers usually gain a following.
• One reason is that the false teaching always has an attractive element to it, in this case, its “depraved ways.”
• The term normally indicates sensual immorality, most often of a sexual nature.
• Later in this chapter, Peter will be much more specific about these sins, where he writes of their sexual excesses and greed.
• We have seen the stories of some of the false teachers from our day involved in such terrible activity.
• When this happens, it gives Christianity a bad name because people associate the people in question with Christianity, and Jesus ends up getting dragged through the mud.
• Verse three reminds us these teachers are driven by greed.
• We have seen the prosperity preachers and the damage they have done.
• There is nothing wrong with making your living as a teacher or preacher of the Gospel.
• When greed takes over to the point that one starts to twist the truth to become popular and make more money, the line has been crossed.
• It takes a great deal of skill to put a spin on words so that people will think they are hearing the truth, while at the same time, the speaker is hiding their real motive and intent.
• Be alert to false teaching and teachers.
• Christians should pay close attention to the nature of the false teaching here in 2 Peter and throughout the New Testament.
• Those labeled “false teachers” are typically those who are denying a central doctrine of Christianity.
• For example, some denied that Jesus came in the flesh (1 John 4:2); others taught that the resurrection of believers had already taken place (2 Timothy 2:18).
• Many others taught that sins of the flesh were of no concern.
• When central Christian teachings are being denied, Christians must do as Peter, Paul, and John did.
• We must call out the error and correct it!
• Let’s turn to verses 4-6.
2 Peter 2:4–6 (CSB)
4 For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;
5 and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly;
6 and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;
II. Examples of the consequences of following false teachers.
• There are consequences of following false teaching.
• Peter offers three examples of the dire consequences of following false teaching.
• Peter starts with the fallen angels.
• Even though we are not sure of the specific event that Peter writes, we know that Satan and his crew fit this description.
• Isaiah 14:12-17 is a reference to this.
• These leaders of false teaching will face final judgment for what they have done!
• Peter moves to a couple of examples we know a great deal about.
• In verse five, he speaks of the ancient world in the days of Noah.
• The whole world had gotten so bad that God sent a flood to wipe everyone off the earth, except for Noah and his family.
› Noah’s building of the ark would certainly have given him the opportunity to explain the coming judgment and invite people to repent and believe in God, but his entreaties fell on deaf ears, just as the truth of Christ’s atonement fell on the deaf ears of the false teachers of Peter’s day. (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary[Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999], 1696).
• It is not surprising that Peter uses the flood story to remind his readers that “the ancient world” was destroyed because the people were “ungodly.”
• People were living their lives as they desired; Noah was building a boat in the middle of the field.
• Even though God was going to wipe the earth clean, He was still patient; Noah did not build that ark in a month.
• Peter also references the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 6.
• Genesis makes clear that sexual perversion was the primary cause of Sodom and Gomorrah.
• This was intended to be a fearful example of the seriousness of not observing the sexual distinctions which God has determined.
• These cities were full of sinful, detestable behavior.
• In Genesis 19 it is the men following their basest sexual desires that lead to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
• Peter refers to the “filthy lives of lawless men” in the next verse.
• In verses 13–14, Peter will accuse his opponents of the same.
• Here he assures his readers that their fate will also be like that of Sodom and Gomorrah. (College Press Commentary, 2 Peter)
• Today people think that with all the perversion around us, that their will no harm done, that God will turn a blind eye to what is happening.
• I believe there is an effort to force Christians to accept and embrace whatever immorality society deems fit.
• In our desire to be compassionate (WHICH WE SHOULD BE), we are neglecting our responsibility to lovingly share the truth with lost people.
• You cannot have it both ways; you either believe what the Word of God teaches, or you do not.
• If you seek to twist, change or turn the scriptures, you do not believe the Bible.
• Let’s turn to verses 7-10.
2 Peter 2:7–10 (CSB)
7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral
8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;
III. Trust that God can protect you.
• One of the lures of following false teaching is we think we are missing something.
• One group tells us there is another testament of Jesus, one that, for some reason, had been hidden for a couple of thousand years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
• There have ALWAYS been groups who claim to have secret teaching that had not been revealed until they discovered them.
• We have to trust that God has given us what we need to live the life God calls us to live!
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (CSB)
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
• We have to trust that God can and will protect us in the end.
• We do not need to jump on the false teaching bandwagon to be saved.
• We do not need another revelation of Jesus to know who He is and to be saved!
• God rescued Lot and most of his family during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
• Verse eight tells us that Lot was protected from destruction because his righteous soul was tormented by what he had seen.
• The Genesis narrative shows him to be one who believed and trusted God, despite some obvious failings. He protected his visitors from the men of Sodom and pleaded with the Sodomites not to do “this wicked thing.”
• God will protect the righteous from eternal punishment, and He will deal out punishment to the false teachers and the unrighteous.
• That seems cruel, but when you think about it, it is not.
• Why would God make you spend eternity with Him when you did not want to do so in this life?
• Verse 9 tells us that God knows how to rescue the ones who are godly from trials.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (CSB)
13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
CONCLUSION
› Application Point: Believers should apply themselves to learning the true knowledge of God and live out the life of faith
• We have to be aware of those who would try to lure us away from Jesus with false teaching.
• We will never grow in Grace if we are not following Biblical teaching.
