Page 1018 in the church-provided Bible, 2 Peter, chapter 2. Just verses one through three of 2 Peter chapter two, this is God's word. 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, We read this far from God's holy word. Consider the negative of a picture. Years ago, I'm revealing my age of course, but many of you will remember this, whenever we got a roll of film developed, Yes, I'm going back that far. When we got a roll of film developed, we would get both the prints and the negatives in that little envelope, remember? So I remember as a boy, and I was young, I was a little boy, I would always hold up those little rows of the negatives and try to see the picture and match them against the print. You'd have the print, now which one is this? Is this my mom? Is this my brother? Is this me? And I would have fun trying to match the picture with its negative. I thought it was cool that the negative was the opposite of the printed picture. And that's what Peter's doing in the letter of 2 Peter here. Chapter 1 we looked at the image, the print, the good picture of good teachers such as the Apostle Peter himself. But now in chapter 2 we're looking at that negative. the opposite of a good teacher, the inverse of good spiritual teachers. In chapter 1, Peter presented us with a picture of the prophets of God giving us the Word of God, and now we're looking at the opposite, the negative of that picture. Remember that this letter of 2 Peter is about knowing Christ. So in chapter one he taught that we know Christ already by faith and we get to know him better through spiritual teachers from Christ such as Peter himself. Sounds great. Well then why is chapter two necessary at all? It's great, we have Christ, we know him, we are given Peter and other ministers. Why does chapter two begin with the word but? See the word but shows a contrast from chapter one to chapter two, but false teachers also arose. See in chapter one we were hearing from trusted eyewitnesses even of Christ about the majesty of Christ and we were being reminded of the value of the Bible. That's what we were just studying these last weeks. All of this was written by trusted spiritual teachers who knew Christ even personally. But good teachers are not the only spiritual teachers in the world Peter needs for us to understand. What if a spiritual teacher did not know Christ personally? Or what if a spiritual teacher did not even know Christ by faith? Could such a person then draw us closer to Christ? Are all spiritual teachers good teachers who can be trusted and they're all drawing us closer to Christ? No. because someone who does not know Christ by faith is an imposter. Let me give you an example. If someone claims he can introduce you to Aaron Rodgers, but he never met Aaron Rodgers, it's false. Right? In the same way, a simple example, a spiritual teacher is a fake if he claims to be able to present you to Christ and draw you deeper into the spiritual things of Christ while he himself doesn't know Christ by faith. So what we need are the discerning skills to see between good and bad teachers. We need spiritual teachers who know the Lord and we must be careful of, very careful of, bad teachers who do not know the Lord and don't teach his word. So my main point today is the Lord wants us to remain aware of the danger of bad spiritual teaching. That negative. Number one, bad pastors or teachers bring wrong teaching that destroys. Number two, if we live like the bad pastors and teachers do, it gives us a bad name to Christianity. Number three, bad pastors rip off people with lies. So number one, bad pastors bring wrong teaching that destroys. The problem of false teachers was not new in Peter's day. It was a problem, he alludes to here in verse one, that existed back in the Old Testament, too. In ancient Israel, God's prophets presented God's word to God's people, and at the same time, false prophets also, at the very same time, tried to introduce their own inventions. Is that a big deal? You just ignore them, right? In Deuteronomy 13, verse five, God said that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death You shall purge the evil from your midst. Deuteronomy 13 five. That sounds like a pretty big deal. Of course, Peter's not calling them in his day to execute false prophets, nor am I, nor do we. But in the Old Testament day, coming from the mouth of God through his servant Moses, that was the command. In other words, the reason I bring that to your attention is to say, this is not just something that can be ignored. This is something that we must carefully detect and do our very best to work against. Why would a false prophet need to be put to death in those days? Because of the level of danger. Where do you place it as a height of danger? How dangerous is it? How close is that danger? In Jeremiah 23, 14 we read this, Jeremiah 23, 14. This is God saying how the false prophets have become to him. It's not just Jeremiah, also Ezekiel wrote words of God with the same sense of danger, the same high level of danger. Ezekiel 22, 28, Wow, now you're going to have a quote on behalf of God when God didn't say that? That's a pretty strong level of danger. To have to speak on behalf of God but you don't have the authority to speak on behalf of God? That's a problem. So we have levels of danger across our society. You're recognized and you're used to levels of danger, right? How high is the level of danger of forest fires? In the southern states, when a hurricane is coming towards the landfall, how high is the level of danger? All little lights. My wife was just telling me yesterday, the lights in the dash of one of the cars are coming on, and I have to determine how high is the level of danger? Is it just one of those nagging lights to fill the windshield wiper fluid, or is it something far more important? We're used to the levels of danger. My question to you is, What sort of level of danger do you put on false teachers being present in our lives? Moses had set the level of danger of false teachers as high. High level of danger around false teachers. And here in the New Testament, Peter is the one to announce that the level of danger is still high around false teachers. Why? For two reasons. Because of their bad message. And secondly, because they claim to be prophets of God, but they weren't. God condemned them for both the lies that they taught and for the falsehoods that they lived. Their lives also reflected their false teaching. Why were these men saying that they were prophets? Why don't they just say, we're false prophets. You guys have true prophets, we teach the opposite over here, come on over. They don't say that. Why don't they just say, we're the bad guys? They don't say that. They say, we are also prophets of God, so that they would be trusted, and then they lead God's people astray. And that's what stirs up God's wrath. When you hurt God's people, it stirs up God's wrath. Why do scam callers call you? Why do scam websites invite you, right? So they want your banking information. and they want you to freely give it to them, right? And so they can take your money. We'll talk more about that in the third point. They will say that there's a legitimate reason and they are a legitimate person, and this is why you should give them your banking information, but they're lying. Right? We understand this. And the same is the case with the false prophets. They're gonna present themselves as telling the truth. They're gonna talk about Jesus, they're gonna talk about the Bible, they're gonna talk about God, they're gonna talk about nice, good things, but it's actually lies because they don't talk about grace, they talk about works and legalism. They talk about something other than the gospel, for example. They say they teach truth, but they really don't. And here's what Peter wrote to the people in his day. False prophets also arose among the people. Now he's talking about the Old Testament days. Just as there will be false teachers among you, New Testament days. So it's always been a problem. And notice that Peter even wrote in the future tense. Will be false teachers among you in the future. It's not a temporary problem that a few fellows Moses ran into and he flagged them and everybody responded and it was the end of it. And it's not a temporary problem with a few bad fellows that Peter found and he tagged them and that's the end of it. No, Peter says here clearly in verse one that in the future, more false teachers will arise. More false teachers will be coming. You can expect that, right? This is what Peter is writing. The apostle's saying a deep truth here to the church that we need to hear and we need to absorb and we need to carry along with us in the rest of our journey. In the entire Christian era, from Christ's ascension up to heaven, on down to the length of time until Christ's second coming in the future, we need to fully expect there's going to be false teachers. Okay? Just put that into your Christian spiritual DNA. It's true, right? It's no different from Isaiah's day, no different from Jeremiah's day, no different from Paul and Peter's time. Jesus himself gave the same warning. Matthew 24, 4, when the disciples asked him for the signs of the end, Jesus answered them, "'will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, "'and they will lead many astray.'" That's our Lord Jesus from Matthew 24, four and five. Paul gave the same warning. You know, Paul always echoes Peter, because the apostles all agree. Paul gave the same warning in Acts 20, 29, "'I know that after my departure, "'fierce wolves will come in among you, "'not sparing the flock, "'and from among your own selves will arise "'men speaking twisted things "'to draw away disciples after them.'" And that was Acts 20, 29. John gave the same warning. 1 John 2, 18. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so many, now many Antichrists have come. Jude gave the same warning, yet another apostle we don't often quote from because he only had one little letter, but his warning in the letter of Jude, verses three and four says this. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Listen, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation. ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. That was Jude, verses three and four. So having heard all of this, right, it's from our Lord, it's from the apostles, it's Old Testament, it's New Testament, let me ask you a question. Should you expect that there's bad spiritual teachers present in your life today? Yes, you should. They're here. Right? And what is their goal? Peter told us in verse one that they want to secretly bring in destructive heresies. They wanna do it secretly. They're not gonna come in and say, hi, I'm a false teacher. They're gonna come in looking like a right teacher, right? And they wanna teach you things that are wrong in order to destroy. And how do they destroy? He says it in verse one. by teaching their false ideas. By teaching their false ideas. Secretly bring in destructive heresies. That's how they destroy. Wait a minute, just teaching? Can't you just ignore them? Turn it off? Turn the channel? Look at a different website? Go to a different building? Right? Don't read that book? Well, ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have bad consequences. Good ideas have good consequences. Big ideas have big consequences. And so when they teach, that's where the destruction comes in. Heresies are false ideas. They're bad ideas. It never remains just ideas. Heresies lead to bad living. Now, since the days that Peter wrote, we've developed quite a nuanced definition of the word heresy, right? And heresy, so a lot more has been loaded into that word, the way we use it. He was simply talking about false teachings, things that are not correct, and we've loaded a lot more into that word. But it's the same concept, same basic idea. The idea is that new thoughts lead to a new way of living, an alternate lifestyle, You put it that way, does that help clue you in? The inevitable result is separation from people who are living the truth. The separation is the part that gives the word heresy its unfavorable connotation. Heresy is a false belief that is designed for destruction. You want to separate people from each other. It doesn't unify, it brings people apart. These beliefs destroy the spiritual lives and the moral lives of people. The false teachers also destroy their own selves. How? Peter told us in verse 1, denying the master who bought them. denying the master who bought them. A master buys slaves, right? And expects obedience from those slaves, because he's the master, they're the slaves. But instead of obeying, they reject. Instead of obeying Jesus Christ, they reject Christ, because they're apostate. They will be destroyed by Christ. And what you need to notice here about verse one, people have been troubled over the years about this verse. Like, wait, I thought you can't lose your salvation. What's the core tenets of the Reformed faith? You can't lose your salvation, right? They did not lose their salvation. Instead, sadly, they were shown to never have been saved at all. They faced swift destruction, therefore. Now you might still be thrown off by the phrase, the master who bought them, in this verse. So let me take you down to the very same chapter here, and Peter himself helps us. You go to verse 20. Let your eyes come down to verse 20 of chapter 2, same chapter. I'm going to read verses 20 and 21. Verse 21. than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. So these two verses, chapter 2 verses 20 and 21, prove Peter's statement here in verse 1 that I just explained. Those who deny the master who bought them are people who understand the gospel. They understand that the master went to the cross and they heard the gospel that he bought them and that he initially said that they believed it. But later, they showed that they did not actually believe it in the first place. And how do we know that? Because they denied Christ. You don't get to the point of denying Christ if you actually believed in Him in the first place. And that's Peter's whole point in verse one. When Peter wrote, Listen, you're either destroyed or saved. It's not that hard, right? So they brought destruction on themselves because they never were saved. That's what he's talking about. They claimed to be Christians. They sat in worship services. They came to Bible studies. And later, they denied Christ, and in their lives you could see how they denied Christ, and they received what every other unbeliever receives. Destruction. Friends, this is terribly sad, but it's so clear. And in verses 20 to 21, the false teachers said that they knew Christ and the way of righteousness, but the truth is that they did not know Christ and his righteousness. So in verse one, the same meaning. Their denial of Christ was not a loss of their salvation. Instead, their denial of Christ showed that they had lied about knowing Christ or were even self-deceived about knowing Christ in the first place. It's very sad. But don't say it's unclear. It's clear and it's sad. And that was the point one of this sermon. Bad pastors or teachers bring wrong teaching that destroys. Their wrong teaching destroys themselves. Their wrong teaching threatens to destroy others, thus the title of the sermon, Danger, Bogus Spiritual Teaching. The danger is false teaching is nearby, so beware. That was point one. Moving on now to point two, if we live like them, Bad teachers, it gives a bad name to Christianity. What you believe guides what you do. If you believe that the stovetop is cool, you might put your hand there. But if you believe it's hot, you won't put your hand there. What you believe governs what you do. All teaching leads to a certain kind of living. Verse two, and many will follow their sensuality. And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. Many. Many people will follow their sensuality. Many true Christians and many unbelievers will follow their sensuality. They will follow temporarily if they're Christians and eventually come to repentance and turn around and receive forgiveness and be restored by Christ and His church. But during the time that they temporarily follow, guess what happens to the reputation of the Church of Christ? Guess what happens to the reputation of truth? It's going to be blasphemed, Peter writes in verse 2. The way of Christianity gets a bad name. Oh, he and she, they're doing the same thing everybody else is doing. It's getting a bad name for the way of truth. It's blaspheming what God says, that you're different, that you're children of God, that you're covered in the holiness of our God. And corrupt spiritual leaders have many true Christians start to follow them. People are like sheep, you know, who seem cheerfully ready to walk in bad pathways. What will they follow, says Peter? Sensuality. Shameful ways and things and actions. The followers adopt the teaching and lifestyle of the false teachers they're following, and instead of shunning their teachers' wrong statements and evil practices, these young, gullible Christians will fall into their traps. And it's so sad. And this is Peter, this pastoral, and he's warning them, please don't let this happen to you. Much like Jesus, our Savior, warned in Matthew 7, 15, listen, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Our Lord said that to us and Peter here is warning us along the same vein. Beware of what exactly? Beware of following them. Why? Because they will cause you shame and bring dishonor to your God through your own actions because you believe things and then you did things. And what are these shameful things? Well, Peter later writes in verse 6 that it includes those who are residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. Does that help give you a clue? And then verse 7 tells us they had wicked lives. In the sensual area of their lives they had excess and extremes and sins in those areas. Enough said? Are you getting the idea? But it's not merely in the sensual area of sexuality, but also in the sensual area of food, and enjoyments, and pleasures, and even money, which we'll talk about in verse 3. But here's the problem, says Peter. The problem is that they teach and preach that these things are not wrong. That's the problem. They're teaching that these things are not wrong, causing true Christians to follow them, not to mention unbelievers, of course, following them. But when the true Christians finally come to their senses, they hear the voice of Jesus and they realize, of course, this is wrong. They're crushed, they come to God in repentance, receive forgiveness, and walk with him again. But all along the time that they fell away, what happened? Same thing verse two says, because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. They brought shame on the name of Christ. There's forgiveness, there's rescue, but we don't want to do that, right? When Peter's explanation of this comes to us, we realize there's teaching and conduct that go together. And what they teach, they practice, and they teach for others to do the same thing, and so they practice what they preach, and so should Christians. And when Peter's audience, the original readers of the letter of 2 Peter, who were scattered, remember? Discouraged, remember? And when the Christians fall into lives of sensuality because of what they believe, that it's okay, it's not really a sin, what happens to the reputation of Christ among those Christians? The reputation of Christ and His truth and His holiness among those Christians is tarnished. And what happens to the reputation of the way of truth? It's badly damaged, if not lost. The reputation of Christianity itself is lost for those who are watching that Christian fall into that sin. Now that's fascinating, isn't it? And we say that pastors live in a glass house. Have you heard that? Pastors live in a glass house. And what it means is everybody's watching your life. But what we find in this verse is it's not just pastors, is it? All Christians live in a glass house and everybody's watching how you live your life. According to verse two, it turns out that every Christian is living in a glass house. Everyone can see our lives. Isn't that fascinating? When believers accept poor or unbiblical teachings and they fall into immorality as a direct result, those believers bring shame on the community of Christ. In verse two, the way of shame and the way of truth are contrasted. There's two different opposite things. Two opposite habits. Two opposite patterns, two opposite lifestyles, one for Christ and one alternate, right? There's two different things contrasted here in verse two. And what's key is to know that you belong to Christ, and you belong on that pathway, and you have His Holy Spirit living within you, the Holy Spirit living within you. Let me try to illustrate before we move to the third point. In Queen Victoria, When Queen Victoria was a young child, just a little girl, she didn't know she was in line for the throne of England yet. No one had told her. They decided not to tell her that she was in line to be the throne of England. They didn't know what would happen to her if they told her that. Her instructors were trying to prepare her for the future. There's a lot of things to learn, a lot of things to do, the curtsies and the performance and all the different things expected of her, not to mention her full education. They were frustrated. All of her instructors were frustrated. They couldn't motivate her. She just didn't take her studies seriously. Queen Victoria to be. And finally, her teachers decided one day that they really ought to tell her that one day she's going to be the Queen of England. You don't behave like this as you grow up, young lady. So they did. They finally told her. They sat her down and explained to her. They said, you're going to be one day in line to be the Queen. Queen Victoria considered this and then she simply said, then I'll be good. It fixed it. It absolutely changed everything about the way that she behaved. The realization that she had inherited this high calling, not to mention high privilege, gave her a sense of responsibility from that moment as a girl and profoundly affected her conduct from that moment forward. And Peter is saying that to you. He's saying, do you realize you're a child of the king? That you're royalty. That you're a citizen of the heavenly holy city of Zion, of Jerusalem. tell you that story to ask you. Because you know that you're a child of the King of Heaven, what sort of conduct will you decide to have? And then thirdly, bad pastors rip off people with lies, verse three. 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. In their greed, begins Peter, verse three. In their greed. Here Peter's exposing one motive. One motive is greed, an excessive desire for money, of course. They were interested in the money that Christians have. Greed led them to attempt to gain their money. They would launch what we call scams today. When they get money from scams, their greed leads them to attempt to get more money from more scams. And in verse 14, Peter wrote that they were trained in greed. They were literally experts in greed. The best scam artists. Why? Because they don't know Christ. Money or God, which do they worship? They worship money. And Jesus said you can't worship both God and money. And look at the contrast with the apostles, such as Paul, who wrote in 2 Corinthians 2.17, for we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word. That means sellers of. But as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2.17. So back to our verse here by Peter, 2 Peter 2.3, which uses the word exploit, right? In their greed, they will exploit you. That means con you, make a profit from you, to cheat you, to take advantage of you. And how do they do it? Notice what it says. In their greed, they will exploit you with false words. The teaching is what's dangerous. The teaching is where the danger is. Again, the title of the sermon, Danger, Bogus Spiritual Teaching. The teaching is what is dangerous. It's not just innocent. And with God's wisdom, we're supposed to know when a story is made up. We're supposed to know when someone's trying to fool us. Isn't it interesting, if you go back to chapter 1 and verse 16, Peter seems to be defending himself against a false accusation that he had cleverly devised myths. Isn't that interesting? The truth is that it was the false teachers who were making stuff up. Their false teaching. Hear this phrase in chapter two, verse three, with false words is stuff they made up. We're supposed to tell the difference between truth and falsehood. And sometimes you need the wisdom of God. I'll tell you a quick story about President Abraham Lincoln. Once a stubborn disputer seemed unconvinced at something he said. He was stating facts and the disputer seemed unconvinced. Well, it's true. It's the facts. I don't believe it. I don't buy it. So Abraham Lincoln kind of backed up a little bit, and he said, well, let's see. Just humor me for a moment. I mean, how many legs does a cow have? Four, of course, came the reply, disgustedly, like, what does that have to do with anything? That's right, that's right, four, said President Lincoln. Now, suppose you call the cow's tail a leg. Then how many legs would the cow have? Well, five, of course, came the confident and disgusted reply. Now, that's where you're wrong, said President Lincoln. Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. A cow has four legs, still, no matter what you call the tail. And he was getting the point across to his disputer. The truth is these facts. And that's what Peter is getting across to us. There's facts about the Lord Jesus Christ. He went over them all in chapter one, that Jesus has come into this world, that he died for our sins, that he rose again, that he has ascended to heaven, that he's sending his Holy Spirit, and that he's going to come again. and false Christs and false apostles and false prophets and false pastors want to gain money from you, in addition to power and influence and other things. But true, the true Christ, his true apostles, true prophets and true pastors want you to gain riches, spiritual riches, by being saved by Christ and sanctified in his name and living that holy life until he comes again for us. Good ones want you to be blessed. Bad ones want you to be ripped off. Peter is saying it's really that simple. You ought to really be able to differentiate in a clean and clear way. It's not that hard to differentiate between true and false teachers. Bad ones are like pirates crossing the sea looking for ships to steal from. Good ones are like missionaries crossing the same sea looking for souls to save. It's really that stark of a difference. What have we seen today? The Lord wants us to remain aware of the danger of bad spiritual teaching. Bad pastors or teachers bring wrong teaching that destroys. Number two, if we live like those bad teachers, it gives us a bad name as Christians and gives Christ himself and Christianity a bad name. And number three, bad pastors rip off people with lies. Let me tell you a story and then three concluding points. Years ago, a group of pioneers were making their way west across the central states to a distant place that had been opened up for a homestead. They're making their way across the early states and they traveled in covered wagons. Remember those days? You've seen and read about it. Covered wagons drawn by oxen. Progress was so slow. Can you imagine? One day, they're driving along very slowly with their oxen and bumping along. One day, they're horrified to see a very long line of smoke off in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie. All they could see was smoke. And soon, it was evident that the dried grass ahead of them was burning fiercely and coming towards them as rapidly as a fire can. They had just crossed a river the day before, but it would be impossible to get back to that river to protect them from the flames that were coming towards them. Just not enough time. Only one man in the crowd seemed to understand what could be done. He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind the caravan. Set fire to the grass. Do it, just do it right now. And so they did. And when a space was burned over the small fire that they had set, and then a fire went out, the whole company, Oxen and everything, all the wagons and all the people got into that burned, scorched earth. They moved back onto that burned out area. And here comes the wildfire. Flames racing toward them from the west. All they could do was stand there, and watch it come. A little girl got scared. A little girl got terror in her heart and her eyes. And she said to the gentleman whose idea this was, are you sure we won't be burned up? He said to her, my child, the flames can't reach us here because we're standing where the fire has already been. We're standing where the fire's already been. What a picture of us as believers, safe in Christ Jesus. You might be surrounded by the flames of danger and false teachers and bogus spiritual teaching, but where you stand on the gospel news, the Lord Jesus Christ was dead and is alive for you, You're where the fire has already been. The Lord Jesus took the fires. He took the false accusations. He took the destruction of God's wrath. The fires of God's wrath burned themselves out on Christ's death on the cross for our sins. And we know Christ by faith who rose again. And we are safe in our knowledge of Christ forever because we're standing where the fires have already been. Don't step into the wild fires, flames, of the teaching of false prophets. Stay where it's safe, in Christ. So three applications as you go. Number one, remember how it all ends for bad prophets. Remember how it all ends, the end of verse three I didn't say much about, let me read it. Two words should stand out to you, condemnation and destruction. Remember how it all ends for bad teachers. God determined a very long time ago how he's going to deal with these bad teachers. They already now stand condemned and their judgment is coming. Their judgment has not been sleeping. It has not been inactive. God is orchestrating all things according to his perfect will and he's building a case against them actually and even now is using them to work his own good purposes in your life. Number one was remember how it all ends for bad teachers from verse three. Takeaway number two, detect which kind of prophet it is when you hear him. Detect which kind of prophet it is when you hear him. There's only two kinds of spiritual teachers, good and bad, just to really be simple about it. We're not talking here about simple errors or things you might disagree with. We're talking about those who preach the gospel and those who don't. Just before the death of actor W.C. Fields, a friend visited Fields' hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. If you know about W.C. Fields, he wouldn't be doing that, but he was on this day. Asked what he's doing with a Bible, Fields replied, I'm looking for loopholes. That's not how it works. He's supposed to detect earlier in his life what kind of prophet it is he's listening to and following. God is the determiner for who is good or bad and the prophet and preacher and the key difference is whether they know Christ or not. If you know Christ, your teaching is good. You must detect a bad prophet when you hear him. What are you supposed to distinguish? Who is it that tells you about the grace of God in Jesus Christ? Or who tells you to try to earn it? Do better, try to earn it, be better. Who urges you to live a holy life in God's strength and for God's glory? Who asks you to keep trusting in Christ despite the suffering you're in? You're distanced, you're discouraged, Peter's writing to that audience. Who reminds you of the second coming of Christ in one day and keeps your hope alive for that? Who points you to the word of God? Who appeals just to your sinful nature? Come on, it's not wrong, you can do it. Who's reminding you of the ancient truths of the God that we will face one day? Who's giving you a message that sounds like Isaiah, that sounds like Jeremiah, that sounds like Ezekiel, that sounds like Peter and Paul, and even lines up with the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ himself? You have this book, in print, in your own language. You can detect what kind of prophet it is. when you hear him. That was number two. My last one, remember your lifestyle reflects your beliefs. Remember your lifestyle reflects your beliefs. So you gotta ask yourself, what do you believe? What are you following? Who are you following? To whom are you listening? And don't fall into those ways of shame. The best way to do that is to keep on believing those ways are shameful. We are children of God and are to live like citizens of heaven. Don't let shameful ways influence you. Third one was remember your lifestyle reflects your belief. One, remember how it all ends for bad teachers. Number two, detect what kind of prophet it is when you hear him. Number three, remember that your lifestyle reflects your beliefs. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus and ask that you'll keep us from the danger of false prophets by giving us ears to hear your voice. In the name of the Word of God, in Jesus Christ we pray, amen.