We return in the preaching of the word this evening to 2 Peter chapter 2, third installment of three sermons on the topic of false teachers. This one, particularly centering on that important connection between right doctrine and the Christian life, the living of the Christian life, the necessity and importance of knowing the truth of God's word in order to walk in the way that he has called us to walk. A little bit of background, a little bit of introduction if you haven't been with us this whole chapter is about those As we read in verse 1, who are among the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, who claim the name of Christ, who are pastors even, teachers, preachers, who claim to open the word of God, speak on behalf of God, but who in reality are false teachers and who are leading the people of God astray. Chapter 2, verse 1 reminds us that not only did this happen in the New Testament, but this is a very old problem. It says, but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you. And there, Peter is referring to the fact that this just isn't a, this isn't simply a New Testament phenomenon, but that already in the Old Testament, there was a problem even within Israel, the chosen people of God are those who would stand up and say, thus says the Lord, but we're really speaking for themselves. That's the problem here that the church is facing in Peter's day. Again, we've also reviewed that this church was challenged in a lot of ways. They were challenged by the difficulty of being Christians in a pagan society and what it meant to defend their faith and stand for the Lord and live as the, some of them were married to unbelievers, had unbelieving masters and they were slaves, some of them. In this period, we're also feeling the weight or the difficulty of living under an ungodly government. And Peter has given much instruction on these things in the first letters. Between the first and the second letter, the church seems to have undergone persecution and great suffering. And now this added challenge of an attack from within those who claim the name of Christ who are now undermining the church from within the very walls of the church itself. The whole chapter is full of warnings about this reality in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And really what it does for us is two things. It's teaching us about false teachers and false teaching, but at the same time, by implication, it's making a contrast between true undershepherds of the Lord Jesus Christ and those who are false. Faithful shepherds, God has always raised them up for his people. What do they do? They protect the sheep. They work to preach. to teach, to visit, to engage in pastoral care, to exhort, to lead, to rebuke. And their pattern is Christ and his own self-giving, humble ministry. It's not work for cowards or those who are faint of heart. If you just read the book of Acts and the ministry of the Apostle Paul or his own description of his ministry, particularly in his letters to the church at Corinth, you'll understand that it is not easy labor, nor is it labor that is filled with the thanksgiving and praise of men. It's not work in which there is compromise or there ought to be any politicking. They're not part of this calling. It is a calling to genuinely love Christ, to work for Christ in his kingdom, to be willing to lay down our life for him and for his people. That's the work of a true and faithful shepherd. Now, these false teachers and false shepherds and false prophets were doing just the opposite. They were living for themselves. They were exercising a self-centered ministry, if those two words can even go together. They were operating on self-centered goals, and we've seen a number of those. They were protecting their own name. They were interested in gathering a following. They were hungry for money. They didn't care about holiness or true morality. They lived licentiously. And we've also read that because of their lack of concern for God's Word, their willingness to change their message to suit whoever was hearing, the fact that they were leading thousands astray instead of to Christ, that their judgment is not idle, but that God would execute judgment on them just as surely as he did on the world in the days of Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot, and the angels who fell from heaven. But then Peter goes on, after teaching us about these shepherds and about God's judgment on them, and in the last verses, really from the second half of verse 10, verse 10b to the end of the chapter, he doesn't stop. He picks up again with a very heated description of these false shepherds one more time, their dangers, their methods, and their end. After having described it once, as it were, he goes over it all over again. You see, why does he do this? Because he is a faithful shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is one who has given his life to serve Christ. He's going to die for the Lord Jesus Christ. He's willing to give up his life for the church of Christ and suffer with the church. And when he sees these wolves circling the sheep fold of Christ, he is righteously angry. He is righteously angry. And this is not a wrong response when we run into false teaching and false teachers. Matter of fact, you saw, we saw last week that the judgment of false teachers would be even greater than the days of Noah and of Sodom and Gomorrah. That God is himself very angry with those who claim to speak for him but lead others astray. In our day, sadly, this is not uncommon. There are many places, there are even many churches here in the upstate, where there are people who claim to speak for God, but if you match their words with the words of the Bible, there's a great disconnect. Some of them are very successful. Some of them attract thousands, some of them even attract even 10,000 people or more per Sunday to listen to them preach. But if you examine what they are saying and how they are operating, they seem to be much closer to what is described here in the text than a faithful under-shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ. And sadly, people are falling for this like the children of Ham when fell for the Pied Piper to their great danger. And the apostle has reached a critical point in his dealings. He is not simply going to declare, their danger and their judgment, but he's going to declare it one more time with very colorful language. He knows the true cost of redemption, the true gospel, he loves the church, he sees the wolves and he will expose them. He unloads in these last verses the rest that he has against these false teachers and one more revealing, condemning, sobering warning against false teachers and their danger to the church. And because the apostle continues on, we continue on tonight under the same theme, the danger of false teachers in the church. We're going to look at three things from our text, three very simple things. Two traits, two central traits that he comes back to concerning false teachers. We're going to look at the method of these false teachers, how they operate in the church. And then thirdly, we're going to look at Peter's once again description of their certain end, their destruction. So again, two central traits, their method, how they go about their work. and how they go about their false teaching, and then three, the end, and then after that, some applications for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, two central traits that are described here. We're beginning again in the second half of verse 10. If you have an English Standard Version of the Bible, you'll see that there's a paragraph break in the middle of verse 10. In the New King James Version, it's not as obvious, but there is a new sentence. After describing, their judgment, the apostle goes on to review again some of their characteristics. And the first trait that he speaks of is an extraordinary self-confidence. An extraordinary self-confidence. Look at the words of the text there. As he describes them, he says these words. They are presumptuous and self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. And they speak evil of things they do not understand, the second half of verse 12. They are quick to speak, and they are confident when they speak. The words here, presumptuous or self-willed, give this picture of a remarkable self-confidence. and their self-confidence is illustrated in a particular way. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. Now the word there in the Greek is the glorious ones. And there's some difficulty here to understand what the direct connection is. It's a word that can be used simply for civil rulers. But if we look at the context more carefully, it appears that these dignitaries or glorious ones, I think the best interpretation of it is that Peter is giving an example, a remarkable example, that these false Now teachers are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, that is of fallen angels, fallen glorious ones. And these glorious ones who have fallen, these false teachers speak against, but then Peter goes on to say, whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. In other words, there seems to be a reference here, a cryptic reference in one sense to the fact that there were angels in heaven who fell and their natural station by creation is glory and power. They are exalted beings. That they fell from glory into rebellion and that the angels who did not fall from glory into rebellion, that these would be unwilling to raise an accusation against the others on account of their status or on account of their rank in creation. That there was a respect for those whom God had given a certain rank. Now this can be applied if it's applied to the civil realm, if that's the interpretation, it's the same thing. But that there are those who are raised up by God, given a place of glory in their office or by virtue of creation, and that the angels in heaven would not be willing to speak against those who God himself had raised up, but these false teachers are so filled with self-confidence, they will speak against anyone. They have no respect for authority, whether it be God's word, God's messengers, faithful ministers, civil magistrates, they put themselves on the pinnacle and are willing to judge all and everyone else. Peter goes on to describe this confidence with a rather Colorful picture in verse 12, these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed speak evil of the things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption. There is an extreme self-confidence and a willing to take down even those things which God himself has raised up either by the rank in creation by their place in office. They have no respect for authority. And this extraordinary self-confidence is always part of the nature of false teaching. I think of it for a moment. I'll give you an example of someone who I think simply by his record and his teaching is a false teacher and very popular. A man named Joel Osteen who wrote a book called Your Best Life Now who preaches to thousands of people each week. And he preaches, really, if you examine his message, very simply, a neo-paganism disguised as Christianity with Christian language. But think of what someone like this man does every week. Think of the self-confidence you need to do this. To walk up to, let's say, a stadium full of 35,000 people and be beamed on TV all over the place and have nothing to offer, no truth, No biblical foundation to rest on, no gospel, no power. The healings that might be claimed will be false. All the money and happiness that are promised each week won't come to pass. And still, he and many others like him are able to walk out each week and say, your life is going to be wonderful. There is an extraordinary self-confidence. The spotlight comes on, it's that self-confidence which drives these false teachers. And people love somebody with self-confidence. They're attracted like a moth to a flame. Peter says this is going to be one of the central traits of false teachers, a remarkable self-confidence. If you contrast this with true ministers of the gospel throughout the scriptures, you see a huge difference. You remember, John the Baptist did, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist, whose birth was foretold by angels. How does he preach Christ? In Matthew chapter three, verse 11, indeed, I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. In John chapter 3 he says, he must increase and I must decrease. We read that John the Baptist was not the light but he came to bear witness to the light and he did so gladly and willingly. The ministry of the Apostle Paul is another example of these things. Rather than brimming with self-confidence after he considers his ministry in the second letter to the church at Corinth, what does he ask? He says, for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. He says, this is my ministry. My ministry is to preach. And to some, I'm preaching a message of life. And to others, I'm preaching a message of judgment. And we come with the aroma of Christ himself. This is my labor. To the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death. And the other, aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. And then again in chapter three, verse five, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. And the extraordinary humility And even dependency of our Lord Jesus Christ in his own ministry is a striking contrast to the presumptuous, self-willed, authority-denying ministry of these false teachers. You ever think about our Lord Jesus Christ, not only his humility, which we looked at last week, but his dependency on his father, how many times he was praying, how many times he was pleading, How many times he, as the second person of the Trinity, humbling himself and seeking for that communion and power that came from the Father and the Spirit. Self-emptying, not self-aggrandizing. And Peter says, here is the great contrast with the false teachers of this world. They are presumptuous and self-will. A second trait that he gives for us, is the trait which motivates them. Not only are they filled with this self-confidence, but secondly, they always pursue the lusts of the flesh. They are driven by the lusts of the flesh. Look what we see in the text here. Again, they're already called natural brute beasts in verse 12. In verse 14, Actually, at the end of verse 13, rather, while they feast with you, there are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, they have a heart trained in covetousness. and are accursed children. And he describes three things there. Three lusts. They are feasting with you. Their eyes are full of adultery, carnal pleasures. They have a wandering eyes. They look over these followers of them. And their heart, not trained in the scriptures, is trained in covetousness. They're only thinking money, money, money. They might not know much theology, but they know how to get money out of their followers. And the central identifying feature here in the second place is that they're motivated by their own lusts, not by Christ and his kingdom and his glory, motivated by their own lusts, by their own pleasures. And notice these pleasures themselves, not wrong in and of themselves, food, sexuality, money, even though it's adultery they're here, they're going after, which is sinful. But these are the motives for their ministry. That's what Peter is saying. This is what drives them to move forward in their preaching. They want these lusts of their flesh to be satisfied. And they're compared in a humiliating way in verse 15 After having been called, spots and blemishes, accursed children, Peter now goes on to say they've forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity. A dumb donkey, speaking with a man's voice, restrained the madness of the prophet. Peter says, in their pursuit of lust, they remind him of a man from the Old Testament named Balaam. Now Balaam, you remember, the Israelites were traveling to the Promised Land. They're passing through the land of Moab. The king of Moab, Balak, hires Balaam. He pays him enough money and he says, what I want you to do is curse the children of Israel. Bring a curse down upon them. Prophesy against them. And Balaam, of course, what was his answer? I'll do that, no problem, for money. And Peter's saying, you're the same way. These false teachers are exactly the same way. They're driven by money. And if you give them enough money, they'll say anything you want them to say. And the line that clinches it is, but remember that Balaam was silenced by a dumb donkey. Here's a humiliating example of these men as they pursue their lusts and teach unrighteousness. But again, the contrast with the true ministry of the gospel, the focus of the true ministry of the gospel is not the receiving of these pleasures, of the passing pleasures of this world, but it is to give them up, rather, for the higher privilege of serving and suffering for Christ. You remember Moses, who was a prophet. The writer of the Hebrews tells us that exact thing about his ministry. who gave up the pleasures of Egypt. He was born into the royal court. He had whatever he wanted, food, pleasure, and money. They were all his. And he gave them up that he might be a prophet of God most high, that he might speak for the Lord. He sought first the kingdom of God and the righteousness that God had promised in Jesus Christ, and then went out ministering the name of the Lord. Paul, another example of this rather than the focus of his ministry to be the pursuit of lusts. What did he say? But we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block. To the Greeks, foolishness. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And this was the motivation for all of his ministry, to preach the Christ that he had come to know. And that was enough for living and dying. But Peter says, a false teacher. preaches for his own lusts. But those are the two characteristics then which will always be in place, an extreme self-confidence and at the end of the day being motivated by their own lusts and pleasures, their own personal advancement. But what is their method then? How do they go about their work? What do they do when they exercise this so-called ministry? The text in verses 18 and 19 tell us that they actually are quite successful. We already saw that in the first verses. They secretly bring in destructive heresies, verse 1, and then verse 2, and many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. Here we have an echo of that truth again. And they are successful, not only in numbers as we see in verse 2, but in what they do. As a matter of fact, they are described as speaking great swelling words of emptiness. Now before we get to the emptiness part. There is, in one sense, a commendation of their methods. They seem to be successful communicators. They're communicating nothing of substance, but it is often a hallmark or characteristic of a false teacher is that they're able to speak well. They're able to communicate well. They're easy to listen to. And here they're speaking great swelling words of emptiness, however, and we'll see that later in a moment, the importance of that. The second thing that they do is that they allure through the loss of the flesh and through lewdness. That is, they preach, they're driven by these base and carnal desires of their own, and they preach to motivate men by the very desires that they themselves follow. In other words, their ministry is to incite these lusts of the flesh, often through lewdness. They preach, to use the popular term, to felt needs. And whether it be loneliness or marriage, And there's so many teachers right now. As a matter of fact, it seems to be a great movement amongst these megachurches, particularly, to teach on marriage and how to restore your marriage and fix your marriage. Much of it, I think, is really an idolatry. That marriage itself, as if it is some, the chief end of the Christian life, it's not. Often it's a thin guise for the pursuit of their own lusts. Whether it be loneliness or money woes or all these things, they're preaching to what people want to hear. They're preaching to meet the lusts of the flesh. In contrast with the true gospel, which is preached by the apostles, by the apostle Peter here, the contrast with the true gospel is the following. The true gospel does not preach to the needs that man thinks he has, but the needs that God himself declares that man has. The central need being the need for forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel doesn't preach to the needs and desires of the flesh but rather our spiritual needs and our needs for forgiveness and cleansing and eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel defines what our needs are and it gives the answer to our needs. And it leads then as we embrace Christ to a life of self-denial, daily suffering, and the promise of glory. And that means, very simply, if you want to live your best life now, that is in terms of pleasures, which so many of these people promise, the scriptures say, as a matter of fact, when you compare that with the message of the gospel and the message of Christ we looked at a few weeks ago, to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Christ, there is a great contrast. The gospel is not a message that conforms to the lusts of men. One, so we see there's two characteristics of their method. One, they're successful communicators. Two, they preach to meet these needs. And three, they promise liberty. Look what the text says here. Verse 19, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. Before we get to this matter of them being slaves of corruption, the third part of their method is to promise in the midst of all of this preaching that God loves them and that all is well in living and dying. As a matter of fact, they understand that man's problem is guilt. The reason for unhappiness is guilt and they seem to pave that over by promising liberty and freedom. And I want you to know that if you do these things, Ebenezer and I were driving here on the way to church, and I said, if I preached, if I preached as well as I could, if I preached promising people all that their hearts would desire in this life, and if I told them that they were not guilty before God, but that all was well in the world, I said, do you think people would want to hear that preaching? And they said, yes, of course. Thousands want to hear that message without the offense of the cross. And it's an astonishing thing. I mean, this is why football stadiums are filled again and again, because this is the very message that people want to hear. It conforms exactly to sinful lusts and desires and doesn't require any humility before God in pleading for mercy. And what's astonishing is that we as Christians should not fall for the fact that the stadiums are filled with thousands of people. And even, I mentioned last week the new Calvinism. And I'll mention it again this week. My growing concern that even amongst Reformed and Presbyterian circles that this new Calvinism movement, because of its numbers alone, is causing many not to think carefully about the content of the message preached. But if you preach a message that meets, that says what people want to hear, you will have, you can have thousands of people if you do it very well. And we already read that in verse two earlier here. Now why does this work so well? Why? Because such a message, delivered well, focusing on natural lusts and promising peace with God without going to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, such a message is designed by Satan himself. Because Satan knows the human heart. He knows what we want. And if he can turn the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life into virtues, that message will be well-received into the world. And thousands will come because of this teaching. If teaching promises what your desires want and lets you feel good about it, it's tailor-made for guilty sinners who want to get rid of the guilt but want to keep the sin. And that's what happens with this kind of preaching. And this is why Jesus called false teachers wolves in sheep's clothing. And this is why Peter is so angry here in this passage. Again, I've been unpacking this substance, but if we go back and look at time after time where he describes these false teachers, listen to the phrases he uses. In verse 12, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed. The end of verse 12, they will utterly perish in their own corruption. They will receive the wages of unrighteousness. They are spots and blemishes. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray. They are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. As a matter of fact, in the New Testament, this is one of the most intense, intense passages of the judgment of God. Perhaps matched, well matched surely by the Lord Jesus Christ himself in Matthew chapter 23 as he speaks against the false teachers, the scribes and the Pharisees and pronounces those woes. Again in the book of Jude, God takes the teaching of his name, his word, his glory, his kingdom seriously. We've already intimated it but what is the end of these false teachers? Again, we studied it last week but it is all through this text. The end is that these preachers, in verse 19, who promise liberty, they have no liberty themselves. They themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whom a person is overcome, by him he is also brought into bondage. They're promising liberty. They're slaves of their own corruptions. They are bound. They are not free. And then in verse 20 and 21. We have some sobering words. The words, it's really the language of apostasy here. What is their end? The sobering thing is that most, the false teachers that Peter is talking about are the ones who know the word of God, who claim to speak for the Lord Jesus Christ, who know the language of the body, the Bible rather, And today, in our day and age, they would be the ones who are opening their Bibles, maybe on the television or on YouTube clips. You see them reading it. They know the language. Some of them can even give a rough sketch of the gospel. God uses it, and God can even use that as he wills in spite of Satan's efforts. They even think themselves to be Christians. Look at verse 20. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, They seem to think that they are right with God. Again, it's the language of apostasy. The text is not teaching that they've been delivered, and they're in Christ, and then they then fall out of Christ. But they think they are Christians. The fact that they are driven by these baser lusts, the promise of success, money, and pleasure, will ultimately reveal their true nature. Where they will end up is to be revealed to be false. Verse 22 very simply says, but it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire. Their detour into Christianity will be short and they will return one day to the lusts that drive them all along. And then that language of their disturbing end in verse 21 could not be any clearer. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them." The scriptures teach that there is one thing worse than simply going to hell. The one thing worse is to go before the presence of God, having known the scriptures, having heard the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ, having known that he's the only savior of sinners, and then turning our backs on him and living in our own lusts anyways. The writer of the Hebrews speaks of this in strong language in Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 through 6, that when we have tasted the good things, the life to come, the good things that the Lord provides in Jesus Christ and we turn away, he says it is as if we are trampling the blood of the Son of God under our feet. What Peter is saying is that there could not have been, there cannot be a harsher judgment and the judgment then God executes on those who turn from the holy commandments delivered to them and turn their backs on God. It's not only a warning for them, it's a warning for the whole church. It's a warning not to follow false teaching. And it's a warning to respond truly from the heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and cling to him by faith for salvation. Well, what are some lessons for the church from this chapter? Let me give you three, three simple lessons. One of them is going to be familiar. We've had it in various forms over the last two weeks already, but I'm going to give it to you again because this chapter is so important. And that is one more time. Be on the lookout for those who claim to speak for Christ but are not. As a matter of fact, almost every single book in the New Testament speaks of false teaching and its danger to the church. That means the sermons you listen to, the people you watch on TV, whatever you download onto your iPod, the things you listen to. Listen to those who are teaching according to the word of God. Anything else is dangerous for your heart and soul. Jesus warned in the Sermon on the Mount, again concerning wolves in sheep's clothing. Paul warns throughout his letters. Peter here in his epistle. James, John, almost the whole New Testament is full of this warning. Sit under faithful preaching. And if it is not faithful, do not give it the time of day. If you don't know, last week we talked about ways you can know. We're in a confessional church. One of the beauties we have is a confession of faith, a standard of doctrine that your ministers and your elders and your deacons subscribe to and which should be the standard for all the preaching and teaching of the church, one that you can learn and know that you might equip yourself in good doctrine. If you still don't know or if you struggle along the way, ask someone you trust, one of your elders or your pastor, is this a faithful ministry, a useful book? Be a Berean, compare it with the scriptures. Ultimately, that is where you need to be rooted and grounded in the truth of God's word. But be aware, the whole New Testament tells you, be careful, there is false teaching, flee from it. Lesson number two. Learn from this the connection between good doctrine and a faithful walk with the Lord. Age old lie of the devil is this, expressed in various ways. The first way. The doctrine is for your head and makes the Christian cold. It's just head knowledge. A local pastor, as a matter of fact, a local pastor in Charlotte in one of these mega churches, I looked up some quotes for you concerning doctrine. This is what he said. This is one of the most successful churches in Charlotte. If you want the doctrines of grace from John Calvin, go stuff your head in another church. You won't receive it here. Here's the phone book, find somewhere else. That's the attitude towards doctrine. Another church, actually this is one in Anderson. Most Christians are educated way beyond their obedience anyways, so why learn more? You believe that? From a pulpit of a church that claims to preach Christ. American Christianity is full of this attitude. that the knowledge of God, a growing knowledge of God, rooted in the scriptures is not essential to true Christian life. And it is a lie from the pit of hell. Another way it's put is all you really need to know is how to live, how to have a fulfilling marriage, how to live for God, not who God is. Or another way it's put is you just need to experience God, you just need to have some feeling of who God is. All of those things put you in great danger to receive false teaching. I've been 13 years ago since I was first ordained as a deacon, served as an officer, and through those years I have been active at the Diaconal and Session level in the church. And I've noticed a pattern now, a pattern which is very sad but very predictable. If I meet a Christian who is struggling deeply with a sin, maybe it's an addiction, I am never surprised to hear shortly into the conversation, if they're unwilling to repent, that they are questioning basic Christian doctrine. There's always a connection. They're questioning basic Christian doctrine. The questions I've had is, I don't want to let go of this sin. Pastor, do you really think there's a hell? The Bible teaches it clearly. There's nothing else I can tell you. But there is a connection here between the way we walk before God and how we know God according to his word. And then there's the other side of it, where you meet a professing Christian who's never reading their Bible, who can't be bothered, perhaps, to attend evening worship, only prays in church, no deepening knowledge of God. And one day, they call you up and they say, my life is in a mess. I don't know how this happened. And it's the same thing. There's this divide between knowing the truth of God's word and the life lived. These false teachers bear witness to this fact. They reject the truth of God, who Jesus Christ is, they're not rooted and grounded in the word, and their life is full of hypocrisy in the pursuit of lust and wickedness leading to judgment. Doctrine and life can never be separated. This gives us another way to identify false teachers. Jesus says it in Matthew chapter 7, "...Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Not only their teaching will be bad, but one day their fruits will demonstrate the emptiness of their teaching." Another reminder from this important connection between doctrine and life. is that to guard against false teaching, you need to pray for a deepening knowledge of God from his word. Machen, in his book Christianity and Liberalism, well actually it's not in his book, it's in an essay that he wrote about why he wrote the book, he said these words. He said, in this book I tried to show that Christianity is not a life as distinguished from a doctrine. And not a life that has doctrine as its changing symbolic expression. In other words, simply a life. It doesn't matter which doctrine you attach to it. But rather, that Christianity is exactly the other way around. It is a life founded on a doctrine. In other words, without truth, there is no Christianity. There is no life. And again, these false teachers illustrate this exactly. Without the truth, they have no holiness or righteousness. Some of you teach your children the children's catechism. We do at home and one for children I find is so helpful because when they're very young, you know, you can teach them the shorter catechism. They could repeat it but they can't understand it. But questions like who made you or can you see God? No, but he can always see me. That little question, I don't know how many times I have used in parenting. to teach a child who was around a corner doing something that they thought no one could see, and then they learn a little bit of the omniscience of God. The word omniscience is not in the question, but they know that God can always see them, and it changes their life. If you want to be growing in grace, protected against false teaching, and not fall into these patterns, these dangerous patterns here, Then you need to be being transformed by the renewing of your mind, not just your mind only with a cold heart. But Christians are those who are thinking and reading and studying and memorizing. They love the word. They want to be in the word. And they're growing in their knowledge of Christ through the word. And they're praying that God would bring to bear the full power of the truth of the gospel and transform their lives. Christian armor includes what? the belt of truth, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And it's the sweetest, most godly Christian who knows God most deeply. And it is the one who often claims to know God, like these false teachers, but whose life is a mess, who doesn't know God and has no zeal to know him better. Second reminder then is that pray for a deepening knowledge of God that we might not fall into the trap of the false teachers. Third reminder is that remember, the Christian life is not popular, it's not sensual, it's not easy. Christ never said it would be and when someone tells you that it will be, that you can live your best life now or that God will give you a million dollars if you send $500 to this address in Texas, it's not true. The Christian life is the way of the cross, the way of suffering, the way of self-denial. And if you keep that in your mind, front and center, it's a great defense against false teaching. A third lesson from this text, and it's one that we began with at the beginning when we opened the chapter, the first three verses. I'll close with it again, because it ought to run through this whole text. John calls false teachers in his epistle Antichrists. Scriptures refer to false teachers often that way. And sometimes when we think of the word Antichrist, we just think that they are against Christ. But there's a more significant meaning to that word. When they exercise their ministry, they are seeking to be false Christs. False teachers always, they are not only trying to pad their bank account and peddle false teaching and incite men's lusts. But there is an intoxication that comes with being followed. You remember Herod, how happy he was when the people were crying, the voice of a God and not of a man. At the heart of it, false teaching always has this impulse, the allurement of the praise of men, the following of the, and a massive following, even when the lies are being told all day every day, the adulation of the crowd. The opposite impulse ought to be the impulse of the people of God, not unto us, O God, not unto us, but to your name be glory given." And so here's the instruction. One more time. Another way to guard against false teaching is don't follow men. Do not follow men. I'm not just talking about TV evangelists now. I'm not talking about even false teachers. I'm saying be careful about the way you think of even those who have been influential in your own life, your pastor, your father, your mother. Seminary professor the best reformed radio ministry that you might see out there. Don't follow men I'm not saying that these are false teachers But I'm saying there's a danger and a way we can guard against the danger of false teaching is saying I am NOT a follower of men Instead follow Jesus Christ men will fail you even the best men men have no salvation to offer or to give You remember again John the Baptist, I said it earlier, his birth was announced by an angel of God. He was a remarkable man of prophet. The crowds thought he was Elijah and his ministry was this. He must increase and I must decrease. He was not that light but he was sent to bear witness of that light. I want to guard against false teaching. Listen again for teaching and preaching which exalts Jesus Christ. Think of the words of the Apostle Paul. We preach Christ and him crucified, Christ, the wisdom of God, Christ, the power of God, Christ, the savior of sinners, Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. Keep that in the forefront of your mind and heart as you guard against false teaching. Listen for the words of Christ himself. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, we ask now that you would deliver us from the temptations we have to follow men, that you would guard us from false teaching and guard your church, O God, that we would not be prone to think that success in this world is an indicator of the success in your kingdom, that you are bringing about in your own way, according to your own plan, by your own means. Lord, help us to love the preaching of your word fellowship of the saints, the right administration of the sacraments, Lord, your church and all that happens in it. And Lord, help us to love the preaching of your word and to be rooted and grounded in all your truth. We pray, oh God, that you would tear down everything that exalts itself against your name. Lord, we pray especially that those who teach not according to your word, that you would give them a spirit of repentance that they might preach and use the great responsibilities you have given them. to preach Christ and Him crucified alone. Lord, so guard us and keep us, set our feet on the rock who is the Lord Jesus Christ, and hear us for His sake alone. Amen.