Blessed morning, everyone. The title for this lesson is the destruction of false teachers. The scriptures come from second Peter chapter 2, verses 1 to 10, which my lovely wife will now read in the King James:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.”

Forgive me for being a little bit cliché here but, hearing these verses this week, put the fear of God in me in a whole new way.

 Why? because as most of you know, I myself have been called to ministry by our Lord, and so has my wife. 

Why would it frighten me, you might ask. It frightens me because this set of verses is clearly meant to speak about false teachers, false prophets, and the like.

 I do not believe it’s only meant for the general believer though it can certainly be applied to anyone who recklessly and without knowledge speaks about God. 

Whenever I open my mouth to speak about my God, whenever I open my mouth to speak about our holy Heavenly Father, I never do so without first asking him for permission and next asking him to speak through me so that my opinion does not come out, but instead, only the truth. 

So that my flawed and or incomplete human understanding does not reach your ears,  unless God has use for it

Today’s lesson text was read for your hearing in the king James version, miss sally here will now read it again in the English standard version, which is the version I prefer.

“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 with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones”

Prophet…we hear that word a lot in the Bible and in sermons. We hear it enough that we all have a general idea of what the word means. 

I for one, however, did not have a clear definition in my head for the majority of my life.

 Just so we’re on the same page, let’s first bring a definition into this lesson. 

In the Bible, a prophet is someone chosen by God to receive and deliver His messages, often including guidance, warnings, or revelations about the future, according to various dictionaries. Some definitions focused on the future and some focused on the messenger aspect, but a well-rounded paraphrased definition describes a prophet as “speaking God’s will to the people, calling them to obedience, repentance, and faith.” 

Examples include Moses, Isaiah, and John the Baptist.

With this definition in mind, it’s easy to see what a false prophet is.

 It is someone who does NOt speak the truth that God has given to them. 

It is someone that does not speak God’s TRUE word to his people, but instead intentionally speaks falsely or not at all when commanded. 

The first few words of today’s lesson text is actually a warning of the emergence of both false prophets and false teachers. The warning speaks of what it is they will do and why it is they’ll do it. Three reasons listed include 

Sensuality, greed, and destruction. 

 But it also gives a comforting word to those who seek the truth. 

Saying that they are bringing upon themselves swift destruction. That destruction won’t be by us, no. It will be by God’s own hand. 

The warning also says that many will fall for the words of these false prophets and false teachers.

 Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of this in the world today, and so have you. 

Every time you see a statue of Mary or St. Francis of Asiisi in someone’s garden, with a cute little sign bearing a prayer to that “saint,” that’s due to a false teaching put out there by the Catholic Church. Most today don’t necessarily believe in and subscribe to the notion of indulgences, as taught by the Catholic Church, but buying forgiveness and working one’s way to heaven aren’t too different, are they? 

You’ve also seen signs for belief systems like jehovah’s witnesses and seventh day Adventists. I’ve always wondered what they believe but I knew it wasn’t

Anything I’d ever read In The Bible. Mormons on the other hand, their faith is starting to be explained or at least mentioned more in the main stream. Proxy baptisms and prayer uniforms notwithstanding, everyone in this church instinctively knows that our Beloved Holy Spirit Had NOTHING to do with Joseph smith or an Angel named Moron. Ee. Moroni. Sorry. 

But these are more out-there examples of cults considering themselves to be Christian; at least the aforementioned groups would not go fighting mode if you questioned whether their denomination Name was, in fact, truly Christian. They’ve heard it before. That they’re a cult. They just don’t believe us when we try to warn them. 

Christian scientists are in the same group, actually. Mary baker eddy was a student of quimby, who took Buddhism and some other things, rolled it into the metaphysical space, and created the whole “faith force” thing. Aka “faith is a force” but also “faith can be used to force God to ante up and give me what I want!” 

This group is hardcore. They don’t say hallelujah. They don’t say God Is Great… because they believe that God “sliced off a bit of His Own flesh and Made you and me out of it.” Metaphorically.

We’re little g gods to them, and our job is to fill the earth with our manifested ideas and dreams. Even if they don’t line up with God’s Will for my life—or His Word in the first place. 

These people try to force things to happen. Sometimes they even “propheLIE” and give Christian ministers and actual prophets a bad name. 

I won’t name names of ministries who try to force God to give them stuff, but I will say that this “new thought,” as it’s called in some circles, is a direct path to the destruction we’re gonna discuss further today. 

Some steeped in even darker bits of this enneagram/feel-good/positive vibes only/name it and claim it/blab it and grab it abundance manifestation monstrosity, I mean mentality; some churches handle snakes, some deny medical care, and some even throw themselves over the graves of pastors and cs Lewis to “soak up their mantles.” Mantles are not activated and thrown on people like Elijah every day. When someone is called By God, he is called By God. He doesn’t need to go to Benny hinn to have his calling activated like something out of Harry Potter. 

The lite version of this is “fasting and praying for a specific outcome,” aka I don’t care what God Said, ima make this happen myself. 

Then there are the motivational speaker churches, the ones that teach all the sweet stuff but leave out the sacrifice. And salvation. 

And how about  “progressive Christianity,” which takes out any forbidden thing, since “everything is permissible, but not beneficial.” What about when God Himself calls something an abomination, though? 

I haven’t even mentioned the alleged prophets in Africa who have taught drinking gasoline and eating grass to become closer To God. Or the preacher that made sally drop her phone when he apparently rebuked a congregant by saying “you aren’t here to serve God, you’re here to serve ME.” (We have sources for all these tales by the way, send us an email or text and we will be happy to share the list) 

Now that we’ve mentioned some of the more common heresies taking the internet by storm, we are at least on the same page as to how the events of our lesson text May look today. 

Note: This is just a sampling, and most of those mentioned are biblically-unsupportable denominations and false doctrines that some may claim stem from  Christianity. 

But There are also teachers and prophets of other religions, entirely different systems of belief. 

Everyone sitting and listening to my voice right now, everyone who is part of this church knows that every other religion is a false doctrine, a deceptive belief system created by the devil himself. 

So anyone, prophet, teacher or congregate from any other religion is immediately a false teacher or false prophet. 

Our Lord Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life, no one gets to the father except through HIM. 

There is no other religion, no other way to get to heaven, but there are thousands, If not more, that offer you a one-way ticket to hell. 

So which situation is worse? 

Judging from todays lesson text—and a few more that my wife will read in a moment—judging from The Bible In General, both situations are just as bad as each other. A fake religion is no different from a false take on the only true religion, which is not even a religion, but rather, THE WAY, otherwise known as our relationship With and salvation BY our LORD-King Jesus. 

So what is the danger of listening to a false prophet? 

Simple. You’ve hired a tutor to help you pass the final exam. They teach you what they think you’d like to hear and prepare you extensively. But you fail the test. Why? 

Because they taught you things that are not on the exam.  you needed to be prepared for the questions you actually got and you were not.

 Put another way, False teachers like this are the ones that create what I call “cotton candy Christians”

 they are not fed biblical truth so their faith is built on nothing but the sweet but empty words of someone at a pulpit. 

These biblically unsupported views that they learn are quickly proven wrong in many cases. This ends up, destroying that person’s faith in God, and turning them away from him and often into the realm of atheism or into the arms of the false gods of some other religion. 

This is why in God’s word specifically, James chapter 3 verse one it clearly states “not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” when a preacher preaches and a teacher teaches, it’s more than just their soul on the line. Its also the eternal futures of all who listen to AND follow what they teach.

Which is a perfect lead-in to Sally’s list of scripture tie-ins to this very serious topic. 

SALLY: So what will happen to false teachers and teachers of false doctrine and profitable prophets who spend their days and nights propheLYING rather than warning those in their churches—or YouTube audiences—about the consequences of not being saved? 

 Here are some verses we found, starting with the Old Testament. 

Jeremiah 23:16

Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

Jeremiah 14:14

And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.

        Deuteronomy 18:20-22

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Jeremiah 23:1-40

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. …

  Ezekiel 22:28

And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

    Jeremiah 5:30-31

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

          Isaiah 8:20

To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

          Deuteronomy 13:1-5

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Lamentations 2:14

Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.

Micah 3:11 

Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”

Matthew 7:15

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Galatians 1:6-9

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

1 John 4:1

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

1 John 4:1-6

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

2 Peter 2

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

Jude 1:3-5

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 4

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Matthew 24:24

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:11

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

Romans 16:18

For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

Luke 6:26

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Mark 13:22

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

    Mark 7:6-9

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

Matthew 7

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Romans 16:17-18

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive

Matthew 24:4-5

And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Acts 13:6

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

Revelation 13:14

And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

Revelation 2:20

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

2 Corinthians 11:13

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:21

But test everything; hold fast what is good.

Acts 20:29

I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;

So how do we avoid this?

As Teachers and those with the gifts and responsibilities of prophecy, we remember what Ezekiel said: we are the watchmen. The baby version of our Good Shepherd. 

  If we have warned our sheep, then their blood is not on our hands or heads. But if we have not, we are guilty. 

As parishioners or congregation members and certainly as lay ministers ourselves, we can make ourselves “prophelyingness-proof” in two main ways: 

1. we become and stay BIBLICALLY-LITERATE, so no one can pass off random things as scripture, and certainly not out of context. 
2. More importantly however, we get CLOSE TO JESUS, becsuse knowing scripture isn’t enough. Knowing about Jesus isn’t enough. We need to know him for ourselves; we need to spend time with him. Otherwise, how can we expect our devotion to him and our discernment from and Of His Holy Spirit to grow?

In sum, this is a terrifying topic. But if we purpose in our hearts to follow His Truth wherever it leads—even if it goes against our childhood church or our preference or what we think should happen—then we are sure to please our Loving Heavenly Father—and get to spend all of eternity With Him :))

Thank you all for listening, and God Bless each of you dear brothers and sisters!