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Are you a follower of Jesus - pointing others to Him, a chameleon changing with your surroundings - leading others astray, or someone expecting to experience heaven regardless of your beliefs? After today's teaching, and depending on your answer, you will likely find yourself FREED or AFRAID.

False teachers sometimes teach what is true, (a broken clock is still right 2 times a day), but that doesn’t mean we give them a pass when much of what they teach is false. 

Those who secretly introduce destructive heresies are bringing swift destruction on themselves. 

Heresies: twisting and diluting the Scriptures to make God more like mankind and make mankind more like God.

Simon Peter notes that these false teachers are denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - while they recognized Jesus died for their sins, they are now they are denying His lordship and leading others to do the same.

• Stop comforting those living in sin who claim a past ‘salvation’ experience, rather than calling them to repentance and obedience to Jesus.
• Stop being silent when someone we care about is following the teachings of those who introduce destructive heresies among God’s people.

Peter is concerned about future false teachers who will show up. These false teachers tell fabricated stories because of their greed and lead people away from the way of truth.

• If you were the devil, planning to introduce false teaching through undercover folks, what would they look like? 

Teach the Truth Even Though Some Don’t Want It

2 Timothy 4:1–3 (NIV) In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

• Many people WANT to listen to to those who tell them what the want to hear. This is happening throughout our culture.
• Unchurched folks are drawn to listen to unwise counsel to change the RULES rather than change THEMSELVES. 
• Many churched folks twist the Bible to fit their beliefs instead of twisting their beliefs to fit the Bible.
• The Scriptures weren’t written to PUMP US UP but to GROW US UP. This is why we need not only to be encouraged, but to be corrected and rebuked.

These angels are likely referring to those who possessed men who had children with women resulting in an overwhelmingly ungodly culture (Gen 6:4-7). The punishment for the angels was being sent to hell (Greek term Tartarus - a holding place in Greek mythology that was even lower than Hades). This is a temporary holding place where they are held for a future judgment. 

God punished the people by bringing the flood on its ungodly people. Yet God protected Noah and his family while bringing judgment on everyone else. WHY? Noah was righteous - He honored and obeyed God while everyone else acted like God’s judgement would never come.

God brought judgment on the immoral people in these 2 cities, but God rescued Lot and his family, because he was a righteous man who walked in purity, even though he lived in a culture that lived for lawless deeds.

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials; He can protect those who live godly, even when we are surrounded by those who don’t. If you refuse to obey God, be warned that He will hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

False teachers live for the desire of the flesh, despise authority; they are bold, arrogant, and slander angels while claiming to have authority over them.

Jude 9 (NIV) But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Rather than trust the Lord Jesus to defeat the enemy, these people blaspheme [slander] in matters they do not understand, acting like animals hunting down another animal that can destroy them. They will perish like animals when they are paid back with harm for the harm they have done.

These false teachers seduce the unstable. The Greek term for seduce has its roots in the world of hunting and fishing and carries the idea “to lure” like using bait for a fish or an animal. False teachers use false promises to hook people with lies. Peter mentions how they feast with you while reveling in their pleasures. Here again Peter speaks of something similar from Jude 12:

Jude 12a (CSB) These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. 

Read about Balaam in Numbers 22:21–30. Balaam was a false prophet who was about to curse God’s people for money until God rebuked him in a strange way…by a donkey.

These people make promises they can’t deliver. People who follow their false teachings are not FREED, but should be AFRAID of what is coming. 

• What or who are you a slave to? Are you a slave of Jesus OR…are you a slave of sin?

These false teachers will face a stricter judgment, as Jesus warned (Mt 18:6-7). Blackest darkness is reserved for these false teachers who lead people away from Jesus instead of TO Jesus.

Peter writes about people who have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then turn and walk away from Jesus. A person doesn’t “lose salvation” like you lose your car keys. But this is a willful act to walk away from Jesus to return to your old life is possible as seen in the Scriptures. Peter uses animal imagery to demonstrate what this looks like. Dogs weren’t house pets, but dirty, diseased animals that fed from the garbage. Pigs were unclean animals, not to be farmed nor eaten.

• Those who walk way from Jesus are compared to a dog that goes back to lick up its vomit. The thing that made it sick is gone…and the dog decides it wants it back.
• The sow that is washed doesn’t stay clean, but returns to its mud bath and wallows around in the filth again.

2 Peter 2:9 (NIV)

...the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. 

If you are AFRAID, you don’t have to stay that way! Turn from your sin, trust Jesus, and follow Him the rest of your life.

Take some time to discuss these questions with your family, friends, or group.

1. What challenged/encouraged you most from today’s teaching? Explain why.
2. Read 2 Timothy 4:1-3. Spend some time discussing the difference and necessity of correcting, rebuking, and encouraging from the Scriptures with patience & care.
3. Read 2 Peter 2:4-9. What is the encouragement for those who trust Jesus during the good and bad times and what is the warning for those who do not?
4. Read Matthew 18:6-7 and 2 Peter 2:13-19. According to Jesus and Peter, why will false teachers face harsher punishment in eternity?
5. Have you ever known someone who seemed to show genuine proof of believing Jesus, but who no longer follows Jesus? (Don’t name them.) If so, what conclusion have you come to - did they genuinely know Jesus and walk away or were they just pretending to know Jesus? Explain your answer. What warning and what hope could be offer to them at this point?
6. Share some some false teachings that have infiltrated the American church and then share Scriptures that confront and correct those teachings.
7. Share prayer needs. Consider praying for those who have walked away from Jesus. Continue to pray for the Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade.