Protect the Way of Truth

Pastor Peter is deeply troubled by teachers in the church who are telling the church members things that are not true. Pointing this out in his letter is difficult because it indicates that there is a schism in the teaching of the church. But Peter is reinforcing earlier protests about the claims these teachers are making. And he is thoroughly convinced that they are teaching lies and they are doing so for their own personal enrichment. 

None of us think perfectly about God and salvation. We are having a difficult discussion now among our churches and pastors. We all have flaws in our interpretations of Scripture. When Peter identifies people as false teachers he does so with the greatest gravity and sense of responsibility. He feels compelled to do this. And it is his role as an apostle of the church selected by Jesus. 

• Yesterday I received yet another end-time prophesy—that Obama would not leave office at the end of his term and that Russia would attack the USA this fall. It comes from someone who claims to find all this in the Bible. I predict that Obama will finish his term and that Russia will not attack the USA this fall. We shall see who is the false prophet. Sadly, I have seen this many times in the years of my ministry, and I have been a victim of it. 

If a prophet has the gall to put a date on his end-time prophesies you should burn his books when he is proven to be false. Turn off his television broadcast, and stop watching him. The likelihood is that he makes his best book sales with these predictions that prey upon our fears of the future. 

We Have the Truth:

I am warning you just as Peter warned the church members of his own day. Not everything every religious person teaches is true. Sometimes it’s false. It may be a kernel of truth wrapped in a lie. Zero tolerance for teachers who tell lies in order to deceive. 

Peter has declared two truths in the previous graphs. 

• He has given them The Truth in is own eyewitness account of the life of the Lord Jesus. 

• Peter was an eyewitness. That is what the apostles were—eyewitnesses of the life and death and resurrection Jesus. Peter heard Jesus as the words came out of his mouth. He saw Jesus when he fed the 5,000. He was there when they came to arrest him in the garden. And he saw the Jesus alive after dying.
• The false teachers were not Eyewitnesses. They minimize the Lord Jesus and the gospel. They are not centered in the death of Christ upon the cross and his resurrection. Instead, they have discovered “secret knowledge” and this is their focus.
• We use the term “Jesus people” at FBNO in order to anchor our teaching and behavior in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. 
• Peter affirmed the Scriptures. We have a “more sure word of prophesy.” He has elevated the role of the Scriptures. They are a “light that shines in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). 

• “Carried along” is “to move by bearing” as when my father carried me to bed when I fell asleep on the couch. 
• “What is a conservative Christian?” Garland Robinette asked me. I told him, “Some might define it politically. But I define it by belief: a conservative Christian is one who believes the Bible is the authority for faith and life. 
• Everett Bear attended our church the last Sunday in June. We talked at length in the lobby. He had just been diagnosed with mesothelioma. He was my age, and he was facing his first chemo the next day. He worshiped with us that day. His aunt bought him a Bible and sent him verses to read, which he read. His wife, Rachel, encouraged him to trust in Christ. I called him on Friday and asked how his chemo had gone. It was rough, he said. We prayed together. He died two days later. 

False teachers invade the church in every generation. 

• They are teachers. They are trying to persuade you to follow their interpretations, their agendas. 

• They are false in two ways: 

• They are speaking and teaching things that are not true. 
• They are not people of integrity. They themselves are false. They are not who they claim to be. 

Simon the Great, “Megas” in Acts 8:10: and all the people, 

• Both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 

• Simon was deceiving the people with sorcery. He offered Philip money to secure the power of the Holy Spirit. 
• Philip rightly assessed his “heart was not right toward God.” He was “full of bitterness and captive to sin” (Acts 8:32). 

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life:

“They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them” - 2 Peter 2:1

Their heresy is centered on the person and work of Christ. 

• This is the heart of the gospel that was preached. Peter was an eyewitnesses of the sufferings of Christ, of his transfiguration, his death, his glorified body. 

• The ancient church met in council and made repeated pronouncements about the nature and work of Christ because that is the heart of the good news that we preach. 

“Sovereign Lord.” The KJV just has “Lord.” But the NIV rightly inserted the word “Sovereign” to communicate that this is not the usual word for “Lord.” This is despotes which may be translated “Master.” The key part of this word has to do with absolute power, total control. 

• This word is used in the disciples’ prayer of Acts 4:24 where it refers to the Creator God: “Sovereign Lord, you are God who made the heaven, and earth, and sea, and all that is in them.” 

• It is used to refer to God by Simeon who saw the fulfillment of his prayer in the baby Jesus (Luke 2:29). 

• And it is used by Jude in tandem with kurios in verse 4 (parallel to 2 Peter 2:1): For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (despotes and kurios). 

• Heresies often diminish the Savior as Sovereign Lord. They locate power in formulas and activities that seek to manipulate the deity in magical ways. 

• They create fear by putting the Sovereignty of God in the background and our own initiative in the foreground. 

“Who bought them” is a reference to Jesus himself: “And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev 5:9). 

• The Lamb alone is worthy to open the book. 

• The denial of the Sovereign Lord is an attack on the person of Christ. The denial of the one “who bought them” is an attack on the work of Christ in saving us. 

Salvation Changes Behavior:

“Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.” - 2 Peter 2:2

False behavior does not match a true confession 

• They do not live the disciplined life that Peter noted. 

• They are not growing in these essential vitamins. 

They bring the Way of Truth into Disrepute 

• “The Way of Truth” includes a lifestyle that confirms our confession. When a teacher is not living a life of integrity, faithful to his word and his promises, and faithful to the teaching of Jesus, he is walking the way of truth. 

• The gospel is true. But it is either validated or undercut by the behavior of those who preach and teach it. 

False teachers have false motives. 

• They are motivated by Greed. Beware of the person who peddles the truth for cash. Some will tell you anything to get a sale. 

• They are exploiting you. In other words, they are taking advantage of your trusting nature to take from you what does not rightfully belong to them. 

• When you are in a teaching position, you are up at the front of the class. You are in a position to influence people. If you do so for the purpose of your own gain, you are exploiting them. 
• We use things. We do not use people. People are not things. We give them dignity and worth by remembering this. 

False Teachers Fabricate Stories to manipulate people. 

• I wish I knew what these stories were. They might have been about the Lord Jesus or about their own supposed miracles. 

• When you make up a story to impress or mislead others, you are a liar just like Satan was in the Garden. 

R.G. Lee was pastor of FBNO for four years, from 1923-1927. The church flourished during those years. He went from here to become pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. He preached one of the most famous sermons in American church life: Pay Day Some Day. 

• God knows how to Rescue the Godly from Trials .

• God Holds the Unrighteous for Punishment. Rebellious angels he consigned to hell. The population of Noah’s day he drowned in the flood. Sodom and Gomorrah he burned to ashes. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”