Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20111204.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
2 Peter: Effective Christian Growth For Combating Spiritual Apostasy
Part IV: Learning To Discern The Activities Of False Teachers
(2 Peter 2:1-3)
  1. Introduction
    1. Apostasy, the departure of God's people from the truth, invariably involves the tendency of Christians to follow leaders who are false teachers, a fact Peter revealed in 2 Peter 2:1-3.
    2. So, in starting to describe the false teachers his readers would face in the future, Peter provided invaluable insight in 2 Peter 2:1-3 as to the activities of such teachers, and we do well to heed his insight there that we discern false teachers by their actions for our spiritual protection (as follows):
  2. Learning To Discern The Activities Of False Teachers, 2 Peter 2:1-3.
    1. Test One: The Test of Rising Up From Within the Church With Error, 2 Peter 2:1a.
      1. Just as false prophets arose "from among the people" of Israel in the Old Testament, false teachers will arise from within the Church in this dispensation, 2 Peter 2:1a; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 869.
      2. Thus, we must be on our guard constantly to evaluate all teachings by all teachers in the Church by the objective Word of God, not following a teacher simply because of his human impressiveness!
    2. Test Two: The Test of Secretive Versus Forthright Teachings, 2 Peter 2:1b.
      1. Peter noted the false teachers will "secretly introduce" their error, the Greek word for this activity being pareisago, Theol. Dict. of the N. T., vol. V, p. 824-852.
      2. Thus, we discern false teachers in noting they are not forthright, but they deceptively introduce error.
    3. Test Three: The Test of Destructiveness in False Ideology, 2 Peter 2:1c.
      1. The word rendered "heresies" (KJV, NIV, ESV) "in Classical Greek simply meant schools of philosophy," but it came to mean sects of false doctrines, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 870-871.
      2. What then most notably marks false teachers today is that their error is destructive, the Greek word used to describe this negative effect as being apoleia, "destruction," U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 807; Moulton & Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, 1972, p. 73.
    4. Test Four: The Test of Denying Christ, 2 Peter 2:1d.
      1. Peter noted such false teachers will even deny Christ, the Head of the Christian faith, thereby bringing upon themselves God's swift destruction in hell, 2 Peter 2:1d.
      2. [Since Peter claims they will deny the Lord Who bought them, these unsaved apostates are bought by Christ's atonement (2 Peter 2:1d), strong evidence of the Unlimited Atonement of the cross opposite strong Calvinism, meaning Christ died for the whole world! ( Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 870)]
    5. Test Five: The Test of a Big Following in Shameful Physical License, 2 Peter 2:2a,b.
      1. The word for "pernicious" (KJV) or "shameful" (NIV) in 2 Peter 2:2a is aselgeia, meaning "license mostly in the physical sense," Ibid., Theol. Dict. of the N. T. , vol. I, p. 490.
      2. Because of such shameful physical license, often in the realm of immoral activity, the way of the true Christian faith will be brought into disrepute before the onlooking unsaved world, 2 Peter 2:2b.
      3. Thus, a test for false teachers is their introduction of physical license, chiefly of an immoral nature, that causes the unsaved world to view the Christian faith these teachers pretend to promote with disgust.
    6. Test Six: The Test of Commercial Greed, 2 Peter 2:3a: the false teachers will be greedy so as to "carry on business" (emporeusometha) in fleecing the Christian community of their money, Ibid., B. K. C., N. T.
    7. Test Seven: The Test of Artificial Stories, 2 Peter 2:3b: the false teachers will teach "made up, feigned" (plastos) stories (Ibid., Moulton & Milligan, p. 516) in their efforts financially to fleece true Christians.
Lesson: We can discern the actions of false religious teachers as (1) they arise from within the Church teaching error, so we must always check Scripture with all that is taught, (2) they secretively introduce error into the Christian community, (3) they teach destructive ideas, (4) they deny Christ, (5) they gather large followings to practice shameful physical license that dishonors the true faith to the world, (6) they greedily financially fleece people and (7) they use false, made up stories to manipulate others.

Application: May we use 2 Peter 2:1-3 to discern such actions by false teachers today!