Today’s message is from 2 Peter 1:20-2:3. In this passage the apostle Peter is going to tell his readers, those who have obtained a faith of equal privilege with ours (that’s the apostles’) through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,” according to chapter 1, verse 1... Peter is going to tell his readers (and that includes us) about false teachers and the seriousness of their false teaching—about the judgment and condemnation that awaits them. It’s a warning to us to be on the lookout for them because many people will be led astray.

This is very serious. I know it’s serious because Peter—Peter led by the Holy Spirit—goes on through all of chapter two telling how evil these teachers are. I’m just going to talk about the first three verses in chapter 2 today.

Remember as we read today’s passage that we are reading the word of God. Also remember that Peter has said back in chapter 1 that his purpose in writing is for his readers to be reminded of all the things he is writing after he is gone. All of his readers includes us.

^2:1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. ²Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep. (2 Peter 1:20-2:3)

Chapter 2 starts out, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” Because chapter 2 starts out with the word But, I included the last two verses from chapter one in the passage for continuity even though we talked about them last week. I’ll read them again: “First of all, you should know this: no prophecy of Scripture comes from one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God.”

Peter is talking about the Old Testament prophets. They spoke the very word of God. It was serious. God commanded that any false prophets be stoned to death. The test was this: If a prophet said that something was going to happen and it didn’t happen, he was a false prophet. He was to be stoned to death. If a prophet said that something was going to happen and it did happen but he advocated worshipping other gods, he was a false prophet and was to be stoned to death. It was serious. But the Israelites didn’t obey the command to put to death the false prophets. That’s why there were false prophets.

Back in 1 Kings chapter 22, king Ahab wanted to go to war against the king of Aram and recover some territory. He asked king Jehoshaphat of Judah to help him. Jehoshaphat was very willing to help Ahab, but he wanted to first find out what the Lord’s will was. Ahab gather 400 prophets and asked them whether he should go to war against Ramoth-gilead (the territory or refrain. They replied, “March up, and the Lord will hand it over to the king.” (1 Kings~22:6) Jehoshaphat, who apparently had more perception than Ahab, said, “But isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here. Let’s ask him. Ahab told Jehoshaphat that there was one prophet of the Lord, Micaiah son of Imlah, but he hated him and kept him in prison because he never said anything good about him, only prophesied disaster. Jehoshaphat said, “Get him.” And they did.

It’s a longer story and very interesting, so go home and read it. But I’ll sum it up. Micaiah said that they would lose the battle and that Ahab would be killed. But they went to battle anyway. Ahab disguised himself so he wouldn’t be recognized as the king. But he was hit by a random arrow that went through a crack in his armor—something very unlikely—and he bled and he died just as Micaiah said he would.

Ahab wanted only prophets that would tell him good things, not the truth. That’s what most people want. And that’s why there were false prophets. Chapter 2, verse 1 in today’s passage says, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.”

There were false prophets among the Israelites and there are false teachers among us. The appeal is the same. People want to hear good things instead of the truth. And you know, teachers that teach the truth do have good things to teach—very good things: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John~3:16, 17) God loves us. We have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Jesus.

But the false teachers appeal to the flesh. They appeal to the love of the world. “Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. Because everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one's lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God's will remains forever.” (1 John~2:15-17)

Chapter 2 verse 1 in today’s passage says, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.” The false teachers don’t announce themselves as false teachers. They secretly bring in their destructive heresies. And notice that these teachings are destructive. They destroy people who accept them. They are not false but harmless. They will destroy you if you accept them. The false teachers will also be destroyed. This is a warning. (And, by the way, Peter says, “...denying the Master who bought them...” Jesus bought them along with everyone else. It is possible for false teachers to repent and be saved.

Verse 2 says, “Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.” I hope I don’t make anyone mad when I talk about specific ministries that have false teachings. But we have to speak the truth in love.

Most of you remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry. They taught the “prosperity gospel”, the gospel of health and wealth—that is, if you make sacrificial financial donations, God will make you prosperous and will heal you. There are several scriptures that people who teach this idea use to support their teaching. In Luke 6:38 Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over—will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” And the apostle Paul, talking about giving to help the poor, says in 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.”

The prosperity gospel teachers say, “Plant the seed. God will give you a harvest of money (or a car or a house or whatever).” They may not say it in so many words, but they give examples of such things happening. When I hear these things, I always think of the fact that the apostle Paul had times when he was in want—when he was without food, when he was cold and without clothing. (2 Cor. 11:7) Didn’t Paul’s teaching about sowing and reaping apply to Paul, himself? Yes, but he was not talking about reaping money. When you sow, your motivation has to be love.

Giving to help those who are in need is very good. It makes you like Jesus who gave himself to help those who were very much in need. It makes us like Jesus who gave himself to save us from hell. Our goal in giving to help others is for Jesus to say to us when we are finished with this life, “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into your master’s joy.” And you know Jesus says that we can store up treasure in heaven.

If you think you can buy health and wealth by making donations to some ministry, you are dead wrong. We somehow don’t usually think about it, but greed is a serious sin. The tenth commandment is “Do not covet.” Greed is the same as idolatry. It’s listed along with sexual immorality, swindling and drunkenness in 1 Corinthians 5:11. (And I can add that if your motive for doing anything is to serve God in order to try to get him to do what you want, you’re barking up the wrong tree.)

You know, Jim Bakker was convicted of fraud for selling lifetime memberships in his PTL ministry. A lifetime membership entitled you to spend three days and nights in the luxury hotel that he was building every year for the rest of your life. The problem was that he sold many more lifetime memberships to people than could possibly be accommodated in the hotel. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The sentence was later reduced to 8 years on appeal. He was let out on parole after 5 years.

Jim Bakker wrote a book. It was called I Was Wrong. It was a big thick book. I didn’t read it, but my father-in-law (Mooma’s dad) did. In the book, he said that the first time he had ever read the Bible all the way through was while he was in prison. He was amazed. He realized that he had taken a few verses out of context to support his entire teaching and ministry. He was wrong. (I really suspect that he knew he was wrong all along, but was kidding himself that his teaching was right.)

Jim Bakker’s wife, Tammy Faye, divorced Jim while he was in prison and remarried. Later, Jim also remarried. According to what I’ve read and heard, he and his new wife adopted 5 inner-city kids. That’s a much better ministry than the huge hundred million dollar ministry that he had in the ‘80’s.

The apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:25 and 26, “The Lord's slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance to know the truth. Then they may come to their senses and escape the Devil's trap, having been captured by him to do his will.” Perhaps God granted Jim Bakker repentance to know the truth, to come to his senses and escape the Devil’s trap, having been captured to do his will. I hope this is true.

Now, having said all that, let’s look at verses 2 and 3: “Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.”

Many followed Jim Bakker’s teaching and ministry. I looked him up on the internet. There were some articles that blasphemed (the word means ‘reviled’, ‘insulted’ and things like that) Jim Bakker and his ministry (and I think, by implication, the Christian religion, the way of truth).

Verse 3 says, “In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.” Jim Bakker was certainly greedy. But there are some whose only motive for what they are teaching is greed. They don’t care whether or not what they are teaching is right, just so that it makes money.

I hate to keep bringing up this example because I’ve talked about it before. But it fits so perfectly that I have to talk about it again and will probably do so in the future, too. It’s the Boundaries² book. (Mooma groaned when I told her that I was going to talk about it again.) If you don’t remember my talking about it before, remember it now, because it’s led many people astray. (Many follow their unrestrained ways, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.)

The Boundaries book is about protecting yourself from people who impose upon you. It’s full of scripture quotations—several on every page. Virtually none of them support what the authors are teaching. Most of them have some words that the authors have used to make a point, but even taken out of context they don’t support what the authors are saying. They are more or less irrelevant. Some of the scriptures even say the opposite of what the authors are teaching. Even though the authors deny it, their real teaching is selfishness.

On the cover of the book it says, “When to say yes, When to say no, To take control of your life.” The word of God says, “You are not your own, for you were bought at a price.” (1 Cor. 6:18, 19) (The apostle Paul is talking about sexual immorality in this case, but in any case we aren’t our own. Jesus bought us with his blood to save us from God’s judgment.)

When Jesus came from heaven as a man he said, “I don’t seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” (John 5:30) He said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.” (Mark~10:45) And he said, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.” (Luke~9:23, 24) How does “take control of your life” square with “lose you life”?

I can’t go into detail because it would take hours. But here’s one example. In the very first chapter of the book, the authors give the example of a woman, Sherrie, who people are always asking for help. Her friend Lois who she genuinely loves frequently calls her during her lunch hour to tell her her troubles. The authors say the Sherrie knew the value that the Bible placed on loving and helping others, so when she was irritated at Lois’s call, she prayed, “There I go again thinking of myself before others. Please, Lord, let me give to Lois freely and not be so self-centered,” and she spent half of her lunch hour talking to Lois. The authors, of course thought that Sherrie should not have talked to Lois.

The idea of not having to help others, especially when they are chronic complainers and don’t seem to get any better, is really appealing. But Sherrie prayed and tried to help Lois anyway. (This would have been a good time for the authors to have said that Sherrie should have counseled Lois from the scriptures, but they didn’t.)

The Boundaries book is filled from one end to the other with teachings that contradict the scriptures. The authors could have at least explained why they thought that scriptures that seemed to be obviously contradictory to their teachings weren’t, but they didn’t—even though they quoted many scriptures throughout the book. (And, by the way, if you want a second opinion about this book, ask Kim. And, actually, I didn’t ask her, she just told me. “It’s absolute garbage.”)

I said a little while ago that the people the apostle Peter is talking about in today’s passage are not simply deceived or misled, but that they don’t really care about what is true or what is not true, they just want to make money. Their motive is greed. Of course I can’t really know about the motives of the authors of the Boundaries book any more than I can really know Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s motives. But some years back, these authors gave a seminar in Columbus (for a fee, of course). They rented the facilities of a large church. They advertised the seminar every day (maybe multiple times a day because I heard the ad at least once just about every day). They did this for around two months. I’ve never seen any supposed Christian event advertised so much. Do you think they were in it for the money?

Now the reason I’ve made such a big deal about this book is that in the year 2000 this was the number one best selling “Christian” book. The edition I have is the 1992 edition and I believe that it goes back to 1990. Still, at least eight years later and maybe ten, it was the number one best selling Christian book. “Many will follow their unrestrained ways,” in the words of Peter, and many have. I hope the Boundaries authors are deceived rather than simply not caring so that what Peter said will not be true. “They will not bring swift destruction on themselves,” but repent. And you all know how to keep from being deceived by false teachings that appeal to the flesh. What the secret? Study your Bible every day.

Chapter 2, verse 1 in today’s passage says, “They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them...” These people pass their teaching off as Christian teaching supported by the word of God. They don’t say, “The Bible is false and we are going to tell you what is really true. They secretly bring in destructive heresies. And in the case of the Boundaries book, I can’t recall that they said much, if anything about the Master who bought us, about Jesus, or for that matter, about sin and repentance from sin or salvation and judgment. Only about how to set boundaries against people who burden you.

One other thing and I hope I don’t offend anyone too much... The authors of the Boundaries book have doctorates in psychology. Now there are certainly very excellent Christian teachers and counselors who have degrees in psychology. But I’ve noticed that authors who write supposedly Christian books who put Dr. in front of their names generally promote much that is unbiblical. Psychology, of course, is man’s invention. There are all kinds of theories of psychology. Some ideas may be consistent with the Bible and others not. I think maybe the good teachers are the ones who recognize what is true about psychology and throw out what isn’t. Those who aren’t discriminating are more likely to go on to get a PhD. If you think what you have already learned is all good and true, you are more likely to want to learn more. Then when you write, you want people to believe that you are an expert, so you put Dr. in front of your name. (And by the way, the same thing doesn’t seem to apply to psychiatrists. I’ve read several very good Christian books by psychiatrists.)

More next week, the Lord willing. The two teachers I talked about each tried to appeal to our selfish nature—to the flesh. It’s a great temptation. So be diligent and watch out for false teachers who teach you to be selfish and self-centered. We must be humble and consider others to be more important than ourselves. Jesus loves us and suffered and died for us. That’s his nature and he wants that to be our nature, too. We must love truth and righteousness and hate wickedness and deceit. Jesus is truth. Jesus is righteousness. “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) We can only really love because of Jesus.