Wolves In Sheep's Clothing2 Peter 2:1-22

These are perilous times that we are living in my friends. We are walkingthrough a spiritual minefield and the truly tragic reality is that many ofus are totally unaware. Like a blind man running through a minefield we arebarging ahead through the valleys and hills of the landscape of lifelittered with ungodly, pseudo-Christian, spiritually erroneous mines readyto annihilate our heart, soul, and mind. Although we have been given a map,God's Word, to enable us to navigate these treacherous times, we continue ontrusting our own instincts with eternity at stake. Jesus said in Matthew'sGospel,15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognizethem. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into thefire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:15-20)Jesus warned us of these days that we are living in, but we are toosophisticated, too knowledgeable, too spiritually anesthetized to heed Hissolemn warning. Jesus didn't just mention the coming false teachers inpassing, He spoke of them again and again and warned us not to be deceived.Jesus told us to "watch out" in Matthew 24 when He said,4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come inmy name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6You will hearof wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Suchthings must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise againstnation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakesin various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9"Then youwill be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hatedby all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from thefaith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets willappear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, thelove of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will besaved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole worldas a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:4-14)You may be think that I am merely another alarmist preacher who sees evilbehind every tree and impending doom around every corner. If you will allowme just a few minutes of your time I will try and illustrate for you whyJesus was so solemn and serious in His warnings to us.Let's begin our study by taking a look at some of the news items I gleanedfrom the internet this past week while I was studying our Scripture in 2Peter 2:1-22.* CNews in Canada reports on a continuing fad or fascination among teens,especially teenage girls: Wicca. "In a poll of the top 60 interests ofteenage girls, witches are No. 1. It's the fastest-growing spiritualpractice in the United States...Teenage girls are attracted to Wicca becauseit offers a feminine perspective. If they don't belong to a formal church,they seek a model to provide dignity as a woman."* U.S. News & World Report states that the book Teen Witch continues to be abest-seller among young people. The book, written by wiccan author SilverRavenwolf, is really a "how to" book for instructing potential teen witchesin the Craft, as well as including practical advice for parents on thereligious choice of their teen in post-Christian America.* Rep. David Zolman, a conservative Republican lawmaker and Mormon, wantsthe Utah legislature to "consider removing the state constitution's polygamyban...He contends he is not a polygamy supporter, but believes critics aretoo quick to attack it without understanding."* And just when you thought you heard everything, the People for the EthicalTreatment of Animals (PETA) are using Jesus in a new campaign to stop theeating of meat. Their argument is that Jesus was a part of a group known asthe Essenes, and historians believe they were vegetarians, therefore, Jesuswas a vegetarian. Since Jesus was a vegetarian, PETA says Christians shouldbe too. "The feeding of thousands with a few *fishes* and loaves of bread?Not true. Those miracles, PETA says, involved bread only. Fish were added tothe story by Christians for whom the fish had become a symbol of theirfaith."* Edgar E. Whisenant, a NASA scientist, predicted that the rapture wouldoccur on October 3, 1988. Explaining that his math had been incorrect, helater prophesied that the rapture would occur on either September 1 or 30,1989.* Branch Davidian founder, Vernon Houteff, prophesied that David's Kingdomwould be established on April 22, 1959.* The Watchtower Society, whom many of you may know as the JehovahWitnesses, predicted that Armageddon would occur in 1914. They now teachthat Jesus Christ returned invisibly in 1914. They also predicted thatAbraham and others would be resurrected in 1925, and that Armageddon wouldoccur in 1941 and 1975 (they deny the 1975 prediction). They also predictedthat Armageddon would occur with the "generation of 1914." They now say that"generation" is a figurative term for anyone who can understand thesignificance of 1914.* Elizabeth Clare Prophet, the founder and leader of the Church Universaland Triumphant, prophesied that nuclear war would occur in 1990. The groupis now suffering a dramatic decline as members tire of waiting forArmageddon.These are only a few of the news items and predictions that have been madeand some of the activities that taking place in the name of God and leadingcountless millions of people astray. Because of our lack of awareness, orour apathy, millions of people are being led away from the Lord whocontinues to call us to "watch out" as He calls us to Himself.As we continue our study of 2 Peter this morning we find Peter also warningus to beware of those whom the Bible calls "false teachers." Let's take alook at our Scripture this morning found in 2 Peter 2:1-22.1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will befalse teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies,even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destructionon themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the wayof truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit youwith stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hangingover them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. 4For if God did notspare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them intogloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancientworld when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, apreacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities ofSodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example ofwhat is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteousman, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for thatrighteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in hisrighteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)-9if this is so, thenthe Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold theunrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of thesinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are notafraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they arestronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against suchbeings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in mattersthey do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct,born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their ideaof pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes,reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full ofadultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they areexperts in greed-an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way andwandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages ofwickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey-a beastwithout speech-who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet'smadness. 17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastfulwords and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, theyentice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19Theypromise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity-for aman is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped thecorruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and areagain entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than theywere at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to haveknown the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn theirbacks on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them theproverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washedgoes back to her wallowing in the mud."(2 Peter 2:1-22)I am so thankful for the insights God has given us through Peter! Godloves us so much that He has not only warned us that there will be falseteachers among us, but He gives us the tools necessary to recognize theseteachers destructive and ungodly ways. The entire twenty-two verses issummarized by Peter in the first three as he writes,1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will befalse teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies,even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destructionon themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the wayof truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit youwith stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hangingover them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (2 Peter 2:1-3)There are three very important words in this section of God's Word that weneed to understand. The first word is the word, "yeudoprofh,thj"(psuedoprophetes), Psuedo - "False." Prophetes - "One who speaks for God."The word literally means "one who claims to be a prophet and is not and thusproclaims what is false - 'false prophet.'" Just because a person claimsto speak for God does not mean that God speaks to them. Just because aperson says, "God told me" doesn't necessarily mean that God did. Justbecause a person shakes a Bible in your face when they speak doesn'tnecessarily mean that they have beheld the face of God.We have to be careful when we listen to teachers. You have to be carefulwhen you listen to me share with you from God's Word. I am not infallible.I do not have a corner on the Truth. My desire is to pursue the Truth, toseek to draw closer and closer to Jesus every day of my life so that I cancome to know His heart, His will, and His Word. If I will be faithful inseeking His face then I can better share what He is teaching me, but don'taccept anything I say at face value - study it for yourself.You may think that I am being hard on myself, but that is not it all. I amsimply encouraging you to follow the way of the Bereans who studied to seeif what Paul was saying was true. Let me read to you Acts 17:11 and you cansee what I am talking about.11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, forthey received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scripturesevery day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)Study to see if what you are hearing is true. Take notes and then take themhome so that you can read for yourself. Don't accept things at face value,dig into God's Word.The reason we have to be careful when we open ourselves to the teachings ofpeople who profess to be teaching "good" things or godly things is thatfalse teachers are slick. They do not come out and tell you, "Now I'mfixing to tell you a pack of lies, but it is going to benefit me immenselyso I sure hope that you'll buy into it." False teachers are much slickerthan that, they are much more sly than we can imagine.This brings us to our second word that I want us to understand this morning.The Greek word, "pareisa,gw" (paraeisago) means, "To bring in from theoutside; with a negative sense, of heretical teachings. Bring in secretly,introduce on the sly" (2P 2.1). False teachers are smooth, they are slick,they are sly, they move and act in secretive ways so that nobody suspectsthem until it is too late.I heard a story one time of how Alaskan hunters use to hunt wolves. Theywould take a sharp hunting knife and stick it in the freezer with the bladedipped in fresh animal blood. When the blood would freeze around the bladethe hunter would take it out in the field and stick the handle down into thesnow with only the blood and blade above the ground. While the hunter layback in the brush and waited the sweet scent of blood permeated the air.Soon a wolf would come in, attracted to the smell, and begin to lick theblood in ecstasy. Pretty soon the blood would wear down to where the knifeblade began to show through. The wolf was so engrossed in indulging hispleasures that he never even suspected the damage that was being done as hesliced his frozen tongue deeper and deeper with every lick. When the wolfwas finished, the hunter followed him until he collapsed from a loss ofblood and soon died.False teachers don't go running after their unsuspecting prey with knifesshining in the sun, they are far more smooth than that my friend. Jim Jonesand the folks of Jonestown, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, MarshallApplewhite and the Heaven's Gate followers, and the list goes on and one ofunsuspecting people who were drawn in to a web of deceit and destruction bysomething they were enticed by.I have seen firsthand how these kinds of leaders operate. While I wasworking at First Christian Church, during the aftermath of the bombing,there were many people who wanted to help with caring for the families whowere waiting for news of their family members. Some of the peoplerecognized that there were many who wanted to help, but there were also somewho wanted to slip in for other reasons. Members of the press posed asministers so that they could get a story for instance. Then there wereothers who wanted in for other reasons.When this problem began to arise the leaders asked three of us if we wouldbe "clergy coordinators" and screen people who wanted to help. While I wasworking with the other two coordinators we were approached by a group ofyoung people and their adult leaders. When we began to ask questions wefound out they were from Texas and were part of a group called the "TheFamily." A man named David Berg founded the group. His followers latercalled him Moses David because he claimed that he was the end-time prophetwho came to lead the people like Moses. His understanding of God's Word wasvery twisted although they preach that all people can be "saved" throughJesus. One of their false teachings, which one of the clergy coordinatorswas aware of, is called "flirty fishing." It is a technique they used to doevangelism. The practice came about in 1976 when Berg began to encouragethe women members of the group to engage in "flirty fishing". The term wasbased on Jesus' injunction "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men"(Matthew 4:19). Women members were urged to go into bars and befriend men.They were expected to seduce potential male converts if necessary in orderto encourage them towards a religious conversion and membership in theorganization. The media had a feeding frenzy with this innovative form ofevangelism, portraying the Family women as "Hookers for Jesus." In his 1979annual report, Berg stated that his "FFers" (Flirty Fishers) had "witnessedto over a quarter of a million souls, loved over 25,000 of them and wonabout 19,000 to the Lord."From what I hear the practice has been stopped, but other false teachingscontinue and we had to be careful who we allowed in to care for the peoplewho were so hurting and vulnerable. Needless to say we turned them away.The third word that I want us to understand before we leave here thismorning is the Greek word, " ai[resij" (hairesis). The word means, "Thecontent of teaching which is not true - 'false teaching, untrue doctrine,heresy.'" The teaching that false teachers offer to you and me is verydeceptive. They take the Word of God and put a half twist on it so that wewill be deceived. They know that most people would not follow teachingsthat are totally, blatantly opposed to the ways of God so they use God'sWord as a foundation and implement their own deceptive and destructiveteachings to undermine God's authority.There are a couple of reasons why we as so vulnerable to these falseteachers deceptive ways. First, we who are teachers do not spend the timethat we need to spend humbling waiting on God to speak to us from His heartas we study His Word. We do not dig into God's Word to discern and applycorrectly its teaching. Because of this far too often those who fill thepews are given weak, touchy feely sermonettes that fail to impart Truth andlife. We have lost the awareness that it is God who equips some of us to bethe equippers of the Body of Christ. To equip God's people with His Word sothat the Body can be effective in reaching out and impacting our world forthe Kingdom. Paul wrote in Ephesians,11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to beevangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's peoplefor works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until weall reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God andbecome mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, andblown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning andcraftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truthin love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is,Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-15)Paul says that we are to do our job so that the Body will no longer beinfants, tossed back and forth by every wind of teaching that comes along.If those whom God has equipped to teach His people do not passionately,humbly, and daily study God's Word then our teaching will be weak.All of the fault does not lay at the feet of teachers and preachers.Today, the people in the pew are not as hungry for Truth as in days gone by.I was at a luncheon a few weeks ago listening to a great preacher, Dr. JamesMontgomery Boice, when he said, "The deacons I use to have at the churchwere men of prayer, men of study, and men who had given their lives toserving God. Today I will have a couple of deacons whose walk with God islike this, but for the most part - it just isn't so any longer." That is atragic commentary.Paul said to the people of Colossae,6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live inhim, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you weretaught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8See to it that no one takes youcaptive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on humantradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.(Colossians 2:6-8)Paul didn't speak these words to the preachers, he spoke them to all ofthose who in the Body of Christ at Colossae! If you have received the Lord,continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him.I was reading this past week and came upon a website that had a listing of1,200 groups who would fit the description of what Peter has given us thismorning. That is scary isn't it? Do you want to know how to preventfalling into the trap of being enticed by one of these false teachers? Ican give you and easy course of action. Know the Truth. Study God's Wordthrough and through. Never tire of examining the Scriptures. If you come toknow the genuine article so thoroughly that God's Word is ever present inyour heart and mind, then you won't have to worry about being deceived.The first step is to surrender your life to Jesus as Lord so that He canpull the veil back from your eyes and allow you to see His love, mercy, andgrace for you. He is the truth and He will set you free!