Sermon - Advent Midweek 2, 2023 - 2 Peter 2

Antichrist With the Devil, from Deeds of the Antichrist, Luca Signorelli, circa 1501

False Prophets and False Teachers

1. How to identify false teachers

2. The danger of false teachers

3. Hope for the faithful

Not everyone who speaks to you is necessarily telling the truth. We understand this generally, so we teach our children that you can’t believe everything you see on TV or read on the internet. For that matter, you can’t believe every book, newspaper, or magazine you read or even every person you meet. Thus, St. Peter warns us about false prophets and false teachers.

Last week we heard St. Peter say: “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ… We have the prophetic word more firmly confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place… For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Thus, we have learned that we are to pay attention to the holy scriptures. These are to be our guide, so to speak, since the Holy Spirit speaks to us through them. These are our guiding light in the darkness.

So, knowing what we are to listen to, today we learn what we must not listen to, namely: false teachers. But this is easier said than done. St. Peter says they “will secretly bring in destructive heresies.” A false teacher brings in false teachings secretly, making them sound good, making them sound right. Thus, St. Peter also says “many will follow their sensuality,” because what the false teacher says will feel good. They are “reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.” False teachers aren’t idiots, they know what the young women know, and the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. They butter you up, make everything around you look nice and delightful, and fill you with their deceptions. “They entice by sensual passions of the flesh…They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.”

The false prophets in the Old Testament cried out “Peace, peace!” when there was no peace. The people of Israel didn’t want to hear God’s prophets who told them to turn back from their sins, repent, and return to the Lord; they didn’t want to hear the true prophets tell them that unless they repent they will be destroyed. They loved to hear the words of the false prophets, however, who told them they can remain in their sins and nothing bad will happen, they will have peace, God won’t destroy them. The false prophets looked appealing and attractive!

False teachers haven’t changed in 3000 years. False teachers today look attractive, they tell the people that they can remain in their sins, that God won’t punish them, they will always have peace. False teachers attract them with sensual living and maintain an appearance of godliness. This is where it’s difficult. Not everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, because some are doing it only as a pretense. Just because someone talks about God or Jesus, or looks the part, that doesn’t mean that what they say is true. Instead, we Christians have been called to be discerning. We must listen to what they say, and look at the fruits of their teaching, and discern whether that agrees with the prophetic word of God as revealed in scripture.

Usually we think the false preachers are the crazy guys on the sidewalk telling everyone that Armageddon is near. But very few people listen to them! Even if they’re wrong in what they say, and they might be right, almost no one is tricked by them. But the person in the fancy big church, with their face on screen, with a huge social media presence, who looks successful and holy and talks about God and looks really nice, is much more likely to be the false prophet. Because outwardly the false prophets we’re warned of are those who look attractive and appealing, who scratch our itching ears and tell us whatever we want to hear, those are the false prophets we must avoid. We must judge their words, not by outward appearances.

The danger of following false teachers is deadly. They promise freedom, but are themselves slaves of corruption. “For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” The false teachers today often promise a libertine sort of freedom, where you can do whatever you want and God won’t ever condemn you. But what they call freedom is truly bondage and slavery to sin. Sin brings grave destruction upon those who delight in it. “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.” God “did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” God turned “the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes condemning them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.”

Those dreadful judgements of God in history are examples to us, so that we might not sin as they did. If God didn’t spare sinful angels, sinful ancients, and sinful Sodom, then neither will God spare us if we follow the deceptions of false teachers and pridefully wallow in our sins. Moreover, knowing the judgment coming upon those who follow false teachers, we are obligated in love to warn others also of the dangers of false teachers so that God’s righteous anger might not fall upon them.

But all is not doom and gloom in this text, although this chapter is heavily weighed as a warning for us. God’s judgment and punishment of the wicked is a merciful act for we who trust in the Lord. God preserved Noah and his family aboard the ark, protecting them from the sinful world and false teachers around them. God rescued righteous Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah, so that he was no longer tormented by their lawless deeds. If God has rescued all of these people, “then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials.” Through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ God offers us an escape from the defilements of the world.

We have a true Teacher, namely Jesus the Christ! The Father’s righteous anger which we deserved was poured out upon Him upon the cross, so that we might be rescued from our sins. Instead of following the sensuous voices of worldly false teachers, let us follow the voice of Jesus our Savior. He alone leads us in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. So let us listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd and Teacher, walking in the way of salvation, and not following the deceptive path of sin into slavery to corruption.