How to Separate Good, Bad, and Ugly Teaching

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from 2 Peter 2

Part of the “Make Every Effort” 2 Peter Series

“There’s an old Indian Saying that says there are two ways to get to your nose,  there’s this way,” pointing directly to his nose.  Then he reached around the back of his head and touched his nose from the far side.  “And there’s this way,” he said with a smile.

Mind you, this Indian, was an Eastern Indian from India.  His meaning is one that I probably do not agree with.  He doesn’t believe in One way.  He is in fact misleading when he says his religion encompasses all religions, and that there are many ways.  The reason he misleads is that he really is saying, any exclusive way is wrong. 

What do you do when someone’s Karma runs over your Dogma?

Here’s another quote from a rabbi, another example of the pressure Christians face today.

I am absolutely against any religion that says that one faith is superior to another.  I don’t see how that is anything different than spiritual racism.  It’s a way of saying that we are closer to God than you, and that’s what leads to hatred. 

              Rabbi Schmuyley Boteach

Focus:  In a world that is divided over truth or even whether there is any absolute truth, how can anyone decide which truth is truth?  And even if I decided to believe the Bible, there seems to be so many different interpretations of the Bible, how can I know whose teaching is correct and whose teaching is incorrect, or even dangerous?

A couple of weeks ago, in the Pastor’s prayer meeting, one of the pastor’s prayer requests startled me.  He asked for prayer for a Pastor acquaintance from another town.  His request was that we might pray that his Pastor friend might hear the Gospel at a funeral they were going to, and that he might be saved.  After looking at my puzzled expression, He said, “That’s right, this Pastor is not saved!”  He has a large church with over 4000 members, but he doesn’t believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Christ, or his virgin birth, or heaven or hell, or any of the core truths of the Gospel. 

Christians are often accused of being close minded people.  We are viewed as intolerant and arrogant because we believe in some absolutes.  The pressure is on like never before that we conform our thinking to the world.  The problem of false teachers was a real one in Peter’s day, and it continues to be one today.

I’m all for having an open mind, to a point.  The point of having an open mind, like having an open mouth, is to close it on something solid.”

We just came out of 2 Peter chapter 1, where Peter reminds us to return over and over again to the central truths we learned.  While going over this portion of the Care Group Discussion questions with a few of the group facilitators a word picture came to mind as to why it is so important to revisit the core truths over and over again, and why we need to be reminded of the central truths.

A Spinning World

We live on a spinning world that is spinning faster and faster, and if we don’t revisit the center, in order to order our lives by what is central, we will spin off into matters that are off centered and wrong. 

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.[1]

Jesus claimed to be THE Way, THE Life, and THE Truth.  And that NO body could come to God except through him (John 14:6).  He claimed to be the center of life and meaning.  Such a claim is either the most incredibly arrogant, and universally offensive statement ever made, or it is the most profound world changing truth ever communicated by any human being.  So which is it? 

Can it be OFFENSIVE AND TRUE?  

The offense was why he was crucified.

Just in case you don’t see what I’m saying, let me remind you that Jesus’ claims offended people so strongly that they had him crucified and they felt justified in killing a man who claimed to be God, and claimed he was the only answer that could save humanity. 

The truth is why he was raised.

Now if Jesus was only a man, this would have put an end to the whole thing.  The problem was, they couldn’t keep a good man down. 

The evidence is why his claim is credible. 

Jesus rose from the dead.  If history’s evidence wasn’t there to support this, Christianity would have never got off the ground.  The message of Christianity was that the criminal they condemned to death conquered death and turned out to be exactly who he claimed to be.  The power of the statement “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the father except through me,” was substantiated by life conquering death, and life changing transformation.  What people formerly thought was incredibly offensive, became credibly profound, so credibly profound that convinced believers were standing firm with their convictions against all odds, even dying for these convictions, because they were completely changed by what they believed.  This was no made up fable, but the most important world transforming event that ever happened in history and the news about what God had done became known as the Good News, the Gospel, the Most important teaching mankind has ever heard.

His Love is why his claim is tolerable.

Tolerance Vs. Love

Apologist, author, and speaker Josh McDowell writes:

Tolerance says, "You must approve of what I do." Love responds, "I must do something harder: I will love you, even when your behavior offends me."

Tolerance says, "You must agree with me." Love responds, "I must do something harder: I will tell you the truth, because I am convinced 'the truth will set you free.'"

Tolerance says, "You must allow me to have my way." Love responds, "I must do something harder: I will plead with you to follow the right way, because I believe you are worth the risk."

Tolerance seeks to be inoffensive; love takes risks…Tolerance costs nothing; love costs everything.[2]

In 1:21, Peter explained how God had worked through humans to give his words to people.  At the same time, however, one of the reasons Peter needed to write this letter was because he also knew that evil was at work through humans to deceive God’s people.  There are true prophets, teachers true to God’s message, and there are false prophets, teachers that are not true to God’s word. 

In the Old Testament, false prophets often contradicted true prophets, and usually they brought messages that the kings, or the people wanted to hear.  They often brought a feel good message, when God’s message was a confronting warning message.

I have a theory.  Persecution from the outside is dangerous to churches, but false teaching from within the church is far more dangerous than persecution.   If this theory is true, then let me ask you, which church is in more danger, the church in America, or the persecuted church in other parts of the world where Christians are being killed for their faith?  When our lives are at risk, our faith grows strong.  Does our faith grow strong here?  We live in a place that fosters complacency at a time when our faith is at risk.  This is a dangerous formula, and the church in America has something worse than life at risk, our spiritual well being is at risk.  We are bombarded daily with the ideologies of the world.  At a time when our generation is being trained from infancy in pluralistic and relativistic thinking, Christ-followers are in danger of reducing their faith to a “it works for me” mentality and not be able to explain clearly or articulate clearly why our world view holds water and other world views don’t.  We are in danger of a subjective form of Christianity that has no impact on others.  We are so open minded we are not holding on to that which is solid.  We are tossed about between false ideas.

How can we distinguish “heresy” from “difference of opinion”?

“Heresy” applies to central truths whose misinterpretation would be destructive to Christianity.  “Differences of opinion” applies to non central issues that will probably not be solved among Christians till we ask God in heaven.

Here’s a quick overview of what I’m saying today:

I.  Good Teaching is teaching that leads to Christ

II. Bad Teaching is the overemphasis of Off-Centered ideas

III.   Ugly Teaching is false teaching that causes people to deny Christ

2 Peter 2:1-22

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)-- 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they 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 idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed--an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey--a beast without speech--who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."

I.     Good Teaching is teaching that leads to Christ

Christ-Followers must learn to evaluate any book, tape series, TV message, or philosophy advocated in a song, or movie.  The standard we use to evaluate everything is God’s Word.  Look for scriptural support or lack of support.  Beware of meanings, messages, or interpretations, that belittle Christ, or his work.

Many songs, many books, many movies, get you to side with their messages emotionally.  Once you do, emotionally you are preconditioned to deny  “the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves..”

Any message, philosophy, or teaching that causes us to turn from Christ’s ways, is dangerous because it causes us to “deny” our master.  Turning aside from Christ, is denying Christ. 

Every movie, every show, every magazine, every song, teaches!  We must be good at evaluating what is affecting us, and to do this we must be good students of God’s Word, the Bible.

The Specifics Peter Addressed

Peter already addressed the problem of some who were “denying” Christ’s second coming in chapter 1:16-21, now here Peter discusses the problem of “denying” Christ by allowing or even encouraging personal “freedom” that included all kinds of wrong and immoral acts, especially sexual sins.

2 Peter 2:10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.  Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;

2 Peter 2:14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed--an accursed brood!

Denying Christ who bought them.  The price Christ paid was his blood—his death on the cross.  Since we have been bought, or redeemed, we owe our life’s allegiance to Christ.  We commit a breach of covenant, a breach of trust, when we sin against our loyalty Christ accomplished work demands.  Denying Christ is spiritual adultery. 

Good Teaching correctly understands Freedom

19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

The false teachers failed to understand (or purposely denied the fact) that while Christ came to set us free, that freedom comes with responsibilities.  We are freed from the bondages of sin, and free to live life as it is meant to be lived.  We are made free so that we can follow God.  Freedom without responsibility is no freedom at all but bondage. 

II.    Bad Teaching is the overemphasis of Off-Centered ideas

This is the problem of distraction.

What’s your Center?  How often do you go back to your center?  Daily?  How do you do it?

III.   Ugly Teaching is false teaching that causes people to deny Christ

This is the problem of denying Christ.

When I was in high school one of the cheers that cheer leaders led during basketball games went like this, and I can hardly believe it was allowed.  (Those of you who are reading this are going to have to imagine the rhythmic cadence of the cheer) “U-G-L-Y, You aint got no alibi, You’re Ugly, You’re Ugly.”  It was a mean cheer, but in the case of identifying false teaching, we had better be able to identify it for what it is—UGLY.

UGLY teaching sounds PRETTY.  For example, God loves everybody.  He wouldn’t let anyone go into living hell for eternity. Any teaching that minimizes the certainty of God’s judgment, minimizes God’s Holy character, and God’s word on the matter.  If there is no judgment, then Jesus did not need to die so save us from it!

Read again, Peter’s examples of God’s swift and certain judgment.

This PRETTY teaching is UGLY in its results.  People go into swift destruction thinking they are safe. 

Another UGLY teaching that sounds PRETTY but isn’t is the notion that SATAN is not real.  When living immoral lives and rebuked for following the ways of Satan, these false teachers perhaps took Satan’s power lightly, or doubting his existence altogether.  They may have even laughed at the idea of demons.  There are many who think this concept is unenlightened and backward thinking from the dark ages.  Demons are as real as germs.  You can’t see them, but we need to protect ourselves and keep ourselves clean lest they get the better of our spiritual immune systems.

One of Satan’s biggest tools against Christians is to render us complacent through false thinking

Another BAD error is becoming demon focused.  Some of these false teachers were apparently arrogantly talking to demons, hurling rebukes at them on their own power. 

Another UGLY teaching that sounds pretty and is probably related to all of this, is the teaching that NOW we have great authority ourselves.  This is an EGO FEEDING Teaching that is dangerous.  These false teachers had egos that were so overgrown that they had no respect for authority, good or bad, lawful or satanic.  They probably claimed “The law no longer can condemn us.”  There is a measure of truth to this, but they went so far that they were in affect, saying, “I am above the law”, or “I am the law.”  The outcome of this kind of ego is self rule.  Whatever I say, or whatever I want rules my choices.  These false teachers were so puffed up, they had the attitude that, “God is my aide, and angels are my servants.”  It is the notion that “I am the greatest.”  God becomes servant to the creature.  Many false teachers bolster our human pride and appeal to the idea that “Only my will limits me, and I am the master of my own fate” kind of mentality.  It is pretty sentiment to folks, but as it elevates self it removes us from the proper dependence on God, bringing God down.  It might sound pretty, but it is UGLY. 

C.S. Lewis put is well, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you’re looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you.”

It is time we humble ourselves and look up.

Dear Lord,

Forgive us for the way we perpetuate the arrogance of looking down on others rather than loving and serving their needs.  Help us to be more like Jesus, so that his name is not maligned by our attitudes.  Forgive us for the way we condemn.  Help us to serve and love others in a way that makes them rethink their negativity toward Christ and Christians.

Lord, we come back to you today.  You are the center of our lives.  We do feel the pressures of a fast spinning world pulling at us from all sides to spin off and away from you.  Help us to draw closer to you today. 

Closing remarks:

What is it that holds you away from drawing closer to Christ as the center of your life?  What do you need to let go of?  What is it you keep drifting toward?  Tell God what you are going to let go?  Draw near to him to day.  Apply some of that grace driven effort so you can gravitate toward Christlikeness.