Keep Growing 2 Peter 2:1-10

And so the surest way that people train to identify counterfeit money is they know the real thing really, really well so that anything seems that seems off is immediately recognizable. So so good training, therefore, spends about 90% of its time studying authentic notes. Looking at them, feeling them, listening to the crisp snap of the cotton linen paper, all of this before learning the tricks of counterfeiters. [00:33:20] (34 seconds)  #KnowTheReal

Recognizing these destructive heresies comes from knowing the truth of scripture. And if and when something seems off about their lifestyles, do not ignore it or do not excuse it away. And do not fall for promises attached to giving. We give out of our love for God and to further his ministry, not to enrich or to benefit ourselves. [01:11:30] (24 seconds)  #GiveForGod

While I was studying, I came across this interesting quote by John MacArthur when he was he was talking about why false prophets are so convincing, why they can be believable. And he says that false teachers use your vocabulary, but they do not use your dictionary. And so part of the reason that these destructive heresies often sound convincing is because they use the same words that we use, but they have a different meaning to those words. They've twisted the meaning for their own gain. They mean very different things. [00:48:12] (37 seconds)  #SameWordsDifferentMeaning

Basically, they study what is real to know what is fake. It's not a coincidence that this chapter long warning against false teachers comes immediately after Peter's defense of the authority and sufficiency of scripture that pastor Scott preached about last week. Because you have to know and you have to love the message of the gospel, the message of scripture in order to recognize the fakes and the false teachings. [00:33:53] (36 seconds)  #KnowScriptureSpotFakes

But I want us to see there are three characteristics of false prophets in the Old Testament. One, they lacked divine judgment or divine authority. They were not speaking the words of God. They promised peace when God threatened judgment, and they would certainly also be judged by God. And so where God's prophets spoke the authoritative word of God, false prophets popped up to oppose it. [00:40:05] (25 seconds)  #TestDivineAuthority

So false teachers, false prophets are using their teachings to enrich themselves. Peter is going to go into a lot more detail about this in the second chapter of half second half of chapter two, but suffice it to say that false prophets are not taking a vow of poverty. They are exploiting people for personal gain, and many of them have made obscene amounts of money through it. [00:51:25] (26 seconds)  #FaithNotForProfit

And so they ingratiate themselves into the church, and then under the cover of the church's blessing, they teach wrong doctrine. In this case, in in when when Peter is writing, they were denying the second coming of Jesus Christ. And that they were denying that there was a future judgment, which gave way, which gave license and permission to their sensual immoral behavior. [00:45:50] (28 seconds)  #SecondComingMatters

And and sometimes, I think it's difficult to tell which comes first, whether it's the immorality or the false teaching. Right? Because false teaching such as denying the future judgment gives a license to go on in sin and to do whatever you want. But it's also very convenient because engaging in immoral behavior gives you a a desire to justify that false teaching in order to justify your own behavior. [00:49:30] (28 seconds)  #DoctrineFollowsDesire