[:en]Our Daily Verse (3/7/20)[:]

[:en]SCRIPTURE:  2 PETER 2

“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.  Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.  In their freed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up ….” (2 Peter 2:1-3)

“The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment” (2 Peter 2:9)

Peter stated that there will be false teachers but they will be condemned.  He cited the methods used by the false teachers as follows:

  1. They will be members of the church
  2. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies
  3. They will deny the sovereign Lord.
  4. They will combine false teachings with true doctrine and replace the truth with lies
  5. They pretend to practise a religious life
  6. They will take familiar Bible verses and manufacture new meanings with their own
  7. They will exploit you with made-up stories

The false teachers will be destroyed with these examples:  the angels that sinned are sent to hell and put into gloomy dungeons; the ungodly men died in the flood during Noan’s time; and the people were burned in Sodom and Gomorrah.  But God preserved His true saints – Noah and his family and Lot.

Characteristics of the false teachers:  (vs. 10-20)

  1. They despise authority
  2. They are bold and arrogant
  3. They slander and accuse celestial beings
  4. They revel in their pleasures
  5. They seduce the unstable
  6. They are greedy
  7. They are adulterous
  8. Thjey love wages of wickedness
  9. They mouth empty boastful words
  10. They entice people to lustful desires of sinful human nature

Peter warned about Christians who had knowledge of Christ but did not personally receive Him into their hearts.  Outwardly, they seemed clean  but inwardly, they were corrupt.  They used to experience salvation but had drifted back to the old life.  As dogs go back to the vomit, pigs also go back to the mud.

LESSON:

Beware of false teachers.  They talk with their great swelling words and give false promises.  They show the appearance of being helpful and truthful but in reality, they are useless wells without water.  They promise liberty but lure people to bondage.  They are life’s “brute beast” – pigs and dogs.  We can detect them by their self-exaltation, counterfeit talk, their emphasis on money, their claims to change people and their hidden evil of lust, greed and sin.  But one day, God will expose and judge them.[:]